Space Harrier (Arcade)

[Jodo]

*EDIT* Thread to be updated shortly to reflect a new World Record 25th MAY 2010 by yours truly

40,470,880 points

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3173 ... th-battle#

====================================

I was fortunate enough to achieve this on my Harrier mini-sit down in 2009 (recorded in hi-def, validated by a TG Referee.) I held the Twin Galaxies Record for around one year before it was beaten again by Nick Hutt in April 2010.

I've been playing Space Harrier on and off since 86' but only really seriously started going for the WR last year. Interesting I think as the very same cab was originally owned by the previous record holder, so some nice history in it I would dearly love a Dlx

Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPKEPP1v0RM

Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6rWb0rWzkw

Phil.

[yosai]

Nice score Phil. Do you have an avi of the run online anywhere? Cheers.

[pubjoe]

Wow!

You are now number one on my cool list.

I loved this game. This is what drew me to arcades all those years ago. My best score would be a tiny fraction of yours, but I did at least once manage to 1cc it with 30p/3 lives... Which I was very proud of as many people used to say it was too hectic/random to apply proper skill.

It was a great game for drawing crowds. I used to feel so cool when I was a kid sitting in the hydraulic cockpit and groups of older kids watching. ...Damn I loved this game. The graphics and presentation still impress me to this day.

I used to carry the spectrum cassette insleeve round with me everywhere, I used to hide the little tatty well-loved piece of paper in my school books and spend huge amounts of time just staring at the picture and drawing stuff like the 3-eyed triangle head robot or the two headed dragon... I even spent all day doing a flick book version of the hero tripping over incoming rocks and shooting stuff. ...I was totally obsessed by this game and the theme music had been keeping me company, buzzing round my head ever since.

What a game.

Err, well done mate!

Nice score Phil. Do you have an avi of the run online anywhere? Cheers.

Ditto. I'd love to see this run through.

[Jodo]

Nice score Phil. Do you have an avi of the run online anywhere? Cheers.

Hi both - and thanks for the interest and comments. The video is about 28 minutes long (iirc) and has lots of me booting cab up from cold, showing the insides, the PCB, the DIPS etc etc to satisfy the TG rules of submission. It's also in Hi-Def so the problem I have is I've managed to recode and split it but the 2 files are still 600MB each! I have joined Youtube with the intent of uploading both parts, or recoding the original to be smaller but I must admit I am stumped. I have no idea how to encode it to a 'managable' size and upload it to the net!

Sending it to TG was easy - I just burnt a DVD.

If anyone has any bright ideas I'm open to suggestions as it would be nice to have the (at time of writing) WR on the net for people interested to view.

Cheers, Phil.

[pubjoe]

I have an idea, send me the DVD!

Well anyway, there are some simple guides and freeware tools to convert to either mp4 or xvid/divx. If you want the most control over file size, resolution and quality, virtualdub is probably the best free option. It does look like a pretty scary program though if you've never used it before but there are some pretty good guides that if you follow properly, you "can't go wrong" ...well... eventually.

[yosai]

Try AutoGK for converting video files.

http://www.autogk.me.uk/

[Jodo]

Try AutoGK for converting video files.

http://www.autogk.me.uk/

Thanks for that - will do.

[Casey120]

What's a mini sit down ?

This ??



If so I envy you , I absolutely adore that game !

I played it in the Arcade's and at home on my Sega Master System at a cool 12 fps and I even enjoyed the almost soundless 8 colour Sinclair Spectrum version

[Jodo]

What's a mini sit down ?

This ??

If so I envy you , I absolutely adore that game !

I played it in the Arcade's and at home on my Sega Master System at a cool 12 fps and I even enjoyed the almost soundless 8 colour Sinclair Spectrum version

Yes that's the same as the cab I have, in about the same condition too. I was gutted that Chris Butler was rushed into getting his Commodore 64 conversion into the shops for Christmas; it was so obviously incomplete and ran too fast. The potential was there though, huge sprites, an approximation of the music and for the first few levels at least it was roughly the same attack patterns and layout as the arcade. I still played it to death though and of course until the Master System version came along all we had were the 8-bit versions to covet

[pubjoe]

Hi Jodo.

Did you ever get that video sorted. If you like, send me a DVD and I'll convert it to a small file and put it up to download somewhere. ...I'd love to watch the top score being played through.

[Jodo]

Hi Jodo.

Did you ever get that video sorted. If you like, send me a DVD and I'll convert it to a small file and put it up to download somewhere. ...I'd love to watch the top score being played through.

Hi,

I am uploading the files this afternoon into 2 parts and links will be available later tonight / tomorrow

Cheers, Phil.

[pubjoe]

Great! Looking forward to it. Nice one.

[Jodo]

Great! Looking forward to it. Nice one.

Part One is up >

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPKEPP1v0RM

Part Two in a couple of hours.....

Thanks, Phil.

[Casey120]

Keep it coming !

[Jodo]

Keep it coming !

Cheers

Part 2 here >

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6rWb0rWzkw

Thanks, Phil.

[pubjoe]

Hey thanks a lot for posting. Again well done. That was amazing to watch. I barely noticed some parts of the game because you were killing all the enemies so quickly.

I was wondering, do you score slightly more by dragging out the bosses and generally taking as much time as possible? ...I was going to ask how come you kill things like the two sets of 3 clover thingies on level 1 so fast too, but thinking back, it's impossible to prolong the main levels like you can the boss stages - is that right?

Another question. Before you got your cab, did you ever come accross a decent feeling (for space harrier) analogue joystick or flightstick to use with mame? Anything you could recommend?

...

P.S. I've just remembered this game has one of the silliest boss names in history. The master system booklet referred to the last boss as Weewee Jumbo (or something like that).

[Jodo]

Hey thanks a lot for posting. Again well done. That was amazing to watch. I barely noticed some parts of the game because you were killing all the enemies so quickly.

Cheers

I was wondering, do you score slightly more by dragging out the bosses and generally taking as much time as possible? ...I was going to ask how come you kill things like the two sets of 3 clover thingies on level 1 so fast too, but thinking back, it's impossible to prolong the main levels like you can the boss stages - is that right?

As the score is constantly increasing it is theoretically possible to drag out the boss encounters at the end of each stage but it's not really worth it for the few hundred points gain imo. The only stage where this tactic is absolutely necessary is the end of stage 17. If you are going for the record then this is where you'll get the most points. Basically, don't kill the boss in the centre but rather kill everything *else* and stay alive for as long as possible. If you tick over 30.5ish million before going into stage 18 then you've a very good chance of getting the record. Use all but your last life here and go into stage 18 on your last life - it's basically a boss rush from all previous levels but not that hard, as their difficulty doesn't go up; even though it's the last level of the game.

Another question. Before you got your cab, did you ever come accross a decent feeling (for space harrier) analogue joystick or flightstick to use with mame? Anything you could recommend?

Yes - the Sega Ages Space Harrier release in Japan also came in a box set with the grey Sega Flight-stick. I have this myself and I can't think (offhand) that any version proved better for that 60hz arcade control-like experience. IIRC the PAL release of Sega Ages was capped at 50Hz with borders so I wouldn't go for this version, even if you can find a Flightstick.

Cheers, Phil.

[yosai]

Thanks for posting the vids Phil, always good to watch a 1cc superplay.

Those last couple of levels are pretty you did well.

[pubjoe]

Thanks for your reply. I think I'll look out for that stick.

[Jodo]

Thanks for posting the vids Phil, always good to watch a 1cc superplay.

Those last couple of levels are pretty you did well.

hehe - thanks for that I'll keep practicing and who knows maybe I'll beat it

Phil.