Battlezone High Scores

[josie]

The last time I gave BZ pointers at CAX, FT walked away while I was playing and giving tips. AND he was the one who wanted playing advice... Too loud at CAX for BZ play anyhow...

That was funny... FT showed me how to play BZ and the first time playing it I beat him No wonder he was asking for pointers!!

 

[Michael Roma]

I really suck... I'm happy if I hit 25k! Looks like I need to read those tips and keep practicing.

- Mike

 

[Robotron Jon]

Resurrecting this thread.

I finally got my garage cleaned up to the point where I can actually play my machine. So I have been playing it almost every day for the last two weeks. I have managed a high score of 78k so far.

I have gotten better at playing the angles against the tanks. I have also been using the strategy of going forward full blast when I hear a buzz bomb coming. That seems to help put it right in my sights so I can shoot it, or have it blow past me. I read the other approaches to these and will give them a try.

Anyone have any additional strategies for this game?

 

[Robotron Jon]

Scored over 100k yesterday. I had a few 80k and 90k games and then hit the magical 100k mark. It was cool to hear that theme music in the middle of the game.

I have gotten to the point where I rarely die from the tanks unless they spawn right next to me, including the supertanks.

What ends up getting me most of the time are the buzzbombs. Obviously the first couple are easy to shoot but as the game progresses they get harder. I have tried a few strategies:

1) Shooting just as the bomb is about to hit the ground.
2) Moving the turret in a sweeping motion trying to get the bomb in my sights.
3) As soon as the bomb appears, moving forward at full blast and hoping it will appear in my sights, or will pass me by completely.

I seem to have success with #3 but it's not consistent. The other 2 have also worked at times but getting killed by the buzz bombs seems inevitable. Obviously there is some kind of trick because people have achieved scores of millions of points.

Anyone have some advice?

Thanks.

 

[XXI21]

3) As soon as the bomb appears, moving forward at full blast and hoping it will appear in my sights, or will pass me by completely.

NO

Once you hear the missile coming down, you want to start a general reverse movement away from the missile, to gain distance... while backing away, you're trying to keep the missile generally in front of you (12 o'clock), while backing up and steering... While juking the backwards, you'll start to sense a couple basic patterns for the missile to get a shot off... The key is to keep the missile in front of you and gaining distance from the missile from the start.

You have to be careful if you're being chased by a tank... If you start the reverse movement to soon with a tanks chasing you, the tanks will hit you from behind.

BZ is tough to explain. Hope that helps a little.

 

[Robotron Jon]

Played a bit yesterday. Scored 3 100k plus games. My high was 149k.

I rarely get shot by the tanks unless they spawn right near me with no time to react or I am reversing and hit and object and get trapped. I have been able to get out of the trap by going forward a bit and then changing by reverse angle a bit.

I am using the strategy of reversing when the buzz bombs appear and have had better luck shooting them. Still, almost all my lives lost are from them. I don't see much of a pattern to them yet, other than back and forth, but there must be one. So far I have the best luck when I wait for them to get very close before shooting. Clearly I need more work on these.

 

[XXI21]

Played a bit yesterday. Scored 3 100k plus games. My high was 149k.

I rarely get shot by the tanks unless they spawn right near me with no time to react or I am reversing and hit and object and get trapped. I have been able to get out of the trap by going forward a bit and then changing by reverse angle a bit.

I am using the strategy of reversing when the buzz bombs appear and have had better luck shooting them. Still, almost all my lives lost are from them. I don't see much of a pattern to them yet, other than back and forth, but there must be one. So far I have the best luck when I wait for them to get very close before shooting. Clearly I need more work on these.

Sounds like you're doing alright on tanks...

Missiles/buzz-bombs: They say there are 2 missile patterns... I think only one. There's a pattern. It just comes down to where your tank is in the pattern (distance from missile) and what you do when the missile starts/during it's run.

While backing from the missile, I usually aim a little left of the general missile route... then when he zig-zags out to his right a little... bang. Sometimes it's close or farther... depending on when you get your tank "in the pattern".

 

[XXI21]

This might help with missiles... as outlined in http://www.digitpress.com/library/books/book_how_to_beat_the_video_games.pdf

It helps explain what I'm trying to explain... Basically, I could shoot missiles all the day long, with about a 99% kill rate... Yes, you have to be conscious of what you've left behind you... Don't want to back into anything, if possible.

Here are some of my "new age" scores...

I played this million game way back in '06, on the BZ cabaret I scored at the time...

This score was at CAX '09... Note the inter-connect static high scores
Tough to play at CAX, since it's so difficult to hear the enemy's tanks shots above the din of the other games...

 

[Robotron Jon]

Broke 300k last night. Most of the lives I lost were either buzz bombs or from backing up into objects while being chased by a smart tank. I have gotten pretty decent at predicting the pattern of the buzz bombs but every once in a while one of the bombs starts its run at a point in the pattern where there is only one chance to shoot it. Sometimes I can avoid the bomb and it goes past, but other times I am a sitting duck. For the instances where I back up into something while being chased, I move forward a bit then change my angle of retreat. This works sometimes but I do get killed sometimes.

Overall, I am happy with that kind of score. Would be nice to hit 1 mllion but that seems like an endurance contest more than anything else. I wish someone would invent a new version of this game - maybe with an objective like capture the flag.