zlk's 2025 bounties
Moderators: mahlemiut, seymour, QRS
Re: zlk's 2015 bounties
That is awesome Tar! I hope that you can score 100k! Please upload whatever score you have achieved by the end of the year. I would like to see the replay.
Re: zlk's 2015 bounties
The black widow bounty was changed slightly. Thanks to Jerky for his good suggestion.
Re: zlk's 2015 bounties
One of the old bounties that expired was achieved today. Antras75 maxed out double dragon. This was interesting to see how it was done.
I will think of some new bounties soon.
I will think of some new bounties soon.
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destructor
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- Location: Poland
Re: zlk's 2016 bounties
Congratulations. It's first stage bug.
Re: zlk's 2018 bounties
Extended the bounties to 2018. Will add some more soon.
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Verminator
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Re: zlk's 2018 bounties
Does this bounty extend to original arcade hardware if recorded and submitted to Twin Galaxies?
I am getting close to clearing the very difficult level 9 so I have gotten 33 of the 44.
I am getting close to clearing the very difficult level 9 so I have gotten 33 of the 44.
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Re: zlk's 2018 bounties
Verminator: sure it extends to the original hardware as long as TG approves it and I can watch the entire video.
Good luck!
Good luck!
Re: zlk's 2018 bounties
Updated for 2020
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francoisadt1
- Button Masher
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Re: zlk's 2020 bounties
Please explain what is the bounty for? which game? may one use MAME?
Re: zlk's 2020 bounties
You'll find the answer by looking at the very first post in this topic - zlk edits that first post each year to update the bounties, rules, etc.francoisadt1 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2020 2:59 am Please explain what is the bounty for? which game? may one use MAME?
Re: zlk's 2025 bounties
Extended the bounties through 2025.
Re: zlk's 2025 bounties
(posting on behalf of The Evener as he cannot gain access to the forum)
He managed to break the 43 year-old WR in Cosmic Avenger recently - on arcade hardware too!
Check it out
https://www.twingalaxies.com/records/vo ... nts-124540
He managed to break the 43 year-old WR in Cosmic Avenger recently - on arcade hardware too!
Check it out
https://www.twingalaxies.com/records/vo ... nts-124540
Andrew Barrow
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The Evener
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Re: zlk's 2025 bounties
Thanks Barra, and thanks George for approving my account! I've been a lurker for many years so I'm glad to finally make the jump by registering.
Barra mentioned zlk's long-standing bounty on Cosmic Avenger for getting over 100k, so I'm glad to share my recent success!
In addition to the link with a full video of my game that Barra shared above, I also wrote a wall post that provided some additional context. Since the wall post isn't visible unless you register at TG, I thought I'd post it here as well.
******************
On November 17, 1982 at the Lost Dutchman Arcade in Monrovia CA, Wes Hupp scored 117,290 points on Universal's Cosmic Avenger, a game made famous the same year as a very decent arcade port for the newly-released ColecoVision console. Wes reported his score to the upstart Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard in Ottumwa IA and his score remained the world record ever since.
As the glow of the Golden Age of Arcades receded, some games became part of the lore of “impossible” scores. Some were proven to be outright impossible by gamer confession when arcades were still going strong, others like Pac-Man were later revealed to be impossible as awareness about the game's max score became more widespread. Others still developed a feeling of being impossible, which only grew over time the longer the record stood. And while Cosmic Avenger was never an iconic title like Defender or Galaga that garnered wide-ranging competition, Wes' game was often mentioned in the vein of a potentially “impossible” score.
That's not to say this suspicion was entirely misplaced – see above for scores proved to be impossible. For example, the early Twin Galaxies had a notorious time verifying the actual game settings used at distant arcades across North America. “Factory default” was the norm for tracking, but how many operators could even say what the “factory default” difficulty might be for a game outside of starting lives? Maybe the arcade operator of the Last Dutchman selected an easier setting for his cabinet in order to get gamers more interested in playing the game, but this change simply got lost in the shuffle of tracking dozens of games phoned in and mailed to 226 East Main Street?
While we'll never know the actual settings that Wes played on to achieve his score that TG verified according to the method of the time, I'm glad to confirm that we can remove the “impossible score” label from his achievement.
Back in 2010 when I started chasing arcade games, Cosmic Avenger was the second game I added to my modest collection. As someone raised on the ColecoVision, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to buy it. But time to play it? Well, that was a juggling act with the usual demands that we face in our day-to-day routines, and while I played it here and there, I never made it very far and I simply didn't have the time to plug in and play for hours and hours to figure out what was truly possible.
Fast forward 15 years – with the kids older, I didn't have to juggle as many balls at the same time, which opened the door to putting in a serious investment starting this September.
