Season 12 ~ Week 23 ~ Beat The Leaders 1

[Vocelli]

Week 23

Beat The Leaders

Reactor

 

 

 CLARIFICATION: No use of CHEATS, emulation advantages, bugs, cart frying or other variables that gives you an unfair advantage in this HSC. Please assume you have to follow the game difficulty and mode for the playing week/s. There cannot be any game enhancements or favorite settings to play in the 2600 HSC, unless you are given authorization to do so by your humble yet strict MODERATOR! Vocelli

 

Reactor

Released By:  Parker Brothers

Left Difficulty: B

Right Difficulty: B

Game Mode: Game 1

 

Post your scores right here in this thread, and we will add them to the list. Remember to play the game with the recommended game mode and difficulty settings as shown above so that your scores will be consistent with everyone else.

The deadline for posting scores is Midnight (EST) the evening of  April 17, 2022

 

 

BONUS: BEAT THE LEADERS!

For Players who are NOT in the Top 16 (17^th Place and lower)

(Standings after the Paddle Week 2)

Get +10 Bonus Points for finishing in the Top 16 this week!

Get +5 More for finishing Top 8!

+15 Bonus Points Total Possible

 

For Players in the Top 16  (Standings after the Paddle Week 2)

Get +10 Bonus Points for finishing Top 4 this week

Get an extra +5 for finishing FIRST

+15 Bonus Points Total Possible

 

Reactor Scores

(Double Points This Week ~ 100pts for 1^st, 98 for 2^nd and so forth)

ROLLAGE AT 390,000+

 

ROLLAGE - Kermit (+100) (+15)

306659 - Nads (+98) (+10)

  98222 - JasonHRB (+96) (+10)

  97448 - SkippyBCoyote (+94) (+10)

  88799 - JasonAtari (+92)

  78464 - AtariSphinx (+90)

  67712 - Absalon (+88)

  66643 - Keilbaca (+86) (+15)

  63201 - Vocelli (+84)

  59174 - JGKspsx (+82)

  54835 - maloff (+80)

  52738 - OyamaFamily (+78)

  44048 - DomBradley (+76)

  34528 - Evandro (+74)

  33736 - TheActivisionary (+72) (+10)

  26237 - Atarian7 (+70)

 

  25520 - GBAG (+68)

  19930 - DrMooCowz (+66)

  19569 - Fakecortex (+64)

  18531 - ClassicGamer (+62)

  17551 - MoisesTuseto (+60)

  17390 - AGB (+58)

  13692 - RGC (+56)

  11988 - Krytol (+54)

    8513 - LaurenTyler (+52)

    7191 - MarkGriff (+50)

    5909 - Atari_Warlord (+48)

    5284 - Mchetzel (+46)

    

  

 

Overall Standings

 

 

 Possible Major League Competitors

1098	Kermit
1048	AtariSphinx
1042	JasonHRB
1024	SkippyBCoyote
966	Nads
944	MarkGriff
931	Evandro
900	Absalon
892	JGKspsx
883	Dr Moocowz
881	OyamaFamily
877	JasonAtari
858	Vocelli
800	DomBradley
761	Atarian7
752	Maloff

 

 

 Possible Minor League Competitors

721	Keilbaca
718	FakeCortex
713	LaurenTyler
695	Atari_Warlord
690	TheActivisionary
688	McCallister
616	Mchetzel
573	MoisesTuseto
570	GBAG
519	AGB
507	Deteacher
448	RGC
435	RaymanC
414	Roadrunner
397	CrazyClimber
367	ClassicGamer

 

 

 The Rest of the Competitors

326	RetroBreakout
275	Krytol
221	CTelkin
210	Ed
174	DataFry
171	Lord Innit
141	JoeBradley
118	Diamonds
114	ZeroPageHomebrewJames
97	GType
89	Atariwarlord
86	JacobZu7Zu7
78	ArmscarCoder
77	Jblenkle
76	ZeroPageHomebrewTanya
70	AlNafuur
70	ThomasJentsch
50	Sramirez
48	Nester
41	ZilchSr
38	IsaiahAustin
38	RockPile
29	DevWebci
21	BetwixtThieves
19	ZeroPageHomebewDarcy
3	Capitain Classic

 

Season 12 will have:

~ THE LAST WEEK Beat the leader week

The TOP 32 will qualify for the Medal Bracket Challenge.

Edited April 18, 2022 by Vocelli

[nads]

First cab off the rank ?

 

Interesting game, I'm still not 100% sure what to do, surviving seems a good start

 

Reactor 1BB : 25,388

 

[Vocelli]

Basically, it is like bumper cars.

Bump into dots so they collide with the sides (thus eventually destroying them) while you avoid touching the sides (destroys you).

Use a 'decoy' to get dots away from you.

Not sure how scoring points goes. I think you get more points if you gather the dots in the capture chambers.

[Absalon]

Never played this before but I like it. 

My first score: 36419

 

 

[+Atari_Warlord]

Reactor = 5,909

 

This game is actually kind of fun.  Is the Trackball Version fair game?  Not that I have the time to find my trackballs.

 

 

[kermit73]

6 hours ago, Vocelli said:

Not sure how scoring points goes. I think you get more points if you gather the dots in the capture chambers.

