Score counters without commas

[Square King]

Here's something that hasn't crossed my mind until recently when I tried Mushi's arrange mode for the first time in a month or so. The score counter has commas while the other modes do not -- nor do 95% of the STGs I've played. Dunno about the majority here, but commas help me figure out where I'm at with a quick glance. I'm probably just not used to it, and the more I played Mushi the better I got at sussing out the numbers in a hurry, but commas are helpful when the screen is covered in bullets. Even color-coding the hundreds, thousands and millions places would be pretty beneficial. Is there a reason why many shmups don't incorporate the commas?

[linko9]

If there's ever any doubt in your mind what your approximate score is by looking at the first two or three digits, you just haven't been playing that game for a very long time. For example, when I look up at my score during stage 6 of DDP and see that the first two digits are 51, that can only mean 51,000,000.

[rockyraccoon5]

Hmm perhaps they could color them? The first 3 digits could be one color, then the next three will be another color, etc, so at a glance it would be able to distinguish. Kind of like what you just said, but more friendly to the eye. For all I know some games actually do this. Mars Matrix seems to do it?

[Square King]

If there's ever any doubt in your mind what your approximate score is by looking at the first two or three digits, you just haven't been playing that game for a very long time.

Oh, I agree. It's such a simple concept that I was surprised that it's not included in many games.

Hmm perhaps they could color them? The first 3 digits could be one color, then the next three will be another color, etc, so at a glance it would be able to distinguish. Kind of like what you just said, but more friendly to the eye. For all I know some games actually do this. Mars Matrix seems to do it?

MM is what I had in mind...works pretty well and looks awesome.

[adversity1]

DFK BL increases the font size of the digits as the score grows to the left.

It's something like 71,1000,0000, which makes it easier to understand your score in the Japanese numbers system (oku, man etc.) but even more confusing for overseas players.

[captpain]

Who fucking cares?

[toaplan_shmupfan]

More than likely, it's because it's a lot easier just to display a score's integer numerical value instead of involving extra programming to add the commas.

[Ed Oscuro]

Nobody mentioned Mars Matrix (I think it is) and its crazy groupings of four digits?

Anyway, commas always help with the readability, but with many lowrez arcade games it doesn't make much of a difference since the numerals are readily visible anyway.

[Jeneki]

Giga Wing had color-coded digits. I remember ignoring anything below the red digits (Trillions? It's been a while).

[gatsu25]

Japanese count by not three zeros, but four. If they put commas in there it would honestly be more confusing to read. Like Marz Matrix is.

[TMR]

More than likely, it's because it's a lot easier just to display a score's integer numerical value instead of involving extra programming to add the commas.

Not really, if the score is just being stored as an integer you're already going to be processing it for either right justification or zero padding anyway so adding commas isn't a major deal on top of that; for the earliest 8-bit generations of hardware it might have taken a bit longer to do (although converting a large integer for output can be surprisingly quite hefty in itself and it'd be quicker if slightly less memory efficient to have a byte per score digit) but there are ways to minimise that processor load. i'm not sure why it hasn't been implemented more often to be honest...

[msm]

i've always wondered why everyone uses commas? I thought it was supposed to be single quotes like this 100'000'000 but everyone uses commas. i probably just had a strange teacher or something

[Voxbox]

Darius Burst shows zeros for all the positions (something like 00512480), so you only have to count the zeros to know where you're at score wise. I like it.

[Herr Schatten]

i've always wondered why everyone uses commas? I thought it was supposed to be single quotes like this 100'000'000 but everyone uses commas. i probably just had a strange teacher or something

Maybe, but it also depends on the country you live in. In Germany, for example, you use points instead of commas to seperate the groups of digits, and commas instead of points to seperate the whole numbers from the fractions.

[fatnoze]

Giga Wing does it too. Kind of has to. Also groups the numbers in fours, oddly (ie, 1234,5678,9012,3456).

[EPS21]

I'm pretty sure most the rest of the world uses periods to separate large numbers by every three digits, but us lolamericans use comma's (vice versa for floating point numbers as well). And to answer OP's question, its a good thing most shmups don't use anything to separate because the traditional counting system in Japan groups every four digits, so games like Gigawing and DDP DFK scores are confusing to us when trying to think exactly what that # is. As you play the game enough though it doesn't matter, you'll know what a good score is and isn't.

