Astrosmash High Score

[JOD-I]

On a real intellivision II using a real astrosmash cartridge I came so close to the 1,065,000 high score I could find on the net

 

 

[JOD-I]

Sorry the picture is upside down lol also just found 1,850,300 on youtube

Edited April 12, 2019 by JOD-I

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Still a great score! My best is 667,900 (end).

[Bamse]

Anything above 800k is amazing, well done. That must have taken at least 4 hours

[+JasonlikesINTV]

Anything above 800k is amazing...

Especially playing upside down

[Bamse]

Especially playing upside down

Hahaha, that's actually an option on Intellivision Lives on ps2 ??

[intvnut]

I've cracked 800K once and 1M once, on original hardware, fast speed.

 

I really, really needed to be in the zone. Like, in the second week of a 2 week vacation relaxed level of "in the zone."

 

These days, if I play Astrosmash, I play Macho Astrosmash. Launch Astrosmash in jzintv with --macho=5 or --macho=10. A very long game lasts 30 seconds and has a score of around 4000. Most games are much shorter. I don't even break 4000 in the linked video.

[Bamse]

Wow that version is mad lol

Edited April 12, 2019 by Bamse

[Bamse]

When I got back into intellivision nearly a year ago the first game I tried to get a high score on was Astrosmash. Played for 3 hours or so and it fried the cpu. After repair and some cooling mods I tried again. After about 5 hours on one game I got 1.16 million and membership of the numb thumb club

Edited April 12, 2019 by Bamse

[intvnut]

Hahaha, that's actually an option on Intellivision Lives on ps2

 

It's also an option in jzIntv. --prescale=Rot180 if I remember correctly. (Can't test it, I'm at work.)

[siccoyote]

Wow 5,298,001 that's impressive. I just had a couple of goes and thought I was good getting 55,000 on my first play.

[+fdr4prez]

I've cracked 800K once and 1M once, on original hardware, fast speed.

 

I really, really needed to be in the zone. Like, in the second week of a 2 week vacation relaxed level of "in the zone."

 

These days, if I play Astrosmash, I play Macho Astrosmash. Launch Astrosmash in jzintv with --macho=5 or --macho=10. A very long game lasts 30 seconds and has a score of around 4000. Most games are much shorter. I don't even break 4000 in the linked video.

 

Everyone seems to have ignored the elephant in the room

 

Macho Astrosmash is a great way to play a game that people here say is boring and monotonous. Has this mode always been available and just never mentioned or documented anywhere?

 

I've used the rate control before, such as -r1.25 or -r2, to speed things up a little, especially for bowling, but Macho mode seems to be an entire different level of madness.

 

Is the --macho=5 equivalent to -r5?

 

I've not tried macho mode on other games, yet, but I'd be curious how well they would play. Games such as Nightstalker, Lock-n-Chase, Pac-man, etc can all be funner in an insane Macho mode.

 

Play Desert Bus in Macho Mode and you won't be driving 55

[intvnut]

 

Everyone seems to have ignored the elephant in the room

 

Macho Astrosmash is a great way to play a game that people here say is boring and monotonous. Has this mode always been available and just never mentioned or documented anywhere?

 

I've used the rate control before, such as -r1.25 or -r2, to speed things up a little, especially for bowling, but Macho mode seems to be an entire different level of madness.

 

Is the --macho=5 equivalent to -r5?

 

I've not tried macho mode on other games, yet, but I'd be curious how well they would play. Games such as Nightstalker, Lock-n-Chase, Pac-man, etc can all be funner in an insane Macho mode.

 

Play Desert Bus in Macho Mode and you won't be driving 55

 

The --macho flag is a synonym for -r. I named it that after hearing the BSRs talk about an internal version of BurgerTime that ramped up the difficulty named "Macho BurgerTime." They also talked about a hacked version of Dreadnaught Factor called "Dreadful Fracture."

 

I'm sure I've mentioned Macho Astrosmash before but I couldn't tell you where or when. I've certainly been playing it myself for a long time. The flag's been in there for ages.

 

It is a hilarious way to speed up games. :-)

[+Lathe26]

How high does --macho go? Can it be set high enough that the toughest level of Chess is playable (i.e. 1 computer move doesn't take hours or days)?

[+fdr4prez]

 

The --macho flag is a synonym for -r. I named it that after hearing the BSRs talk about an internal version of BurgerTime that ramped up the difficulty named "Macho BurgerTime." They also talked about a hacked version of Dreadnaught Factor called "Dreadful Fracture."

 

I'm sure I've mentioned Macho Astrosmash before but I couldn't tell you where or when. I've certainly been playing it myself for a long time. The flag's been in there for ages.

 

It is a hilarious way to speed up games. :-)

 

 

How high does --macho go? Can it be set high enough that the toughest level of Chess is playable (i.e. 1 computer move doesn't take hours or days)?

