Official 2006 DP MAME League Discussion Thread! It's ON!!!

[Jibbajaba]

Players,

The time you have all been waiting for is here! It's Friday, and that marks the beginning of our first tournament. Please direct your web browser to:

http://mameleague.jibbajaba.com

and click on "current" to see and download the first round's game. You can also download a copy of Mame32 v. 0.95, which is the "official" Mame version of the league. You are of course allowed to use any compatible version, though.

You can also click on "Schedule" to view the start times and score due dates for all rounds of this tournament and the next. The score for our first game will be due on Monday night at 12:00AM EDT. Any scores that are sent in later than that will be ignored.

An e-mail was sent out to everyone on the mailing list with this information. If you aren't on the list, and therefore didn't know that the tournament started, don't get mad at me. I've been bugging you guys to get on the list for days.

When you are ready to submit your score, you can just click the "Submit my score" link below the current week's game ROM link, or you can send an e-mail to mameleague@gmail.com. Be sure to include your DP handle, high score, and screenshot showing your score in the message.

More information as I think of it...

Chris

[jcheatle]

It's been a while since I used the MAME on here... got everything up and running, though... one question, however, how do I take a screenshot? I figured it'd just be easier to ask here. Is there an automatic key to do it, or should I go the old Print Screen route? Thanks.

[Jibbajaba]

All you have to do is hit "F12". It takes a screenshot and stores it in .../mame32/snap. It names it after the game that you are playing, too!

Chris

[s1lence]

Great choice for the first game. Good Luck everyone!!

[dcescott]

On my mac I can snap a screen with a desktop widget, amking a clean jpg. Bigger screenshot though...

[Kitsune Sniper]

Wow. And of all the games you had to choose, you had to pick the one I love to play on my SP. Awesome. Hope I do well. :D

Edit:
I take it back. The arcade version plays NOTHING like the GBA port. :( Dammit.

[InsaneDavid]

Just thought I'd post the rom adding / listing proceedure.

After you have the zipped Time Pilot ROM in the /roms folder, start Mame32. Click "Available" in the leftmost window, this will show only games that you have the ROMs of. Double click "Time Pilot" to play. As subsequent games are added to the competition, you will need to select "File -> Audit all games" to add them to the list.

[Kitsune Sniper]

It's okay if I don't use MAME32, right? I don't use it because the sound is laggy, and I get random pauses sometimes. I use MAME 0.104, and the rom is the same.

[Jibbajaba]

It's okay if I don't use MAME32, right? I don't use it because the sound is laggy, and I get random pauses sometimes. I use MAME 0.104, and the rom is the same.

Yes, that's fine. Though I find that games run fine in Mame32 as long as you don't run it in a window. I guess it has something to do with how system resouces are allocated, but Mame32 runs great in full screen mode, but madly when windowed. YMMV.

And thanks for posting that info, Dave.

Chris

[Kitsune Sniper]

Yes, that's fine. Though I find that games run fine in Mame32 as long as you don't run it in a window. I guess it has something to do with how system resouces are allocated, but Mame32 runs great in full screen mode, but madly when windowed. YMMV.

And thanks for posting that info, Dave.

Chris

Actually, I get half speed while playing in fullscreen. I can't figure out the settings to get proper speed. So I play using standard MAME, eheh. :P

[jcheatle]

Yeah, great game... can't say as I've played it before, so I'll probably get killed. LOL But anyway, thanks for the screenshot tip.

[The_4th_Survivor]

Hi.

Just a couple of questions about running MAME 32 -

1) I'm running the game in a window, at full/normal speed. Is that okay to play the game(s) that way?

2) When I take a screen capture, is it okay for me to just use the "ctrl+print screen" option and take a snapshot of my entire desktop with the MAME program in a window?

Please let me know. Thanks.

[Dr. Morbis]

When you say Monday at 12:00 AM EDT, you mean Monday night, not Sunday night right? I'm just asking because Monday at 12 AM is technically Sunday night/Monday morning, but I assume you mean 12 AM EDT Tuesday morning which is Monday night.

Sorry for being a jackass but I just want to be sure I can submit Monday evening, not Sunday evening.

/hairs split.

[Jibbajaba]

Hi.

