HSC Season 9 - Game 2 - Shark! Shark!

[crade]

I have never tried this game before.. Not really my kind of game it takes too long to get challenging.. also apparently I'm no good at it I love how the manual describes the speeds as

"very slow, slow, medium slow and normal"

[mr_me]

That's a good way to describe Intellivision games that are speed based. The slower speeds are simply achieved by the Intellivisions' internal function that lowers the frame rate. These games are designed for normal "disc" speed. Other speeds aren't necessarily easier, just slower. People who don't know often start games by pressing "1" and play at a slower speed. You should always start games like this by pressing the "disc".

 

58,600

 

After 50k ,

It shark get stupid after that. (Crazy Shark)

 

Lol

After 50k? I wonder if your version is different, because when I played the game some years ago in the challenge the shark went crazy at around 100k.

The shark probably gets more aggressive at 50k, but that also makes it easier to kill. At 100k, or is it 90k, the shark becomes very tough to kill and chases you around the screen. Use the "dart" function to get away; any keypad button darts. Dart can also help kill the shark especially with the first bite. Like Ignorama said, collect as many lives as you can before 100k or 90k. After killing the shark is a good time to get the lobster. Edited December 2, 2017 by mr_me

[m-crew]

I have never tried this game before.. Not really my kind of game it takes too long to get challenging.. also apparently I'm no good at it I love how the manual describes the speeds as

"very slow, slow, medium slow and normal"

Crade this is a great score for the first time playing it...!!! lol I really sucked at it the first time I tried.. lol

[m-crew]

That's a good way to describe Intellivision games that are speed based. The slower speeds are simply achieved by the Intellivisions' internal function that lowers the frame rate. These games are designed for normal "disc" speed. Other speeds aren't necessarily easier, just slower. People who don't know often start games by pressing "1" and play at a slower speed. You should always start games like this by pressing the "disc".

 

The shark probably gets more aggressive at 50k, but that also makes it easier to kill. At 100k, or is it 90k, the shark becomes very tough to kill and chases you around the screen. Use the "dart" function to get away; any keypad button darts. Dart can also help kill the shark especially with the first bite. Like Ignorama said, collect as many lives as you can before 100k or 90k. After killing the shark is a good time to get the lobster.

I also notice that the Shark comes out and acts in three different actions .. Youll notice the pattern by watching what the shark does when it comes on screen and not touched...

[Ignorama]

The shark is pretty predictable. When he changes the direction, he also turns around with his head. Its pretty easy to kill him by just swimming up and down, waiting for his moves. And exactly that is what changes in the late game. He turns around way too fast to react and sometimes doesnt even turn around, which makes it impossible to predict him safely. So while I try to kill as many sharks as possible in the first 100k points, I really try to get away from him and eat small fishes for the rest of the game.

[crade]

Crade this is a great score for the first time playing it...!!! lol I really sucked at it the first time I tried.. lol

 

Had to try several times to get that score! The first time I was trying to figure out how to play and why my fish kept flashing. I didn't know there was a dart feature though, I will have to try that one

[Ignorama]

This time I had the time to finish it and I had 80 lifes to spare. I am not very satisfied with my endgame, but in fact the game really changes there extremely and just says "no no no dude, enough is enough".

 

Its hard to believe for me as well, but its as it was back then. Just a insane new difficulty.

Edited December 2, 2017 by Ignorama

[m-crew]

This time I had the time to finish it and I had 80 lifes to spare. I am not very satisfied with my endgame, but in fact the game really changes there extremely and just says "no no no dude, enough is enough".

 

Its hard to believe for me as well, but its as it was back then. Just a insane new difficulty.

80 lives at 100 000 and you scored just over 3 k with 80 lives. Wow it must become just crazy

[alpha_male]

Getting better at this game a little bit at a time...

[Intymike]

Improved my score today.

[S.BAZ]

77,050

[m-crew]

95,350

[m-crew]

95,450

 

Man that shark does not want me to break the 100k mark.

