High Score Contest I

landsleaving

Moving on from the high-score thread, I think it's time we actually started playing something.

From the suggestions on that thread the games are:

Donkey Kong (1981, Arcade)

&

DoDonPachi (1997, Arcade)

Gonna go with two for the first try at this, and see how it goes. Suggestions for next time can go to the high score thread here just to keep this for posting your latest scores and discussing these games. (Suggestions so far are Centipede and Galaga '88)

Deadline willl be September 30th at 12pm. That should give everyone plenty of time to get some good scores in both games.

Your best score for 1 credit only will be counted.

And now for the best part... I have a prize no less... :pac:

The person with the best combined score over both games gets a 'trade in card' from Game, with €25 on it, to squander as you see fit. And to wave in the face of anyone who told you gaming wouldn't pay off! I'll be looking for proof of your skills though, so a screencap or photo of the high score screen will be needed.*

Post your scores as you go along, if you get better ones, just post again, so we can see each others progress.

EDIT: Dip Switch Settings for Donkey Kong - Lives - 3, Bonus Life - 7000, Coinage- 1 coin/1 credit.

*Contest not open to Billy Mitchell

landsleaving

Just thought I'd add, if anyone has any problems getting this to work, just post here or drop me a pm. I know mameui versions later than 1.35 don't like dodonpachi, so stick to v.1.35, or use a different mame interface.

landsleaving

Righto, on my very first try for each game, here are some embarrassingly rubbish scores.

Didn't even make the top socre list in dodonpachi... fail.

2841130

Donkey Kong was equally awful:

6700

I've attached screenshots of both.

I've also noticed there's a serious difference in scoring for both, so if someone can suggest something better than a combined score for the two games, maybe some sort of fractioning down of dodonpachi scores, or mutiplying of DK? A great dodonpachi score might negate someones efforts on Donkey Kong.

Retr0gamer

Don't think anyone is going to get more than 40-30k on DK so prehaps divide your dodonpachi score by 40k and use the answer as the divisor when working out combined scores.

o1s1n

It's going to start getting too complicated if we're combining scores. By suggesting multiples games I just meant to see who could get the top score in each game.

Although I didn't think prizes were going to be introduced!

Anyway, less chat from me, more playing. Going to give Dodonpachi a go now. Will see if I can get DK working after.

Retr0gamer

One of my worst games of dodonpachi ever I need to go home and use my fightstick. Donkey Kong is a whore of a game.

Dodonpachi: 2907290
DK: 20700

o1s1n

Okay, gave DoDonPachi a go. I'm currently playing it with a modded Dreamcast stick. But it's on a Samsung nc10 netbook monitor on it's side. Feckin tiny! I'll see if I can get my girlfriend off the PC and get it going on a bigger screen.

3060010



We should also record input for the laugh. Just so the winning scores in the end can be watched back Could upload them here really easily.

Retr0gamer

3rd level in Dondonpachi always rapes me in the arse. Can get there with no lives lost.

o1s1n

Kicked my girlfriend off the PC and got MAME up and running. There was an issue with the graphics card drivers so I had to find new ones. Hard to do with an old video card.
But anyway, all sorted and Dodonpachi is now running beautifully on a big monitor. Hurrah!

First game with the new setup and my score is now a bit more reasonable. You're right Retr0, level 3 is a bitch! I'll crack it soon though

4231110




As for Donkey Kong, I just can't figure the damn game out at all. Keep landing on barrels!

o1s1n

Àh feck, thought I had level 3 complete there! Boss got me. Serves me right for spamming bombs to get more golden stars

Ah well, almost on the scoreboard!

5473370

landsleaving

I think I've come up with a suitable system for combined scoring, just divide your dodonpachi score by 100, then add that to your Donkey Kong score. So O1s1n would have a score of 54733.7. Adding a good donkey Kong score of 30-40k should mean that you'd need to have a good score in both games, rather than just one.

If that sounds good to everyone else, I'll add it to the first post.

Of course, there's still plenty of pride at stake in getting the high score in each game individually as well. :P

polyfusion

For the scoring, why not do something like TG, and at the end of the month, whoever has the highest score in a game is 100%, someone who scores half the highest is 50%, and so on (eg, 100,000 best score is 100%; 90,000 is 90% and so on). Final score for 2 games is then out of 200%.

Might make things interesting right up to the wire. Someone throws in a really good score in one game towards the end, flips the whole competition upside-down.

Or not.

Would be easy enough to do up an excel sheet to do the calculations, and isn't really all that complicated with just 2 games.

landsleaving

Yeah thats not too bad an idea, I'm happy to go with whatever the majority think is fair anyway, so if everyone's happier with the percentage idea, then that would be fine.

johnny_ultimate

Does this have to use Mame? Only have the PS1 version of DoDonPachi, don't have an arcade stick for my PC...

polyfusion

Dodonpachi: 4,971,720 (I had 5 bombs left too - bummer!)
DK: 72,600

o1s1n

Well this is beyond annoying.

I finally beat the high score in Dodonpachi. Got up to level 4 - 6,860,430



HOWEVER! you will notice that in the left screen grab, there's still a ship on screen with 6 bombs.

That is because I thought I was dead, paused the game to take a screenshot, pasted it into mspaint..went back to the game to enter my name and unknown to me, I actually had one ship left! Which was very prompty blown up while I fumbled for my joystick on the ground.

