CapitanClassic

Well, it is March 8, so I can post this. I think I can roll the score next time. I will also keep a clock running to see how long. I finally figured out a good pattern to (somewhat) quickly get rid of the blue phoenix. Start by heading Right. Take out 4th. Head Left. Take out 1st. juke right to dodge. Keep Left. Take out 2nd. juke right. Head right (if you keep to near the right of the screen, you can safely ignore the 3rd. Take out the remaining phoenix, possibly taking out the 3rd second to last.

Just a couple of calculations to let you know what you are in for if you want to roll the score. Wave 1&2) You score phoneix 20 pts. or diving phoenix 80 pts. Minimum score 8*20 = 160, 8*80 = 640. Average= 180 per wave (I figure you score one diving phoenix every other rack by accident using standard tactics). Wave 3&4) 20 pts. for wing shots, 500 pts. for a phoenix that is at ground level (possibly close to ground), 100 pts. for a phoenix at the highest position. I think this varies a little bit because the birds sway up and down a little, but I haven't verified). On average, I think you will get 1750-2000 pts / wave 7th 100 pts. 6th 150 pts. 5th 200 pts. 4th 250 pts. 3rd 300 pts. 2nd 400 pts. 1st 450 pts. Mother-ship)The maximum is 9,000, but I think it starts ticking down immediately. I assumed 8,000 points, but didn't do any real testing for this. I think this works out to about 12,000 points or so per mother-ship. I was completing each mother-ship destruction in about 1.5 (+/- 0.5 minutes), so it will take somewhere between 2-2.5 hours to roll the score.

Just wondering why we aren't supposed to post a score of 250,000+ points before March 8? Is the idea is that we are supposed to show improvement on the very last day of the tournament (because we are practicing so much, just on that day?) Or; Is it not to discourage newcomers who see super high scores and figure there isn't a point in attempting a better one? (I have a snapshot on my desk that I won't be posting until March 8. If I happen to score 999,000+ points though I am going to post it before the weekend.)

Some observations that I have made. - Your cannon shrinks and grows in size as you straff left and right. - The flight paths of the phoenix are basically the same for the 3rd/4th wave (possibly all 4, but haven't thoroughly tested this theory yet). - A phoenix will not fire at you, unless it is nearly above you (I haven't figured out exactly how many pixels, but usually it will be less than a small cannon away) - There can only be 4 enemy bullets on the screen at once. - The phoenix that is highest vertically above you will always shoot. This usually means that diving phoenix will not be firing at you (unless the phoenix above them are far to the left/right). (You can use this and the previous two observation to get a high phoenix firing at you before you attempt to move under a low flying phoenix to kill it). Wave 1) Only the current bottom row of Phoenix dive at you. If you are quick, you can kill off a phoenix on the bottom row before it dives. Then clean up the same side of the 'O' formation. Pick off the rest of the other side, and probably only need to kill 2 "diving" phoenix. The best way to kill the diving phoenix is to wait until it flies back up into its formation. Wave 2) Is much the same tactics, but the formation is an upside down 'V'. For some reason, if you hold down your button, you have continuous fire (why is that? I know it is in the rule book, but I don't understand the design decision.) Use the same tactics you did to take out this wave, starting from one side and moving to the other, staying clear of the diving phoenix. Wave 3&4) As previously stated by others, keeping any of the bottom 3 phoenix alive prevents them from swooping down to ground-level to crash into your ship. Wave 3) The bottom 3 phoenix head left, the top 4 head right. I personally head right, and squeeze off a shot at the 4th phoenix at the edge of the board. Then I head back the other way, to hopefully destroy the bottom phoenix who is heading right now (the 2nd/3rd phoenix will change direction slightly before mid-screen). Then I try to take out the 2nd. Wave 4) If you hold right immediately, then fire, you get a sure-fire hit against the highest 7th phoenix. Then I hit the 2nd phoenix who is usually on the right side of the screen. Then head left and take out the bottom phoenix and 6th phoenix. You should be left with a tight 3rd/4th/5th phoenix stack, which is slightly dangerous. I have just been firing into it, to take out whatever I happen to hit. You can always activate your shields to kill a diving phoenix and nab 500 points. Mother-ship) Start out by tapping left to take out the center-left bricks. You have a second or two to do this, so you should be able to remove 4-5 blocks. (there are a total of 7 non-blue ones. Then you will need to dodge some incoming shots. Take out the remaining 2-3 red bricks, and then get a single hit on the moving blue bricks. Now head Left, and take out the 1,2, and possibly 3 outer most red brick columns. By the time you remove the red bricks, the blue one you hit in the center earlier will swing around. Now slowly follow the opening (or rush slightly ahead), activate your shields, and shoot in the hole you just made. The shield should keep you safe long enough for your shot to connect with the alien. The quicker you take out the mother-ship, the more points you earn. At the bottom level, not only is it hard to dodge missile fire, but you only earn a measly 1000 points. At the top, you earn 4,000 points, but this amount increases up to 9,000 points on successive levels. (you can also just clear out the left two columns after making a hole in the center. A quick shot on the left most column, followed by a quick shot in column 2 will remove the 2 blue bricks, which you can follow to the center and blast the alien.)

Thanks for this tip. It was very helpful. I assume that what you mean by "swooping" is that the phoenix can actually touch your turret. The formations seem to move up and down a little, even with the 3rd phoenix unkilled.

First attempt at the HSC. I actually own a copy of Phoenix, and a Flashback 2, but I haven't modified the system to accept carts. So Stella 3.9.3 it is. Didn't realize you can shield in the game, off to read the manual Shields really help. Slight Improvement. Had to shrink the size of the snapshot using paint, since i didn't like having to use google's preview snapshot (wrong aspect ratio). Need to look into Stella's options so I won't need to correct this in the future. Getting Better. 2014/03/02