100 points better this time. Lol

Edited December 7, 2017 by m-crew

[Gernot]

crade, reading manuals isn't a bad idea

yes i know you don't have to tell this a 50 year old gamer how urgent it can be to play a game for 4 hrs and not using 10mins to read the manual, "oh dammit i didn't knew"

 

edit: i was wrong, you can use all keypad keys

 

 

 

posted this because i really thought only 1,2,3, will work for dart, however it still could be handy for a sophisticated use of JZIntv

 

; top top
; left right
;
; 1 2 3 0
; 4 6 C E L R
; 7 8 9 T
;
; disc disc/5

 

which i changed now for a "sports" mapping to

;
; 0 top
; left right
;
; 1 2 3 2
; 4 6 C E 1 3
; 7 8 9 T
;
; disc disc/5

 

( ; marks skip line for the keyhack.txt, i put the layout on top of the files it's handy when you change it or create a new keyhack.txt)

 

to double the disc leaves the opportunity to use the right stick and the hat if needed.

of course MAP1 is still for single player games with side mixed disc - keypad functions to allow to press the KP while moving.

MAP2 reflects still the ECS keyboard and MAP3 is still reserved for Functions.

 

the upper "default" and the "sports" mapping are handy for most games and i only use a third mapping for AD&D allowing me to shoot with the buttons instead of the hat.

by the means if you play with the left stick or if you use a digital pad with no analogue sticks (not useful for many games, but cool for maze or ladder games).

i tried out to play with the right stick and use the hat for shooting in AD&D, but it confuses me and often i shoot instead to walk or vice versa.

 

unfortunately now "everybody" changes the lower triggers now to a analogue axis, which have no press point, they don't report to you physically if you pressed them like a button and it's for a fast unconcious use less good.

 

for not action loaded games i don't mind about the gamepad and use the keyboard for the numeric pad.

sometimes a modern dual stick is better but sometimes the original unergonomic intellicontroller is best.

 

what i would like is a hat with 16 directions, nah better a disc, i'm still used to.

 

 

 

off topic.

talking about controllers, i have a logitech rumble pad now (in 2000 i bought my first wireless rumblepad, it was a monster in size and weight compared to today, but i never will buy anything cordless again, it uses batteries or rechargeables which isn't really good just to have the opportunity to play from the couch (recently i have no couch, no chair and space as much though i can reach my computer on the desk directly from my bed, two steps more and i'm outdoors), if a rechargeable is out you can trash it, the wired dual stick lasted 10 years until the wire broke, unfortunately they use no sockets anymore and the superfine wires are solded directly to the PCB, i need better light and glasses, i get longsighted slowly to my shortsight, soon everything is blurred, a decade ago i still could read a letter written on rice)

i downloaded for my shitty Trust pad which is now broken a keymapper for windows (since Trust offers nothing except some grinning faces), there are many but this one is special it was designed by the dev for a Nintendo emulator (i forgot the proper name, a quite new console emulator, i'm not a Nintendo fan even if i still hold a SNES and some games)

however this keymapper listens for Direct X inputs of the emulator and you can program even the rumble function if your stick has one and the software supports DX inputs.

means you could map a vibration to any DX event.

unfortunately the project is left unfinished and mapping is even less comfortable as for jzintv, it has to be edited by hand and it's a complicated script he uses for this.

 

my suggestion otherwise would be "XPadder", if you browse the web you will find the old free to obtain release and it has nothing less to offer as the new paid version.

it recognizes running processes as well thus you don't have to switch between configs it only doesn't listens to DX.

mainly i used "XPadder" for DOSBox along with the shitty Trust pad (Logitech offers own very good software) until i recognized that the built in keymapper of DOSBox is quite comfortable and hidden (one should read manuals, didn't i told you so)

 

it would be supercool if i could have this for a emulated inty, imagine vibrations in bump 'n jump, not realistic but a cool option of modern days for emulated games.

 

 

 

a speed related game

also a small problem for NTSC to PAL, respectively the grid frequency, i play much better on the console as with JZIntv with normal ratio.

