Camel try Expert Leeching

[LN2]

yeah, the fact it only builds up to 99.9 is a big part of what allows that bumper leeching area to work. If you could just complete it as quickly as possible building to like 140+ seconds that would make enough of a point difference the last few worlds for the time bonus points that bumper leeching just wouldn't be very beneficial if at all cuz each second wasted there would truly mean about 2000 points lost in time bonuses for the reminder of the course....sure can score faster than that when you get that bumper going just right...but hard to sustain that more than a few seconds before your ball comes bouncing out and you waste a couple seconds getting it going again.

I think the mystery blocks that give the 1000 bonus points are bogus also. Oh big deal, I get 1000 pts...same as if it was just a normal block...actually less if a combo hit...cuz with that bonus 1000 you only get that..not the 1000x2 or more you would get if a regular block hit on a combo. They should have made that 5000pts...which would make more sense anyway since the timer stop is a 5 second stop and the +5 secs options for that mystery block.

However, it's really hard to totally outlaw bumper leeching which is why it was approved as long as you complete the entire course. I would have just added as long as you complete the entire course and don't use the lottery 20 second add-on time or the slot machine add-on time. If you aren't bumper leeching then you can use those...cuz it really won't matter then for the top scores anyway.

However, in those block areas some could make a case that is block leeching. You don't have to destroy all those blocks to advance through the course to complete it...just like those bumpers. However, I think we all agree skill of crushing blocks is an important aspect of the game and deserves the points you get from good block crushing techniques.

Maybe if those bumpers were only 250 pts each instead of 500 that would be enough you really couldn't leech anything from it.

[QRS]

Yeah I really agree. The bumpers are the place where the leeching is. The bricks is a great part of that game! Sometimes you just can´t get any good scores on them and you need great skill to get a lot of 5k´s etc. I love that concept!

[INNUENDO]

I´m very bad on this game. I don´t play it since 99....

[QRS]

Cameltry is one of my alltime favorites! One of the few "new" games that I can play over and over again!!

[QRS]

Rick:
I have tried to watch your recordings, but all I get is a tilt when you put in your credit I got one of the training stages to work.. until the last stage.. and then tilt again.. I think I spent like 2 hours trying to get any of them to playback, but I have failed. Sound/no sound..frameskip etc.. I even tried to play them back in 061 and 059.. I hope that someone else has some luck, otherwise we will have to wait for another mac user to show up..

I have started to play Cameltry again! You made me do it ;=)

Great scores! I will see if I have a chance to get any firstplace back

Regards

QRS

[LN2]

Rick:
I have tried to watch your recordings, but all I get is a tilt when you put in your credit I got one of the training stages to work.. until the last stage.. and then tilt again.. I think I spent like 2 hours trying to get any of them to playback, but I have failed.

I had told you via that e-mail message(didn't I?) that trying to test view those inps in mame60 in Virtual PC on my mac resulted in "tilt" for most...except 1 where it managed to get all the way to the last world of that course before going "tilt"...a few others would play the first world but then tilt at the start of the second. It was definitely always right when the next world first starts.

I'm not sure what causes that. I guess for each frame some bytes are maybe reversed in the mac inp vs pc inp so the interpretation is a bit different. Maybe it's an issue with using frameskip 6. I had to use frameskip 6 though to play at 95-100% speed.

I had a couple inps that would even tilt on playback in macmame on my mac using the exact same conditions so something is odd with the game itself too. I ended up playing a couple of those many more times to roughly match or beat the score I had previously gotten but the inp would fail to playback.

Have you seen that kind of issue when you played and recorded?
Have you seen that issue where after you pop a credit and hit start the cursor isn't always at the same spot to the point it can result in the wrong course selection?

If a frameskip issue and you can play at 100% at frameskip 0 then you maybe don't see these issues.

Also, I watched a couple of the top scores in VPC...like for special course.... After he hits the start game button he selects a different ball and plays with a steel ball. Do you have any idea how he is doing that? I almost wonder if different balls have different characteristics where that steel ball crushes blocks a little easier versus the default ball or something...otherwise why switch to a different ball?

In watching his inps with that steel ball it does appear to have slightly different characteristics like it's a heavier ball.

I tried pressing various things at the start and couldn't get any ball selection screen like he has.

I want to try runs with the steel ball to see if any difference in scoring then from easier block crushing etc. I used the default blue-glassy ball for all play...cuz i have no idea how to change it.

[QRS]

Just press start (1) when your pointer is on the course you want to play at. While holding start press the button you use in the game. Then chose form the different kind of balls.

Sorry Rick, I thought you know about it! I have gotten so used to playing with the Iron ball that I never even think of something else
I have only managed to watch one of your training scores (except the last stage) and you can´t get access to the other balls in training mode.
If I had just been able to see 10 seconds of any other of the course, I would have been "w00t! he is using the blue ball instead of the Ironball!"

