Justin

Congratulations Marco1019! Congratulations to the legendary @Marco1019 on become our new Crystal Castles Arcade Squad Champion! This was a nice victory for Marco, and absolutely stellar scores all around! Crystal Castles is one of my favorite Atari titles, and one I enjoy most in the arcades. I had always hoped to see the Atari 7800 version released, but it's hard to beat the original arcade version, especially on the new VCS playing Atari Vault. I hope you all enjoyed revisiting Crystal Castles it in this challenge. @Marco1019 takes the top spot in our Final Standings with a high score of 181,989 points. Way to go Marco! Coming in 2nd Place is the relentless and adventurous @Sabertooth, nabbing 2nd with his incredible score of 167,462 points. "The Mayor" @greenween had a tremendous showing, and was right on Sabertooth's toes just a few thousand points behind, posting his final score of 161,516 points to claim 3rd Place in our Final Standings. "The Don" @RickR fought hard and posted a highly respectable score of 158,046 to take 4th, and YouTube sensation @nosweargamer rounds things out with 61,823 points taking the 5th Place title. As always I'd like to encourage @Marco1019 to post his high score on the Scoreboard, and let's make sure this Challenge continues on! Congratulations again to the incredible @Marco1019 and a huge congratulations to all who joined us for a great Crystal Castles Squad Challenge. I hope everybody had fun! NOTE: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is the 2022 Pole Position II Grand Prix on Atari 7800. Be there!

Pole Position II Atari 7800 Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: FUJI Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST June 14th, 2022 Nominated by @Justin Objective Play for the highest possible score racing the FUJI Track in Pole Position II on the Atari 7800. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between June 1st through June 14th, 2022. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility Anyone can join in. All players are welcome! Play Rules Achieve high score to win Grand Prix Challenge. Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. Difficulty Level We are racing on the FUJI Track in Pole Position II. Players will select FUJI at the title screen. Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 125th Squad Challenge, the 2022 Pole Position II Grand Prix! This will be our 5th Annual Pole Position II Grand Prix Event! This year's Grand Prix challenge will run until June 14th, 2022 racing the FUJI Track for your best possible score! Fuji is THE CLASSIC TRACK in all of Pole Position! It's a tough slog to the finish line, but with a bit of practice and some tenacity, most of you will make it to the end! Strap in, rev your engines, and give it your best shot! Even if you don't finish the game, post your highest score and show off your accomplishment! Pole Position is one of the most iconic arcade games released by Atari and was genre-defining for its time, setting a new standard of what racing gameplay could be like. Pole Position II was included as the pack-in title for the Atari 7800 and is often revered as the first game 7800 owners played on their new game system. For many of us 7800 gamers, Pole Position II was the first video game we ever owned! I have so many wonderful memories of playing Pole Position II at Chuck E. Cheese's with my family, shifting gears and whipping around corners with a cheese stick in my hand and a cup of root beer on the floor under my feet. It also became one of my favorite games to play at home and remains a wonderful memory on the Atari 7800. ROM and Instruction Manual are provided below. Good luck to our Racers!! Pole_Position_II.pdf Pole_Position_II.a78

The Level 3 Hidden Ramp Right at the start of the game on Level 1, run around the back of the "pyramid" structure to the very back / top of the playfield, and jump up. The game will award you 140,000 points and instantly warp you to the Hidden Ramp in Level 3!

And just for fun, @nosweargamer has an excellent overview of Crystal Castles on Atari 2600:

TNT Amusements has an enjoyable overview of Atari's Crystal Castles arcade machine. It's a great place to start if you haven't seen Crystal Castles in the arcade!

Let's get the word out about this High Score Squad Challenge! The more people participating the more fun the challenge! Spread the word and invite friends to play!