50Hz offers compared to 60Hz only 83.333...% of the maximum speed.

it plays a big role for games like shark! shark! or astrosmash as another example.

in astrosmash i score 3 times what i score emulated with an emulation ratio of 1, personally i lowered it now to 0.84 to have the same speed as on my console)

 

while yes 20 to 30 k is anyway a good score for a beginner.

 

but if you reach faster levels it will have more effect on the game

 

however i know now what i have to beat, a 150k, let's start the action on the real hardware (with moderate speed )

no fear i'm not that good in shark shark and i guess even at 50% speed i won't reach 100k.

 

it is how it is, the only game i make astronomical scores is astrosmash (i reach 500k easy).

 

a suggestion,

Venture can never be used for a competition, before you will end the fourth iteration of levels it wil start to count from 0, the counter is to small.

i wonder if there are more games with such a heavy leak.

ah yes and a sort of bug for golf, you can end a golf with exactly nine strokes, if i rember it right it starts at 0 after reaching the typical 255

simply shoot from the green to out of bounds, each scores two strokes, until you reached 255 and put in with the last stroke, a hole in one on any hole.

it's a bit boring but you will be "unbeatable". back in the 80's i had no idea about this typical limit and i experienced this more randomly while i was bored playing.

just one word more and it's 65535 which is the stupid limit of Venture, but no one would like to make 32'767 strokes just to reach 0 (one stroke = one second = 9h to finish one hole as hole in one, 9 holes to go makes approx. 5 days to finish the parcour, if you play 18h a day, after this you would need a surgeon to free your hands from the controller. while 255 are to reach in less then 5 minutes).

i understand that 8k aren't much space, but dammit sure it's enough for a dblword or a longword extra.

 

i referred to the manual and it seems 9'999'950 is virtually the maximum score for this game

 

 

 

 

a score i will post probably tomorrow

 

Besides here's the Manual especially for crade to read.

(how to catch a crab, to be honest i haven't read it myself since 30 years, but really it's this way if you like to get really good in any game you have to read it)

Shark! Shark!.pdf

Edited December 8, 2017 by Gernot

[crade]

I can't read and I'm very sensitive about it if you don't mind!

[crade]

Managed to improve a bit, but hit a wall

[crade]

finally got a good run in

[crade]

A little bit further

[m-crew]

Its tough to add to your score once you hit 90k , Ive been hitting that mark plus or minus most games I play but to add to my high score its like baby steps.. I was lucky to add 100 points last time.. That's what makes Ignorama's high score that more incredible in my opinion.. but im sure a double acting controller would help.. you wont need to let go of the disk to dart away from the shark or...

[S.BAZ]

none of the keys are giving me any result. I have not yet learned how to dart.

[Ignorama]

1, 2, 3. These are the boost-buttons.

[crade]

Its tough to add to your score once you hit 90k , Ive been hitting that mark plus or minus most games I play but to add to my high score its like baby steps.. I was lucky to add 100 points last time.. That's what makes Ignorama's high score that more incredible in my opinion.. but im sure a double acting controller would help.. you wont need to let go of the disk to dart away from the shark or...

 

Trying to release the disc and give it enough time before the dash is part of the game though!

[crade]

1, 2, 3. These are the boost-buttons.

Actually all the keypad buttons seem to work for dash. You have to not be touching the disc at all though when you dash or it won't do anything

[m-crew]

Actually all the keypad buttons seem to work for dash. You have to not be touching the disc at all though when you dash or it won't do anything

I would love to try to play this game with a double action controller which would allow you to dash with the disc is being used... That was the point I was trying to make.

[mr_me]

Its tough to add to your score once you hit 90k , Ive been hitting that mark plus or minus most games I play but to add to my high score its like baby steps.. I was lucky to add 100 points last time.. That's what makes Ignorama's high score that more incredible in my opinion.. but im sure a double acting controller would help.. you wont need to let go of the disk to dart away from the shark or...

The key is getting as many extra lives as possible before 90k; 100+ lives is possible. You should be able to get a couple hundred points or more per life at this point and get scores over 120k.