Btw, the Iron ball is the only one that gives you some kind of advantage. There is not only an advantage to use it though...

Advantages:
faster, easier to crush blocks etc

Disadvantages:
Way harder to controll, bounces more (very irritating in narrow passways)

Try it out! I´m sure that you will get even better scores using the Iron ball!!

I have played it a lot now, and I will upload some scores later on today. I´m looing forward to be beaten by you again!

Best regards

QRS

[The TJT]

Damn, I think you're forcing me to play it too ) Good thing though, haven't played it with my newish machine, nice to try frameskip 0.

...But first some Pool and beer...tomorrow hangover...upload at wednesday???

Mika Immonen

[LN2]

Advantages:
faster, easier to crush blocks etc

Disadvantages:
Way harder to controll, bounces more (very irritating in narrow passways)

Try it out! I´m sure that you will get even better scores using the Iron ball!!

Yeah, I see you beat almost all of my scores...however ALL of mine currently at MARP are with that blue ball.

If crushing blocks with that iron ball is easier then I should easily be able to improve my scores.

Maybe there is another that is in between the two for those characteristics.

Given I've never seen the arcade game, how would I know you could even select a different ball at the start? The demo doesn't show that at all....would be nice if it did. Well, I guess once we have macmame 0.64 or 0.65 we will have the cabinet template art feature then too so maybe that info is shown on that?!?

Anyway, looks like I'll have to play it all over again using differnet balls...cuz I see you surpassed most of my scores rather easily...tells me that steel ball makes a significant difference.

[QRS]

well, as I said earlier I have not seen any real machine either! Oakster and I just tried to get one to his pool hall.. but we failed

I found out it by accident myself.. on Mame.. Brian McLean tried for a while to figure out HOW I did it, and after a while he found out

I just took it for granted that you knew about it, cause your scores where that high.

Anyway, you know now!

Cool with some competition on this game! I just hope that Oakster will show up too! Always nice with competition, to push the game to its limits

Good luck!

[LN2]

Your turn QRS....hehe

One of my scores for the special course I think is gonna be hard to top.

using the steel ball makes a world of difference.

gonna play the expert and beginner using the steel ball now.

[Francois Daniel]

Just press start (1) when your pointer is on the course you want to play at. While holding start press the button you use in the game. Then chose form the different kind of balls.

Hey I don't know that too. I'll try it

Francois

[QRS]

Hehe good scores Rick! You will prolly be first for a long time, if not someone else steps in

I will try to playback some of your recordings today, to see if I have any luck this time.

Once again good job!

Cheers

QRS

[LN2]

would be cool if you can at least playback that 707k one or at least the first so many worlds of it.

That was a nearly flawless run. I crushed just about every block possible as efficiently as possible...as well as completing stages very quickly.

I'd have to watch it again to see if that was the particular run....but 1 game I finished the last level with more than 90 seconds remaining!!!

That last level is actually much easier to get through with the heavy steel ball. you can normally just go from that final bumper room and a straight line right to the goal. That was impossible to do with the blue ball. You had to spiral around a little bit to get speed to get to the goal with the blue ball.

I wish I had video capture card on this mac cuz then I could videotape it(do have tvout) and then play it back and recapture. i'm not sure how well my old and slow CPU could handle movie capture though. I likely would have to use an older MacOS to use any capture card I got my hands on cuz OS X likely wouldn't support it. I don't think there are currently any capture cards for macs that have OS X drivers. I'll have to check on that. The whole push with X has been digital cameras...so little need to do captures from videotape if you have a digital camera.

An idea I had for mame which for some reason hasn't been very well received was to have a movie capture mode where only on inp playback you could capture to a movie. Given the CPU power movie capturing needs you would only want this on inp playback using a forced frameskip so the game can go at a very slow speed if necessary...to allow whatever movie capture rate you want... 12 or 15fps would be fine for most.

I think it would be cool cuz you could make short movies of cool things or tips or tricks in games or even longer movies. the movie originally would be a basic capture like DV so you would then want to reencode it separately as DivX or something similar. I think for most games the compression from encoding would be pretty good so the movie sizes would be smaller than you would think.

It also would allow for confirmation of plays since a movie is cross-platform compatible..unlike inp.

I am often tempted to just get a cheap PC and play mame on that but I would have little other reason for the PC. I can't see spending even $500 on a cheap PC just so my mame inps would be compatible.

[QRS]

I have tried again to watch your cameltry scores but no luck this time either.. is there anyone else out there who can try? Maybe they work in dosmame etc (I have xp and can´t try that)?

I just uploaded new scores btw, just to keep you busy Rick! j/k

Regards

QRS