Favorite Non-Shmups Game You Play on MAME

ArrogantBastard · Post by **ArrogantBastard** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:00 am

I know most of you are anti-MAME, but some of us just don't have the money to buy an actual PCB. So please save your MAME hatin' and take it elsewhere like LiveJournal if it bothers you so much. Thanks.

Anyways, as the subject says, what is your favorite non-shmups game you usually fire up on MAME? Why? What is its appeal to you?

For me, before I got into shmups two years ago, I used to play a lot of side-scroller beat-'em-up games a lot; i.e. Final Fight, Combatribes, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, and etc. That used to be my thing way back when we actually had arcade joints before most places started going out of business.

Lately, I've been playing a lot of Elevator Action series for the old school kitsch factor, and because it's really simple to pick up and play without memorizing hundreds of controller commands or having the game force you to play it a lot to get a proper chain going and whatnot for high score purpose.

Now, your turn... Discuss.

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:17 am

First non shmup I go for would usually be Bubble Bobble or Rainbow Islands, I think the only platform games every to match Rainbow Islands in terms of design are Mario 3 & World, and Bubble Bobble always has and always will be pure fun. Robotron, Mikie, Green Beret, Tapper, Mr Do (utter classic), really simple stuff that reminds me of being a kid. Out Runners and Out Run are pretty much all I need racer wise, and Snow Bros 2 and Saboten Bombers when I don't fancy Bubble Bobble. And Space Harrier is always good for a quick fix.

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:00 am

whats the best place to download PS2 and Xbox games?

Neon · Post by **Neon** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 11:42 am

Hmm, I'm waiting for the cafeteria to open so I'll type out the full list. My opinion counts because I have better taste than everyone. You should know this by now.

One should note that these aren't favorites so much as 'shit you should try out' since tastes vary

Acrobatic Dogfight - ok, it's not *excellent* but funny borderliner worth a try.

Alien Syndrome - decent

Black Tiger - don't have much playtime, but seems highqual

Tenchi Wo Kurau - decentish

Magical Drop 3 - not bad

Megaman 2: Power Fighters - worthless except that it contains a great remake of the megaman 6 level select theme

Metal Slug (duh) - 1 and X are my preferred entries. The series is highly flawed especially where scoring is concerned but still fun in a play for survival way.

Money Puzzle Exchanger - quite good puzzler

Neo Bomberman - pleasant music

Neo Driftout - not too shabby

Neo Turf Masters - Made by the Metal Slug team, as good as golf gets...

Power Drift - control is way too sensitive, if you have an analog controller you're in for a good time. Might try the PCE conversion in Magicengine instead

Rainbow Islands - "Classic, total classic." - Carl from Aquateens

Real Bout Special - don't have much time on this at all, but been enjoying it casually

Saboten Bombers - interesting

Samurai Shodown series - ditto to Real bout special. 3 has the best atmosphere.

Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha - SFA2 with a custom combo system and higher difficulty. Truly a must play.

Street Fighter Alpha 3 - Wasted hundreds of hours of my life on this game. The third or fourth best Streetfighter in terms of gameplay, but stunningly well made with an announcer who has to be heard to be believed. My favorite game ever.

Strider 2 - not bad, not great.

Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Utterly excellent. A 10/10 game.

Vampire Saviour - I really need to play this more. Excellent fighter.

Waku Waku 7 - not the most intense game you'll ever play, but the graphics are nice and trippy

Wardner - weird

Xmen vs. Streetfighter - Bit ridiculous on the gameplay side but the atmosphere (and concept!) are too cool (in a nerdass way).

Zunzunkyou no Yabou - weird

~Kid Icarus~ · Post by **~Kid Icarus~** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 12:19 pm

Three Wonders (or Wonder3) by Capcom. A Run 'N Gun, A shmup (yeah I know) and a Pengo clone all on the same board/rom. Brilliant games.

Psycho Soldiers - for the truly awful yet hilariously compelling theme tune with out of key vocals.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 12:49 pm

I've been playing Wonder 3 on the saturn lately.

Roosters (Or Midnight Wanderers) is just awesome.

What was the story behind that game? Roosters is AWESOME and could be released as a single game. Chariot also is a very solid shmup, and it would hold on as a single game too. Both have the same heroes, same world, same atmosphere... maybe that why they released them together (Still doesnt make much sense)

But what the HECK is that "pengo clone" doing there? It doesnt have anything to do with the other games, and it's by far the worst game of the 3.

I can understand a compilation in a console... but in an ARCADE?

