Cynicaster

Yeah, I'm SO glad I built my MAME cabinet when I was at a narrow slice of time in my life where I simultaneously had the cash, time, and will to do it. There is no way on earth I'd be able to do such a project now, based on time alone. My cabinet is in its 3rd home now, on it's 3rd (or 4th?) PC, has a few dings on it from being moved, but at almost 12 years on it's still going strong and still gets played often (usually multiple times per week, even if just for an hour or so.) I remember when I was building it and it was taking forever to finish, I said to myself "it's really going to suck if I put all this time and effort into this thing, play it for a few months, then push it off into the corner where it collects dust." Turned out to not be an issue.

Did a quick run through of all the games last night. I've played all of these before but very little. Initial thoughts: In the Hunt - absolutely beautiful looking game, especially for 1993, but I tried 10 or so credits and got absolutely nowhere. Even on a balls-hard Cave shooter like Progear or Guwange I can usually clear a stage or 2 after a few attempts, but not so on In The Hunt. Will keep at it, though. Zoo Keeper - my pick, and the one on the list I've played the most. Unsung classic, IMO. Anteater - I remember playing this in the MAME HSC years ago and thinking it was kind of unfair and frustrating. That continues to be my impression, although it has a lot of cool ideas. For my money, I'd rather play the Anteater knock-off known as "Oil's Well" on Colecovision, Commodore 64, and others. Mr. Do! - played this as a kid on Atari 2600 and could never get into it on MAME/arcade. Not sure why, maybe I just need to stick with it and give it a chance. Super Dodge Ball - neat game but I'm struggling to see what the strategy is. Also, it's going to be very difficult to capture pictures of scores with this one because the score blanks out immediately after you lose. Might have to go with the honor system. Wonder Boy - I played this briefly years ago in an online competition somewhere, and didn't get it. Played a few rounds last night and it seems pretty fun and addictive. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this list and look forward to digging in.

Happy holidays gamers! Lots to keep you busy this round. Note the end-date for this round; it will run double-length to give everyone more time.

This round's game 1 of 6: In the Hunt ROM Name: In The Hunt (World) ROM File: inthunt Picked by: Floyd Turbo DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : Lives: 3 Difficulty: normal This round's game 2 of 6: Zoo Keeper ROM Name: Zoo Keeper (set 1) ROM File: zookeep Picked by: Cynicaster DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : Internal defaults This round's game 3 of 6: Anteater ROM Name: Anteater ROM File: anteater Picked by: MAME Offender DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : Lives: 3 This round's game 4 of 6: Mr. Do! ROM Name: Mr. Do! ROM File: mrdo Picked by: evan04 DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : Difficulty: easy Special: easy Extra: easy Lives: 3 This round's game 5 of 6: Super Dodgeball ROM Name: Super Dodge Ball (US) ROM File: spdodgeb Picked by: Hero2millions DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : Difficulty: normal This round's game 6 of 6: Wonder Boy ROM Name: Wonder Boy (set 1, 315-5177) ROM File: wboy Picked by: S.BAZ DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : Lives: 3 Bonus: 30k 120k 210k 300k Difficulty: easy Console Side-Quest: What game on home console or handheld did you (or do you) find especially maddening or frustrating? Post a score for 2 bonus points. Rules: Please change your DIPs to the settings listed. If you're unsure how to do this, please ask Screenshots required No continues No save states No cheats Any working version of MAME can be used, but the ROMs provided for this competition will be verified to work on MAME v0.139. The "user interface" version of MAME v0.139 can be downloaded at: http://www.progettosnaps.net/mameui/ Competition ends: Sunday January 15, 11:59pm PST Previous Round Results: Intrepid Score Points S.BAZ 66,510 12 evan04 59,010 9 MAME Offender 58,190 8 Cynicaster 43,910 7 Floyd Turbo 13,040 6 Hero2millions 850 5 jblenkle 0 NE146 0 RuySan 0 Xain'd Sleena Score Points S.BAZ 104,530 12 Cynicaster 103,450 9 MAME Offender 96,010 8 Floyd Turbo 33,000 7 Hero2millions 29,500 6 evan04 25,250 5 jblenkle 0 NE146 0 RuySan 0 CSQ Bonus Cynicaster 2 MAME Offender 2 S.BAZ 2 Hero2millions Floyd Turbo jblenkle evan04 NE146 RuySan Standings to Date: 1 Cynicaster 85 2 MAME Offender 75 3 S.BAZ 67 4 evan04 63 5 Floyd Turbo 56 6 Hero2millions 47 7 NE146 8 8 jblenkle 7 9 RuySan 6 anteater.zip inthunt.zip mrdo.zip spdodgeb.zip wboy.zip zookeep.zip

For Intrepid, you can do the doors in any order. I find it's pretty much mandatory to go up to the 4th floor first (the one just under the locked door) because this is where the boots are always hidden. Getting the boots enables you to walk much faster and avoid the guards. Another thing is I kept dying really cheap deaths going in/out of doors, where the guards would either appear a split second before I tried to exit or they would appear right on top of me once exiting a door. From what I can tell the best way to avoid this is to always wait for all guards to enter the room before you try the door, so you know where all of them are.

