ZX HSC Round 1 - Bomb Jack / Penetrator

[smurphboy]

Flippin 'eck, you guys are good at Bomb Jack..! Either that or I'm crap at it... Or both. Though at first I completely forgot about the boosted jumps - shows how long it's been since I've played it

Here are my top scores so far, after quite a pleasant Sunday evening of Speccy games playing:

Penetrator - 28,300
Bomb Jack - 37,550

Am going to have another go at both at some point. Particularly Bomb Jack, as I really don't want to end up with the wooden spoon on that one...

The trick with Bomb Jack is the sparking bombs. If you collect the bombs in order then you can get 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 or 50,000 bonus per level.

[R-Tape]

The trick with Bomb Jack is the sparking bombs. If you collect the bombs in order then you can get 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 or 50,000 bonus per level.

Aha! Cheers. I can't find any detailed instructions, but the magazine reviews seem to have the necessary. From Your Sinclair May 1986:

All of which neglects to
mention the scoring. There's a
fine bit of strategy involved in
maximising your points — and
if ever there was a high score
freak's dream, this is it! The
first thing to know is that a
bomb that's fizzing is worth 200
rather than 100 points Collect
one of those and it sets off the
next one in the sequence, so a
row of four can be worth 400 or
800 points depending on
whether it's ignited or not. It's
up to you to plan a route. There
are special bonuses for
collecting 20 or more sparking
bombs and there are also
Bonus coins that float in for you
to snatch, plus Extra lives coins
and Power balls.

I was collecting the sparkers, but only because I was expecting them to blow. Apparently they don't explode on the Speccy version?

[smurphboy]

Try this link. It is referring to the GBA conversion of the CPC version but the scoring logic is correct for the Speccy too.

Hope this helps. I think Tip Shop has a map of the order of the sparking bombs too which helps. Of course, eventually you memorise them and still remember them 30 years later!

[Morkin]

The trick with Bomb Jack is the sparking bombs. If you collect the bombs in order then you can get 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 or 50,000 bonus per level.

Ah yes, I remembered there was a reason to collect the bombs in the right order but I'd forgotten the end-of-level bonus, and quite how many more points you got.

Had another few goes, making more of an effort to 'follow the fuses', though without using the guide, just watching which ones are sparking.

Latest attempts:

Penetrator - 28,300 (still)
Bomb Jack - 151,540

I reckon I can get a higher score on Penetrator but might struggle to beat my Bomb Jack score.

[Mousey]

This thread made me finally sign up for the forum to join in! Bomb Jack on the Speccy is one of my all time favourite games on any system.

I hold the all-time record on HARP with 3,024,560 points, made for the Speccy Tour 2010 Let's see if I could at least reach half that score, I still remember how much I had to sweat to reach it

That's a fantastic score. I also have some scores on HARP, and am surprised to see that I'm still 3rd on the Bomb Jack (Speccy) leaderboard with my score of 1,158,320 (back in 2007!). Frankie is in second place with 1,462,070 and I remember that we had some good natured tussles on a fair few games at HARP - I think he got the best of me on most of them though!
http://www.homeactionreplay.org/search. ... &tourney=2

The best score I've ever got was just over 1.7 million, but that was back in the mid-90's and I've never got close since.

As to Penetrator, I've never even played it (shame on me) so that will be interesting. Looks like a good game though.

[Mousey]

My first attempt for Bomb Jack: 806,970



I'm hopeful to break 1 million, but thought I'd upload this just in case I don't! Plus it'll give something for Alessandro to destroy.

[Alessandro]

Bomb Jack: 888,230. Tried to break the 1 million barrier but didn't succeed. We are still at the beginning however.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I think we must establish some kind of anti-doping control!

[Morkin]

Definitely, you guys are machines...

[Alessandro]

Broke the 1 million barrier on Bomb Jack: 1,105,000. And I suffered two stupid deaths one after the other at the end, it could have been even better.

[R-Tape]

The latest from the national league north:

107840. I've started paying more attention to the sparking bombs, but am losing all my lives in doing so (I know that's the whole idea of the game!). I guess the next milestone is aiming for Morkin's 150 thou.

[Morkin]

I guess the next milestone is aiming for Morkin's 150 thou.

Eep..!

Some screens definitely seem a lot easier than others to collect the bombs in order...

I think that screen without any walls is probably one to learn the pattern for and get done as quickly as you can before the enemies hit the bottom of the screen and become more dangerous.

