An Old Score Settled... and a Minor Improvement!

Since I started this challenge nearly two years ago, my scores on some games have remained unchanged. A couple of nights ago, that finally changed for two games – Dig Dug and Qix.

Firstly, my score of 83,360 on Dig Dug has been unattainable, let alone unsurpassable, with my next best score being around 68k. That was until Sunday night, when I had just one attempt, and had the game of my life so far! Everything seemed to click, all the bonus items were collected and I not only surpassed that long-standing score but smashed through the 100k barrier in style with a score of 110,460! Whether it was a fluke or not, I’ll not find out until I next play, but that’s another game crossed off the list regardless…

The second score improvement was not quite so impressive, but to be honest I never thought I’d surpass my best score of 55,906 on Taito’s challenging Qix. I may have only beaten that score by a few hundred points to give me a new best of 56,348, but at least I know progress is actually achievable after nearly two years of trying!

So that’s a great start to September, and 100k now achieved on 16 of the 40 games. Let’s see what happens next!

Green Beret Goes Green…

…and of course Green means I’ve reached 100k on the game! Following the progress reported in my last update, I progressed past the target more quickly than anticipated and finished with a score of 102,120. As I wasn’t expecting to get 100k quite so quickly, I didn’t record the achievement, but I do intend to record a few hints on this one soon.

That brings the total games with 100k attained to 15, with hopefully more to come in the next few weeks before I head off to America.

Back with a Bang!

Well then, it’s been nine months since my last update. There are numerous reasons for this which I won’t go into, but as of this past weekend I am officially restarting the 100k Challenge!

In the last nine months I have not done a lot of arcade gaming, but I’m now focussing back on the MAME cabs for the next couple of months because we are heading off to the USA for the annual Funspot tournament at the end of May, so I need the practice!

My initial preparation for the tournament has been to play games that are available at Funspot (and therefore might be in the competition) but are also on my 100k Challenge game list. This practice had reaped almost instant rewards, as I’ve now passed my target score on Konami’s Contra, with 126,500 points!

Interestingly, this score was achieved on what seemed to be one of my worst-ever games. I lost two lives before I even reached the enemy base on the first level, but then proceeded to get through the base and past the first boss without losing another life, which was a first. I then got to the second base before meeting my demise, but by then the 100k was well secured. There’s no video for this one (it was just a practice session) but it was hardly a vintage performance anyway and most players should easily be able to pass 100k after a few attempts.

Since my last update, the only other game I’ve made any improvement on is Donkey Kong, pushing my score up by a little over 2,000 points to 97,300 – that 100k is getting painstakingly close now!

So as a reminder, the current state of play is shown below. Hopefully there will be some more updates soon!

Metro-Crossed Off The List!

Yes, a few days ago I passed the 100k landmark on another game, Namco’s Metro-Cross. This one came about due to the game being the focus of the latest JAMMA+ Forum High Score Challenge. I was already getting around 80k or more per go (with a personal best of 93k) but having picked up some tips I soon achieved the target score.

The screenshot shows three scores over 100k, but the first one I got was 108,050. I didn’t record a video for this but since I’ve already managed to get over 100k on several occasions and will continue to play this as part of the JAMMA+ challenge, I will get a video done to show off the scoring techniques.

That’s 13 games done now – what will be next?

Pooyan Gameplay Video

Here’s my recording of my 100k achievement on Pooyan from this past weekend.

As you’ll see, the key to getting decent scores on this game is accurate use of the hunk of meat that appears at the top right every so often, usually when a large group of enemies are travelling up or down the screen.

Each eliminated wolf gives a Pac-Man style score multiplier, i.e. 200 for the first, 400 for the second and so on. Also bear in mind that after wiping the wolves out with the meat, the balloons stay on-screen and can be shot for an extra 200 points each.

Saving Lots of Bacon...

Yes indeed, there has been some serious pig rescuing done a couple of nights ago, as I smashed through the 100k barrier on Konami’s Pooyan. My final score was 115,950...

