Twin Galaxies Forums

720 is probably my all time Favorite arcade games next to Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong for Nostalgic affect, and 720 for downright classic addict-ability. I'm not a skateboarder either, the game just rules.

1st- Any 720 players in here? If I were to do a cabinet, is there anything modern out there for controllers that would have that exact same smooth angled 360 degree motion? Seems like it would be nice for other games like tempest and a few others.
If not, I do know someone who has a great original.

2nd- Would this game ever make a big competition in the USA? (I think i might know the answer to this one.)


Gamer for Life

Hi Donkey_Kong:

Years back in NYC there was only one somewhat decent player that I ever saw play this title...which happens to be at Funspot by the way if you are ever in the Weirs Beach New Hampshire area.

He showed me a trick whereby he was able to launch his skateboarder off a sidewalk or ramp and over a fence thus bolixing up the game's program, causing a program failure. That was also the only time I ever saw a trick on this title.

It's a great game and one that is quite difficult to master using a conventional keyboard if playd on MAME. TG has not received a decent 720 score in years, unfortunately. I wish we had a few new ones.

Robert

Hi DK,

At earlier MAME versions, pre 85u1, 720 Degrees was controlled with mouse/spinner. It was fairly playable, of course harder than original one because of difficulty to point your skater exactly the right way after a jump. There are some playbackability issues in MAME with this game too, atleast were in older versions.

MAME team, in it's infinite wisdom, changed the controller emulation at 85u1 to match the arcade controller. This sounds good, but there's a catch: 720 joystick has very special operation, it is optical, and it resets skaters position when you move the joystick across down/up. Since there are no commercial joysticks that operate the same way, the hacking of an original joystick would be very hard. I guess someone would have to write a driver for windows to understand the \"reset\"-function of the original joystick, and find a way to get windows communicate with original controller circuit board or moderate existing commercial one.
I have not heard of anyone that has hacked a 720 joystick to work in a mame cabinet.

If anyone has the knowledge to hack that thing, you should ask here:
http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm

About the trick that Robert mentioned, at which bees won't catch you because they think you are located elsewhere in the playing area...I've gotten 900k+ using that trick. But that doesn't really count. Can not remember my 80's arcade record for the game. At MAME +spinner I have gotten 250k. It's a very very fun game, one of the absolute best games ever made imo.
Shame about that controller issue though.

Thanks guys. The good part is that there are still great 720 machines available out there. Givin' the information here I'm going to look at buying a standup of this game. Not going to risk the thought of never being able to emulate the original controls of the game.

Tommi, glad to hear from a fellow 720 player.

Robert, look for some new scores for 720 once I get my hands on a 720 arcade machine!

720 Records @ TG
http://www.twingalaxies.com/index.aspx? ... 26&vi=2686

Is Ron's score possible without the jump over the fence trick? Tommi I see your score on here...This was on MAME right? I scored 177K on MAME last night after an overload of energy drinks. I'm playing with the Logitech Attack3 which works pretty good.

My score is from Funspot tournament 2000, at New Hampshire, arcade machine. I was pretty rusty back then and there were loads of other games to play too
Funny thing is that I've gotten little better score at MAME since then, mainly due to better tactics: Buying more equipment, remembering parks better, doing ramp-sliding, going into parks in different order etc.

Yes, the number one score seems a bit too high with normal gameplay.
Too bad I have no idea what my score was back then, I was pretty good at that game though, learned the game faster and better than others...There were these two brothers always watching behind my back and copying my tactics, never playing when I would be watching, b****s, how unmoral!
That 900k+ score kind of ended the competition, which was right for those copycats! LOL
We had gotten perfect medal score by then.

The rivalry:
Those guys always watched mine and JST's tactics, but were stingy showing theirs. Once JST fooled them pretending to leave the arcade, and they started playing Paperboy, JST saw almost the whole game and said he learned some clever tactics then. He did also tell me some of their 720 tactics. They were WTR and JPR...at some point I signed my lesser games as WCR and JCP...They of course paid me back signing TCT, what an insult!
Friends, may this be a lesson for sharing your tactics.

I have to admit that I'm a complete newbie to this forum and arcade game records in general. Tommi you seem very knowledgable on the 720 subject. Could you somehow protest the seemingly unrealistic high score?

You don't have to admit it. Feel free to deny it all you want.

Sorry, bad joke. I didn't see that the fence jumping tactic is banned. Does it need to be added to the rules or is it allowable?

ok

Please take no offense Donkey_Kong. I was just feeling silly. I do wonder if anyone knows whether that tactic is banned or not.

