Razzie.P

asponge has the link posted with info in the very first post.

I played this a bit today, but haven't gotten a score that's above "man that's embarrassing" yet. White car's a bully! Recently, I got into a new hobby -- RC Cars. Well, I've always loved them, but could never afford a nice one as a kid, so finally parted with some $$$ and jumped in. Amazing how much this game feels like a proper RC type of thing, even if not intended. Also -- eff you, white car!

What version of Mesen are you using and what are your control mappings? Also, are you using the "single controller" option or trying to emulate both for 2 controllers? I just tested on Mesen 0.9.7 and diagonals worked using "single controller." Control mappings show this ---

Understandable. I'm not a strong Ms Pac Man player, so I'm not really in the know about how much more difficult it is than the original settings. I just enjoy how it shakes things up a bit. Very welcome, but how do you forget that you put in the time and effort to achieve a great score like that (seems really good to me, at least) while simultaneously forgetting the skillset and strategies used to achieve it, setting you back to sub 50k scores? Seems like that sort of thing usually sticks with a person for a bit.

If you haven't already, check out the remakes on Switch. 1st one is about 5 bucks I think, and it's great

Well, you're right about part of that. "I" didn't mean to do that when "I" picked strange. 🤣 Disagree that anyone is screwed over, though. As long as we're all playing with the same criteria (ruleset, settings, etc) if doesn't matter if our scores are super low or through the roof. I'm not particularly good at it, but I found "strange" to be a fun, refreshingly trippy way to play Ms Pac-Man. But, ummm.... the scoreboard shows you're in the lead with 170,180. Which is more than 3X as many as that 50k that you can't breach. You didn't have a miscommunication and (inadvertently) pull some shenanigans there, did ya?

2,031,435 I've never played the NES version of this, only Arcade and SNES back in the 90's. I rented that one a LOT. I figured this one would kinda stank but I think they did an amazing job with it. Pretty disappointed though, that I won about a hundred VCRs and not one VHS copy of Roadhouse. 😬 Oh... and 2600" TV.

Gyruss - 124,650 It's 3:08AM now, according to Google, so I think I squeezed this in before the deadline.

I finished Rambo a couple more times, but with lower scores. And I realize why -- during my posted run, I was very careful, overly cautious and moving a bit slow at times. I think this allowed more enemies to come into play. As I got more comfortable, I'm rushing forward a bit, so the game's easier and quicker, but getting lower scores as a result. Funny how the better I got, the worse my score 😁

I finished the MSX version yesterday, and played through the MSX2 version today. If you have the option, play the MSX2 version. Since there's no magic in there (a key difference from the NES version) the part that always had me stumped is a bit different, and had me stumped all over again. 🤣 I found an English version of part 2, so hope to start that one this week.

Trying to put my bias aside, I'd still yes "yes, it's worth a shot." And yeah, I'd read over the manual, specifically the item descriptions and such. I don't think it'll help with that "puzzle" that had me stumped for so long, but you'll still get some important, not-at-all-vague clues such as this --- Yep. Here's a scan of the manual, if interested. http://www.neshq.com/games/h/hydlide/hydlide-man02.pdf

is "cover refund requests" some kind of euphemism for "fund more vacations?"

Well... 🤣

I've never heard of that documentary. I just checked out the trailer and it's now something I wanna watch. Funny how Amico talk keeps pushing people towards Nintendo related things.

In a strictly black and white sense, then "yes," they finished it. Did they really "beat the game," as you actually asked originally, then not so black and white. It'd still be "yes," I suppose, in my opinion, but with a lot of help and admittedly overcoming a much different/easier set of obstacles than playing stock, no cheating. It'd be like it I entered the Tour de France, but I rode a motorcycle instead. Sure, I "finished it," and I may even finish first, but anyone with basic sense is gonna acknowledge that what I did is quite different from the bicycle riders in the race. And to be clear, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with how the OP plays (emulator, rewind, etc) if that's what's fun for them, then great! If they feel accomplishment over reaching the end, then great! It only becomes any sort of an issue during things like high score competitions and such where everyone should be playing by the same rules and other people are negatively impacted, but that's a whole other thang

I'm pretty excited to check out Super Hydlide, and I actually own Virtual Hydlide for Saturn, but never played it. I'm sure I just picked it up because of the name, given my love for the NES version. First though, I gotta see if I can figure out the English Translation patch for Part 2 on the MSX or something... Well, I love Ys. The whole franchise. The only one that's been a bit of a letdown to me was the most recent, part IX. That's where my Y's love started back when it was a pack in with my Turbo Duo, but now... I'd suggest Ys I & II Chronicles+ on PC 😁

I didn't really appreciate Mario properly (and 2 and 3) when I was a kid. I played them, beat them because they were there, and liked them alright, but I really didn't love them and see how brilliantly designed they were until I was much older. I guess as a kid, I was FAR more interested in swords, and Conan, and ninjas, etc... Mario just didn't seem "badass" enough to my immature, underdeveloped mindset.

Your score isn't bad at all. I'm not 100% sure how those bonuses work, but based on what I've seen, that's pretty good for that point in the game, and when you finish Round 6, the scores jacks up to over a million. I checked out some "full game" plays on youtube to see where my score lands, and they all seem to have about 280,000 going in to Rnd 6, and then jumps to 1,300,000 at the end. I didn't do any point pressing or anything, so I figure yours will be about the same, if not more, if you get past that final round.

For Rambo, interesting points info from the manual. I noticed the bonuses during the ending scenes, but wasn't sure what they meant, so tracked this down.

Rambo -- 1,314,550 Yes, Rambo. You do get to win this time.

Frostbite and Blackthorne might fit.

I'm right smack in the middle!

I did that in some parallel dimension, I'm sure. Here in this one, though, I couldn't quite get a groove going with this one. It's like my brain refused to accept that I press up or down to shoot left and commit that to reflex, which caused delayed reactions, which caused real panic in the virtual bank, which led to randomly pressing all buttons and hoping for the best. Hopefully though, that "shoot everything that moves" mentality should help me and Rambo in the next round.

Ms Pac Man - 88,420 This one has some cool mazes that shakes the formula up a bit for sure. I'm not a strong Pac Man player in any version, though, so I don't think I'll be a threat to anyone here, based on your "introductory scores."

3 games tormented my during my childhood as games I really loved, but for some damn reason, simply couldn’t beat. Impossible Mission (Atari 7800 – not my fault, I learned as an adult) Milon’s Secret Castle, and Hydlide I came back to Hydlide this weekend to give it another shot, and finally finished it. And the “missing piece” that’s held me up all these years was kind of stupid. You have to kill 2 enemies using a certain magic. BUT... you have to kill them both with one shot when they align horizontally in a small, not at all convenient area. No hint alluded to that in the game or manual, far as I can tell. No reason for anyone to ever think “maybe this is what I gotta do…” But oh well, after that, they turn into a missing fairy and fly you to the endgame. Nice, easy, and quick. Oh well… not really a good game at all and definitely has some design issues, but I love it all the same and will likely pop in the cart once or twice per year for a quick play through now that I can finish it easily. I’m thinking of working through the rest of the series. Hopefully they won’t take as long.