TheCurlyBard Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 (edited) Round 5 - July 2024 - Vector Pilot Status: This is the current round being played in the Vectrex High Score Club. Join in and submit your scores! Closing date is 31 Jul 23:59 PST Current scores & ranking: 1st playvectrex 844,800 2nd VF2048 383,400 3rd TheCurlyBard 328,500 4th Chainsaw 196,800 5th jgkspsx 156,200 6th Mikey50 114,100 7th hcmffm 91,800 8th Lord Innit 66,700 Vector Pilot is another fantastic arcade port from Kristof Tuts (Tutstronix). It's Kristof's second game. Travel through time blowing things up! Availability Released way back in 2011 this is still readily available from the author Kristof Tuts of Tutstronix - http://www.kristofsvectrexgames.be/ Settings Mode 2 - normal mode Default Ship 4 starting lives Edited July 17 by hcmffm 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 1 Author Share Posted July 1 (edited) Well it's a stark contrast to Vector Patrol, this is pure reaction based. I think I prefer the button controls myself, seem to have more precise rotation. 44500 to start - the boot screen isnt showing my score correctly, sometimes its similar to my top score but not always. Anybody else seeing this? I've got some odd timing issues on the vector drawn text as well, but I think thats my machine. Edited July 1 by TheCurlyBard 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey50 Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 my scores so far and hi 114100 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 3 Share Posted July 3 Wow, Vector Pilot is amazing! I think I prefer to play with the buttons. It feels good and very responsive. Vectorcade with left-right joystick is good as well. Quadrature mode not so good As far as the reset boot screen score goes, it looks like it's just missing the trailing zero of the high score. That seems to indicate to me that the score will go to 10M+, but who knows. I saw a 900k point score on youtube... so we've got some work to do! 138,900 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 3 Author Share Posted July 3 Oh that makes sense about the missing digit, I think that high score is part of the firmware. What's to stop me leaving the mothership alone and shooting the enemies that keep spawning? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 3 Author Share Posted July 3 66,000 I'm enjoying this one a lot, still want to push my Vector Patrol pb a bit more though 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 3 Share Posted July 3 1 hour ago, TheCurlyBard said: Oh that makes sense about the missing digit, I think that high score is part of the firmware. What's to stop me leaving the mothership alone and shooting the enemies that keep spawning? Yeah, that high score is 7 bytes of system RAM... so by removing a trailing zero, it would imply it can go up to 10M+ I'm guessing. I tried it... I think the end boss will effectively stop you. They seem to shoot a lot, and constantly appear on screen if you try flying around getting the other enemies. So I think it's just riskier to do that. I want to know what the UNLEASH ME! / I'M HARD TO FIND!!! stuff is all about. I unlocked the biplane, but not sure if that one is another one you can unlock and if it's helpful in any way. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 3 Author Share Posted July 3 Oh yeah I'd forgotten about that attract screen thing.. weird. I also tried just hanging around the boss screen, I don't think you get the formation bonuses anymore, and it is very risky even on lv 1. I've no idea if the planes effect gameplay, so I stated the default just in case 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 4 Share Posted July 4 15 hours ago, TheCurlyBard said: I've no idea if the planes effect gameplay, so I stated the default just in case Ah, I see. I tried the biplane and it seems the same to me, so I switched back to the jet because I'm just used to it now. This game is definitely one that requires very fast reflexes which is why the button control seems best... but you also have to be able to react fast and move in the correct direction, which I'm not that great at. Kind of feels like Asteroids, needing to keep a safe distance, and stick and move fast... but definitely faster gameplay than Mine Storm required. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 4 Author Share Posted July 4 Yeah it's all about reactions, and keeping distance - I keep getting greedy going for the parachutes and formations when staying alive is more valuable. 95,600 - there's nothing like feeling of a new pb is there 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Innit Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 Hmmm, a bit out of practice with this one. Got through the first two levels unscathed and then.................. Still 66700 is a good start. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jgkspsx Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 Do I have the top score for once? 156200 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jgkspsx Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 On 7/1/2024 at 6:30 PM, TheCurlyBard said: Well it's a stark contrast to Vector Patrol, this is pure reaction based. I think I prefer the button controls myself, seem to have more precise rotation. I don't agree; as with Vector Patrol, there is a lot of situational awareness and strategy involved in getting the best scores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 5 Author Share Posted July 5 4 minutes ago, jgkspsx said: I don't agree; as with Vector Patrol, there is a lot of situational awareness and strategy involved in getting the best scores. Oh definitely yes, now that I play it more I can see the similarities, like constantly watching for bombs with different trajectories. Well done on the score 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 On 7/4/2024 at 4:30 PM, TheCurlyBard said: Yeah it's all about reactions, and keeping distance - I keep getting greedy going for the parachutes and formations when staying alive is more valuable. Was looking up strategies for Time Pilot and found there's such a thing as "Parachute Hunting". Tried it and OMG it felt insanely over powered. But then tried again later and kept dying. Also tried to avoid the end blimp as long as I could and ended up doing that for some time as well. So I think it's definitely possible to do this on level 1... but not sure about other levels where the enemies are much more aggressive. IMO this should be allowed, because it's not unlike how people marathon Asteroids. I think we'll see some pretty high scores this month. 