Crystal Castles MAME Controller: TRAK-BALL / JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty: Default (Start at Level 1) Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST May 31st, 2022 Nominated by @Justin Objective Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between May 15th and May 31st, 2022. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility Anyone can join in. All players are welcome! Play Rules Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. Difficulty Level We are playing Crystal Castles on the Default settings, starting the game at Level 1. You may use settings for any controller setup of your choosing, including Trak-Ball, Joystick, Keyboard and others. You will begin the game with a total of 3 lives (with your two additional lives displayed on the bottom left corner of the screen as two bears). Any remaining dip switch settings will be set to the default settings. Rewinds and ROM hacks are not allowed, however you are free to use your own cunning skill to find warps and other tips and tricks to help you win at Crystal Castles. Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 124th Squad Challenge! For this challenge we're firing up MAME and jumping into one of my favorite Atari arcade games of all time, Crystal Castles! Crystal Castles was released in arcades by Atari in 1983 and was memorable for its use of the Trak-Ball for navigating Bentley Bear through a 3-Dimensional maze world collecting gems. As this is a MAME game, it will be up to you to source the ROM and if you run into trouble I'm sure the community can help you out. Instructions should be obvious, Crystal Castles is basically 3-D Pac-Man. This should be an awesome game, when you're doing Crystal it feels amazing and it's like there's nobody else alive but you. I hope you all have fun, and good luck to everybody playing!

Congratulations Atari 5200 Guy! Congratulations to the relentless @Atari 5200 Guy on become our new Activision Barnstorming Squad Champion! This was an incredible win for Atari 5200 Guy, and absolutely stellar scores shared by all! Barnstorming is an absolute Activision classic, and I hope you enjoyed playing it in this challenge. @Atari 5200 Guy takes 1st Place in our Final Standings having scored a time of 0:54:05, coming within five one-hundredths of a second of achieving that Activision Patch-worthy score! UGH, SO CLOSE!! If Atari 5200 Guy only had a little more time! I created a special badge image to be awarded just for this challenge and unfortunately it won't get to be used.... yet?! Let's hope we can run this game again in the future and award another Patchworthy score! Atari VCS prodigy @Sabertooth was hot on Atari 5200 Guy's tail, taking 2nd Place in our Final Standings with an excellent time of 0:54.95. "The Mayor" @greenween is back once again, joining us to take 3rd Place in our Final Standings with a time of 0:55.27. 4th Place goes to High Score Squad legend @nosweargamer with an excellent time of 0:55.35. "The Don" @RickR achieved a terrific time of 0:56.41 taking 5th Place, and @Dinobot711 joins us again with a time of 0:57.47, taking 6th Place. @Gianna gave it her all and rounds things out for us on the Final Standings with her respectable time of 1:05.86 to take 7th. As always I'd like to encourage @Atari 5200 Guy to post his high score on the Scoreboard, and let's make sure this Challenge continues on! Congratulations again to the incredible @Atari 5200 Guy, and a huge shoutout to all of the fantastic flying aces who joined us for a great Activision Squad Challenge. I hope everybody had fun! NOTE: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is a classic Arcade game that we'll play on MAME. Be there!

BMX - California Games Atari Lynx Difficulty: BMX High Score: 743 May 3, 2022

BMX - California Games Atari Lynx Difficulty: BMX High Score: 608 April 30, 2022

Looking forward to you guys joining in!

Classic Game Room has an excellent overview of Activision's Barnstorming for the Atari 2600. It's a great place to start if you're new to the game!

We're awarding the Activision Flying Aces Badge as an achievement for all players who score a patch- worthy time of less than 54.0 seconds on Game 3 through May 14th! Good luck!

Barnstorming Atari 2600 Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty: Game 3, Set BOTH Difficulty Switches to A Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST May 14th, 2022 Nominated by @btbfilms76 Objective Play for the quickest possible time using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between May 1st and May 14th, 2022. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility Anyone can join in. All players are welcome! Play Rules Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. Difficulty Level We are playing Barnstorming on GAME 3 with BOTH Difficulty Switches set to A. These settings will provide for an advanced level of gameplay providing a suitable challenge to an adult player. Difficulty profile of these settings includes lower clearance heights of the barns, more geese, and 15 barns on a fixed, non-randomized course. Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 123rd Squad Challenge! For this challenge we're jumping into one of the greatest Activision games of all time, Barnstorming! Barnstorming was released in 1982 for the Atari 2600 and was designed by Steve Cartwright who also created Megamania which you may remember playing in High Score Squad just a few short months ago. NOTE: We are playing Game 3 on with both Difficulty Switches set to A. Special thanks to @btbfilms76 for nominating this game for High Score Squad! ROM and PDF Instruction Manual are provided below. I hope you all have fun, and good luck to everybody participating! Barnstorming.A26 Barnstorming.pdf

