Anyone good at Rally-X?

joemagiera

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Been playing a lot of Rally-X on MAME lately. This is a very difficult and very frustrating game. Been trying to reach the second bonus level stage. This morning, I finally get through levels 1, 2, bonus, 3, 4 and then, no bonus level. Major bummer. I figured since the first bonus level was after 2 levels, the next bonus level would be after 4 levels. Nope.

So, is there a second bonus level? If so, when does it come? Been so long since I played it in the arcade days, I don't remember.

I just looked it up on Twin Galaxies. Top score is 167K. Wow. When I hit the 5th level this morning, I was in the 50k's somewhere. I can't imagine 167k.

I did a quick search on youtube and couldn't find any videos of someone really good at the game play.

So is anyone good at this game? Either real arcade or MAME, I don't care. Record it and post it on youtube, I'd like to see how you do it.
 
Been playing a lot of Rally-X on MAME lately. This is a very difficult and very frustrating game. Been trying to reach the second bonus level stage. This morning, I finally get through levels 1, 2, bonus, 3, 4 and then, no bonus level. Major bummer. I figured since the first bonus level was after 2 levels, the next bonus level would be after 4 levels. Nope.

So, is there a second bonus level? If so, when does it come? Been so long since I played it in the arcade days, I don't remember.

I just looked it up on Twin Galaxies. Top score is 167K. Wow. When I hit the 5th level this morning, I was in the 50k's somewhere. I can't imagine 167k.

So is anyone good at this game? Either real arcade or MAME, I don't care. Record it and post it on youtube, I'd like to see how you do it.

I think the 2nd bonus is after level 6 (dunno, I tried using save states in MAME about a half dozen times and couldn't clear it :( ) On New Rally-X (which I prefer, since it's not as frustrating ;) ), it goes:
Round 1, 2, 3 (bonus)
New maze: 4, 5, 6, 7 (bonus)
New maze 8, 9, 10, 11 (bonus)
New maze 12 (that's as far as I made it on one game)
I would assume Rally-X uses the same progression. I think the mazes are the same (they may be a little easier...that top left corner on the 2nd maze is a pain...too easy to get trapped)
 
I play Rally-X on MAME all the time. I use the arrow keys on the keyboard, and can sometimes hit level 9.

Level 1 and 2 - first maze
Level 3 - first bonus stage using first maze
Level 4, 5, and 6 - second maze,
Level 7 - 2nd bonus stage using 2nd maze
Level 8, 9, ? - 3rd maze

I have no idea what happens then. I haven't been on 8 and 9 enough to have all the routes memorized yet, so I sometimes get trapped with all 8 cars chasing.

BTW - my high score is about 95k...
 
I play Rally-X on MAME all the time. I use the arrow keys on the keyboard, and can sometimes hit level 9.

Level 1 and 2 - first maze
Level 3 - first bonus stage using first maze
Level 4, 5, and 6 - second maze,
Level 7 - 2nd bonus stage using 2nd maze
Level 8, 9, ? - 3rd maze

I have no idea what happens then. I haven't been on 8 and 9 enough to have all the routes memorized yet, so I sometimes get trapped with all 8 cars chasing.

Routes memorized? I know the mazes are fixed, but the cars are random aren't they? If that's true, how does memorizing the route help that much. I understand it's good to know the maze, but if the cars are coming at you from all directions, it doesn't help much.

I've been playing it on MAME too. So, can you take a MAME recording and post in on youtube (or email it to me)? Once in a while I can get to to the maze after the first bonus, but I'm usually lucky to just to get to the first bonus maze. I'd sure like to see yout techniques and how you do it.

Game had to be an operators dream. It's a quarter eater, typical game without getting to the first bonus maze is under 60 seconds. And the one time I got to the 5th level 1-2-bonus-3-4-5 still was well under 2 minutes.
 
Special flag placement is random also if I recall, maybe regular flag placement as well, I forget, it's been awhile since I played it.

It was an operator's dream but a visitor's nightmare for reasons you just mentioned and as such it did really well at the AMOA but not really commercially I think.
 
Routes memorized? I know the mazes are fixed, but the cars are random aren't they? If that's true, how does memorizing the route help that much. I understand it's good to know the maze, but if the cars are coming at you from all directions, it doesn't help much.

Well, it helps to know where not to go and get trapped :D Also, if you can maneuver around the board and get the cars grouped behind you (similar to Pac-Man/Ms Pac-Man), you're less likely to crash head-on into one.
 
Been playing a lot of Rally-X on MAME lately. This is a very difficult and very frustrating game. Been trying to reach the second bonus level stage. This morning, I finally get through levels 1, 2, bonus, 3, 4 and then, no bonus level. Major bummer. I figured since the first bonus level was after 2 levels, the next bonus level would be after 4 levels. Nope.

So, is there a second bonus level? If so, when does it come? Been so long since I played it in the arcade days, I don't remember.

I just looked it up on Twin Galaxies. Top score is 167K. Wow. When I hit the 5th level this morning, I was in the 50k's somewhere. I can't imagine 167k.

I did a quick search on youtube and couldn't find any videos of someone really good at the game play.

So is anyone good at this game? Either real arcade or MAME, I don't care. Record it and post it on youtube, I'd like to see how you do it.

