[Release] Compo4all MAME - ladder/scoreboard competition for classic arcade games :)

[sparkymark79]

wow, new website looks great!

might be nice to have a 'game info' page which gives some screenshots, instructions, etc, perhaps some tips found on the web. Give people who haven't played a reason to visit the site, or those that are playing some info on games they haven't seen.

just my two penneth

 

[lomaxx]

I gave this a try this evening. Setting it up was no problem. But in Donkey Kong (the only game I tried so far) the controls are quite awful. Either it's me being totally out of training (not saying that I have ever been good or something) or it's because  of that 4-way- or 8-way-differences of some arcades. Is there a way to configure this?

 Also the mame-menu (that shows up when you press space) is visually broken for me. I can not make out which option I got selected. Any way for me to fix this?

 

[Jumpman]

Hey, is anyone else having problem with Donkey Kong sound effects? When I first set this up(I have the sample file), it was working fine. Since one of the early updates, my sound effects have stopped working. Any ideas to fix this?

Chris

 

[skeezix]

The actual emu binary hasn't changed since day one, I think ...

jeff

 

[Jumpman]

The actual emu binary hasn't changed since day one, I think ...

jeff

Yeah, I figured as much, but it worked fine when I first set it up, and for about the last week or so, the running and jumping noises are gone. So I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else, and if so, is there a quick fix? Or is it a "me" specific issue?

Chris

 

[lomaxx]

Yeah, I figured as much, but it worked fine when I first set it up, and for about the last week or so, the running and jumping noises are gone. So I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else, and if so, is there a quick fix? Or is it a "me" specific issue?

If it really did work and now does not anymore, then I can't tell you the exact reason. What I can tell you is that the stomping sounds of Donkey Kong right at the in-game-start and the running- and jumping-sounds are provided by samples. So you need to put the sample-zip-file into the sample-subfolder of c4a (or make a softlink to an existing sample-folder).

Also see here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/158403-donkey-kong-sound-problems-mame/#entry1945451

Edit: Sorry. I just saw that you wrote that you got the sample-files.

 

[lomaxx]

 Also the mame-menu (that shows up when you press space) is visually broken for me. I can not make out which option I got selected. Any way for me to fix this?

Ok, I found the reason for this. My LCD-cable is (again, after exchanging it back in time) starting to be defective, which is why I get a light purple tint sometimes. Obviously I didn't recognize that yesterday evening. Today I noticed that the selected option is colored in the same lightly tint way, which is why I didn't see it.

 

[Jumpman]

Yeah, I figured as much, but it worked fine when I first set it up, and for about the last week or so, the running and jumping noises are gone. So I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else, and if so, is there a quick fix? Or is it a "me" specific issue?

If it really did work and now does not anymore, then I can't tell you the exact reason. What I can tell you is that the stomping sounds of Donkey Kong right at the in-game-start and the running- and jumping-sounds are provided by samples. So you need to put the sample-zip-file into the sample-subfolder of c4a (or make a softlink to an existing sample-folder).


Also see here: http://www.atariage.com/forums/topic/158403-donkey-kong-sound-problems-mame/#entry1945451


Edit: Sorry. I just saw that you wrote that you got the sample-files.

I'm guessing my sample file may have got corrupted somehow, I'm not really sure. When I get the chance, I'm going to try and remove everything, and start it over from scratch and see if I can fix the problem. I personally always thought the running noise in DK was a bit annoying, but now that it's gone, I really miss it. LOL

Chris

 

[Asmo]

I gave this a try this evening. Setting it up was no problem. But in Donkey Kong (the only game I tried so far) the controls are quite awful. Either it's me being totally out of training (not saying that I have ever been good or something) or it's because  of that 4-way- or 8-way-differences of some arcades. Is there a way to configure this?

Donkey Kong does have really unforgiving 4-way controls, for games like this I find the D-pad is best abandoned and (if you owned a ZX Spectrum this'll be nostalgic) the keyboard used. It works much better for 4-way games like Ms Pacman too.

Depending whether you're left or right handed, try a setup like

O -up

M - down

Q - left

E - right

[X] (Dpad buttons) - Jump/fire

When you're redefining you can of course also keep the D-Pad controls by entering them again too, so you have both at any time. If you messed up just quit the mame menu and re-enter it to start from scratch.

 

[lomaxx]

Hey, cool. That's a good, simple way of getting around it. Actually it's so simple, that I should have thought of it on my own.

I could try to use ABXY for moving and D-Pad-right (for example) for jumping. But it will probably be pretty hard to get used to this swapped control-configuration.

