RCorcoran

Yes, on all three scores of 999,999. I personally verified each one.

Time for the evil administrator again... Here are the best scores for Kaboom, Diff B: http://www.twingalaxies.com/cgi-perl/searc...latformSelect=5 and here are the best for Kaboom, Diff A: http://www.twingalaxies.com/cgi-perl/searc...latformSelect=5 As the top players will tell you, it's all about concentration. Try not to focus on the bombs, but rather the bomber. Learn to move where he was and you'll naturally follow the bombs. Also remember to kill off a bucket just before each 1,000 point increment. This serves two purposes: a) it allows you to go back to a slower level and earn more points and b) this leads to a bit of a mental rest. Also remember the game does not get any faster after the ninth (9th) wave of bombs. All praise Larry Kaplan for such a great and addictive game!

Yar's Revenge ... among at least 100 others...

Nukey Shay: Sorry, I missed the original point of this thread, and I apologise to you and everyone else for getting off-topic. To answer your question, no. You cannot take a behaviour set from Arcade Ms. Pacman to VCS Ms. Pacman. They are two completely different games. You can apply some of the methodologies from the Arcade version to the home version, in that you manipulate the ghosts (to a degree) and you clear the boards in a quadrant fashion. However, the behavioural AI in the two games are not close enough to draw a direct parallel. Does that address the question or did I make it worse?

Bob: As you may or may not know, I am not one to get easily offended. We are all here because we love Atari and gaming in general. I don't dispute what you're saying. The Ghosts in either Pac-type game do not have predetermined "patterns", rather, they have a set behaviour AI they follow. Brien King and I watch Victor play Ms. Pacman almost every weekend here at Castles & Coasters here in Phoenix, AZ. He rarely scores below 850k. While what he does may not be considered a "pattern" from a purist prespective, it is, to an extent, pattern-like behaviour that he executes to manipulate the ghosts and force them to move in a fashion that he desires. In other words, Victor moves in precisely the same way to produce the desired result, ergo a pattern (loosly translated). Granted, he cannot run a defineable "path" each and every board, as you can in Pacman, as the ghosts do move with their own behaviour logic. You can, however, manipulate them into a set behaviour and then exploit that, as he does consistantly. Thru watching Victor, I have been able to improve my gameplay from the 450k range to 689k. Brien has gone from an 80k player to ~250k. It's really all about manipulating the ghosts and taking advantage of their behaviour. Again, we are speaking of Arcade Ms. Pacman and NOT VCS Ms. Pacman. Two completely different games.

Here is a current listing of the top Ms. Pacman (VCS) players acording to Twin Galaxies records. If you want to submit your score, you MUST play with all 4 ghosts and the game must be videotaped. 1 2,654,680 Ron Corcoran 2 2,596,930 Todd Rogers 3 290,090 Chris Parsley 4 241,730 Mark Feldt 5 173,410 Robert Mruczek 6 155,730 Alan Hewston 7 146,380 Natalie Purawec 8 107,680 John Marks 9 104,180 Mike Rupprecht 10 102,080 Tom Chang 11 84,130 Jim Zawada 12 82,910 Stephen Krogman 13 73,160 Joshua Warren 14 71,130 Carlos Marrero 15 67,290 Stephen Knox 16 59,520 Robert Macauley 17 55,330 Shane Monroe 18 47,860 Scott Bolderson 19 43,530 Brien King 20 5,130 Andrew Wagner

Two points: a. Actually, yes, you can execute patterns in Arcade Ms. Pacman. Chris Ayra, the current Ms. Pacman WR holder and Victor Kunisada, the current Turbo Ms. Pacman WR holder both use patterns as well as behaviours in their gameplay. While I'm not a 900k level player, I am in the 600k (Turbo) and 489k (Normal) range and can state that you do execute a pattern (with variation due to ghost behaviour) in Ms. Pacman Arcade. b. Bill Mitchell absolutely does use a pattern for Pacman Arcade. I have the tape of his 6 hour, perfect game, and he is very methodical in his approach and pattern. It's actually quite humurous to hear him talk himself thru his pattern.

