Hi Score Competition

[hansolo77]

Ok, I figured it all out! The problem is coming up with a way everybody can get a screenshot of their game without needing to use any extra software or special mobile devices. The obvious solution is to use MAME to capture the screenshot while it's playing. The problem with that (that I found out) is that if an image already exists in the /MAME/snap folder for that rom, a new image won't be remade. Maybe it's because the files are archive attrib or something. Regardless, just using the default settings in MAME to press F12 and capture a screenshot won't work if you have a nice and tidy setup completely with pre-existing screenshots. So the solution requires a little simple poking around in MAME's settings and then you can have MAME capture images for you in their own directory INSIDE the /snap directory, thereby allowing you to make new ones. Another nice thing in the setting I chose is that it will increment you're snaps, so you can have multiple ones (also fixing the inability to overwrite pre-existing images). While you can set up to use the incremential numbering in the root /snap directory, there are THOUSANDS in there, and finding the one you just took is way too complicated. So this method simplifies finding the image you're looking for!

So here's the instructions! First of all, let me start out by saying I'm using MAMEUI for this, and it's actually MAMEUI64 as I have a 64-bit processor and Windows 7 x64. So your own settings might be different, but it shouldn't be that difficult to find...

Step one is to click on the OPTIONS tab at the top of the screen.

Step two is to click on the INTERFACE OPTIONS... menu item.

Step three is to change the "Screenshot Pattern" option to "Gamename/Gamename + Increment"

Step four is to play your game, press F12 to save the screenshot. When you go into your predefined path for screenshots, you should see a new folder using the ROM name, and inside that is newly created snapshot. Each time you hit F12, it should create a new image for you!

Hopefully that will help make adding screenshots to post your highscores easier. Granted, using a mobile device to take a screenshot and post it directly to the thread would be great, but some of us (me, I know ) don't have such devices. And it's a pain to have to install more software to solve such a simple problem. Hope this helps the community out! Enjoy.

[celly]

I use Fraps but, this is a very nice alternative Han!

[Draco1962]

Good job, Han! Thanks for sharing this gem and how to set it up!

[GimmeClassics]

Hello everybody,

I'm really excited about our Mame hi-score competition! I thought it would be nice to have a topic with the rules we should follow when submitting a hi-score. This creates a fair competition with everybody using the same settings. Of course we also have to assume that all participating will be honorable and play with no cheats or hacks

I've already discussed this in the "Hi Score Competition"-thread (post #34, #37, #38) and I got positive reactions. If any of you got other / better ideas I'd love to hear them and an adjustment will be made.

# Rules for submitting a hi-score

1) Use the correct (dip-switch) settings when playing your Mame-game

Look for the Hi-Score Competition-topic of the game you want to play and read post #1 for the settings you have to use when you want to submit your hi-score

2) Only use 1 credit per game

3) Submit a screenshot of your hi-score screen

4) Be honorable and play with no cheats or hacks

5) You're allowed to submit as many hi-scores as you like *

* In post #1 of each Hi-Score Competition thread a Hi-Score Table is shown with the top 5 hi-scores of that game. You're allowed to submit as many hi-scores as you want. If one or more of your submitted hi-scores are good enough for a top 5 position your personal best will be shown in the Hi-Score Table. This will prevent having a 'top player' populate the entire hi-score table.

The settings being used are the default settings Twin Galaxies uses. 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.

A fair competition is created as everybody uses the same settings and it's possible to compare your own score to the official TG scores.

# A short walkthrough of submitting your hi-score:

1) Use the correct settings and play your game

a. Look for the Hi-Score Competition-topic of the game you want to play.

b. Read topic's post #1 for the (dip-switch) settings you have to use when you want to submit your hi-score.

c. Start Mame and - when necessary - change your dip-switch-settings by hitting Tab after you have started your game.

d. Make a screenshot of your hi-score screen

2) Submit your hi-score

Reply to the Hi-Score competition-topic of your game and add the following info:

> Your score

> Settings used of post #1 (please add this comment as a confirmation you have used the correct settings)

> Version of Mame used (Example: Mame 147 compiled)

> Screenshot of your hi-score

I've made a Hi Score Competition topic for Donkey Kong following the above guidelines. Here's a link: http://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/12718-hi-score-competition-donkey-kong/?p=102756

I hope you all agree. If not > I'm open for all sugestions If you have any questions please ask

Have fun playing Mame and setting hi-scores !

Thanks,

GC

[hansolo77]

I'm a bit flustered (is that the word?) about going to a website to find the proper settings to use. Perhaps one thing we can do is link to the Twin Galaxies entry in the first post of the game's thread, or maybe just put their settings in the first post. Then maybe like above that in a big font have it show the GameEx current top score, with a link to the post in that thread with the screenshot. We'd just need to have the original poster of the thread be able to edit the first post to update it with the latest high score.

If this project/activity really gets going, perhaps one of the mods or admins would consider opening another sub-forum dedicated to High Scores. Then each thread listed would be for that specific game, rather than putting all the games in the Social forums. That should also help people find the high scores easier when browsing the forums. Just and idea.

