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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: DrFrag on July 16, 2009, 03:36:43 am

Title: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: DrFrag on July 16, 2009, 03:36:43 am: The last 22 competitions:

#1 - Shinobi - Winner: Destructor (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83244.0)
#2 - Jungle Hunt - Winner: CrazyKongFan (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=83889.0)
#3 - Zoo Keeper - Winner: DeLuSioNal29 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=84546.0)
#4 - Q*Bert - Winner: quarterstringer (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=85225.0)
#5 - Robotron 2084 - Winner: (+_+) (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=85787.0)
#6 - Joust - Winner: Shoegazer (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=86303.0)
#7 - Elevator Action - Winner: FrontyDev (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=86740.0)
#8 - Mr Do - Winner: DeLuSioNal29 (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=87233.0)
#9 - Hyper Sports - Winner: drawfull (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=87601.0)
#10 - Wonder Boy - Winner: DrFrag (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=88085.0)
#11 - Bubble Bobble - Winner: mrclean (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=88621.0)
#12 - Gun.Smoke - Winner: isucamper (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=89193.0)
#13 - Ghouls 'n Ghosts - Winner: Ginsu Victim (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=89684.0)
#14 - Ms Pac-Man (with speedup hac) - Winner: CrazyKongFan (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90149.0)
#15 - Frogger - Winner: CrazyKong Fan, Second: Jasonbar (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=90774.0)
#16 - Grobda - Winner: Mimic, Second: Cornchip (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=91316.0)
#17 - Bank Panic - Winner: ahofle, Second: Jasonbar (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=91747.0)
#18 - Juno First - Winner: RayB, Second: Shoegazer (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=92149.0)
#19 - Rolling Thunder - Winner: DrFrag, Second: isucamper (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=92570.0)
#20 - Terra Cresta - Winner: isucamper, Second: Jasonbar (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=92941.0)
#21 - Gladiator - Winner: Jasonbar, Second: Hewskie (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93412.0)
#22 - Alcon (Slap Fight) - Winner: DrFrag, Second: Bender (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=93912.0)

Not many scores submitted last round, so I thought I'd pick a classic we've all played - Galaga. Perhaps we'll get a few new regulars in our competitions. :)

(http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1127/gal1.png)

Competition Rules:

- You can only use the galaga.zip ROM (Galaga Namco rev. B), with default MAME settings which I think are:

Lives: 3
Bonus Life: 20K 70K 70K
Difficulty: Easy

This is what mine is set to, but I'm not sure if I've fiddled with it in the past so please correct me if I have it wrong. Can someone check this in their settings?

- No MAME cheats! There's also an in-game cheat where you can stop the enemies from firing, so that's not allowed either.

- Last day is Wednesday, July 30th (11:59:59pm Pacific Daylight Time), 2009.

- High score wins (if tied, winner will be chosen by which player progressed further in the game).

- 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!

- Game tips can be found here (http://tips.retrogames.com/gamepage/galaga.html). KLOV entry (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7881&letter=G). MAWS entry (http://maws.mameworld.info/maws/set/galaga).

My top score up until now is 205,680.

The current world record is 15,999,990 and took over 12 hours. Hopefully none of us are good enough that an individual game will drag out that long. ;D

If you think you're going to hit 1,000,000, then play as player 2 so it shows the millions digit.

Good luck!
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: YoGaBaR on July 16, 2009, 09:37:32 am: Even on easy this game is hard without the fast shoot hack.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: shardian on July 16, 2009, 09:42:02 am: I'm with most folks in the 'why even bother' camp. My high game is usually 140-160k. I know I don't stand a chance.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: (+_+) on July 16, 2009, 09:52:49 am: I've been silently trying to compete at some of the other games and man are some of them tough. Grobda almost gave me frustration seizures.

The only one I could have had a chance with was the Mr Pacman one but missed out on that it.

I didn't realize the world record was so low on Galaga. Are you certain it takes only 12 hours to acheive? I though it took a couple of hours to get 1 million.

