44 replies to this topic

[Ze_ro]

Important Note: This weeks competition is over and no further scores will be accepted.

Travel to a distant galaxy, and to a planet called Krull! Help Prince Colwyn battle the hideous Beast and his dark army of Slayers. Armed with the weapon of a king - the magical Glaive - you must survive the Slayers' neon spears, pass through the lair of the Widow of the Web, and fight the Best in his own castle. Rescue Princess Lyssa, and the galaxy is yours!

Game Information

Game Name: Krull Released By: 1983, Atari Left Difficulty: N/A Right Difficulty: N/A Game Mode: Game 1 Post your scores right here in this thread, and I will add them to the list. Remember to play the game with the recommended game mode and difficulty settings as shown above so that your scores will be consistent with everyone elses. The deadline for posting scores is Wednesday July 14th at 1:00 AM (Central Time, UTC-6).

Current High Scores 127,350 (Scrabbler15) [+11] 24,500 (SekOner) [+10] 18,480 (Jifremok) [+9] 18,010 (toymailman) [+8] 15,810 (JacobZu7zu7) [+7] 6250 (Zoyx) [+6] 5810 (SpiceWare) [+5] 5030 (zylon) [+4] 3870 (roadrunner) [+3] 2730 (Wickeycolumbus) [+2] 2500 (LarcenTyler) [+1] 2410 (oyamafamily) [+1] 2000 (4Ks) [+1] Best Tips Scrabbler15 [+2] Challenges None TwinGalaxies Top 3 (Game 1, Difficulty B) 1,245,900 (Todd Rogers) 33,500 (Keith C Post) 27,100 (James Carter)

Current Standings toymailman [448] Zoyx [325] oyamafamily [248] roadrunner [233] darthkur [218] shadow460 [184] LarcenTyler [124] JacobZu7zu7 [117] Cebus Capucinis [107] Deteacher [92] zylon [92] Atardi [84] vjames [71] aftermac [70] keilbaca [64] Mister VCS [63] SpiceWare [62] Captain Beard [61] godzillajoe [56] katana [51] 4Ks [40] Scrabbler15 [31] brandondwright [30] Vectorman0 [29] Carey85 [29] NML32 [27] Tr3vor [27] homerwannabee [26] Impaler_26 [26] Hornpipe2 [25] Wickeycolumbus [22] devwebcl [21] pis [19] chuckwalla [17] Jifremok [14] HatNJ [14] Pioneer4x4 [13] Nathan Strum [11] SekOner [10] Chuck D. Head [10] LoneWolfSeth [10] LaserHawk [10] vintagegamecrazy [9] joeypsp [9] Lendorian [9] littleman jack [8] kote [8] SeaGtGruff [7] Animan [6] Player 3 [6] Ravey [5] Chris Leach [5] MIKE5200 [4] Skaarg [4] JayWI [3] Shannon [2] jeremysart [2] sloth713 [2] jjd [2] SpaceInvaders [2] ChrisKoopa [1] Nati [1] disjuakifa [1]

Scoring Points in Krull

Stabbing Slayers - 10-90 points Reaching the Widow's Cocoon - 500 points Jumping Web Strands - 40-60 points Destroying the Beast - 3000 points Breaking into Lyssa's Prison - 70 points per chunk

Hints and Tips

The Manual

As always, you really should read the manual. In case you don't have the manual, AtariAge has a typed copy available online. Here are the hints it provides:

• Start playing on Game level 2 - the Beginner version - to become familiar with game play. Then move on to harder levels.
  
• Make sure you have at least one Glaive before entering the Black Fortress, since you'll need a weapon to rescue Princess Lyssa and fight the Beast.
  
• If you think you may not have enough time to reach the Black Fortress before sunrise, simply wait on the Widow's Cocoon until the next sunrise. Then go down the new path to the Black Fortress.
  
• Try to reach the Widow's Cocoon from the upper left side of the web. Maneuver yourself to the web center - the movement of the web will pull you up to the cocoon.

Scrabbler15

Don't lose a guy on the first level, no matter what. The risk is not worth the points. The princess is always going to get carried off, anyway. While the princess is being carried off, the slayers can still be killed, so take the free points.

On the spider web level, the easiest way to get to the cocoon is to push straight up to get to the top left corner, turn right and make 4 clean jumps over the web strands.

To pick up the Glaive or Man at full gallop (on the way to the castle) it seems like pressing the button and holding it a little bit works better than a quick button hit. There are multiple tries available to make the pick-up, so watch the timing. The Glaives/Men are always the same distance apart.

To free the princess, get into a back and forth rhythm that is opposite to the beast's back and forth. To throw the Glaive at the prison, push forward and cross over the beast. As soon as the cross over is complete (past the beast), throw the Glaive. After the throw, the Glaive is still steerable, so keep moving away from the beast to get a clear shot at catching the return after it hits the prison.

