High Score Competition (April: Starfort)

[globeron]

For Tursi: in level 3 (or 4) it is possible to jump off the platform on the 'Bonus' and walk on it without dying.

 

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[Tursi]

@Tursi: very nice game! I have a curiosity: I don't understand what happens in the victory sequence, after the Hero throuws the evil guy down from the platform. Why a question mark appears and then the Herox gives a punch (maybe) to the wall, before returning to the damsel?

 

 

hehe, it is a little confusing... what's supposed to be happening is that the villain is operating a control panel on the wall. After punching the villain, the hero approaches the control panel, but can not make sense of it, so he just punches it too. This destroys it and shuts down all the obstacles.

 

For Tursi: in level 3 (or 4) it is possible to jump off the platform on the 'Bonus' and walk on it without dying.

 

I did see that! But I couldn't find any way to take advantage of it.

[+chue]

incredible.. i needed all the day for do my highscore... wow chue have a true ability ...i can hate you but good job

 

Thank you Ciro!

 

While there is a little skill involved, it takes a lot of luck as well. As you know, the worms that move the same direction are very difficult to jump correctly. I think that if I jump ten of these worms, I can only do it successfully one time. So it does take a lot of attempts to jump multiple worms in one game.

[+Vorticon]

I tried the game on a real TI just to compare, and it made no difference in the worm jumping business. I was secretly hoping that Classic99 might be a tiny bit faster than a standard console, but no such luck

[Tursi]

I did a bit of slow motion testing against the worms... there IS a skill element to it, but it depends on the animation frame of both the worm and the player. I /think/ the best time to jump is when the worm is up in its hump, and you must keep moving, if you pause on landing they always get you. Since you have to approach them without pausing too, it's pretty hard to get the right timing.

 

I think this is the last evening... thank you guys so much for really pushing into it. I learned a lot of tips about what goes into a challenge like this, and that's what I wanted to get out of it. I'll run through the scores tomorrow -- still time for some last minute runs, I think!

[djugel]

gonna put my gloves on .. and give it a good go before the final bell...

 

real TI

 

Atari CX40 controller

[ti99iuc]

Hey Guys ! just slept thinking the worms and last post of Tursi suggested something so i tried to run it on Firefox using the Rasmus Emulator on my website page of the compo, I zoomed with CTRL and + all the page to have a BIG screen and the gameplay is a bit slower ! :D

 

also if the time is finished and probably considered not valid because the "hack" explained, i want share my final result

 

EDIT:

PS: i have really pain in my finger and right hand... thinking that maybe i will not play with a keyboard for a bit

Edited May 1, 2018 by ti99iuc

[djugel]

bah.. I give up..

[+Vorticon]

Congratulations to chue on an amazing score. Now that this is all and done, here are my impressions of the game:

• I loved the fact that it was possible to complete it in just a few minutes of play
• I hated the fact that the counter reset to zero when you died. This took away any incentive to continue playing the current round
• The concept of a timed score in brilliant and really pushes the player to explore every possible way to speed up the run
• The fact that the worm jumping was so difficult and practically impossible to time added a significant amount of frustration which I think turned off some of the players here (as tursi noted above several factors had to align just right to get it to work, which in the end relied mostly on timing luck)

Overall, an excellent game though.

 

On a side note, this competition has really allowed me to explore games in depth that otherwise I would have just played superficially, if at all. So what's next?

[+chue]

I /think/ the best time to jump is when the worm is up in its hump, and you must keep moving, if you pause on landing they always get you. Since you have to approach them without pausing too, it's pretty hard to get the right timing.

 

This is spot on. When the worm is in its hump it is at the thinnest width.

 

Another trick I used is the double jump. This takes advantage of the fact that the player's trailing leg never hits the ground during landing and takeoff. If you time it right, the worm will be flat and your leg will not hit it. See the attached video.

jump.mp4

[globeron]

Hey Guys ! just slept thinking the worms and last post of Tursi suggested something so i tried to run it on Firefox using the Rasmus Emulator on my website page of the compo, I zoomed with CTRL and + all the page to have a BIG screen and the gameplay is a bit slower ! :D

 

also if the time is finished and probably considered not valid because the "hack" explained, i want share my final result

 

EDIT:

 

PS: i have really pain in my finger and right hand... thinking that maybe i will not play with a keyboard for a bit

 

 

Would that be the same in Firefox using: http://js99er.net/fullscreen.html (and CTRL - (minus) to make it smaller)?