If I'm not mistaken, there is another thread about VCS Ms. Pacman. In that thread, I discuss general stratagies for the game and review ghost behaviours. To this day, I have not found a "pattern" that works 100% on each board. I do have techniques I use for each board (as does Todd Rogers) and they seem to work well. Yes, the ghosts do try to corral you. The only "secrets" (and I wouldn't even call them secrets) I can share is use the tunnels, clear the boards by quadrants and in small chunks. I use this strategy when I play, and, so far, it seems to work...

Dennis: Understood. I fully intend to compile using DASM. I do not, however, intend to use DASM as an editor... I've been using RadASM and ASMEdit for about 2 years on other efforts and was trying to get a sense if this would be a viable tool for VCS development.

Andrew: I know you have mentioned the Microsoft Developer Suite, which I presume is Visual Studio x, and I know any text editor will suffice. My question is, would you recommend either of the following freeware ASM dev tools (IDE's) for VCS development? Yes, I do realize this may be a "Howitzer to swat a fly" scenario. AsmEdit V4.7 http://asmedit.massmind.org/ RadASM http://radasm.sonshinesoftware.com/ Both seem very powerful, and perhaps beyond the scope of this lesson plan, so I thought I'd mention them here. Opinions?

Yes, Rasty, submit it and I'll make sure your score appears in the Book of World Records. PM or e-mail me for details on how to make that happen.

Todd's score is based upon a photograph he took back in the early 80's. Since there is no proof of him going onward (which he says he did), I posted his final score as the one I have proof for. Should Todd decide to surpass 1M on VHS, I'll post whatever score he finally settles at. Mind you, that can only happen on the proto cart he has. The rest of us have to settle for 999,990. And no, I will not track his Proto score with all other "normal production cart" scores. Hope this helps explain the 999,595.

Gabriel: Awesome score! You should tape your game on VHS and submit it to TG for inclusion in the Book of World Records. The Evil Administrator

Ahhh, to only have the days opf CGE '99 back... loose carts for $0.25 boxed for $0.50 - $1.00 Oh well... Brien and I used to frequent a local gaming/hobby store in Gelndale, AZ. At first, they would sell us VCS, Inty & Sega Genesis carts (loose) for $0.25. Since the new ownership has taken over (and the owner has discovered e-bay), carts are now $5.00 and ^^^. In fact, a boxed VCS Asteroids is priced at $25.00... PLEASE!!!

I know I would pay up to $25 for Andrews' book just from what I've read so far. Keep up the great work Andrew!

Here is a PDF of the lessons to date. I have also included follow-on discussions where appropriate and Andrew's (and others) comments. It is 687Kb zipped and 3.57MB uncompressed. Thanks Al for increasing the attachment size limit to accomodate this. 2600_programming.zip

My PB on MG+ so far is 39 (after playing 4 times). Lots of room for improvement there...

Here are the official, updated TG Standings for Defender 1B 1 2,020,400 Ron Corcoran 2 1,836,300 Mark Feldt 3 1,725,500 John Marks 4 1,000,000 Todd Rogers 5 832,660 Derek Grieselding - Congrats! 6 578,700 Darrin Maas 7 202,250 Stephen Riesenberger 8 167,550 Bryan Miller 9 159,150 Lafe Travis 10 56,800 Stephen Knox 11 19,450 Brien King 12 6,000 A. Keith Krueger

I still own both of my original 2600's (and boxes). A 6-switch WG and a Jr.

Thank you sir. It comes from the Atari Collection Vol. 1

I'm not convinced Game 1B ever gets harder...

I'd buy two (2). One for use and one for the shelf to archive.

Count me in Andrew!

Since you did not roll the score, I can accept screenshots. Zip them up and e-mail them to me. Be sure to visit Twin Galaxies and register (if you haven't done so already). In your e-mail, be sure to include your Twin Galaxies User Name (do NOT include your password) so I can enter your score into the dBase and Book of Records.

Mark: Did you record your gameplay? If so, send it to me and I'll get into the scoreboard and Book of Records. Here are the top VCS Defender scores (Game 1, Diff B) 1 2,020,400 Ron Corcoran 2 1,836,300 Mark Feldt 3 1,725,500 John Marks 4 1,000,000 Todd Rogers 5 578,700 Darrin Maas 6 202,250 Stephen Riesenberger 7 167,550 Bryan Miller 8 159,150 Lafe Travis 9 56,800 Stephen Knox 10 19,450 Brien King