Atari 2600 High Score Challenge Nov 2011: Pac Man

[Collector_Gaming]

Alright heres a idea I am stealing from RF Generation forums that I found and noticed we didn't have one. Could spice this place up a bit and add some fun for us.

We love our games. Some of us try to be the best at those games. We say we are the best at this or this game and no one can touch us at em.

Well time to put your money where your mouth is.

What the idea of this is you play the chosen game (try to make it something your average collector would probably have instead of just making it a game that you and maybe 2 or 3 other people will have). Post your highest score on that game.
Person with the highest score wins the challenge and will start another thread for the following month with another game in this case Atari 2600 category (i'll start one of these for NES, SNES, Genesis and if you feel other consoles should be in the mix throw in your own thread in the spirit of it).

This months game is

http://www.retrogame-shop.com/shop/images/pacmanatari2600.jpg
Expert "A" Game 6 setting

THE RULES
Must post your score with a photo of you achieveing this score. Not a screen shot. A actual photo to try and help us cut down on the simple photoshop shenanigans.
The winner of the competition will get to post next months challenge pertaining to selected console. So if you win a Atari 2600 challenge you select the next atari 2600 challenge
The scores will be on the opening post and be updated when ever a new score is submitted.
Winner will be chosen at the end of the month

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Twin Galaxies World Record Score For This Setting
101,051

1. SunnyVale420 - 6758
2.Collector_Gaming - 1275

[Collector_Gaming]

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd158/car_show_fan/carshows2/PacManExpertHighScore.jpg
heres mine... its sucks but hey I did it as a example to show you guys what is to be expected in terms of photo (and yes thats my JC Penny tv i rave about!)

[Yago]

Atari 2600 Pac-man. Urgh. Problem is I know the pattern by heart. So that is not fair to the players that do not. The other problem being how long I can actually tolerate playing this crap game lol. Good idea though. I like it. But going to skip this game...

[Blitzwing256]

what dificulty? as well as game type switches positions?

[MachineGex]

Cool idea!
You should keep a running total(score) for all the players.
Something like:
1st place: 10 points
2nd: 8 points
3rd: 6 points
4th: 4 points
5th: 3 points
6th: 2 points
7th: 1 point
posting any score: 1/2 point (to encourage everyone to at least try)

I am in if you keep a running total. Would be cool to give the top 3 players a T-shirt or something.

[Collector_Gaming]

Cool idea!
You should keep a running total(score) for all the players.
Something like:
1st place: 10 points
2nd: 8 points
3rd: 6 points
4th: 4 points
5th: 3 points
6th: 2 points
7th: 1 point
posting any score: 1/2 point (to encourage everyone to at least try)

I am in if you keep a running total. Would be cool to give the top 3 players a T-shirt or something.

thats actually not a bad idea but would have to be something that the owner of this site would have to join in on. cause i don't feel like ponying up myself for tshirt for this cause lol.

and as for settings i thought i posted the settings on EXPERT (noticed theres Novice and Expert on the 2600s) outside of that its how the factory settings of how you boot it up. Start the machine up and push start via the button :D.
I put it on Expert (setting "A") to let it be some what of a challenge.

[swlovinist]

Love the idea, will post soon

[Emperor Megas]

This might work better if people PM'ed their pictures to the person hosting the contest, otherwise it'd just be people playing a minute longer than the last person who posted their photo. Especially with pattern-centric games like Pac-Man that you can play forever.

[NE146]

This is the VCS.. you should specify the Game Variation and difficulty switch position that everyone should play because there is a lot of variation.

[Collector_Gaming]

This might work better if people PM'ed their pictures to the person hosting the contest, otherwise it'd just be people playing a minute longer than the last person who posted their photo. Especially with pattern-centric games like Pac-Man that you can play forever.

well the idea is to make someone just gun for it. If you think you can just keep going then do so. Highest wins. Don't hold back and just keep going.
Do this to help people push themselves!

