High Score Competition #125 Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom

[JDFan]

Previous winners:

#001 thru #099 - For list of winners for those competitions  please refer to this link
#100: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Winner - Gray_Area, Second - Tafoid
#101: Marvin's Maze: Winner - Kixfan, Second - Hammerfist
#102: Rally-X:  Winner - Tafoid, Second  djm858
#103: Lock 'N Chase:  Winner - Kixfan, Second - Jasonbar
#104: Space Fury: Winner - Gray_Area, Second - kixfan
#105: Pig Out: Winner - Kixfan, Second - Gray_Area
#106: Carnival: Winner - rick6668, Second - Kixfan
#107: Rastan: Winner - popsicle, Second - rick6668
#108: Peguin-Kun Wars Winner-dancawar, Second - Popsicle
#109: Blood Bros.* Winner - harveybirdman, Second - Jasonbar *scores reflect use of game features considered cheats
#110: Rabbit Punch: Winner - jasonbar, Second - mimic
#111: Alien Syndrome: Winner - mimic, Second Comtek
#112: Block Hole: Winner - Comtek, Second - idsane
#113: Pepper II: Winner - Comtek, Second - Kixfan
#114: Break Thru: Winner - jasonbar, Second - mimic
#115: Ninja Baseball Bat Man: Winner - mimic, Second - Tafoid
#116: Shao-lin's Road: Winner - mimic, Second - Kixfan
#117: Scramble: Winner - Kixfan, Second - jasonbar
#118: Lost Tomb: Winner: Jasonbar, Second: mimic
#119: Green Beret: Winner: LeapinLew, Second: popsicle
#120: Lady Killer: Winner: Comtek Second: Mimic
#121: Qix: Winner: Comtek Second: sorhp
#122: Halley's Comet: Winner: Jasonbar Second: Mimic
#123: Cyber-Lip: Winner: Jasonbar Second: epetti
#124: Lode Runner: Winner: JDFan Second: kixfan

Competition #125:Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom


High Score Competition #125 Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom (set 1)
http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=9601
ROM name: snowbros
default dip switch settings
Last day: Thursday, October 10, 2013, midnight Pacific Time.

Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom (set 1)




DESCRIPTION
Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom © 1990 Toaplan.

One or two players take on the roles of snowmen Nick and Tom as they battle a variety of monsters over fifty platform-based, single screen levels. The snowmen must throw snowballs at the enemies, eventually encasing them completely in snow. The encased enemies must them be kicked in order to destroy them. This is achieved by standing next to the snowball and pressing the "kick out" button, which sends the giant snowball flying around the screen, killing any enemies that lay in its path. During every 10th level, the players must face and defeat an end-of-level boss.

A number of power-ups are available, in the form of coloured potions. The power-ups are as follows :
* Yellow = Long shot
* Red = Speed up
* Blue = Bigger snowballs (encases monsters quicker)
* Green = Inflates the players like a balloon and lets them fly around the screen, killing any monsters they touch.



General Rules:
- One Credit, No Continues.
- Highest score wins.
- No savestates, savestate practices, etc. during the round.
- MAME INP recordings are encouraged but optional.
- A screenshot is required to enter a score (press F12 to save screenshot showing your final score) or take a photo of the game screen.
- If you're a MARP competitor on this title, keep in mind this is just a friendly competition among 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!
- Even if you don't have a competitive score or if you don't *think* that you have a competitive score, please post it anyway to keep the thread fun & to give everybody a good sense of score ranges.
- Please make sure your scores are from games that take place during the competition period (no posting your best score from last year, etc.).
- Use of autofire or other non-standard hacks within MAME or your PC's OS are not allowed.  No program or other person or entity of any sort may manipulate your controls during your game.  Coaching & back-seat driving is fine as long as the party doesn't directly influence the game or controls.
- If you can beat any of the high scores from the previous competitions, you can submit your score to the BYOAC High Game Scoreboard.

[epetti]

Looking forward to it.

Until I started going through a lot of lesser played MAME games I didn't realize that this sort of game could practically be it's own genre.  I guess Bubble Bobble is probably their ancestor game, or maybe Mario Bros. is a more distant ancestor?  But there's a ton of these single screen platformers where you somehow entrap and then destroy enemies.

[Comtek]

Lets start things off here
293,660

[Comtek]

I had other high scores but the game gave me a coin input error and erased them
LOL I have an .INP if anybody wants to see it.

[JDFan]

Nice Start Comtek - 293K on floor 10  !!

I keep running into them when trying to get higher scores (Using a keyboard right now so should improve once I load up the bartop as my wireless keyboard has some input delay in game !) -- so far only played a couple games and high was 137,300 but was at only floor 3 -- so the scores can definitely get up there (HINT #1 : if you get all of the monsters in one shot money will fall from the top to bottom of screen - worth 10,000 point a piece so if you can be on the bottom of the screen and pick them up you can rack up about 50,000 in bonus right there !! )

[JDFan]

Finally put together a better run -- 427,960

Starting to remember how to play this game (there was a store that had one many years ago near where I lived that I used to play on and it got way too many quarters from me !!)

