Hello everyone!  This week's game, and Tom Votava's fourth challenge for us, is going to be Spelunker.  Here are the rules:

• Play until Game Over
• One loop only
• If you beat the game, add 10,000 bonus points for each life remaining
• Highest score wins
• GENRE: Action/Platformer

The contest ends Sunday, 10/14/12 at 10 PM NA time.  Your user name must be in the picture for your score to be valid.  The entire TV screen, or computer monitor if you are playing on an emulator, MUST be in the picture for the score to be valid.  No partial screenshots will be considered or accepted.  Good luck everyone and have fun.
 

I wasn't going to play this being I don't have the game and how hard it is to play on emulator because my controller sucks (d-pad moves characters too much, buttons have a slight lag in response, so bad I even walked off of ledges in Castlevania 3 when I was going to try to play that one for the contest), compared to an actual NES one, but figured what the hell, I'll give it a shot or two dozen. Probably could do better but it was frustrating me too much since this is one that I have actually beaten a couple loops to many years ago.

98,050

See next, next post for much higher score.

Nice start, Megan!

I love Spelunker. It has a few quirks, but once you get past those, it's a fun little treasure hunt.

Couple of hints: Jump around a lot. There are random hidden items everywhere. Also, try to find the hidden diamonds with your bombs. They're worth a lot of points!

I remember finding random hidden treasures when playing the loops in this game because a lot of stuff was invisible so kinda had no choice but to jump around seeking out what I was looking for. But this time I'm finding it difficult to even jump simple gaps without walking off so if I play this again I can't see me doing much random jumping, I'll wait til I own the game so I can play it better. Its a fun, challenging little game, I really should have bought it, but wasn't yet ready to spend what the game is going for, not just yet.

Ooh, old notes of game progress:

Spelunker (September 12th, 2007)

I played a little bit of Spelunker about an hour ago. A couple days ago I was going through the list of all my NES games, picking out all the ones that were pc ports, Spelunker happening to be one of them, and suddenly got the urge to play it, today.

At first I tried to play it on emulator, was too lazy to pull myself away from the computer, but it was totally unplayable with my pc controller, I was lucky to even be able to jump off the very first rope, I wasn't getting anywhere at all. Eventually I said @#$% it, and popped it in my NES, and hooked it up to the tv again (it was disconnected from last night when my mom and I were changing our living space around again).

It took me several tries to get the hang of the controls again, why they had to make it so difficult to jump from ropes, guess if they hadn't the game would've been too easy. Anyway, furthest that I got was to the 3rd section of these caves, my score was 71.600. You get an extra life every section you clear, well that's good. I forgot all about the flare that you launch up, actually I don't ever remember using it at all last time, many years ago. Kill, kill those guano crapping bats! *Shoots a flare up its ass. Bat explodes in a burst of fireworks*.

Last time I had played this game a good decade or longer ago, made it to the 3rd or 4th quest before eventually dying, never put it down as having been beaten then though because even though it congratulates you after each quest, as if the end of the game, I still wasn't certain if it truly was the end, or if I had gotten further, that the game would finally stop looping and come to a definite close.

I think I'm going to play this one some more, try to get good at it (difficult to do with all the jumping from ropes). Still I wonder if there's an actual true ending from finishing a certain amount of games, or if just beating the 1st quest would be suffice.

Spelunker (September 13th, 2007)

Earlier today I played some more Spelunker. It took me over a dozen tries, but was finally able to beat the 1st quest, got as far as the 2nd quest, 3rd stage, score of 299.790 before getting a game over. This game is frustrating, nerve-racking, yet highly addictive, no wonder I was able to get as far as I had gotten long ago, 'cause I couldn't put it down.

Spelunker (September 14th, 2007)

Played several more games of Spelunker, though I'm only keeping record of those games that I an able to at least pass the 1st quest of. My last game of it I managed to get to the 2nd quest again, but one stage further, the 4th stage. I reach the last set of blue and red doors, only to realize too late that I was missing the red key to open the door to the end of this quest and all that treasure, I lost while back-tracking searching for it, darn, so close to beating it twice in a row. My score was 354.270. Being as how I don't think I'd ever master this game, and my games of it have all been so inconsistent, I think I'll leave it at what it is. Someday, many years from now, or whenever I get back to Spelunker again, at least now I have an exact personal score to beat, not just guessing at what I may've done over a decade ago.

