kermit73

Turmoil: 84290

Cross Force: 4600 Crossbow: 68600 Red Sea Crossing:22700

Solaris: 17920 Only had time to play two games. This is the wrong game to try and figure out quickly. Posting this now in case I don't find more time tomorrow.

Threshold: 89770 Jawbreaker: 31360 River Patrol: 11090 This has definitely been a couple of weeks of me whining and complaining. Even Jawbreaker, which I believe to be the best of the three games, is chock full of cheap deaths when a smiley unexpectedly spawns on top of you at the edge of the screen. I also hate how it cannot keep track of more than 3 reserve lives. A player who can make it to level 8 without losing any lives is no better off than a player who dies once or twice along the way. The few times I made it deep into the game with minimal deaths, it sure would have been nice to have those extra lives I earned but wasn't given. There is a lot of RNG luck in River Patrol. My scores on the first board have varied between 1300 and 2200+, all dependent on how many divers I'm able to rescue. This issue is compounded by the fact that it's near impossible to backtrack and rescue a diver that spawns on the wrong side of the screen.

Threshold: 39720 Jawbreaker: 28780 River Patrol: 4490 Threshold is an okay game. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to my previous bullet disappearing when I take my next shot. Other similar games (Space Invaders, Demon Attack, etc.) don't let you shoot again until your shot has either hit something or goes off the top of the screen. I guess Threshold has the benefit of when you whiff, you don't have to wait to fire again. I like Jawbreaker. It has a good ramp up on difficulty and a challenging level 8. I'm not a fan of River Patrol. The music is annoying and the boat sprite is much bigger than it needs to be.

Robot Tank: 56 First time I've played this one. It's interesting that the features that set this game apart from Battlezone also happen to be some of the most annoying features of the game. The game gets quite boring if you use an avoidance strategy at night time or in the snow, and it seems that more often than not, when my tank is damaged, I'm wanting to just get hit again to put me out of my misery. Time was short this week. I wish I had more time to spend figuring out the harder levels.

Oops...

Bad *ss Machine: The moon buggy in Moon Patrol

Tutankham: 6398

It's true that the game cycles through each of the four boards, but the game gets more difficult with each cycle. The monsters spawn more frequently, they may move faster, and you have less time to finish before running out of bullets. This is until you complete the fourth full cycle of all four boards, when the game resets to the easiest level. As you progress to the harder levels, you'll probably need to adjust some of your patterns. I'm finding now that I sometimes waste a laser flash by accident (not sure if this is me panicking or an overly sensitive joystick) and most of my deaths are either because I did something dumb while executing a pattern, I ran into a 1% scenario where a pattern fails, or I attempted the greedy/aggressive/risky option to grab a treasure I could have just skipped. I have found a way to collect all the treasures, but on the fourth board especially, I find it too risky and end up leaving about half the treasures behind. I'd rather preserve my lives and just collect more treasures when the game starts giving me the easier levels again.

Tutankham: 5741

Tutankham: 2983

Tutankham: 1881 Dark Cavern: 335000 I've noticed the following in Tutankham: In open areas, if you're to the enemy's right, it will move up first, then right to get to you. If you're to the enemy's left, it moves left first, then up. These movement patterns make it much easier to time your shot if you're to the right of the enemy. I sometimes find a safe spot, and as soon as I hear the sound effect of an enemy spawning, shoot and move. Another enemy will not spawn (at least on the levels I've reached so far) while the "splat" from the enemy you just killed is on the screen. It is sometimes useful to scroll an enemy off the top or bottom of the screen to make them disappear. The candelabra (last treasure on the 3rd board) is only 5 points and not worth the time or risk. You get a bonus for time left in increments of 10 points and could very easily lose 10 points of bonus trying to earn 5 points for the treasure. There are a couple other treasures I usually skip because they are too risky. I wish I knew a way to consistently get the key on the 3rd and 4th boards without either dying or using a laser flash. On the 3rd board, enemies often spawn just below the key, even though there is no indication on the map that this is a spawning zone. It seems pretty random as to whether I'll have an enemy spawn on top of me just after picking up the key. On the 4th board, I've only successfully gotten the key once without using the laser flash. I suppose this is fine if it's the only time I have to use a laser flash since it will get replenished at the end of this board. For Dark Cavern, the first priority is to get ammo when the gun appears and the second priority is to try to kill off all four robots for points and for extra men. In the early game, after clearing all four robots, you can sometimes hang out above or below their entrance and pick off a few yellows if you get lucky and they spawn on the correct side of the screen. In the late game, the robots spawn so quickly that you'll be doing good to even kill an orange one. If low on bullets (5 or less), it's best to not use any bullets unless absolutely necessary. Instead, wander around the maze (preferably near the center) while waiting for the gun to appear so you can reload.

River Raid: 96300

River Raid (Final Score): 79300 River Raid (One Life): 33900

Jr. Pac-Man: 69460 It seems I'm always learning something new with this game, including things I had wrong when I posted some tips earlier in the week. I mentioned that ghosts are better at cornering, but I've found scenarios where I was able to get away by turning corners. I've also had situations where at least Blinky catches up with me moving in any direction with no dots big or small to slow me down. I suspect the game may subtly change speed depending on the number of dots left in the maze and perhaps when the bonus toy is somewhere in the maze. It seems the AI is at least similar to the arcade AI. Blinky tries to chase you from behind and Pinky tries to get in front of you. Inky seems confused, and if it's like the arcade game, his movement is determined by the current position of you and Blinky. Inky will often pass by you when he could easily make a turn and eat you. Tim (I think - or is it Sue or is it Clyde) in the arcade Pac-Man behaves like Blinky, except when it gets too close to you, it starts heading for the lower left corner. I don't know if its behavior is similar in this game. When off screen, I think all ghosts try to head toward you, even if it means reversing direction. I'd previously noticed this while they are blue after eating an energizer, but I think it may also be the case when they are in their normal state. This will probably be the last score I post this week. My Game Reset switch got a good workout and I fell a little short of my all time high.