I wish I had tracked more accurately the time I put into the game, I would say dozens of hours would be an understatement. Definitely put in too many late nights/early mornings, starting and erasing countless recordings, not enough sleep along the way, groggy mornings, caffeine wasn't any help. But there wasn't any other way to do this, I feared that infrequent play would simply stall my progress, or worst, allow rust to set in. Despite the frustration of falling short over and over, I could see that I was slowly getting a toehold, inching my way up the mountain, establishing a new “base camp” score. Then there was a long plateau, no matter how much time I put in, it felt like I was stalled, the little fear that maybe I had reached my max popped up now and then.
But then it happened! Nearly 43 years to the day that Wes got his record, I came downstairs, fired up Cosmic Avenger and played – and it was THE game! I got the break I needed, surviving with all of my ships just shy of where the game loops. Weirdly, when you loop the game, it feels like everything is being played in molasses, I'll have to edit the footage so I can see the beginning wave, and when it repeats – there's definitely a lot more UFOs on screen and ways to die, but yeah, everything feels just a bit slo-mo, which you might think would be a good thing but it's very off-putting when you get used to a faster pace – it feels like you're fighting to move, and more vulnerable to being picked off. I'll need more exposure to the looped part to get more comfortable with it.
Final score: 124,540 points.
Barra mentioned zlk's long-standing bounty on Cosmic Avenger for getting over 100k, so I'm glad to share my recent success!
In addition to the link with a full video of my game that Barra shared above, I also wrote a wall post that provided some additional context. Since the wall post isn't visible unless you register at TG, I thought I'd post it here as well.
******************
On November 17, 1982 at the Lost Dutchman Arcade in Monrovia CA, Wes Hupp scored 117,290 points on Universal's Cosmic Avenger, a game made famous the same year as a very decent arcade port for the newly-released ColecoVision console. Wes reported his score to the upstart Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard in Ottumwa IA and his score remained the world record ever since.
As the glow of the Golden Age of Arcades receded, some games became part of the lore of “impossible” scores. Some were proven to be outright impossible by gamer confession when arcades were still going strong, others like Pac-Man were later revealed to be impossible as awareness about the game's max score became more widespread. Others still developed a feeling of being impossible, which only grew over time the longer the record stood. And while Cosmic Avenger was never an iconic title like Defender or Galaga that garnered wide-ranging competition, Wes' game was often mentioned in the vein of a potentially “impossible” score.
That's not to say this suspicion was entirely misplaced – see above for scores proved to be impossible. For example, the early Twin Galaxies had a notorious time verifying the actual game settings used at distant arcades across North America. “Factory default” was the norm for tracking, but how many operators could even say what the “factory default” difficulty might be for a game outside of starting lives? Maybe the arcade operator of the Last Dutchman selected an easier setting for his cabinet in order to get gamers more interested in playing the game, but this change simply got lost in the shuffle of tracking dozens of games phoned in and mailed to 226 East Main Street?
While we'll never know the actual settings that Wes played on to achieve his score that TG verified according to the method of the time, I'm glad to confirm that we can remove the “impossible score” label from his achievement.
Back in 2010 when I started chasing arcade games, Cosmic Avenger was the second game I added to my modest collection. As someone raised on the ColecoVision, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to buy it. But time to play it? Well, that was a juggling act with the usual demands that we face in our day-to-day routines, and while I played it here and there, I never made it very far and I simply didn't have the time to plug in and play for hours and hours to figure out what was truly possible.
Fast forward 15 years – with the kids older, I didn't have to juggle as many balls at the same time, which opened the door to putting in a serious investment starting this September.
I wish I had tracked more accurately the time I put into the game, I would say dozens of hours would be an understatement. Definitely put in too many late nights/early mornings, starting and erasing countless recordings, not enough sleep along the way, groggy mornings, caffeine wasn't any help. But there wasn't any other way to do this, I feared that infrequent play would simply stall my progress, or worst, allow rust to set in. Despite the frustration of falling short over and over, I could see that I was slowly getting a toehold, inching my way up the mountain, establishing a new “base camp” score. Then there was a long plateau, no matter how much time I put in, it felt like I was stalled, the little fear that maybe I had reached my max popped up now and then.
But then it happened! Nearly 43 years to the day that Wes got his record, I came downstairs, fired up Cosmic Avenger and played – and it was THE game! I got the break I needed, surviving with all of my ships just shy of where the game loops. Weirdly, when you loop the game, it feels like everything is being played in molasses, I'll have to edit the footage so I can see the beginning wave, and when it repeats – there's definitely a lot more UFOs on screen and ways to die, but yeah, everything feels just a bit slo-mo, which you might think would be a good thing but it's very off-putting when you get used to a faster pace – it feels like you're fighting to move, and more vulnerable to being picked off. I'll need more exposure to the looped part to get more comfortable with it.
Final score: 124,540 points.