Season 19 Round 1 - Batman

[asponge]

Aaaanndd.... we're back.  This kicks off season 19 of the NES HSC.  Thanks to everyone who posted game suggestions and voted.  Fifteen regular season titles have been selected along with ten arcade titles.  For the regular season I tried to pick mostly titles made for the NES over the arcade ports, but a couple of them still ended up on the list.  

 

All of the arcade titles have been posted and will be included in every regular season thread.  See the NES Arcade section below for details.  Please let me know if anything about this is unclear.

 

In general this season, please put updated scores in a new post rather than editing a previous post.  With the addition of the arcade games I think sifting through threads for edited scores will turn into a real chore.

 

We're starting off this round with Batman, a popular choice.  Please note that your score is only visible while the game is paused and is not accessible after the game is over.  Therefore you'll need to pause the game before you lose your last life and take note of the score.

 

 

 

Game Rules:

No Point Pressing/Farming

One Playthrough Only

Manual

 

Score Post Deadline: Sunday May 2 at 11:59 PM CST.

 

AtariAge High Score:

174,600 by S.BAZ posted on 6/28/2013

 

Scores as of 5/2:

bubufubu       328,500
Razzie.P       264,600
mbd39          244,200
Wrathness      194,000
asponge         81,900
S.BAZ           79,900
RuySan          62,100
Lauren Tyler    56,200
empsolo         44,500
fakecortex      40,500
jblenkle        27,500
roadrunner      21,500

 

NES Arcade:

Below are 10 arcade ports we're playing alongside the regular games. You may post a score for any title, during the current regular season round.  Score improvements are always accepted as well.  Points for these games will be awarded at the end of the season.  Each game will be scored like a regular season round, e.g. first place will receive 25 points, second 20 points, etc.  All points earned here will be added to your season total.

 

Click here for the Arcade Scoreboard

 

Bad Dudes                                    Bump 'n' Jump                               BurgerTime

                 

Manual                                         Manual                                          Manual

 

Donkey Kong                                 Donkey Kong Jr.                            Gyruss

            

Manual                                         Manual                                          Manual

Game A                                        Game A

 

Palamedes                                    Popeye                                          Q*bert

                

Manual                                         Manual                                          Manual

Start at Level 1                             Game A

 

Shinobi

  

Manual

 

Season Standings:

None

 

General HSC Season Rules:

• To participate, just post a score to the thread. Anyone can join in at any time.
• A picture or screenshot is encouraged when posting a score but not required.
• The season is 15 rounds long.
• Games will be posted on Sundays and run two weeks through Sunday at 11:59 PM CST.
• Do not exploit game glitches, take advantage of 1-up loops or intentionally die in order to replay a level.
• If "point pressing" is not specified in the game rules you should be moving forward in an attempt to complete/loop the game and not "camping" for points.
• No emulator save states, slow-mo, rewind, etc.
• No cheats, e.g. Konami code, Game Genie, etc.
• Turbo controllers are allowed.
• Round points are awarded according to the following chart:
  

 

[fakecortex]

This season is lookin' sweet! The setup post is well organized too, lookin' real nice @asponge. And thanks for the manuals! It'll be cool to see how we stack up against each other with all these ongoing games as the weeks go by.

[mbd39]

So many cool games. Not sure which to play first!

 

[mbd39]

162,700

 

Made it to Joker!

 

[mbd39]

Everyone should read the Palamedes manual before playing, or you'll have no idea how the game works. It's an unusual puzzle game that involves making combos by shooting dice.

 

[Wrathness]

-Batman-

115600

First attempt I'll keep them coming.??????

 

Edited April 18, 2021 by Wrathness

[Wrathness]

Batman

194000

[bubufubu]

Oh, fuck me.  I thought that by "arcade" titles, you meant that we would be playing the actual arcade version (via MAME, RetroArch, etc.).  I wonder if I'm the only person to make this mistake.  Of course, I realize this is a "NES High Score Club", but I thought these were just some new bonus you wanted to add in to spice things up or attract new players.  And yes, I'm aware of the MAME High Score Club on here because I've participated in it in years past.  In any event, this thought process is what caused me to suggest the games I did for the arcade category.  I feel pretty damn stupid.  Oh, well.  ?

 

A couple of things about Batman:

 

1. Point pressing isn't possible in this.  Due to there not being a timer or limitation on drops, it would be farming.  Just for the sake of clarity.

