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

[skeezix]

We don't really need an RSS feed of scoring, do we?

Hrm, I recall ED said maybe the board software can parse RSS feeds, and then we could show running scores down the side of the board.. thats going too far, right?

jeff

 

[skeezix]

Theres a lot of work going on right now on various fronts; RL is keeping me insanely busy so I've been quiet.

NearTao has done some groovy hacking and will net us a pile of games..

Expect a few new MAME games coming ASAP! (pmprog and NearTao and Asmo credited.)

jeff

 

[Jumpman]

Excellent!

Chris

 

[skeezix]

OKay, ladybug is added -- but I honestly can't get a hi score to save my life in that one.. can someone check it?

Note that with the new games, there is a slight delay due to the totally braindead method by which we parse that data; can improve it in the future, but... not today

jeff

 

[skeezix]

Raiden shmup is added -- I'm in a rush, ti3ed up for a few hours..

.. someone try that too

I actually didn't set up the vanilla template score file for raiden, but hopefully that shoudl not bother the game at all.

I'll check back in a few hours.. dieing to see how these two work out.

Thanks to NearTao for blowing the doors off a few of these, we can drop in a pile of games (but instead, we will dribble them out a few at a time so as not to overwhelm.. but which to dribble......)

jeff

 

[NearTao]

Take your time releasing them... that way I have some time to get my act together to help out in some other directions and not look like I'm 'slacking'.

My next effort will be trying to get carrier pigeon routing working so that we can send scores by pigeon.  Who's with me on this one?

 

[skeezix]

I'm not entirely sure if the new scoring module is working perfectly, so please bang away at ladybug and raiden when you can, and we'll work out the kinks.

We've probably got a hundred games we could drop right in, if this module works

jeff

 

[NearTao]

Ladybug score of 10140 sent, but didn't see it update... Will try again

 

[skeezix]

I'll make some scripts to spit out stdout that is the same format as HiToText, so I can force a few scores through. Its threading throughh the established framework, but theres a few hijack points from the plugin, so I think I mucked up one of them.

I've finally got a couple hours, so can do some real testing here.

jeff

 

[NearTao]

Hit 25550 in Ladybug... It lost my high score when I entered the game again... So the .hi file might not be getting written?

 

[skeezix]

Check in PanMAME perhaps; if the score does not persist between invocations in PanMAME, it won't work for current c4a either.

Ran a through raiden tests through in my dev server, and the scoring module seems okay (I tested it before I promoted to the production server of course, but doing more real testing now.)

I'll keep testing, maybe drop in a couple other games too; looking forward to having this one working

jeff

 

[skeezix]

Added Burger Time

Added Black Dragon

(previously added Raiden)

(previously added Ladybug)

Time to add some oddballs like Pooyan and Pengo

jeff

NearTao .. keep getting back 0 rows from the job; I've got it set to 2sd timeout right now.. will change it up to 4 :/

We really really need to get the command line working on this sucker properly.. the supported games list dump occurs in a fraction of a second, so the mono loadtime isn't a big hit; its expect interplaying with the command line :/

OKay, expect is not playing well with the VPS I suspect, the way things are set up; its forever misreporting, driving me absolutely bonkers.

Goddamn I'm sick of doing Burger Time; that level 2 is such a bitch

 

[skeezix]

okay, after too much hacking around and fighting with things, I've got a pretty stable setup going; the tool we're using (thanks to the HiToText team) offers up a bunch of game decoding we can leverage; its a pretty goofy piece of code and has a bunch of problems, but it does work and buy us a bunch of games..

I've reduced tonights additions to:

- ladybug

- raiden

(Burger Time and Black Tiger are giving me some grief from HiToText; NearTao and me are working on it, we'll sort it out )

Long term then is to figure out which games HiToText can offer us, and then pick which to drop in and when. Its current database is some 1200 games (many of which our MAME builds do not support of course), but even if wer can get 100 or more to work.. thats a lot to pick from.

Or do we just dump the lot of it into C4A _now_, and then start _highlighting_ a random set for any given month, to encourage peopel to cycle around each month (as well as try for all-time scores agaisnt the off-month games?)

OKay, thats it, I need sleep

But I did get 60k in Raiden on my first man, to test its working finally

jeff

 

[pmprog]

I don't know if it's just where I am, but I can't access your server. The C4A website shows no games, and my UI can't download any. It wasn't all bad, because it showed me a segfault when there were zero games in the local cache and the server was unavailable

 

[EvilDragon]

Nope, error contacting server here as well.

 

[skeezix]

I'll check my VPS in half an hour .. Dropping my girl off at school in a min

 

[pmprog]

I've just noticed that on the website and repo, it's called compo4all, but the button on the website says "Download comp4all MAME". Just a minor inconsistancy

 

[skeezix]

.... and we're up.

It sure looks to me like I hit the 'die and don't restart' option on the server, but I surely didn't... unless in my sleep dep haze I did by mistake? Or maybe somethign is screwed up, given I did a half dozen code promotions to it last night I'll keep an eye on it Hrm, or maybe the fact I added a few games, then retracted them, and remnants are in the activity log.. should be fine, but maybe sometyhign along those lesser-tested lines fouled it up. Anyway.

So assuming the HiToText breakthrough actually works, do we deluge a huge pile of games into C4A and then have a monthly random 10 that peopel can focus on (while still hitting any they like), or do we only dribble them in a few at a time to keep people on the same games for more competition?

jeff

 

[pmprog]

Thanks!

I'm going to try and start building the wiki information, but should I refer to it as "Compo4All", or "ROT", or something else?

The intro to my GUI says "R.O.T." and "Retro Online Tournament" (which is what you originally referred to it as), but the website and your own PND call it Compo4All. I can change my intro easily enough, so it's just getting a consistant name to use in all these places

 

[skeezix]

yeah I rather made a mess of branding

ROT (originally Offline, now Online or even both ) has been around a few years; then I got the bright idea to call the games within ROT Compo$all as a spoof on MAME4All.. so ROT used Compo4all; then I typo'd it in the pnd originally so it was Comp4All, and of course I call it C4A. And lets not forget Mame-of-Thrones

Now, is ROT still applicable? ie: it may not be retro, as its open to anythign peopel want to submit now.

Compo4All is a goofy name though, but is ROT or C4A better than the other for 'branding'? Probably not.

So.. yeah.. not entirely sure myself, apparently.

Should we consolidate on C4A or ROT?

jeff