Just a couple of questions about running MAME 32 -

1) I'm running the game in a window, at full/normal speed. Is that okay to play the game(s) that way?

2) When I take a screen capture, is it okay for me to just use the "ctrl+print screen" option and take a snapshot of my entire desktop with the MAME program in a window?

Please let me know. Thanks.

Playing the game in a window is fine, but I would prefer that you use the screenshot taking capabilities of MAME. Why would you do the printscreen deal anyway? Its more of a hassle.

Chris

[Jibbajaba]

When you say Monday at 12:00 AM EDT, you mean Monday night, not Sunday night right? I'm just asking because Monday at 12 AM is technically Sunday night/Monday morning, but I assume you mean 12 AM EDT Tuesday morning which is Monday night.

Sorry for being a jackass but I just want to be sure I can submit Monday evening, not Sunday evening.

/hairs split.

No, you aren't being a jackass. You are right. The scores are due at midnight on Monday night, not Sunday night. I will change the due dates to show "11:59 PM". :embarrassed:

Chris

[Jibbajaba]

I want to make sure that we all understand that the scores are due TOMORROW NIGHT. Not tonight. Keep playing.

Also, I believe that someone has dropped out of the league, so there is room for one more if someone wants to sign up and submit a score for Time Pilot by tomorrow.

Chris

[Kitsune Sniper]

Shows what I know, I thought we had until FRIDAY! LOL

I'm actually enjoying this little game, and have gotten pretty good at it. My score doesn't reflect it, but I've found ways to trick the computer and confusing it. Fun! I'm glad I own the GBA port now! 8-)

[dcescott]

I have to submit it tonight, late tonight. Tomorrow I'll be out until close to the deadline. Great game though, I still suck at it though even on mame!

[Kitsune Sniper]

I have to submit it tonight, late tonight. Tomorrow I'll be out until close to the deadline. Great game though, I still suck at it though even on mame!

If you want a port of the game, it's available for the GBA in Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced. It includes Gyruss, Time Pilot, Frogger, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Rush 'N Attack, and Scramble. It's pretty good, and you can likely find it for cheap at some stores.

[dcescott]

yeah I thought about it. I also thought about I enjoy it more on my mame. I have a DS, but the screen is tooo small for games like this. But I have seen it cheap everywhere.

[NE146]

I have to submit it tonight, late tonight. Tomorrow I'll be out until close to the deadline. Great game though, I still suck at it though even on mame!

If you want a port of the game, it's available for the GBA in Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced. It includes Gyruss, Time Pilot, Frogger, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Rush 'N Attack, and Scramble. It's pretty good, and you can likely find it for cheap at some stores.

And don't forget the GBA version has an extra stage. :)

[InsaneDavid]

I sent my score in last night as both today and tomorrow I didn't / don't think I'd have / had the time to put a good effort in - did pleny of that on Friday. :) Then again you know from the last competition that I would usually submit early - and have it come back to bite me on the ass. LOL Well that and I don't think I can do any better.

299k or so. :/

[Kitsune Sniper]

299k or so. :/

... my high score is around 135k.

I hate you.

[InsaneDavid]

299k or so. :/

... my high score is around 135k.

I hate you.

Well I play a LOT of Subspace (used to play a lot more) which is like Asteroids except online with like 50 people on a map at a time. Your ship remains stationary in the center however, so when I play Time Pilot now days it's like a simplified version of Subspace. LOL

[dcescott]

yesss!!!
I didn't have the lowest score!!
xxxxxxxx, (EDIT: taking Chris's advice, discuss after deadline!)
I couldn't do anything in the 2001 round at all. 299k? I hope that's not the average and the next game to be something I am better off with!

[ahamilton0953]

i must be an idiot. i can't get this to work. i moved the zip file into the roms folder, but its not showing the game. any suggestions?

[dcescott]

Check the faq or read me! file in the mame folder. I could be wrong, but the latest macmame creates a folder in my shared documents (funny thing is, I'm not networked go figure), in there is roms, screenshots, cab artwork and so on. All apps have a read me txt file, look around there.

[Jibbajaba]

i must be an idiot. i can't get this to work. i moved the zip file into the roms folder, but its not showing the game. any suggestions?

