Rick(ln2), I admire your pacxpertise, but if they have had trouble with speeds and REFUSE making TGmame recordings....The one question remains, why.
Ahh, well i can think of a few good reasons for this one.
I remember when I started playing macmame again this past summer with version 0.60a, I ended up having to replace about 60% of my ROMs cuz they were ones for older versions like 0.36. I almost wish I had saved those older roms also. I think I do have some on a CD backup but not many.
Anyway, logical reasons why someone might not be able to play a game with an older version like 35tgb3 or 37tgb3 might be because they don't have the older version of the game rom for that older version. You can't use most modern versions of roms with those old versions...yet those newer/modern versions are all you can find. I just know when I visited a friend a month ago with his new PC we couldn't get any inps for those older TG versions of mame to run cuz of game rom issues or in 1 case the application saying it needed some .dll file to run which we didn't have cuz the archived mame of that version isn't complete...just the exe. so where do you get those old dlls those old TG versions of mame need?
This new alphamame seems promising...and would be far welcomed for more official records when possible....once TG accepts it.
Personally I have a mac and play in macmame. there is no "TG" mame or alphamame for MacOS so in my case I have no option really. It's gotten to the point I have considered getting a cheap PC but figured even then it isn't worth spending $400 just to satisfy inp requirements. I certainly hope down the road none of my records and scores are questioned. I think I have enough now for games where the inp is cross-platform compatible for people to realize I'm serious when it comes to records.
Btw what do you use for controls?
For most games, especially the pacman type games, I use the cursor keys on my keyboard. For mspac-fast and other variants my high scores are around the 450-500k range...and I hadn't even played the game that much. I really don't think it has much of a learning curve. You just need to generally know how to move around the board initially. It is obvious watching roncli's mspac-fast and other fast recordings that he doesn't know about sit spots and several moves a regular mspac player knows...yet he is still able to easily get through boards. All I mainly see is he is very good at the controls.
I also have an iShock II controller which is pretty much like a PSX controller with analog thumbsticks and various buttons and thumbpad. I don't use it that often but it comes in handy for games like Robotron where the thumbsticks come in handy. I can't see playing Robotron with the keys cuz for one too many keys plus then you need to press combos to get the diagonals etc.
JoustGod wrote:Rick (LN2): Please note that I'm not referring to a slow machine whose frameskip fluctuates thus making the game difficult at best. There are methods (read that: external help) that were exploited during a tournament (T2 to be exact) in 1999.
Well, I'm not aware of any of that so can't comment there. i only got into the whole MARP and MAME thing starting last summer. I had briefly tried macmame a few years ago but found it lacked performance and other features for most games plus back then I was really into playing the quake games online so didn't care for mame much.
That brings me to my second point. While not necessarily using mspacman as the red flag, I suggest you play piranha-fast instead. That is a game that requires a monumental control skills because of its free-form playfield.
Yes, I have played it but not in fast mode. I have played and have the records for Hangly-Man though which half the boards are analogous to the pirahna boards where there are lots of dots and not many if any walls in the middle of the board.
Certain Pacman variations also have this feature. Roncli's fast adaptation of this title while ALSO creating fabulous scores on many other titles at the same time leaves me in doubt. The learning curve was just too radical on this. While not impossible...improbable.
I disagree here. I had not played Hangly-man ever at fast mode...and it had been 15+ years since I had played it at regular speed...with my high score only around 125-150k. In macmame I was able to quickly catch on and get a fairly high score. All those hangly-man scores I have submitted to MARP I obtained on 3 attempts or less. It had almost no learning curve for me and wouldn't for anyone else if you have played pacman at all cuz even though the mazes are different etc., the way the monsters move around is the same.
But what leaves the biggest question mark over many of our heads here at MARP is the refusal for either of the mentioned players in this thread to provide a rebuttal through a simple single-game recording on a TG version of MAME to shut us up.
Yes, I agree to an extent if it was easy to just run one of those older versions. As I stated above, even if I had a PC I would need to get those dll file(s) from someone those older versions of mame need...then also get the older game rom versions...as well as who knows what else.
My refusal to not do it wouldn't be because I'm hiding something, but because it's a major pain in the arse to get it running on my system...or in my particular case...on a mac where there isn't a TG version.
It's a shame the "tournament" type features can't make it into the main mame builds. It would be cool to just have a "tournament" mode that forces automatic frameskip and makes sure the game speed stays above 95% or some figure like that, disables pausing, etc. and if the player did pause or changed frameskip etc. then the inp file recording would stop when in tournament mode. If you wanted to record inp files for fun using cheats etc. you could still do that too by just not engaging tournament mode.
I would really like to participate in Deca 2003 or MARP tournaments or WCC etc. but can't cuz only those TG versions are used...so I don't bother.
With the exception of the mspac-fast scores, I and/or negative1 have beaten many of roncli's fast scores. For ones where he still has the top score, I likely just haven't played that one enough yet. I only played a few of them over a week...and haven't since...been busy playing regular speed pacman type games. I have some scores that would rank quite well but just haven't submitted them cuz I know it wasn't really that good of a game by me.
From what I see though I see nothing in roncli's inps to suggest he is doing any tricks etc. If he has some previous history that leads to suspecting the integrity of his scores of playing the game honestly, then I can definitely understand wanting him to play with some official TG or alphamame version. I know if I were in his shoes and could just play a game with that to shut others up I would do it in a heartbeat....but would need assistance to get those dll and older game roms that are needed for those older TG versions.