HSC5 Contest 4 Gauntletak

[Goochman]

HSC Season 5	4	Contest Ends:	Noon 2/22/08 EST
Gauntletak		Score	Points
doctorclu	1	1,235,025	8
_Fandal_		1,069,925	6
Shannon		853,200	4
Reaperman		740,100	2
dodgers		621,150	1
jdh		42,375	1
goochman		21,500	1
devwebcl	0	0	0
krupkaj		0	0
Jimmy Lee		0	0
Bunsen		0	0
mimo		0	0
vdub_bobby		0	0

Player	Weeks Won	Score
HSC5 Scoresheet		2008	HSC5 Contests
_Fandal_	2	28	Hyperblast
dodgers	1	17	Crystal Castles
doctorclu	1	12	Megamania
jdh	0	12	Gauntletak
JellE	0	7
Shannon	0	6
goochman	0	5
devwebcl	0	3
mimo	0	3
krupkaj	0	1
Bunsen	0	1
pseudografx	0	1
Hornpipe2	0	1
a8isa1	0	1
pseudografx	0	1

Edited February 22, 2008 by Goochman

[Goochman]

Play default options which are:

One

Hit & Run

All

Normal

[Shannon]

26275 for starters...

 

Time to start mapping those keys! lol.

 

I bet this game can be hard on the keyboard like Defender.

[Goochman]

26275 for starters...

 

Time to start mapping those keys! lol.

 

I bet this game can be hard on the keyboard like Defender.

 

Im lazy - what keys are used?

[Shannon]

M = Homing missiles

F = Flares

T = Tridex

S = Shotgun

N = Nuke

B= BOT

 

X will stop your ship movement.

Space toggles between 2ndary (see above) and primary weapon (bolts).

 

This game is perfect for my record playback tests (I think the playback is off by 1/60th of a second).

I'm surprised this game never really caught my interest back in the day. I remember alot of people talking about how great it was, but just never was interested in it.

 

New score.... 33575

Edited February 10, 2008 by Shannon

[Shannon]

81,475

[_Fandal_]

243,800

 

Red levels are pretty tough!

 

Edit: 313,450

 

I got past all 50 screens!

Edited February 10, 2008 by _Fandal_

[Shannon]

Got a little bored....

 

Mines:

Mines are equipped with cloaking devices. They orbit peacefully, winking in and out until you get too close. Then they chase you relentlessly. Mines are worth 25 points when they're sitting there and 50 points after they "wake up" and start chasing you.

 

Bubbles:

Bubbles just orbit and launch stalkers at you once in a while. They're worth 25 points and are easy to kill.

 

ECM Pods

ECM pods are also worth 25 points and are elasy to kill. They don't even fire at you! But what they do can be devastating. They jam your homing missiles, causing thern to detonate, go crazy, drop like rocks, or chase YOU! Don't fire missiles or BOTs when there are ECM pods on the screen, clean out the ECM pods first or you're in for trouble.

 

Drones:

Drones are srnart homing missiles. They hover and wait until you're in sight. Then they beep and cautiously give chase, avoiding obstacles along the way. When they get close enough, they throw all caution to the winds and play kamikaze. Drones are worth 50 when waiting, 100 when cautiously chasing, and 200 when charging in.

 

Satellites:

Satellites have a combination of guts, speed, and firepower that makes them extremely dangerous. They will aggressively back you into a corner where they can rip you apart with their shotgun. Even though they are not heavily armored, their erratic behavior makes it hard to place a good solid hit.

 

Scouts:

These are the backbone of the enemy fleet. They take a fair amount of damage, Iaunch aimed photons, and drop a drone once in a while to keep you occupied while they move in. They are good at dodging, making them very hard to hit.

 

Pods:

Pods are capable of launching and guiding one torpedoe and will always try to keep one on the screen. They are chicken and proud of it, having the best avoiding ability of any ship. Of course, if you were this lightly armored, you'd get good at it too !

