MMMC Week 1: Jump Coaster

[scooterb23]

All right folks, it is Monday, and that means...the Monday Morning MAME Club!

I went ahead and chose the game this week...although I will have a method for choosing new games that I will reveal later in the week (which means you'll have to come back to this thread later in the week! Aren't I clever?) But first... to make this official...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/scooterb23/mameclub.jpg

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.

Ok, so now you're probably wondering what I chose? Well, I picked the 1983 Kaneko classic... Jump Coaster!

What?

http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8251

http://www.klov.com/images/11/1181242123250.png

That's right, you play a caper crusader trying to save your girlfriend while avoiding monkeys on roller coasters. Classic.

As for the rom, I have to give a huge shout out to DP member 2Dskillz, who has offered to host rom files on his blog. So please, go over to www.retrogoggles.com and click on the Jump Coaster screenshot to download the rom, you can't miss it (and check out the rest of the site too...looks like some good stuff there)!!

All right folks, we're back in business. Review the game, share hints, post screenshots of your high scores, whine about how I have horrible taste in games...but most of all...have fun!

[jb143]

It looks like a cross between Donkey Kong and Lode Runner...on a roller coaster. I can't wait to try it out.

[2Dskillz]

This is quite an obscure title. I am looking forward to digging into it tonight.

[scooterb23]

I'll get things rolling with a couple tips.

1. You do not need to collect all the money bags to complete a level. Just getting to the top, and latching on to the bottom of the gondola (levels 1 & 2) is enough to complete the level.

2. If you do go for all of the money bags...a large bag will show up shortly after you grab the last small bag. Note that grabbing the bags can be problematic at times...you can't land on them from above (level 2) you have to run by them to actually grab them. If you manage to grab the large bag... it is worth 10,000 points! It will also end the level (sounds like a bad reality show...Will you save the girl, or take the money?)

3. The guys running after you can be jumped over, and even touched as you vault over them. But if your head hits the guy (or monkey going through the loop above you) you're dead.

4. Watch out for the gaps in the girders where the coaster runs through. I can't tell you how many times I have fallen through one of them.

I'll go ahead and toss out a first score to shoot for... 13,900. I find the second level very difficult, and have only gotten to level 3 once (I suppose I could just bolt to the top and save the girl, but where's the fun in that? Also, has anyone ever seen this machine in real life?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/scooterb23/0000.png

[Ed Oscuro]

25,700 here; I can't believe this game is rewarding me for ignoring the girl.

The game managed to catch my attention for a few minutes, however. Collision doesn't seem entirely predictable all the time, but the bad guys' movement is predictable enough that you can navigate the stages.

The first stage is fairly easy. Wait at the bottom for the slow bozo bro. to reach your location so that you have one less to worry about near the top, or immediately head to the right and move up - it's surprisingly easy to turn on a dime and jump over the bros. because you move quicker by far. Your main challenge is to make sure they don't crowd the ladders you need to take.

The second one, eh, it's more of the same. I curse the designers for thinking it's fun to put the word "coaster" in the game and just make them one of the major sources of evil in the game, plus, the apes in them don't even seem to be doing anything with it. The rotation effect is neat and even a bit advanced for this time period, but it's just wasted on these weird things with an enigmatic look frozen on their faces. I dunno...I'm failing to convince myself it's creepy; it's just a plain stupid waste of a potentially interesting game mechanic. How do you make dodging roller coasters not fun?

An observation about the coasters: Depending where you get on ladders, you may get hit by a coaster or miss it. The designers obviously designed this in, since in most any video game - even many 3D ones - you stick to ladders in a specific way and traverse a set path, because that's what ladders are for. When you climb a ladder, do you stick all your weight on one side of the ladder in hopes somebody will open a door and knock you off? What kind of sadistic person would create a thing like that? I have an answer: Kaneko's people were out of ideas for what to do with roller coasters so they threw in this curveball. Guys, if you're not going to stick to the limitations of the maze and ladders genre, make a free-roaming game. It could easily be just as good, if not better, I'm sure. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time has something to learn 'um about ladders, and while I've never been a great fan of games that use multiple layers without much apparent depth and hide the player, it'd arguably be a better gameplay mechanic. Alternatively, they could've just withheld the temptation to put this evil thing in altogether: all you have to do is be aware of it and it'll never bother you (on that board at least) again.

I'm sure that with enough time I could get through stage 3. The "gauntlet of doom and tears" going right to left after you reach the second level of the stage involves moving along on the rope as the bozo bro. lands from a jump, and dismounting the rope whenever the ape comes along - I don't think he's allowed to drop bananas when you're directly under him, although I haven't played long enough to be sure. They'd probably take you out immediately, that or you're meant to be running along so they pass just behind you.

MUCH WHINING & STUFF TO FOLLOW
:sob:

The bozo bros. that come out and harass you look vaguely like extras from A Clockwork Orange, a movie I haven't seen. I guess that means I shouldn't try to force the comparison, other than to say that I thought clockwork oranges and jump coasters should be fun. They could be. I was sorely disappointed.

