Spelunker - Season 3 Week 16

[vdub_bobby]

Enough racing, let's head on underground! Yes, it's time for Spelunker!

 

Post a score and let's get this thing rolling!

 

Please post any tips you may have - best tip gets 1 bonus point.

 

And if anyone has a link to the manual, please post it.

 

This week's competition ends next Tuesday (January 22) morning at approximately 9:00 am PST.

 

 

This week's scores:

 

118,190 vdub_bobby (+10 pts)

46,920 LarcenTyler (+8 pts +1 pt for best tip)

5,100 PressureCooker2600 (+6 pts)

 

 

Twin Galaxies High Scores

 

2,516,480 Tom Votava

 

 

Overall standings:

 

1. PressureCooker2600 (99 pts)

2. vdub_bobby (68 pts)

3. LarcenTyler (64 pts)

4. gdement (57 pts)

5. Blackjack (28 pts)

6. Artlover (24 pts)

7. rjchamp3 (18 pts)

8. theKLT (18 pts)

9. atari2600land (15 pts)

10. Roloking (10 pts)

11. shadow460 (10 pts)

12. RJ (6 pts)

13. Ryanw (4 pts)

14. potatohead (1 pts)

 

 

Game Info

 

Originally written for the Atari 8-bit computer line in 1983 by Micro Graphic Image, ported to the NES in 1985.

 

Other platforms: Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, MSX, Wii

 

Sequel: Spelunker II (NES - 1987)

 

 

Tips

 

LarcenTyler:

-When jumping off of a rope or a moving object, you have to press both A and the direction you want to jump in simultaneously. Timing is important. Otherwise, you could end up falling off the rope or just jumping upwards.

 

-If you lose a life, you restart at the point of the last object you just picked up. Use this to your advantage!

 

Me:

Practice! This is a game that rewards lots of practice. I played about 10 games last night and on almost every one got a little farther, scored a little better. And it's worth it, too - there are lots of interesting things to see and do way down there. I think I only got about halfway down on my best game.

Precision! Spelunker is absolutely unforgiving - be careful, especially getting on and off of ropes and ladders.

Edited January 22, 2008 by vdub_bobby

[Lauren Tyler]

46,920

 

Not bad for a first start. My personal pointers:

 

-When jumping off of a rope or a moving object, you have to press both A and the direction you want to jump in simultaneously. Timing is important. Otherwise, you could end up falling off the rope or just jumping upwards.

 

-If you lose a life, you restart at the point of the last object you just picked up. Use this to your advantage!

[vdub_bobby]

Tough game.

 

18,000

 

Edited January 17, 2008 by vdub_bobby

[vdub_bobby]

New score.

 

95,140

 

I have a pic, but my wife took the camera with her to Oregon for the weekend.

 

This is an interesting game - got me thinking, last night, about how the NES kind of straddled a transition in video game design. Early video games were very much modelled on the coin-op ideal: quick, difficult games that were shallow in one sense - often, by the end of the first level you had seen all the game had to offer - but very deep in another sense; the best of this type were perhaps superficially shallow but had a complexity that rewarded repeat plays. Think Pac-Man - there are some intermissions to see but, really, after 30 seconds of play you had pretty much seen all of Pac-Man that there was. These kinds of games generally have unforgiving gameplay, limited or no "continues," and no ending - they just got harder and harder, in an endless loop.

 

More modern video games have a very different design: more about exploration and completion, less about score. They are usually very easy at the beginning, even the worst player might play for 10+ minutes before dying - and when he does, he can continue, often with little or no penalty. The prototype for this kind of game might be Metroid, or The Legend of Zelda, neither of which keep score in a traditional sense, and have clear and definite endings.

 

All that to say, the NES seems to straddle the transition from games like Pac-Man to games like Metroid. The NES has its fair share of both kinds of games: old-style games like Pac-Man, Tetris, Galaga, and Excite Bike as well as new-style games like Metroid, Zelda II, Bionic Commando, and Kid Icarus.

 

Anyway, enough rambling:

 

My tips:

Practice! This is a game that rewards lots of practice. I played about 10 games last night and on almost every one got a little farther, scored a little better. And it's worth it, too - there are lots of interesting things to see and do way down there. I think I only got about halfway down on my best game.

Precision! Spelunker is absolutely unforgiving - be careful, especially getting on and off of ropes and ladders.

[gdement]

This is an interesting game - got me thinking, last night, about how the NES kind of straddled a transition in video game design. Early video games were very much modelled on the coin-op ideal: quick, difficult games that were shallow in one sense - often, by the end of the first level you had seen all the game had to offer - but very deep in another sense; the best of this type were perhaps superficially shallow but had a complexity that rewarded repeat plays. Think Pac-Man - there are some intermissions to see but, really, after 30 seconds of play you had pretty much seen all of Pac-Man that there was. These kinds of games generally have unforgiving gameplay, limited or no "continues," and no ending - they just got harder and harder, in an endless loop.

 

More modern video games have a very different design: more about exploration and completion, less about score. They are usually very easy at the beginning, even the worst player might play for 10+ minutes before dying - and when he does, he can continue, often with little or no penalty. The prototype for this kind of game might be Metroid, or The Legend of Zelda, neither of which keep score in a traditional sense, and have clear and definite endings.

 

All that to say, the NES seems to straddle the transition from games like Pac-Man to games like Metroid. The NES has its fair share of both kinds of games: old-style games like Pac-Man, Tetris, Galaga, and Excite Bike as well as new-style games like Metroid, Zelda II, Bionic Commando, and Kid Icarus.

 

I agree with your observations, this is why I think of the NES as the beginning of a distinctly different era from the Atari days. It was those more modern types of games which really defined the system and made it so successful. The early, arcade style NES games were okay but nothing new or special. Then in 1987-88, when the bigger, adventurous games proliferated, the NES became a phenomenon.

The 16-bit machines were still the same era; more powerful but still designed for and playing the same kinds of games.

[PressureCooker2600]

This game is indeed brutal.....

 

5100

[vdub_bobby]

118,190

[vdub_bobby]

And we're done! I enjoyed this very old-school-style game; I hope you did too! It's good to have a challenge sometimes!

[Tempest]

Did anyone ever beat the sixth quest? I've read that no one has been able to find the keys...

 

Tempest

[vdub_bobby]

I'm not sure...to get 2,000,000+ points I think Votava must have. I watched a tool-assisted run of the 1st quest and saw that I was closer than I realized to finishing - I think I would have ended up with 200,000-300,000 points after beating the 1st quest; that's collecting almost every item.