ZX HSC Round 7 - Terra Cresta / Target: Renegade

[akeley]

Here you can vote for one of the two games for the next round. This selection was made by picking a subsequent game submitted per each active player (we're re-cycling teh pool now, obviously).

The second game of the round will be drawn from the pool of the remaining ones using RNG.

This round will start on Sunday afternoon.

DEAR LURKERS! You can still join in at any time! Please do! There will be a chance to submit scores for previous rounds later in the season, but in any case competing in single rounds is fun too.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Terra Cresta for me. Great shooter.

[Morkin]

Have gone for Arkanoid.

Much prefer it to its sequel.

[clebin]

I voted the Pyramid. Because it's brill.

[stupidget]

Arcadia for me as it was the first game I ever played on a Speccy.

[akeley]

Ok, the voting is over, the winner is Terra Cresta, edging out Tapper by one vote. The RNG game this week is the venerable Target: Renegade.

So:

Terra Cresta (Imagine Software, 1986, chosen by Juan F. Ramirez)

Target Renegade (Imagine Software, 1988, chosen by Morkin)

The round ends at midnight on Sunday 13th September. Look out for a bonus game on Wednesday!

New players can still join in, at any time. Rules of this HSC are written up here and here, any questions please ask.

So this week we have the Imagine double bill - a great coin op conversion, and a fabulous sequel to Renegade (my Eighties favourite too). Tasty!

Good luck!

[cmal]

Good Selection for this week! Thanks all.

[GreenCard]

To kick things off, here are my first scores for the week...

Terra Cresta: 70,500
Target Renegade: 191,800

[Morkin]

Definitely looking forward to Target: Renegade this week.

[smurphboy]

Had a bit of a go at lunch

Terra Cresta: 45700 - Its no Warhawk but its a competent vertical shooter. Like Flying shark with more enemies.

Target Renegade: 47600 - never played this BITD, its go, a little slow and I ran out of time on level 3, but I'll play this some more.

[GreenCard]

Just noticed the names of other software houses in the high score table in Terra Cresta: "Hewson, Edge, Elite, Artic, Odin, Durell."

[clebin]

Terra Cresta - WTF kind of difficulty curve is this? The hardest wave of enemies is the very first one in the game. If you manage to clear those you have a relatively easy (but ridiculously long) ride to the first checkpoint and just as you have it in sight, the game throws in a tricky bit to kill you off and send you right back to the beginning again. Absolutely sadistic 80s game design.

[smurphboy]

Terra Cresta - WTF kind of difficulty curve is this? The hardest wave of enemies is the very first one in the game. If you manage to clear those you have a relatively easy (but ridiculously long) ride to the first checkpoint and just as you have it in sight, the game throws in a tricky bit to kill you off and send you right back to the beginning again. Absolutely sadistic 80s game design.

I love how brutal it is. I've made the check point maybe three times. I've lost count of the number of times I went for the space bar to 'split' and got wiped out. They don't make em like this anymore... well unless its bullet hell stuff.

[Spud]

Jesus, that's a bit 'ard init?

A not to shabby 63950 on Terra Cresta

[cmal]

Here's my first go: (after a bunch of replays, of course)

Terra Cresta: 71,550
Target Renegade: 207,300

I actually enjoyed both games more than I thought. I last played Terra Cresta a few months ago and gave up after not being able to pass that friggen first wave.
Target Renegade is a first time play. Got quite used to doing the flying kick move.






I might submit updated scores later this week if I can beat my current scores.

[Morkin]

First attempts:

Terra Cresta: 25,650
Target Renegade: 627,600

Think it's obvious which game I'm better at

I lost my last two lives a bit carelessly at the big boss second time round.

[clebin]

Terra Cresta - 77150

I had 4 lives left at 70000 after some flukey escapes. I was expecting a big score at that point. Nope! Blew all my lives on the following wave...

[akeley]

BONUS GAME BONUS GAME BONUS GAME BONUS GAME BONUS GAME BONUS GAME BONUS GAME
It's that time of the week, so here's another basic and crappy highly innovative early title:

Airport'82

Yes, it's a 1982 game, clunky as all hell, with customarily crazy keyboard layout - but I believe it does have some redeeming features. Ok, one feature - quite varied gameplay for such a proto, one-screen affair.

Anyway. See how many planes you can land, and what score. If any

[Morkin]

Flippin' eck, this looks terrible..

I couldn't play it - I started the game, and the bloke just walked to the left of the screen and stayed there, no keys seemed to work.

Anyway, at least now I can say I've tried it.

[akeley]

I couldn't play it - I started the game, and the bloke just walked to the left of the screen and stayed there, no keys seemed to work.

Tried it on emulator now, and yeah, seems stuck. Not sure what's it all about, I played it on FPGA yesterday and it was fine. Will investigate later.

If anybody manages to get it working: PLZ SET DIFFICULTY TO 4.

[Morkin]

OK, got it working.

In Spectaculator the keyboard was set to Issue 3 keyboard, I changed it to issue 2 and it's fine. Seems the program uses IN statements to read the keys. Which normally might be slightly impressive but it's painfully unresponsive so doesn't really make a difference.

Anyway, a plane landed on my head. Either the plane is tiny or I'm a giant.

[smurphboy]

Airport82: 583 - utter rubbish, I love it!

[clebin]

Terra Cresta - 77150
Target: Renegade - 209400 (new)

Those big blokes in the Wetherspoons absolutely did me in. No idea what the best tactic is against them but I think I need some new skills...

[Juan F. Ramirez]

First attempts:

Terra Cresta: 23,300
Target Renegade: 95,800




As to Airport'82... I can't control the guy!

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Nothing.

I've tried Airport'82 on Spectaculator, Fuse & SpecEmu and the same result.

The only cool feature is the guy doing the moonwalk at the beggining of the instructions. Epic moment.