[jasonbar]

After a couple of games, 457,300.

This is one of those games where, if you play it straight, you'll get nowhere points-wise.

You need to go for the enormous bonuses that totally eclipse your normally earned points.

Dangerous!

-Jason

[Comtek]

542740
once you figure out the best place to knock them all out at once you can get amazing scores
the yellow power up helps grab all the 10K bonuses

[JDFan]

Yep -- it's definitely a game that grows on you as you find ways to get the bonuses while avoiding getting killed off ( It also was very good at getting you to put in more quarters to continue trying to improve !!) - it's a fairly simple concept of a game but provides quite a bit of re playability as you try to find new ways of getting ever higher scores (this is one of the reasons I decided on it for this type of competition) - By the end of the 2 weeks there should be some pretty high scores posted !!

And the power-ups definitely help getting those money drops (esp. the red and yellow) -- I hate when you get those drops and miss all but one or two bonuses as they disappear just before you get to them if you're moving too slow !

[epicfatigue]

kool i aint missing this one!

[JDFan]

OK guys a new high to shoot for - 731,810 on floor 14 !

Hate those spinner guys that show up on this level that you can not shoot while spinning so are hard to avoid !! -- I notice from comtek's screen that he had the same problem with them !! 

[blashyrk]

OK guys a new high to shoot for - 731,810 on floor 14 !

Hate those spinner guys that show up on this level that you can not shoot while spinning so are hard to avoid !! -- I notice from comtek's screen that he had the same problem with them !! 

Wow, I can't even get past 100,000 points :p

[jasonbar]

If you don't get the red potion (happy feet) & all enemies on floor 1 to make it rain, you're already 60-70k behind the curve. No way to catch up to a competitive score unless you hit that on floor 1.

629,090 on floor 15.

Note: only 375,350 on floor 20...

-Jason

PS--loved this game when it came out--for the record, this game is on my short list of games I could pick if I win a BYOAC competition--see, not all of my picks are duds!

PPS--Nick & Tom are really really creepy if you look at them close--like, nightmare creepy. Ick.

[JDFan]

Wow, I can't even get past 100,000 points :p

With this game the bonus points are very important -- ie. if you can knock out all enemies on a level with the first wave of snowballs that you send flying money bills will fall from the top of the screen to the bottom and each one you pick up before it dissapears is worth 10,000 points (and there are usually from 5-8 of them so there is 50,000 - 80,000 points right there just on each level ) - and if you can get the red potion so that you move faster it makes gathering the bonuses much easier.

Here is a quick run of level one that should help give you the idea --

[blashyrk]

Wow, I can't even get past 100,000 points :p

With this game the bonus points are very important -- ie. if you can knock out all enemies on a level with the first wave of snowballs that you send flying money bills will fall from the top of the screen to the bottom and each one you pick up before it dissapears is worth 10,000 points (and there are usually from 5-8 of them so there is 50,000 - 80,000 points right there just on each level ) - and if you can get the red potion so that you move faster it makes gathering the bonuses much easier.

Here is a quick run of level one that should help give you the idea --

Cool thank you.

[Comtek]

837 660
managed to get some good power ups early and keep them until stage 14 died on stage 16 spinners got me again

[Comtek]

had a better run than this one going but messed up on the boss

[JDFan]

Quick Update :

At the half way mark with 1 week left to get those scores in, we have Comtek in the lead with a score 837,660, JDFan in second with 731,810, and jasonbar in third with 629,090.

Still plenty of time for others to get in there and for those scores to increase -- Will we get a score over the 1,000,000 point level before this ends ??  It should be an interesting weekend as others start posting their scores !

[zanna5910]

jeez guys, i can only get to 187K level 15 or so, I need to work on the all-in-one shot I think.

Figured out the patterns a bit and got up to 537K.   Gonna give it a go tonight and see what I can get.  Really fun game though.  800K+ scores are impressive.

[epetti]

Yeah, a not very competitive 148K.  Can't quite get the hang of knocking them all of at one.  Every time I manage to get all but one, which is no bonus.  Got past the first boss, so I'm happy.

[Comtek]

I usually find a spot that is somewhat safe and let them come to me
except for the spinners
close to my high score here is a vid for you guys struggling with the game

[JDFan]

Nice Video Comtek -- Now it's time to get back and get a higher score !!

Here's a new one of the New High Score : 929,850  -- Could have made the 1,000,000 but really messed up at the end along with a few earlier levels that lost a bunch of points !

[zanna5910]

cool vids, we have completely different strategies and patterns! 

[JDFan]

cool vids, we have completely different strategies and patterns!

That's one of the reasons I like this game -- many ways to get the results and the same patterns don't always work so you have to adapt !!

[zanna5910]

Here's my best effort tonight: 875390

You almost have to get a red right away to collect all the bonuses and stack up the points early.  I fumbled with my camera so long I didn't get my name in. 

