2022 VGS NES Weekly Contest - Pipe Dream!

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

1 hour ago, PII said:

I think its better to replace than to leave leftovers.

A blasted piece is -50 and an unused piece is -100. That being said, these point values aren't that big and it takes forever to blast a piece so sometimes it isn't worth the time.

[JamesRobot | 5,798]

5 minutes ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

Still a bit curious on the rule clarification here. @BeaIank @guillavoie

First one to the kill screen takes first place.  

 

[RH | 4,903]

I updated my score a bit.  This is one of those games where I'm not in love with it, and yet, becoming strangely addicted to it.  Hopefully I can break 100k and call it a week.

[BeaIank | 1,618]

9 hours ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

Still a bit curious on the rule clarification here. @BeaIank @guillavoie

You can't reach the kill screen. You must hit as close to it as you can without triggering it and stopping there.

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

1 hour ago, BeaIank said:

You can't reach the kill screen. You must hit as close to it as you can without triggering it and stopping there.

Hmm, so if you hit a bonus that will put you over the kill screen, can we take photos as it's counting up to but before it gets to the kill screen? Or can we only take photos in between rounds?

[BeaIank | 1,618]

5 minutes ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

Hmm, so if you hit a bonus that will put you over the kill screen, can we take photos as it's counting up to but before it gets to the kill screen? Or can we only take photos in between rounds?

You can post photos as it is counting up. Since hitting the kill screen is sounding too feasible to do, I decided to spice things up regarding it.

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

After playing around with the scoring system in an emulator, I found that it doesn't exactly crash when it hits 8,388,600 points. It will crash the next time points are added to a score over 8,388,600. This normally doesn't make a huge difference since it will trigger as the bonus is counting up. However, there is an option to press start to add the rest of the bonus in one frame. So, say your bonus is 2 million and your current points are 8 million. You can press start to achieve 10 million to finish the level without crashing the game. However, the next time you get points, the game will crash.

Just to double check the rules, is the goal to get as close to 8,388,600 without tying or going over? Or is it to get the maximum score without crashing the game?

[RH | 4,903]

Do... do you really think someone might get that many points?

[mbd39 | 2,020]

23 minutes ago, RH said:

Do... do you really think someone might get that many points?

You already know that deafcode will. Unless this question is facetious.

 

 

[BeaIank | 1,618]

1 hour ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

Just to double check the rules, is the goal to get as close to 8,388,600 without tying or going over? Or is it to get the maximum score without crashing the game?

The goal is to get as close to 8,388,600 without tying or going over it.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Well, having cracked 200K, it looks like once I finish this round I'll be second only to @Splain currently.  Surpassing him is not outside the realm of possibility either...I just can't stand to play the game for more than 20 minutes in a stretch.  Thankfully taking rest breaks isn't against the rules either, as I still haven't lost a life yet.  This game is just hella boring on the low settings...too damn easy!

[mbd39 | 2,020]

52,050

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Question @BeaIank - Can we post an in-progress score?  I know tomorrow is gonna be a busy day and I may not get time to actually finish my game.  I'm still deathless after 9-4, and I honestly have no idea how long this run is going to last.  Basically I'm asking if I have to wait until game over or if I can just post a score at any time?

[BeaIank | 1,618]

3 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

Question @BeaIank - Can we post an in-progress score?  I know tomorrow is gonna be a busy day and I may not get time to actually finish my game.  I'm still deathless after 9-4, and I honestly have no idea how long this run is going to last.  Basically I'm asking if I have to wait until game over or if I can just post a score at any time?

You absolutely can, yes. 

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Just now, BeaIank said:

You absolutely can, yes. 

Awesome!  It's funny, I don't like playing through in one shot cuz it's tedious, but I don't want to intentionally end my game either, so it's kind of a "rock and a hard place" thing   I'll post my in-progress shot and update accordingly when/if I continue with it

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

On 4/10/2022 at 11:34 PM, the_wizard_666 said:

473950 (and counting)

Technically the game is still ongoing, but I just want to make sure I get a score up before the deadline.  I may or may not keep going, but since the score is already enough for top position I figure it needs posting.  With how tedious this game is, I doubt anyone's gonna grind out to the max, outside of maybe @0xDEAFC0DE, but again, I may do a few more levels between now and the deadline.

