Round 10 of the 2013 Harmony Games:Princess Rescue

[Dan Iacovelli]

The Tenth Round of the 2013 Harmony Games is Princess Rescue (this was chosen by me, since crimefighter didn't get to me in time)

Breif Description: Princess Rescue is in all fairness a 2600 clone/tribute game of Super Mario Bothers that was done for the NES. gameplay is the same as it would be for nes as well. this game was slated to be sold on Atari Age and at PRGE 2013,but the big shot at Nintendo got wind of it and put a kabosh on it(only the lucky people who put the preorder in before the time) Chris Sprybug who made this game did a great job on it.. lucky the rom is available to d/l and play here

scoring is simlar to what it is on the Nes
*bonus points:
10 bonus points to any one who finishes the game and rescues the princess

This round ends on Novenber 12th Good Luck!!

 

Any scores for Backfire posted (for those who are not listed)
will now count as one point until nov 6th then no more won't be accepted

The Next game will be chosen by Liduario

(we are only doing strictly homebrew games no hacks from this
point on,toward the end of this round if I don't hear back from Liduario I will
choose the game)

 

as always scores will only be updated on the webpage and AVC Forum(since I have no editing feature here)
(you can also post scores on the AVC Forum as well just follow the instructions posted on the harmony games web page)

[roadrunner]

20,330

[Dan Iacovelli]

was wondering if we get somebody to play thanks roadrunner

[Gorfy]

was wondering if we get somebody to play thanks roadrunner

I tried but only scored 500 points

[Andromeda Stardust]

30,650.

 

I have the original cartridge. I made it to world 3 at one point without continues. Got a pretty good score on that run, probably my best ever but I lost it when I continued. I almost hit one hundred thousand (I had 90-something-thousand on the scoreboard) at that point but I have no photo proof unfortunately. I had to restart on level 3 a billion times due to spiny hell! Here's a screenshot I took when I beat the game (restarted on level 4-1 if that's allowed). I also used the 5-lives difficulty setting if that's allowed. If not, disregard my score. A truly great score will require playing through all four levels and saving the princess, and possibly getting lucky with coins and powerups. My primary objective was beating the next Jr battle and finally winning the game rather than scoring maximum points.

Edited October 25, 2013 by stardust4ever

[Dan Iacovelli]

thanks this what sucks when you don't have instructions to these games because you don't what is used or not.

so to clear up things a few new things will have to be added:

you have to start from first level

I will allow you use one continue Ithink this fair.

I can clear the rules up a bit

to sumerize : if you loose all your lives you can use the continue once after that no more.

saw spry did post instructions will post link soon and add new rules.

(so I'll have void all scores for now(unless it was based on the rules)

Edited October 25, 2013 by Dan Iacovelli

[Dan Iacovelli]

link to game instructions part 1 and part 2

 

 

New Rules as are follows:
I will allow you use five lives (setting on expert difficulty) or you can play using 3 lives (settings on novice on dificulty)

if you loose all lives you can use the continue but just that once and you have to continue on the world you started on if you died after you use

the continue the game is over.

if you finish the game(rescue the princess) using 5 lives +plus continue I will give you 5 bonus points

if you did with 3 lives and continue then you get 10 bonus points

Edited October 26, 2013 by Dan Iacovelli

[Sprybug]

It wouldn't be fair if I played along. I think my best is close to 200,000.

[Andromeda Stardust]

link to game instructions part 1 and part 2

 

 

New Rules as are follows:

I will allow you use five lives (setting on expert difficulty) or you can play using 3 lives (settings on novice on dificulty)

if you loose all lives you can use the continue but just that once and you have to continue on the world you started on if you died after you use

the continue the game is over.

if you finish the game(rescue the princess) using 5 lives +plus continue I will give you 5 bonus points

if you did with 3 lives and continue then you get 10 bonus points

I think you're making it too complicated. A player can maximize his or her score by starting on 1-1 and playing through the entire game. Starting on higher level will result in lower possible score, so it is not an advantage to start on a higher level unless you can't finish on 3 or 5 lives. Since there's no advantage to continuing (and current score gets purged) players should be allowed to start anywhere. Beating the game is not a requirement so only total score should be counted. Without a full video of gameplay, there is no way of knowing if the player used 5 lives or 3. Since extra lives are random and pretty rare, there's really no way to abuse the system by killing and respawning to gain extra points. So just play the game until all lives are exhausted or the player beats the game. Unless you expect people to record their attempts and post to YT or elsewhere, there is no way to judge whether someone followed all the rules. This isn't Twin Galaxies. Just take a photo of the TV screen and submit. No emulator screenshots though, since a player can just save and resume at will. Real hardware only.