It's funny - I had the impression that during their later years Kaneko were still aping other games, still without much originality, but at least by then they were working competently in a few niches - raised along with the competency of the industry as a whole.

I really don't miss the days when people thought (mistakenly) that successful arcade design consisted solely of aping Pac-Man's most apparent symptoms (the design of the stages and gameplay is more like Donkey Kong, though; evidence of this game's schizophrenia): borderline-atonal jingles (try falling off the top rung of the stage - augh), blasts of noise every time you so much as jiggle the joystick (the apists at Kaneko not having been clued in that in Pac-Man it's an audio cue that you're picking up pellets), and enough neon color to blind a chameleon...on acid (of course it has to be on acid).

Then, since nobody can top Pac-Man's design, toss in a funny animal or clown or some other dumb thing. I'd go all out NAVGTR style here and say "why not a flying mashup of a haircomb and a trombone in a musical F1 waterfall racing game? With cancer?" if I didn't have any sense of shame. Oh yeah, they ripped off Donkey - I mean King Kong, too, just so we could have a simian dropping junk our way. They didn't even try to come up with something new, like Nichibutsu did with the mice of Frisky Tom. If only we had the little Universal clown, the ensemble of lazy characters would be complete.

I did mention Donkey Kong earlier, and that's something else nagging me about the game: What's the dang goal of the game? So much for the much-vaunted "Japanese" "zen garden approach" to games design; they just threw in extra stuff that is actually completely useless because it wouldn't look like Donkey Kong if they didn't. I can't really tell what the garish thing begging for help along the top of the screen is - but I don't need to care, either, as the game demonstrates in one of the worst examples of behavior training (and possible subversions of the hero ethic) I've seen in a game. They started to come up with a reason to give the player an epic quest, but decided to replace it with pure greed anyway! I knew it, nobody who wears that freaky bandit outfit is likely to be thinking of others. (I'm not going to say he's got no interest in saving the girl because...phew, that was a close one!)

Now, I'm going to forget all of this and imagine that Jump Coaster is a game about climbing the scaffolding of a roller coaster to save the girl, and it was great and everybody was happy, forever and ever. Also, I kicked the bozo bros. in the face when they tried to grab my ankles as I shimmied a rope, because that's what they deserve.

:lovin:

This story is happy end!

[scooterb23]

I don't think he's allowed to drop bananas when you're directly under him, although I haven't played long enough to be sure.

It did it to me the one time I actually made level 3. Standing there...just biding my time...insta-banana to the head! Very frustrating.

Thanks for the in-depth review.

Also: I just got past that part for the first time...the top half of level 3 is the embodiment of pure evil.

[Ed Oscuro]

So you're probably intended to rush past on the lower level, and the banana drops behind you, right? I can only hope. I don't think that lower level is really all that bad, although what you say about the top half sure makes me nervous. Then again, I'm not planning on playing this again, so I can say that with ease :p

[scooterb23]

I ended up waiting until the monkey went all the way off screen to the right, and then scooted across as fast as I could, that seemed to work. There's just so much stuff at the top of the screen, that it's hard to find a break to get in between stuff.

[InsaneDavid]

I ended up waiting until the monkey went all the way off screen to the right, and then scooted across as fast as I could, that seemed to work. There's just so much stuff at the top of the screen, that it's hard to find a break to get in between stuff.

That's what I do too. I hang out near the bottom right and hope the monkey will go off screen to the right and appear on the bottom rope while I'm climbing the ladder. Interesting game, nice choice!

[GrandAmChandler]

Very good choice scooter, I am just playing this for the first time and I am having a blast! Hard game though!

[2Dskillz]

It is a difficult game, but the controls are spot on, so you know that failures are your fault and your fault only. I still have not passed the second level and made a measly 14,400 so far. Great first pick as it is so obscure.

[jb143]

The game is quite hard and frustrating at times but it still kept me comming back to try to get farther. I forgot my high score(I don't think it saves them) but I did manage to get to the 3'rd level most times. I havn't figured out what need to be done to beat it though. I'm sure it's all a matter of figuring out the patterns. I've found it much easier to get through the levels if you go straight for the girl each time but like was said before, there's not much fun in that. And also not a very high score to be had doing that either.

[scooterb23]

Oh, oh! Now talk about a dick move...I'm on level 3...waiting for a monkey to move to get to the top part of the screen...the monkey on the bottom rope threw a banana UP at me! GAH! Talk about not giving a guy a break.

For those who may not have gotten there yet...here's a pic of level 3. Could someone who has gotten there post a pic of level 4? I assume this game is like Donkey Kong, in that there are just the 4 levels that repeat. Unless someone can prove me wrong.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v643/scooterb23/0001.png

[Oobgarm]

18,500 is the best I can do.

Can't quite reach the upper part of level 3, nor can I get the big bag on level 2 for some reason.

A fun game, though.

[Cryomancer]

I managed to get at least to level 3 without cheating. Then i decided I would and try some stuff out.

