Unbelievable insights in to... Pac-Man

[AnonTet]

Still on the Metal Slug game, there's a game that it's an hidden gem for the fans of this series and it's called Demon Front. Give it a try.

@Popotte
Thanks. I will take your help and will PM you later but I still have things to do before I get to the code.
If you have time by then, good, if not, I'm still thankful for the offer and a nudge in the right direction might just be what I need.

PS: I can only try to imagine the time spent looking at other's recordings and even that is nearly an headache!

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Still on the Metal Slug game, there's a game that it's an hidden gem for the fans of this series and it's called Demon Front. Give it a try.

I played Metal Slug a few times over Kaillera (sp?) with a friend in Norway. Good fun, and very pretty graphics.

I think I prefer the Contra series though, as the action is more focused on precise gameplay, discrete stages, and figuring out the right way to beat each boss. Certainly the graphics are no match for Metal Slug, tho.

 

[AnonTet]

I remember 1st time I've played Contra. Famiclone of sorts with one of those 100-1 games cartridges. It wasn't even in colour if I recall correctly.

I also have to admit I was beaten by my girl friend on that game but obviously, she played every friggin day; was her console, that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it :D

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

You got any particular 'hidden gems' of MAME, Tiago? We used to chat about such stuff here years ago, but you (and some others) weren't around then.

A few years ago I went through the entire MAME list one-by-one (haha, kinda stoopid, kinda clever) and made sure I had every classic, unique, underrated or crazy game I could find. Since then I've been kinda slowly going through the collection, sorting things in to lists of 'hidden gems' and the like to blog about.

It's been a fun project, altho best done patiently and on-'n-off.

 

[AnonTet]

I've done that in the past... now the collection grew quite large, and as I've said before, I have to stop by the ones I could never play for real, like the C64. Daunting to say the least...

Regarding hidden gems, that depends on your knowledge and what was available to you that clearly was much more than what I had access too.

From the top of my head (after a quick favourites list scroll :D) : New Team 2000, Wild west cow-boys of moo-mesa :D, Battle Tods, Toobin' (i think it's at least very underrated), I enjoy Timber that I never heard of before, I find Squash a lot better than most arcade tennis games (plus has some NSFW images when matches end :D ), tac/scan (not sure if it's widely known), Chicken Shift :D, Snake pit (is this know to you?), In the Hunt, Funky Jet (The JAPANESE version) because you can punch up too,...

I have a big list and there are more. Those are just arcades and i'm still missing some.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

I'm not a fan of beat-em-ups myself, but I agree Timber, Toobin', Squash, Tac/Scan, Chicken Shift, Snake Pit and In the Hunt are some real good games, many of them nicely innovative!

"Squash" (Gaelco, 1992) was one I'd only placed on my 'to look at closely' list without really getting in to it, but so far I like it, particularly as a life-long racket sports player. In fact, just now I played a match to conclusion (cheating heavily, sorry but old man reflexes here!), and sadly didn't see any NSFW babes there, other than the kissing blonde trophy-presenter.

As for my own lists, so far I have a couple dozen MAME write-ups spread across these categories:

Primitive gems / Funny variations on classics / Weird-gonzo-awful / Classics that coulda been? / Classics you might not know / Classics that aged poorly

 

[AnonTet]

The NFSW seem to be random... or maybe because you cheated? :D

Those type of lists I leave to someone else and hope they're shared. Actually, I found some of them (funky jet being the latest) accidently watching a video. It's probably a game people know, what many don't is that japanese version (and the prototype I think... well, i hope i'm not swapping versions now) did allow to punch in more directions. It really changes the game, otherwise is the same old game.

And then there are those exotic games you need appropriate controllers that because they can be emulated but not properly played are "forgotten". The most famous one being Discs of Tron probably that requires a spinner with push/pull function in it to move the platforms. And the full cabinet it's one of the coolest cabinets EVER too.

Boot Hill if i'm not mistaken is a very old game that's fun for 2 people too. but ideally you have 2 spinners... there's another paddle game for spinners that i'm not remembering... could be fun for you.

Anyway, fun stuff, when you have the time to dig or are lucky enough to come across that gem.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Haha, Tiago, I've known all those games for many years. (yes, and I utterly adore DoT)

I am the MAME master. Challenge me!​

ROWR!

 

[AnonTet]

Accepted - I've updated full sets two days ago :D

And hopefully my MCP will be complete with a push/pull spinner in March.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Accepted - I've updated full sets two days ago :D

Oh yeah, and TBH-- my hand-picked set is a couple years old, for sure.

But after looking through ~35k games at that point, downloading all the ones I felt stood out in one way or another, I felt like I'd probably caught absolutely everything of interest in MAME.

It's always possible a *really* good, undiscovered gem arcade game might be found across the years, but if you look at the MAME progress updates, it's way more boring material being published (at least from my POV).

Agree / disagree?

 

[AnonTet]

Both. I actually think preservation is something that should be cherished (pinball is no different). And I do support MAME focus on accuracy.

MAME is a good as it ever was. Lots of new stuff, netlists (no more samples), code cleanup, rewritten and up to date that facilitates newcomers to join, bgfx, ...

What I don't get is people wanting to run it on a potato (read pi's) and complaining 20years old versions run better and insisting mame is now worse... this is what really worries me.

Votrax chip emulation, netlists removing the dependency of samples (not accurate), even the Capcom logo in 1942... 1943? animation that was wrong and even I that played that to death didn't notice only recently was corrected.

