Kurt_Woloch

OK, here's my best so far... 70125. This is actually one of my favorite games, and definitely the one I own the most copies of for multiple systems I have (Atari 2600, C-64, TI-99). I still played it in emulation here because, being in Austria, I of course own the PAL version, which may have some different timings. Of those versions, probably the C-64 one is the best, getting very close to the arcade version graphics-wise, though the animation still could be better. The Atari 2600 version suffers from the usual compromises they had to do to make it doable on this system: - The pyramid is only 6 cubes tall instead of 7. - The violet guys jumping on the side of the pyramid, Slick and Sam, were not added. Actually, they call the green guy changing back the cube colors Sam in my German manual, though its real name in the arcade is Wrongway. - The animation of the enemies is very... jumpy. - The pyramid has got gaps between its plates, while it's closed in all other versions. - The 3D effect of the cubes is wrong (on the right half of the pyramid, the dark side is the left side of the cubes, and on the left half, it's the right side - All characters are displayed in monochrome, and sometimes they even flicker (Specifically, if Coily and another enemy appear on the same cube level, they both flicker) - The score and lives display disappear as long as Q*bert is on one of the upper two pyramid levels. - The timing is different. All characters except for Q*bert change positions simultaneously. Q*bert never gets faster, but the other characters do. The PAL version also suffers from an incorrect color translation, where Coily and the Red Balls are both pink, so you can't keep Coily's egg from a red ball. This, however, doesn't apply for the NTSC version. But the game is still good and playable, although it sometimes throws in some incorrect sound effects (especially on changing levels). As a long-time owner of this game (it's a bit over 25 years now), of course I have some tips how to play this game: - This has been mentioned in many places... since the enemies actually jump from cube to cube, if you get the timing right, you can jump through them if you jump in the opposite direction at the right moment. - The unsafest places to be are the two cubes in the second row from the top, because these are the spawning points of new enemies, and if those appear, you only have a split-second to avoid them, which may be too short if you were just heading for one of those two cubes, and while you're on the way, an enemy spawns. In this case, you have no way of avoiding that enemy. There are, however, ways to avoid that danger completely: - You can take advantage of the fact that the enemies all jump in sync. So, if you need to change color of one of those two cubes, wait until an enemy spawns on the other one, then quickly jump onto the one you want and further one level down. Even if an enemy appears on your target cube in the next jump cycle, you'll be gone quickly enough not to be harmed by it. - There are times when you get some free jumps before the next enemy is going to appear (or you can be harmed by it). One of those times, of course, is after you've hit a green ball. Another is after losing a life (you get 8-10 free jumps after that), and another immediately after starting a level. You are NOT safe after having lurked Coily to its death. This will momentarily kill all the other enemies, but another enemy may already spawn while you're still on your way to the top. - You have to watch for Coily on the advanced levels even more, because she will get more unpredictable, in that she won't always change position on a jump cycle, but sometimes will stay on the same cube for a longer time, especially while you're in the air. This may also lead to the "jump of death" not working because she will not jump away from the cube she's on while you're floating to the top... which also causes the other enemies not being killed. On the other hand, she may still jump off when you've already landed on the top.

OK, I made it to improve my score... but only by a bit... 64700.

OK, here's my best so far... 59850. Somehow this game reminds me of the song "Just dropped in (to see what condition my condition was in)" by Kenny Rogers (because of the condition indicator).

OK, here are my times for the past week: Not as much playing time this week since there were days when I couldn't find any games I would have liked to play... Tapper (Arcade) 194 minutes (in 2 sessions) (that was the Arcade HSC game) Miner 2049er (2600) 80 minutes (that's the current 2600 HSC game) Miner 2049er (Atari 8-bit) 20 minutes (for a comparison to the horrible 2600 version) Super Mario 2600 1 minute (not much there here)

I made it to improve my high score to... 56425. Yes, I know the screenshot shows me when entering the initials for a lower score... but all the scores in the list were done by me.

