Golden Era Game of the Week 4/10/04: Star Castle

[Weehawk]

Golden Era Game of the Week

See introduction here

The Game: Star Castle

romname: starcas

Reward: $50 (usd)

Deadline for submission to MARP: April 16, 2004 2359 hours GMT

Further Bounty: $100 (usd) for exceeding 30,000 points by July 15, 2004

Comments: I wanted to pick a game for this week with Asteroids-type controls. I always liked these games, but was never great at any of them, just pretty good. I was especially fond of "Rip Off", but I already hold the MARP high score, and Robert Mruczek already has put a bounty on it. Also, "Rip Off" lacks the aspect of momentum that most of these games force a player to control, that is when you let off the thrust button on "Rip Off", the "ship" stops immediately (it is actually a tank), making it easier to control. In most of these games your momentum carries you in whatever direction you are traveling until you counter it with thrust in the opposite direction. Gravitar is awfully hard to get seriously involved in for such a short period of time. I thought seriously about "Solar Quest", but I sort of played it as much as I cared to last year. I have always liked "Asteroids Deluxe" myself, (much better than the original), and will probably use that sometime in the future, but not this time. Star Castle was well known to be marathonable in its first version, but was made too difficult for the same technique to work in later versions. I assume that all the multimillion point scores recorded by Twin Galaxies are from the earlier incarnations. Mark Longridge, TG's MAME referee is unsure, but indicates that these scores are probably unverifed holdovers from the early 1980's. I see at the MARP scoreboard that the topscores for the parent ROMset are all tightly grouped and under 24k. I believe this to be because it represents a later version of the game where the speed of the defensive mines is ramped up to impossible levels fairly early. I personally feel it would be better if these levels of difficulty were reached more gradually, but let's give it a try and see what we can do. I offer the further bounty for breaking 30k mainly because I doubt anyone can do it.

For the purpose of this challenge, any method of scoring points is acceptable. If you can figure a way to leech it - I want to see it. It may wind up getting disqualified from MARP, but the reward will be paid just the same.

Use WolfMAME .81 (despite the fact that I am playing the week prior in .80)

Information on this game can be found at:

http://www.geocities.com/arcadeclassics ... ASTLE.html

http://www.netaxs.com/~vsp/cinema/starcast.txt

http://faqs.ign.com/articles/431/431245p1.html

[Weehawk]

NotMan,

Good work on the clones, but you do realize that the first member to submit over 30k for the parent ROM is in line for $100 regardless of the outcome at the end of the week, right?

Or is the parent ROM more difficult to the point that this method doesn't work well enough to get to 30k?

[NotMan]

Well! 25k is possible, but the game get harder after 20k and there is no way to get 30k unless if you want to leech the early stage by shooting lame ass stars for 30 points.

Still stuck around 21k. I had one inp where I made to 21k and lost 9 straight lives, due that dumb ass stars saucer killing which I can't even avoid that stupid f*()*ker.

Hopefully, somebody else could do better than me.

Later,

NotMan

[Weehawk]

For tar:

Use WolfMAME .81 (despite the fact that I am playing the week prior in .80)

[Weehawk]

Results:
1st: Don Hayes
2nd: NotMan
3rd: SiKrAiKeN

Congratulations again, Don.

I wonder if Cloud 9 is marathonable?

[Chad]

i know this link doesn't reflect the current upto date competition of the weekly games but it sure would be usefull to have to see where things stand, each time you post.

http://marp.retrogames.com/index.cgi?mo ... lines=9999

[dbh]

Congratulations again, Don.

And thanks again

I wonder if Cloud 9 is marathonable?

I played three or four games earlier today just to try it out. Not sure if we'll find out if it's marathonable in one week's time.