jblenkle Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 (edited) Well, so much for going to bed early...I've played the 16k rom five times with no lockup so far...I'll play it another five tomorrow and then try the 32k rom. Posted my best score to date: 49,208...pic to follow tomorrow p.s. - I think THE FORCE has to be with you to play this game. I start zigging and zagging with no real regard to what I'm doing...and somehow when I open my eyes I'm still alive with my finger quivering on the fire button... Thanks...I will play both tomorrow and report back. Although I don't get the lockup every time I play, it happens on a consistant basis...maybe 1 out of 5 times I play. Interesting issues around the Beamrider rom. The original CV rom collection I have from many years ago shows a [!] in the name which I believe signified that the dump was possibly bad (although I don't have the key to the naming convention any more so can't be sure what it means). Anyway, I dumped my Beamrider cart and it highlighted a few differences between the rom in the wild and my dump: 1. The last two bytes at the end of 16k are different. The public rom has "00 20" while my dump has "FD 77". 2. My dump has some odd data between 16k and 32k which would signify that there is more than 16k of eprom in the cart. So, I have created two versions of my cart dump (i) cut down to the supposedly correct size of 16k and (ii) my original full 32k dump. Try out both and let me know if the bug appears. Edited February 1, 2012 by jblenkle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 (edited) Beamrider - 49,208 Got bored...had to post this!!! I can't quit playing this game!!!! Ack! It's almost 1 a.m. Edited February 1, 2012 by jblenkle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted February 1, 2012 Author Share Posted February 1, 2012 Got bored...had to post this!!! I can't quit playing this game!!!! Ack! It's almost 1 a.m. I have always loved this game - it's one of those simplistic games in terms of controls (left, right and fire) combined with a limited set of fixed positions you can be in, and yet has an enjoyable and sadistic "one more go" quality to it. Glad to hear that the 16k rom I posted is behaving itself. I'd be interested to know what the 32k one does. It does seem that there are an awful lot of bad dumps out there. One day I may attempt to dump all of my carts and compare to those in the public domain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 OK, I've played the 16k redump 10 times with no lockups...I will try the 32k one now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 The 32k dump locked up on my fourth play of it. I'll go back to the 16k now and keep playing it, but it played flawlessly for 10 games yesterday and earlier this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Beamrider - 54,622 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Shoot...so much for the 16k redump not locking up....it just did...it seems to be less prone to it than the original though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skosh Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Has it locked up for you without shooting the ship between stages? For me it has only occurred when the ship is shot and the sound gets cutoff then freezes on the next screen. Would like to get a hold of a cart and play that to see if it exists there. I believe it may just be a bug as I imagine the program used to dump is fine. I have a sealed copy of Beamrider that I would like to avoid opening if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Possibly...but I don't recall for certain if the ship was shot or not...I will pay closer attention on future plays... Has it locked up for you without shooting the ship between stages? For me it has only occurred when the ship is shot and the sound gets cutoff then freezes on the next screen. Would like to get a hold of a cart and play that to see if it exists there. I believe it may just be a bug as I imagine the program used to dump is fine. I have a sealed copy of Beamrider that I would like to avoid opening if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 OK, just had another lockup...but this one happened only once before -- not just a between the level lockup -- I was down to one white enemy saucer, but it never appeared so I couldn't shoot it. I had to give up a life by letting something else run into me...then on the next go round it appeared and I shot it. I destroyed the Sentinel ship and the game locked up between levels. Usually the missing white enemy saucer doesn't happen - just the between level lockup. This is only the 2nd lockup using the 16k rom in about 20 plays, so it's not quite as bad as it was before (I was getting about a 1 in 5 lockup)...annoying, but still playable. I, unfortunately, don't have a Beamrider cartridge so I can't see if this lockup is actually a bug or just a result of the rom dump. Has it locked up for you without shooting the ship between stages? For me it has only occurred when the ship is shot and the sound gets cutoff then freezes on the next screen. Would like to get a hold of a cart and play that to see if it exists there. I believe it may just be a bug as I imagine the program used to dump is fine. I have a sealed copy of Beamrider that I would like to avoid opening if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 (edited) Beamrider - 59,554 My wife thinks I'm foolish for playing this...but who will they call to defend the planet when the real aliens attack??? Edited February 2, 2012 by jblenkle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 My wife thinks I'm foolish for playing this...but who will they call to defend the planet when the real aliens attack??? You've got my vote Capt. Joe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacobZu7zu7 Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 11,628 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ed1475 Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 12,638 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted February 4, 2012 Author Share Posted February 4, 2012 This game gets manic as it progresses. Great fun. 45,426 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Beamrider - 59,990 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mangia-Boy Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 71,520 This time I had more success in shooting the sentinel ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skosh Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Nice scores guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted February 4, 2012 Author Share Posted February 4, 2012 Slight improvement - 46,864 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Beamrider - 64,388 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblenkle Posted February 8, 2012 Share Posted February 8, 2012 Beamrider - 68,420 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skosh Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 69230 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc#4 Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 ARGHH! I can't believe I missed this! I'm new to the forum but have been searching for anything beamrider related on and off for years. I have had an unhealthy obsession with this game ever since my dad told me how he beat this game and a message popped up on the screen saying about joining the official beamriders. After much research I'm sure that wasn't really the case but I still love the game. There is a note in the instruction manual about becoming a beamrider by scoring 40,000 by sector 14. I'm sure that's what he is remembering. Although I don't have any proof, I did score just over 150k and reached sector 31 on one occasion. I feel confident that the coleco version will NEVER be "broken". I mean no one will ever reach sector 99. The coleco version is waaaaay harder than others, it has more enemy types, mainly the very difficult ones. If any one has any cool tidbits about the game or info on the highest coleco score let me know! Here is a pic of my run up to sector 14 to join the official beamriders. Yeah my submission was a little late but oh well. I'm not looking to be a part of this finished tournament, just friendly competition and info about the game. Also a note, you can have more lives than are displayed on screen. If you destroy a mothership with more lives than shown, it will still count them in your score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted February 19, 2012 Author Share Posted February 19, 2012 The coleco version is waaaaay harder than others, it has more enemy types, mainly the very difficult ones. I'm glad to hear you say this - I find the difficulty on this game ramps up very quickly with the appearance of the magnetic enemies. Love the game though and sorry that you were too late to compete. Please join in our normal HSC rounds though - it's a lot of fun and new players are most welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts