Hey everyone!  This week's contest is going to be Rolling Thunder.  Here are the rules:

• 1 life only
• Participation: 10,000

The contest ends Sunday, 11/27/11 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 and for all of you in the United States, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

For anyone who has participated in the weekly contests or participates in future contests, contact Benihana for your Contest Participant Icon.

One other note, the 2011 contests will be ending on December 18 because of the holiday season, so there will only be 3 more contests for the year after this one.

Argh, I got this game sealed for $30! Should I open this? This is one of my childhood favorites!

 

First score in, though it took me over a half dozen tries to get this far. Quick update, almost double my score, made it to level 4.

Score upon 1st death 48,680

Skip ahead a bit for much better score...

 

I'll give it a try, I've been meaning to play through this game for awhile.

I MUST give this one a run.
I love this game.

Score upon 1st death 50,940 117,280 157,240

Score upon first death: 185,330167,590 140,160 78,880

Made it to level 5, but then made a stupid mistake that got me shot by the yellow enemy. There's still much room for improvement.
I keep dying to those blue enemies that are worth 700 points each.
An okayish score to start. Made a stupid mistake at the beginning of stage 4.

Miss Clawful: That's an adorable and awesome wallpaper.
Edit: Small update to my score. Made a stupid error. I can certainly do better and might try again tonight after a relaxing shower.

this is why God created emulators (and Bunnyboy the powerpak)

Looks like we've both reached the same level, but you seem to know this game more, score is much higher than mine.

Yes, I love this MLP poster, was thinking a while back of getting one off of ebay, but instead settled for just nabbing a pic of it off of the internet for free, have had it as my wallpaper for quite some months.

I don't feel like using Emulators, it's like cheating.  Unless you want me to cheat. 

And the Powerpak is WAY overpriced.

 

Its only cheating if you do cheat, same can be done using a game genie on an actual NES. Personally I prefer to play on the NES, but unfortunately I don't have many games, used to, hoping to get back up there and more someday, then won't be using emulator at all for the contests. There was a time back when the contest was first started a couple years ago that I absolutely refused to play them on emulator, even if I didn't have the game, I just didn't play it that week, but I ain't missing anything now if I can help it, though have missed more than I wanted to, other more important issues at those times. For me actually its harder for me to play most games on emulator, my pc controller isn't as good as using an actual NES controller, so I can't play at my absolute best, but I can hold my own for most. Of coarse what you are probably thinking, even though cheating can be done on both emulator and console, on emulator its so much easier, therefore more tempting for those willing to do so.

I don't care; I use whatever. I just started collecting, so I don't have many games yet, and almost all of the games that have been presented in this contest I have never played or were completely unknown to me, so I wouldn't have thought to buy them before. I have a retrolink NES controller, which makes things feel more real, but I agree that playing on an actual system is a much better experience. I suppose the "save state" function could be tempting, but I don't even think about it when I play.

I'd like to try this one, but there's too much going on. Maybe participation.

We did, yes. In the end, this contest won't be much about who goes farthest in the game, but who uses their resources better for farming certain spots.
So far, I only found a reliable one at stage 1, but I am sure there are some at stage 2 and 3 as well.
Although I wouldn't farm at stage 3. The machine gun bullets go a long way at stage 4 to keep you alive against those pesky bats.

 

I hate those bats! Even after I lost my first life there, I kept playing to see what was ahead, couldn't figure out how best to deal with the bat except to reach a high spot to shot them at their level, tried waiting for them to swoop and shot them, but I ended up dying trying that. But I only got there once, so I'm sure I'm figure something out if I play it some more.

The way I deal with them is to get at the same level they're flying and machine gun away until they're no more. No other way proved to be reliable.
Once they're gone, I worry about exploring around and getting ammo at the doors close to where they are.

 

New high score, found some good spots to rack some points. I know I can do better, fell short of a level, and even when I do get back up to level 4, still gotta contend with some very difficult fire enemies and platforming over lava. This game is pretty challenging.

Score upon 1st death 78,990

See ahead for better score...

Nice new score.
And yes, the game is very challenging. I have to admit that I am a bit rusty on it. I used to be able to make at least to story 2, level 2 without dying.
Tonight I will try to get a new score and make it farther in the game.

Nice score Miss! I suck at this game, although its my first time playing it. I can't seem to get past level 2.... oh well I'll try harder!

Updated my score a small bit.

 

A small bit she says. Funny girl. Friggin' blew my score away!

I just doubled my score.
I am pretty sure I can get a much higher score today, once I am home.
There are some nice farming spots at level 5, so I will avoid farming at that point on level 4. It's too easy to die there.

Farming is allowed? 

Game has a time limit and a bullet limit, so farming should be allowed, as it was allowed at GnG.

We usually allow farming points when there's a timer in the game.

not very good but i qualify (I think)