From: rains@dms.UUCP (Lyle Rains) Newsgroups: rec.games.video.arcade Subject: KLAX lesson 2 Date: 6 Sep 91 18:59:36 GMT Organization: Atari Games Inc., Milpitas, CA In order to really excel at KLAX, you must improve your reflexes and anticipation. You also need to understand the scoring rules. It is possible to get more than 2,000,000 points on one quarter (if you know the tricks)! A subsequent lesson will discuss the strategies to do this. This lesson will cover scoring fundementals and a few advanced techniques. There are three areas of scoring to be considered: 1. Basic scores for various kinds of KLAXs 2. The score multiplier 3. End-of-level and warp bonuses I will deal primarily with the first two, since there is relatively little the player can do about the last. The basic KLAX scoring matrix is shown below: vertical horizontal diagonal 3-KLAX 50 1,000 5,000 4-KLAX 10,000 5,000 10,000 5-KLAX 15,000 10,000 20,000 Note that a vertical 3-KLAX is worthless, but a vertical 4-KLAX is quite valuable! The message is that when you are going for points, go for diagonal KLAXs or vertical 4-KLAXs. So how do you get a vertical 4-KLAX? Doesn't it go away when you put the third tile on top? Well, the answer is no, not always. There are two ways to get a vertical 4-KLAX. The easiest is to use the scoring delay. If you have the following setup: [b] What you want to do is drop the [b] tile [a] on the center column in the bin, and while [a] it is scoring, move over and drop both [a] === tiles on top of the [a] column. The two [a] tiles will just sit there until the | | [b] column finishes scoring, then all of | | the [a]'s will score as a vertical 4-KLAX. | | | [b][a] | Simple ! | [b][a] | +---------------+ The second way to get a vertical 4-KLAX is to set up chain-reaction techniqes: [b] When you drop the [b] down, it will score === a diagonal 3-KLAX. When the [b]'s all disappear, voil`a, a vertical 4-KLAX | [a] | of [a]'s! | [a] | | [b] | | [b][a] | | [x][a] | +---------------+ These examples also introduce the score multiplier effect. Whenever you score, the score mutliplier is the number of KLAXs scored. This multiplier doesn't reset but keeps increasing until there's nothing left to score and normal play has resumed. So in the above examples, the [b] KLAXs had a multipler of 1, but the [a] KLAXs had a multipler of 2 and were worth 20,000 points! For a more complex example (capital letters indicate scoring KLAXs): [b] drop [a] both === | [a] [a] | | [a] [a] | | | | [a] [a] | | [a][a][a] | | [A] [A] | | [b] [b] | --> | [B][B][B] | --> | [A][A][A] | | [a][x][a] | | [a][x][a] | | [A][x][A] | | [a][x][a] | | [a][x][a] | | [A][x][A] | +---------------+ +---------------+ +---------------+ The [b]'s score as a horizontal 3-KLAX with mutiplier of 1, but the [a]'s will score as 2 vertical 4-KLAXs, 2 diagonal 3-KLAXs, and a horizontal 3-KLAX with a total multiplier of 6 (1 for the [b]'s and 5 for the [a]'s) !!! So the total score for this would be: (mult * hor [b]) + (mult * (hor [a] + (2 * diag [a]) + (2 * vert [a]))) = ( 1 * 1000 ) + ( 6 * ( 1,000 + (2 * 5,000) + (2 * 10,000))) = 1000 + ( 6 * ( 31,000 )) = 187,000 points !!!! As you can see, the multiplier can have a dramatic effect on your score. The maximum multiplier is 9 (athough it's quite difficult to get so high). As a final topic in this lesson, I want to cover a couple of advanced techniques. You may have noticed during play that if you push forward on the joystick, the top tile on your paddle will be thrown half way back up the ramp. You can use this to rearrange the tiles on the paddle or to get back to a lower tile without dropping the upper tiles. This "push-back" technique is fun. It's addictive. It's also the quickest way to get into deep trouble. Use it, don't abuse it. There is a built-in difficulty advance feature which makes the game play faster depending on how long you have been playing on the current quarter. (This is a not-very-well-kept secret of arcade game design used to balance game play so it is not too difficult for typical players, but a really good player cannot play forever). The outcome is that you should play as quickly as possible so that the game difficulty doesn't ramp up on you. One way you do this by pulling back on the joystick to speed the tiles down the ramp and (hopefully) onto your paddle. Don't wait for them to come to you. Suck 'em down! This feature can also be abused (although not as badly as the push-back technique), but it can be useful. This is the end of lesson 2. I assume you have figured out wild-tiles on your own (oh, so THAT's what those flashing tiles were?!?!?). The third and final lesson will be a complete strategy for maximizing score on a single coin. -- wmm -/@-@\- Lyle Rains <-- motcsd!dms!rains or lrains@netcom.com ( (_) ) Atari Games <-- "Tube hits for two-bits" \_o_/ Milpitas, CA <-- With convenient parking in lots 237 and 880.