Vectrex Tournament: Vector War VI (29th Oct - 5th Nov 2016)

[hcmffm]

Final top 3 ranking is:
1. coleco1981 and wazzal
3. Chainsaw

So we have two winners in Vector War VI, this year! Congratulations to you, coleco1981, wazzal, and Chainsaw!

wazzal, you were the greatest surprise to me: After your first score submission I thought: Let's see whether he can qualify. And you did qualify and became even one of the winners. Well done!

coleco1981: VectorX called you robot which may reflect your endurance, but "robot" sounds a bit negative too me. Your endurance and skill to play all those varying Vectrex games is amazing! I'm nosey to hear some details/hints about Polar Rescue.

Chainsaw: I'm happy that we get around this rust-red T-Shirt. Again, you did very well!

@all players: I think all who joined did very well. Thank you all very much for participating the Vector War VI! I hope you had fun playing the Vectrex and fun competing with other players! The highscore list will be updated tomorrow (it's very late, already). The prize drawing will happen, soon, so stay tuned.

[VectorX]

Nov 5, 2016 18:46:16 GMT -5 hcmffm said:

coleco1981: VectorX called you robot which may reflect your endurance, but "robot" sounds a bit negative too me.

There was some joke about gamezone calling sj a bot a while back. I don't recall what started it, but like the above, it was just a joke and not negatively intended.

[Chainsaw]

Yeah it was funny again this year. On Saturday, I tried again to beat the Hyper Chase time, and again to increase my Polar Rescue score, but without success. Congratulations to Coleco1981 and wazzal and also to all other players. I also learned a lot about Polar Rescue. But I'm still not sure, what tactic is the best to get a lot of points, and how to survive in the battles. Coleco, how did you get over 160'000 points in Polar Rescue? I'm interested to learn more about this :-) Also big thank you to hcmffm for organizing and manage the score tables...

[coleco1981]

Now that I have a moment I thought I would share with you all some personal thoughts and “highlights” during my gameplay for this year’s vector wars!
Berzerk – I should have probably done some research on the bugs associated with this game before starting to play it. I have the original cartridge and thought something had gone wrong with it since after a certain score it would glitch out. I played the game on a vecflash – same result. Thanks very much for posting an update and pointing me at the ‘debugged’ version. As others have mentioned – at some point the robots blast you with no chance of avoiding death. I’m really interested in hearing from wazzal on the 11000+ score for this – were you lucky in the last 4-5 rooms to extend your score or do you employ a certain tactic that limits your exposure to angry robots?

Dark Tower – I would respectively disagree that this is a ‘grind’ game. I find that if your are methodically traveling through the game - you can save time, lives, and resources. I use graph paper and ‘sweep’ each forest marking items as I go along, so I don’t go over same areas. Keys can be found on the ground without needing to purchase them. The major items to purchase is a healer and a scout which is a requirement if you expect to survive the deadtree area and find the key there. Also I don’t believe it is necessary to open each chest you see. This is not a good game to play if you an impatient type player.

Hyperchase -I think someone may have said luck was needed here. I’m not sure if I agree with that. After going through MANY ‘perfect’ time attempts – it was clear to me that there appears to be known patterns, so much so I was able to write down approximate times and landmarks to remind myself where ‘safe’ places were for the car. For example, at about 51-55 secs is one of the most difficult areas not to crash due to the amount of cars clustered together. There is a VERY small gap between 2 cars that you must use to avoid crashing into incoming traffic.
There is small variants of that cluster but I was able to memorize them and act accordingly. Unfortunately, I was not able to get the ‘perfect’ score as my 101 sec score has 1 crash in it.

Polar Rescue – I never really had a desire to play this game prior to this tournament simply because I didn’t understand it and didn’t know how fun it could be. After getting to know this game now, I certainly think it is underrated game. On the other hand, I became so familiar with this game I feel as though I could ‘marathon’ it. My 160,000 score was nearing an hour of game play and I ended up trashing the last few subs. As you progressively do rescues from the remote station, the enemies subs get more aggressive and come at you with larger quantity, so much so the game forces you to be in ‘battle mode’ for most of the time. In battle mode I found that watching the radar is critical because you can identify what direction enemy subs are going and how close they are from you. At the right moment, you can see when a sub is pulling away from you rather then coming toward you. I found that ONLY turning at them when they are super close and moving away from you, provides the perfect conditions for an almost flawless shot. Any other positions aside from this – even sideviews (they turn quick) are deadly. Remember the subs can only fire at you if you are viewing it directly as it is coming toward you. If you ensure you take that opportunity away from them – you are essentially untouchable. I found that this tactic seemed to work almost every encounter I had with an enemy sub…so much so that I started to watch my radar exclusively rather then what was on screen. I can’t stress enough that ensuring each sub you turn at is close will make shooting them very easy with limited chance for a miss – even if it means taking minor damage from them being so close that your bumping into eachother. Just be sure they are facing away from you rather then at you -otherwise it is instant death! Previous to this tactic, turning at an enemy sub was unpredictable where I didn’t know if they were facing me about to kill me as I turn into them or moving away from me so I could kill them. Also if they are moving sideways, shooting them is more difficult at which point missing them will  means they will turn instantly you and kill you before you can move your line of sight away. The only time it can get interesting beyond this is when you have 3-4 subs clustered pointing in different directions. However – I found that often they are pointing in the same direction so I’m able to blast all of them without getting hit.