Megan, you're so hardcore (in a good way). It's an interesting game for sure, I agree with you on the rope controls being very faulty.

So, does the second loop start after you reach the pink castle and the game restarts with a different color pallette? Sorry if that seems obvious, I've never played this game before and it seemed really short. If that's the case I will have a nice opening score on this one.

Yeah, it does loop again, the furthest I ever made it was somewhere in the 3rd quest, a long time ago before I started keeping detailed records on this sorta stuff. Perhaps like many of these loop type games it probably goes on forever, or, it could be like Ghosts 'n Goblins and Arkista's Ring where it actually does end after a certain amount of times through it, I never looked into it, or perhaps I did and forgot.

At least my old notes reminds me about the flares, it seems every time I get back to this game I forget about them.

Well, gave it a couple more tries a little while ago, got quite a bit further, thanks to those flares no longer have to worry about bat shit anymore. Still falling to my death though, but now jumping in certain spots to get bonuses. I remember now doing this long ago because of that speed potion (or whatever it is) that I have to just sit and wait for it to wear off before even daring to continue. Earned quite a bit of extra lives by jumping up in out of the way places, thankfully most aren't too much trouble to get to. Interestingly that ghost enemy never appeared while I was in the 4th section of the cave, at least not up to where I had made it.

136,810 (two images in case first one can't be seen well enough, actually with image this small I can't make out a damn thing in the first pic, if you need a larger image for better verification here's the link to it so you can magnify: https://picasaweb.google.com/102171263036941000161/HighScore... )





Okay, found me some diamonds! But damn d-pad over-moves, keep dying so early in the game, especially when jumping off of ropes towards the right, and then when I try to inch over a tinie bit to the left I fall anyway. Oh, diamonds it seems are hidden in the thicker walls, that oughta help raise some scores here. Thank you rdrunner for the clue, never got any diamonds before. While I don't care about diamonds in real life, I'll make an exception here, diamonds can be a girl's best friend. Hopefully my next score will be huge. Dammit, I really should have forked over the cash to buy this game, could be doing better already.

1 loop only what do you mean?

Once you beat the 4th cave area and get the small ending screen that tells you that you got all of the treasure, the game restarts, each time around getting a little bit harder. The rule means you either play till game over (lose all of your lives) or until you see the ending, no continuing from that point onto the next harder quest.

@#$%ing hell, damn hate playing this (and pretty much anything) on emulator. 5 lives, all lost on the waterfall vines. Urgh! Uh F this...I had enough, anymore and I'll rupture some arteries. Don't know what the heck I'm going to do for Bubble Bobble when it comes time, since testing that one out proved to be nearly unplayable, beginner is me. Emulator is good for only one thing, screenshots, that's it. Or testing a game out to see how it plays, but that's what Youtube is for.

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Well here is my first score. I like this game quite a bit already but I doubt I will play it once the contest is over. I still want to look around for some of these diamonds but don't know where to start. I'm also gonna try my best to one life it.

Andy, for reference if you reach the second loop of the game the screen will look like this (instead of the usual bronzish color pallette).

Hope we see some nice scores roll in!

EDIT: new score below, first score was 220,260.

Nice score! Congrats on finishing the game too.

Very nice score! Was hoping to see some complete games.

A bit of trivia: The game loops forever, but the game reaches maximum difficulty after you beat it for the fifth time. Each difficulty change really isn't that bad (ghosts appear more often, volcanoes erupt more, bats poop more, etc), but the real challenge is figuring out how to collect those keys. They are invisible on loop 2, then on later loops, you have to jump and/or shoot flares in the right spots in order to get them. Loop 6 and higher is the worst, where you have to shoot a flare and jump immediately after. Took forever for me to figure that out!

