Hello everyone and welcome to the latest installment of the Weekly Contests!  This week’s game is going to be Thunder & Lightning.  Here are the rules:
 
 

• 1 player only
• Play until Game Over
• Take your picture on the Title Screen.  Your score will be present at the top of the screen
• Highest score wins
• GENRE: Arcade

 
 
The contest ends Sunday, 12/6/15 at 11 PM NA time.  Your user name MUST be written or typed on a piece of paper and 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, slow motion functions, 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

OFFICIAL SCOREBOARD
Thunder & Lightning (Arcade)
Place	Score	Username
1	576,070	bearcat-doug
2	546,400	bertsampson
3	287,930	BriGuy82
4	259,590	arnpoly
5	53,070	skinnygrinny
6	46,010	barrelsAndRivets
7	38,720	ne$_pimp
8	36,750	zobber
9	34,170	ninjistar

287,930

Good thing you mostly only use the left hand for this game. My right index finger is jacked up.

I've got a raw spot on my right thumb and index finger from last week. That was your way of getting me back for the Punch Out and Ice Hockey contests wasn't it?

 

576,070 (Game Completed)

 

Lol, please... I know a 50% Bearcat effort when I see one. You could've topped that score if you wanted to. Just like I could've topped that score in Ice Hockey.

I wish that was a 50% effort! I might have had an outside shot if I had gotten another attempt or two in yesterday afternoon, but you still beat me by around 60k. I honestly thought you were going to break the million point mark before the contest was over and there was no way I was going to beat that.

 

I thought this would be brutal using the d-pad, but it's not that bad. VAUS support would have been great. Some of the backgrounds though... kind of hard to look at (especially level 1, after the plant splits / shrinks your balls).

Also, regarding emulation -- if there's a way to map the mouse to the d-pad, hopefully everybody will remain on the honor system and not use it! That'd be super unfair

The controls with the d-pad are pretty solid. I'm used to playing Breakout with the Atari 2600 paddles, so it was still a bit of an adjustment.

Did you know that you can run by holding down the B button? I'm not sure if you can use a mouse as a d-pad or not, but it doesn't seem like it would be worthwhile.

I _just_ learned about that. Can't wait to try it. I'm sitting on like a 7K score after two runs last night... lol

I wouldn't have known about it ahead of time if I hadn't read the manual first. You can run so fast that I barely even used it unless I had to. When I saw your post about potential issues with using a mouse, I was confused since the game would probably be unplayable if the controls were any faster.

 

This game is really generous with the extra lives and power ups...

I seem to get plenty of power ups, but not many extra lives. I must be playing it wrong.

I think on my last run I was up to 6 or 7 lives and made it to around level 18. I grew up playing Arkanoid and that game was tough as balls. This game seems alot easier in comparison.

It only goes to level 30, so you should have it beaten by tomorrow!

And as a matter of fact I think it might be possible to farm for extra lives... Maybe Guil might want to look into that one and update the rules if needed? I'm thinking on the levels where the turtle blocks respawn you might be able to camp out.

I would think in this type of game, you could camp out on any level.  Of course the turtle levels would get you more points, but you could do it on any other level for lives and I would guess you get points for power ups as well.
 

I wondered the same thing when I saw the turtles, but I just I assumed that progressing in the game would give you a higher score.

259,590

Second attempt

46,010

You must be a natural at this! I played for around two hours this morning and didn't do much better. This game really puts a strain on my eyes after a while.

 

My first attempt was 30K.    It clicked for me a bit the second time.  I'm not sure I'll play much more this week ... maybe another try or two depending on time.