26 replies to this topic

[Ze_ro]

Important note: This weeks competition is over, and no further scores will be accepted. If you still wish to discuss Dolphin and compare further scores, feel free to do so... but they will not be included in the list.

Listen! An endangered dolphin is calling you! Only by learning the dolphin's sonic language can you guide her through schools of seahorses, battling a monstrous squid, to gain magic powers from and elusive seagull. Hurry! Lend an ear...

Game Information

• Game Name: Dolphin
  
• Released By: Activision, 1983
  
• Left Difficulty: A / Expert - Only 2 seconds to touch squid
  
• Right Difficulty: A / Expert - Only 2 seconds to touch squid
  
• Game Mode: Game 1
  
• Chosen By: LarcenTyler
  

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 will be approximately Tuesday, March 14th at 1:30 AM (CST). In case you haven't already done so, please read the High Score Club rules. There is other useful information contained in that previous link, including a list of previous High Score Club games!

As before, next week's game will be chosen by the next person in the member list, which happens to be Kaeru_Yojimbo! Please send me a private message with your choice of game for next week!

If you are not a member of the High Score Club, but would like to be, then all you have to do is post a score for this week's game, and I'll add you to the list!

Current High Scores

• 299,990 (D.Yancey) [+11]
  
• 178,350 (keilbaca) [+10]
  
• 102,000 (Rom Hunter) [+9]
  
• 88,370 (silverpoodleman) [+8]
  
• 84,350 (LarcenTyler) [+7]
  
• 57,920 (SpiceWare) [+6]
  
• 35,580 (Robert M) [+5]
  
• 9630 (khryssun) [+4]
  
• 2160 (Goochman) [+3]
  

Best Tips

• LarcenTyler [+2]
  

Bounties and Challenges

• Patch Challenge - Friends of Dolphins - Score 80,000 points and you get 1 bonus point.
  
• Secret Society of Dolphins - Max out the score (299,990 points) and get an additional 2 bonus points.
  
• Perfect Game (placed by D.Yancey) - Complete the entire game of Dolphin without the loss of a dolphin. You will have to take a photo at the beginning of the last round before the score maxes at 299,990 because when it maxes out, the number of extras disappears. Your photo should clearly show the score of 290,000+ with 18 extras remaining. Then you should have a photo of the max score. This must be done on an actual Atari. If you can manage it, then you win all of D.Yancey's points for this week.
  
• Triple Amazing! (placed by D.Yancey) - Play game 2 for 2 players. Let player 2 lose all of his dolphins while keeping player 1 alive by obtaining extra dolphins due to scoring points. After player 2 has perished, continue to max the score with player 1. When you do this, player 2 will be resurrected with 9 extra dolphins. Lose those 9 and you will receive 99 more extras. Lose a few on purpose here because if you go over 99 then you'll be back to zero. Continue to max the game score with player 2. When you do this, player one will be resurrected at the beginning of the game. Try to complete the game again with player one. When your score gets upwards of 250,000, you will be in for a surprise indeed!! This can be done! This must be submitted as a video (PCAE can provide AVI output). If you can manage this, you will win 25 of D.Yancey's points.
  

TwinGalaxies Top 3

(Difficulty B)

• 299,990 (Stephen R Riesenberger, Todd Rogers, David B Yancey, Douglas Korekach)
  

Current Standings

Coming Eventually

Member List

KaeruYojimbo, cyberneticimplant, bjk7382, davepesc, neotokeo2001, xeex, bmlbytes, Omegamatrix, the 5th ghost, Xebec's Demise, khryssun, vgcollector666, chadtower, moycon, Malc74, shadow460, Atarifever, Keir, supercat, FireTiger, Philflound, Fellow Atari Man, keilbaca, brendano, Cybergoth, durden26, sku_u, mitsubachi, arlo, Recycled, LarcenTyler, silverpoodleman, 128bytes, Goochman, Thomas Jentzsch, Christophero Sly, D.Yancey, mrppv666, Mordax, Numan, Mordax, vdub_bobby, Dones, Gamemaster_ca_2003, scogey, graywest, RJ, Voch, video game addict, SpiceWare, Robert M, Mad Scientist, Dan Iacovelli, Gateway, Rom Hunter, gospeedde

Scoring Points in Dolphin

Coming Soon

Hints and Tips

The Manual said:

As always, you really should read the manual.