Yes, this game seems to have a lot of bugs and glitches. It would be far more playable if you could actually jump over the mutants without touching them, and if the collisions would register exactly as shown on screen. Oh, and if the mutants could still be picked up while they flash red and yellow. I had some weird cases where I bounced and landed just to the left of a mutant (with 1 pixel distance), but still died although I never had touched that mutant.

OK, thanks for the video! How many colors exactly are there appearing on screen?

Here's my best... 2275. This is one of the games which have a recognizable title tune... "Clementine", and it fits too with the first lines being... In a cavern, in a canyon, Excavating for a mine Dwelt a miner forty niner, And his darling Clementine. Only they could have improved on the bass notes...

How about copying the maps from the ZX Spectrum original version?

Could someone make a video of that for the non-Hyperscan owners like me?

OK, here's the best I could do so far... 48675 Actually, the whole high-score table visible here is filled by the games I did today.

OK, here are my times for this week... (Yes, I know I'm the type of guy who plays the same game for several hours in total, or sometimes for two hours or more straight, during one week)... but at least I played several different games this week, reviewing many homebrew games that were posted here in the last weeks: DROL (Atari 8-bit) 282 minutes (in 4 sessions) (that's the 8-bit HSC game of this week) Star Wars: The empire strikes back (Parker Brothers) (2600) 241 minutes (in 3 sessions) (the 2600 HSC game of this week) Eggs (Arcade) 107 minutes (in 2 sessions) (the Arcade/MAME HSC game of this week) Frantic (Colecovision) 93 minutes (in 2 sessions) (cool new homebrew similar to Berzerk, but still a bit unpolished) Jr. Pac Man (7800) 70 minutes (tried out the new version with intermissions, but didn't make it to the 3rd one) Intensity (C-64) 30 minutes (remembered this game, but - uh - I think I've got enough of this one for now) K.O.Cruiser (2600) 9 minutes (I think that's the "release candidate" now, but I'm not that much into boxing games) Wasp! (7800) 3 minutes (I quit playing this rather quickly after I realized it never gets any harder) Ballblazer (WIP) (2600) 2 minutes (this isn't really a game yet, so no point in playing it for longer) Ant Demo (2600) 1 minute (well, only a running ant... had tried everything you can do after a minute) That's about 14 hours in total! I could only afford that much time because Monday was free (Easter Monday). A note to Drol which I think fits here best: The title screen says this game is by Aik Beng. Actually, his name, according to MobyGames, is Benny Aik Beng Ngo, who seems to be a relative of Tony Ngo, who created Park Patrol. Together they also created "Bandits" for Sirius, and Tony Ngo also designed "Squish 'em", also for Sirius. And actually, you can see some similarities between "Drol" and "Park Patrol"... the usage of high-resolution graphics with heavy use of software sprites (which also applies to Bandits, but not to Squish 'Em), and some similarities in the fonts used. I have to admit I like all of Tony and Benny Ngo's games, at least the ones they're credited for.

Here is the HTML Manual. Yes, I know it's there, but it seems to be broken somehow, since from the point on where the different landscape types are described, the remaining text all gets squashed onto one line... at least it does in Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari. In Internet Explorer, the manual ends at this point. By the way, I also made a new high score, thanks to doctorclu's tips... 5169. My old approach was to start with the first walker from the right, shooting it to yellow, then yellowing the far left one, and then destroying the ones in the middle completely (coming from the left). I now changed that to Doctorclu's approach, and it indeed seems to work better. The only exception I make is that I immediately destroy a walker if possible if a bomb hatch appears on its back.

OK, another score, without "camping"... 10500. Actually, it's a bit more, but the screenshot wasn't taken for some reason (I guess this only works in MESS with partial keyboard emulation), and I can't remember how far over that I got. Anyway, I got to Level 5 this time, and the second witch doctor appears at 10.000 points with a special sound. From that point, the end wasn't too far away. However, I noticed something more... the enemies on the second level can be hit at the top (only those at the first one cannot), so you should better stay in the upper lane and shoot them. Another thing you should try is to get away from situations where you have to meet mixed types of enemies at once. For instance, you should not try to shoot the turkey at the first round at the same time as the other enemies, because for hitting the turkey, you have to fly high, and for hitting the enemies you have to fly low, which means that if you meet both at the same time, you will only be able to shoot one of them, and be killed by the other. The same goes for other combinations like that, for instance, arrows or tomahawks flying in the middle of round 3 at the same time with the enemies which you have to fly at the top for, or avoiding the honking vacuum cleaners at later first levels at the same time as shooting one of the enemies... it just doesn't work this way.