[Collector_Gaming]

according to the manual (which i found a PDF of thankfully) theres only 1 variation with the switch set to "A" difficulty.. and that is Setting "A" (which if you read on the console that says EXPERT) and Game 6
http://gamesdbase.com/Media/SYSTEM/Atari_2600/manual/Formated/Pac-Man_-_1981_-_Atari.pdf
for those of us who own the cart but not the manual. scroll down to section 5. Section 8 shows the matrix system of how you set everything.

[MachineGex]

Well, I'll pony up a few bucks or at least one of the t-shirts if we run this for awhile. Maybe 6 months-12 months.
Lets get the League rules set up and maybe an offical sign up sheet.
Is everyone on board with this kinda thing?

Also, I dont know if having the high score person pick the next game is a great idea. You may get someone running away with the contest and picking his best games. Then you would get everyone else dropping out. I think we should all pick one game (or at least something like that). That way, everyone's favorite game gets picked and it isn't one or two guys picking their favorite games every week.

[Collector_Gaming]

Well, I'll pony up a few bucks or at least one of the t-shirts if we run this for awhile. Maybe 6 months-12 months.
Lets get the League rules set up and maybe an offical sign up sheet.
Is everyone on board with this kinda thing?

Also, I dont know if having the high score person pick the next game is a great idea. You may get someone running away with the contest and picking his best games. Then you would get everyone else dropping out. I think we should all pick one game (or at least something like that). That way, everyone's favorite game gets picked and it isn't one or two guys picking their favorite games every week.

no i agree with this

If theres something to help people push and have fun with this that would work well i think!
Maybe hold a vote on a series of games picked by someone maybe like you since your willing to get tshirts going since thats only fair as the challenges sponsor.
Help bring life to Retrogaming Roundtable and bring in more members and spread the word and make this the best retro gamng forum on the internet!

[Collector_Gaming]

like i said i'm gonna do a NES version and a SNES version and a Genesis version (i'll see about getting those started tonight)

[NE146]

according to the manual (which i found a PDF of thankfully) theres only 1 variation with the switch set to "A" difficulty.. and that is Setting "A" (which if you read on the console that says EXPERT) and Game 6
http://gamesdbase.com/Media/SYSTEM/Atari_2600/manual/Formated/Pac-Man_-_1981_-_Atari.pdf
for those of us who own the cart but not the manual. scroll down to section 5. Section 8 shows the matrix system of how you set everything.


Not sure what you mean there's only 1 variation. The difficulty switch affects how long the ghosts stay blue. I say keep it at B.

Then, there's 2 speeds for Pacman, and different speeds for the ghosts depending on the game... although the manual classifies it as "crawling", "walking", "jogging", and "running". I think Game 6 is the one I always used to play.. everyone is fast. :p

[Sunnyvale]

OK, first of all, thank you OP! I hadn't actually given Pac-Man on the 2600 a real play since... 1986, when I got my first NES. Trying to get a high score brought back all kinds of nostalgia. After an hour of getting pissed and resetting, dying without getting above 5,000, I finally remembered the patterns for the first 2 stages. Great fun! I just wish I had more time; I know I could break 10k if I kept trying.

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n629/ConneticutLeatherCompany/gkids-4.jpg

Yes, I know some expert will come make this look like a joke. But for now...
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n629/ConneticutLeatherCompany/imagesCA35M06M.jpg

[Collector_Gaming]

bump. i see alot of potential in this. and alot of you seem to agree with me so get out there and plug those ataris in and get playing!

[Drath]

This is a very neat idea, I think I will give it a try, even though the game truly is... errr... um, not very good.

[Collector_Gaming]

updated with the Twin Galaxies world record score so everyone who wants to try for it has something to gun for!

[Collector_Gaming]

Bump this shiz up

[Sunnyvale]

http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/n629/ConneticutLeatherCompany/charlie_sheen_twitter.jpg







This is a pretty weak score guys, c'mon now...

[DDCecil]

1130. A crappy score is better than no score.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3875/picture691m.jpg