I assume that you have it set to display all available roms? (Second menu item down on the left). If so and you still don't see it, go to the view menu, and towards the bottom you will see "refresh". Click that. Alternatively you can just hit F5.

If you are using MAME 0.95, then that pretty much has to be the problem.

Chris

[Jibbajaba]

Also, you guys are of course more than welcome to discuss your high scores before the round is over, but you understand that by doing so, you are giving those people who have not yet submitted something to shoot for, right? You might be doing yourself a disservice.

Chris

[n8littlefield]

I'm not discussing my high score because unless something magical happens during my breaks/lunch today, my score is pretty embarassing LOL

Seriously though, this game is pretty tough. It's one of those odd games that I had never really played in the arcades and had never really MAMEd before.

Funny story - the night before the game got announced, I went to play some Gametap and my controller stopped working. I jiggled the wires, and sure enough there was a broken wire somewhere because the controller came and went as you shook the cord. So - I tried a different PS2 controller and found it was my Radioshack PS2/USB adaptor that was messed up. Of course, I panicked because the games started the next day, and I was FLAT BROKE so I couldn't go buy another.

So...the next day I took the adaptor apart, cut the USB plug off the end, shortened the cord from 6 ft to 6inches (figuring that should eliminate whereever the cord was broken) and reconnected them using wire cutters and duct tape. It works!!! So - if I suck, I'm blaming the duct tape.

[InsaneDavid]

i must be an idiot. i can't get this to work. i moved the zip file into the roms folder, but its not showing the game. any suggestions?

As Jibbajaba said, you need to refresh your listing. Select "Audit all games" and it will check the MAME source against the romsets it finds in the /roms folder, adding them to the list.


Also, you guys are of course more than welcome to discuss your high scores before the round is over, but you understand that by doing so, you are giving those people who have not yet submitted something to shoot for, right? You might be doing yourself a disservice.

LOL I always do screw myself over, oh well. HAVE AT YOU! :)


Funny story - the night before the game got announced, I went to play some Gametap and my controller stopped working. I jiggled the wires, and sure enough there was a broken wire somewhere because the controller came and went as you shook the cord. So - I tried a different PS2 controller and found it was my Radioshack PS2/USB adaptor that was messed up. Of course, I panicked because the games started the next day, and I was FLAT BROKE so I couldn't go buy another.

So...the next day I took the adaptor apart, cut the USB plug off the end, shortened the cord from 6 ft to 6inches (figuring that should eliminate whereever the cord was broken) and reconnected them using wire cutters and duct tape. It works!!! So - if I suck, I'm blaming the duct tape.

I always get worried about crap like that since I haven't been able to find the same type of converter I use now to have as a backup. (I could also sell a bunch of them at 2x the price)

[scooterb23]

Score sent, personal best beaten 5 times over...still about 1/3 of InsaneDavid's score.

[n8littlefield]

I've got an OK score. I'm hoping to put in a few more rounds before submitting tonight. I'm actualy happier with my score than I expected, although I don't have top 3 expectations!!

[The_4th_Survivor]

299k or so. :/

I must applaud you on your score. Time Pilot is one of the more interestingly difficult games imo.



:hail:

[dcescott]

Yeah David, that is insane.

[Pantechnicon]

I'll be submitting a score tonight, for what it's worth :shameful:.

In the meanwhile I've compiled a standard MAME League Excuse Sheet which I intend to rely on frequently for as long as I last. Others may feel free to copy, use and edit this as they feel the need to for personal use.

TIME PILOT:
[ ] I had never played this one before.
[ X ] The control panel layout on my MAME cab does not allow for satisfactory gameplay with this particular game.
[ ] Unable to understand the objective of the game.
[ ] Software problem
[ ] Hardware problem
[ X ] I didn’t have a lot of free time for MAME this week.
[ ] Wife was hogging the cab.
[ ] Kids were sitting in my lap.
[ ] Thinking too hard about the game. Unable to embrace the tao of it.
[ X ] I was never very good at it even back in the day.
[ ] Ran out of quarters.
[ ] Too drunk to play satisfactorily.
[ ] Deus ex Machina.
[ X ] Ergonomic problem (eye strain, stiff legs, wrists, etc).
[ ] Other (please elaborate) – “ “

[InsaneDavid]

Woah, woah, my score is nothing. At least I don't think it's all that impressive, I've learned my lesson concerning that from the 17th Annual DP MAME Tournament. I await a serious score bashing from Dr. Morbis and the other high ranking players from last year. LOL I caught a lucky draw in the last two rounds and JUST edged out my matchups to pick up 3rd last year. Yeah I had decent scores but compared to the massive totals being thrown on the other side of the bracket I was trailing far, far behind.