 

My two cents.

[Dan Iacovelli]

in reply to stardust post:

 

I'm going back to the original rules play once until you die

finish the game you get 10 bonus points

(you have start at level 1,number of lives doesn't matter)

emulation will still be allowed since as mentioned not everybody got the cart

or a device like harmony to play on actual system.

previous scores (minus stars ) will be used.

 

(like all the other hsc here this done on the honnor system there is no major prize(with exception of the two special ones

that is connected with VGS and Atarimania,which is only one day challenge,then it reverts back to normal)

Edited October 27, 2013 by Dan Iacovelli

[Dan Iacovelli]

scores updated

[LidLikesIntellivision]

I almost lost this round! I'm sorry for lack of feedback but now I'm back!

 

First game score: 110,810 using only 3 lives.

 

It wouldn't be fair if I played along. I think my best is close to 200,000.

What? Unfair?

I'd love to see a battle between the programmer, two beta testers and Gorfy who is the GREAT CHAMPION of last Atari High Score Club!

 

 

(...)

The Next game will be chosen by Liduario

(we are only doing strictly homebrew games no hacks from this
point on,toward the end of this round if I don't hear back from Liduario I will
choose the game)

(...)

If it wasn't played before, I would like to play Chetiry!

But first I need to check what game mode would be better or let Dan Iacovelli choose one.

[Dan Iacovelli]

thanks lid, will update scores on tuesday

I will check my harmony card to see if I have the game you selected

(as well see if on the homebrews list as well on aa)

[Gorfy]

 

What? Unfair?

I'd love to see a battle between the programmer, two beta testers and Gorfy who is the GREAT CHAMPION of last Atari High Score Club!

 

 

 

 

 

Ha! You know I'm terrible at platform games, Lid! But thanks for the plug

[Dan Iacovelli]

Chetiry is a tetris like game I played the demo version I don't think I have the full version though. so lid I let you choose the settings for it (if you have the rom pm it to me

Edited October 27, 2013 by Dan Iacovelli

[Gorfy]

10,090

 

 

[Andromeda Stardust]

Yup, looks like I just got thrown under the bus. I was wondering when people would start posting admirable scores!

[LidLikesIntellivision]

Chetiry is a tetris like game I played the demo version I don't think I have the full version though. so lid I let you choose the settings for it (if you have the rom pm it to me

Ok, I'm going to look if the rom is public availabe. I forgot about that when I was to choose a game.

I chose one of the few homebrews I have in cart. If the rom wasn't put for public download, I'll pick another one. I know Lead is a fantastic game!

[LidLikesIntellivision]

Ok, I couldn't find Chetiry rom.

 

So I'm going to change and pick Lead 16k.

Gorfy will love it!

[Dan Iacovelli]

interesting game I'll se if its also listed on the cartridge list or forums to chck instruction

[Sprybug]

I almost lost this round! I'm sorry for lack of feedback but now I'm back!

 

First game score: 110,810 using only 3 lives.

2013-10-27_10-52-10_982.jpg

 

What? Unfair?

I'd love to see a battle between the programmer, two beta testers and Gorfy who is the GREAT CHAMPION of last Atari High Score Club!

 

 

If it wasn't played before, I would like to play Chetiry!

But first I need to check what game mode would be better or let Dan Iacovelli choose one.

Well, I know where everything is (that isn't random) and know the quirks and timings in certain spots which allows me to be able to beat it without continuing (retweet #humblebrag)

[LidLikesIntellivision]

123,680

 

I think I died only once, at most twice. I started with 3 lives and finished with 4.

 

I went fast, trying to jump enemies, not using too much fire.

 

For the second quest, my score returned to zero...

I must confess, my memory isn't that good and I really don't remember if preveous versions allowed to continue to score or not...