Also the rule shows 20K 70K 70K for free men. Is that all you get or did you mean a free man every 70K after the first 20K free guy?
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Todd H on July 16, 2009, 10:03:18 am: I can usually hit 200,000-300,000 on a bad day. In my prime I could easily do 500,000 but my reflexes aren't quite what they used to be back in the 80's. Looks like I'll give this one a try, but something tells me there's going to be someone here that can do 1 million or more.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Kman-Sweden on July 16, 2009, 12:37:42 pm: Ah! LOVED it as a kid. I'm gonna give this game a go tonight. ;D
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: CrazyKongFan on July 16, 2009, 12:51:05 pm: 20/70/70 means free man at 20K, 70K and every 70K. I was in a mini tourney last fall that had Galaga in it, and there was a 1 hour time limit. The guy who got 1st place (Donald Hayes, who has many world records) got 1.4 million in 1 hour. In case you're wondering, I only got 243K and was competing with a 10 year old for 2nd place (he got 197K! not too shabby eh? I've been playing it since the early 80's) My game usually falls apart after the bugs (or whatever they are) start flying at high speeds after going thru the bottom of the screen. That 15 million is actually very impressive, as you stop getting free men at 1 million, so he did that with whatever men he had left at 1 million. Glad to see another early 80's classic as the game...these are much more interest to me :)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Epyx on July 16, 2009, 01:04:56 pm: Count me in as well...I suck terribly at this but the spirit of competition will make me play this enough to get hopefully somewhat decent ;)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: javeryh on July 16, 2009, 03:47:57 pm: My best is 108K.... um, yeah... I stink.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Todd H on July 16, 2009, 04:15:54 pm: OK, here's my warm-up game...
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: geocab on July 16, 2009, 06:12:16 pm: Once again, I'm out before I start! Like the game, but not enough to get a high score as big as the first one already posted. Two weeks of practice though. :)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: DrFrag on July 16, 2009, 06:26:01 pm: Wow, I don't think I'll reach that score but I'll give it a shot. ;D
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: DrFrag on July 17, 2009, 04:03:20 am: 186K on my first try after a year of not playing. That's my 3rd highest score ever. I reckon I'll be getting a personal best within a week. 8)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: DrFrag on July 17, 2009, 08:35:38 am: 212,240 stage 21. Personal best. ;D And I even lost two ships at the end when my gf messaged me and my game window lost focus.

I'm gonna go for 336K. I'm so hyped.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Todd H on July 17, 2009, 09:04:15 am: Nice score. :cheers:
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: DrFrag on July 17, 2009, 09:10:28 am: 268,010 stage 29. I'm comin' for ya. >:D
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: CrazyKongFan on July 17, 2009, 09:43:16 am: Someone from here who can't seem to log in wanted me to pass on this info. It might not matter if nobody is good enough, but on the "easy" setting, Galaga has a kill screen at 256. You can still move and fire, but the bugs won't come out, so you can't finish the game. In fact, you'll need to kill yourself off by 254 if you want to put your score on the high score table. Highest score possible should be about 3.3 million. If you set it to "hardest", it will continue on as normal at stage 256. (he actually told me "hard", but Twin Galaxies uses "hardest" for both arcade and MAME, so I assume that's the one to get past 256.)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Todd H on July 17, 2009, 10:55:09 am: Quote from: DrFrag on July 17, 2009, 09:10:28 am
268,010 stage 29. I'm comin' for ya. >:D

Uh oh. Time to break out a two liter bottle of Shasta and my all Rush mix tape. Let's rock!

(http://robtch.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/vlcsnap-2431117.jpg)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: (+_+) on July 17, 2009, 11:20:41 am: Quote from: CrazyKongFan on July 16, 2009, 12:51:05 pm
20/70/70 means free man at 20K, 70K and every 70K. I was in a mini tourney last fall that had Galaga in it, and there was a 1 hour time limit. The guy who got 1st place (Donald Hayes, who has many world records) got 1.4 million in 1 hour. In case you're wondering, I only got 243K and was competing with a 10 year old for 2nd place (he got 197K! not too shabby eh? I've been playing it since the early 80's) My game usually falls apart after the bugs (or whatever they are) start flying at high speeds after going thru the bottom of the screen. That 15 million is actually very impressive, as you stop getting free men at 1 million, so he did that with whatever men he had left at 1 million. Glad to see another early 80's classic as the game...these are much more interest to me :)

That makes sense now regarding the world record. It didn't seem that impresive at first. But now that I know the free men stop after 1 million, that is crazy! I don't think I could do that. A few bad waves could easily wipe out your reserves after the 1 million point. Are you certain the free men stop after this point. I may have to take a look myself. ;)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: CrazyKongFan on July 17, 2009, 01:34:09 pm: Yeah, I downloaded a 5 million INP awhile back to watch it. I just watched it again, and the last free man he got was at 980K. I watched it thru 1.1 million and never heard the free man award sound after the 980K (he had 8 men in reserve at the bottom, and that's all it shows, even if you have more)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Cakemeister on July 17, 2009, 05:59:18 pm: 12 hours for a 16 million games sounds right.

Hint: Prioritize the red guys and learn the entry patterns.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: quarterstringer on July 17, 2009, 11:00:55 pm: 587,970

This was one of my favorite games at the arcade, but I forgot the patterns on the challenging stages. I used to be able to end the game at 999,990. I never knew about the 2nd player showing the millions digit, but I sure wasn't going to spend 50 cents back then to play two games at once.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Thenasty on July 18, 2009, 11:32:26 am: can't you tell ?

