Thanks all for the kind words, much appreciated!
The balloons normally score 100 each with one of the balloons chosen at random given a score of 7650; however there is a trick to getting 7650 for each balloon. There were clues on how to do this on the web before, but the instructions were not clear and I could only get it consistently when cmonkey reversed the code and explained exactly how to trigger it.
To trigger all balloons having 7650 value, the third and fourth digits in the score (counting from the right) must be zero *when the balloons are released*. So the score must be of the form XXXX00XX, where X is "don't care" and the zeros must be that value. If you didn't know this trick existed, then the odds of triggering it randomly are 100 to 1. So it is not so rare to never happen, but still quite rare.
Once you know how to do it, you can improve those odds
To do this, you really do need the blue helmet - this lets you slowly ramp up the score to be within 300 of the 00XX value, then walk back and forth until you get to 00XX, then release the balloons. You then get all 7650.
My method for getting this: you need to make sure you get the blue helmet on round 1, and then make sure you do not die at any other point on trip 1 (or you lose the helmet). Complete round 3 with the last two score digits of 10, 20, 30, 50, 60, 70, 90 but avoid 00, 40 or 80. This ensures the fire hydrant with the balloons is in the town area. It is possible to do with a score of 00/40/80 but the balloons will be in the cactus where the ghosts don't drop bombs so it is more difficult to get the score to a set value on balloon release.
Now when we get back near to "home" of round 4, time will be running out, since we spent some time trying to find the invisible "S"-pill between the cacti. As long as there are 4 full pac symbols on the timer when you leave the last cactus behind and run for the town, you should have time to get to the power pill before the timer runs out and you lose the blue helmet.
At this point, walk back and forth to get the airplane ghosts, and grab the pill in time to "catch" a baby ghost bomb. This means if you miss a ghost, you can still get Sue as the 3200 point ghost and release an "L"-pill, which will refill your timer.
At this point I usually push the fire hydrant containing the balloons to just before the balloons release. You don't have to do this, but I find it easier to do it this way. Just don't release the balloons too early!
With the timer full, walk back and forth until Clyde appears. Clyde has the fastest drop rate of baby ghost bombs. Follow behind Clyde at walking pace (making adjustments if needed) to get 300 points and continue to do so until your score is between XXX9700 and XXX0000. Now continue to walk back and forth
avoiding baby ghosts until the score is on or just under XXX0000 while you are next to the balloon hydrant. (If you did not push the hydrant earlier, you will need to stop about 100 points earlier - around XXX9900 - to allow for the points acquired pushing the hydrant back). If you've done all of this correctly, push the hydrant, release the balloons, and profit!
Maximising the score by points pressing the baby ghost bombs is very much worthwhile, even on trip 1 where the rate of bomb droppage is low. Just follow behind a bomb dropping ghost at about the same pace and pick up points. The timer bonus is 5,000 points for a full bonus, whereas even on trip 1 you can get around 10,000 points in this time from bombs. Always walk back and forth until Clyde appears though, because Clyde has the highest rate of bomb drop. Never follow Blinky who rarely drops bombs.
There is another good points pressing opportunity in trip 3 and trip 7 from ghost bombs, although they are more difficult to set up as you need an L-pill to make it worthwhile and it is more difficult to get right; if you do get it, you can score even more because the rate of bomb drops is higher on these levels. The trip 7 trick can be seen from 22:30 onwards; after getting the L-pill and ghosts, the score is around 638k. I would get 5k (=643k) from finishing here, but by points pressing I get the score up to 651k, plus a further 1k from time bonus (I don't run the counter too close, as I don't want to lose the blue helmet which makes the next round easier), so about 9k points up from points pressing with baby ghost bombs.
