Response to Clones, clones, why bash the clones?

I think Angry has made an excellent point here. I was the same as him when it came to topping out any available game in an arcade that I was good at whether it was one game or 3...didn't matter, my ego just wanted to see "JDR" at the top of the board.

Secondly, we are all gathered here my friends, in competition using an emulator called MAME (whadda ya think the "M" in MARP stands for?). The MAME dev team (well, with an exception or two maybe ;)) could probably care less about us MARPers and our debates. Thus, they have developed a wonderful piece of programming that we all use for our competition without regard to how including clones/ re-licensed or any other variation affects MARP. We have chosen this particular emulator as our vehicle to ride in and it's a fine vehicle indeed. If there happens to be a multitude of games with clones that a particular player is good at and gives him a slight advantage (and I emphasis slight...remember, we are past the 1400 game mark and I seriously doubt that a game with 10 clones is going to affect anything that dramatically) then so be it. For those of you familiar with baseball, I offer this analogy. I doubt if Mark Mcgwire sat around and bemoaned the fact that Sammy Sosa had an "advantage" by playing in the home run-friendly Wrigley Field. Instead, he worked with the situation he had and overcame such an "advantage" in winning 1998's baseball home run race. What I'm saying is, let the clones stay as in the past. I'm sure that all of us at some point will find a favorite game that has clones attached to it. If not, then there are 1400+ games to attack! That's more than enough to eliminate any perceived "advantage" that the clone-playing MARPer seems to have.

The thing about MARP that I've always enjoyed is that it has an open, "wild west" feel about it. I'm hoping that it doesn't succumb to being shackled with restrictions. Of course, there has to be some kind of order as far as settings and game play techniques go and that's what Angry's page addresses.

For those who want a more structured type of competition, I believe the upcoming MARP tourney will suit you fine. It is an excellent idea and I hope we have a lot of participation. Also on the structured side, our fellow MARPer, Mark Longridge, does a great job in maintaining the Twin Galaxies MAME high score page. If recognition is what you're looking for, this is certainly an important site to check out. The mission of TG differs from MARP and that's OK by me as I think the two sites complement each other very well.

Well, I've gone on long enough. (I can now see everyone's head nodding in agreement!)

JoustGod

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