2. There is a bonus for beating The Joker.  I think it's 100,000 points, but I'm not certain.  You have to wait out the ending of the game in order to see it.  Once the ending credits reach the Batman logo with the Sunsoft text, it takes approximately 72 seconds before you're back at the intro credits.  Start up a new game and pause to see your final score.

 

Since the score carries over into a new game, we should clarify whether players can continue on or limit themselves to one playthrough.

[mbd39]

Due to the point pressing issue I've been trying to beat this with little or no farming. Much tougher. I'm so used to resorting to farming when ammo or health is low in order to preserve lives.

 

[bubufubu]

4 minutes ago, mbd39 said:

Due to the point pressing issue I've been trying to beat this with little or no farming. Much tougher. I'm so used to resorting to farming when ammo or health is low in order to preserve lives.

 

Point pressing and farming are two different things.  Point pressing is not possible in this game.

[mbd39]

 

 

EDIT: Okay, I see there's already a rule against farming for this game. I didn't notice that before. Makes this much tougher to 1cc.

Edited April 19, 2021 by mbd39

[RuySan]

Hi everyone.

 

I have been lurking on the forums for quite a while, and was hovering on this thread because I do like these sort of challenges. It was mostly about the arcade games (which I really didn't understand it was ports:)) because I don't have much attachment to the NES, or even cared about the system.

 

Ended up playing Batman, and liked it a lot. Didn't get the screenshot (missed the need to pause), so I'll get it next time. It's smooth, nice graphics and music. I'll be participating to get to know the NES library, although I'm not that hardcore, so i'll play with Retroarch.

[mbd39]

I'm loving this challenge of trying to beat Batman without any farming. This is something I wanted to do anyway.

 

I just need to get to Joker with more than one life so that I have a chance.

 

[mbd39]

244,200

 

Okay, I beat the game with no farming at all, and one death. Here's my score at the start of the second loop. I doubt I'll play anymore. It takes forever for the game to start over again after the ending. Just be patient.

 

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by mbd39

[S.BAZ]

Holy crap, this is gonna be hard without farming fir health and ammo!

 

BTW this season looks super fun!!

 

[mbd39]

13 minutes ago, S.BAZ said:

Holy crap, this is gonna be hard without farming fir health and ammo!

 

BTW this season looks super fun!!

 

 

Batman is a top 5 game for me. This was my first time doing a 1CC without any farming. There's way more luck involved. You hope to get a lot of good drops.

 

[asponge]

19 hours ago, bubufubu said:

Since the score carries over into a new game, we should clarify whether players can continue on or limit themselves to one playthrough.

Unless there are objections, I'm fine with allowing players to continue.  We've not explicitly barred that in past seasons.

[mbd39]

I prefer to not continue. The difficulty doesn't even increase. But if others wish to, that's fine.

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by mbd39

[RuySan]

62100

 

Here's my humble score.

[mbd39]

Palamedes - 861,770

 

Game completed.

 

[asponge]

22 hours ago, mbd39 said:

I prefer to not continue. The difficulty doesn't even increase. But if others wish to, that's fine.

It doesn't appear that anyone else has a strong opinion about it one way or the other.  Let's just stick to one playthrough. I'll update the rules.

[asponge]

I've added a link in the NES Arcade section to the arcade scoreboard.  This is where I'm going to track scores and points for the extra arcade titles this season.  The top of the page will show your total points for all arcade titles played.  Each individual game will track the highest scores posted for each player.

[mbd39]

Some Palamedes tips:

 

Flip the number of the die you're holding by pressing B and shoot it with A. Match the falling dice to clear them. As you do so, you'll fill the bottom of the screen with up to 6 dice. When the bottom dice make a combo such as three of a kind or three pair, press down. Doing combos gives points and clears lines of dice. The more valuable the combo, the more points and the more lines cleared. Most valuable  is a sequence of 1,2,3,4, 5 and 6 which clears 5 lines. You want to go for that big sequence as much as possible. The manual lists possible combos as does the front of the cartridge.

 

You get a 50k "perfect" bonus for clearing an entire stage without doing any combos by just matching all the dice. This is the key to high score. You want as many perfects as possible before resorting to combos.

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by mbd39

[asponge]

71,400

 

[jblenkle]

Batman - 27,500