HSC20 Round 11: "NEW TO THE HSC" REPTON, METEOR STORM & MORE...

[devwebcl]

repton 4835

 

[McKong]

Rockball 1 life 17650

[McKong]

Repton 13080

[+therealbountybob]

9 hours ago, McKong said:

Repton 13080

Stick with it McKong, really good Defender/Dropzone game

Meteor Storm is good but big leap in difficulty on the 2nd wave and I go to pieces, sort of one mote go ish though

Improved to 17,950

 

Elimintaor was having a good go but no pause 😠 and had to answer the phone so that was that plus it aches the arms 1750 +

 

New poll later

 

[+therealbountybob]

On 7/1/2023 at 5:54 PM, rdrunner said:

So I found some extra info on Repton when I went hunting on the internet.  The second phase starts when one of two things happen: Either the workers finish building their base or the aliens drain all the power out of the planet (represented by the blue bar).

 

The drainage happens when the word "Alert" appears on the screen, which is when an alien is shooting a beam at the planet.  You can intercept by flying through this beam.  From there, you can restore the stolen power to the blue bar by flying through the main structure on the surface.

 

Oh, and after a bunch of games, I finally figured out that to use the nukes, the space bar only "arms" them.  You still have to press the fire button to deploy. 😑

Thanks rdrunner I have written my review but will amend this info into it as I knew there was more to it. Really good game as I keep saying. Still not found ATR with the in game instructions bit working, have a couple more to try...

[carlsson]

Minor improvements, no screenshots:

 

Meteor Storm - 10600 pts

Repton - 7960 pts

[McKong]

Repton 19470

[pjedavison]

Bit late to jump in on this round (I'm waiting on a shiny new SDrive Max to make playing stuff on real hardware a bit more straightforward, then I'd like to take part a bit more often!) but glad to see Eliminator getting some love. I found it quite enjoyable when I covered it for a video a few years back -- it was interesting that in the "conversion" process from TRS-80 it became a completely different game!

 

If you'll pardon the gratuitous self-promotion (of a three-year old video):

 

[+therealbountybob]

3 hours ago, pjedavison said:

Bit late to jump in on this round (I'm waiting on a shiny new SDrive Max to make playing stuff on real hardware a bit more straightforward, then I'd like to take part a bit more often!) but glad to see Eliminator getting some love. I found it quite enjoyable when I covered it for a video a few years back -- it was interesting that in the "conversion" process from TRS-80 it became a completely different game!

 

If you'll pardon the gratuitous self-promotion (of a three-year old video):

 

The "New to the HSC" round has surrepticiously found two new players!! Great to have you take part Pete, we have another Southampton player here! Did you want to write me a page about your videos for Pro(c) Magazine? Will check them out!

 

Improved on Repton:

27,130 wave 8 I think - really getting into the swing, like Dropzone need to use the Nukes at the right times Inbuilt demo mode shows the high score.

 

Though there is no pause in Meteor Storm you can leave the ship docked at the start of each dive without any penalty - I think!!

 

Round 12 POLL OPEN

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/352734-hsc20-round-12-poll/

[rdrunner]

More Repton info:

 

The second phase is actually beatable.  If you can last long enough on the same life, your ship reaches the core of the enemy base.  If you destroy it, you return to the planet surface and resume the normal game again.  Officially, it appears that you start at the beginning of the wave you were on (stage clear bonus was as expected), but I believe there are way more enemies than before.

 

Also, don't forget to use a few nukes here and there.  You get an extra one (and an extra ship) every 5,000 points.  However, they cannot be used during the second phase.

[MichaG]

Meteor Storm: 15,150

Rockball 3-lives-version: 20,250

 

[+therealbountybob]

15 hours ago, rdrunner said:

More Repton info:

 

The second phase is actually beatable.  If you can last long enough on the same life, your ship reaches the core of the enemy base.  If you destroy it, you return to the planet surface and resume the normal game again.  Officially, it appears that you start at the beginning of the wave you were on (stage clear bonus was as expected), but I believe there are way more enemies than before.

 

Also, don't forget to use a few nukes here and there.  You get an extra one (and an extra ship) every 5,000 points.  However, they cannot be used during the second phase.