Can you name your rom autorom.bin (I think this is the correct file name) and put it in the root directory? I think this bypasses the Harmony menu loads your game automatically?

Ugh! Just curious - Is this the joystick that comes with the Atari 2600+, and likely the joystick you get if you were to order a brand new one directly from Atari? This looks to be similar to the lousy design they used on the Atari Flashback units which are prone to breaking exactly as shown in the photo. I was hoping that with the 2600+, they'd go back to the design that was used on the original joysticks from the 70s and 80s. I've been using joysticks that I recently upgraded myself using the gold plated circuit boards provided by Best Electronics. While they have the benefit of working (compared to the old circuit board with worn out or corroded contacts), I'm still not completely used to them. I'm not sure if I didn't install them exactly right, or if they are just a little more sensitive. I find that when trying to just go up/down/left/right, I often end up activating two of the contacts and get an unintended diagonal movement. This was problematic week #1 with Dig Dug, and I'm noticing it again with Junior Pac-Man. On both these games, if the joystick is diagonal, the direction it picks may not be the direction you intended to go. I'm not sure if I have a legitimate gripe with my self-refurbished joysticks, or if it goes to the saying that "there is no good joystick for a bad player..."

I noticed this too. I must have snapped the pic at just the right moment between frames. I think this illustrates that the ghosts are cutting the corners which is why they can turn corners more efficiently than you.

Junior Pac-Man: 59080 While playing today, I observed that I my speed relative to the ghosts is better moving vertically than horizontally. If Blinky is chasing me left/right, he'll catch me easily if I'm eating dots. If he's chasing me while moving up/down, I stand a much better chance of outrunning him, especially if it's a section of the maze where the dots are spaced farther apart.

Thrust: 31550 Solar Plexus: 5370

Jr. Pac-Man - 40400 I think this is the most challenging Pac-Man variant I've ever played, on any console or in the arcade. The ghost AI is brutal and the game speed is quite fast. Due to the maze scrolling, you cannot always see all the ghosts, giving you even less time to react when a ghost appears from off the screen. Here are a few things I try to do: Eat the bonus toy as soon as possible, preventing it from making the large pellets which slow you down, or worse, exploding one of the energizers. Clear the middle section of the maze first. The bonus toy comes out of the ghost pen, so it's best to eat these pellets before a toy enlarges them. Be aggressive about gobbling up the ghosts after eating an energizer on the first couple boards. By the third board, they don't stay blue long enough to chase, minimizing the scoring potential until you reach boards 6-7+ with the 2000 point cat or 5000 point root beer. Most of the time, my game ends long before I reach these levels. After eating an energizer, if a blue ghost moves off screen either up or down, it will immediately reverse direction to return to the visible region of the screen. Rather than chasing a ghost at the top/bottom edge of the screen, it's sometimes better to avoid scrolling the maze, allowing the ghost to go off screen, and then meeting it when it reverses direction. After eating the ghosts, clean up the area around the energizer while the eyeballs are returning to the ghost pen. This is especially the case in dangerous corners. If being chased, try to find a path which is clear of pellets and avoid turning corners. This may seem counter-intuitive since this is the only Pac-Man game I've played where the ghosts are better at cornering than me. Keep moving. If you stop and rest somewhere, you can quickly get trapped between two ghosts. An exception to this rule is if you're waiting briefly next to an energizer for the ghosts to come to you. Minimize the amount of backtracking. I find that rather than "cleaning up" as I go, it's often better to just navigate my way around the outside of the entire maze before returning to a spot where I've left a few pellets behind.

Bonus - Defender - Bob Polaro (BP)

@Vocelli - Since ZilchSr and Absalon tied, I think ZilchSr should get one additional point in the overall standings.

Thrust: 18000 This game made little to no sense until I found a manual for it at https://www.ataricompendium.com/archives/manuals/vcs/thrust.pdf. This manual is for a different version of the game, but it went a long way toward helping me figure out what I was supposed to do. For others new to the game, here's what I've learned so far... 1) Left/Right rotates your ship. Up thrusts. Down gives you a shield, or if you're near the surface of the planet, it activates a tractor beam. The button fires, except when pressing down on the joystick, pressing the fire button thrusts. This is key to avoiding a crash while trying to pick something up with the tractor beam. The game also supports driving controllers and foot pedals which can be configured to thrust or fire. I'm wondering if they would make it any easier to control your ship. 2) This is fuel. Use the tractor beam to collect it (avoid shooting it). If you run out of fuel, it's game over. 3) Shoot these cannons before they shoot you. 4) This thing that looks like a toilet is what you're trying to pick up. Use the tractor beam to grab it, then fly it off the top of the screen to end the round and collect the bonus. At first, I really struggled to pick this thing up, until I realized the fire button thrusts while the tractor beam is active. Once you've picked it up, you will carry it on a leash and it will swing around, making your ship harder to steer. 5) Shooting this thing will temporarily prevent the cannons (shown in #3) from firing. The more times you shoot, the longer the delay before the cannons start shooting again. If you shoot this thing enough times, you'll destroy it and it will trigger a 10-second timer to blow up the planet. You'll need to escape off the top of the screen before the explosion. Blowing up the planet earns additional bonus points, but you'll need to pick up the toilet first.