MAME Club Game of the Week: Portman

[digitalpress]

This week's game was chosen by NE146. The next person on the MAME Club list will get to choose their game the coming week and must PM me with the chosen title by Monday night at the very latest.



When writing your review, post it right here in the sticky topic and include any thoughts you have about the game. It would also be nice to let us know other aspects of the emulation. Here are some things that would be good to know:

Did you like/dislike the game? Why?
What type of machine are you running it on? Specs?
What version of Mame?
How long did it take you to beat it? Score?

Again, YOU are the reviewer. Let us know anything and everything you think about the game!


This week's game can be downloaded here:

http://www.videogamearchive.com/emu/mame_sleepers.htm

Club Members

Gamereviewgod
Wisesalesman
scooterb23
ddockery
AlanD
digitalpress
IntvGene
*NE146
jonjandran
Flack
IGotTheDot
zektor (me!)
buttasuperb
chadtower
Sotenga
Stark
ECWSandmanECW
christianscott27
TripppsK
vespertillio
ghsqb
TheSmirk
anotherfluke
BHvrd
ManekiNeko
MarioAllStar2600
Ze_ro
slip81
Qbert

* this week's entry was chosen by this member, the next to choose is the one below!

[Ze_ro]

Heheh, as soon as I saw the topic name, I knew this was an NE146 selection

--Zero

[zektor]

I like this game! Thanks Joe for setting it up this week for me since I have been plagued with so many computer problems this New Year. Anyone want to buy me a new PC BTW?

Welp, back to drinking...I'll be writing my review tomorrow when I can see better.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

[NE146]

Heheh, as soon as I saw the topic name, I knew this was an NE146 selection

--Zero

yeah sorry dude. I would've been a little more creative but I'm still on vacation! I leave tomorrow back to Seattle (finally) but it was kind of hard choosing since I've rarely been on the pc since the 19th. Port Man will do in a pinch however.

I didn't discover this in Mame. It was a cocktail table of Port Man that I remember playing... at the local movie theater. And after all these years, I still dig this game. Two stages of simple, reflex based fun. I think it would've made a great vfd handheld, or even a 2600 game. A nice simple GAME that's not too hard to download

[Sotenga]

Oh, dear. It seems that even the latest version of MAME does not support Port Man. Seriously, I can't find it ANYWHERE. It's in my ROMS folder, but it's not showing up in the actual database... I'm using MAME32 ver. 0.78, BTW.

[Ze_ro]

I've tried to play this game before, but I always found it completely baffling, and I could never figure out what I was doing. Well, I finally put in the effort to understand it, so here's a quick rundown so that people won't be as intimidated with this game as I was.

There are two screens to this game. The first deals with you trying to load a boat with cargo. The cargo rolls by on a conveyor belt at the top, and pieces will occaisionally fall off. When they do, your job is to grab them (press the button just as the package is hitting you... it took me a while to figure this part out), and then toss them up onto the ship (by pressing the button again). The dotted outlines are where the packages are supposed to go. Due to the fact that the boat moves back and forth, you really have to "lead" your throws to get them on the boat properly. If your packages hit the wooden dividers, they are knocked into the water. If you miss your catch when the package falls, it will bounce off the bottom of the screen, so you have another chance to grab it if you're quick. Also, despite the fact that four outlines are shows, feel free to toss a triple package into a spot where only one empty space is left... the excess packages will fall into the water (of course, this means you may have wasted them if there was a better spot for them).

To make things difficult, there is a bearded guy on the boat throwing rocks at you. If you fill up a column with the same colored packages, he will be very surprised, and fall off the boat... but he'll eventually climb back on. There are also two cars (?) that will begin to drive back and forth over the platforms that you stand on. Not only will these run you over (thus killing you), but they'll also get in the way of your cargo tossing. If you hit them with a package, the package will be knocked away, and the car will be stunned for a short time.

[Edit: I should probably mention that while you're carrying cargo, you move slower (and the more you carry, the slower you go). This can make you an easy target for bearded man's boulders, especially in the later levels when things start heating up]

If you fill the boat with cargo, a woman will show up to kick the bearded guy in the nuts. This is possibly one of the greatest moments in 80's video games.

