Vectrex Tournament: Vector War XIV (26th Oct -2nd Nov 2024)

[VectorX]

Nov 2, 2024 18:44:38 GMT -5 fruktodlaren said:

As I am currently on sick leave from work after my cancer surgery (that was successfull by the way), I had a lot more time to play this year than I have had in the past. I know... The good with the bad, right?

Gosh. Sorry to hear about the first part but glad about the second one (the surgery going well).

Nov 2, 2024 18:44:38 GMT -5 fruktodlaren said:

I can't be alone to just start Thrust to just listen to the incredible music sometimes. Thanks to @vectorx for showing the secret stuff in Thrust that I hadn't seen before.

You're welcome And even though I couldn't compete again this year, this actually helped me in a few ways, as I had to search for my flash cart. In a corner of my room is a pile of Vectrex stuff which I not only noticed is pretty dusty, but behind my bed is a beam that is soooo dusty it's not considered "dust" any more, it's in the category of dirt (note I'm not doing sarcastic quotes there ). Whoo, need to run the vacuum back there, maybe tonight when I do that for the bedbugs as it is.

Also, I then remembered not only where my flashcart was, but I had forgotten I had a second one, which I just checked out today. Marine Fox is on there! Great, I'm going to play some games of that probably tomorrow. Too bad I didn't think of that yesterday or else I could've played that for IPYVD too. Oh well, nice to have a memory jog there, I hadn't played much Vectrex in the last year, sadly. Something to remedy there!

[kiwasabi]

Great Vector War tournament everyone. Clearly mozie has the most Vectrex endurance. I was never really able to get back on my game after playing A Crush Of Lucifer for 2 days straight practically.

Good job Vorkosigan in your last minute come from behind second place victory. You clearly are the best Pole Position player around. I played it for many hours the past couple days and could never match my score of 77,600. Have you figured out what effect the oil slicks have on the score? It seems to me that each oil slick ends up costing about 50 or 100 points each.

@peer good job in the tournament and it has been a pleasure discussing A Crush Of Lucifer's history and code with you. Hopefully we will unravel this mystery. I emailed Spencer Smith, Jay Smith's son, although I haven't heard back yet. I'm not sure if anyone had asked him yet if knew anything about ACOL.

hcmffm Thanks for running the Vector War and for all the encouragement. It was a lot of fun and I plan on playing again next year. And I'll make sure to get my input in for what games are chosen. I definitely like you using the newest homebrew games because it encourages people to support the developer and also rewards the players for doing so too.

Chainsaw good job in the tournament. You put up many good scores and you were strong competition to face off against.

@malban nice job in Release and Unicorn Galaxy. Clearly we have very similar taste in video games. You are a very skilled player and you definitely could have won it all had you had more time. I also think you're one of the very best homebrewers around. And I love the cheeky hidden scoring mechanic of destroying the items in Release. Honestly I think the game is more enjoyable this way so you can just focus on destroying everything rather than risking your life for a random item. I find the shield item to be less useful than the other two.

Sketcz It has been a pleasure playing with you and discussing various strategies. I appreciate all you do for the gaming community with all your articles and books that you've written. I feel what you should've done was another Kickstarter for the 2nd and 3rd volumes of Untold Stories of Japanese Game Developers. From reading the third volume when you called them "accursed books" I felt your pain. I own all three volumes and have read them cover to cover, so that means I've read about 1500 pages of your writing.

[nexus6]

Many thanks to Helmut and everyone involved for the exciting Vector War. There were some impressive scores again, even if there were too many games for me personally to master. At least I was able to improve in Vectrexagon. A small correction for my last post: Release does not use a hexagon, but a heptagon - also nice

[fruktodlaren]

Nov 3, 2024 5:14:06 GMT -5 nexus6 said:

A small correction for my last post: Release does not use a hexagon, but a heptagon - also nice

Getting the geometrical bodies right is important.

[hcmffm]

Thank you all for the positive feedback for the Vector War and the accolade for my organizing it. Your fair playing and sharing info and hints for the games was great and is extraordinary. Thank you all for particpating Vector War XIV - would be cool to see you again next year again!