 

Probes:

Probes love it when you hide. usually they just fire bullets at your but given the chance they will get above you and purnmel to death with whirls. otherwise they will be satisfied with tearing you to shreds at point blank range, and they're fast enough to keep you frorn escaping. A probe's only defense is it's speed and small size. Some ships launch probes to flush you out.

 

Rats:

Rats travel in packs and fire bullets rapidly. They are slow but take a lot of damage. Hovering and covering each other is their favorite tactic, but they are known to charge.

 

Hunters:

These ships are used to fighting alone and are well equipped for it. Carrying photons and probes, they send out the probes to flush you out for a clear shot. Heavy armor protects them as they avoid your fire.

 

Gills:

It's unclear wether the narne comes fron being armed gills or acting like a guillotine , but the name fits in either case. Gills will use flares to blow away your trover while they launch stalkers to corne and get you. They are fast and heavily armored, rnaking them hard to kill.

 

DroneShips:

Droneships are like hoverships, only worse. They always have awesome firepower, more than any other ship. They have heavy armor and plod along blasting everything in sight. Not only that, but they're too stupid to retreat.

 

FORTS:

A fort is a flying fortress - slow, lots of firepower, and takes lots of damage. Fly in close with shotgun blazing, or chip away at long range. They take lots of damage so don't expect an easy kill.

 

JETS:

Armed with a Vulcon cannon, these ships usually appear in twos or threes. Don't fly directly in or stay close. There's no time to dodge when they fire, always fly across their path of fire and fire a burst. Use missiles if possible and just dodge till they are killed.

 

SKIMMERS:

The rule is: Keep away! These ships are armed bolts that fire faster than you can dodge. Keep moving to get above or below them to get a decent shot. Missiles work good if you have a place to hide, But skimmers like to fight close and will come and get you.

 

EYES:

Eyes fire nukes but aren't very mobile and Staying close to the edges of the screen will allow most of the nukes to pass by harmlessly. Don't stay close unless you're good at dodgeing nukes and avoiding blasts.

 

BLOBS:

The most dangerous ship in the game. The blob is built from the hull of 5 Kingships, but packed with firepower. It has a cloaking device that works for short periods of time, allowing it to go inviqible . It fires nukes and drones, and many of them. This ship also moves fast so you seldom know where it is. When it's invisible, hit it with bolts. Fire missiles when is fades out. Concentrate on dodging the nukes and stay far away from the ship. A BOT is your best friend when facing a Blob.

Edited February 12, 2008 by Shannon

[_Fandal_]

Some training: 442,300.

 

 

Many thanks to Shannon for instructions! BTW, there're some enemies missing in your list.

 

For example this beast: .

 

I really don't these two with rapid fire: .

 

Most dangerous are probably these two as they shoot nukes: . I hate the last one especially as it can be invisible...

[Shannon]

Thanks for the pics. I didn't have access to them at the time I did that.

 

Updated.

[Shannon]

202475

 

Update

 

358575

 

I made it to the end this time.

 

It played a little diddy. I was sad..

Edited February 14, 2008 by Shannon

[dodgers]

What a great game. I really like the variety of firepower you have. Have you noticed you can get loads of points by blasting the scenery away with flares.

 

 

621150

[Shannon]

Here ya go. But I couldn't help but have an old injury flare up while playing this round...

 

 

 

[jdh]

42,375

 

What a great game, wonderful attention to detail.

 

It's no fun being ruthlessly chased by your own missiles though

 

Edited February 17, 2008 by jdh

[Goochman]

21500

 

Boy this gets hectic - almost seems that you need the right weapon to toggle before hitting the next screen!

[donlebeau]

Wow, this is pretty cool. Don't remember what my highest score was, but I don't think I could touch you guys!

 

Man, I don't remember half of those ships! I had a bunch of them I was trying out and only the smart ones got in. Didn't realize so many of them made the final cut. A lot of the designs seemed smart, but in actual practice they were only good at killing themselves.

 

Tell you what. To make it interesting, an autographed copy of the title page drawing goes to the winner. Be the first person on your planet to own one.

 

Have you noticed you can get loads of points by blasting the scenery away with flares?

