EAB/Lemon Super League 2019 Round 13: Minskies Furballs AGA

[john4p]

EAB/Lemon Super League 2019 Round 13: Minskies Furballs AGA (aka Minskies...The Abduction)

Starts: 12:01 October 13th Finishes: 11:59 November 3rd

Rules

Choose Story Mode
Play at any difficulty.
On EASY your game score is your total score.
On MEDIUM your game score x 2 is your total score.
On HARD your game score x 4 is your total score!

Post a picture of your score here with the score written underneath. Enter as often as you like. Only scores achieved during the round's time frame count.

No cheating of any kind (including score leeching) - this includes save states. No continues/passwords allowed. If you suspect anyone of cheating please let us know in private - anyone found guilty will be banned for the entire season.

Remember, anyone can join in at any time. Have fun and feel free to ask any questions you may have.


Download

- Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 3 Disk 4
- WHDLoad-installed


Extras

- Full rules and FAQ (incorporating the Hall of Fame)
- Results and Standings
- Lemon thread
- Live League Ladder


Results:



Live League table:

[john4p]

1,144

So this is what Puyo Puyo is? Seems identical to Dr Mario. Or was Dr Mario itself a Puyo Puyo clone?

[rexsu]

23,197 Easy (really?) mode

[malko]

Hum... It's not an easy game, but don't know what to say... And I really hesitated before posting...

As my Netbook is not strong enough to emulate AGA (did I say it already ? AGA games are slow on this Netbook), I have played the 4 disks set of the game in ECS mode (A2000, KS 3.1.4, 2MB Chip, 8MB Fast).

If we have side to side real ECS & AGA Amigas I believe game speed an IA is the same on both computer as it's the same disk set for both mode (on emulation on this Netbook, the speed is different if ECS or AGA is emulated) but as you john & lifeschool are the moderators of the competition, if you don't want to consider my score, I will listen to your position.

So here is my score in "story" mode & "medium" difficulty.
All Minskies rescued, game finished : 920'446 = (460'223 *2)

[john4p]

Nope, sorry malko.

But your 1.5GHz netbook definitely can emulate AGA games at 50fps.
Please just use an older WinUAE then the game will run at full speed.

Here's WinUAE 2.5.1: https://www.amigafuture.de/app.php/d...ail&df_id=3660

You can just rename this winuae.exe to winuae251.exe and place it in the same folder as your WinUAE 4+ exe.
Just use the 2.5.1 exe for AGA games.


Btw., impressive score!

[turrican3]

malko how did you set resolution and line mode ??

Originally Posted by malko

Hum... It's not an easy game, but don't know what to say... And I really hesitated before posting...

As my Netbook is not strong enough to emulate AGA (did I say it already ? AGA games are slow on this Netbook), I have played the 4 disks set of the game in ECS mode (A2000, KS 3.1.4, 2MB Chip, 8MB Fast).

If we have side to side real ECS & AGA Amigas I believe game speed an IA is the same on both computer as it's the same disk set for both mode (on emulation on this Netbook, the speed is different if ECS or AGA is emulated) but as you john & lifeschool are the moderators of the competition, if you don't want to consider my score, I will listen to your position.

So here is my score in "story" mode & "medium" difficulty.
All Minskies rescued, game finished : 920'446 = (460'223 *2)

[malko]

Originally Posted by john4p

[...] your 1.5GHz netbook definitely can emulate AGA games at 50fps.
Please just use an older WinUAE then the game will run at full speed.
Here's WinUAE 2.5.1: https://www.amigafuture.de/app.php/d...ail&df_id=3660
You can just rename this winuae.exe to winuae251.exe and place it in the same folder as your WinUAE 4+ exe.
Just use the 2.5.1 exe for AGA games. [...]

I quickly tried to emulate AGA with WinUAE 2.5.1 and it seems that the AGA version of the game runs now at good speed (rescued 1st Minsky). So I will give another go like this later.

Originally Posted by john4p

[...] Btw., impressive score!

Thanks (slot machine helps a little bit )

Originally Posted by turrican3

malko how did you set resolution and line mode ??

Hires & Double

[john4p]

Originally Posted by malko

I quickly tried to emulate AGA with WinUAE 2.5.1 and it seems that the AGA version of the game runs now at good speed (rescued 1st Minsky). So I will give another go like this later.

Nice - glad to hear!

[malko]

Here is my AGA go : 402'976 (201'488 *2)
Earned less coins and was less lucky with the slot machine
By the way, AGA mode has a score display issue during the game. The number of hundred of thousands is missing (in ECS mode all numbers are displayed).



Edit : Need to try to finish Worthy now .

[john4p]

Well done malko!

Don't wanna try HARD mode?

[malko]

Think I will give it a try. But if it's the speed of the lasts levels of "medium" it won't be a cup of tea

Edit: A tip regarding the slot machine : try to get three grapes (look carefully to get the pattern)

[turrican3]

Originally Posted by malko

Hires & Double

change it to lowres single and you should be able to play aga games.
Nearly all amiga games are in lores single (+or-320x256).
Some rare intro pictures are different.
Set it to lores single, believe me... even if it display a hires picture, it will work.
the only thing in hires (hires single +or - 640x256) is the first logo at the beginning of minskies all the rest is lores single.

[john4p]

^ True, that also helps a bit when you've got such a weak PC.



7,814

[john4p]

13,020


Press Up to activate the current weapon that gets displayed in the blue bar.

