Squad Challenge - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Atari 2600) Star Wars Day 2019 TODAY ONLY!

[Justin]

 

 

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
Atari 2600
Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE
Difficulty Level: Game 7, Difficulty B
Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / MAME / Emulation OK! ✔
Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST May the 4th, 2019 - TODAY ONLY!

 

 

OBJECTIVE: Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved on STAR WARS DAY, MAY THE FOURTH, 2019. Screen captures are not allowed as they are 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 or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following rules and game settings as delineated in the Squad Challenge. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed.

 

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: GAME 7, DIFFICULTY SWITCH SET TO B. Game 7 enables Smart Bombs and One Player to play at the next-to-hardest setting. Setting your Difficulty Switch to B enables the landing pad where you repair your Snowspeeder to be made larger.

 

FAIR PLAY: 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 no use of cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, Photoshop, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage is allowed. Everybody hates a cheater.

 

MORE: To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: https://forums.atari.io/topic/1219-high-score-squad-how-to-play/

 

MESSAGE: Welcome to our 59th Squad Challenge! THIS SQUAD CHALLENGE IS TODAY ONLY! We're celebrating STAR WARS DAY MAY THE FOURTH by playing Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back from Parker Brothers on the Atari 2600! Empire is a fairly straight forward game with Defender-like wrap-around side scrolling gameplay with a radar screen to show you your position within the game. The object of the game is to destroy as many of the Imperial Walkers as you can before they reach the power generator at the end of the battlefield -- or before the Imperial Walkers destroy your fleet of Snowspeeders. The ROM and Instructions are provided below. May The Force Be With You!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back.BIN Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back.pdf

[TrekMD]

Just something to get us started...

 

[Justin]

Good luck @TrekMD!

[TrekMD]

I'm going to need it.  I'm not good at this game!

[Atari Creep]

May the force be with you all!!!!!!

999 so far,

Playing on open emu just for recording purposes and using a usb game pad.

 

 

[Justin]

32 minutes ago, Atari Creep said:

May the force be with you all!!!!!!

999 so far

Oh man, you almost cracked 1,000 points! It's funny you say you always just put the cartridge in and play and never really did any game variations. I was always the same way. That's one of the reasons we change up the game variations in High Score Squad, the idea being that you can come at an old game from a new perspective and discover new ways to enjoy old games that may be played out. Ultimate Yars' is probably the best example of this! Ultimate Yars is INSANE and I never played that until last year.

[RickR]

1142.  Oh for the love of God, no one beat this score -- I don't think I could do any better.

RE:  The variations.  This particular game I would never go beyond the "easy" levels because even "easy" was too hard to me. 

 

[Atari Creep]

29 minutes ago, RickR said:

1142.  Oh for the love of God, no one beat this score -- I don't think I could do any better.

RE:  The variations.  This particular game I would never go beyond the "easy" levels because even "easy" was too hard to me. 

 

I'm coming for ya bud! 😆

[RickR]

This has got to be one of the best movie-based games on any classic system.  It's a simple game, yet it perfectly captures the feel of that first Hoth battle at the beginning of TESB.  A good lesson on keeping it simple.  A lot of other movie adaptation games are too ambitious, or the gameplay doesn't seem to have anything to do with the movie. 

 

[Justin]

25 minutes ago, RickR said:

This has got to be one of the best movie-based games on any classic system.  It's a simple game, yet it perfectly captures the feel of that first Hoth battle at the beginning of TESB.  A good lesson on keeping it simple.  A lot of other movie adaptation games are too ambitious, or the gameplay doesn't seem to have anything to do with the movie. 

 I agree. Keeping things simple is best. I always thought E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial should've been Elliot and E.T. flying through the air on his bike collecting Reese's Pieces like Flappy Bird

[RickR]

1 hour ago, Justin said:

 I agree. Keeping things simple is best. I always thought E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial should've been Elliot and E.T. flying through the air on his bike collecting Reese's Pieces like Flappy Bird

Oh man, this is brilliant.  Do you mind if I write this one down as a possible homebrew idea?  I'm thinking something that looks a lot like the Snoopy/Red Baron game. 

[nosweargamer]

3 hours ago, Justin said:

 I agree. Keeping things simple is best. I always thought E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial should've been Elliot and E.T. flying through the air on his bike collecting Reese's Pieces like Flappy Bird

That's a better idea than a maze game where you are trying to guide a drunk ET through a house, while at the same time guiding Elliot through a classroom avoiding frogs. (When Spielberg asked for a maze game, this must've been what he had in mind)

Sorry Rick.😔 I had several games in the 600-800 range, but then I was finally able to destroy the first wave, which gave me some breathing room (in most games an AT-AT reaches the end before I lose my lives. They move pretty fast in this variation). 

1664

 

Edited May 5, 2019 by nosweargamer

[TrekMD]

Wow, that's an awesome score!  The Force was with this one!

[RickR]

Yes, very good score.  My lack of wanting to try again is disturbing. 

 

[Justin]

12 hours ago, RickR said:

Oh man, this is brilliant.  Do you mind if I write this one down as a possible homebrew idea?  I'm thinking something that looks a lot like the Snoopy/Red Baron game. 

Sure! You can write it down. PM me if you start developing it into something. This is something I may release in some form. I don't know why HSW or Spielberg or anyone at Atari didn't think to do this.

[Justin]

 Congratulations nosweargamer!

 

Congratulations @nosweargamer on your high score! The force is strong with this one! Empire Strikes Back is our first Star Wars Day Squad Challenge! This was a lot of fun and something I'd like to continue every year, celebrating May the 4th with a different Star Wars game. Thanks for turning out to celebrate Star Wars Day everyone, I hope you enjoyed our May the 4th event! NSG achieved the High Score for this Squad Challenge with a score of 1664. @RickR took 2nd Place with 1142 points, @Atari Creep came close to breaking into four digits with a score of 999 points, and @TrekMD had a strong showing with 748 points. Great showing guys! Congrats to everyone who played! I'd like to encourage nosweargamer to post his new high score on the Scoreboard, and maybe this Challenge can continue on! 

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. Our current Squad Challenge continues with Night Stalker on Intellivision which runs through May 14th, 2019. See you there!

 

 

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK FINAL STANDINGS

 

1   NOSWEARGAMER             1664

2   RICKR                                  1142

3   ATARI CREEP                       999

4   TREKMD                                748

 

 

[TrekMD]

Congratulations, NSG!  Quite the score!

[nosweargamer]

16 hours ago, TrekMD said:

Congratulations, NSG!  Quite the score!

Thank you! I wouldn't have been able to pull it off without hitting some lucky, one kill shots. Those At-At heads move fast!

[Justin]

Glad you guys had fun! I'd like to celebrate Star Wars Day again next year with a different game!

[nosweargamer]

Perhaps a version of Star Wars: The Arcade Game 😉

It's amazing what they were able to do with the 2600 port.

[Justin]

30 minutes ago, nosweargamer said:

Perhaps a version of Star Wars: The Arcade Game 😉

It's amazing what they were able to do with the 2600 port.

Perhaps! 😎

[TrekMD]

Oh, oh, oh!  I have an idea.  We can play that "fantastic" Atari 5200 version of Star Wars: The Arcade Game next year!  😋

[Atari Creep]

This was a tough one. I kept trying to break into the 4 digest but just couldn't. Great job everyone!!!!! 

 

[RickR]

The thing for me was to go for the "port" shot when the Star Wars theme was playing.  Kill off a few of the walkers that way and the score goes up.  But lordy, it wasn't easy.