292130

[Dauber]

The new laundromat where my wife and I do our wash has the Ms. Pac-man [with the high-speed hack] /Galaga "20-Year Reunion" coin-op. [Man, it's weird...if not just plain WRONG...to see a Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga attract mode screen with a WEB ADDRESS on it! ]

 

Anyway...Friday I put a load of wash in. Rather than go home and try to kill fifteen minutes [plus ten minutes round-trip], I figured I'd pass some time with a game of Ms. Pac-Man. I figured it should knock off about 15 minutes if I get my usual high-speed 125000-ish score.

 

One of my habits is to scoff at the current high score and think to myself, "Amateur!" and I usually seek out to beat the high score; a lot of times that involves thwonking another quarter in the slot during the "Continue?" countdown...

 

but dig this...

 

On a SINGLE QUARTER [never using the "continue" option]...my score: 292130. The highest I EVER got on ANY Pac-Man game, let alone the unpredictable Ms. Pac-Man. I had to be playing at LEAST 45 minutes. It just blew me away. Not only was it one quarter, but also...I don't think I lost one of my four lives until over 200000 points...

 

I EASILY would have broken 300000 had it not been for the glare from the fluorescent lights camouflaging some of the dots on a couple of mazes -- in fact, that's why I lost the last life -- I thought I cleared the screen and allowed myself to be positioned between two monsters...little did I know that the fluorescent reflections were blocking five or six more dots in another corner of the screen.... :x :x I considered complaining to the management about that, but reconsidered because it just adds an element of challenge...a variable, if you will...

 

....but 292130...wow...and just think, if back in the early '80s my parents would have let me play video games more...

[MegaManFan]

I had the same reaction the first time I played the "new" Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga when I racked up a similarly large score. In fact, it was so easy I got bored and eventually killed off my game on purpose because I realized the difference - in the new one Ms. Pac-Man's speed is cranked +WAY+ up. Thus, if you're playing correctly, it's next to damn impossible to get trapped by the ghosts - you can always get out of the way.

[Dauber]

Yeah, but I've seen the high-speed versions for years. Some are normal-speed versions with a "high-speed" button, some are flat-out high speed hacks...most of my 20-Year Reunion scores aren't any higher than on any other high-speed variety I've ever done...

 

My big complaint about the 20-Year Reunion thing, though, is that Galaga is LEFT-HANDED!!!! I will forever curse Nintendo for making Donkey Kong left-handed; that's when this awful left-handed trend started, really.

[Dr Galaga]

Left-handed? It's set up the same as the original! Can you imagine playing one machine one way and another machine the opposite way?

[chrisbid]

the thing i found lame about those machines are that some of them have a setting to where you can CONTINUE!!! WTF kindof cheap ploy is that? that just kills any good feeling you get with a good score, since you know some brat with a pocket full of change can beat it if he is determined to do so.

[Atari2600Lives]

My wife put up a score last week on our machine that I thought was the most I had ever seen (173,000+) congratulations...that score is monstrous.

[bargora]

Nice score. I also dropped a quarter into a new Ms. Pac and saw the blazing speed. I ended up walking away because it offended my sense of game balance and because I had to catch my bus.

 

Are we getting these scores because we are gods among men, or is the average FF7-playing gamer also racking up huge Ms. Pac scores? It seems contrary to the arcade way to have a game set up so that you can play for over 15 minutes without really even trying.