
Dude, so we were playing some Alien Crush, and we killed the bonus stage with the dragons over and over again. We totally scored like five billion points and it was so AWESOME that we had to call everyone we knew and tell them about it.
Okay, we're embellishing a bit. When we say we "totally scored like five billion points," we mean that we "continue to be awful at Alien Crush despite playing and loving it for eighteen years." But without our humble admission, you'd have no reason to doubt us! And that leads into our discussion.
Simply put, we want leaderboards. We aren't going to get online play in VC games any time soon (or ever,) so we'll ask for the next best thing. We want to be able to see the high scores for games that, you know, have scores. We don't need prizes or anything. We'd be motivated enough by the idea that we could put our three-letter tag (mine: JC!) at the top of a nationwide or worldwide list if we were any good, which we aren't.
Are high score leaderboards worth doing? Do you see value in friendly competition like this? Or did you always flip right past the high score page in old gaming magazines? Perhaps most importantly, what are your high score initials?













Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-14-2007 @ 9:21AM
Doug said...
I think it's a fabulous idea!
DUG
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5-14-2007 @ 9:31AM
Spencer said...
i think it would be kinda neat, except it would just make me realize that there are a lot more people than i thought that are better than me. :) Also, my initials are possibly the easiest ever, STS!
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5-14-2007 @ 9:36AM
Zan said...
Well, online play would be cooler and it's not hard to implent at all but I realize they won't do that, so a online leaderbord would be cool...
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5-14-2007 @ 9:45AM
joel.ms1 said...
I would love a leaderboard in Starfox. I want to know if I'm really as good as I think I am.
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5-14-2007 @ 9:46AM
Rakuen42 said...
It's very likely that if a leaderboard was implemented, it would be done by Miis rather than initials.
There's only 27000 possible combinations for a three character string after all.
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5-14-2007 @ 10:29AM
reef said...
It's very weird that doesn't exist already, even in a form that nintendowifi.com tracks DS high scores.
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5-14-2007 @ 10:43AM
Neal Eaton said...
I would LOVE to see this hapen...and I know that someone like Billy Mitchell would come along and wipe out my 'awesome' scores...him and his Pac-Man (and other) REALLY high scores. Hurumph...just makes me a little sad inside.
I totally agree that the way to do this on the Wii is to include your Mii WITH your initials.
I go by a couple of different abbreviations...DNE or PEG...depending on how I feel that day.
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5-14-2007 @ 11:20AM
jt_bombtrak said...
Yes...we NEED this, Ninny.
As for arcade initials, mine were always POW as a kid, mainly because I looked up to my older cousin who was ZAP. Automatopia must run in the family.
These days I'd probably go with BMB though.
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5-14-2007 @ 12:17PM
Wes Frazier said...
I think people need to realize that Virtual Console games are emulated roms. And that altering the source code to these roms would require paying more programmers. Meaning increased cost to us.
Not only that but in many cases the original source code is likely lost. Also in some cases the rights to the source code may be in legal limbo.
And even then each individual game would need to be altered. Or at a minimum it's emulator would have to be redesigned custom for every game.
In short its not going to happen for classic virtual console games.
I expect it will happen for ORIGINAL downloadable titles though.
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5-14-2007 @ 12:18PM
William said...
this is a damn good idea. Not only can we check the leaderboards but it would also give me another reason to play/buy vc games.
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5-14-2007 @ 12:30PM
shadow said...
I'm not a huge fan of leaderboards. All they do is help remind me that there are lots of 12 year olds out there that have more free time than I do. Ultimately it makes me miss being 12 years old :(.
In my experience that's how it always went. Back when I had XBOXLive on the original XBOX I would occasionally have the chance to go against a leaderboard leader. Almost all of the time I would just end up having it be some 12 year old.
I want to know how many people here have actually held high spots on an online leaderboard. I find it interesting that people always want leaderboards so much, even if they just end up being like 364th out of 500.
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5-14-2007 @ 12:46PM
Zack W. said...
Are POO and ASS taken?
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5-14-2007 @ 12:59PM
ConstyXIV said...
@9 Wes Frazier:
It wouldn't mean they would have to completly take apart the games to put leaderboard stuff in. It would work something like this:
1) Fire up game in emulator
2) Use a debugger to pin down the score in memory, as well as some sort of "Game Over" signal
3) Add code into the emulator to intercept the Game Over signal, read the score from memory, and either a)cut to a "enter name" screen that puts the score up on the leaderboard, or b) automagically do it with Miis
You wouldn't actually need to add any code to the game to do it, just pin down a few ints in the memory
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5-14-2007 @ 1:02PM
Joseph Elwell said...
JOE. I have my arcade cabinets networked between a bunch of my friends. Each of us have an arcade cabinet in the house. This allows us to play MAME together, and compete/share our high scores. It is quite fun - although I can't imagine I'd be so good that sharing my score nationwide would be fun. ;) Especially if the games only tracked the top 20 or so - like most classics.
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5-14-2007 @ 4:49PM
JC Fletcher said...
Wes: I know it'll never happen, but that doesn't make me want it any less. Or am I only supposed to speculate about things that already exist?
I WISH NINTENDO WOULD MAKE MORE MARIO PARTY GAMES
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5-14-2007 @ 6:10PM
darkness_ said...
I would totally love an online leader board, and why stop at VC games, throwdown some excite truck times and star totals too.
I think it would be something that most hardcore gamers could enjoy......but Nintendo would probably see the leaderboards as "overwhelming" and "scarey" to those new people, don't get me wrong i love my Wii...just toss us hardcore guys a bone or two plz
btw they could just make it a separete channel for download so if you don't want it don't get it
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5-14-2007 @ 7:22PM
Wes Frazier said...
@13 ConstyXIV:
Still extra coding = Extra money. Especially as you would need a custom emulators for every game. Couldn't imagine it with how many complaints there have been over current virtual console pricing.
@15 JC Fletcher:
Speculation about the possible is fun.
Speculation about the improbable week after week after week is boring.
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5-14-2007 @ 8:03PM
kazooieb said...
I think that Nintendo really needs to step it up in the online department. Sure, the Wii has success right now, but what adds the ultimate replay value? Online functionality. Nintendo could easily add leaderboards and it would be a great feature. It's human nature to want to compete, so I'm sure people would love it.
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5-15-2007 @ 9:27PM
David Kearns said...
DAV
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5-16-2007 @ 5:20PM
Mr Khan said...
The fact that they don't have it already is highly incredulous
If they just added into the Wii's system memory the ability for WiiConnect24 to access certain games' "high score" screen and pool the save data, then it would just be simple data transfer from there to whatever medium they could put it on
wow that sounds easy, as long as they got user permission first, of course
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