Season 12 ~ Week 2 ~ Popeye

[ctelkin19]

36,900 slight improvement, but won't change my place on the board ?

[Deteacher]

57,050!

[Rogerpoco]

Hey Guys, and Gals!

Hope ya'll don't miss me too much this season, I'm definitely not gonna participate, I suppose there's a game or two that might cause me to want to play-I just have a LOT of other stuff going on, I have very much enjoyed the last few seasons, and I'm sure I will pop in here and there if games come up that I know, trying to offer help even if I'm not playing. Mebbe even a patch giveaway, if the right random game comes up or whatever-I'm still daily active here at AA, so I'll at least be keeping tabs on ya'll casually, so watch yur backs...

?

Best of Luck to Everyone, Have Fun!!!

[oyamafamily]

Popeye  55,250

 

[Deteacher]

86,050!  The ship levels always throw slow bottles at you, so you get a bit of a reprieve there.  

[Evandro_ECM]

Game 1 - B/B

Record - 60.450

[nester]

Here’s Mario as a villain from Donkey Kong Jr

[nester]

And here’s my tiny score

[kermit73]

Popeye: 110500

 

The video is a game I played earlier this year on original hardware where I broke 300k.  I'm hoping for similar or better results this week on an emulator.

 

The key to high scores is to get the timing down for punching bottles and to control Bluto's movement. 

 

Some general notes about Bluto:

• If you're one platform higher than Bluto and on the opposite side of the screen, he will either walk up the stairs to be on the same platform as you or he will walk across the screen toward you.  If he walks up the stairs, he will throw bottles at you once he's reached your platform.  If he starts walking across the screen, he won't reverse direction or throw bottles until he's reached his destination.  Note that Bluto never goes to the top platform, so if you're on the top platform, his only choice is to walk across the screen.
• If you're on the same platform as Bluto and on the opposite side of the screen, he will usually throw bottles at you.
• If you're one platform below Bluto and on the opposite side of the screen, he will move down a level (either by jumping or by using stairs, if available) and immediately throw bottles at you.
• Bluto is most dangerous when he's on the same side of the screen as you, so the goal is to use these known movements to keep him on the opposite side of the screen.

 

Some specific notes about each board:

• On the first board, you can use the ladder between the 2nd and 3rd platform to your advantage.  If you go part way down this ladder, the game considers you to be on the 2nd platform.  This draws Bluto to the second platform and keeps him busy throwing bottles while you can pick up a few hearts on the 3rd or 4th platform.
• On the second board, if you want Bluto to cross the screen sooner, stay on the top platform longer.  If you want him to remain on the same side of the screen longer, go half way up a ladder and he will start throwing bottles.  The first time you'll want to induce him to throw bottles is usually after capturing the 7th musical note since Olive drops the 7th and 8th notes to the left side of the screen.  If you have to drop to the bottom half of the screen, it's best if Bluto is on the left and you are on the right side of the screen so you don't have Bluto between you and your spinach.  Ideally, you only have to drop down to these lower platforms once in the round when going for the spinach.
• On the third board, Bluto starts on the 2nd platform, making it real easy for you to stay on the top platform and collect 500 point Xs.  After collecting the 7th "X", I go part way down the left steps and pause a few seconds.  The 8th "X" is too far to the left to pick up on the top level and waiting on the steps keeps Bluto toward the middle of the screen long enough to get the "X" safely.  At this point, Bluto will move to the 3rd platform and waiting on the steps also steers him to move up on the left side of the screen rather than the right, keeping him on the opposite side as you pick off the next few Xs on the top platform.  The 12th "X" also goes too far off the edge to the left and this is when I usually make my way to the bottom of the screen for the spinach.  After knocking Bluto out, it's pretty easy to grab the next few Xs on the top platform.  The last 4 Xs tend to be the most difficult since it's hard to keep Bluto on the opposite side of the screen.

Once you've cycled through all three boards twice, the game never increases difficulty.  It keeps looping with fast bottles on the first two boards and slow bottles on the third board.  I've always wondered if the slow bottles on the third board was intentional or if it's a bug.  It forces you to adjust for the timing of slow and fast bottle speeds throughout the game, however, I expect this third board would be significantly more difficult if the bottles were launched at the fast speed. 

 

 

[oyamafamily]

Mr. Pims, the villain from a paddle game - The Music Machine

[roadrunner]

Popeye 12,400


 

[RGC]

Bonus Villian

 

Qotile from Yars Revenge

[Crazy Climber]

Bonus points Villain pic before I forget...

 

 

"Congo" from Congo Bongo

[Crazy Climber]

And just a quick game to also make sure I don't completely forget to post a score 

10,200

[+jgkspsx]

My villain is The Technicolor Dream Wolf from Pooyan:

 

 

13300. Scored better once but reset before I could get a photo

 

[nads]

First effort,

Starting to remember some of my patterns on this

 

Popeye : 79,550

 

[+Atari_Warlord]

15,250

 

In case I forget later, just want to put a first effort in.  I can definitely do better with some more time.  I was always confused and thought the items coming at you had to be dodged and didn't realize there was a punch.  I played the arcade version over the weekend and now it makes a lot more sense.  This is actually a pretty good conversion.

 

 

[ctelkin19]

37,500

Slight improvement-boy do the 'bottles' ramp up their speed on the second board sequence

[Crazy Climber]

Second attempt...

20300

 

[TheActivisionary]

Bonus:

The first villain that came to mind for me was the “mad bomber” from Kaboom!

[Krytol]

7,350

 

 

[Krytol]

Villain: The Red Baron from Snoopy and the Red Baron

[mchetzel]

Villain: Rhindle the Red Dragon from Adventure (the Evil Magician’s “most ferocious of all.”)  After all these years, the closing speed of this dragon still haunts my dreams! 

[TheActivisionary]

Just noticed that someone beat me to the mad bomber, so for my backup I guess I’ll go with Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

[AtariSphinx]

On 11/14/2021 at 9:53 AM, kermit73 said:

I've always wondered if the slow bottles on the third board was intentional or if it's a bug

I would vote bug given how many bugs there are.  Ran into a bug where was on the third board in first round and only picked up 4 "X"s and the board completed and moved me to the second round.  Did not help my score as it made things harder and lost out on easier points.

 

Occasionally I see the screen roll as well which I believe is due to using more than the standard scan lines.

 

With all that it is a great port.  Has the game play elements and the bottle punching works unlike the 8-bit computer one which is too difficult/ buggy.

Edited November 16, 2021 by AtariSphinx
Updated wording