High score competition #150 : Thief

[kixfan]

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
#125: Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom: Winner: Comtek Second: JDFan
#126: Bosconian: Winner: Cynicaster Second: kixfan
#127: Eggs: Winner: Cynicaster Second: kixfan
#128: Eyes: Winner: kixfan Second: Comtek
#129: Galaga '88: Winner: jasonbar, Second: opt2not
#130: Final Fight: Winner: opt2not, Second: Comtek
#131: Hammerin' Harry: Winner: lettuce, Second: kixfan
#132: Battle Circuit: Winner: lettuce, Second: jasonbar
#133: Giga Wing: Winner: edekoning, Second: spoot
#134: Osman: Winner: edekoning, Second: lettuce
#135: Surprise Attack: Winner: Comtek, Second: edekoning
#136: Anteater: Winner: Kixfan, Second: Comtek
#137: Jr. Pac man: Winner: Kixfan, Second: Popsicle
#138: Chelnov: Winner: Popsicle: Second: Comtek
#139: Berzerk: Winner: Popsicle: Second: Kixfan
#140: Mystic Marathon: Winner: Popsicle: Second: JDFan
#141: Moon Cresta: Winner: Kixfan: Second: Jasonbar
#142: Star Force: Winner: big10p: Second: Jasonbar
#143: Armored Car:  Winner: Popsicle:  Second: Kixfan
#144: Pinball Action:  Winner: JDFan:  Second: popsicle
#145: Mr. TNT:  Winner: Kixfan:  Second: Comtek
#146: The End: Winner: Popsicle  Second: Kixfan
#147: Land, Sea, Air Squad:  Winner: Popsicle   Second: big10p
#148: Armor Attack:  Winner: HanoiBoi   Second: Popsicle
#149: Pooyan:  Winner: HanoiBoi   Second: Kixfan

--------------------------------------------
Game Name: Thief
  ROM Name: Thief

      Settings: Lives: 3
                     Bonus Life: NONE
                     Mode: Normal

Controls:

    Joystick: 4-way










Description: You are a master thief who just robbed a bank.   Even though you have robbed the bank and should have plenty of money you spend your time roaming from town to town picking up $1 bills for the strip club.   Because you are a master thief, you were smart enough to purchase a police scanner so you can listen to the bumbling police run into each other.


Last day: Sunday, October 12 2014 midnight Pacific
--------------------------------------------

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.



- Quest for the Bronze Joystick! The most successful competitor of each calendar year will possess & display the BYOAC Bronze Joystick Trophy. See this thread for details:The BYOAC Bronze Joystick.
Happy Gaming!

Scoring Updates:
Hanoiboi     83,030
Kixfan:        73,840
Big10p:       51,090
Popsicle:     38,110
Jasonbar:   30,420
JDFan:        28,680
pbj:            19,760

[kixfan]

I bet you thought it was Space Zap!

Not yet...

[Slippyblade]

This game makes my eyes bleed.  Absolutely the worst visual design ever.

[kixfan]

This game makes my eyes bleed.  Absolutely the worst visual design ever.

You should see NATO Defense!

[JDFan]

Had a feeling you'd pick this one (after the discussion in the other thread) 

[jasonbar]

Non-scrolling Armored Car!

(but more fun)

[HanoiBoi]

Ah!  I too should have seen this coming.  I don't have this loaded on my cab, so might take me a bit before I get to join in.  Will need to pull out the cab, hook up a keyboard, etc. Plus, I can be lazy with stuff like that. 

I'll see if I can find a laptop with mame loaded to play with.

[JDFan]

Tough little game as they tend to trap you in the maze from opposite directions -- guess I'll post a score 20,530

[wp34]

I played a few rounds tonight but could not beat JDFan's score. 

On the negative side this game reminds me of an ATARI 800 basic game I would have typed in from the pages of COMPUTE! BITD.

On the plus side I can play it with a beer in my right hand.   

[popsicle]

Ha, fun especially with the cheesy voice samples.  "He's a slippery sucker!"

[jasonbar]

Got one game in, baby in hand, which should give me an 18% or so bonus point handicap, right?

Oops, I guess I deleted my score photo, but it was in the vicinity of 16k, so I guess I can't plead my handicap case...

I like it. Fast & simple & clearly Los Angeles-centric with all of the street & neighborhood callouts!

-J

[pbj]

19,100 but the game doesn't save high scores, I didn't want to play a second game, and if there's a credit in you're stuck at a press start screen.

