Bea, I know that you can make repeatable shots, but I can't even get Level 1 to be repeatable. What works one time doesn't seem to work again. Driving me crazy, and I'm more concerned about figuring this out than posting a score!
You have to time your shots because each dot in the power gauge can represent 8 different shot powers.
It increases a bit every tick, but your input doesn't have to be tick perfect. It being 3 to 4 ticks within the range of the shot you did will give you a repeatable shot.
Otherwise, you will end either a few pixels too far or too short from where your first shot ended and to repeat the next shot you will need to do very minor angle adjustments.
I only found that out last night while trying to record my run, but my 103F fever meant that my input timing wasn't as precise and I was having to do angle adjustments way too often.
So I did what any sane person burning with fever would. I reset and did a few hundred shots with the same power gauge level, mapping the results in a spreadsheet then studied it and reverse engineered what was going on with the shots.
Same advice goes to you as well mbd39.
I've been using the same power level each time, but I've noticed that I'm varying whatever the up/down control is. I can sometimes get a perfect on Stage 1, but even when I write down the angles, etc, I can't duplicate it after resetting. I just took 10 consecutive break shots using the same settings, resetting each time, and I can't get duplicate breaks. I see that the game can be cracked, but apparently not by me! Eventually, I may need to just post a score here.
Bea, I know that you can make repeatable shots, but I can't even get Level 1 to be repeatable. What works one time doesn't seem to work again. Driving me crazy, and I'm more concerned about figuring this out than posting a score!
You have to time your shots because each dot in the power gauge can represent 8 different shot powers.
It increases a bit every tick, but your input doesn't have to be tick perfect. It being 3 to 4 ticks within the range of the shot you did will give you a repeatable shot.
Otherwise, you will end either a few pixels too far or too short from where your first shot ended and to repeat the next shot you will need to do very minor angle adjustments.
I only found that out last night while trying to record my run, but my 103F fever meant that my input timing wasn't as precise and I was having to do angle adjustments way too often.
So I did what any sane person burning with fever would. I reset and did a few hundred shots with the same power gauge level, mapping the results in a spreadsheet then studied it and reverse engineered what was going on with the shots.
Same advice goes to you as well mbd39.
I've been using the same power level each time, but I've noticed that I'm varying whatever the up/down control is. I can sometimes get a perfect on Stage 1, but even when I write down the angles, etc, I can't duplicate it after resetting. I just took 10 consecutive break shots using the same settings, resetting each time, and I can't get duplicate breaks. I see that the game can be cracked, but apparently not by me! Eventually, I may need to just post a score here.
Try to replicate from a fresh hardware boot rather than a reset.
We have found distinct behavior after a reset during the week, as if the system was retaining the last rng seed rather than reseting it to the default value, but I am suspicious that it has more to do with the fact that each power level has 8 stages rather than the reset itself.
I will test that as soon as I am feeling well enough, but till then, try to make note of where the white ball has stopped from your shot and if needed adjust the angle for the next shot if it is too many pixels away from the original spot.
I made it to stage 16 or something like that. I think I'm done. The game gets tedious after awhile. I'll have 20 lives and wonder how fast I can burn through them so I can do something else. It would be a real chore playing through all 60 stages.
Maybe I should even request my score to be considered an honorary entry for this week, since it is so far off the curve, and he might even get a well deserved top billing for this week.
Maybe I should even request my score to be considered an honorary entry for this week, since it is so far off the curve, and he might even get a well deserved top billing for this week.
Maybe I should even request my score to be considered an honorary entry for this week, since it is so far off the curve, and he might even get a well deserved top billing for this week.
Nah. You put in a monster effort. You deserve it.
Doing high school math for fun barely counts as effort.
And the thing is, I don't care much about the competition. I am only doing this for fun.
And you guys put in the effort within the spirit of the competition for this game whereas I "cheated" with angle measuring tools, vector mathematics and reverse engineering of the game mechanics through more mathematics and booze. It was a bloody lot of fun, but it wasn't a display of video games skills.
So, going by the spirit of the competition, which is to display video games skill prowess, your score is more deserving of the first place for this week than mine.
And the thing is, I don't care much about the competition. I am only doing this for fun.
And you guys put in the effort within the spirit of the competition for this game whereas I "cheated" with angle measuring tools, vector mathematics and reverse engineering of the game mechanics through more mathematics and booze. It was a bloody lot of fun, but it wasn't a display of video games skills.
So, going by the spirit of the competition, which is to display video games skill prowess, your score is more deserving of the first place for this week than mine.
Bea,
At least for me - I always want to see how I measure up against the best each week. Wherever my score falls is where it's supposed to be.
When experts such as yourself, rdrummer, GameboyRicky, dra600n, Uncle Tusk, bearcat-doug, etc post scores I'm always excited.
