Next Season Game Suggestions

[roadrunner]

Would R.C. Pro Am be a good game for high score club play?
You have to add a bunch of time so you can finish the game if you last 5-10 races


 

[youxia]

Renegade gets bad rep mainly for the control scheme. It can be a bit confusing, but one can get used to it (especially when you redefine the keys a bit). It's also hard as nails which does not help with popularity.

 

I see Out Run did not make the cut, so proposing Chase HQ instead. Just trying to get out of our usual maze-sidescroll-shoot'em up zone, even though racers are not my fave genre.

[Cynicaster]

6 hours ago, roadrunner said:

Would R.C. Pro Am be a good game for high score club play?
You have to add a bunch of time so you can finish the game if you last 5-10 races


 

 

Is there an arcade version of that, or is it the Playchoice 10 thingy?  I think I'd prefer to... ahem... steer clear of PC-10 because we already have a NES HSC on this forum. 

 

 

[Cynicaster]

1 hour ago, youxia said:

I see Out Run did not make the cut, so proposing Chase HQ instead. Just trying to get out of our usual maze-sidescroll-shoot'em up zone, even though racers are not my fave genre.

 

 

Chase HQ has the same problem as Outrun.

As a reminder, here are the guidelines:

Quote

 

In general, the criteria for accepting a suggestion are as follows:

 

 

- the game is emulated reasonably well in the "official" MAME version of this competition (v139).  It's very unlikely that this rule will affect anything.

 

- the game plays properly in a single-player mode

 

- the game has a scoring system that can be used to compare performance among participants

 

- the game can be played more or less as originally intended using nothing more than a single joystick and/or buttons.  To illustrate what "more or less as originally intended" means: we can play a game like Satan's Hollow or Gorf with generic sticks and buttons even though the original joysticks are physically quite different from generic ones, but games that originally used trackballs, spinners, steering wheels, analog flight sticks, yokes, etc. are not eligible, even though MAME provides ways of faking these games with joysticks

 

- the game was not played in the latest season

 

 

[roadrunner]

25 minutes ago, Cynicaster said:

 

Is there an arcade version of that, or is it the Playchoice 10 thingy?  I think I'd prefer to... ahem... steer clear of PC-10 because we already have a NES HSC on this forum. 

 

 

Yeah, it's a Playchoice 10 thing.

I thought about Rampage World Tour , but it looks like a player needs at least 125k to make it to a high score table.
 

[Cynicaster]

4 minutes ago, roadrunner said:

Yeah, it's a Playchoice 10 thing.

I thought about Rampage World Tour , but it looks like a player needs at least 125k to make it to a high score table.
 

 

If there is adequate time to pause the game and take a screenshot of the score, then we won't let a high-bar on the score table be a reason not to use the game. 

 

 

[roadrunner]

13 minutes ago, Cynicaster said:

 

If there is adequate time to pause the game and take a screenshot of the score, then we won't let a high-bar on the score table be a reason not to use the game. 

 

 

Score goes away pretty quick. 
I'll have to try out some other games.
 

[AtariWarlord]

4 hours ago, youxia said:

Renegade gets bad rep mainly for the control scheme. It can be a bit confusing, but one can get used to it (especially when you redefine the keys a bit). It's also hard as nails which does not help with popularity.

 

I see Out Run did not make the cut, so proposing Chase HQ instead. Just trying to get out of our usual maze-sidescroll-shoot'em up zone, even though racers are not my fave genre.

I used to love me some Renegade back in the arcade days, but playing it in MAME seems like a chore compared to my (admittedly distant) memories. Maybe it's because I've gotten used to a more standardized control model in fighting games that's been developed since then?

[youxia]

3 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

Chase HQ has the same problem as Outrun.

I suppose you mean the controls rule? I think it's a bit too restrictive, because it eliminates most racing games, despite the fact that some (most?) of them are perfectly playable using whatever modern controls people are using.

 

It's interesting actually, does a game like Outrun actually benefit from being played with a steering wheel? It seems like lot of work for simple right/left movement. Acceleration, ok, but... Admittedly, it's not something I know a lot about though.

 

I was about to say 1000 Miglia, but this isometric racer also uses a steering wheel...sigh.

 

Let's go back to 64th Street then...

[Zoyous]

1 hour ago, youxia said:

It's interesting actually, does a game like Outrun actually benefit from being played with a steering wheel? It seems like lot of work for simple right/left movement. Acceleration, ok, but... Admittedly, it's not something I know a lot about though.