What's that? You don't have the manual? Well, AtariAge has both a scanned copy and a typed copy of the manual online. Here are the hints it provides:

- The best tip I can give you is this: 'He who hesitates is lunch.' But, for
the record, here are a few more pointers.

- At first, don't completely rely on the 'slip'. Instead, become an expert at
decoding sonar. Work with one tone at a time until you can easily predict the
exact location of each opening. Notice, too, that there is never an opening
at the very bottom or very top of the schools.

- Another thing to notice is that a bad wave often follows each opening. So,
after your Dolphin swims through, be ready to make a quick move.

LarcenTyler said:

-Learn how to give the squid the slip! If he's getting too close for comfort, then wait for him to catch a good current, then swim right under him and head the other way. As long as the current is onscreen, he won't be able to to turn around right away.

-Remember that colliding with a seahorse pushes you backward a little. If you're having some trouble, you can always jump over a school of seahorses, but note you will only get 10 points for this. It's best to do this if the squid is getting too close for comfort.

-Remember that there are only five possible openings available, so there are five different tones that are played. Learn to recognize which one is which, and, even if you're tone deaf, you should have it down in no time.

-When the color of the squid changes, the seagull will appear after you go through the next set of seahorses, so get close to the top. When you see him coming, jump and quickly turn around, so you'll be able to chase the squid easier.

shadow460 said:

Try jumping the seahorses instead of going through them. It makes life much easier.

--Ze_ro

[LarcenTyler]

I was not the one who chose this game. But I did write a guide for it, which you can find on GameFAQs, and here are my personal tips:

-Learn how to give the squid the slip! If he's getting too close for comfort,
then wait for him to catch a good current, then swim right under him and head
the other way. As long as the current is onscreen, he won't be able to to
turn around right away.

-Remember that colliding with a seahorse pushes you backward a little. If
you're having some trouble, you can always jump over a school of seahorses,
but note you will only get 10 points for this. It's best to do this if the
squid is getting too close for comfort.

-Remember that there are only five possible openings available, so there
are five different tones that are played. Learn to recognize which one is
which, and, even if you're tone deaf, you should have it down in no time.

-When the color of the squid changes, the seagull will appear after you go through the next set of seahorses, so get close to the top. When you see him coming, jump and quickly turn around, so you'll be able to chase the squid easier.


Hopefully I'll do better later.

(Score is 56120, by the way. I must make a note to modify the color when I save a shot.)

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by LarcenTyler, Tue Mar 7, 2006 4:24 PM.

[SpiceWare]

that's a pretty hard to read score

[SpiceWare]

18,490

Interesting game. The sprites sure do seem to be wider than they should be.

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[D.Yancey]

This is one of my all time favorites! I can max it nearly every time. My score is attached. It takes longer on diff A if you miss the squid sometimes. The key is to let him get fairly close to you before catching the gull and you will not have to pursue him so far.

I'd like to offer 2 bounties on this week's contest. Any ties should be split equally by all contestants who qualified for the bounty. Bounties end at the same time the HSC contest ends for this week and are additionally subject to all HSC club contest rules.

Bounty 1: (must be done on a real Atari, no emulators accepted for this bounty and a clear photo must be posted) I will donate all of my points for the week for this bounty.

Complete the entire game of Dolphin without the loss of a dolphin. You will have to take a photo at the beginning of the last round before the score maxes at 299,990 because when it maxes out, the number of extras disappears. Your photo should clearly show the score of 290,000+ with 18 extras remaining. Then you should have a photo of the max score.