(I wish) >:D
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Section_25 on July 18, 2009, 05:08:13 pm: I'll admit it........ I always sucked at Galaga!!! LOL
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: jasonbar on July 18, 2009, 05:13:36 pm: Ugh, a couple of brief, informal, quickie games yielded only 109k or so for me. Not gonna happen. I think I'll work on my Alcon skills this week!

A couple notes:

1 - Wow, it's tricky to play if you're not standing right in line w/ the monitor. I've got a monster 4-player panel, so I'm offset a little bit. It sure makes it hard to line up some high-accuracy shots, like releasing your captured ship...

2 - I seem to no longer be good at keeping double ships going--they never last more than a couple of stages. I know I was better when I was young...so, what do the experts recommend as far as doubling up your ships? Do it whenever possible? Double up only up to a certain stage, where it gets too hard to maintain doubles?

Thanks,
-Jason
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: DrFrag on July 19, 2009, 09:17:29 am: Down but not out. ;)

401,390 stage 37.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: LeedsFan on July 19, 2009, 05:12:01 pm: What about the cheat where you just stand still and don't fire on the Challenging Stages? My mate does that when we play and it annoys me. lol :angry:
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: DrFrag on July 20, 2009, 03:11:56 am: Not moving is a cheat? I just tried it and all I got was 0 bonus.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: (+_+) on July 20, 2009, 10:55:06 am: I'm up to 300,000 and climbing. Jeez the years seemed to have dulled the reflexes. I used to get 1 million without breaking a sweat. Going to keep trying since I'd like to choose defender next so I can practice at a game I've always wanted to be good at but never got around to it.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: shardian on July 20, 2009, 11:16:12 am: Quote from: LeedsFan on July 19, 2009, 05:12:01 pm
What about the cheat where you just stand still and don't fire on the Challenging Stages? My mate does that when we play and it annoys me. lol :angry:

I think he means the cheat where on the 1st stage you kill all but two certain bugs, then let them fly by for 10-15 minutes until they stop shooting. After that, no bugs shoot at you the rest of the game.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Epyx on July 20, 2009, 12:19:02 pm: Quote
I'm up to 300,000 and climbing. Jeez the years seemed to have dulled the reflexes. I used to get 1 million without breaking a sweat.

Lol, indeed. At first I was getting scores in the 200,000-300,000 and getting close to being able to post a score...now with these guys at 500,000+ hehe the old reflexes are hurting!
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: mountain on July 20, 2009, 12:31:12 pm: Tip: Play with the fast shoot hack for practice. It will help you learn the entry patterns and polish your overall timing.

I had never played with the fast shoot hack until I built my mame cab. I could always get to 200,000 without it back in the day. Once completed, I was able to flip player 1 everytime with the fast shoot. That got old so I went back to the standard ROM and was consistantly hitting 500,000 and up.

:angry: I want my machine back!
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: moonchilddave on July 20, 2009, 12:49:02 pm: Quote from: shardian on July 20, 2009, 11:16:12 am
Quote from: LeedsFan on July 19, 2009, 05:12:01 pm
What about the cheat where you just stand still and don't fire on the Challenging Stages? My mate does that when we play and it annoys me. lol :angry:

I think he means the cheat where on the 1st stage you kill all but two certain bugs, then let them fly by for 10-15 minutes until they stop shooting. After that, no bugs shoot at you the rest of the game.

Actually, I think he may be thinking of Galaga '88 where you score like 10,000 during the "Galactic Dancing" stages by just sitting still.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Bender on July 20, 2009, 12:53:08 pm: Mountain,

great to see you playing some games!
Instead of putting us all to shame with your mad build skills

I'm sure you could whip up a new Cab in no time, especially with your new friend in the garage ;)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: mountain on July 20, 2009, 12:57:38 pm: Quote from: Bender on July 20, 2009, 12:53:08 pm
Mountain,

great to see you playing some games!
Instead of putting us all to shame with your mad build skills

I'm sure you could whip up a new Cab in no time, especially with your new friend in the garage ;)

I wish I was playing some games! It's been a year :hissy:

Don't you have some pictures to be posting or something?? ;D
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Todd H on July 20, 2009, 01:28:56 pm: Didn't get a chance to play much this weekend. I'm hoping I can get the wife to go visit family so that I can get some free time. Kind of hard to play with the wife nagging you and a two year old tugging at your shirt constantly. The joys of married life. :lol
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Todd H on July 22, 2009, 09:40:50 pm: Ok, it took two straight days of playing but here is my best effort. I don't know if I can get any higher.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: quarterstringer on July 22, 2009, 10:56:48 pm: Nice score Todd. :cheers: I'm going to make you play the 2nd player now. ;D

Even though the second player shows the millions digit, it still doesn't let you put up your initials for scores over a million.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Todd H on July 23, 2009, 07:20:40 am: I don't know if I can get any higher. I basically played from 4 PM to 11 PM for two days. It took everything I had to get the wife to watch our boy while I played. Plus my wrist is still a little stiff from this marathon session.