I would have to say so. By looking at my avatar you might infer, I've played Out Run in a lot of different formats... and it's, well, okay on MAME with a joystick. It can be played, although it's more difficult since you're also trying to manage an accelerator, brake pedal and gearshift with buttons. But a few years ago I found an upright coin-op and played it for the first time in a long time, and the wheel is just so sensitive and silky smooth, you just have a whole lot more precise control using it. You can change lanes precisely and either do it slowly or quickly or in between... truly analog control. To only play it with a joystick, you're not really getting the intended experience with "high fidelity" control that the free-spinning arcade wheel with foot pedals and gearshift provides.

[roadrunner]

Renegade is a tough game for me, too many bad guys on the screen attacking you at once.
Quartet seems to use key 1 to fire on MAME32, controls are awkward.
 

[hero2billions]

 

12 hours ago, youxia said:

I suppose you mean the controls rule? I think it's a bit too restrictive, because it eliminates most racing games, despite the fact that some (most?) of them are perfectly playable using whatever modern controls people are using.

 

It's interesting actually, does a game like Outrun actually benefit from being played with a steering wheel? It seems like lot of work for simple right/left movement. Acceleration, ok, but... Admittedly, it's not something I know a lot about though.

 

I was about to say 1000 Miglia, but this isometric racer also uses a steering wheel...sigh.

 

Let's go back to 64th Street then...

I remember playing hard driving in the HSC recently

[youxia]

13 hours ago, Zoyous said:

 To only play it with a joystick, you're not really getting the intended experience with "high fidelity" control that the free-spinning arcade wheel with foot pedals and gearshift provides.

Perhaps, but so would millions of people who have been playing this, and other similar games as ports on consoles and emus. And I've never heard any complaints about their general playability when using modern controllers.

 

For me this rule about controls makes sense when applied to games which might really suffer because of esoteric control schemes. Otherwise, it's just limiting the scope of discovery/fun.

[Cynicaster]

8 hours ago, youxia said:

Perhaps, but so would millions of people who have been playing this, and other similar games as ports on consoles and emus. And I've never heard any complaints about their general playability when using modern controllers.

 

For me this rule about controls makes sense when applied to games which might really suffer because of esoteric control schemes. Otherwise, it's just limiting the scope of discovery/fun.

 

 

Again, it's understood that MAME provides ways of faking analog controls with joysticks - but some of the ones that had potentiometers in them and tracked absolute position (which includes many non-free-spinning steering wheel games) are pretty sketchy without real hardware because you need to "pass through center" when changing directions, which takes some fiddling with settings to make it remotely intuitive, let alone fun.  Some games are definitely much worse than others in this regard. 

 

But really, this questionable playability is only one of the reasons behind the rule.  The goal is to encourage people to play the games in the competition as much as possible, on a reasonably level playing field.  With analog games, what happens is you get people who have, for example, MAME cabinets with track balls or spinners (like me, for example).  I can fake a steering wheel game much better with these controls than you can with a d-pad controller or keyboard.  So not only am I at an instant advantage, I'm much more likely to play the game more and get more out of it, than someone with a Logitech d-pad who gives it one quick try just to put up a score, then gives up because it's just no fun to play with what they have.  Same goes for trackball games - I'd love to play some of those (Missile Command, Centipede, Wacko, etc.), but there is a major handicap for players who don't have the right controls, vs. the players who do. 

 

The surest way to bring everybody down to the same realm of control capability is to mandate 2/4/8-way digital joysticks and buttons.  There are literally thousands of games that meet this criterion, so there is lots to discover. 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2020 by Cynicaster

[hero2billions]

Looks like I'm the only one trying to beat renegade 4 times on 1 credit, never knew this game was so disliked

 

Cynicaster, would you consider relaxing some game selection rules? It seems unfair to me to eliminate so many great games (paperboy,robotron,wrestlefest,etc) and most sports/driving. Maybe 1 of our selections could feature this type of game? I understand your point on fairness, but it's not like we take this overly serious. I think it's mostly i've discovered so many fun games playing here and i'll never be able to share my favorite game in the HSC.

Cyberball

 

[youxia]

14 hours ago, Cynicaster said:

 

 

Again, it's understood that MAME provides ways of faking analog controls with joysticks - but some of the ones that had potentiometers in them and tracked absolute position (which includes many non-free-spinning steering wheel games) are pretty sketchy without real hardware because you need to "pass through center" when changing directions, which takes some fiddling with settings to make it remotely intuitive, let alone fun.  Some games are definitely much worse than others in this regard. 

