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HSC Season #4 - Game 11 Night Stalker


cparsley

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Scores will be accepted until Sunday, December 1st, 2013.

 

Good Luck (GAMES ARE TO BE PLAYED AT TOP SPEED UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED (AKA DISC/ENTER)

 

PS - Someone delivered some nice hot chocolate to me today, and man, these folks know how to make some mean hot chocolate... :)

 

Scores for Night Stalker - FINAL

  1. felson42 - 707,500 - 10 pts
  2. cparsley - 393,300 - 9 pts
  3. S.BAZ - 98,000 - 8 pts
  4. LidLikesIntellivision 76,900 - 6 pts
  5. darthkur - 58,500 - 4 pts
  6. JacobZu7 - 35,700 - 2 pts
  7. jblenkle - 30,800 - 1 pt
  8. roadrunner - 21,700 - 1 pt
  9. DZ-Jay - 20,000 - 1 pt
  10. atari2600land - 12,700 - 1 pt
  11. Ignorama - 8,900 - 1 pt

Score Table - HSC 4 thru 10 games

  1. Ignorama - 92.5 pts
  2. cparsley - 69 pts
  3. Oscar G. - 68.5 pts
  4. felson42 - 53 pts
  5. darthkur - 36.5 pts
  6. 1980gamer - 23.5 pts
  7. jblenkle - 22 pts (tied with scalpel)
  8. scalpel - 22 pts (tied with jblenkle)
  9. WispFollower - 19 pts (tied with RoadRunner)
  10. RoadRunner - 19 pts (tied with WispFollower)
  11. INTVDude - 13 pts
  12. S.BAZ - 12 pts
  13. mr_intv - 11 pts
  14. LidLikesIntellivision - 9 pts
  15. Liduario - 8 pts
  16. JacobZu7 - 7 pts (tied with Darrin9999)
  17. Darrin9999 - 7 pts (tied with JacobZu7)
Edited by cparsley
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Is it me or is the stupid disc unresponsive or does the exact opposite of what you want it to? Also, the pressing of the numbers to fire is evil since you have to look down at the control pad to see which button to fire then fire it. I claim last place. 10,900. :mad:

 

 

It's a bit unresponsive, yes. Are you playing in the "DISC" difficulty? Otherwise, it is just so glacial, it hurts!

 

About the buttons, make sure you are not pressing the disc at the same time (in a sense, they cancel each other out). Also, try to practice not looking at the keypad, and just sliding your thumb over it in a "cross" pattern--just feel your way over the key bumps. That's how I play, and I manage to hit the appropriate keys.

 

-dZ.

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It's a bit unresponsive, yes. Are you playing in the "DISC" difficulty? Otherwise, it is just so glacial, it hurts!

 

About the buttons, make sure you are not pressing the disc at the same time (in a sense, they cancel each other out). Also, try to practice not looking at the keypad, and just sliding your thumb over it in a "cross" pattern--just feel your way over the key bumps. That's how I play, and I manage to hit the appropriate keys.

 

-dZ.

How do I get it to the disc difficulty?

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My controller is broken, and the shots go right through enemies. My copy of Night Stalker is broken. And the disc mode is HARDER.

 

 

The disc mode is harder, but that is the mode we are playing on this round. Also, the other modes work by slowing down the speed of the game--this means that even controller input polling is slowed down, making the game less responsive. In contrast, playing it on the disc mode makes the disc more response.

 

Why do you say your controller and game are broken?

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By the way, atari2600land, yours is a very respectable code. Night Stalker is hard, and it takes a while to get used to the controllers.

 

Also, one trick I've heard that some people use is to play with both left and right controllers. You see, the Intellivision can only register either keypad or disc/action buttons on a single controller, but can detect each from both controllers simultaneously. Personally, to me it seems harder to try to use both hands at the same time, but it works for some people, so you may want to try it: move with one controller, fire with the other one.

 

-dZ.

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Well, sometimes, when I press a direction, it goes in an opposite way. For example, if I press right, it goes up, or down, or even left sometimes.

 

Can you be certain that you are not pressing a "fire" key from the keypad simultaneously? You must make sure to let go of one before pressing the other (I know, it kinda sucks).

 

The keypad and the disc share some of the input signals, so if both are pressed at once, the game may interpret it in an unexpected way, possibly as a different direction like you said.

