Golden Era Game of the Week 10/9/04: Venture

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 2:48 pm

Golden Era Game of the Week

See introduction here

The Game: Venture

romname: venture

Screenshot:

(click to see current MARP scores)

Reward: $50 (usd)

Deadline for submission to MARP: October 15, 2004 2359 hours GMT

Further Bounty: $100 (usd) for exceeding 350,800 by January 1, 2005

I played this one in the arcades. Control is clunky enough on the real machine. I never really found one that felt right this week. My X-Arcade stick was terrible, my Playstation pad with the USB converter felt a little laggy. Other players have mentioned this but I never noticed it myself before. My Logitech pad felt more responsive, but it has a single-piece directional control, and I hate that. I find it very difficult with them to go horizontally or vertically without accidentally hitting diagonal sometimes, and that is often fatal in this game. I think I could have done better if I found a controller that worked for me.

MARP actually already has an exceptional recording for this title. Zip's 324k is masterful.

A FAQ is available here.

Earlier this year, Jonathan Koolpe broke the 21 year old record on the arcade machine, scoring 350,800. Another obvious choice for a further bounty.

Use WolfMAME .87u1

tar · Post by **tar** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 7:25 pm

jtc wrote:Zip's 324k is masterful.

i watched it. microsoft windows 1998.

mame 37 beta 14 unofficial release.

the hall monsters are insane.

needed 1 more item.

SJK · Post by **SJK** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 2:59 pm

Congrats Ian!

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:21 pm

SJK wrote:Congrats Ian!

Unfortunately, WolfMAME reports that it was recorded with WolfMAME .87

To be eligible for this week's GEGOTW you must record with .87u1

Weehawk wrote:Use WolfMAME .87u1

As previously announced I would accept that or a later version for the further bounty.

WolfMAME .87u1 is available here:

http://wolfmame.marpirc.net/wolfmameplus-087u1-gcc.zip

dbh · Post by **dbh** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 5:33 pm

Ian, please tell me that you already knew how to play this game

Weehawk, an interesting question...does he now have to beat the score he just posted in order to win this week? That *might* give the rest of us a chance

Ian Sutton · Post by **Ian Sutton** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 5:48 pm

Weehawk wrote:
SJK wrote:Congrats Ian!
Unfortunately, WolfMAME reports that it was recorded with WolfMAME .87

To be eligible for this week's GEGOTW you must record with .87u1

Weehawk wrote:Use WolfMAME .87u1
As previously announced I would accept that or a later version for the further bounty.

WolfMAME .87u1 is available here:

http://wolfmame.marpirc.net/wolfmameplus-087u1-gcc.zip

Crap, that's unfortunate. I didn't notice that. Wolf87u1 creates the same size inps as regular wolf87 for me so I just kept using it. I'll try again with the newer version.

And thanks anyway SJK

Ian Sutton · Post by **Ian Sutton** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 5:51 pm

dbh wrote:Ian, please tell me that you already knew how to play this game

Nope. I played it first time yesterday.

dbh wrote:Weehawk, an interesting question...does he now have to beat the score he just posted in order to win this week? That *might* give the rest of us a chance

Shame on you for even suggesting it!

dbh · Post by **dbh** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 6:05 pm

Ian Sutton wrote:Nope. I played it first time yesterday.

Then all I can say is.....

WOW!!

Just curious, how long did you spend playing it? And, did you use the save state feature to learn the various boards?

Ian Sutton wrote:Shame on you for even suggesting it!

I just want to see you break 400K

Ian Sutton · Post by **Ian Sutton** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 6:16 pm

dbh wrote:
Ian Sutton wrote:Nope. I played it first time yesterday.
Then all I can say is.....

WOW!!

Just curious, how long did you spend playing it? And, did you use the save state feature to learn the various boards?

I dunno. A lot. Yeah I abused the hell out of save states to figure out each level. It's a huge advantage.

tar · Post by **tar** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 6:42 pm

What is the difference BETWEEN wolfmame .87 & .87u1 !?

JTC explaining to IAN the subtle unsimilarities

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 7:18 pm

tar wrote:What is the difference BETWEEN wolfmame .87 & .87u1 !?

JTC explaining to IAN the subtle unsimilarities

Why I gotta be touchin' him?

But to answer: It is merely a subsequent release. Since it is prior to the next full release they use the "u" designation meaning update to the previous full release.

The important change made in .87u1 was the correction of an error introduced in .84. When the change was made to the input port size, inp file sizes were expected to double. Because of an incorrectly placed subroutine call however, some games inp files sizes were increased much more than this..as much as 50 times..maybe more. Pit Fighter, I believe was one of the worst affected. Some games seemed not to be affected at all, Venture may have been one of them. The correction to the error was submitted by our own Barry Rodewald (Barry Rhodes was out of pocket and unavailable to assist) and included in .87u1.

dbh wrote:Weehawk, an interesting question...does he now have to beat the score he just posted in order to win this week? That *might* give the rest of us a chance

No, that only applies to recordings already at MARP when the game is announced.

I suspect Ian will improve upon it anyway.

Weehawk · Post by **Weehawk** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 3:07 am

Results:
1st: Ian Sutton
2nd: Don Hayes
3rd: SJK

Don Hayes takes sole possession of the lead in cumulative points, and Ian, with yet another first place, moves a little closer...

Ian, feel free to delete the 269k and resubmit the 354k done with .87. It is a perfectly legitimate MARP recording, just not eligible for the GEGOTW challenge.

Also, the further bounty is still up for grabs. I feel bad about Ian not getting it (yet), but I feel that I should stick to requiring the prescribed MAME version.

Ian Sutton · Post by **Ian Sutton** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 3:22 pm

Weehawk wrote: Ian, feel free to delete the 269k and resubmit the 354k done with .87. It is a perfectly legitimate MARP recording, just not eligible for the GEGOTW challenge.

Done.

Weehawk wrote: Also, the further bounty is still up for grabs. I feel bad about Ian not getting it (yet), but I feel that I should stick to requiring the prescribed MAME version.

No worries John. I'm not sure if I'll try again for the WR. Strange that it came so easy the first time and now I know I can do it, it seems impossible! I guess I just got lucky.