The games that we play.

[sydney]

I was going though the games that have been played in the High Score Challenge over it's seven years to help me choose some games to nominate for season 15. I began to wonder how many games we've played and which has been played most often so I made a list! 133 games in total!

I'm disappointed that I've not played so many of them so might go through the list and pick out the ones I've missed to give them a spin.

Does anyone have a favourite or one they think is paricularly well suited to competitive play? Any games that surprised you? My faves tend to be the ones I'm good at !

My 3 top games are:
Starship Command: a favourite from my electron when I was a kid.
Frenzy: another electron favourite which plays differently on the beeb.
Galactic Firebird: introduced to me by Gary Forrest at an ABug in Bolton.

Games that surprised me in a good way:
Duck!: I'm sure I said at the time I took one look at it and thought 'This is rubbish!'. I was wrong.
Whoopsy: a game about poo which turned out to be very playable.
Estra: a game that defies description!

Games that disappointed me:
Jetpac: the spectrum version just feels so much better.
Barbarian: I thought I loved it as a kid but it turns out I loved the C64 version!
Strykers Run: slow, boring and the graphics are not as good as they seemed when I was a kid.

Games I disliked:
Planetoid/Guardian: turns out I really don't like Defender!

I'm still yet to pick my games for season 15!

Here is the list:

Code: Select all

No	Game	Played
001	Galaforce	3
002	Starship Command	3
003	Planetoid	3
004	Arcadians	3
005	Frenzy	3
006	Pengo	2
007	Manic Miner	2
008	Hard Hat Harry	2
009	Astro Blaster	2
010	Centipede (Tricky)	2
011	Ransack!	2
012	Quak	2
013	Snapper	2
014	Thrust	2
015	Fortress 	2
016	Ghouls	2
017	Chuckie Egg   	2
018	Carnivale	2
019	Nevryon	2
020	Zenon	2
021	Skirmish	2
022	Felix meets the Evil Weevils	2
023	Guardian	2
024	Blast!	2
025	Tapper	2
026	Android Attack	2
027	Mr Ee!	2
028	Duck!	2
029	Psycastria	1
030	Arkanoid	1
031	Chip Buster	1
032	Breakthrough 	1
033	Trapper	1
034	Me Ee!	1
035	Felix in the Factory	1
036	Helter Skelter	1
037	Volcano	1
038	Yie Ar Kung Fu 2	1
039	Bubble Bobble	1
040	Scramble	1
041	Professor Mcbrolly	1
042	Blitzkrieg	1
043	Castle of Nightmares!	1
044	Battle Tank	1
045	Spy Hunter	1
046	Sorcery	1
047	YoYO	1
048	Wet Zone	1
049	2048	1
050	Impact	1
051	Road Runner	1
052	Savage Pond	1
053	Phoenix	1
054	Spooks and Sipders	1
055	Missile Base	1
056	Boffin	1
057	Donkey Kong Junior	1
058	Crazy Painter	1
059	Creepy Cave	1
060	Magic Mushrooms	1
061	Uridium	1
062	Chuckie Egg 2009	1
063	Vertigo	1
064	The Mine	1
065	Arc Pinball	1
066	Bounty Bob Strikes Back	1
067	Jetpac	1
068	Boxer	1
069	Kix	1
070	Corporate Climber	1
071	Beach Head	1
072	Perplexity	1
073	Gyroscope	1
074	Proteans	1
075	Way of the exploding fist	1
076	White Light	1
077	Bug Eyes	1
078	Pipemania	1
079	Bumble Bee 	1
080	Cosmic Camouflage	1
081	Caveman Capers	1
082	Fortress	1
083	Star Wars	1
084	A Maze in Space	1
085	Rocket Raid	1
086	Galaforce 2	1
087	Repton	1
088	Video’s Revenge	1
089	Vindaloo	1
090	Zalaga	1
091	Estra	1
092	Galactic Firebird	1
093	Hunchback	1
094	Bananaman	1
095	Nightmare Maze	1
096	Tetris	1
097	Frogger (Tricky)	1
098	Strykers Run	1
099	Mouse Trap	1
100	Cybertron Mission	1
101	Santas Delivery	1
102	Hopper	1
103	Castle of Gems	1
104	Barbarian	1
105	Lemming Syndrome	1
106	Killer Gorilla	1
107	lode runner	1
108	The Maze	1
109	Crazee Rider	1
110	Meteors	1
111	Cylon Attack	1
112	Monsters	1
113	Firetrack	1
114	License to Kill	1
115	Whoopsy	1
116	Birdstrike	1
117	Spectapede	1
118	Anarchy Zone	1
119	Space Hi-Way	1
120	Astro Plumber	1
121	Deathstar	1
122	Yie Ar Kung Fu  	1
123	Spaceman Sid	1
124	Arena 3000	1
125	Overdrive	1
126	Moonraider	1
127	Frogger (Superior?)	1
128	Swoop	1
129	Space Pilot	1
130	Airlift	1
131	Despatch Rider	1
132	Rubble Trouble	1
133	Bug Blaster	1

