DamonicFury

Naturally, people are going to have different experiences with these things. I’m still having a devil of a time with Stacked... the timing required in the first 30 seconds or so of it is just too exacting for me it seems. It works for me most of the time... but ”most of the time” just isn’t good enough for a million points! Perhaps another pattern might work better for me... thank you for posting those magazine patterns, NE146! Perhaps the “very forgiving” 2A pattern will be what I need... ...except that it doesn’t seem to actually work at all! Still, going to keep trying other 9th key patterns, hopefully I can find one that works well for me.

Poll closes Sunday, January 12th, 2020 @9pm EST

I can’t believe you finished already! Congratulations!!!

Here you go...

Sure, I will do that at some point this weekend! Um, has nobody seen one of these before?

73,610

Colors seem the same (noting that Asteroids randomizes the asteroid colors)

I don't think it is. It came from a North American seller and doesn't roll on my 80's Montgomery Ward TV.

For what it’s worth, there IS also a true silver label Atari Inc version of Asteroids. I feel very lucky to have picked it up in an EBay lot, even though the condition isn’t the greatest.

As much as I usually prefer the classics of 78-84 over just about anything else, I reluctantly have to give the nod to Galaga 88/90. Just a spectacular game.

I fulfilled a life-long dream and picked up a Pac-Man arcade game (cabaret size) this fall. Since then, I've been obsessively playing it, learning the patterns. Most everyone has an initial distaste for the idea of using patterns, but I recommend giving them a try. It's actually more challenging than you might expect, as they require you to pre-turn the joystick at every intersection. This is absolutely necessary, as turning a corner in this way is a split-second faster than the usual way. (Knowing this is enormously helpful in shaking off a persistent monster on any board!) Missing a corner or two will usually screw up the pattern. I don't have any personal interest in scoring a perfect game... while patterns exist for this, they require insane amounts of precision. Alternately, some players have mastered the art of grouping that can let you eat all the ghosts each time for maximum points, but that takes a great deal of time and patience. My personal goal is a million points. You might think that should be easy once you've learned the necessary patterns, but let me tell you, it isn't. Why? Because once you reach the 9th key, the game becomes mercilessly difficult. The energizers no longer turn the monsters blue (this happens a few times before the 9th key as well.) Your Pac-Man slows down significantly, while the monsters remain viciously fast. There are, of course, patterns to get you past these screen from the 9th key to screen 255 (which are all exactly the same) but again, you have to execute them perfectly. And, at least for me, this is damn hard! I'm using what is generally considered to be the easiest 9th key pattern called "Stacked" and it still requires absolute precision when executing a series of pretty rapid corners. I'm at the point now that I can usually pull that off roughly 90 percent of the time, but when I mess it up even a tiny bit, the pattern goes to hell and it usually takes 2 lives to finish the board. So even giving myself a full set of five Pac-Men, you can see how a 10 percent failure rate would cut short my game well short of the million point goal. I do feel like I'm getting a bit better with regular practice but it's slow going! I have a high score of around 427,000 points now. I expect it will take weeks more of practice to achieve that goal.

5200 homebrews don't come up for sale all that often, but having bought many of them when they did, I'd say a price of about $100 for a boxed game is generally about right. Boulder Dash games do seem to attract a higher value sometimes. (Amazing what people are willing to pay now for the 2600 version!) You can check pricecharting.com for Ebay sales over time. For this title, prices seem to be all over the place, but it doesn't seem like one has sold for a while, which might work in your favor if you're looking to sell. Please note that some of these listings are for Boulder Dash II, which I believe is a little bit rarer with only about 100 released instead of 400 (100 in each color) for the original Boulder Dash. https://www.pricecharting.com/game/atari-5200/boulder-dash#completed-auctions-cib CIB: 2018-10-28 BOULDER DASH II ATARI 5200 COMPLETE IN BOX $152.50 2016-12-22 *** ATARI 5200 BOULDER DASH II *** OOP #65 of 100 $299.52 2012-03-21 Boulder Dash (Atari 5200) CIB limited edition #59 $36.00 New: 2013-01-09 *** BOULDER DASH Atari 5200 Game NEW SEALED RARE ONLY 100 MADE!! ***$71.95 2012-12-25 *** BOULDER DASH Atari 5200 Game NEW SEALED RARE ONLY 100 MADE!! ***$71.95 2011-12-18 350500372774 $62.99 2011-10-17 350454059809 $69.99 I think I'd list one in an auction starting around $100 and see what happens, assuming you really want to sell.

Actually, they covered this shortly after Tramiel's passing... they had been scheduled to talk to him the following week. What a heartbreaking close call that must have been.

192,750

Huh, looks like you removed your original post with the longer pdf and epub versions of the story. Nothing wrong with choosing to present it in a new way. 🙂 I still think you're off to a fine start and look forward to more.

