Captain Beard

Thanks for the kind words! (Why isn't there an emoticon for embarrassment?) I should let you know, though... I generally don't clean records before re-selling them. If they're too dusty to assign a proper grade, I'll wipe'em off with a soft piece of flannel, but that's usually about it. That said, I just don't purchase filthy records to begin with unless they're really valuable (which the bulk of what I sell -- and most records in general -- are not.) In my experience, if an LP is covered in dirt and goop, chances are slim that it's anything but beat up underneath.

Sign me up please, sir! And thanks!

Holy crap, guys! The scores! They hurt me! But seriously... the reason I'm posting is to ask: Is there some secret to getting points I'm missing or do I really just need to hit more enemy ships? 'Cuz when I hit the 5th level, I've usually only got between 8000-9000 points. Then I quickly die three times and game over.

My 7800 is proudly taking up prime real estate in the middle of the living room table. I love my wife. I did run out of space for carts, so I can only keep 300 or so in the same room -- the rest are relegated to a shelf in my office. My 2600s are all in a box in the basement. They're just fine there for now and the only time I really miss'em is when I want to play a Tigervision game.

Nice score, aftermac! Very impressive! I was wondering what the max was -- the best I've managed was a 480 once. Anyway, another slight improvement for me: 11,250

Way to go! What do you consider a unique title? Do Sears/Atari variations count, for example, or do you only collect (as I do) unique games? I just passed the 500 mark recently (2600 & 7800 combined, incl. Supercharger tapes and counting double-enders as two games) and was kinda blown away by that! Happy hunting!

I think this thread should be moved to the P&R Forum.

I don't have much success dodging at level 5 no matter where I am on the screen! I don't think I've had a ship last more than 12 seconds on that level in all the games I've played. Like you say, it's early in the week...

Actually, I've found the extreme top and bottom to be relatively safe. This is because they are the only positions where a shot fired at an oncoming ship is guaranteed to hit. The collision detection problems only arise when you move away from these two extremes.

Thanks a lot!

New score: 10,660 And I miscounted before. It's the fifth wave that's a total bitch. My tip: If all you care about is your score, die when you're near the end of level 4. You'll get a lot more points replaying that level then you will dying quickly on the next.

I can save you the trouble -- it does.

What do you think is a reasonable price range for a loose Boing! cart?

First attempt: 9,930 The difficulty ramps up fast on level 4. Yikes! I love how you can nail an enemy ship and then, without moving, miss the one that appears in exactly the same horizontal line. That's some quality programming!

Growing up, I knew it as Pig Mania, a much better name, IMHO. Anyone know why they changed it?

I absolutely agree with this. As a business owner who takes great pride in providing the best possible customer service, I'm always amazed (and often incensed) at what passes for customer service from others. Well, leaving a negative feedback is hardly "recourse" (it doesn't get your money back if someone charges back their PayPal payment, for example.) But more importantly, contrary to your assertion, there are plenty of similar examples of "negative customer feedback" in the world of brick-and-mortar stores. The most obvious parallel is the practice of displaying bounced checks, both to embarrass those who wrote them and to warn employees to no longer accept checks from them. I have worked in places where managers from other local stores have asked to copy down those names, to avoid similar problems from the same troublesome customers. When I worked at a video store, it was standard practice to leave comments on customer accounts to warn other clerks about repeated scamming, abusive behavior or whatever else we felt was important. I would imagine this is fairly standard at any business with computerized customer accounts. When I managed a used CD store many years ago, we kept a list posted of people who were banned from selling us merchandise (either because they were proven thieves or because they were more of a pain-in-the-ass then they were worth.) We also kept a notebook behind the counter for leaving notes to other employees and these often included warnings about jerky customers. The ultimate example, of course, is the credit rating system, which is a vast database designed to alert financial institutions to bad credit risks.

I use non-guided missiles. As I reported during last week's Megamania HSC, I really hate guided shots. I find them more confusing than helpful. Some gamer I am, eh? That said, although I enjoy this game quite a bit, I'm extremely frustrated right now as I've been playing for days and simply cannot beat my initial score! I've never had this happen before during HSC -- I always manage to improve at least slightly. Not this week. Maybe I should try guided shots...

I disagree. I think you should just quit now while you're ahead.

After reading this entire thread and listening to the various arguments for and against different/better scoring for the reviews, I've come to the conclusion that the best solution would be to eliminate the star ratings completely. What purpose do they really serve anyway? As many of you have already pointed out, opinions about what makes a good game differ considerably. This is evident all the time in the HSC -- last week's pick was Megamania and opinions about that game ranged from shrieks of ecstasy to (in my case) controller-throwing fury. One man's 5-star game is another man's 1-star game. And frankly, that's as it should be. So why not just get rid of the star-rankings and let the reviews speak for themselves?

Hey! I like the graphics in this game... especially the Ultima II orcs. Wait... what?

My pleasure! Enjoy!

First entry: 53,940 Now this is my kind of shooter. Much better than Megamania, IMHO.

This one really annoys me too -- and it applies equally well to DVDs (where you often can't skip them just by pressing a button.) Do these folks not understand that while they're definitely drumming their company's name into my head, they're simultaneously making me hate them? Any publicity is good publicity, eh?

I dunno. It seems like a deal to me. But then, it always seems to me that things become more believable with every increase in the size of the font. Obviously, the bigger the font gets ,the truthier the claims become! Right?

Another very slight improvement: 57,970 Why am I still playing this game instead of all the new stuff I got from the AA Holiday sale?