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NES Games and Statistical Analysis

szadig writes "The New Gamer has published an article which tackles the topic of averaging gameplay. The accompanying video features 15 different players simultaneously shooting their way through the first stage in the NES game Gradius. From the article: 'The average time taken to kill the end level boss was 20.055 seconds, with the fastest player finishing him off in a mere 10.01 seconds. Six people finished the boss off at nearly identical moments. It would seem that the boss, bored with the player, actually self-destructs after 27 seconds. Beyond the almost perfectly synchronized explosions, further proof of this self-destruction can be found in the videos: no 10,000 point bonus (given to players when the boss is defeated) was awarded to these six players and, in a few of the runs, the boss detonated when there wasn't a single bullet near it.' Can we apply other statistical methods to gameplay?"

2 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Mirror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    1. bittorrent is written in python. so is portage. if you have portage, you have python. and you don't have to compile anything.
    2. if you can't provide a torrent, don't talk about not providing a torrent. just don't say anything at all.
    3. oh. also -- your mirror is fucking toast.
  2. Re:You know.. by Retroneous · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think the point was probably to get listed on Slashdot. I can't see any reason for applying statistical analysis to gameplay. Especially not to a game that is as old as that one. What purpose will it serve?