[Louis Tully]

.

[jasonbar]

pbj, my Thief saves high scores, using hiscore.dat & MAME 115u2.

For example, Thief has saved my weak 16,680 score, which pales in comparison to my staggering 30,420 score from last night.

-Jason

[kixfan]

Updated the scores.

Ok, there are 2 different approaches I have been trying, all out points or maximum level.   All out points is winning, 43,920.    Pacific Novelty has some very funny games.  We mentioned before about NATO but they also made Shark attack (that I had never seen).   Very funny but not much of a game.

[JDFan]

Yep it seems that getting all of the cars when using the power pills is very important for getting higher scores as the 1K and 2K cars add to the score quickly and it seems the cars will bunch up if you keep them following you making it a bit easier to collect them.

Slight improvement but still a ways to go ---28,680

[popsicle]

38,110

Playing on my desktop with arrow keys.  Probably should bust out a flash drive and put this on the 4-way cocktail cab.

[HanoiBoi]

Just got this added to cab this morning.  Keyboard crapped out and I needed to steal from my touchscreen jukebox setup.

I don't know why, but I do enjoy these simple games like these.  Haha.  I find the voices not quite as entertaining as NATO, but still fun.

Best so far is 29,460.  No need to add photo now.  I'll keep trying to best that into next week.

BTW, rather than play left handed, I configured my player 2 joystick so I could play it right handed (while remaining centered).  I know, I know...not rocket science.  Just worth the mention.

[big10p]

My first effort at this one: 35,260. I'm sure I can do much better, though - it's a pretty easy game, in some ways. i.e. the chasing cars are pretty dumb compared to, say, the Pac-Man monsters.

BTW, rather than play left handed, I configured my player 2 joystick so I could play it right handed (while remaining centered).  I know, I know...not rocket science.  Just worth the mention.

Yup, I do that for all joystick-only games.

[HanoiBoi]

A screen worth sharing.  58,860.

[kixfan]

Updated scores.

Hanoiboi drops da BOMB!     

Nice score!   The weather is sucky today so good reason to make a few runs...

[HanoiBoi]

'She Dropped Me The Bomb'

Got a little more last night.  61,750.

[kixfan]

I invested way more time than I would like to admit in getting this score.   I must of had a dozen upper 50k runs.  Several of them ending with me being just a smidge late to the magic money or the last dollar that would have sent me to the next screen.   I can't be sure but I think the game speeds up just a little in the later rounds.   As far as hints: I have noticed that in the early rounds if you are on the very bottom or top row almost 100% time if you can get the police to chase you and they are all on that row as well, then they very rarely turn off even if they have the ability.  Hope that made sense!   As stated early, you really need to get the early points as it is almost impossible to get more that 1 car at a time in the later rounds.   I generally have 20k after round 1 and 30-35k after round 2.   Mid 40s after round 3, after that it's mostly trying to clear the board.

63,900

[kixfan]

'She Dropped Me The Bomb'

Got a little more last night.  61,750.

Thanks for the Kix reference!

[big10p]

51,090

[pbj]

19,760

[kixfan]

19,760

I will now remove the * from your score!   

[HanoiBoi]

Alright...setting the bar a little bit higher.  Happy to get it early and have options to watch MNF and MLB playoffs....or catch some sleep and watch Sportscenter tomorrow.

Either way, I'm hoping for no midnite dynamite from kixfan.

70,090

[kixfan]

Played a few games, nothing special.   Said to myself, one more game before I go to bed and scored this.    63k thru level 4 before I lost first guy.   Made it to level 6 which is pretty messed up.   Lots of places to get trapped.   Just looked up the Twin Galaxies score, which is over 9 million except the settings they are using give a bonus car every 10k.

72,510

 

[gildahl]

No worthy score yet, but I found a review of this game from my August 1982 issue of Electronic Games magazine worthy of a laugh. 

According to it Pacific Novelty's Thief talks a good game and "uses the most advanced voice chip technology to do it.  Thief boasts the revolutionary Texas instruments 5200 "phonetic" chip which delivers a steady patter that is occasionally so amusing gamers will literally drop their joysticks in astonishment.  The sound, produced syllable by syllable rather than as entire words, is used to simulate the voice over a police radio...Thief is primarily an audio triumph, one of the few video contests that deserves an arcader's attention just because it sounds so good".

