Squad Challenge - Space Harrier 2 (Sega Genesis)

[btbfilms76]

Ok gang, tried on an actual Genesis today just to see if the phone and backbone gave me an advantage, nope - I am Space Harrier. 
21,751,500

 

[RickR]

2261900

 

[Justin]

 Congratulations btbfilms76!

 

Congratulations to High Score Squad "Swag Master" @btbfilms76 for becoming our Space Harrier II Squad Champion! BTB blew the doors off this game and claims the #1 spot in our Final Standings with an insane score of 21,751,500 points. If submitted, this would be the #3 highest Space Harrier II score of all time on Highscore.com. @btbfilms76 is within striking distance of setting a new World Record, and from the sounds of it, BTB will continue playing Space Harrier II even after this Squad Challenge has concluded, attempting to film his gameplay on real hardware and set a new World Record on Highscore.com! Way to go on your performance, BTB! Even with Club VCS going on, @Sabertooth found time to consistently play and post higher scores for Space Harrier II, ultimately taking 2nd Place in the Final Standings with an incredible score of 2,312,900 points. Congratulations Sabertooth! It ain't quittin' with The Don @RickR as he was h ot on Sabertooth's tail, posting an impressive score of 2,261,900 points to take 3rd Place on the board. Rick made multiple attempts and gave it his all! "The Mayor" @greenween joined us for Space Harrier II and posted a highly respectable score of 1,876,600 to take 4th Place in our Final Standings. Congratulations once again to @btbfilms76 for almost setting a new World Record and incredible performance, and a huge congratulations to our wonderful community for being such a great group to spend time with! Did everybody enjoy playing Space Harrier II on the Genesis?

A few notes: We encountered a new issue in Squad Challenge that may become more frequent in the future. BTB's initial scores were submitted as screenshots instead of photos of his screen, and although this is just for fun and we want to be flexible, we also have best practices which ask for photos of your screen rather than screenshots as it's a little more difficult to manipulate your score that way. I know and trust BTB and believed his score, but with a score approaching a new World Record, it was important to have a photo to substantiate the score beyond doubt. When we talked about this, something came up that we had never had before. BTB explained he was playing Space Harrier II on his phone, using his new Backbone. Since he was playing on his phone, it was not possible for him to use his phone to take a photo of his screen nor was it convenient to use somebody else's phone to take a picture. As products like Backbone become more popular, and as more and more gaming companies like Sega release official, original versions of classic games and compilations on phones, it's likely we will encounter this issue again in High Score Squad. If you're unable to take a photo and can only provide a screenshot, please PM me first and we will work something out. We always want everybody to be able to participate and have fun in High Score Squad! Photos of real scores are always the way to go. If you're playing a classic game on a mobile device, it's also important to confirm that you're playing the original game and not an "updated" mobile version that differs substantially from the original release. As long as it's the same game, we're good! Usually compilations like "Sega Genesis Collection" etc. will have the original game and be fine to play.

Also, I had hoped both @Gianna and I would be able to post scores for this Squad Challenge but unfortunately that was unable to happen. Participation has been a little low and having 2-3 more players in the mix would make our friendly competition more lively!

A special "Thank You" to everyone here for always joining us in High Score Squad, and to @Sabertooth who is doing yeoman's work continuously hosting wonderful Squad Challenges and other fun events in our new Club VCS!

NOTE: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is a classic for the Atari 2600. Be there!

 

 

 

 

 

[RickR]

Great job @btbfilms76.  The score was fantastic, but I really enjoyed that theater projection of the game.  Wild!

@Justin, I have one suggestion -- maybe we should consider setting the challenges to be a little longer.  Maybe that might get more participation.  I'm sure like me, many have "life" taking up more time than expected.

In any case, this game was awesome and I really enjoyed it. 

