no problems for me... (and more leaching comments)

MARP seems to be working okay for me, but I did notice the entire Retrogames collective (including MARP) was offline around 1:00am (GMT-08:00). As for the specific leaching comments, here are my views on each: Scion - This sounds resonable and acceptable, as you would still be playing the game as intended, and the difficulty continues to increase. More of a strategy than a cheat.
Vulgus - Very borderline issue. Since you slowly build up lives via the score growing, you could possibly play forever. I would lean on the illegal side of this strategy. I have noted another similar item below.
Joust - Pterry hunting (and similar techniques on other games) should be illegal - however, since there are multiple ROM versions of this game, and the trick can only be performed on the Red Label version, this could be allowed *only* on the specific version.
Galaga - The no-shooting trick should also be illegal (again, if there was only 1 ROM-set that supported this, then maybe). With the scores that BeeJay & Krogman are achieving *with* enemy fire, this is a moot issue IMO.
Mr. Do/Sinistar/Food Fight - All bonus life tricks (i.e. 255 lives), should be illegal.
Defender/Centipede/Xevious - The bonus life issues in these games were intended by the programmer's, and should be allowed. (Each of them awards 1 Extra for each point scored - this doesn't help much in Centipede, with it's 6 life limit).
Traverse USA/Zippy Race/Road Fighter - What you describe isn't really a trick, as it is a gameplay strategy. The object of these games is to finish each leg of the race and continue play for as long as possible, not to finish in 1st place.
Naughty Boy - It is possible to achieve extremely high scores on sitting along the top of level 2. This is well shown by the current top 2 scores for this game (mine included :p)
Roc'n Rope - This game also allows players to repeat a single level repeatedly to achieve higher scores (level 3). See the top 2 scores for this game (again, one of these is mine :p)

Alien Syndrome - It is possible to earn multiple extra lives in this game by using the "?" boxes. When the players' score is exactly 100,000, the game rewards the player with an extra life for these boxes. If you don't shoot any enemies, you can walk through the level, pick up 2 (or 3) lives, die, and repeat on your next life. I would consider this an illegal technique, if used for more than the number of "?" boxes on a level (i.e., you get 1 pass - then continue playing). I think that the best bet for these issues is to identify the techniques that are illegal (if necessary, removing existing scores from MARP), and maintain a listing of all illegal techniques. This is how Twin Galaxies managed it back in the old days (the players' were at the heart of defining illegal actions). Phew... that went a bit longer than I planned. I need to get that *other* Frenzy score now. Happy New Year! =Angry=

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