For almost five weeks, the high score in Captain Verdeterre’s Plunder has been held by Stephen Jablon with $1,779.
Today I have authenticated Robert Eggleston’s new high score of $1,856.
You can see the complete high score list by scrolling to the bottom of this blog post.
Thank you for your interest.
Incredible how it’s still getting new high scores. It’s like we’re in the speedrunning era of the game where people are finding new glitches to exploit.
The same thought occurred to me, especially since by validating these high-scoring runs I’m forced to witness firsthand all of my own bugs being exploited.
But that brings up an interesting point: Unlike in the speedrunning community, Captain Verdeterre runners are each (as far as I know) working alone, each essentially starting from zero. I don’t publish people’s high-scoring solutions, so other players are unable to learn from them. Some players are aware of certain bugs (and even non-buggy intentional features) that others are not.
And the high score list is meant to resemble a high score list on an arcade game, where all you see are people’s names and scores—not like records at speedrun.com, which link to videos of the runs, and provide guides and other resources for a community of runners cooperating to improve “the record,” regardless of who holds it. The Verdeterre high score list is good for nothing beyond the glorification of individual achievements.
I have no desire to facilitate a community of Verdeterre runners, because I get enough headaches without facilitating any communities, and also I’m not exactly proud of the numerous glitches that make a score of $1856 possible. And I believe it is each Verdeterre player’s prerogative to keep their discoveries and strategies secret from all the other players.
But I’d like to say this to anyone who cares: If your goal is not merely to get a higher score than everyone else, but to push my buggy (albeit excellent) game to its utmost limits and attain the highest score possible, you will need to start working together, the way the speedrun.com people do. But not with my help, please.
Five years later, let’s pick up this gauntlet. Friends. I have just now managed to amass 1759 dollars worth of loot, using one obvious bug. I do not know of any other bugs. I also do not know if anything useful can be done with the hardtack, the jib, the bird, or the count command. Here’s what I do know. I’ll put it all in spoilers. Play the game yourself, try to get a high score yourself, before reading this, or the fun will be spoiled.
My list of items and high score:
Now, my run and thinking process.
In the hold, you can get gorilla skull (70), goblet (11), bracelet (53), vase (9), ball (60), and – with the key from the Captain’s Quarter – bottle (220). You have to leave the hold on turn 13 at the latest. Opening the strong box and doing nothing else, you can escape on turn 12 with $220 loot. The maximum you can get from the hold is that plus the gorilla skull, escaping on turn 13 with $290 loot. However, I believe the optimal thing to do is to take the skull, the bracelet and the ball, which allows you to escape on turn 6 with $183 loot. You’ll be able to use the 7 turns you save to get more than $107 extra on the next level.
On the lower deck you can find the lump (179), the doll (36); in the galley, the violin (50), the plate (160) and the silverware (90); and in the misc room, the sextant (48), the oil lamp (6) and the tapestry (160). You have to leave by turn 26. The oil lamp is definitely not worth a turn. Picking up everything else will take 15 turns, for $723. If you opened the strongbox, you will only have 12 turns for grabbing loot, and will have to forego the doll, sextant and violin, for $589. This is why it’s not worth it to open the strongbox. I do believe that it’s worth it to do the full loot grab here (minus the oil lamp); I don’t see a way to use these turns to better effect in the upper parts of the ship.
Thus, we move up on turn 23. Now, our main targets are the music box, the dagger and the pearl necklace, but we can grab three turns worth of items, and the medallion is optimal. You must go up to the Quarterdeck first, because the captain won’t search the tunnel if the water has reached the deck. Search tunnel, z, z, z. This gives you the music box. We can go into the Captain’s Quarter and grab the medallion.
