Justin

That's really good advice 🔥 Gates of Zendocon is truly one of the best titles on this system, and I believe one of the finest portable handheld titles of its era. Still working on my score! My new High Score: 2,169,200

Just getting started!! My High Score: 1,601,700

WOW @Duckie25 that's a heck of a find! Very cool!! Do the games feel complete? It's possible these are marketing samples of completed pre-release games. I'm not a Coleco expert but I think @MaximumRD could possibly have some insight into these

ABSOLUTELY!! I think Gates of Zendocon is an AMAZING game! Especially given that it's on a handheld from 1989

Welcome to the forums @Happenstance_Man!! Bumping "old" threads is absolutely welcome in our forums if you have an interesting thought to add! I've never understood the distain to bumping "old" threads if somebody has something worthwhile to say. I prefer having one definitive thread for a topic. There's only so many times we can open a new "ET" topic or "Asteroids" topic etc. I enjoyed reading this. E.T. holds a special place in my heart, and although I don't contend that it's the best 2600 game made, it's certainly not the worst and after reading the instructions a few times I really enjoyed playing it when I was young.

@btbfilms76 has an excellent overview of The Gates of Zendocon for the Atari Lynx. It's a great place to start if you're new to the game!

Gates of Zendocon Atari Lynx Controller: CONTROL PAD / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: Default "BASE" Game, Difficulty B (Press B To Start) Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST September 30, 2021 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 September 15th through September 30th, 2021. 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 Gates of Zendocon by pressing the "B" button to start, which puts us on the "Hard" difficulty level of challenge, and begins the game at the default universe "BASE". 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 108th Squad Challenge!!! For this challenge we're playing one of my favorite EPYX launch titles for the Atari Lynx - Gates of Zendocon! Will you survive Zendocon's challenge? You must survive! Your reward for success is the chance for sweet revenge - a duel to the death with the evil spider himself! Gates of Zendocon blew me away when it was first released in 1989, it looked stunning and played smoothly. I love how there is so much room to move up and down in the playfield. It's a tremendous side scrolling shooter, and the addition of portals, uniquely themed universes and gross bosses make this game stand out. (With a more detailed screen, its games like Zendocon that make me feel like the Lynx could've held its own as a full-fledged console that could connect to a TV the way the Nintendo Switch does today.) We're starting at the default universe (BASE) and playing on "Hard" difficulty, which can be achieved by beginning your game at the title screen by pressing the "B" button (Press B To Start). ROM and PDF Instruction Manual are provided below. I hope you all have fun, and good luck to everybody participating! NOTE: We're in the home stretch, wrapping up our supreme lineup of games for High Score Squad in 2021! Expect a nice mix of classic Atari home console games in the rotation along with games from other classic systems! Here's a look at some upcoming events: October: A TurboGrafx-16 game November: A Sega Genesis game December: 2021 F-ZERO Championship, plus a game for Atari Jaguar! Plus many more great games in 2022! (Schedule subject to change) Gates of Zendocon.pdf Gates of Zendecon.lnx

Congratulations Marco1019! Congratulations to @Marco1019 on winning our NES Donkey Kong Squad Challenge! What a tremendous score! This will be something to "brag" about on your next stream! Marco secured the top spot on in our Donkey Kong Squad Challenge with his score of 156,500 points! @AtariSphinx brought his A-game with a tremendous showing, taking 2nd Place with a score of 100,700 points! For the second Squad Challenge in a row I took 3rd Place - this time with a score of 95,000 points. I just couldn't break the 100,000 point mark (Donkey Kong is brutal!) but I'm going to give it another shot even though the Squad Challenge is over. We had a tremendous turnout for our NES Donkey Kong Squad Challenge! Another one of our best Squad Challenges in recent history! @Gianna @nosweargamer @TrekMD @Dinobot711 @RickR @socrates63 and @Atari Creep all showed up with powerful scores. Congratulations to @Marco1019 on his big win, and a huge THANK YOU to everyone whose been getting the word out about our community and inviting others to join us in High Score Squad. 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! And a big congratulations to our community for being such a great group to spend time with, I hope everybody had fun playing this classic NES title and I hope everybody enjoyed playing on the advanced difficulty settings. NOTE: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is for the Atari Lynx! Be there!