[MNMax21]

A sub forum would be excellent. If we get enough traffic they may look into it. I'd say its not an issue until we get enough traffic to need it. I like Heiden of having more than one game though. It gets a bit eye buggy playing the same game over and over! Haha

[GimmeClassics]

I'm a bit flustered (is that the word?) about going to a website to find the proper settings to use. Perhaps one thing we can do is link to the Twin Galaxies entry in the first post of the game's thread, or maybe just put their settings in the first post. Then maybe like above that in a big font have it show the GameEx current top score, with a link to the post in that thread with the screenshot. We'd just need to have the original poster of the thread be able to edit the first post to update it with the latest highscore

@ Hansolo77 and MNMax21:

a very great idea Hansolo. I adjusted the rules immediately See post #54

I've also adjusted the Hi-Score Competition thread for Donkey Kong so you can see the new rules in action

Just to be clear: I'm not trying to force my rules upon anyone but I think it's more fun when we create a fair competition with everybody using the same settings I think each Hi-Score thread should have the same "layout" and everybody following the same rules. It's keeping things clean and simple.

One last thing:

Like if have mentioned in the rules I think everybody should add the comment: "Settings used of post #1" to their hi-score submission because it confirms he or she has read post #1 and is using the correct settings. Especially if you have a hi-score thread of several pages somebody who submits a new hi-score may have well not read post #1 with the correct settings.

I hope you agree and we can come up with a final set of rules and submission guidelines which everyone should follow.

Hope to hear from you

GC

[ a hi-score subforum would be very cool indeed. Hope this will be possible in the near future ]

[Draco1962]

I took the liberty of merging both the Hi-Score Competition and Rules threads into one.

My understanding is that one game would be agreed upon for the month and all participants would post their scores in that thread. At present, we now have 5 threads - this one and 4 others for individual games.

While I love to see the camaraderie and competition taking place between members, I would like to see a limit to the number of simultaneous games being played so that the Social Club is not swamped with Hi-Score competition threads.

[hansolo77]

I took the liberty of merging both the Hi-Score Competition and Rules threads into one.

My understanding is that one game would be agreed upon for the month and all participants would post their scores in that thread. At present, we now have 5 threads - this one and 4 others for individual games.

While I love to see the camaraderie and competition taking place between members, I would like to see a limit to the number of simultaneous games being played so that the Social Club is not swamped with Hi-Score competition threads.

I agree, that's why I suggested we make a subforum for just high scores.. but agreeing to do just 1 game at a time seems fair too. I'll get a thread started with a poll and we'll see what game comes out.

[Draco1962]

Thanks for taking lead on this, Han!

[GimmeClassics]

Hi Draco,

Thank you for joining our hi-score competition discussion ! I'm really excited it's all getting started.

I do understand you would like to see a limit to the number of simultaneous games being played so that the Social Club is not swamped with Hi-Score competition threads. One game at a time seems a fair solution in this context.

I however think that creating a subforum for just high scores would be the ultimate solution . This would create the possibilty to choose from multiple games and try setting hi-scores for not just one game per month. I think this will attract more participants to our hi-score competition and generate more interest: the more the merrier Don't you agree?

And: the Social Club is not really for Game-Ex / Mame related topics. Creating a subforum for hi-scores will result in having all the hi-score threads in one place: clean and simple.

Maybe a possibility for the near future....? Love to hear what you think !

GC

[u-man]

we should use the best dip-settings, so cheating here is avoided i.e. playing with most lives or easy mode etc.

i like the idea very much and looking forward, how well we all can play .

[GimmeClassics]

Hi U-Man. Thank you for your enthusiasm!

we should use the best dip-settings, so cheating here is avoided i.e. playing with most lives or easy mode etc.

About the dip-switch settings:

we've decided upon using the default Twin Galaxies settings. A great benefit is you can compare your score to the official Twin Galaxies hi-scores.

Even when using "easy mode" and "most lifes" cheating can not be prevented. Somebody could play a game with more than 1 credit and submit their hi-score. We just have to assume that all participating will be honorable and play with no cheats or hacks

I hope you can live with our rule using the default Twin Galaxies settings.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

Thanks,

GC

[hansolo77]

I was going to comment on that too, but I'm a bit late getting here today. I see where u-man would be coming from, by configuring games to be their easiest it would prevent excess cheating. However, Twin-Galaxies is a well established "standard" and I think it's best we follow their guidelines. We're not going to be as obsessively anal about proof like they are though. They want videos/dvd's of full on proof from plug in and turn on till they get their score. That's way more insane than our friendly little inter-user challenge. But TG's rules for each individual game should be kept to keep it fair.

[rtkiii]

I agree...much thanks!

