Season 15 ~ Week 17 ~ Paddle Week 1

[CapitanClassic]

I need to deox my paddles. But at least it's actually playable on real hardware.

1776 - Kaboom!

[DrMooCowz]

I don't like when I wait until the last day, but here we are! That might also be the best round of Kaboom I've ever done!

 

Kaboom! 5874

Bumper Bash 14390

[Warzownd]

Kaboom 9516 - Not much better but my average score is way up, thanks for picking this one!!

[Vocelli]

Vocelli:

Bumper Bash Bonus: 20320

Guessing my luck on this game is not good.

 

[Evandro_ECM]

Kaboom  1B/B -  1.636

Bumper 1A/A One Ball - 20.580

[fakecortex]

Kaboom and I have a love/hate relationship. Right now, I do not like it so much. Don’t know what it thinks of me. 

Kaboom - 1,945

[+McCallister]

Kaboom: 4558

bumperb: 

 

Great games and nice combo of main game with bonus game!

[keilbaca]

26574

[Keir]

Last minute improvement:

[ZilchSr]

Kaboom 1B - 6,922
Bumper Bash 1AA - 1st ball only - 545,625 (not sure that there is any effect from diff switch position in this game) 

[gbag]

3939. Kaboom

19715. Bb

[Atarian7]

On 5/6/2024 at 11:09 AM, CentipedeFan said:

I usually don't question legitimacy since this is all just for fun but the gulf between 1st and 2nd makes me raise an eyebrow.

My high score for this game is 928,982.   I have been playing off and on for about 22 years now. 

 

I'm surprised to see no one beat my score.  I thought for sure that Kermit or someone would beat it.

[Absalon]

12 hours ago, ZilchSr said:

Bumper Bash 1AA - 1st ball only - 545,625 (not sure that there is any effect from diff switch position in this game) 

 

It's a shame you published your results just before the deadline. I know I could beat your score. I feel cheated out of first place

(I know it's my feelings, not yours 😃

[CentipedeFan]

7 hours ago, Atarian7 said:

I have been playing off and on for about 22 years now.

Clearly a master on this title.  Congrats!

[UnRedeemed]

12 hours ago, Atarian7 said:

My high score for this game is 928,982.   I have been playing off and on for about 22 years now. 

 

I'm surprised to see no one beat my score.  I thought for sure that Kermit or someone would beat it.

whoa that is so close to the max; I cannot imagine doing anything requiring that much intense screen focus!  Do you take extended breaks between levels or would that wreck the rhythm?    

[UnRedeemed]

8 hours ago, Absalon said:

It's a shame you published your results just before the deadline. I know I could beat your score. I feel cheated out of first place

(I know it's my feelings, not yours 😃

I sympathize, thought you had it wrapped up.  But I am curious -- how do you know you could get an even higher score?  No matter how many techniques I tried (including going for an immediate E scores of times) it always seemed to me like the game was largely luck/chance.  I never got over 130k except for my highest score, which occurred in my first 10 minutes of playing. 

 

One thing bumper bash did though is inspire me to plan on getting a real table someday to enjoy the genuine physics...    

[Absalon]

legitimate question. I say it first and foremost, of course.

 

Pinball games actually almost always have a good dose of luck. With practice (and simply trying it out) you will get to know the possibilities of the table. and often the more you try to force it, the harder it becomes at first.

 

Here in the game it is essential to trigger the ACE. With the "kickbacks" the game is much much easier to control! I can now somewhat control the game.

I simply stopped playing at 400k because the majority seemed to have a lot of trouble with the game and scoring. I thought it was enough to win. I also have a few other things to do...

 

E.g: After ACE and with extra ball the game looks completely different, right? (See the picture) Once you know how to reach the E, you'll get higher scores!

 

[ZilchSr]

15 hours ago, Absalon said:

It's a shame you published your results just before the deadline. I know I could beat your score. I feel cheated out of first place

(I know it's my feelings, not yours 😃

My recommendation that I have given almost every year in this group: Always, always, always, play your best and then post your score. If you played your best and posted your score, then my best would not have been good enough. Don't stop trying for your best simply because you currently have the top score. I've used this philosophy on TG for years - it's not enough to beat the top score ... I try to at least double it before my attempts stop, and here depending on the game, Ill keep trying until I get 4X or 5X the then-top score. Maybe this strategy might work for you here ... it has served me well.