Trying to break 100,000 points. Donkey Kong is crazy difficult! 95,000

Working on improving my High Score 62,900

If we play "Ultimate" Asteroids in High Score Squad again we'll definitely be playing with Shields!

We don't play these "pillar" titles in High Score Squad as often as people would assume. I'm really liking playing these iconic classics on "Ultimate" difficulty settings, it spices things up enough to give these games a new challenge!

You're welcome! If you guys have trouble acquiring a ROM send me a PM. We haven't been including Nintendo ROMS in our NES and SNES Squad Challenges since Nintendo has really been cracking down. Donkey Kong for NES is common enough that it should be readily available to anybody who wants to play I spent years calling her "Princess Peach" which is dumb 🤦‍♂️ 🥴

There's a potential Donkey Kong kill screen coming up if anybody wants to watch

Donkey Kong Nintendo Entertainment System Controller: CONTROL PAD / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: Game B Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST September 14, 2021 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 September 1st through September 14th, 2021. 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 Donkey Kong with Game B, which provides "Expert" level challenge. 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 107th Squad Challenge!!! For this challenge we're playing one of the most classic video games of all time - Donkey Kong - on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Do you have what it takes to defeat bad luck with the barrels, dodge aggressive fireballs and cage that wily ape? ROM and PDF Instruction Manual are provided below. I hope you all have fun, and good luck to everybody participating! NOTE: We have a supreme lineup of games coming your way for High Score Squad in 2021! Expect a nice mix of classic Atari home console games in the rotation along with games from other classic systems! Here's a look at some upcoming events: September: An Atari Lynx game November: A Sega Genesis game December: 2021 F-ZERO Championship, plus a game for Atari Jaguar! Plus many more great games in 2022! (Schedule subject to change) Donkey Kong.pdf

Well I guess shields win hands-down! Next time we play Asteroids it's going to be on "Ultimate" difficult settings using shields.

Congratulations socrates63! Congratulations to @socrates63 on an outstanding score! Socrates secured the top spot on in our Ultimate Asteroids Final Standings with his score of 46,850 points! @Marco1019 had a tremendous showing and was just 40 points off socrates' tail, taking 2nd Place with a score of 46,810 points! I took 3rd Place with a score of 38,580 points. We had a tremendous turnout for our Ultimate Asteroids Squad Challenge! One of our best Squad Challenges in recent history! @RickR @Dinobot711 @chas10e @HDN @GRay Defender @Gianna @TrekMD @Sabertooth @btbfilms76 and @Atari Creep all showed up with terrific scores. Congratulations to @socrates63 on his big win, and a huge THANK YOU to everyone whose been getting the word out about our community and inviting others to join us in High Score Squad. As always I'd like to encourage @socrates63 to post his high score on the Scoreboard, and let's make sure this Challenge continues on! And a big congratulations to our community for being such a great group to spend time with, I hope everybody had fun playing Asteroids again and I hope everybody enjoyed playing on "Ultimate Asteroids" settings. NOTE: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is for the Nintendo Entertainment System! Be there!

I've really, really enjoyed playing Asteroids with you guys in our current High Score Squad Challenge! We're playing on Game 8, Difficulty A which are the most challenging Difficulty Settings using Hyperspace. I think Hyperspace is a lot of fun, but sometimes I'll be caught in a pinch and think to myself "I could survive this if I had shields". So which is your preferred way of playing Asteroids on Atari 2600? Flip, Shields, or Hyperspace? If we did this Squad Challenge again in the future, we may change it up a bit depending on what the results tell us!

Still coming in hot! This game is a lot more fun on Game 8 after playing on Game 1 for my entire life. Those tiny UFOs can get nasty too! Good luck to all of you! My New High Score: 38,580

wow @RickR those Odyssey 2 games you bought from @- Ω - are beautiful! VERY cool grab!

Glad you gave it a read and enjoyed it! Pretty wild stuff! The crazy thing is I found this link after watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off and seeing the Deak-Perera building in the background behind Ferris in the parade float / dancing scene, and wondering whatever happened to them. I had no idea!