larry@prism.UUCP (05/17/85)
/**** prism:net.games.vide / decwrl!miller / 3:05 pm May 85, 19783 ****/
<>
Its great to see this discussion on the net again. In the past its been
on net.misc and net.games.video
In addition to net.games, I am posting to net.games.video to see if
we can get any additional input from there!!
Since net.games.video has been relatively quiet for the past year, we
could consider a rename to net.games.arcade to include the full spectrum
of coin-ops????
Over the past few years I have been reconditioning, enjoying and
accumulating real arcade games. This started with one pinball but latest
count is 8 (from a high of about 16) various machines with another on the way.
Though home video's and computer games are good ,I contend that there is
nothing like playing a dedicated Arcade machine.
I presently have one Video, an Atari VIDEO PINBALL. (No, not the cartridge
but the "Arcade" unit).
My primary obsession is with the old Pinball machines.
I am currently reconditioning the following:
Captain Fantastic Bally 1976 electromechanical
Freedom Bally 1976 electromechanical
Wizzard Bally 1975 electromechanical
Rocket Ship Gott. 195x electromechanical
In addition to these I have two Bally Bonus 7's (these are old "payoff"
pinball machines....no flippers....and appear to be electromechanical
nightmares). These will be interesting as I have no documentation and
heve not seen them previously. Any information appreciated!!!
I have (and have worked on) some of the old shuffel bowling alleys but
determined that there is no physical way to place one in the cellar. :-(
Some Favorite machines: (in addition to the above)
Electromechanical:
Jungle Queen, A Gottlieb with 4 flippers, 2 sets of drop targes, 3 pop bumpers,
2 bonus holes. More of a skill machine than a speed unit.
Big Deal A Williams with 6 digit scoring, DC Coils for extremely fast
fast playfield.
Fireball Anyone know where I can find one :-) great machine..still
looking.
Electronic:
Scorpion Williams wide body. Great skill machine. Multi-ball with
numerous ways to try to beat it. (Just sold this to my cousin
and still visit it regularly).
(Yes, this is a Williams..not a Gottlieb..)
Present insanity has me looking seriously at purchasing a Mach III or
Dragon's Lair to interface to a projection TV and get additional use of
the laserdisc player for movies, etc.
Pinball, the all American Game..(no flames about Pachinko..I have one of them
also :-) ).
"tilt"
======= Ron Miller (Silver Ball forever)
l oo 'l
l* *ll Digital Equipment Corporation
l >< ll
l\ /ll {decvax, ucbvax, allegra}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-prism!miller
=====-!
Posted: Wed 1-May-1985 10:55 EST
To: RHEA::DECWRL::"net.games.video"
/* ---------- */apt@inmet.UUCP (06/04/85)
The initials in the first "maze" of Crystal Castles are those of the top-scoring player. Alan Taylor ...harpo!inmet!apt ...hplabs!sri-unix!cca!ima!inmet!apt ...yale-comix!ima!inmet!apt
nomura@uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU (11/16/85)
The game is Gauntlet by Atari. It is a 1-4 player dnd/rogue style
game with a fair number of (fixed) mazes. There is no goal except to stay
alive; scores are kept, but they don't mean much in a game which allows
you to continue play indefinitely by inserting money. You die when your
health counter reaches 0; you lose health by monster attacks and time.
Each level you are confronted with a massive horde of enemies.
There is also food to be found on each level which adds to your health,
although the amount of food does not increase with more players (which
sucks). The idea is to blast your way thru the hordes, work through
the maze to the stairs and descend to the next level. The first 8 levels
are in a fixed progression; after that you get random levels from a set
of perhaps 20 (I don't know exactly how many).
The game is well crafted, which is an impression I get of many of
Atari's games - most are original, compared with their previous offerings
at least, and have excellent graphics and sound. The negative tone in
my previous note is due to my annoyance with the other Atari characteristic,
their style of "pattern" games which seem designed to prevent anyone from
gettting good enough to play for a long time. I imagine that video game
owners hate games which people can master and play forever, but I consider
being able to do this a feature of a video game, not a design error,
and it is what attracts me to a game. Thus I was a Williams game fan
for a long time; both their video and their pinball were the best in
my opinion until they were bought out by Bally (*heavy sigh*).
Now their latest pinball, Comet, has the stupid Bally side drains and
the bumpers and lanes finely tuned to aim for them - the kind of game
where five balls can bounce around and drain without touching the flippers.
Atari put massive work into Gauntlet and various other games, but invariably
it is impossible to stay interested in them, as you either finish the
pattern (Marble Madness, Crystal Castles), or tire of feeding the machine
with tokens. I think it works against Atari in the end.nomura@uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU (11/17/85)
The game is a tour de force by Atari; unfortunately it is in classic Atari style: it is designed so you cannot "master" it and play indefinitely. In fact, this machine is an incredible coin hog. Here in C-U you pay one token for 600 health, which maybe lasts 2 minutes (or as little as a couple seconds) on levels below 8 where you are getting random levels from the same set of 20 or so. It is a blast to play 4 player, but you run out of tokens in a hurry.
peterson@convex.UUCP (03/12/86)
The music used by the manufacturer of Gyruss is indeed taken from Bach's Toccata an Fugue in D minor. Regards, Alan Peterson Convex Computer Corporation Richardson, Tx.
dcgoricanec@watnot.UUCP (dcgoricanec) (03/14/86)
Keywords:Centipede Millipede HiScores <chomp> After 2 years of dedicated centipede playing I have scored 999,969 points by simply shooting like hell for 90 minutes (ie. no tricks). I sacrificed about 12 men to avoid rolling over. Quite a while ago I easily scored 1.7 million in Millipede.