What next:
- Very soon, I'll contact the winners for selecting prizes and addresses.
- Prize lottery will happen in the next 1-2 weeks.

@ Tony (fruktodlaren): Thank you for checking the Lindberg scores and sorry for my mistakes. I've corrected Len's and Man's scores and updated the highscore list. From what I can see both ranking and points haven't changed in any way.

[fruktodlaren]

As I said earlier, Vector War have become the gaming highlight of the year for me.
I am surprised that my kids have chosen to participate again and again out of their own accord. It was way more fun to also compete amongst ourselves as we kept on beating each others scores as the competition was ongoing. So I highly recommend luring in a family member or friend to participate alongside you on your Vectrex next time.

Both Prizes that I made and donated are ready to be shipped as soon as I get an address to send to.

[darrin9999]

Thanks for another Vector war! I did not have much time to play, I recorded all my scores in about an hour and turned them in last minute. It was still fun! till next year...

[VectorX]

^Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised when you showed up at the last minute! Too bad you couldn't do more but oh well, these things happen.

As usual, make sure to "tip the bartender" by giving hcmffm a "Give" under his Vec rep for the busy job he does every year. But ALSO, fruktodlaren and Sketcz donated prizes; were there any more? I never thought until this year they should have their reps upped so make sure you do that for them as well (shame on me; things are STILL evolving here with the Wars!). Just have patience and make sure you get everybody because you can only do Gives every 10 minutes (down from 30; I thought it was 15 but it was twice that much so I changed it last night. I could be wrong but I think its been ages since this was abused, so I've shortened it down a bit).

[Sketcz]

I can't believe it's over. Lots of fun. I enjoyed it even more than last year! Great selection of games, and it gave me a reason to fully understand those I hadn't played much before. I've always liked Marine Fox, Release, and Vectrexagon, ever since my VectMulti arrived, but I'd play for a little bit, not get very far, and then move on. Always thinking: someday I gotta sit down properly.

Well, Vec War was the impetus needed to sit down finally and really get to grips with them. It also helped me to discover a love for Bedlam, and an appreciation for Rip Off. (Star Castle though is not for me.)

The heated contest for who could be the top scorer on Marine Fox, given its random nature, was especially exciting. I haven't enjoyed score attack like this since the 8-bit and 16-bit days.

Picking Crush of Lucifer as a game was also a good reason for me to pick it up finally.

See you all again at the next one.

Nov 2, 2024 22:57:46 GMT -5 kiwasabi said:

Sketcz It has been a pleasure playing with you and discussing various strategies. I appreciate all you do for the gaming community with all your articles and books that you've written. I feel what you should've done was another Kickstarter for the 2nd and 3rd volumes of Untold Stories of Japanese Game Developers. From reading the third volume when you called them "accursed books" I felt your pain. I own all three volumes and have read them cover to cover, so that means I've read about 1500 pages of your writing.

Wow! All three cover to cover? Thank you! I had thought about another KS, but I didn't want to take money in advance and then fail to deliver. V3 took so long to come out because I felt kinda burned out. I preferred to create a book, and then let people decide once it was out there. Backing a KS brings with it expectations, and some people felt disappointed. I managed to create one more volume after those three, though it's mainly reprints from online at this point.

Nov 3, 2024 7:47:15 GMT -5 hcmffm said:

What next:
- Very soon, I'll contact the winners for selecting prizes and addresses.

Just ping me a message with the winner's email and I'll use WeTransfer to send them the ZIP file. It's over 100mb.

I'd also like to thank you hcmffm for organising Vector War. It's an incredible amount of work and organisation. I enjoy Vector War so much because makes owning a Vectrex feel worthwhile. Not just a rare collectible, but something to be used and enjoyed. So much so, I was thinking I'd like to organise something similar for Virtual Boy on a VB forum I visit, to get everyone participating. 

And then I thought about it...

And then it dawned on me just how much work you put into this, and I realised I probably couldn't manage it.

