Congratulations on the breakthrough, StephenEl!In a sense, CE is like Ms. Pac-Man. The top players in Ms. Pac share the same skill sets and ability to run "perfect" games, but their scores are all different due to the random fruit.In CE, randomness also plays a role as sometimes ghosts line up nicely to keep a chain going, sometimes not. Sometimes the ghosts stay out of your way during the "survival" portions, sometimes they force you to detour - costing you time. I had several missed ghosts in my run, but who knows whether that helped me more than it hurt (eating them could have altered their paths to where they might have gotten in my way later).So, just as the top Ms. Pac players could be considered equally skilled, even if their scores vary, so too could it be argued that the top CE players are of equal skill - just comes down to one great run. I had actually thought 500K was at least many weeks (if not months away) for me. I was as shocked as anyone - just had a couple of ghosts come my way at the very end.We had thought VGF would be next to join the 500K Club, but it looks like we'll both beat him to it now. I'm just happy to have made it onto the top ten and be among the likes of StephenEL, cdborrgeo, senobeya, and others like island mario....pretty amazing company...
The finalists from the Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championships played Classic Pac-Man to qualify. It was like the top two from the U.S., and the top 1-2 from the other regions. Hard to believe it's already been a year (almost). Getting the chance to go to New York and play against the other finalists was a blast. Sadly, it appears the event was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
That said I thought of a fun "what-if:" IF they would have had another tourney this year using Pac-Man CE (all other rules the same), Stephen El and I would have been 1-2 in the U.S. by the deadline. Senobeya would have made it from Japan, and last year's winner Carlos Borrego from Mexico would have had the chance to defend his title. Not sure about the rest of the would-be field....but I could only imagine what kinds of head-to-head scores we would see from these players one year later....
Bill wrote:Pills here!
I was just starting to push 250k on CE mode 1 when I checked last, but I haven't played in months. I'd probably be lucky to break 150, let alone 500k. Congrats, guys.
It's definately an undertaking - but it can suck you in for sure. Fun and frustrating at the same time!
Had my family out of town last week so I went back to original Pac-Man for awhile. Did manage a new high score there.
In any case, I think that answered my last lingering question (since I had to quit at 3.6 million due to the tourney deadline last year). With that new high score, and having met my goal of 500K here, I think its time to say "Game Over" for me. Not that I will never play Pac-Man CE again, but from now on it will be just to play. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky enough for you to still see me on the weekly leader boards from time to time.
Best of luck to my fellow gamers with their future/ongoing achievements, etc....
The thing now, especially at our level of play, is there appears to be a direct trade-off. You can get more points along the way at the expense of time, or save time at the expense of points. So, to push your score any higher, you'd need to play enough games to, as you put it, "brute force" your way to a high score.
Yeah, I'm lucky I made the annoucement last week...StoneFry just got 503K...so at least I went out on top - of the U.S. rankings anyway ;-) LOL
Seriously, tho....I decided to make the annoucement more due to this summer being the 25th Anniversary of my first start toward chasing high scores in Pac-Man. Twenty Five years is enough I think. With the NYC event having been a one-time thing, having already gotten perfect scores on the other platforms, and breaking into the top ten in CE, it just felt like there were no other milestones I needed to reach.
Twin Galaxies is planning to post my full annoucement on their site. Should be able to see it there soon.
Whichever direction you elect to go from here...good luck to you!
Stephen El wrote:Stonefry is awesome. That 502K of his just boggled my mind. Two deaths!I saw Twin Galaxies is going to start tracking Pac-man CE scores, so I may submit my 497K just to see my name in tiny lights.
I think stonefry and stephen el should submit a video (among others). I guess you have to record it live, tho (can't film the replay and call it good).
Stonefry's current 516K is very close to the top and Stephen el won the allgames challenge last year...so they both deserve some props.
I'd be tempted into submitting if I hadn't retired. But like you said it'd be frustrating to be recording in vain with the luck and circumstance that goes into it. Too bad they wouldn't accept the replay video...I could have sent in one of my older 500K runs.
There was a new player with 500K a couple of days ago (mtmt 337), but you're still in the top ten overall. Most of the 500K weekly highs have come from players who already had broken 500K. There might be a few more before its over, but I'd be surprised if you were ever knocked out of the top ten....