[NE146]

I think it's a great idea the scores are normalized this time around.. it got stupid on shows like Starcade where someone they would rely on the absolute score. (So if something scored 10,000 pts in one game.. you'd have a hard time catching up on another game that scored low).

[DragonMaster Sam]

Knowing my bad luck, I'll probably have the lowest score.. Although I don't hope so.

[Mr.FoodMonster]

I bet I could've gotten a better score if I kept on playing, but I'm happy enough with the score I got to submit it. I'm looking forword to seeing what everyone else got!

[dcescott]

Soooo 11:59pmEST will the scores be posted?

[Jibbajaba]

Soooo 11:59pmEST will the scores be posted?

Nope, but pretty soon.

Chris

[Jibbajaba]

Top 16 players move on to round two. The rest of you I hope to see in the next tournament in a couple of weeks.

http://mameleague.jibbajaba.com/current

The scoresheet is under the screenshots for Time Pilot.

Chris

[s1lence]

I knew Ne146's score was going to be good but thats insane. @_@

[Oobgarm]

:embarrassed: :embarrassed: :embarrassed:

[n8littlefield]

I made it - just barely, but I made it. Hopefully I can do better on the next one - but I have a feeling my skills are lacking for this competition!

[Kitsune Sniper]

...

I have no place in this tournament :(

[dcescott]

I am so happy I made it to the next round. That game was tough for me! What time will the next game be ready for download?

[Pantechnicon]

Whew. Never thought I'd be grateful for 12th place. Bring on the next ROM.

[Jibbajaba]

Oobgarm what the hell happened to you? I was pretty surprised that you didn't submit a score.

Kitsune, you made the cut. You are doing well. NE146 is just a wrecking machine. Like Mickey said.

The next game will probably be posted around 6-6:30 this evening pacific time.

I am also going to change the deadline times for all future games. I am going to make the deadline midnight my time (Pacific). Of course that will be 3AM EDT, but this way everyone has until midnight on the due date.

And just a word of advice, higher scores can be acheived with perseverance. Don't expect to sit down for 30 minutes and get a score like NE146 did. I don't want some of you to just throw your hands up and say "well, I am just not good at this". Being good at games takes practice, so don't be discouraged if you get knocked out of a couple of tournaments. You'll get better.

Hope everyone is having fun,

Chris

[Kitsune Sniper]

Kitsune, you made the cut. You are doing well. NE146 is just a wrecking machine. Like Mickey said.

Let him try to beat me at SNK fighting games! LOL

I'm actually sad, there's little chance of any of those games being used on a tourney. And those are my best games. :P

[dcescott]

Thanks Chris,
Oh I spent a good part of my Friday night learning the game. I also spent some of my Saturday, but then priorities kicked in. Something about digging holes in a flower bed.
Why so late on the rom?

[dcescott]

SNK fighting games, oh yeah, I'm all over that too. Last month I got my mvs 2 slot cab...

[Mr.FoodMonster]

Well, a fighting game would be very intresting, and I suppose it could technically be done, because there are points issued. Of course, to be good, you'd have to pull off rediculous combos and the such.

And 5th place isn't so bad, got me into the next round. I'm just worried about the way the points are done. If someone else (lets say NE, for example) blows us out of the water one more time, I'm pretty sure nobody could come back. Hopefully the next games are a lot closer.

[NE146]

Yep.. if it comes to Defender, Robotron, or Galaga (etc.) I'd probably kill. :D But for SNK fighting games forget it! LOL I do hold my own in Street Fighter 2 though...

Just FYI, as I stated earlier I might even bow out of this tournament for a while. I'm moving across the country at the end of this month. So I'm going to be dropping off the net for a couple weeks here real soon...

