The Mame Club! - This Week's Game is Caliber 50!

[zektor]

This week's game was chosen by Sotenga. 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 Friday 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!

A download for this game will be posted shortly!

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
k8track
Hamsnibit
Lady Jaye
Sofa King Gud
jgenotte
Schenley
Kaine23

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

[Sotenga]

I chose this because it's addicting, fun, and is classified under the rare (now extinct) genre of the overhead run-and-gun. This genre started with such forerunners as Commando and Ikari Warriors. This genre would later evolve over time, then crash and burn in the mid-90's. Dang.

Anyway, Caliber 50 is one of those MAME games I find myself playing frequently. It's nothing special amonf the run-and-gun genre, but it's got its own charm... I think I'm attracted to the Dodonpachi-esque flow of bullets. There's a nice energy system that also boosts your weapon power, going from a machine gun, to a heavy vulcan, to the good ol' flamethrower.

The game is pretty short... probably only takes about twenty minutes to beat, give or take. It's difficult to beat on one credit/life, and it grows quite hectic near the end. And I might be the only one who thinks this, but the music rocks. I... can't explain it. It's just something that motivates me to slither through the jungle and take down some helicopters with a grenade/flamethrower combo.

CHALLENGE: Like I said, it's pretty hard to beat on one credit. See if you can do that. I haven't yet.

[kainemaxwell]

I just wanna find some these darn games!

[Ze_ro]

Did someone say download? It's just over 2MB, so hopefully my poor cable modem can handle this.

Incidentally, the Genesis port of this game made it's way into the SomethingAwful Rom Pit, and got a -33 (Out of a possible -50).

--Zero

[zektor]

Thanks Ze_ro! The download is very much appreciated!

[IntvGene]

I liked this game much for the same reasons that Sotenga did. I really like the powerup of the main weapon, taking it all the way to the flamethrower. I like games where there is some incentive to pick up stuff, other than just for points. The graphics are pretty well done, and I had no complaints. I also miss this "Ikari" genre of games, it's pretty much dead now though...

It sure is one short ride though.. I couldn't believe it when I got into that helicopter and it was over. Not many arcades games this short. Another sad point was the game not letting me "cull" the chickens, and stem the tide of the avian flu... I can slaughter cows, but not chickens? What sort of warped world is this? Nevermind the mutant monkeys...

But, what killed my experience in MAME was the controls. I have no joystick, and just never got used to the dial for aiming my shots, so I pretty much "spiralled" my way through the game instead. It would be great in the arcade... just not so great with Logitech.

[Ze_ro]

Yeah, the controls are definitely quite frustrating in MAME... I tried setting the shoulder buttons on my gamepad for aiming, but it just doesn't work that well.

Hmm... I wonder if you can set the mouse to act as a spinner in order to get nice analog control over that... I'll have to try this out later on.

Make sure you get into the plane in the first level... it makes fighting that tank much easier.

--Zero

[kainemaxwell]

Ok, I play the Genesis version then for this week?

[ddockery]

This seems like it would lend itself to dual analog sticks well, but I don't have a controller for my PC with them. Has anyone tried that?

[Ze_ro]

It would work well with dual sticks... but I don't think MAME can emulate a spinner using an analog stick (at least, not in the way it would be needed here), so you probably can't do this in MAME.

I tried using the mouse as a spinner, and it seemed to work decently well... not as good as the actual arcade game would have been of course, but much better than trying to use Z and X, or my gamepad's shoulder buttons or whatever.

I got up to the three monkey's, but I have to quit shortly after that, so I haven't seen the whole game yet. The game is quite hard, but I think that's mostly due to MAME's control scheme rather than the game itself.

--Zero

[Hamsnibit]

Well I just played it and it is a good old school ikari type game. I also used a dual analog playstation controller I have hooked up to my pc. It works really well with the left stick to move, the right stick for dial, and R1 and L1 for the attack buttons. I should also suggest whether you are using the stick or button for the dial to go under the "analog" setting in the mame menu and turn down the dial speed. It helps a hell of a lot.

[slip81]

Hi all, sorry I have posted here in a while but college and work has kept me busy, but I am glad to hop back onto the thread with a cool game like this. Having been born in 81 in a small town I missed the whole arcade experience so I've never heard of this game until now, but after playing for a little while, I'm finding like most people it is quite addictive, and hard, only made it to the end of the second level so far, and I can't see how anyone could beat it on one credit. I'm into fast pased shooters like this, so I will definately try to master this one. the only thing I don't like it the control, probably because the only place I've been able to play it so far is here at school, where all I have it the keyboard, sometime when I get the chanse I'll have to give the game a run at home with my controller. Great game pick though Sotenga

[scooterb23]

I've never really been into this kind of game. I need to play with the controls a little bit to see if I can find a method I like. I'm not smart enough to play this game!!!

[TheSmirk]

Thanks for the download ze_ro! I love Commando type games, so I'll have to give this a go when I get home