In addition to whoever picks the books, I'd like to send them to you as well, as a means of saying thanks for organising Vector War. Just PM your email.

Honestly, all three of the top winners are welcome to the digital download. It's not physical media, and I was seriously impressed with the skill on display. So if more than one of the top three players wants the Untold History, I'm happy to share it. (Kiwasabi clearly likes them, so that's one positive reference )

I might be slow checking my PMs, but I'll def get them all sent before the end of November.

[VectorX]

One thing that can be cool is going back to the games when you have a breather, as I've been getting back to Hard+ on Thrust.

I got reminded of a few other bad things on that setting:

1. The collision detection is a little different with the buttons that open doors. Not sure if you have to hit them square on the nose to get them to work but I remember shooting one a few times this morning and going "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?!". I'd forgotten about that.
2. On level 7, there's doors that are THE thickest you've ever seen, they're like 2-3 times thicker than the ones on the regular game.
3. The first one you come to you shoot to open, drop down...then you realize it's *two* sets of doors triggered by one button. One door below you closes that you don't know about because you're waiting for the one right below you to close; juuust as I was dropping down the second door started closing. I hit the brakes, so to speak, by thrusting back up. That's a pretty nasty trick

I barely got into level 7 before losing my last ship; I'm not going to try to beat it on Hard+ again but I just wanted to get reacquainted with the new levels.

Also...I spotted something reaaaaally interesting. Possibly a new thing. I need to get some sleep first but I'll post on it if something comes up. Stay tuned.

[hcmffm]

Another "Thank you!" for the most recent positive feedback and kind words for the Vector War above. Very good to read that people enjoyed playing the Vector War and its games. I think it was a very good mixture of players, thank you all for participating. All in all this was a very encouraging and motivating Vector War for me.

kiwasabi: You were a new kid on the top 5 block this year. I must say that at first I was a bit afraid to have a new, very keen player aboard. But I'm very positively surprised by both your excellent playing and being a fair contestant. Thank you for that!

John (Sketcz): Thank you very much for your appreciation for the Vector War. Your offer for more digital copies of your trilogy is much appreciated. I'll send you my email, soon, and will give winners a hint that they also can get a copy if they want.

@ Darryl (VectorX): It was really a pity that you didn't participate. You're a very good player and Thrust Master. Let's try to make this possible next year - perhaps I'll send you a Vector War XV multicartridge.

[scotthuggins]

I cannot believe it's already over. I may not have finished at the top of the score list, but I finished at the top of the "having fun" list. This is the best time I have with any video game "thing" ever.

Helmet- thank you! You are prompt and very organized. I cannot imagine the organization and accuracy required to do what you do. VectorX- thank you as well!! And Tony, I hope your recovery goes well. I didn't know about your sickness until now.

All- see you next year! Looking forward to it.

[VectorX]

^You're welcome! Glad you had fun

Nov 3, 2024 16:52:40 GMT -5 hcmffm said:

@ Darryl (VectorX ): It was really a pity that you didn't participate. You're a very good player and Thrust Master.

Eh, I'd be a "master" if I had some tips for surviving reverse gravity. Several planets I just blow up rather than trying to make it out with the pod. Not sure if I'll ever do a video walkthrough for that but I'd have to get a camera and tripod first, of course Seems like you'd have to know pretty much everything about a game to do a proper "how to win at it" review.

Nov 3, 2024 16:52:40 GMT -5 hcmffm said:

Let's try to make this possible next year - perhaps I'll send you a Vector War XV multicartridge.

With the smiley you were probably sarcastic since it might not make it over the pond here in time!

Ok, something is DEFINITELY up with those Hard+ Thrust levels.

I made it to level 8 but the game ended when I ran out of fuel, which is crap (especially since I had FOUR ships left! But oh well). I had to look up where that secret fuel dump was because I forgot. Never mind my memory, how the hell did I figure that one out in the FIRST place?! Well, programmer Ville gave us a clue though, guess that was it that did it.