 

200k in one quest is quite difficult without stopping to kill, make respawn and kill again enemies...

 

[Andromeda Stardust]

123,680

2013-10-27_23-16-15_52632891.jpg

Nice score but you need to wipe your camera lens

For the second quest, my score returned to zero...

I must confess, my memory isn't that good and I really don't remember if preveous versions allowed to continue to score or not...

Super Mario Brothers NES purges your score when you start a new game. After beating the princess beating bowser and rescuing the princess you start back on the title screen. Your current score and the top score is displayed on the home screen until you select a world and start a new game. When this happens, the score at the top of the screen is reset to zero. In the All Stars remake, it is different. You immediately have the opportunity to restart on any world while retaining your score. The second quest repeats ad-infinitum so it is technically possible to play the game until you roll over the score at ten million. The All Stars remake also has a couple of enhancements with the scoring, for instance in the original game, you are only awarded bonus points for time remaining on levels that finish with a flagpole. You don't get a time bonus for finishing castles. In the All Stars version, you get a time bonus for this. However, in both versions of the game, there are too many opportunities in the game to gain extra lives, at which point you can kill off your Mario and restart the level as a farming tactic. Be careful though: if you gain more than 127 lives in the original SMB and die, the first bit counts as a negative flag (128 is really -128) and you get an instant game over because your life counter is less than zero. In the All Stars Remake, lives are capped at 127 so the bug does not exist.

 

Back to Princess Rescue, because hidden brick powerups are quite rare and totally random, it is nearly impossible without using tool assist, to farm extra lives and replay levels for points. As far as I know, no current 2600 emulators support rerecording so this would be difficult to pull off and impossible on real hardware. Princess Rescue would be a good candidate for high score records, because:

 

#1, levels are timed so there's a limited amount of dicking around you can do;

#2, you can't really farm enough coins or 1ups to reliably replay levels; and

#3, your score is reset after clearing the game.

 

Just don't expect Billy Mitchel to be setting any records playing this game, especially since it's been pulled/discontinued, but that would make for some awesome street cred though, LOL!

 

200k in one quest is quite difficult without stopping to kill, make respawn and kill again enemies...

See my above post; I believe it would be extremely difficult to pull off reliably. You could in theory burn off a few extra lives.

 

Sprybug, I've got a quick question about your game engine:

 

I know in Super Mario Brothers, you can kick a Koopa Shell and assuming you chase it through a sufficiently long flat expanse, each enemy defeated by the Koopa shell will earn a higher point bonus, eventually leading to 1UPs after 8000. In later games in the series, hitting multiple enemies with an infvincibility star have similar effect. In Princess rescue, are there additional point bonuses for each enemy killed by a koopa shell, or is each enemy worth the same amount of points? I know it's a useful and legit point framing technique in Super Mario Brothers (unlike the stairway trick of obtaining infinite lives by hopping repeatedly on a Koopa shell, which is grounds for automatic disqualification by official tournament rules). Unless the point bonuses actually accumulate, it won't really inflate the score any more than simply stomping the enemies. Somehow I have the feeling they don't accumulate since that would require additional variables in RAM which you said was completely filled up.

 

Oh, and as for Sprybug not participating in his own high score challenge, have you seen this guy? He literally knows every single secret and is a bonafide expert at his own games -duh!!!

Edited October 28, 2013 by stardust4ever

[Dan Iacovelli]

good score lid, will update the scores tomarrow.

star, this is just for fun just going back to my orignal rules no records or like that just for fun,besides the season is almost over for the harmony games if you looked at

leaderboard we basically have our champion with 100pts on the leaderboard(toymailman) the bonus points helps others to catch up .

[Andromeda Stardust]

Ok, I couldn't find Chetiry rom.

 

So I'm going to change and pick Lead 16k.

Gorfy will love it!

There is a public chetiry ROM available. There's an old greenish ChetiryGB_NTSC.bin that I downloaded from an old thread somewhere on AtariAge to put on my Harmony cart. It's an earlier 2011-ish version of Cetiry. I believe there is also a color version as well. The mechanics are identical to the cart version but there's no options to start on higher level, etc. The final ROM that was used in the official AA store version is not available for download, I believe.

Edited October 28, 2013 by stardust4ever