hansolo77

Sorry for the delay guys. My computer took a royal dump on me and I've basically been AWOL for the last week. I've been rebuilding a new machine from scratch (see here for details!). I'm almost there, but not quite. I can't update the HiScore threads until Adultery can send me a PM/Email with my DBM password. It's saved and hidden on my old drive that I can't access anymore! So hopefully he can get back to me soon. In the mean time, happy playing!

So there I was, working on my computer. Our cat sneaks behind my TV and steps on the power cord to my computer, unplugging it. The computer instantly lost power, the cord/power supply sparked, the cat jumped 6 feet in the air and took off. I tried to reconnect the power and turn the computer back on... nothing. The computer was doing this power cycle deal where it would come on for a half second then power off again then on again for a half second then off again. I tried all the tricks, got to the point where I only had the power supply, cpu, and 1 stick of ram, and the system would boot.. But that was it. I could get it to post, but then crash Windows during start up. Not sure what's up with that. I even tried using my server's backup to restore the hard drive, and nothing. The restore worked, but the system was still not working. As it turns out, the power supply died and was only partially working, 3 out of the 4 sticks of ram were fried, and I seem to have gotten a boot sector virus some time ago that the backups still had. I never really turn my computer off, it goes into standby, so I have no idea how long I've had the virus, but it's un-salvageable. I've spent the last week or so spending ALL my savings to rebuild a new computer. New case (because the old one was rusting out and had that nasty white stain from the fire on it), New Motherboard (AsRock Fatal1ty Z370 Gaming K6), New CPU (Intel i7 8086 Limited Edition), New RAM (16gb DDR4 GSkill FlareX). I also grabbed 4 Noctua NF-F12 120mm PWM fans. Then this week's paycheck went to a new hard drive, Samsung 970 Pro 512gb NVME SSD, and a new power supply (Corsair TX750M). I've never played with a NVME drive before. It's pretty cool. Haven't really noticed any performance improvements, but I'm still just working on getting things back up and running. I've reinstalled Windows 7. I tried to go with Windows 10, but found out that the OS is incompatible with Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials (so I can get backups working). Spent a couple of days trying out all solutions I could find through Google, Microsoft, etc. Just gave up. Windows 7 struggled to install because of the NVME, there were no such devices when it first came out, so it didn't know it existed. Had to come up with a way to modify the install by building a bootable USB flash stick with preinstalled generic NVME drivers. All good now. Then I spent a day getting all the Windows updates. Slowly but surely I'm getting there! Anyway, I wanted to apologize for my absence and lack of High Score moderations. Speaking of which.. @Adultery I tried to send you a PM. I forgot the server password and can't send DB updates from the DBM. Any chance you see this and can help me out? Do I need a reset, or maybe you can just tell me what it was? The PM system here said you weren't able to receive messages.

Yeah! Updated OP, DB, RSS

Yeah, I thought I was pretty good at Tetris till I played this. That's a good score though! Way to take first place! Updated OP, DB, RSS

You guys are all awesome. Nuff said. :p

"It has begun!" Updated OP, DB, RSS

Don't read this unless you wanna be bored to death!

Nice job! Good to see and old game brought back to the front page! Updated OP, DB, RSS

Thanks for the breakdown! Looks like the competition is on! Updated OP, DB, RSS

Would have never guessed. Updated OP, DB, RSS

Hey, 2,000 points is still 2,000 points! I hate having such a weak immune system. I get sick WAY to often. I'm sick again. Been having a rough week, then went home early from work yesterday and went to the doctor. Wants me off for the next 48 hours. If I wasn't sick, I'd take that opportunity to try and post a score. But I really feel like sh!t. I will say, thanks for posting new scores and trying to keep the forum alive! Updated OP, DB, RSS

I'm still 100% for a Linux version of GameEx that will run on Pi. Sticking a Pi in things is no big thing. The creator of the modkit did most of the work in this case. I don't have a 3D printer and no way to make those frames the Pi and adapter cables connect to. The NES mod I did was probably the biggest thing I ever did that was completely custom without the use of somebody else's hardware. Still, it was a good project. I've been sick lately and really down (depression), so this has helped keep my mind on something positive.

Wow. Bad memories from when I worked at TelePerformance (originally CallTech). Stupid hillbilly hicks. You try to tell them very clear and precise instructions, and they go an take it a whole different direction. "Eject the CDRom tray and put the disc in," they say "you mean that cup holder?". They say "there's no pictures," you say "Check the cables", they say they "don't have cable", you say "is it plugged in and turned on?", they say "yes the computer is on the light is on", you say "THE MONITOR?", and they say "you mean the TV?" OMG I couldn't stand it. Why the hell do you have a computer if you don't even know how to turn the monitor on, or use a CD? I even had one guy who said his keyboard wasn't working, and the only way to figure out it was disconnected was by having him grab the keyboard and pull it away from the desk into the next room. What was the worst part, we were an ISP, dealing with INTERNET, not noobie computer user issues. But, we provided "soft support" to the users, in an effort to help them get set up to USE our software. Drove me absolutely bonkers.

