Money Puzzle Exchanger High Score

[PacDude]

I just beat my high score in Money Puzzle Exchanger for the 2nd time in a month.

New High Score: 127,684.

I'm curious how well other people do in this game.

 

[PacDude]

Hmmm, seems the posted/declared (world?) record for this game is: 154,845 (David Oliver) at Classic Arcade Gaming (dot com).

Since there are only so many opponents and then the game ends (I've beaten all of them straight and had only 98,000 before whereas this game was my highest and I didn't even beat the final opponent, but I had such huge chains with the previous two my score went through the roof) so I think the trick is to not smash your opponent as quickly as possible but let them catch their breath a bit while you set up more chains and hope they don't set up a mega chain while you're being generous and wipe you out. I wouldn't try that past the 4th opponent, though. Eldy Labor and beyond are too good at it to give them breathing room.

 

[tiltjlp]

Next time you pay Dude, could you post a SS? This is the 2nd or 3rd time you've mentioned it, and I'm curious. Not curious enough to ever pay, just curious what it looks like. Is it flipperless? lol

John

 

[PacDude]

Yeah, it's "flipperless" alright.

It's a puzzle game similar to puzzle bobble and the like, only you make change by arranging 5 "ones" to make a 5-piece, two 5-pieces to make a 10-piece, five 10-pieces to make a 50-piece, two 50-pieces to make a 100-piece and five 100-pieces to make a 500 piece. Two or more 500 pieces disapper off the board. You can pull down as many of one type as you can collect and they only have to touch each other vertically or horizontally to count as a line. If you line up more than a given amount (say eight 10-pieces instead five, it eliminates all of them as if there were only 5, which can help clear the stack). The basic objective is to cause "chain reactions". That is, when say five ones joint together to create a 5-piece, if you set it up right, that 5-piece will then fall into another 5-piece above or beside it and that creates a "chain".

I've gotten like 8 chains before (you have until the next reaction finishes to add more to it also). The stack moves DOWNWARD every so often and if you're playing against an oppoent (as shown in the snapshot), for every "chain" reaction you make, their stack moves down a line and so an 8-chain would be DEVASTATING to your opponent (it's like the sky is falling) unless they're almost to the top. You beat your oppenent by crashing their stack through the bottom of the screen and move on to the next one. You can also just play against time for a high score (kind of boring, though).

There are two special pieces as well that don't show up very often by comparison (well you need two, so the 2nd one is rare). "ER" is "erase" and if you can hit two of them together, whatever piece is sitting above the one you hit will disappear all over the board (so if there's a lot of ones on the screen, you make them all go away and the remaining parts will all fall into the gaps and often create a series of chain reactions.

The other one is "RU" and I'm not sure what it stands for, but it turns all the pieces on the screen based upon the one above it to a different (but same) higher value. That might be useful or it might not do much of anything (I'e had no chains from it before), but it does tend to group a lot more together so you can make chains faster. "ER" can save your life if you're close to the bottom, but "RU" is more useful more often if you're only part-way down and still have time to make some chains yourself, but it all depends.

Screenshot:

 

[StevOz]

Well I managed to get to level 2 on my first try at the game. I'm more of a shoot to thrill kind of arcade player, still worthy of adding to my favourites folder, now that's 197 in the favourites folder. :)

 

[PacDude]

Have you played Cloak'n'Dagger, Steve? It's pretty cool, IMO. You really need a two stick joystick, though (like with Robotron).

 

[tiltjlp]

Thanks for the SS and the primer, which I didn't really need, since I do play a few non-pinball games rarely. I like Clickomania and Brick Shooter, and I'm a grand master at Canasta, both on the PC and in R/L play. I don't play head-to-head or timed. My reaction time is e x t r e m e l y
s l o w.

John

 

[StevOz]

Have you played Cloak'n'Dagger, Steve? It's pretty cool, IMO. You really need a two stick joystick, though (like with Robotron).

Not yet, I'll see if I have it, 2 joysticks is no problem I have an OzStick arcade controller. :)

OK, looks like I'm missing that one, no problem I'll just fire up DC++ and grab it from the secret hub.

 

[StevOz]

Not bad, not bad at all that cloak and daggar, wonder how I missed it, good to see that rom still works with MAME.72FX. :)

 

[PacDude]

If you ever get a chance, watch the '80s movie by the same name (stars the kid from E.T. and Dabney Coleman). The movie features the video game in it as part of the plot (the Atari 5200 game cartrige contains government information hidden on the final level). There was supposed to be an A5200 version of the game made, but the crash of '84 meant it was only ever halfway finished. The arcade game is identical to the footage shown in the movie, though (except for the government information, of course).

I thought it was a pretty decent movie (it recently became available on DVD over here from what I understand) as the main character is also into role playing games in a big way and "Jack Flak" (the character from both the video game and the RPG game in the movie) is his imaginary friend (which looks like his father, of course and is also played by Dabney Coleman). So the kid ends up involved in this plot with the cartridge and real spys after him. Really, I'd rather watch that movie than E.T., that's for sure. :D