TheCurlyBard Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 Yeah it's exhausting playing like this, I reverted to playing normally for a bit afterwards just to unwind. The gauge also decreases when you collect parachutes, just a tiny bit but it means we can't camp on lv1 indefinitely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 3 hours ago, TheCurlyBard said: The gauge also decreases when you collect parachutes, just a tiny bit but it means we can't camp on lv1 indefinitely. Ahh, I see! Wow, you got Parachute Hunting down pat then Can't wait to see more of your high scores roll in this month! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 I hope so! I'm still considering these practise runs as it would make more sense to shoot when in trouble, but I'm just trying to zone out and keep dodging for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 328,500! This was hunting all through lv1, entered lv2 with 4 lives and around 240,000 points. So while it takes ages, it's easier than looping through the levels twice. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 9 Share Posted July 9 9 minutes ago, TheCurlyBard said: 328,500! This was hunting all through lv1, entered lv2 with 4 lives and around 240,000 points. So while it takes ages, it's easier than looping through the levels twice. Wow, congrats! That's some dedicated patience! I'm going to play again after you beat my score This is a fun game though, so please hurry so I can play again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 9 Author Share Posted July 9 11 minutes ago, playvectrex said: Wow, congrats! That's some dedicated patience! I'm going to play again after you beat my score This is a fun game though, so please hurry so I can play again I'm working on it lol, I can definitely finish lv1 with more lives, I lost a load at the end as my concentration started to dip, but it's coming 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VF2048 Posted July 10 Share Posted July 10 Some extensive parachute hunting later... 😁 New PB: 344100 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 13 Share Posted July 13 Ok, couldn't help playing more!!! Well I don't think I'm going to beat this any time soon. At times it felt effortless, everything was just getting mowed down and I wasn't randomly dying over and over by random shots. I ended up beating the game 3 times in a row this run and made it to Stage 21 with 844,800 points. I've played a few games since then and haven't scored much more than 250k. I was just kind of listening to the TV in the background on this game, just relaxed and gaming. Love that feeling when it all clicks. A while ago I collected all of the bonus ships which I think is 7. I've tried them all and I don't notice any difference between them, so I still don't know what the deal is with those random splash screens that pop up with the jet. 844,800 s/n 999 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 13 Author Share Posted July 13 Masterful as ever! My experiences are the same, some nights I keep turning into the bullets, others I zen out and last ages. I was wondering if the jet was a reward for a no shot loop, but I don't think we get parachutes at all on level 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VF2048 Posted July 14 Share Posted July 14 (edited) New PB: 383400 Had a perfect parachute hunting run with 310000 and 11 lives in level 1. In the boss fight I lost my first live and I continuously lost lives the next levels then. Should have taken a break maybe... Game over a tad before the UFO boss. 😭 Edited July 14 by VF2048 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 14 Share Posted July 14 7 hours ago, VF2048 said: Had a perfect parachute hunting run with 310000 and 11 lives in level 1 Holy heck!!! and DAAAAANNG!! My best parachute hunting on level 1 was only up to 195k or so, and best no shooting parachute hunting was exactly 100,100 after the first shot, so I think that means it was exactly 100,000 before the shot. I think that could be a game comp all on it's own, highest stage 1 score Here's my strategy for various levels... if it might help: 1 - Fly down and to the left diagonally. Originally I flew up and to the left, but it does seem like down and to the left makes it a tad easier to avoid the bombs... despite what I said about it before. Parachute hunt with as little shots as possible. 0-50k shouldn't need any shots. >50k you may want to clear away a stray plane just so it's not a problem as you generally are flying around the squadrons. If you lose any lives early, reset. If you lose a life near 100k, go into shooter mode and kill everything including the end boss. 2 - Fly up, and wiggle to the left and right in kind of an S pattern. 3 - (helicopters) Fly up, and wiggle to the left and right in kind of an S pattern. But gradually make turns when necessary to avoid the missiles. Watch out for stray shots when turning. Try to fly away perpendicularly from shots on screen. 4 - (jets) Fly up, and wiggle to the left and right in kind of an S pattern. Make sharper turns 180° when necessary to avoid the missiles. Watch out for stray shots when turning. Try to fly away perpendicularly from shots on screen. 5 - (ufo) Fly up, and wiggle to the left and right in kind of an S pattern. Gradually make turns away from the large shots/boomerang things when necessary but keep flying up. 6 - (mine storm) Fly up, make shots as you fly away to the right, then make shots as you fly away to the left. This makes sure if mines fire back you don't get hit. When the mine storm ship is heard, find the mines it's laying and keep flying up towards it. Stay to the outside of the mines and keep the ship on screen. There is a little time to fly over the fresh mines before they pop open, but only do so for the kill shot if necessary. Do not try to fly into the side or from above, since the ship tends to move up. Repeat If you are finding an end boss really hard to defeat, you can kamikaze into it and waste a life, but be assured to move on instead of dying over and over trying to kill it. As long as you can pick up more lives on the first stage, this seems sustainable a bit. