Season 17 Round 5 - Mach Rider

[asponge]

The year is 2112.  You are Mach Rider!  A quick tip:  the amount of energy you have remaining after the first course affects the number of riders you have available when you start the 2nd course.  The game maxes out at 999,990 and does not roll the score.  If we happen to get two or more players who max out the score they'll all get the 25 points for first place.  I don't know, and I couldn't find any information online, whether there is a big difference between routes A and B.  I'm leaving it up to the player to decide which they'd prefer.

 

 

Game Rules:

Select Fighting Course

Choose either route A or B.

Manual

 

Score Post Deadline: Sunday April 12 at 11:59 PM CDT.

 

AtariAge High Score:

None

 

Scores as of 4/12:

Tempest           124,890
mbd30              89,260
asponge            74,870
fakecortex         73,780
Magmavision2000    44,630
roadrunner          6,180
jblenkle               80

 

Bonus:

Baseball:
Tempest       5-1   +25
fakecortex    4-2   +10

Soccer:
Tempest      10-0   +30
fakecortex   10-1   +25

Season Standings:

 

Bonus Games

These are optional games where you can earn up to 25 extra season points per game.  To claim a bonus, post your final score in the current game thread anytime during the season.  Feel free to post multiple times if your score improves as the season goes on.  +5 season points will be awarded, up to 25, for every run/goal you score over the CPU.  For example, if the final score is Player 3 and CPU 1 then points earned are calculated as (3 - 1) x 5 = 10.  An additional 5 points per game will be awarded to the player who submits the highest score differential.  The bonus for Golf will be +5 season points, up to 25, for each stroke under par and an additional 5 for the best score.

 

Baseball

Rules:

Choose any team.

Manual

 

Soccer

Rules:

Choose any team

Skill Level 1

Half Time 15

Manual

 

Golf

Rules:

1 Player Stroke Play

Manual

 

Remaining Black Box Season Titles:
Devil World

Donkey Kong 3

Donkey Kong Jr.

Excitebike

Ice Climber

Pinball

Rad Racer

Urban Champion

Wrecking Crew

Note: This may not be the play order.

 

General HSC Season Rules:

• To participate, just post a score to the thread. Anyone can join in at any time.
• A picture or screenshot is encouraged when posting a score but not required.
• The season is 14 rounds long.
• Games will be posted on Sundays and run two weeks through Sunday at 11:59 PM CST.
• Do not exploit game glitches, take advantage of 1-up loops or intentionally die in order to replay a level.
• If "point pressing" is not specified in the game rules you should be moving forward in an attempt to complete/loop the game and not "camping" for points.
• No emulator save states, slow-mo, rewind, etc.
• No cheats, e.g. Konami code, Game Genie, etc.
• Turbo controllers are allowed.
• Round points are awarded according to the following chart:
  

 

[Tempest]

Hmmm... another one I've never played.  This should be interesting.

 

when I was a kid I always thought the game was called Ma(t)ch Rider for some reason.

[Tempest]

30,630

 

 

WTF is wrong with this game?  There's no difficulty curve, it just starts high and never lets up.  It took me over an hour to beat the first real level.  You can't go slow to dodge things or you'll get hit from behind and die, so you have to be constantly in 4th.  But if you're in 4th the game spazzes out with the left/right curves coming so fast that it actually gave me a headache. The level design made me think of something you'd see at the very end of the game in the final few boards, not something you start at.  Am I missing something here or is this game impossibly difficult?

[fakecortex]

4 hours ago, Tempest said:

WTF is wrong with this game?  There's no difficulty curve, it just starts high and never lets up.  It took me over an hour to beat the first real level.  You can't go slow to dodge things or you'll get hit from behind and die, so you have to be constantly in 4th.  But if you're in 4th the game spazzes out with the left/right curves coming so fast that it actually gave me a headache. The level design made me think of something you'd see at the very end of the game in the final few boards, not something you start at.  Am I missing something here or is this game impossibly difficult?

I don't remember playing this one as a kid; I picked it up a little while ago actually when it was added to the season list. When I gave it a shot I had the same reaction. I'm eager to give it more time, but I'm expecting a bit of frustration...

[mbd30]

89260

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by mbd30

[mbd30]

Go slow and die. Go fast and die. Die, die, die.