 

 

What ... you played that score on a keyboard? that's excellent (I had so pain when doing the Munch-Man competition on a keyboard).

Here is a solution :-) Just Kidding: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=finger%20protection%20for%20guitar&qs=AS&form=QBIR&sp=5&pq=finger%20protection&sk=AS4&sc=8-17&cvid=0E99A63A662449CBA2EDB17B490036C4

[Tursi]

Congratulations to chue on an amazing score. Now that this is all and done, here are my impressions of the game:

• I loved the fact that it was possible to complete it in just a few minutes of play
• I hated the fact that the counter reset to zero when you died. This took away any incentive to continue playing the current round
• The concept of a timed score in brilliant and really pushes the player to explore every possible way to speed up the run
• The fact that the worm jumping was so difficult and practically impossible to time added a significant amount of frustration which I think turned off some of the players here (as tursi noted above several factors had to align just right to get it to work, which in the end relied mostly on timing luck)

Overall, an excellent game though.

 

On a side note, this competition has really allowed me to explore games in depth that otherwise I would have just played superficially, if at all. So what's next?

 

Thanks, I agree totally. The ability to recover from a single mistake is an important part of competition, and breaking that was definitely a problem. Resetting the bonus counter to zero was not only painful, but broke the challenge. (In addition, some speedrun games in the past used dying as an important part of the game... that option was removed).

 

Jumping the worms forward was something I had not even considered until I tried it myself. I would have definitely made sure it was more reasonable to do so.

 

I also would have considered hidden platforms. There is a bug where on stages where the platform runs all the way to the edge of the screen, you can jump up and stand on empty space there, because of the wraparound. But it's never useful.The ability to jump by accident up to the next platform on level 4 was something it'd have been nice to stick more of in there, just to encourage exploration. I also found myself wishing for wraparound rather than chasing the worms.

 

Will go through the scores after work. Thank you all again, this was helpful for me.

[djugel]

"I also found myself wishing for wraparound rather than chasing the worms. ;)"

 

 

oh really? ... you son of a...

 

Edited May 2, 2018 by djugel

[Sinphaltimus]

 

Thanks, I agree totally. The ability to recover from a single mistake is an important part of competition, and breaking that was definitely a problem. Resetting the bonus counter to zero was not only painful, but broke the challenge. (In addition, some speedrun games in the past used dying as an important part of the game... that option was removed).

 

Jumping the worms forward was something I had not even considered until I tried it myself. I would have definitely made sure it was more reasonable to do so.

 

I also would have considered hidden platforms. There is a bug where on stages where the platform runs all the way to the edge of the screen, you can jump up and stand on empty space there, because of the wraparound. But it's never useful.The ability to jump by accident up to the next platform on level 4 was something it'd have been nice to stick more of in there, just to encourage exploration. I also found myself wishing for wraparound rather than chasing the worms.

 

Will go through the scores after work. Thank you all again, this was helpful for me.

 

There's nothing stopping you from taking it further beyond the 4k limit. I mean, the original game at 4k served its purpose (the 4k competition) but now, you are unbound by rules.

Oh, and uhm...Dragon's Laire?

LOL

[Opry99er]

Well, we didnt hit the triple crown, but HeroX took the #1 spot on the Pre-NES list this week!

