First of all, I just watched my recording again and came to the conclusion that I simply must have hit the "insert coin" button twice. After watching I verified that by inserting 3 coins, then starting the game, that, indeed, it allowed me to continue twice after not coming in first, and, also, I continued with the same score I finished with. So false alarm here... . Yes, the game should be over the first time you don't finish first.

But... I found a new problem: Pat posted the settings we are supposed to use with Super Sprint and told us those were not the default settings. Although those settings can be changed in the latest version of MAME, MAME 0.34 does NOT allow you to change ANY settings...

Ben Jos.

-- Ben Jos Walbeehm (walbeehm@walbeehm.com), October 27, 1999

Answers

The settings used that we can't change are the TG Settings, medium difficulty, medium obstacles, so that's really not a problem.

As for Chris Parsley's arguments, I'm going to rule that if you are second place or worse, thank you for playing. The credit is complete, especially to the game itself as BenJos has proven, and of course you can't use a second credit. This is a Tourney 2 rule to begin with, that is, the first credit you feed in the recording counts.

-- Gameboy9 (goldengameboy@yahoo.com), October 27, 1999.

If you are ruling against that, the game isn't TG anymore, as it came from the head of Twin Galaxies. He claims, as long as the machine continues itself, aka YOU DIDN'T PUT A SECOND COIN IN, that is valid. I THOUGHT WE WERE TO PLAY THESE GAMES ON TG SETTINGS, IF YOU ARE GOING TO DISALLOW WHAT THE HEAD OF TWIN GALAXIES SAYS, THEN WE ARE NOT TG, ARE WE?

-- Chris Parsley (cparsley1@hotmail.com), October 28, 1999.

Like I said, I watched my recording again and it seems that I hit the "insert coin" button twice. There was nothing direct to indicate that, nor was there anything that indicated otherwise, but I based this conclusion on two things: (1) The game behaved identically as in the case where I definitely put in multiple coins. (2) During gameplay, I did not see or hear anything that could have indicated I had just earnt a bonus credit.

As for TG settings, even if there is a way of getting bonus credits (which, on the settings we use, I don't believe there is), there are different ways of interpreting "available for everyone". Do you, Chris, know how to get a bonus credit? I don't. Most people here don't. So it's some big secret then, which would make me say it's AVAILABLE only to very few people.

Anyway, I can easily settle this once and for all. Tonight, I'll examine my .inp file and count the number of times the "insert coin" button was pressed...

Regardless, though, even assuming that the game hands out bonus credits, since the game itself does not indicate through some visual or audio effect that the player has just earnt a bonus credit, there is no way of telling by watching someone play whether someone simply used the "insert coin" button or really earnt the credit. That means that we would have to examine every recording in which someone continued a game to see if they used "insert coin" or not. I don't think that's very practical, so even if this is not in accordance with TG guidelines (and I think it IS in accordance), then for the tournament I still think we should go with game over as soon as you don't finish first.

Ben Jos.

-- Ben Jos Walbeehm (walbeehm@walbeehm.com), October 28, 1999.

Chris, this is the last time I'm going to explain this to you. The TG settings for Super Sprint say "Game ends when you don't finish 1st." Perhaps this will make sense to you... Try this: Start the game from Mame, insert ONE coin and play, lose on purpose. You'll see that it will ask you to insert a coin to continue.

Now try it this way, again start the game from Mame and insert ONE coin and play. WHILE YOU ARE PLAYING INSERT A 2ND COIN. (This is where you deviate from TGTS to add a continue!) Lose on purpose. Instead of waiting for you to Press Start, it automatically deducts one credit and continues the race. Even though the score hasn't reset to zero, the 1st game is now over and the 2nd has started. It's that black and white!!

-- Pat (laffaye@ibm.net), October 28, 1999.

I`ve been following this Super Sprint discussion, and am also unaware of a bonus credit being available. I haven`t played the MAME version, but would assume it be the same as the arcade ( controls not counting , of course ). A friend of mine could play this game all day, but I never saw him get a bonus credit. The only important thing to do on this game was when your score reaches 639,990.....simply go backwards ( getting no score )and die purposely. And when you enter your initials, you would be credited millions of points, a la Paperboy.....

Oh yeah, if ye didn`t finish first.....GAME OVER.

-- Alex Weir (alexweir@indigo.ie), October 28, 1999.

OK, I just had a look inside my .inp, and, indeed, I did press "insert coin" twice. So Chris, if you're still sure it's possible to get bonus credits using the settings for T2, then, please let us know how you do it, or, if you don't want to give away any advantages you might have, at least send me an .inp in which you get to play a continued game without inserting any extra coins. I'll examine it, but I am pretty sure that I'll find that (accidentally or not) there will be at least two "insert coin" frame sequences (so "insert coin" is pressed for several frames, then released, and a little later on, "insert coin" is pressed again).

Ben Jos.

-- Ben Jos Walbeehm (walbeehm@walbeehm.com), October 28, 1999.