Edited May 14 by ZilchSr

[ZilchSr]

7 hours ago, UnRedeemed said:

I sympathize, thought you had it wrapped up.  But I am curious -- how do you know you could get an even higher score?  No matter how many techniques I tried (including going for an immediate E scores of times) it always seemed to me like the game was largely luck/chance.  I never got over 130k except for my highest score, which occurred in my first 10 minutes of playing. 

 

One thing bumper bash did though is inspire me to plan on getting a real table someday to enjoy the genuine physics...    

The trick is to focus exclusively on getting your bonus multiplier up to 5X. I only scored about 55K before my ball drained, the remaining ~500K pts were just from the bonus. 

[Absalon]

2 hours ago, ZilchSr said:

My recommendation that I have given almost every year in this group: Always, always, always, play your best and then post your score. If you played your best and posted your score, then my best would not have been good enough. Don't stop trying for your best simply because you currently have the top score. I've used this philosophy on TG for years - it's not enough to beat the top score ... I try to at least double it before my attempts stop, and here depending on the game, Ill keep trying until I get 4X or 5X the then-top score. Maybe this strategy might work for you here ... it has served me well.

Yeah. My post was referring to the strategic point of time, when you posted your score. I would have a lot of fun, just to have a close competition with you on this game. But there is no way to push my limits, when you only post a final score in the last hour. Imagine, if everybody would do it like this. Would it be more fun? Where does the fun come from (for you)? 

 

I'm not hunting for my best scores here in the hsc.  I'd do that in tg. I'm here in hsc just for the fun of a "one week Challenge". 

[ZilchSr]

I neither post my scores at the last minute for fun, nor as any kind of strategy. Most of the time (not always) I post them at a time that isn't the last minute, and I didnt post at the last minute this time, either (for the record, you had 41 minutes to post another score, more than ample time to beat my score), although it was as 11:19pm, because I work 80-90 hours a week, and Sunday night is the only time I have off, which generally gives me about 3 or 4 hours once a week on Sunday to do what most others here have 10-20 hours or more in any given week  to do. Believe me, I'd love to be in your financial position where working less than 80-90 hours a week is enough for you to survive, but alas, I'm not in such a position, and here we are. I assure you that working 80-90 hours a week, yet still being cash-strapped isnt "fun".

 

I digress. Nobody is forcing you to take my recommendation that instead of quitting when you get a score good enough to be the top score, you keep posting better scores until you've posted your best. I'm merely suggesting that if your claim that you could have done better is true, then it would have been prudent to have done better and post it before midnight Sunday evening if your goal is to have the top score by midnight Sunday evening, especially considering that every season, there are at LEAST 2 or 3 world class Atari 2600 players participating who hold dozens (even hundreds) or more official Atari 2600 world records each and who are capable at any given time to set yet another world record in that particular game.  Besides, due to my work schedule being as it is, I missed playing for several weeks awhile back which set me back a potential 150 points, and I didn't post a score at all, which likely eliminated my chances of being in the top 4 this season, which would be the first time not finishing first or second in any season that I have participated, so it's not like me having top score this week is going to have the kind of impact that would warrant negative pushback. Also, should you simply desire to have everyone see that you could surpass the 545K I put up, nobody is preventing you from doing so and posting the screenshot now or at any time in the future. Indeed, I encourage it, and especially so if getting top score on any particular game is important enough for you that you felt compelled to lament about it in this forum. Moreover, nothing is preventing you from petitioning Vocelli to change the cut off day from Sunday to any other day. Not sure it'll work, but if it's important enough to you, you can try. I know I would.

