Ghostlop (Prototype) [ghostlop]
Year - 1996
Manufacturer - Data East
Genre - Puzzle/Breakout
Settings: Default settings (Difficulty Level-4, 2/3 rounds), Default Bios (European)
Versions of MAME allowed: WolfMAME 0.106 or WolfMAME 0.148
Button Configuration:
Button 1 - Red ball
Button 2 - Blue ball
Round Duration: Saturday March 30th, 00:00 GMT - Friday April 6th, 23:59 GMT
TIME REMAINING
World Record - N/A (unreleased arcade game)
MARP Record - 112,269 by powerman7t
HISTORY
So here's an interesting one. Data East released several games for the Neo-Geo arcade/home platform, including the popular puzzle games Magical Drop 2 and Magical Drop 3 (which was used in K7). In 1996 they attempted another "competitive"-styled puzzle game along the lines of Magical Drop and Puzzle Bobble, called Ghostlop. Unfortunately, for whatever reasons (bad location test earnings? SNK felt there were enough Neo-Geo games being released at the time? we may never know), it was turned down for release, despite being a 100% complete game. It was later re-considered for release in 2000 when SNK went bankrupt and was bought by a company named Aruze, and with nobody left to actually produce games at the old SNK, they looked at the back catalog of cancelled games... but again, Ghostlop was turned down. As luck would have it though, a few years later, someone got their hands on one of the cartridges (possibly used at a location test or arcade event showing) and dumped the roms so it would be preserved forever.
Unlike some other games carrying the "Prototype" description, Ghostlop is a complete game that by all means should have been released back in 1996. Gameplay is easy to understand and pick up - you control the character at the bottom of the screen and can angle your shot accordingly. Red and blue "ghosts" are on the top half of the screen, to wipe them out you have to use the appropriately-colored shot - pressing the A button will destroy red ghosts, and pressing B will destroy blue ghosts. But, you can also change the ball's color while it's in mid-flight! You then have to catch the ball as it comes back, or else an extra row of ghosts will get added to the top. By strategically placing your shots so that you drop a large number of ghosts at once, you will send gray ghosts to your opponent's side. Gray ghosts can be destroyed with two shots of either color, or by dropping them if they're attached to different-colored ghosts above them. There's also bombs that blow up a portion of the screen, and yellow ghosts that will destroy all of the same color you hit it with. You win the round if the ghosts on the opponent's side reaches the bottom of the screen first, or if when time runs out you have a higher score than your opponent (and if you want points, you need to drop lots of rows of ghosts at once, or attempt a more difficult "chain"). You must win 2 out of 3 rounds to advance to the next stage.
Be sure to select "Story" mode (the default option) after pressing Start. Story mode gives you several branches in the plot where you're given a choice on where to go next (and who you end up fighting). This is of course entirely the player's choice in this tournament.
There is one little problem with this game though - the score is only updated on stages you complete, meaning it doesn't add any points if you lose 2 out of the 3 rounds on a stage. It's unfortunate, but to save everyone the headache of trying to figure out what the points were on the last rounds, we will of course be using the final score that shows up when the game prompts you to enter your initials. It also means that you will have a score of 0 if you don't complete the first stage... but I think everyone here is capable of doing that at least, right?
As this is a Neo-Geo game, make sure you have neogeo.zip along with ghostlop.zip. There are multiple BIOS choices which CAN affect playback - please make sure your BIOS is set to the default, which is Europe MVS Ver. 2. Also make sure there are no memcard.000 files in your MAME's \memcard directory - it can potentially break playback if you have one there.
SAMPLE PLAY
http://bbh.marpirc.net/k10/bbh_ghostlop ... olf148.zip
Remember that this is the final qualifying game - the top 32 overall players after this round is over move on to the elimination rounds.
Good luck!
Standings after Round 2:
Code: Select all
Name Week 1 Week 2 Total
01. RedStar 90 100 190
02. TheBSM 100 46 146
03. colman paolo 65 80 145
04. RAX@AIVA 40 90 130
05. *Goldtimes* 60 70 130
06. nii-san 70 58 128
07. MarcoMarocco@AIVA 75 44 119
08. oldtimes 50 62 112
09. Kale 46 65 111
10. sikraiken 80 30 110
11. el fumador 54 56 110
12. Sawys 44 60 104
13. AGODZILLA@AIVA 24 75 99
14. Tekkaman@AIVA 52 38 90
15. essekappa 56 32 88
16. INNUENDO 38 48 86
17. saulonpb 58 21 79
18. Metrackle 62 16 78
19. Dax 21 50 71
20. wolfman24 42 29 71
21. RdP 30 36 66
22. Potante 36 25 61
23. Phil Lamat 26 34 60
24. nibbler 69@AIVA 32 28 60
25. Paulo Valmir 48 10 58
26. Barra 0 54 54
27. Pengafin! 0 52 52
28. Hunter Killer 10 42 52
29. C. Hatchett 10 40 50
30. simpsons99 34 14 48
31. BDFil 23 22 45
32. chrisbo 20 23 43
33. RJM 14 27 41
34. NotMan 29 10 39
35. Yar 28 11 39
36. DaLar 18 20 38
37. TRB_MetroidTeam 19 19 38
38. Gerhard Schindler 25 12 37
39. Fordy 13 24 37
40. Chrono256 22 15 37
41. DeSangre 10 26 36
42. kernzy 17 18 35
43. giro-X 12 17 29
44. CrazyKongFan 15 13 28
45. Dark Kariya 27 0 27
46. MassimoGaspari@AIVA 11 10 21
47. RichyS 10 10 20
48. ballas 16 0 16
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