[GimmeClassics]

Ok, I figured it all out! The problem is coming up with a way everybody can get a screenshot of their game without needing to use any extra software or special mobile devices. The obvious solution is to use MAME to capture the screenshot while it's playing. The problem with that (that I found out) is that if an image already exists in the /MAME/snap folder for that rom, a new image won't be remade. Maybe it's because the files are archive attrib or something. Regardless, just using the default settings in MAME to press F12 and capture a screenshot won't work if you have a nice and tidy setup completely with pre-existing screenshots. So the solution requires a little simple poking around in MAME's settings and then you can have MAME capture images for you in their own directory INSIDE the /snap directory, thereby allowing you to make new ones. Another nice thing in the setting I chose is that it will increment you're snaps, so you can have multiple ones (also fixing the inability to overwrite pre-existing images). While you can set up to use the incremential numbering in the root /snap directory, there are THOUSANDS in there, and finding the one you just took is way too complicated. So this method simplifies finding the image you're looking for!

So here's the instructions! First of all, let me start out by saying I'm using MAMEUI for this, and it's actually MAMEUI64 as I have a 64-bit processor and Windows 7 x64. So your own settings might be different, but it shouldn't be that difficult to find...

Step one is to click on the OPTIONS tab at the top of the screen.

Untitled-1.png

Step two is to click on the INTERFACE OPTIONS... menu item.

Untitled-2.png

Step three is to change the "Screenshot Pattern" option to "Gamename/Gamename + Increment"

Untitled-3.png

Step four is to play your game, press F12 to save the screenshot. When you go into your predefined path for screenshots, you should see a new folder using the ROM name, and inside that is newly created snapshot. Each time you hit F12, it should create a new image for you!

Untitled-4.png

Hopefully that will help make adding screenshots to post your highscores easier. Granted, using a mobile device to take a screenshot and post it directly to the thread would be great, but some of us (me, I know ) don't have such devices. And it's a pain to have to install more software to solve such a simple problem. Hope this helps the community out! Enjoy.

I've just started using your method for making a snapshot of my hi-score screen. It works very well!

By default Mame saves a rather small sized snapshot. If you want it to be bigger (which I like) here is what you should do:

1) Go to Options > Default Game Options

2) Select the Miscellaneous Tab

3) Deselect "Autoselect snapshot size" and change the snapshot's size

I changed it to 1280 x 1024. This can be changed to any size

Just a little contribution

Happy Hi-Scoring !

GC

EDIT: please hit "Apply" after you have unchecked "Autoselect Snapshot Size". You should then be able to change the resolution of your snaps

[hansolo77]

Ahhh didn't see that. I'll have to make the change and see how it looks on a new submission. I still need to submit a score for Donkey Kong heh.

-EDIT- I unchecked the "Autoselect Snapshot Size" but it didn't allow me to change the resolution. Oh well.

[Draco1962]

As you can see, there is now a new Hi-Score forum. Due to limitations with the IPB software, the granularity does not exist to set-up moderator type access within an individual forum.

@Han or GC - If you would be so kind as to create a formal Hi-Score Competition Rules thread along with a copy of the rules agreed upon for the competition so I may pin and lock it I would much appreciate it.

Ready Player One!

[GimmeClassics]

Wow Draco: thanks a lot for creating a subforum for our Hi-Score competition! That's very nice!

I've taken the liberty to create a new thread "Hi-Score Competition - Rules"

I've copied these rules I and Han have agreed upon from the post I made in "Hi-Score Competition" (post # 54)

Thanks again !!!!!

GC

[Draco1962]

You're welcome! Good luck to all and, most of all... Have fun!

[GimmeClassics]

Ahhh didn't see that. I'll have to make the change and see how it looks on a new submission. I still need to submit a score for Donkey Kong heh.

-EDIT- I unchecked the "Autoselect Snapshot Size" but it didn't allow me to change the resolution. Oh well.

Hi Han,

Please try again and hit "Apply" after you have unchecked "Autoselect Snapshot Size". You should then be able to change the resolution of your snapshot Good luck.

Cya,

GC

[hansolo77]

This is awesome news to come home for work today and see. I'm glad the big bosses were able to come to an understanding and agreement on creating the new forum for our needs. They did what we asked, now it's up to us to make full use of it.

On another note.. I'll try hitting that apply button and report back if it doesn't work.

[MNMax21]

Awesome, was out of town for work and came home to this. I can't believe it's all set up. I am looking forward to dropping some scores in the new threads. I'm happy to see we got forum. Thanks to the admins! Thanks Hans and GC for setting it up. This should be sweet!!!

[GimmeClassics]

Hi MNMax21,

It's sweet indeed! Our own hi-score sub-forum. I still can't believe it. Sweeeeet!

Maybe you've already noticed but the old "Mario Bros Hi-Score thread" is locked.
Post #1 didn't have a summary of the gamesettings which have to be used. A few scores were submitted but which settings were used is not clear. That's why a new Mario Bros. thread is created. Hoping for your understanding

Link to new Mario Bos. thread > link

Happy hi-scoring,

GC

[MNMax21]

Sounds good to me. I'm just glad to see its up and running. I'll just have to play some more. Lord knows I've never been opposed to playing a video game! This'll be sweet!