Anyway, I will try around what suits me best.

Sidenote:

On my PC where I used to play Mame with keyboard too. I used a very uncommon configuration: Cursor-keys assigned to fire-button 1,2,3,4 and for movement not AWSD, because you would need to swap the middlefinger of the left hand between W and S, which takes longer, but instead moved my hand much further to the right near the RETURN-key. There I used "k" for left, "ü" for up, "#" for right and the right-control-key for down. That's on a German keyboard, but if you put the small finger on "k" and your thumb on the right-CTRL, then you will see where the middle- and pointing-finger will be resting on.

 It took me a lot of games to get used to it but in the end it helped me, because that way I have always each finger on each key. I just have to move the whole keyboard a bit to the left for a comfortable position. Instead of using the arrows-keys for firebuttons, you could also use 0,4,8,6 of the keypad, but so far I didn't feel a need for this.

 

[Kumaki]

OK, so when do we get more great 80's arcade games in the store?

 

[skeezix]

Added Donkey Kong Jr.

Also added a column to my ghetto pages Activity Log that shows Monthly or Alltime, so you know why theres two lines per submission usually

Milkshake is working on adding the activity log to his website as well.

--

I'm having super busy at work, and of course home is always insanely busy for me, so I'm slowed up right now; I suspect things are goign to get extra hectic very soon for a short while.. might be a death or serious illness in an extended family member (not a relative of mine, but my wife), so may get nuttier ... aaah, life!

I plan on adding a half dozen more games relatively soon, and then be quiet a little while as I rework some of the server internals and design; ie: its really a working prototype right now, but to keep growing it, I shoul redo some of the internals to make it more scalable. I'd like for a single server to accept scores from (say) desktop and raspberry pi and such, and keep it in one database; then maybe add some filter checkbuttons to the website or somethignm, so you can get only pandora scores, or also factor in desktop scores, etc; the server generates it all dynamicly anyway, so why not make it a little more dynamic? then oyu can play against desktop people as well if you want, or keep it the same as it is now. Likewise, pure-desktop people could play other desktop people, or factor in pandora if they wanted.

Open us up to more options, without taking away anything ..

We'll see.

Oh, and yeah, I want to work on a few updates to the client .. make the flickering-by dialogs actualyl show the status they're supposed to ("getching scores.." or whatever.) instead of blanks; also handle 'offline mode' or at least 'server is hosed, lets hold onto your score and let you retry' sort of thing.

Longer term is to write up a graphical fullscreen client, instead of a desktop-looking UI one; make it like minimenu but with game marquees, say.. sort of like the c4a main milkshake website. But thats a fair bit of work, and time is ever-tight.

jeff

 

[porg]

It is nice to get this community enriching gaming platform!

This reminds me of something else:

With an ever growing amount of community sites (board, repo, wiki, issuetracker, compo4all, …), which all require a username,

• it would be good if we could have a unified login system, if feasable (I guess not),
• or at least a multisite username check as a helpful online service for people with courtesy,
  as I once suggested in a board thread and a wiki project page.

UPDATE: Anyone here who is interested and able to implement this?

 

[Jumpman]

Thanks Jeff, you and Milkshake do the community proud. I'm sorry to hear you are currently having an illness in the family, sadly it is a part of life. 

I'm glad to see DK Jr. added, I think the vintage games from that period are the best. Some of the newer games just don't seem the right fit to me, but I'm loving C4All. This is reason enough to own a Pandora. I can't wait for more games.

Chris

 

[porg]

@Skeezix: I like the idea of collective/selective competition (Desktop, Rasperry Pi, Pandora, …)

 

[Jumpman]

Alright, I just set of DK Jr., and I'm having the same problem as DK. The sample sound effects are not working. Is anyone else having this issue? My DK sounds worked originally, then they stopped and haven't worked since. I've got the sample files in the proper folder, and the game runs fine, It just doesn't produce the sample sounds.

Chris

 

[mcobit]

Maybe a wrong samplepath defined in the advmame.rc?

 

[Asmo]

Double check the samples volume in the mame menus when the game is running too?

I'm not noticing any missing audio myself.

 

[Jumpman]

Maybe a wrong samplepath defined in the advmame.rc?

It worked originally, how would I check that now?

@Asmo

How do I check the sample volume within Mame? Is there a different volume control for in game sound and samples separately? I just turn the volume wheel on the Pandora, and I thought that's all I could control in game.

Chris

 

[mcobit]

Have a look into appdata/.advance/advmame.rc