[dcescott]

The point system is great. It's not a curve but a % from the top score down. Since there is 16 players left and 8 advance, the numbers will increase you rank if you make it to the next round. Good thing it's not the BCS rating system!
As far as the top 3 player, good gravy, I will play my best and hope for a game I rock on.

[ahamilton0953]

still didn't get it working. might look for another emu for it. for some reason its just not working. i did try the audit thing and it wont recognize my game ( i used your links specifically for downloading j. so i don't know whats up). so I'm already behind since I couldn't submit a score..... its a conspiracy! I know it is! hehe.

[Jibbajaba]

still didn't get it working. might look for another emu for it. for some reason its just not working. i did try the audit thing and it wont recognize my game ( i used your links specifically for downloading j. so i don't know whats up). so I'm already behind since I couldn't submit a score..... its a conspiracy! I know it is! hehe.

I wish you had been more vocal about your troubles instead of just not submitting a score.

You Unzipped MAME right? Then you put the ROM into the /MAME32/ROMs folder without unzipping it? If you did that then I don't see what the problem could be.

Chris

[Kitsune Sniper]

Yep.. if it comes to Defender, Robotron, or Galaga (etc.) I'd probably kill. :D But for SNK fighting games forget it! LOL I do hold my own in Street Fighter 2 though...

Just FYI, as I stated earlier I might even bow out of this tournament for a while. I'm moving across the country at the end of this month. So I'm going to be dropping off the net for a couple weeks here real soon...

Heh, yeah, I was never too good at shooters myself (though I find Time Pilot to be an excellent game) but fighters are easy for me. I've been playing them for thirteen years now!

Anyway, I hope your moving away doesn't interfere in the tourney that much. Good luck on that.

[InsaneDavid]

Damn, 3 through 5 were pretty close, reminds me of last year. LOL I could get to just under 300k a couple times which is super frustrating since 310k = another extra life. Ze_ro probably thought the same since 360k = an extra life.


...

I have no place in this tournament :(

What do you mean? 6 through 16 were all really close. :)

600k+, that's freaking impressive NE146!


still didn't get it working. might look for another emu for it. for some reason its just not working. i did try the audit thing and it wont recognize my game ( i used your links specifically for downloading j. so i don't know whats up).

Describe what's happening more than "it's not working." Is MAME32 even loading? Do you see anything in the left column, center column, right column? Make sure the Time Pilot ROM is in the /roms directory, still zipped. Then start MAME32, make sure "Available" is selected from the left column. Audit all games. Time Pilot should show up in the center column. Did you screw around with the directory configuration in the options? If so you could have MAME pointing to a directory for ROMs other than /roms. Go into the directory options, select ROMs, and manually browse to the /roms directory. This should reset that if you happened to change it before or moved the MAME distribution around after running it once. (if you leave everything as is, no one should have to do this... I had to manually set my hiscore directory but that's because I have / I've had many different installs of MAME on my machine)

[Jibbajaba]

Why so late on the rom?

Because I have a job. And although it's easy to pop on DP and post every now and then, it's kinda hard to edit the league web page from here.

Patience, padawan.

Chris

[jcheatle]

Woo hoo. I was kind of worried that my score wasn't that great, but like somebody said, 6 (me) through 16 were all pretty bunched together. My second highest game was only about 117K, but then again, I quit after the 156.

I'm a little discouraged by the discrepancy between 5 and 6, but I still think I was hitting my stride when I ran into far more important life matters... more important than MAME? I know, I know...

Still, best of luck to everybody who moved on, it appears most of us will need it.

[NE146]

By the way, if anyone wants my .inp file it's here:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/userid947/timeplt_NE1.zip

And here's the version of Mame32 I used (self extracting .exe)
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/userid947/mame.rar

I know it's not mandatory.. but if it aint a hassle for some of you, I'd like to encourage you guys to record input files. There are some of us who do enjoy watching other peoples games. :) I'd have loved to seen Ze_ro's game for example.

Anyway, it's just something fun. Nothing big.. just a nice little extra if you guys want to do it. If not, or you just can't (I know ze_ro won't because he likes to play games quickly in succession) no biggie! Like I said, it's just extra. I personally will always do it though. :)

[dcescott]

A job?
Oh yeah, job...
I thought you guys just sat around and yapped on here all day. Thats what it seems like. ;)
I work as a graphic designer, I have dead moments throughout the day, sometimes it's crunchtime, other times I'm twiddling my thumbs waiting for customers to make up their minds.
While I sit in my dungeon I check my ebay crap, DP threads and neo geo stuff.

[ahamilton0953]

still didn't get it working. might look for another emu for it. for some reason its just not working. i did try the audit thing and it wont recognize my game ( i used your links specifically for downloading j. so i don't know whats up). so I'm already behind since I couldn't submit a score..... its a conspiracy! I know it is! hehe.

I wish you had been more vocal about your troubles instead of just not submitting a score.

You Unzipped MAME right? Then you put the ROM into the /MAME32/ROMs folder without unzipping it? If you did that then I don't see what the problem could be.

Chris

well, i originally planned to spend some time yesterday afternoon when I was home working on the game, ( had off from the day job ) and then I had problems. I had to work my part time job last night , and I was so dog tired, I didn't try to get something going b4 I went to bed. but, such is life!

[Jibbajaba]

still didn't get it working. might look for another emu for it. for some reason its just not working. i did try the audit thing and it wont recognize my game ( i used your links specifically for downloading j. so i don't know whats up). so I'm already behind since I couldn't submit a score..... its a conspiracy! I know it is! hehe.

I wish you had been more vocal about your troubles instead of just not submitting a score.

You Unzipped MAME right? Then you put the ROM into the /MAME32/ROMs folder without unzipping it? If you did that then I don't see what the problem could be.

Chris

well, i originally planned to spend some time yesterday afternoon when I was home working on the game, ( had off from the day job ) and then I had problems. I had to work my part time job last night , and I was so dog tired, I didn't try to get something going b4 I went to bed. but, such is life!

In the future, if something like this happens, you can AIM me, or you can just wander into #vbender on efnet. they/we would be able to help you.

Also, INP files. An INP file is like a movie of your game that MAME can record for you. They can get pretty big but compress down really, REALLY small. Like NE146 says, they are not mandatory, but they are a lot of fun, and if you record one and submit it, I'll post it on the League web site. If you did well, then people will want to see. If you did crappy, people can watch it and give you some gameplay pointers. Think of it as a way to improve your game.

So NE, I'll d/l yours later and post it up.

Chris

[s1lence]

The point system is great. It's not a curve but a % from the top score down. Since there is 16 players left and 8 advance, the numbers will increase you rank if you make it to the next round. Good thing it's not the BCS rating system!
As far as the top 3 player, good gravy, I will play my best and hope for a game I rock on.

Not to sound stupid, but does that mean that I'm out then?

[dcescott]

yeah yer #20 out of 32, you are out.
I didn't know about the single elimination, or maybe that's I didn't read everything like I promised jibba. I thought everyone was in for the whole thing.

Kinda like sports when you get to play the spoiler and screw a top seed out of contention.
Baseball playoffs before the wild card series was like that. The Dodgers one year got knocked out by the Giants who were nowhere near in contention. That's just an example.
Someone could take out insane David one game that score lower previously for anouther example. Not that I'm saying that will take place (highly doubt it)

[DragonMaster Sam]

Well, I tried my best, but didn't make it. 19th place, which is sorta better than I thought. I'll be waiting for the next tournament..

By the way Jibba, can the people eliminated from this tourney go ahead and download the games just for the hell of it to see what they're like?

[Jibbajaba]

Yes, the tourney is single elimination. If someone can explain to me how to make it not be single elimination and still be short (like a few weeks) then I am all ears. We can try different formats for different tournaments.


By the way Jibba, can the people eliminated from this tourney go ahead and download the games just for the hell of it to see what they're like?

Yes of course. I would encourage you guys to keep playing along even if you are out of it. It will be more practice for the next tournament.

I will even still post your INP files if you get a really good score. I want to do whatever I can to keep it interesting for the players who have to sit out for a few weeks. I was even thinking that if you guys want to keep playing the games even though you are out of the tournament, I will add the scores to your cummulative total so that you can still play the spoiler on the rankings sheet. And the rankings ARE siginificant because it will determine who is eligible for invitational tournaments.

What do you guys think about that? Anyone would be able to do this though, not just those of you who who are playing in this tournament. So people who didn't make it for the sign-ups would be able to start playing along. I'd like to hear some opinions on this before I go ahead and make it the Word though.

