(Link to video)
This submission is for the GBC game Pong: The Next Level. It features 4 different variants of Pong, with the first being vanilla and the other 3 having variations of the formula such as power ups and different level layouts.
We run the "tournament" mode as this takes us through all 4 Pong variants. The goal in each stage is to score 11 points, and for speed purposes we want to score on the first volley as often as possible.
The first stage is vanilla pong. No frills, no power ups, just hitting high angled shots that the opponent can't get to in time. Pretty straightforward.
Stage 2 introduces the powerup mechanic, wherein hitting the spinning diamond looking thing grants you a temporary powerup; either a "bat" paddle to shoot harder than normal or a "catch" paddle which lets you catch and release the ball wherever you'd like. This stage also features rolling logs in the middle of the screen. When you have a powerup activated, the logs roll to the right toward your opponent, and hitting them from your side will speed the ball up a bit. The drawback is if the opponent hits it toward you the logs end up slowing it down slightly but it's a net gain overall. The powerups last for about 2 points each and it's granted to whomever hit the ball last before touching the diamond.
Stage 3 has a new mechanic: multiball. When you have a powerup enabled, hitting a penguin will cause them to release an extra ball on the playfield, but only to a maximum of 2. A ball needs to be scored before the penguins will drop a new one.
Stage 4 is Soccer Pong. This mode puts a paddle right next to the opponent's goalkeeper and allows us to volley the serve back very quickly. There are powerups but the ball never goes behind our "attacker" so we don't bother to grab any because it would just be a needless time loss.

slamo: Claiming for judging.
slamo: Replaced movie with a 1286 frame improvement.
For difficulty choice, our general rule of thumb is to go with either the fastest or the hardest. It's unusual that a middle difficulty would be the fastest, but this is one of those rare cases. It makes perfect sense to use Medium because the ball speed increases but the opponent speed stays the same as the easiest difficulty. Thanks for revisiting this, it looks good now. Accepting!

despoa: Processing...

TASVideoAgent
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This topic is for the purpose of discussing #7753: ShesChardcore's GBC Pong: The Next Level in 03:19.10
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Interesting, I'm a big fan of the PS1/PC version, never knew there was a GBC version. Strategies used look optimal, although at 9 points in Stage 3 it looks like another ball could be spawned? But maybe the opponent would return it. Yes vote.
ShesChardcore
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Fishaman P wrote:
Interesting, I'm a big fan of the PS1/PC version, never knew there was a GBC version. Strategies used look optimal, although at 9 points in Stage 3 it looks like another ball could be spawned? But maybe the opponent would return it. Yes vote.
I loved the PS1 version back in the day. The extra ball can only be spawned while a powerup is active and it runs out before then so hitting the penguins there wouldn't do anything special.
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Have you tried higher difficulties? It looks like the ball moves faster in them. Medium especially looks interesting, because the ball moves faster but the opponent does not, so you get some freebies when they fail to even touch it when the ball is served.
ShesChardcore
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slamo wrote:
Have you tried higher difficulties? It looks like the ball moves faster in them. Medium especially looks interesting, because the ball moves faster but the opponent does not, so you get some freebies when they fail to even touch it when the ball is served.
I just ran through level 1 on medium and it was definitely faster by like 10 seconds. Hard wasn't really much harder but I lost out on the freebies, so at least for level 1, Medium > Hard > Easy. If you'd like I can redo this on either med or hard. I'd personally go for medium since it should yield the fastest overall time but I'm curious to know what you think about that.
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I would definitely prefer it to be redone. Doing a run on a middle difficulty is an unusual case, but if it's the fastest difficulty, then you should absolutely use it.
ShesChardcore
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slamo wrote:
I would definitely prefer it to be redone. Doing a run on a middle difficulty is an unusual case, but if it's the fastest difficulty, then you should absolutely use it.
Roger that, thanks. I'll probably get to it this weekend.
ShesChardcore
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https://tasvideos.org/UserFiles/Info/638039540615088282 Went through on medium and saved around 22s. Faster ball speed is nice though it didn't seem to help on the penguin level.
Post subject: Movie published
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This movie has been published. The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie. ---- [4912] GBC Pong: The Next Level by ShesChardcore in 03:19.10