It's a Knockout! 2019/20 Quarter Final: Deluxe GalAGA

[malko]

I use the silver ship (first tow levels) to have enough to buy good equipments.
However, as I have already said, waiting for this ship is boring. I don't want to have to do the same thing every four levels to get as many points as possible.
Therefore, I am against a rule change.
Waiting others LA players' opinion.

[john4p]

^ By "silver ship" you probably mean the orange money ship. We're only allowed to destroy 3 of them in total!

You'd only have to wait for a couple of hurry-up ships every 4 levels to get rank markers you need. But of course you don't have to...

Originally Posted by lifeschool

Thats basically it. Yes. For normal rounds which take 3 weeks and players have lots of time, its possible to loop the game a few times and get a big score. I seem to remember at least one player looped the game 3 times in that round, but of course the levels also loop on the high score table. They also mentioned the cash peaks out at 99K, and the high score breaks at 99.99M.

As this is just a small Knockout, I think setting a clear goal of 75 levels is reasonable, as then we can see comparative play from everyone, rather than some players running off, and going back to the easy levels after looping, where score is too easy and hardly requires any effort or skill. Of course this would mean my playthrough and score would be invalid, but I can submit a new score from the footage I recorded. How about players can take a screenshot on level 1 (level 76), and this proves they looped the game once and have a score up to that point?

Sounds good to me.

[lifeschool]

Ok its agreed that we play to level 76. I'll update the first post on Lemon and let everyone know.

Malko: As I tried to explain with my play thru on Lemon, the rule is that we can only take on the money ships (the big red ones), three times, and for me this meant not going for the rank up unless I did it as part of the game. The silver ships are the 'hurry up' ships, and I totally agree that it is boring to wait for them. I dint go for them after my third try with the money ship, but its optional. As John says, its there to be milked, but I believe just because its there doesnt mean its fair.

For this round I say it depends on your opponent, and its up to the players to decide if they are going to milk or not. For my group, I didnt milk, so if you dont milk than thats fair. In Johns group, he did milk, so Wolfadawn is going to have to milk to keep up with John scores. capehorns group seems not to milk, so they should just do that, and Linemachines group is through already as soon as he posts a score. So we dont change anything but it means Wolfadawn must try harder.

[malko]

Strange ??? I wrote 'silver' instead of 'money' ???? Looks like I have directly translated the FR word 'argent' to 'silver' instead of 'money' ??? Bizarre... (not good to talk to my mini-Godzillas while typing in a foreign language (UK) )

OK. Let's go for level 76.

Between yesterday and today I have made a "special" play. The game has no more secrets to me
And for you as well
Now, everybody should be able to score high

Deluxe GalAGA secrets :

01. Catching a skull will add to the chances that extra life and cash multiplyer bonuses appears!!!!
02. By shooting the hurry-up ship you can collect the rank markings that you are missing!!
03. When a smart bomb have exploded and the gems are falling down. You can collect them by holding down the joystick!
04. If you have a multiply when entering the meteor-storm you may get a lot of points
05. Catching a warp-icon in an alien stage with a bonus level. Will give you a perfect bonus score!!
06. Red, green and blue skulls. Will give you a very good weapon. Full fire power and the best ship speed!!!
07. When the hurry-up ship have appeared 8 times. A money ship will appear. Shooting this ship will give you a lot of money!!!
08. If you have a weapon and catch the same weapon. You will get some more firepower!
09. Completing the meteor-storm will give you 100'000 points and 1'000 cash!!! And if you... Hmm.. He he..
10. You can figure out what skull you have not taken by looking at the colour of the meteors in the meteor-storm
11. If you have caught two aliens and the scope is active. You can get a lot of points by bounching the aliens of the screen!!
12. If you have the rank of Admiral and you buy more rank markings you will get 1'000'000 points
13. Having a multiply active when completing the game will give you a lot of points.
14. If you have all the rank markings for a new rank. And than buy more rank markings. You will instead buy a new rank.

[malko]

Originally Posted by lifeschool

[...] Take a photo at the start of level 76, and post your score from there, should you get this far. [...]

I prefer to post the hi-score table in order to have all the points counted.
So when I will manage to pass level 75 (3rd boss) (was not far from it), on level 76, I will loose all my remaining lives without shooting the enemies. Thus all the bonuses points of my play are going to be taken into account.

[john4p]

I agree we should take the screenshot at the highscore-table. It shows the level you've reached.

Thank you for doing the work of buying all secrets, not an easy task!
You could have just followed the link in the first post to read them though (deluxegalaga.monroeworld.com).

Btw., I think you get the 10 million bonus that lifeschool mentioned by keeping the fire button pressed the whole time when flying through an asteroids field. A nigh impossible task.

[lifeschool]

I was going to say, all the game secrets are already known.

Ok, we are agreed on the level 76 rule. I've updated the EAB side to reflect this change, and to show the high score table where possible. Players can still submit screenshot like mine, but they lose the bonuses of course, which for me was half a million points extra.

