Christmas high score challenge?

[TMD2003]

I'm unlikely to be very good at anything this year, but I will attempt something on all of these, even if it's not for very long. I have all my real Spectrum stuff in the lounge and a +2B ready to set up, so you'll know there's no shenanigans with savestates.

[Morkin]

Well it's quite slick, and I got used to the keys for a bit.

I found there was a bit too much of what felt like insta-death for my liking, I kept getting hit by something appearing out of nowhere when I was on the left or right of the screen.

I'm going to submit my score of 1330 now. Not as good as @R-Tape, but at least I entered the letters correctly on the high-score table.



From the previous high score comps, I wondered if it'd be better to just have all 3 games for people to play for the Xmas period, then submit scores at the end? Though I appreciate it's not a particularly serious competition or anything. Just a thought.

...Incidentally, has someone got a POKE to fix the out-of-key Jingle Bells ditty?

[Jbizzel]

Hmmm, quite fun and surprisingly playable!



Although I'm not very good at it. Maybe more wine will help

[Jbizzel]

How does the score work in this game?

Got to level 5 and scored 1300

One of my best scores I never got off level 1

My current hi score is also from level 5.

Is there a random element to the score? I don't get it.

[spider]

I can put it to the left of the barrow, I can put it right of the barrow, I can move the barrow. But it appears to be magical chance as the whether the gold goes *in* the barrow.

It can be tricky sometimes, although the CPC version is a bit worse iirc.

[sn3j]

I give up on this. My brain is not able to map 6789+0.

[TMD2003]

I give up on this. My brain is not able to map 6789+0.

Ditto - they were so close to making it the standard Sinclair joystick map, and yet so very, very far. Fortunately, I've just unearthed the Kempston interface I briefly thought I'd lost.

Has anyone tried this game on a real +3? Mine is giving all sorts of problems. I've managed to make it load once, had to use USR0 mode, and that made it crash after one game (emulation confirms this is supposed to happen). I'm trying it on a +2B now, just in case it's the tape socket that's dodgy on the +3. Either that or the ghosts of Commodores Past are haunting my lounge and causing all sorts of havoc with the chuntey field.

"Wooooo... wooooooooo... you should have had a VIC-20... wooooooooooooo!" (etc.)

EDIT: Gaaaaaaaaah! Six failed attempts on the +3, two on the +2B, this game does not like the +3 hardware even though emulation says it should be OK. Well, you'll have to believe my scores on this one, because the chances I'm going to rummage through two boxes of hardware to dig the grey +2 out, and see if I can get the RF out to work, and make even more of a mess in the lounge when I really should do some last minute preparation for tomorrow... are nil.

[Jbizzel]

@TMD2003 The game only works in 48k mode.

the scoring is weird. Just played a quick game on Fuse and got 1000 on level one. Usually I get 300-350. What is going on?

BTW, this game is pretty good. If it wasn't for the unfair snowballs spawning randomly in places that kill you with no warning it would be a really decent game.

[TMD2003]

2760 - that's as far as I'm going to go before those bells jingling in a minor key drives me up the wall. I suspect this game was coded in a hurry - admit it, you all speedloaded it, but those who didn't, there was a ton of unused space being loaded. Christmas games don't have to be particularly good, after all - just available to buy in December, quality be damned. I was getting hints of Jack And The Beanstalk about the accuracy needed to jump the pits, and I've yet to make it past the third screen. Usually it's being hit by a snowball just as I'm lining up the pit that's the problem.

@TMD2003 The game only works in 48k mode.

That's what I was doing. Every time, if I could get the loading screen to line up properly (50% of the time), it would crash to a black screen and a white border, in 48 BASIC. I tried the 128K Loader, and it started ghost-loading something else when the program executed...

the scoring is weird. Just played a quick game on Fuse and got 1000 on level one. Usually I get 300-350. What is going on?

Each present delivered scores 10-30 points, but it seems to be the bonus messages that really bump up the score. No idea what makes them appear, though, only that it's a comment about socks, perfume or a NEW ICON GAME!

Looking at other games that Icon Games (not Icon Design!) had to offer, I'm not sure I'd be that excited by that prospect.

[uglifruit]

Those keys 6789 and 0 but up and down reversed like a flight sim. Weird!

My genuine go...

2170 points.

My go when I just didn't move off the top of screen 1, and let the snowballs down below rack up points on their own...

3250 points (and counting...). But it didn't seem in the spirit of the competition.

As Joshua says a strange game, the only winning move is not to play.

[sn3j]

As Joshua says a strange game, the only winning move is not to play.

So true.

[R-Tape]

If it wasn't for the unfair snowballs spawning randomly in places that kill you with no warning it would be a really decent game.

Yeah that's a pain. Sometimes it helps to jump to and from the edges rather than walking, occasionally I've jumped a snowball.

the scoring is weird. Just played a quick game on Fuse and got 1000 on level one. Usually I get 300-350. What is going on?

Each present delivered scores 10-30 points, but it seems to be the bonus messages that really bump up the score. No idea what makes them appear, though, only that it's a comment about socks, perfume or a NEW ICON GAME!