Congratulations Everyone! Congratulations everyone on a great game! California Games is one of my all-time personal favorites, and I hope you enjoyed playing as much as I did! For this Squad Challenge I scored 608 points and took 1st Place in our Final Standings. @AtariSphinx came in blazing hot with a score of 506, firmly securing the 2nd Place spot on our Final Standings. @Gianna gave it her all and takes 3rd Place with her score of 475 points. "The Don" @RickR takes 4th with his score of 468 points. Atari VCS prodigy @Sabertooth was hot on Rick's tail just 7 points behind, taking our 5th spot in our Final Standings with his score of 461 points, and YouTube legend @nosweargamer rounds things out with at 6th Place with a very respectrable high score of 382 points. As always, I will be sharing this high score on the Scoreboard, and let's make sure this Squad Challenge continues on! Congratulations to everyone who played! I hope you had a fun time and will remember the Atari Lynx next time you're packing for your next big trip! NOTE: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is an Activision game for the Atari 2600. Be there!

My New High Score: 608

341 "Awesome". Still working on our scores.

@MaximumRD This was your best video in FOREVER, Rob. This takes me back to your early videos in the late 2000s. It's great to see you happy and enjoying life

@btbfilms76 has a nice overview of California Games for Atari Lynx. He starts with BMX and goes over all of the events. It's a great introduction to California Games if you've never played it before!

Let's get the word out about this High Score Squad Challenge! The more people participating the more fun the challenge! Spread the word and invite friends to play!

BMX - California Games Atari Lynx Controller: JOYPAD / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: BMX Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST April 30, 2022 Nominated by @Justin Objective Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between April 15th and April 30th, 2022. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility Anyone can join in. All players are welcome! Play Rules Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. Difficulty Level BMX - We are playing California Games for Atari Lynx and selecting the "BMX" event from the title screen. Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 122nd Squad Challenge! For this challenge we're celebrating spring with a fun "extreme games" event that we can take with us on spring break or summer vacation! We're enjoying the fast, free-wheeling momentum of the BMX event in California Games. ROM and Instructions are provided below. Even though it's an Atari game, you won't have E.T. there to help fly your BMX over the hills. Points are awarded for jumps and tricks, with bonus points awarded at the end for time. Will you be "As Good As James"? california_games.pdf California Games.lnx

Congratulations TrekMD! Congratulations to our resident endocrinologist @TrekMD on becoming our new Nukey Shay Pac-Man 8K Squad Champion! This was a nice win for TrekMD, and a rare event to play a hack or homebrew in High Score Squad. @TrekMD takes 1st Place in our Final Standings with his masterful score of 70,370 points. Incredible! @Marco1019 scored big, taking 2nd Place in our Final Standings with a score of 47,660. @GRay Defender gave an awesome performance, taking 3rd with 45,340. @Csolo is back in High Score Squad to join us again, this time taking 4th Place in our Final Standings with his score of 43,200 points. @Sabertooth delivered a score of 39,060 to take 5th, and "The Don" @RickR rounds out our game with a solid 27,140 to take the 6th Place spot. I hope everybody enjoyed playing Nukey Shay's improved "What Should Have Been" version of Pac-Man for the Atari 2600. As always I'd like to encourage @TrekMD to post his high score on the Scoreboard, and let's make sure this Challenge continues on! Congratulations to @TrekMD, and a big congratulations to our wonderful Squad for being such a great group to spend time with. I hope everybody had fun! NOTE: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is for the Atari Lynx. Be there!

That's amazing. I would rather have this than any other Star Trek production that they've put out in the 21st century.

@RickR and @- Ω - at Atari I/O, with the hide spoilers button: