Hello everyone and welcome to the latest installment of the weekly contests!  I'm getting things started a little early tonight and you guys wont be disappointed with this week's game.  It's the middle of October and it's time to get into the spirit of Halloween (if you haven't already) and play one of the greatest horror-themed games on the NES: Castlevania.  Here are the rules:

• Play until Life 0
• No looping of the game allowed
• Get as far in the game as possible
• The lowest score takes precedence
• If you beat the game, take your picture when the game starts over
• If you roll the score, take a picture just before and just after you roll it
• Furthest progression in the game wins with the lowest score taking precedence
• GENRE: Action/Platformer

The contest ends Sunday, 10/20/13 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.  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

I like the no looping rule, cause otherwise it would just be who got most time to play Castlevania this week. Also, perfect timing to get in the Halloween mood!

This'll be a fun one! I have an arcade style Konami cabinet with this on it! I've never beaten the game though, so it'll be interesting. Best of luck all!

Finally a game that I own! I don't think I've ever looped the score, but at least I can beat this one.

Yay, I love Castlevania!

Rules issue though: I recommend putting some kind of limit on the number of lives. It's really easy to score big points and large amounts of extra lives in this game. All you need to do is use boomerangs or holy water on groups of enemies (zombies and red skeletons come to mind, but there are many other spots). You get an extra life every 50k points and it's relatively easy to loop the score without even leaving the first stage of the game. The only limitation is that the game stops giving you extra lives after you loop the score at a million points. However, the damage is done, because by then you will have earned 20 extra lives.

Would love to play this week,but I'm quitting the competitions.

Would a low score contest work?

Dont quit,

i havent played in a couple weeks and saw something about the nonsense in last weeks contest but dont let some jackass stop you from playing games and having fun. participating is what makes the community contests so much fun

Thanks for adressing this issue right away.. We played with only 1-life last time so I wasn't sure how extra lives were earned. I'll pm Bimmy to solve the problem in the rules. As of now, I can think of two choices :

A: Just like Bear-cat Doug proposed, doing it for furthest in the game and lowest score takes precedence. Personally, I think that would be refreshing to play it like this, cause we already done it for highscore several times in the past.

B: We limit the use of lives to a certain number, and verify if the lives left match with the score (which indicates the number of extra lives obtained). I think there are a few 1up items in the game, and if so, we need to find a compromise about this as well.

Please, every opinion are welcomed.

dont quit Guts

i love having you in the competition!

also, i have never beaten castlevania, and this might give me a good excuse to do so!

I am more excited about attempting to beat it, than score for now

I won't lie here, score gets quite boring cause it would imply some repetitive points pressing in about each 'clock' segment of the game.

Maybe we do this one as a 1 life only contest? We haven't done one for a while and it could possibly cut down on some of the point racking. Thoughts on this?

Dear god, why? How masochistic do you think we are?

That aside, I'm OK with the idea, although slightly scared.

I think low score/progress would be good for this game, since high score was the focus last time.

I could probably get through the game in one life with some practice, so I can deal with that. But, everyone seems to be gung-ho with a low scoring contest, so we can experiment with that. I'll give it a shot either way.

I don't remember the game well enough to know this: do you get points for extra time on the clock? Because that never makes for a good low score contest, since it's optimal to wait out the end.

As always, as long as the rules are done well, I have no stake in how we play it.

Also, to gutsman: Man up and don't quit!

Given how frustrating the one life rule was during the Ninja Gaiden II portion of the tournament, I'd rather just see a low score contest. With the one life rule, there would still be tedious point racking involved and it only takes one small mistake to cost you an entire run.

This is a tough call. Every option that has been presented has its problems. Quite honestly, this is the kind of flaw that most NES platformers have when it comes to high score competitions. It's really difficult to come up with scoring system that is both fair and fun to play.

I would say that it would probably be best to do either the 1-life challenge or the low score challenge. Both are equally fair and equally fun. My one thought is that whatever you decide, the timer is going to be a pain. We are either going to be milking the clock down as low as possible while point racking or just running it to zero after every boss battle.

Either way it's going to be a grind, but like I said, most NES platformers are. Just pick your poison.

i would be cool with a lowest score/most progress type contest. play until life zero or one life only would be fine with me.

lowest score/most progress/one life sounds bad ass actually. lets do it!

I might as well get some practice in while the rules are getting settled. I gave it a quick run last night and I'm a bit rusty.

Wait, what? I haven't played the last few weeks, why? hope this is just some sort of joke.

You guys have spoke and it will be a furthest progression contest with the lowest score taking precedence. Good luck everyone!

Same with me, it seems as if I always get the current contest game right when the week ends

Updated 10/19: 113,060 (Game Completed)