 

[Justin]

Just now, RickR said:

@Justin, I have one suggestion -- maybe we should consider setting the challenges to be a little longer.  Maybe that might get more participation.  I'm sure like me, many have "life" taking up more time than expected.

@RickR Do you think in 2023 our Squad Challenges should go for the entire month? 🤔

You raise an interesting question that I've played with for years. Your thoughts on this are highly valued! When the forums were new we had a lot of activity, and new challenges consistently posted on the 1st and 15th. Then around 2018 I made it once a month to give us more time to play, but then participation dropped off and things got a little quiet in the forums. My analytics at the time showed that about 80% of our scores in High Score Squad were posted in the first 4 days.

I see other sites like AA offer new high score contests even more frequently than we do (that's not enough time to play and keep it fun in my opinion) and others like NSG seem to have fallen off and taken the concept to their own Discords. It feels like 2 Squad Challenges a month posted on the 1st and 15th give people constant activity and something fun to do in our site.

The other side of that coin is I too wish Squad Challenges went for the entire month so I'd have more of a chance to play, and was able to spend more time with a great game that I loved. It's like getting into a good book! I've had a very unexpectedly busy year outside of the site, and it's a real task having to keep up with organizing, scheduling and posting new Squad Challenges, in addition to maintaining Atari I/O. If we could do one big Squad Challenge every month, keep participation up, get people excited and still have a great time, that would be easier on my end - but only worth it if it was fun for all of you! The reason we're here is to have an amazing little community with fun events, and I don't want that to fade off.

We also have the wonderful Recharged Squad Challenges hosted by @Sabertooth in Club VCS which have been off-the-chart amazing, and really have the feel of the fun activities we had going in the first year or two of Atari I/O. Maybe it's time to run them both in parallel both as simultaneous monthly events.

[RickR]

I am happy share my opinion, and I hope others will chime in too!

• I really enjoy the @SabertoothVCS challenges and the timing there.  Those games are all new to me, so the extra time is helpful to have fun and get better at the game.
• I think we may want to consider different schedules for different games.  For example, 2600 and NES games are all pretty simple and familiar to most, so 2 weeks seems fine there. 
• Beyond the 8-bit systems, I think 1 month might be worth a try.  TG-16, SNES, and Genesis challenges are usually "new to me" and I have to spend some time getting better at the game.
• For lagging participation, maybe there should be a weekly "reminder" posted as a status or post to the challenge thread.

I think several of us have been spreading the word for challenges.  We've had new members join in and that's been great.  But it isn't easy to get people to join.  Everywhere you go, there are other challenges going.  Overwhelming!  There's one challenge on Facebook that is weekly, and that one is just way too much for me anyway. 

And maybe we can introduce some kind of incentive.  Like a random participant in a challenge can be tabbed to help select the next challenge game or something like that. 

 

[RickR]

On Space Harrier 2, I basically had only two sessions in which I played.  I could clearly feel myself getting better each time and I'm sure I could have made it to a few more of the bosses given more time.  I started getting the rhythm of this game!  I know it's on me, but that's all the time I could manage in the past two weeks. 

 

[Sabertooth]

Congratulations @btbfilms76 on a terrific final score!

I was glad to be able to play this one! I had only played the original arcade game and SMS port. I never played the sequel. It's really a lot of fun.

I've been diving into Atari50 the last few days and think that Turbo Sub on the Lynx has major Space Harrier vibes. Or maybe it's the other way around? The arcade games were both released in 1985.

[greenween]

On 11/15/2022 at 12:37 PM, RickR said:

On Space Harrier 2, I basically had only two sessions in which I played.  I could clearly feel myself getting better each time and I'm sure I could have made it to a few more of the bosses given more time.  I started getting the rhythm of this game!  I know it's on me, but that's all the time I could manage in the past two weeks. 

 

Sadly, I had the same experience. Very fun game. I just didn't have the time to really progress. I always enjoy discovering a great game that I missed out on. Gonna spend more time on this one for sure. 🙂