2024 Spring HSC - Round 4 - Columns

[BydoEmpire]

Time for a change of pace from shooting things down, or kicking dudes in the face. Let's play Columns. It's a game I played on the Genesis a fair bit, but never the SMS version. Let's play Game 1.

For one bonus point, play Darts Double Down in Parlour Games (a personal favorite of mine). For one ADDITIONAL bonus point, play all three Parlour Games, any variation: one game each of Darts, Billiards & Bingo.

 

This round runs April 11 - April 28 (sorry, started late this time, I'll let it run an extra week). 

 

Totals

1. @wongojack 46,170 (+2)
2. @BydoEmpire 43,980 (+2)
3. @jeremiahjt 32,130

4. @Dashopepper 31,800

5. @fakecortex 29,520 (+2)

6. Roland 7,170

Edited May 7 by BydoEmpire

[BydoEmpire]

Getting on the board. 43,980

[+wongojack]

Super hard to get a picture on the CRT.  Pause only works during actual gameplay.

 

Does it display the high score anywhere?

[+wongojack]

I haven't figured out a good way to get a pic yet, so here's a picture from when I could sense it slipping away.  This doesn't display my final score which was 29,100

 

And here is the evidence of me playing Parlour games.  World Bingo - oof.  I don't know what was happening, but waiting for a slot machine to finish spinning is something that should have gone out of video games in before 1978.

[+wongojack]

On 4/11/2024 at 7:11 PM, BydoEmpire said:

Time for a change of pace from shooting things down, or kicking dudes in the face. Let's play Columns. It's a game I played on the Genesis a fair bit, but never the SMS version. Let's play Game 1.

 

Hey - what exactly do you mean by Game 1?  I chose Single Player - Original - Difficulty Normal - Level 0.  I did not change the type of blocks.  Is that Game 1?

 

I've never really tried to play this game, so I don't have any real strategies about how to stack things up.  Mostly, I'm just trying to clump groups of 3s.  Planning diagonals is really hard for me.  Also, I'll say that trying to get the high score picture is incredibly stressful.  I know that I scored higher at least once before, but I wasn't prepared to take a pic, so I just lost that score completely.  I almost want to appeal to you to change the HSC game to be the "Double Down" game within Darts in Parlour Games.  It is a bit easier to snap a pic of the final score and may just be a bit more fun.  While I suppose it is possible to get a perfect score, I doubt anyone would accomplish it in this club.  Consider it this time or for a future HSC.

Parlour Games manual:  Parlourgames_sms_us_manual.pdf (segaretro.org)

[BydoEmpire]

7 hours ago, wongojack said:

Hey - what exactly do you mean by Game 1?  I chose Single Player - Original - Difficulty Normal - Level 0.  I did not change the type of blocks.  Is that Game 1?

 

I've never really tried to play this game, so I don't have any real strategies about how to stack things up.  Mostly, I'm just trying to clump groups of 3s.  Planning diagonals is really hard for me.  Also, I'll say that trying to get the high score picture is incredibly stressful.  I know that I scored higher at least once before, but I wasn't prepared to take a pic, so I just lost that score completely.  I almost want to appeal to you to change the HSC game to be the "Double Down" game within Darts in Parlour Games.  It is a bit easier to snap a pic of the final score and may just be a bit more fun.  While I suppose it is possible to get a perfect score, I doubt anyone would accomplish it in this club.  Consider it this time or for a future HSC.

Parlour Games manual:  Parlourgames_sms_us_manual.pdf (segaretro.org)

In my version there was a Single player -> Game 1 / Game 2 -> Level X option. I may have worded it wrong, I'll have to check tonight. Pretty much default settings (i.e. Original). I'm not sure there's any real advantage to starting higher than level 0 .

 

I was able to get a screenshot on the game over screen (I'm playing the US rom on Dega), IIRC it stayed up for a while. This is a game I don't have on cart, so I'm not sure what it *really* looks like..

 

7 hours ago, wongojack said:

I almost want to appeal to you to change the HSC game to be the "Double Down" game within Darts in Parlour Games.  It is a bit easier to snap a pic of the final score and may just be a bit more fun.  While I suppose it is possible to get a perfect score, I doubt anyone would accomplish it in this club.  Consider it this time or for a future HSC.

I can do that - Double Down it is!

Edited April 15 by BydoEmpire

[BydoEmpire]

Here's what I see starting the game:

  

Edited April 16 by BydoEmpire

[+wongojack]

1 hour ago, BydoEmpire said:

Here's what I see starting the game:

  

Hmmm . . . Mine looks just like the first 10 seconds of this video.  I was playing from a flashcart on the Genesis because I also do not have a physical copy.  I will try a few things.

 

Update - I think I found the rom you are using on Archive.org.  It is labeled "Columns (USA, Europe, Brazil) (Beta)."  Trying it now.

[+wongojack]

39,360 playing that version.  It seems like it gave me an extra exploding block through the first 9 levels compared to the other version.

 

[fakecortex]

1 hour ago, wongojack said:

Hmmm . . . Mine looks just like the first 10 seconds of this video.  I was playing from a flashcart on the Genesis because I also do not have a physical copy.  I will try a few things.

 

Update - I think I found the rom you are using on Archive.org.  It is labeled "Columns (USA, Europe, Brazil) (Beta)."  Trying it now.

The one I found is also like that, showing "original" and "flash" instead of game 1 and 2. Do we want to be playing on the other rom that looks like it might be a beta version?

 

Let's be honest tho, I'll likely score low enough to not earn points, haha, but still, rules. lol

[+wongojack]

It seems like game 1 is "Original" and game 2 is "Flash," but I definitely noticed an extra exploding block when playing game 1 of the "beta" rom.  Here's the archive with that version:  sega-master-system-romset-ultra-us directory listing (archive.org)

 

I suppose if someone has the actual cart they can clear this up for us by telling us how it plays.  

[+wongojack]

12 hours ago, fakecortex said:

The one I found is also like that, showing "original" and "flash" instead of game 1 and 2. Do we want to be playing on the other rom that looks like it might be a beta version?

 

Let's be honest tho, I'll likely score low enough to not earn points, haha, but still, rules. lol

Come on, you're pretending now.  I remember that you beat me at Tetris:  Season 20 Round 5 - Tetris - NES High Score Club - AtariAge Forums

 

You can do this.  Just get in here and finally play some Columns.

 

[+wongojack]

Perhaps I am getting slightly better 44,460

 

[+jeremiahjt]

32,130 for me on Columns if we are playing on easy.

[BydoEmpire]

I played a full game of 301 and figured out the controls halfway through. I couldn't get a screenshot of the score in time, but it took me 11 rounds.

\

And I have no idea what's going on with BINGO, but hey, I started it up...

[+wongojack]

Increased my score a bit.  I am playing on "normal" difficulty on that rom that has "Game 1"

[Dashopepper]

Dashopepper 31800

Roland 7170

 

finally got some playing in and pretty fun!

[fakecortex]

I don't know what I've been doing lately, but it hasn't been playing video games. Got some sms in this weekend...

 

Columns - 29,520

 

No pic b/c of how fast the score goes away. I never understood games that did that.

 

Bonus- I played all 3 games, no pics whoops. I need to rtfm on that one, especially for world bingo. I could see myself having really gotten into the darts if I had this game as a kid. I grew up playing Casino Games, so it was cool seeing another in this series.