NEW MAME HSC - Round 1/10 - Bionic Commando / Cybattler

[Cynicaster]

Hey all, so it begins! 

 

I'm getting this going a bit early because I am going away this weekend and I don't know how much time I'll have on Sunday to get it started as planned.  The rounds will continue to have a nominal duration of 2 weeks and end on Sundays at 11:59pm Pacific time.  I will do my best to get new round threads posted with results summaries by latest the Tuesday following completion of each round. 

 

We're kicking this thing off with Cybattler and Bionic Commando.  It may raise some eyebrows that one of my game selections is in the first round, but I swear that is what the random number generator picked.  :)

 

Newcomers can continue to submit game suggestions.  A pair of games will be randomly selected from the pool of suggestions shortly before posting each new round thread. 

 

 

This round's game 1 of 2:

Bionic Commando

 

ROM Name: Bionic Commando (US Set 1)

ROM File: bionicc1

Picked by: youxia

 

DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED):

 

Lives: 3

Bonus Life: 20k 40k 100k 60k+

Difficulty: Easy

 

 

 

This round's game 2 of 2:

Cybattler

 

ROM Name: Cybattler

ROM File: cybattlr

Picked by: Cynicaster

 

DIP settings (changes from default shown in RED):

 

Difficulty: Normal

Allow Continue: OFF
 

 

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 10, 11:59pm PST

 

Previous Round Results:

NONE YET

 

Standings to Date:

NONE YET

bionicc1.zip cybattlr.zip

[hero2billions]

excellent nice to see it up and running again Thanks Cynicaster

[Floyd Turbo]

Thanks Cuz. 

[AtariWarlord]

Thanks Cynicaster.

[AtariWarlord]

Bionic Commando 16,560.

[Floyd Turbo]

Bionic C - 18,290

Cybattlr - 131,590

 

Edited October 30, 2019 by Floyd Turbo

[Mangia-Boy]

[Cynicaster]

20 hours ago, Mangia-Boy said:

 

 

 

It says at the top of this window that you're running the European ROM for Bionic Commando.  To ensure an even playing field, please try to use the ROM version stipulated (and provided with) the first post.  Thanks

 

 

[Cynicaster]

Since it's my pick, I'll provide some quick pointers for Cybattler:

 

- I think this should be obvious after a few seconds of playing, but in case it isn't, when using the gun weapon, you can hold the button down which fixes your character in its orientation.  You don't always have to be facing forward like in a traditional shooter, which is one of the cool aspects of this game, IMO

 

- The laser sword attack gets you more points than the gun.  For example, on the first screen, you'll notice that shooting the big robot enemies gets you 500 points, while slicing them with the sword gets you 1000 points

When using the sword, don't worry about dying or losing energy from accidentally bumping into enemies or asteroids.  This does little to no damage.  The main hazard you want to avoid is enemy fire. 

 

- On level 1, your gun charges up when you don't use it.  You'll see a meter in the lower left that continues to climb the longer the gun sits idle.  You want a nicely charged gun for the boss battle at the end of the level, so this is another incentive to use the sword where possible.    On level 2, you are equipped with a different gun that doesn't continuously charge, but it does offer bursts of more powerful shots if you let it charge for a few seconds.

 

- After defeating the level 1 boss, just before the screen that tallies up your bonus points for the level, you'll see 5 green guys fly onto the screen and sit in a 'V' formation for a few seconds.  If you can kill all these guys before they fly away, you're awarded a 50,000 bonus.  This is yet another reason to try to keep some charge on your gun.  Note, within the V formation, there is also a red guy that sits in the center.  I'm not 100% sure how this works but it seems like you don't get the bonus if you kill the red guy.  So, in other words, to get the bonus, try to get the 5 green guys but NOT the red guy.  Weird.

[Mangia-Boy]

3 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

 

 

It says at the top of this window that you're running the European ROM for Bionic Commando.  To ensure an even playing field, please try to use the ROM version stipulated (and provided with) the first post.  Thanks

 

 

I'm sorry about this mistake. I'm not so familiar with arcade games.

[patbb]

bionic commando: 44,900

level 2 completed.

[Ramses]

I'm really liking the shoot-any-direction/strafing mechanic in Cybattler. I've played it once before very briefly, but this is the first time I got to actually play it for real. Can't get past the first boss yet though.

