Arcade Game Competition Format

matman

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I had a group of friends over for an arcade competition consisting of pac-man and donkey kong. However I think I came to learn that I don't know the best way to score a 'competition'.

I basically took the competitor's best score (they got 2 chances for each game) and added them up, but that doesn't quite seem fair. I mean, i could theoretically sit on donkey kong level 1 jumping over barrels for points. (nobody did this - everyone did play to advance in the game as far as possible.)

What is the best way to determine a winner in a competition across multiple games?
 
3 points for winner
2 points for 2nd place
1 point for 3rd

Each game gets points awarded. At the end of the day, who has the most points?
 
i could theoretically sit on donkey kong level 1 jumping over barrels for points.

i think this works only with all poor players as any decent player would be able to advance and score well enough to offset anyone who tried it.

of course, i have no idea what the skill level of your guests is.
 
ha..good point. most players don't play these games regularly. Its a very casual thing..but there ARE prizes :)
 
I've tried several ways at previous parties. The best way I've found is to have an "entry fee" of $5. The winner gets 50%, 2nd place gets 35% and 3rd place gets 15% of the prize pool.

Scoring works purely based on the high score table. I will pick 3 - 4 machines as tournament machines and reset the high scores. At a predetermined intervals, I will walk the machines and post the standings. You get 5 points for having the highest score in the HS table. 3 points for second highest score in the HS table. 2 points for third place and 1 point for each other score in the HS table. You can only get one of 1st, 2nd or 3rd but you can have as many 1 points as your initials are on the board.

I will usually pick one different machine for a "special" prize and nail a very high score on it. Anybody that beats the score gets the prize. You don't need to kick in the entry fee for that machine. I had a bottle of Jack Daniels that lasted almost 10 years until I found out that my Battlezone has the Supertank bug :(.

It is surprising how much $5 ups the ante on people. Some people get ferociously competitive when a couple bucks are on the line.

ken
 
I mean, i could theoretically sit on donkey kong level 1 jumping over barrels for points. (nobody did this - everyone did play to advance in the game as far as possible.)

If that worked, there wouldn't be a King of Kong movie. There is a timer on the board so you can't just sit on the 1st level.
 
If that worked, there wouldn't be a King of Kong movie. There is a timer on the board so you can't just sit on the 1st level.

Yep, and Kong releases 1 barrel per 100 click on the timer, so there's not really anything to gain by standing there jumping single barrels. If you can group them 2 or 3 at a time and jump, then go down another level, re-jump them, etc, you can gain extra points that way. But a beginner certainly wouldn't do that ;)
 
We do tournaments sometimes and it's pretty straightforward except with the racing games. Basically we pick 2 or 3 tournament games for the night, and each person can play all they want but need a witness for a high score. We've also done it so you get up to 3 "scored" attempts for each tourney game, but that's more rigid and the scores are lower. Seems like the competition gets better and people enjoy it more if they always have a chance to go back and try to beat the last best score.

Wade
 
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