Arcade High Scores! Current Game: DEFENDER - COME ON IN!

I remember playing the Star Wars arcade machine a few years back and if I am remembering correctly, does it not control with a yoke?

I assume I won't be able to control it properly with a joystick?

Edit: just installed it and it works fine with the joystick. Just need to make sure the dip switches are ok.
 
Last edited:
Had to reset my scores and configuration. I normally have it set at 9 shields.

Anyway first attempt at a run through.

T83DMNM.jpg



There are a few basic ways to boost scores.

1. Start at Wave 5, bonus is 800,000 and is more than you can achieve using normal means when starting at Wave 1.
2. Shoot all towers.
3. 'Use the Force'. Basically don't shoot anything from the start until the very end of the trench run, just before the exhaust port. Is worth quite a few points at higher levels.

I played this so much in the eighties.
Porthcawl Fair, Aberafan sea front when the fair came and Fun Land (an arcade off the back of a pub). Motorway services. Mumbles pier. Alton Towers. They even had one in a local Spar shop.
There were many little arcades back in those days and Star Wars was fairly popular.

Back in the day I could go at least an hour on this for a 10p, especially with it set to 9 shields and 2 or 3 bonus shields. My mates would go off and spend 10s of £s whilst I spent just the 10p.

The only thing was some machines had dodgy controllers. The potentiometers were prone to damage and were somewhat erratic.

My machine is an Arcade1up. The yoke is a bit poor if I'm honest. It has a tendency to be inconsistent in the centre of the screen and the spring return is quite heavy.
 
Last edited:
Spacedeck said:
I'll check the game out later but I thought when scores didn't reset, most machines added +1 to the score? Or is that just specific machines?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure, but agree with cheesyboy, trust factor has to kick in here. Surely none of us have a reason to cheat the scores. All done for a bit of fun.
 
Yeah sure why not then. Tinkle Pit is a pretty good game. I hadn't heard of it until I watched a YouTube video about the history of Namco and it was highly recommended. I gave it a quick go and it seems pretty fun.

I will give Star Wars a good go before the end of next week. I don't think I am getting anywhere near Tealc's score though!
 
Annoyingly, Star Wars seems to be unplayable on my cabinet (via non-analogue joystick).
If I get time I'll have a look to see if there's anything I can do in mame to get the stick to be of any use.
Gutted if I can't as this was the first arcade I ever played when I was a kid, I could take you to the very shop where it used to be (a long gone baskin and robbins in Ealing).
 
mcwildcard said:
Annoyingly, Star Wars seems to be unplayable on my cabinet (via non-analogue joystick).
If I get time I'll have a look to see if there's anything I can do in mame to get the stick to be of any use.
Gutted if I can't as this was the first arcade I ever played when I was a kid, I could take you to the very shop where it used to be (a long gone baskin and robbins in Ealing).
Click to expand...

I am playing it using an eight way joystick using the Final Burn Alpha emulator. Just worked without any configuration.
 
Although you can control Star Wars with a joystick I have discovered that doing so is very sluggish and makes the game very difficult. I compared my gameplay to a YouTube video and you can clearly see that my cursor moves quite a bit slower.

I will submit a score later today but it is going to be pretty low.
 
I'm afraid the game really does need some form of analogue control. A mouse works, as would an Xbox/PS type controller. Converting a digital input into a cursor movement might work but would be super tricky to get anywhere.

I managed, back a few years ago, to get up to wave 10 or so with a mouse.

I guess with everyone using dedicated hardware and joysticks future games should be limited to such controllable games. So out goes games like outrun, hangon, pole position, road blasters, after burner. Some of my faves there.
 
Tealc said:
I guess with everyone using dedicated hardware and joysticks future games should be limited to such controllable games. So out goes games like outrun, hangon, pole position, road blasters, after burner. Some of my faves there.
Click to expand...

Suppose so long as the game is easily controllable through different means, then it should probably be fine.

Personally haven't been having a great last few weeks, so haven't even tried StarWars out much. I did have one go where I attempted to use my DuelSense 5 controller but for some reason, the cursor was centred off the to the left and haven't figured how to make it central.

One thing I have been thinking about though is the systems. @JoeBoi picked out Silent Scope's arcade mode on the Dreamcast. How many people would have access to another system to play if something if the chosen game wasn't on a arcade cab?

Is this something people are open to? If so, I'm sure there are plenty of games on consoles with arcade modes, so we could start allowing that. Or should we try and keep it purely cab based? Wiki seems to tell me Silent Scope was first released in Japan on a cab, although doesn't appear to be apart of mame set.
 
Spacedeck said:
Suppose so long as the game is easily controllable through different means, then it should probably be fine.

Personally haven't been having a great last few weeks, so haven't even tried StarWars out much. I did have one go where I attempted to use my DuelSense 5 controller but for some reason, the cursor was centred off the to the left and haven't figured how to make it central.

One thing I have been thinking about though is the systems. @JoeBoi picked out Silent Scope's arcade mode on the Dreamcast. How many people would have access to another system to play if something if the chosen game wasn't on a arcade cab?

Is this something people are open to? If so, I'm sure there are plenty of games on consoles with arcade modes, so we could start allowing that. Or should we try and keep it purely cab based? Wiki seems to tell me Silent Scope was first released in Japan on a cab, although doesn't appear to be apart of mame set.
Click to expand...

I have a Steam Deck so I can play most games emulated up to Dreamcast no problem. I would be OK broadening the scope to include console games with arcade modes.
 
I think maybe hang back on the game arcade modes until we run out of steam with actual arcade games (although I've only just jumped into this, so maybe others feel like that's where it already is?)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom