Hello everyone and welcome to the latest installment of the Weekly Contests!  This week's game is going to be Bomberman.  Here are the rules:

• 1 life only
• Start on Stage 1
• Play until Game Over
• No looping the game.  If you beat the game, take your picture when the game starts over
• If you get a Game Over, take your picture on the Title Screen
• No point racking allowed in the main levels.  Point racking is okay in the bonus stages only since the object of these stages is to accumulate points
• Bombing the exit doors intentionally to make enemies appear is strictly forbidden
• If you run out of time in any stage (excluding bonus stages), your attempt ends there regardless of how many lives you have in reserve.  If you run out of time in a stage, you must pause the game and take the picture of your score then
• Highest score wins
• GENRE: Puzzle

The contest ends Sunday, 12/7/14 at 11 PM NA time.  Your user name MUST be written on a piece of paper and 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.  No screenshots by hitting "print screen" on a computer will be allowed.  You must take a picture of your computer monitor.  There may be instances where this will be acceptable, but it will be at the discretion of myself and the contest organizers.  Also, the use of turbo controllers is forbidden, as well as any cheat codes, Game Genies, or save states if playing on an emulator.  Also, we will only be using NTSC systems for the contests.  The use of PAL systems will NOT be allowed.  Good luck everyone and have fun

Good game at last. However, I don't own the cart yet

I need to ask, but to clarify more on the point racking in this game. The secret power up item in each stage is worth 1,000 points on its own. However, like the exit doors, if you bomb said item enemies will spawn. You won't see nearly as many, but this would still generally yield more points than just collecting the item. Would this also be considered point racking? (please say yes!)

EDIT: Also, I missed the tidbit on taking your picture at Stage 1 if you clear the game.  I did, however, take a picture before exiting stage 50, as well as reset the game and snapped a pic of the title screen which showed my high score.  Will that be acceptable? 

I got an early start in this weeks contest because I'm not going to have much time during the week due to work, and it takes almost 2 hours to go through all 50 stages of this game.

Just finished playing for a little bit... I think I was at round 8 with about 60k points when I bombed the power up item by accident and it spawned the extra enemies. Like Balloon Kid, I would agree that this should be considered point racking as well. But my question for the judges would be that if someone was to accidentally bomb either the door or the power up item should the score still be allowed if you were to pause the game at that point and have that be a final score? Or should this result in a DQ for that attempt? I just think it would suck if someone played a game for an hour and a half only to accidentally bomb one of those two things and basically have nothing to show for it. What do you guys think?

Bombing the power-ups will be forbidden just like bombing the door. Bombing them by accident is one thing, but doing it intentionally is another. I mainly threw that rule in there to keep people from intentionally racking up points because if you get yourself powered up enough in this game, you can easily point rack for hours.

Also, if you are able to capture a picture of your score when you complete level 50, that's fine too. I mainly threw the rule in there to take your picture on Stage 1 if you beat the game to make it easier to capture the score.

I disagree on the point racking decision for bombing power ups. As far as I could tell, you only get one power up per stage so if you decide to trade that off for enemies then I don't see why it shouldn't be allowed.

Now if bombing the power up causes another one to appear, then that definitely is point racking.

I know at this point I'm outnumbered 3 to 1 on this issue and I'm good with whatever is decided. But I should have had a say in this!

I'm flip floppin' on this one. I totally agree with you now arnpoly. Since the power up can only be bombed once I don't even know how this could be considered point racking. If anything it adds another layer of strategy to the contest..
 

Alright, so after playing for a while I've found some other potential issues in terms of point racking. The amount of extra lives you can accumulate in this game can be ridiculous and in a way actually takes away some of the fun IMO. So whats to prevent someone from suiciding 20 lives to point rack? Also if the timer is running out someone could also suicide to get a fresh clock and start over instead of having a game over. I almost feel as though this game would be better suited to something like a one life only contest... Any thoughts?