I figured it must be a survival stage, thanks will update the review further!! Played it for an hour or more late last night, just like the old days. I know people won't like the messages in the playfield being in the way but it's a *really* good game, be interesting to see if it gets so busy that there are too many extra lives like in the non HSC version of O'Rilley's Mine - great segway trbb - isn't that game is in the round 12 poll?

 

Round 12 POLL OPEN

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/352734-hsc20-round-12-poll/

[carlsson]

1 hour ago, therealbountybob said:

the non HSC version of O'Rilley's Mine

Remember that while the original game is somewhat generous with lives for player 1, it is in a two player game that player 2 gets ahead by receiving an extra life for every (?) item you pick up. At the same time you make player 1 extra hard because he/she will probably never be close to an extra life after player 2 has done the damage once. So double flawed, and I wouldn't be surprised if the extreme HSC record was set as player 2 once upon a time but it never was communicated.

[+therealbountybob]

Repton end of level bonuses - the wave x 100 makes sense, think the 3rd one is the number of blocks remaining from the 80 at the start . The power one seems to be 5x not sure if this relates to the blue bar

 

 

Round 12 POLL OPEN

https://forums.atariage.com/topic/352734-hsc20-round-12-poll/

 

Reminder this round ends tomorrow Weds 5th 8PM UK time unless anyone wants a few more days?!

[AtariSphinx]

Rockball (1 life only): 14,900

[AtariSphinx]

Meteor Storm: 14,800

 

[rdrunner]

Repton: 85660 (wave 11, destroyed core 3 times)

Meteor Mess: 34700

Eliminator: 2529

Sky Blazer: Mission 4

Rockball 1 Life: 21250

Rockball 3 Life: 42300

 

 

 

[rdrunner]

9 hours ago, therealbountybob said:

Repton end of level bonuses - the wave x 100 makes sense, think the 3rd one is the number of blocks remaining from the 80 at the start . The power one seems to be 5x not sure if this relates to the blue bar

This sounds right.  I noticed the power bonus is always much higher after wave 1 than on later levels where the blue bar was usually almost gone.

[+therealbountybob]

9 hours ago, rdrunner said:

Repton: 85660 (wave 11, destroyed core 3 times)

...

You'd better tell me about that bit

 

[rdrunner]

4 hours ago, therealbountybob said:

You'd better tell me about that bit

 

Sure thing.  I'm sure you're wondering if there's a broken scoring system here somewhere.  I hope not, but I'll let you decide.

 

What I meant above about the 3 cores is that I was sent to the second phase a bunch of times because on higher waves, it's nearly impossible to stop the aliens from draining the planet's power.  I was able to destroy the core and escape back to the planet 3 times 

 

I got to wave 7 or 8 the first time it happened, but from there I could usually only clear one wave before the aliens would drain the planet again.

 

Each time I was sent to the second phase, I would burn a bunch of lives trying to clear it.  It gets harder every time you get sent back, with faster bullets and more enemies to shoot (those tiny "dots" that shoot at you appear a lot).

 

I did score quite a few points in this area, but it was mostly through attrition.  I would typically last for at least a minute or so per life scoring roughly 1000 points each time, but it sends you back to the starting point if you die.  All of the targets in the second phase are worth like 10 or 100 points each, with the core being worth something like 1000 (not sure).

 

Biggest thing I noticed on later waves was the sheer number of enemies that appear in a single wave.  I think it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-30 targets at a time.  And that "warning" message would keep appearing to add more enemies at a higher frequency than before.

 

I ultimately lost during my 4th trip to the second phase.  Not sure if it was too many extra bullets or just fatigue (game took about an hour).

 

hope this clears things up.  Let me know if you have any questions and I'll be happy to help!

Edited July 5, 2023 by rdrunner

[+therealbountybob]

Repton

Thanks rdrunner Had a couple of sessions in the 2nd stage - controls are tough and it's a long trip! I did reach a platform on stilts which I tried to destroy, looked like there was room to pass over it - guess I should have shot it more?!!!

 

Improved to 31,265

also improved on Meteor Storm to 21,250 need to make much more use of the shield after 10K

Rockball 1 life 14,400 and 3 lives 32,100 (wave 6) may not be improvements will check when I do the final tables next!!!

 

VOTES PLEASE IF YOU ARE QUICK EVERYONE!!!

[+therealbountybob]

Final Tables

I'm sure to have missed someone or some scores so let me know

 

Welcome again to our new players and congratulations to rdrunner for the win and I gave carlsson and pjedavision a couple of bonus points for their contributions

 

Repton really good. Meteor Storm good but gets very hard after 15K, there are 3 (selectable) levels so I guess that's why. Eliminator if it had a pause key I might play it more and break my arm off!  Rockball 3 lives ver is probably about right, not bad - can you do anything about the hyperspace thingy or does it just happen?!. Sky Blazer ok we had looked at it before, flickery but at least rdrunner managed a few levels somehow

Thanks for playing as always

Let's start up round 12

 

 

	HSC Points			Bonus
	Player		Score	Points
1st	rdrunner		26
2nd	therealbountybob		17
3rd	McKong		14
4th	MichaG		12
5th	AtariSphinx		11
6th	autumn_fire		11
7th	carlsson		7	2
8th	devwebcl		2
9th	Sikor		1
10th	pjedavison		0	2

 

 

	Repton					Meteor Storm
	Player	Score	Pts			Player	Score	Pts
1st	rdrunner	85,660	9		1st	rdrunner	34,700	7
2nd	therealbountybob	31,265	8		2nd	McKong	28,150	6
3rd	McKong	19,470	7		3rd	MichaG	15,150	5
4th	autumn_fire	8,455	6		4th	therealbountybob	14,800	4
5th	AtariSphinx	8,440	5		5th	AtariSphinx	14,800	3
6th	carlsson	7,960	4		6th	autumn_fire	12,300	2
7th	MichaG	7,930	3		7th	carlsson	10,600	1
8th	devwebcl	4,835	2
9th	Sikor	4,550	1

 

 

	Rockball 1 life					Eliminator
	Player	Score	Pts			Player	Score	Pts
1st	therealbountybob	22,250	2		1st	rdrunner	2,529	3
2nd	rdrunner	21,250	1		2nd	AtariSphinx	2,490	2
11th	McKong	17,650	1		3rd	therealbountybob	1,750	1
3rd	MichaG	15,700	1		4th	carlsson	1,508	1
4th	AtariSphinx	14,900	1		5th	autumn_fire	1,505	1
					6th	MichaG	1,128	1

 

	Sky Blazer					Rockball 3 lives only
	Player	Score	Pts			Player	Score	Pts
1st	rdrunner	5920	4		1st	rdrunner	42300	2
2nd	AtariSphinx	3980	1		2nd	autumn_fire	33750	1
3rd	MichaG	2320	1		3rd	therealbountybob	32100	1
4th	autumn_fire	1360	1		4th	MichaG	20250	1
5th	carlsson	1360	1
6th	therealbountybob	1020	1

 

 

[rdrunner]

7 hours ago, therealbountybob said:

Repton

Thanks rdrunner Had a couple of sessions in the 2nd stage - controls are tough and it's a long trip! I did reach a platform on stilts which I tried to destroy, looked like there was room to pass over it - guess I should have shot it more?!!!

Yup, that's the core.  Hit the weak point near the middle 3 times to destroy it.  The entire screen will flash white when you register a hit.

 

I tried flying over it my first few times thinking "what's that?" lol.

[+therealbountybob]

10 hours ago, rdrunner said:

Yup, that's the core.  Hit the weak point near the middle 3 times to destroy it.  The entire screen will flash white when you register a hit.

 

I tried flying over it my first few times thinking "what's that?" lol.

Think I got a hit or two on it, but then died. Does it return you to the next wave as soon as it explodes / does it scroll back up or anything?

[rdrunner]

3 hours ago, therealbountybob said:

Think I got a hit or two on it, but then died. Does it return you to the next wave as soon as it explodes / does it scroll back up or anything?

The core explosion is fairly impressive.  The auto scrolling stops and you get to see the core disappear.  Just after that, the screen switches back to the planet.  Same wave # as where you left off, fresh blue bar, no base, lots of enemies.