I've realized that the difficulty level plateaus after a certain point and it never gets any harder. If you can make it to that point with a good number of men and are in a groove you can play for a while. I also think I could have scored higher if I had done better in the challenging stages. Of course, it's a little easier to figure this stuff out when you have unlimited credits. :)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: shardian on July 23, 2009, 09:06:33 am: Note to all super awesome hi-score players:
You are not welcome in my gameroom!*

*unless you pick a random game and let me kick your ass so I feel better.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Todd H on July 23, 2009, 09:52:59 am: Quote from: shardian on July 23, 2009, 09:06:33 am
*unless you pick a random game and let me kick your ass so I feel better.

If that random game was Defender then you'd probably kill me. :)

If there's one game that I've never been good at it's the arcade version of Defender. Hitting 10,000 for me is a major miracle, since most of my games only last a minute or two. I'm hoping whoever wins this one picks Defender as it will make me actually practice and pick up some pointers from others.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: dafelandry on July 23, 2009, 10:17:08 am: if columns were the game.... HAHA death to all.... me and the old lady were dueling last night she hit 5 million point (on hard) while i had a weak 2.5 mill... it was nuts!
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Todd H on July 27, 2009, 08:26:14 am: Well, I'm out. All these marathon sessions have taken a toll on my left hand. I'm having some pretty sharp pains shooting through it. I tried to play a little guitar yesterday and the pain was unbearable. Hopefully a few days rest will make it better.

Hats off to quarterstringer. :cheers:
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Ginsu Victim on July 27, 2009, 10:25:45 am: Quote from: Todd H on July 27, 2009, 08:26:14 am
All these marathon sessions have taken a toll on my left hand.

Be careful. You'll go blind.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: Todd H on July 27, 2009, 10:35:18 am: Quote from: Ginsu Victim on July 27, 2009, 10:25:45 am
Be careful. You'll go blind.

So THAT'S why my vision is poor! :laugh2:
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: DrFrag on July 27, 2009, 11:33:28 am: I know what you mean. After I scored 400K my left hand was in a fair bit of pain. It's been a long time since a game did that to me. Fortunately it was okay half an hour later.

Not much longer now. Is anyone going to take a final shot at the lead?
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: quarterstringer on July 27, 2009, 01:19:30 pm: I haven't played since that last score, I could feel the pain in my wrist.
I'm going on vacation, so I won't be around to make a new game thread.
If Todd stays in 2nd, he can have Defender as his pick.
But I think playing Defender might cause more pain. :)
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: CrazyKongFan on July 28, 2009, 08:51:42 am: Quote from: DrFrag on July 16, 2009, 03:36:43 am
- Last day is Wednesday, July 30th (11:59:59pm Pacific Daylight Time), 2009.

Never noticed this, but there's an error here...Wednesday is July 29th, not the 30th. So does it end at 11:59pm Wednesday, or July 30th (which is Thursday)? ??? :dunno
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: DrFrag on July 28, 2009, 09:45:47 am: Oops. :-[ Make it Wednesday 29th.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: (+_+) on July 28, 2009, 01:46:39 pm: I bowed out a few days ago after getting about 250,000 without losing a man yet. Followed this up with suicide mission after suicide mission. It felt as though I was repeatedly trying to kill their bullets using my ships. You should have heard the names I called myself. I ended up with about 350K, disgusted with myself and wondering if the Mame version is harder than the arcade version... Is it? Oh, and what's with that random bullet that falls from the sky every now and then at around wave 25. It almost killed once because the wave was over and I had let go of the controls for a sec.

I think I'd be back in form but am running at of time. The same thing happened with Joust and QBert. I starting to whoop its ass again in no time. So far Galaga is handing me ---my bottom--- and it doesn't look like I'll be bouncing back any time soon.

And Yes, Defender would be a nice choice.
Title: Re: Hi Score Competition #23: Galaga
Post by: DrFrag on July 30, 2009, 07:05:07 am: Looks like the final standings are:

quarterstringer - 1,346,630
Todd H - 901,380
DrFrag - 401,390

and no one else submitted scores. :dunno

I believe quarterstringer has nominated Todd H to start competition #24 with Defender.