MAME Club [3/22/04] - Lady Bug

[Flack]

Greetings and salutations fellow MAME'ers!

Another week, and another excellent selection from a MAME Club member. This week, TripppsK went old school on us and pulled a classic maze game out of his hat. That can only mean one thing ...

Lady Bug is the MAME Club pick of the week!
Download ROM HERE (http://members.cox.net/robohara/ladybug.zip) (~25k)

http://images.webmagic.com/klov.com/screens/L/xLady_Bug.png

Download the ROM is you don't already have it, give it a spin, and respond to this topic with your review! Have you played this game before, or is it brand new to you? Do you like the genre? How did it run on your computer? Did you beat it? If so, how long did it take? What was your high score? Did you have any problems emulating the game?

When writing your review, post it right here in the sticky topic and include any thoughts you have about the game. Remember, YOU are the reviewer. Let us know anything and everything you think about the game!

Club Members:

Gamereviewgod
Wisesalesman
scooterb23
ddockery
AlanD
digitalpress
IntvGene
NE146
jonjandran
Flack
IGotTheDot
zektor
buttasuperb
chadtower
Sotenga
Stark
christianscott27
ECWSandmanECW
* TripppsK
vespertillio
ghsqb
TheSmirk
anotherfluke
BHvrd
ManekiNeko
MarioAllStar2600
Ze_ro
slip81
Qbert
k8track
Hamsnibit
Lady Jaye
Sofa King Gud
jgenotte
Schenley
Kaine23

Vespertillio, you're up next, and we all hope you pick something good so we can ...

MAME On!

[kainemaxwell]

Gave ladybug a spin since I remembere dplaying the CV rom of this years back. Very fun Pac-Man like game with the twirling gate elements being like that of Super Pac-Man and Lock N' Chase.

Quesitont hough: you gotta physcially move the joypad in the direction(s) you want to move your ladybug instead of automatically moving the poypad in the direction you want to go (ala Pac-Man). Wa sit like this in the home versions of Ladybug?

[Ze_ro]

Wow, that's weird... I was just thinking about this game less than an hour ago! Anyways, I was a huge fan of this game as a kid, but to be honest, it actually used to scare me a bit. Trying to clear out the area around the bug box with that crazy fast music really got the adrenaline flowing in me! I sometimes avoided playing this game because it used to seriously stress me out. Yes, I was apparently a huge wuss as a kid LOL

Anyhow, here's some tips that I picked up while playing this game over the years:
The absolute first thing you should do is clear out the area around the bug box. You get a short period once the level starts where no bugs will be out, so rush in there, get as much as you can, and rush out. Try to clear out the 3-corridor-wide area above the bug box too if you have the time.
Now that you've cleaned out that area, fence it in by setting the turnstiles vertical all around it. In fact, the screenshot Flack posted shows exactly what I mean, except for the one horizontal turnstile that the one bug is underneath. Once you have them all vertical, the bugs are often too stupid to be able to get out of the area to chase you down.
Watch the colors that cycle around the outside of the maze. This acts as a timer, and every time the colors go around, a bug will come out of the bug box.
Here's how the letters and hearts work: Get the hearts while they're blue, and they'll add to your points multiplier. Get letters while they're red, and they'll add up to spell "SPECIAL", and get letters while they're yellow and they'll add up to spell "EXTRA". Getting these things when they're the wrong color (ie, a blue A, or a red heart) won't give you the bonus, you'll just a few points. However, you can get an A while it's either red or yellow, and it'll count towards the appropriate word.
The score multiplier also ups the points you get from eating the little X's (50 pts once you have all three hearts, as opposed to 10 pts with no hearts)... so instead of clearing out the bug box, you might want to consider rounding up the blue hearts instead so that you get more points overall (although you'll then have a harder time clearing out the center of the maze).
If you spell EXTRA, you get an extra life. If you spell SPECIAL, you get to go to the "Vegetable Harvest" bonus stage. Basically, it's an empty stage where vegetables keep appearing, and you try to collect as many as possible. SPECIAL will get you a LOT of points, so try to get the E's and A's when they're red rather than yellow (Of course, if you already have a red A, then there's no point in getting another one).
All the letters and hearts are the same colour, and cycle at the same rate. They spend the longest time blue, and the least time red, and the cycle never changes (Blue->Red->Yellow->Blue), so you should be able to time things fairly easily (you'll have an easier time waiting if you organize the turnstiles properly).
You'll get more points from the letters and hearts if you get them while they're red or yellow (300 pts) than while they're blue (only 100 pts). Getting hearts while they're blue is much more beneficial though, since you get the multiplier... but even if you don't need a letter, you're better off getting it while it's red or yellow if at all possible.
Once all of the bugs are out of the bug box, you'll see a vegetable in there. Getting the vegetable will net you a good chunk of points.
The skulls kill you if you touch them, but they also kill the bugs... so it may be to your advantage to arrange the turnstiles to lead them into the skulls. Like in Pac-Man though, when you kill a bug, he just gets send back to the bug box, which means you'll have to wait even longer to be able to get the vegetable. If you're going for a high score, this can be annoying.
There's no time limit, so if you're good (or reckless) enough, you can clear out most of the level, and wait until all the bugs come out so you can get the vegetable afterwards. If you're doing this, you'll probably want to rearrange some of the turnstiles so that the bugs have an easier time getting out of the bug box (it'll be awfully hard to get in there if there are 4 bugs swarming around it), and so that they have a hard time getting to you (or at least so that you'll have time to react when they figure it out).
If you're on the run from a bug, make sure to flip a good amount of turnstiles. The bugs can't flip them, so you can often get away pretty easily (just be careful you don't end up running straight into another bug). However, if a bug is REALLY close to you, they can sneak through the turnstile before it closes (this only happens when your sprites are overlapping a significant amount).
--Zero

