Ms. Pac / Galaga reissue scoring

[bargora]

This past weekend I was down at the mall where they have a couple of Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga cocktail games. I watched for a moment as a player was beating the shit out of Galaga. He was on Stage 66 with 947,000 points. I went to get my sandwich and then stopped for another look. He was still going strong at around 975,000 points.

Today I read in another topic that the Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga reissues allow you to insert a coin to continue. If you do, does it reset your score? Just wondering if I was indeed watching a master at work...

[Jibbajaba]

We have this machine here on campus. I know for a fact that it lets you insert a coin to continue, but I'm not sure if it resets your score or not. If no one else has an answer, I'll go check.

Chris

[davidbrit2]

Today I read in another topic that the Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga reissues allow you to insert a coin to continue. If you do, does it reset your score?

It doesn't. You can pretty much buy a high score if your pockets are deep enough. That's why I refuse to play on a machine with the continue feature enabled (almost all of them). Unless of course I put in the hidden code to play the original Pac-Man that very few "mainstream" people know about. Heh. (UUUDDDLRLRL, then hit Ms. Pac-Man start button.) Then I can generally play without some ridiculously inflated high score staring me in the face.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

that score does seem pretty high for stage 66. i've made it to stage 81, and my score was somewhere around 800,000. that's with messing up only maybe 2 or 3 of the challenging stages. now, my playing style is to simply shoot everything before it ever has a chance to go through the bottom of the screen, thus making things much, much easier. if dude was actually letting the red things escort down the motherships for the full bonus i guess the score is definitely possible. that just seems like suicide on later levels though, but maybe i'm just not as good at galaga as i think i am.

[chrisbid]

a lot of those machines also have the easy settings such as fast shots in galaga and fast ms pacman.

though in ms pacman, i find the game more fun with the faster speed

[bargora]

Yeah, I've noticed that a lot of those machines seem to be a good bit faster than I remember them being in 1983. Or maybe I'm slower? O_O Nah.

So if you play the games on one of the Namco Museum emulations (PlayStation for me), I assume you're getting the original speed, yes? I should check and see if there's a speed modification option menu or dipswitch setting.

[davidbrit2]

So if you play the games on one of the Namco Museum emulations (PlayStation for me), I assume you're getting the original speed, yes? I should check and see if there's a speed modification option menu or dipswitch setting.

Not that I know of. For the original machines, I think these effects were achieved through various hacks and whatnot. I'm assuming Namco just added them as dip switch options in the reunion cabinet because of their popularity.

[NE146]

I've ALWAYS noticed the high scores on those things seemed really awfully high.

Like for example on any original MsPacman machine with a speedup chip installed (where mspac herself goes fast).. the MOST I ever see is a score in the 300k range if even that. Usually it's like 200k or more though.

However on the Anniversary machines... holy crap it's 600k-800k and beyond! So either these guys are continuing games and continuing their scores, or they're constantly getting 5000 pt bananas during the random upper stages. Or, they're playing for hours on an easier game. I don't know what's the case, all I know is the anniversary machines seem to always have huge scores on them.

[bargora]

I don't know what's the case, all I know is the anniversary machines seem to always have huge scores on them.
Yeah, I've noticed the same thing. The treachery! Maybe it should just let you flat out buy points, say, at 120,000 per dollar. Ya know, for if you're in a hurry.

[Graham Mitchell]

Today I read in another topic that the Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga reissues allow you to insert a coin to continue. If you do, does it reset your score?

It doesn't. You can pretty much buy a high score if your pockets are deep enough. That's why I refuse to play on a machine with the continue feature enabled (almost all of them). Unless of course I put in the hidden code to play the original Pac-Man that very few "mainstream" people know about. Heh. (UUUDDDLRLRL, then hit Ms. Pac-Man start button.) Then I can generally play without some ridiculously inflated high score staring me in the face.

Hey, thanks for the code, there's one of these across the street from one of the hospitals where I work; I'll have to go try it.

I never continue on those machines. It defeats the whole point of playing it, in my opinion. I always get at least 500,000 on Galaga anyway, though, because the cabinets are so easy. It's easier than the Namco Museum disc version, anyway. It's interesting because there's a Robotron/Joust reissue cabinet from Midway, and a Space Invaders/Qix reissue from Taito, and both of those are way harder than the original machines. :/

[Ed Oscuro]

Are the anniversary machines ruining classic gaming? serious topic

That pisses me off, though...I mean, I thought there was a law about this already >(

[chrisbid]

its kindof a shame, but if it rakes in money, and arcades keep the machines there, i dont mind. ms pacman with a fresh joystick is such a joy :)

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I played one of these combos at a bar over the July 4th weekend. Like everyone says, a deep pocket will buy a high score. I played both Galaga and Ms. Pacman and Galaga and both had continues enabled. I did quite enjoy playing Ms. Pacman with the high speed enabled.

[Sanriostar]

Sped up Ms. Pacs are of Satan. I refuse to play one.

The DK/DK Jr. Mario Bros. also let you continue and keep your score. the only benefit for this is I can practice the Springboard timing on the later levels for DK.

[j_factor]

Sped up Ms. Pacs are of Satan. I refuse to play one.

I've never played a non-sped-up Ms. Pac-Man, except for some ports. Up until recently I always thought it was supposed to be faster, and the ports were just fucked up.