That is what makes this game so unforgiving. Stage progress really means squat in terms of score. If you don't get consecutive shots and some perfect stages, you won't get a high score.
Out of respect to Guil and Bimmy I won't complain about any more games after this. But between this and Pro Sports Hockey I'm contemplating less painful hobbies. Playing in traffic being one.
And the thing is, I don't care much about the competition. I am only doing this for fun.
And you guys put in the effort within the spirit of the competition for this game whereas I "cheated" with angle measuring tools, vector mathematics and reverse engineering of the game mechanics through more mathematics and booze. It was a bloody lot of fun, but it wasn't a display of video games skills.
So, going by the spirit of the competition, which is to display video games skill prowess, your score is more deserving of the first place for this week than mine.
Bea,
At least for me - I always want to see how I measure up against the best each week. Wherever my score falls is where it's supposed to be.
When experts such as yourself, rdrummer, GameboyRicky, dra600n, Uncle Tusk, bearcat-doug, etc post scores I'm always excited.
Do not apologize for greatness.
In fact - never, ever apologize for greatness.
I'll have to agree with Santa on this one and not just because he callled me an expert. From my point of view based on past experience, preparation and practice are as much a part of putting up a great score as the actual gameplay. I know I used to put almost as much time into studying scoring systems, patterns, damage charts and practice runs as much I did playing the games, so it's all just part of the process to me. Given the extra time and effort involved, the great score that you get as a result is just a reward for your hard work.
It's somewhat random. The exact same series of shots that result in a perfect board on one run might not go as planned the next. The randomness is more of an issue on some boards than others, and it adds a great deal of frustration. I try to figure out strategies that have a high probability of working.
The randomness is still there even when I hard reset the emulator.
Out of respect to Guil and Bimmy I won't complain about any more games after this. But between this and Pro Sports Hockey I'm contemplating less painful hobbies. Playing in traffic being one.
This game SUCKS! *tosses controller in the air* (a la' bob barker in happy Gilmore)
I'm becoming obsessed with figuring out this game.
I am actually memory sniffing it to debug and figure out exactly what is going on.
I can repeat my shots from a fresh boot with proper input timing pretty much 100% of the time, but from a software reset after I do a shot there is distinct behavior shown.
I know for one now that memory address 03A0 stores the shot gauge power and it increases 3 points every tick, but that is not the only factor affecting the shots.
Luckily, the game stores all the useful info within a very short memory space, from 0000 to 07EF, so debugging the other variables will be easy.
I'm becoming obsessed with figuring out this game.
I am actually memory sniffing it to debug and figure out exactly what is going on.
I can repeat my shots from a fresh boot with proper input timing pretty much 100% of the time, but from a software reset after I do a shot there is distinct behavior shown.
I know for one now that memory address 03A0 stores the shot gauge power and it increases 3 points every tick, but that is not the only factor affecting the shots.
Luckily, the game stores all the useful info within a very short memory space, from 0000 to 07EF, so debugging the other variables will be easy.
Checking code now... I admire your dedication to figuring out this game!
I noticed that even when I set everything the same, I get different behaviors on the first break. Some of them seem similar, and in fact they may repeat. So I don't know what the other variables are, if they are random, or if there are a finite set of options.
So, I wanted to be like Bea and figure this thing out with vector math. I got caught up on the uncontrollable variables, so I never got there. However, after all of the practice I was able to have a decent run anyway.
I'm becoming obsessed with figuring out this game.
I am actually memory sniffing it to debug and figure out exactly what is going on.
I can repeat my shots from a fresh boot with proper input timing pretty much 100% of the time, but from a software reset after I do a shot there is distinct behavior shown.
I know for one now that memory address 03A0 stores the shot gauge power and it increases 3 points every tick, but that is not the only factor affecting the shots.
Luckily, the game stores all the useful info within a very short memory space, from 0000 to 07EF, so debugging the other variables will be easy.
Checking code now... I admire your dedication to figuring out this game!
I noticed that even when I set everything the same, I get different behaviors on the first break. Some of them seem similar, and in fact they may repeat. So I don't know what the other variables are, if they are random, or if there are a finite set of options.
From my findings from today, it is all coming to input timing.
I will reverse engineer the physics math the game uses tomorrow to determine that for sure.
There isn't an address of data that I found that has anything that looks like an rng seed that keeps changing between resets. Shooting at the same tick seemed to always incour in the same spread at the break no matter what I did.
i took this pic Friday before I left work, hoping to get a better score at home. Weekend was busy as heck, never got a chance to try for a better score.
Guys, I broke into rich's condo to check on him and I don't even know what's going on. First of all I got attacked by some guard dogs one of them was even a pit bull. I managed to lock them in his old game room which had a bed in it for some reason. All his stuff is packed up into his back room. Later some girls showed up and started watching wrestling. Rich is nowhere to be found..... I took some pictures I can upload later but this is very confusing
Comments
Bea, I know that you can make repeatable shots, but I can't even get Level 1 to be repeatable. What works one time doesn't seem to work again. Driving me crazy, and I'm more concerned about figuring this out than posting a score!