 

As for me, I'm not hunting for my best scores here either. I am, however, hunting for the best score I can get within an extraordinarily limited amount of time. While I dont mind if others' goal is to get top score each week, my goal is to try my best each week, and if my best ends up being the top score, or not good enough to even reach top 10 for the week, I am equally satisfied. Whether for fun (here) or to be competitive (TG, for example), whether it be games or any other thing I attempt, I always give it my all. Not saying you should, I'm just suggesting that if something is important enough for you as this seems to be, you may want to at least try it.

Edited May 15 by ZilchSr

[Zoyx]

26 minutes ago, ZilchSr said:

I don't post my scores at the last minute for fun. Most of the time (not always) I post them at a time that isn't the last minute. This time I did, because I work 80-90 hours a week, and Sunday night is the only time I have off, which generally gives me about 3 or 4 hours once a week on Sunday to do what most others here have 10-20 hours or more in any given week  to do. Believe me, I'd love to be in your financial position where working less than 80-90 hours a week is enough for you to survive, but alas, I'm not in such a position, and here we are. I assure you that working 80-90 hours a week, yet still being cash-strapped isnt "fun". I digress. Nobody is forcing you to take my recommendation that instead of quitting when you get a score good enough to be the top score, you keep posting better scores until you've posted your best. I'm merely suggesting that if your claim that you could have done better is true, then it would have been prudent to have done better and post it before midnight Sunday evening if your goal is to have the top score by midnight Sunday evening, especially considering that every season, there are at LEAST 2 or 3 world class Atari 2600 players who hold dozens (even hundreds) or more official Atari 2600 world records each.  Besides, due to my work schedule being as it is, I missed playing for several weeks awhile back which set me back a potential 150 points, and I didn't post a score at all, which likely eliminated my chances of being in the top 4 this season, which would be the first time not finishing first or second in any season that I have participated, so it's not like me having top score this week is going to have the kind of impact that would warrant negative pushback. Also, should you simply desire to have everyone see that you could surpass the 545K I put up, nobody is preventing you from doing so and posting the screenshot now or at any time in the future. Indeed, I encourage it, and especially so if getting top score on any particular week is important enough for you that you felt compelled to lament about it in this forum.

 

As for me, I'm not hunting for my best scores here either. I am, however, hunting for the best score I can get within an extraordinarily limited amount of time. Whether for fun (here) or to be competitive (TG, for example), whether it be games or any other thing I attempt, I always give it my all. Not saying you should, I'm just suggesting that if something is important enough for you as this seems to be, you may want to at least try it.

Don't worry about it. There have been HSCs in the past where sniping happened regularly. It's part of the fun.

[UnRedeemed]

15 hours ago, Absalon said:

Yeah. My post was referring to the strategic point of time, when you posted your score. 

ZilchSr is the real deal so far as I can tell, and I appreciate his words of wisdom -- although I am very sorry to hear his lifestyle is so pressured since he surely deserves better.  When I first saw ZilchSr's score postings in various HSC weeks (with no pattern noted of waiting until the last minute), for some reason I thought to myself "maybe this guy is not human" or alternatively maybe he uses some sort of electronic enhancement.  I guess it was something about the consistently superlative scores across a wide range of games that made me wonder.  But since then I have checked out a number of his videos on TG and have come away extremely impressed.  

 

Now I am sure he is not human.  And I sympathize with anyone trying to hold onto a high score when he is in the running.  I just hope the work week cuts him some slack in the near future.  As it happens just the other day I was recollecting to someone that I used to have to work 80+ hours per week and that it nearly killed me.  

Edited May 15 by UnRedeemed
typo

[CentipedeFan]

17 hours ago, ZilchSr said:

Always, always, always, play your best and then post your score.

No doubt.  You should always assume someone is going to hold scores til the end and put your best attempt out there.  At least have a better score on deck in the event it happens.

 

With that in mind I have played in other formats in which there is a midweek bonus to encourage early submissions in the name of good sportsmanship.  That might not be a bad idea here.  Say something like a small bonus for 1st 2nd and 3rd at midweek.

 

Just a thought.

[ZilchSr]

My comment above has been edited to reflect that I Indeed did not post at the last minute. There was plenty of time to throw another score up there.m after mine went up.