Sly Cherry Chunks · Post by **Sly Cherry Chunks** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:22 pm

-A whole load of Galaxy Force II. I loved that game as a kid and still think the graphics look absolutely awesome.
It plays pretty well with my PS2 style controller - one stick controls direction, the other one controls speed.

My bro decided to dump 5 CDs worth of roms on my computer so I spend a lot of time just trying out random games. I found a neat robot-themed run-and-gun called 'Finest Our' (by Namco) that I spent a bit of time with and versions of Volfied and Bubble Bobble where you have to strip girls naked.

Then there's Xybots....

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:35 pm

Power Drift - control is way too sensitive, if you have an analog controller you're in for a good time. Might try the PCE conversion in Magicengine instead

Don't do it. An admirable attempt, but it's graphically bare, jerky as hell and just not that enjoyable. Saturn or DC's where it's at.

Bloodreign · Post by **Bloodreign** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:33 pm

Bubble Bobble
Bubble Symphony
Bubble Memories
Rainbow Islands
Ghosts N Goblins
Ghouls N Ghosts
Final Fight (got it on TV now with Capcom Classsics, same with GnG, and GnG

)

These are the games I give the most time to, though I play many others.

~Kid Icarus~ · Post by **~Kid Icarus~** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:35 pm

Shatterhand wrote:I've been playing Wonder 3 on the saturn lately.

Roosters (Or Midnight Wanderers) is just awesome.

What was the story behind that game? Roosters is AWESOME and could be released as a single game. Chariot also is a very solid shmup, and it would hold on as a single game too. Both have the same heroes, same world, same atmosphere... maybe that why they released them together (Still doesnt make much sense)

But what the HECK is that "pengo clone" doing there? It doesnt have anything to do with the other games, and it's by far the worst game of the 3.

I can understand a compilation in a console... but in an ARCADE?

Strange huh? But yeah, they used to have this at an arcade near me when I was a kid and it was my favourite arcade game. Roosters (why is it called Roosters? lol) and Chariot even share the same sprites. Don't pull isn't that bad, it;s just sitting next to the other two games it kinda gets overshadowed.

Hmmm, hi-score thread for Chariot perhaps? Also what's the box and manual like for Wonder3? I've tried searching but there's hardly any artwork or promo stuff out there on the net for this game.

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:39 pm

Last thing I can think of that I played on MAME was Hammerin' Harry. Brilliant game but I hear that the SNES one is better. Anyone played both?

Pa

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:50 pm

Cannon Dancer
Magician Lord

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 4:58 pm

Uo Poko - Unique puzzle game.

Puzzle Bobble series - Fun, but the stickiness of the bubbles is too much.

Nightmare in the Dark - Platform/puzzler.

Gunbarich - Breakout with magic.

Last Blade series - Excellent fighters.

Imhotep · Post by **Imhotep** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:14 pm

Penguin Brothers - single screen platformer with great controls, but a bit on the easy side and repetitive

Willow

Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon - decent scrolling beat'em up by Gazelle

Dyna Gears - decent run and gun by Sammy

The Punisher

J.J. Squawkers - good run and gun game

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:15 pm

damn, i can actually vote on this now. i set up mame so i could watch that tviks replay of gradius III. now progear is eating me up inside.

Post by **undamned** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:25 pm

Ganelon wrote:Cannon Dancer
Magician Lord

Cannon Dancer is emulated, finally?
-ud

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 7:16 pm

A few favorites of mine:

Magic Sword
Kicker (AKA Shao-Lin's Road)
Liquid Kids (a somewhat rare Taito cute platformer)

adam76 · Post by **adam76** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:12 pm

Rainbow Islands - My favourite game ever. I've wasted so many hours on this lil' beaut that i don't care to mention. Its utterly compelling and its got a perfect difficulty curve. Genius.

Shinobi - Brilliant level design and fantastic enemies. Beats me up every time i play it but i've been playing it for nearly 20 years, so its gotta be doing something right!

Snow Bros - I just love these 'one-screener's'. So simple, yet will leave you bereft of both hair and patience given enough credits.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 10:41 pm

I don't think I've played anything other than a shooter on MAME, aside from the occasional non-shooter NeoGeo game, though most of the ones I played I now own on MVS or plan to get soon... I guess Neo Driftout is the one that's still farther away on the horizon...

Ganelon · Post by **Ganelon** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 11:52 pm

undamned wrote: Cannon Dancer is emulated, finally?
-ud

Yup, at long last. And it's every bit as amazing as I thought it would be.

