Thanks for the tournament! As I said I ended up putting a lot of time into this and got a bit frustrated with some of the games at times, but that happens in every online MAME tournament. Overall I liked the game selection a lot and it's what enticed me to come participate and register here. I guess I will share my thoughts on the games.
1942 - I have played this a lot and was pretty confident I would be able to take 1st on this. My first real attempt I barely scraped by 12 million because I repeatedly screwed up the last boss leeching, but I submitted it and hoped it would be good enough so that I wouldn't have to play it again. And it was!
Bells & Whistles - I knew of this game but had never really played it seriously. The whole bell mechanic takes some getting used to, and it's really hard keeping the 10,000 point chain past stage 4 because of that part in the middle. After some practice I was pretty sure I could do the first loop on one life, but on my final 2.45 mil game I died twice on the last stage from stupidity. The second loop is INSANE, I just tried to grab as many 10k bells as possible in 2-1 before one of those stray bullets killed me. I think I could've gotten a little farther if I could've done the first loop on one life, I may try this for MARP.
Bosconian - Certainly marathonable on these settings but I ended up getting too sloppy and lost too many lives. I was rather sad when my 1.4 mil score was beaten by TiF in less than 24 hours. I wanted to make another attempt at this, but figuring a full game of this would take 2 hours or more, I just let it be.
Contra - well.... a true classic but that leeching sucks. I definitely agree with the scoring rule change but it made it a waste of a game slot. Oh well..
Crazy Kong - I'm not a big DK guy but it seems like a lot of people are. Never played the Crazy Kong version but it wasn't too hard to adapt to the changes, but the problem is I'm not consistent enough to reach the killscreen. I feel like I could have done better but I just don't have fun playing this game, sorry
Dig Dug - Too pattern-heavy for me, even though I barely managed to squeak out 1st. Surprised there wasn't a ringer that could run the higher level patterns over and over and put up a monster score even on these 5 lives setting.
Fairy Land Story - I DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS GAME. I did what I could to learn the best thing to do on a lot of levels (again, patterns...) but the lack of consistency on what special items the game gives you is maddening. Sometimes you get a crap item, sometimes you get a book that kills everything on the screen and gives you mega points. The only documentation on what controls the items is in Japanese and I had no idea what it was saying. Never really played this before and definitely not a fan now, I'd rather just play Bubble Bobble.
Galaxian - My best on an arcade cabinet is 178k, but I find it way harder in MAME for some reason. I think it's all the raster updates that made the frame rate look less than solid. I finally ended up with 146,350 (whoops I accidentally put in 147,350 on the website) which I was satisfied with.
Magical Crystals - neat game but the 6-1 leeching blows. Of course, it only affected the top 3. I screwed up the leeching bad even though I got there on the first life, but TiF did a much better job of it. At least I managed to finish it for the first time.
OutRun - classic game, annoying to control in MAME. Although I don't think I've really done much better than 32 mil in arcade either.
Stocker - games that are over in 2 1/2 minutes are great for tournaments. Broke 54k for the first time so I was satisfied.
Super Punch-Out - I have issues with the arcade Punch-Out games. They feel... unresponsive at times? Like you press a button and nothing happens. Maybe it's just me. Anyway I couldn't figure out any consistent way to beat the second Dragon Chan, even after resorting to savestate practice. Kudos to Jeff on his score.
Trog - At one point I liked this game but not anymore. Those stupid pogo stick enemies drive me up the friggin wall! And then there's the scoring system... you're completely reliant on getting random pineapples that let you eat enemies for big points, so no pineapple = a lot less points for something that's not your fault. I'd finished the game before for MARP but wasn't having much luck at all reproducing this... then I had an amazing scoring game where it was giving me plenty of pineapples along the way, if I hadn't finished the game on that run I think it would've stood at 1st place anyway unless somebody else managed to finish it and get the 25 mil bonus. So I end up with a new PB that I'll probably never beat because even if I ever wanted to play this again it would take a lot of luck to get that many pineapples. (or I suppose less warps to get more chances for pineapples, but...)
Vanguard - Another nice score from TiF that I thought I could catch but boy this game is maddening. Random erratic enemy behavior and bullets with gigantic hitboxes that eat up your bullets. Another case of "feel like I could've done better, but alas".
see it as your duty for team RU.
---- heh heh heh
Have a good rest and hope you're back to enjoyment rather than habit soon..!
Linear Mode