Thanks for that tip... I managed to do a higher score now... 25610. That's right... but I wouldn't call "Eggs" a bootleg of "Scrambled Eggs", rather a greatly enhanced version (at least graphics-wise). Note that the original comes from a rather unknown Japanese company, while "Eggs" was adapted by Universal, which had other hits like Mr. Do!. They also put in the "Chomper" out of "Mr. Do!", but made it orange instead of blue, and I think I've seen the main character before too. Anyway, hatching the red chicken last makes the game a bit harder. When hatching it mid-stage, it will actually help you knocking away the enemies, and if you catch it, it turns into a hen which will help you even more by opening still-closed eggs so that they only have to be hit once more in order to release the chickens. Sadly, the red chicken and the hen can also be knocked away by flying eggs, so you have to be careful not to hit them, or they will cease helping you.

OK, here's the best I could do... 2712. Here are some additional tips: - In order to survive, you have to find the "rhythm" to the enemies shots. Becaure the shots travel rather quickly, you won't easily be able to avoid them if you're unprepared. However, the walkers are shooting in a fairly consistent rhythm, so try to anticipate their next shot by moving up and down briefly before the next shot is supposed to appear. Since the walkers normally shoot directly towards your ship, they will miss you if you keep moving in about a right angle to the shot's trajectory during that period. - The bomb hatches appearing on the front of the walkers are difficult to hit since they mostly get obstructed by the walker's head which moves up and down following your path relative to the walker. However, the bomb hatch appearing on the back of the walkers is fairly easy to hit since it's unobstructed. - Always count how often you got hit. After the third hit you'll lose your ship, so after you got hit two times, land in a valley briefly in order to repair your ship. You can repair each ship two times. However, if you survive with one ship for two minutes, the "force" kicks in, during which you are invincible. You can anticipate the length of the "force" in that the Star Wars theme plays three times during the duration of the force. When the music stops, you only have a short time left before the "force" ends. However, after that, all damage to your ship is cancelled, and you are also allowed to repair it two more times, no matter how often it got repaired before. So effectively, you can play endlessly as long as you don't sustain more than six hits during any two-minute period, and as long as you always repair your ship after you've been hit two times (unless a walker reaches the generator, of course).

OK, here's my best so far... 15140. I also had to update my MAME version to a new one supporting this game. And actually, this is a clone of "Scrambled Eggs", with only part of the ROM being different, so you need the romset for "scregg" too in order to be able to play "Eggs".

Umm... OK, if this doesn't count, I've got another one I made before I started using this trick... 8320.