I noticed that when I started freeing the princess and defeating the beast, my scores went down. That's because the second spider web level is impossible to deal with. Instead of the web pushing out to the sides of screen, the web sucks the guy into the middle for a quick and untimely death.

So I played the game normally, except that the princess didn't get to see the light of day.

At least once, be the hero. Save the girl. However, there is a price to pay for being a hero. And the spider on the second level is coming to collect.

--Zero

[Ze_ro]

Just a note that this season is coming to a close after week 50. When Season 8 starts up, there will likely be some format changes. Specifically, I'm thinking of 20 games in the season, with each one lasting for two weeks.

--Zero

[Zoyx]

Ze_ro, on Wed Jul 7, 2010 1:07 PM, said:

Just a note that this season is coming to a close after week 50. When Season 8 starts up, there will likely be some format changes. Specifically, I'm thinking of 20 games in the season, with each one lasting for two weeks.

--Zero

Something like that. Every 2 weeks is better. I was thinking of two seasons per year. So how about a 10 game season. Then a few individual game contests in-between, then another 10 game season... repeat.

[LarcenTyler]

2,500

Why they'd make a video game based on a movie that had little success at the box office is beyond me.

[JacobZu7zu7]

Ze_ro, on Wed Jul 7, 2010 1:07 PM, said:

Just a note that this season is coming to a close after week 50. When Season 8 starts up, there will likely be some format changes. Specifically, I'm thinking of 20 games in the season, with each one lasting for two weeks.

--Zero

Hmmm, sounds okay. but I don't like the sound of "one game" for every two weeks. I'll explain some reasons why...

1. When two to four 'rare' games are choosen back to back that I either don't own or not interested in playing (on emulator). I often forget to come back to HSC's and loose interest in them. ---This happened in NES already for me, and the NES game line up looks pretty weak on its new season. Not many games either, like 10? ---

2. A game library of Atari 2600, which has probably over 500 games... only playing 24 games? (for a years time) would leave out some 400+ games! For instance, of all the HSC time of Atari 2600... a very common classic game like 'Pac-man' has only been played twice in 7 seasons here. Imagine what it be like, cutting the games down by half, of what it is now.
--It makes sense to me to have 2 full weeks a game for consoles with much "smaller" game libraries. (Such as Atari 7800/5200). Atari 2600, there's so many games to discover... it's only funner to play them as fast as possible!(in one week) I have gotten my highest scores by far in challenges here in Atari 2600. Would hate to see it slow down to 2 games a month. Most Atari 2600 games are pick up and play, there's no reason people here cannot get a TOP score down for 1 game in a weeks time.

3. Game requests, may be gone! or it will take much longer for a game to be picked that you have choosen. With only 20 games a year, there's not much room for people to get their game request filled.

4. I like only having to wait a week for a new game to start, so that I am still fresh and in the competition/playing mode. I hate to miss games, but I prefer this, over being stuck on a game I don't wanna play or don't own. Then to have that cycle "repeat", -down have it, never played it- suddenly its been two months, three... and then the "quitting/forgetting" starts.

5. If it ain't broke don't fix it This is one reason this 2600 HSC is my favorite, it's fast and a new game experience is never far off.

I dunno if this is just my feelings, but I hope others don't want 2 weeks a game for Atari 2600 HSC. Seems like the faster the season and weeks go, the more consistent and competitve leaderboard looks. So I'd say YES to the shorter seasons and NO to 2 weeks a game.


PEACE.

Edited by JacobZu7zu7, Wed Jul 7, 2010 3:29 PM.

[Zoyx]

@JacobZu7zu7 Format needs to be changed. It is broke. Go back in seasons, and you will notice a complete turnover in players. The current format is leading to participation fatigue. If the current format is maintained, I will be retiring. We all love our Atari, but we are grown-up now, and have a lot of other things yanking at our attention.

[JacobZu7zu7]

Zoyx, on Wed Jul 7, 2010 3:22 PM, said:

@JacobZu7zu7 Format needs to be changed. It is broke. Go back in seasons, and you will notice a complete turnover in players. The current format is leading to participation fatigue. If the current format is maintained, I will be retiring. We all love our Atari, but we are grown-up now, and have a lot of other things yanking at our attention.

Well, I stated my opinions. Though you wrote as everyones opinion and a fact. I don't think I agree....

I would blame the participation lacking, on the long season time... and I basically "retired" on NES, because it's taking TOO LONG to get from game to game... life is short, let's go already! Intellivision high score club is once every two weeks (repectably) it is getting less and less participation in the last 4-5 games. So that cannot be burn out.
NES also has struggled... if anything Atari 2600 is thriving, no suffering a complete turnover compared to other HSC's.