[ncp]

I'm pretty sure most the rest of the world uses periods to separate large numbers by every three digits, but us lolamericans use comma's (vice versa for floating point numbers as well).

I've seen several japanese games with commas every 3 digits, though.

[EPS21]

I'm pretty sure most the rest of the world uses periods to separate large numbers by every three digits, but us lolamericans use comma's (vice versa for floating point numbers as well).

I've seen several japanese games with commas every 3 digits, though.

And 99% of the games have eng(r)lish in the menus somewhere. Might be their hardon for westernization as well.

[ncp]

Well, I was mostly emphasizing the use of commas over periods. I'm pretty sure certain Euro countries are the only places that periods are used over commas. A lot of places have different numbers of digits between commas but I'm fairly certain most of them do use commas.

But really I didn't research this at all so I could be completely wrong woohoo

[Square King]

Yeah, guess it's pretty shortsighted of me to assume commas were commonplace. In fact, I think I already knew they weren't. I just thought it was odd when it popped up in Mushi's arrange mode. Commas, apostrophes, periods, whatever -- a visual identifier of some kind would only be beneficial, right?

[agustusx]

I always though gigawings numerical groupings of 4 were because the scores were so ridiculous

The color coding helps imo. But I agree that generally you can tell how you are doing on any particular stage by the first 2 digits once you have been playing it enough.

[msm]

i've always wondered why everyone uses commas? I thought it was supposed to be single quotes like this 100'000'000 but everyone uses commas. i probably just had a strange teacher or something

Maybe, but it also depends on the country you live in. In Germany, for example, you use points instead of commas to seperate the groups of digits, and commas instead of points to seperate the whole numbers from the fractions.

good point, could just be a UK thing, although i'm sure most/all scoreboards i've seen on UK sites use commas too, maybe they're just conforming to the common standard on the internet.

[ncp]

Interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_se ... imal_point
There's a map of countries that use commas vs periods as decimal separators.

For the most part, looks like:

Period decimals: N America, Asia, and Australia
Commas decimals: S America and Europe (incl Russia, excl British Isles).

But yeah I think it's a bit silly they don't add commas/periods to the numbers, but like others have said, if you play a game enough to be scoring well, you know what digit you're on.

[t0yrobo]

Interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_se ... imal_point
There's a map of countries that use commas vs periods as decimal separators.

For the most part, looks like:

Period decimals: N America, Asia, and Australia
Commas decimals: S America and Europe (incl Russia, excl British Isles).

But yeah I think it's a bit silly they don't add commas/periods to the numbers, but like others have said, if you play a game enough to be scoring well, you know what digit you're on.

That's odd. I'm fairly certain that using commas is by far the more common way to do it in the US.

[BulletMagnet]

That's odd. I'm fairly certain that using commas is by far the more common way to do it in the US.

For separating millions/thousands/hundreds, yes, but for decimals it's a dot (the subject kinda shifted, heh).

[t0yrobo]

That's odd. I'm fairly certain that using commas is by far the more common way to do it in the US.

For separating millions/thousands/hundreds, yes, but for decimals it's a dot (the subject kinda shifted, heh).

Yeah that dawned on me something like an hour after I posted it. Should've actually read the wiki article instead of just looking at the picture.

[TMR]

[Scratches head] So in the long run... do people like punctuation, grouping or just zero padding then? Personally i go for the latter so the millions column is always in the same place.

[lgb]

Japanese count by not three zeros, but four. If they put commas in there it would honestly be more confusing to read. Like Marz Matrix is.

this is why I use periods, then I discovered this

I'm pretty sure most the rest of the world uses periods to separate large numbers by every three digits, but us lolamericans use comma's (vice versa for floating point numbers as well).

and I also laughed since, you know, Americans are like that with a lot of situations

[mr_m0nks]

this is possibly the best topic ever, you wouldnt get this kind of quality dedicated posting on a gears of war forum.

thank you for entertaining me whilst wating for Maya to render a snowman

[Zweihander]

Mars Matrix's color coding confused the shit out of me.