OK, I've tried this now too, and here's some feedback on my part: - There are definitely some bugs in there. For instance, in some rooms, there are 2 laser cannons close to each other. If you shoot one of them, half of the other one also disappears, but the other half remains visible. Also, the collision detection seems to be somewhat sloppy since sometimes you get hit by a laser beam, but don't die. - I also noticed a bug with scoring... I stood close to a power item, and some robot was continuously firing at the power item. The shots disappeared, and for each shot disappearing, I got awarded 125 points. I wonder what I get these points for. - The scoring overall seems to be a bit illogical to me. I only get 100 points for a rescued prisoner, but 125 or 150 (can't remember exactly) for a killed robot? Normally, a human life should be worth more than a killed robot. - It's sometimes possible to "shave off" part of the outer walls without dying (I think this is when you're on a power item), but if you go further outside, you die. This also looks a bit funny to me. - The sounds sound too monotonous to me. Everything that gets killed by you goes down with exactly the same, overdone sound, be it a robot, a cannon or a cage where a prisoner was in. I think it would be better to use slightly simpler, but more different sounds. - The laser beams also seem to be buggy. Sometimes part of a laser beam stays put in mid-air and doesn't ever disappear. Also, if you shoot a cannon that is just firing, the laser beem emanated by the cannon goes on for its normal length. Normally, it should shut off immediately. It's not neccessary for the whole beam to disappear (although this might be a solution too), but the already destroyed cannon shouldn't continue to emanate the light beam. - If you start in a room, and if you've lost a life, it's somewhat hard to spot your player. I think in the original Berzerk, the player was flashing (on and off) in these cases. Here it flashes in different colors, but I don't always make it to find my starting position before the action commences. - Since it takes 5 rooms to make a level, it would be nice to know how many rooms you still have to make to complete the level. Also some statistics would be nice, like the number of prisoners rescued, number of robots killed, number of keys collected, number of rooms completed... you get the picture. - The ramp-up of difficulty seems to be a bit odd. The first five rooms are basically the same difficulty. I'd prefer starting with a very easy room, and having the rooms become continuously harder, even within a 5-room level. Since each room takes over a minute to complete, you are already playing over 5 minutes to complete the first level, and during those five minutes (actually, I didn't even make it to complete the 5 rooms), the difficulty basically stays the same. Maybe the game elements should be introduced one by one... so the first room would only have one key and one prisoner and no rebound walls, the next one would introduce robots, the next one after that one would introduce laser cannons, and the fourth one would introduce rebound walls... roughly like that. After that, the difficulty would increase by increasing the number of keys, prisoners, robots, cannons and rebound walls. I think it's a bit silly having all the elements already present in the first room, since that takes away the tension of wanting to know what the next level will bring. - The music also sounds a bit funny. The title music is somewhat out of rhythm, the starting music doesn't sound harmonic at all, and the Game Over music seems to be too short for me... that 8-note tune calls for a (possibly even multi-voice) continuation. Somehow I have that continuation in my head... the notes for the first voice go somewhat like this... H-1 . F#2 . D-2 . H-1 . A#1 . H-1 C#1 H-1 . . . (this is the original line) F#2 . H-2 . A#2 . F#2 . E-2 . F#2 G-2 F#2 . . . F#2 . G-2 F#2 F#2 . E-2 . E-2 . F#2 E-2 E-2 # D-2 . D-2 . E-2 D-2 D-2 . C#2 . C#2 . D-2 C#2 H-1 . . . Actually, the second half is identical to the second half of the title tune of "Mangia" on the Atari 2600, but maybe played in a different key. Don't know how I arrive at this, but it definitely fits to the first half. Oh, and maybe I hit wrong octaves... I simply called the lowest octave I could find "1"... your results may vary. Otherwise, I think it's a pretty good game with good graphics.

So does your fish ever grow up to full size (where it would be able to eat all other fishes, except for sharks)?

I have: 22 carts for the Atari 2600 (including the pack-in Pac Man), 22 carts for the TI-99/4A (including the ones that came with peripherial accessories, like "Disk Manager" with the disk drive), 8 carts for the Philips G7000, 3 carts for the C-64 (Q*Bert, Centipede and The Final Cartridge III), 2 carts for the Game Gear (including the pack-in Sonic) and 2 USB sticks for the PC (256 MB and 512 MB). Do these count as "carts"?

