skeezix
Internal Development
Hey everyone,
I'm debating kicking off a game _PLAYING_ compo; we have developer compos here or there, but have we ever had a Player Compo? A compo that everyone can do (well, insomuch as arcade gaming compos require ROMs..). I am also tempted to wire up some of the recent DragonBox compo games to my system here as well, and have pure new games join into the fray as well ... but thats for another day.
You may have seen the Compo4All MAME I built a few weeks back (see this thread http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php/topic/12127-release-compo4all-mame-ladderscoreboard-competition-for-classic-arcade-games/page-1 ) but its not had a mass uptake yet (a core group of about 15 or 20 people really using it, plus a few more people occasionally using it.); I'm not sure if thats due to the limited game selection, or people being not so MAME-crazy as they used to be, life being busy, people not wanting to compete with each other, peoples play time bnot being near a wifi/network, .... any number of reasons.
But if we can get 50 or 100 people who would actually _PLAY_ in an arcade game compo, that would be outstanding. And I'll buy some prizes!
See the poll for the question of the hour
Essentially, Compo4All ("C4A") just keeps a master high score table on my server, that you can see from the Pandora-side client or from a web browser; whenever you play the game in C4A MAME, with wifi up, it'll try to post your scores to the server. After a few weeks or a month, we can grab the final score tally and .. thats it, nice and easy; top 2 or 3 positions get a prize, say. (And yes, there would be some ways to cheat, but I'd hope in our small community, there'd be no Real Bastards.)
As to _which arcade game_ you might play .. we have to try and limit it to options that people should have ease of access to; originally I was thining the true classics, like Donkey Kong or Ms Pacman, but after running for a few weeks I'm starting to worry that true classics like those attract very passionate players.. which is to say, some very skilled players who would severely outclass average joe. Starting a compo where we can predict who wins on the first day isn't very fun, nor in the spirit here (compo-for-all, not compo-for-elite!) Games like Ms Pacman are easily legally gotten .. damned near everyone has bought a Namco or other emu pack for Dreamcast, PC, PS2, Xbox, etc .. or can head to a bargain bin to pick one up for $5.
But now I'm thinking something a little more exotic, a game or two that everyone might play, that is accessible, and yet also easily found. Arcade-here, something that MAME 0.106 supports, too.
(Supporting automated high scores for console and computer games is near-impossible.)
I'm just not sure if this idea for an actual compo on MAME can fly. I can definately see it for some of our homebrew games, but my goal here is to figure out feasability of a MAME compo.
jeff
I'm debating kicking off a game _PLAYING_ compo; we have developer compos here or there, but have we ever had a Player Compo? A compo that everyone can do (well, insomuch as arcade gaming compos require ROMs..). I am also tempted to wire up some of the recent DragonBox compo games to my system here as well, and have pure new games join into the fray as well ... but thats for another day.
You may have seen the Compo4All MAME I built a few weeks back (see this thread http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php/topic/12127-release-compo4all-mame-ladderscoreboard-competition-for-classic-arcade-games/page-1 ) but its not had a mass uptake yet (a core group of about 15 or 20 people really using it, plus a few more people occasionally using it.); I'm not sure if thats due to the limited game selection, or people being not so MAME-crazy as they used to be, life being busy, people not wanting to compete with each other, peoples play time bnot being near a wifi/network, .... any number of reasons.
But if we can get 50 or 100 people who would actually _PLAY_ in an arcade game compo, that would be outstanding. And I'll buy some prizes!
See the poll for the question of the hour
Essentially, Compo4All ("C4A") just keeps a master high score table on my server, that you can see from the Pandora-side client or from a web browser; whenever you play the game in C4A MAME, with wifi up, it'll try to post your scores to the server. After a few weeks or a month, we can grab the final score tally and .. thats it, nice and easy; top 2 or 3 positions get a prize, say. (And yes, there would be some ways to cheat, but I'd hope in our small community, there'd be no Real Bastards.)As to _which arcade game_ you might play .. we have to try and limit it to options that people should have ease of access to; originally I was thining the true classics, like Donkey Kong or Ms Pacman, but after running for a few weeks I'm starting to worry that true classics like those attract very passionate players.. which is to say, some very skilled players who would severely outclass average joe. Starting a compo where we can predict who wins on the first day isn't very fun, nor in the spirit here (compo-for-all, not compo-for-elite!) Games like Ms Pacman are easily legally gotten .. damned near everyone has bought a Namco or other emu pack for Dreamcast, PC, PS2, Xbox, etc .. or can head to a bargain bin to pick one up for $5.
But now I'm thinking something a little more exotic, a game or two that everyone might play, that is accessible, and yet also easily found. Arcade-here, something that MAME 0.106 supports, too.
(Supporting automated high scores for console and computer games is near-impossible.)
I'm just not sure if this idea for an actual compo on MAME can fly. I can definately see it for some of our homebrew games, but my goal here is to figure out feasability of a MAME compo.
jeff
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