Justin Posted October 15, 2020 Report Share Posted October 15, 2020 Demon Attack Atari 2600 Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: Game 1, Difficulty A Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / MAME / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST October 31, 2020 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 October 15th through October 31st, 2020. 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 Game 1, Difficulty A. Game 1 is the Default Demon Attack game that pits you against progressively more difficult waves of alien adversaries. The higher the game number, the greater the challenge! Difficulty A provides for a more advanced level of Aggressive Action. 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 90th Squad Challenge! Demon Attack is here just in time for Halloween! Can you fight off these space invading alien foes? Demon Attack is one of the most loved 3rd Party games on the Atari 2600, and is an absolute must-have for any Imagic collection. We just wrapped up two puzzle games in a row with Chip's Challenge on Atari Lynx and Wrecking Crew on NES, now it's time to get back to basics with a classic space shooter on the Atari 2600. Fire up those VCS consoles and get your joysticks out, it's time for Demon Attack! PDF Instructions are provided below. And a special WELCOME to all our new Members playing in this Squad Challenge! Good luck to everybody participating! NOTE: Another great Squad Challenge is right around the corner! Demon Attack.bin Demon Attack.pdf HDN, RickR, StormSurge and 2 others 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Creep Posted October 15, 2020 Report Share Posted October 15, 2020 YES YES YES YES, YES. I mean, um cool. I like that one. HDN, Sabertooth, socrates63 and 1 other 2 2 Don't just watch TV, PLAY IT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDN Posted October 15, 2020 Report Share Posted October 15, 2020 I haven't played Demon Attack in years. Personally, I'm more of a Phoenix guy. The only Imagic cart I own is Star Voyager, so I'll need to emulate it. If I get my Wii back before the squad challenge is over, I'll make sure to give it a go. Then again, I'm not sure if I can get it back before the challenge is over. It's been gone for a month and no sign of getting it back anytime soon. Sabertooth, socrates63 and Atari Creep 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted October 15, 2020 Report Share Posted October 15, 2020 I'm ready. MaliciousCarp, Sabertooth, Atari Creep and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted October 15, 2020 Report Share Posted October 15, 2020 Cool! I'm going to try to join. It's probably going to be whatever score I can get after a few minutes playing but, at least, I'll join. 🙂 MaliciousCarp, HDN, Sabertooth and 2 others 5 🖖 Going to the final frontier, gaming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted October 15, 2020 Report Share Posted October 15, 2020 Make sure to do difficulty "A". The game is pretty wild! Justin, Sabertooth, HDN and 3 others 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco1019 Posted October 15, 2020 Report Share Posted October 15, 2020 I'll give this one a shot; someone has to finish last lol. (I'm playing Space Taxi for the EverythingC64 High Score monthly challenge & that one also ends on 10/31. Talk about a palate cleanser!) MaliciousCarp, socrates63, Atari Creep and 2 others 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Creep Posted October 15, 2020 Report Share Posted October 15, 2020 4 hours ago, HDN said: I haven't played Demon Attack in years. Personally, I'm more of a Phoenix guy. The only Imagic cart I own is Star Voyager, so I'll need to emulate it. If I get my Wii back before the squad challenge is over, I'll make sure to give it a go. Then again, I'm not sure if I can get it back before the challenge is over. It's been gone for a month and no sign of getting it back anytime soon. Shoot me an address privately, I got your copy if Demon Attack. HDN 1 Don't just watch TV, PLAY IT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDN Posted October 15, 2020 Report Share Posted October 15, 2020 23 minutes ago, Atari Creep said: Shoot me an address privately, I got your copy if Demon Attack. Thanks, but I think I'm OK. I'm not a huge fan of Demon Attack or the Imagic catalog in general. I know, I know, kill me if you want. I could never see why everyone loves Imagic so much. Most of their work is just OK at best in my opinion. Then again, I haven't played many of those games in years, so when I get my Wii back I will need to try some of them out again. I always like to retry games that I didn't like before to get a new perspective on them. So anyways, thanks a lot for the offer, @Atari Creep, but I think that I am good for now. You shouldn't go through the hassle and cost of sending me a game that I haven't tried in years and am not sure what my opinion on it is. But is very nice of you to think of doing that. On an unrelated note, my dad used to play Demon Attack a lot back in the day on his Tandy CoCo. Atari Creep and socrates63 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Creep Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 20 minutes ago, HDN said: Thanks, but I think I'm OK. I'm not a huge fan of Demon Attack or the Imagic catalog in general. I know, I know, kill me if you want. I could never see why everyone loves Imagic so much. Most of their work is just OK at best in my opinion. Then again, I haven't played many of those games in years, so when I get my Wii back I will need to try some of them out again. I always like to retry games that I didn't like before to get a new perspective on them. So anyways, thanks a lot for the offer, @Atari Creep, but I think that I am good for now. You shouldn't go through the hassle and cost of sending me a game that I haven't tried in years and am not sure what my opinion on it is. But is very nice of you to think of doing that. On an unrelated note, my dad used to play Demon Attack a lot back in the day on his Tandy CoCo. No problem. Let me know if ya change your mind after playing it a few times. It's here. HDN 1 Don't just watch TV, PLAY IT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 I'll try to play. I can only use my tablet at the moment. The only problem with that is I have no camera to take pics with and screenshots won't work. HDN 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrekMD Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 OK, here's my score after a quick game... Sabertooth, Justin, RickR and 1 other 4 🖖 Going to the final frontier, gaming... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDN Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 Played a little Demon Attack today after not playing it in years. I used the same crappy online emulator site that I played Crystal Castles on. It runs the games at half-speed on a good day, and oftentimes they play even slower. I mean, I know my computer's old, but it's not that old. The 2600 only has 128 bytes of RAM for crying out loud! Anyways, I got a score of 4,700-something on the A difficulty. Since it's so slow (and I'm lazy) I'm not posting a picture as it shouldn't count. It's like I'm playing in slow-motion. It's a pretty fun game, though I think I still prefer Phoenix. Great game nonetheless, and I can see why you're all so excited that it's our newest Squad Challenge. I will have to try it again when I get my Wii back; I'd like to see how it actually plays. The Wii can actually emulate systems pretty well, especially the NES, Master System, and 2600. It runs the Genesis and Super Nintendo games fine, but I personally don't have a good controller for those games. Have you ever played Super Mario World with a GameCube controller? Total garbage. You have to hold your fingers like a crab claw in order to run and jump properly. Genesis is OK on the Wii Mote unless you have to use the A button (which is mapped to the A button on there). I don't have a classic controller, and I'm OK with these games not controlling that great as we have a pretty substantial SNES library and I can use the AtGames Genesis to play Mean Bean Machine and Columns III. Don't even try running N64 games on the Wii. Total garbage. So yeah, I enjoy Demon Attack. I liked it as a young kid, but for the past few years it was kind of "eh". I only played it a handful of times since 2014, maybe even less than 10. So I need to ask you all something: Does the spaceship sprite remind anyone else of the Yar or is that just me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 You should try loading "Stella" on your old PC. I know it runs fine on even the oldest laptop I have. You may have better luck with it and can then post your score! https://stella-emu.github.io/ I like Demon Attack a lot. It's a game I actually purchased back in the day from Toys R Us. The thing I really liked about it then was how the aliens (and their lasers) change every couple of waves. That was something new on the 2600. And that moment when you first encounter the aliens that split in two! WOW! Mind-blowing for 12 year old me. Imagic games offered something special for the 2600 -- games that had changing screens (like Cosmic Ark and Dragonfire), for example. And those cool silver boxes. Even now, I can appreciate Rob Fulop's excellent programming on Demon Attack. It's colorful, has very little flicker, and it gets relentlessly fast. HDN 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDN Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 Thanks @RickR. I tried downloading a few versions, but Windows didn't recognize any of the file types. Or maybe I'm just not doing it right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 https://stella-emu.github.io/downloads.html For Vista, I think you want the 32-bit .EXE version. HDN and Justin 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socrates63 Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 Starting off with 14,890. I remember watching TV ads for Demon Attack as a kid but never got to play it or any Imagic game. I always found the name of the game to be odd. It clearly took inspiration from Phoenix with the bird-like attackers in the early stages. I guess a game with aliens or space references were too common back then. I only learned a few months ago that Imagic was started by folks who left Activision. HDN, Sabertooth, Justin and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDN Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 @RickR more luck with that one as Windows recognizes the files, but an error message pops up when I run them. I think it might be Windows 7+. Is there a way to download an older version? 