Submission #8332: nymx's C64 Space Gallery in 00:44.65

(Link to video)
Commodore 64
baseline
BizHawk 2.9.0
2671
59.826089499853765
1209
PowerOn
1985-07.d64
Submitted by nymx on 6/8/2023 6:46:58 PM
Submission Comments

Space Gallery (Compute's Gazette)

The year is 2023, and you're a solo space gunner on an earth-orbiting colony. You must try to defend against hostile forces, and as the colony's sharpshooter, you must remain stationed at the video control center. For days, the radar has shown an approaching force, and based on the direction and speed at which they're coming, you know what to expect: the dreaded frisboids, curious but deadly creatures. They come in waves of four, but you have only one cannon. And they shower you with lethal pellets, which can destroy your cannon.
The article for this game can be found on page 46 of Issue 25 (July 1985): https://archive.org/details/1985-07-computegazette/page/n47/mode/2up

2023???

Did you see that? The article says..."The year is 2023". Can you believe this? Its been 38 years after it was published. I didn't think I would be TASing a game in the exact year that it was being portrayed!! The timing is awesome!

Why TAS This Game?

The continuation of TASing games from my all-time favorite magazine, Compute's Gazette. This makes my 11th TAS from this series.
This was one of the earlier games that I typed in, as I was excited to play games in the setting of "Outer Space". Well, this game wasn't my favorite, but it satisfied me enough to play it occasionally. The game's real challenge was to have a bonus as the end of each level. In any human effort, it is really hard to predict the alien's movement...so it was natural to hold the fire button down. Doing so, was always a guarantee for zero bonus. Finally...I can see this game played perfectly without cringing at the sight of constant deaths and missed shots.
Previous Compute's Gazette submissions include (In order of submission):

Game Ending

The article makes mention of "Level Advancing", after destroying four waves. The speed of the game doesn't increase, nor does any movement change occur in the possible patterns of the enemies. So this leaves one element left over for consideration...the "Heat Seeking", blue pellets.
At first I thought the setting, at the selection screen, was not working. By the time you reach Level 4, the "Heat Seeking" pellets are finally activated. At this point, the last unique content the game has been viewed. At the completion of Level 4, or the start of Level 5, the game awards you with an extra Cannon. So this is pretty much everything the game has to offer.

Effort In TASing

This game had a small bit of effort to complete optimally. The main consideration was to discover the fastest pattern for destruction. From my count, there are 6 different attack patterns...but it's kind of hard to determine that. The one chosen in this TAS, was the one that I saw was the fastest results from. So..this meant the biggest effort was controlling RNG so that the same pattern would show up for each wave.

Human Comparison

This is not exactly the same game, but is was modified for some unknown reason; however, seems to be more cosmetic and nothing to do with game play. Yet, it still remains faithful to the original and does a great job of showing how a human struggles with it.

Memory: Claiming for judging.
Memory: Looks pretty well done! Accepting.

despoa: Processing...
Last Edited by despoa on 7/2/2023 1:26 AM
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