 

 

A few years ago I first learned of the -r flag by using the old jzintv GUI

 

Within the GUI, the "rate control" slider goes from 100% (normal setting and no -r# flag is applied) up to 500% (meaning -r5 flag is applied) and the sliding rate control setting goes in 25% increments

 

So a -r1.25 means 125% or a 25% increase in speed, and a -r2 means 200% of normal speed.

 

 

Within the GUI, after you slide past 500% there is a MAX for the rate control, and it will apply a -r0 flag. It sounds odd to have a -r0 flag, so I've not tried this setting. Should the Max setting on the rate control slide be -r0 or -r10?

 

If the --macho=5 flag equates to -r5 flag and the --macho=10 flag equates to the -r0 flag, does that mean we can set any macho value from 1 up to 10? And can we set decimal increments, like --macho=1.53 or --macho=7.65?

[mr_me]

According to jzintv help, -r0 disables rate control.

 

The problem with intellivision chess is that setting a speed that makes the computer reasonable, it's too fast to do your own moves. Try it under Mame which allows you to turn the throttle off when it's the computers turn and on when it's your turn. Also the highest level you should play intellivision chess is six. Level seven is programmed to think forever and level eight thinks until it's solved checkmate.

[intvnut]

How high does --macho go? Can it be set high enough that the toughest level of Chess is playable (i.e. 1 computer move doesn't take hours or days)?

 

As high as you like; however, at some point you hit the limit of your actual machine. The rate-limit target is just a target. If you want to go really fast, disable audio with -a0.

 

 

A few years ago I first learned of the -r flag by using the old jzintv GUI

 

Within the GUI, the "rate control" slider goes from 100% (normal setting and no -r# flag is applied) up to 500% (meaning -r5 flag is applied) and the sliding rate control setting goes in 25% increments

 

So a -r1.25 means 125% or a 25% increase in speed, and a -r2 means 200% of normal speed.

rate.jpg

 

 

Within the GUI, after you slide past 500% there is a MAX for the rate control, and it will apply a -r0 flag. It sounds odd to have a -r0 flag, so I've not tried this setting. Should the Max setting on the rate control slide be -r0 or -r10?

max.jpg

 

If the --macho=5 flag equates to -r5 flag and the --macho=10 flag equates to the -r0 flag, does that mean we can set any macho value from 1 up to 10? And can we set decimal increments, like --macho=1.53 or --macho=7.65?

 

As mr_me pointed out, -r0 disables rate control entirely and lets jzIntv run as fast as possible. It is a float, so yes, you can set target rates like 1.53. There's some support for rates below 1.0.

[siccoyote]

What if I only ever have a chance at beating computer chess on the lowest setting?

[zylon]

Best I've got in recent times was 752k or so.

[+fdr4prez]

According to jzintv help, -r0 disables rate control.

 

The problem with intellivision chess is that setting a speed that makes the computer reasonable, it's too fast to do your own moves. Try it under Mame which allows you to turn the throttle off when it's the computers turn and on when it's your turn. Also the highest level you should play intellivision chess is six. Level seven is programmed to think forever and level eight thinks until it's solved checkmate.

 

 

 

As high as you like; however, at some point you hit the limit of your actual machine. The rate-limit target is just a target. If you want to go really fast, disable audio with -a0.

 

 

 

As mr_me pointed out, -r0 disables rate control entirely and lets jzIntv run as fast as possible. It is a float, so yes, you can set target rates like 1.53. There's some support for rates below 1.0.

 

Thanks, guys!

 

I've never actually did look at the jzintv help

 

I do recall looking for a help document, but none seems to be distributed with jzintv, and I never thought to actually check jzintv itself for help

 

So in a nut shell:

--macho=5 is 5x faster

--mach0=10 is 10x faster

-r0.5 is 50% slower speed

-r0 is Ludicrous Speed

 

 

[mr_me]

The documentation for command line options isn't in any file included with jzintv. You have to type "jzintv --help".

[+fdr4prez]

The documentation for command line options isn't in any file included with jzintv. You have to type "jzintv --help".

 

correct, that is what I did earlier

[mthompson]

The documentation for command line options isn't in any file included with jzintv. You have to type "jzintv --help".

And I have always thought this is not a friendly way to include those notes. With more people using jzIntv, and with the LTO Flash software now including an easy launcher, maybe a conventional Read Me file could be included now. Without using a command line, how would you ever make the notes appear? Unless I am missing something.

[+fdr4prez]

I have copy/pasted all the notes into Notepad, so I have a TXT file now

[mthompson]

I have copy/pasted all the notes into Notepad, so I have a TXT file now

Me too, but Joe is always improving the darned thing and adding flags & features! ?