Sep/05 - The Monthly MAME Challenge Title is...

Hello fellow gamers:

The only title with two or more votes from the remaining monthly selections was selected...goes to show you that I need some more votes. And so, the title that came up via EXCEL random selection is...\"Guzzler\" !!

This will be a full-game submission.

At this time, TG is still accepting WolfMAME 0.78 as the preferred version of MAME.

Here are the settings...

ROMset = \"Guzzler\"
Difficulty = \"Easy\"
Starting lives = 3
Extra lives =30K then every 100K

I know very little about this game except what I've seen from a previous submission by Greg Erway. It appears that the primary goal is for you to put out fires by guzzling water. When the last enemy of the stage, the toughest by the way, is defeated, you move onto a new stage.

According to the KLOV site, this is a 1983 title by \"Tekhan\" even though the marquee indicates \"Centuri\".

Standard guidelines governing MAME submissions will apply.

Okay, fellow gamers, good luck one and all !!

Robert

To Greg Erway:

Differences between your GUZZLER score in the databases:

329,850 MARP (unconfirmed)
328,950 TG

Hi Valter:

Yeah, Greg came REALLY close. That was back in Nov/04.

Robert

Hello fellow gamers:

Peter Dennett sets the pace with a round 6 score of 58,770 points. He was within an inch of finishing off the stage but was overwhelmed by two fast-moving fires.

Definitely a tough little game.

Robert

Hi Valter,

Robert has the correct score for TG. Apparently however, I screwed up when submitting to MARP and superimposed two numbers. I have fixed the score on MARP now. If that inp was downloaded you would have seen the png file that shows the final score clearly as the lower score.

Thanks for pointing it out!

On another note on this game, I have not played this game since that last sumission. I only played it for the GEGOTW and then a little on .78 to submit for TG. In that week worth of playing, I have come to the conclusion that I think I can marathon this game with some more practice. I was the one who found one glitch that would not be able to be submitted. I sent John the inp file during that week and showed him that I stumbled across a glitch that awarded me endless lives. I played the game out a fair way and became fairly good at most levels.

I just started playing again and my points per level is WAY below what I used to get. Hint: I once got near 30k on the first level. The best I've gotten in the last day or so is 20k with most level 1 completions around 17k. I have submitted a score of 298k to Robert already (I think it was level 15 or 16). Level 14 is tough and this was the first time I made it through on my first life. Unfortunatly, I forgot that I was still on my initial allotment of men and when I died at 298k I forgot about having the chance at the extra man. I am around 99% on getting these. But I was caught so off guard I jumped back to the keyboard and just missed by one position. So I probaby should have got that extra man which most likely would have got the 300k extra man and I would have beat my previous score.

It's pretty obvious to me that the game can be marathoned due to the large points on the higher levels. I managed one final bonus of 24k in that game. So you should get an extra man every 3 boards or so. That seems doable once you get used to the speed of the enemy and have a good starting plan for each board. Oh, and the boards cycle eventually making it even easier.

Hello fellow gamers:

Just two scores thus far. I'm still too burnt out from tape watching to play much.

Greg's score is now in first place, and Peter is in second.

1st Place - 298,600 points by Greg Erway (round 15)
2nd Place - 58,770 points by Peter Dennett (round 6)

Greg believes that round 14 is the hardest. He may be right. You start out the furthest from the fires and unless you manage your water carefully you will be unable to reach the other half of the board unharmed.

Robert

After messing around with this game for a couple hours I've concluded that it is technically possible to stay on level 1 indefinitely. I don't have near enough skill to do this currently but I have scored 51k on my first man on the first board and have played out to 135k on the first board with a couple save states.

The 'trick' invloves leaving two fires burning and then repeatedly killing the red flame as it leaves one of the two fires in order to increase your bonus timer. The red flame always appears to spawn at the furthest fire so after killing it near one fire immediately make your way to the other fire and kill it again after it spawns. You can't be too slow or else your bonus timer will count down to zero. If you keep the kill rate up it is possible to increase your bonus timer over time.

Water also isnt much of an issue since after you pick up every visible puddle there is a variable sized puddle that spawns at the center of the board every 30 seconds or so. Also don't forget to pick up the drinks (appears after picking up 2 large puddles) to turn all the moving flames into red (bonus timer adding) flames.

There are TG general leeching policies that cover this type of leeching. It is not allowed for records so wouldn't be allowed for a game of the month contest by TG either.

Of course Robert does this contest so it's his call. :P

maybe he wants that...but then any scores won't qualify for the scoreboard.

Hello Marty/Rick:

The classic definition of leeching and what is versus is not allowed includes a provision for time-based games.

https://www.twingalaxies.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=860 - this is the primary topic on leeching

The meaningful sections that determine whether Marty's tactic is allowed are

2.0.c - \"Twin Galaxies recognizes that game titles which have a count-down time limit, hidden or otherwise, should allow a player the opportunity to maximize their score productivity within the limited time limit available, providing the tactic(s) employed by the player are not deemed banned by the Twin Galaxies Board of Referees. Therefore, tactics that are not deemed banned by the Twin Galaxies Board of Referees are allowable within the time limit constraints of normal gameplay for such titles.\"

The spirit of these guidelines/policies are to cover the bases for known and even unknown tactics. Here, we clearly have a tactic not previously known, yet allows a player to increase the duration of the time limit within a stage.

The spirit of the game, to me, seems to be that of stage progression. However, I am just one gamer of many, so we have a \"Rules Committee\" debate headed our way. I'll start that ball rolling now and hopefully the responses will come in quickly.

Robert

Just to clarify... I don't intend to submit a score based on this method. Whenever I start playing a new game I like to test out the limits of what is possible.

The 'leeching' method I described is quite difficult to maintain however it does not get progressively harder. Given enough practice someone might be able to marathon the first stage.

If anything the method is an excellent way to learn the movement behaviours of the red/non-red flames.