High Score Club 8.18 - Final Approach

[Ze_ro]

Important Note: This weeks competition is over and no further scores will be accepted.

 

You are an Air Traffic Controller at a busy international airport. Literally thousands of lives are in your hands every day as you guide giant airliners and small private aircraft taking off and landing. You try to stay relaxed under the intense pressure of your job, but you must always be ready for emergencies.

 

 

Game Information

• Game Name: Final Approach
• Released By: Games by Apollo, 1982
• Left Difficulty: B / Novice - Aircraft are Slower
• Right Difficulty: N/A
• Game Mode: Game 1 (1 player, up to 4 aircraft, no crosswinds)

Post your scores right here in this thread, and I will add them to the list. Remember to play the game with the recommended game mode and difficulty settings as shown above so that your scores will be consistent with everyone elses. The deadline for posting scores is Wednesday December 22nd at 1:00 AM (Central Time, UTC-6).

 

Challenges

• Master Controller - Score 500 points or higher and you get 3 bonus points.

 

Current High Scores 1000 (toymailman) [+11][+3] 1000 (Deteacher) [+11][+3] 1000 (Gorfy) [+11][+3] 1000 (Jifremok) [+11][+3] 1000 (Miss 2600) [+11][+3] 1000 (JacobZu7zu7) [+11][+3] 740 (roadrunner) [+10][+3] 25 (Scrabbler15) [+9] Best Tips Gorfy [+2] TwinGalaxies Top 3 635 (Steve Germershausen) (Game 1, Difficulty B)

Current Standings toymailman [239] JacobZu7zu7 [213] Deteacher [194] Scrabber15 [194] oyamafamily [176] roadrunner [93] Miss 2600 [92] zylon [66] Zoyx [55] Jifremok [54] Chuck D. Head [52] LarcenTyler [48] keilbaca [41] SeaGtGruff [33] Mingy Jongo [31] ClassicGMR [29] pis [21] lastkill3r [21] HatefulGravey [17] Mangia-Boy [15] rmaerz [14] doctorclu [13] Pioneer4x4 [12] 4Ks [10] dooglehead [9] MrJimbo [8] Mister VCS [7] satan165 [7] Curious Sofa [4] madbutscher [4] ed1475 [2] littleman jack [2] pacmanplayer [2] MIKE5200 [2] Austin [1] Player 3 [1] SpaceDice2010 [1]

 

Scoring Points in Final Approach

• Each Successful Landing - 25 points
• Each Emergency Landing - 50 points
• Allow an Aircraft to Wander off Radar - Lose 5 points
• As your score increases, so does the speed of the aircraft
• You are allowed an additional control error every 500 points

 

Hints and Tips

The Manual

 

As always, you really should read the manual. In case you don't have the manual, AtariAge has a typed copy available online. It doesn't provide any specific hints, but I still recommend reading it, as this is a relatively complicated game.

 

Gorfy

 

Here's what you bascially need to do:

1. Line up the tip of your plane with the front tip of the pulsating yellow streak
   
2. Move your cursor to the center red dot at bottom of your screen and click red button on joystick to switch to other screen
   
3. You'll see two planes. The one on top is controlled by moving the joystick in up and down directions;Use this to line up the top plane with the yellow line and then the black line that immediately follows.
   The plane on the bottom is controlled by moving the joystick in right and left directions; Use this to position the bottom plane on the white line. I usually do this first before messing with the top plane because the bottom plane usually only requires a minor adjustment. Then you can focus on bringing the top plane in line.
   
4. If you succeed, you'll see score points; Then press red button on joystick to return to other screen
   
5. The rest involves managing the planes with your cursor so they don't go off-screen or wander off in a "near-miss"

 

--Zero

[Miss 2600]

I hope there are some good tips in this thread because I haven't been able to figure this game out since I was a kid. I'll probably get a participation point with a screenshot showing "0"

[toymailman]

I was intimidated by this game when I first tried it too. However, after I read the manual it was clear what to do. Then after a few times playing it, it gets easy...too easy. The difficulty never ramps on this one. So, once you figure out how to control the planes and land them then there is not much left to do. Sadly, because an increasing difficulty (faster planes, more planes, adding in stronger and stronger crosswinds, etc.) would've made this a great game.

 

My suggestion is to count a score of 1,000 as "rolled". At 25 (or 50) points per landing, this is high enough to show sufficient mastery IMHO.

[oyamafamily]

This time I will not participate, for 2 REASONS:

1) I DON'T have interest to play this game (Final Approach).

2) I have 83 points away from the 6th place - ROADRUNNER (SEE Current Standings).

 

For the Season 8 of 2600 HSC, my goal is to stay among TOP 5 on Current Standings.

Edited December 16, 2010 by oyamafamily

[roadrunner]

^^^ I'm not gonna get 83 points in one week, but i'll take those 3 bonus points!

 

 

I got up to 740 points when i pressed the fire button trying to avoid 2 planes touching each other and the game reset.