I don't know why, but I love seeing people's orderings of the Star Wars films! Just about everyone has a different list! Thanks for sharing yours, Cafeman! Mine isn't wildly different, but I do enjoy Revenge of the Sith and Solo more than most people, and Force Awakens less than others.... Ep5 > Ep4 > Ep6 > Ep3 > Solo > Ep8 > RO > Ep7 > Ep1 > Ep2 Some thoughts: (skipping over praise for the OT and criticism of the first two prequel movies, I have nothing new to say there.) Episode 3 does a surprisingly good job of fixing the flaws of Episodes One and Two. Anakin is largely likable and heroic, if clearly flawed, through the first part of the movie, which is so important to what needs to come later in the film. I wish so much we had seen that kind of characterization for him in AOTC. And the music, the action scenes, and the all the new worlds we see are top-notch Star Wars. (JJ and Rian could really have taken some notes on creative world building from this film!) Yeah, the clunky dialogue (though much improved from TPM and AOTC) and a few problematic scenes hold it back from OT greatness, but I feel it still does Star Wars better than any of the other films. Solo is just so damn fun, and gives my all time favorite character a moment in the spotlight. And I just generally enjoy the hell out space outlaw stories, so I'm really biased in favor of this one. No need to get into The Last Jedi here, my take is very similar to Cafeman's. Rogue One is good but it's so uneven... the first half moves so damn slowly, with the excursion to rescue/assassinate Jyn's father being particularly painful to re-watch. And I'm not personally thrilled with it's darker take on the Rebel Alliance. But once the team arrives on Scarif everything falls together and suddenly it all becomes amazing! And finally, The Force Awakens. I can't express enough how impressed I am with this new set of characters... they're well-written, well-acted, fun, funny, have great chemistry together, and are fully worthy of the Star Wars legacy. And sure, I love seeing Han and Chewbacca back in action! But so much of the story is a less impressive version of Episode IV. The physics of Starkiller base are ridiculous even by Star Wars standards, and the casual way they figure out how to destroy it is just insulting compared to how difficult it was to learn how to attack the Death Stars. The way the Falcon is constantly crashed into things with no ill effects just sets my teeth on edge every time. I wish a moment or two had been taken to explain how Rey became so powerful so quickly. R2 and 3PO are barely in the movie. And I mourn the lost opportunity to unite the original trilogy team on last time. I know the writing on this one was rushed to fit Disney's arbitrary Holiday 2015 deadline, but I really wish they had been given more time to get it exactly right.

Really enjoying your Star Wars binge blog, and particularly your nuanced take on The Last Jedi. It's refreshing to read a more measured take rather than the usual love- or hate- fest the movie usually gets.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the season! 🙂

Congratulations to rubeon for smashing the most Sentinels, taking the most treasures, and delving through the most dungeons to come up with an astounding high score that will be extremely hard to beat! And that does for this season! Congratulations to our new champ, eegt97! Please send me your selection of five games that will start off our first poll for the 13th season starting in January 2020. Thanks to all who participated this season! Lots of great players this time, with several tough records beaten! I hope you all will be back when we return next year. Final standings: (for Space Dungeon) rubeon - 945,735 - RECORD BREAKER! +11 +1 = +12 phuzaxeman - 43,955 +10 eegt97 - 43,645 +9 Kobra Kai - 32,245 +8 bemis - 13,940 +7 jblenkle - 5,000 +6 Mangia-Boy - 3,635 +5

I'm so glad to see someone still enthusiastic about the Saga! There's too many haters out there these days. I will be looking forward to future blog entries about your binge!

Yeah, it's curious how much space there is in the point spread between all the regular players. Looking back, I guess that isn't that unusual... I only recall one year where there was serious competition for first place. I suspect most people aren't really playing to win the season, it's really just more about enjoying these great games!

While looking to see if I could find any emulation tips in past rounds (no such luck), I did find these tips I wrote up back in 2012. Posting them again in case anyone finds them helpful.

If anyone knows how to correctly set this game up in emulation, kindly post instructions on how you did it. Thanks!

That should be fixed now.

Welcome to the final round of this 5200 HSC season! Space Dungeon was tied in the vote with Popeye, but Space Dungeon won the coin toss. Play using the default settings. Emulation is fine, as are custom controls. Pics preferred, but not required except for HSC wins and records. The current record was set by SIO2 with 794,125 points. Bust it if you can for a bonus point. The ROM and manual can be found here: https://www.atariage.com/software_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=661 Round ends Sunday, November 10th , 2019 @9pm EST Standings: rubeon - 945,735 - RECORD BREAKER! phuzaxeman - 43,955 eegt97 - 43,645 Kobra Kai - 32,245 bemis - 13,940 jblenkle - 5,000 Mangia-Boy - 3,635