Atari 2600 Knockout Round 15: KABOOM!

[roadrunner]

1,957

[JacobZu7zu7]

6,641 (ALMOST 6,666 / 6969)

 

Another breakthrough for me! I think I finally figured out the pattern on the 2nd fasted wave!

Then I beat the very fastest wave for the first time ever After 4.5ks I was... IN THE ZONE.

 

I doubt I'll top this one...

[DT Kofoed]

4096: a nice little bump. I'm happy to have cracked 4K, though I freaked out and quickly lost my last 2 buckets almost immediately. Considering my prior best was 1746, and my general mediocrity with paddle games, I'm happy with my performance here... of course I'll be even happier if I survive to the next round!

[Scrabbler15]

2715

 

I'm spent. That's all I got.

 

Knockout post mortem coming later after the scores are official. I'll probably wax philosophical, too, but if you've been around here for the last couple of years, you should probably expect that.

 

 

"Hey, who's the skeleton in that chair over there?"

"That's no skeleton. That's my husband. He's playing Kaboom."

 

.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Scrabbler15

[Jifremok]

YES!! 11801

 

I just wanted a better score than that last one. I wasn't expecting to surprise the Bomber.

[cparsley]

Participation point: 3,997 (just shy of 4k - and that was asking for a miracle lol)

[JacobZu7zu7]

Atari 2600 Knockout Round 15: has claimed its victim... Scrabbler15

 

However, he can still show up (everyone here too!) and post scores and be ranked for the upcoming games ...

[Scrabbler15]

My Week With Kaboom (And What I Learned About Myself)

 

When this game popped up for the next Knockout game, I had a decision to make.

 

It would have been simple to throw in the proverbial towel before the week started, especially since I had already reached my goal of making the top ten. I don’t usually talk about my physical challenges, because I don’t want to hear my flimsy excuses. It’s germane to the story of this week, though.

 

Here’s a game that requires reflexes that are fast and smooth, and mine aren’t fast or smooth. Part of my condition causes the covering to be stripped from the nerves, which shorts out some of the messages being sent from my brain to my body. This results in, among other things, a tremor in my right hand.

 

The decision I made was to go all out in posting the best score I could. If this was going to be my elimination week, it wasn’t going to be because I didn’t make the effort. I experimented with several different ways to grip the paddle. Using my fingers didn’t provide enough control. I settled on a grip that wrapped my entire right hand around the knob and I turned the buckets by moving my wrist back and forth.

 

It took all week to really get comfortable with the game. I played every day and for about 10 hours on Sunday. Sunday after 6 pm was when I was playing my best. But when I made adjustments to increase bucket speed, I lost precision. I never got a balance that would get me past wave seven.

 

Once, though, I felt like I was close to a breakthrough. Even though it didn’t come, at that moment, I had the same queasy excitement that I felt at the ’83 World Championships. What I learned about myself is that the same competitive fire that I had back then still exists, and it made me feel younger and more alive.

 

As for the tourney that made this possible, I want to personally thank Jacob for all his hard work in formulating and running things. And I want to commend all of our players for their awesome skills and enthusiasm for competition.

 

We play Atari, in the first place, because we love it. This tourney took that love, and turned it into something special.

[Vocelli]

A very touching story scrabbler. I wish I could come to your house for a day and play and talk Atari. That would be fun!

[Gorfy]

@Scrabbler --- It's always a pleasure and an honor to compete with you! I very much enjoy the comments you post throughout a given season. Congratulations on both a gritty, impressive performance on Kaboom and on making the top 10 (not an easy feat, given the caliber of competition!) in this contest. As you stated in an earlier post, the rest is gravy

[JacobZu7zu7]

Here’s a game that requires reflexes that are fast and smooth, and mine aren’t fast or smooth. Part of my condition causes the covering to be stripped from the nerves, which shorts out some of the messages being sent from my brain to my body. This results in, among other things, a tremor in my right hand.

 

It took all week to really get comfortable with the game. I played every day and for about 10 hours on Sunday. Sunday after 6 pm was when I was playing my best. But when I made adjustments to increase bucket speed, I lost precision. I never got a balance that would get me past wave seven.

 

Once, though, I felt like I was close to a breakthrough. Even though it didn’t come, at that moment, I had the same queasy excitement that I felt at the ’83 World Championships. What I learned about myself is that the same competitive fire that I had back then still exists, and it made me feel younger and more alive.

