Pepper II

[Drunkguy89]

I recently discovered this game from hearing about it on the forum from multiple people who had an interest in it,

Pepper II is an arcade game by Exidy and published in 1982,
I have been playing it for a couple of weeks and its disgustingly addictive.

It bears a striking resemblance to pac man/ce dx (in my opinion)
from what I've gathered it does not have a steep learning curve and is actually fairly easy to play up until the boards become periodically invisible at the 100k point range.
I'm hoping this game gets some interest from others, and I would be interested to hear about any scores or strategies.
for those of you who have not played it, try it out, its surprisingly fun.

[fruitygayspaghetti]

Pepper II addict here. 

I just started playing this game a few weeks ago.  It bears a close resemblance to Amidar.  My pb is 411k.  I average 225k a game.

The only "tip" I can really offer is that the objects you can close in (hammer, glasses, etc) net bigger and bigger bonuses as the game progresses. 

I'd be interested if there's any sort of grouping strategy.  I run a pattern for the first board but haven't put any thought into trying patterns further. 

Looking forward to seeing where this thread goes. 

[xelnia]

I've been trying to work out a suitable control setup for this game. i don't have an X-Arcade or similar joystick. Keyboard is a flat-out failure. I use a PS3 controller for most MAME games, but this one is a little tough to control. The d-pad is a little too clumsy and setting up the thumbsticks is a pain in the ass. Once I get an acceptable scheme in place I'll be playing this more.

I do see some similarities to Pac-Man CE DX: very fast-paced, clear the boards, avoid/eat the bad guys, get the prizes. And obviously the Amidar comparison is spot on since the only way to clear boards is to trace over each section.

Whether it's patternable will probably depend on what kind of logic the "Roaming Eyes" and the "Whippersnapper" use as they fly around the maze. Granted I've only played it a few times, but my impression is that it might end up being like CE DX: technically patternable, but too fast to be practically patternable by a human. But patterns are for losers.

[ebinsugewa]

I really enjoy Pepper II. I think it has to be somewhat patternable even beyond the initial boards. I use keyboard, but even then I still have control issues. I can't imagine this being too playable on a joystick, even a 4-way.

[QAOP Spaceman]

 

I really enjoy Pepper II.

It's such tremendous fun, eh?    Don't remember ever seeing one BITD...

I've been trying to work out a suitable control setup for this game.... Keyboard is a flat-out failure.

I use keyboard, but even then I still have control issues.

Oh no, no, no! You have to try Q[up]  A [down] O [lleft] P [rright] brothers!

All this joystickery can make a fellow go blind 

[Barra]

Quite a fun game this fun, also very frustrating!
I use the keyboard, it seems to work best. Well for me anyway.

Im sure the difficulty maxes out at some point too. Just have to stop those silly mistakes (which occur way too often in my games!)

Pepper II is part of a year-long competition being held at Retro Uprising at the moment, I know some of you already have submitted a score there! But for those who havent - http://www.retrouprising.com/arcade.php?act=Arcade&module=league&a=2014
Top score is 638k. Getting closer and closer to the top score of just over a million!

[Drunkguy89]

Here is a decent starting pattern for Pepper II on maze 1 (first maze of the game) not fool proof since randomness plays a large roll but this way works for me most of the time....might help with the learning curve for the tourney at least ! :- )

I have one for maze 2 also, will upload soon but I have yet to figure out maze 3 which is where most of my deaths occur currently.



Pepper II Maze 1 Starting Pattern

[Weehawk]

Franz Lanzinger, creator of Crystal Castles, submitted a recording to MARP scoring almost 13 million points exploiting a glitch which keeps most of the enemies from appearing.

http://replay.marpirc.net/inp/fxl_pepper2_12947470_tgmame66.zip

It can be played back with AlphaMAME .66, available here:

http://replay.marpirc.net/exe/alphamame-066-3.zip

[ebinsugewa]

Whoa, that's wild. Thanks for sharing.

[Barra]

For the record that glitch is not allowed for RU submissions and therefore presumably the competition as well.

[Weehawk]

Franz Lanzinger, creator of Crystal Castles, submitted a recording to MARP scoring almost 13 million points exploiting a glitch which keeps most of the enemies from appearing.

http://replay.marpirc.net/inp/fxl_pepper2_12947470_tgmame66.zip

It can be played back with AlphaMAME .66, available here:

http://replay.marpirc.net/exe/alphamame-066-3.zip

For those who don't want to bother running AlphaMAME .66, the first several minutes of Franz's recording demonstrating the glitch is here:

Pepper II Glitch