Looking at other games that Icon Games (not Icon Design!) had to offer, I'm not sure I'd be that excited by that prospect.
[/quote]

Not sure what's going on with the scores either, but those little messages do seem to coincide with a higher score. They left a nice message for in the code too...



MERRY CHRISTMAS HO HO HO!

[R-Tape]

My go when I just didn't move off the top of screen 1, and let the snowballs down below rack up points on their own...

3250 points (and counting...). But it didn't seem in the spirit of the competition.

That does rather put the cat among the pigeons! For the record I didn't use such shameful tactics in my 4690 run (which I can't replicate).

One useful tactic could be to hang about in the middle while waiting for snowballs, so you can go to the edge on that level knowing it's safe, and doing so would also give you the 'hanging about' snowball bonus.

[clebin]

Escaping the chaos downstairs for 5 minutes to post last night's score...

One useful tactic could be to hang about in the middle while waiting for snowballs, so you can go to the edge on that level knowing it's safe, and doing so would also give you the 'hanging about' snowball bonus.

That's my plan too but I'm usually too impatient to stick to it.

Not sure why this score was so high (5610) - 1,500 better than anything else I've achieved. No hanging around at the top though, I promise! There's some kind of bonus that you can rack up that I haven't quite figured out. I think maybe you collect the Christmas puddings and then the wine glass makes the bonus "pay out"?

I've enjoyed it anyway. I like the little comments that pop up, which remind me of Trashman. "Wow! An Icon game" said no kid ever. It's a charming little thing in its own right, but by the usual standards of Christmas-themed Spectrum games it's a veritable masterpiece.

[R-Tape]

Nice going as usual @clebin!

merry Xmas santa game 1
Freddy hardest, game 2
Gillian's Gold game 3

Boxing day! I've been playing Freddy Hardest Dinamic edition as I couldn't get the other ones to load.

I'd forgotten how good this game was, and that it's not as impossible as it seemed BITD. I played this a lot round at a mate's on their +2. The way some baddies appear seems unfair at first, but there is usually a way to get around it. The gameplay and graphics are a beautiful showcase of the Spanish style (though having said that, gratuitous cleavage is notably absent on the loading screen).

There's a small problem - as far as I can tell, the score is not saved as you go from level 1 to 2 (code needed). So maybe record both and add them up?

I did finish level 1 and got the code, but annoyingly, a keypress meant I didn't write down my ~48000 score. So my best recorded so far is 39800.

[Jbizzel]

Great game. I'm trying to play on my phone as I'm away. I'm sure I could do better with a d pad. This is totally new to me, I love it.

I guess there are places where you could stand to easily rack up a massive score, but that is not in the spirit of this Christmas challenge.

I feel this game needs a great AY track as in game music.

[Alessandro]

Ahh... Freddy Hardest, an old favourite. I completed it again after ages for this challenge, my total score is 48600 + 22200 = 70800.

[R-Tape]

Class Alessandro! You forgot the mike drop meme!

I doubt I'll compete with that, but tomorrow I'll try to repeat my level 1 finish, and get somewhere on the second bit.

[TMD2003]

This one loaded on the +2B, hence the photo:



31,600 - when I finally made it past several jumps and saw the snakes for the first time. I could have just stood there and shot whatever appeared on screen and had done with it - a six-figure score is surely possible that way - but I thought I'd see how far I could go, legitimately.

I was expecting something that'd make me tear my hear out (which everyone my age and up should avoid), considering this game's fearsome reputation. Why is that? Is it because there's this constant need to crouch, crouch, crouch so that the onslaught of baddies can be shot? Is it because there's artificial difficulty in that you'll inevitably lose one or two lives to a baddie that's appeared in the middle of a jump when you can do nothing about it? Is it just because Dinamic made it?

Either way, I found it a lot easier to use the teclado that the palanca de Kempston. And I won't be coming dead last on this one, which is what I hoped to avoid.

[Jbizzel]

I'm hoping I can do better with a joystick later today.

As @TMD2003 says, you could just stand in a safe space and rack up a massive score. I'm finding it more run to try to progress.

You do seem to lose a few lives unfairly due to mid jump spawns. Ironically like the snowballs on the Xmas game we played. But this is a really decent game, that I'm enjoying.

[Alessandro]

You forgot the mike drop meme!

...sorry?

[R-Tape]

...sorry?

My bad - I spelt it wrong. It should have been mic drop.

Basically - you smashed it!

[Jbizzel]

I got much further, it's intense! Although this score, I didn't get as far!

You can stay ducked down and shoot in both directions. Game changer!

[R-Tape]

I had a really good run of duck, shoot and kick on the first part and completed it with 69000, followed by a horrible run on the second part where I scored 1000, so my Hi-Score is a round 70,000.

I see that score almost reached Alessandro's 70800, but that's because he completed it on a single life by the looks of it

This game finally feels completable. I need to get to know the second part better, but I doubt I'll improve on this score tonight.

Fantastic game.

[Jbizzel]

Wow, you guys are good at this. I'm a noob. Doubt I'll get any further tonight. I would have like to do level one.