Justin Posted July 1, 2022 Report Share Posted July 1, 2022 Gradius Nintendo Entertainment System Controller: CONTROL PAD / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: Default Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST July 14th, 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 July 1st through July 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 Gradius using the default settings. Simply Press Start to Play. 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 129th Squad Challenge, the second Squad Challenge for this year's Pizza Party Summer! Atari I/O Summer Pizza Party is now PIZZA PARTY SUMMER and runs from June 15th through July 31st! For this Squad Challenge we're playing one of the most definitive side scrolling shoot 'em up games of the 8-bit era: Gradius for NES! Is this where your love of shoot-'em-ups started? This Squad Challenge will run through July 14th, 2022. ROM and Instruction Manual are provided below. Good luck!! Gradius.nes Gradius.pdf Gianna, greenween and Marco1019 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted July 1, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2022 Please remember to INCLUDE YOUR SCORE when posting to High Score Squad! Gianna 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted July 1, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2022 Classic Game Room has an excellent overview of Konami's Gradius for the NES. It's a great place to start if you're new to the game! Gianna 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted July 3, 2022 Report Share Posted July 3, 2022 I'll start off. I have always enjoyed this game but I was never very good at it. Justin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted July 3, 2022 Report Share Posted July 3, 2022 Slight improvement but I'm not as good as I use to be at this game. Justin and greenween 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenween Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 The NES is still hooked up. I haven't played this one in years, so this should be fun! 🙂 Justin 1 "Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenween Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 Justin 1 "Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 Is the Famicom Gradius different than the NES version? greenween and Justin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 I still haven't been able to get off the first level. I use to be better at this game. Slight score improvement though. Justin, RickR and greenween 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 Imma keep trying. I know old age hasn't hit me this early in the game. Justin and greenween 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenween Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 I made it through the first level, but then died pretty quick. 73,000 Marco1019, RickR, Justin and 1 other 4 "Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenween Posted July 4, 2022 Report Share Posted July 4, 2022 There's a mountain with a gap in it on the first level. If you go through it you get 5,000 points. Just in case you didn't know. 🙂 Atari 5200 Guy, Justin and Gianna 2 1 "Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted July 5, 2022 Report Share Posted July 5, 2022 I want to get this game for my Famicom. I know it is on the NES Classic Mini but getting it on the Famicom would sort of complete the series as I already have Gradius II and Salamander. Sometimes I've went through that gap and got 5,000 points and other times I got nothing. The boulder suspended just before the volcanos? If you back into it just right without killing yourself you can nab another 5,000. MaximumRD, greenween and Justin 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenween Posted July 6, 2022 Report Share Posted July 6, 2022 Getting better. I managed to max out the upgrades and make it to level 3. Got hit, lost it all and then it was over . LOL 119,400 RickR, Marco1019 and Justin 3 "Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted July 7, 2022 Report Share Posted July 7, 2022 I use to be able to get to the boss on the first level...I can't even get close to that now. I'm still trying to beat my personal best so far. Justin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted July 14, 2022 Report Share Posted July 14, 2022 Oh jeez, I had forgotten how hard this game is. 43,100 Atari 5200 Guy, Marco1019, greenween and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted July 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2022 1 hour ago, RickR said: Oh jeez, I had forgotten how hard this game is. This game is brutal. Absolutely brutal. I'm trying to remember what we all were thinking when we first played this game when it was new. Going from Asteroids and Tempest to this is like immediately jumping into the deep end of the pool and learning to swim. My High Score: 93,300 RickR, Marco1019 and greenween 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted July 14, 2022 Report Share Posted July 14, 2022 8 minutes ago, Justin said: I'm trying to remember what we all were thinking when we first played this game when it was new I think it's a "fair" hard though. Every death feels like it was my fault. The patterns are always the same. It's a matter of learning what to do and then executing. Plus it's fun to see what's next. The VCS "Recharged" games remind me a lot of this...a brutal difficulty level, but it's not unfair and I do get better over time. Justin and greenween 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenween Posted July 15, 2022 Report Share Posted July 15, 2022 I remember getting very far in this game. I'm not sure if I ever beat it though. Once you lose all your upgrades and start with nothing it gets impossible. Justin and RickR 2 "Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenween Posted July 15, 2022 Report Share Posted July 15, 2022 Oh yeah. I loved it when it came out. Very hard but very rewarding when you made it to that next level. 🙂 RickR and Justin 2 "Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted July 16, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 Congratulations Greenween! Congratulations once again to "The Mayor" @greenween on becoming Atari I/O High Score Squad champ twice in a row!! We played an incredibly challenging shoot-'em-up game and everyone showed up with scores to be proud of. @greenween came in 1st Place with his outstanding score of 119,400 played on real hardware. I was hot on @greenween's tail, posting a score of 93,300 to take 2nd Place in the Final Standings. Legendary Squad Member @Atari 5200 Guy came in strong to take 3rd Place with his score of 51,000 even. "The Don" @RickR was not far behind and posts a heafty score of 43,100 points, taking 4th Place in our Final Standings. @Gianna gave it her all in her first time playing this game to post a score of 34,800 taking 5th Place. As I always, I'd like to encourage @greenween to post his new high score on the Scoreboard to make sure this Challenge continues! We'll be seeing you in the next event as Pizza Party Summer marches on all summer long! NOTE: Our next High Score Squad is Pinball for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Be there! Marco1019, RickR, greenween and 2 others 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari 5200 Guy Posted July 16, 2022 Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 I loved Gradius then and now. And it is a hard game. I remember trying every tool I had to try to help from turbo buttons to the slow motion feature of the Advantage to try and help. Gradius is hands just a hard game but in a fun way. Gradius II is just as hard. RickR, greenween and Sabertooth 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickR Posted July 16, 2022 Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 Nice job @greenween and everyone else that played! It's a tough game, but I really like the side scrolling shooters no matter what. Sabertooth 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabertooth Posted July 16, 2022 Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 Great job everyone! 👏 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid A Posted July 19, 2022 Report Share Posted July 19, 2022 I forgot to post my score! 😭 I was happy too because bit was my first time beating it too as well. I died on the 2nd loop. Oh well. Still had fun with it tho! RickR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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