First off, there are indeed 4 levels that repeat. No "oh you saved me" or "i hope you and your money are happy" cut scenes I'm afraid. here's level 4:

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/2585/0000i.png

Might not look so bad until you start wondering what the hell you are supposed to do. You can't jump the the girl in the center, all ways of jumping make you die. You have to get to the gondola thing at the top, grab on (i had a hell of a time with the hit detection in doing so), then get over her and drop down. Which seems like a farther drop than jumping from the higher girders would be and that kills you but hey whatever.

This was a pretty amusing game though. Good pick.

[jb143]

I'll have to try and get to level 4 tonight. I'm having a hard time seeing how your even supposed to be able to get to the 2 platforms in the center that have the ladders going up. Can you jump that far?

[InsaneDavid]

I'll have to try and get to level 4 tonight. I'm having a hard time seeing how your even supposed to be able to get to the 2 platforms in the center that have the ladders going up. Can you jump that far?

You use the overhead ropes to shimmy over there.

[scooterb23]

Thanks cryo! That level looks interesting. I hope to get there eventually :)

[2Dskillz]

I am not very familiar with the creation of this game, does anyone know anything more about the idea of it? Are you a lunatic of some sort, considering the guys in white coats. And why are monkeys riding rollercoasters anyway?

It is hilarious that money is far more rewarding than getting the girl.

[scooterb23]

2Dskillz - I have no idea, but I'm sure that someone could write a heck of a back story :)

[scooterb23]

OK, I'm going to start this post a little early because I'm going to be gone all day tomorrow (road trippin' back home).

First of all, keep playing Jump Coaster, I'd like to see if anyone can get in the swing of things, and put up a nice, stupid high score.

Second of all, it's time to nominate games for next week! But, I want to see a little more than just a list of "Let's play Game X" posts. So, when nominating a game...I want 3 reasons WHY that game should be picked to be the next game of the week.

They can be serious or wacky reasons...don't care, just want 3 reasons why we should play that game.

Nominations should be in no later than 8 PM (EST) Sunday to be considered, so I can get ROM hosting set up for the morning. Any questions, just ask.

[InsaneDavid]

I nominate Jungler (http://klov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8259).

Reason 1: It's one of my favorite arcade games and has all the trappings of a true classic, yet it's obscure enough that many have never played it.

Reason 2: I just got the entire Tomy Tutor game library in the mail today. Jungler is my favorite game on the system (for the above reason) I already have a copy but I've been playing the copy that came with the complete library for most of the evening (testing the system) - it's making me want to spend serious time with the arcade version again. This would be a great opportunity to introduce the game to others. (I also reviewed the Tutor version in RTM #48 (http://my.stratos.net/%7Ehewston95/RTM48/RTM48.html))

Reason 3: I'd love someone to see the game being discussed and go "yeah, I have an original arcade cabinet of this" so I can see what one looks like in detail.

[Ed Oscuro]

I am not very familiar with the creation of this game, does anyone know anything more about the idea of it? Are you a lunatic of some sort, considering the guys in white coats. And why are monkeys riding rollercoasters anyway?
All the answers you have ever sought lie within my mmmmega-post above!

(Satisfaction not guaranteed.)

[jb143]

I finally managed to get to level 4. I almost beat it but that dang @@#% monkey dropped an apple or something big on me at the top. My score was laughably low. Only about 9000. I was just concerend with getting to level 4 so didn't bother to go for points. I found the first 3 levels to be pretty easy when you just go straight for the girl.


------------------------
My nomination for the next game is Rampart. I didn't care too much for it at first but after getting into it, it's quickly becoming one of my favorite games to play.

Reason 1: Although it's pretty common, I'm sure there are plenty of people who have never played it...or given it much time to really get into it.

Reason 2: It's a good change of pace from all the beat-em-ups we did last time around.

Reason 3: How many arcade strategy games do you ever see? And with puzzle game elements?

Bonus Reason: If you can find someone else to play with, it's even more fun.

[Ed Oscuro]

I nominate Ninja Emaki

Reasons: Because it...

1.) is Nichibutsu and somewhat obscure

2.) is a hybrid shooter-style vertically scrolling game where you can run or fly all about the screen and also a Commando type game with multi-way scrolling

3.) is lots of fun

[Flack]

I played it for a little while this afternoon and couldn't get past level 2.

Can anyone think of a game that kills you quicker for not moving? In this game you have between 2-3 seconds on level 1 before the gorilla (I thought they were hamburgers at first) kills you. Usually games give you at least a few seconds to figure out wtf is going on!

Figuring out a pattern for level 1 was pretty easy (just pick up the bags clockwise). I'm having trouble figuring out a pattern for level 2.

Interesting game, never saw it before.

[scooterb23]

Well, perhaps asking for 3 reasons why we should play the next game was too much...(especially since, in all honestly I didn't really use them in picking the game...I just really wanted to see some well thought out choices).

Oh well, never mind that. A new game has been picked...and will be ready for Monday Morning.