You can play either version but the record and most attempts are done on the Konami. Mruczek's record was done with 3+1 settings.
Keep us informed on your progress.

Thanks for the information, John. That means a lot, coming from the world record holder. Based on my measurement, it looks like it will take 4 hours and 30 minutes to eclipse your score and to break the 2 million point barrier. Even though the game is repetitive, it is still fun, and seems in some cases like a forefather to the Gradius series.

The reason the arcade platform does not explicitly state Konami vs Stern is that in all this time no one has ever opened up a Stern category for the arcade platform. MAME has the two listed separately, however.

Personally I have only played the Stern version in an arcade once many, many years back...I am guessing the boardset is harder to come by.

As John said, you can try either...however, if you are exceptionally good at the Stern version (I'd say 250K or higher) then I recommend going thru the process of creating the Stern variation for the arcade platform as well as petitioning TG admin to specify "Konami version" in the existing arcade variation. I can guarantee you that submissions there are entirely Konami thus far...only MAME has submissions for both.

Good luck.

I am reasonably sure the game stops displaying "flags" at some point, perhaps at 49, I cannot remember. I am guessing that the game allows you to roll the flags much like "Galaxian" does should you ever play it out for 255/256 levels.

FYI - no extra ship is awarded after 999,990 points (meaning at 1,010,000 points) at least as far as the Konami version goes. No Stern player (on MAME) has ever reached that far...the closest might be in the 600K range unless that has since been beaten.