Any way to make it just a lowest score competition? I haven't played it yet so I don't know if it tells you on the screen which stage you are on but at least it would take care of any point racking issues.

I think that might be the way to go on this one... 

I thought about using excess lives to a technique to point grind. (I mean ... an issue! Haha)

I had not considered using a suicide to circumvent the timeout rule, and that's definitely an issue as well.

A low score contest wouldn't work because the level number is only displayed between levels and all levels basically look the same so there's no way to distinguish.

I think, for now, a one-life contest is the best way around all the concerns.

Another option would be to keep the contest as-is but add a point bonus for each remaining life if the game is completed. I haven't gotten to the last stage yet but I'm guessing that bonus is going to have to be pretty steep to offset retrying the last stage over and over.

Yeah, I totally don't like the idea of point racking by using all of the extra lives. And the problem is that someone could be rewarded for unintentionally dying 49 or 50 time as well. So like you said maybe it should go the other way and a player should be given bonus points for the amount of remaining lives they would have. But how many points would need to be given to offset the potential amount of points that someone could gain by dying so many times? Thats the problem IMO. 

Just an fyi with the rules set up as-is for right now I'm at 2.9 million points...

I need to get to the last few levels to more accurately assess a good point bonus, but assuming there are a number of high point enemies to combo I'm gonna say 50K per life would work. But I think that could slide anywhere from 20K-100K.

In my run last night, I made it to I think level 42 with 2.5M points and 36 lives left. I had to leave the house and didn't get time to finish.

The amount of points you can rack up in the last 3 bonus stages alone is ludicrous. I don't remember off the top of my head but my play through Sunday (no accidental door bombings and only one accidental item bombing) ended up well over the 3 million mark. I think lives should be factored in, but I haven't a clue what the value of them should be.

Do we have a definitive answer on nuking powerups for points?

You are sacrificing a power up, so I think it should be valid, but I would worry about a potential 1up loop ( pretty sure I have snagged well over 50 k from 1 super combo)


1life rule is definitely the cleanest answer to everything, if we know the 1up conversion rate to double check people.

I like arch's suggestion best with 1 life rule especially if we can determine when someone would have gained an extra life, but I'm honestly fine with whatever the majority ends up being

I'm all for changing the rules to a 1-life only contest if everyone else is okay with it. If we go the 1-life only route, I will remove the rule about destroying power-ups.

I also agree with the 1-life rule for this one. This will be the most fair way to play it, and it will cut the length of each run so guys can have a life

On a side note, why do all the old members have sunglasses along their usernames?

So it shall be a 1-life only contest. I will make the changes in the rules.

I was also wondering the same thing about the sunglasses. Tis odd.

I guess we're just that cool...

Or our usernames are so old the server thinks they're new again

Game-related question: is the power-up order ever random? Or is it completely fixed?

Just curious if there is going to be a luck factor of ever getting the fire-proof upgrade before other players.
From my playthrough, it seems to show up somewhere over level 30.

Obviously it is the turning point in the game of virtual invincibility when paired with the trigger upgrade.


(and is there any way other than trial and error to figure out what the "?" upgrades do?)

I was wondering the same thing about the randomness of the power-ups but I haven't had that many attempts to really figure it out. I think they might be tiered based on level progression then random... 

Well I peeked at an FAQ so I have answers!

Powerups are fixed, no randomness.

The "?" powerup is temporary invicibility.  I should clarify it is invicibility from both enemies and bombs.

As a side note, I was NOT aware that the fire-proof suit is permanent.  Grabbing it changed the music just like when you grab the "?" so I assumed it was temporary, but I believe the fire-proof suit does carry over between stages.

Anyway I'm just glad we figured out a clear direction for the contest!  I'm kind of happy this is a 1-life challenge now, even though I don't have much time set aside to play this week.

Fire-proof suit is permanent until you are killed, I think, like the trigger and no-clipping upgrades.

So for our contest, it is "permanent".