StarSling – I tried to figure out how Wazal got such a high score of starsling. I understand that scoring doubles as you progressively get through each level but this ramps up pretty quickly. Now that the contest is over – Im hoping Wazal can share his tatic on this one.

Vectrexagon – This game is GREAT! Kudos to the developer of this one. I bought this game specifically for using it this year in vector wars. It is very simple, but very addicting and very difficult. I’m wondering if the speed at 300+ seconds has plateaued or continues to increase? It would be awesome if you could share how that experience was like jbrodierk?

[jbrodack]

I didn't know that keys could be found on the ground in Dark Tower. I was never into mapping out games by hand though and can be impatient.

For Vectrexagon the only bad thing about it is that after the music loops you've seen everything in the game. It doesn't really get any harder after that. I'd like to see the author make a version that keeps getting more difficult. Still, it's a lot of fun and I really like getting in the zone with it. It's a great almost meditative feeling.

[wazzal]

I didn't get a chance to play on the final day of the tournament, but very good scores everyone!
Thank you hcmffm for holding this tournament again, it was fun

StarSling: I feel that yes, this game can be marathoned. I played it for about 40 minutes but could have kept going. The tactic that I had developed was to collide mismatch asteroids together to eventually accumulate large groups of the same types of asteroids for higher scores. Do this, while still making small pairs to keep your energy levels up. Also, I found that if there are asteroids headed towards your "Star Spider", you can capture them to a strategic place away from your ship thereby avoiding damage.

Berzerk: I had lots of luck on this one after many, many attempts. Just like the asteroid fields post completion of NELS, it seems to become essentially unplayable by pure skill.

NELS: A big part of the strategy here comes from the upgrades. I tend to focus on upgrading power and only a little bit on speed. I think by the end of the game I had 3-4 upgrades on speed to help on the asteroid sections, and the rest for power. It's also very important to avoid being hit as every time you have to replace your energy, you miss a power/speed upgrade, making the game much more difficult. I find that shooting at the ships as they are flying downwards and moving quickly out of the way helps to avoid getting hit.


Thanks for sharing your strategy on Polar Rescue, coleco1981!
Concerning Dark Tower, do the maps change each time you play? If possible, would you mind posing an image of your map for Dark Tower? I'd really like to beat this game, but I'm unsure of how to go about mapping it out.

[Chainsaw]

Wow, thanks for this big informations about the games. Dark Tower: Maybe I'm also sometimes too impatient. But I think (and I want) trying the game again to complete it.

Hyper Chase: I wrote, that it is also depending on luck. But in the meantime, I have the opinion: Only a little bit, and only sometimes. My Hyper Chase tactic (or more "playing style") is, pulling the joystick always forward (or "up") then it is much easier to do accurate left / right movements. It's much easier to control the car then. (Sorry my english is still not perfect, I hope you understand what I mean.) Yesterday evening, I also recognized, that there is a very hard place after 50 seconds, I was trying to avoid this situation sometimes by shifting down one gear. But then cars from behind will pass, or often crash, your car. So this tactic with shifting down is not working, or is very very dangerous (and it's wasting a little bit time).

I also recognized repeating patterns in the game with the other cars, but I had always the feeling, they are not every game the same? Also if you slow down one time a little bit, or if you crash one time, I think the patterns will change? I will also start now writing down the patterns. Maybe I can play the game with only 2 or 3 crashes in the meantime, by avoiding the dangerous places unconsciously... Normally I play "Game 2" with the other, longer race track. (Always start a 2 player game in game 2, because both players play alternating on the same track. (If player 1 lose his first life, second player will continue where player 1 died etc.) So you can race much longer and far.  I very like the race track of game 2, did you know, that there is a second tunnel later on this track?

Polar rescue: I also started to learn, that it is the best situation when enemies are faceing away from me, but I didn't invest too much time to learn so much abaout the game like Coleco1981. I was also again too impatient. Thanks for all the information, I will try it again. If you are a fan of the game in the meantime, also have a look at the prototype of Polar rescue. (Normally also on many multi carts.)  First I didn't know, that the prototype version s different of the "normal" version. Prototype version has a longer title music, easier battles (at the beginning of the game), instead "battle mode" it is "red alert" , at the end you get the 5000 points at once (not counting up during return to base), some graphic differences and more.

Vectrexagon: Still don't own it, will purchase it, this game is great!

