5200 Keystone Kapers. In my defence, I only just realised the character can duck. Seems fun.

Couldn't beat my Summer Games scores.

davyK wrote:

You get to a point with 2600 games when the difficulty plateaus and then it's a case of endurance.

back when i was a nipper and had an actual 2600, i was playing asteroids once and was utterly in the zone, went passed my normal scores and it must have got to that plateau, i was crushing my best score many times over (for some reason the figure 18million has always been in my head for my score, but just looked up high scores on the internet and it seems even 180000 would have been very unlikely)...anyway, whatever score i was up to was far better than anyone else had achieved, and i was even able to mention the incredible score to my dad as he came in the room...then he walked behind me and 'tripped' over the power lead for the console, knocking it out of the wall.  i was so upset i'm not sure i could bring myself to play asteroids again...to make it worse, there's always been a slight suggestion it was deliberate sabotage on account of the father, he was a very competitive man!

18M in 2600 Asteroids is quite possible. It clocks at 100K and doesn't really get much more difficult past maybe 70 or 80K as far as I can remember. As a kid I started playing variations that had 1UPs at 20K or no 1UPs at all which stacks the challenge up quite a bit and makes it hard to even hit 100K.

There was a variation called fast asteroids - in actual fact it changed the angles they could move at and it made the game far harder. Setting the difficulty switch to A enabled ufos which were the hardest part of the game.

I used to get into a real rhythm with some 2600 games and when that happened the game was effectively beaten as I could play until I got bored. Not all games were prone to that but most were once you learned a few tricks and got the timing right.

As I have aged those skills have left me, and I guess the fact that I am now burdened with life I can't exactly devote the time and dedication I had back then. Thing is it makes 2600 games more enjoyable for me now. One of gaming's greatest pleasures for me is kicking back with a game of Super Breakout and that great Atari paddle controller. Such a simple game that demands quite high attention and skill for a short burst of 5mins or so. Super Breakout also has some excellent variations such as progressive mode which has the wall advancing toward you as you play. It's as close to a definition of a hardcore game that I can come up with.

I'm a wee bit obsessed with the 2600. I don't play the games that often - but I will have a burst of activity on it from time to time and wouldn't be without one.

Not video game related - but my dad once started peeking at my colour sequence in Mastermind using the reflective properties of his shiny cigarette lighter.....he waited until I exploded before owning up...

Gotta love Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qAadfsJrmM

Just as I remembered it just without the 'bucks' (must have been a good conversion rate back then btw).
Sorry for derailing the thread there!

Wowzers, that must have been before my time, or at least before I had full coordindation over my hands!

9065 on Demon attack.  I was hoping to pip Davy to the post this evening, leaving no time for riposte, but I've had a frustrating time with it tonight.  Well played - I may have another go during the Firemen fortnight, but obviously victory is yours.

Edit: Forgot to mention that this is probably my favourite 2600 game now.  I didn't even have a chance to play Pitfall II this week - whenever I loaded the emulator I found myself drawn to Demon Attack.

What games did you 2 post scores for? Will play them this evening and post up some scores! Sorry for my lack of participation this week, been distracted by other things.

Cheers, will put in hour or so in this evening on a few of those. Is that Defender II?

Will update this to The Firemen when I get home. Looks good from the vids I've seen.

Will also play Pitfall II.

Demon Attack - 9730

What an absolute stunning game! I didn't think in 2014 that I would be making adjustments to my Top Atari 2600 games but this is easily up there. At first it seems like just another generic Atari clone shooter but once you get into it there's a real rhythm and feel to the madness. The 1-up aspect is implemented superbly and gives you that extra motivation to regain concentration for the next wave.

5/5

All scores attained via the Stella emulator using an N64 pad, take from that what you will - especially the Summer Games Scores.

@retroking81 - you must be getting slow Sir. I haven't had any issue with responding to stuff in Keystone Kapers - I always felt I jumped too early or late - always felt time I had to respond though...

Delighted to have introduced 2 more Demon Attack fans to the world of 2600.

There's a set period between the planes - you can count it out by the number of paces you take before the 2nd one (and 3rd one later on) appears. Once you get that timing right - you notice there's a bit of time after the last pace before it appears and can't resist trying to fine tune it - squeezing a wee bit more distance in before ducking. It's old school risk and reward as the planes are the only obstacle that take one of your lives. The others take a chunk off the timer so you can hit a couple of those before the timer runs out and takes a life off you.

dd anyone play this back in the day?

Before we fully move on from Atari I have a quick question for davy

davyK wrote:

yeah - Defender 2 (aka Stargate if you are using an emu and NTSC ROM).

I have cart for both Defender II and Stargate, never got the Stargate one to work. I take it its an NTSC cart then?