S.BAZ

I have been avoiding the Tolkien movies since LOTR, not that they are really bad movies, I just prefer the images in my head from reading the books, which I cannot recall after seeing the movies. (also they are somewhat disappointing for me as well). And the Hobbit is one of my very favorite books. Anyone here who loves Tolkien books and has not read The Silmarilion? That is an AMAZING book !!

no improvement today but I haven't had much time to play, visiting family for holidays! played two games today, bombed one & had a pretty good game for the other: Congratulations to Arthur -- a future champ -- impressive !

Ah, ok thanks Lid. Not surprised to see that I may have been developing a bad habit I've used it in Novice & Helper modes, but I hadn't tried Master yet. I need to play more of that now. I had the impression it was a little easier since Carol is faster, but that's what I get for assuming... well I don't have an improved score yet today but I did get a couple more perfect stages in practice mode just for the fun of it (one more to go in Novice practice!) -- Stage 6 Stage 5 And a perfect Level 18: ... Nice one Oscar!

1,364,800 (rack 68) I think they start firing more rapidly each time you complete another 20 racks... for anyone using the "B" difficulty setting, I would suggest: try to limit your slow flying -- the best way to score points is by beating that "skip-a-rack" timer: not only does it give you a nice bonus (better than the bonus rounds do), but it also skips you past a rack, getting you further along to the larger bonuses! the bonuses get pretty huge in the last 5 of each set of 20 racks. (racks 15-20, 35-40, etc.)

25670 Finally got past that **@#$** slippery slope...

That's the toughest stage for me too... for the most part. Of course if the ghost hits me in the Snowflake Garden after I already got the snowflakes, that's really the worst! might as well hit reset... I'll share my playbook for Candy Cove! I'm no expert & I screw it up all the time, but it seems to me like a good game plan in theory... ** I can usually clear the top 2 "coves" before having to dodge the snowman. (sometimes he catches up to me a little early & I have to eat a snowflake & run for it) My main problem with my opening is getting hit by the ghost before clearing the top 2 rooms & getting out. 1. I start by running left & going to the top-right room, grabbing everything but the last snowflake (leaving that for insurance in case I hit the ghost later on). Try to time it so the ghost is stopped when grabbing gifts, but not wasting time, it has to be pretty fast. 2. Then quickly out, making sure to exit the room on the left side, so the ghost will miss me on his way in. Scramble to the upper left room, munching a few bon-bons on the way in. (Snowman usually howls before I get to the spot where I drew a star.) Eat everything in the room but the snowflake, & wait right there to the left of it, where the arrow ends. Snowman usually zooms straight through to the other side & just keeps going left through the exit repeatedly. Then I try to get out & continue without eating the snowflake. If I go at the first chance, snowman will still be slow so I don't need the snowflake (but that ghost is SO pesky!) Hopefully nabbing the last 4 bon-bons on the way out. Whenever Snowman gets to running straight through like this, you can mess around in these "safe areas" without throwing him off his route. But I find it is not quite 100% reliable -- perhaps stepping too far to the right or squirreling around too much will get his attention. So I try to always leave the snowflakes as much as possible. Also there are at least 4 "prisons" you can keep Snowman in by staying in little safe zones. Unfortunately it's not easy to trap him into them like in the Icicle Lane prison. But I have been taking advantage whenever he starts to get stuck & have even been able to lure him into a trap a few times: maybe with some practice these can be used more effectively? hope it helps!

Solar Fox made Metal Jesus' top ten list of "Atari Games that Don't Suck" www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVpMBx8BF6c (how I first got turned on to this game)

you congratulated me for it yesterday (post #197). maybe it was someone else you meant to congratulate?

new personal best: 2443 but I'm sorry to say, I'm going to have to contest my Perfect Christmas achievement, I don't think I earned that! I had 1780 pts at the end of level 17. not the beginning of it. (thanks anyway though, I hope to do it soon ) now that I have these 3 perfects I can say however that I have gotten perfects on all stages through #17... hooray! and I finally beat practice stage 4 with a perfect score: and a perfect score for adventure Levels 1-4:

oh nice. I forgot about Champow! that site rocks.

agreed! I got lucky this round since I'd been playing it a few weeks ago to beat a score on the Highscore.com contest the main difficulty for me was how "squirelly" your ship is on the screen. You have to be careful to hit exactly in the right direction (I've been just "tapping" the directions) or else the ship "dorks" all over the place. sometimes it goes up when I meant to go right, then I try to correct it by going down, then right, and it goes left then up, etc... it's really sensitive to joystick wiggling! reset, reset, reset, til I get into a more accurate groove.