 

 

Here's the summary for Week 17, running from April 23 - 29. We logged 4265 minutes of eligible play, playing 71 games on a total of 15 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Army Men 3D (PlayStation) - 509

2. HeroX (TI-99/4A) - 345

3. Stonix (Intellivision) - 280

4. Faxanadu (NES/Famicom) - 270

4. Mine Storm (Vectrex) - 270

6. Desert Falcon (Atari 7800) - 265

7. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 263

8. Zak McCracken & the Alien Mindbenders (FM Towns) - 120

8. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES/Famicom) - 120

10. Taz (Atari 2600) - 115

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. HeroX (TI-99/4A) - 345

2. Stonix (Intellivision) - 280

3. Mine Storm (Vectrex) - 270

4. Desert Falcon (Atari 7800) - 265

5. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 263

6. Taz (Atari 2600) - 115

7. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 109

8. Flying Shark (TI-99/4A) - 90

8. Tunnels of Doom [Quest of the King] (TI-99/4A) - 90

10. Asteroids (Atari 2600) - 85

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. Atari 2600 (830)

2. TI-99/4A (720)

3. NES/Famicom (703)

4. PlayStation (509)

5. Vectrex (330)

6. Intellivision (318)

7. Atari 7800 (265)

8. Genesis (168)

9. FM Towns (120)

10. C64 (105)

 

Three charts, three platforms: while little green men capture the main top 10, the Atari VCS emerges as the top system -- but HeroX claims the pre-NES crown.

 

 

[Tursi]

There's nothing stopping you from taking it further beyond the 4k limit. I mean, the original game at 4k served its purpose (the 4k competition) but now, you are unbound by rules.

hehe, maybe in another 30 years...

 

Oh, and uhm...Dragon's Laire?

LOL

Coming slowly, I just ordered the PCBs to prove the hardware (the real layout is also done, but I will work with the sockets first to prove it out.)

 

[Tursi]

Also, apologies, I didn't tally it up. This is the score finals that I see. Does that look right?

 

ti99iuc 25050

chue 24877

jwild 24670

Vorticon 24605

globeron 23451

Count9929A 22742

Tursi 22235

Opry99er 19654

eebuckeye 16736

InfernalKeith 16006

Sinphaltimus 10263

[+chue]

Also, apologies, I didn't tally it up. This is the score finals that I see. Does that look right?

 

Looks good to me!

[Opry99er]

Oh, I thought ti99iuc said he put it on slow mode or something to get that score.

 

 

Perhaps I misread.

 

Congrats to everyone who scored 20k+!!! I tried and failed many times.

[globeron]

Oh, I thought ti99iuc said he put it on slow mode or something to get that score.

 

 

Perhaps I misread.

 

Congrats to everyone who scored 20k+!!! I tried and failed many times.

 

I think ti99iuc mentioned that it is slower in the "JS99er" version he uses on the Italian website (game room), not too sure if it is set to 50 Hz.

 

but in Classic99 you also can try that using 50 Hz. Default is 60 Hz. but not too sure if I can score higher on a slower mode. I kept playing at

60 Hz as the 1st screen I almost can play with my eyes closed! I also agree that in each level you can wait for a while before playing to gain

some extra bonus (e.g. in level 2 this is beneficial). This was a fun game, love it.

[globeron]

 

I think ti99iuc mentioned that it is slower in the "JS99er" version he uses on the Italian website (game room), not too sure if it is set to 50 Hz.

 

but in Classic99 you also can try that using 50 Hz. Default is 60 Hz. but not too sure if I can score higher on a slower mode. I kept playing at

60 Hz as the 1st screen I almost can play with my eyes closed! I also agree that in each level you can wait for a while before playing to gain

some extra bonus (e.g. in level 2 this is beneficial). This was a fun game, love it.

PS. The next version of Herox is coming up I think. My 6 year old is doing the designs of the new screens on the refrigerator...

 

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[Opry99er]

Awesome!!!

[ti99iuc]

hey guys i am sorry for the delay in reply but i am not so much free time lately days, try to write on the smartphone.

really thanks to consider my highscore but i always thought that chue won the contest

because he played this game using the real speed of the game. i just wanted to experiment

something more. this game is incredible

 

i will be happy every decision tursi and community will take of course

Edited May 3, 2018 by ti99iuc

[Tursi]

I think we're accepting it. Congrats! You worked really hard.

[ti99iuc]

Looks good to me!

 

I think we're accepting it. Congrats! You worked really hard.

 

Really thanks

you the community helped me to be a bit more positive in a black period.