1CC/Speedrun show from the creators of STGWeekly coming soon

[Frenetic]

Hi everyone,

Do you have a game you are expert in besides a STG/shmup? Aquas and I are creating a new show within the format to shed light on games which are not shmups/STG but can just as well benefit from the commentary/format that we have developed.

Do you guys have games that you are "experts" in and would like to provide commentary for this new show? Is there a game that you know and love and are just DYING to do? Let either me or Aquas know and we can showcase your talent and knowledge!

Cheers,
F

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Well, back in April of '94 at the defunct local Regency Game Palace arcade hangout in Modesto, CA, they had brought in a full-sized Atari Games Klax cab (circa 1990) for about two months. Prior to that cab making a rare appearance there, I had played the NES Tengen port of Klax back in 1991. I couldn't see any patterns with the random colored tiles coming down the conveyor belt. Of course, I'd spend countless hours playing it and still couldn't figure it out. Until one day, it dawned on me that you have to make use of tiles that are given to you at the beginning "easy" waves. The ol' adage of "Buying low & Selling High" rings true with this arcade puzzler indeed (besides referring to the stock market).

So when the RGP arcade finally got in that Klax cab, I'd score on the average of 2.4+ million per credit. There was another guy whom wanted to beat my "average score per credit" but he'd continue his Klax gaming sessions to boost up his scores. I'd see his scores in the 3 to 4 million range but with credit feeding, as usual. On a fine day in May of 1994, I decided to see if I could reach Wave 100 & beat it on a single credit (such a lofty goal indeed when you stop to think about it). So I chose Wave 11 to make a multi-colored Big X to warp to Wave 56 with five tile drops max. It was during the latter Fast Tile Waves, that you have react quickly enough to what colored tiles that the CPU randomly throws your way and make the best plan to cash it all, sometimes with spilt-second timing or else, your session could end up screwed big time.

Finally reached Wave 100 & had to make two Big Xs to finish it off. So with a final score of 6,000,000+ and a two to two & half hour playing time in total, it was a true 1CC Klax arcade session at last!

Here's the catch/twist, the RGP arcade did not recognize it nor was it submitted to Twin Galaxies for verification purposes. And thus so, it remains a personal bestnarcade Klax score in my book nevertheless (despite folks earning such 1CC Klax scores with Mame nowadays -- there's a big difference between accomplishing it on a dedicated Klax cab as opposed to getting a 1CC with Mame emu). When the RGP arcade shut their doors for good in June of '94, the Klax cab was removed from the premises along with my 1CC score record still on it. It's current wherebouts are unknown today.

Fast forward to 2001 at the '01 California Extreme show at the San Jose convention center Parkside Hall section, Ultracade had a demo booth with two upright cabs up & running. One of those licensed roms happened to be none other than Atari Games' Klax. So on Saturday night of that CAX show, I managed to reach Wave 100 with some UC staff watching me. Didn't clear it and decided to try again on the next & final day of the CAX event. So around 2:00pm on Sunday afternoon, I started playing Klax again and got to Wave 100 by the 5 o'clock show closing time. The UC staff asked the CAX staff to keep the power on as they wanted to see me try to finish Wave 100. Got to Wave 100 and didn't complete the minimum score of 250,000 points the first time around. Finally finished Wave 100 on the 2nd try with two multi-colored Big Xs to finish it with a final score of over 6,000,000+. One UC guy identified himself as an ex-Atari Games employee, LX Rudis, whom said that he helped make the original arcade Klax game back in 1989 (it wasn't released to arcades worldwide until February of 1990).

Mr. Rudis asked me how I got to be so good at playing Klax & I replied all those countless hours playing the NES Tengen port helped out quite a bit. He went on to reveal a revelation out of the blue that he, personally, did all the cool BGM tunes for the NES Tengen port as well. Plus the fact he mentioned that Tengen had a very hard time with the very slow framerate issues during the development of the NES port of Klax & finally were able to clear that pressing issue/hurdle to release it to the general market in late 1990. Mr. Rudis said that he had never seen anyone play Klax as good as I did during both days that both demo UC cabs were running. I thanked him for the compliment and shook his hand. It certainly made my day right there knowing an ex-Atari Games employee watch me play Klax competitively. He said that it's an easy game to start with but a very hard game to master. I have agree with him with that statement as it's true.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[CIT]

Since I just cleared it and it's an awesome game I'd be up for a showcase for Adventure of Little Ralph.

[BIL]

If you guys ever need commentary for a Ninja Gaiden (NES) episode, hit me up. I can even provide a kusoplaying one-life clear.

[KennyMan666]

Speedruns, you say? Why, sure!

Ufouria and Bionic Commando Rearmed are my two main ones that I'm guessing would fit what I'm guessing the format is (I haven't actually checked out STG Weekly at all :V). Pretty sure I have the world record time in both of them (videos of this needs to be captured). Other games I run are Little Samson where I might have the PAL world record, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World where I probably don't have the world record and after the latest patch running it got more iffy, Umihara Kawase which I'm assuming some Japanese person has the world record in and Duo Princess, short doujin PC game. Well, and Ragnarok Battle Offline, but a speedrun of that is 1½ hours and not the most exciting watch.

The Speed Demos Archive forums would probably not be a bad place to bring this up, too.

[DJ Incompetent]

Have Smraedis on every week for two months.