London Casino Crew meets (RIP the Arcade)

[DEL]

Good. I think its paced just right. Not hard until you reach Stage 7, then it goes a bit mental.
There's also a scoring method that I'm itching to try. I'll show you in the New Year.

[spadgy]

I'd be interested to see how you can milk any score from it. There's nothing immediately obvious between gunning everything there is down.

The stage four boss is a bit of a wall for me right now, and the rank jumps up crazy fast, but it's certainly all manageable. Is it bombs in stock that dictates rank, or just how far you get without dying? It seems to be the latter.

[DEL]

It seems to be lives. Die a couple of times and the reduction in rank is noticeable. I'm not advocating Raizing style suiciding though, no.

[spadgy]

Christmas has been a quiet time for me and shmups, and Casino in general it would seem.

However, there is a new Zed Blade high-score table running, and you should all get involved! It's really fun, and it's in Casino waiting for you all thanks to DEL!

[DEL]

spadgy - make sure you watch CHI play ZED BLADE next time your down the arcade. He'll show you the way to score.

[Smraedis]

I've played a few credits of Zed Blade on MAME, and I keep on getting hit by cheap bullets It looks quite easy though.

[Skykid]

Tbh, I'll paypal postage to whoever sends it, btw (it's likely to be only about a fiver, maybe 6 or 7 absolute most). I was really hoping to come pick it up in person but last weekend turned out to be just too crazy!

Glad it got some use while it was there :]

Let me know when, I live round the corner.

WAIT, WHAT? I somehow missed this fact. My ex-housemates are all Ealing'ers (and one works in North Acton) - I can probably coerce one of them to meet with you and avoid all the postage shennanigans I'll PM you.

I'd just like to say that for allowing me to so kindly borrow the very expensive and wonderful game in the first place, I'd be more than happy to cover that postage cost mate, it's the least I could do. If any of the Casino guys want to split it to show they're appreciation though, I wouldn't want to steal the thunder of the group, I'm sure everyone is equally grateful.

DEL-san! I'm with Spadgy, I'm besotted with Zed Blade, mainly because the soundtrack is so fucking hardcore it hurts. Honestly though, these little revelations are what keeps me going - in twenty years of dedicated gaming how it eluded me (completely) I have no idea. Awesome though, Spadgy and I are racing for both original carts and high scores - it's like the old Progear competition (which I won, btw. )

[DEL]

DEL-san! I'm with Spadgy, I'm besotted with Zed Blade, mainly because the soundtrack is so fucking hardcore it hurts. Honestly though, these little revelations are what keeps me going - in twenty years of dedicated gaming how it eluded me (completely) I have no idea. Awesome though, Spadgy and I are racing for both original carts and high scores - it's like the old Progear competition (which I won, btw. )

I knew you'd like it

Smraedis wrote;

It looks quite easy though.

It is.....until you reach Stage 7 & 8 .
Plus there's the suicide & scenery shooting scoring method that breathes new life into the game.

As for Chi_Ryu's Mega Black board, I have it safely at home in Ealing. I can send it recorded and tracked or I can give it to one of Chi_Ryu's mates in the area.
Up to you Chi_Ryu , just let me know.

Regs, DEL

[spadgy]

it's like the old Progear competition (which I won, btw. )

Arghh! Straight through the heart!

Actually - techically it was a draw. You won on JPN region - I won on US. I shouldn't really open this wound again! I haven't got the playing hours!

That said - you scored on the harder version with a higher overall score. I loose. You win!

Zed Blade it is then! I'll be down Thursday (though I could switch it to Friday). When are you all in town? I want to see CHI and DEL play!

[DEL]

Well my usual day is friday, but I can do thursday. I'll let you know.

[Skykid]

That said - you scored on the harder version with a higher overall score. I loose. You win!

That's kind of what I was getting at.
It was the race that counted though, a lot of fun. I've figured out a number of scoring tricks on Zed Blade now which is helping marginally.

I'd like to put in a very early request to join the Casino Royale team this year in the shmups compo - I'm yet to take part yet but would love to had a crack if that's cool with everyone? I always seem to register too late in previous years.

[spadgy]

You're welcome mate - we'd love to have you!

[Skykid]

You're welcome mate - we'd love to have you!

Cheers mate! In past years I've always been to busy to dedicated myself, but this year I've love to have a crack.

[spadgy]

Wicked - we usually manage a fairly nice balance of trying real hard and not taking it so seriously it becomes a chore. With our relaxed approach you won't need to stress about how much time you have.

Looks like I'll be in Friday!

[spadgy]

Wicked - we usually manage a fairly nice balance of trying real hard and not taking it so seriously it becomes a chore. With our relaxed approach you won't need to stress about how much time you have.

Looks like I'll be in Friday!

[Chi_Ryu]

As for Chi_Ryu's Mega Black board, I have it safely at home in Ealing. I can send it recorded and tracked or I can give it to one of Chi_Ryu's mates in the area.
Up to you Chi_Ryu , just let me know.

Bah, I've been quite disorganised recently.

I've messaged my main man fuse to get in touch with you a couple of weeks back, but what with it being christmas I expect he's been busy.

If all else fails I'll probably be down for ATEI, so can sort it out then (if not before).

[CHI]

for this week i'll be at Casino on wednesday, thursday, friday and saturday after 6pm

[DEL]

Chi_Ryu wrote;

If all else fails I'll probably be down for ATEI, so can sort it out then (if not before).