The video for this one will be uploaded in the next few days, but that’s two games done in less than a week. Hopefully I’m on a roll!

Flying Shark Tamed!

Can you tame a shark? Who knows? Anyway, after a long period of relative inactivity (at least as far as actually increasing scores goes) I have finally achieved another 100k score. Taito’s Flying Shark is the game in question and the score is 100,780.

To be honest I didn’t expect to reach this score so easily, as previous time dedicated to this game has seen only minimal increases and usually a bit of practice is required before I can tackle the first level. However this score came on just my second attempt so there’s no video, but it wasn’t a particularly noteworthy performance anyway.

Still, it’s another game off the list with 29 still to go. Most of my recent focus has been on Donkey Kong, on which I’ve logged several 90k or higher scores over the last week, although none higher than my current best. It’s surely just a matter of time though!

Given the general lack of progress at the moment I’ve basically given up on the weekly updates and will now just post to the blog whenever I improve a score, and then summarise my progress at the end of each month.

Triumph in the Temple of Doom!

What started as a practice session turned into another 100k completion when I completed the fourth ‘rescue the children’ stage of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom for the first time and finished with a score of 108,600...

Usually I wouldn’t go back and record a video if I didn’t do it in the first place but I’m annoyed that despite breaking 100k I’m still not top of the high score table, so I aim to record that feat at some point in the future!

So after a long wait I’ve finally reached 100k on a quarter of my 40 games, so there’s just 30 left to go.

Road Fighter Gameplay Video

I finally got around to pulling this off the camera, so let’s go all the way back to week 14 and check out my 100k achievement on Konami’s Road Fighter. The final moments of my attempt were a bit of a disaster but I managed it in the end...

As you’ll see, the key is not to rush through each stage and focus on getting through the traffic without bumping into it, collecting all the bonus ‘fuel cars’ that give increasing scores providing you don’t crash.

Two more 100k achievements - Merry Christmas!

Never let is be said that I’m not committed to this challenge – on Christmas Day and Boxing Day I put a few hours into playing and managed to reach my target score on two more games…

First up on Christmas Day was Road Fighter. I only just managed to reach the target with a score of 100,250 and annoyingly I grabbed my camera to take a photo the high score table defaulted my name to ‘A’, but it’s another one crossed off the list!

Thanks to tips from JAMMA+ forum member muddymusic on this one - his MAME score on Road Fighter is over a million points so mine pales in comparison to that! The main tips I’d share are that you shouldn’t try and race to the finish line but instead take it a bit slower, avoid hitting any other cars for a large and of stage bonus, and make sure you collect all the bonus cars which increase in value each time you get them.

The second game, completed on Boxing Day, was Van-Van Car and the score achieved was 138,000. To be honest there’s no tips to be shared here – the game is simple enough and there don’t seem to be any secrets to score boosting, so it’s just a case of making your way through the levels without making any mistakes. I quite enjoyed playing the game but it’s certainly not a classic!

Return of the Invaders Gameplay Tips Video

Finally for today, here's some tips on how to improve your score on Return of the Invaders, which I also reached 100k on in week 9.

One thing I didn't mention in the video is that to activate the challenging stages you must leave at least two of the relevant enemies until last, and the more you leave alive, the bigger and more valuable the mothership that is spawned.

Mario Bros Gameplay Tips Video

This is a short video demonstrating some of the techniques I used to reach 100k on Mario Bros back in week 9...

Mr Do! Gameplay Tips Video

Back in week 5 I surpassed 100k on Mr Do! This was rather unexpected so wasn't recorded, but this video shows some strategies that helped me reach my scoring target...

Zoo Keeper Gameplay Video

Also from week 3, here's my video of breaking the 100k barrier for the first time on Zoo Keeper...

