A good place for highscores

[ed]

Post your highscore in whatever game's currently eating you.
Bonus points if you can give a hint.

OutZone, version 4 - 378,000+
hint: save all nine bombs up to the first boss by waiting to blast the armed personnel carriers

[Shadax]

Tetris DS (Endless Mode):
630,308 points, 324 lines
hints: past speed level 13, the T-Spin is just about the only way to go. And don't be afraid to hold a square, even if the piece you are holding is for later or just plain not ideal. Once you get to the point where the pieces hit the ground immediately, a single square can fuck your christmas right up.

[ReyVGM]

This is not meant to offend anyone, really.

I think the only people that are concerned about highscores these days are the ones that mostly grew up in the pre-nes era or at least the very few shmup fans that are left.
Most games today don't even have a score counter (something that would have gotten you burned to the stake if you had predicted that in the older days).

And now here's a prediction, which scares the hell out of me!
"In the future, more and more games will have no endings"

We are already seeing the no-ending trend coming back with online games and Nintendo's own non-games (Nintendogs, animal crossing, brain training, etc).
In the future, when all consoles are online 24-7 and you can pretty much play every kind of game online, I doubt developers will put significant time into putting an ending in a game when most people will almost never play the 1-player mode.

Sure, some games will have an ending, just like there are still some games with a score screen today.

I just can't see myself in a future where a game doesn't have a conclusion.
I don't really mind the option of playing a game forever, but it has to have some sort of 'end'.
And fucking "congraturations" doesn't count.

[Discoalucard]

It depends. Puzzle games don't need endings, even though some of them stick them in there (i.e. Puyo Pop). Lumines works just fine the way it is.

[Weasel]

I got 63 points on 9-Volt's games in WarioWare Twisted, and 93 on WarioWatch.

[Shadax]

Well, as games become more and more on line oriented, I'll just become less and less interested in new video games. I'm sure when I fall from the cutting edge, there will be 100 Madden maniacs that will rise up to take my place.

But I like games with real endings and games without in about a 60-40 ratio. 70-30 if fighting games count as games with endings (although Guilty Gear XX was the only game I played through to find out what the hell was going on.)

I believe that the loss of high-scores is a trade-off with the downfall of arcades. As games became longer and more experience oriented (focusing on atmosphere as much as game play), points took a backseat, as they were a reminder that you were playing a game, not experiencing it.

DISCLAIMERS: I feel that games with points and games without points both have their merits. I don't really take a side. Nor did I imply that focus on game play or focus on experience is better. We've already derailed this thread enough without me inadvertently turning it into a flame war

[joesteele]

Here's some food for thought:

When I first started playing X-men VS Street Fighter, it was on a Cruise ship, with some ppl I got to know. We determined that the higher the score you got, the worse player you were....b/c you couldn't beat the game on a single quarter. The higher the score you had, it means the more money you put in towards continues.

I believe that the loss of high-scores is a trade-off with the downfall of arcades. As games became longer and more experience oriented (focusing on atmosphere as much as game play), points took a backseat, as they were a reminder that you were playing a game, not experiencing it.

Interesting thought. DDR comes to mind in that it was the kind of game where the high score still was supreme, but in a different format.

[MRSKELETON]

Points give me merit.
Some guy can say "Hey i beat [some game]"
not everyone can say "Hey i rank 1'st with a score of eighty three kajjilion in [some game]"

[Drawesome(Dale)]

Their were a few sites I remember with HS area's in their forum's their not that hard to find,some for all sorts of old arcade games others for games in general Shmups has a high score area just for shmups.

I don't want to brag but I happen to have the secound highest Vulgus score in the world. ;D

[ed]

reyvgm said:

I think the only people that are concerned about highscores these days are the ones that mostly grew up in the pre-nes era or at least the very few shmup fans that are left.

My first console was a PlayStation, bought in 1997. Highscores are something of a novelty to kids who were born after 1990.

Most games today don't even have a score counter (something that would have gotten you burned to the stake if you had predicted that in the older days).

You're forgetting online gaming - very likely the majority of Counter-Strike servers run stats (and many of them do it ingame). Seeing people say "statsme" out of the blue is something I have come to accept.

Search Google for 'achievement points,' and a story about the guy who got 1000 points in six hours comes up.

There's also a huge number of people - some of them moms and others you would traditionally call "nongamers" who have spent countless hours on web-based flash, java, and stealth installed games, and many of them are action games.

I'm not going to address the other points because I want my thread back, if you don't mind ;D

Anyhow! I about tripled my Ninja Emaki score, beating it twice (almost three times - if only I could've passed that third to last boss! Well, I did, but I got hit by one of the bats that flies out after you shoot it down). The rush of beating the game the first time died down as I realized I had to make it through the game again (and again...)

Also doing pretty well in Out Zone; I'll have to look at my highscores but I can make it to 300K easily now. Also discovered that it's possible to hit 150,410 and also 150,400 (??), in Set 2, anyway.

[ed]

dale said:

Their were a few sites I remember with HS area's in their forum's their not that hard to find,some for all sorts of old arcade games others for games in general Shmups has a high score area just for shmups.

I don't want to brag but I happen to have the secound highest Vulgus score in the world. ;D

GG @ the Vulgus score.

Just fyi, I'm going to try to get some highscore lists going for the Contra HQ (more games than just the Contra series). Should be a real hoot!

[Deleted]

This isn't a great achievement, but I'm currently 79th in the PS2 version of Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim online ranking list.

www.konami.jp/ys-napishtim/ranking/ranking.php?lang=en

[ed]

Ninja Emaki, again. My first attempt since the last; finally lost on the fourth loop at the skeleton boss.

[Scylla]

If high scores are your thing, I guess www.twingalaxies.com/ would be the place to go.

I've never put much thought in scores myself. I only care if I'm playing in an arcade and want to get my initials on the list, but I pretty much never go to arcades anymore anyway. The only game I own that I can recall trying hard to improve my score was Kirby's Pinball Land on Game Boy. That was pretty much the only goal to shoot for besides beating the game, but it's so freakin' hard to beat that I don't think I ever legitimately managed to do it. Considering I was just a kid back then, I doubt my scores were that great compared to other players out there. I can't recall what my best was, maybe 5 million or a bit higher than that? I don't think I ever broke 10 million at least.

[Deleted]

Usually, I don't pay heed to the score. Not unlike Whose Line Is It Anyway, the points don't matter... unless they're in games where points give you bonus lives or special items for use. However, it can be pretty cool to hit a high score just for the sake of it. I once racked up this awesome score on Alien Crush that went over 14 million. For a pinball game, that's definitely not too bad, especially considering that I outright blow monkey chunks with pretty much every pinball game to exist. And I got over 600,000 beating the original Super Mario Bros once... though, I was a bit prouder over the fact that I had beaten it without warping or continuing. ;D