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HSC10 Round 4: Caverns of Mars


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If you missed any rounds so far just join in, there will be a chance to catch-up in round 6.


Next up it's the classic
Caverns of Mars
with Caverns of Mars II
thrown in for good measure icon_mrgreen.gif

Time to unleash some firepower in the HSC (at last!). Everyone welcome to join in - if anyone needs any help just post or send me a message.

Scoring /Settings
C.O.M. Standard HSC scoring. Press Select/F3 to start on each of the difficulty levels Novice, Pilot, Warrior and Commander and post scores for each. As the game has some scoring irregulatities a fixed score will be awarded for completing a level (they end after 5 escapes) : 120K for Novice, 170k for Pilot . Your total score will count. This way we get to see some of the additional levels and nice features of the game. You can replay any levels. [select=Pause]
Bonus points
Completing Novice, Pilot & Warrior 1pt.
Completing Novice, Pilot, Warrior and Commander 3pts.
No HSC record bonus as it was too easy to do (sorry Bunsen!)
C.O.M. II Bonus game; 3pts for 1st, 2pts for top 5, 1pt for playing [space=Pause]

Downloads
C.O.M. atarimania (has instructions too), fandal, atarionline.pl
caverns_of_mars.png
C.O.M. II fandal atarimania atarionline.pl
caverns_of_mars_ii.png


Might be worth checking out Phobos too, which was the original game that became Caverns of Mars - don't know if the game play is identical icon_ponder.gif

Round closes Sunday 24th March 10am GMT

Now Shoot 'em UP (and defuse that bomb!)
What didn't I mention the giant devastating bomb?

Edited by therealbountybob
New scoring for Caverns of Mars!
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Hmm and I don't knwo hot to escape... just flying out and everytime time runs out and game over. Have I missed something or I have bugged version?

That's odd. Time's never run out for me. As far as I know, you just fly out and try not to hit anything. Only thing I can think of is maybe you have your ship too low down the screen so that it takes that little bit longer to get to the top of the maze area?

 

Anyway. New score of 46,720.

 

Personally I don't find it that easy. The second escape caught me by surprise because of the increase in speed.

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Wow! How did this sneak in? Must have been a last minute rush of votes.

 

Never played it. Hopefully none of the other 20 players have either. :P

...

I was suprised (an pleased) we had so many votes... think a few players were holding back... Astro Droid goes through to Poll 5 :D

Might have played it a little but it was a long time ago. Bunsen holds the HSC record of 75,070 from season 1, round 18, but that was on Warrior - if we don't get that far then might be a good bonus challenge :)

 

Perhaps Caverns 1 could be highest round completed through the skill levels? The game finshes after you complete the 5th cave so you cant really build up a score

McKong taking an early lead (and trying to hold on to the #1 slot :thumbsup:

Yes, post a score for completing Novice then play the next difficulty (Option /F4) and so on... [PLAY ALL LEVELS] combined scores will count. You can replay any levels to improve scores.

There will be some bonuses too once I've played to check things out ;)

Edited by therealbountybob
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That's odd. Time's never run out for me. As far as I know, you just fly out and try not to hit anything. Only thing I can think of is maybe you have your ship too low down the screen so that it takes that little bit longer to get to the top of the maze area?

 

Anyway. New score of 46,720.

Strange.. I was on top border of screen and didn't make it out either.

Edited by MaPa
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That's odd. Time's never run out for me. As far as I know, you just fly out and try not to hit anything. Only thing I can think of is maybe you have your ship too low down the screen so that it takes that little bit longer to get to the top of the maze area?

 

Anyway. New score of 46,720.

Strange.. I was on top border of screen and didn't make it out either.

 

Do we have an emulator issue here perhaps ? Will check it out...

 

C.O.M. I completed Novice (101,730) and got half way through Pilot (65,990) Total 167,720

post-19705-0-67069500-1362946351.jpg

C.O.M.II I thought it wasn't getting much harder but it started to get tight for fuel on the 4th round... 75,800 think this will just be a bonus game folks ;)

post-19705-0-33923000-1362946350.jpg

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"Do we have an emulator issue here perhaps ? Will check it out..."

