Well, just like NES and SNES, some games probably default to an 'Easy' mode where switching is necessary.

I guess we'll just have to figure it out through trial and error. If you're​ going for a score in a game that hasn't been done, play around with the different modes and see which you think is best? The more we play the more it'll come together I think

We had a chalkboard in our game room.   Very handy for scores and cheat codes since the internet wasn't a thing!

 

I'll add a column that specifies a game mode / difficulty setting if its different from the default of mode:1 difficulty:b/b

Son of a...

I didnt even notice this   

Default is the wide buckets (difficulty b). That is what is used by the AtariAge high score club, which is what I have been using as my template. Activision patches were awarded based on "any difficulty" 
 

Really? Now I'm curious of which I was using..

 

expert mode squishes your buckets to about the same width as the mad bomber... novice mode your buckets are wider than he is.
 

NA member 'jasen' has a high score well north of 4K. When I got the 1986 score, we were going head-to-head a lot, and I held the lead briefly. He is a beast. I'm sure others on here will post absurd scores too.
 

I may have been doing novice  




daaaaamn. Well I'll be gunning for that spot   my paddles were acting really shitty last night. I'm thinking about modding them, I've heard a few things about getting better potentiometers so I'll have to look into it.

I really hope this gets a bit of a following, I know some of the weekly NES folks like Atari too. It would make me very happy to see some good competition here  

Yay! My high score notebook has my Atari scores.
Centipede - 84439
Mouse Trap- 4238
Laser Gates- 38039
Ms PAC Man- 76340
Qbert- 41650
Demon Attack- 11335
Galaxian- 24420
Space Invaders- 3565
Spider Fighter- 96010
Phoenix- 47200
Coconuts- 3620
Kaboom- 12779
River Raid- 67520
Missile Command- 88390

Also have some 7800 scores:
Xevious- 257600
Asteroids- 104170
Mario Bros- 255390

are you shitting me?  

Haha It's for real  

damn!

Looks like my scores aren't long for the scoreboard if acromite decides to pick them off.

if anything it makes me want to try harder  

Since this isn't weekly/yearly is it possible to throw up top 3? But it's limited to one score per person per game. That way there is a spectrum and a way to note progress up the board. That's what Bert and I had discussed a bit. You also get a good look at people's stance across the board. Might encourage people to participate as well to just see there name somewhere on the board. 'I can't beat number 1, but I could do number 3'

I can do that

 

Who wants to marathon Laser Blast? The last time I played it I got to 700,000 before I gave up and walked away. Maybe if I clear my schedule I can actually beat it  

Oh man. Laser blast is such a boring game. How can you sit through it that long? lol. One of Activision's worst?

 

I've only played Laser Blast once and that was when I was testing carts to make sure they work. Don't even remember what the game was like. I'm guessing a Missile Command type?

I might hook the ol 2600 up....

According to Activision, "David Crane designed that game so that it could be beaten by the random flailings of a spastic monkey."

do it! Need more Canadians in here

It's kind of like the Desert Bus of space shooting games. You quickly fall into a rhythm of blam-blam-blam killing the 3 enemies on screen and moving on to the next identical screen, repeat that for 2-3 hours, and you're playing Laser Blast. It's not very challenging, but even if you're just OK at it, it hands out extra lives like candy.