Cynicaster

It's a great game but unfortunately it's not going to work for this competition because it uses a roller controller. Is there a joystick/buttons game you'd like to substitute?

Got it, added to the list.

BTW, my 5 picks will be: Eggs Cybattler Block Hole Baluba Louk No Densetsu Funky Jet Kicker

Sinistar uses a special joystick. Got something else you want to pick in its place?

Hey man, this one isn't going to fly because it uses rotary joysticks. Is there some other pick you want instead? Note: I noticed in the suggestions thread for the previous competition you asked for Rod Land, so if I don't hear from you I'll go with that.

Yes, yes, yes. This is exactly the reason why the vast majority of my gaming time is spent with MAME and Atari 2600. Not only are the games a lot of fun, but they provide a convenient, tidy, and guilt-free way of fitting video games into a busy adult life dominated by serious responsibilities. I don't say "guilt-free" to imply that people should feel guilty for playing other kinds of games. It all comes down to circumstances. There is just no practical way to accommodate certain types of games in my life right now, or in the foreseeable future for that matter. If I got all wrapped up in some modern 300-400 hour AAA title or online FPS and started ignoring my daughter to play it because there simply aren't enough hours in the day to fit it in otherwise, that would make me quite the tit. With quick arcade-style games, all I need is 20-30 spare minutes to get a few quick games in. And when they're done, they're done. There's no lingering feeling of leaving something unfinished.

Ok, so I'm planning to kick off the new competition next weekend (probably evening of Sunday 10/27) and I need to populate the game pool from which the randomized selections will be made. I'm asking for up to 5 game suggestions per participant. Providing suggestions is purely optional, and players can choose to suggest fewer than 5 games, but I'm strongly urging everybody to make 5 suggestions to get a good pool going. I've started by gathering the suggestions that came up for the previous partial season but haven't been played yet. These suggestions will be used in lieu of any new suggestions, but there is no obligation to stick to your previous picks. Again, I'd urge everybody to revisit their list and flesh it out to a full 5 games. INELIGIBLE GAMES Games meeting any of the following criteria will not be eligible for this competition: The game lacks a clear scoring system Sports games (unless it includes an arcade-style scoring system) The game requires 2 or more players to work properly The original game uses any form of specialty or analog controller** The game has already been played in the last 2 competitions ** Examples of "specialty or analog controller" would include, but may not be limited to: track balls, spinners, yokes, 49-way sticks, twin-sticks, and steering wheels. Generally speaking, it must be possible to faithfully mimic the original game's controls using a single 8-direction controller and/or buttons. This should ensure that all games are properly playable with nothing but a USB gamepad. So let's get those suggestions rolling! NOTE: below is an alphabetical list of games that are ineligible because they were played in the previous 2 competitions. Aerofighters Arkanoid Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja Bagman Black Tiger Cadash Cadillacs and Dinosaurs Calipso Captain Commando Dark Seal Galaga '88 Ghouls 'N' Ghosts Golden Axe Gravitar Hippodrome Jungle Hunt Klax Ladybug Legend of Kage Magic Sword Mario Bros. Millipede Moon Patrol Mr. Do! Mystic Riders Nibbler Ninja Baseball Batman Parodius DA! Popeye Prehistoric Isle in 1930 Puyo Puyo R-Type Scramble Sunset Riders Super Pac-Man Tetris Plus Time Pilot '84 Time Tunnel Toki Trojan UN Squadron Wizard of Wor X-Men Xybots

Are you being serious? I need some kind of joystick for Atari 2600. If d-pad controllers were the only option left on earth, I wouldn't even bother.

In my experience, arcade ROMs are easy to find... the confusion and frustration comes when people attempt to use those ROMs in MAME and get nothing but error messages. This happens because MAME ROMs evolve over time, so a version of a ROM might work on one version of MAME but not another. Most ROM sources I've seen don't specify which version of MAME to use, so it's hit and miss. That's why full rom sets matched to a specific MAME version are absolute gold - and once you have one up and running, there is almost zero benefit to "upgrading" as new versions of MAME come out. MAME has a bit of a reputation for being a fiddly pain in the ass to set up, which seems to deter a lot of people from getting into it. That's a shame, because I swear, if it weren't for this confusion surrounding matching ROMs to MAME versions, it would be just as simple as any other emulator.

I'm not really married to any game selection method in particular. As mentioned, my goal was simply to have a fast and easy way for players to get their selections in the mix. I figured having the score results influence the picks would increase the stakes of the games, but I guess it's a fair criticism that this would tend to skew the advantage toward certain players. So I guess what I'll do is leave the floor open to game suggestions - say, 3 per player. Offering suggestions is purely optional, as there will be a pre-selected pool of games from which the selections will be made. All games - both players' picks and games from the pool - will have equal probability of selection, which will be done using a random number generator.

As mentioned by hero2billions, I have already proposed a new competition and offered to run it. I have a full ROM set (v122) and would be willing to provide ROMs from that. It's old, but honestly, most games that are worth playing have been emulated well for years. There have been some concerns raised about game selection methods, and that's OK - I'm flexible on that. I'm just looking for some signals of interest before I invest the time to get this ball rolling. Even ~10 or so players would be fine.

Well maybe we could turn it on its head and bias the picks to be from the players at the lower end of the standings, then? The idea is to come up with a way of allowing players to influence the games list without having to set up polls and all that kind of crap.

Over the weekend I was thinking about it, and since we don't have an active competition going right now I'd like to start a new one and volunteer to run it. But I'd like to do things a bit differently with regards to how standings are kept and how games are selected. Each player who joins has the option to select up to 5 games which will be his or her "picks." When a round is over, the games for the next round will be randomly selected from the lists of picks provided by the two top scorers in the round that just ended. If the same player wins both games, then both of the new games will come from that player's list of picks. If the player does not provide any picks, or if all of their picks have been used already, then the new selection(s) will be randomly selected from a "pool" of 50-100 titles. I will provide this list of games at the start of the competition so everybody can see what games are in the random pool. Note, it is OK if multiple players select the same games for their lists, and it is also OK if players want to include a game from the pool on their list to increase the chances that it will be played, but no game will be played more than once in the competition. Competition standings will be calculated using a "percentage score" method, which works as follows: Top scorer in a game earns 100% Every other player earns a percentage relative to the top score. As an example, suppose we have the following results in Pac-Man: Player A - 12,000 Player B - 45,000 Player C - 17,000 Player B earns 100% for having top score Player A earns 12,000 / 45,000 = 26.7% Player C earns 17,000 / 45,000 = 37.8% So, every player will have a score between 0-100 assigned for each game. Overall standings for the competition will be based on the average of these 0-100 scores, kind of like a bowling average. The final averages will omit every player's (4) worst 0-100 scores. This should give players a bit of a buffer if they need to miss a round in the competition, if they join late, etc. I was thinking a duration of about 10 rounds with 2 games each, with each round lasting 2 weeks, but this can be sorted out later. If you would be interested in participating in this, please respond to this thread so I can get a feel for whether it's worth starting this or not.

I’m thinking it’s safe to say our host has pulled the chute.

Sounds like Alien Syndrome to me.