MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Scoring Millions in seconds in Upright Arcade BattleZone

I posted this first at KLOV.
It is a little known bug in the original code.
Doesn't appear to have ever been talked about here, so let me be the first.

Back in 1981 I was playing BattleZone at Bagatelle at the Rye Town Hilton, Rye, NY.

The game started as usual but then I got a blitz with wave after wave of missiles and saucers, no tanks.

The game ended after a couple minutes. Definitely longer than normal but not by much.

I had 2,600,000 points.

I called over the attendant, got a high score card, got my 10 free game tokens a week later.
It was ultra cool, but it definitely was a mistake.

It happened again Saturday night at CAX 2012.

Right from the beginning I got nailed with Missiles.
I thought maybe I was finishing someone else's games.

Definitely not the case.

Fortunately I took a photo, but I was tired and sloppy about putting in my initials. TAA instead of TEB

In less than 30 seconds, I scored the 6th highest score of all time.
8,407,000

Has anyone else ever witnessed the BattleZone crazy score bug?

After finding some information, I think the bug can be recreated by playing a really BAD game. Like no score.
Then perhaps hitting a tank and being destroyed at the same time.
On your last tank, the score shoots up to many millions, and the game then proceeds to nail you with appropriate fire power in relation to the score.

I was spending more time looking around at the scenery then engaging the tanks.
I was also trying to scoot around them, coming up from the rear.

Also, I discovered my game play is so bad, I've never seen a super tank before.
There is a youtube video that is remarkable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymrYkbEbnEQ

Definitely have to put in some more time on Battlezone in Mame. See if I can track this bug down.

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