I'd love to see that game (Pac-Mania) been owned. Any chance of recording a game on MAME or via YouTube?
You keep forgetting about
'MarkTube', AL... I'll try to catch Jimmy playing some
Pac-Mania for you, and post onsite. I also have some
720° already taped (but not posted), which I think you requested a while back. I've been too busy to get some of this stuff up, but will redouble my efforts, and hope to have some outstanding things done onsite before the 3 big summer events (Funspot, the NW Pinball and Gameroom Show, and CE). I'm way behind, and I apologize to you guys... The forums, and my 'travels', have eaten up a lot more time than I expected over the last 18 months, or so. Of course, I enjoy every minute, but feel bad about being behind on the main site. However, hope is on the horizon, as volunteers are popping up to help me catch up. More on that in the future...
Anyway, it's great that Richie makes incredible efforts to accommodate players, and having (as his pics, linked above, reveal)
Pac-Mania, Xybots, and
Donkey Kong ready for contestants to play outside of the tourney (assuming the first two won't be Mystery Titles) is fantastic. I hope every tourney entrant makes sure to give Richie a pat on the back, at the event, for all he's done. Oh, and don't forget to say thanks to me, too !
Well, Jimmy and Joel will no doubt show players how to conquer
Pac-Mania and
Xybots, respectfully, and Rick obviously is going to 'own'
Thief. Good luck to Tim Sczerby too, on DK. A new wr would be tasty, but I'll settle for seeing the 1M barrier crossed, live. "There's a killscreen coming up..."
Good luck to all at the upcoming CAG event at Richie Knucklez Arcade!
I look forward to seeing the D2K scores.
Jeff Kulczycki
Thanks for joining the forums, Jeff !
I've got a link up to your website already. Be sure to check on the forums for tourney updates (including DKII scores) during the event. Oh, and everyone will be interested to know that I might bring along a webcam, just in case we can get it hooked into Richie's PC that will be there for Internet posting. You might spot DKII players, and a lot more. No promises, but we should get it to work...
hmm, other games maybe have this issue as well...but differently. food fight....won't it stay "stuck" on the press 1 or 2 player buttons to start a new game screen?
no attract mode...no view of the score table...just game start screen.
this could be even more serious issue for many of the tournament games think mspac....after game over...goes to press 1 or 2 player button screen...no attract so no view of last game score just finished...and no way to ever see what it was again! miss the 2-3 seconds it shows the game over on last death and unless that was a new high score it's gone....gone....gone.
oh, this is a big can of worms...glad we discovered this now versus later like at the event!
maybe it's this reason why TG generally doesn't allow free play. what a major pain in the butt for verification/witnessing....would have to be present exactly at end of each and every game to see the score before it disappears!
Good notation, Rick - I hadn't totally considered that the behavior of a few of this year's games is different when in free play mode, as far as what shows onscreen. But... remember that I did last year's event with all the games on free play. And, while some games do indeed stay 'stuck' on a certain screen, most of all of those will still show the last score made, in the corner of the screen.
I brought the Pole Position free play issue up to Mark almost a week ago.
Simple solution;
credit button on coin door. end of story
I remembered Richie mentioning a game that had an external credit switch, but didn't remember that it was PP. Richie also told me on the phone today that he had mentioned that all the games were set up with switches, and not on free play, but I didn't remember him saying that. Well, it doesn't matter, as that's good news, and avoids the (potential) free play issues. However, note that one game,
Galaga, will be on FP, as there is no switch installed.
In any case, Richie and I will be testing all games for any issues on Friday afternoon, before the arcade opens, so we'll likely uncover anything that needs addressing. Of course, if any entrant notices anything, they should report it immediately. Also, entrants who are there on Friday can help by double-checking that all settings appear correct, and in effect, and that they don't notice any issues with scores turning over, and / or being hard to see / record for referees. Richie and I are quite thorough, but it never hurts to have extra eyes from you guys !