You have to time your shots because each dot in the power gauge can represent 8 different shot powers.
It increases a bit every tick, but your input doesn't have to be tick perfect. It being 3 to 4 ticks within the range of the shot you did will give you a repeatable shot.
Otherwise, you will end either a few pixels too far or too short from where your first shot ended and to repeat the next shot you will need to do very minor angle adjustments.
I only found that out last night while trying to record my run, but my 103F fever meant that my input timing wasn't as precise and I was having to do angle adjustments way too often.
So I did what any sane person burning with fever would. I reset and did a few hundred shots with the same power gauge level, mapping the results in a spreadsheet then studied it and reverse engineered what was going on with the shots.
Same advice goes to you as well mbd39.
I've been using the same power level each time, but I've noticed that I'm varying whatever the up/down control is. I can sometimes get a perfect on Stage 1, but even when I write down the angles, etc, I can't duplicate it after resetting. I just took 10 consecutive break shots using the same settings, resetting each time, and I can't get duplicate breaks. I see that the game can be cracked, but apparently not by me! Eventually, I may need to just post a score here.
Bea, I know that you can make repeatable shots, but I can't even get Level 1 to be repeatable. What works one time doesn't seem to work again. Driving me crazy, and I'm more concerned about figuring this out than posting a score!
You have to time your shots because each dot in the power gauge can represent 8 different shot powers.
It increases a bit every tick, but your input doesn't have to be tick perfect. It being 3 to 4 ticks within the range of the shot you did will give you a repeatable shot.
Otherwise, you will end either a few pixels too far or too short from where your first shot ended and to repeat the next shot you will need to do very minor angle adjustments.
I only found that out last night while trying to record my run, but my 103F fever meant that my input timing wasn't as precise and I was having to do angle adjustments way too often.
So I did what any sane person burning with fever would. I reset and did a few hundred shots with the same power gauge level, mapping the results in a spreadsheet then studied it and reverse engineered what was going on with the shots.
Same advice goes to you as well mbd39.
I've been using the same power level each time, but I've noticed that I'm varying whatever the up/down control is. I can sometimes get a perfect on Stage 1, but even when I write down the angles, etc, I can't duplicate it after resetting. I just took 10 consecutive break shots using the same settings, resetting each time, and I can't get duplicate breaks. I see that the game can be cracked, but apparently not by me! Eventually, I may need to just post a score here.
Try to replicate from a fresh hardware boot rather than a reset.
We have found distinct behavior after a reset during the week, as if the system was retaining the last rng seed rather than reseting it to the default value, but I am suspicious that it has more to do with the fact that each power level has 8 stages rather than the reset itself.
I will test that as soon as I am feeling well enough, but till then, try to make note of where the white ball has stopped from your shot and if needed adjust the angle for the next shot if it is too many pixels away from the original spot.
And yeah, it can get tedious after a while. Burning 99 lives can take a long while.
Go get 'em man!
Unfortunately, I am too drunk (and on vacation in Maine right now) to post a proper update tonight.
I'll try to post a reputable one from the beach tomorrow afternoon.
Tally-Ho!
Maybe I should even request my score to be considered an honorary entry for this week, since it is so far off the curve, and he might even get a well deserved top billing for this week.
Nah. You put in a monster effort. You deserve it.
Maybe I should even request my score to be considered an honorary entry for this week, since it is so far off the curve, and he might even get a well deserved top billing for this week.
Nah. You put in a monster effort. You deserve it.
Doing high school math for fun barely counts as effort.
And you guys put in the effort within the spirit of the competition for this game whereas I "cheated" with angle measuring tools, vector mathematics and reverse engineering of the game mechanics through more mathematics and booze. It was a bloody lot of fun, but it wasn't a display of video games skills.
So, going by the spirit of the competition, which is to display video games skill prowess, your score is more deserving of the first place for this week than mine.
And the thing is, I don't care much about the competition. I am only doing this for fun.
And you guys put in the effort within the spirit of the competition for this game whereas I "cheated" with angle measuring tools, vector mathematics and reverse engineering of the game mechanics through more mathematics and booze. It was a bloody lot of fun, but it wasn't a display of video games skills.
So, going by the spirit of the competition, which is to display video games skill prowess, your score is more deserving of the first place for this week than mine.
Bea,
At least for me - I always want to see how I measure up against the best each week. Wherever my score falls is where it's supposed to be.
When experts such as yourself, rdrummer, GameboyRicky, dra600n, Uncle Tusk, bearcat-doug, etc post scores I'm always excited.
Do not apologize for greatness.
