Hi Score Competition

[MNMax21]

I recently refurbished an X-Men Children of the Atom cabinet for a friend. We started picking random games to have friendly hi score competitions. Currently, we are attacking Mario Bros. I know there was the online gameplay deal setup through Gameex a little while back. I'm wondering if anyone has ever thought of having a friendly hi score competition. Maybe pick a different game every month and post pics of our hi scores. I find that this little friendly competition makes me enjoy my cabinet even more. I used to love it a ton mostly when friends were over.

[hansolo77]

Things of this matter have been discussed before. The problem is getting somebody dedicated enough to follow through with it. Plans start moving but nothing ever comes to fruition. I would love to see something like this. It would help bring the community together. The real problem is having some kind of device to submit your highscores. Not everybody has a camera to take pictures. One method would be a software implementation through GameEx, and having say a menu item dedicated to achieving high scores, with the game listed, and maybe a top ten list. Then when you play the scores are submitted. The problem with that idea would be how GameEx would manage to capture those scores while you're playing. There may be a way though MAME, but I'm not familiar at all with how it would work.

[Draco1962]

I have to agree with the points Han has made.It would be cool to be able to submit and organize "untouched" scores (i.e. collected by the software and not touched by the user to avoid tampering - be it through the score itself or an image of the high score page). I would like to believe that nobody would intentionally alter their results, but there are those that would for whatever their personal reasons.

I also agree that getting everyone interested to commit and stay interested may be difficult. While the theme competition is a different animal in its focus, there were similarities in many competitions I have seen before: Lots of initial enthusiasm and some submissions, followed by malaise and fewer submissions until the last hour and that because of the prizes at hand. I doubt we will have prizes to award other than "gamer cred."

I know I sound a little jaded, but these are the realities that would have to be overcome and I encourage/support anyone to do so if they are inclined.

[DazzleHP]

I recently refurbished an X-Men Children of the Atom cabinet for a friend. We started picking random games to have friendly hi score competitions. Currently, we are attacking Mario Bros. I know there was the online gameplay deal setup through Gameex a little while back. I'm wondering if anyone has ever thought of having a friendly hi score competition. Maybe pick a different game every month and post pics of our hi scores. I find that this little friendly competition makes me enjoy my cabinet even more. I used to love it a ton mostly when friends were over.

I'm with you on this! A little friendly rivalry does make score attacking much more fun I get tired of beating myself (no i don't mean self harming ). If you are willing to organize something for us Exer's i say go for it! I mean there is always that possibility people could cheat, but honestly if it's just a friendly competition to enhance our gaming experience, and people still feel the need to cheat then i suggest said person(s) have personal issues and should maybe consider talking to someone about them

I could record my runs if people took it too seriously but i think a screenshot of the hiscore table would suffice.

Either way, cheaters or not, if you want to start something then count me in! I only have shmups on my system at the moment though heheh

[MNMax21]

I think it would be awesome to get this going. If it could be something just included in Gameex that would be awesome. It sounds like a great deal of work though… as far as programming and what not. I would not be the go to guy on that, believe me! Haha. I'm wondering if we don't get the interest level going and maybe get a few of us to post their top 10 MAME games. That way we can pick a game from the lists and ensure each person has the game that wants to play. Then just take a pic and upload it. Maybe we could even get a dedicated subject in the forum?

Like I said, my friend and I picked Mario Bros. and we emailed scores to each other. I sent 72,800, but my friend destroyed it with like 114,000. This is all I send, pic below:

[MNMax21]

I downloaded the tapatalk app for free and I'm able to take a pic from my phone and instantly upload it. That works really well.

[Tempest]

If you want to eliminate the possibility of cheating, you have to use wolfmame.

[MNMax21]

I guess I'm not too worried about the cheating aspect. I'd be more worried if there were money or prizes. If we just do the friendly route, it'd be pretty silly to cheat.

[Draco1962]

I think that most members are honorable enough to post valid results in a friendly comp. I would recommend sticking to common games that most members have working within their MAME collections. Strictly arcade, no Gals Panic or Japanese Sports Triv titles.

[MNMax21]

Or adult games? Haha

[Draco1962]

Who has those? LOL! I think keeping it as closed to PG as possible. Besides, I don't recall being too excited seeing 8-bit boobies and nether parts. I like my gals in HD!

[DazzleHP]

I'm wondering if we don't get the interest level going and maybe get a few of us to post their top 10 MAME games. That way we can pick a game from the lists and ensure each person has the game that wants to play. Then just take a pic and upload it. Maybe we could even get a dedicated subject in the forum?

Sure make one! I'm considering my top ten right now of course they will all be shmups till i find the drive that has the whole set on it - it's under something, somewhere...

If only mame ran DeathSmiles - i would destroy you guys on that maybe... hopefully.

If you want to eliminate the possibility of cheating, you have to use wolfmame.

Definitely something to consider if it takes off - never used it but after a quick browse it does seem to be all about anti-cheats - good call

-EDIT- haha @ Draco!