There is a lot people don't see, most of the time literally because changes are under the hood but all for the best. I wonder how many new arcade games are still out there to dump? And if they're found, can they do it?

Also, MAMEdevs are few and work for fun. Nobody wants to work on something unmotivated so something things are left as is... or are simply too complicated to do better in current state for whatever reason or there's simply no way to check against the real HW

And of course, collectors made everything overpriced beyond belief because retro stuff sells like hot cakes making HW difficult to acquire. And when someone does acquire something new, won't let go, probably will never played and the HW will die on it's own due to capacitors leaking or suicide batteries and another piece of history is lost due to ego, or whatever drives those with silly amounts of money.

/rant

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Disagree with none of that.
You're right (and they aren't), yes...

 

[StevOz]

Ah those that have not been emulated, not sure if this bootleg version of Galaxians ever was officially emulated in MAME, but I know it did exist and there were 100's of these machines here if not more.

Your top 20 MAME games

Ok... I was bored... this is a completely useless topic... everyone always hates top-20 lists but still participate.... I created a list of my favorite MAME games + some more. I guess most of us have very different kind of favorites... of course there are tons of great games but these are...

pinballnirvana.com

Find the attached hacked rom that emulates this bootleg version of Galaxians in the post above.

 

[AnonTet]

I could probably think on 20 top arcade games... For now i'll just note that I was quite good at Bank Panic on the spectrum, and got good at it too in MAME.

And for some reason I recalled Kicker (Shaolin's Road on the Spectrum) that is also fun and i'm not sure how widespread it was.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Aw man, I love Bank Panic (IIRC Steve does, too).

"Shaolin Road," I've heard the name so many times across the years that I forget what it is exactly. Is it based on "Yi-Ar Kungfu?"

 

[AnonTet]

Now that you mentioned it, the movements might be based on Ye Ar Kungfu. I know the game but even as a fan of fighting games and beat'em ups (target renegade on the spectrum...) I could never bring myself to like that game for one reason. The insane jumps, silly, I know but what can I do :D

Shaolin's road however I played a lot

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Ugh, I remember that one now.

The problem with playing through 36k~ games (altho not really, due to clones and regional versions) is that many games are just so mediocre that it's hard to remember them properly.

Okay, my problem with Shao-Lin's Road is that it can't decide whether it wants to be a beat-em-up, a shoot-em-up, a jumping platform game, or an awkward hybrid of them all. Meanwhile, yes... it is indeed heavily ripping off Yi-Ar Kungfu, a game which required super-specific tactics to progress through.

 

[AnonTet]

The problem with playing through 36k~ games (altho not really, due to clones and regional versions) is that many games are just so mediocre that it's hard to remember them properly.

Full sets have that problem. There are ways around it obviously.

Okay, my problem with Shao-Lin's Road is that it can't decide whether it wants to be a beat-em-up, a shoot-em-up, a jumping platform game, or an awkward hybrid of them all. Meanwhile, yes... it is indeed heavily ripping off Yi-Ar Kungfu, a game which required super-specific tactics to progress through.

And I though I was complicated. I just play it and have fun :D


An I just remembered "Lasso" and "Complex X" <- I have it on favourites just because I have to take a couple of hours to actually try because the controls weird to say the least. They picked up Berzerker or SmashTV and decided 2 joystics weren't enough so they added a button... to play a puzzle/platform game :D

Like I said before... there was some weird stuff back in the day :D

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

And I thought I was complicated. I just play it and have fun :D

Easy for you to say. Not so much for a writer.

An I just remembered "Lasso" and "Complex X" <- I have it on favourites just because I have to take a couple of hours to actually try because the controls weird to say the least. They picked up Berzerker or SmashTV and decided 2 joystics weren't enough so they added a button... to play a puzzle/platform game :D

I know Lasso, but what is Complex X??

Some pain-in-the-ass game you're making up just to annoy me?

Like I said before... there was some weird stuff back in the day :D

Haha, I'll show you the weird stuff in MAME, bro.

 

[AnonTet]

Complex X i'm just mentioning for weird stuff. But it is an arcade game.

I tumbled upon it and though "here's a different thing"... then I could not play and looked for the controller setup and then tried to play and it was still weird but I kept it on my "need to feed the masochist in me list" :D Even if I do have the hardware to play it but it's just... complex :D

 

[AnonTet]

For c64 just posted:

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Hmm, just started watching that video. Sounds like some good stuff, not to mention a pretty heroic project on that guy's end(!)

Funny, I'm subscribed to a C64 subreddit and really should have noticed this before, but must have missed it. He's already announced several updates on Reddit.

I do believe there are some custom C64 frontends (like Gamebase64) out there, but this one sounds like it's more lovingly, exactingly made.

 

[AnonTet]

Just the project being a curated version is worth it for me. He does mention the fact of nearly 30k games so and it is in fact something that had put me off it for such a long time.

Launchbox is a no brainer but apparently his Vice version (he has worked with author) is the most updated has features only available as RA core.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Yeah, I got to that part about him working with the VICE dev. So cool.

Btw, he said he's offering 3k games in this package out of a total of 30k available for the C64.

I don't think you have anything to worry about in terms of frustrations, as he's clearly set the whole thing up to be as easy & painless as possible.

Only thing I noticed is that he somehow missed the classic, groundbreaking game Aztec in the collection. Oh well, it's always something!

 

[AnonTet]

You can always go on discord and ask him about Aztec