High Score Challenge - S20 - R02 - JCB Digger

[KarateEd]

Stardot high score challenge
Season Twenty: Round 02
JCB Digger chosen by Sa_Scott

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RULES
Round Two starts at 9pm on Monday the 20th of March and ends at 9pm on Monday the 3rd of April
The aim is to score as many points as possible
Post scores and screenshots/photographs in this thread
The rules are here
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DISK IMAGE
http://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=63
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INSTRUCTIONS

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SCORING
Points will be awarded using the following formula.
points = (YS / BS * 50) + ((NOP - YP + 1) * (50 / NOP))
YS = Your Score
BS = Best Score
NOP = Number of Players
YP = Your Position
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HIGH SCORE TABLE

table.png (10.95 KiB) Viewed 2182 times

Link to Overall High Score Table...http://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=26514

Thanks to Galax for the Mode 7 fonts.

Can you dig it?......Ed ...........
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[FourthStone]

Hmm... After a few plays i'm not sure there is any real gameplay for this 'game' other than driving around and getting frustrated, and the jerky tractor motion when scrolling is vomit inducing. I don't rank this one at all unless I'm missing some gameplay charm?

Score: 1660

[Venger]

Hmm... After a few plays i'm not sure there is any real gameplay for this 'game' other than driving around and getting frustrated, and the jerky tractor motion when scrolling is vomit inducing. I don't rank this one at all unless I'm missing some gameplay charm?

Score: 1660
JCB_Diggers_2023.PNG

I haven't played it yet but I get what you're saying about the scrolling as I watched a video on YouTube. Just doing that made me queasy. It's going to be a difficult one for me to play as I get motion sickness from playing FPS games like Doom and Half-Life. I think I'll put off playing this for a while.

[MatthewThompson]

I only managed 230 points, seems really hard to get the meanies in a hole, seems easier to shove them into the water.

The game looks quite good in still screen shots - as it would have done in Acorn User etc but when you play it - it looks totally different.

It was re-named unofficially as JCB Judder !

[KarateEd]

Yeh, I'm sorry folks but I picked it fair and square. The good thing is we will get rid of likely the 2 worst games right away so we can enjoy the rest of the run.

I remember this stupid game from Iceland and I wasn't impressed with it then.

[MatthewThompson]

Managed to get into the high score table. - but that jerky juddering about is awful - I am really surprised this was passed as release quality by Acornsoft, their games were so well polished and of high quality. They can't of play tested it as the main problem is so obvious.

[KarateEd]

Managed to get into the high score table. - but that jerky juddering about is awful - I am really surprised this was passed as release quality by Acornsoft, their games were so well polished and of high quality. They can't of play tested it as the main problem is so obvious.

I think they did it more as advertising for JCB......something I read a while ago that the game was somehow affiliated with those folks bitd. Someone can elaborate on that if they can.

[FourthStone]

It was re-named unofficially as JCB Judder !

[MatthewThompson]

It was re-named unofficially as JCB Judder !

The game is featured in the Acorn World in Pixels book- and it is mentioned that it uses 2 scrolling mechanisms and because of this it created the juddery scrolling , and was therefore nicknamed JCB Judder !!

[maniacminer]

I drove a 3cx 4WD that someone put the wrong hydraulic fluid in and I said "it must have been serviced by Acornsoft" - a reference so obscure, no-one got it and it was impossible to demonstrate (back then) in the middle of field, backhoe'ing some pipework into the ground

[chrisn]

Here's my starter score ... 6010. My strategy so far is to drive around while clearing the ground until you come across a meanie, and then push them into the sea.

[Cybershark]

Hmm... After a few plays i'm not sure there is any real gameplay for this 'game' other than driving around and getting frustrated, and the jerky tractor motion when scrolling is vomit inducing.

Yeah, it seems to be lacking a certain something and feels like a game aimed at younger kids.
Finding the meanies has you wandering aimlessly half of the time and there's just no sense of urgency to the proceedings. I see that the meanies home in better on round 2 but it feels like a slog to even get there.

Here's a first stab from me: 3750

[maniacminer]

Everything is pink I've been playing this for an hour or so. My first go was to reawaken the brain cells sat dormant for what feels like four decades... The game is quite easy, a kid's game really. The simplest way to beat the game is to dig a few holes in a diagonal line, then drive around an area until you come across an alien, then drive back to the holes, fill, rinse and repeat. Then clear an area of scrub, fill the holes, rinse and repeat. After killing a certain number of aliens, an alarm sounds and you're put to a random part of the map and the aliens are now more capable than before, a colour change denotes this. I'm far too tired to play this really. Bedtime!

[Rod C]

Yeah, it seems to be lacking a certain something and feels like a game aimed at younger kids.

Poor kids!

[MatthewThompson]

Managed a better score got to the second level - meanies turn red .

[KarateEd]

Yeah, it seems to be lacking a certain something and feels like a game aimed at younger kids.