15 minutes ago, socrates63 said: I always found the name of the game to be odd. I have also found that odd, but I've always felt the whole demons in video games thing was just really weird. I mean, think about it: you have Demons Attack (of course), Demons to Diamonds, Breakdown! Blockout! on Odyssey 2 has "electronic demons", and I just know there are a few more I can't think of at the moment. Why not monsters or something? I'm not offended by the use of demons or anything, I just find it curious that so many games have these weirdo non-demons in them. They don't act like demons, just typical aliens or monsters or something that you'd see in a Space Invaders clone. They don't possess your ship or anything. They're just little alien dudes or something along those lines. They aren't nice alien dudes, but they aren't demons. The weird thing is that all these games from different companies had this same perception of demons as like its own material creature or something. Then again, Demons to Diamonds or Demon Attack are much better names than "Aliens to Diamonds" or "Monster Attack". If I had to guess, they called them demons because it just sounds so much cooler and more menacing. Speaking of demons, The Exorcist would have made an excellent 2600 shooter. socrates63 and Sabertooth 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socrates63 Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 The demon thing, maybe it's an influence of the popularity of D&D during the 80s? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I watched Exorcist on TV as a kid in elementary when my parents were out. That movie was freaky and scary -- I still haven't watched the original nor any of the sequels since. I'm not a fan of horror movies outside of the old B/W Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, etc. movies. I think the only scary movie I enjoyed was the original Nightmare on Elm Street which I believe we watched as a class in high school (can't remember why we watched it). HDN and Sabertooth 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 Delete the stella.ini file as per the instructions here: https://stella-emu.github.io/faq.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari Creep Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 (edited) 4250 just to get warmed up. Played on Retron77 using the Hyperkin Ranger controller. @btbfilms76 Enter me to win. <there, I finally entered. LOL Edited October 16, 2020 by Atari Creep HDN, Sabertooth, Dinobot711 and 2 others 3 1 1 Don't just watch TV, PLAY IT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDN Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 (edited) @Atari Creep I laughed out loud HARD when I heard "that MF has to die!" Absolutely zero offense taken, man. Plus, it's OK if you want to mention me by HDN on your channel. It's three letters, not like it's my full name and social security number. I'm happy to report that I have been playing Demon Attack today. It was running really slow, but I did really enjoy it. I might take you up on that offer later! I will have to try out some of the other Imagic games that I never used to like before, like Atlantis and Dragon Fire. And @RickR, thanks for the tip. I will try to work out Stella later tonight. Edit: @socrates63 I'm posting this here as I'm out of daily posts at the moment. General Computer Corporation. They made a lot of the early 7800 games like Xevious, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, and Food Fight to name a few. They also made the 7800 itself and hacked Pac-Man to make Crazy Otto, which later became the arcade version of Ms. Pac-Man. Edited October 16, 2020 by HDN Answering a question. socrates63 and Sabertooth 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabertooth Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 (edited) 6,365 for a start. I love Demon Attack but I've never been great at it. Imagic were the second group of Atari wizkids to go it alone after the exodus of the Activision crew. As a development house, they are just behind Activision and GCC in terms of quality output. Plus those boxes!!! Edited October 16, 2020 by Sabertooth Dinobot711, HDN, Justin and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 9760. Those little tiny donut guys are the worst. socrates63, Justin, Sabertooth and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socrates63 Posted October 16, 2020 Report Share Posted October 16, 2020 @Sabertooth who is GCC? I also love the Imagic boxes. I have the same ones except Solar Storm. HDN and Sabertooth 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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