High Score Competition #126 Bosconian

[kixfan]

I had this weird issue happen where I was playing and for some reason the throttling seemed to become disabled.   Everything was moving so fast it was insane.   As soon as I died the game went back to normal on the next ship.   Anyone else see that happen?

[JDFan]

I had this weird issue happen where I was playing and for some reason the throttling seemed to become disabled.   Everything was moving so fast it was insane.   As soon as I died the game went back to normal on the next ship.   Anyone else see that happen?

Was it due to the "condition red"? - seems if you spend too long or let a spy ship see you without destroying it then it goes from yellow to red and everything seems to fly at you faster till you get killed or move to the next level.

[mimic]

I had this weird issue happen where I was playing and for some reason the throttling seemed to become disabled.   Everything was moving so fast it was insane.   As soon as I died the game went back to normal on the next ship.   Anyone else see that happen?

Was it due to the "condition red"? - seems if you spend too long or let a spy ship see you without destroying it then it goes from yellow to red and everything seems to fly at you faster till you get killed or move to the next level.

Holly crap, there is a connections between spy ship and condition red!!!?  And you saying it now!?!?!
I thought it's there to, err... look cool and add some digitized sound?

I tried, and tried, and it's not gonna happen! 
234,400.
If I could reach the lv14 I should be around Cynicaster's score, but I can't 

Btw I never had any issues with this game on my machine?


And very last thing, that I just need to know. Now that everyone gave a fair shot to Bosconian, could Comtek start a poll and find out which is better, Galaga or Bosconian? Both are from 1981, both from Namco, yet Bosconian never caught up in "states" for whatever reason (it was pretty popular in my country)
I was never attracted to Galaga and I really don't understand the love-affair with it, to me it was just an upgrade over space invaders.
Comtek if you do the poll, please note it's only for participants of the competition, otherwise people that only played Galaga will chime in.

[Tafoid]

Hey guys,

Im having issues with Bosconian too, was wondering if anyone else had seen this? been googling all day but cant find anyother mention. The games boots up fine (Mame 0.139), I add a coin and the game sais "push start to play". When I push start the score changes to "5ffffffff" and the game freezes (but the stars in the background continue moving). Ive tried all the different versions and i get the same thing, tried changing the dip switches, no change.  I tried remapping my panels buttons to see if that helped, no joy 

Anyone else seen or heard of this?

It was a regression in code first appearing in binaries with MAME 0.138u4 and was fixed in MAME 0.139u1.  You'll need to find another version of MAME to play it, sorry.  You cannot fix it on your end.

http://mametesters.org/view.php?id=3981

[kixfan]

I had this weird issue happen where I was playing and for some reason the throttling seemed to become disabled.   Everything was moving so fast it was insane.   As soon as I died the game went back to normal on the next ship.   Anyone else see that happen?

Was it due to the "condition red"? - seems if you spend too long or let a spy ship see you without destroying it then it goes from yellow to red and everything seems to fly at you faster till you get killed or move to the next level.

No, it just all of sudden started.   It was on round 3 or 4.   

[kixfan]

And very last thing, that I just need to know. Now that everyone gave a fair shot to Bosconian, could Comtek start a poll and find out which is better, Galaga or Bosconian? Both are from 1981, both from Namco, yet Bosconian never caught up in "states" for whatever reason (it was pretty popular in my country)
I was never attracted to Galaga and I really don't understand the love-affair with it, to me it was just an upgrade over space invaders.
Comtek if you do the poll, please note it's only for participants of the competition, otherwise people that only played Galaga will chime in.

Interesting, did not realize this was popular anywhere.   It's kind of funny you mentioned that, while I have been playing I was thinking to myself, this game needs some bonus levels like Galaga!   

[kixfan]

I'm done.   The 2 weeks went by quick.

Could not quite make it past Cynicaster.

239,650   --sorry mimic for the late post but you knew it was coming   

[actionless]

Hey guys,

Im having issues with Bosconian too, was wondering if anyone else had seen this? been googling all day but cant find anyother mention. The games boots up fine (Mame 0.139), I add a coin and the game sais "push start to play". When I push start the score changes to "5ffffffff" and the game freezes (but the stars in the background continue moving). Ive tried all the different versions and i get the same thing, tried changing the dip switches, no change.  I tried remapping my panels buttons to see if that helped, no joy 

Anyone else seen or heard of this?

It was a regression in code first appearing in binaries with MAME 0.138u4 and was fixed in MAME 0.139u1.  You'll need to find another version of MAME to play it, sorry.  You cannot fix it on your end.

http://mametesters.org/view.php?id=3981

Thanks for the info! Been driving me mad, guess I will have to update

[ranmoor]

yeah must admitt i had never heard of this game before .. but it rocks , defo one ill come back to play again .. 

[mimic]

I'm done.   The 2 weeks went by quick.

Could not quite make it past Cynicaster.

239,650   --sorry mimic for the late post but you knew it was coming   

Yeah, I knew that one alright! Although I was expecting a little more from the self-proclaimed "shmups lover" jason.

The two weeks indeed went by fast! But you still didn't answer Galaga or Bosconian! (I think I know the answer, but humor me)

[Cynicaster]

And very last thing, that I just need to know. Now that everyone gave a fair shot to Bosconian, could Comtek start a poll and find out which is better, Galaga or Bosconian? Both are from 1981, both from Namco, yet Bosconian never caught up in "states" for whatever reason (it was pretty popular in my country)
I was never attracted to Galaga and I really don't understand the love-affair with it, to me it was just an upgrade over space invaders.

YES!  I initially said something similar in my last post but ended up going back and deleting the comment because I didn't want to derail the thread. 

It took me just 2 or 3 credits on Bosconian before I found myself asking "holy crap, why oh why is Galaga remembered as one of the most legendary classic arcade games of all time, while pretty much nobody has even heard of Bosconian?"  It's made all the more perplexing by the fact that the games have so much in common (time of release, both Namco, similar kind of audiovisual style, etc.)  To me, the primary difference between the two games is that Bosconian is far more interesting and fun.  Maybe it was marketed poorly?     

[Cynicaster]

Wait... since I got the top score on this game does that mean I get to pick the next one? 

[JDFan]

Wait... since I got the top score on this game does that mean I get to pick the next one?

Yep -- your pick for next round !! 

Congrats all for the scores -- best I could get was just over 110,000 (forced to use keyboard as bartop has 0.139 installed and didn't have time to move 0.149 over this week) -- Will definitely be giving it another try once I get the bartop updated as the movement is pretty tough to get used to with the keyboard arrows.

[jdbailey1206]

Wait... since I got the top score on this game does that mean I get to pick the next one?

..Will definitely be giving it another try once I get the bartop updated as the movement is pretty tough to get used to with the keyboard arrows.

I like that excuse.  Must have been why I sucked it so hard only scoring 20,000 points in the end.   

[JDFan]

I like that excuse.  Must have been why I sucked it so hard only scoring 20,000 points in the end.   

It isn't an excuse and it definitely couldn't be the operator causing the problem - so must be the controls 

[kixfan]

I'm done.   The 2 weeks went by quick.

Could not quite make it past Cynicaster.

239,650   --sorry mimic for the late post but you knew it was coming   

Yeah, I knew that one alright! Although I was expecting a little more from the self-proclaimed "shmups lover" jason.

The two weeks indeed went by fast! But you still didn't answer Galaga or Bosconian! (I think I know the answer, but humor me)

Galaga holds a special place in my heart for a few reasons.   At our hang-out, we had a galaga cocktail that several of us would sit and spend hours playing.   The nice thing about Galaga is that you had some breaks in the game to rest your hand.   I'm going to guess and say a 2 person game probably took 15-20 minutes to play (averaging 250k or so).   So my answer is Galaga BUT, since having it MAME I almost never play it.   Bosconian (which I'm not sure how to even pronounce properly) has continuous action that is fast and furious specially in the later rounds.   Very fun game.   I will probably find time to play this every once in awhile (but not Galaga).

[mimic]

Galaga holds a special place in my heart for a few reasons.   At our hang-out, we had a galaga cocktail that several of us would sit and spend hours playing.   The nice thing about Galaga is that you had some breaks in the game to rest your hand.   I'm going to guess and say a 2 person game probably took 15-20 minutes to play (averaging 250k or so).   So my answer is Galaga BUT, since having it MAME I almost never play it.   Bosconian (which I'm not sure how to even pronounce properly) has continuous action that is fast and furious specially in the later rounds.   Very fun game.   I will probably find time to play this every once in awhile (but not Galaga).

