Anyone wanna revive the MAME Club? Game picked: Avenging Spirit [Archive]

Cryomancer

07-27-2008, 12:50 AM

Since the arcade forum is up here with the other main forums now, maybe we could get a good group going again?

I'm on board if you guys are.

For those who weren't around last time it was active, we used to assign a game to try out every Monday and then post our thoughts about it.

RadiantSvgun

07-27-2008, 12:53 AM

I'm in. Why don't you start us off Cryo?

Damaramu

07-27-2008, 01:19 AM

Ditto. I've been playing a lot of games lately via MAME.

norkusa

07-27-2008, 01:31 AM

Count me in. I play the same 20-30 MAME roms over and over, so I need some new games to play in a bad way.

Cryomancer

07-27-2008, 07:23 AM

Hmm, I'll have to pick something out for tomorrow then. I'll think of something. Should I make a new thread like we used to, or just add it in here?

In the mean time, I've gone through the old picks and made a custom mame folder for it, download it here: http://kevlargibs.net/cryomancer/Custom.ini

Let me know if there are wrong versions / missing games, etc. Basically it's the custom.ini that was in my MameUI install, with the Mame Club picks added to it. If you would like it another way, just copy the stuff at the end of the ini, from [Mame Club] on, and do with it what you will.

Cryomancer

07-28-2008, 04:12 AM

OK, sorry for the double post and all, but here's a game for us since it's Monday morning.

My suggestion is Avenging Spirit. Romname is avspirit. 1991 game by Jaleco.
http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/8334/0003ds7.pnghttp://img520.imageshack.us/img520/5418/0004nd6.png

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=6980

When i load this up in my copy of MameUI (32 bit ver .0126 with recentely-updated romset), I get some missing rom errors, but it plays fine regardless. Not sure if there's an issue with it or not.

So yeah, check it out guys. Here's the rom:
http://kevlargibs.net/cryomancer/avspirit.zip
and the JPN version in case it needs that too:
http://kevlargibs.net/cryomancer/phantasm.zip

For those new to the idea of the MAME Club, all you need to do is download and try the game out, then tell us what you think.

Icarus Moonsight

07-28-2008, 07:15 AM

Hell yes! This is something I dearly missed. Lets do it. :D

Cryomancer

08-02-2008, 03:42 AM

Not many responses there guys. Play it and tell us what you think! If no one else replies, then I suppose that Icarus Moonsight gets to choose the next game.

It's saturday now...so if no one else gets any comments in by Sunday night, go ahead and PM me your choice,

norkusa

08-02-2008, 05:07 PM

Alright, I gave it a play. At first, I wasn't impressed. Felt like any other early 90's arcade action platformer I've ever played. Jump around, kill enemies, get to the exit.

Then I died and realized that I could you could float around as a ghost and inhabit the bodies of your enemies. Thought it was a pretty original concept and I warmed up to the game after that. And every enemy has their own signature attack. Some I liked (the ninjas) and some I hated (the snowball lady).

I thought the level layouts were above average too. Instead of plowing forward to the exits, you can poke around and look for hidden power-ups (kinda reminded me of Sonic). And some places can only be reached by certain characters, so there's some backtracking involved but it wasn't annoying.

I only made it to Level 6 with one of the special keys found (I had to leave and forgot how to save in MAME OSX). I don't know if I'd play thru it again but I thought it was a decent game with a unique gameplay gimmick.

Flack

08-03-2008, 04:33 PM

Hey Cryomancer, make a new topic for next week's entry. Drop me a PM after it's posted and I'll sticky it for the week. Once that's done I'll make an announcement in the Classic forum announcing it's revival. Hopefully we'll get a few more participants that way.

scooterb23

08-04-2008, 10:02 AM

Huzzah, always liked the MAME club, glad to see it coming back.

Just played my first ever game of Avenging Spirit. I do like the idea of the ghost infiltrating the bodies of enemies. That's a neat touch, although the rest of the game I find to be rather pedestrian.

In my first ever game, I made it to, but did not beat, the second level boss.

diskoboy

08-04-2008, 04:36 PM

Sorry.

I can't because I sold my Wii. LOL LOL LOL

Being a smart-ass is such fun... Isn't is scooterb23?

Cryomancer

08-04-2008, 07:13 PM

Well we're already late Monday without anyone picking a game again so I guess we should just wait until the next week for now? Feel free to make suggestions guys.

norkusa

08-04-2008, 08:31 PM

How about Golgo 13?:

http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=golgo-13&page=detail&id=986

Plays like Silent Scope except you get only 1 shot in each stage (in boss stages you get several). Strangely there's no info on it at KLOV for some reason. The ROM is easy to find though.