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 11:58 pm

Ganelon wrote:
undamned wrote: Cannon Dancer is emulated, finally?
-ud
Yup, at long last. And it's every bit as amazing as I thought it would be.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:13 am

Robo-freaking-cop.

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:43 am

Neo Turf Masters.

Hey Neon...maybe one day we can "tee off" together?
Still cannot 1CC it, but I've placed 1st in the tourament though with 3 continues.

The n00b · Post by **The n00b** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:32 am

The Dungeons and Dragons games are really good. I like the way they incorporated an rpg-like system into a plain old beatemup.

Strider is always cool of course.... I think that's it for the non-shmups I play in Mame.

Soulo · Post by **Soulo** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 2:22 pm

The non-shmup games I've played the most on Mame are probably Shinobi and Ghouls'n Ghosts. I just love these kind of platform/run 'n gun games, and these 2 are my favorites.
Other games that are similar that really like as well: Toki, Sunset Riders, Contra, Super Contra, Ninja Spirit, Caveman Ninja and Metal Slug 1 to 3.
I like some beat em ups, especially: Double Dragon 2, Golden Axe and it´s sequel, Aliens vs Predator (I think this is the finest beat em up Capcom has made), Battle Toads, Captain America and the Avengers and Turtles in Time.
Fighting games I don´t play much lately. Used to play SFA3 and KoF a lot, now I only play Samurai Shodown 4 or Last Blade 2 once in a while, since I love fighting games set in old Japan.
Some other games I like to play are Snowbros, Memories, Super Puzzle Fighter X Turbo, Super Pang and Smash TV.

PaCrappa · Post by **PaCrappa** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 4:38 pm

adam76 wrote:Snow Bros - I just love these 'one-screener's'. So simple, yet will leave you bereft of both hair and patience given enough credits.

Have you ever played, Don Doko Don or Zupapa? I ask because I consider Snow Bros to have very poor "unplayable" gameplay. Meaning that you'll never one credit the thing no matter how much you memorize or how lightning fast your reflexes are because the game is so poorly designed. I know that the two I mentioned have been emulated and both feature very tight design. DDD is rock hard but it's fair. Zupapa is much easier than DDD but it definitely sports solid design and gameplay mechanics.

I just wanted to say that because I think there are alot of people who consider Snow Bros to be sort of exemplary in the genre when it is actually quite shoddy. IMO of course.

Pa

Samudra · Post by **Samudra** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 5:57 pm

About 5 years ago I used MAME a lot. The only game I played with it was Logic Pro 2.
Played it till I dreamt about it.

I heard that game was a big hit in Japanese arcades as well.
If you are interested in puzzle games and never heard about it there is a public domain gameboy rom which is a similar game.

http://www.zophar.net/roms/gameboy.html. Zophar has it.

Edit: Name is Drymouth. Forgot.

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 7:24 pm

Lately, it's mostly been these:

Magical Drop 3
Puyo Puyo 2
Saboten Bombers
Mighty! Pang
Shock Troopers
Final Fight

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:48 pm

PaCrappa wrote:
Have you ever played, Don Doko Don or Zupapa? I ask because I consider Snow Bros to have very poor "unplayable" gameplay. Meaning that you'll never one credit the thing

Pa

Done on Snow Bros. It's not even difficult, i'd add, albeit i wouldn't be able to 1-cc without some practice, right now. Same discourse with Don Doko Don. Never focused on Zupapa, i strangely don't find attractive anymore 1-screeners.

Personally, i use mame for old titles, i think i play at least once per month Side Arms, Black Tiger and a few other titles. I have in mind shitloads of good emulated titles, but most have been already posted in the thread.

Zunzunkyou no Yabou is also ace, Sega had a few "wacky humour" titles (I'm sorry, for example). Uhm, Psychic 5, since we're there.

zaphod · Post by **zaphod** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 10:29 pm

Yeah Snow Bros is very playable, IMHO. Memorization helps a lot. You can get the money on every single screen every time if you know how to do it. I used to be able to get the bills on almost every screen in the firt set, and many in the second. It is a pattern game, though some screens are very anal about timing and positioning on the patterns if you are going for the money (kill all enemies with one snwoball push).

it is very hard to recover from a death in the third set of screens, though, because the green dragons start breathing downwards.

I am positive the game can be single life cleared. I know it can be 1cced, because i've done i,t, with and without another player helping (the second player does help a LOT) and yes the other player also put in only one credit.