[JDFan]

Here's my best effort tonight: 875390

You almost have to get a red right away to collect all the bonuses and stack up the points early.  I fumbled with my camera so long I didn't get my name in.

Nice score  -- the red bonus definitely helps but I seem to not get one until the third or fourth level then after that it is a matter of trying not to lose a life and have to start over without the speed up !

[zanna5910]

Here's my best effort tonight: 875390

You almost have to get a red right away to collect all the bonuses and stack up the points early.  I fumbled with my camera so long I didn't get my name in.

Nice score  -- the red bonus definitely helps but I seem to not get one until the third or fourth level then after that it is a matter of trying not to lose a life and have to start over without the speed up !

Yea, me too.  Every now and then you'll get it earlier.  The worst is getting all the guys killed in the same shot, then getting that stupid smiley face SNOW game instead of dropping the cash everywhere.  I've really enjoyed playing this one, fun little game and the music is catchy.

What do you guys use to record?  Are you taking screen shots with MAME's standard screen shot option?

[Comtek]

to record the avi's i'm using mameuifx32 under the file menu select play and record avi
for screen shots i'm hitting f12

[JDFan]

I've been using the play and record inp setting rather than avi (using Mameui64) -- it records a much smaler file as it is just the inputs for mameui so that mameui can replay the game rather than an actual recording -- so does not cause any slowdown in game like recording the big avi file on older systems -- then after I get a game I want to post I use Camtasia to record the screen while playing back the inp file and save in mp4 format to upload to youtube.

Would be easier if Saint would allow us to upload .inp format files directly so they could be downloaded and played back in MAME (Figure the inp file for the high score game I posted is only 197KB. so is a much smaller download than the 65MB MP4 file - though with higher speed connections it isn't that bad either way.

Yea, me too.  Every now and then you'll get it earlier.  The worst is getting all the guys killed in the same shot, then getting that stupid smiley face SNOW game instead of dropping the cash everywhere.  I've really enjoyed playing this one, fun little game and the music is catchy.

Though if you can get the "SNOW" spelt out completely it gives you another life which can be handy also (not particularly when trying for a high score though !!) -- glad to hear you are enjoying the game - I had forgotten about it until trying to find a game for this competition that hadn't already been chosen and hadn't played it in probably 10+ years so it does bring back memories !

[jasonbar]

835,680

Dragons on level 21 not only shoot flame sideways but also bend over & barf flame downward on you from above. Fast. Can't hang out on the bottom & freeze everybody--too dangerous. Ugh.

-Jason

[Comtek]

been playing a lot managed to get the red potion on stage 1 this game
1008930 died on the 2nd boss

[JDFan]

been playing a lot managed to get the red potion on stage 1 this game
1008930 died on the 2nd boss

Nice  -- figured someone would make the 1,000,000 point mark before it was over -- Guess it's time for me to get back to playing before Thursday !! -- that second boss is a tough one with all the bombs blasting all around you !

[Rodman]

Hi guys!

Just found out that there is heavy competition going on!
Love it

Racing, competing is in my blood - Ayrton Senna

Cant compete on this one as there is only one day left and i have no time 

Just wanted to say hello and

I´m IN! 

R.

[jasonbar]

Welcome, Rodman. Can't read your score. Too small.

Reminder to everybody: please write your score in the body of your posts--image aren't always available or legible.

Thanks,
-Jason

[Rodman]

sorry for that - score is only 654320

next posts are gonna be well readable 4 sure!

Cheers,
R.

[blashyrk]

Score  -  718280

I really like these high score competitions :-)

[JDFan]

Getting close to the final hours !!! -- Good to see we have several competitors - just remember to get the final updates posted before the midnight deadline.

With this being the final day we have :

Comtek  1,008,930    JDFan       929,850 Zanna       875,390 jasonbar    835,680 Blashyrk    718,280 Rodman     654,320 Epetti        148,300

Let's see if anyone can come along in the final day and change the standings !! (I've gotten sidetracked playing Kingdom of Amalur Reckoning's DLC this week so haven't had a chance to improve and tried playing last night with no success at getting a better score but there may be time for a few rounds today.) Good Luck All and get those scores posted before midnight PST and I'll post the final results in the morning tomorrow !

[Comtek]

be nice if someone does beat me I don't have a clue of a game to pick

[JDFan]

be nice if someone does beat me I don't have a clue of a game to pick

Yeppers that is one of the hardest parts especially as the competition goes on for awhile -- I kept thinking of games and then would check the list and they'd already be there ! Then came across this one in the game list and remembered playing it many many years ago.

 I had a good game going earlier was over 800K with 3 lives left and several boosts and then the cat jumped on the desk and somehow hit my escape button  after that I just didn't feel much like trying again.

[Rodman]

 I had a good game going earlier was over 800K with 3 lives left and several boosts and then the cat jumped on the desk and somehow hit my escape button  after that I just didn't feel much like trying again.

.... and thats the one reason there are no ESC buttons in Arcade Cabs 

R.