Here come the pictures! So that's it! I did take a couple of extra pictures, not included in this post. Mostly just extras not relevant to the "story". One is a bad photo I tried to take of the cartridge slot. The other is of the barrel jack. If you want to see them, look at the full size post here: https://imgur.com/a/D4PvZCW @Draco1962 - Hope that suffices! To everybody else, thanks for visiting and reading my story! This was a fun project. I've already got co-worker friends wanting them too. LOL! I told them to give me $300 bucks and I'll see about it. Luckily for this particular build, I didn't really have to spend all that much because I already had a spare Raspberry Pi, spare PowerBlock, spare SD card, and extra USB controllers.

Nice, steady improvement! Updated OP, DB, RSS

That's the kinda stuff I like reading about.

Thanks for submitting the first entry! Updated OP, DB, RSS

Sure! I had to order a fan because I noticed last night that the thing was starting to warn of heat issues. So I will be opening it back up to install that. I'll take pictures then!

It's actually 99% complete. I've been working on the software side of things for a while, and just got the mod kit from Germany on Thursday. I've hit a few snags. The power supply I got wasn't strong enough, been getting lots of undervoltage errors. Just got a new one in today, so I'm going to see how it works out. I also need a bigger SD card. I had most of the stuff already. Lucked out and found a spare Raspberry Pi 3 in a box, along with a PowerBlock (for allowing safe shutdown). I also already had a pair of USB 6-button controllers I'm going to give him. Things are coming along great.

Probably II if you remember. Wikipedia said there was no predecessor.

Happy Independence Day to everybody!

Alrighty guys! You voted, here it is. Our next GOTM! I've never played this before, so I'm actually kind of excited to see what it's all about. A lot of people voted for it, so it's gotta be at least half-way decent right? The loadup of this game for me took a while. But if you sit long enough it will eventually load. Both DIP switches need to be changed. The first one defaults to a score of 40000 for a bonus life, needs to be 70000 to match TG. The lives switch needs changed from 2 to 3 also. If you don't change this one, it's all you, because we can also use extra lives. Hope you guys enjoy your summer and have fun playing this game!

Updated list to remove the next GOTM - Pepper II! Keep those ideas coming guys!

Pepper II is an arcade game programmed by Exidy and published in 1982, and, despite its name, there was no predecessor named Pepper or Pepper I.[1][2] Its gameplay is similar to the game Amidar by Konami and Stern Electronics. Pepper II was ported to the ColecoVision home system.[1] The game plays Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" when gameplay starts. There are four mazes per level in Pepper II. Each maze has exits leading to 3 other mazes. All four mazes must be filled to advance to the next level. To fill in a maze, the player maneuvers "Pepper" around different segments of the maze. As Pepper travels, he leaves a "zipper". Once he encloses or "zips" a segment, it fills in and points are awarded. If Pepper backtracks on an uncompleted segment, it unzips. The character "Pepper" is an angel. There are two types of enemies that must be avoided: Roaming Eyes and the Whippersnapper (Zipper Ripper on the Colecovision version) who unzips all uncompleted, zipped segments by moving over them. Pepper's one defense is to enclose an area containing a pitchfork, which turns him into a devil for approximately four seconds. At that time he can go after all Roaming Eyes for points while the Whippersnapper freezes. There are four pitchforks in the corners of every maze. A deluxe energizer is located in the center of each maze. This energizer alternates between being a pitchfork and a halo symbol. If Pepper encloses the middle area when the energizer is a halo, the Whippersnapper will disappear from the maze. Points are made for enclosing a segment, consuming a pair of roaming eyes when energized by the pitchfork (similar to Pac-Man), obtaining prizes, completing a maze, and completing 4 mazes. A bonus turn is awarded at 40,000, 50,000, 70,000 or 90,000 points, depending on the dip switch settings. When a full screen (of the four) has been completely filled, the player is treated with "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" which is heard for a brief moment each time this happens, due to the zipping nature of the game. Each maze also contains a prize in one of the segments. The player must enclose the area it appears in to gain the prize and points, and then the prize is shown beneath the maze. - Quote from Wikipedia

3rd Quarter 2018 GOTQ Winner: Mame Offender - 348,770 Pepper II Leaderboard POSITION USER NAME TOTAL SCORE 1 Mame Offender 348,770 2 Cynicaster 261,140 3 rtkiii 155,210 4 Floyd Turbo 51,850 5 millerbrad 42,100 6 Luigimaker 36,110 Last Updated by hansolo77: 11-11-2018 Please use these settings when submitting a hi-score for Pepper II: ROMSet: Pepper2 Bonus Life: 70000 Lives: 3 Special Rules: None The green coloured default values match the Twin Galaxies settings. The red coloured values need to be changed! # you can change your Mame dip switch settings by following this guide: # you can make a printscreen of your hi-score screen by following this guide: # general rules for submitting your hi-score: