Hello and welcome to the sixth round of the first Sega Master System Weekly Contest!  We are now halfway through the competition.  This week's game is one of my favorites, Montezuma's Revenge featuring Panama Joe.  Raid the tombs of various pre-Columbian leaders (who seem to all have the same architect) to get the high score!  The traps are plentiful, but so are the extra lives.  Can you make it out of Montezuma's pyramid alive?

If wind up liking this one, be sure to check out the remake/sequel Montezuma's Return for Game Boy and Game Boy Color.

Rules:

-Start on Level 1
-Play until Game Over
-Be careful not to press a button after Game Over.  There is no high score screen and you will lose your score.
-If you are about to enter a treasure room and are on your last life, take a picture before jumping in.  Your score isn't visible in the treasure room, so if you lose your life there, you will not be able to see your score.
-You may not use the pause button to save yourself from falling.
-If you clear the final stage, your run ends there.  You may not replay it.
-Highest score wins

For general contest rules, click here:

http://nintendoage.com/forum/mess...

Good luck and have fun!

SCOREBOARD:

1st: Richardhead (124,950)
2nd: bimmy_lee (107,500)
3rd: mbd39 (48,900)
4th: Yoshi (20,000)
5th: AsmikAce (19,700)
6th:
7th:
8th:

Oh man..... if there's a ladder you gotta use it no matter how short the fall is🤣

This game is also on the Atari 2600.

Yup, it has a bunch of different ports.  The Master System version is arguably the best though.  It looks nicer and has several elements missing from the others.
 

124,950



 

48,900


 

Okay, this is tough old school platforming. It's a lot like Spelunker.

I'll give this one a go later in the week. Looks fun!

I still have this on my Atari computer. Great memories!

So this version has an ending? I think my game endlessly repeats level 9 but it's been a while.

No ending on this version either.  It endlessly repeats level 11.

Going to play it if I get the chance. The real challenge is the mushy SMS control pad

Here is my run.

20,000
18,700
9,450
3,450



Getting better at this. The always use ladders, no matter how short the fall is advice is spot on.

Are you using Sega Genesis controllers?  This is one of the few Sega Master System games that won't work with one, so you'll need to use a Sega Master System controller if you're going to play on original hardware.

Ah, that would explain it. I tried both 3 and 6 button genesis controllers with no luck. Unfortunately, I don’t have any master system controllers.
 

Does the first level ever end? I think that even beating a single stage within the five allotted lives would be an accomplishment.

Not only does it end, it's one of the shorter levels.  The stages may seem big, but I'm pretty sure you can skip more than half the rooms in every stage once you figure out the quickest path.  You would be leaving behind a lot of treasure though.

Score updated: 9,450

107,500



On this run, I died just before you enter the room to make the jump to the treasure room of level 2.  I was going for the gray key down below where the disappearing platform is located and I hit a barrier.  On my next run, I actually had a considerably better score than this and made it to the treasure room of level 3.  However, I had one last life going in there and I died, making it a Game Over.  Whenever you enter a treasure room, you CANNOT see your score.  So I lost a score of around 140,000 because no score was visible.

On another note, this is a very fun game and my favorite so far of the contests.  Once you start figuring out where things are located, it's easy to breeze through the levels and rack up points by picking up jewels and killing enemies.  Another nice thing about the game is that when you move on to a new level, the game resets your lives count to five.  It's great if you were low on lives at the end of the previous level, but a bummer if you had more than five in reserve.  Also, your items don't carry over from level to level, so use them up before going into a tresure room.

Great run! I was hoping someone would beat me so I can try again but I don't think I can beat that....
 

Sorry about that.  I should have made a note about it in the rules.
  Are you sure that's happening?  The lives never reset when I beat a level.  It's possible to receive multiple extra lives from the treasure room, so maybe it just seems like it resets to 5?

Score updated on page...... Nevermind!
I am probably putting more time into this than I should but I've gotta best Bimmy in this! I've just gotta😜

13,450... I'm sure I could have topped that given another 30 minutes of play time...

Score updated on Page 1: 18,700

It's not a problem at all.  I read through the manual real quick before playing and just assumed the treasure rooms were like a bonus stage after beating a level and not the actual final screen of the level.  When I died, I was like "Aw crap, I died and lost all the bonus points I got."  Then, when I saw Game Over, I was like "aw crap, I got a Game Over."  Then, I noticed there was no score in the upper right-hand corner of the screen and was like "aw crap, I just lost my score."  The only ones I blame are the game programmers for not keeping the score on the screen during the treasure rooms  

You know, you're probably right about the bonus points.  I hadn't even thought of that.  I probably grabbed enough treasure in the treasure rooms to give me a couple extra lives.  I was always stocked with 5 lives at the beginning of each level that I thought that was the way the game was supposed to be