Spectrum Computing

Many other forums have some sort of High Score competitions - why shouldn't we? We have some amazing quizes, but there are so many great ZX games wying to be woken up from digital slumber and given a HS treatment.

I'm a recent convert to the whole high-score-attack idea - back in the day I never cared much about that, probably because I always kind of sucked at action games and was much more into strategy/adventure/RPG genres. But over last few years I've discovered that you can actually teach an old dog some new tricks, and also that aiming to beat your score changes the way I play action games - it's much more interesting.

In short: it's great fun, and that's also the main "rule" of the proposed ZX HSC here. The idea is partially based on the Atari 8-bit & Arcade HS Clubs I participate in occasionally on AtariAge forums.

How it roughly works is:
-we establish an initial pool of games to be played in a season (any participant can submit 5 picks)
-we draw 2 games from that pool and play them for two weeks, scores are submitted during this period.
-after two weeks deadline we note the best scores from each player, award points and put them on a leaderboard table.
-after that a new round starts, rinse & repeat

A season consists of 10 rounds, lasting 5-6 months altogether. After it finishes we tally the points, the overall winner is crowned, we take a break and then start a new season, with new games.

Anybody can join in at any time or skip any number of rounds. Of course this might affect player's final standing but it's not that important, this angle is mostly just for kicks.

The only rules are no cheating or using any sort of handicaps and submitting screenshots for your highest score of the round.

Most important thing is that it's supposed to be a strictly FUN affair - not very high pressure or obsessive, Twin-Galaxies style - just a great way to have a laugh, discover and talk about new and old games, and compete a bit in a friendly way too, of course. Many people (like I've been before) are put off by the idea that a high score compo must be super competitive and you need mad skillz to participate - not so in this one though. Every score counts and the more amateurs the merrier.

So if you'd like to participate, have any questions or suggestions then giz a shout here and if there's enough folks willing (even few people would be enough, for starters ) I may rustle up an initial round soon.

This is a nice, but old idea. Much older than you could think, in fact. Unless you can remember of the Speccy Tour.

I arrived second in 2001, won the last three editions (2008, 2009 and 2010) and then there was no more... keeping track of scores, verifying SZX files etc. is an intense and time-consuming affair, and the folks who kindly brought this burden on their shoulders were tired of it after 10 years.

That said, should someone be willing to resurrect the good old Speccy Tour, I would be interested.

I'm an awful games player, but I'm up for it too.

Of course it's an old idea, but the implementation would be new on SC

Speccy Tour looks like it was a high-stakes, quite serious, proper competition. That's not what I'm after with my version, this is supposed to be much more relaxed (though of course the competitive element and rules are still there) thing.

That's why for example we wouldn't demand SZX or video recordings since it's a trust based, low key affair.

[mention]PeterJ[/mention] "awful" players are more than welcome, in fact I think amateur-level is more easy going and fun (since I'm one of them too

akeley wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 7:02 pm "awful" players are more than welcome

In that case, count me in...

Yep if it's an easy going sort of thing, I'll happily come along for the crack.

I'm in. Always a good way to play old games I love or games I missed the first time around.

Cannonball first then?

If we get to choose games I might just pick random ones anyway, just for the hell of it.

I used to be fairly decent at certain games years ago but I suspect I'm out of practice now anyway.

Also it would avoid the embarrassment of picking a game you're supposedly good at, and then coming last..

Ok folks, we have >2 players so I guess we can risk a trial run. [mention]Alessandro[/mention], [mention]PeterJ[/mention], [mention]R-Tape[/mention], [mention]Morkin[/mention], [mention]smurphboy[/mention], and anybody else who fancies joining in - please submit your game suggestions. They will form a pool from which we will randomly pick 2 games for each round.

Up to 5 games each, any genre as long as it's possible to gauge a progress somehow and it's not possible to cheese the score (eg stand in one place and kill the respawning baddies ad infinitum). Obvioulsy high score oriented arcade-type games are the most obvious picks, but I suppose there is a lot of other titles which can also be played competitvely...maybe the likes of Saboteur, Knight Lore, etc ?

