SOTM November: Galaga '88

c0nn0r

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oliverclaude - 194,740 - PS1

Trial score, no auto-fire used. Played on a japanese Playstation via Namco Museum Vol.1. Don't remember the stage, next time I'll be more meticulous about it.

Nice!

Finally seeing some other folks challenge with the arcade version. I was actually quite surprised how many folks are playing on TG-16/PCE. Makes sense though, that version is excellent!
 

ssjlance

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Nice!

Finally seeing some other folks challenge with the arcade version. I was actually quite surprised how many folks are playing on TG-16/PCE. Makes sense though, that version is excellent!

I'm planning on doing a MAME entry before the month's up. I just happen to actually own the TG16 version since it's quite possibly my favorite game on the console, and it makes sense to get my practice in on the easier version. :lolz:

I think the difficulty in the home version is set to the lowest arcade difficulty. You can hold up and hit start at the title screen to play in "hard mode." It seems to introduce a higher difficulty, but also gives some special power-ups I've never seen in the normal game, such as a red capsule that automatically gives you the triple ships and a light blue capsule that increases your rate of fire.
 

oliverclaude

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oliverclaude - 233,770 - Stage 28 - PS1

No autofire used.

Galaga-Oli-002.jpg

Galaga-Oli-003.jpg

Galaga-Oli-004.jpg

Slowly warming up! Till now I played with a standard PS1 pad, just to see if I could get away with it ;). Next scores will be made with the Namco stick.
 

egg_sanwich

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I'm planning on doing a MAME entry before the month's up. I just happen to actually own the TG16 version since it's quite possibly my favorite game on the console, and it makes sense to get my practice in on the easier version. :lolz:

I think the difficulty in the home version is set to the lowest arcade difficulty. You can hold up and hit start at the title screen to play in "hard mode." It seems to introduce a higher difficulty, but also gives some special power-ups I've never seen in the normal game, such as a red capsule that automatically gives you the triple ships and a light blue capsule that increases your rate of fire.

I've gotten the red capsule once in the standard difficulty. It's referenced in the manual as well:

http://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/...mated/Galaga_-90_-_1989_-_NEC_Corporation.pdf

Haven't seen the light blue one though.
 

oliverclaude

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Nice!

Finally seeing some other folks challenge with the arcade version. I was actually quite surprised how many folks are playing on TG-16/PCE. Makes sense though, that version is excellent!

Thank you for your kind words! I was actually planning to go with the flow, too, and do the autofire/PCE routine, but then I realized, I'd make it too easy for myself. Now I'm curious where it'll take me. These are still very tame results, though, so I'm waiting for a breakthrough.
 

opt2not

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Nice. First week of the month and there's some good action here. Glad I decided to participate this time around.
 

ssjlance

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I've gotten the red capsule once in the standard difficulty. It's referenced in the manual as well:

http://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media/...mated/Galaga_-90_-_1989_-_NEC_Corporation.pdf

Haven't seen the light blue one though.

I'd seen it mentioned in the manual but never encountered it in normal gameplay before. However, I found it today. It was in the final enemy on level 4-25. I had a single ship at that point in the game, with one extra life. Don't know if there are any factors besides final enemy in stage X-25, but that's where I found it for anyone who wants to see if they can get it.

There seem to be a few weird powerups in the TG16's hard mode. I've also gotten a grey one, but couldn't figure out what it did. The light blue one makes your ship shoot bullets incredibly fast, with or without turbo switches on. There may be others. I haven't messed with the hard mode too much; honestly, I mostly just play it when I'm frustrated with the main game.

You can start with one ship and the final enemy in either 1-1 or 1-2 (can't remember for certain) will always give a red capsule, giving you a triple ship with two extra lives before you even get to a bonus round. The only exception seems to be if you haven't gotten a blue capsule on 1-1/1-2 and the final enemy is one of the giant bugs. If you haven't gotten a blue capsule and you kill the giant fused bug as your last enemy, it just drops the blue capsule for dimension warping instead of the red one for the triple ships.
 

ssjlance

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TG16 - 4-29 (1cc) - 1,310,130
galaga90.jpg
Could be improved, but I'm lazy. Somebody beat my score and motivate me into trying some more. :lolz:

Strategy for most possible points would be single ship, ideally, as there's a bonus after the final boss for each extra life you have (I think 10,000 points per ship). Realistically, double/triple ships are better for the bonus stages, unless you're good enough with a single ship to get a perfect 40/40 on most or all of the bonus stages.

Dimension warp to the final dimension ASAP, and make sure to let about 8 to 12 of the enemies that split into fours survive until the end of each stage, then kill off each set of four after they split for the bonus points, ranging between 1,200 and 4,000 points per group depending on dimension/enemy type. This adds up fast. I did this on and off, mostly in early levels where I wasn't as worried about dying,

I also favored the triple ships up until about level 4-20 or so, but I think I only lost a ship or two up through that point. You can get free triple ships (as in, no extra lives consumed) for the final scrolling section by getting the red capsule, which is found inside the last enemy on stage 25 of all dimensions. So, if you're near the end and lose a ship, it may be best to tough it out instead of getting a ship captured so you can have some extra lives in stock.

So yeah, in short, there's definitely room for improvement if anybody cares to take on the challenge.
 

oliverclaude

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A small comeback with a decent score for a change:

oliverclaude - 508,240 - Stage 50 - PS1

Again: no autofire used.