As for DK, I still fail

Retr0gamer

If anyone actually manages to beat Dodonpachi remember there's a second loop with a true final boss at the end if you don't use a credit.

ghostchant

Argh got over 7,000,000 in dodonpachi earlier but didn't know how to take screenshots! High scores won't save either. Ah well, here's 5,064,000 in the meantime to put myself on the board. o1s1n will likely beat my phantom 7mil in no time. Also even when getting the 7 million I couldn't get to level 4.

Also DK is making feel like a complete loser, think I got to 16k but wasn't worth taking a screenshot.

Retr0gamer

Just use the print screen button It's what I do.

ghostchant

I'm working from a mac, it's an unnecessarily complicated 3-button combo to print screen for me

o1s1n

ghostchant wrote: »

Also DK is making feel like a complete loser, think I got to 16k but wasn't worth taking a screenshot.

I played for an hour straight on Saturday and 15,900 was the best I could get. The game really kicks my ass. I just can't get the jumps right. It feels like I'm controling a bus with bad breaks!

What I normally do is pause the game after my last life, put the controller down, unpause, print screen, pause, alt + tab out of MAME and paste into mspaint (Leave MAME running just in case copy and paste didn't work, don't want to lose a good score!) If it all worked okay then I'll close MAME or resume playing.

Nice Dodonpachi score by the way. I'll see if I can top 7,000,000 when I get home

polyfusion

F12 dumps a screenshot in the snap directory, in a subfolder with the name of the rom you're playing.

If you're using a controller with lots of buttons, you can remap the function to any button.

o1s1n

Yay! New Dodonpachi score. Another annoying thing happened this time, my mobile phone kept ringing on level 4. Over and over. Although I'm not sure if the anger spurred me on or what, was screaming at the thing

8,364,070



And then there's the Donkey Kong embarassment!

polyfusion

Bettered my Dodonpachi score: 6,478,060
Donkey Kong still the same: 72,600

Huge scope to rack up massive points keeping the chain alive. I got nearly 3 million on the first level in one game, but then made a balls of the second level.

polyfusion

About Donkey Kong, I was playing with some of the other rom sets, and the screens are different between the US and JAP sets up to level 3. For example, in the JAP sets, you play an extra 3 screens (2 in L=01, and 1 in L=02) before you get to L=03.

This probably makes the JAP sets easier to score in. My scores above were got using (US set 1), but I was able to score an extra 20K using (Japan set 1). So it may be necessary to specify what romset to use for some games.

It probably doesn't make much difference for newer games like Dodonpachi, but may be better to specify anyway. Certainly for DK, it makes a difference.

landsleaving

Been pretty busy the last couple of weeks with college, but this seems to be going pretty well. I've been using the US Donkey Kong as well, and your score is the highest anyway polyfusion, so we'll stick with that.

Think poly is in the lead overall, with O1s1n in second. Still a few days left to change it all though. ... Exciting :P

eddhorse

Cool just saw this thread !
Plus i was watching King of Kong last night so that will be no use to me whatsoever unless Billy Mitchell is reading this thread, PM me Billy !
3 Days to go......

NeoKubrick

eddhorse wrote: »

unless Billy Mitchell is reading this thread, PM me Billy !

He's here in spirit.

NeoKubrick

Double - please delete

o1s1n

Noes!! Let down by my uber crapness at DK

I may recheck my DK romset in a last ditch effort! Maybe I'm using the wrong one....

Can't see myself getting anywhere near the above scores though.

ghostchant

I'll have to try make another effort tonight, in both games...don't fancy my chances! Was playing DK on the actual DK cab at game on and beat my high score, no photo evidence though, and not even close to polyfusion...will give it a go later anyway!

Looking forward to playing new games for next month's, anyone got any ideas they want to post on the suggestion thread?

landsleaving

Last day for this now, 24 hours to get your high scores in! And yes, I still have the voucher for Game :pac:

Not going to post a picture because it was fairly rubbish, but I managed to just about break 6 million in dodonpachi, before being blown to bits. DK is impossible though, I can't get any higher than 15700, and I keep getting that score, which is pretty strange. I should have insisted on games I'm good at :P

alandel2001

There's a Donkey Kong kill screen coming up if you guys wanna see.

landsleaving

The result have been counted...

landsleaving
DoDonPachi - 2,841,130
DK - 6,700
(pitiful)

Retr0gamer
DoDonPachi - 2,907,290
DK - 20,700

Ghostchant
DoDonPachi - 5,064,000
DK - 16,000

O1s1n
DoDonPachi - 8,364,070
DK - 15,900

Pretty impressive DoDonPachi score but that DK score really let you down.

And the winner is....... (drum roll.. :P)

polyfusion:
Dondonpachi - 6,478,060
DK - 72,600

No one came close to that Donkey Kong score, so with the rules excluding Billy Mitchell, who you obviously are, O1s1n wins

Sending you a pm now to sort out your prize poly, fair play

Retr0gamer

Wish I had had more time to practice. My Dodonpachi score was pathetic but I doubt I would have matched o1s1ns.

o1s1n

Fair play polyfusion, well done! You need to record some of your DK input with MAME. I'd love to see it played properly.