You also get 1M for beating the final boss, 2M, 3M or 5M depending on if you have a multiplier at that point. This means you have to be very lucky to get one during the previous bonus round, and have lots of Extra Time bought to make it continue until you beat the boss - almost impossible.

[john4p]

@malko: Due to the new rule lifeschool's score is now 10M lower. So you just have to beat 8,244,915 (currently).

[malko]

Now that I can kill the laser ship every-time it appears (if no enemies in front) and that then I have enough money to buy grades... thus points... and that it seems that your tip is working John, my score will be better that 8M Thus, I think it's better if lifeschool gives another go to also have more than 8M .

[lifeschool]

I could easily get the 10M rank bonus to get 18M, but it would be a waste of time. If you didnt beat that, I'd continue with the knockout, and I would feel bad - I want a player to win the knockout. Secondly, Im not a huge fan of Worthy, I have some respect for it, but there are many who would quickly beat my feeble efforts. Lastly, Im busy now until the weekend, so I wont have time. Good luck with the compo malko.

[malko]

^ I have less time to play these days. A lot to do at work before XMAS' holiday... thus less mood to spend an hour or two in front of a game (was a bit different until 3-4 days ago).
Anyway, will try to have one more go before the week-end to try to beat your score. Otherwise, you'll have to be good at Worthy .

PS: You are also a player. Being the moderator of the Compo doesn't take away your playing skills...

[capehorn]

I had some really terrible attempts at this, failing to get the first money ship, and then dying repeatedly on level 5 if I did. Then all of a sudden I had an attempt that went perfectly. Enough money to buy plasma in the first ship, then enough to buy all lives/armour in the second shop. And a successful meteor storm meant that I could then purchase War 1 Plasma pretty early on. From then on I was able to complete the game without losing a life until the final boss. Unfortunately I got a demoted-to-ensign pickup on a late level (are they possible to detect?), so my bonus was rubbish.



20,779,675

[malko]

Beautiful score m8 !!

[john4p]

Not much more possible than that I suppose (without 5x multipliers).

[capehorn]

I think scores of 25M and possibly even 30M are achievable. For all the talk about hurry up milking I forgot about it for much of the game, only remembering it in the second half of the run so there are many more millions to be had there. I watched a bit of Lifeschool's longplay, he got 3x xC pickups in 3 minutes taking his cash to 18k! I didn't get a single one in my game. Imagine having 18k and buying endless rank markers in the shops, you'd make at least 1m in each shop in the game. I never had more than 4k. So I don't think there is anything unbeatable about the score. My previous score was 970, so this play really was me just winging it as I finally got a usable weapon that allowed me to progress in the game.

[Harry]

Originally Posted by capehorn

Unfortunately I got a demoted-to-ensign pickup on a late level (are they possible to detect?)

They have a special pink color, and if you look exactly, all other rank markers are plain, whereas this one is chessboard-patterned.

[john4p]

Originally Posted by capehorn

For all the talk about hurry up milking I forgot about it for much of the game, only remembering it in the second half of the run so there are many more millions to be had there.

If you didn't deliberately go for the hurry up ships right away then this score is surprisingly good. Maybe at some point you had 5x active when you got a bonus and just didn't notice.

[lifeschool]

Originally Posted by malko

PS: You are also a player. Being the moderator of the Compo doesn't take away your playing skills...

Yes but Im also running the show. Its wouldnt be very interesting for me if Ed Sullivan won ahead of The Beatles, one is the host and the other the star.

If I got through to the next round and drew yourself, john or capehorn in Worthy, there wouldnt be much reason for me to play it, and that would be my adventure over. If I drew LinesMachine or Juanma, I would feel I am knockout out my own team, and spoiling the fun.

Originally Posted by capehorn

I watched a bit of Lifeschool's longplay, he got 3x xC pickups in 3 minutes taking his cash to 18k!

Ha-ha, yes. Incredible isnt it! Its worth remembering that I scored all of that lot AFTER I had looped the game, so non of that score or money counted.

According to the secret tips you can buy in the shop, if you clear a wave without it stopping on the screen, you get a bonus. If you do this for a few waves and then the bonus wave, you get a super bonus. I never went for this as the clearances are risky for just 10K starting bonus, and you have to be a master to shoot everything as soon as it appears.

Btw, what are the numbers in the top corner of your images, some kind of level readout?

[capehorn]

Originally Posted by lifeschool

Btw, what are the numbers in the top corner of your images, some kind of level readout?

It took me a while to figure that out, but it turns out it's a clock, showing the system time! I'm using the linked adfs so I'm not sure why no-one else seems to have it?

[malko]

Originally Posted by capehorn

It took me a while to figure that out, but it turns out it's a clock, showing the system time! I'm using the linked adfs so I'm not sure why no-one else seems to have it?

Each time I have looked at these numbers, there were only 000 (three zero). It's also funny that you have four numbers...