It's clearly nostalgia for you, but to me Bosconian is the superior game. In Galaga you've seen 2 levels (regular and bonus) you've seen them all, Bosconian at least was ever changing, and that's what I craved as a kid. I never even cared to play Galaga, I would stand behind a player and it did nothing for me. I guess I'm lucky that Bosconian was popular in my neck of the planet.

Anyway enough of that, since no one posted summary, here it is:

1. Cynicaster - 251,790
2. kixfan - 239,650
3. mimic - 234,400
4. Comtek - 99,660
5. blashyrk - 98,810
6. JDFan - 81,850

0. jasonbar - 135,230 DISQUALIFIED! hahaahahaha 

[jasonbar]

Busy week(s) for me, & playing Bosconian was probably at the very bottom of my priorities list...just below cleaning the toilets...

As much as I loves me my SHMUPs, I can't get into Bosconian. "Hi, I'm Bosconian. I'm like Sinistar, but I'm boring & slow-paced & my voice is even more unintelligible!" It took me a while to decipher "Alive! Alive!" as being "Alert! Alert!" I forget what "Condition Red!" sounded like to me, but I think it had something to do with ordering breakfast at a diner...

Even that title screen--ack! So very TI-99/4A!  =O

OK, just my $.02. I seem to be in the minority.

I did play some legit games w/ the corrected free ship settings, but I couldn't find the motivation to spend 3 minutes to post the score. Here it is now, for the record. My legit score was close enough to my DQ score that I would have still landed in 4th. Hooray for me!

-Jason

PS--weird glitch on 115u2--or is this universal? My 6-figure high score displays only the rightmost 5 figures during gameplay, but it shows the "1" on the high score table. Weird. Boo on Bosconian!

[Generic Eric]

A week late and 2 dollars short.  I finally gave this a shot tonight and I am wondering how many found it an effective strategy to grind in the border regions to trigger the red condition?  My PB is 56k so not really a contender to the posted scores.

[JDFan]

A week late and 2 dollars short.  I finally gave this a shot tonight and I am wondering how many found it an effective strategy to grind in the border regions to trigger the red condition?  My PB is 56k so not really a contender to the posted scores.

Wouldn't suggest it -- figure the ships are only worth 50 -60 - 70 points so would take quite a bit of shooting them to improve your score much and they come at you pretty fast under the condition red status so doubt it would lead to much of a high score !

[Generic Eric]

A week late and 2 dollars short.  I finally gave this a shot tonight and I am wondering how many found it an effective strategy to grind in the border regions to trigger the red condition?  My PB is 56k so not really a contender to the posted scores.

Wouldn't suggest it -- figure the ships are only worth 50 -60 - 70 points so would take quite a bit of shooting them to improve your score much and they come at you pretty fast under the condition red status so doubt it would lead to much of a high score !

Ya, for awhile it seemed doable, but there was one swarm that come out of nowhere.  :keanu:

[Cynicaster]

I forget what "Condition Red!" sounded like to me, but I think it had something to do with ordering breakfast at a diner...

To me, condition red sounds like condition red, only spoken by Elmer Fudd.  "Condition Wed!  Condition Wed!"   

[jasonbar]

Yes, that was it!!!

And then I interpolated a little farther & came up with something more ludicrous.

[Generic Eric]

Played some more.  PB is 135540 

[jasonbar]

Yes, that was it!!!

And then I interpolated a little farther & came up with something more ludicrous.

Just remembered. "The dish is wet." Har.

[mimic]

Busy week(s) for me, & playing Bosconian was probably at the very bottom of my priorities list...just below cleaning the toilets...

As much as I loves me my SHMUPs, I can't get into Bosconian. "Hi, I'm Bosconian. I'm like Sinistar, but I'm boring & slow-paced & my voice is even more unintelligible!" It took me a while to decipher "Alive! Alive!" as being "Alert! Alert!" I forget what "Condition Red!" sounded like to me, but I think it had something to do with ordering breakfast at a diner...

Even that title screen--ack! So very TI-99/4A!  =O

I'm not really sure why Bosconian is "like Sinistar" if Bosconian is from 1981 and Sisnistar is from 1982. If anything "Sinistar is like Bosconian, but better"? Would be the argument, not the other way around! Synthesized speech in 1981, and you are bitching about it like you're on a rag! It's almost like you have some kind of pathological hate towards that "poor" game! Don't be a hater!