Mame Arcade Recordes tournament

[shadowbringer]

Hello, everyone.

Recently I've been told about this tournament, and then asked the organizer (or one of them) to translate the rules from portuguese to english, which he did today (September 16th), albeit the translation isn't.. very good. This tournament will start on September 25th and go on until November 6th (note from me: there's an inconsistency with the schedule the organizer submitted, so I'm not sure about when the tournament ends), and is open to everyone.

For more details, please go to http://mame-arcade-recordes.webnode.com ... o-mar-ts1/

MAR-TS1 event page on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/246751098782904/



translation (by me)


FORMAT

MAR-TS1 will have 9 phases, the first 8 will be played for score, and the top 4 players will get to play the final phase. Each phase will feature 1 game, and will last 7 days.


RULES

The input files must be sent via email to valneo@ibest.com.br in no more than 24 hours after being recorded. Please include "MAR-TS1" on the email description or subject.

The majority of games will use MAME's default configurations for difficulty, number of lives, etc. If different configurations are to be used, they'll be posted in advance in the blog. If you're worried that your configurations aren't the default ones, erase the game's files in the CFG folder.

The two MAME versions which are allowed are WolfMAME Plus 0.106 or WolfMAME 0.143, since there's the possibility of playback problems. There's no limit to how many times you can send an input for a game, but the new input file must have a higher score than the previous one.

The input files' average recorded speed must be above 95%. The frameskip function will generally help against speed issues, if needed. If you're still having problems to make the game run at an ideal speed, please say so - we'll do our best to find out how to get the game to run at a proper speed for you.

Autofire, turbo, macros are *not* allowed in the playthroughs; if something irregular is found, the input file won't be considered valid.


SCORE AND BONUSES

Depending on your placement, each game will award you in the following way:

1st = 100 points
2nd = 90 points
3rd = 80 points
4th = 70 points
5th = 60 points
6th = 50 points
7th = 40 points
8th = 30 points
9th = 20 points
10th and below = 10 points

BONUS: the player(s) who manage to beat certain highscores will have an additional award, as follows:

TWINGALAXIES = 25 extra points
RECORD in MARP = 50 extra points
WORLD RECORD = 100 extra points

Tie-breaking criteria: if two or more competitors end up with the same score at the end of the tournament, the one with the best placements in all phases wins.
Example:
Player 1 = 280 points with 4x 1st place and 2x 3rd place
Player 2 = 280 points with 2x 1st place and 4x 2nd place
the winner will be the first player, because he has scored first place more times than the second.

(TN: I think 4x 1st place and 2x 3rd place would award him at least 560 points, I think 280 isn't possible but I hope that you got the idea)


LIST OF GAMES:

please refer to this page ( http://mame-arcade-recordes.webnode.com ... -of-games/ ) for the list of games; I'll try to explain how they'll be chosen.

In Brazil, there's a nation-wide lottery known as Mega-Sena (Sena as in, you would have to fill in 6 numbers out of the 60 possible ones, if you were to try your luck at this lottery), which is run twice per week. The results' first and second numbers (out of the 6), will be used to define the *group* of the games and the game itself, respectively. Since there's 4 groups, the first number will decide the group in this way:

01 through 15: Group 1
16 through 30: Group 2
31 through 45: Group 3
46 through 60: Group 4

Some examples:
14-43 -> GROUP 1 = Choplifter ( bootleg)
18-31 -> GROUP 2 = Giga Wing
44-15 -> GROUP 3 = Prehistoric Isle 2
51-23 -> GROUP 4 = Truxton

If these two numbers end up selecting a game that has been played before in this tournament, the next number (3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th if needed) will be used instead of the 2nd. (TN: don't know how they'll handle possible exceptions, though)


SCHEDULE

(TN: all times are GMT -3)

September 25th - Lottery results
Tournament start - September 26th
1st Phase - September 26th from 0:00AM through October 2nd 11:59pm
October 2nd - Lottery results
2nd Phase - October 3rd from 0:00AM through October 9th 11:59pm
October 9th - Lottery results
3rd Phase - October 10th from 0:00AM through October 16th 11:59pm
October 16th - Lottery results
4th Phase - October 17th from 0:00AM through October 23th 11:59pm
October 23th - Lottery results
5th Phase - October 24th from 0:00AM through October 30th 11:59pm
October 30th - Lottery results
6th Phase - October 31th from 0:00AM through November 6th 11:59pm
November 6th - Lottery results
7th Phase - November 7th from 0:00AM through November 13th 11:59pm
November 13th - Lottery results
8th Phase - November 14th from 0:00AM through November 20th 11:59pm
November 20th - Lottery results
"FINAL" 9th Phase with the top 4 players - November 21th from 0:00AM through November 14th 11:59pm (TN: I need to ask the tournament organizer about what's the tournament's ending time, since November 14th is a typo..)


REGISTRATION

http://mame-arcade-recordes.webnode.com ... articipar/


TN: I've left out the translation on how to submit the input files (as posted here http://mame-arcade-recordes.webnode.com ... quivo-inp/ ), but if you really need, please tell me and I'll try to translate.

edit (September 17th): added their facebook event page to the tournament description

[shadowbringer]

reserved

[BareKnuckleRoo]

The two MAME versions which are allowed are WolfMAME Plus 0.106 or WolfMAME 0.143

???

[shadowbringer]

if you want, I can ask the organizer(s) why did he (or they) choose Wolfmame (or these two versions) instead of Shmupmame, my hunch is that Wolfmame (or at least these versions) doesn't allow you to pause emulation while recording (but my memory is often unreliable), and/or he (or they) hasn't (haven't) tested or knew about Shmupmame, or know about it but are used to validating replays for a lot of people.

