MAME Tournament Discussion Thread

[InsaneDavid]

What I mean is that my score won't show at all. For example, say if I headbutt the teacher, it's 800 points. But it won't show up anywhere on the screen. And after I get a game over, my score doesn't show up at all.

Possibly your video card is projecting the screen too high up or too long to fit in the viewable area? The scores are at the VERY top of the screen. Do you see a high score at the top in the middle? Should look like this...


(from klov.com - now if they'd finally post my damn SCUD Race marquee picture)

If you don't see "1P [YOUR SCORE] HI [75800 IS DEFAULT]" at the top then you need to change the screen size, most easily by using the manual controls on the front of your monitor. Scale the vertical size down a bit and the missing score line should come into view.

If you are just getting started with MAME this can sometimes be a problem with vertical games until you get some of their resolutions centered to where your display shows them properly.

[DragonMaster Sam]

Ok, I upgraded to Mame32 version 0.96 (or whatever the new one is). Same situation occured, BUT, when I took a screenshot, the score showed up at the top of the picture. Problem solved.

[InsaneDavid]

Ok, I upgraded to Mame32 version 0.96 (or whatever the new one is). Same situation occured, BUT, when I took a screenshot, the score showed up at the top of the picture. Problem solved.

Yeah, it has nothing to do with your MAME version. Try scaling down the vertical size of your display AFTER Mikie loads (and the resolution changes) and the score should come into view. It will not effect your windows desktop, other screens, etc. You might want to play around with the screen position as well (let the attract screens run so you'll know where the top, bottom, and sides end) to get it so it's flush with the top and bottom and the black space is equal on both sides of the game. Another good check to see if this is set right is that when the rom is loading it will display a grid of white lines for a moment, the border around the grid should be viewable, I bet the top line of the border isn't - adjust it.

Mikie uses a resolution of 256 x 224, basically once you let it load and adjust the screen size to fit into your display, any other MAME rom that uses 256 x 224 will snap into the same viewable area - make snese? When you do a screen snap MAME takes a snap of the entire GAME screen, hanging over your viewable area or not - that's why your high scores show up in your screen snaps.

[DragonMaster Sam]

I tried a little something different. In the options, I had the game run in a window, and everything, including the score, appeared on the same screen.. So everything seems to be going right.. Thanks for all the help.

[Queen Of The Felines]

It's a good thing Q*Bert's included because so far I completely suck at Mikie. :/

Kristine

[SoulBlazer]

Anyone have suggestions on what to use for controls for Q*Bert?

I've tried rotating my gamepad to a diagnonal angle so that I can push the right buttons, but I still get confused and hit the wrong one in the heat of the moment.

This game sucks without a proper joystick.....

I'm thinking of just mapping it to my keyboard and playing it that way.

[Jibbajaba]

Anyone have suggestions on what to use for controls for Q*Bert?

I've tried rotating my gamepad to a diagnonal angle so that I can push the right buttons, but I still get confused and hit the wrong one in the heat of the moment.

This game sucks without a proper joystick.....

I'm thinking of just mapping it to my keyboard and playing it that way.

You just have to get used to it. It's the sameas the VCS version of the game. Once you get used to it, it will come naturally.

Chris

[Flack]

Anyone have suggestions on what to use for controls for Q*Bert?

I've tried rotating my gamepad to a diagnonal angle so that I can push the right buttons, but I still get confused and hit the wrong one in the heat of the moment.

This game sucks without a proper joystick.....

I'm thinking of just mapping it to my keyboard and playing it that way.

I've just been using the arrow keys. It does take a little getting used to, especially when you have a Q*Bert cabinet that you play on a lot ...

My Q*bert scores are in the upper 30's but I'd like to break 40k before sending one in ...

[Queen Of The Felines]

I have my Q*Bert controls mapped to the number pad on the keyboard. 7, 9, 1, and 3 work beautifully.

Kristine

[Lady Jaye]

For Q*bert, I might use my secret weapon: my Belkin Nostromo Speedpad N52 keypad controller...

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...uct_Id=157024#

[Needle]

Wow, Mikie has to be one of the most unenjoyable games I've ever played. It took me numerous tries just to get to the second room, and from there it was just a massacre. I may be submitting a low score just so I don't have to play it anymore. yuck!

Q*Bert, on the other hand, I love to death

[AB Positive]

I'm oddly enjoying mikie, personally.... once i figured out what the hell I was doing

-AG

[ddockery]

For QBert, you ca remap controls to diagonals. For example - Up = J1-Up + J1-Right. This seems to work rather well for me.

[Needle]

Alright, I'm willing to take back my original harsh comments about Mikie. Granted, it's still a bit weird, and the hit detection horizontally is unforgiving (I almost always attack vertically, it's the only way I can maintain any accuracy).

That said, the second room is probably the hardest of them all. The first time I got out of the second room, I managed to get all the way out of the school!

Need more practice...

[Jibbajaba]

I played Mikie this morning, and I have to defend Gapporin's choice. Once I understood what the deal was, I thought it was fun. Good, quirky choice, and a game that I probably never would have played otherwise.

Chris

[Queen Of The Felines]

I agree with his choice as well, because I never, ever would've even thought about playing it otherwise. Ditto with Knights of the Round, now that I think about it.

I know I'm probably not going to win this thing, but I'm having fun.

Kristine

[Lady Jaye]

Yeah, that's part of the whole appeal of the tournament: to discover new games that we never played before or even heard of before...

[Flack]

That's the appeal of the MAME Club as well. Wait, why aren't all you people in the MAME Club?

[Gapporin]

Wait, why aren't all you people in the MAME Club?

I'm a card-carrying member, m'self. :P

Just for kicks, I've decided to play along each week with the games chosen (but not participating, of course, for obvious reasons).

I'm a sucker for quirky Japanese games, and Mikie seems to fit the bill. I mentioned the Beatles reference because if you listen closely, you can hear "A Hard Day's Night" in the classroom, and then once you get to the gym, "Twist And Shout" plays. Because of the music and the apparel of the students, it really gives the game a good 1960's feel.

I've haven't been able to get past the second room now, but when I first played it, I remember getting out of the school. Even on the easiest difficulty, it's still pretty hard stuff.

There are also two variations of this game: Shinnyuushain Tooru-Kun and Mikie: High School Graffiti. Shinnyuushain, the original Japanese version, has a few cosmetic changes; such as hair color and uniforms. However, if you are looking for a challenge, High School Graffiti is MUCH harder. More hearts to collect, weaker attacks, and faster enemies. Not for the faint of heart.

It's a good thing I'm not participating though, because I suck at Q*Bert. Granted, it was never my favorite arcade game to begin with, but I used to have the Game Boy port and I remember getting pretty far in that. However, I've only been able to get to Round 3 so far.

Fans of this game should also try out Faster, Harder, More Challenging Q*Bert (which is...well, faster, harder and more challenging), and Q*Bert's Qubes.

[DragonMaster Sam]

Both of this week's games are pretty fun. Never played Q*Bert before, but I seem to be doing a fine job, as I can get up to level 3. Mikie is fun too. Almost finished the second room (where you're chased by a janitor, teacher, and cook), until the teacher caught up to me as I was heading for the door.