HSC18 Round 18: PRINCE OF PERSIA + SEASON CATCH-UP

[+therealbountybob]

PRINCE OF PERSIA

Exciting to have a new classic game to play in the HSC Play the "final" release; various formats available see link below for details. No score but there are 14 levels (?) so we'll have to say where we got to and hope one of us can figure out who is ahead!

 

Found a good manual here : https://classicreload.com/prince-of-persia.html

Video with spoilers on post below

From playing make use of the action button (fire) hold it in to walk/step / hang/climb etc. Explore the levels for secret sections!

 

SEASON CATCH-UP

Play any games you have missed or wish to improve on (excludes games from the last round "games from 2020/2021"). Scoring will be tighter than in previous seasons as things are so tight at the top of the HSC standings, with 1pt for each missed game played for those in the top 4 places and 2pts for others

 

Round ends Sunday 21st November 6pm UK time

EVERYONE WELCOME TO PLAY JUST POST A NO SCORE!

Edited November 23, 2021 by therealbountybob

[rensoup]

I guess I shouldn't be posting the cheat code yet then ?

[carlsson]

Generally everyone in the HSC play fair and don't try to utilize known shortcuts anyway. Right?

[graywest]

Made it to level 4 with 29 minutes remaining. Wow - level 3 is TOUGH! If things only get harder from here, I may not get too far haha.

 

Edited November 2, 2021 by graywest

[McKong]

I'm not really sure how I'm going to play this as I only have standard memory on my 800XL.

 

Perhaps I'll fire up my PC and try to get it working on Altirra later

[carlsson]

Aha, another game that requires 130XE or some memory upgrade. I suppose even flashing it to an Atarimax cartridge makes no difference, only eliminating the need of a floppy drive (or SD device, I hope).

 

What are the demographics among those of us playing on real hardware in the HSC, is an Atari with at least 128K RAM the norm so as long as games run on both PAL and NTSC we should not disregard those games for main play?

[8BIT 1337]

I have never played Prince of Persia on any platform so it's all new to me.  I gave it a bit of a go after TRBB mentioned it would be up next just to get it on a cart and see it running.  Picked up the sword but quit shortly after that.  I'll give it a serious go after....

 

Catchup Time!

Atari Invaders:  12770

Gorf: 11960

 

Normally I dislike playing arcade ports (since I can play the originals in MAME if I really want to), but I really enjoyed these.  I was surprised by how fast Invaders seemed after thinking it was going to be like the VCS classic.  I love how they march down at the beginning of the level, I love how the mothership drops new invaders, I love how frantic it feels right from the go (that's why i had to play twice - my first game I only made it to wave 4!)

[ballyalley]

5 hours ago, carlsson said:

What are the demographics among those of us playing on real hardware in the HSC, is an Atari with at least 128K RAM the norm so as long as games run on both PAL and NTSC we should not disregard those games for main play?

 

I use an Atari 130XE for my main Atari setup exactly because it has 128K of RAM.  I have other systems that I prefer for typing on (the 800, the 800XL), but from a pure game playing perspective, the 130XE is a great starter system.

 

I haven't played in the HSC for a few years, but this game might lure me back, as I used to play Prince of Persia quite a bit on my Turbo Duo in the mid-1990s.  The Amiga version is also pretty good.

 

Adam

[chevymad]

7 hours ago, carlsson said:

Aha, another game that requires 130XE or some memory upgrade. I suppose even flashing it to an Atarimax cartridge makes no difference, only eliminating the need of a floppy drive (or SD device, I hope).

 

What are the demographics among those of us playing on real hardware in the HSC, is an Atari with at least 128K RAM the norm so as long as games run on both PAL and NTSC we should not disregard those games for main play?

3 of my 4 machines are 1mb. I have both Pal and NTSC as well so i'm good to go with anything. POP however doesn't seem to be my game. 

[graywest]

8 hours ago, carlsson said:

What are the demographics among those of us playing on real hardware in the HSC, is an Atari with at least 128K RAM the norm so as long as games run on both PAL and NTSC we should not disregard those games for main play?

I also usually play on an NTSC 130XE with 128K of RAM - no special upgrades.

[+therealbountybob]

I.m on a 130XE sorry if you don't have enough RAM to play POP, usually we don't run these games here but this is an exception :)  Emulation and there's the catch-up to keep you alll busy...

 

[carlsson]

Ok, sorry for hijacking the thread but over time I suppose that is good to know for TRBB and others suggesting games for the High Score Club that 128K is no real limitation nowadays (or you could always fiddle around in emulation). Not that I'm expecting it to become the norm, whatever the current norm is at (48K? 64K?).

[8BIT 1337]

Ok, catchup of the Beer and Burger round:

 

Beef Drop: 11850
Burger Boy!: 31810
Burger Chef: 7430
Basic Burger: 3600

I've always found Burgertime to be stiff.  Beef Drop is an excellent version of it, stiffness and all.  Definitely the best of the bunch, although as I said above about Atari Invaders and Gorf, I generally avoid home conversions since I can just play the originals in Mame.

 

Beer Shot+: 5282

This was fun!  If I had played this during round 15 I think I would have come back to it a few times, see how I could improve my score.

 

Brew Biz: 370

I remember the Brew Biz game from the 80s but I did not enjoy it this time out at all.  There was another game that controlled like this.  Ollie's Follies?  I liked the idea of them but the execution is so so.

 

[carlsson]

5 hours ago, chevymad said:

POP however doesn't seem to be my game. 

