This is quite a long post. Please read the last line - I'm proposing a new 'rule'...

I was thinking about getting the MARP upload script to automatically check all tournament uploads to make sure they have the correct dip switch settings. It's not hard to check what settings are used. I just tried running all the t1-galagads recordings through a checking program, and found that most of the recordings were started with wrong dipswitch settings, and then corrected, really early on.

Here's some output from the checker... It prints the recording's file name for each recording, followed by a list of all the dipswitch settings that were used in that recording, with the number of frames which that setting was in use for to the left. The first one is GameBoy's:

inp/plf_t1-galagads_87740_m35rc2.zip:



  31183 97f5 - legal

It shows that he used the same settings all the way through the game (since there's only one line of output), the game lasted for 31183 frames (that's around 8 minutes and 39 seconds), and the dipswitch settings he used were '97f5', which is the tournament setting. (It's a hexadecimal number, which sums up all the settings in a compact form).

Next we have The Krog's recording:

inp/smk_t1-galagads_2222220_m35rc2.zip:



     71 bff7 - default
 247488 97f5 - legal

This shows that he started the recording with the default settings, then after 71 frames (just over a second) the settings changed to the tournament settings, and stayed there for the rest of the game. I reckon he must have paused the game in the boot sequence and changed the settings, or you would see them changing one by one (the default settings and the tourney settings differ in at least 2 places - extra lives and difficult). I don't know how galaga works, but some games only read their dip switches when they first boot, so this technique of changing the settings during the recording might not always work.

Then Chris Parsley's recording:

inp/cmp_t1-galagads_110990_win35rc2.zip:



  29782 bff3

This one uses the same settings all the way through, but they're not the tourney settings, and they're not the default settings - the '3' on the end shows that the difficulty level is 'hard', but not 'hardest'. (it's easy=7, medium=1, hard=3, hardest=5, unless you mess with the 2credit or demo-sound switches, which add 1 or 8 to these figures respectively).

So what gives, Chris?

Next up is one of GameBoy's older recordings, which he's since beaten:

inp/plf_t1-galagads_66890_m35rc2.zip:



    245 97f5 - legal
     31 9ff5
    172 a7f5
      9 9ff5
  20616 97f5 - legal

It looks like he had set the switches correctly in a previous game, since they start off at the tourney settings. He then plays about with them for a few seconds before putting them back where they were. Maybe just checking that he had the correct settings, or something. The switch he's changing there is the one which controls extra life awards. I had to play with it a bit myself to see that '20k 70k 70k' is the one I wanted. Again, I'm not sure how safe this is. A bit like pulling faces in the wind, you might have the switch in the wrong place just as MAME reads it, and then you might be stuck in that position for the rest of the game. Maybe this doesn't happen in galaga, but in general it's a really good idea not to change the dipswitches during a recording. My suggestion is to start a game, set the switches up correctly, hit escape to abort the game, and then start recording with the switches set correctly from the beginning.

NotMan does the same thing as Steve K. did - adjusted the settings while paused:

inp/sh_t1-galagads_1547260_m35rc2.zip:



     63 bff7 - default
 232905 97f5 - legal

And, of course, my recording is perfect (if slightly lacking in points), starting with the correct settings and leaving them set:

inp/zw_t1-galagads_26050_m35rc2.zip:



  10971 97f5 - legal

Sorry to go on about this, but if we can refrain from changing settings within a recording, then I can automate the setting checking, and refuse to upload games with the wrong settings.

What do people think of this? Good idea? Or over the top?

BOTTOM LINE: please hit escape and re-start the recording whenever you change dip-switch settings.

Chris.

-- Zwaxy (zwaxy@bigfoot.com), July 02, 1999

Answers

Mine was recorded above TG settings, and the fact that I played with a 30k 90k 150k free life settings was above TG settings.

-- Chris Parsley (cparsley1@hotmail.com), July 02, 1999.

NotMan here! Very interesting question! I have tried to change and delete galagads.cfg file to Tg setting in default, so the recording can work and it doesn't work, so I had to pause the game to change the dipswitch before the game boot up! Also, I've tried to play the game and change dipswitch mode and enter esc then use record.bat file and it's only work on default mode, not Tg setting! Somehow the recording inp must have changed somewhere in M35 beta cycle!

So anyway, Is there is a correct way to record TG setting! It would be very useful for next recording!:)

NotMan

-- NotMan (fredh@sierra.net), July 02, 1999.

Great Idea! I like it a lot because it will save myself and the other judges from having to check dip switch settings. If you've tested it with all the games and feel confident that it would work, I say "let's do it!" Also, does this work the same with MAME 34 because the INP file format is different?

-- Pat (laffaye@ibm.net), July 02, 1999.