I don't see how 2 weeks instead of one, is gonna make game players stop from being fatigued because you still don't have any "time off", you are just stuck in that two weeks, trying to play the "same game" for a longer period!

I have an Idea... how about two games announced for two weeks time, that way... you still have the options to play several (rare and common) games each season, in a shorter time, without making ZERO do once a week game announces all the time.

[Zoyx]

Not going to argue. I am in favor of the direction that Zero is going. Leave it at that.

[4Ks]

1220
2000

Wierd game.

Edited by 4Ks, Wed Jul 7, 2010 5:17 PM.

[zylon]

I'd go with 25 games for 2 weeks each IMO. I think you'd see some really high scores with more time. Perhaps even a poll for the upcoming games or some special events like a "proto challenge"

[oyamafamily]

2410 for participation points

[JacobZu7zu7]

Zoyx, on Wed Jul 7, 2010 5:00 PM, said:

Not going to argue. I am in favor of the direction that Zero is going. Leave it at that.

No argument here either.

I said my "opinion" on the subject to Zero, then replied to yours, and what you wrote to me 'directly'. I said my thoughts and ideas and now I'm done.


1st score... 14,940

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 

Edited by JacobZu7zu7, Wed Jul 7, 2010 10:02 PM.

[toymailman]

My initial sentiments are that I agree with JacobZu7zu7. I really like the one-week per game mode, and I agree that the seasons can be a bit long. My ideal HSC would be to keep one game per week and have a 20-26 week season. I would even go for "seasonal" HSC seasons such as Winter (Dec-Feb), Spring (Mar-May), Summer (June-Aug), and Fall (Sep-Nov).

Maybe a poll (on each of these items) is in order to see what people generally think. Also, maybe Zero can PM some players that used to participate and see what it would take to "bring them back". These would be useful pieces of information to better design the next season(s).

Finally, I want to thank Zero for doing this! I've had lots of fun playing my favorites and discovering new gems in the Atari 2600 game library. As such, I will contintue to participate in the HSC regardless of the final decision, but if I had my druthers it would be one-week contests with shorter seasons.

[zylon]

First attempt 5,030
This is a wierd game, but interesting.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[roadrunner]

I like the 2600 HSC format the way it is. There's alot of games i'd like to see how good i am at them.
Most of these games don't take long to play unless you're really really good at them.
With a shorter seasons we might end up playing some of the same games over and over.
If we're going to have shorter seasons, how about a few bonus rounds like we have in the Arcade/MAME HSC.
We could have maybe 5 to 10 games to play in a 2 week period.
Looking at some of the other HSC's it seems like with playing 1 game every 2 weeks people get out of the habit of playing.

[SekOner]

6,830
17,990
24,500
This game is pretty fun, I HATE the i usually can only get one glail to fight the beast, and i clear a space and all i need to do is throw the glail through the space and get the girl and the demon absorbs it into his back. Happens every time with me.

To Honor this weeks game, As i type this i literally just put Krull(1983) (the original movie this game is based on) up on my TV through Netflix, i cant remember if i liked or now, but i'm about to find out

Update: I'm only 20 minutes into the movie now, and it suxzorz hopefully it gets better...nope it didnt, so i turned it off.

Edited by SekOner, Thu Jul 8, 2010 6:08 PM.

[Scrabbler15]

toymailman, on Wed Jul 7, 2010 9:59 PM, said:

My initial sentiments are that I agree with JacobZu7zu7. I really like the one-week per game mode, and I agree that the seasons can be a bit long. My ideal HSC would be to keep one game per week and have a 20-26 week season. I would even go for "seasonal" HSC seasons such as Winter (Dec-Feb), Spring (Mar-May), Summer (June-Aug), and Fall (Sep-Nov).

Maybe a poll (on each of these items) is in order to see what people generally think. Also, maybe Zero can PM some players that used to participate and see what it would take to "bring them back". These would be useful pieces of information to better design the next season(s).

Finally, I want to thank Zero for doing this! I've had lots of fun playing my favorites and discovering new gems in the Atari 2600 game library. As such, I will contintue to participate in the HSC regardless of the final decision, but if I had my druthers it would be one-week contests with shorter seasons.

I, also, want to express my appreciation to Zero for his efforts with the HSC. I'm relatively new to HSC, but I really enjoy playing here.

I have no preference on the format. I'll be here no matter what is decided.

[JacobZu7zu7]

roadrunner, on Thu Jul 8, 2010 2:41 PM, said:

Looking at some of the other HSC's it seems like with playing 1 game every 2 weeks people get out of the habit of playing.