The manual indicates you get 200 points for smashing any particle that splits into two smaller particles and 50 points for smashing the particles small enough to be destroyed in one hit.  Each control rod along the left and right wall is worth 50 points.  If you get particles in the bonus chambers, each bounce is worth 10-15 points.  These bonus points are added to your score after you die unless you've accumulated more bounces than the bonus counter can track, at which point it adds the points to your score right away.  Any decoys left at the end of the game earn 500 points.

 

The manual does not explain how you can end up with scores that are not multiples of 5.  I may try to spend some time with video this week to figure out where the manual and reality differ in terms of scoring.

[oyamafamily]

Reactor  17,810

[oyamafamily]

Reactor  25,826

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by oyamafamily

[AtariSphinx]

Reactor (1 B/B): 31,799

 

Never played this one before.  

[classicgamer_27330]

4042

[fakecortex]

Neat game, don’t think I’ve played one quite like it. Use your spider to bounce macaroons into an electric fence. Interesting. 

 

Reactor - 19,569

[kermit73]

Reactor: 399145

 

With more consistency, I could probably roll the score at 1M, but I'm not sure I'll want to play the ~6 hours required.  I'm not a fan of marathons and it took 2.5 hours to fall just short of 400k.

 

My game photo shows an Easter Egg.  The letters "CH" shown below the score are the programmer's initials (Charlie Heath).  They appear at the end of the game if you score 200k or more.

 

@Vocelli You may want consider setting rollage for this game at 200k.  Once you make it past the fourth series of boards (the vortex with invisible walls), the game repeats these levels and does not increase in difficulty.  To score 200k requires completing these boards a few times and will typically take 60-90 minutes.

 

 

 

[classicgamer_27330]

[Jasonhrb]

What a clever game this is. It made no sense to me at all at first, but once the game mechanics are understood, the whole thing is surprisingly intuitive. The action ramps up nicely, and it gets frantic quite quickly. The changing reactor layout adds more challenge. and the whole "destroy the enemies but it's not a shooter" vibe is one I really like. Yet another example (there are many in the 2600 catalogue, and we've played loads this season) of a game that is simply better than it has any right to be given the technical specs of the hardware and memory used. My only (minor) gripe is that the colours are a bit drab. Parker Brothers seemed to do this a lot (popeye is another example), and it's a shame inho. Still an absolute blast of a game.

 

Anyway, time for me to shut up and provide a score ?

 

Oh, and a quick P.S for @kermit73 (and anyone else who's interested). The reason you can get a score that isn't a multiple of 5, is that you seem to get points every time that you "bump" a particle without actually destroying it. This part of the score goes up 1 point at a time

 

 

[Vocelli]

@kermit73 We will make rollage , so your effort/time was not wasted, at 390K .

[+jgkspsx]

I really like this game, and my recollection is that it is critically reviled. Glad to see others are finding it fun. A trackball hack seems AMAZING, I will have to look for that (and find my Cx22).

[DrMooCowz]

I'm not sure about this one, even after reading comments and the manual.

 

19930

 

[Lauren Tyler]

8,513

[kermit73]

7 hours ago, Jasonhrb said:

My only (minor) gripe is that the colours are a bit drab. Parker Brothers seemed to do this a lot (popeye is another example), and it's a shame inho. Still an absolute blast of a game.

I tend to agree.  Parker Brothers graphics could use some improvement, but I give them very high marks on their sounds.  They did particularly well getting the music in Popeye, Frogger, Gyruss, and even Reactor to sound right.

 

7 hours ago, Jasonhrb said:

Oh, and a quick P.S for @kermit73 (and anyone else who's interested). The reason you can get a score that isn't a multiple of 5, is that you seem to get points every time that you "bump" a particle without actually destroying it. This part of the score goes up 1 point at a time

Yep - I discovered this while playing and didn't mention it in my previous post.  I don't think this scoring is mentioned anywhere in the manual.  It also seems like the bounces in the bonus chamber are 15 points until you max out the counter.  After you die, it seems to run up the score in 15-point increments, but after maxing out the counter, it gives you 10-points each bounce right away.

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Cool pick! Reactor is one of those weirdly abstract artsy games that I don't think anyone could have thought up outside of it's time and place in the early 80's, but it's a lotta fun once you get the hang of it

 

 

Reactor (Game 1, B/B Difficulty): 91,073

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

On 4/8/2022 at 2:28 PM, Atari_Warlord said:

Is the Trackball Version fair game?

 

I'm guessing not because using an analog trackball would probably provide you with a distinct advantage over other players in the control department, but I'd like to hear from @Vocelli on this one too since I'd never pass up an opportunity to break out the old CX-80 Trak-Ball! 

 

[Vocelli]

6 hours ago, Skippy B. Coyote said:

 

I'm guessing not because using an analog trackball would probably provide you with a distinct advantage over other players in the control department, but I'd like to hear from @Vocelli on this one too since I'd never pass up an opportunity to break out the old CX-80 Trak-Ball! 

 

Yes, you can use the trackball.

[nads]

Okay, Ive worked this one out ? although the invisible walls are challenging

 

To echo @kermit73 comments definitely a marathon-able game but it would take a lot of stamina and patience.

 

Reactor 1BB : 117,785

 

 

[Krytol]

11,988

 

 

[+jgkspsx]

First score: 7987

 

 

Edit: slight improvement - 12661

 

 

OK, this is probably it for tonight: 14881

 

 

EDIT: I lied. If mouse/trackball hacks are allowed, here is my final final score of the night: 23486