Xain’d 103,450 Intrepid 43,910 These are both pretty fun games that I’ve never heard of. I had no idea what I was doing on Intrepid at first but a quick YouTube video cleared it up.

If you download the version of mame linked in the original post (v139) it should work with the rom provided. All ROMs I post for the competition come from a v139 romset. I make sure to test all games before posting and Xain’d worked for me.

Indeed, brothers. Floyd Turbo is our cousin, too. So our lineage is well represented in this competition. 🙂

For the side quest, I'm going to go with Pole Position II on Atari 7800. We got the 7800 for Christmas in 1987 - in large part because we wanted Pole Position II. It was great fun at first but playing that game now, it's kind of... ass. For a bonus, here is a screen grab from our home video of Christmas '87. That's our own MAME Offender holding up the PP2 cartridge for the camera. I'm in the background wearing the red pajama shirt.

This round's game 1 of 2: Intrepid ROM Name: Intrepid (set 1) ROM File: intrepid Picked by: evan04 DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : Difficulty: easy Bonus: 10,000 Lives: 5 This round's game 2 of 2: Xain'd Sleena ROM Name: Xain'd Sleena ROM File: xsleena Picked by: S.BAZ DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : Difficulty: easy Game time: slow Bonus: 20k 70k plus every 70k Lives: 3 Console Side-Quest: What is a console game you enjoyed as a kid but now you feel has aged poorly and is actually kind of bad? Post a score for 2 bonus points. Rules: Please change your DIPs to the settings listed. If you're unsure how to do this, please ask Screenshots required No continues No save states No cheats Any working version of MAME can be used, but the ROMs provided for this competition will be verified to work on MAME v0.139. The "user interface" version of MAME v0.139 can be downloaded at: http://www.progettosnaps.net/mameui/ Competition ends: Sunday December 18, 11:59pm PST Previous Round Results: Popeye Score Points Cynicaster 74,640 12 MAME Offender 71,430 9 S.BAZ 43,500 8 evan04 41,430 7 Floyd Turbo 15,790 6 Hero2millions 2,800 5 jblenkle 0 NE146 0 RuySan 0 Bank Panic Score Points evan04 556,150 12 S.BAZ 180,200 9 MAME Offender 155,000 8 Cynicaster 147,200 7 Hero2millions 92,100 6 Floyd Turbo 87,800 5 jblenkle 0 NE146 0 RuySan 0 CSQ Bonus Hero2millions 2 Floyd Turbo 2 Cynicaster 2 MAME Offender 2 S.BAZ 2 evan04 2 jblenkle NE146 RuySan Standings to Date: 1 Cynicaster 67 2 MAME Offender 57 3 evan04 49 4 Floyd Turbo 43 5 S.BAZ 41 6 Hero2millions 36 7 NE146 8 8 jblenkle 7 9 RuySan 6 intrepid.zip xsleena.zip

Popeye 74,640

Great pick. I considered that one myself.

For 2600 port I’m going to go with Track & Field. Got this for Christmas in 1986 and it was pretty cool with the arcade style controller it came with. We used the controller to play Decathlon too, which probably saved us lots of busted joysticks.

Yes, AmberElec is a great upgrade that I did almost right away. Don’t even remember how I did it, but I know it was straightforward.

Yeah, I was in that mode of "if I wait, I'll get a better deal on something more capable" for many months until I finally realized that my gaming needs do not require "more capable" so I might as well just go ahead and buy something if it looks good.

Bank panic - 147,200 Popeye - 60,810

I also strongly prefer the 2600 game to the arcade - one of the very rare instances for me where I prefer a home port over the original - but there is probably a bit of bias for me toward the 2600 version since I grew up with it and never even played the original arcade version until I was in my 30s. There are many other games inspired by Space Invaders that are much more fun to play than Space Invaders itself, IMO. It's a pioneering game but just a bit too "basic" to hold my attention for more than a few minutes at a time.

I've got an Anbernic RG351MP and I think it's awesome. This is what I've said over and over again about this device. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but whatever it was, the actual device far exceeded it. I guess maybe I was expecting something on the quality spectrum closer to "cheap dime-a-dozen Ali Express" type of hardware rather than "high end, refined" hardware but the Anbernic is surprisingly far toward the latter end. Once the pandemic restrictions started easing and I started traveling for work again, this device suddenly had a good use case for me so I pulled the trigger. Previously I had been playing games on my tablet using a USB controller - which is still a great solution, don't get me wrong - but having a small, all-in-one device is extremely convenient. I think it's best at 8- and 16-bit gaming because those games (to me, anyway) seem to translate much better to the small screen. I mean, I can play Dreamcast and Playstation games too and they run great, but I struggle a bit with such games on a small screen.

