HSC15 Round 15: Alley Cat and some Llamas!

[+therealbountybob]

Alley Cat

Cherished by many, the cats are back Star on skill "Kitten" it will level up after each round is completed. If you are new to the game get the hang of running and jumping using the diagonal to the tall bins on the first level! And try not to bust your joysticks

scoring full HSC points. Bomus point for highlest level reached (keep track of number of completions if you get to alley cat level (has 3 bins) and for beating HSC record held by McKong 60-9534

download Fandal XEX

Instructions and some interesting comments on Atarimania:

>>>sparkle - 02/02/2016
song is based upon "Alley Cat" by Bent Fabric and his Piano 1962. i think the game plays it in a different key and there are note and rhythm differences, like the part where the game doubles up syncopated rhythm, and of course the robotic cat skreech is unique. song has been heard in numerous movies and tv commercials, wiki sez it's popular with ice cream trucks esp. in latino america.<<<

 

Bonus game

Metagalactic Llamas: Battle at the edge of Time or perhaps Reason

I think we looked at this before but carlsson has been demanding a llama based duel so let's see how he gets on another crazy Jeff Minter special (C64 conversion). PAL only folks - there is a NTSC request thread)

scoring - 1pt per player

download Fandal XEX

Info Game has 9 pages of text on the title screen, the last couple have the scoring etc. Atarimania has some info but there's probably a better link somewhere?

>>>twh/f2 - 09/06/2015
We had recently a @HSCMunich gaming session on this game. It is a very addictive, challenging and re-playable game. Glad that this games is being converted by Heaven to the 8bit Atari!<<<

 

 

The Round 16 pre-poll will stay open for this week then will go to a final poll

 

This Round closes Sunday 26th August 10AM UK time

Join in, EVERYONE WELCOME

[carlsson]

Cool! I thought you were throwing in Donkey Kong Jr as well, but perhaps we'll save that one for a later opportunity?

 

I'll let people try it for a few days and then post some of my own suggestions (I'm too humble to call it a strategy guide).

Edited August 12, 2018 by carlsson

[McKong]

I'll start things off on Alley cat

 

25009

27740

155801

Edited August 13, 2018 by McKong

[+therealbountybob]

I'll start things off on Alley cat

 

25009

27740

155801

darn it! I forgot McKong was a bit good at this one

10-9995 I reached Alley Cat but failed to complete it.

 

ALLEY CAT: Remember everyone to start on KITTEN each time (6 bins) you can see how far you have reached by the number of bins. Keep track of the number of completions of Alley Cat level highest will get a bonus point, also anyone breaking the HSC record score will get a bonus point!

 

 

Metagalactic Llamas

11,039

16,394

46,449 level 4 I think

perhaps not his best game but well see how it goes, you can mop up the floor ones by setting the beam to the highest level and walking slightly away from them - I could describe this in a different way Let's see what carlsson comes up with

[McKong]

I forgot how tough Alley Cat was, the dog becomes a real pain.

 

I'm not sure I can remember many tips until I've played a bit more. The first one that comes to mind is laying down dirty foot prints to keep the broom busy on some of the screens

[McKong]

I forgot how tough Alley Cat was, the dog becomes a real pain.

 

I'm not sure I can remember many tips until I've played a bit more. The first one that comes to mind is laying down dirty foot prints to keep the broom busy on some of the screens

 

Alley Cat 168112 3rd level

[carlsson]

Alley Cat - 002-2724 pts

Nice game which I've never played before, definitely worth playing more and figure it out.

 

Metagalactic Llamas - 91916 pts 102802 pts

Quite a bit from my personal best, but it is a good opening score.

Edited August 13, 2018 by carlsson

[Sikor]

My poor result...

[youxia]

155K? Jaysis I played a bit yesterday but did not go over 25... It's tough as hell and jumping can be quite infuriating (especially when facing the canine threat). But still, it's one of the best games ever. So cute & inventive. Packs more varied gameplay into its puny kilobytes than most of the bloated, one-dimensional modern games.

 

Llamas...interesting, but need to figure out what's going on here. And why my version (from Gamebase I think?) keeps crashing after the first death.

[RedThunder]

Alley Cat (Kitten)

6,642

Alley Cat (Alley Cat)

90 LOL

 

Meta Llama

6,527

[+slx]

Lama 18412 (playing in Altirra, PAL, PC gamepad). This does not seem to work under NTSC emulation for me.

 

Alley Cat 001-4522. A lovely game and probably one of the fathers of mini games but the controls with their inertia and the "diagonal push" logic are as bad as I remember them.....trashing around the clotheslines I never have the feeling to be in control.

Edited August 14, 2018 by slx

[McKong]

Alley Cat 300585 level 5.

 

It's difficult to get into the windows after level 4, you really just have to keep moving until you fall into an open window!

 

On the later levels try not to let the dog panic you into miss timing your jump for the garbage cans

[Deteacher]

Here is my paltry offerings so far:

 

Alley Cat: 29,817

 

 

Llamas: 17,475

 

[+therealbountybob]

Lama 18412 (playing in Altirra, PAL, PC gamepad). This does not seem to work under NTSC emulation for me.

...

 

...

Llamas...interesting, but need to figure out what's going on here. And why my version (from Gamebase I think?) keeps crashing after the first death.

