I appreciate that and am glad to be accepted in the competing circle!  I made that comment mostly because before I started participating in the contests, I didn't think much of my skills and I think it's just something that stayed in my mind for a while.

Now, with that said, I just updated my score to...1,039,900.  Again, I never, ever played this game before yesterday and only have the cartridge since my brother bought it years ago.  I  can safely say this may be one of my favorite NES games of all time at this point (flame thower keeps getting better)!  Also, this may be it for me this week because just so much fell into place to allow this run and I'm feeling pretty burned out right now. 

oohohhh... You're lucky

1,017,000

239,000



Closeup to verify the "9":

Wow, two scores over a million points already! Great job guys!!

Edit: Make that three!

Great scores, Doug and Alder! The way this week is going, just getting over a million may not be enough for a top five, but it's still incredible.

Also, Alder, I did get extremely lucky. When I saw your score, I had to shove my eyes back into my head! I actually torched a section of captives on the mine cart because I didn't know which button it was for the lasso. I would have been behind your score if I didn't make it to the sewers on my final life and do a little damage there.

I'm not sure if I can catch Doug,  or beat my own score for that matter, but I will be making more runs for sure now, just probably not till tomorrow since I need a break!

Wow Doug, nice score. You're doing great, Egas. I've played this game before but only for about half an hour, so it's essentially my first time playing it as well. I always seem to carelessly lose the bulk of my lives early on in the game (before the ship boss) then go a ridiculous length on my last life.

Probably because you have the flame thrower. Man that weapon is ridiculous. I improved my score last night,but only by about 85k,so I'm not posting it. And that's the BC Doug type score I'm used to seeing. Good job man,I knew you could throw up a mil in this game.

Thanks! Taking a day off really helped. I'm probably going to have to try to beat the game though before Tom puts up the no death 4,000,000 point type run that I'm used to seeing.

Does this game loop?

Nope. I went ahead and finished the game after I took my picture and it just goes to the ending and credits. If someone does beat the game, they are going to have a crazy score because I hit select right as I beat the final boss and you get 90,000 points just for taking him out.

I'm guessing a no death run would probably put you in the range of 5-5.5 mil. I will definitely start on this tonight. I know the last few levels are loaded with tanks and rocket launcher guys,so the game definitely increases the difficulty towards the end.

The enemies seem to always be in the same places (similar to Contra) so I'm sure the game is beatable with enough repetition. A no death run would be one heck of an accomplishment though considering how crazy that last level does get.

Oops, that was a typo. I think it was 90,000 points for the final boss, so I'm guessing a really good run beating the game would put you over 2 million.

378.300

Can't believe I missed uploading a pic for last weeks Ice Climbers I think that was the first week I missed, even when I went out of town a couple times. Lame!!!

Updated my score. Man I'm so pissed. I was cruising through this game. I had 3 lives and 898,000 going into this level and a million points was right there. 2 early boneheaded mistakes and a third one later cost me my million point run. Damn it that's going to bother me until I hit that million. Ugh,I've never been so disappointed with a 900k+ score. Grrrrr!!!!

Damn, that's still really good!  I always seem to blow all my lives in one spot too.  But all my attempts in the last few days have been cut short because I lost a life or two way too early to bother continuing.

I finally managed to beat the game this morning. Just a quick heads up to everyone else, when you kill the final boss, make sure to hit select as soon as you do it so that you can get your final score. The game goes straight into the ending as soon as he goes down (similiar to Super Shredder in TMNT 3) so you have to be really quick.

Thanks for pointing this out, Doug.  Make sure you're quick to snap your picture if you manage to beat the game.  If you're worried about missing the opportunity to get a picture once the game is beaten, I would recommend taking a picture of your score while fighting the last boss.

I purposely died and continued right before I beat him so it'd reset your score to 0 so I could see how many points you get for beating him. You get 200k so you'll want to beat him before you take that picture. Hopefully by tonight my score will be right there at the top. And I guess my pep talk worked for you Doug,heh.

Thanks! I know it's a solid score,but the goal was to get a million so I fell short. I am going to hit this game hard tonight and most of the day tomorrow to get a million and beyond. I want to get back up to placing in the top 5. I've been slipping lately.

Damn Doug, that's fucking impressive. I know I have it in me to beat the whole game without continues, but I haven't been able to do it yet

I found out on accident that by holding A and B when you press start to begin the game, you can select your start point and difficulty. I wonder if there's any point differences for other modes? Is there any point racking in this game? I know the rules forbid it, but I haven't found a spot that you could really do it at anyway. Maybe the bosses spawning troopers could be a point racking spot?

And the game not showing your score after you beat the game is harsh. Couldn't you just start another run and press select to view the high score?

If you hit select right after you beat the final boss it will show your score, but you have to be really quick. I brought it to Bimmy's attention that you can start another run and view your score after beating the game, but I'll leave it to him to post his ruling on that.

Great job Doug. That's a heck of a run.  I can say for sure you're safe from me!

Now, for the other reason I wanted to post: I updated my score to 1,128,200. I'm really, really mad at myself since I got shot as I went to collect an extra life! Either way, getting close to an extra 100k is still something I can't be too disappointed about. I'm still going to be making more runs since I still don't know if even this is good enough for a top 5 by the end of this thing.

Updated my score again. I was hoping to take the top spot,but I played very conservatively and it's reflected in my score. Bah. I'm still pleased with my score even though I was wish it was higher of course.

Edit: To everyone else trying to do what Doug and I did,all I can say is be very patient and move slowly. I can't stress this enough! Charging forward is a lot riskier and it may present more enemies in front of you (and/or behind) than you would have had had you proceeded slowly and cautiously. Also some enemies will change position after a short while,allowing you to do things like possibly rescue a hostage nearby that they may have been guarding or giving you an opportunity to kill them easier. Make sure you destroy all three green helicopters that appear on the bridge on level one. They are easy and big points. (50k each) And lastly,try to hang on to the flame thrower as long as possible. It's an absolutely devastating weapon. It is a huge reason how I made this run....it and proceding very slowly and cautiously.

I'll second the bolded comment. For a "run and gun" shooter, you are better off playing it like Metal Gear and moving forward as slowly as possible to keep from getting overwhelmed by enemies. While I do prefer the flame thrower for level 3 (especially for the boss), it's not exactly a precision weapon and you can take out entire groups of hostages and lose some serious points if you aren't careful. I'd recommend the laser from the sewer level on since it's easier to control when the levels start to get more cramped and crowded.