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

• 1 player only
• Play until Game Over
• Take your picture while entering your initials for your high score
• If you don't get a high score, take your picture after the game totals up your bonus points after your last ball (be quick with the picture)
• Highest score wins
• GENRE: Arcade

The contest ends Sunday, 10/5/14 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

UPDATE 10/5/14:
1,974,370

All right, here's my final update.  This was my best score that I had earlier this week, but I took the picture at the wrong time.  It was taken on the high score viewing screen instead of the high score entry screen.  If it's not acceptable, I have an alternate score and image for use below this, just in case, so I can at least get a participation point.  Either way, both scores suck, but still



(Alt. Score: 1,431,250)

Got 2,3 million on my third try. There are some crazy scores possible in this game for sure.

Man, fuck that tumbleweed! Finally figured out that I could shake loose, but that is a fine line between survival and tilting the table.

Also, the multi-ball is WAY too chaotic given the low clarity of the table itself


I mean, it's a better implementation than NES "Pinball" or "Pinball Quest", but this thing is still pretty rough around the edges

Rapid tilting is the only way to shake loose correct?  I believe that's how I've been breaking loose.  Also, I suck at pinball games so I won't be much competition this week

Yeah that was how I was able to break loose.

But it is a fine line between breaking loose and tilting the table.


Also, it seems like if you shake loose once it goes away, whereas if you run it over and kill it it keeps respawning indefinitely.

Basic strategy like with most 8-bit and 16-bit Pinball games:

Step 1: Hit the ramps to get multiball
Step 2: Keep the game in multiball as long as possible and try to score as many Jackpots as possible.

You echoed all of my feelings so far about this game too.  I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the clarity is terrible, but I'm slowly getting used to it.  Also, thanks for the tip on that damn tumbleweed, I'm finally able to break out of it some of the time.

I'm sitting around 1.9mil playing on an emulator... looking forward to trying this on the console to see how much the larger screen and better timing improves the results.

I couldn't have said it better, by far the most annoying thing in this game

18,634,150

My first attempt. Hopefully I can put some more time in this week. This was one of my favorite games at one time...

Now that I have tried it on the console it is kind of growing on me. I like that the difficulty manages to escalate as you do better.
Also, the bonus levels are neat, and the fact that you can take your multiball into the bonus stages is a cool feature.

Unfortunately I seem to be dealing with some distracting graphic glitches on my PowerPak... Need to do the resistor mod, just never got around to it.

I am sitting at around 8.7 million right now.

When you get caught by the oil that can destroy your ball can you shake loose from it?

Hey, if anyone beats the game (and contrary to AdamL's list, it can be beaten), be sure to let the folks in the Can NA Beat Every NES Game In A Year thread know.

It sounds like it's actually better for high score purposes not to beat the game, but...

Yes.  I never waited to see what the oil would do, I started trying to shake out as soon as it grabbed me.

Unfortunately, the oil has a MUCH higher chance than the tumbleweed of just dropping you straight down the middle to die after you shake loose.

NEAT!

That is a lot more depth to this one than I thought.

In my best run, so far, I managed to clear two of the races and two of the cannon games, didn't realize there were so many levels to them, though.

Has anyone gotten a mystery bonus yet? Twice I had it lit up but wasn't able to get the ball through. In the instruction manual it looks like you can possibly get a weapon as one of the mystery bonuses...

Yes, but I don't remember what it was, since so much was going on.

The only thing I'm 100% certain I've gotten from that bonus spot was the extra ball (maybe that is the jackpot target, as well, but with multiball I have no idea what I'm hitting )

Ok I got one, it was the kickback bonus. Basically it gives you the kickbacks on both sides even when they are not lit up. I'm not sure if its permanent or temporary though...

OK.  Yeah, I remember seeing "Kickback Bonus" pop up on screen, and then drained down the middle due to one of the black oozes before it did anything

Score updated... This is the type of game that I could play for way, way, too long..

Strong score!

I'd definitely like to crack the 10mil mark, too.



Any sense of how much further you could push it?
Is the Wizard Bonus (for "beating" the game) substantial?  Does anybody know?

Just curious, can anyone else not pause the game?

You have to hold start.  It is not instantaneous.