doctorclu Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Castle Wolfenstein is a great game of exploration and evasion. To find a uniform off a guard or chest, and equip with weapons. Then it becomes all about avoiding the SS that seem to recognize you if you are in inform or not. Played that game for hours. Game I don't like? Plenty of them. I think M.U.L.E. is one that many raved about that I just couldn't get into. Cute game though. Many, many others I don't play. Maybe most of them. But just so happens I have Blue Max on a cart and I've played it a lot recently. Not with gravity, that was new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Out of those we've played in the HSC in recent years, the ones I remember liking the least were .. (drum roll) .. Star Raiders and The Last Starfighter. I know I'm cussing in church now, but neither of these two games were to my liking. However I agree that Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolftenstein are quite unplayable too, in particular due to how they reload most of the game when you die, giving it a very rough experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 14 minutes ago, carlsson said: Out of those we've played in the HSC in recent years, the ones I remember liking the least were .. (drum roll) .. Star Raiders and The Last Starfighter.... It's ok for everyone to have opinions, even if they are wrong. j/k Star Raiders... that is eight bit perfection right there. Can't even play devil's advocate on that one, and I normally can to see another side. But different strokes for different folks. You are probably used to Elite on the Commodore 64 which was an awesome game, and released in late 1984. Star Raiders was released in 1979. ? Last Starfighter, I think because it was also labeled a "Star Raiders II" lacked the 360 degree immersive world. But had other good elements, graphics, and ideas. A good Last Starfighter movie game, but no Star Raiders. Reload time on Castle Wolfenstein... ok, now you're reminding me of some childhood pain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 (edited) Ok, I'll counter that statement with that M.U.L.E. is eight bit perfection as well. (and no, I never played Elite and only briefly touched games like PSI-5 Trading Company) Edited February 4, 2021 by carlsson 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 17 minutes ago, carlsson said: Ok, I'll counter that statement with that M.U.L.E. is eight bit perfection as well. Yeh seen the intro many times and kept it on in the background as I did stuff. Loved a lot of the characters that Electronic Arts did from that game, Archon, and game I played a lot: Murder on the Zinderneuf. I'm sure once I give M.U.L.E. more of a chance I'd like it. Just hasn't grabbed me in the times I tried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Anyway, out of those HSC games I nominated, I spent a total of 9 min on Castle Wolfenstein and 2 min on Beyond Castle Wolfenstein in November 2017, 4+8 = 12 min on Star Raiders in June 2018 and another 8 min on The Last Starfighter in May 2019. That was enough for me to find out these are not games I enjoy playing, so I moved on to do something else. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted February 4, 2021 Author Share Posted February 4, 2021 (edited) Argh I've just stared Atari Apocalypse, people criticising MULE and Star Raiders, don't make me make you play one of my games We'll everyone seems to be improving except me! Still having fun and have left the demo mode running as I do the first tables for this round... BLUE MAX will check tables based on last times played so may change. Sure ranks are 1 is best 4 is worst, when I coded ranking and classes for Space Fortess Omega I used a various metrics for the rankings based on things hit/completed missions and anything I could. Wonder if BM Class 1 would be getting through the 3 stages in 1 pass so lower score would be better Blue Maxers 1st doctorclu BM4 7,030 12pts+3pts #*$ Squadron Leaders 2nd Deteacher SL2 9,940 11pts 3rd graywest SL1 7,850 10pts Flying Tigers 4th McKong FT1 7,250 9pts Air Cadets and Runway Sweepers 5th thank you AC1 5,790 9pts 6th therealbountybob AC2 4,820 8pts 7th slx AC4 1,710 8pts 8th spookt AC4 1,450 7pts 9th 8bitguy1 RS1 1,350 7pts 10th RedThunder AC4 1,330 6pts 11th Caco RS1 1,280 6pts 12th Gury RS1 930 5pts 13th chevymad RS1 630 5pts 14th pusakat RS2 550 4pts 15th Sikor RS1 500 4pts 16th carlsson RS1 450 3pts 17th skr RS1 350 2pts Kamikazee Trainees! 