[Mousey]

Well done for breaking 1 million Alessandro - not that I had any doubt!



I've done it too, but only just: 1,006,850; the bird gets so fast on later levels. I wasn't far away from my HARP score - if I can beat that then I'll be very happy.

Oh and I won't be troubling anyone with my Penetrator scores. At the moment I'm struggling to get over 10,000, and have yet to get past stage 3 - or "the yellow walls of death" as I like to call it.

[Mousey]

I'm gradually getting better at Penetrator. Managed to get to stage 5 without losing a life and then lost them all by flying into the impassible mountain! I realised after losing a couple of lives that I had to hit the explosives (?) in the shaft not long before the mountain, but kept missing.

When I got back there I managed to hit the explosives (a tip for others - don't try and bomb them from too low) and was pleased to see it gives you 1,000 point bonus, and then back into more stages. I was less pleased to see that right after the bonus it puts your ship right next to a wall; you have to push up and left immediately as you appear otherwise you will die (which I did first time).

For 1983 I think it's a remarkably good game. It gets the difficulty mostly right, and you always feel like you can get a little bit further. I'll submit my score of 12,380 but am hopeful I can improve. Does anyone else find stage 4 easier than stage 3? I did stage 4 first time, but stage 3 is still nerve wracking!

[Daren]

This is great, I'm in! Just had a go on these these classics on my Next, with wireless Mega Drive controller, awesome!

Penetrator's firing mechanism is a bit annoying but I'll get the hang of it.

[R-Tape]

Penetrator's firing mechanism is a bit annoying but I'll get the hang of it.

Oh bloody hell. I'd forgotten about the thrust= fire thing. I'm used to playing Penetrator with a key hack that makes fire=bullets + bombs, but that breaks the cheating rule I guess.

I seem to be getting worse at Bomb Jack the harder I try.

[smurphboy]

I seem to be getting worse at Bomb Jack the harder I try.

I can relate to that feeling... you just need to let it flow.

So I'm at 178550 for Bomb Jack, but I've hit a wall today. There is more to come here but I'll leave the top two to the million plus scores!



and I can't quite complete that last level on Penetrator. Current score is 11210

[R-Tape]

Does anyone else find stage 4 easier than stage 3? I did stage 4 first time, but stage 3 is still nerve wracking!

Definitely. The cyan level feels like a gentle stroll after the green level.

[Morkin]

Couldn't get past 100,000 on Bomb Jack this evening. May have reached the pinnacle of my high scoring the other day. But I did a bit better at Penetrator.

Latest scores-on-the-doors:

Penetrator - 38,870
Bomb Jack - 151,540 (still)

[smurphboy]

I'm curious, are people playing on keys, joystick on real hardware or emulated?

I've been using my Next for Bomb Jack with a joystick but been playing Penetrator on an emulator (does Penetrator support joystick?) and my keyboard is not very good.

[clebin]

Both games are new for me. Just managed 17,160 on Penetrator. The double-thrust fire is pretty weird and whenever I get a bit cocky with it, I end up making a stupid mistake. Pretty good game though for the time. Haven't had a go at Bomb Jack yet.

[Morkin]

Playing on a laptop using the keys. I think it'd be a bit easier with a proper PC keyboard but it's OK I guess.

One tip with Penetrator is that you can move backwards while you fire your laser, if you're finding prodding the forward button is moving you towards danger - the advantage of playing on keyboard!

[clebin]

One tip with Penetrator is that you can move backwards while you fire your laser, if you're finding prodding the forward button is moving you towards danger.

That's a good tip!

Something weird just happened. I got to Stage 5 and the big blockage. Fired a bit, bombed a bit then flew straight into it. With 1 life remaining, I started another attempt but suddenly got a rainbow screen, followed by what seemed like 5 minutes of fireworks, then 'BONUS POINTS 1000 WOW' and got chucked back to Stage 4. I have no idea why!

[Morkin]

You have to bomb the neutron bomb store in that bit, you have one chance to drop a couple of bombs with pretty exact timing so they land at the bottom of the deep hole, Luke Skywalker style but vertical..

If you miss you'll crash into the blockage bit. But the victory screen is triggered as soon as one of your bombs hits the store - one of your bombs must have hit the spot.

[clebin]

But the victory screen is triggered as soon as one of your bombs hits the store - one of your bombs must have hit the spot.

Aha, I see - thanks! My first thought was "oh great, what a time for it to crash!"