Amidar Gameplay Video

Well it's taken some time to get these created but finally I have some gameplay videos. First up we go all the way back to week 3 and my 100k achievement on Amidar. Not much more to be said about this one so I'll let the video do the talking...

Kong Conquered!

Late last night just before heading to bed I decided to try and increase my score on Crazy Kong. Having reached 73k last week I figured it was worth trying to surpass 75k and move the game into yellow status. As it turned out, I did that and much more!

Having only managed to get past the third elevator stage once, on this attempt I reached that level without even losing a life, and got past it without any issues. At that point my score was around 8,000 points less than my personal best so I wasn’t expecting much more, but things just got better and better as I went on to reach the fourth elevator stage before losing my first life...

On my next life I got past that stage and the following rivet level without further loss of life. I finally met my match in the form of some aggressive random barrels on the fifth barrel stage but not before squeaking past my target score with 100,100 points - how close was that?

So that’s an unexpected surprise and another 100k achievement. On to the next one!

Invaders Return... Invaders Repelled!

For the second time this week, what started out as a practice session resulted in reaching the 100k scoring target. This time it was Taito’s Return of the Invaders, and my score was 103,500.

The key to scoring highly on this one is to trigger the Galaga-esque Challenging Stages, which it would appear can be done on every level by simply leaving a cluster of specific enemies to last. These then morph into a mothership that launches enemies towards you to be picked off at will. However, you can also target the mothership itself to score thousands of points. Once again there’s no video of my 100k achievement but I will definitely record one sometime to show how to trigger the bonus stages.

A Plumber with a Sore Head: Mario Bros. Completed!

I decided to focus on reaching 100k on Mario Bros. last night and after a couple of scores in the 70 to 80k range, things came together nicely and I just managed to reach the 100k threshold witha  score of 101,120! I did lose a couple of cheap lives in a row around the 90k mark which left me with just one life remaining, so it was a bit hair-raising at the end.

Once again I was just practising and wasn’t really expecting to reach the target score, so there’s no video, but to be honest it was hardly a perfect performance anyway. I may record a quick video just to show a couple of scoring techniques, but in all honesty this is a game where concentration and mastery of the controls are far more important than point pressing.

So finally I have reached 100k on one of the games on my horizontal MAME cab. Not sure what I’ll be aiming for next but it’s already been a good week!

Pac-Man Powered Up; Mr Do... Done!

Well I’m definitely having a better week! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m focussing on the classics this week and I started with Pac-Man. After almost reaching 50k a couple of weeks ago I wondered if I’d ever reach that milestone again, and after three or four credits where I lost a life on the first level, I had as good as given up. I then had the game of my life so far, managing to last until the fifth level without losing a life and almost getting perfect points on the second stage, just missing one ghost. Ultimately I got to level 9 and was a little disappointed not to surpass 75k in the end. That said, my score of 71,330 was very pleasing!

Next I tried my hand at Mr Do! I had achieved a score of over 90k just once in the past but since then I had barely got close, with many scores barely passing 60,000. After a number of frustrating attempts I decided to have one more go last night, changing my gameplay tactics slightly, and clocked up a very satisfactory 125,200 points, thus completing the challenge for that game!

I wasn’t really expecting to reach 100k so I didn’t capture the achievement on video, but I may have another go to try and record some of the techniques I used. In a nutshell though, for the first few levels I concentrated on crushing multiple enemies with a single apple, which yields a lot of points, followed by clearing the majority of cherries and zapping the bonus letter dude from the top of the screen. On later levels when the red enemies get too fast, my focus changed to getting rid of them as quickly as possible before gathering up all the cherries. I don’t think it’s the best tactic but it certainly worked for me!

Amidar and Zoo Keeper Completed

Well it took a bit longer than I anticipated but I’ve now surpassed the 100k threshold for the first time on both Amidar and Zoo Keeper! Both achievements were recorded and I’ll get the videos along with some gameplay tips online ASAP, but in the meantime here’s some pictures of the high score tables from both games...