Amazing Galaga Gameplay - part 1 of 2

[@Zoyous]

I saw a presentation by Eugene Jarvis of Williams (Dr. J on all the default high score tables) and he said that many of the iconic Williams sound effects were generated by asking employees from other parts of the company to come up with random strings of numbers that they fed into their synthesis program.

[@patman0322]

Same goes for other manufacturers; Williams games all have very similar sound effects - Joust, Defender, Stargate, Robotron, etc., all share some characteristic effects and they all sound very similar to Williams pinball machines of the era. The Williams games are probably my favorite sounds effects

[@patman0322]

Hey, thanks - glad you liked it. Keep playing, you'll get there. There's a few tips in the comments part 2 of this video that might help.

[@patman0322]

Great score! I've been playing since I was a kid and Galaga was new. I didn't get to play as much the last 10 years or so since the arcades started drying up and machines started disappearing from restaurants and bars. Now I've got my own machine but I still don't get to play as much as I'd like :p but I have been making improvement lately. I pushed my high score up to 2.7M the other night. If you're capable of 1.45M then you can go higher too, it's basically just focus and execution.

[@patman0322]

This run may look good but what you don't see is all the ships I wasted carelessly afterward once my concentration had been broken :p That's usually what happens to me - I get one good run per game surrounded by a bunch of crappy play.

[@patman0322]

@tyebillion Yeah, the sound hardware is pretty similar between Galaga, Pac-Man and a bunch of other Namco games that ran on related boards. A lot of the effects seem to be closely related - sometimes just different speeds or pitches. The Namco and the Williams sound F/X are the iconic arcade sounds to me.

[@Tibiable]

good one bro, you've got some mad skills, keep on practicing and inspiring other gamerz !

[@patman0322]

This was played in MAME - I usually play on an arcade machine but it's much simpler to record while playing on the computer. 600K+ is an excellent score for only 5 lives! You should be able to hit at least 1.5~2M on a machine set to the normal 20K/70K/70K extra lives setting right now. Keep practicing! If you can get to almost 700K on 5 lives than you can get to a million too.

[@patman0322]

This was performed on a PC with MAME. Yeah, I just got lucky there. I missed an easy shot and then went the wrong way when the last three bosses attacked and ran to the corner to soon - if that boss had waited just a split second later to drop his last missile, it would've got me. The enemy missiles can actually overlap a pixel or so on the edge with out killing you and if you time it just perfectly, a missile can go right between your 2 ships without harming you.

[@patman0322]

@AriochStarr A lot of Namco's games of Pacman generation sound similar - the boards were all closely related and the sound hardware was practically identical. A lot of effects are the same across games, just sped up or slowed down some, pitch changed, or tweaked in some other small way.

[@patman0322]

@djdiamond755 I think this was on an Athalon 3000+ but I don't remember what the video card at the time was but it doesn't really matter - you really don't need much PC at all to run early 8 bit games in MAME, even multiprocessor machines like Galaga.

[@spartan132]

damn man, your pretty good, i would waste countless quarters at the arcade playing this game. Later they released the Namco museum volume 1 for the PS1, one of the games it had was galaga. I remember getting to stage 21. I've tried over and over the years to make it past 21, but i keep screwing up

[@patman0322]

@EVREEDE There's probably some luck in there, but it's also knowing when it's safe to head to the corner. The CPU can only have so many missiles on the screen at one time and they target your current location so you may notice I hesitate on my way to the side of the screen trying to lead the missiles out a bit from the corner and don't go that last little bit to the edge until the last of a wave of missiles is dropped. Stop shooting stuff in flight too once you've decided to go to the corner.

[@patman0322]

Hang in there, if you can get to Stage 29 then you're not too far off from getting much further in the game.

[@EVREEDE]

You get lucky a lot. When I get to the stages after the 5th challenging stage, if I were to go in the corner as often as you, I'd get smoked! I don't know how you get away with it so many times. Still, you've gotten further than I have so you must be doing something right.

[@dukenthaylor]

@patman0322 Well, no, I didn't...until just now! My apologies, my man! I didn't mean to sleep on your MAAAD skills! Your shooting is pinpoint accurate, and your bomb-dodging skills are, indeed, artful! I'd gotten perfects on the CSes in an arcade back in the late 80s (on the 2nd run through), but, I ADMIT, I had to trick them into NOT shooting to achieve it; my high score w/trick is 1.5M. But if YOU tricked them, no doubt you'd pass Stage 255! Again, sorry I ever doubted you!

[@ImHomeAtLast]

nice going this isnt the original version though is it?

[@Cihl280777]

I played this game to death when i was a kid, and i never found out about the double ship. :D

[@OddThaBest]

that really is amazing galaga gameplay. i couldn't do any better myself. i can make it to at least 19 but that's it.

[@patman0322]

I'm talking about how many points I have scored at that point in the game and k=1000, so, 271,000 pts & 545,000 pts, etc.

[@SadistiKscreaM]

someday this game will come true o.O

[@tyebillion]

@patman0322 Interesting. Funny I was listening to Aphex Twin today in my car and I heard samples from Defender.

[@Tenmashu]

PERFECT !

[@patman0322]

@ChristianBobMiller You just need a lot of quarters and some free time.

[@patman0322]

haha, yeah, this is a terrible game for 2 players if either player is any good - you can play a complete game before the other person ever gets a turn. When I played this in the arcades and someone wanted to play 2 players with me, it might be a 20 or 25 minute wait before they got their turn. I always told people to just go a head and play a game and I'd wait till they got done but if they insisted, they'd be in for a long wait when it was my turn :D

[@THESOULbornold]

INSANE!!!

[@djdiamond755]

what are your pc specs?

[@MrMagicalManiacMan]

Does anyone know y his ship fires really fast?

[@ImHomeAtLast]

@CamBud08 this seems faster then the original thats all. hmmm

[@patman0322]

I hope that didn't discourage you. Keep practicing...

[@tyebillion]

The sound effects have similarities to Pac Man.

[@adam83094]

you deffinately didnt get that.. all galaga scores end in 0.. unless that was a typo youre lying..

[@AriochStarr]

Sounds like Pacman xD

[@DoctorBHSwift]

Lol Player 1 has 520... I bet they are like, "Die already!! Let mee playyy!! lol

[@Austinaytor]

MOD CONTROLER all he has to do is hold in the button and it fires automatically he tries to hide it in the video by only using it with big swarms.

[@Austinaytor]

MOD CONTROLLER BRO

[@angryatarinerd]

uh wow ur really good alot beteer than me on my best day i got like 175,789 points =(

[@beckbldr]

holy cow! i can only get to like 200k.