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Squad Challenge - Xevious (Atari 7800)

Justin

By Justin
in High Score Squad

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Justin Gold Key Member

Justin

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Xevious
Atari 7800
Controller: JOYSTICK / CONTROL PAD / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE
Difficulty Level: EXPERT
Play on: Real Hardware / Dedicated Console / MAME / Emulation OK! ✔
Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST June 30, 2024
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 June 1st through June 30th, 2024. 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, FPGA 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, save states and hacked versions of this game are not allowed.

 

Difficulty Level

EXPERT. We're playing Xevious on Expert difficulty settings which provides the most grueling level of gameplay with an onslaught of enemy attacks suitable for adult players.

 

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 159th Squad Challenge! This month we'll be playing Xevious, the epic Atari 7800 arcade classic. Xevious is an excellent arcade title of a game developed by Namco, and manufactured and released in arcades by Atari in 1982. Xevious was an Atari 7800 launch title and was one of the games the 7800 was developed around by GCC during its 1983-1984 development cycle. Xevious is simply one of the greatest arcade games of the 8-bit era, and also one of the games where the 7800 outshines the NES. For many, Xevious is a top reason to own and play Atari 7800.

Xevious was once a "rare" and highly sought after game for me when I began buying new Atari games in 1993. I couldn't find Xevious anywhere. By that time, Atari no longer had the game in stock, and it was not listed in the Video 61 mail order paperwork. In a mostly pre-internet era, I thought I was one of the only people in the world calling themselves a "classic gamer" and information was incredibly hard to find. I would search through old issues of Game Pro Magazine, Electronic Games, and Game Players, none of which had much coverage of the Atari 7800. All I had to go by was the back of the Atari 7800 box, and the Atari Advantage posters which you would find inside new Atari games like golden tickets in a Wonka Bar. I've always loved shooters, and Xevious looked incredible. I should've called @Video 61 to ask for more information, or pressed Geraldine at Atari for more leads.

Finally one Saturday afternoon (much like this one) I was at the mall and went into Radio Shack to get coax cables for my setup. In the back of the store they had a phone book-sized Radio Shack catalog that you could order almost anything out of. As I was flipping through it, I found an area for video games in the back. The first thing I remember coming upon was a large section from Telegames, including the Dyna game system, which could play both ColecoVision and Sega SG-1000 game cartridges. The following two pages offered a large selection of Atari 2600 and 7800 games. I scrolled down the list to see if there was anything hard to find that I hadn't been able to get by hands on, anything that stood out from the normal faire. Impossible Mission? Nope. No such luck. But as my finger scrolled to the very bottom, right under Xenophobe was Xevious for $19.95. I could not believe it. I'm sure I acted way too excited in the store. I immediately went up to the front check out and placed my order. It was shipped directly to my house, and within a few days I had my own brand new Xevious for the first time, in the spring of 1995 when we were all eagerly awaiting Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation and Nintendo 64. I loved Xevious, and to this day it remains one of my absolute favorite 7800 games.

Today Xevious is easy to find and readily available to anyone who would like to play. Good luck to everybody playing in this Squad Challenge, I hope you all have fun out there. PDF Instructions are provided below. Enjoy!

 

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Xevious.pdf

Justin Gold Key Member

Justin

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17 hours ago, Sabertooth said:

32,620. This game is a real bullet hell in Expert mode.

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17 hours ago, TrekMD said:

18,620!  This game is tough in Expert mode!

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Expert Mode is a BEAST. But you guys are the best of the best — Atari’s elite gamers, still at this with 40 years experience. This is going to be an onslaught of a challenge, but if anyone can do it, it’s the High Score Squad.

I meant to include in my initial post — we last played Xevious in 2017. Looks like we had a fun time with it, but after seven years I wanted to come back and attempt this on the most challenging difficulty settings. Xevious is one of those games the 7800 was designed to play, with an intense amount of sprites swooping in from all sides. You might not get far, but it will be a hell of a lot of fun.

Good luck to all participants! :xevious_plate::xevious_solavou:

socrates63 Pretzel Member

socrates63

Posted
Posted

85,080

It always amazes me how my score improves with more game time. I know that's probably an obvious thing, but as a kid and even when I was older, that's not something I observed about myself. This is only my third time playing Xevious for the high score challenge, and I jumped from 50k to 80k. I spent a couple of minutes playing the 7800 Xevious a few years ago, and that's been the totality of my 7800 Xevious experience. Heck, I've logged more time on the coin-op Xevious.

This ol' 🧠 still got something left in the tank it would seem 😂 Dare I dream of breaking 100k?

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RickR Gold Key Member

RickR

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I'm planning on joining this weekend.  I am going to try on the modded PS1 classic, but I don't know if it can do difficulty switches in 7800 emulation.  If not, I will try to move to real hardware. 

Great scores!  And look at @socrates63 go!  My goodness. 

RickR Gold Key Member

RickR

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On 6/1/2024 at 6:59 PM, Justin said:

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PS - The emulator on PS1 Classic (Emulation Station) defaults to this mode, and I could not find any way to alter the difficulty switches.  

Do you all getting the highest scores use this one button mode?  It is my assumption that two button mode would be a lot more precise. 

 

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