55 minutes ago, jgkspsx said: I don't agree; as with Vector Patrol, there is a lot of situational awareness and strategy involved in getting the best scores. That's true, and also a lot of Vector Patrol is also memorizing what's coming and when to jump... instead of pure reaction to everything around you. There is some of that, but maybe half and half? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 5 Author Share Posted July 5 Well I'm def going to Google parachute hunting. The first one seems to always be at the same time as the first formation. I think there's always one to go with each formation, but sometimes to the left or right where I miss them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 A bit of parachute hunting, extended 1st level, then trying to complete the levels fast. This type of playing is good practice as well for avoiding the enemy fire... so it's useful for all levels really 167,100 s/n 999 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jgkspsx Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 My strategy is to fly down left until things get hairy, then go down right. I get parachutes without firing until they max out and then try to only shoot formations. It's pretty easy to do for the first two levels. The helicopters and missiles really change up the dynamic and I need to practice up again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 6 Share Posted July 6 I think flying up-left or up-right is better on the first stage because the bombs fall down and track you more easily when you fly down, at least that's been my experience. I need to try this, but it seems like from watching other Time Pilot videos, flying directly behind the end boss won't get you shot by the end boss? They seem to only fire back and up/down at an angle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 I've been playing the last two days a lot and sometimes I crap out early, some times I get a lot of lives/chances and lose them over silly stuff. I've been able to get another 35k after the blimp comes out before dying.. it's not super easy to stay alive after the blimp comes out though but just as a test you can do it. Formations do form, but no more parachutes. One game I got to 210k without dying (9 lives) and then started losing them all super easy and ended with like 240k. That's just how it goes I guess. This one felt good though... got through all levels and beat the first stage for a second time (stage 7), up to stage 8. Just barely got over 400k. 400,900 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 7 Author Share Posted July 7 Oh yeah parachute hunting is op 200,200 I tend to default to up to avoid the bombs, but left or right when a formation appears as you seem to have a better chance of finding them 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 16 hours ago, TheCurlyBard said: Oh yeah parachute hunting is op 200,200 I tend to default to up to avoid the bombs, but left or right when a formation appears as you seem to have a better chance of finding them Congrats! I was trying to do a similar thing and max out stage 1... but I think the highest I got there was 175k. I like to fly at a diagonal up, and the parachutes seem to pop out just after the formation appears when you hear the sound. Basically when you fly around them, you keep going at a diagonal and the parachute pops out right about there. If you miss a parachute and they are kind of far down at the bottom of the screen when you find them, just go straight up and they will wrap around to the top of the screen... but they only do this one time. If this happens, the next parachute will be closer behind them than usual. If nothing else, it's a good way to get some points and extra lives to give you a fighting chance to make it through all of the stages, wrap back around at stage 7, and do it again... but way harder because everything is trying to kill you now. And don't forget about the pause screen if you hands/arms get tired It's there for a reason! BTW: That 900k+ score on youtube was on hard mode! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VF2048 Posted July 8 Share Posted July 8 (edited) Again Vectrex with WASDX controller: 179500 🥳 Edited July 8 by VF2048 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 8 Author Share Posted July 8 @VF2048 nice one! @playvectrex I'd thought I'd seen one respawn at the top after it drifted of the bottom, there's definitely patterns in where things appear as well Getting the hang of not shooting until the level 1 boss now, been practicing a bit on level 2 also, but not in the same game yet as its a bit of a marathon 280,900 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 (edited) 4 hours ago, TheCurlyBard said: Getting the hang of not shooting until the level 1 boss now Nice improvement! I thought the boss only comes out when the meter runs down, which is due to shooting a certain number of planes. Tonight I made it to 70k without shooting anything, and left stage 1 with 198k. Made it to stage 10 though for the first time. I think I've only got like one of these types of games in me per night... I'm actually wore out from the intensity and repeatedly pressing the fire button and joystick movements 😩 456,300 I was looking at vectrex.co.uk/hiscore.htm and see the score and stage number can go way up! Frank Sapone - Easy - 1,007,300 Thomas Sontowski - Normal - 404,500 Centaura - Hard - 935,500 Edited July 9 by playvectrex Added some other highscores 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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