 

Bionic Commando: 20,560

 

 

 

 

Cybattler: 58,800

 

Edited October 30, 2019 by Ramses

[Cynicaster]

Bionic Commando - 45,660

 

Cybattler - 308,060

 

 

Man, Bionic Commando is hard as balls with lots of cheap deaths. It's one thing to play this in MAME where you have limitless credits at no cost, but I honestly do not understand how they'd expect a game like this to catch on in an arcade where kids are using real quarters to play.  If I were giving this game a try in 1987 as a 10 year-old kid with $2 in quarters to my name, I'd only tolerate so many instances of guys falling out of the sky and landing on me or guys charging at me with no way of defeating them before I'd say "screw this" and move on to a game where I can get more than 10-15 seconds of play for a quarter.  After many tries I was able to clear the 2nd level, but the only strategy that seemed to work for me was to kind of memorize a path up the screen and race up there as quickly as possible.  Any time I tried to actually fight anybody I'd die almost immediately, mostly because you can only fire your weapon left and right, and you can't jump. 

 

The nature of this game's difficulty reminds me a lot of Ghosts 'N Goblins, which I guess is not surprising since they're both from Capcom. 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2019 by Cynicaster

[Cynicaster]

On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 11:48 AM, Mangia-Boy said:

I'm sorry about this mistake. I'm not so familiar with arcade games.

It's cool, just wanted to let you know.

 

Arcade emulation is a bit of an odd-ball if you're used to emulating consoles.  Most console cartridges have one version of the ROM and that's it.  But with arcade, some titles have multiple ROM versions, which exist for various reasons:

 

- To localize them to different regions (e.g. Europe, USA/Canada, Japan)

- To use different languages (mostly English vs. Japanese)

- To implement code revisions aimed at removing exploitable quirks (there are multiple revisions of Asteroids, for example)

- To brand games with different publishers (for example, there are Namco and Atari versions of Pole Position and Xevious)

 

To the untrained eye, the different versions can appear identical.  But sometimes there are differences that can directly affect game difficulty, so we try to get everybody playing the same version to make it fair.  I will be attaching the correct version to every new round thread, so you can't go wrong by using those. 

[jblenkle]

Bionic Commando - 1,730

 

Cybattler - 32,420

 

[AtariWarlord]

Bionic Commando 19,930. Cynicaster, I think you're right about the reasons why this game didn't set the world on fire. Going by its presence on YouTube, the NES version seems to be far more popular. Lots more opportunity to practice and study its quirks without sinking in a quarter (more likely 50 cents by this point in the '80s) every time the game's cheap-death policy robs you of your three lives. 

[Ramses]

On 10/30/2019 at 9:49 AM, Cynicaster said:

Man, Bionic Commando is hard as balls with lots of cheap deaths. It's one thing to play this in MAME where you have limitless credits at no cost, but I honestly do not understand how they'd expect a game like this to catch on in an arcade where kids are using real quarters to play.  If I were giving this game a try in 1987 as a 10 year-old kid with $2 in quarters to my name, I'd only tolerate so many instances of guys falling out of the sky and landing on me or guys charging at me with no way of defeating them before I'd say "screw this" and move on to a game where I can get more than 10-15 seconds of play for a quarter.  After many tries I was able to clear the 2nd level, but the only strategy that seemed to work for me was to kind of memorize a path up the screen and race up there as quickly as possible.  Any time I tried to actually fight anybody I'd die almost immediately, mostly because you can only fire your weapon left and right, and you can't jump. 

 

The nature of this game's difficulty reminds me a lot of Ghosts 'N Goblins, which I guess is not surprising since they're both from Capcom. 

 

 

 

Haha, I was thinking the exact same thing during my playthrough! Those big guys that charge you are a pain. If they start charging at you within a certain distance, you're toast. Nothing you can do it seems.

[AtariWarlord]

Cybattler 52,190.

[youxia]

On 10/30/2019 at 2:49 PM, Cynicaster said:

guys charging at me with no way of defeating them

All you need to do is knock'em out with the hook

 

It's easy to rage about a game being hard and unfair, unless you realize that as in most such cases there were/are countless players who actually are very good at it. And that's not because they had countless coins in their pockets then or are freeriding MAME now, but because they understood how the game works. It reminds me a bit of being angry with Defender in the old days, when I was astonished at how anybody can be bothered with a seemingly impossible and sooo-unfair! game, before I understood that it's a "me, not you" scenario and started appreciating it as one of the best games ever.

 

In case of BC it's about switching from the pure run'n gun Contra mindset and retooling it for the more tactical and freedom-of-movement informed style. In this game you are not trapped in one predestined path, as was the case with the majority of arcade games, but can decide if it's worth risking going the hard way, where you can get more weapon/points drops or hotfoot it via the easy route and maybe get the high clearance bonus/live longer. You also have to adapt to the changing environment and unpredictable and fairly AI'd up (for the time) enemies, another innovative feature which makes this game immensely replayable and a joy to play (unlike the tedium of memorization offered by Toki/Black Tiger - likes)

 

Like most of my picks, I chose it because I was blown away by it back in the day but never really got to play it. The only machine in my country I knew of was in the capital, 500km from where I lived. Still, every time I went there I made sure to visit that arcade...

 

Edited November 1, 2019 by youxia
typo

[AtariWarlord]

On 11/1/2019 at 3:13 AM, youxia said:

All you need to do is knock'em out with the hook

 

It's easy to rage about a game being hard and unfair, unless you realize that as in most such cases there were/are countless players who actually are very good at it. And that's not because they had countless coins in their pockets then or are freeriding MAME now, but because they understood how the game works. It reminds me a bit of being angry with Defender in the old days, when I was astonished at how anybody can be bothered with a seemingly impossible and sooo-unfair! game, before I understood that it's a "me, not you" scenario and started appreciating it as one of the best games ever.

 

In case of BC it's about switching from the pure run'n gun Contra mindset and retooling it for the more tactical and freedom-of-movement informed style. In this game you are not trapped in one predestined path, as was the case with the majority of arcade games, but can decide if it's worth risking going the hard way, where you can get more weapon/points drops or hotfoot it via the easy route and maybe get the high clearance bonus/live longer. You also have to adapt to the changing environment and unpredictable and fairly AI'd up (for the time) enemies, another innovative feature which makes this game immensely replayable and a joy to play (unlike the tedium of memorization offered by Toki/Black Tiger - likes)

 

Like most of my picks, I chose it because I was blown away by it back in the day but never really got to play it. The only machine in my country I knew of was in the capital, 500km from where I lived. Still, every time I went there I made sure to visit that arcade...

 

I don't think anyone is calling Bionic Commando a bad game -- in fact, I've been playing it more than the (to me) far easier Cybattler. I just find it more enjoyable, but that doesn't make it any less hard-as-balls. You're right; it is a lot different than the very regimented style of most classic games and there is a learning curve. Some appropriate cursing and knashing of teeth is expected -- it's not a knock on the game. 

Edited November 3, 2019 by AtariWarlord

[Cynicaster]

Alright MAME fans, one week to go with Bionic Commando and Cybattler.  Get those scores in!  

[AtariWarlord]

On 11/1/2019 at 3:13 AM, youxia said:

All you need to do is knock'em out with the hook

 

It's easy to rage about a game being hard and unfair, unless you realize that as in most such cases there were/are countless players who actually are very good at it. And that's not because they had countless coins in their pockets then or are freeriding MAME now, but because they understood how the game works. It reminds me a bit of being angry with Defender in the old days, when I was astonished at how anybody can be bothered with a seemingly impossible and sooo-unfair! game, before I understood that it's a "me, not you" scenario and started appreciating it as one of the best games ever.

 

In case of BC it's about switching from the pure run'n gun Contra mindset and retooling it for the more tactical and freedom-of-movement informed style. In this game you are not trapped in one predestined path, as was the case with the majority of arcade games, but can decide if it's worth risking going the hard way, where you can get more weapon/points drops or hotfoot it via the easy route and maybe get the high clearance bonus/live longer. You also have to adapt to the changing environment and unpredictable and fairly AI'd up (for the time) enemies, another innovative feature which makes this game immensely replayable and a joy to play (unlike the tedium of memorization offered by Toki/Black Tiger - likes)

 

Like most of my picks, I chose it because I was blown away by it back in the day but never really got to play it. The only machine in my country I knew of was in the capital, 500km from where I lived. Still, every time I went there I made sure to visit that arcade...

 

Maybe you have some insight into how to deal with those stupid flying squirrels?

[S.BAZ]

Bionic Commando:  11,150

where's my font button?? 

 

I played the NES game a lot!  I remember this game in the arcade, liked it but only played a few times.

 

I love those Capcom music & sounds!

Edited November 4, 2019 by S.BAZ
to add pic

[AtariWarlord]

Cybattler 59,840. 62,370 I'm starting to like this game more and more. I like Bionic Commando but I know it's going to take more than a two-week investment to get better at it (but if I do, I'm hoping it will make all other video games seem easy by comparison).

 

Edited November 5, 2019 by AtariWarlord
Improved score.

[M.A.M.E Offender]

Hey guys!

 

Cybattler: looks like I will dig into that one for sure.  I was wondering what incentive there was for the sword, but a previous post answered it with double the points per hit.

 

I should be able to tattoo my first entry in the New Atariage rounds tonight...