Ok. What the deal is there is a certain spot in one of the levels where, if you continue to the next screen, you'll see a "flash" to the left. Go back and get your ship in the right position and you'll see a vertical corridor and there's a block that extends to the right at the top of that corridor, suggesting that the corridor continues to the right.

I checked it out on the normal setting and that corridor in that level is definitely NOT there.

I checked it out again, flying around the planet, shooting walls multiple times, engaging my shield in case that lit it up, ran into a wall with the shield on in case that caused a hidden wall to break, nothing. I contacted programmer Ville on it (I think, the screen turned into a total blank after I sent the e-mail) to see if he's still there. Not going to waste much time on it in case it was something he *started* to put in, ran out of memory and then decided against it. Here it's the 20 year anniversary that Thrust was released so that'd be pretty cool if something new was found on it though

[jbrodack]

Thanks to everyone involved, especially Helmut, for another Vector War.

I'm a bit disappointed at my ranking mainly cause of mistakes with the timing of the codes and not realizing when the tournament ended. I usually play late at night. One night I thought the code would be valid the next day so waited until then to post my scores and then I saw there was a new code. Then there were nights I fell asleep and didn't get a chance to post.

This is how the tournament has been so I know it's my fault. Though I do think a reminder of when the tournament ends on the last day would be helpful. Maybe put it with the current code. Later on I found the info on the ending time but it was kinda buried in there.

Sorry to be negative for a bit just wanted to say what happened. It was still fun and gave me a good excuse to play a lot of games on my Vectrex.

Let my go over a few games like I usually do.

Vectrexagon: though I flubbed a lot of the tournament I'm glad I still did well here. Always a joy to play with the music and swirling visuals. RIP Andreas Gustafsson thank you for an amazing game.

Pole Position: it's a great vectrex port with the only annoyance besides crashing when you thought you had a bit of room is that score chasing is tough. At the top level most of the scores are very close and you need to be absolutely perfect to get the best score.

Bedlam: starts off a lot of fun but gets so crazy once the level starts spinning. Then you're also dealing with those x guys that spin around you when they get close.

Marine Fox: I developed a new appreciation for this game since I never played it that much before. You really have to pay close attention to when the sharks exit the screen to make sure they won't just pop out where you are. Fun game and I think I could keep getting better at this.

Release: can be tough to keep track of everything going on and even though your shot is pretty powerful you can only take one hit. Hitting all the ? icons is a good scoring trick even though that means you won't get power ups.

Polar Rescue: my first attempt at learning to play the game as the binaries I've had would always have the sub immediately crash. I had a good patched rom from an earlier Vector War I think. It didn't seem too hard and was feeling like an underrated game. Until I started bouncing off seemingly invisible walls and would have trouble locating enemy subs when stuck in battle mode. Maybe a little too ambitious for the Vectrex.

Clean Sweep: ugh. Couldn't they just have made the enemies more difficult as you go on instead of making you have to deposit more and more often? It's so annoying and tedious.

Every Day Is Halloween: I've asked for it to included several times and I'm alway glad to see it in the tournament. I didn't get to play as much as I wanted but with it's scoring system and Vector War's proximity to halloween I think it always makes a great choice.

A Crush on of Lucifer: this one stands out as one I messed up by not submitting my scores in time. I had a good time with this even though it can be frustrating. I saw a lot of complaints about frame rate. It's not too bad in the early parts of the stage and weirdly feels better if you speed up. But once you get to the indestructible rectangles it can really tank. And these areas are super tough starting with the 3rd level.
Sometimes I'd have real trouble with the portal parts and would get frustrated with that. Still, I'm glad the game was rescued and finished with a light up cart as a bonus.


Take care everyone. I'll be more prepared for next year.

[Vorkosigan]

fruktodlaren All the best wishes from me and my family for your recovering. You've already done an amazing contribution to keeping the Vectrex well played and cared for by providing a great and compassionate community with awesome beautiful products. As a gamer we need you endless next Vector Wars around. I remember well, how you beat me in my second Vector War for the third place with - among other things- your expertise in VeCaves and Spike gets squished. 😅