Well, it's ok for systems like Intellivision which probably doesn't have 200 games made for it.

BUT! Atari 2600 has so many TITLES its fun to see what comes next (each week) if it's two weeks, (like other HSC's)... I tend to forget when the "2nd week" has ended or when the nest game starts. At least with 2600 HSC, I know every Wednesday a new game is up. Even if I don't play I still look.

NEW SCORE = 15,810

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Scrabbler15]

6980

I never liked the game or the movie. I bought the game, long ago, because it was cheap

I'll get a better picture of the next score.

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[roadrunner]

JacobZu7zu7, on Thu Jul 8, 2010 4:30 PM, said:

roadrunner, on Thu Jul 8, 2010 2:41 PM, said:

Looking at some of the other HSC's it seems like with playing 1 game every 2 weeks people get out of the habit of playing.

Well, it's ok for systems like Intellivision which probably doesn't have 200 games made for it.

BUT! Atari 2600 has so many TITLES its fun to see what comes next (each week) if it's two weeks, (like other HSC's)... I tend to forget when the "2nd week" has ended or when the nest game starts. At least with 2600 HSC, I know every Wednesday a new game is up. Even if I don't play I still look.

That's what i like about the 2600 and MAME HSC's. If we're playing a game i don't like or am not too good at, next week we're playing a new game.
It would be great if the NES HSC played 1 game a week too.

Zero does a great job running the 2600 HSC
I'll keep playing whatever the format is.

[toymailman]

While were on the topic of discussing the next HSC season a few scoring ideas popped into my head. They initially seem good to me, but wanted to bounce them off others here too.

First, what if scoring was dependant upon participation? Currently, 1st place for the week receives 11 points and successive placements are reduced by 1 point until the remaining participants each receive 1 point. My suggested change (as food for thought) would be to have 1st place receive an amount of points equal to the number of participants to a maximum of 11. Therefore, if a week only has 7 participants than 1st place would get 7 points, 11 participants would be 11 points, and 15 participants still only 11 points. With 11 or more participants scoring would essentially be identical to what it is now.

Second, similar to how bonus points are awarded for the Activision patches, what if we had bonus points awarded for beating the TG scores (if any)? Topping 3rd place would yield +1 point, second would give +2 points, and getting a new World Record would give +3 points.

[toymailman]

I also have a score to post.

18,010

[Mister VCS]

JacobZu7zu7, on Wed Jul 7, 2010 3:51 PM, said:

Zoyx, on Wed Jul 7, 2010 3:22 PM, said:

@JacobZu7zu7 Format needs to be changed. It is broke. Go back in seasons, and you will notice a complete turnover in players. The current format is leading to participation fatigue. If the current format is maintained, I will be retiring. We all love our Atari, but we are grown-up now, and have a lot of other things yanking at our attention.

Intellivision high score club is once every two weeks (repectably) it is getting less and less participation in the last 4-5 games. So that cannot be burn out.
NES also has struggled... if anything Atari 2600 is thriving, no suffering a complete turnover compared to other HSC's.

I don't see how 2 weeks instead of one, is gonna make game players stop from being fatigued because you still don't have any "time off", you are just stuck in that two weeks, trying to play the "same game" for a longer period!

Intellivison HSC participation is better than expected - can't see "less and less participation". You can't expect ten or more players every round.

Quote

I have an Idea... how about two games announced for two weeks time, that way... you still have the options to play several (rare and common) games each season, in a shorter time, without making ZERO do once a week game announces all the time.

I like that idea. And I would like to see more common games like Smurf, Demons to Diamonds, Phoenix, Kangaroo, Zaxxon...

Edited by Mister VCS, Fri Jul 9, 2010 7:50 AM.

[Scrabbler15]

12,670

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Scrabbler15]

Since we haven't had any tips, yet, here's mine -

Don't lose a guy on the first level, no matter what. The risk is not worth the points. The princess is always going to get carried off, anyway. While the princess is being carried off, the slayers can still be killed, so take the free points.

On the spider web level, the easiest way to get to the cocoon is to push straight up to get to the top left corner, turn right and make 4 clean jumps over the web strands.

To pick up the Glaive or Man at full gallop (on the way to the castle) it seems like pressing the button and holding it a little bit works better than a quick button hit. There are multiple tries available to make the pick-up, so watch the timing. The Glaives/Men are always the same distance apart.

To free the princess, get into a back and forth rhythm that is opposite to the beast's back and forth. To throw the Glaive at the prison, push forward and cross over the beast. As soon as the cross over is complete (past the beast), throw the Glaive. After the throw, the Glaive is still steerable, so keep moving away from the beast to get a clear shot at catching the return after it hits the prison.

Edited by Scrabbler15, Fri Jul 9, 2010 7:02 AM.