Only problem is that it's kind of a newer game (1999), so some computers might have problems running it. Works fine on my 2.16GHz, 2gb core duo 2 iMac though with just some minor sound issues.

scooterb23

08-06-2008, 04:20 PM

Sorry.

I can't because I sold my Wii. LOL LOL LOL

Being a smart-ass is such fun... Isn't is scooterb23?

You know what, I'm rather enjoying it. Although, this isn't a Wii topic...so I'm not sure why you felt the need to bring it up here.

And to be faithful to the thread...Golgo 13 seems to have issues on my setup, I do have an older set up though. The game loads, but once I get into a level, nothing happens.

InsaneDavid

08-06-2008, 08:10 PM

*cough* Galaxian *cough*

IronBuddha

08-06-2008, 11:24 PM

Hey I'm definitely up for this! I think maybe we should post some diamonds in the rough every week instead of the more known popular games. I say this because I never played Avenging Spirit until this thread and I really liked it, it was a little easy and for some reason 2 player didn't work? But other then that I really enjoyed this game. Did anyone defeat this with all 3 keys? I only found 1.

IronBuddha

08-06-2008, 11:53 PM

Sorry for the double post but I just had an idea. Maybe we should get a list together of everybody who wants to participate, so each week the next person on the list can choose the game so we don't get 10 people posting different games every week. I think it would also save people from getting upset cause their game didn't get chosen, it would rotate evenly.

Or maybe even some sort of voting system.

Lady Jaye

08-07-2008, 07:17 AM

That's actually the way we did it last time we had the MAME Club.

Didn't see this thread about the revival of the MAME Club... YAY!!! :D Anyways, count me in!

Flack

08-07-2008, 09:46 AM

I finally got a chance to play Avenging Spirit last night. I went to download Cryo's copy and discovered I already had the ROM. Isn't it amazing how many classic games we have and don't even know it?

I'm a sucker for a good 2D platformer and I thought Avenging Spirit was pretty fun. I liked the idea of being able to "possess" other characters, although I was confused as to when I got to do that and when I was simply dead. My favorite characters to play were the little green ghost guys that shot "light balls," and the army looking guys that shot heet-seeking rockets.

Maybe it's because I was playing on a keyboard or maybe it's because my reflexes are getting slower but if this were in a real arcade it would have cost me a fortune. I think I used ten or so credits on each of the bosses (the snake shooting smoke, and the snake that popped up from the ground). I put 10 credits in when I started and another 10 at some point and after that I gave up. It's a good looking and fun platformer, but I'll need to play it some more if I plan to get anywhere in it.

I also noticed it's from the era that doesn't reset your high score when you continue, which really encourages people to keep playing to try and beat the high score. That doesn't give a true reflection of skill, but rather, how deep your pockets are!

Captain Wrong

08-07-2008, 10:46 AM

I'm in, especially since I just got my dedicated MAME setup rolling. :D

Ackman

08-07-2008, 04:15 PM

SO what is everyone playing regularly? Over and over again?

I play

Golden Axe
ESWAT
Hammering Harry
Rally Bike
Ninja Kid 2
Crime Fighters 2

At least once a week for a very long time.

If you want a obscure GEM I recommend Penguin Brothers there is nothing like it I think it's the best fixed platform game and it even has a VS mode if only it were 4 players and had a stage creator or something it would last forever.

IronBuddha

08-07-2008, 04:38 PM

Well so far we have about 12 people which is a good start. I think if we get this going smoothly other people will join.

Here's the list so far of people who said there in, in the order they posted.

Cryomancer
RadiantSvgun
Damaramu
Norkusa
Icarus Moonsight
Flack
Scooterb23
Diskoboy? (didn't exactly say if he's in or not)
InsaneDave
IronBuddha
Lady Jaye
Captain Wrong
Ackman (didn't exactly say either)

I don't know how it worked last time, I wasn't here. But I'll help update the list if needed.

Cryomancer

08-07-2008, 04:42 PM

Anyone try out that custom folder for the mameclub? It works for me, just wondering if anyone else found it useful.

IronBuddha

08-07-2008, 04:48 PM

Anyone try out that custom folder for the mameclub? It works for me, just wondering if anyone else found it useful.

What is the "custom folder" that you're talking about?

Ed Oscuro

08-08-2008, 02:19 AM

Hey guys, I actually took the liberty (gulp) of reviving the MAME Club idea a couple months ago:

http://2dgaming.bplaced.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=334

Take a look and tell me what you think...