 

Oops.

Edited February 19, 2008 by donlebeau

[Shannon]

Yeah.... notice my hint. Nudge, nudge in my last score post.

 

All scores before that though were before my injury flared up.

 

Anyways it's still a great game. We will let you be the judge concerning the best score.

Edited February 19, 2008 by Shannon

[Reaperman]

What a great game. I really like the variety of firepower you have. Have you noticed you can get loads of points by blasting the scenery away with flares.

 

 

621150

wow, you sure can get a lot of points that way. And the extra hit points make the game kind of easy. (at least in that mode) I had trouble breaking 50k before that tip.

I actually thought the last levels were a lot easier than the early ones. Barriers often keeping enemies away until they could be identified/destroyed, and lots more ground to hack up for life points.

 

(I'm *not* really in this because I'll probably never play another of these highscore games, but I had fun anyhow) 748100

hacking up one of the later levels:

I shouldn't have been quite so lazy about hacking up ground toward the end, I might have gotten that last 100k...

 

and thanks to this forum, I got to play another great game I've never heard of. I'll be keeping this one handy for a while. But next time I'm going to go lighter on the flares. They kind of kill the pace of the game.

Edited February 19, 2008 by Reaperman

[doctorclu]

207,750 on my Atari 800.

 

And then 432,050 and finished the game.

 

(And after this... 437,875... guess I need to study the stategy guide if I'm going to double my points as others here did.)

Edited February 20, 2008 by doctorclu

[_Fandal_]

1.069,925

 

F.

[doctorclu]

Here is my update. Thank you Fandal for showing it could be done and for everyone in helping me improve my game! We are all winners for that.

 

1,126,025

[doctorclu]

Wow, this is pretty cool. Don't remember what my highest score was, but I don't think I could touch you guys!

 

Be awesome to see you try.

 

Man, I don't remember half of those ships! I had a bunch of them I was trying out and only the smart ones got in. Didn't realize so many of them made the final cut. A lot of the designs seemed smart, but in actual practice they were only good at killing themselves.

 

And here I just thought it was because I was a good pilot.

 

Tell you what. To make it interesting, an autographed copy of the title page drawing goes to the winner. Be the first person on your planet to own one.

 

Ok, I was about ready to retire for the night, but then I saw this and said "Ok, I have to try for my best game, if someone beats it, fine, but at least I can say I gave my best more perfect game."

 

So I think it's been about five hours and my score is 1,235,025

 

 

And on a fun related note, as I was "mining" away with the landscape, I thought it was interesting that one screen as I was doing my work kinda looked like the Dallas (Texas) skyline...

 

 

And finally my tribute to the late great Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), a million points on level 42.

 

 

If nothing else, this has been a blast... now at last, off to bed so I can work tomorrow. Kinda reminds me of all the nights I would stay up till 3 am on a school night playing this. Amazing, I feel just as exhausted and estatic about it now as I did then.

[Goochman]

Contest closed!

[doctorclu]

ECM Pods

ECM pods are also worth 25 points and are elasy to kill. They don't even fire at you! But what they do can be devastating. They jam your homing missiles, causing thern to detonate, go crazy, drop like rocks, or chase YOU! Don't fire missiles or BOTs when there are ECM pods on the screen, clean out the ECM pods first or you're in for trouble.

 

I think these are the ones I hated most. I mean most of the time I would be cruising along, minding my business, then I get on a new screen, try to look around and see what I had, overlook these guys, and then I spit off three missiles that go NO WHERE.

 

You here the explitves from me at that point as I scramble to change weapons and get away from my own missiles AND the enemy at the same time.

 

Throws off my groove man.

[donlebeau]

Cograts Doctorclu! An amazing effort for sure!

 

And here I just thought it was because I was a good pilot.

 

Actually, you are. The suicidal ships never made it into the game, only the smart ones did.

 

My post was worded poorly and it sounded like I let a lot of the losers in. I didn't. I was just surprized at the number of ships I did that actually worked.

 

So you earned every point.