Bounty 2: Complete the elusive "Triple Amazing"!! This is a tough one folks! Even if you practice using "save states" on an emulator, I think it will challenge the most elite players. I'll give 25 of my points to whomever can accomplish this feat and I shall bow to your greatness. I would really need to see a video or an .AVI recording (PCAE will record .AVI of the game and you can zip it up an email it to me). PM me if you are going to give this one a serious attempt. I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

Note: How is the "Triple Amazing" accomplished?, you ask. Play game 2 for 2 players. Let player 2 lose all of his dolphins while keeping player 1 alive by obtaining extra dolphins due to scoring points. After player 2 has perished, continue to max the score with player 1. When you do this, player 2 will be resurrected with 9 extra dolphins. Lose those 9 and you will receive 99 more extras. Lose a few on purpose here because if you go over 99 then you'll be back to zero. Continue to max the game score with player 2. When you do this, player one will be resurrected at the beginning of the game. Try to complete the game again with player one. When your score gets upwards of 250,000, you will be in for a surprise indeed!! This can be done!

Edited by D.Yancey, Tue Mar 7, 2006 7:57 PM.

[D.Yancey]

Yancey's extra hint for difficulty A: If you're a far distance ahead of the squid and the gull is just about to appear (when the seahorses and squid change colors suddenly), quickly reverse direction 2 or 3 times toward the squid, so you purposefully lessen your lead on the squid. Then when you catch the gull, the squid will be within striking range!!

[Ze_ro]

Wow... uh... good luck with that one guys!

Have you actually managed to do that David?

--Zero

[D.Yancey]

Ze_ro, on Tue Mar 7, 2006 9:43 PM, said:

Wow... uh... good luck with that one guys!

Have you actually managed to do that David?

--Zero

I've almost managed to finish the triple amazing a couple of times.

I have finished the regular game with 18 extras, but not on diff A.

[SpiceWare]

An interview with Matthew Hubbard

Quote

SS: How did the idea for Dolphin come about?

MH: I wanted to make a game where the main characters were a little bigger than normal on the 2600, using double-size mode and line-by-line single pixel shifting. I experimented with making a dolphin animation, and everyone who saw the early screens knew immediately that the pixels represented a dolphin, so I moved forward from there.

He also talks about the Amazing

[SpiceWare]

28,280 -getting a little better

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[keilbaca]

I hate to say it, but I absolutely hate playing this game. i don't know why, its fraustrating beyond belief, I guess I just can't get into it. I'm most likely going to sit out this week.

[keilbaca]

Well I lied. I decided to give it a go again. 33070!

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[the 5th ghost]

Hey Yancey,

I'm still mulling over the idea of playing this week. Kinda like Chopper Command, there's that "Do I really want to or not?" thing.

But, your challenges might be enough incentive. I've never gone for the triple amazing (didn't even know of this till you brought it up to me,) nor have I ever played a perfect game. So, I may give it a go.

Besides, right now I am absolutely addicted to Q-Bert's Qubes! This game blows regular Q-Bert away, hands down! So get ready folks, my turn to pick the HSC game is coming up (hint hint)

[keilbaca]

109920!

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[LarcenTyler]

I always thought of myself as good enough to write a guide for this game, but this really pushes my skills to the limits! Anyway, here's my newest score, which I colored in a lighter color for readability.

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[D.Yancey]

the 5th ghost, on Thu Mar 9, 2006 10:03 AM, said:

Hey Yancey,

I'm still mulling over the idea of playing this week. Kinda like Chopper Command, there's that "Do I really want to or not?" thing.

But, your challenges might be enough incentive. I've never gone for the triple amazing (didn't even know of this till you brought it up to me,) nor have I ever played a perfect game. So, I may give it a go.

Go on, I dare 'ya! I double dare 'ya! This is only a 28 minute investment of your time. Not nearly as bad as 90 minutes of good 'ole Chopper Command! LOL

[keilbaca]

141700!

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[Robert M]

35,580 for me.

[SpiceWare]

57,920

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[shadow460]

Used to play the snot out of this game.
Try jumping the seahorses instead of going through them. It makes life much easier.
If I had the cart, I'd play the competition, but I'm out of luck on that one.

[khryssun]

9,630

maybe the manual will help me

[keilbaca]

178350

I doubt I'll be able to max this, between fighting catie off of the 7800 Centipede and work...

Attached Thumbnails

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[Rom Hunter]

Edited by Rom Hunter, Mon Mar 13, 2006 11:36 AM.

[Goochman]

2160 - Not my cup of tea

[SpiceWare]

salt water would make some nasty tea