Mario Bros. High Score List!

[ripper]

Happy New Year!!   

Well, this is as good of a time as any to start a list that COREY can send to Jace.   

Currently there is only Medium for single and doubles and NO POW for single and doubles for arcade tracking.  Hard difficulty was added to MAME because of scores being added before we knew the dips were backwards.  Later I had to add Medium on MAME.

1) Ultimate NO POW (single & doubles) (on all difficulties???)  May be a over kill.
2) Easy difficulty (single & doubles & NO POW & Ultimate NO POW )
2) Hard difficulty (single & doubles & NO POW & Ultimate NO POW)
3) Hardest difficulty (single & doubles & NO POW & Ultimate NO POW)
4) Luigi variation?  This opens up another can of worms, more difficulties, more variations.
6) Phase 98 Kill Screen score (single & doubles & NO POW & Ultimate NO POW)
5) Most Red fireball kills on one phase?  Steven already owns this record at like 17 fireball kills.  This is also something that would make the phase 98 kill screen go WAY up there.

The last thing I want is to water down a great game but at the same time the other difficulties is like a whole new game and they probably need to be added anyway for single and doubles.  At least Hard needs to be added on arcade as it's in MAME already.  There would probably need to be a note, declaring MEDIUM as the true difficulty for world records and the other variations as just fun, extra variations???  Just asking.   

Corey, once we come up with a final list, can you start a voting thread for this and let people vote on it for a month or so?  Until then we can just finalize this list.

[Donkey Kong Genius]

Happy New Year to you as well.

I completely forgot about other settings. I would be willing to create a voting thread once the list is finalized but I have never spoken with Jace. I was thinking more in terms of our own tracking here for fun and if something gets going then we would see if Jace wants to track it on TG as well. I do understand that it would be fun trying to play the game on other difficulties, etc, but I do have to admit that unlike Junior and DK, I would find myself wanting to up my Medium score as oppose to playing other difficulties. Who knows, I will eventually get tired of 4 and 5 hour attempts and must play around with other settings, etc, just so I can still enjoy the game when I don't have time for longer games, or I may think that developing strategies for Hard, etc, would mess with my medium game. In upcoming days I may be willing to start some submissions on these other tracks just to get some things going, though perhaps it would be through mame.

How does Steven get 17 fireballs? Would love to see something like that.

[ripper]

Happy New Year to you as well.

I completely forgot about other settings. I would be willing to create a voting thread once the list is finalized but I have never spoken with Jace. I was thinking more in terms of our own tracking here for fun and if something gets going then we would see if Jace wants to track it on TG as well. I do understand that it would be fun trying to play the game on other difficulties, etc, but I do have to admit that unlike Junior and DK, I would find myself wanting to up my Medium score as oppose to playing other difficulties. Who knows, I will eventually get tired of 4 and 5 hour attempts and must play around with other settings, etc, just so I can still enjoy the game when I don't have time for longer games, or I may think that developing strategies for Hard, etc, would mess with my medium game. In upcoming days I may be willing to start some submissions on these other tracks just to get some things going, though perhaps it would be through mame.

How does Steven get 17 fireballs? Would love to see something like that.

This is one reason I love doubles so much as the games are a lot shorter, time wise. 

Look at Steven's old twitch recordings and see if it's still there.  He did this like a year ago.

So maybe avoid other difficulties on arcade and just go with Ultimate NO POW for singles & Doubles?  I still think having a HARDEST difficulty would be like a ultimate NO POW.  It would stand out as being a lot different than MEDIUM all together.  However, even the Ultimate NO POW may interfere with the regular NO POW as to which is really the true WR?  IDK

Another thought is to leave the arcade the way it is and let people use MAME or one of the network versions to submit the scores on, if we wanted to have a bunch of other difficulties and variations?

[gstrain]

I wouldn't want to see any more official TG tracks added.  I think all these alternate tracks would be fun to track here with the high score list as "challenges", but wouldn't want to dilute the existing official TG tracks.

One other "challenge" variation that I think is fun and have proposed before is an "Extreme Settings" with the rules of:

 1) Difficulty Hardest
 2) If you have a POW the very first thing you have to do is destroy the POW. This means at the start of the first Phase and then on each Bonus Phase where it regenerates, the first thing you have to do at the start of the phase is go hit the POW 3 times. As others have already pointed out, this is harder than the existing No POW rules since it doesn’t let you stand on top of the POW. As a side effect, it makes completing the Bonus Phases perfectly more challenging.
 3) On every Phase except bonus phases you have to kill a red fireball before completing the stage. This rule is evil and frustrating, but fun.

-George

[ripper]

I wouldn't want to see any more official TG tracks added.  I think all these alternate tracks would be fun to track here with the high score list as "challenges", but wouldn't want to dilute the existing official TG tracks.