No problem , let me know when you're in town.

CHI - I'll be down Thursday and hopefully friday, but on thursday I'll be starting off from Goodge at 6.45pm with Poker Chris for Selfridges sales. Join.

[spadgy]

CHI - I'll be down Thursday and hopefully friday, but on thursday I'll be starting off from Goodge at 6.45pm with Poker Chris for Selfridges sales. Join.

CHI loves a trip to Selfridges - here a chance for another visit!

[DEL]

He kinda hates it, but I love to torture the boy

[DEL]

Alright, how in the blue hell do you get a Zed Blade rom to work?
I've tried Mame and a Neo Geo emulator and the rom doesn't work when I browse to it and F5 the list, audit all games etc.
CHI - Get round my yard and sort this out.
Now
OBEY

My Mame is working CUZ the Varth rom still runs, so its something to do with the lame ways I'm trying to apply the extracted rom to the Mame roms list .
Edit:- I'm trying the Nebula neo geo emulator. Downloading the neo geo bios and the zed blade rom, extracting both of them, putting them both in the nebula 'roms' folder then opening the nebula player and loading zed blade. It then says the neo geo bios and zed blade zips are missing?!?
This is the reason WHY I didn't do IT studies - computers can drive you Nuts .

[spadgy]

MAME just isn't my strong point. Skykid's playing an emulated version though, so he may be able to help (Though he is having problems with the game running too fast.

What a bitter irony DEL, that you're having to resort to MAME as it's your cart we're all playing!

So, I went into Casino on Friday, and was there from just after 7pm until 9.30pm, and saw not one of you! Still, I got to focus on Zed Blade undistracted, and hit 2.4mil.

Is there a day this week coming we can all make?

[freddiebamboo]

Alright, how in the blue hell do you get a Zed Blade rom to work?
I've tried Mame and a Neo Geo emulator and the rom doesn't work when I browse to it and F5 the list, audit all games etc.
CHI - Get round my yard and sort this out.
Now
OBEY

My Mame is working CUZ the Varth rom still runs, so its something to do with the lame ways I'm trying to apply the extracted rom to the Mame roms list .
Edit:- I'm trying the Nebula neo geo emulator. Downloading the neo geo bios and the zed blade rom, extracting both of them, putting them both in the nebula 'roms' folder then opening the nebula player and loading zed blade. It then says the neo geo bios and zed blade zips are missing?!?
This is the reason WHY I didn't do IT studies - computers can drive you Nuts .

Zed Blade is working fine on my wolfmame0.99 DEL, so I doubt it is because the version of mame you're using is out of date. Are you extracting the zedblade.zip into your rom folder? zedblade.zip doesn't need to be extracted, just put the .zip rom in your rom folder. You also need the neogeo.zip in your rom folder, but I think you should have that. Are you using a really old version of mame? Give me a PM and I'll sort it out if you still have issues with it DEL.

[spadgy]

As a note, in case your computer auto-unzips the rom, you may need to re-zip/compress it. However, I'm sure being the youthful arcade veteran you are, you know all about the usual rules for running a game in MAME, so perhaps your Zed Blade problems are a unusual, specific problem?

[cools]

As a note, in case your computer auto-unzips the rom, you may need to re-zip/compress it.

Nope. Unzipped ROMs held in a subfolder named the correct game name work just fine

[spadgy]

As a note, in case your computer auto-unzips the rom, you may need to re-zip/compress it.

Nope. Unzipped ROMs held in a subfolder named the correct game name work just fine

I should have made clear I'm using Mac MAME. Roms have to be zipped for Mac MAMEas far as I can tell. I'd assumed ( ) that it was the same for any MAME...

[DEL]

On mamplus_117 I have both the neo geo.zip and the zed blade.zip. I have put them in my roms folder unzipped and tried to run the game = no luck. (browsed to them, audited all games, F5'd...the works = no luck).
I have tried extracting them also for the hell of it = no joy.
I will have one last try adding unzipped neo geo.zip and zed blade.zip using the nebula neo geo emulator, then the PC Tower is going through the 2nd floor window
3 days - no luck

[Skykid]

On mamplus_117 I have both the neo geo.zip and the zed blade.zip. I have put them in my roms folder unzipped and tried to run the game = no luck. (browsed to them, audited all games, F5'd...the works = no luck).
I have tried extracting them also for the hell of it = no joy.
I will have one last try adding unzipped neo geo.zip and zed blade.zip using the nebula neo geo emulator, then the PC Tower is going through the 2nd floor window
3 days - no luck

Yo Del, download a neogeo.bios and drop it in the same folder where you store your mame roms. Then when you open mame, search for an option where it does a refresh search on all the games in your folder and run it. Also look for an option to do the same for bioses - you should be able to search all the bioses you have by an option in the Mame configuration.

If that doesn't work I'd be very surprised.

Don't unzip nuthin either.

[DEL]

Ok thanks Skykid,

The one thing I haven't tried is:

Also look for an option to do the same for bioses - you should be able to search all the bioses you have by an option in the Mame configuration.

I just audited all games and refreshed with F5 for good measure, but I didn't try to do that for the bioses.

Cheers, DEL

[spadgy]

So - who's in when this week? I'm planning Tuesday or Wednesday. Any of you likely to be there on either of those days?