Dr. Morbis

Yeah, you had to make sure to wait for the guy to wave the white flag before you opened fire at the end of each level, and I would usually wait a little longer to see if any little duders wanted to just run off the screen on their own, but I still don't know how Blackvega got through two levels without firing a single bullet... that would have been crazy close to 15k if he had made it all the way... like 16k or 17k or something...

I kept forgetting about the two vehicles right at the start of the road and probably lost five or more runs to that because I'd be too close to the edge of the screen from dodging all the enemies...

No, the Shuwatch is saving just fine, but I don't remember the exact number in my brain. If you can recall the scene in Last Crusade where Indy's Dad says they have to go back to Berlin to get his book so they could recover the vital information therein, and then Indy is like, "how can you not remember such vital info?" and his Dad goes, "I wrote it in the book so I wouldn't have to remember it!" That's the situation with me and my Shuwatch...

I've owned a Shuwatch for like 15+ years, and I still can't remember my record, though I'm pretty sure it's in the high 120's. Gloves performance above is way beyond any score I'll ever get. I think 150 would be my theoretical limit. Anyway, @BlackVega I've posted my scores on the first page. You beat my Galaga score, but I beat your Commando score; now we just have to see what @PII is going to bring to the table...

That's a damn shame. Hudson's Shuwatch saves your high score, and most of the fun for me is pulling it out every once in a while to see if I can top my all-time best performance. Some of the donors that would work with this ROM have batteries on the pcb and back-up RAM chips, so it's too bad it wasn't programmed to take advantage of that...

I checked the ROM and the mapper he used is compatible with battery-backed RAM. Do you know if he programmed it to save the high score between power cycles? If so, I'm going to make a cart for myself (assuming I can't purchase one anywhere on the net).

I have a Hudson Shuwatch that does the exact same thing (measures your button presses), but they're relatively unknown, so it's cool to see that someone made a program for the pc...

I assume that's not including the guys at the bases at the end of each level, or did you actually manage to have them all leave the screen? EDIT - I guess you somehow beat 1-1 and 1-2 bases without shooting anyone, since your score is 10k...

This is the best way to tap really fast. All those guys who can hit a NES button like ten times a second do it with their index or ring finger like this; you just can't get that sort of speed with your thumb...

Rolling Thunder: Game Cleared - 80,980 pts. Gold Medal Challenge '92: 100m Dash - 9.08 Triple Jump - 21.61 Javelin Throw - 110.49 Weight Lifting - 215.0

Yeah, my original goal was to see if a pure pacifist run was possible, so I hung around on the first boss for a few minutes just dodging, but a number of enemies will never leave the screen no matter how long you wait, so for our purposes, 15k isn't actually within the realm of possibility...

Man, the only guys I ever shoot are the necessary end-of-level guys who won't leave the screen on their own, and those pesky knife guys who stab left and right when they get close enough that I think they're going to kill me. I literally don't shoot anything else at all... EDIT - it's funny to see a posted score of ZERO though...

Yeah, I find it really weird: I can hold right on the D-pad for hours with no problems, but holding up for thirty consecutive seconds causes my thumb to start sliding out of position and start to get sore. As for my right thumb, it hasn't felt this bad since we did Silver Surfer a year or two back...

It's not Micronics - it's clearly an early in-house Capcom title as it shares a lot of resources (graphics, sound effects, the font) with other early Capcom titles. Based on how poorly programmed it is though, I'd be inclined to think that this was their first attempt at programming for the Famicom; after seeing what Micronics was providing them with, they must've thought, "come on guys, surely we can do better than that!"

I'm having a lot of fun improving my low score for Commando. It really does feel like football, where you're ducking and weaving around the defense, sneaking through tight holes between two defenders. And the guys that drop back once you're past them and start running the same direction as you, they're like the blockers who are trying to protect you as you're moving along. I'm going to have a pretty good Commando score, but my Galaga score could use a lot of work...

Just seeing this thread now. I have a 1977 Interflip Dragon pinball machine, aka the fastest EM pin you'll ever play, and a Circa 1933 cocktail pin, which doubles as a coffee table when it's not in use...

I don't understand the question, really. If you felt guilt for owning things of value, that would preclude you from collecting pretty much anything... except for maybe rocks. Seriously, I could buy a house with the value of my video games, but what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? I don't need two houses...

Man, I was expecting at least a couple of SNES-heads to show up, but wow, the true King of Consoles continues his reign...

It's actually kinda fun and a million times better than point scumming for hours on end would've been. Also Tecmo Super Bowl players don't randomly glitch out and disappear after a while, only to have new guys take their place...

Good question; I'm under the assumption that you can't, since those second ships are actually spare lives, but we'll see what @BeaIank has to say about it... EDIT - it's also a lot easier to see that someone has only died once when their picture has the appropriate and verifiable number of ships in reserve on the screen when he takes his picture; if getting the second ship over and over is allowed, we're essentially playing down to our last ship, which is the literal opposite of what a "play until your first death" rule set is supposed to be about. That's my two and a half cents...

I edited my post because I just checked the rules and it looks like we're going for progress in Commando too...

Both games we're going for progress, so it looks like Stage 5 is your current high water mark in Galaga...

Have you ever seen him in a tournament? One year, he couldn't get past the very first enemy he saw in the overworld of Challenger. Skinny playing Boulder Dash... seriously??? He's awesome at shooters, I'll give him that, but come on, man...

Just for the sake of complete clarity, if you get double ship and then get hit and lose one of the two ships, does that count as a death or do you actually have to "die" in the sense that it resets the enemy formation and respawns your ship? Which is it: A - Double ship down to one ship is when you stop and take a picture, or B - Double ship down to losing both and respawning is when you stop and take your picture? Galaga - Stage 31, Score 266,020 + 30k Commando - Stage 2-1, Score 19,650

If all these codes and patches or hacks or whatever don't work, perhaps a rule set that works with the vanilla version of the game might be better for everyone involved? I don't mind pulling out my game genie for the next round if I have to, but sometimes the simplest solution to a problem ends up being the best way to go...