Ok, apparently a reset at the end of a run isn't good enough. You have to turn the system off to reset the drops. I'm probably the only one who didn't get that

Also, damn, the temptation to progress through the game is overwhelming. I've always wanted to beat this, so I'm very torn right now on how to play it

Just aim to beat it man you will get a massive score.

Mages on stage one graves + torch + good timing == 8,000 points per life on stage 1.
Pretty simple mathematics.

I think I've seen them twice.  Don't know what I did to make it happen though

 

I will post a picture of how to do it tonight.
But to even the playfield again, here is how you do it easily.
Around the 1:25 mark one of the zombies will drop a torch. Pick it.
Now, find one of the round, inclined graves, move away from and throw a torch on it. Try to hit the tile right in front of it, so that you will get the flame.
That will hit the grave enough times to immediately spawn the mage.
Keep tossing torches there at a spaced interval to kill it and score easy 2K points.

Also, you either are playing for high scores or you are leaving stage 1 with more than zero lives.

 

You gotta hit the Graves with your weapon a bunch of times but just make sure to kill hime quickly or the risk outweighs the reward big time.

They appear again on the first part of the stage 3, but this time they are on the rocks.
Once you get the hang of how to use the torch, spawning them gets really easy. Timing the hits to kill all 4 of them in the run while defending from spawning zombies can get tricky, though.
Killing all of them and collecting the fixed 10K points king on all your lives is needed for a perfect score stage 1 run. If you do that, you can reach 150K points on the last few seconds of your final life, scoring a new one for another try, allowing you to leave stage 1 with almost 200K points and zero lives.

Interesting......

 

Welllll, if Makaimura is that much different than Ghosts n' Goblins, then it won't be allowed.  If it's more difficult than GNG, then that puts you at an unfair advantage with those using the NTSC GNG.  However, it puts everyone else at a disadvantage if there are more enemy spawns in the game, thus leading to the opportunity to score more points.

I'm thinking I'll just play for progress rather than score. Seems like it would be less stressful (not much...hah) plus I've never beaten the game and I would just be happy beating the damn thing.

Anyone want to guess what the participation cut off is going to be this time? 200K is my guess

If the Double Dragon contest was any indication, everyone will be getting over 300k and looping the game by Sunday.

I can always make to the blue cave area of stage 3 without dying fairly easily now as it is before the contest started and have beat the first loop so you are probably right.

The part where I start getting deaths is that goddamn fire bridge in stage 4

If the participation cut off is only a meagre 200K points, I will have failed what I am trying to accomplish here.
In about an hour I will post the precise locations that you have to hit the 4 mages graves on stage one with the torch.

With this and the guide showing how to spawn the 10K points king on stage one, I expect everyone to start scoring at least 100K points before game over on stage 1 in the next 2 days.

Well what did 9th place score last time?  I bet it was significantly less.  Granted the 2016 contest seems more popular than ever


Maybe we can have a little side action here:  I'm officially predicting that the cutoff for the top 8 players is 210,000

GHOSTS N' GOBLINS 2013 RESULTS
1st: 747,400 – guillavoie +11 points
2nd: 618,500 – Logo1285 +10 points
3rd: 491,500 – Bea_Iank +9 points
4th: 439,200 – rdrunner +8 points
5th: 409,900 – EoTN +7 points
6th: 232,500 – dev(2) +6 points
7th: 173,500 – sunsetflip84 +5 points
8th: 164,600 – CLAYB1RD +4 points
9th: 149,100 – Krunch +3 points
10th: 112,700 – gutsman004 +2 points
11th: 54,200 – fatalfuryspecial +1 point
12th: 53,900 – Razeak +1 point


GHOSTS N' GOBLINS 2011 RESULTS
1st: 531,800 – Bea_Iank +10 points
2nd: 514,000 – MrMiniMog +8 points
3rd: 402,600 – guillavoie +6 points
4th: 352,300 – RetroSnow +4 points
5th: 227,900 – Duncan +2 points
6th: 193,100 – Luigi_Master +1 point
7th: 145,900 – Krunch +1 point
8th: 144,600 – bimmy_lee +1 point
9th: 73,200 – sconley666 +1 point
10th: 41,900 – ookii_risu +1 point
11th: 36,700 – GhostNinja +1 point
12th: 36,500 – GhaleonsDeadMyFriend +1 point

I'm guessing around 150,000 for the cutoff and Bea will be #1, Skinny #2, and Brock #3.

We will see!
 

Early indications on this end are not good!

 

You usually suck to begin with, and then you've totally mastered the game by the end. I expect you to have looped it with a good score by Sunday.


 

Mage 1:


Mage 2:


Mage 3:


Mage 4:


There. Handing it to you ladies on a silver plate.
The exact spot to cause them to spawn and to kill them to score an extra 8K points per life on stage 1.

I'm with you on that. I've never beat it and if James Robot doesn't get top 8 this week I'll still be leading overall, and I've got a very comfy lead over Not So Super Jimtendo!
 

Bimmy you should create a special award for the Colorado trio. Winner gets a framed picture of their BFF Toxie passed out in a pile of games and Kraft Dinner

We will see! We will see me beating you this week, and I don't have any days off!