Wazzal / N.E.L.S.  Yes, I always also made only power ups, or 3 or 4 times I had to restore the shields. In my opinion, N.E.L.S. is a little bit too easy. After buying it, I played through all 100 levels at the first time. OK, I played already a lot of horizontal and vertical space shooters in my life (started "some" years ago with Space Invaders) so maybe it's easy for me, but not for everybody... What I'm not sure: Is it a bug, that the asteroids are so fast after level 100 (because rest of the games starts again easy) or is it the purpose of the developer, to end the game this way? 

[hcmffm]

Highscore list has been updated - the scores and results are now final.

The prize drawing will happen tomorrow (Monday).

[hcmffm]

Thank you all for your useful tipps/tricks. That's unique that players even exchange their experiences and reveal their tricks. :-)

A user contacted me and asked about the cheat in N.E.L.S..
wazzal & Chainsaw: When speaking of powering up the shield in your above posts, do you mean the occassional powering-up in the special screen "engine/weapon/shield" or the other (more or less) hidden powering-up which can be used at any time to recharge the shield?

[Chainsaw]

I don't know how the cheat in N.E.L.S. works. I always spoke about the normal powering up function (that appears all 10 levels).

[wazzal]

I don't use cheats, I wasn't even aware that there were any in NELS. I was talking about the occasional powering-up screen that gives you the option of "engine/weapon/shield". The more you select "shield", the more "engine/weapon" power ups you miss out on making the game increasingly difficult (because enemy ships get faster and require more hits). So the difficultly of the game seems to depend on how well you can avoid taking damage.
I'm sorry if that wasn't clear, whoever was wondering!


Concerning NELS, I also wonder if those asteroid fields after completing the game are a bug or whether it was intentional. We'll have to ask Der Luchs about this!


HyperChase: I too found that leaving your joystick pushed up (or down for that matter) for the duration of gameplay helped with left and right controls. That game, in my opinion, is far too sensitive. When leaving my controllers joystick in its centered position I found that my l/r control was dampened (I had to push left a bit more to move left versus how much I pushed right to move right. Essentially, there was a bit of a blind spot on my left axis; a very small amount but it made a difference in this game and I couldn't get the hang of it). Although I wonder if this simply correlated with the wear on our joysticks from their age/decades of use, hmm.

[coleco1981]

Nov 6, 2016 17:27:17 GMT -5 wazzal said:

I don't use cheats, I wasn't even aware that there were any in NELS. I was talking about the occasional powering-up screen that gives you the option of "engine/weapon/shield". The more you select "shield", the more "engine/weapon" power ups you miss out on making the game increasingly difficult (because enemy ships get faster and require more hits). So the difficultly of the game seems to depend on how well you can avoid taking damage.
I'm sorry if that wasn't clear, whoever was wondering!


Concerning NELS, I also wonder if those asteroid fields after completing the game are a bug or whether it was intentional. We'll have to ask Der Luchs about this!


HyperChase: I too found that leaving your joystick pushed up (or down for that matter) for the duration of gameplay helped with left and right controls. That game, in my opinion, is far too sensitive. When leaving my controllers joystick in its centered position I found that my l/r control was dampened (I had to push left a bit more to move left versus how much I pushed right to move right. Essentially, there was a bit of a blind spot on my left axis; a very small amount but it made a difference in this game and I couldn't get the hang of it). Although I wonder if this simply correlated with the wear on our joysticks from their age/decades of use, hmm.





I didn't try to push the joystick up while playing so maybe I can try that - I agree that the sensitivity is crazy for this game, the first time playing this I kept smashing into the walls over and over. I eventually adjusted accordingly and got better. I didn't feel this way with pole position which we played last year.

[VectorX]

^Both games are nerve-wracking, but on different levels.

And on a side note, what happened to vectorgirl? Originally it was said she was going to compete with Vectrexagon being included in the contest, but sometimes things change.

[hcmffm]

wazzal , Chainsaw : Thank you both for your replies regarding N.E.L.S. which make it clear that you didn't use the cheat available in N.E.L.S..

@vectorx: You're right, both Vectronic and vectorgirl were missing in the contest.

The random prize was just drawn. Candidates for the random prize were all qualified players except winners #1 - #3:
jbrodack
VectorX
darrin9999
Lady Eklipse
50tbrd
Rapetou33



The Winner of the random prize is... ...see here yourself!

Please note that the random prize is one of the prizes A-D, which are:
Prize A: Vectrexagon First Edition donated by Andreas Gustafsson (SDW Developments)*
Prize B: Nox/Death Chase Boxed edition bundled with one Nox or Death Chase T-Shirt donated by Chris and Jim of Binary Star Software*
Prize C: Coupon for two games (max. $50) offered by Packrat Video Games*
Prize D: Coupon for one game (max. $25) offered by Packrat Video Games*
*Costs for International shipping are also covered.

Once the winners 1-3 of the Vector War have chosen their prizes, the remaining prize is the random prize.

[50tbrd]

I think its pretty cool that everyone who played qualified.