18th CaptainClassic KT1 0 2pts Bonus Points: #First to be awarded The Blue Max *NTSC Top Player $ High Score: doctorclu 10820 SL4 [edit] found this in the HSC archives: On 3/7/2010 at 6:53 PM, Mr.Amiga500 said: 11660 Class 4 Squadron Leader (higher score, lower class) I went through the city 4 times to try to improve my score, but it looks like this lowers the class. So... I wonder how you can get the highest score and the highest class at the same time. Edited February 4, 2021 by therealbountybob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 Are we certain that FT is better than SL? I noticed that last time Blue Max was played in the HSC, that is how the scoring went, but someone with more experience in the game should be able to tell since the instructions are unclear and not even the source code at a quick glance could give any answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted February 4, 2021 Author Share Posted February 4, 2021 9 minutes ago, carlsson said: Are we certain that FT is better than SL? I noticed that last time Blue Max was played in the HSC, that is how the scoring went, but someone with more experience in the game should be able to tell since the instructions are unclear and not even the source code at a quick glance could give any answer. NO C'mon folks let's figure this out!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 (edited) I found that the text strings are encoded with alternating upper nybble, i.e.: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3a (green) 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 6a 6b 6c 6d 6e 6f 70 71 72 73 74 75 77 77 78 79 7a (cyan) a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 a9 aa ab ac ad ae af b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 b8 b9 ba (red) e1 e2 e3 e4 e5 e6 e7 e8 e9 ea eb ec ed ee ef f0 f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9 fa (blue) Apparently there are numbers 0-9 and symbols like # within range 00-1F as well, but I concentrated on the letters. It means in the binary file MAX.2 that comes with the source code, we have the following strings: NOVICE ADVANCED NORMAL CTRL REVERSE CTRL NO GRAVITY INTERMEDIATE RANK Z CLASS [ BLUE MAX in plain text ] BY BOB POLIN HCI SYNAPSE QYXS OPTIONS KAMIKAZE TRAINEE RUNWAY SWEEPER AIR CADET FLYING TIGER SQUADRON LEADER Since the strings are found in this order, it makes sense that the ranks are in the same order too. Of course it would mean that therealbountybob and firestorm each stole 3 points from McKong, Tickled_Pink and 8BIT1337 back in 2015 but that is 6 years ago and history now. Edited February 4, 2021 by carlsson 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graywest Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 1 hour ago, therealbountybob said: NO C'mon folks let's figure this out!!! I've only once received the "Flying Tiger" rank. I do remember that I got that rank after making it through the city, destroying the three bases, but then crashing before returning home. The way the ranks/classes are calculated in this game just feels super weird and somewhat random to me. I keep testing different theories, but nothing pans out. ? I'd say it's based more on what you *do* rather than your final score. Destroying some/all of the bases in the city seems to be a requirement for getting anything higher than "Air Cadet". And I *know* I've ranked "Blue Max" in this game before, but I played dozens of times this week, beating the game more than once, but haven't gotten anything higher than "Squadron Leader". ?♂️ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 How many HSC points is it worth to hack the ROM and invent your own ranks? 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McKong Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 I ran out of fuel having destroyed the targets in the city and was given the 'Flying Tiger' rank. So that fits in with what @graywest said 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graywest Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 44 minutes ago, carlsson said: How many HSC points is it worth to hack the ROM and invent your own ranks? That is awesome. +100 points!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 (edited) Alternative rank: Yes, I found out that the upper nybble isn't random, it defines the colour used for each letter! Edited February 4, 2021 by carlsson 2 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted February 4, 2021 Author Share Posted February 4, 2021 2 hours ago, carlsson said: ... Since the strings are found in this order, it makes sense that the ranks are in the same order too. Of course it would mean that therealbountybob and firestorm each stole 3 points from McKong, Tickled_Pink and 8BIT1337 back in 2015 but that is 6 years ago and history now. Damn it, I thought I'd got away with it Crash Test Dummy nice work carlsson, think you are earing a bonus point! Table above edited re rank order. Got to city stage for 1st time, bombed 2 of 3 targets I saw, 5,630 AC3 missed photo by 1 second! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deteacher Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 OK, I'll jump in on the Castle Wolfenstein topic: I love the game. Beyond Castle Wolfenstein is pretty awesome too (but a lot harder!) I love holding up the guards, taking their stuff, then killing them. ? If you have the war plans in your possession when you die, you might as well start with a brand new map, because the plans don't respawn. Gotta start over. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CapitanClassic Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 2 hours ago, therealbountybob said: Damn it, I thought I'd got away with it Crash Test Dummy nice work carlsson, think you are earing a bonus point! Table above edited re rank order. Got to city stage for 1st time, bombed 2 of 3 targets I saw, 5,630 AC3 missed photo by 1 second! Yeah, I forgot that this is one of those games that doesn’t display your high score, or your score for very long after a game over. I need to remember where the hot key is for Taking screenshots (of of the many advantages of playing on emulator than real hardware.) I don’t really have space right now to hook up my 800 or 800XL anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 4, 2021 Share Posted February 4, 2021 20 minutes ago, CapitanClassic said: I need to remember where the hot key is for Taking screenshots If you're using Altirra, it appears to be ALT + F10. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 8 hours ago, therealbountybob said: Blue Maxers 1st doctorclu BM4 7,030 12pts+3pts #*$ I thought at first with the "#*$" that you were cussing my score like Q-Bert. 7 hours ago, carlsson said: I found that the text strings are encoded with alternating upper nybble, i.e.: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3a (green) 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 6a 6b 6c 6d 6e 6f 70 71 72 73 74 75 77 77 78 79 7a (cyan) a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6 a7 a8 a9 aa ab ac ad ae af b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 b8 b9 ba (red) e1 e2 e3 e4 e5 e6 e7 e8 e9 ea eb ec ed ee ef f0 f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 f7 f8 f9 fa (blue) This was cool!! Have to see if I can find it. 4 hours ago, carlsson said: Alternative rank: Yes, I found out that the upper nybble isn't random, it defines the colour used for each letter! When I first saw this I was wondering why I never got the "Crash Test Dummy". That is actually quite amazing. LOL 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8guy Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 (edited) 3320. My progress continues. It's frustrating though...when I take damage it seems like its almost always bombs and then I can't get any points. Edited February 5, 2021 by 8bitguy1 late night spelling errors 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 5 hours ago, doctorclu said: Have to see if I can find it. If you open the XEX in a hex editor, at $0E31 the first string KAMIKAZE begins ($AB $A1 $AD $A9 $AB etc). Use the guide above to determine which character has which code, and as you see there are four text colours to choose from but the original strings may be encoded in only one of those. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted February 5, 2021 Author Share Posted February 5, 2021 5 hours ago, 8bitguy1 said: 3320. My progress continues. It's frustrating though...when I take damage it seems like its almost always bombs and then I can't get any points. You can then switch to strafing from a distance but yes it's a battle of wills! Needs a lot of goes but then you do start to survive better. Plenty of time left in this round, next poll will start on Sunday 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari8guy Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 Okay, last run for at least a few days...still haven't got to this "city" you all speak of. Literally crashed into an enemy plane here!!! I was rolling too! 4180. Air Cadet Class 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doctorclu Posted February 5, 2021 Share Posted February 5, 2021 12 hours ago, therealbountybob said: You can then switch to strafing from a distance but yes it's a battle of wills! Needs a lot of goes but then you do start to survive better. Plenty of time left in this round, next poll will start on Sunday In this game with the gravity and trying to strafe I looked like flappy bird bobbing up and down. 2 hours ago, 8bitguy1 said: Okay, last run for at least a few days...still haven't got to this "city" you all speak of. Literally crashed into an enemy plane here!!! I was rolling too! Those planes. All kinds of three dimensional space and they happen to hit you. But let's just be honest, they are really just World War I cruise missiles essentially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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