I chose to make this a single-loop challenge because of the endless nature of the game. I didn't want this to become a test of endurance for people who can marathon the thing.

The ghosts also go apeshit on loop 5 and above, to the point where if you're at the edge of the screen and one decides to appear near you, you're toast. I love this game, but yeah, the waterfall vines do piss me off.

Also, is there a point to the powerup that makes you go super fast? All it does is cause me to overjump. I've also never found any diamonds in all my time playing this, maybe that's something I should work on next time I play.

Just started playing this last night. I can't believe if you fall just a little you die. How annoying

Not really.  I usually just avoid that powerup when I see it.  If I do get it, I just stand around until it wears off.

In theory, the speed boost can make you clear the level faster, but it's VERY accident prone.

I'll try this one... I'm a boss at this game!

95,550

Posting for Megamanfan.  This score was achieved while he was at the Midwest Meatup this weekend.

18,000

227,220 + 5(10,000) =

277,220



This game is awesome! I had a better go this time and found a ton of extra lives + diamonds etc. Definitely room to grow because I died a few times especially on the waterfall part and I also missed some minor treasures near the end since I don't know my way around very well that far into the game.

I might try one more tonight but we'll see.

More importantly, whose tv is that? and is it on the list?

SPELUNKER RESULTS

1st: 277,220 – Krunch +10 points
2nd: 18,000 – Megamanfan +8 points

TOURNAMENT PARTICIPANTS

136,810 – Miss Clawful
95,550 – guillavoie

That TV belongs to Jobber8742.

Congratulations to Krunch for securing a tournament spot for the Action/Platformer genre!

I still don't understand this whole genre spot thing. So what you're saying by just getting participation means even if my score, if I were so able to, happened to be the highest I still wouldn't have qualified for a placement? Glad I gave up early. So does this mean, even if I were to play Bubble Bobble this time, which I won't because I don't have the game and broke my stupid PC controller to bits trying to play Spelunker (by the way, I did almost as good with the keyboard as with that shit ass controller), none of my scores would count? I'm still confused.

I'll try to explain, since I have dealt with this for a while now.  Long story short, since you've qualified for the tournament, it's fair to say that you're mostly playing for fun if you participate.  But that's not a bad thing.  I've been qualified for most of the year and I still enjoy challenging myself in these contests.  This is all mostly for fun anyway.

Here's a detailed explanation, if you're interested:

As a tournament qualifier, your scores count, but not towards the block standings.  In the scores above, only two of the players have not qualified for the tournament, so they are the only people who can score points to affect the Block 6 standings.  The points are distributed above based on this.

Your score DOES count in the rankings for the genre of the week.  What is not shown above is that the ranking points are re-calculated for the genre contest.  For example, this week you still finished in 2nd place and you still scored 8 points towards the Action/Platformer genre.

At this point, since we're near the end of the contest, I suppose there's not much to play for in the genre rankings unless you're still not qualified for the tournament.  The remaining tournament slots will go to the highest ranked players from the Sports (American Gladiators) and Arcade (Bubble Bobble) leaderboards that have not already qualified.

There will be an interesting finale in the Arcade genre next week, where 2Legit28Bit leads by 2 points.  guillavoie is in 2nd place and could make a run for the top spot.  In addition, since both of those guys are already in the tournament, another player will qualifiy out of the players that are below them in the Arcade standings.  MCMROSE currently has the lead for the tournament slot (highest player not qualified), but surprisingly, EVERYONE on that leaderboard has a chance.  It should be fun to see how things play out! 

So anyone's name that is already on these two lists here:

BLOCK WINNERS

BLOCK 1: rdrunner
BLOCK 2: guillavoie
BLOCK 3: ookii_risu
BLOCK 4: 2Legit28Bit
BLOCK 5: dev(2)
BLOCK 6: TBD

GENRE WINNERS

ACTION/PLATFORMER: Krunch
ARCADE: TBD
BEAT 'EM UP: Miss Clawful
PUZZLE: GameboyRicky
SHOOT 'EM UP/SHOOTER: WickedWonka
SPORTS: TBD      

is already in it for some final tournament thing?