15 minutes in, I am fully willing to agree with you. It looks great and plays as it should, but I can't stand the movements of this ice skater. I get perhaps 4-5 screens into it but can't make it to the gate in time and eventually fall down the shaft. The exact same thing happened when I played the PC version the other year, so it is my shortcoming.

 

I suppose I might find some of the previous games that I'm expecting to improve my scores on. Possibly I'll have some more attempts with PoP, but otherwise it will three weeks without much HSC action for me. (Oh well, I could always play another half dozen sessions of M.U.L.E.)

[AtariSphinx]

I play on an NTSC 800xl with stock 64k ram so also a no-go for me on real hardware which I enjoy much more than emulation. 

 

I have loaded Prince of Persia in emulation and agree this game is beautiful.  I would imagine even more so on real hardware and crt.   Have not yet past the first level... the movements are a bit difficult but aligned to the era of when the original game came out.  Will try a few more times.

[AtariSphinx]

On 11/1/2021 at 5:31 AM, therealbountybob said:

1pt for each missed game played for those in the top 4 places and 2pts for others

So I assume no points for improvements just missed games correct?

[8BIT 1337]

One more catchup to do after this one:

 

Bear Runner: 605  (if I could restart with the joystick I'd play more, but getting one more point than TRBB is somewhat satisfying   )

Busy Baby: 19730  (when you get to within 10 points of your previous best and die I think it's time to move on ? )

 

Just Space Mines! and Phoenix Lair left to go!  Then I can finally jump back in to PoP.

 

[+therealbountybob]

11 hours ago, AtariSphinx said:

I play on an NTSC 800xl with stock 64k ram so also a no-go for me on real hardware which I enjoy much more than emulation. 

 

I have loaded Prince of Persia in emulation and agree this game is beautiful.  I would imagine even more so on real hardware and crt.   Have not yet past the first level... the movements are a bit difficult but aligned to the era of when the original game came out.  Will try a few more times.

Just had my first session (I played some POP on PC way back) Looks amazing, some tricky movement and lining up position to jump as takes giant steps makes it very easy to fall off -  but - can use down diagonal to bunny jump along a bit. Not beaten level 1 so far!!

[edit] ok the "action button" )hold in fire) lets you step L/R or climb down, nice learning curve got the sword and just died after the first health pick-up

 

11 hours ago, AtariSphinx said:

So I assume no points for improvements just missed games correct?

Improvements will score points too, just might need to restrict things at the top of the table - please post scores as you play everyone not 20 games on the last day eh??!

 

Edited November 3, 2021 by therealbountybob

[+therealbountybob]

1 hour ago, therealbountybob said:

Just had my first session (I played some POP on PC way back) Looks amazing, some tricky movement and lining up position to jump as takes giant steps makes it very easy to fall off -  but - can use down diagonal to bunny jump along a bit. Not beaten level 1 so far!!

[edit] ok the "action button" )hold in fire) lets you step L/R or climb down, nice learning curve got the sword and just died after the first health pick-up

 

just completed first level! Nice stick with it folks, needs patience to get used to movements - experiment with button held.

 

[]Didn't finish level 2 but found a new bit, if you get stuck there is probably another way to go!

Edited November 3, 2021 by therealbountybob

[AtariSphinx]

30 minutes ago, therealbountybob said:

just completed first level! Nice stick with it folks, needs patience to get used to movements - experiment with button held.

Nice!  Sounds like a good tip as that was one of my frustrations.  Will give it a try soon

[8BIT 1337]

Ok, my last catchup update

 

Space Mines!: 1400

Phoenix Lair: 5300

 

I can't believe the scores on Space Mines!  It didn't work on my 1200XL through FujiNet so I had to emulate it, and maybe that's why everything seemed so fast and I couldn't control anything, but I felt lucky to get to level 2.

 

Phoenix Lair was also a toughie but at least I got to use real hardware.

[+therealbountybob]

2 hours ago, 8BIT 1337 said:

Ok, my last catchup update

 

Space Mines!: 1400

Phoenix Lair: 5300

 

I can't believe the scores on Space Mines!  It didn't work on my 1200XL through FujiNet so I had to emulate it, and maybe that's why everything seemed so fast and I couldn't control anything, but I felt lucky to get to level 2.

 

Phoenix Lair was also a toughie but at least I got to use real hardware.

 

 

there may be some extra catch-up points for notable performances - I'll fiddle it at the end of the round!

 

 

UPDATED:

 

Found a decent set of POP Instructions:

https://classicreload.com/prince-of-persia.html

[rensoup]

For those of you struggling with PoP, it really isn't that difficult. Here's a tutorial (kindof ?) which was done by Shauing:

 

(CONTAINS SPOILERS !!)

 

 

[8BIT 1337]

Ok, PoP time!

 

Made it to level 2, then got killed pretty much right away LOL

 

Using the button near ledges has definitely been key for me.  As I said before, I've *never* played PoP before so I'm learning as I go. The biggest thing is that the button is definitely context sensitive, more than I was expecting.  When near a ledge you walk closer (but don't fall off).  When there's a baddie on the screen and your sword is drawn, it swings the sword.  These are lessons I learned the hard way by dying a lot

[8BIT 1337]

17 hours ago, therealbountybob said:

there may be some extra catch-up points for notable performances - I'll fiddle it at the end of the round!

I'm just happy I had the time to play everything I had missed.  That first round I missed was around my bday which was busy, and next thing I know I've missed like 4 rounds!

 

I will admit that in general I was aiming for a score in the middle of the pack, unless I didn't like the game.  Being behind by that much (and knowing I'd get two points for playing) meant there wasn't a lot of incentive to really push my score.

 

It also means I have more time for PoP, which really is incredible.