In preparation for this I couldn’t find any background to the game whatsoever. Even the hallowed KLOV website has no details regarding it. So anything I write here is based purely on playing the game.
4 en Raya was released in 1990 (not that you’d believe it by looking at it) by IDSA. The title translates as 4 in a row and that’s essentially what it is. Connect 4 but with a few twists. You can shoot your opponents tiles before they’re dropped. You can collect spiders and worms which fill the empty columns for bonus point and erm…erm…erm that seems to be it.
So, have you ever yearned to play Connect 4 on old hardware with terrible sound? What? No you say? Yeah, me neither but I’m going to have to…
Twin Galaxies settings
ROMSet: 4ENRAYA
Difficulty: Easy
Pieces: 30
Speed: Slow
Special Rules: Continues are NOT allowed!
Current Record Holders
1st: 504,970 Douglas A Loyd Aug 28 2010
2nd: 56,185 Robert Flynn Mar 17 2009
3rd: 47,430 Antonio R. Filho Nov 30 2008
4th: 39,525 Julio J Araujo Sep 21 2009
5th: 25,785 Joe Perri Nov 17 2006
So…first place is close to 10 times the amount of 2nd place. This could prove to be a difficult task…
After a few practice goes I begin in earnest, reach the 5th level and manage a score of 9,250. 1st won’t be sweating on his place any time soon at this rate. It’s a nice twist that you can attempt to shoot the CPU’s pieces just as they drop but the sprite detection is so fucking arse wankingly awful that on more than one occasion my bullet passes clean straight through it and it the piece drops to safety. Once you reach level 3 the tiles, from the bottom row upwards, begin to cover themselves with question marks so unless you’ve remembered where you and and the CPU placed your pieces it resorts to guesswork. A tricky obstacle to overcome as on most days I cannot even remember my own name. Now imagine if real connect 4 involved guns, insects, and blindfold. Would it sell more?
After 15 goes I manage to crack 10,000 and I call it a day. There’s no way I can continue to play this for any longer. The aforementioned sprite detection has beaten me. I hate Connect 4 in real life anyway so damned if I’m doing it on a computer for any longer than absolutely necessary.
Next Up: 4-D Warriors