Poor kids!

Those 'poor kids' were you guys at the time folks, good to remember that.

[MatthewThompson]

A bit better score.

[chrisn]

Getting better ... 11310

[maniacminer]

As adults, we understand the true meaning of "putting something to sleep", of course, as kids, we're just helping out "Meanies" by keeping them calm by suffocating and crushing them in filled holes, or drowning them in the sea

It's jerky as hell, but after a while I stopped noticing, the main side effect of playing this game was the pink tinge everything had afterwards, just as well the only thing I was going to watch after that was eyelids

It's also really mind numbingly boring and frustrating, especially when a small piece of land hasn't been cleared and I spend several minutes aimlessly driving around to find it. Sleeping the Meanies just gets you more vicious Meanies and a thankless teleport right in the middle of some clearance, leaving holes for Meanies to get stuck in somewhere on the map. Grrrrr!

I'm hoping these (Space Adventure, JCB Digger) are worst of what's to come

[KarateEd]

I'm hoping these (Space Adventure, JCB Digger) are worst of what's to come

I'm hoping so too MM......I don't recommend them, I just pick them blindly out of a bowl. I have to assume that the giver of the game has somewhat tested it as I'm not going to sit here and test up to 30 games, I leave that to the general populous.

If people once in a while read what I put in the post for choosing games then some of these might not make it in.

I would rather have 2 good games from someone than 3 and one that sucks.....just how I'm thinking.

Anyway, I was hoping this one wouldn't get picked. I'd never seen the first game before and well, you know how I feel about it.

We must push forward anyway and hopefully the worse of these is done.

[Venger]

I'm hoping these (Space Adventure, JCB Digger) are worst of what's to come

I'm hoping so too MM......I don't recommend them, I just pick them blindly out of a bowl. I have to assume that the giver of the game has somewhat tested it as I'm not going to sit here and test up to 30 games, I leave that to the general populous.

If people once in a while read what I put in the post for choosing games then some of these might not make it in.

I would rather have 2 good games from someone than 3 and one that sucks.....just how I'm thinking.

Anyway, I was hoping this one wouldn't get picked. I'd never seen the first game before and well, you know how I feel about it.

We must push forward anyway and hopefully the worse of these is done.

I usually pick games that I know are good, from previous experience. I have, on occasion, picked some games that I'm not totally familiar with but I always have a few goes first, if I'm not sure of the quality. I think I've gained enough experience over the years to know a good game from a dud. I trust most of the regular gang to do the same. The thing that irks me a little on this one is that the picker of the game hasn't popped up to play it yet, and didn't play in the last round either. I mean, come on, if you're going to pick games for the competition, at least play in the competition.

[maniacminer]

I did select "Space Adventure" - I played it through to make sure it had a score and didn't crash. I like the challenge mainly because I get to play games I wouldn't otherwise bother with and then get to chat with others and see how they feel and how they did. Some games are stinkers, but I'll play anything that comes, no matter how shitty, provided they are playable, have a score and don't crash

[Venger]

I've had a few goes now and the scrolling, thankfully, doesn't make me spewy. It's a very unforgiving game; a few times I haven't quite lined up my digger exactly with the hole and I ended up getting caught by the nasty, even though it was in the hole, seemingly at my mercy.

I don't find it as bad as Space Adventure but this game can really drag. I was playing for what seemed like hours. God help what ManiacMiner felt like getting his high score.

[MatthewThompson]

Much better score.

[maniacminer]

God help what ManiacMiner felt like getting his high score.

You'll know it when everything around you has a pink tint, from staring at a bright green screen for hours

I think I could just go for hours and hours, it's too easy, once you've got a strategy, the program doesn't learn to overcome it, rather, uses the "Blackadder Goes Forth" mechanism of doing the same thing again because that's what you wouldn't expect

[Rod C]

Hmm... I stopped digging holes and my score improved!

[Rod C]

Back on the holes but with a better strategy.

[Cybershark]

I did select "Space Adventure" - I played it through to make sure it had a score and didn't crash. I like the challenge mainly because I get to play games I wouldn't otherwise bother with and then get to chat with others and see how they feel and how they did. Some games are stinkers, but I'll play anything that comes, no matter how shitty, provided they are playable, have a score and don't crash

Seems quite reasonable, and Space Adventure was a fair game at the end of the day. Everyone pushed ahead with it, and a few were able to complete it.

Not saying that non-regulars shouldn't be allowed to make game selections, but the nominator has been notable by his absence here (or, indeed, in any other recent round). Was this the equivalent of him leaving a flaming bag of dog poop on our doorstep and then running off?

Anyways, here's another attempt from me - score: 5690

[KarateEd]

Hmm... I stopped digging holes and my score improved!

I stopped playing and my score didn't get any worse..... oh wait, I don't have a score!!!!

[klintworth]

First time playing JCB Judder - ouch!