In fact - never, ever apologize for greatness.
Wait, I got 9th in Rad Racer. And I'll probably get 9th in this. Its a sign.
Improvement! We're at each other's heels mbd.
9,330 (Stage 15)
I'm not very good at consecutive shots.
9,330 (Stage 15)
I'm not very good at consecutive shots.
That is what makes this game so unforgiving. Stage progress really means squat in terms of score. If you don't get consecutive shots and some perfect stages, you won't get a high score.
And the thing is, I don't care much about the competition. I am only doing this for fun.
And you guys put in the effort within the spirit of the competition for this game whereas I "cheated" with angle measuring tools, vector mathematics and reverse engineering of the game mechanics through more mathematics and booze. It was a bloody lot of fun, but it wasn't a display of video games skills.
So, going by the spirit of the competition, which is to display video games skill prowess, your score is more deserving of the first place for this week than mine.
Bea,
At least for me - I always want to see how I measure up against the best each week. Wherever my score falls is where it's supposed to be.
When experts such as yourself, rdrummer, GameboyRicky, dra600n, Uncle Tusk, bearcat-doug, etc post scores I'm always excited.
Do not apologize for greatness.
In fact - never, ever apologize for greatness.
I'll have to agree with Santa on this one and not just because he callled me an expert. From my point of view based on past experience, preparation and practice are as much a part of putting up a great score as the actual gameplay. I know I used to put almost as much time into studying scoring systems, patterns, damage charts and practice runs as much I did playing the games, so it's all just part of the process to me. Given the extra time and effort involved, the great score that you get as a result is just a reward for your hard work.
The randomness is still there even when I hard reset the emulator.
Out of respect to Guil and Bimmy I won't complain about any more games after this. But between this and Pro Sports Hockey I'm contemplating less painful hobbies. Playing in traffic being one.
This game SUCKS! *tosses controller in the air* (a la' bob barker in happy Gilmore)
I'm becoming obsessed with figuring out this game.
I am actually memory sniffing it to debug and figure out exactly what is going on.
I can repeat my shots from a fresh boot with proper input timing pretty much 100% of the time, but from a software reset after I do a shot there is distinct behavior shown.
I know for one now that memory address 03A0 stores the shot gauge power and it increases 3 points every tick, but that is not the only factor affecting the shots.
Luckily, the game stores all the useful info within a very short memory space, from 0000 to 07EF, so debugging the other variables will be easy.
I'm becoming obsessed with figuring out this game.
I am actually memory sniffing it to debug and figure out exactly what is going on.
I can repeat my shots from a fresh boot with proper input timing pretty much 100% of the time, but from a software reset after I do a shot there is distinct behavior shown.
I know for one now that memory address 03A0 stores the shot gauge power and it increases 3 points every tick, but that is not the only factor affecting the shots.
Luckily, the game stores all the useful info within a very short memory space, from 0000 to 07EF, so debugging the other variables will be easy.
Checking code now... I admire your dedication to figuring out this game!
I noticed that even when I set everything the same, I get different behaviors on the first break. Some of them seem similar, and in fact they may repeat. So I don't know what the other variables are, if they are random, or if there are a finite set of options.
So, I wanted to be like Bea and figure this thing out with vector math. I got caught up on the uncontrollable variables, so I never got there. However, after all of the practice I was able to have a decent run anyway.
I'm becoming obsessed with figuring out this game.
I am actually memory sniffing it to debug and figure out exactly what is going on.
I can repeat my shots from a fresh boot with proper input timing pretty much 100% of the time, but from a software reset after I do a shot there is distinct behavior shown.
I know for one now that memory address 03A0 stores the shot gauge power and it increases 3 points every tick, but that is not the only factor affecting the shots.
Luckily, the game stores all the useful info within a very short memory space, from 0000 to 07EF, so debugging the other variables will be easy.
Checking code now... I admire your dedication to figuring out this game!
I noticed that even when I set everything the same, I get different behaviors on the first break. Some of them seem similar, and in fact they may repeat. So I don't know what the other variables are, if they are random, or if there are a finite set of options.
From my findings from today, it is all coming to input timing.
I will reverse engineer the physics math the game uses tomorrow to determine that for sure.
There isn't an address of data that I found that has anything that looks like an rng seed that keeps changing between resets. Shooting at the same tick seemed to always incour in the same spread at the break no matter what I did.
Going for participation this time. I did enjoy checking this game out; definitely gonna play more of this in the future.
https://i.imgur.com/Ddbr6AZ.jpg
i took this pic Friday before I left work, hoping to get a better score at home. Weekend was busy as heck, never got a chance to try for a better score.
Nice job Bea at totally destroying this one!
This game hooked me. I grinded the heck out of it. I'd spend hours just figuring out how to clear a particular stage.
Sounds like a fate worse than death