Here's my 5 picks:

1.PSSST
2.Arcadia
3.Renegade
4.Sea War (Panda Software)
5.3D-Tank Duel

I'm not really an expert on ZX action games so there's a few of old popular faves and some games I've only discovered recently.

My five picks would be:

1. Bomb Jack
2. Green Beret
3. Laser Snaker
4. Chuckie Egg
5. TLL

Ooh, cool, what's the deadline for submissions? I'll have a think about whether to 'random it' or choose, and submit this evening...

..Also can we just agree to have an unwritten rule that anyone choosing Mutan Zone gets instantly banned from the competition. I'm not going through that torment again.

Let's say by Saturday? Random picks can be quite interesting too...between me & smurphboy we've already ticked off some usual suspects

Morkin wrote: ↑Tue Jul 14, 2020 4:50 pm
..Also can we just agree to have an unwritten rule that anyone choosing Mutan Zone gets instantly banned from the competition. I'm not going through that torment again.

Seconded.

I tried setting a few filters and clicking Random but got sick of being presented with BASIC type-ins, so decided just to pick some games that are decent and that I'd quite like to play.

1. Arkanoid
2. Target: Renegade
3. Cavern Fighter
4. Byte Bitten
5. Pinball (Sagittarian Software)

Can I add Firebirds from Softek to the list of suggestions?

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... /Firebirds

PeterJ wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 8:06 am Can I add Firebirds from Softek to the list of suggestions?

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... /Firebirds

Sure thing. And you can add 4 more still.

Seeing Morkin's Target:Renegade pick, I've changed my Renegade to Bonnie & Clyde. Modern games are of course also allowed.

akeley wrote: ↑Wed Jul 15, 2020 10:55 am Modern games are of course also allowed.

In that case, I'd add Nohzdyve.

Alessandro wrote: ↑Fri Jul 10, 2020 6:23 pmI arrived second in 2001, won the last three editions (2008, 2009 and 2010) and then there was no more...

Who votes for banning Alessandro then ?

So i would be interested in non time-sink games, things that i guess are pretty tough and generally have short games for everyone.

Batty usually kills you off on level 3 if i recall, (or was it level 2 with that damn warpy thing in the middle) any scores past that would deserve to win.
You could have highest score after achieving something, for instance, highest score after completing "Can O Worms" in Trapdoor. So this would be based on who could do it the fastest.
Fastest time to the second rocket in Jetpac touching down.

Otherwise, i'll join in on games that take my fancy and are quick to play.

I guess we can look at each game as it comes up and decide/agree/vote on the scoring criteria? Though because it's nothing too serious I'm not going to be overly bothered.

Even if there are some star players getting mega-scores, I figured some of us 'lesser-skilled' players could have some pointlessly competitive mid-table grudge battles with others... Am assuming there will also be wooden spoon awards...

So far most of the submitted games look pretty straightforward when it comes to scoring. But yeah, we can decide individually should a trickier one appear.

I'll try to get the first round ready for Sunday. Anybody can still submit more games - so far there were 17 entries.

I'd like to see Grand Prix 2, Edge Grinder, and Stagger.

Edge Grinder is a ZX-Evo only.
Maybe it's better to stick to the games for standard Spectrum 48/128k models for now.

Here are my suggestions:

1. Dan Dare (obviously)
1. Manic Miner
2. Dynamite Dan II
3. Parsec

Pegaz wrote: ↑Fri Jul 17, 2020 11:07 am Edge Grinder is a ZX-Evo only. Maybe it's better to stick to the games for standard Spectrum 48/128k models for now.

If it can't be (easily) emulated then yes, it'd be a bit too limiting.

As far as I remember, only the Russian Unreal Speccy emulator, supports this game properly and the emulation is not exactly a walk through the park...
ZX-Evo is a kind of Russian Spectrum Next, with advanced graphics modes and this game is one of its exclusives.
Otherwise, there are other games for these most powerful machines (ATM, Evo, Next), which use improved hardware capabilities, but they are more like PC, than Spectrum games.