 

But really, this questionable playability is only one of the reasons behind the rule.  The goal is to encourage people to play the games in the competition as much as possible, on a reasonably level playing field.  With analog games, what happens is you get people who have, for example, MAME cabinets with track balls or spinners (like me, for example).  I can fake a steering wheel game much better with these controls than you can with a d-pad controller or keyboard.  So not only am I at an instant advantage, I'm much more likely to play the game more and get more out of it, than someone with a Logitech d-pad who gives it one quick try just to put up a score, then gives up because it's just no fun to play with what they have.  Same goes for trackball games - I'd love to play some of those (Missile Command, Centipede, Wacko, etc.), but there is a major handicap for players who don't have the right controls, vs. the players who do. 

 

The surest way to bring everybody down to the same realm of control capability is to mandate 2/4/8-way digital joysticks and buttons.  There are literally thousands of games that meet this criterion, so there is lots to discover. 

 

 

 

 

I understand all that, and it definitely should be applied to some games, but I still think this rule is too strict. Not all games require 1:1 level of control to be extremely playable. About level playing field, it's a nice idea in theory but impossible to maintain in reality - unless we all meet somewhere and play on the same gear. Somebody with a 4-way joystick will have advantage over my Dualshock in certain games, while my 0-lag NeoGeo/CPS setup might have it in others...and there are many other handicap variations possible. It does not bother me personally since we're not Twin Galaxies and in the end I just play for fun, trying not to take it all too seriously.

 

Anyway, just my 2 rupees, since driving games aren't my favourites and I may not even be able to play much during this season again.

 

 

 

[AtariWarlord]

9 hours ago, youxia said:

I understand all that, and it definitely should be applied to some games, but I still think this rule is too strict. Not all games require 1:1 level of control to be extremely playable. About level playing field, it's a nice idea in theory but impossible to maintain in reality - unless we all meet somewhere and play on the same gear. Somebody with a 4-way joystick will have advantage over my Dualshock in certain games, while my 0-lag NeoGeo/CPS setup might have it in others...and there are many other handicap variations possible. It does not bother me personally since we're not Twin Galaxies and in the end I just play for fun, trying not to take it all too seriously.

 

Anyway, just my 2 rupees, since driving games aren't my favourites and I may not even be able to play much during this season again.

 

 

 

And both of you would have an advantage over the likes of us just hacking it out on our keyboards. But hey -- that's my choice. If this hobby was more of a priority, I would invest in something more optimal.

[Zoyous]

1 hour ago, AtariWarlord said:

And both of you would have an advantage over the likes of us just hacking it out on our keyboards. But hey -- that's my choice. If this hobby was more of a priority, I would invest in something more optimal.

You've been playing on a keyboard this whole time? And beating my scores with it? *looks in despair at my cabinet* ?

[roadrunner]

My 4th and 5th game picks

Devil World
Grodba

 

[AtariWarlord]

On 6/26/2020 at 1:13 PM, Zoyous said:

You've been playing on a keyboard this whole time? And beating my scores with it? *looks in despair at my cabinet* ?

I've gotten so used to playing with a keyboard that playing with more appropriate hardware (which I sometimes have a chance to do in the Atari 2600 HSC) feels awkward.

[Cynicaster]

15 hours ago, roadrunner said:

My 4th and 5th game picks

Devil World
Grodba

 

Added to the list

 

 

[M.A.M.E Offender]

On 6/22/2020 at 1:26 PM, AtariWarlord said:

A "hell, yeah" for DK and Popeye. 

Donkey Kong is by far my favorite, really looking forward to it.  

 

I still have one suggestion.

 

Let's say Frogger.

[Floyd Turbo]

What about Vs. Excitebike?  It has a score and it is kinda a racing game.  Actually, can I change my Wonder Boy pick to this?

[roadrunner]

On 7/5/2020 at 11:07 PM, Floyd Turbo said:

What about Vs. Excitebike?  It has a score and it is kinda a racing game.  Actually, can I change my Wonder Boy pick to this?

Vs. Excitebike was played before in this high score club back in 2014
 

[hero2billions]

On 7/5/2020 at 11:07 PM, Floyd Turbo said:

What about Vs. Excitebike?  It has a score and it is kinda a racing game.  Actually, can I change my Wonder Boy pick to this?

Floyd Turbo

I need to thank you, as the theme to Wonderboy has recently made my playlist.( some of my co-workers may want to kick you however)