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Are INP's legit?

from Frode Gjerde (frogjer@online.no)
I find myself being more and more worried about how much a proof INP files really are. This has been brought up before, but I feel that MAME should have the ability to save the average frame-rate on which a recording was done. As it is now, I could dig up my old 486 SX-25 and beat highscroes that I wouldnt be able to beat on my P2-400. Or, I could slow down my P2 by disabling the internal cache. The general rule with MAME is often : a lower frame-rate WILL give you a higher score, although this does not apply to all games. A good example of frame-rate cheating would be HyperSports and TracknField. I am not accusing anyone of cheating, but I know from experience that on slower computers you get a much higher speed (and thus longer jumps or higher power) on those particular games. Obviously the game-play of just about all arcade games are drastically changed on computers that cant run them on full frame-rate. Consider games that are based on reflexes, a frame-rate of 70% would certainly give you an advantage. Maybee Im paranoid, but I tend to think that quite a few of the scores on MARP should never have been submitted. I have come to a point where I have lost the initial inspiration that MAME recordings used to give me. And the reason is very simple. I have no proof that INP's really are genuine scores, played the way arcade-games was ment to be played.

Jeeees, what a depressive posting! Yeah, I know, but thats how I feel anyway. I hope these issues are solved in the future. If you feel somewhat the same way, please contact the MAME developers and demand some new INP features :)

Frode Gjerde

(posted 9465 days ago)

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