Okay, perhaps I was a bit testy in my previous post. It had been a
long day and the last thing I needed to see was Hisa's response. I had
interpreted it as such:
<p>
he was definitely NOT "inviting" me to Team2Ch. No way. What made me
so angry was that this wasn't the first time that someone has been
proud of a score, only to have Hisa tell them their score sucks
compared to the Gamest world record. I'm sure we all remember the
"KING OF SOLDAM" incident too.
<p>
Am I proud of my current score on Shock Troopers? Fuck yeah. You see,
you can be a total badass when it comes to games... even if you can,
say, beat both loops on a Cave shooter, you're not going to be getting
25 million on Shock Troopers on your first few tries. Yeah, you might
be able to finish the game with ease... but finishing the game is a
cinch to me anyway. The real challenge is figuring out how to maximize
your score on each level. It's taken me much, much playing to analyze
each level inside and out to find out the best places to "stall" and
draw out more soldiers. I've learned all of this on my own too. I used
to consistently get 17-18 million scores in the arcade, then when MAME
came around I started getting 20 million. It was then that I noticed
how important stalling in certain areas was, and my score kept
gradually growing. I'd been stuck at the 29.5 million mark for well
over a year, so needless to say I was pretty happy when I broke 30
million.
<p>
I'm not sure how many people in the world know all the shit I know
about that game. Maybe there are more hardcore players in Japan other
than the guy who got that Gamest score, I dunno. But even then, it
wouldn't surprise me if the total number of people who knew this shit
as well as I do could be counted on two hands (maybe even one). So
yeah, I'm cocky when it comes to Shock Troopers. But it's because I
can't find anybody else who cares about the game as much as I do. So
yeah, I take the game pretty seriously. Yes, if higher scores exist
out there I definitely want to see how they're achieved. As much as
I've played, I can't shake the feeling that there's something I
haven't figured out yet that could lead to more points. I just don't
like it when someone like Hisa delights in seeing other people's
scores get destroyed, all because they were happy with what they could
accomplish...
<p>
-BBH
--
lordbbh@aol.com