I may have mentioned this story before (or said I would mention it when the topic is more relevant). I remember back from when I first turned 21 and went to my first barcade. Seeing many of my favorite 16 bit games and also having a couple drinks with friends eventually lead to my eye being caught by a big dark billboard with names of games, and more importantly, the names of people with their high scores. I looked through the list, not every game for sure was on there, but one I knew very well and have mentioned many other times was.
That game was Dig Dug, and only within the last year have I looked up strategies and began to practice to improve my scores, as futile as it was. The best I could do was possibly 80,000, a respectable score but the high score on that billboard was 180,000, a 100k difference.
While I may be far away from my goal, that doesn’t mean if I couldn’t ever obtain it. The great thing about these older arcade games is that if you work hard enough and develop a strategy, you can easily beat those high scores. You won’t be able to do it in a night, but with enough dedication you could in maybe a week or two.
For some reading this they’ll never want to dedicate time to a game like that, where others such as myself want that glory of their name on the board, being able to hold some sort of prestige that few others can.
So, with that out of the way, let’s go over some of the popular arcade games high scores and how you may be able to improve your own to climb the ranks, whether you’re a newbie who’s never really been into games but you were dragged out with your friends to somewhere like a barcade or you’re the hot shot of your group wanting to take it to the next level. Let us begin.
While still on the subject, let’s talk about a strategy for Dig-Dug. It’s simple really: group enemies, smash them with rocks and make sure to use at least two rocks for the hidden vegetable for bonus points, if you can’t group them up then kill them normally. This game is much more strategic as I’ve said, with the next game we talk about having three patterns of different difficulty up until the later levels, where Dig-Dug can be more random with no solid strategy for clear victory every time, the next game can have a much clearer strategy.
PAC-man will be the second game we talk about, I’ve mentioned this game a couple times before and for good reason: it’s iconic and super fun for just about anyone. You want to get better at it? Little did I know until writing this post, there are actually three different patterns, all involving the same route but accommodates to different situations such as different ghosts. Pattern one will easily get you through the first level, the focus is to clear out the bottom from left to right, grabbing the power pellet in either the left or right corner, and then clearing out the middle and top right side. Pattern two is similar and will get you through the next two or three levels, the only difference is that when you go right, you’ll want to turn the other way as a blue ghost will be after you. Simply turn around, and grab the left power pellet to have him and the others run while you begin to clear out the middle and head for the top right again.
The third pattern is kind of hard to explain, but it involves going around the whole map while tricking each of the ghosts into grouping up, starting toward the center, going toward the top left and clearing out the top right, going back down through the middle and around to the top right, and then down, tricking the ghosts into splitting up and allowing you to have four separate corners with four pellets. There are videos that can help a bit more with this is you want to dedicate time outside of this post, this is just to have some quick information on hand.
The next one I want to talk about is Galaga, another popular and easy game to get into. There is a secret that few know about, one that will allow you to disarm the enemies in Galaga in order to get further than ever before and to play as if it’s still level one. Your friends don’t need to know, and if you’re not very good at video games it’s a fun trick to play on them, as they see your score climb higher and higher and watch you get further into the game but yet make it seem as though it’s one of the first times you’ve ever played. There is the method as well as to getting two ships at once, however if you want to risk one life for the sake of dual fire power and have the enemies not shoot you, go for it.
Another game to talk about is Donkey Kong. I’ve mentioned it before as being a slightly more difficult game, especially if you try to rush. The very first level is a huge deception to how brutal the game can truly be, especially when you realize if you fall down from large heights it will kill you, meaning you have to time jumps between barrels and holes in the platforms. There are some strategies for different levels, including to clear our one side of yellow markers so that way you can trap flames on the other side of the stage, on top of strategies like getting to the hammers as quickly as possible in order to clear the stage somewhat faster or to avoid hazards that would appear if you went a bit slower through the level. Having a plan for this game will surely help your first couple of times to increase your score and impress your friends(it should as hell would impress me, I’m terrible at this game so I’d be damn impressed).
Lastly I’ll talk about Mario Bros, the original arcade game. This game I talked about in a previous post saying how it was one of the best arcade games and how you could play with a friend to help or hurt them, and that’s basically the strategy here. Help your friend, steal their points, kill them off or take their kills after they knock enemies down. Do whatever it takes, fight fair or fight dirty. If for some reason you’re playing alone however, I used to play this quite a bit on the hand held consoles. A big key to this game is just management of the surroundings. Learn how each enemy works and which you should deal with first. Turtles are the least of your problems when you have angry crabs or angry bees after you. Never be comfortable in one place, be used to being on the bottom, middle, or top parts of the stage, as some parts may turn to ice or have fire balls that will kill you on contact. More points means more lives though, so like I said: manage enemies, grab coins for extra points after killing each enemy, and be comfortable at any part of the stage and you’ll be impressing your friends in no time. And of course, your saving grace: the POW block to help you knock down enemies to easily clear levels. However it only has three uses, so be careful.
That’s it for this post, I will be doing another one hopefully tomorrow about some of the best music from the best arcade games, and maybe some of the home consoles as well. That’s it for this post here at Arcademia, the Arcade Academia.
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