MAME ROW #6: Pang

cyperghost

@pjft This doesn't matter. Everybody is welcome :)
The ROW gives a nice possibility of playing not very popluar games.

Well... PANG! indeed is very popular :)

pjft

I'll make a note to drop by and at least vote every week :)

meleu

@pjft with Pang specifically it doesn't matter, because the score goes back to zero after a continue.

The most important rule here is have fun. The rest are optional (but being honest with the score would be nice :-) ).

pjft

@meleu Haha, of course :) I'm in this above all for the fun.

The reason I asked is because, since I do not have a lot of time these days, when I do have the chance, I just pop up a random game and try to take it to the end, burning as many credits as needed, just to go through it for nostalgia's sake as I obviously wasn't able to do it back in the day as credits did cost money :)

I'll try to submit high scores after a single credit, though, should be fun :) Being honest, always!

Thanks!

GtBFilms

Welcome @pjft!

I agree the MAME ROW is a great chance to try some of the less popular games that might have passed us by. I enjoy it because there are some games (Bosconian I'm looking at you) that I probably wouldn't have played more than a couple of times, but actually get better the more you play them.

pjft

Wow. This was fun. I thought I'd do better at Pang, but it's not as simple as I remembered it to be! :)

The first credit I ended up making a few basic blunders and losing all 3 lives around stage 2 or something, which was a shame, with only around 10k points.

I added a second credit and continued, the score went back to zero, and then went to stage 6 (Mt. Keirin), with a score of 85020.

Then after starting from scratch I got to Mt. Keirin on 1 credit - with a few lives - but lost there, again. This time, I scored 104310. That was good! Similar to @cyperghost , also on stage 6 :)

Then I spent a last quarter, from level 1, but only scored 44930 and died at around stage 4 :P

I find that I like the double arrow weapon the most, I suppose - the gun should be better in theory, but requires some movement precision that I don't always have when the screen gets full of small balls that only bounce slightly higher than the character. As such, I find myself deliberately avoiding picking it up - even waiting for it to disappear if it comes my way.

As for strategies, definitely not going to the corner is a big one, as you have no escape and few ways to navigate that should a ball go straight at you. Also, I find that I try to shoot all removable blocks from the screen so that I can then best control the ball trajectories, but there are unbreakable blocks in some of the later levels, which make that difficult.

It's a fun game, though more "rigid" than I remembered it to be. I'll definitely try to come back in the coming days if I have the chance, to see if I can at least move past stage 6. :)

Also, are you always starting at Level 1? Or is there another place to start that ends up being easier?

Cheers!

GtBFilms

I got a new joystick top, at 66g it's double the weight of the old ball top.

And with this new level of control I bagged myself a score of 189600! (stage 10)

meleu

@pjft we all agreed to start from the stage 1, as said in this post above.

@GtBFilms damn! I have to beat it! :-)

It's a pitty that @R1n0X is very busy this weekend. He's a good gamer and for sure would bring a nice hi-score here...

GtBFilms

Ah, there's a bonus guy runs along the top of level 4 for a nice 100,000 points and an extra life pickup on level 5.

235,110!

Still died on stage 10 though.

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cyperghost

@GtBFilms I don't understand the point system
50pt for each shoot 'n' hit... when to get 400, 800, 1600?

I hit the guy in level 4 ... seems to be an astronaut or somewhat. This guy gives me just 10,000 points :(

GtBFilms

@cyperghost ah maybe it was 10,000, I read too many zeros!

To be honest I don't understand the points for each bubble either, it seems that the last few bubbled on a screen get bonus scores, and these appear to be different. I was thinking it might be more points for how close you are to the last few bubbles you pop, then I thought perhaps it was to do with how close to the ground they were, as lower ones seem to give 1600, while higher ones only maybe 500.

However I never really got a conclusive answer to that, it still seems a bit random.

cyperghost

Okay! My last entry here :) - 123030 Pts Level 7
2nd place?!

dankcushions

@cyperghost said in MAME ROW #6: Pang:

Okay! My last entry here :) - 123030 Pts Level 7
2nd place?!

3rd place after @GtBFilms and @meleu

and now 4th :)

dankcushions

make that second place now :)

cyperghost

@dankcushions said in MAME ROW #6: Pang:

make that second place now :)

I think we need a billboard next time!
I see PANG! hits great resonance :)

meleu

Where's the astronaut?!?!?! I want that bonus!! :D

Is the 4 stage the first of Mt. Keirin?!

cyperghost

@meleu Yes @ stage4 Mt. Keirin

pjft

Still going to have a final go at it for today :) Will attempt to at least change the rankings, though getting a score over 200k feels impossible to me at the moment. :)

What's the status?

GtBFilms - 235110
dankcushions - 210990
meleu - 146560
cyperghost - 123030
pjft - 104310

Is that it?

Good fun, though, will report back.

pjft

No good.

After quite a few attempts, my best is 119350 - Stage 7 :)

I'm closing Pang for now. Looking forward to tomorrow's ROW voting.

GtBFilms

That was good fun. I managed to grab a shot of that elusive astronaut. He's on level 5, not level 4 as I thought previously, sorry.

Looking forward to finding out next weeks selection!