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chainsaw Posted July 16 Share Posted July 16 (edited) Hello All. I forgot, how great this game is. From the gameplay at all, until the great sequence before the last awesome level starts. Also the attract / demo screens and everything. Also I read most of your comments before I started playing. So I learned about parachute hunting, but also I remember, that I always also used the strategy with flying up and wiggle left and right. But after a hard working day, I decided to play only some normal games, without parachute hunting. The first game was awful, but the second one after re-learning the game a bit, it was much better. So I reached level 9 with a score of 196'800. Will try parachute hunting at another day. Oh fun fact: Found some very very old Vector War scores from Vector Pilot. I think VW3 means Vector War III 🙂 EDIT: Wow scores over 300'000 then over 800'000 ??? That's awesome crazy... Who will beat the million? Edited July 16 by Chainsaw 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 16 Author Share Posted July 16 Great scores guys! I'm still playing but decided to practise normal play for the sake of my sanity, but I'll come back to extended hunting later in the month. No shooting would be a cool sub category, as you could kamikaze the boss and potential get quite far. I'm not sure how anyone is supposed to hunt parachutes with no shooting when there's homing missiles involved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 4 hours ago, TheCurlyBard said: hunt parachutes with no shooting when there's homing missiles involved Most of the missiles can be shaken off with a good 180° turn, or so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hcmffm Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 During the past weeks I've been busy with various things. Now, I've returned here just to find out that there's quite some playing going on. My score with some parachute hunting: 91,800 (Original Vectrex console and original Vectrex controller): So parachute hunting is the way to go - I'll try this out... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 23 Share Posted July 23 Hey all! Been playing some games since last week, and had some great games... but nothing beating my personal best yet. Tonight I thought was the night I was going to do it, maybe even go to 1M. I beat the game 3 times again, got to stage 21 again, and was within 7.6k of my PB... but nope, flying into a bomb in slow motion was the last straw 😩 This 837,200 game was about 1 hour long. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 24 Author Share Posted July 24 Gutting! Just did the same, got close to a pb and then lost it. Still enjoying it though, and determined to set a better score before the end of the month Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 Got further to stage 23, but not far enough! I’m picking up some strategies though for the harder versions of these levels which are very stressful. Also helicopters and jets levels feel best when you turn away from the missiles and just kind of watch where you are going and try to fly clear of things instead of trying to shoot things in a turn. You will shoot plenty, just don’t try in a turn, try not to die in a turn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 24 Author Share Posted July 24 16 hours ago, playvectrex said: Got further to stage 23, but not far enough! I’m picking up some strategies though for the harder versions of these levels which are very stressful. Also helicopters and jets levels feel best when you turn away from the missiles and just kind of watch where you are going and try to fly clear of things instead of trying to shoot things in a turn. You will shoot plenty, just don’t try in a turn, try not to die in a turn. This is my experience when parachute hunting as well, as soon as I start shooting, I start aiming and then dying. It seems best to just spray bullets as you go towards the emptiest part of the screen, but I keep turning into stuff to shoot it and crashing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 25 Share Posted July 25 (edited) For parachute hunting, it seems best to go down and to the left for me, and just try to avoid being close to anything, and when the squadron comes out... more often than not I kind of zigzag up and down to keep them on screen to my right, while looking for a parachute to the left. Or just fly around them and just the right distance ... but the idea is to keep them visible so they don't pop out on some other side of the screen when you are not expecting them. I'll tend to keep them around until they start to break up, then I'll fly down and left again. I'm always ready to shoot anything, but generally try to reserve the shots to go longer. What I meant about not shooting in turns was kind of hard to describe I think. It's for the helicopter and jets stages really since you have to always turn to avoid the missiles. I'm probably shooting always anyways, but when I turn I tend now not to try to steer towards anything... not trying to aim at anything, just aiming to turn and avoid the missile and stray shots and enemies. Kind of a non-aiming gaze where I try to observe everything on the screen at once. Once I complete the turn and straighten out, I'm aiming at everything in front of me. I'm not even trying to get parachutes on those levels. That non-aiming gaze in turns seems to help. It also helps to be very awake for a long game. Last night I played a good game getting to 722k, but second game I had like 175k on the first level with like 8 lives no deaths, and then started dying super easily over and over on the second stage. Died 4 or 5 times in a row and I just turned the Vectrex off in disgust Edited July 25 by playvectrex 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCurlyBard Posted July 25 Author Share Posted July 25 Yeah that's what I mean, deliberately aiming costs me lives. You need to watch everything but not get too distracted from surviving. I like it, its a kind of zen like state trying to track everything that's happening. I'm not thinking too much on the homing missile levels either, even on the boss, circling around to avoid the missiles will do enough splash damage to kill the boss if I can't get a good approach to kill them directly. Love thar rush of going for a boss but not being sure if they'll die before I get shot. What a great game 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 25 Share Posted July 25 Exactly, that's the way! Heck yeah, it's so fun! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chainsaw Posted July 26 Share Posted July 26 Mhhh tried two times this week to do some parachute hunting games, or also normal games. But today, I even was able to reach the final level of the game, seems I'm just very tired and unconcentraded. So no new highscore, but extreme impressing what other players did here. Or also the idea with parachute hunting was awesome. So I think, I will not try again here to beat some scores, but next month again with Berzerk 🙂 Congratulations to all players for their scores, also the lower ones are very good ones in my opinion. See you in August with Berzerk. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey50 Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 New hi 129700 came so close to clearing the mine storm screen 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playvectrex Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 Hey all! I have still not even reached 800k again, but decided to try to find and unlock that secret jet that keeps getting teased as "UNLEASH ME!" I found it, and more! Secrets/spoilers in the video description. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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