That's a hell of a score, especially since you say you haven't died.  Just so you know, when you pause the game on an actual console, it conceals the field so you can't plan your moves ahead with the water stopped.  But you must be one hell of an idiot savant at this game to be getting like seven looper blocks for bonus points to boot, and all on level 9 water speeds - I mean, look at that route you've got up there - it's perfect!  I can't wait to see these skills in action on a real console next time we hang out; it shouldn't take too long either, since my game went to level 6 and was still well under an hour.  Hell I'll offer you money to duplicate your score; that's free money in your pocket with skills like that.   I can't wait to see the master at work...

Edited April 16, 2022 by Dr. Morbis

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said:

That's a hell of a score, especially since you say you haven't died.  Just so you know, when you pause the game on an actual console, it conceals the field so you can't plan your moves ahead with the water stopped.  But you must be one hell of an idiot savant at this game to be getting like seven looper blocks for bonus points to boot, and all on level 9 water speeds - I mean, look at that route you've got up there - it's perfect!  I can't wait to see these skills in action on a real console next time we hang out; it shouldn't take too long either, since my game went to level 6 and was still well under an hour.  Hell I'll offer you money to duplicate your score; that's free money in your pocket with skills like that.   I can't wait to see the master at work...

I definitely got lucky on that level...the speed isn't terrible honestly, except that early speed-up on the route.  Got a bit hairy, but a few lucky drops later and I got far enough ahead to keep going.  That level was actually one of my best score-wise...the loops just don't come out like that as often as I would like, but I try and use them whenever they come up.  Honestly, I don't think I had another level with THAT many loops come up that I could work with.  It really was just a perfect level drop.

Honestly, the last time I played the game I remember getting a killer score too.  The game's just, well, easy.  Especially on the low speed setting.  Sadly, according to AdamL I'd have to get the high scores on the other two modes to count it, which just means more tedium before I can add it to my personal list.  But it's entirely doable, as the default scores are smaller on the higher settings.

Also, I'd gladly try this out on a real console at some point.  Not sure if I'd be able to duplicate or not, but it'd be fun to try.  I don't know about the time frame though...it honestly seems like hours going by when I play even a few levels...though maybe it's just boredom rather than actual time passing.  I really just find this game to be straight up tedious to play.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

3 hours ago, the_wizard_666 said:

I don't know about the time frame though...it honestly seems like hours going by when I play even a few levels...though maybe it's just boredom rather than actual time passing.  I really just find this game to be straight up tedious to play.

That's the part that sounds weird to me: I got to level 6 and it was maybe half an hour - how is your current run to level 9 a week long knock-em-down-drag-em-out war of attrition to the eleventh degree where you're so mentally exhausted that you don't even know if you can finish one game?!?!?!?  Like, am I missing something?  I got about a third of your score and made it about two thirds as far in half an hour.  How on earth - without "help" - could one game of less than half a million points possibly take longer than maybe an hour and a bit?  I could understand defcode's game taking hours, since his will be 8 million-odd points, but your case just makes absolutely no sense to me.........  

Edited April 17, 2022 by Dr. Morbis

[PII | 1,884]

4 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Just so you know, when you pause the game on an actual console, it conceals the field so you can't plan your moves ahead with the water stopped.

That sounds like a rather distinct discrepancy.  Anybody can put up a big score with no deaths if they're able to pause, look and plan every step of the way...

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

35 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

That's the part that sounds weird to me: I got to level 6 and it was maybe half an hour - how is your current run to level 9 a week long knock-em-down-drag-em-out war of attrition to the eleventh degree where you're so mentally exhausted that you don't even know if you can finish one game?!?!?!?  Like, am I missing something?  I got about a third of your score and made it about two thirds as far in half an hour.  How on earth - without "help" - could one game of less than half a million points possibly take longer than maybe an hour and a bit?  I could understand defcode's game taking hours, since his will be 8 million-odd points, but your case just makes absolutely no sense to me.........  

It honestly bores me to tears.  10 minutes can feel like an eternity if you can't stand what you're doing.  I even told you on the phone how long it felt to me, and to prepare for it.  I honestly thought it WAS taking me half an hour to beat a level until I actually looked at the clock.  It's that boring.

8 minutes ago, PII said:

That sounds like a rather distinct discrepancy.  Anybody can put up a big score with no deaths if they're able to pause, look and plan every step of the way...

I can't pause shit and see what's coming any more than you can.  It's seriously just that dull for me.  Now, in fairness, there were a few lucky breaks along the way, where I would just edge out the distance requirement by a single piece, preventing death.  But there's no shenanigans going on, just plain mind numbing boredom on my part.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Okay, having just played a few more levels, it seems maybe some of those close calls may not have been so close after all.  I may very well have died and not noticed, as I should have died on 10-3 (remaining distance needed was 7), but it advanced me to 10-4 anyway, and I still had 3 wrenches showing.  Does the game give bonus lives or something?  That would explain it if it won't display more than 3 wrenches, as I may just be gaining more lives than I've lost.  Also, I feel like I played another 45 minutes, but it seems it was only 10.  God damn this game sucks!