 

Night Stalker is a quirky game to play. The expected modus of play is that you will move with the disc to stalk your prey, then stop in a protected area and shoot in place. This is contrary to the common arcade paradigm to which we are very used of running and shooting.

 

It does take practice, but as someone who just discovered the joys of this game last year (I had an irrational dislike towards it that stemmed from flawed childhood memories), I can tell you it does get better. :)

 

-dZ.

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Felson - Night Stalker - 346500

 

Posted Image

 

Getting there. 500K soon I hope. The tough part is it normally takes me at least 90 minutes to get a score in this range.

 

Some info/tips about my favorite inty game.

 

The highest/disc setting is really the only playable version, as the lower difficulties slow down not only the enemies, but the entire game (as others have noted). (Also it's the version we are playing for the club, so there's that)

 

You are pursued by robots that get tougher on a graduated scale. We start with the lowly white robot, which moves semi-randomly and takes one shot to kill. At 5000 we get the blue robot, which follows a more direct course to you and takes one shot. At 15k the yellow robot, which is a bit smarter, and takes 3 shots to kill. At 30k the black robot with white bullets. The black robot takes 3 shots to kill, and shoots bullets that can absorb yours (unless you shoot at the very edge of the wall and pass around them). Then at 50k the black robot shoots yellow bullets. These bullets absorb yours, and also can destroy your bunker. Finally, at 80k the game really begins. At 80k the robot is invisible and can only be spotted by its gunshots or if it passes over the spider or other robots.

 

It is true that both controllers can be used at once, but I've never done this. I have to think it would be way too awkward and I really don't run into situations where I try to run and shoot at the same time.

 

I have an original inty and an inty 2. I prefer the original controller, but either are quite functional. You do need a controller without any dead spots though. There are some vids on youtube about how to clean controllers. Luckily I've never had a problem with my original inty controllers. Also, the controller inlays for this game are absolutely useless as you just need the four shooting directions. I never use them as i like to be able to feel the buttons.

 

The key to the entire game, and if you ask me, what makes it also a strategy game and not just action, is the fact that only one enemy bullet (and only one of your bullets) can be on the screen at a time. So, if an enemy from across the screen shoots at you, you are safe from other shots until that bullet exits the screen. You must use this fact if you want to score well. I've read that this aspect of the game was a bit of an accident. The programmers realized that the way they coded the game they would not have enough memory to keep track of more bullets at once. I am glad it turned out this way, as it really makes the game more strategic, especially after the invisible robot appears.

 

Once you are up to the invisible robot, you need to find where the relative 'safe zones' are in the maze. These are the spots where the our invisible pal will almost always shoot at you far enough away that you have time to react. Use these in combination with the twists and turns. When the robot approaches, shoot it before it gets to the corner and it can absorb your bullet. Lead it after you to the next corner, rinse and repeat.

 

I tend to stay on the right side of the maze most times. Your ammo reload gun has 5 possible places to appear. One on the left, two in the middle, and two on the right. So, if you hang out on the right, there is a better chance of the gun appearing close to you. Also, the robots come in from the bottom left. The only drawback of hanging out on the right and blowing away anything that comes near, is when your reload appears on the bottom left. Sometimes that can be a bitch.

 

One more tip. Since the robots always appear at the bottom left, if you are near the bottom of the screen when you finish off a robot, loose a shot towards the bottom left corner and then move up so no robots shoot back at you, and you'll destroy the robot as soon as it appears (if it is a one shot kill bot) or tick off one of the three required shots.

 

Anyways, give this game a chance. It is addictive and a whole lot of fun.

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By the way, atari2600land, yours is a very respectable code.  Night Stalker is hard, and it takes a while to get used to the controllers.

 

Also, one trick I've heard that some people use is to play with both left and right controllers.  You see, the Intellivision can only register either keypad or disc/action buttons on a single controller, but can detect each from both controllers simultaneously.  Personally, to me it seems harder to try to use both hands at the same time, but it works for some people, so you may want to try it:  move with one controller, fire with the other one.

 

      -dZ.

I've never played with two controllers at once on my own, but I have played Night Stalker as a fun two player game. When I was a kid my dad and I would play. I would be the runner using just the disc on one controller and he would be the shooter using the keypad on the other controller. It made for a hoot, blaming eachother when we died. Yet another reason I love this game.

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