[Gorfy]

I hope there are some good tips in this thread because I haven't been able to figure this game out since I was a kid. I'll probably get a participation point with a screenshot showing "0"

 

Here's what you bascially need to do:

1. line up the tip of your plane with the front tip of the pulsating yellow streak

2. move your cursor to the center red dot at bottom of your screen and click red button on joystick to switch to other screen

3. you'll see two planes. The one on top is controlled by moving the joystick in up and down directions;Use this to line up the top plane with the yellow line and then the black line that immediately follows.

The plane on the bottom is controlled by moving the joystick in right and left directions; Use this to position the bottom plane on the white line. I usually do this first before messing with the top plane because the bottom plane usually only requires a minor adjustment. Then you can focus on bringing the top plane in line.

4. If you succeed, you'll see score points; Then press red button on joystick to return to other screen

5. The rest involves managing the planes with your cursor so they don't go off-screen or wander off in a "near-miss"

 

I hope this helps. I was pretty bewildered when I tried this the first time! The game's motto should be "difficult to learn, easy to master"

So far, Ive made it to 810 points, but unfortunately I haven't figured out how to upload photographs!

[Deteacher]

Well, if Toymailman's suggestion of rolling it at 1,000, then I just rolled it. I was frustrated at first, but once I made my first successful landing, it was easy to rack up 1,005! I stopped there, but if I have to keep playing for the high score, then I guess I'll have to fire it up again.

 

[Gorfy]

Rolled past 1,000 to 2,115, when i decided i had enough. I agree with toymailman that this game could've been very good had they ramped up the challenge. Still, I haven't tried the higher levels yet........

I took a nice snapshot of my score with a digital camera, but still don't know how to upload; My Kodak "EasyShare" makes it difficult to share.

[toymailman]

I played it a bunch this morning. I wanted to see if it rolled at 10k...it didn't. It took me 3-hours to get this score too.

10,000

 

I think two additions to the game would have made it extremely fun.

1) Fuel/Timer for each plane in the air. A life is lost if the fuel runs out before the aircraft is landed. This would force the player to employ at least some level of coordination in getting all the planes safely home.

2) Slowly increase the speed of the new planes. Each time a plane is landed then the new plane that appears (that shares the same color of the one that just landed) is slightly faster than what it was before. Emergency planes would not have this condition.

[Gorfy]

attempting to attach photo of score..........

[Jifremok]

I'm back! After being much too busy to worry about high scores and whatnot...

 

I stopped at 1100ish.

 

I definitely wouldn't have figured this game out on my own. Never woulda thought to move the cursor to a "knob" beneath the play field. After learning the ropes though, it's definitely too easy. I just had trouble remembering to keep planes away from the edges since some planes love to appear and collide before there's any time to move the cursor.

[Scrabbler15]

25 - Participation point.

 

The instrument has yet to be invented that would adequately measure my indifference to this game.

[Scrabbler15]

I'm back! After being much too busy to worry about high scores and whatnot...

 

I stopped at 1100ish.

 

I definitely wouldn't have figured this game out on my own. Never woulda thought to move the cursor to a "knob" beneath the play field. After learning the ropes though, it's definitely too easy. I just had trouble remembering to keep planes away from the edges since some planes love to appear and collide before there's any time to move the cursor.

 

Welcome back, Jif.

[Miss 2600]

Finally! I was able to land some planes! I never landed a single plane when I was a kid. I actually ended up having to refer to a YouTube Classic Game Room review. What I was doing wrong all this time was trying to align the top plane with the diagonal white line. The CGR guy disregarded the white line and just aligned the top plane with the runway, so that is what I did and, voila, I finally racked up some points:

 

860

 

Edited December 20, 2010 by Miss 2600

[roadrunner]

25 - Participation point.

 

The instrument has yet to be invented that would adequately measure my indifference to this game.

 

You almost got the hang of this game.

Once you figure out how to land one plane you'll be landing a whole bunch of planes.

[roadrunner]

The movie Airplane seems to fit in well with this game.

 

A few clips of the classic movie Airplane.

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em9PtzQzWOg

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVq4_HhBK8Y

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1amYd47CQs

[Miss 2600]

Love the Airplane movies and that character Johnny (Jacobs in the sequel)!

[Miss 2600]

Wanted to "roll" it (probably my only opportunity to roll a game).

 

1410

 

[JacobZu7zu7]

Not easy playin' the emulator, I never played this one before. Reminds me of Odyssey 2

the helicopter rescue thing, just more advanced.

SCORE = 750

I woulda got higher but the game "reset" for no exact reason.

 

 

Over 1,000 rolled,... 2,100 and I'm still going in the game.

 

2,225

Edited December 21, 2010 by JacobZu7zu7

[JacobZu7zu7]

Love the Airplane movies and that character Johnny (Jacobs in the sequel)!

 

 

Hopefully nobodys shaving in the bathroom during my plane directings.

''CUTT''

-ME-

SOME-

SLACK-

JACK!

 

Gawd, is he bleedin...?!