EDIT: It may be that I advanced because I connected the "end" pipe to the chain despite not making the minimum distance.  Normally you'd lose a wrench and replay the level if the minimum isn't attained...can someone confirm this?  I'd really like to know if my ROM is fucking up on me at this point, because I may still be able to dig up my cart and NES to play it without an issue.  This is baffling to me why I didn't lose a wrench OR restart the level, despite having a whopping "7" left on my minimum distance.

Edited April 17, 2022 by the_wizard_666

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

36 minutes ago, the_wizard_666 said:

I even told you on the phone how long it felt to me, and to prepare for it.

Yeah, and that's why I put it off for so long - I was expecting this arduous hours-long tedious affair; then I finally sat down to play the game this morning, and....  it's like the standard length and pacing of just about every other puzzle game I've ever played, and it didn't really have any tedium for me either due to the continuous "race the clock" gimmick that keeps the tension high while you're playing.  It just made everything you said seem so non sequitor.

It's like you're Curt Cobain, but instead of complaining about being a famous rock star, you're complaining about being too damn good at a puzzle game to the point that you're no-deathing it against your will on your first ever game and have no choice but to request that the authorities allow an in-progress score in order to save you from the epic grandiosity of your own awesomeness!!!!!  Seriously,  wtf????

I will say this, though: if you truly are this good at Pipe Dream, you're going to be winning some money from me next time you're at my house, because I've gotta see these crazy skills in person...

Edited April 17, 2022 by Dr. Morbis

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Yeah, and that's why I put it off for so long - I was expecting this arduous hours-long tedious affair; then I finally sat down to play the game this morning, and....  it's like the standard length and pacing of just about every other puzzle game I've ever played, and it didn't really have any tedium for me either due to the continuous "race the clock" gimmick that keeps the tension high while you're playing.  It just made everything you said seem so non sequitor.

It's like you're Curt Cobain, but instead of complaining about being a famous rock star, you're complaining about being too damn good at a puzzle game to the point that you're no-deathing it against your will on your first ever game and have no choice but to request that the authorities allow an in-progress score in order to save you from the epic grandiosity of your own awesomeness!!!!!  Seriously,  wtf????

I will say this, though: if you truly are this good at Pipe Dream, you're going to be winning some money from me next time you're at my house, because I've gotta see these crazy skills in person...

Well, like I said above, now I'm wondering if there's something wrong with the ROM I'm playing anyway, since I should have lost a wrench and didn't...wondering how many times that may have happened already that I just didn't notice on my "no death run" that may not actually be a no death run.  I know I've never repeated a level, and I've still got three wrenches, so unless I've gained wrenches somehow (which I can't find anything about in the manual), my run may technically be illegal at this point anyway.  I've gotta do some digging to see what's up here.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

So after some checking, it's not the ROM, it's the result of a botch on my part.  I had at the start of my run tried to use the cheat to freeze the water to see if there was a way to spot it.  There was, in fact, no way to detect it, however, what I didn't realize was that resetting wasn't enough to get rid of the effect.  Reloading the ROM on Mesen got rid of the effect, while simply resetting it did NOT.  Meaning that even though I didn't run the cheat on the run I was actually playing, it was still in effect as I was playing, making it so that I actually couldn't die.  As such, this would make my entire score invalid.  I'm going to delete the picture as soon as I make this post, as it is no longer acceptable, and I'm gonna start from scratch and try and get a good, LEGIT score to post.  Let this be a warning to anyone who tests these things out in the future, as had I not actually had a death that I noticed, I would've never known that my run was invalid to begin with.  Also, because of the fact that the cheat code would make it impossible to go game over (as you don't die, and you skip ahead on a failure), I would suggest that @BeaIank make in-progress scores invalid.  I'm extremely sorry that this actually happened, and I'm glad to have figured this out in time to post a valid score.

[the_wizard_666 | 1,325]

Well, now that I've restarted a LEGIT run (I killed off an entire run just to make sure I could hit Game Over...playing it safe now), I'm done 4-4 with a legitimate no-death run, and 253,000 points.  So realistically, I should be able to get around my previous score without too much trouble.  But man, this game still suuuuuuuucks!