One other "challenge" variation that I think is fun and have proposed before is an "Extreme Settings" with the rules of:

 1) Difficulty Hardest
 2) If you have a POW the very first thing you have to do is destroy the POW. This means at the start of the first Phase and then on each Bonus Phase where it regenerates, the first thing you have to do at the start of the phase is go hit the POW 3 times. As others have already pointed out, this is harder than the existing No POW rules since it doesn’t let you stand on top of the POW. As a side effect, it makes completing the Bonus Phases perfectly more challenging.
 3) On every Phase except bonus phases you have to kill a red fireball before completing the stage. This rule is evil and frustrating, but fun.

-George

We can call that one "Ultimate Evil NO POW"

[Donkey Kong Genius]

I like it. One thing that is actually nice about Hardest difficulty is that the two green fireballs spawn rather quickly one after the other so it is usually easy to get them to both spawn on the same level. 

[SanTe]

5) Most Red fireball kills on one phase?  Steven already owns this record at like 17 fireball kills.

FWIW I was told by another classic arcade gamer several years ago that he once witnessed Jimmy Linderman run up a score of 500k+ doing nothing but killing orange fireballs on the same stage.  Given Jimmy's skills, I don't doubt it.

[VON]

5) Most Red fireball kills on one phase?  Steven already owns this record at like 17 fireball kills.

FWIW I was told by another classic arcade gamer several years ago that he once witnessed Jimmy Linderman run up a score of 500k+ doing nothing but killing orange fireballs on the same stage.  Given Jimmy's skills, I don't doubt it.

I've seen Jimmy do this as well.  Impressive stuff!  Though I'm not sure how I feel about the procedure as a valid/invalid point gathering tactic.  On the one hand, it's difficult to sustain and it's inefficient, on the other, the player is intentionally not progressing the game for as long as they can, which could be ruled "against the spirit of the game".

I dunno...  Would anyone here accept a MB score to the MB high score list that was all red fireball leeching?

Just curious.

 

[maximumsteve]

New #2 in the world on all platforms people!! 4,601,950 I achieved last night. What a way to kick off the new year. The positive was that it was the first time I achieved over 4 million points. The negative was I was only 76,000 and change away from Tom's POW world record. Here is the link with the dips at the end for your viewing pleasure. The game was 4 hours and 54 minutes. Exhausted but proud. This will submitted to TG and Guinness on the 2nd. Cheers!!...

http://www.twitch.tv/maximumsteve/c/5795302 

[Donkey Kong Genius]

I suppose if one is even capable of pulling off an all red fireball game, they should be able to get a real score by progressing through the game.

Great game, Steve. I will be watching it over and over. Perhaps some of your greatness will rub off.

[SanTe]

I've seen Jimmy do this as well.  Impressive stuff!  Though I'm not sure how I feel about the procedure as a valid/invalid point gathering tactic.  On the one hand, it's difficult to sustain and it's inefficient, on the other, the player is intentionally not progressing the game for as long as they can, which could be ruled "against the spirit of the game".

I dunno...  Would anyone here accept a MB score to the MB high score list that was all red fireball leeching?

Just curious.

I have mixed feelings about it.  It's difficult and there is an inherent risk of dying, so technically it's not leeching and shouldn't be a banned tactic, but I do feel it goes against the spirit of the game, which in general I am against.  Then again, so does saucer hunting in Asteroids and that has been an accepted tactic for decades.  Pterodactyl hunting in Joust is extremely similar in this case and it is banned, but I suppose it's because there is a lot less risk of dying?

Going against the spirit of the game isn't always bad though.  Sometimes it results in ingenious ways of taking a game further than anyone ever thought imaginable, and that generally is a good thing.  I believe this is why CAG has evolved inconsistent rules over the years, because each game is unique and deserves separate consideration.

[ripper]

Congratulations Steven!  Having 2 men left and being over 4 million, I thought for sure you had it but I also know how it feels as this game will wear you down.

I remember when Steven used to send me tapes and he was leeching the ice on phase 9.  I was still a ref and I had to deal with it as leeching or just getting a few extra points.  Eventually I just figured the red fireball will get fast after a few minutes and that was like a good time to finish the level and move on why also picking up an extra 15 or 20K.  No harm no foul.

Wow, if someone can actually get 500 red fireballs then that is amazing.  I guess it's just a pattern thing to hit them at certain point and places on the board.  I kind of like it where people just play MB's the way it's supposed to be played and see who can get the highest score.  I respect all players and the way they play the game.  It's good to see how people can play the game to a high level and do it totally different than everybody else.

[Donkey Kong Genius]

Here is the youtube version of Steve's game:

Mario Bros Arcade Steven Kleisath 4,601,950

[maximumsteve]

http://www.twingalaxies.com/content.php/3423-Steven-Kleisath-Officially-Sets-Twin-Galaxies-Mario-Bros-Arcade-World-Record!

[ripper]

This score has now been accepted and added to the TG database!