Move to the ornate dagger, and use undo-scumming to get it out: take dagger, take dagger (twice! it will never get out on the first try!), undo, take dagger, undo, take dagger… according to Veeder there’s a 1 in 18 chance of it coming out, so it’s boring. Now, fore again, and take boat. This is the bug I’m exploiting. You can walk around with the lifeboat. Go up, there’s no time for anything else, then climb bowsprit, take pearls, put pistol in sack (I think that’s necessary to sell it). Now the captain will leave, and the game tells you that will die. But you have the boat in your inventory and can still use it! And there you have it, 1759 dollars.
The items in the Crew Quarter aren’t worth the detour, nor are the other items on the deck: zither (40), chess board (28), statuette (4), nautilus shell (49), handkerchief (10), mirror (12), locket (15). The shell is worth more than the doll, but I don’t think we can get it, because by the time we can visit the Captain’s Quarter, you can no longer look under the bed.
But a higher score must be possible! If you have any ideas, share them.
I dug out my old $1648 plan.
| Item | Location | Value | Turns | Points/turn | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skull | Fore hold | 70 | 1 | 70 | 1 |
| crystal ball | Aft hold | 60 | 1 | 60 | 2 |
| tapestry | map room (box) | 160 | 5 | 32 | 3 |
| lump | lower deck | 179 | 1 | 179 | 5 |
| plate | Galley (cabinet) | 160 | 2 | 80 | 6 |
| silverware | Galley (cabinet) | 90 | 1 | 90 | 7 |
| violin | galley | 50 | 1 | 50 | 8 |
| Music box | Quarterdeck (tunnel) | 300 | 4 | 75 | 9 |
| shell | Captain’s quarters | 49 | 1 | 49 | 10 |
| medallion | Captain’s quarters | 68 | 1 | 68 | 11 |
| Dagger | Main mast | 276 | 2 | 138 | 12 |
| boat | Capstan | 1 | 0 | 13 | |
| Necklace | Fo’c’sle (climb on bowsprit) | 186 | 3 | 62 | 14 |
| Bottle | Aft hold (strong box) | 220 | 10 | 22 | |
| watch | top | 160 | 1 | 160 | |
| Bracelet | Fore hold | 53 | 2 | 26.5 | |
| sextant | map room | 48 | 1 | 48 | |
| zither | crew quarters | 40 | 1 | 40 | |
| peg doll | lower deck | 36 | 1 | 36 | |
| comb | Capstan | 36 | 2 | 18 | |
| chessboard | crew quarters | 28 | 1 | 28 | |
| locket | main deck | 15 | 1 | 15 | |
| mirror | Main mast | 12 | 1 | 12 | |
| Goblet | Fore hold | 11 | 1 | 11 | |
| hanky | main deck (must pull pin first) | 10 | 4 | 2.5 | |
| vase | Aft hold | 9 | 1 | 9 | |
| lamp | map room | 6 | 1 | 6 | |
| statuette | quarterdeck | 4 | 1 | 4 |
I also used the boat bug. However it appears I didn’t even know there was a pistol? Ohh, you’re carrying it at the beginning of the game!
Guess I’ll have to dig this game out again!
2 posts were split to a new topic: Captain Verdeterre’s Plunder high score search [spoilers!]
I’ve just discovered that there are two more versions of this game than I thought, and they have different behaviours!
Original competition release: 130928
Competition update: 131003
The version from Ryan’s site listed as the storyfile on IFDB: 140117
The play online version on Ryan’s site: 210127
You can get the skull, book, and ball in 210127 but not in any of the others. Ryannnn!
140117 is almost identical to 131003, only a few bytes are different. 210127 seems to have quite a few differences.
In the online version, which I’ve been using, things do not sink out of sight. I’ve been playing a rather different game than the original; and it’s no wonder that higher scores are now possible!
Captain Verdeterre’s Heraclitean Adventure
Captain Verdeterre is literally exploring the Ship of Theseus!
If Ryan changes one line of code every day, will it still be the same game when eventually every line of code has been replaced?
Ah, but if it maintains the essence of what it is to be Verdeterre, what do the accidents of implementation matter?
Unrelated news: Aristotle spotted rolling in grave