 

[mbd30]

This game is pretty rough. When you go fast there's little or no time to react. When you go slow, you get killed from behind. Holding A to accelerate and B to fire is awkward as well. I put the controller on my lap and use my index and middle fingers.

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by mbd30

[fakecortex]

10 minutes ago, mbd30 said:

This game is pretty rough. When you go fast there's little or no time to react. When you go slow, you get killed from behind. Holding A to accelerate and B to fire is awkward as well. I put the controller on my lap and use my index and middle fingers.

 

I'll have to give it a shot with the nes advantage, hmm

[asponge]

I just added Golf to our bonus sports games.  The bonus will work similar to the others except you'll earn points for strokes under par as opposed to a point differential with the computer.

[mbd30]

Oh man, looking forward to Rad Racer.

[Tempest]

Golf!  I love that game.  

 

I have an idea for Mach Rider.  I'll try tonight and see if I can up my score.

[roadrunner]

6,180


 

[Tempest]

Golf: +18 (90)

 

Wow I suck...

 

[asponge]

74,870

 

[Tempest]

1 minute ago, asponge said:

74,870

 

HOW???

[Magmavision2000]

31,210

 

you gotta be in 3rd and 4th gear. 3rd gear for when you're shooting the cars (?), and 4th gear when the cars (?) are behind you.

Edit: better score 32,710

Edited April 1, 2020 by Magmavision2000

[Tempest]

53,700

 

This game has a weird reverse difficulty problem.  The first few levels are long and hard (hehehe....) but after that the levels get shorter and easier.  The first level for example is 25KM and has rocks all over the place, but the later levels are like 10K and only have some road hazards (mostly snow).  It just seems that the game gets easier the further you get.  I can probably do better, but this will have to do for now.

[Tempest]

124,890

 

I think I've finally figure this game out.  I was wondering why when I viewed all the online videos it seemed like the game was playing at half speed.  Well it's because I was still going way too fast.  The game is still pretty bad though and the second set of levels is kind of insane.  I also heard a weird jingle around 120,000 points but I have no idea what it was about.  Extra life maybe?

[mbd30]

Just now, Tempest said:

124,890

 

I think I've finally figure this game out.  I was wondering why when I viewed all the online videos it seemed like the game was playing at half speed.  Well it's because I was still going way too fast.  The game is still pretty bad though and the second set of levels is kind of insane.  I also heard a weird jingle around 120,000 points but I have no idea what it was about.  Extra life maybe?

 

You get a 20k (sometimes 40k) points bonus if you shoot 10 of the same kind of motorcycle, and it plays that jingle.

 

 

[Tempest]

59 minutes ago, mbd30 said:

 

You get a 20k (sometimes 40k) points bonus if you shoot 10 of the same kind of motorcycle, and it plays that jingle.

Really?  Huh that must have been it then.  Scared the crap out of me and I lost concentration for a moment and died. 

[asponge]

Nice score Tempest.  I was going to mention the 20k thing as well.  I noticed it while playing yesterday, but wasn't sure exactly how it worked.  I'm still not sure if you need to hit 10 in a row or just 10 during the course, but they definitely need to be the same color as mbd30 noted.  I tried to find some info about the bonus online, but couldn't find it mentioned anywhere.

[Magmavision2000]

44,630 this game is proof Nintendo isn't a flawless game developer.

[Tempest]

9 hours ago, Magmavision2000 said:

this game is proof Nintendo isn't a flawless game developer.

Yeah it was a nice idea I guess (although I don't like how you can only gain bullets from bashing enemies into the side pylons), but the execution was terrible.  The game was just too ambitious for the system at that time.  The difficulty levels are also out of whack, which is frustrating. 

 

The secret I found is to get into 4th gear and then just tap the accelerator when needed. 

[mbd30]

10 hours ago, Tempest said:

Yeah it was a nice idea I guess (although I don't like how you can only gain bullets from bashing enemies into the side pylons), but the execution was terrible.  The game was just too ambitious for the system at that time.  The difficulty levels are also out of whack, which is frustrating. 

 

The secret I found is to get into 4th gear and then just tap the accelerator when needed. 

 

It's still kind of fun for the intense arcade-like difficulty. But it would be much better on more powerful hardware that scales smoothly enough so that you have enough time to dodge things when going fast.

 

[jblenkle]

Mach Rider - 80

I'm having a real tough go with this one, but I wanted to at least post a score!!!