High Score Club Week 8: Yar's Revenge!

[sku_u]

999,999+ I finally got the hang of it. I only lasted an additional 13K and change past 999,999, though. I think I'm done with this one for the week.

[Chris++]

Good job, John!

[davepesc]

57,866 I only played 3 games last night. I hope to improve as I play more through the week.

 

 

-That missile really starts keeping up with you!

[Goochman]

91053

[Shannon]

254, 128 is my score for the week.

 

Will I be able to go beyond that? Who knows.

[iguana]

well it is official, I stink at ALL games. Here is my first try 47098

[128bytes]

On my first try this week, I just got 114,251. Off to hit more moving swirls

[The 8th Passenger]

317136. Better, I guess, but I know I can do better. Doesn't help that my damn controller isn't working 100% right.

[Ze_ro]

Only a small improvement: 148,027.

 

--Zero

[Saldo]

205,140

 

 

- Sal

[The 8th Passenger]

537,046

 

I had just over 500,000 with 6 guys left, then I started feeling a little too good about myself.

 

John

[Shannon]

ok. Here are some of my tips.

 

Despite what the manual says. The swirl does not appear or fire randomly. Here is how it works.

 

The swirl activates based on the color of the shield and the number of cycles it goes thru. A cycle is that vroom sound you here. As long as you can count you are set. The book says to watch the colors. I say phooeee to that.

 

At the beginning of the game the qotile cycles 4 times before turning into a swirl. The swirl always fires when it has a bead on you (a good angle). It is never random. After the first swirl all other swirls appear every 15 cycles.

 

If you kill the qotile when it is a swirl, or close to becoming a swirl (example 13-14 cycles) it will always fire on the 12th cycle at the beginning of a new level when the shield is orange or grey.

 

If you kill it in the middle of a cycle I would suggest waiting around till it fires (In other words I'm not sure when it will fire).

 

When the shield is blue or pink the swirl forms every 5 cycles (3 times as often as the manual states). It's first shot is obviously less than that, so wait till it fires first before timing your cycles.

 

The idea here is to attack the shield between swirl cycles and then try to time it so you get the qotile when it is a swirl.

 

Despite other opinions. I think it is best to eat away at the shield as much as possible and gain as many points as you can (this is after all a high score contest). Sure the difficulty ramps up quicker, but then then the difficulty (shield color and cycle frequency) is score based anyways.

 

BUT. The destroyer missile (pain in the neck thing that follows you around) speeds up according to what level you are on. So you want to take advantage of that as long as you can. This means scoring as many points each round as you can.

 

A good way to get to the shield is to hang around in the neutral zone until the destroyer missile is close. Then move up/down to line yourself up with where you want to eat and have at it. The destroyer missile takes a little to catch up so this is especially useful for eating the middile part of the shield.

 

I usually hang around the top/bottom and munch away until the destroyer missile gets close then I wrap to the other side and munch over there until it becomes difficult, then use the strategy mentioned above.

 

When the qotile is swirling every 5 cycles your gonna just have to get in, get a couple bites and retreat to the neutral zone to dodge it. This game takes alot of patience. Keep in mind though, using this method it takes about the same amount of time to eat most of the shield anyways.

 

I usually reserve firing at the shield for those harder levels like when there is no neutral zone (unless the shield is grey).

 

That's about it!

 

Enjoy!

[gospeedde]

82099 and I actually think I can do better if I keep trying.

[iguana]

59545. this really is a great game!

[DeV0]

Played one game this morning but switched off at 83750, Had to go to work

[the 5th ghost]

Yar's Revenge...

 

I'm almost embarrassed to say this but it is true. I have NEVER played this game until now!

 

I think I was sooo brainwashed as a kid to think that Atari brand games were too inferior to Activision and Imagic games that I never bothered with the Atari brand games much.

 

Anyway, I have a lot of catching up to do with Yar's. My first submission for this week will be:

 

155938

 

My strategy is basically to eat the shield by using the wraparound technique (eating a few cells, going to the bottom of screen to appear at the top of the screen and eating more cells, back and forth, etc.)

 

When the swirl forms I go to the left side of the screen and line myself up with the swirl and fire the cannon at it.

 

For the destroyer missile that chases you, I draw it to the far left corner and wraparound the screen and head straight to the shield to eat more cells until the desrtoyer missile catches up to me, then I draw it back to the left side of the screen again.

 

It's a methodical approach, but all I could come up with since I don't have any experience with the game.

 

I would say the key is using the wraparound trick to dodge the ememies and eat the shield. Use it to your advantage.

 

I don't start shooting at the shield until the destroyer missile reaches its fastest speed, then I wait for the opportunity to run in and eat a cell to get the cannon to hit the Quotile thing.

[the 5th ghost]

211029

[Saldo]

230,808.

 

- Sal

[gospeedde]

I reached 89290 and I lost my last guy cause I shot myself in the back. Carnal rule of gaming = shoot OTHER people, not yourself.

[chrisbid]

165,261

[Robert M]

148,340

[Ze_ro]

Another small improvement: 166,953.

 

--Zero

[Stingray]

I knew I'd be able to do it with this one 999,999! I managed another 20kish after. I was totally addicted to this one as a kid.

 

-S

[the 5th ghost]

Improvement...

 

269,349

[The 8th Passenger]

So what happens when this game reaches the 999,999? Does it start over at 0, or just stay at 999,999?

 

John