 

Llamas are PAL only so configure emulators for PAL Video System. Fandal's site usuallly has the latest versions of the programs but sometimes the Atariage threads might have updated or other versions, atarionline.pl usually has all versions and formats so is a good place to look too

 

Alley Cat - it's a bit unblanced in the scoring as you can get 6000pts for rounding up the fish quickly which is relatively easy! For the windows keep moving and use the diagonals.

Scores in fence graffiti format please well done slx

[McKong]

Alley Cat 064-2052 level 7. Lost my last three lives on level 7 getting hit by stuff being thrown from the windows.

 

This game is tough but keep playing cos occassionally you get a slightly easier run. I got the spiders mini game on level 6 (which I think is the easiest) and then pretty much just jumped straight to the top on the hearts screen, and yet the previous game I played it took me 5 attempts to get off the first level!

 

Don't forget to take the present to the top on the hearts screen as you get double the bonus. If you have more than one present you can strategically drop them on levels and the cat on that level disappears for a while

Edited August 15, 2018 by McKong

[+therealbountybob]

Updated: Season 15 Current Standings

[jblenkle]

Alley Cat - 19,458

[carlsson]

Alley Cat: 30476 pts

(At first I thought the dash had a purpose, like 003 successful screens and 0476 pts within but now I realize it is just for cosmetic reasons)

 

[carlsson]

Metagalactic Llamas - inofficial strategy guide

 

Back in the 80's and 90's, I played the VIC-20 version of this game and at best scored some 40-50K points. I had a highscore just above 70K which I thought was incredibly good.

 

Then in May 2015, I came up with a partially new way of playing the game and suddenly I reached 95K, 115K, nearly 120K, scores I previously had not dreamed of obtaining. I even sent a tweet to Jeff Minter and was congratulated for the good scores!

 

The Atari 8-bit version actually is running the VIC-20 game engine, with patches for graphics, sound and input as far as I understand. It was not re-implemented, but really the old code ported to the Atari. Too bad it doesn't run properly on NTSC.

 

Below I'm giving out my hints how I manage to reach those scores, with the risk that someone who generally is a better gamer than me will whip my ass once the secret is out...

 

1. Keep spitting. You get 1 point for every time the llama spits, and it is just a matter of holding the fire button down. I don't really find any reason to hold up with the spitting for better aiming.

 

2. As long as you don't have any spiders to eliminate, keep the roof on the lowest level for the fastest spitting.

 

3. Whenever spiders arrive, raise the roof so high that you can spit at the thread. Don't try to kill the spider right away, cut off its thread as soon as possible as it awards you 100-500 bonus points. It will cause the spider to fall though.

 

4. Try to kill the spider while it is falling, it gives you another 400 points. If you kill the spider while it still is climbing, it is only worth 100 pts. Usually avoid having spiders drop to the floor. While you get 600 points for killing spiders crawling, it is much harder than killing spiders in free fall.

 

5. Obviously adjust the roof to get desired angles in order to kill falling or crawling spiders. The ones on the floor will crawl towards you, so try to be on side of the screen so you don't get spiders from both directions. They don't wrap around the screen.

 

6. Check the quota on how many spiders remain, if you are close to finishing a level perhaps stay away from crawling spiders and concentrate on a new one on its way down towards you so you can clear the level before you get into trouble.

 

Each spider can at most award you 500+600 = 1100 pts but that is risky. I think 400+400 = 800 pts is a good aim at the lower levels, then once you get too many spiders to handle any points are good.

 

There are no extra lives at any point, so try to be conservative with your llamas. By following these guidelines, you should be able to easily get at least 60-70K, good players 90-100K and once you are comfortable around 120K or more. My personal best on the Atari 8-bit is 127209 pts on level 10.

[McKong]

The tips are worth some bonus points alone! Thanks I'll have a look at the llamas tomorrow it sounds crazy.

[+therealbountybob]

Alley Cat 110-121

 

Llamas 89,468 - level 7 (before I read the secrets above!) there are hints on page 8 of in game text too folks!

I was concentrating (allegedly) on killing them as they fell and trying to keep the floor clear, if they landed the patented "poop-on-them-shuffle" is employed

 

Still debugging Ski-It for the post abbuc release

[McKong]

Llamas

 

12916

23340

[McKong]

Ok getting the hang of Llamas a bit more now. 66793. Not quite in the 'good players' category, as specified by our leading Llama expert, yet

Edited August 17, 2018 by McKong

[carlsson]

It probably takes around 8-10 games to get the feeling for the game. I probably should try Altirra too, to see how much different it feels from real Atari (and my Starplex).

 

Edit: While I'm not Best Friends Forever with the cursor keys, after about 3-4 rounds I'm starting to get the feel for the controls and even increased my previous score.

 

Metagalactic Llamas - 103327 pts (Altirra emulation)

Edited August 17, 2018 by carlsson

[+therealbountybob]

Metagalactic Llamas 167,605

Not convinced the game is a bit lacking but we'll see - I managed this without moving the bar down at all, though you do miss out on the rapid firing scoring so perhaps there is a fixed/theoretical maximum score if there are only so many playable waves. I had a quick start on level 32 (the last selectable level) and it looks crazy