Flack

08-08-2008, 01:17 PM

Cryomancer has convinced me to dig out my old templates and help get the ball rolling again. Basically the way it worked was like this: games were posted on Monday morning, and ran for a week. Anyone who played the game and responded got added to "the list." Originally we went through the list in order that people joined but the problem was the list got so long that it was going to take two years to get to everybody. Eventually what we started going was, I would randomly select a person to choose next week's game from the people who played the week before.

The new posts will be sticked here each week. Since we're still getting into the swing of things I think will keep Avenging Spirit one more week. Let's roll!

Sorry. I can't because I sold my Wii. LOL LOL LOL Being a smart-ass is such fun... Isn't is scooterb23?

Take this shit elsewhere.

Ackman

08-08-2008, 09:27 PM

my thoughts on AS

Nice graphics, decent game but in the long run doesn't win me over. 5/10

Now I nominate Penguin Brothers for next week.

Cryomancer

08-08-2008, 09:47 PM

What is the "custom folder" that you're talking about?

I talked about it in one of my earlier posts, here it is again: http://kevlargibs.net/cryomancer/Custom.ini

Basically if you use MameUI (and i assume other GUI versions could use it too), this will give you a category full of all the previous Mame Club games:

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/4315/exampleuc7.png

RadiantSvgun

08-08-2008, 10:55 PM

Eh, I played this a long time ago on Raine and I think it was called "Phantasm."

The whole ghost thing, and the longevity of it. -4/10.

I recommend Violent Storm for one of the titles. Its a little known title in the crime fighters series. VERY 90's-ish. I love it.

I also recommend DJ boy.

Ackman

08-08-2008, 11:00 PM

I recommend Violent Storm for one of the titles. Its a little known title in the crime fighters series. VERY 90's-ish. I love it

Yeah it's quite cool the music is so bad it's cool and funny at the same time, still like Crime Fighters 2 more though.

Cryomancer

08-08-2008, 11:29 PM

I just played through Avenging Spirit again...any of you guys actually get all the keys and get the real ending? This game has an oddly sad story for as colorful and silly as it is. The character you get for getting all the keys and everything kicks ass too, I thought the chain ninja was good...

RadiantSvgun

08-08-2008, 11:29 PM

Yeah it's quite cool the music is so bad it's cool and funny at the same time, still like Crime Fighters 2 more though.

Yeah... But I like it. If you guys decide you want to do that as one of titles, heres one of the BGMs from the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXG7JKfpVak

IronBuddha

08-11-2008, 01:26 AM

Cryomancer has convinced me to dig out my old templates and help get the ball rolling again.

The new posts will be sticked here each week. Since we're still getting into the swing of things I think will keep Avenging Spirit one more week. Let's roll!

Yes! Very cool! I'll definitely keep a look out as soon as I can every Monday! Until then I'm going to play some of these other games people have talked about in this thread.

DaBargainHunta

08-11-2008, 08:23 PM

I'm in the middle of a move and haven't been able to DL/play the game yet, but I just wanted to chime in to say that I fully support the return of the MAME Club. I used to love it before and I'm glad it's back now.

Though I've always wondered: How come it ended in the first place? Flack?

Captain Wrong

08-12-2008, 08:10 PM

OK, played it a little today. Whew, definitely has the feel of that time, doesn't it? For me, the first thing that stuck out was the large character sprites and the bright colors. Still a cartoony look, but, graphics are getting better.

As for the play, it kind of feels like a beat 'em up and a platformer, in a way. Most of the characters have a weapon though, but you are still essentially walking around, fighting hordes of identical bad guys (and gals.) Kind of monotonous after a while and I felt like some of the enemy spawns were cheap. You'd need to play this a few times and get a feel for where people pop up.

I thought the possession aspect was the best part of the game. However, I wanted to be able to change characters at will rather than waiting for them to die off. Some of the characters were pretty lame. Any close combat character was practically useless as were the chick throwing snowballs and the bomber guy. Still, points for trying some variety there.

And how about that generic, vaguely oriental music?

Anyway, not really my bag. A little too slow and monotonous for my tastes. And I felt the best idea in the game, the ability to posess enemies, was kind of underdeveloped.

Cryomancer

08-13-2008, 05:26 AM

Though I've always wondered: How come it ended in the first place? Flack?

I assume it was due to interest declining.

And the above comment about the music, I sort of agree about it being pretty generic. And I swear the sound effects in this game are used in some other games and I can't recall which offhand. Perhaps one of those pirate porn games.