KaeruYojimbo

That's this one.

Galactopus and Ms. Galactopus are both in the Homebrew/NTSC section. Shattered Earth is in the WIP section. It's a slightly older version than the one here, but I'm pretty sure the only difference is that one doesn't have the engine sound effect when you're flying.

I assume that too since it works fine on everything else I've tried it on. I was hoping maybe there'd be an easy answer like something on the developer's page saying "JDX-a2600 currently does not support games that use Supercharger RAM" but I didn't see anything like that. Your starting location, the locations of the survivors and the location of the space station are all determined at the beginning of each level. The maze is created as you go through it, but once a screen has been set it stays that way for the remainder of the level.

Shattered Earth 13,350

Ms. Galactopus 22,700

Galactopus 57,890

Tips from the developer for Shattered Earth: As promised, here's a primer for playing Shattered Earth. Your goal is to collect 4 survivors of the destruction of the planet and get them to the space station before their space suits run out of air. The station will remain hidden until you have four survivors on board, so even though you haven't seen it, it may be in a part of the map you've already visited. Speaking of the map, each level is made up of 16 screens arranged in a 4x4 grid. Leaving the edge of the map wraps you around to the opposite edge. Each stage is procedurally generated as you travel through it, so the game will be a little different every time you play it. You will encounter three different types of defense satellites, differentiated by color, each with it's own method of attack. The won't shoot at you in the first level, but they will get more aggressive and intelligent as you progress. There is also a space warp which travels though the level. Falling into it will send you to a random part of the map. I went a little nuts with the scoring compared to the last 2 games, so here's a break down: Destroy a defense satellite: 25 points Rescue a survivor: 50, 100, 200, 400 points. The value increases for each successive survivor you rescue but resets to 50 points when you lose a life or begin a new level. End of level bonus: 5, 10, 25, 50 points per unit of oxygen remaining, depending on how many successive survivors you rescued before reaching the space station, plus 250 points for each survivor. If you complete a level without losing a life, falling into a space warp or destroying any satellites, your bonus will be 1000 per survivor. You'll want to finish each stage as quickly as possible to maximize your bonus. Remember that each level is a grid and try to travel through it in an orderly manner and keep a mental map of were you've been.

I'm not familiar with that emulator so I can't say for sure why Shattered Earth doesn't work with it. Are there known compatibility issues with other games?

Galactopus 21,250 Man, it's been a while since I actually sat down and played this.

Well, I did say "arguably." Personally I think using the playfield graphics, with the pellets lined up, a uniform color and not flickering, looks much better and more like the arcade than the higgledy-piggledy look you get using the missiles, even if the missiles allow you to to have dots rather than rectangles.

The Pac-Man homebrews use the playfield graphics to draw the dots, while Alien uses the missile graphics. While the missiles can be square dots, they share a color with the associated player and there's a limit to how many can appear per scanline. This is why the dots in Alien aren't perfectly lined up and why they flicker and change color. The playfield graphics can't be any smaller than 8 pixels across, but each scanline of playfield can have it's own color value, meaning the pellets can be one color as long as they are the only thing drawn with the playfield on that scanline (that's why there are gaps in the maze walls that line up with the pellets). And with the playfield graphics you can line as many pellets as you can fit across the screen without needing to stagger or flicker them like you do with the missiles. I can't say for certain, but I would guess it's also easier to use the playfield than to deal with the multiplexing and flickering needed to use the missile. So add easier to do with an arguably cleaner and overall better look and you get dashes instead of dots.

After looking at that old thread, I realized the the "FINAL-FINAL" bin I gave @ZilchSr isn't actually the final-final version of the game. The actual final-final version is Fix2, which is available here. Sorry about that everybody.

Tips from the developer (Hey, that's me!) for Galactopus: The goal of Galactopus is, obviously, to destroy Galactopus. Unfortunately, he's a tough S.O.B. and your ship's laser isn't powerful enough to kill him. To power up your weapon, you need to collect the chunks of octonium that flake off of him when you shoot him. Once you collect eight pieces, your laser will be fully powered and the next shot will finish him off. The scoring is pretty simple. You get 50 points for each piece of octonium you collect and a bonus for destroying Galactopus. The bonus is based on your accuracy and efficiency. The max is 1,500 points, which you get if you finish a stage firing only 9 shots (8 to dislodge 8 pieces of octonium and the 9th to destroy Galactopus), so they key is to master timing your shots to get through the shields and not miss any octonium. There are 5 different species of Galactopus in the game. First is the purple Galactopus, which just moves back and forth across the screen, only changing direction when it reaches the edge. The red Galactopus will try to dodge your shots. The blue Galactopus fires shots that move faster than the previous two. The yellow Galactopus, in addition to dodging and firing fast shots will change direction at random intervals. Finally, the green Galactopus is only visible when one of its shots is on the screen. After you defeat the green Galactopus the game alternates between yellow and green as long as you're able to stay alive. There is a bonus stage after every second level that consists of a pink Galactopus dropping chunks of octonium. The point value increases for every chunk you catch without missing and resets to 10 points when you do miss. If you can collect 10 pieces without missing you earn and extra ship. The bonus stage ends when you miss 8 chunks. That pretty much covers Galactopus. I did a pretty thorough breakdown of Ms. Galactopus last time it was played in the HSC which you can find here. I'll be back with tips for Shattered Earth later.

Shattered Earth isn't finished yet, though it's very close. I'd suggest waiting until the game is done to add a leaderboard just in case any changes between now and the final release affect scoring. @ZilchSr In Shattered Earth the left difficulty switch affects where you restart after crashing. B you restart where you crashed, A you restart on a random screen.

Never for the 2600, but a few times for other systems I don't collect for or play as regularly (Anybody out there need Inty Centipede?)