FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

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Mr_Staypuft
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FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by Mr_Staypuft »

Sure, it's one of the oldest shmups around, but it's still very playable today.

Have you seen King of Kong?

Recently, there was some movement in the world record for Galaga,
and I think you'll enjoy reading the story of Phil Day, who was hoping to become No. 1.

Image

It's not a short read - but I've tried to pack in as much insight & interest as I could.
If anyone has feedback - I'd love to hear it! :)

LINK: "Fighter Captured" - the fight for the world Galaga record

PS: If nothing else, by the end of the article he ends the debate as to how Galaga is PRONOUNCED! :lol: :evil: :lol:
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orange
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by orange »

i'll watch this later i have played a lot of galaga
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nikkos010
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by nikkos010 »

whydja link to the digg blurb and not the actual article?
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orange
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by orange »

woah thought this was a documentary or something since i saw "king of kong" haha
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Dave_K.
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by Dave_K. »

Nice article, and pretty cool looking cab!
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TrevHead (TVR)
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by TrevHead (TVR) »

nice artical and very sportsman-like, totally different to Billy the evil overlord of donkey kong
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spadgy
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by spadgy »

Nice little lighthearted read - I enjoyed the personal angle it took. And this...

and Bruce came up with a special rule. Whenever a Michael Jackson song came on, they both had to abandon the game, and head to the dancefloor. Well, at least it got Phil off the machine…

We need some similar kind of rule in Casino arcade in London.
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DEL
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by DEL »

Its a strange record to go for, as it counter stops at 999,990 and I guess you've then got to somehow count from there...?
A Nick post;
depending on the machine, 1 quarter can last for hours, or until im bored. i usually get bored at 1 million. once you get to a certain point, the rate at which you get a free man and how often you die is disproportionate, and my ships can't fit across the screen. i've had machines go out of whack at certain points past a million. on the stand up machines, the score never shows 1 or 2 million, it flips over to 000001. im not sure about the cocktail or console games. some machines don't shoot initially on board 10. some do. i've played alot of diff. versions.
Another postby Don;
I played galaga quite a bit back years ago in the arcades. The best I ever did was 255 stages cleared and my score was 3,292,090. Stage 255 is a challenging stage and then no aliens would appear on stage 256, only was my twin ships. This was a standup arcade machine at a putt-putt golf and games. The machine gave an extra ship @ 20,000 and every 70,000 upto 980,000 and then it stopped giving extras.
A confusing game to go for score on :roll: .
I simply counter stopped it by doing the 255 thing.
Mr_Staypuft
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by Mr_Staypuft »

nikkos010 wrote:whydja link to the digg blurb and not the actual article?
Nikkos, I did that because
(a) I spent many, many hours on the article, and if there's a chance that people might "digg" it, then others might read it
(b) My blog is non-profit. No ads. I do it for the love of coinop gaming.
So I can't afford to buy google ads to get traffic. But I can use things like Digg to hopefully get a few visitors.
DEL wrote:Its a strange record to go for, as it counter stops at 999,990 and I guess you've then got to somehow count from there...?
A Nick post;
depending on the machine, 1 quarter can last for hours, or until im bored. i usually get bored at 1 million. once you get to a certain point, the rate at which you get a free man and how often you die is disproportionate, and my ships can't fit across the screen.(snip)
Another postby Don; (snip)
A confusing game to go for score on :roll: .
I simply counter stopped it by doing the 255 thing.
Galaga's behaviour varies greatly - depending on the dip switch settings.

Phil plays the "tournament" settings so that you *don't* get extra lives.
You get 5 lives at the start, and that's it.
(So what Nick describes above, doesn't happen)

The other setting is "marathon" - where you *do* get extra lives.
Current record for marathon is about 15mil - ie approx TEN HOURS gameplay.
(urgh, don't wanna think about how you manage that, in terms of bodily functions) :!:
boagman
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by boagman »

Mr_Staypuft wrote:The other setting is "marathon" - where you *do* get extra lives.
Current record for marathon is about 15mil - ie approx TEN HOURS gameplay.
(urgh, don't wanna think about how you manage that, in terms of bodily functions) :!:
Actually, if you're good enough, I would think that one could manage. It takes time for a ship to be destroyed, the game to "reboot" from that point, and progress, and if you were good enough to have the ships lining up at the bottom of the screen, technically speaking you'd be able to have at least a couple of bathroom breaks built into that time, and eating would be far less of an issue, too. When you can "safely" leave the game and know that you're only going to be leaving, say, four or five ships to their demise as a result of sitting on the throne, it's doable.

Of course, for "lesser" jobs, there's always the cups...
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GaijinPunch
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by GaijinPunch »

PS: If nothing else, by the end of the article he ends the debate as to how Galaga is PRONOUNCED! :lol: :evil: :lol:
Yes, and ends it incorrectly. Unless someone can find a source that Namco tried to emulate, the typical katakana->romaji prounciation from ギャラガ would stand.

Cool story, nonetheless.
RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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spadgy
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by spadgy »

I've been made curious about coffee by this article - could it really impair your shmupping ability? I drink a shit load, and I'm crap at the shooters. Based on that massive pool of evidence, perhaps I should quit...
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sikraiken
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by sikraiken »

DEL wrote:Its a strange record to go for, as it counter stops at 999,990 and I guess you've then got to somehow count from there...?
2nd player goes up to 9,999,990, and anyway, it doesn't counter stop, it just rolls over. Pretty easy to keep track of with a video camera.



Game stops giving extras no matter the lives settings (unless you have it set to none) at 1M I believe.
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DEL
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by DEL »

sikraiken wrote;
and anyway, it doesn't counter stop, it just rolls over.
The one in my local arcade does. It doesn't roll over, it just remains at the 9,999,990 or 999,990 (I forget). This is probably because its on one of those classic multigame cabs.
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sikraiken
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by sikraiken »

High Score counter stops at a max of 999,990 (if you had 999,960 and the next thing you shoot sends it over, then it'll leave 999,960 up there) but your actual score rolls over in-game (or continues to 9,999,990 if you're playing as the 2nd player, and then rolls over).
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DEL
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by DEL »

Ok cool. You must be right. All I see is the 999,960 that gets saved by the multigame cab.
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Daigoro
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by Daigoro »

great article, thanks for sharing.

im going to post your link on some other forums so other folks can read it.
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elvis
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Re: FIGHTER CAPTURED - the fight for the Galaga world record.

Post by elvis »

Australian TV show "good game" also did a brief segment on it:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/goodgame/stories/s2750948.htm
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