that's a cool TV Darin ok i get it now thank you! I hadn't yet thought about a (2nd trip alone) perfect score. that adds a new personal goal to my list... slight improvement: 2082 I love the extra life for making it to Twisted Toyland, with it's own special ring. Also, Carol is super cute... she gave me a (curtsey?) after a perfect level today. haven't seen that before or since... and reached too late for a pic a few more perfects to complete my collection for levels 1-13 (plus 17)

hey no worries! I was surprised because I wrote up my score & accidently hit "post" before adding the pic. so I quickly added the pic & then saw you had already liked it! (just discovered the extended list of emoticons)

I was recently quite impressed with Sparkster! don't know how well-known that is but I hadn't heard of it till I saw it at a friend's house & had a go at it. I've since found out it is a sequel to a Genesis game called Rocket Knight. Sparkster has very good controls & gameplay and the music rocks! the music especially kept making me want to play more, as well as how pumped-up and ready for action your rocket-knight guy looks. the artwork looks a bit like Sonic-meets-Megaman

also if I had fluked the first Christmas and then got a perfect 2nd Christmas, and recorded only from trip #2 onward, and then got perfect trips 3 & 4... would I not be cheating to try to pass that all off as a Perfect Supreme? (all 64 levels perfect) ? (with sour cream?)

please forgive my confusion, I still don't get it! when I saved Christmas, my points just continued counting. (is there an option to reset your points-counter mid-game??) as far as I can tell, if I had a flawed 1st Christmas, then a perfect 2nd Christmas, I would still be short of a perfect score at the end of Level 32. For example, I did get a perfect Level 17, but still did not have a perfect score at the end of Level 17, because I had missed points during the first 16 levels. am I missing something obvious? (which I do often ) oh thanks... I was looking at the wrong elf! my first Sweet Tooth was on the 5th (post #27)

first game 5:13:13 actually I have to take that back it's not my first game, it's my third. I almost forgot the first two I bailed off the top of the building be back w/ pic, i forgot it! wow, this is a LOT different from " Skateboardin' " I'm pleased to find that it's surprisingly not really a skating game! you just happen to be a guy on a skateboard

WOW Gorfy that was fast!

1,255,800 (Rack 59)

just curious, why is it that points wouldn't prove a perfect the 3rd or 4th time through?

I like this one better for 5 golden Rings: (the 5 is golden!) my new high score: 2055 [+Elite Elf+] not that it earns me anything, but I finally got a Level 6 Perfect and Perfects on the first 3 practice stages [+practice makes perfect+] (BTW, the leaderboard doesn't show my latest achievements yet-- --Sweet Tooth --Flower Power --Frozen "P" --5 Golden Rings)

maybe if TG isn't back up by the end of the season, you could choose three or more alternative sources to see who beats the top available scores. suggestions: --retrocade magazine --record setter --highscore.com (just getting started but could be useful already) --guiness --?? maybe people could submit any records lists they can find and whichever of them are acceptable to the HSC can be combined into a master list to be used as an alternative to TG. It seems there is a need for this kind of thing since TG has become unstable, and since charging money for submissions has apparently diminished it's respectability. I have noticed that with arcade & 2600 scores, some people have compiled scoreboards which incorporate the Twin Galaxies high scores, as well as ones from other sources. Probably this has been happening with Coleco scores as well... (?)

Thanks Northcoast. I was pretty happy, my best ever before this was about 150K. I think using the A setting helps also thanks Zoyx! It looks like it would have been foolish of me to have hung up my joystick til next week! I'll get back at it...

if you're still taking suggestions, I want to second Mangia Boy's suggestion of... Do! Run Run ! that's my #1 pick but also I want to suggest games we have at the arcades in Eugene: Dig Dug (but I think it's already played?) Defender Asteroids Donkey Kong Donkey Kong Jr Donkey Kong 3 vs Super Mario Bros vs The Goonies Kung Fu Master Pac-Man Moon Patrol Star Wars (that original one with the Death Star) Tron Gorf Blasteroids Frogger Q*Bert Gauntlet Dark Legacy Street Fighter II Mario Bros Raiden II Track & Field Centipede Millipede Kangaroo Robotron Joust Pole Position (all i could think of for now)

999,999 rollage note the pattern of this rack (Rack 53) is the same as rack 13. (correction, Zoyx! -- according to the manual as well as my observation, the racks repeat after #20 -- or maybe your # is correct and the game does not count the Challenge rounds as "racks" -- ??) this pic should prove a rollage, since it is impossible to get to Rack 13 with only 19000 points. I tried scoring as little as possible and still had well over 100,000 by Rack 13. I also took pics at the beginning of the Racks leading up to the rollage: (challenge) -- 940600 (Rack 50) -- 952600 (Rack 51) --958800 (Rack 52) --966200 ...then I hit the bonus & it boosted me over 1mil. (sorry for the poor picture quality, I had to quickly grab the phone & snap a pic in between the action! using difficulty switch in the A position -- don't like holding down the button the whole time. And I don't use the slow speed ever! one tip: when the sentinels spray out a solid line of bullets it seems impossible to escape, but in case anyone didn't know it, you can dodge between them by flying into it horizontally. Took me a while to figure that out.