This round's game 1 of 2: Bank Panic ROM Name: Bank Panic ROM File: bankp Picked by: evan04 DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : Lives: 3 Difficulty: Easy Bonus Life: 70k 200k 500k This round's game 2 of 2: Popeye ROM Name: Popeye (Revision D) ROM File: popeye Picked by: Cynicaster DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : Difficulty: easy Bonus life: 40,000 Lives: 3 Console Side-Quest: What do you think is one of the best arcade port on the Atari 2600 or the rival Intellivision? Post a score for 2 bonus points. Rules: Please change your DIPs to the settings listed. If you're unsure how to do this, please ask Screenshots required No continues No save states No cheats Any working version of MAME can be used, but the ROMs provided for this competition will be verified to work on MAME v0.139. The "user interface" version of MAME v0.139 can be downloaded at: http://www.progettosnaps.net/mameui/ Competition ends: Sunday December 4, 11:59pm PST Previous Round Results: 1944 Score Points MAME Offender 4,576,670 12 Cynicaster 1,600,350 9 evan04 1,054,350 8 Floyd Turbo 1,053,060 7 RuySan 904,380 6 Hero2millions 446,020 5 S.BAZ 0 jblenkle 0 NE146 0 Robotron Score Points Cynicaster 453,350 12 MAME Offender 444,225 9 NE146 382,275 8 evan04 141,825 7 Floyd Turbo 40,925 6 Hero2millions 36,425 5 S.BAZ 0 jblenkle 0 RuySan 0 CSQ Bonus Hero2millions 2 Floyd Turbo 2 Cynicaster 2 MAME Offender S.BAZ jblenkle evan04 NE146 RuySan Standings to Date: 1 Cynicaster 46 2 MAME Offender 38 3 Floyd Turbo 30 4 evan04 28 5 Hero2millions 23 6 S.BAZ 22 7 NE146 8 8 jblenkle 7 9 RuySan 6 bankp.zip popeye.zip

Robotron 453,350 1944 1,600,350

For Robotron ports, here's the Atari 5200 version. It's pretty janky - especially if you play it right after playing the original - but I can see how having this at home in the early 80s would have been pretty cool. It even allows dual-stick controls. Next up, the PICO-8 version released only a few months ago. I was not able to try it with dual-stick controls so I don't think I have a very good feel for how much fun this version could be.

Is there a way to go into the service menu on your MiSTer? I've never used one of those but I know it can be done in MAME by pressing the F2 key. If you can get into the service menu and verify default difficulty is 3 then you've got the correct romset.

As long as you use the blue romset at the indicated settings, let ‘er rip. 🙂 Welcome aboard

I'd prefer if everybody used the same version. If you download the version of MAME (v139) linked in the first post, you should be able to run any ROMset posted in this competition because the ROMs come from that set and I test them all before posting.

This round's game 1 of 2: 1944 - The Loop Master ROM Name: 1944: The Loop Master (USA 000620) ROM File: 1944 Picked by: MAME Offender DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : INTERNAL DEFAULTS This round's game 2 of 2: Robotron 2084 ROM Name: Robotron (Solid Blue Label) ROM File: robotron Picked by: Hero2millions DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED ) : INTERNAL DEFAULTS (NOTE: settings on this game cannot be edited with DIP settings in the TAB menu; you must enter service mode (F2) to change them. The settings below should be correct by default unless you have changed them in the past on your setup.) Bonus life: 25,000 Lives: 3 Difficulty: 3 Console Side-Quest: What is an 8- or 16-bit console game that you think has a memorable soundtrack? Post a score for 2 bonus points, but you will not get credit for a game already posted by somebody else. Get 1 bonus point each for posting screen shots of scores on home ports of Robotron 2084. Max 2 per player. Rules: Please change your DIPs to the settings listed. If you're unsure how to do this, please ask Screenshots required No continues No save states No cheats Any working version of MAME can be used, but the ROMs provided for this competition will be verified to work on MAME v0.139. The "user interface" version of MAME v0.139 can be downloaded at: http://www.progettosnaps.net/mameui/ Competition ends: Sunday November 20, 11:59pm PST Previous Round Results: Nitro Ball Score Points S.BAZ 3,631,920 12 Cynicaster 3,245,790 9 Floyd Turbo 3,010,510 8 evan04 2,554,140 7 MAME Offender 2,372,360 6 Hero2millions 1,381,340 5 jblenkle 0 Donkey Kong Score Points Cynicaster 218,800 12 MAME Offender 190,500 9 S.BAZ 180,300 8 jblenkle 63,400 7 evan04 59,000 6 Floyd Turbo 3,100 5 Hero2millions 900 4 CSQ Bonus Hero2millions 2 Floyd Turbo 2 Cynicaster 2 MAME Offender 2 S.BAZ 2 jblenkle evan04 STANDINGS TO DATE 1 Cynicaster 23 2 S.BAZ 22 3 MAME Offender 17 4 Floyd Turbo 15 5 evan04 13 6 Hero2millions 11 7 jblenkle 7 1944.zip robotron.zip