Hi all!

This is my first letter to the forum, so I'll start off by saying how brilliant this whole concept is - allowing people to see action replays of arcade games! I myself will be contributing to the tables soon.

There are just a few quick comments I'd like to make.

I'd love to put up my replay of Pacland, but there's a slight snag. Most of the time, the game runs at full speed (100%), but occasionly it dips fractionally below the 90% mark. How elligible will it be if I send up an inp? I actually have the game for Playstation (it's a perfect port from the arcade - uses set 2) and have got to round 27, and I reckon it's only a matter of time before I get a cool score too, but it's a shame if I can't put the inp up...

Out of interest, why are there 4 sets of Pacland? Were all these 4 versions released officially as real arcades in their time?

I quote:

**************************************** Commando: Indefinitely sitting safely behind bunker and shooting unlimited number of enemies. ****************************************

The rule is, is that you can't do this too much, otherwise it will be regarded as cheating. Fair enough, I can see why this rule was made... but isn't it a bit of a kludge? Well, I s'pose there's no other way to do it...

...which leads me onto my next point: Levels!

Points are great and all that, but in a way, perhaps (for some games at least), levels should be more important than points! In a way of course, they're roughly proportional, and it would certainly solve the Commando problem once and for all. Maybe it would be nice to have two tables - one for highest scores, and one for furthest levels reached - it would be a great addition to MARP. Of course, some games are easy to complete, so what I suggest, is for the easier games - put the difficulty on 'hard' as the standard. This will keep the challenge of trying to get further and further throughout the game. If one (or more than one person) then completes the game on this 'hard' level, then the thing to do would be to crank the difficulty up to 'very hard/hardest' and have the table based on this /new/ level. Old scores on the easier difficulty levels are still shown, but shown below the harder difficulty levels.

An ideal solution for all involved :)

Cheers,

Daniel/Twinbee (dspwhite@email.com)

-- Daniel White (dspwhite@email.com), November 25, 2001

Answers

I agre with you. Level is more important than points. For me, leeching is only acceptable if the game is finished. I think if ranking of marp are made by level reach then by score, it will be better.

François

-- Francois Daniel (francois-daniel@libertysurf.fr), November 25, 2001.

Then remove all your recordings which unfinished the game. We do so.

-- Novice (weavuspert@yahoo.co.jp), November 26, 2001.

Deleting recordings that don't finish the game is rude.

As for whether or not we should base scores on level reached: Why? It's complicated enough at times trying to keep track of things. Some games (Dottori Kun, the Bomberman games in vs. mode, others) are scored by level reached, but that's only because there isn't any other way to score them.

Likewise, which is better: A 1M point recording that beats half the game, or a half-million point recording that beats the whole game?

-- dissolute city (dyishamista@aol.com), November 26, 2001.

"Then remove all your recordings which unfinished the game. We do so.

-- Novice (weavuspert@yahoo.co.jp), November 26, 2001. "

May I ask then, why do you even bother uploading an unfinished game in the first place?

JoustGod

-- JoustGod (pinballwiz1@lvcm.com), November 26, 2001.

Hmm, why not. But I make leeching only if I finished the game yet. There are axceptions as gng, but gng loop forever. I don't know why I'll delete my score at wboy or other games where I don't make leeching. Marp is made for all those who love arcade games, great players and the others. If the less skilled can't upload their scores, it will be very bad.

I think 500K with game finished is more valuable than 1M at the middle of the game. That's clear ! By exemple : everybody can easely reach 3rd level at gng and everybody can make the easy leeching at this stage. But finish the first loop is another thing. Only the best players can make one loop on this version.

So, finish games is clearly more valuable. And rankings by stage reach then by score will be fair.

François

-- Francois Daniel (francois-daniel@libertysurf.fr), November 26, 2001.

Hi all,

I quote:

> Likewise, which is better: A 1M point recording that beats half the > game, or a half-million point recording that beats the whole game?

...The long answer to that is:

a complex equation based on a whole host of factors which 'define' skill...

...the short answer (for all intents and purposes) is:

Inevitably, they are different achievements - both having seperate goals in mind. This is why it would be so cool to have seperate tables for scores /and/ levels for certain games.

Maybe different criteria could be established so that level-based records affect the leaderboard in the appropriate way, but even if they are totally seperated (so that they wouldn't affect the leaderboard), I would still love to see how far people can get on some games, particularly with the harder difficulty levels.

So, seperate it if you have to (so that the level records in no way affect the leaderboard) - but please include it :)

Also, it's really cool to get high scores for stacks of games to get a position on the leaderboard, but a few players (myself included), might want to get really good at just a few select games. As you can see, I tend to see each game as valuable in its own right.

The way all this could come about is if there's 2 or more people who are interested in setting the 'task' of a the game. Then emailing the site operators to ask if this 'task' could be implemented on MARP as a table.

Out of interest, what are all your favourite games to try and get high scores/high levels on? Pacland is currently my fave (hmmm... - I wonder why... ;)

Cheers,

-- Daniel White (dspwhite@email.com), November 26, 2001.

WHAAAA!!! BOSCONIAN LEVEL 256 CLEAR ONE LIFE AHHHHHHHHHH! Actually that is my goal someday....pass 256 levels on Bosconian on one life with a high score. I need to actually pass the level before anything, though :) Level 256 is "Super Speedy Level" and is (as far as I know) impossible to complete on one life on any set except Bosco. There is a pattern that works on Bosco EVERYTIME. I love Bosconian. Find me the Bosco rom set machine. I WOULD buy it, or even the PCB hehe :)

-- Joe Ledesma (JoeyL21988@yahoo.com), November 26, 2001.