EAB/Lemon Super League 2016: Round 7 - Bally II

[DisposableHero]

Blimey, what a difficult game. Finally seem to be getting some sort of a strategy, hopefully this score can be replaced by a better one before too long

[Graham Humphrey]

Don't forget to write your score in your post too in future please, thanks

Hmm, all this makes me think I should have another go soon. It's tougher than it initially appears so I think I will need to put a bit more effort in. I quite enjoy it though.

[mailman]

4,801

[Graham Humphrey]

Just a reminder that we are now into the final week of this round, which marks the halfway point of the season and a short break.

Another reminder that the winner of this round will get to choose the year we will be selecting games from in the first round after the break. As long as that year is one of 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993 and 1994. So as Lonewolf10 is currently winning this round, as things stand it will be his choice so he may want to get his thinking cap on. Of course if anyone beats his score, please make a selection during this week.

Remember that it isn't an open round so games we have played from 2010 onwards can't be chosen and the game has to have been originally released in the chosen year to be selected (based on the HOL and Lemon databases) - i.e. if a game was released as an ECS title in 1993 and the AGA version in 1994 it would count as a 1993 game as that came first.

[Lonewolf10]

Graham,

Consider my thinking cap well and truly on


172,357

[DisposableHero]

11025 (sorry for the rookie mistake on my first post). By the way, I really like the game, and what a great choice for a challenge. The kind of thing that constantly makes you think you can do slightly better next time, and (almost) every lost life feels like your fault. Almost 25 years after I first owned an Amiga, I'm still finding good games I'd never played (or, as far as I remember, heard of) before.

[Graham Humphrey]

I think that's one of the really good things about this competition - we do play plenty of old favourites but now and again something different will come up and you'll get to check out something you may not have stumbled across normally.

As for this round, it's looking like Lonewolf10 will be getting a gold medal to go with his thinking cap as things stand. It's also increasingly looking like EAB's average score isn't going to be beaten, either, which will leave it delicately balanced at 5-4 to Lemon at the halfway stage - certainly the closest we've ever had.

[linesmachine]

I also like the mix of absolute Amiga classics and more random choices. Bally II was actually one of my favourites back in the 90s, my best mate and I loved Tron clones in all their guises and Bally (although obviously distant from the typical tron style) was played for hours.

As a huge RPG fan I've got more to moan about than most in terms of playing our favourite games, but obviously Dungeon Master isn't going to prove very popular as a competition game. but in the comp I constantly find myself haivng to play games I've never encountered, and loving them in the process.

[lifeschool]

Very Impressive Lonewolf! By the time I made my high score, the number of balls in the centre meant it got very tricky indeed. I imagine it is possible to get maybe 60K per level by say level 8? Is this about where you made it to? Perhaps 10?

[Lonewolf10]

Originally Posted by lifeschool

Very Impressive Lonewolf! By the time I made my high score, the number of balls in the centre meant it got very tricky indeed. I imagine it is possible to get maybe 60K per level by say level 8? Is this about where you made it to? Perhaps 10?

I have reached lvl 12 with scores of around 120K recently, but when I did that score of 172K I believe I made it to level 15 or so, but I was not counting. However, I do recall being shocked when I realised I still had 6 or 7 lives remaining when my score was around 120K during that game.

I usually get 90+% per level which is around 9,000 points per level - plus bonus points for trapping balls, but that is usually down to luck than skill.


Graham,

You should get a PM from me shortly with my year choice.

[lifeschool]

I think having lives in the bank has been the key to many games recently, like Vektor Storm, POD and yes even Volfied, its crucial to get those early lives and this gives confidence to ignore them and just concentrate on the game. If I am playing with one eye on the lives it gets much tougher to survive.

As far as the bonus for splitting balls, it seem then this is very small compared to actually completing a level. I had been going for 100% splits in each level for maybe the same 9k average score. If you say you got to around level 15, at 9k each, thats 135k, so the rest must be bonus score for splitting them - not much really.

[Lonewolf10]

I just made a video showing how I do it, only to get 190K!

BUT I got distracted by the football on TV and accidentally overwrote it, so it is lost - I checked the recycle bin in desperation

I will make another video tomorrow (when I have calmed down), but I hope to 'only' get around 120K which seems to be my norm now.

Regarding the points, on some levels whilst making the video I noticed that I seem to get around 10K just for trapping the last ball and getting around 95%.

[Graham Humphrey]

Today's the final day of this round. I am off out drinking most of the day so definitely won't be around to play again (and even if I was I wouldn't be in a fit state to do so I imagine). And then we've got a short break to get your thinking caps on for the winner's choice of year for Round 8...

[vagrant]

16,066
I failed to employ strategy of any kind lol.

Lonewolf that is amazing score mate well done
The game seems tough as nails to me!

[Lonewolf10]

Another Bally 2 video created today. It is available from here:

http://www.aliensrcooluk.com/public/Videos/Bally2_224791_lvl17.zip

It's an .avi file - 87MB compressed, 107MB uncompressed. No audio for reasons explained below. It lasts for 1 hour 20 minutes.

Please don't count it as my new score, as my laptop is not powerful enough to record the video without affecting the games speed - the game runs slightly slower whilst recording.
However, the video does do a great job of showing my gameplay strategy and how to accumulate big scores quite quickly.

[vagrant]

Thanks for sharing, impressive strategy! I didn't know trapping the pixels would finish a stage like that, figured you would still have to manually fill out the rest of screen

[vagrant]

btw Graham/Lifeschool, don't forget the huge score I submitted 3 posts ago

[Graham Humphrey]

It's all over for this round and indeed for the first half of this year's competition.

Congratulations to Lonewolf10 for absolutely running away with it. He has turned in a Bally masterclass! Great work.

Get your thinking caps on folks, for when the voting for Round 8 starts, we'll only be selecting games that were originally released in 1988.

I'll be back with some (ahem) 'interesting' stats soon, when I have updated the standings and the Hall of Fame.

[Graham Humphrey]

I've updated the Hall of Fame for those interested

We've played nine games so far this year (and a varied selection it has been), with no less than seven different winners. Two players have won twice (Acid and Robo-Sparkle), and the current league leader ED-209 hasn't won a round yet.

ED currently has a 16-point lead. LinesMachine's very productive previous two rounds has elevated him to the lofty heights of second place. His previous challenger Robo-Sparkle is still in third but has been inactive over the last three rounds.

Even though we've allowed previously played games to be voted for again, only two of those have made it in so far and the other seven have been totally new to the competition, which proves there's still plenty of new games for us to discover in competition play yet.

And finally, we've now played a grand total of 124 different games in the Super League. Which strikes me as rather a lot. Looking forward to seeing what the second half of this season will bring.

[vagrant]

Robo-sparkle & Shatterhand have gone AWOL - and I had money on them to win this year

Not sure I deserve to be leading at this stage either.. but I'm sure that will change soon enough