I am alright at the game, was better when I was a kid. I used to average around the 50k mark or so. Next time you are over at my house for league or a party we'll have to fire it up on my MAME machine. I love Rally X.
 
Routes memorized? I know the mazes are fixed, but the cars are random aren't they? If that's true, how does memorizing the route help that much. I understand it's good to know the maze, but if the cars are coming at you from all directions, it doesn't help much.

I've been playing it on MAME too. So, can you take a MAME recording and post in on youtube (or email it to me)? Once in a while I can get to to the maze after the first bonus, but I'm usually lucky to just to get to the first bonus maze. I'd sure like to see yout techniques and how you do it.

Game had to be an operators dream. It's a quarter eater, typical game without getting to the first bonus maze is under 60 seconds. And the one time I got to the 5th level 1-2-bonus-3-4-5 still was well under 2 minutes.

Memorizing the MAME layout helps you determine which areas are traps, so you can avoid getting flags in that area until the end, so you don't die trying to get back out.

Also, after a while, you'll notice that the flag layouts tend to repeat. Usually the "S" double flag is in the same spot for the same layout. On the earlier levels, you can skip flags until you find the doubler, then collect the rest before you run out of gas. Usually you can pick up an extra 2000-3000 points this way.

At the very beginning, you can go backwards and THRU the cars chasing you before they move. You have about 1.5 seconds to do this, so do it right away. This helps get some bottom flags right away.

Also, on the first level (and sometimes the second), when you first go down, just wiggle back and forth a bit until the 3 cars turn around and come down too. Then go left and release smoke once you've cleared the 3 cars' downward openings. Wiggle back and forth until at least two cars hit the smoke and are on top of each other. Now you can go for the flags. A lot of times you can get two cars "stuck" together and they will stay there for the rest of the level, with only one car chasing you.

I'll see if I have a MAME recorder or not. If so, I'll see what I can do...
 
Since I have apparently too much time on my hands, I decided a couple months ago to turn the cheat on and see what happens. There are four mazes, one for each season it appears to be if you look at the foliage outside the track.

Also, the level counter gets screwed up around 100. 100 shows as A0, then A1, A2, etc. Level 240 is the copywrite symbol and a zero. Level 250 is a little corner graphic and a zero. And there is a kill screen -- the interesting thing that happens is the dots in the radar break out of their box and fly up the screen. The game then resets. I have this saved - I may post some pics if anyone is interested.
 
I decided a couple months ago to turn the cheat on and see what happens.

This will show how much I DON'T play MAME. How do you turn "cheat" on and off? What exactly does this do for you? Sounds like it makes you invinsible?
 
You need the right cheat.dat file for your version of MAME. Some have all sorts of cheats, from invincibility to infinite lives, etc. DK, you can make it so you always climb, etc. Just depends on what people have found while nosing thru the code :)
 
For Rally-X I used the invincible cheat as well as the speed up cheat. So, you can ignore the bad guy cars and you really zip through the course maze. This saved me alot of time. You can also save your game so I played it on and off for a few days until I got to level 256.

Not all cheats are good though - for example, there is a cheat for infinite fuel -- however, this makes the game unplayable because once you finish a level the game starts adding up your left-over fuel bonus and it just goes on and on and on and on...

I realize that not everyone will like cheats since it was not the intended way the games were meant to be played. I certainly understand this. I use them when I am curious what would happen if I did X and I know I would never be able to do X on my own. For example, the flags (showing how many levels you have completed) at the bottom of the screen in Galaxian stop at 47 (or somewhere around 47) -- after that, the flags don't change as you go forward. I find that stuff interesting...Not sure why!
 
Not all cheats are good though - for example, there is a cheat for infinite fuel -- however, this makes the game unplayable because once you finish a level the game starts adding up your left-over fuel bonus and it just goes on and on and on and on...

I did something similar with Nibbler, trying to find out if the score rolled at 1 billion. I set the timer to max, and when you cleared the board, it just kept counting the timer on the score, since it wouldn't decrease. Turn off speed throttling and set frameskip to 10, and it only took about 20 minutes (it took a friend of mine over 40 hours BITD to get 1 billion, and he couldn't remember if it rolled or not)

I realize that not everyone will like cheats since it was not the intended way the games were meant to be played. I certainly understand this. I use them when I am curious what would happen if I did X and I know I would never be able to do X on my own. For example, the flags (showing how many levels you have completed) at the bottom of the screen in Galaxian stop at 47 (or somewhere around 47) -- after that, the flags don't change as you go forward. I find that stuff interesting...Not sure why!

Me too...I actually like to see what happens if you do stuff the game doesn't expect. Like turn on invincibility, then do a wild jump on DK, and land in a spot that's normally deadly. Also, by turning on "Mario always climbs", I found out if you climb thru the bottom of the barrel level, it immediately clears the board, because it thinks you're at or above the platform where the lady is standing. That's also why the jump cheat (on a real arcade PCB) works on Crazy Kong. He goes thru the floor and the game thinks he cleared the board.
 
Not all cheats are good though - for example, there is a cheat for infinite fuel -- however, this makes the game unplayable because once you finish a level the game starts adding up your left-over fuel bonus and it just goes on and on and on and on...

Ok, you got my curiosity up. Where and how do I get cheat files? What do I need to do to get them to work?
 
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