Not quite accurate, the voice effects were actually recorded on a tape loop.

Anyone drop their joysticks yet?

[HanoiBoi]

That's marketing for you.  But just in case, I'll be sure to grip mine a little tighter.

What I found more amusing is this, from KLOV: "The game uses a continuous loop tape with actual police band radio banter."

I don't recall what the word 'actual' meant back in '82, but I dont think its changed much.

As for kixfan's score...nicely done dog drool.  I made a few attempts on an impatient day.  No luck so far.  Will try again as the week progresses.  Please don't sandbag any higher scores.  If you beat it, please post it.  We need to know what we're shooting for...or when to just lie down.

[kixfan]

No worthy score yet, but I found a review of this game from my August 1982 issue of Electronic Games magazine worthy of a laugh. 

According to it Pacific Novelty's Thief talks a good game and "uses the most advanced voice chip technology to do it.  Thief boasts the revolutionary Texas instruments 5200 "phonetic" chip which delivers a steady patter that is occasionally so amusing gamers will literally drop their joysticks in astonishment.  The sound, produced syllable by syllable rather than as entire words, is used to simulate the voice over a police radio...Thief is primarily an audio triumph, one of the few video contests that deserves an arcader's attention just because it sounds so good".

Not quite accurate, the voice effects were actually recorded on a tape loop.

Anyone drop their joysticks yet?

LOL!

Some where I read the crash sound also is a tape loop.   I was trying to figure out how they would have done that?  Can't imagine they would have had 2 tape players.   So my guess is the tape player is stereo and so one side was the banter and the other side the crash sound?

[pbj]

Imagine one channel was banter, the other channel was crash sound effects.

I took an electronics class in high school and someone brought up the Star Wars arcade game and, hey, how come we couldn't make a circuit that talked.  The teacher INSISTED those voices were done with a tape player inside the machine.  Took me about 5 years to realize he was an idiot, then another 5 years to realize that quite a few 70s games had 8-tracks and cassettes in them.  So while wrong in regards to Star Wars, it wasn't a bad educated guess.

Can we please pick something that doesn't suck for the next game?

[kixfan]

What are you suggesting?    This game is AWESOME!

HaHa!  I won't have any say in the next game.    You need to play Shark attack first then you will appreciate this game!    I didn't know people could scream under water.

[JDFan]

Can we please pick something that doesn't suck for the next game?

If you practice a bit more and win this one you can select the next one ! 

[kixfan]

I've tried a few times each night.   Not getting anywhere near my high.   I did notice that some times when you get all 4 cars quickly, they will typically all reappear on the opposite side of the screen.   If you hurry you can sometimes get all 4 of them again by quickly hitting another special $.  Probably more luck then planning.

[HanoiBoi]

I would like to not share that I practically had all day yesterday to try but couldn't find my groove, but I regret to say I spent a lot of time trying.  Too much.  With no great runs.

This morning though, I had a couple good runs.  I've been trying to create some resemblance of patterns in order to catch as many 3rd and 4th cars.  One great find is on the 4th (I think) screen.  If you get to the top section of the screen, in the middle, the cop cars won't come up to get you, giving you a small break and time to plan your approach.   (I attached a pic below). Then, when the cop cars start 'bunching up' below you, you can bait them to come up on one side or the other, then make your break down the other side.  If you are patient enough to do this several times - run back to the top, wait, and make additional runs - you can get though the screen and if you play it right you can get that 4th cop car every time.  On your 'runs', either go for cash or go for cars.  If you try for both, you'll be doomed.  Oh...also, when the cop cars reappear on the screen, they come back in that middle section, so its best to have them follow you from the outside, then 'eat' them while running away from middle.  Ugh, that's pretty wordy.  Hope it makes sense.

Anyway, I got 83,030.

[kixfan]

Nice score!    I've been taking a few runs when I have a few minutes but each time I end in mid 60's. Steeler game on today and my Oldest daughter's 16th birthday so will have limited time but now that I have something to shoot for maybe my groove will come back.   Updated scores.

[HanoiBoi]

When life gets in the way.

I'm at my oldest's baseball game and the Eagles play late.  So I might get a couple more attempts in sometime this the evening.

Weird thought, and odd to share, but I had a 'dream' that the high would be 92k.  We'll see...

[kixfan]

Well, the Steeler game ended early (cuz they SUCK  ) and I had a great game going but I only upped my score 1k.    I doubt it will be getting 92k!