The last 42 competitions:
#1 - Shinobi - Winner: Destructor#2 - Jungle Hunt - Winner: CrazyKongFan#3 - Zoo Keeper - Winner: DeLuSioNal29#4 - Q*Bert - Winner: quarterstringer#5 - Robotron 2084 - Winner: (+_+)#6 - Joust - Winner: Shoegazer)#7 - Elevator Action - Winner: FrontyDev#8 - Mr Do - Winner: DeLuSioNal29#9 - Hyper Sports - Winner: drawfull#10 - Wonder Boy - Winner: DrFrag#11 - Bubble Bobble - Winner: mrclean#12 - Gun.Smoke - Winner: isucamper#13 - Ghouls 'n Ghosts - Winner: Ginsu Victim#14 - Ms Pac-Man (with speedup hac) - Winner: CrazyKongFan#15 - Frogger - Winner: CrazyKong Fan, Second: Jasonbar#16 - Grobda - Winner: Mimic, Second: Cornchip#17 - Bank Panic - Winner: ahofle, Second: Jasonbar#18 - Juno First - Winner: RayB, Second: Shoegazer#19 - Rolling Thunder - Winner: DrFrag, Second: isucamper#20 - Terra Cresta - Winner: isucamper, Second: Jasonbar#21 - Gladiator - Winner: Jasonbar, Second: Hewskie#22 - Alcon (Slap Fight) - Winner: DrFrag, Second: Bender#23 - Galaga - Winner: quarterstringer, Second: ToddH#24 - Defender - Winner: quarterstringer, Second: tcleary#25 - Klax - Winner: CrazyKongFan, Second: TAG#26 - Funny Mouse - Winner: quarterstringer, Second: Epyx#27 - Rampart - Winner: isucamper, Second: john_abey#28 - Satan's Hollow - Winner: jasonbar, Second: ummon#29 - The Speed Rumbler - Winner: Epyx, Second: Mimic#30 - Black Dragon - Winner: Epyx, Second: CrazyKongFan#31 - Twin Cobra - Winner: ArcadeNerd, Second: jasonbar#32 - Tetris - Winner: DrFrag, Second: qlunch#33 - Gyruss - Winner: Hurray Banana, Second: vorghagen#34 - Mappy - Winner: Jasonbar, Second: TAG#35 - Bump 'n' Jump - Winner: Comtek, Second: DrFrag #36 - Popeye - Winner: CrazyKongFan, Second: isucamper #37 - Pengo - Winner: CrazyKongFan, Second: MazzMn #38 - Bomb Jack - Winner: bpark42, Second: Flaptop #39 - Smash T.V. - Winner: jasonbar, Second: quarterstringer #40 - Rygar - Winner: Cakemeister, Second: jasonbar#41 - Krull - Winner: jasonbar, Second: I/O#42 - Tutankham - Winner: DrFrag, Second: creatine28Competition #43 is Astro Blaster (version 3).
Okay, time for some backstory.
When I was little, back in the early 80s, I was crossing the English Channel on a ferry to France. They had a small arcade onboard, hidden away amongst the slot machines. I watched a guy playing Astro Blaster and it amazed me. I didn't get to play it then, and I didn't catch the name of it, but the memory stuck with me.
26 years later (this was a couple of weeks ago) I thought it would cool to post here asking what the game was called, in the hopes of finally playing it. But how to describe it? I decided I would crack open the MS Paint and draw my memory of it, in the style of many great forum posts on the Internet before me.
Here's what I came up with:
I remember this stage the most. Alien spaceships flying from left to right really fast, and slowly getting lower. He had to shoot them all before they reached him.
Spaceships that were like butterflies, getting too narrow to shoot at times. I remember him hitting the hyperspace button to slow them down, destroying them all, then being rewarded with some kind of refueling ship.
After I drew these, I realised I could load up MAME, sort by genre, and look at screenshots of games from 1984 and earlier. So I did, and Astro Blaster came up first under Shootr.slide. I was surprised it was as early as 1981. I was even more surprised, when I loaded it up, that it had digitised speech and was actually quite cool to play.
I played one round and decided to save playing it for a BYOAC competition. So here it is! I hope it doesn't suck!
Apparently the game has a ton of secrets. Some of them can be found here:
http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=astro-blaster&page=detail&id=129The current world record is 299,100 and was set in 1982. The current MARP record is 65,070. Score rolls over at 99,990.
ROMSet: astrob
DIP Switch Settings:
Lives: 3
(Should be default. There don't seem to be any other settings that would affect play.)
----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
- One credit only.
- No continues!
- No MAME cheats!
- Last day is Thursday May 20th (11:59:59pm Pacific Daylight Time), 2010.
- High score wins.
- No savestates, savestate practices, etc. during the round.
- MAME INP recordings are optional, but encouraged!
- A screenshot is required to enter a score (press F12 to save screenshot showing your final score) or take a photo of the screen if playing on a real machine.
- If you're a MARP competitor on this title, keep in mind this is just a friendly competition amongst forum members, so maybe you shouldn't enter. However, if you're a forum member and this is a game you're good at and nobody knows about it, this is your time to shine!
Good luck!