BiffMan

All part of the plan.... Mwwwaahahahahahaaaaaaa....

And if those were widely available, I'm sure most folks would be delighted to do so... 🙂

Here's a screenshot of a 1 minute run, you can see the timer in the lower right next to the multiplier. It even counts down by seconds when you're under 1 min. It's a pity we couldn't do the competition cart as a HSC game, because while Astrosmash is an excellent game, it is an *exceptional* timed game. Whole different world of risk/reward when you have to drive that multiplier up as quickly as possible. For those with emulation, the competition rom is available over at http://www.intellivision.us/ in their ROMs section. If you've never tried it out before in timed mode, I highly recommend it, it's a blast! 10 minutes is a nice frantic pace, but 30 minutes is my preferred go-to.

Agreed, I find it to be fun to play up to 1 mil, which I believe is where the difficulty plateaus. While BITD, I could play indefinitely at that point, nowadays I do slowly lose lives at that point, so for me it would be a long but not infinite game. Besides, I'd love to see someone post a "max" 32 million score again just for nostalgia purposes.

They used such a cartridge in the VideoChallenge competitions I participated in and I have it in ROM form as "Astrosmash Competition.bin". It lets you chose a time from 1-99 minutes and will end the game at that time and give your high score. Regardless, wouldn't be fair to those not playing on emulation since I imagine it's difficult/expensive to track down one of the actual cartridges used in the competitions.

+1 for the 2600-daptor, autodetect works great, no lag, fast shipping, etc, etc.

Pretty sure Jacob wouldn't be sadistic enough for a repeat performance and I shall not utter its name here, but...

That's a good thread there... 🙂 Agreed that timed Astrosmash is the way to go, but not workable for HSC due to folks who only play on original HW and not reasonable to expect them to track down a copy. That said, I'd be down for including Astrosmash again in the HSC. If we can survive Space Hawk and The Game That Shall Not Be Named, we can handle anything 🙂

Woohoo! 🙂

Many companies lock down admin rights or do periodic scans of what you have installed, so it's nothing to trifle with if it's a condition of employment/code of conduct thing

So let it be written.... so let it be done!! 🙂

Thanks! Definitely came down to the wire following gezkc's amazing performance on Happy Trails! Not sure if Flashback consoles are repairable, most folks just keep the controllers as spares or gut them and put a Raspberry Pi emulator on board. I'm sure there is plenty of knowledge on the subject of you search the main forum here. Failing that, post the question and be amazed at the quick responses and expertise! 🙂

I do have 3 Intellivisions from BITD that I can't find the time to get working, so I play in emulation, usually with a Flashback Intellivision controller via USB or keyboard if it suits the game better. If time and money were no object, I would absolutely be playing on original hardware with an LTO cart. 🙂

Oh Jacob, that's terrible! Thank you for opening up and letting us know. I figured something was going on IRL for you around that time, but never imagined something that sad. I hope sharing here helps you and please feel free to share any other fun storiess about your friend if you wish.

That all sounds wonderful and really appreciate the thought you've put into that!

Thanks, Jacob! 🙂 I'd like to thank the members of the Academy, my parents for getting me addicted to Intellivision all those years ago, my wife for her immense tolerance, and the gods for granting me the strength to crush everyone... Death to the opposition! Hmmm... went a little off the rails there... Probably should have just stopped after "Thanks, Jacob!" 🙂

Happy almost birthday! 🙂 You've got me by a few years, but not that many...

I'm really happy with Jacob's lead and game choice, so I'm good with him doing it as long as he wants. While I appreciate the vote of confidence, I'm still the n00b around here. I don't mind contributing/helping as much as life allows, but I should have a few more seasons under my belt before considering anything more.

I guess that's basically what we have except 1st-3rd all get the extra point, so instead of 10-9-8-7-6... 11-10-9-7-6... which for the most part I'm okay with since it's often so close at the top. I guess the bottom line is that I'd prefer whichever version ensures I'll win again allows for close competition and doesn't penalize folks too heavily for having to miss a week or three if they're on original hardware and don't own a given game.

