DT Kofoed

In the arcade game, you can smash the block beneath a unicorn and watch it plummet to its death. Try that on the VCS = instant death for you. Seriously? This is probably the least fun I have ever had with an Atari. Boo hoo.

Arcade challenge: 17,620. I'm a participant! where's my ribbon?

5660. There, I participated. Maybe I'll try the arcade version, maybe not. I have no interest in playing this further, unless I have a VERY boring weekend. [or, it looks like my newly reached 5th seed is immediately challenged]

Argh! For a game that revolves around KILLING UNICORNS, this should be much cooler! I'll post some sort of score later, but my heart's just not into it today.

I think we get to blame Coleco for this one.

Doesn't look like the right picture?

Not to mention the ruthlessness of this game, if you slip up just once, your game is over. Imagine, putting in hours of game time, only to lose focus for that one second and have a final score of 999,900. I think Laser Blast is the much easier of the two. For me Cosmic Creeps is right up there with Stampede... all the accuracy and attention needed to play. Laser Blast I can play forever (eyes closed). I can't roll Cosmic Creeps, something goes wrong everytime. Yeah, LB is very generous with extra lives. This is perhaps the most unforgiving game I've played in this here HSC.

I love the things we find ourselves saying here: I died when I ran out of moon ... classic.

2nd in the 100K club: This game reminds me of Activision's Laser Blast... you're having a fantastic time, and then you reach the peak. Until climbing, though, this peak isn't the end of your adventure, but a vast featureless plateau that carries on until you collapse of exhaustion or boredom. I don't know if I have the patience to roll this.

There's a big screen-flashy-noisy-exploding thing that happens when your game is over. If a happy little tune plays, the game is just waiting for you to start the next level. The sinking planet is essentially a timer. In the first stage, you need to get to the ship. In the second, you have all the remaining time to score 5000+ points and continue to the next planet/stage once the timer/planet expires. Hope that helps.

Picture as promised: 54,500. [As for my timing hint before, remember that the spawn new creeps as you destroy the existing ones, so if you shoot with a steady rhythm, they spawn at the same rate, and you can continue bopping them as they come without moving yourself, often 4-10 in a row.]

Small bump: 44,800. I'm holding off on a picture until 50K+, which is going to be difficult here, as this game is rather unforgiving of the slightest mistake. Tips, for what they are: on the rocket stage, take your time to dodge and weave your man up. You lose a notch of time for every astronaut you have to launch, but the in-play timer is very slow here. More time on this screen now is more time to score on the next. Also, just make sure the red bar things are out of the way when you launch. The comet-things can fly out so fast there's no point waiting for them to clear before launching, and you can only really keep an eye out as they come. Remember that the new red bar things roll onto the screen as the old ones roll off, and be prepared for lots of cheap spawning directly below the spaceship as you approach! The red bars get really fast around level 6, but the meteors stay about the same. The second screen is all about timing, and not wasting kids. Again, each kid you let loose costs a notch of time, time which could be spent shooting 10+ baddies. They come in discrete grades of speed, so pay attention to your timing to lead them as they move up a level and recross the middle. Also, the game tends to release the same speed creeps sequentially, and you can usually just shoot as fast as it'll shoot from the same spot, kitting each creep in exactly the same spot (assuming you got the first one in the series). Don't bother launching a new kid if you're only got 3 notches of time left: unless it's a caffeine-addict-runner the dude won't make it, and your last time is always best spent picking off creeps at 100 a pop. Don't be afraid to let the two creeps (the most you'll ever have on screen) get towards the top before releasing the next kid, so you can get some space around him. Also, past the first couple levels, NEVER release a new kid when there's a slow creep on the first 2 rows; chances are he'll run into the creep from behind and self destruct before you have a clear shot. That's about as specific as I can get now, but if I come up with a better description I'll post it later in the contest.

41,700. First time playing... it's a start.

92,900 Made my personal goal, and I don't think I'll have time to crack 100K since I work tonight... also, I'd have to figure out how to survive level 4, which probably won't happen tonight!

Tiny bump: 86,900. [it's been an exhausting week ]

84,300 Not a first place score by any means, but this one seemed worth a picture, at least. Three nights left, maybe I can crack 9K still?

ACME Challenge! I have several ideas for Wile E., including the basic lesson of the Bond villain... stop mucking with gadgets, buy a high powered rifle, and shoot the sucker! But this, illustrated by my two rough diagrams, is the ultimate, fool-proof way for Wile E to see his nemesis dead, guaranteed: 1. 2. Explanation of the figures. 1. A roadrunner lives 7-8 years [average]. 2. A coyote lives 10-15 years [average]. Conclusion: Wile E will live twice as long as the Roadrunner, assuming he doesn't kill himself first with all his dumb plans! Just kick back and wait for the inevitable!

Rested my palm a bit, and got a bump: 70,700. Doesn't seem worth posting a picture yet [also, my daughter is sleeping in the room with the computer I'd need to use for that]... No idea what to do on level 4. I died almost instantly from that first canon-thingy hm, work to do still

First chance to play this week: 62,700. Haven't quite figured out that third level yet, but keeping Wile E on screen seems to be a great starter tip. Thanks!

Awesome! Let's not play it together! Hey, this isn't a Collecting Score Club, it's a High Score Club Don't we all collect? I've got over 200 carts and counting, and I generally dislike the feel of emulation as well, but we're talking about playing the games here, and a Harmony lets you do that while you wait for the game to come in the mail [almost always late!] Besides, it's custom made, limited quantity released so far, blah blah blah... Oh wait, it's a competition! Hell yeah, don't play this week and I don't have to worry about you catching up, Stan

We must battle. I'll never bow to emulation! Never! That's the point of the Harmony: it's not emulation! You play it on your hardware, foo.

A Harmony cartridge was the best Atari purchase I ever made [after the Atari!].

Ah, man, sorry. I don't mean to be discouraging; it's awesome you're taking the time and spreading the love and all that. But, you know, you put up a poll, you're going to get opinions! Do what you want with your stuff. Like I said, if we don't like it, we should do something ourselves.

Yet another voice in the chorus, looking for a more console/era-centric take on the game. Even my 10-year old son, who's a huge Smash fan, thought the selection was weird. Which again is fine, as we're not the ones doing the work, but mere armchair-designing! [ultimately, if we don't like, we should do something ourselves, right?] I do think it's an interesting question, though: what's the point of our obsession in taking contemporary (or even just later) games and cramming them onto the VCS? Is it purely to show that it can be done, or for the nostalgic gimmick of seeing that pale imitation of what we know rendered in crude in TIA scan lines? Or is it about looking to the heart of gaming, seeing what made these great games work, and figuring out how the Atari would achieve that aim in its own, always unique, fashion? I love Smash, and own it in other forms. I just don't want to play a stripped down, one-button version of the same old thing. I want to play an ATARI SMASH, as only a real Atari can do it, with Atari era or franchised characters. I want it to look and feel like something authentic to this little wood-grained passion of ours. Thanks for reading.

Now that's interesting, as I have the opposite experience. I collect far more breaks than I could ever use, and accordingly don't even bother with aiming for them after the first two mazes - yet I still keep piling them up faster than I can use them. The later levels more so quickly, and there's such a delay between pressing the button and the break happening, that often it seems dodging through the mazes is faster, and I use fewer as I progress. In fact, almost all of my deaths now are me rolling off the top while waiting for a break to register when it seemed to be the 'faster' route.