Submission #3846: dwangoAC's SG1000 Sega-Galaga "Fastest High Score" in 00:47.91

Sega Galaga for the SG-1000 obtaining the High Score as fast as possible

The SG-1000 port of the game Galaga is the only port with a different name, in this case Sega Galaga. It is effectively a completely different game than the Arcade version of Galaga, with simplified sound and rules (although the same basic concept). The SegaRetro.org Sega Galaga page has additional information about some of the changes. In particular, the SG-1000 port does not contain any challenge modes and all of the waves are identical, although the enemy movement increases and decreases in cycles reaching the fastest speed at level 35.

The game requires the fire button to be pressed for two frames but a subsequent shot can be separated by only one frame; only two shots can be out at a time. Shots recharge and are returned for reuse before they reach the top of the screen and the frame before impact with an enemy.

Green bug in formation: 50
Red bug in formation: 80
Green bug in attack: 100
Red bug in attack: 160
Blue bug in formation: 150
Blue bug in attack: 400
Shooting captured ship: 1,000

The only scores ever seen in the run are the two "in attack" scores as no enemies ever make it to the formation and the player's ship is never captured.

This port of the game has no difficulty level meaning the 1 player option can be (and is) selected as soon as possible. The default High Score of 20,000 points is displayed in the upper-right corner of the screen.

The first wave of enemy ships (which look like bugs, and I'll call them that to distinguish them from the player's ship) approaches before the opening music stops playing. The bugs always appear in exactly the same pattern in each stage in this port. The bugs start out moving slowly but increase in speed during each successive stage up to an upper limit at which point they go back to their slowest speed and the cycle continues to go from slow to fast. This speed increase means that each stage is slightly different even though the flight pattern is identical. The green and red bugs are scored differently than one another but both require only one hit, whereas the blue bugs require two hits and are worth significantly more points. With that said, there really isn't any complicated tactic to getting points faster so the bugs are simply exterminated as quickly as the game mechanics allow.

A shot to one of the blue bugs in the 4th wave puts the score to 20,080 points and causes a chiming sound to be played, beyond which time the player's score and the high score go up simultaneously and the game repeats ad nauseum up to stage 99 as demonstrated by this longplay of the game. The input initially ended on the earliest possible frame after the default High Score was exceeded as this seemed to be a good stopping point but due to popular demand the input now ends after the wave in which the high score is obtained is completed. The other two potential stopping points for a future submission would be after the last stage when the enemies increase in speed (I believe this is stage 35) or after the game no longer counts new levels at stage 99+1, although general judging rules appear to favor stopping at level 35 as no new speed increases are introduced after that point (in other words, no new content is introduced after stage 35).

UserFiles/Info/637936906472468599

Thanks to Quibus who worked on the MSX version of Galaga and got me thinking about doing a run of the Atari 7800 version of Galaga. Thanks to Mothrayas for accepting the Atari 7800 version, giving me the courage to tackle this (relatively obscure) port of the game as well.

I hope you enjoy this run!

A.C.
******

Ilari: Edited the movie file to correct the system identifier.

Ilari: The problems with SG-1000 BKMs should be fixed now.

FractalFusion: Replaced file with one that completes the wave on which the high score occurs. Accepting.

The submission may be obsoleted by one that is longer and judged more complete.

dwangoAC: The submission notes have been updated to reflect that input ends after the wave in which the high score is obtained is completed.

FractalFusion: Setting intended tier to Moons.

FractalFusion: Note that publication has now been moved to Vault tier.