That makes sense and it's probably how it came to be, a little extra separation for 1st-3rd. I don't have a problem with it, just struck me as odd. I don't really want to see 1st place getting too many points or it penalizes those that can't play every round, so maybe I should just zip it and acknowledge this is probably optimum as-is. 🙂

Yeah, that's the one bit I was going to recommend for next season, I'm sure the 1st-3rd being 1 point apart thing has an origin story, but the current result is that every place is 1 point apart other than 2 points between 3rd and 4th, which is just weird. I'd recommend either a straight 1 pt between every position or an extra point for 1st or something. I like it being close, but won't pretend that extra point difference 3rd-4th wasn't weighing heavily on my mind this game in particular.... 🙂

Since @gezkc was kind enough to let the cat out of the bag and not make me self-announce with this update, I feel more comfortable posting the "final" (unofficial) standings update after Pinball... 🙂 Unofficial results of Pinball and final standings update! Phenomenally balanced competition with 8 different winners in the 16 games and as narrow a margin of victory as possible!! (HIGH SCORES) 1. 353,710 Ace24 [+11] 2. 257,770 Rickster8 [+10] 3. 210,020 gezkc [+9] 4. 121,750 BiffMan [+7] 5. 97,750 mr_me [+6] 6. 64,910 JasonlikesINTV [+5] 7. 38,510 gavvv [+4] 8. 37,290 cmadruga [+3] 9. 19,550 jblenkle [+2] 10. 19,200 fakecortex [+1] 11. 14,740 wolfy62 [+1] 12. 12,500 roadrunner [+1] 13. 11,660 Mangia-Boy [+1] Season 12 Final Rankings 1. BiffMan [+126] 2. gezkc [+125] 3. cmadruga [+97] 4. JasonlikesINTV [+86] 5. Ace24 [+75] 6. IntyFanMatt [+71] 7. JacobZu7zu7 [+68] 8. mr_me [+52] 9. wolfy62 [+49] 10. fakecortex [+40] 11. Player One [+32] 12. cparsely [+31] 13. dpisicane [+28] 14. jblenkle [+24] 15. Intelligentleman [+23] 16. Mangia-Boy [+17] 17. ed1475 [+16] 17. roadrunner [+16] 19. m-crew [+13] 20. Intellfan [+10] 20. Rickster8 [+10] 22. hoosierdadee78 [+7] 23. S.BAZ [+4] 23. gavvv [+4] 25. t0spmad [+2] 25. Mister-VCS [+2] 25. gar0u [+2] 28. DarthCloud [+1] Games Won 4 - BiffMan (Atlantis - Demon Attack - Mission X - Auto Racing) 4 - gezkc (Burgertime - Auto Racing - Happy Trails - Popeye) 3 - mr_me (Lock 'N Chase - Tron Deadly Discs - Space Hawk) 2 - IntyFanMatt (Frogger - Carnival) 2 - cmadruga (Tron Deadly Discs speed 1 - Beamrider) 1 - cparsley (Mouse Trap) 1 - ed1475 (Space Armada) 1 - Ace24 (Pinball)

Yeah, that seems poor form, so I've been reluctant to do so. 🙂 If Jacob doesn't get to it soon, I'll put up my normal Tuesday unofficial update later today. While on the subject of scores, that was a hell of a run you had these last few games! When I was briefly up by 11pts, I had visions of just cruising to the finish, but you kept pushing me and made me earn it. You don't want to know how many games of Pinball I played this week in a failed bid to get ahead of you! Lol! 🙂

That sums up the game right there... 75%+ of the points usually come on one ball. I do love the game, but still.... Grrrr... 🙂

+1 🙂 It took me a while to find you guys, but I'm here to stay. I'm delighted by the awesome quality of the folks on the forum in general and the HSC in particular. Awesome fun and who says you ever have to grow up?