The second screen is entirely different. There are three conveyor belts carrying dynamite (the boxes with X's are the dynamite, the blue things that actually say "DYNAMITE" are just a sign to tell you what's going on, at least as far as I can tell). The idea here is to toss rocks at the dynamite so that you can knock it off the conveyor belts and grab it (thus foiling the bearded man's plans to rule the seven sea). Again, you have to grab the dynamite the same way you previously grabbed packages. If you fail to grab it, the dynamite will explode on the ground, causing some of it to disappear! The bottom most layer of grass will be destroyed if this happens, and if you're on it, then you are killed as well, so make sure you keep at least one layer of ground from the bottom. The dynamite from the top row is worth more points than the other two rows (100, 200, and 300 points from bottom to top).

Bearded man shows up again in this level to toss boulders at you again, but you can knock him off the conveyor belt with a well placed rock. Another bearded guy shows up to kick random pieces of dynamite off the conveyor belts. You'll have to catch these too, or they'll blow away some of the ground just like the ones you knock off. Unfortunately, the dynamite he kicks off is only worth 50 points each. Also, if your thrown rocks don't hit anything on the way up, they'll ricochet off the ceiling at a funny angle, and will hit things on their way down... possibly even you!

If you beat this level, everything repeats over again, with things falling slightly faster this time.

My highest score so far is 25230. Very fun little game, although the difficulty doesn't ramp up very fast, and the two screens don't change at all, so the game can get a little old after a while. I'd give it an 8.5/10.

--Zero

[Ze_ro]

*bump*

Where's the rest of the Mame Club? Still recovering after holidays or what? Try this game, dammit! It's fun!

--Zero

[Sotenga]

*bump*

Where's the rest of the Mame Club? Still recovering after holidays or what? Try this game, dammit! It's fun!

--Zero

I would love to play this, but like I said above, I'm not able to play it! Yes, I downloaded it from the link provided, and the problem isn't that the game crashes, but that it's not on my MAME32 main screen list! Help, please!

[NE146]

*bump*

Where's the rest of the Mame Club? Still recovering after holidays or what? Try this game, dammit! It's fun!

--Zero

I would love to play this, but like I said above, I'm not able to play it! Yes, I downloaded it from the link provided, and the problem isn't that the game crashes, but that it's not on my MAME32 main screen list! Help, please!

Zero.. that was the best write up of an old game that I've ever read. :P Awesome

Sotenga... did you hit F5 to refresh? If it doesn't show up you could always just click on "All games" which shows all games whether you have it or not. It'll be there. Or heck.. maybe it's listed mistakenly as a CLONE somewhere?

[scooterb23]

Yoops...missed the last couple of games actually, stupid holidays ...I've played Port Man before, but never really got into it...I will give it another go tomorrow.

[Ze_ro]

Zero.. that was the best write up of an old game that I've ever read. :P Awesome

Thanks

--Zero

[Sotenga]

Sotenga... did you hit F5 to refresh? If it doesn't show up you could always just click on "All games" which shows all games whether you have it or not. It'll be there. Or heck.. maybe it's listed mistakenly as a CLONE somewhere?

I'm willing to submit to that theory about it being a clone of another game, because I can't find "Port Man" anywhere in the P's! Speaking of P's, I'm getting just a bit PO'd! Why can't I find this game, conflabbit?!

WAIT!!! I found it in my list! It's apparently a clone of "Dock Man." I guess it depends on what country you're in... anyway, I've played it, and it's a pretty innovative game. It must have been one of the first games of its time to have psuedo 3-D effects. That friggin' rock guy gets on my nerves... ah, I couldn't imagine the game without him. He's there to add to the challenge. It can get infuriating when you keep missing with the packages. This game's all about timing. I like it!

Though, shouldn't we have a downloadable version of "Dock Man" now?

[ECWSandmanECW]

I suck at this game. I get up the ladders but I end up dying.

[Ze_ro]

I suck at this game. I get up the ladders but I end up dying.

You're better off staying on the bottom two levels anyways... it makes it easier to catch packages (especially since you get a second chance when they bounce), and you get more time to avoid the rocks that are dropped at you. In fact, the only reason to use the two upper levels is to avoid the cars, or to better time your tosses.

--Zero

[TripppsK]

This was one of my 1st new finds when I started playing MAME. I play it quite often and at parties its a great game for guys and girls to both get into.

[slip81]

Man do I suck at this game. If how well I'm able to play Portman was the deciding factor in whether I lived or died, I would not be able to write this post right now. But alas the game is like a train wreck, I know I'm terrible at it, but I can't stop playing. So far I have not been able to complete the first level, but it is really fun. Anyway, enough writin', Portman's awaitin'!




on a totally unrealated side note, I'm very proud of the fact that I just picked up Double Dragon the movie on VHS for $0.98 on ebay.