Floyd Turbo Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Can someone help me? I just don't understand Zoo Keeper. I've been playing it for over an hour now and I still can't beat my hi score. I see all the other scores are in the 6 digits. Am I missing something? I want to punch my screen and smash my Jackson guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynicaster Posted December 30, 2019 Author Share Posted December 30, 2019 33 minutes ago, Floyd Turbo said: Can someone help me? I just don't understand Zoo Keeper. I've been playing it for over an hour now and I still can't beat my hi score. I see all the other scores are in the 6 digits. Am I missing something? I want to punch my screen and smash my Jackson guitar. Check out some gameplay videos on YouTube to see how the big points are scored. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floyd Turbo Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Thanks for the vid tip. I kinda get it now. Almost broke 100k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramses Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Raiden: 127,070 Sorcer Striker: 142,010 Rolling Thunder: 43,980 Armored Car: 20,600 Zookeeper: 162,430 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patbb Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Armored Car: 38260 Rolling: 54540 Zoo: 283630 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynicaster Posted January 3, 2020 Author Share Posted January 3, 2020 Sorcer Striker - 462,180 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyous Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) First attempts... Raiden - 50,610 - like the cows Sorcer Striker - 93,830 - like the cows here, too Rolling Thunder - 32,820 - Really advanced platforming for '86! Great AI, great style. The only thing is I feel like I'm fighting against how stiff the character controls. Armored Car - 6,640 - I like the sound effects in this game Zoo Keeper - 74,730 - this is the gem of the 5-pack to me! This game is awesome. Looks like Taito got a little inspired by Williams, maybe? Second attempts... Raiden - 124,520 - The artwork in this game is so cool. There's a good rhythm alternating between the game grabbing you by the hair and thrashing you around, and lulls here and there. Armored Car - 17,460 - I realized there isn't much (if any) gas penalty for being in 2nd gear most of the time, but it does become hard to control with precision. Zoo Keeper - 109,280 - I love this crazy game! It seems the big points are to be had by letting the animals out and jumping over them. Edited January 4, 2020 by Zoyous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hero2billions Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 armoured car 3.300 Excellent game i had never played before Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariWarlord Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Armored Car 30,180. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynicaster Posted January 4, 2020 Author Share Posted January 4, 2020 Round ends in just under 38 hours. Get those scores in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.A.M.E Offender Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 Almost made it to the 8th Bank. 63,430 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 4 weeks sure seemed like a lot of time to play ?Sorcer Striker? - 340,010 Raiden - 182,450 Rolling Thunder - 85,120 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtariWarlord Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 10 minutes ago, youxia said: 4 weeks sure seemed like a lot of time to play ?Sorcer Striker? - 340,010 Raiden - 182,450 Rolling Thunder - 85,120 It was. Too long in fact. I can't believe I've been trying to figure out Zoo Keeper for almost a month. That "gain a life" level gets me almost every time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asponge Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 Raiden - 50,950 Armored Car - 9,400 Zoo Keeper - 72,350 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hero2billions Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 rolling 41,900 a lot harder than i remember Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramses Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Rolling Thunder: 84,280 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramses Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Armored Car: 37,510 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramses Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 Zoo Keeper: 165,010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.A.M.E Offender Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 That was a month to remember! It was nice to play those fun ones over the Christmas Holidays. I was hoping for an even higher score for Zoo Keeper and ol' Raiden, but it never came about. Armoured Car may be frustrating to no end, but its gameplay and strategy is top notch. Rolling Thunder is a little dull, but not horrendous. And Sorcer Striker is a fairly easy, but great vertical shooter. MO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramses Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 This was the first time I really sat down and seriously played Armored Car and Zoo Keeper. While I really like the gameplay of those games, the controls drove me bonkers, especially Armored Car. I kept going in the wrong direction! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyous Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 I felt at times that I was having some difficulty using an 8-way joystick for a 4-way game. I'd have to compare it with the coin-op to be sure. But yeah, sometimes I must have been pressing diagonally when I thought I was pressing in a single direction, thus turning unexpectedly. Zoo Keeper is a riot! I'm adding it to my list of favorite games that I've discovered through the HSC, along with Ladybug and Time Pilot '84. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 17 hours ago, Zoyous said: I felt at times that I was having some difficulty using an 8-way joystick for a 4-way game. I think this might be my problem (using Dualshock 4). I also struggled with controls in these two games, to the point of abandoning them. Zoo keeper would freeze occasionally, especially on corners, and the AC either go in a wrong direction or not turn when you want it to. The latter did happen few times before with other labyrinth based Pac-likes. I think Retroarch has an option to alleviate this and perhaps I could ask some MAME people if the 4/8 really is the reason and if there's a fix for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoyous Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, youxia said: I think this might be my problem (using Dualshock 4). I also struggled with controls in these two games, to the point of abandoning them. Zoo keeper would freeze occasionally, especially on corners, and the AC either go in a wrong direction or not turn when you want it to. The latter did happen few times before with other labyrinth based Pac-likes. I think Retroarch has an option to alleviate this and perhaps I could ask some MAME people if the 4/8 really is the reason and if there's a fix for it. I had a similar experience with Zoo Keeper's corners a few times, but it felt similar to how you rotate around in Gyruss so I was able to adapt to it. It didn't feel as "seamless" as Gyruss, though, and that might be an issue with how the game is coded as much as the joystick. Zoo Keeper is a crazy fun game but I wouldn't say it's perfectly polished. Some people have mentioned to me that there are some settings in MAME you can play around with when dealing with the 4/8 directional issue, but I haven't looked into it to closely. Main reason being, it can't possibly detect the context of the game, so wouldn't you just be assigning some kind of set response...? Like if you're pushing up and right, always favor going right or always favor going up? If that's the case it seems like it could cause its own problems. Researching joysticks a few years ago I found some that you could change from 4-way to 8-way by rotating them in a particular way, but I don't know anyone who's got them installed. Edited January 7, 2020 by Zoyous typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cynicaster Posted January 7, 2020 Author Share Posted January 7, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, youxia said: I think this might be my problem (using Dualshock 4). I also struggled with controls in these two games, to the point of abandoning them. Zoo keeper would freeze occasionally, especially on corners, and the AC either go in a wrong direction or not turn when you want it to. The latter did happen few times before with other labyrinth based Pac-likes. I think Retroarch has an option to alleviate this and perhaps I could ask some MAME people if the 4/8 really is the reason and if there's a fix for it. It's definitely an issue with the style of controller you're using. The controls work just fine with an arcade-style joystick; preferably a 4-way, but 8-way should work OK as well once you get used to it. I'm no master of maze games and I can accurately zip around the maze in Armored Car with the turbo button pressed, no problem. I've heard of supposed software tricks that are claimed to help eliminate control errors on 4-way games when played with more-than-4-way controllers, but I've never needed to use them so I don't have any direct experience. I will say that I'm highly skeptical because when playing a 4-way game and you accidentally veer into the diagonal area (for example) there's no way the software can discern your intent. As far as I'm concerned, the only real "fix" is to play the games with a 4-way joystick. Actually, any joystick - even if 8-way - is probably going to be an improvement over a d-pad or thumbstick from a modern playstation-style controller. For example, I've played games like this on MAME using an Atari 2600 joystick and it works surprisingly well. Edited January 7, 2020 by Cynicaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youxia Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 On 1/7/2020 at 8:21 PM, Cynicaster said: As far as I'm concerned, the only real "fix" is to play the games with a 4-way joystick. Actually, any joystick - even if 8-way - is probably going to be an improvement over a d-pad or thumbstick from a modern playstation-style controller. For example, I've played games like this on MAME using an Atari 2600 joystick and it works surprisingly well. That could be true, but I move a lot and can't drag an extra gadget around with me just to play a few titles. And I actually prefer to play the rest with a modern pad, because I've never really liked joysticks, even as a kid. The ones I could afford back then for 8/16-bit micros were quite horrible. Besides I suspect it's more just me not being very good at these kinda games than the hardware itself. So there is actually an option in Retroarch called "4 way emulation on 8 way joystick". It only appears on 4 way games. I've just tried it on Armor Car and Zoo Keeper and it's hard to say how much difference it made. It sort of felt a bit better (especially on ZK) but perhaps I suggested myself (and my scores still sucked). Still, I'd rather have it on than off I suppose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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