 

As for the tourney that made this possible, I want to personally thank Jacob for all his hard work in formulating and running things. And I want to commend all of our players for their awesome skills and enthusiasm for competition.

 

We play Atari, in the first place, because we love it. This tourney took that love, and turned it into something special.

 

Glad you had a good time with it Scrabbler and enjoying Atari after all these years of playing

Congrads on surviving to round 15! With a health issue that's some good moves to work around that!

 

A bit of a shame, Enduro didn't show up these past rounds, no steady hand needed there... :\

You're welcome Scrab/everyone for the moderation of this 2600 Knockout.

 

It does have a winning format thanks to cparsley who had the sublime idea originally.

 

I really helped or "wrangled" to get MOST of the other Moderators together, as a few were unsure, and had questioned me on how it would all work or what to do..., but I thought the competition idea "couldn't be missed", and it worked out great... even better then I expected! Almost all systems joined, and I think all the classic consoles had a Knockout, *apart from no Odyssey2 HSC* I PM'ed Zero if he had any time off,... he said no still working a lot... and told me any contest I would want to have, my blessing... AND HERE WE ARE!

 

--------------

 

I have a little story to add here...

 

As a 4-5 year old I found arcades facinating... teenagers setting video game noises off... different games all over the place, something about video games was always imaginative and attracting to me... so many people there playing, it was intimidating (I felt more comfortable around adults), I tried a few games but wasn't thrilled about losing 25 cents every other minute. lol Some more involved games were 50 / 75 cents!

 

So, being so young in early 80's,I stuck to playing on my Odyssey 2 and later Commodore 64... my gaming career always came from HOME and it STILL does, LOL.

 

I recalled Defender at arcades, and felt something was missing with Odyssey2's version Freedom Fighters, I then realized years later it was a totally different game, with a borrowed idea... no wonder it was different or off. I craved a real Defender game...

 

I did have NES eventually, but I still was facinated by retro days... the way the consoles looked and the blocky graphics and wild early 80's sound effects. I NEEDED ATARI! So I got a vader from the add in advertiser only $15 bucks...my first unshared or borrowed Atari console! It came with 15 games... combat was one blahhh... lol.

 

I lived in small town, so I bought games about 30 miles away or from mail orders. I actually got Double Dragon and Winter Games, at Toy R Us, I enjoyed them both... anything new was a good thing, I still own those two copies.

 

I first got the game Kaboom! in early 90's, at a seniors appt, where my grandma lived...

she was friends with a guy Finlay from Kentucky (Louisville)?, who lived in Illinois same retire

building as grandma, I found out that Finlay collected video games... like NES / Atari 2600, so I traded

him 2 joysticks for 4 Atari games, I got Kaboom! (now a new copy) / Stampede (still got it) / Laser Blast (still got it) and 1 other. I had to choose from about 8 - 10 games that he had at the time... sometimes he had more, but i wasn't there at the time, he buyed, selled, traded game stuff... from yard sales etc, big town fun...anyway, it was a tough choice I turned down Venture and Tennis...my only regret was Laser Blast, but I still played it often haha. Finley or Finlay is still carved on the backs of the games... (he learned to read and write at a late age).... he liked to write his name on stuff...he was a charming old fellow to talk to... people in the neighbourhood would TOSS him games when they saw him, LUCKY guy, he wasn't shy like I was then...

 

Kaboom! was a game I picked because I wanted a good paddle game for my paddles!! My top score back then was a bit over 1ks, I didn't have a manual to tell me to DROP a bucket before the 1k mark

 

I actually added Larry Kaplan as a friend here at Atari Age! Who would have imagined that possible years ago ?

 

Then came eBay for me in the late 90's and my opinion on 2600, grew a mile...! The rest is what you see today

 

A retro game addict...! Also a High Score Club addict...

 

Thank you internet and ebay :)

 

When the Variety Pack included Stampede... I used the Finlay carved game to get a 2nd place finish on, hehehe.... True stories here...!

Edited April 18, 2012 by JacobZu7zu7

[JacobZu7zu7]

A very touching story scrabbler. I wish I could come to your house for a day and play and talk Atari. That would be fun!

 

Yeah that'd be something....

 

Could you imagine how cool it would be for all of us to live nearby... and have a competition one time...

all in the same room... !

 

Hahah, learn each others tricks by watching!... Would make for some good scores I bet.

[Deteacher]

Whoops...wrong thread...

Edited April 20, 2012 by Deteacher