[Venger]

Being a relative newcomer to the high score competition (I joined in at the tail end of season 11 (Impact! was the game)), I haven't played a lot of the games on the list. Some of this is due to the fact that I had an Electron as a kid, so some of the games on the list weren't available to me (Bubble Bobble, Manic Miner, etc.), some of it's due to the fact that I didn't like the sound of some of the games on the list so didn't buy them back in the day (Breakthrough, Helter Skelter, etc.) and some of it's due to the fact that some of the games weren't written until after the Electron's commercial demise (Tricky's remastered games, etc.).

Of the games I've played during my time here though :

Top 3 games

Manic Miner : the quintessential daddy of the platforming genre
Bubble Bobble : the arcade conversion that went down a storm on most 8 bit computers
Ransack! : a very decent shoot-em-up with elements of strategy

Games that surprised me in a good way

Breakthrough : a game with a good mix of action and puzzles
2048 : a very cerebral game in the mould of classic 80's puzzlers
Volcano : a very difficult game which gives a stern but fair challenge - I love a game which separates the men from the boys
Tricky's remasters : all very polished versions of arcade classics

Games that disappointed me

Helter Skelter : way too awkward and with fiddly controls
Spy Hunter : extremely monotonous and a deep flaw in the game design
Battle Tank : Slow and tedious

Games I disliked

Battle Tank : see above
Chip Buster : Too boring and fiddly
Spy Hunter : Also see above

Personally, I think a game would be good for competitive play if it's relatively difficult (so as to not make games last too long) and challenging without being overly so. I think the controls have to be spot on (in a few of the games the controls have been slightly "off" such as in Breakthrough). I also think that the enemy AI has to be pitched at the right level (the enemy AI in games like Felix in the Factory, Psycastria, Trapper and even Pengo just feels a little on the unfair side). There are a lot of great games that we've played along the way that, in hindsight, haven't been great for the high score challenge for some of us (Chuckie Egg took me 4 hrs and 23 mins for one game along with Scramble's 2hrs and 7 mins and about an hour for Manic Miner until I voluntarily quit).

And finally...

Games I'd love to play that aren't suitable for the high score challenge

Citadel
Palace of Magic
Exile
Jet Set Willy

[MartinH]

I've had a number of cherished childhood gaming memories spoiled by attempting to re-play those games today. Stryker's Run is a good one - in my mind's eye it's a super-smooth scrolling action game. In reality it's a jerky and tedious affair with little fun to be had. Rocket Raid is another candidate. I remember it being as smooth and polished as Tricky's Scramble - but in reality, Tricky's Scramble is leagues ahead in terms of quality.

So I tend to prefer the games that have stood up to the test of time or games I haven't played before. Which is part of why I wanted to join the HSC - that, and also to have a reason to explore some new (to me) games. Since I've only competed in a couple of seasons, my choices below are limited - but here goes:

Top 3 Games
Hard Hat Harry - this game has its flaws, most notably the kong levels, but it really got under my skin.
Scramble (Tricky) - getting into the high-score duel with Venger was really painful (I had to put an ice pack on at one point!), but it was a lot of fun trading first place with him.
Manic Miner - I'm told it's not the best version, and that may be so. But I was so pleased to have completed at least one version of this classic that I was more than happy to quit when I reached my quitting point.

Games that surprised me in a good way
Professor McBrolly - Not that I liked this game, just that it gave me a greater appreciation of how good Boffin actually is!
Chip Buster - I liked the concept, and that strange meta thing that went on back then when the game was about the hardware you were playing on.
Mr. Ee! - A nice Mr. Do! clone. Could have used a bit more polish, but I enjoyed it. The late high score entry that blew us all out of the water was highly amusing!

Games that disappointed me
Bubble Bobble - I'm a big fan of Taito games and the beeb version almost nails it... except the jumping is all wrong! It was such a shame.
Arkanoid - Another almost great port, but it was way too fast. And I'm sure the bat and ball collision detection was a bit iffy at times.
Psycastria - This one just needed a bit of balance in the difficulty and some different colour choices, especially for enemy bullets.

Games I disliked
Volcano - I hated everything about this. The premise, the execution, the feeble pea-shooter "gun", the fact that if you fail to rescue the stupid idiots who decided to climb an active volcano they come back to get you from beyond the grave... had I got this back in the 80's the cassette would have promptly been returned as "not working".
Trapper - this one just didn't click at all. Played it for about 30 minutes and that was me done.

Well that's my 2 pennies worth