Golden Era Game of the Week 9/30/06: Tutankham

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:27 pm

Golden Era Game of the Week

See introduction here

The Game: Tutankham

romname: tutankhm

Screenshot:

(click to see current MARP scores)

Reward: $50 (usd)

Deadline for submission to MARP: October 6, 2006 2359 hours GMT

Further Bounty: $250 (usd) for exceeding 622,040 points by December 31, 2006.

Time for a real classic again. And one that I couldn't play to save my life.

The further bounty is for besting the arcade machine record held by Rob Barrett. Settings to be used this week and for the further bounty are: Lives =3, Bonus life= 30,000, Flash Bombs=1 per life, Difficulty ="Hardest".

I'm told marathon settings differ in that you can accumulate Flash bombs, carrying unused ones over to the next life. I can't see how to set that in MAME, but don't do it anyway.

A page on the game here:

http://tips.retrogames.com/gamepage/tutankham.html

Some posts regarding strategy on the TG forum:

http://www.twingalaxies.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=947
http://www.twingalaxies.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=593

And Robert Mruzcek's big write-up when Rob Barrett broke the arcade machine record:

http://www.twingalaxies.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1357

Rob has scores at MARP under the name "smile4rob".

Random prize: One player submitting in excess of the 35,840 default high score on the machine, selected randomly from those who do, will receive a "Twin Galaxies Staff" dog t-shirt:

(Click for details)

Use WolfMAME .106

On Deck game: Splat!

The_Pro · Post by **The_Pro** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 12:53 am

I think this is going to skew the monthly sales figures a bit.

-Sir, we just had our best month ever for dog shirts!
-Really, how many did we sell?
-One!

(first version accidently wrote "dog shits", might have been funnier)

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 1:06 am

The_Pro wrote:(first version accidently wrote "dog shits", might have been funnier)

Wait a second...did I accidentally write "shirt" in the original post?

The_Pro wrote:I think this is going to skew the monthly sales figures a bit.

-Sir, we just had our best month ever for dog shirts!
-Really, how many did we sell?
-One!

Well, if I'm not the only one who has purchased a Todd Rogers wall clock, I'm misjudging the market severely.

dbh · Post by **dbh** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 1:26 am

I'm told marathon settings differ in that you can accumulate Flash bombs, carrying unused ones over to the next life. I can't see how to set that in MAME, but don't do it anyway.

I wondered about this for a long time too. The manual doesn't make it clear, but as Art Z. mentioned on the classicarcadegaming.com forums if you set the dip switch for flashes to "1 per game", this is actually the marathon mode. The genie lamp that is displayed just below the player one score indicates that you have the flash available. With the dip switch set to "1 per game", the number of lamps accumulates with one more being added every 20K. I don't know if there is a maximum you can accumulate.

Settings to be used this week and for the further bounty are: Lives =3, Bonus life= 30,000, Flash Bombs=1 per life, Difficulty ="Hardest".

Yippee!!

The_Pro · Post by **The_Pro** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 1:36 am

Weehawk wrote: Well, if I'm not the only one who has purchased a Todd Rogers wall clock, I'm misjudging the market severely.

You dare mock my favorite clock?

Ahem, yeah that's also probably a unique item. Could fetch big money on Ebay one day, "Only one ever made, videogame/pizza god clock".

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 1:43 am

dbh wrote:With the dip switch set to "1 per game", the number of lamps accumulates with one more being added every 20K. I don't know if there is a maximum you can accumulate.

I had thought of that and tried it, but it didn't work before.

I see it works now.

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 1:49 am

The_Pro wrote: Ahem, yeah that's also probably a unique item. Could fetch big money on Ebay one day, "Only one ever made, videogame/pizza god clock".

If that Philistine, CapaJC, hadn't destroyed it.

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 10:23 am

Can't believe I forgot to put this in the original post:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Eva3IhNjvw

"He gave his life for tourism..."

The TJT · Post by **The TJT** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 10:52 pm

Time for a real classic again

Real...again...
Never heard of this title before 2002. Not a classic, imo.
Phoenix? Nah.

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 7:52 pm

A question for the players of this game with regard to nomenclature.

I remember many a good debate back in the day over what to call various items in games which did not have official designations given by the games themselves. The prize items in Pac-Man for example. I guess in retrospect the fruit on the 3rd and 4th board is supposed to be a peach (with the little leaf on the stem), but the people I knew all called them oranges. People that did not recognize the Galaxian ship had all sorts of weird ideas what that thing was supposed to be.

Which brings me to wondering what the players of Tutankham call the various enemies.

Looks like a bird to me. Gamefaqs calls them "pelicans" but that doesn't seem to fit for me.

Obviously a snake. Cobra? Asp?

Gotta be a dragon.

Yeah, I'm stumped here. What the heck is that supposed to be? Gamefaqs say "gorgon".

Looks like a butterfly to me. Presumably some sort of deadly, carnivorous butterfly.

A pinwheel maybe? Gamefaqs says "twirl".

Anybody out there call them anything particularly interesting?

I note that "Smile4rob" has registered on the forum.

Post by **mahlemiut** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 7:58 pm

Weehawk wrote:
Yeah, I'm stumped here. What the heck is that supposed to be? Gamefaqs say "gorgon".

I'd say it looks like a griffin.

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 8:09 pm

mahlemiut wrote:
Weehawk wrote:
Yeah, I'm stumped here. What the heck is that supposed to be? Gamefaqs say "gorgon".
I'd say it looks like a griffin.

I thought of that, but hadn't associated griffins with Egypt. I see now they did incorporate them in to their art:

And that's probably the best answer.

Chad · Post by **Chad** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 8:46 pm

Weehawk wrote:
Looks like a bird to me. Gamefaqs calls them "pelicans" but that doesn't seem to fit for me.

Always thought magpie... after heckle and jeckle. The pinwheel seems appropriate, not sure if there were those back then though.

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:47 pm

Sunday's bonus points to Don Hayes.

Interesting to watch someone who knows what they're doing play this.

I can see, for one thing, it's a game for people with patience, not me.

Helpful onloooker: "No, you have to wait until..."
Me: "I didn't pay my quarter to wait. I can wait for free. I paid to kill stuff."

...often went the conversation in the arcades.

The_Pro · Post by **The_Pro** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:56 pm

Keeping with the egyptian theme, the butterfly creature might be a scarab. A bit of a stretch visually though.