Robert M

Hmmm... not a bad idea. I'll think about it. Cheers! Rob

I'm up to 41,100.

Hey Keilbaca, since you are the world record holder on this game, any chance you are willing to put up a bounty to inspire the masses? Cheers!

Woo hoo! A game I actually own. 37,500 to start off.

It is also called Nine Men's Morris. I wrote a version of it with that name for the Commodore 64 back in the 90's. It was published in Loadstar magazine on a disk. Ah memories! Its actually not a bad choice for a game for the VCS since it never has more than 6 pieces on one horizontal line. Cheers!

I tried pitting video chess agains the chess program that comes with Mac OS X. I used the default setting for the Mac program and level 4 and then level 5 for Video Chess. Video Chess got slammed both times. I think the problem is the move valueing system used in Video Chess. Video chess is far too eager to put the opponent King in check. It is also completely unwilling to trade queens which is extremely exploitable. If I know you will never kill my queen with yours if it means losing your queen in response, then I can push your queen around. Cheers!

The real reason level 7 takes so much longer than level 6 is because the complexity of the problem increasing exponentially. I suspect Video Chess is using a brute force algorithm to look at all the possible moves for a set number of turns ahead based on the level chosen. If we assume that at each turn a player has an average of 30 possible moves then we can see how the complexity will balloon. Level1: - For all computer next moves (30 moves avg) - Analyze all player response moves (times 30 response moves avg) = 30 * 30 = 900 moves to test. Level 2: - For all computer next moves - For all player response moves - Analyze all computer second moves = 30 * 30 * 30 = 27000 moves Level 3: - For all computer next moves - For all player response moves - For all computer second moves - Analyze all player second response moves. = 30 * 30 * 30 * 30 = 810000 moves. Level 7: = 30 ^ 7 = 21,870,000,000 moves to analyze! There are techniques speed this process up by recognizing that a path in the tree of all possible choices leads to a horrible condition (i.e. checkmate for the computer) and then all additonal moves along that branch are ignored. Cheers!

If that's how it is in the arcade, then maybe you should leave it as it is. That makes it a more accurate port. Cheers!

Its looking great! One thing I did notice is that if you hold the fire button down. The shot pattern becomes a set of flickering dots in fixed positions relative to the cursor. The effect looks fine for single shots, but if the player can hold the button down for continuous fire it looks kind of odd. Maybe if you added a sawtooth offset to the starting position of shots so that with the button held down there is an underlying animation of the shots moving toward the cursor. Like this: Shot1: <=* * * * * + Shot2: <= * * * * * + Shot3: <= * * * * * + Shot4: <= * * * * * + Shot5: <=* * * * * + Etc... Cheers!

Really? Anybody else agree? I'll look into it. 960231[/snapback] Berenstain Bears for Genesis is a top notch kids title. Very forgiving controls and gameplay at 3 levels of difficulty. It has 2 player simultaneous play, and the bears can help each other to climb up. Plus its very forgiving. If the bear falls in a pit or something, you don't lose a life or get pushed back to the start of the level. It just takes off some health and puts you back right where you fell. Really top notch stuff. I wish all the "kid" titles were that kid friendly. Cheers!

That's pretty cool. By the rules of the game your winning score is just 13 since you can not make anymore legal moves, but that does seem insufficient for actually wiping the black pieces off the board.

45 so far! Here's a tip: I have noticed that the computer will take the corner as soon as it can even if waiting would yield more captures. So you can make the computer waste its corner moves. Notice in my picture. The computer has all 4 corners, but I control 3 of the 4 sides between the corners. Cheers!

Thanks! I thought it was time for a more cerebral game.

I am beginning to suspect that a language difference between the UK and the US is partly to blame. Mr. Kizza kept repeating the phrase "it looks like a 2600 cart, but the colors... etc". I am beginning to think that the phrase "looks like" in the UK may be a definite statement of fact. Where as in the U.S. "looks like" means "I'm not sure, but its my best guess". So all us sorry Americans are thinking why doesn't he just count the pins or give us a picture and we will count them. While people in the UK are likely thinking "why can't those bloody Americans take his word for what he said. He told them its a 2600 cart". Just thinking and trying to understand Mr. Kizza's anger at us poor Yankees...

It looks like a 2600 Cart , but then it doesn't? You are not being clear at all. 2600 and 7800 carts use nearly identical shells. the difference is on the inside of the shell. So when you say it looks like a 2600 cart, but on the inside it looks different, then that suggests a 7800 cart. Can we have a picture of the circuit board, or the end that plugs into the machine, then we will all know the truth and you can stop getting so snippy. You came here for help identifying the cart, but you won't answer our very simple questions to help you identify it and get defensive instead. Sheesh!

Argh! Snow! Sorry, can't make it. It sounded fun... Best wishes,

If the weather is good (i.e. No blizzards), I'll be driving down from NY to attend. Cheers!

The machines were all running and set to free play. So I and many other people were playing them. Every machine had a price, and if you were interested in buying you walked over to a table where the promoter was located. I only saw one machine being sold while I was there. They turned the machine off and put a sold sticker on it. I didn't see anything to suggest that any of the machines would be sold auction style. It was kind of strange, because admission was free, and you could basically play all the games you wanted for free and not buy anything. As I said earlier, the prices on the machines seemed a little steep to me, so I wonder if they are going to break even on sales vesus the cost of the event. Cool. We get interns at my work from RIT at regular intervals. Cheers!

Well I went to the event. There were about 40 arcade machines, and about 10 pinball machines. All were for sale. They were in various states of repair from great to yikes! I thought the prices were about $100 to high on most of the arcade games, but then I don't have much experience pricing arcade machines. All thte games were on free play, so I got to play a number of games. The best experience was getting to play Sega Turbo, since I had never seen it before, and there has been talk (and a April 1st prank) about porting it to the 2600. Having played it now, it seems that Enduro by Activision is a rip off of Turbo. Turbo has more in game features though: ambulances, tunnels, city driving etc. They wanted $299 for the Turbo machine. The monitor needs to be replaced, but the cabinet was in good shape. Here are some of the other games I played there: Mr Do Rastan Double Dragon KungFu Master Golden Axe (This machine was in scary shape, it looked like it went through a flood) Street Fighter Night Stalkers Combatribes Bad Dudes Mortal Kombat Primal Rage. Side Swiper (something like that, it sucked) Bowling There is a rumor that there is another event planned for March or April that will focus on console gaming. If I get any solid information on it, I'll be sure to share. Cheers!

Hello, I just found out about this event this week. I don't know what it will be like. I plan to go on Saturday. Here is the text of the newspaper ad I found about it: I am guessing that by "Dome" they are referring to the convention center Dome in Henrietta, NY just south of Rochester. I will report back what the show was like. I hope to see you there. Cheers!

Someone could hack Beat 'em & Eat 'em to reproduce the the murder scene where the main character bludgeons the woman to death with the oversized phallic statue. Then to recreate the re-education experience, the game will force the player to endure a level of VCS pacman every time he hurts someone.

I have always thought the movie Black Hole needed a VCS game and how about Dark Crystal?

I was very disappointed by Warlock. It looks great on the box, and the story in the manual is cool, but the game play is painfully dull and repetitve.

Don't listen to these guys. They do not know what they are talking about. Here is what you need to do in just 3 simple steps: 1. Buy yourself 48+ cans of Mountain Dew. 2. Start chugging Dew 3. Play Kaboom. At some point the caffiene will produce shaking in your hands that perfectly compensates for the jittery paddles. Stop drinking Dew, and enjoy your jitter free game play. Have a nice day.

You can't use the double up door until you find the single up door. Cheers!