Of course the trick is banned. Bees can't catch you and you can leech as many points as you want without any danger.


I believe there's somekind of score challenge system, challenge a score and if the author of the score does not come forward in a year the score will be dropped. Robert knows more about it. Start would be to PM or email the TG arcade scores official. Of course it's more fair to talk it out in public first.
I believe there was previously some talk about that top score in these forums, maybe you could find the discussion by forum search.

I would be quite certain the 720? top score is not legit or is done with multiple credits atleast(which is not allowed either). TG has cleaned some scores that are not possible. The thing is that from time to time players say "that is not possible"-and will be proven wrong. So scores should not be challenged all too slightly without solid evidence.

Ahhh... I see. Maybe someone with more knowledge of this game should add that to the rules for 720. I'm not good, and have only played the GCN Midway Arcade Classics version.

I wonder, how do analog controls compare to the arcade controls?

They are significantly different from the original. I was a fairly avid player of 720 when my college had it in the sports hall/recreation area - but it wasn't around long enough to master because the joystick kept failing. I think my PB was in the 200k range at the time it was removed, but I was certainly a 150K+ consistent player.

The joystick in the original is firmly placed at the outside of it's rotation - you can't put the joystick into the middle/center. Having said that, if you're good at rotating the analogue joysticks, you should be able to muster some decent simulation. One thing I've not been able to fathom is how the game (in Midway Arcade Treasures) is affected by 'missing' the progression - i.e., going from Right to Left: with the original joystick, it's impossible to do as you must move through Up or Down to get from Right to Left (it's actually the diagonals, but you get the picture).

Q-Bert- No worries. Believe it or not though you can actually get some pretty good \"semi authentic feeling\" control with the $10 Logitec Attack 3 Joystick in 720. Trigger button is kick and thumb button is jump. I can play one handed and beat the game scoring about 175k. heheh Still not the arcade version though.

NOTE: two hands required for the huge 1080's & 1440's in the ramp though. Other hand required to hold on baby...YEE HAAWWW!!!!!!!!!!!

Tommi- I think we should get the ball rolling on the 720 1st place protest. Meantime you get practicing and beat Martin deem's score of 264k which would put you in first. I will start saving my bucks for the machine and try to catch you someday!

Hello everyone:

Tommi, I am officially launching a score challenge inquiry into the current WR on this title. I have to discuss the next step with Walter Day of course as the score in on a classic arcade title.

As for the banned trick, I agree that such should be banned, but having only seen it done and not understanding the game, I do not know the proper wording, so I could really appreciate the help here. Suggestions are welcome !!

Robert

Hello everyone:

I am reclassifying this topic into the more appropriate arcade section.

As several gamers are participating in this trhead, including some relatively new to TG, I am leaving a shadow topic in the original \"General\" forum as a courtesy.

Robert

Ron Perelman
Anaheim, CA
United States
Date Achieved Wednesday, June 17, 1987
Date Verified Friday, June 11, 2004
Verification Method Referee
Score Status Active
Location Camelot Arcade
Anaheim, CA
United States


The record was set about 10 miles from me. Too bad that place is long gone now It was still there until a couple years ago.

I loved this game. I never had the chance to get any good due to controller issues. The kind that stick real bad while rotating.

O.K., I think I actually did play that in an arcade back in the day. I thought the controls were wierd and never put a second coin in. Yeah, that would be a hard controler to get ahold of and/or duplicate. It'd be nice to try it again one of these days.

i seen some really good 720 players at the ca extreme in 99. i can't speak for ron's score but everyone played with the two continues to max out scores. dwayne

The two continues? I'm not sure what you're referring to there.

I loved this game, now and back in the day. Being a skater in real life back then obviously boosted my interest. There was always a crowd of us, complete with our boards, hanging around the machine.

I've been hot on the heels of Tommi in MARP averaging about 200,000 / 210,000 a game, but Tommi is the king of 720 (at the moment ) . I wish I could still spinner this game but ever since the control method change in MAME it's rendered the game un-playable for me. I can't get on with a joystick unfortunately. Lucky for me a kept the old roms and an extremely old MAME (!) so I can still play this game every so often.

I suppose that most of the 720 arcade versions had 2 continues set as default. This meant that you could get stung by the bees, throw another quarter in and continue. Your score and game progress would remain at this point. I believe in MAME you can get 3 continues in the Dip Switch menu.

NOTE: If you are stung by the bees due to not having a park ticket, you will be rewarded with one by continuing.