[Tempest]

My preferred game list:

1. Tempest

2. Loderunner
3. Mr. Do

I suck at pretty much anything else.

I can't wait to see the comments on that last sentence.

[fRequEnCy]

My preferred game list:

1. Tempest

2. Loderunner

3. Mr. Do

I suck at pretty much anything else.

I can't wait to see the comments on that last sentence.

I don't think it requires any comments. LOL.

[Draco1962]

I don't think it requires any comments. LOL.

Agreed. I thought it was common knowledge.

[MNMax21]

I don't have a spinner yet, so not sure on tempest. I plan on getting one soon from ultimarc. Mr. do and lode runner would work. My ten would be:

Pacman, Ms. Pac Man, Mario Bros., Mr. Do, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, 1943 midway, Frogger, Galaga, 1942…

Really not a particular order and I'm up for whatever. I like playing games I'm not that good at and getting better too. More challenging. We could try and think of 12 and do one every month starting may 1st?

[GimmeClassics]

Hi everybody!

I'm totaly in for this . I absolutely share your enthusiasm of setting hi-scores and competing for the best score among your friends. To create some kind of competition for the GameEx community would be totaly cool !

I also understand that programming GameEx to be able to submit and organize "untouched" scores through the score itself or an image of the high score page would be a real challenge. It would be very cool if Tom or any of you other geniuses could accomplish this but in the mean time...

I think it would be very cool to start a pinned topic of hi score submissions of favorite MAME-games.

Which procedure should we follow:

1) Using WolfMame and submit your recorded (first attempt) inp-file together with a screenshot is maybe the best to prevent any kind of cheating. But you would have to be able to check the inp-file for any cheating and check if Wolfmame is used for the recorded score. I think this is not an option. Or is this easily done? I wouldn't know. It would be nice if you can check on cheating for very high scores for example.

2) Just upload a screenshot of the hi-score screen of the game. The easiest to do. But cheating would also be very easy. I think of Photoshop, using cheats to set your hi-score, using easy dip switches, using a low framerate etc. On the other hand, maybe we should just think (quoting Draco) that most members are honorable enough to post valid results in a friendly competition.

I would very much like to join this online hi-score competition but I'd also like to feel that the results are somehow valid and everybody has used the same settings when posting their results of a game

Hope to hear what you think and how we can setup a nice and somehow "clean" competition...

I will now start thinking of my top 12 mame games

GC

[Draco1962]

+1 to #2

[DazzleHP]

I 2nd +1 to #2. twice.

My top 12:

ANY shoot em up!

[MNMax21]

I'm thinking keep it simple stupid… KISS. I think if it was for money or something more than street cred we may need to worry about cheating. I'm wondering if we can maybe have a specific forum section for this and then have 20 subsections with each dedicated to game with scoring posted. If not, we can go the one very month route. It might be nice to have a few to choose from though, rather than just playing one until your thumbs go numb every month.

[MNMax21]

Is that the proper KISS phrase? I vote #2. Mainly because I don't even have wolfmame. Ha

[Draco1962]

I would rather stick with my Mame version TBH.

[GimmeClassics]

I also think uploading a screenshot of the hi-score screen of the game is (right now) the best solution - as long as GameEx can not be used to submit and organize scores. I really hope Tom or any administrator can make a specific forum section for this hi-score competition like MNMax21 is suggesting. That would be very nice! Maybe someone can ask Tom to create such a forum section...?

What I would like to hear from you guys is the following:

I think it is fair if everybody uses the same settings when submitting their Mame-scores of a particular game. In this context I think it would be very nice if we follow the dip-switch-settings that Twin Galaxies* is using for Mame-games.

Example when we submit a Donkey Kong record to our own hi-score competition:

When playing Donkey Kong with Mame we should use the "Donkey Kong US Set 1" - ROM and the default Donkey Kong dip switch settings which can be found on the Twin Galaxies website:

ROMSet: DKong (US set 1)
Lives: 3
Bonus life: 7000

Special Rules: None

(link to these settings: http://www.twingalaxies.com/operator.php?gameid=6648&platformid=46&variationid=7721 )

The nice thing of following the Twin Galaxies settings is you can compare your own score to the "official" Twin Galaxies scores. A great extra benefit I think. I hope you guys agree

Love to hear your reactions.

GC

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* For those who didn't know: Twin galaxies is an organization that tracks video game world records since 1981 and Guiness World Records considers them to be the official supplier of verified world records.

[Tempest]

That seems fair. I wasn't implying that people would cheat on purpose, but I usually have Tempest set on Freeplay, 10,000 bonus with 5 lives to start. Definitely not your usual settings.

I would be willing in giving tips on Tempest if anyone is interested in learning how to play.

[Tempest]

The other thing is that there are built in cheats such as dropping the apple on yourself in Mr. Do to get 255 lives that I don't think that even wolfmame can catch.

I could be wrong.

About wolfmame, not about dropping the apple on yourself.

Edit: According to Twin Galaxies, such tactics are not allowed. They must watch every video submission.