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MGLXXXIX - Game 2 ~ Space Zap (closes 28-Apr)


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127,250

 

1654260216_SMK_spacezap_127250_wolf106.png.30d89e9d7e423b803f836631f989a92c.png

 

Dammit this game is fast!! I don't see me getting much higher than this. Could it be me, or is using a keyboard much, much harder? I could dig out my Hotrod or X-Arcade stick, but I wanted to see how far I could take it with using the keyboard. I'm curious what the highest score is so far, using a keyboard...

 

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136,750

 

109194843_SMK_spacezap_136750_wolf106.png.20f7bb5428bf66ad344170963bd8d490.png

 

Ok so I lied. :redface. I didn't think I'd beat my last score by almost 10k. In fact, I was waiting for the last enemy to come around the top to my cannon, and it snuck in and destroyed me. I've never died like that before. I think it would have given me an additional 2k for destroying it and then advancing me to the next stage. Oh well. I'm not done with this one yet. Now on to some EA.:)

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what a mad little game. clumsy on a gamepad, might setup a keyboard for this.

 

97,750

 

https://i.postimg.cc/sg7x1m17/20190416-180450.jpg

 

What a coincidence ... you've scored the same as John73 ... 97,750.

 

Actually, even more coincidences in this game. Ozfodder, Pessimeister and Vikleroy are all on 141,250 points.

 

 

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162,750pts

 

This may max out my score using WASD on the keyboard. Gotta get a pad or stick in my hand at some point to do any better.

 

https://www.aussiearcade.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=146279

 

INP here

 

Still a great score. "Get the pad, get the pad, or get the stick ... yeah"

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This may max out my score using WASD on the keyboard. Gotta get a pad or stick in my hand at some point to do any better.

 

Hi Ben. I wanted to test that theory with my Hotrod and after a dozen or so games, I found it's basically the same as using the keyboard. I would have never thought that because you would think having a joystick in your hand for control, would help at the higher levels when the game gets ridiculously fast. So for me, it looks like I'm back to using the keyboard again. The downside is that there's no way I will be able to hang with those achieving 170k and higher. The game is just too fast for me to maneuver the arrow keys. My goal right now is to break 145k. 150k would probably be tops for me. If I set my expectations too high, I will find myself running to Walmart to replace my keyboard for the umteenth time.

 

Let me know how it works for you.

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Pessimeister: 165,000

 

0011.png.b9ba023e4f93aea9a9e7903002e29e86.png

 

For those getting around 120-140 k; take heart in the fact that an extra base awaits you at 150 k. :) I wasn't expecting it and so it was quite a pleasant surprise.

Another skill I found quite relevant on this particular run: Anticipation. I tried not to go berko and instead treat every shot on its merit.

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Hey there @Flash IV. It'd be interesting to hear the story of when you first played this game. Was it something you kept returning to back in the day and what were you scoring? It seems like a slight obscurity as I've certainly never seen or heard of it before. I'd be curious as to how widespread it was.

 

While I don't remember exactly the first time I played Space Zap, I can tell you where it was and also when the last time I played that particular cabinet (with a 99.9999% certainty) was.

 

The only times I played Space Zap back in the day was at a local bowling alley called Super Bowl. It seems like it was there for quite a while as I remember playing it often. If I remember correctly (which is just as likely not the case LOL!) it was the second game in the row. Since it was a bowling alley they didn't change out their games very often. I think the line up was at some point an unknown game, Space Zap, Space Invaders, Asteroids and then 2 or 3 other games and a pinball machine. I do remember the following games moving in and out at some point from 1980-1985, Crazy Climber, Battle Zone, Pole Position and Gorf.

I definitely kept returning to it as it was maybe a 15 min bike ride to the bowling alley. Back then my top score was 215,000. Now it is 254,500 on a real Space Zap and 263,000 in MAME.

 

If I had to guess as to why I originally tried it, maybe since I was only 12 at the time, I had to play whatever games weren't being played by the big kids. This is pure speculation at best and I have no recollection of that.

I would say it was not very widespread, I never saw it anywhere else back then. I read somewhere that it was released in Oct. 1980 (it was released in 1980 for sure). You know what other obscure game was released in the US in Oct. 1980?? A little unknown game know as ... Pac-Man. If they both were release in Oct 1980, what horrible timing for Space Zap, but who knew? Although both were release by Midway, so somebody knew. LOL!

 

So you may have noticed I started by saying that while I don't know that exact first time I played on my local bowling alley's Space Zap cabinet, I can tell you the last time I played on that cabinet. How is this possible?? Black magic,Time Travel that only allows me to go back until 1981 or something much, much more sinist(ar?)er? Nope, nope and probably not.

 

Amazingly enough within a 99.9999% certainty I am in possession of the Space Zap cabinet from the Super Bowl bowling alley of my youth! So I last played that cabinet on 4/16/19.:lol

 

I bought the Space Zap from a gentleman in a town maybe 15-20 miles (24-32 km) from my home town. As we are talking I ask how he got it, he says that he bought it from a roller skating rink a few years back that is in a town nearby. Then it gets weird... he says that the owners of the roller rink tell him they bought it from a bowling alley in my hometown. Since at least 1980 there has only been two bowling alleys in my hometown of Appleton, WI. I have never seen a Space Zap in the other one (back then called Hahn’s Lanes), only in the Super Bowl bowling alley. In addition the other bowling alley was/is so small that the few times I went there I never remember there being more than one game there at a time and most definitely not Space Zap.

 

That is how I am almost certainly still playing on the Space Zap of my childhood.

 

I almost forgot. This summer my wife is taking me down to Daytona FL for a late birthday trip to the Daytona Arcade Museum. They seem to have the original Game-A-Tron version (which unfortunately is not dumped in MAME). I have heard that the score are much lower for the missiles, ships and the "Not TIE Fighter".

Edited by Flash IV
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So you may have noticed I started by saying that while I don't know that exact first time I played on my local bowling alley's Space Zap cabinet, I can tell you the last time I played on that cabinet. How is this possible?? Black magic,Time Travel that only allows me to go back until 1981 or something much, much more sinist(ar?)er? Nope, nope and probably not.

 

Amazingly enough within a 99.9999% certainty I am in possession of the Space Zap cabinet from the Super Bowl bowling alley of my youth! So I last played that cabinet on 4/16/19.:lol

 

 

That's an amazing story. Wow you now own the Space Zap you played when you were a kid. And you are still playing. Awesome. When I played in the arcades of the 70s and 80s, I dreamed of owning so many machines. They were incredibly expensive at the time and there was so many titles to choose from.

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