[shmuppyLove]

LET'S DO THIS

[Kollision]

Autofire (...) *not* allowed in the playthroughs

[shmuppyLove]

Autofire (...) *not* allowed in the playthroughs

Scared?

[Icarus]

BONUS: the player(s) who manage to beat certain highscores will have an additional award, as follows:

TWINGALAXIES = 25 extra points

25 bonus points to everybody!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Autofire (...) *not* allowed in the playthroughs

you're obviously only a pro shmup player if you like hurting your fingers thanks to button mashing through an entire game, duh

Seriously, there's a ton of games on the possible games list that I simply wouldn't want to play without the option of autofire. It's bad design to expect players to mash the fire button at a ridiculous rate the entire game to get decent damage out of your weapons. It's not as bad when the game only requires a leisurely button tapping speed (Giga Wing), but something like Blazing Star or Aero Fighters without autofire is just an exercise in finger exhaustion.

TWINGALAXIES = 25 extra points

25 bonus points to everybody!

made me lol

[wolfman24]

could we sign up without a facebook account?

[shadowbringer]

could we sign up without a facebook account?

I'll ask the TO about it.

edit: forgot to paste their facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/246751098782904/

[NTSC-J]

WORLD RECORD = 100 extra points

Beating the world record in Dodonpachi is worth at least 110 points.

[Gemant]

if you want, I can ask the organizer(s) why did he (or they) choose Wolfmame (or these two versions) instead of Shmupmame, my hunch is that Wolfmame (or at least these versions) doesn't allow you to pause emulation while recording (but my memory is often unreliable), and/or he (or they) hasn't (haven't) tested or knew about Shmupmame, or know about it but are used to validating replays for a lot of people.

I think this tournament is made from Marp's or TG users. Usually players from these sites use wolfmame (but also many other arcade community use them) because pause during recording isn't possible, cheats in recording isn't possible, re-recording (save & load) during recording isn't possible and is possible check the average speed of recording.

If i not mistake, shmupsmame not have these options, right?

Because autofire is not allowed in this tournament (typical rule from TG or Marp) probably the WR reference is not from Arcadia magazine but from other western source.

[shadowbringer]

could we sign up without a facebook account?

I'll ask the TO about it.

got his reply today, he said that you can sign up without a fb account, but then you'll need a MARP account (he said that the fb account requirement was a measure to help prevent, or at least minimize the possibility of people creating multiple accounts). So, he changed the registration page so that you can enter either your facebook page or your MARP nickname.

I think this tournament is made from Marp's or TG users. Usually players from these sites use wolfmame (but also many other arcade community use them) because pause during recording isn't possible, cheats in recording isn't possible, re-recording (save & load) during recording isn't possible and is possible check the average speed of recording.

If i not mistake, shmupsmame not have these options, right?

Because autofire is not allowed in this tournament (typical rule from TG or Marp) probably the WR reference is not from Arcadia magazine but from other western source.

I'm not sure myself (about the emulator choice), haven't used shmupmame for a while :p
About the WR reference, I don't know which they'll be using either.. anyways, since the organizer(s) don't seem to visit this forum (I asked the TO to translate the tournament's rules and details, and to make a thread here, he/they did come up with a translation, which is on their site, but didn't make a thread for this tournament), I'll ask them (what are their reasons for the emulator choice and which WR reference will they be using) and post their reply here.

[Gemant]

I'm not sure myself (about the emulator choice), haven't used shmupmame for a while :p
About the WR reference, I don't know which they'll be using either.. anyways, since the organizer(s) don't seem to visit this forum (I asked the TO to translate the tournament's rules and details, and to make a thread here, he/they did come up with a translation, which is on their site, but didn't make a thread for this tournament), I'll ask them (what are their reasons for the emulator choice and which WR reference will they be using) and post their reply here.

Ok, them use probably http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~slunk/GAMES.pdf for WR reference. That database is totally wrong.
For exemple Dodonpachi references are:

Recorde Mundial - 753,819,200 Player - Aichi-ken

This score is a TAS (tool assisted superplay) but this information wasn't known at the time. Therefore this score is not the WR.

Recorde MARP - 572,041,900 Player - M.T@Team2ch.jp DATA - 21/07/2002

Also this score is not correct, because at the time of this replay (2002), mame emulation wasn't correct about cave drivers (the games was slower).

About the choice of wolfmame instead of shmupsmame, is correct, because if with shmupsmame you can use pause or save state during play and record input is not possible use this version in a serious tournament.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

About the choice of wolfmame instead of shmupsmame, is correct, because if with shmupsmame you can use pause or save state during play and record input is not possible use this version in a serious tournament.

Shmupmame stops recording if you pause during a run or mess around with savestates. You can't use shmupmame to record a toolassisted .INP as far as I can tell.

[shadowbringer]

bump, the tournament's first game is Flying Tiger; I've made a thread here.

since I expect a blackout in some minutes, I can't post much more than this right now. Good luck, have fun!

[shmuppyLove]

Bah, first game wasn't emulated correctly, now they aren't accepting my INP because I used wolfmame 143 instead of wolfmame plus 109 (both of which are specified as acceptable in the rules).

I actually put in a really good score on Turbo Force too, but they won't accept it

[Hagane]

About the choice of wolfmame instead of shmupsmame, is correct, because if with shmupsmame you can use pause or save state during play and record input is not possible use this version in a serious tournament.

Shmupmame stops recording if you pause during a run or mess around with savestates. You can't use shmupmame to record a toolassisted .INP as far as I can tell.

You can pause and the replay will record just fine, but savestates break them.