OK, here's my best so far... 12155. Here are some tips: - The game basically consists of three rounds. In the first two, you have to catch both the lizard / crocodile and the girl / boy to continue, but it doesn't matter in which order. Shooting the balloon / helicopter before completing the level gets you another 100 points, however. In the third round, you simply have to reach the mother crying for help, which is located at the lower right. - The turkey on round 1 gets you a relatively high 500 points. You can see it on the radar too (while you cannot see the dragon and the girl), so you can approach it and shoot it. But since the turkey flies at the same speed as you do, you won't be able to catch up to it once it has passed you. - The enemies have to be hit on different body parts, depending on where they have the head. The enemies if round 1 (I think scorpions) have to be hit in the lower body part. The kangaroos (?) in round 2 can be hit in both body parts, and the snakes (?) in round 3 must be hit in the upper body part. - The witch doctor in round 2 is normally indestructable unless he's jumping, then he can be killed in mid-air. The magnets are also indestructable, but until they have attached to you, you can keep them far from you by shooting them repeatedly. - In round 2, it's generally advisable to change the level you're on often since the witch doctor and the magnets will come to your level, but will take some time to do so again after you've changed level. - In round 3, there are three openings leading to the lowest level, but two of them are protected by deadly flowers. You have to try out which one is free by going down briefly, but immediately going up again in order not to be hit by the flower that will maybe appear. - The flying arrows and spears in round 3 are dangerous, but also bring you 100 points each if hit. And since they come in masses, this is a way to rack up points quickly. However, the tomahawks don't give you any points. - It often pays off to stop flying and stand in your place if you get attacked from the left or right, especially after the monsters have started shooting. This way you will have more time to hit any oncoming enemies. Only move left and right if your path is clear for a while. - The difficulty doesn't increase by rounds or levels here, but by your score. That is, the enemies start shooting, and the honking vacuum cleaners come out as soon as you've reached 4000 points, no matter what level you're on at that point. That is, round 4 is the same as round 1 if it were not for your score. - This game is similar to "Kung Fu Master" in that you need to confront the enemies head on. Having an enemy run into your back is the sure death. - Actually, my way of achieving a high score was not to try to beat as many rounds as possible. The reason for this is that with shooting enemies, round 3 is easier than the other rounds because you can hover in the air and hit oncoming enemies in the head while their shots, which go down diagonally, will never touch you as long as you shoot the enemies in time. In addition to that, you can also hit masses of oncoming arrows. This is how I made my high score. I think the codebase for the Atari 8-bit and C-64 versions of this game is pretty much the same. The game seems to play exactly the same except for the differences in sound and colors (and the high-score list). I also don't think it's faster than the C-64 version, but it may be because it completely works with software sprites which are drawn by the CPU and there are some slowdowns if too many objects are on the screen at the same time. Since the C-64's CPU is clocked slower, however, on the C-64 version probably more slowdowns will occur, so it might well appear slower than the Atari one.

Hi there! I've just tried your latest binary, and I must say that the scaling sprites look awesome... at least if you keep inside of certain boundaries. Things get ugly if you try to pass the other player, or if the other player gets so far away that it seems to hover above the horizon. But otherwise, great effort!

OK, here are my times for this week... Go Fish SP (2600) 292 minutes in 5 sessions (this is the current 2600 HSC game, a game I like very much) Food fight (Arcade) 62 minutes (this was the Arcade/MAME HSC game) Joust (7800) 40 minutes (this was the 7800 HSC game)

OK, big improvement here... 3120. Here are some tips: On the lower levels where everything is still slow, you can swim easily about. However, you should prioritize eating the biggest possible fishes (that is, fishes that are not bigger than you). Sometimes it can be tough waiting for the next edible fish to come when all that comes out is fish bigger than you and other unedible stuff. As the fishes get bigger and faster, it's best to stay down in the seaweed and only dive up when there's some fish to eat. The fishes will get so fast that you won't be able to get most of those being in the upper rows anyway. In the row directly above the seaweed, if there's nothing swimming in that row, the next fish won't come out before you dive up there. So be careful if you're down in the seaweed and see something edible swimming above you... you just might get caught by another, fast fish or shark coming out below it. However, if there's already something in the row above the seaweed, nothing else will be able to appear in its place, so you can take advantage of a slow-moving fish swimming there by crossing that row behind it in order to eat a fish in the row above. However, as you do this, you should always be prepared for another fish coming out in the row you just cleared that's bigger and faster than you. For that reason, try to stay in the middle of the screen in the later levels, and don't go too far left or right because otherwise you may easily be gobbled up by a fish coming out there. Oh, and I still didn't reach the maximum possible fish size yet.. I think I made it up to a 24-pixel (6 pixel, quadruple with) fish, but then I got caught by a shark.