Inappropriate

[LN2]

if you view the uploads page, you will see a score submitted by someone named "MAC_CHEATER" for balloon fight which obviously was done with the purpose of calling me a cheater.

This account should be removed, plus if from ip# tracking you can figure out who did this, then their other MARP accounts be removed and they be banned from MARP.

I have a pretty good feeling I know who did this as they have often called me a mac cheater in the past. MARP has long let them do this without even a hand slap. It's time to stop this abuse.

This type of thing shouldn't be tolerated at MARP at all.

BTW, the inp for this game is cross platform compatible so should succesfully playback in mame32-0.77u2(I think) so you can view my gameplay for yourself. I base this on the fact a couple of my previous scores from the past couple of days for this game were confirmed.

I'm sure that doesn't stop this person from calling me a cheater and lacking skill for games.

I have integrity for gaming. I don't cheat.

Tommi(TJT) and I are having FUN with this back and forth competition. That's the essence of what gaming and MARP are all about. I have no clue who in the longer run will have the best score for this game. I am still learning the game and improving. Tommi obviously is as well...which is why we are so quickly beating each other's scores back and forth. The competition is making us both improve our skills and set what likely are becoming pretty decent scores for this game.

Another member here shouldn't be out to destroy that.

We are reaching the later phases now where the game has reached a high difficulty. Phases 25-27 are tough. Phases 28 and 29 I got to play are even tougher. They actually are a tad easier from a setup of the spinning things and board, but the enemies move very quickly now and when you hit them if they land they almost instantly reinflate their balloon and go zooming off again.

I'm guessing Tommi will "win" because beyond this next week I likely won't have time or be available to play games for a while. I will be moving.

[Chad]

yeah it was probably Hisa or maybe not, but who cares... If you really aren't cheating why care about this insignificant message of free speech?

And I'm certainly not going to banish all the recordings from the ip that enterd this, etc, because someone acuses someone else of cheating. Otherwise no one would then come fordward in the future with this kind of potentially good initial information. Sorry Rick you have an enemy, big deal.

Now if the score doesn't playback as advertised then i'll nuke the MAC_CHEATER recording.

[LN2]

yeah it was probably Hisa or maybe not, but who cares... If you really aren't cheating why care about this insignificant message of free speech?

Can we at least delete that submission please? It has no place on the scoreboard.

There isn't free use of submitting whatever you want to the scoreboard or in the description. In forum postings you perhaps have a point about freedom of speech. To do this type of thing by submitting a bogus entry to the scoreboard only to attack another member is nothing but abuse of the scoreboard.

Why does MARP have rules at all?

Here, let's all just abuse the site like this. MARP will become useless very quickly if that happened.

Review rule #1 of MARP. Why have this rule if it's going to be ignored?
Are they insignificant rules that can just be blatantly violated with no consequences?

Let's remove rule #1 since it really has no clout to it and members can violate it all they want.

Actions like this are nothing but a show of disrespect toward others...and doesn't benefit MARP in any manner. For the most part, all just say ignore it and not do anything about it and 1 day it will stop.

Isn't it clear that new levels of abuse of the MARP site and disrespect toward gamers are being done now because this person sees they can do anything and have no consequences from it?

Will we check the site one day and find an upload for every single rom set MARP tracks that isn't submitting scores etc. but to take vengeance on others?

Personally, I could care less what Hisa thinks about me. He doesn't need to keep trying to put me down and drag me through the mud and show disrespect toward me whenever he feels like it. He doesn't need to interfere in good competition trying to spoil the fun of others. He can keep it to himself.

Tommi and I are having fun playing Vs. Balloon Fight and competing. This competition is what MARP is all about and the resulting improved scores and replays showing these improved skills benefits MARP. Why does that piss off Hisa where he feels he needs to do these immature attacks against me? He will continue to do it if there are no consequences.

Oh well. Perhaps one of these days the abuse he does to the site will reach a level where something will get done about it.

[tar]

the inp for this game is cross platform compatible

Most are not.
I made an attempt to playback the phantomas .inp you recorded for instance.
A credit racks up , then a short amount of gameplay, syncronization goes out .
There is a possibility that a macintosh input could cause a non - compatable system to go haywire.
I believe your scores , would like to see the replays . Not able because you choose to use an exotic brand of merchandise that isolates you from the rest of us .

[LN2]

Most are not.

true

I made an attempt to playback the phantomas .inp you recorded for instance.
A credit racks up , then a short amount of gameplay, syncronization goes out .
There is a possibility that a macintosh input could cause a non - compatable system to go haywire.

In thinking about the replay compatiblity issue a bit more, I wonder how many of my replay files would become compatible if they were converted in a similar manner to how Lordgaz converted my pacman inp.

He added the header and a few bytes at the start of the inp. This made it playback fine in pc-mame.

In thinking about that more, it makes sense for other inps that have issues when attempted to playback in pcmame like slight time sync issues. For even games like mspac with pseudo-random selections if those choices are all time based on the amount of time the game is up and running before you pop a credit(which I believe it is for many games), then a slight time sync issue from the lack of the header and a few other bytes at the start of the inp would result in different choices etc.

It struck me as very odd this was an issue even for pacman given it's a patterned game the timing of moves after popping a credit should be fine...but perhaps the timing is all off by 1 frame which would then affect whether a turn I do was timely or sticks a tad on a corner etc. which then perhaps affects where the monsters go...throwing it totally out of sync.

I can read up on exactly how Lordgaz converted my pacman inp and try that with a few other replay files and see what happens.

I have a feeling doing a similar conversion will remedy half if not even more of my replay files.

I think all he did was start a new pacman game recording it...then quit after starting the game....then compared the inp file from pcmame to that from macmame and added the extra stuff from the pcmame inp file to my macmame inp file. That made it playback fine in pcmame.

I don't really have time to convert all even if this works, but can convert particular ones.

[tar]

I speak on behalf of the marp community that the conversion of .inp files to windows is a worth while endeavor , hence renderring objections to the validation of your recordings moot.

I will be moving.

where are you living now ?

I live in Zanesville , Ohio
population 30,000
state capitol 1810 - 1812
I live in a dilapidated mansion on a hill ,
built in 1850 .I wish we were not so financially poor fix it up
General Grainger once lived here ,
American Civil War

[Chad]

btw, the inp file was 0 length so it's gone.

[LN2]

I speak on behalf of the marp community that the conversion of .inp files to windows is a worth while endeavor , hence renderring objections to the validation of your recordings moot.

I'll try a converting a few tonight and see if they then playback correct in mame32 in VPC. IF they do than I'll put them online and add the URL to the description. I'll even try one like Marble Madness where I think it will fix it...cuz with one of those I had previously tried similar and it did successfully playback the firts couple levels but then desync'd which means I perhaps didn't pad quite enough at the start for time to be totally in sync.

FYI, even though Lordgaz converted my pacman replay and many have watched it, the score still hasn't been confirmed. hmmm...

where are you living now ?

In a suburb in DC, I likely will be moving to a suburb of Baltimore. hehe

My sister and her family live in that area plus rent is half the cost it is where I currently am. I can't afford to pay $1200/month rent here now. The rent here has gone up by 5-6% each year the past 5 years. It's ridiculous.

btw, the inp file was 0 length so it's gone.

Thx chad...but hope you didn't remove it only because the inp was of 0 length.

[Chad]

yeah, you know me i would have zeroed it, if it had a 0 length inp file only =) that would be way cool if a converter could be made.

[The TJT]

As a side note Rick, your latest balonfgt inp goes offsync at about 270k. Previous one played back perfect. You are free to slaughter my score...again

And hey! I'm not having fun my first place taken...Some just don't know when to give up! I hate competition!

TJT

[LN2]

As a side note Rick, your latest balonfgt inp goes offsync at about 270k. Previous one played back perfect. You are free to slaughter my score...again

Thx for letting me know that. Perhaps the OS was doing a quick split-second cache thing that caused a slight glitch at that point and threw out the sync.

I'll check the playback in macmame. I didn't check it on the last submission. If it does same in macmame I'll remove it.

It has only taken me 2-3 attempts each time to set a new personal high for the game...so I am still progressing in skill at the game quite quickly....learning how those guys typically move around the board is a big part of it...which you only gain from playing it a lot.

It seems like at later levels the game might reduce itself similarly to what happens in Joust where you can just sit at the bottom and let them all pretty much come to you...at least for some of the phases. for others, those spinning things make it difficult for them to come down to the bottom area before the clouds start shooting out sparks....so you must go up and get them. You even have to watch out for arrows being shot at you after a certain amount of time has passed. Have you seen those yet? They are very difficult to avoid as they are fast and when initially shot are timed so if you keep moving in the same manner it will hit you.

Thx for the up/down scroll tip. I wasn't aware of that before you mentioned it. It helps a lot when moving to the upper section of the board.

I see a 750+k game coming from one of us very soon.

[The TJT]

It has only taken me 2-3 attempts each time to set a new personal high for the game...so I am still progressing in skill at the game quite quickly....learning how those guys typically move around the board is a big part of it...which you only gain from playing it a lot.

Took me a long session to get that 605k, before my progress was very fast. Oh well, 100k a day is not so bad...

It seems like at later levels the game might reduce itself similarly to what happens in Joust where you can just sit at the bottom and let them all pretty much come to you...at least for some of the phases. for others, those spinning things make it difficult for them to come down to the bottom area before the clouds start shooting out sparks....so you must go up and get them. You even have to watch out for arrows being shot at you after a certain amount of time has passed. Have you seen those yet? They are very difficult to avoid as they are fast and when initially shot are timed so if you keep moving in the same manner it will hit you.

Yes, seems that at some levels it's the best tactic just to stay down, I don't do that often enough. We have totally different tactics: You stay down at start of the stage("phase"), and later go up hunt them...while I go allmost all stages up in the beginning and later come get those remaining ballooners at bottom part of the stage.
You have allways edge when they're below. Yet, that top wall bounces me pretty bad sometimes.
At some stages going up is not a good tactic...too risky...too much spinners and stuff there. if I only would decide and remember at which stage it's best not to go up. Have to improve tactics for each stage(where to go, where is relatively safe etc).
I believe It's mostly for me about tactics now to improve.

Yet, I still mess up at earlyish stages...They appear easy, but require concetration not to make foolish mistakes +Ballooners are not so slow as they seem, sometimes they make very fast moves.

Yeah, seen those arrows couple times, not dropped by them, yet.
Very fun game, and quite addicting!

I see a 750+k game coming from one of us very soon.

I hope not tomorrow when I wake up!

[LN2]

We have totally different tactics: You stay down at start of the stage("phase"), and later go up hunt them...while I go allmost all stages up in the beginning and later come get those remaining ballooners at bottom part of the stage.
You have allways edge when they're below. Yet, that top wall bounces me pretty bad sometimes.

I hvae tried some games where I go up very quickly...get the couple in the middle part of the board...then drop down and get those that start on the bottom part.

That leaves only the couple/few that start at the very top.
I have found going to the very top at the start is too risky as you are very outnumbered. I pick a couple of them off so there are 2 at most left that I might have to do battle with at the very top.

For early levels I can see your approach working fine cuz they initially inflate so slowly and take-off slowly. On the later levels, they get going very quickly....as you have seen.

Yet, I still mess up at earlyish stages...

It varies for me, my first 500k run, I had 380k on my first man! I then screwed up losing 2 full men on 1 phase.

I have found on even the early levels though sometimes one of those guys os at the very top...and seems to stay there. Nothing I try will coax him to evne drop a little bit from the top.

Very fun game, and quite addicting!

yeah, it's a cool title for an early Nintendo game.

I hope not tomorrow when I wake up!

I might take time before sleeping to try and play a game or 2...but not sure I'll have the time.

I want to try converting a couple of my replay files similarly to how Lordgaz converted my pacman inp and then test the playback in VPC.

If this seems to have success with many games, then some I won't bother to check the playback and prefer PC users check it. Within VPC for most games I can only watch the playback at around 30-50% speed. That's painfully slow so games that last an hour in real time can take 2-3+ hours to playback in VPC. I likely won't take the time to verify them that far...but only watch the first couple of stages/boards/phases to see if things appear ok.

[LordGaz]

I can read up on exactly how Lordgaz converted my pacman inp and try that with a few other replay files and see what happens.

Actually Rick before I tackled this you hinted at what might be the problem in a TG thread somewhere. You said the inp might be a "frame or two off sync". When I read that I downloaded a hex editor and played about with the inp.

First I added 1 frame to the beginning and it played back a bit further into the first board, then I tried adding and subracting frames here and there and also compared it with an inp I made with PC MAME as you say, at that point I added a header. After some trial and error I found that with a header and 2 frames added it played all the way through the first board and all the way through the whole game .

I've since tried tinkering with a couple of your other inps as well using the same method but without success. The Marble Madness inp is a strange one, the length of each frame of the inp changes somewhere near the beginning and I think frames need to be altered all over the place within the inp to get that one to work.

FYI, even though Lordgaz converted my pacman replay and many have watched it, the score still hasn't been confirmed. hmmm...

Yeah, funny that. I'm not a confirmer btw.

Gaz

[Chad]

So all you did to that one mac recording was add 2 frames and the header and it worked? hmm perhaps it's just a initialization synch thing that's the difference, that would be cool.

BTW, one vote for Gaz being a converter, i think you need two to be one.

The Marble Madness inp is a strange one, the length of each frame of the inp changes somewhere near the beginning and I think frames need to be altered all over the place within the inp to get that one to work.
Gaz

Gaz, you can't easily (with a hex editor) edit marble madness frames (that are done with analogue devices), but you still can insert frames of the standard length infront of the marble madness inp. The reason is that the frames of analouge inps are of "variable length" usually longer than the standard size but rarely the same, you have to iteratively go byte by byte comparing the data to determine really where the frames are pretty much.

please keep me informed of your mac/pc conversion discussions if they aren't on this thread, would like to help.