Final thot, Rick; as far as someone pressing the button on Ms. Pac, well, yeah, if someone walks away from the game before submitting their score, then they deserve to 'lose' it from someone pressing the start button ! Or, if they press it, before turning in the score, again, they have nobody to blame but themselves. Tourney rules (and, it's common sense, too) are -
stay put in front of the game,
wave down a ref (no shouting, please !), submit the score and sign off (your approval) on the score sheet, and
then you can move on to another game, or re-game on the present one, if no one's waiting. A number of people in the 2007 event would wander off and start a new game before signing off on the old one. Let's be careful on that this year, guys !
Actually, I'm pretty sure that TG is reluctant to allow free play, not because of a few issues with catching the score, but (as I said in an earlier post above) they don't want another controversy, so to avoid it, they want to avoid free play. And, that's probably a smart decision. But, again, I'll 'chance' it at my events (for whatever few games are going to be set that way), and probably create two tracks for games in question, like
Ms. Pac-Man, where free play may change the in-game play.
Also a topic that should be discussed is that Mark is not budging on the "default settings" being used on Pole Position. Graham and I had a long discussion about how the game is virtually unplayable on those settings. At least unplayable for anyone who seriously plays the game at the harder settings (TG settings and the way Les and Mike played it) Hey, another blow to the selfish reasons I wanted to have this tourney but alaas that is just my opinion.
As discussed elsewhere on these forums, tinkering with settings has led to quite a few problems for TG, and (tho some may not believe me, perhaps), I had a vision, even as far back as 1985 / 1986, to run a scoreboard for Putt-Putt Golf and Games, where the games would all be set to factory settings, for consistency. I had already envisioned the issues of having non-factory settings, and decided to go factory, with a time limit, if I did run a scoreboard.
Thus, all games will be on factory, as they were shipped from the... factory ! Remember, if someone played PP at factory (and quite a few did back then), and then played at the TG maxed settings, they'd say that that way is unplayable ! It's all what you're used to, and while PP does apparently play quite differently, we can't have one game not on factory, as then we have confusion, and also, then people will want others changed.
I will play whatever settings Pole Position are on because it is Mark's tournament. Since everyone was recently discussing TG settings for some games (for recording purposes, and for TG database entry), I understand the need to keep things "default" mainly because I respect the needs of the tournament to be different from TG. But just like others here who want TG settings, it is for selfish reasons as well that I would want to get a little practice in on TG settings, mainly because I have no access to a Pole Position machine, and I haven't played it since Funspot X.
At the same time, I have played Pole Position on non-TG settings, and it felt like something completely different...in any case, it is not my final decision, I can push for TG settings on Friday for practice maybe, but I am not knowledgeable enough yet to know how easy/time consuming/annoying that would be to set up. This is why I plan on actually showing up early on Friday, I'd like to finally learn some of the technical aspects of things.
Thanks for your support, as always, Graham. But, the reason for the default settings is not to be different than TG. I have no problem copying good ideas, and have done so with regard to some good TG, and Funspot, features. The reason for game settings being default for everything that
CAGDC does (tourneys, contests, scoreboard submissions) is not only consistency, plus the fact that most games 'in the wild' are on factory already, but it's also great that on most games, you don't need the Internet, and you don't need to contact me, to play your game. Just pick up the manual, confirm factory settings, and 'go' ! That's gold, and it also avoids problems from 'forgotten' settings, and inconsistency. 50 years from now, no one will wonder how a game was set; they'll know it was on factory default !!
Well, OK, it
would be best to contact me before going for a record, just to affirm the settings, and make sure the manual you're using doesn't have a problem issue. Ultimately, I will have a place onsite that lists the factory /
CAGDC settings for most of the top games. My apologies that I don't have this already, but the
CAGDC specific scoreboard is still in its infancy, and all the scores are being culled from tournaments, thus making a settings listing not really necessary, for now. But, I do need to get this done, and will put that on my lengthening 'To Do' list ! Well, that one needs a volunteer, actually. Anyone 'game' for assisting ??
PM me.
Well, let me extend again a 'thanks' to Richie, for all his great efforts with bringing in games, and also 'undoing' a lot of other games. He's removed a lot of his add-on kits (that tracked high scores, etc.) just for this contest, to make sure there's no alteration of game play, vs. an original board. I know how to avoid controversy, too, and I don't want anyone saying that the alterations made these results different from my other tourneys. Anyway, I just wanted to note that Richie has gone above and beyond. Kudos, buddy !