 

had a quick play on NTSC on altirra but ran out of fuel at the top so not sure - boy is the game faster but the controls seem more responsive, the screen was much taller too. (I didn't have a joystick hooked up to the PC though).

 

Mr Case escaped and he's on altirra if that's any help - perhaps try PAL video settng folks?

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"Do we have an emulator issue here perhaps ? Will check it out..."

 

had a quick play on NTSC on altirra but ran out of fuel at the top so not sure - boy is the game faster but the controls seem more responsive, the screen was much taller too. (I didn't have a joystick hooked up to the PC though).

 

Mr Case escaped and he's on altirra if that's any help - perhaps try PAL video settng folks?

I started out playing it on Atari800Win Plus but moved to Altirra because of the former's habit of screwing up the colours in full screen mode. Haven't had a problem with either, other than that. Of course, been playing in PAL on both.

 

I found the NTSC controls to be more responsive than PAL on JBJ as well. NTSC machines have slightly faster clock speed, right? Or is it to do with the faster refresh rates?

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Somehow managed to never play this before... a few quick runs only got me 31540.

 

post-19239-0-78630600-1362958426_thumb.jpg

 

 

The collision detection is a bit tricky - your shots can be stopped by the debris fields of things you've already blown up?

 

This game has a delightful 'low-budget' feel to it.. almost like a magazine type-in.

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Somehow managed to never play this before... a few quick runs only got me 31540.

 

The collision detection is a bit tricky - your shots can be stopped by the debris fields of things you've already blown up?

Sure is :D

This game has a delightful 'low-budget' feel to it.. almost like a magazine type-in.

think there is a nice article about this game somewhere... checkout atarimania bottom of the APX version and wikipedia too :)

 

 

Here is my first go for caverns 1.

 

i did do a score for the last round but i have had a hard drive problem and only just got it working, so i hope we have a catch up in the future for it.

If you want to post it that's ok - have just added another new player's score :thumbsup:

 

The catch-up and improve scores will feature in Round 6 - with something else to play too :)

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gotta bear in mind these are early games, quite a bit better than the magazine games - though analog mag seemed to be in a different class to the UK magazines - I'm still after them if anyone sees any ;)

I'm working, and by working I mean mostly getting a screen full of garbage and some ear numbing crash sounds, on a downward scroller for my abbuc software contest entry so I'm paying special attention to the games workings :ponder:

 

Did everyone get it working ? If not say what emulator you are on an whether you are on PAL/NTSC and which version you downloaded and we'll get you up and running ;)

 

C.O.M. To make things more fun play on all the difficulty levels (select/F3) and post scores for each, you don't have to finish a level. Total score will count. That way players get to see some of the gameplay features that are not on the early levels. See Post #1 for the details and some bonuses ;-)

 

This will explain things!!

my scores

Novice 101,730 completed

Pilot 75,290

Warrior 100,190

Commander 66,370

Total 343,580

 

COM1 Novice 106980, Pilot 143880, Warrior 90030 Total = 340890

 

Stuck on warrior level. It get's very tricky on the 4th phase with the blobs that disappear and then reappear, or do they move, haven't quite worked that out yet!

Them things evolved into flying fried eggs for COM2 :D Getting all the fuels distracts you from killing them :ponder:

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A modest improvement at C.O.M: 41690

And a (weak) first attempt at C.O.M. 2: 18250

 

I dig COM2 - it's like ANALOG published a Scramble clone. Very cool.

You really need a good stick to get into the diagonals for these games, COM2 you can pull into the tightest gaps and zap them ;)

Never played either one of these...a new adventure!!!

That's one of the nice things about the HSC sometimes you stumble onto an Atari gem or two, speaking of which...

1st go: 50070, only got to cave C. Looks like I'm gonna need some practice on this 1.

CAVE!!! looks like someones been playing too much Boulderdash ;) Saying that is there such a thing as too much boulderdash? :D

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