Galaga-Oli-005.jpg

Galaga-Oli-006.jpg

Galaga-Oli-007.jpg

Edit:

Important note... I played Galaga the whole time, the sequel to Galaxian, prequel to Gaplus. Then comes '88, which isn't featured on any of the PS1 Namco Museums. So, my scores are not valid within this competition and can be ignored. '88 arcade version is featured on the Namco Museum games from PS2 onwards.

My mistake and I'm sorry, like Atari, who's the cousin to Coleco ;).
 
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c0nn0r

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A small comeback with a decent score for a change:

oliverclaude - 508,240 - Stage 50 - PS1

Again: no autofire used.



Nice score. Stage 50 though? The game maxes out at 29! Typo?
 

opt2not

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Lol I was going to say, that score screen looks like Galaga, not ‘88. :D

It’s funny no one caught that earlier!!
 
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ssjlance

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Lol I was going to say, that score screen looks like Galaga, not ‘88. :D

It’s funny no one caught that earlier!!

I was so close. I saw his first screenshot and thought to myself, "Gee, the game looks a little different on the PS1 version of Namco Museum. I didn't even know it was on there. Maybe it's a Japan-only release." :lolz:
 

Beelzebub

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Agreed, nice score man! I'm going to have to give this some more playtime this week. I was getting fairly close to the 1CC last time
 

ssjlance

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Thanks for the congrats. I've actually decided to keep practicing a bit, because I was surprisingly close to the world record score. Actually, according to Twin Galaxies, I beat the record they have listed by a good 200,000 points, although I don't believe they allow turbo to be used; normally I think of turbo as cheating, except on TG16/PCE, because the freaking stock controllers have turbo switches. I mean, nobody's at a disadvantage if literally everyone's controller has the turbo switches, :lolz:

But, yeah, there's some video of a guy playing on Wii Virtual Console and getting 1,384,450 points which claims to be the world record, and I know if I actually apply myself, I can get well past that score. I mean, we're only talking a difference of ~75,000 points - very, very doable.

EDIT: Watching this video and paying a bit more attention, he's playing on the "difficult" mode, so maybe that means my score's already valid in some sense. Either way, I know it's easy enough to beat this score in standard gameplay based on my own performance, so I'm still going for that.

Pretty sure I could do it without turbo as well, but I'll need to try sometime (and look further into whether or not it's allowed by Twin Galaxies; I know it generally isn't allowed, but TG16 seems like it could be the system where they make an exception). I refused to use turbo on any controllers for pretty much my entire life because it seemed cheap, and only in the past year or so have I begun really letting myself use it in TG16 games based on the logic that if they made a game for the system, they knew people would use turbo switches because every controller has them.
 
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Neodogg

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I suck hard...

3SSnj1h.jpg


PCE:
Neodogg 97,760 2-9


Watching that guy on the Wii, seems like the triple ship takes all the fun out of it.
 
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c0nn0r

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Some incredible scores in this month's SOTM! Looks like we might even have a World Record on our hands, and we're only half-way through the month!

Kudos!
 

ssjlance

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Some incredible scores in this month's SOTM! Looks like we might even have a World Record on our hands, and we're only half-way through the month!

Kudos!

Now, if somebody can clear the arcade world record of a little over 1,500,000.... :lolz:
 

c0nn0r

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Thought I'd check out Galaga '91 on SEGA Game Gear. Probably the only good reason I'll have to play it. Might as well put up a score!

The game plays quite well for being on the lowly GG. Control is tight, and most of what we love about the original game is intact here.

The initials on the leaderboard are incorrect as the character input is pooched. Supposed to be CON like my other scores.

Screenshot (133).png
 

egg_sanwich

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Thought I'd check out Galaga '91 on SEGA Game Gear. Probably the only good reason I'll have to play it. Might as well put up a score!

The game plays quite well for being on the lowly GG. Control is tight, and most of what we love about the original game is intact here.

The initials on the leaderboard are incorrect as the character input is pooched. Supposed to be CON like my other scores.

View attachment 47377

Are you playing emulated? I'd imagine the GG screen would be pretty tough to play on with all that ghosting/frontlight glare.
 

oliverclaude

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oliverclaude - 1.430,930 - Stage 4/29 - 1cc

A one credit clear with auto-fire on and occassional breaks where I had to be sure not to shoot too much, too soon. At the end,
it got tight and I finished on my last life.

Galaga-Oli-011.jpg

Galaga-Oli-009.jpg

Galaga-Oli-010.jpg

Took me a while to get there, the scoring system with its endless and dangerous waiting for the real points to blossom is perverted.
Fortunately my training hours on Galaga weren't wasted, they helped me a lot to get to the point(s) here ;).

P.S. My initials on the lower scores are so silly, because I forgot to turn that bloody auto fire off.

...and finally:

Galaga-Oli-008.jpg


Edit: IIRC, I missed two of the later special stage bonuses, so there's still room for improvement.
 
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c0nn0r

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Are you playing emulated? I'd imagine the GG screen would be pretty tough to play on with all that ghosting/frontlight glare.

Yup, emulated on Kega. My next attempt will be to emulate Galaga '88 on Sharp X68000, but from what I understand the conversion (by Dempa) strays quite a bit from the source material. I'm pretty eager to hear the music though as X68k usually sounds pretty great.
 
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