Congrats on the monster score, but at point 570330 you should have died at least with my limited knowledge of the game. When you brick yourself, you have a limited amount of time to stay in the brick untill you get forced out at the next possible open space. So how did you stay in for at least 4 seconds passing a monster that should have sucked you into it's space? Is there a technique for remainging in a bricked square?

-- Chad (churritz@cts.com), August 12, 1999

Answers

I noticed that too, Skito. It seems to happen somewhat randomly, but the times I can remember it happening to me are if you started flashing right when you warp around the screen, or just before. Wish I could repeat it tho'.

Anyone ever notice how you just have some 'stupid' days when playing this game? I broke my record on my first try (for the 371000 score), then I played for about 25 times today, and never made the fifth stage ONCE. I would get pinned on the third stage, for crying out loud.

Man, I thought my high score was going to last for more than two days. Somebody's gonna pay for this travesty. :)

-- Q.T.Quazar (qan@home.com), August 12, 1999.

Here another segment of "You asked for it" To determine the actions of laughlin on zzy, I (AND I HAD TO SEARCH LONG AND HARD FOR THIS ONE) found an actual Arcade machine of ZZYZZYXX, and made a dump of it. (Note: The side panel graphics on this game was just wierd.) Upon completion, somthing caught my eye which makes me suspect laughlin's score. (I haven't seen the MAME recording myself, so at the moment, I hold a reservation on it) But, in the programming on the machine, the time allowed in a block before being forced to go decreases from level to level, like the blue time of ghosts in pac-man. If the machine has a choice of an up and down at the same time, it will place you at the side that farest from your goal. Now, you are not forced until there is an opening, and at level 5 or beyond, the time alloted for the player to remain in a block in minisule at best. (I don't want to get to the exact time to the hundredth of a second kind of thing) The description of being allowed to stay in a block for 4-5 seconds at that level brings major suspecions from a person who has gutted and looked at the program. (THE WORST THING ABOUT IT IS YOU THINK IT WOULD HELP ME TO BEAT YOU ALL! BUT IT DOESN'T!!!)

-- Chris Parsley (cparsley1@hotmail.com), August 12, 1999.

I've just viewed Lagavulin's latest monster score for zzyzzyx2. I can't say that there is anything suspect here as far as I can see. Just very knowledgable gameplay involved. On the subject of "brick time", I have noticed that it doesn't seem consistent. During my 470K game, there were times that I thought I was done for only to be given a reprieve. I don't know, perhaps the governor of the State of Zzyzzyxx decided to provide me with a stay of execution. :/

JoustGod

-- JoustGod (pinballwiz1@msn.com), August 12, 1999.

I'm curious as to how Chris P. is working out how the zzyzzyxx program works. Why do you need to find the actual arcade machine to look at the zzyzzxx program? If you can play the game then you already have the program in the ROM images. Are you applying probest to the machine? I just don't really understand how you're getting the insights you're getting from an original machine - isn't everything just much clearer with a copy of MAME in debug mode?

-- Zwaxy (zwaxy@mail.com), August 12, 1999.

I personally find it easier to be able to start from scratch, and be able to dump it as I see fit, rather than working with someone else's work, and how they decided to do it.

-- Chris Parsley (cparsley1@hotmail.com), August 12, 1999.

I don't have a solid answer on why it sometimes let's you stay longer, but it does. I haven't seen a real machine, so this could be an emulation error. However, there is a cool website on Cinematronics that has pictures of either the pamphlet or the cabinet art (can't remember which) ... and you're right Chris it's wierd.

-- Aquatarkus (aquatarkus@digicron.com), August 12, 1999.

Nothing strange here. study a litle bit more the game and you will understand that after a few seconds being protected in a brick, you go in the line opposite to the girl. For example , if the girl is at the top of the screen, you fall in the line just below, but you NEVER go in the line above.

-- lagavulin (darre@club-internet.fr), August 21, 1999.

thanks, that makes good sense. 1.6M is a beautiful score.

-- Chad (churritz@cts.com), August 21, 1999.