Chris

[NE146]

I say sure! It's all about playing some games and having some friendly competition. :) I say if people want to play.. then let them play and post their scores. They just won't be in the running for the meseta if anything (not like that's all that big a deal anyway :P)

(and by the way.. as I said, I will most likely drop out of this current tournament depending on circumstances, so there might very well be an extra eligible spot for winnings!) ;)

Keep it simple, keep it fun.

[dcescott]

Tournaments are tournaments.
You could lengthen the margin maybe. Although the single elimination is cool and tough if you can get past say the 3rd round.
I can see it getting complicated too. I followed a lot of baseball when I was younger, stats and all. You could do a divisional thing, keeping the newbies in one side and veterans on the other. Sometimes the spoiler does make the front page and screws the frontrunner. Nothing wrong with that!

Or drawing pools like world cup soccer or that baseball classic they just had. It can get out of hand.

[The_4th_Survivor]

Wow. Those are some awesome scores, especially for the three above me. :embarrassed:

But I think it's fitting, don't you?

The_4th_Survivor snagging 4th place, with 40 points. LOL


Man.... I have to give you an update to kudos (WTF are kudos anyway? I remember them to be granola snacks); The White Chocolate Chip Brownie, NE146 :P


It took me a few hours of practice to achieve that score of 242,000, let alone get to about the 7th stage. All in fun though.

[Ze_ro]

And just a word of advice, higher scores can be acheived with perseverance. Don't expect to sit down for 30 minutes and get a score like NE146 did. I don't want some of you to just throw your hands up and say "well, I am just not good at this". Being good at games takes practice, so don't be discouraged if you get knocked out of a couple of tournaments. You'll get better.
Hell, I must have played about 50 games before I got over 200k... My advice is to sit down, play 5 or 10 games in succession, and I'm sure you'll see an increase in your score. Call it a day, and then do the same thing again tomorrow. By the end of the round, you'll probably have a score 5 times higher than anything you were getting before this whole thing started.


Well, a fighting game would be very intresting, and I suppose it could technically be done, because there are points issued. Of course, to be good, you'd have to pull off rediculous combos and the such.
Fighting games (at least, modern ones) would be a little tricky for something like this... Scores are potentially limited because you beat the game too fast, so taking three rounds for each match would get you a better score (or if you're REALLY good, setting up a double knockout for an extra round). Some interesting challenges, but all in all, I think it's poorly suited to something like this.


Damn, 3 through 5 were pretty close, reminds me of last year. Laughing I could get to just under 300k a couple times which is super frustrating since 310k = another extra life. Ze_ro probably thought the same since 360k = an extra life.
Actually, I was so amazed that I managed such a score that I hadn't even thought of it... but yeah, that is a little disappointing. For a long time, there was a plateau in my game at about 160k until I got good enough that I could get that extra life reliably.


I know it's not mandatory.. but if it aint a hassle for some of you, I'd like to encourage you guys to record input files. There are some of us who do enjoy watching other peoples games. Smile I'd have loved to seen Ze_ro's game for example.
It's a great idea, and I'll have to try to get a few in the future. I still haven't quite figured out how to get proper screenshots out of XMAME, so inp's might be a good alternative.


Yes, the tourney is single elimination. If someone can explain to me how to make it not be single elimination and still be short (like a few weeks) then I am all ears. We can try different formats for different tournaments.
When this thing first started, I didn't know about the eliminations... I figured we'd just all play all the rounds, and then final standings would be based on our overall score for all the games. Anyways, I'm fine with the way things are though, I'm up for the challenge.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Fighting games (at least, modern ones) would be a little tricky for something like this... Scores are potentially limited because you beat the game too fast, so taking three rounds for each match would get you a better score (or if you're REALLY good, setting up a double knockout for an extra round). Some interesting challenges, but all in all, I think it's poorly suited to something like this.

Games like Art of Fighting 3 time you. Your final score is the amount of time it took you to beat the game. Others, like the Real Bout Fatal Fury games, give you different scores and grades depending on what you did during the game.

It's all a matter of choosing which games to use. :)

But if anyone chooses Tattoo Assassins, I'm out. Not even I am that good. :P