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

This was one of those maze games that was so obviously inspired by Pac-Man, and yet made enough changes to the basic game play that it wasn't a slavish imitation. What's funny is that Ladybug itself was imitated later - I think the game was called Changes or something like that. More elaborate graphics, but mazes with doors and closing passageways, full of bugs.

The ColecoVision version rocked, too.

I'm a big fan of Universal's games - Ladybug, the Mr. Do series, you name it. Their bizarre way of bestowing extra lives demanded some serious skillz, not just attaining a certain score level, and it was frequently damned hard.

Good pick, guys.

[TripppsK]

If you spell SPECIAL, you get to go to the "Vegetable Harvest" bonus stage. Basically, it's an empty stage where vegetables keep appearing, and you try to collect as many as possible. SPECIAL will get you a LOT of points, so try to get the E's and A's when they're red rather than yellow (Of course, if you already have a red A, then there's no point in getting another one). --Zero

Ze_ro, I think you have the arcade version mixed up with the console versions. Getting the SPECIAL in the arcade got you an extra game not the Harvest Maze like in the CV version. Thats the only complaint I have with it in MAME. You dont have that incentive to get the free game.

[Raccoon Lad]

Lady Bug RULES! 'Don't know why you see a wedding when you get the extra life, though.

Don't forget, there's a dinosaur in this games graphics (f4 in mame) :
http://raccoonlad.topcities.com/video/ladybug.png

[Ze_ro]

Getting the SPECIAL in the arcade got you an extra game not the Harvest Maze like in the CV version.

Really? That sucks! The Harvest Maze was awesome! Every game needs a bonus level!

--Zero

[Ze_ro]

Anyone got any good high scores to compare? I'm up to 47780 at the moment (Boy is that name entry screen cumbersome).

Here's another interesting trick; try to preserve the skulls until all four bugs are out of the bug box, and then get the vegetable. Then let one of the bugs touch a skull and die. When he emerges from the bug box a second time, the vegetable will be back. Preserving the skulls is really more luck than skill though, and it's a lot easier to get multiple vegetables on the higher, faster levels simply because the bugs leave the bug box a lot faster.

Oh, and when you grab the vegetable, the bugs are frozen for a while and a tune plays. You can use this time to escape from any bugs that might have been chasing you on your way to the bug box, or just to clear out a tough area.

--Zero

[QBert]

I will try tonight hopefully for some high scores, havent really played this one lately but DAMN!! It was a favorite when I was a kid thou. I could get to the levels where the bugs change from all being one kind per level, to 1 from the first level, 1 from second level and so on.
10th 11th level around there it begins to do that, crazy fast too.


QBert
Will post high scores tonight.

[IntvGene]

Yes, Ladybug is awesome. It's such a great game, and has some wonderful design, like the doors, the multipliers and the fruit/vegetables. I love it.

My current high is 65910, but I should be able to get much better than that, I haven't even gotten EXTRA once since playing it during the MAME week. BTW, does anyone know if there is a rarity to the letters? Are there some that are more rare than others... theoretically, you could be able to score EXTRA on the second level, but I've never done it.

EDIT: I got an EXTRA finally, and now my best is 106660. It would take a miracle for me to reach 200k, that's for sure.

[TripppsK]

My best is 172,550. I keep choking everytime I get close though. I want that 200,000 so bad, looks like I'm gonna have to put some serious time on it tonight.

[slip81]

I was never really a big fan of pac man, but after playing ladybug for a little while I was starting to get into it. The roatating walls make it more interesting i think. I haven't gotten far yet, only to level 2 so far, but now that I have this game I'm sure i will invest more and more time into playing it. So far a fun game:)

[QBert]

:angry: My monitor died.
dead
funeral is this weekend. :(

I havent really checked it out much but there is power, just no display.
Problem is, its my only monitor and its in my mame cab.
So I didnt get anywhere near my high scores....actually never got off 2nd level playing with a portable little arcade stick I made and while using tv out.
The arcade stick doesnt work like I wanted....too small.
So it sucks...gotta get new monitor and use the cabinet again!

ANyways, yep Ladybug rocks!

Whats your highest level? I recall being around 11 or so.


QBert

[Arqueologia_Digital]

:
ANyways, yep Ladybug rocks!

Whats your highest level? I recall being around 11 or so.


QBert
Level 10 for me... :o