** Monday MAME Club [9/29/08] - Cosmo Gang: The Video **

[Flack]

http://www.robohara.com/mameclub/mameclub.jpg

InsaneDavid has selected Cosmo Gang: The Video (Namco, 1991). Download (http://www.robohara.com/mameclub), play, and discuss! (KLOV Info (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=7408))

http://klov.com/images/11/1181242070288.png

Club Rules

01. You do not need to sign up for the club. If you want to participate, simply download the game of the week and post about it!

02. At the end of the week, I will randomly select someone who participated this week to select next week's game.

03. The current MAME Club Pick of the Week can be found every Monday stickied at the top of the Arcade Alley.

Previously Picked Games: Avenging Spirit, Violent Storm, Gaiapolis.

Now, MAME ON!

[Sotenga]

This is only semi-relevant, but I remember playing what I think is the original Cosmo Gang, an awesome animatronic shooting gallery. You had to blast the guys in the mouth to keep them at bay, and I remember winning. This was a really long time ago, though.

As for The Video, I've yet to play it, but I hope to get a chance this week.

[newkillergenius]

m_e_h

[grimbal]

It's like Galaga.

If Galaga was first made into a Saturday morning cartoon show then made into an arcade game.

[InsaneDavid]

Woohoo!

This game is like every early release of Space Invaders hyped out and mixed with Galaxian. I suppose if you were to cross Majestic Twelve and Galaxian, then toss in a bunch of Japanese SD characters, this is what you would get. The vibrant graphics keep the gameplay from getting too stale and the bonus rounds mix things up nicely.

I've always liked it but was finally able to play it on arcade hardware last summer. My girlfriend also played a lot of this at California Extreme (one of the Pac-Mania cabinets was running it) while I worked on setting and resetting my Galaga '88 high score next to her. Video here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MjjpDdHldo), at 1:12, her in green playing Cosmo Gang: The Video (again, on a Pac-Mania cab) and me in red playing Galaga '88. Can also see the Galaxian cocktail I bought at 0:31 on the end of the cocktail pit. :)

Thanks to shertz (DP member) for the great videos of the show floor!

[RadiantSvgun]

This is an interesting take on the Galaga-type shooters. Pretty fun too!

[boatofcar]

I like it, except why doesn't your score reset after you buy back in? Other than that, I'd rather play this than Galaga. The music is very SNES-like, like something out of Super Mario Kart or Pilotwings. Oh, and the voices sound like that guy from Parliament, Star Child.

[Flack]

The coolest thing about the MAME club is all the neat suggestions that come in. I'm sure I've had this ROM in my collection for years and never tried it before.

I think what everybody else said is pretty much right on. It's the sweet kid's version of Galaga, although the way the enemies fly on screen remind me of Gyruss. I am working on building a new vertical MAME cabinet, and when I'm done this will definitely go on there. Pretty fun, and I like the power ups!

[newkillergenius]

The coolest thing about the MAME club is all the neat suggestions that come in. I'm sure I've had this ROM in my collection for years and never tried it before.

I think what everybody else said is pretty much right on. It's the sweet kid's version of Galaga, although the way the enemies fly on screen remind me of Gyruss. I am working on building a new vertical MAME cabinet, and when I'm done this will definitely go on there. Pretty fun, and I like the power ups!

What cab is that going in? What you got left to MAME? LOL

[InsaneDavid]

There are a lot of little touches to this game too - the S flags from Rally-X used as 1ups, if you move your ship all the way to the edge of the screen it will smash up against the edge to further get out of the way, missile raining drones that make the game feel a bit like the divebombing enemy stages of Millipede and so forth.

I do wonder though if this game makes use of the Galaga '88 engine with some enhancements since a lot of the mechanics seem to be shared between the two games.

[Flack]

What cab is that going in? What you got left to MAME? LOL

I think I'm going to covert my 48-in-1 into a MAME cabinet. I am still working on the PC side of things but I want to play more games than those 48 so MAME seems pretty logical for it. It's the cab with the 25" vertical monitor.

[Cryomancer]

That is indeed a neat game. The powerups are great! Finally I get to use that spider web attack the enemies from porno expose games use against me on space foes! Sadly the twin shot is as powerful as you get with normal bullets (although that's pretty standard for the genre I suppose). Good stuff, nice pick.

[Flack]

If anybody has a good suggestion for this week's pick, cough it up -- otherwise, I'll just pick something randomly later today.

[RadiantSvgun]

If no one else suggests anything, how about Ninja Baseball Batman?