Dan found the manual using the waybackmachine:

Originally Posted by http://web.archive.org/web/20011225013141/http://www.callieu.demon.co.uk/agm/manuals/minskies.htm

Loading The Game
Amiga (compatible with all 1 meg chip machines)

Insert disk 1 into your internal disk drive & the game will automatically load. Change disk when requested on screen. (If you have an Amiga 1200 the game will automatically load the enhanced AGA version). The game will now load. If you have problems loading your A1200 version (and the game loads up in A500 mode) press the left mouse as indicated on the loading screen. To force an A500 version press the right mouse button.

Installing To Hard Drive
Load up workbench & insert disk 1. Double click on minski-1 icon. Double click on install-minskie. Instructions are given from here to install & load Minskies.

To save high score to disk
To save high score to disk you must put the 1st disk into the drive write enabled, input your name press enter & wait until Minskies title screen comes up. this will ensure a saved highscore. if you are playing from hard drive high scores are saved automatically.

Controls
The game is joystick compatible. select your options from the menu using keys or joystick.

LEFT/RIGHT cursor keys to move cats left & right or push left/right on joystick.

RIGHT Amiga & alt key to rotate cats left & right or push fire button on joystick.

DOWN cursor to speed up drop time pull down on joystick

UP cursor to select weapon from bottom select bar or push up on your joystick.

On two player mode you can choose the speed that the kittens fall just before you play.This is a handicap for good & novice players alike.The right cursor key or pushing right on the joystick will increase your handicap & left cursor key or pushing left on the joystick will decrease your handicap.

In game controls
F1 - Pause
Esc - Quit

At the bottom of the screen is a weapon selector. When certain blocks explode they have collectable weapons inside. Each one you collect advances the weapon selector along e.g. from left to right.

Half of the weapons (bomb,laser & ice blast) need to be positioned via the cursor keys or joystick & then right Amiga to fire the weapon or push the fire button on the joystick.

On the bonus fruit machine level, use right Amiga key or fire button to spin the reels. alt key skips the fruit machine level.

Quick guide (Timeslice guide)
The idea of the game is to line up 4 or more cats of the same colour. These will then explode sending a single cyberfish to your enemy that they must destroy. Depending on your performance at the end of each level you will be awarded coins to play a bonus fruit machine level where you can obtain extra points, or more coins (you must have a minimum of 10 coins to play this).

Multiple connections
Try to build up large amounts of similar coloured cats. When you have a reasonable stack of these, trigger off on of the connections. (the closer to the bottom the better) depending on your structure you will receive multiple connections. The more successful connections you achieve the amount of cyberfish dumped on your opponent.

Cyberfish bones
With any connection the enemy will receive the corresponding amount of cyberfish to hamper their stack. These are destroyed by simply placing a connection adjacent to it.

Concrete blocks
Occasionally concrete blocks are sent down instead of fish, use these to your advantage. If you create a connection next to them it will reveal a weapon pod. Once collected your weapon meter will advance one place.

Winner or loser?
The aim of the game in both single or double player mode is to fill the opponents third column. The opposing player must keep third column (from the left) as clear as possible.

Saucerful of secrets
We have designed each character within the game very carefully. Each character has their very own phrases, cartoon story,attitude & style, thus giving a wider variation.

A guide to your weaponry
Bomb - explodes the selected block & blocks adjacent to it.
Slowdown - slows down the speed of your opponents Xem-kittens.
Shield - this shields you against the enemies weapons & throws it back!!.
Laser - wipeout a complete horizontal line.
Speed - speeds up your opponents Xem-kittens.
Ice blast - wipeout a vertical line.

You can also use the 2nd fire button to rotate the blocks counter-clockwise.

[Shatterhand]

Is this basically Puyo Puyo ?!?

[john4p]

I've never played Puyo Puyo, but I've read that that's what it is.

It's also Arcade quality, really polished game.

[Shatterhand]

Yes, this is basically Puyo Puyo, but some mechanics are kinda wrong. You should be able to drop and rotate at the same time, and it takes too long for the blocks to fall when you eliminate them (also the "attack" blocks take too long).

Also the lack of counter-attack really pulled me off the game, this is the most important mechanic on Puyo Puyo and its lacking here.

Puyo Puyo also has none of those weapons and to be quite honest I thought they kill the flow of the game.

Framerate also jumped up and down all over the place, this was very noticeable on the slot machine... on certain levels it was very easy to see the slots spinning, on others they were blazing fast.

It's still a nice game though, I wish I knew it back at the time.

I played a single game on normal, but my wife took my attention at the middle of the match. Pretty sure I could beat the game easily withouy my wife nagging me (hehe), but I am kinda experienced on Puyo Puyo. The arcade Puyo Puyo is a LOT harder, I can tell you.



EDIT: Oh, and scoring comes basically from the slot machine, not the main game... so... bleh for a scoring competition on this.

[john4p]

Framerate appears perfectly stable here (using WinUAE's fast VSync mode). Guess you're on real hardware then. Another one of those Amiga games that WinUAE "fixes" like Lotus III.

Thank you for the insight.

Yeah unfortunately this is more slot machine than skill game when it comes to score.

[rexsu]

Originally Posted by john4p

Press Up to activate the current weapon that gets displayed in the blue bar.

Thank you, it's more easy with all weapons.

Good job Malko

283616

[Shatterhand]

I just noticed all the discussion about playing AGA version vs ECS.

I read the game loads better gfx on AGA machines, but its the exactly same game.

I was indeed playing on real hardware, but an A600... so, ECS version. So I guess my score is not valid, hehe

But this may explaing the hard fluctuation on the framerate... maybe the game was designed around 020 machines and it was just "hacked" to work on ECS, but maybe very slowly/jerky on a 7mhz 68000.