Re: Tempest Multigame (behaviour)

On Wed, 26 May 1999 12:45:22 -0700, you wrote:

>> It don't work that way, there's always a skill level that people top
>> out at.
>>
>> You can't "cheat" in Tempest by simply racking up credits.
>>
>Sure you can. If I start from the beginning of the game and play out
>the normal course of the game, let's say I make it to level 20 with
>140,000 points (I don't know if that makes "real" sense or not, it's
>just a sample number).
>
>Now then, if I just start the next game at the highest starting level
>possible (maybe 19? I don't know the "rules" on that in Tempest) as long
>as I complete the wave I get a starting bonus of, say, 180,000 points.
>So right off the bat I'm 40,000 points higher than I can normally play
>to.
>
>Now I'm farther than I can normall make it to, but I've got a few lives
>left. As long as I can make it past a rack or two I can start my next
>game a level or two higher-- maybe level 22 with a completion bonus of
>215,000 or something. As long as I can finish that one wave I get the
>bonus and a new high score-- fully 75,000 points above my "skill level",
>or almost better than half again what'd I'd get if I started at level 1
>(or 9).
>
>At some point I probably top out and can't get past a certain level
>because I lose all my lives before completing it, but I can still "run
>up" the points by essentially just playing for the starting bonus.
>
>It works-- I used to use it to knock my old roommate's scores off the
>list. ;-) (He was a much better player than I, but I could always shove
>him off the list by just playing for the bonus enough times.)

That's not cheating! That's standard Tempest game play! Tempest
players going for the high score, know that after you make it to your
highest level you throw in another quarter, play one more time to set
the high score. (In fact you keep doing this until you fall back a
level, then call it quits.)

It was a clever ploy, on Atari's behalf, to get "just one more
quarter" from the player, since it can take you a good twenty minutes
to get your self way the hell up in levels, you'd be stupid not put in
"just one more quarter" (before the timeout!) to set the kick ass high
score. In fact because of the timeout, in order to play at you top
level, you *have* to keep plopping in quarters, or spend another
twenty minutes driving the levels back up.

Yet an inifinite amount of credits you a 700,000 point score! You're
only as good as you are!

You do know that if you can't make it passed the starting wave you are
knock down 3 to 6 (or more) levels? Someone can hand you a game that
allows you to start in light green (the levels after invisible), but
unless you make it through first time you're going to get knock back
down through inviso, then back down through light blue, until you
reach a level you can make it through, only then do you get the bonus
points -- which coresponds to your skill level.

You can play all day with all the credits you want, but you still
can't get a score past your skill level. Unless of course you allow
editing of the EAROM.

-Zonn
Received on Wed May 26 15:19:33 1999