If you picked up the big treasure in Africa then you probably only missed a couple hundred thousand points.

Using Launchpad, even without the bonus stages, will add at least 1.5 mil to your score if you use him well.



The timer glitch is tougher than I expected.  I think I have snagged it once out of 4 attempts.
325k per level is worth the effort though, since I am sure that is what it will take to win.


also, tried some point grinding and it is extremely tedious and unrewarding compared to how many points you get everywhere else in the game.
Might add up to as much as 1 million points, or more, if you found a good place and burned up all of your extra lives.
But I wouldn't count on it.

I lost money somehow.  I know I was on pace for at least 12 Mil. and dont know what happened.

You unfortunately pressed on select to full your energy for the modest sum of $3 Millions. This 'select function' sucks.

This is why we suggested taking the picture at a safe spot in the last level.

Finishing the game is worth nothing in terms of points.

In my run last night I did manage to squeeze a big diamond out of one of the enemies in the last stage, which did tack on to the final point total.

I realize that in the overall scheme of things it is probably irrelevant, but I wanted to set the record straight!

Sure, I guess if somebody wanted to point-press the last level, on their last life, they could probably eek out another 5 or 10 gems.  But point-pressing is so slow and sporadic in this game that I don't think I'd expect it to result in huge score differentiation.

But even then, the fact remains that the final boss is worthless, so if you grind out your final lives point-pressing, you STILL might as well stop and take a picture at the beginning of the level of Life 0...


The real magic would be if the timer-glitch worked on the last level.

I've played this game for over 20 years and never knew that.  TIL

So many things I never even knew about this game until this contest. I played the hell out of this game as a kid (more so the GB version) and never knew about refilling your life by pressing select, the timer glitch, or even the Launch Pad/Gyro bonus levels. Mind = blown. I'll be posting results soon.

So I may not get to correct my goof up from earlier this week as my right hand sustained some pretty nasty burns last night. Nothing crippling or deforming,but definitely very painful.

I'm not sure about if we should consider the timer glitch legit. I mean, yes this is hard to trigger, but at the same time it is clearly an exploitation. I personally think that being swift while collecting everything should be more important then waiting last second to beat a boss. Any thoughts on this? This said, I'm not against allowing it either.

I tried it and it is pretty tough to pull off, but I agree that it completely nukes the pacing of the game.  (Though the same goes for point pressing yourself to death)

I think it should probably be fair game, because it is way more rewarding than point pressing, and less random (more skill based) way to differentiate the highest scores.

I'm okay with that, and I'll probably try it a few times to see if I'm comfortable to do it on certain bosses, but I don't think I'll count on this before getting a very high score without it.

All the bosses are comparably easy, it is just a question of how much level you have to traverse to get back if you screw up.
And if you miss it by having 1 second on the clock there is no second chance, so pretty high risk, over all.


Seriously wondering how you got over 13 mil without the timer glitch.  I am not seeing how that is possible.

Well, I'm simply a BEAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honestly, so far I haven't remembered everything I done in order to do this. This was several years ago, and I haven't touched this game since, so I need to find back some of the tricks I performed to attain that score without the glitch. In fact, I don't even remember if I used the glitch, but I'm pretty sure not.

1,361,000

I couldn't resist the opportunity to play Duck Tales at least once this week. About a year ago I played this game extensively to get all three endings, which at the time I had never done before. So I really don't feel the need to go to crazy this week, but you never know what might happen.

Also, does anyone know what changes in this game when you play on difficult?

Basically lots of health items are replaced by gems.

Also, you take more damage.

Thanks Arch... I read your post in the begining of the thread about taking this season off and coming back at the start of 2015 and I laughed because I was originally planning on doing the same thing. Didn't work out too well though.

Looking over the game list, I probably will sit most of it out.

I haven't played Ducktales in ages, though, so I wanted to see how I would do and look at the game from an angle I'd never really bothered with before.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to cut back on the playing time a little bit this time around. But l'm really intrigued by the list of games because most of them I've never played before. 

This is why this game interested me so much.  I've played this game hundreds of times, but for some reason I have never tried to get as high a score as possible.  I always just either played for a quick fun time, or I would speed run it.  I never even knew about certain things like the timer boss glitch before this week.  Unfortunately, whatever score I rack up tonight/tomorrow will have to stand as my score, since I'm going out of town until Sunday tomorrow afternoon.  I might try on an emulator, but I don't know how well a platformer like Ducktales will translate to playing on a keyboard.

Yeah, neither did I.

I'm sure my methods aren't purist enough for some people, but I realize that knowledge is power, so after I've played through a game a few times I do some research on the scoring mechanisms.

I don't think it is any different than football players studying video of the opposing team, or race car drivers studying a track layout ahead of time.  (as opposed to cheat codes which would be like baseball players taking steroids)

Maybe it puts an asterisk next to my performance in some people's books, but it still comes down to the execution and the gaming skill to pull it off.

Sadly, I won't be playing anymore since I have a wedding in Charleston, SC this weekend (leaving early tomorrow morning) 'cause I love this game.

7,937,000
Not too bad attempt, but I missed the one of the hidden treasures. I'll try again this weekend.

I decided against competing this week as I haven't for awhile. I do enjoy the game and have beaten it many times, I just prefer to not. Great scores so far guys!