Golden Era Game of the Week 7/17/04: Elevator Action

[Weehawk]

Golden Era Game of the Week

See introduction here

The Game: Elevator Action

romname: elevator

Screenshot:
(click to see current MARP scores)

Reward: $25 (usd)

Deadline for submission to MARP: July 23, 2004 2359 hours GMT

Further Bounties: $250 (usd) for exceeding 143,450 by November 1, 2004

Played this game just for laughs on occasion, never tried to play it seriously before.....and never will again. Can't stand it.

For starters, it's monotonous and slow. I get bored halfway down the first building. And it's all pretty much the same.

The control is awful. The little guy seems to do what he pleases often instead of what I'm telling him to do. He's too stupid to live.

But, it's a classic. There's been some coincidental discussion recently on the Funspot forum here:

http://www.funspotnh.com/discus/message ... 1089544616

as to whether the TG recognized world record 143,450 is really possible or not. Let's see if the MARP top guns can prove it.

For those unfamiliar with the game, GameFaqs has a FAQ on it here:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/coinop/arcade/game/10316.html

Use WolfMAME .84

Oh yeah...the music blows too.

[AL]

I think Cameron will win this , assuming he can get WolfMame to work,and his tolerance to crappy music/gameplay is not compromised...

Then again. He may have to bow down to the power of 'Destructor'.

A great Polish hero called Waelsa defied all odds,and did ( what we were told )was the impossible. He overcame a super-power, and with the support of the people ( especially the workers at Gdansk ) , he became the One to defeat. And defeat he did.

Cameron: be prepared to feel the power of 'Destructor'. He is the man!

Cheers,

AL

[AL]

Speaking of which ( Polish hero's )....the Pope is coming here again.


Not that I'm religious or anything,but still a big event. I remember when he first came here in 1979. I was ten years of age,and was more interested in trying to encourage my mother to 'have a go' at the slot machines at the weekend, which meant I could sneak away occasionally to play the likes of 'Space Invaders'.


Can't do that now. Mother is dead, arcade is gone,and the absolute experience is irreplaceable.

But at least the memories are there. Always will be.


Cheers,

AL

[Cameron Feltner]

It's not a given that I'll beat my score within a week.

Besides, even if I do, what about those Guiness record holders from 85 and 86?


When I tried recording the first time, the sound became garbled. It feels like this version of mame is taxing my system (P3 550 MHz) to its limit. I dropped the samplerate from 44100 to 22050, and it sounds better during records now, but I haven't been able to alter the video as far as I can tell. Every once in awhile the screen will flicker, and for an instant things aren't in their proper place on screen. On the version of mame I'd been using, the video had a line of color, a line of black, and another line of color, but this version has color everywhere. What's the best way to reduce what the cpu is doing for video so it has an easier time keeping up?

Thanks.

[Weehawk]

It's not a given that I'll beat my score within a week.

Besides, even if I do, what about those Guiness record holders from 85 and 86?


When I tried recording the first time, the sound became garbled. It feels like this version of mame is taxing my system (P3 550 MHz) to its limit. I dropped the samplerate from 44100 to 22050, and it sounds better during records now, but I haven't been able to alter the video as far as I can tell. Every once in awhile the screen will flicker, and for an instant things aren't in their proper place on screen. On the version of mame I'd been using, the video had a line of color, a line of black, and another line of color, but this version has color everywhere. What's the best way to reduce what the cpu is doing for video so it has an easier time keeping up?

Thanks.

Try recording with no sound by using the parameter "-nosound" in the command line. You'd be surprised how much this speeds up some games.

Also try using frameskip to decrease the video processing. The parameter "-frameskip 1" will cause MAME to skip drawing 1 out of every 12 frames. The parameter "-frameskip 11" will cause it to skip 11 out of 12, possibly speeding things up considerably, but will also negatively affect playability. Experiment with different values until you find the best combination.

[Cameron Feltner]

Unfortunately, I need the sound to know when I'm out of time.

I need to set the frameskip to 9 for it to look smooth and play at the right speed, which makes it tough to see when I'm getting shot at.

What I really need is to be able to tell it not to do much per frame, like the arcade version, but show all frames.

I'd have to say I don't like my chances at 1 in 4 frames, so the prize is up for grabs.

[The TJT]

Man, mame is getting slower! Elevator Action should not require latest PC

[BBH]

Man, mame is getting slower! Elevator Action should not require latest PC :lol: :roll:

ya think?

I will say this much about Elevator Action though... best death animation ever!

[The TJT]

Yeah! Graphic card must be the bottleneck. Sorry about blaming mame. edit: (j/k)

Sorry,

TJT

[mahlemiut]

Video cards make little difference with MAME. Even cheap-ass video cards have no troubles. Anything from a TNT-level card will have no trouble with MAME with hardware stretching. Don't use Direct3D if you don't have to, but even then, my old Athlon-950 with TNT2 M64 had no problems. Never, ever, use software stretching.

[QRS]

John:

Two short questions:
1)
Is wolf084u1 or u2 ok to use? I can't find any wolfie 084 on Barry's site.

2)
Default settings or?

Thanks!

[Weehawk]

John:

Two short questions:
1)
Is wolf084u1 or u2 ok to use? I can't find any wolfie 084 on Barry's site.

2)
Default settings or?

Thanks!

There was no .84 MAMEplus release (and therefore no WolfMAME .84 release until .84u1

Feel free to use .84u1 or .84u2

Default settings. (3 men at start, one extra at 10,000, easiest difficulty)

[QRS]

Thanks!!

[Cameron Feltner]

I tried playing with the sound a little louder so I could hear the faint *ping* of the enemies shooting, and it wasn't so bad. I got 3 in the 11x,xxx. But just now I tried turning hardware stretching off, and it seems to run at normal speed without skipping any frames. Maybe it was trying to use the video card, couldn't figure out how, timed out, went back to the processor, repeat for every video command?

Still, the graphics look better than they should, but at least now my bullets aren't fatter when I'm crouching.

Seeing every frame will help, I'm sure. There's a bright gunpowder flash that doesn't show well when viewing 1/4 of the frames.

[Cameron Feltner]

Aaarghhh.

End of Line.