MAME Challenge #37 (5/1-5/15)
 

Welcome to MAMEbowl XXXVII!
We're going to have a new thread twice a month to see who can get the high score on 4 different arcade games in MAME.

Download MAME to play the games.
New to MAME? Feel free to ask questions here or read the tutorials
I am going to host the current ROMs and list of all the past winners and high scores here.

The Rules:

1. To enter, you just play one of the games and post a screenshot (F12 key in MAME) with your score.
2. The deadline to post your high scores will be 11:59 PM on the 30th of the month.
3. Any games should be played with one credit and no continues or any features that you wouldn't get by playing the actual machine.
4. Submitted scores should be played during the designated time period, not scores you've gotten in the past.
5. The winner can pick any game from MAME that we haven't already played for the next thread. Sequels are ok, but clones are not.
6. If the winner doesn't pick a new game before the new thread starts, we will continue to play that game until someone else wins or the winner returns to choose a game. If a new game isn't chosen after 3 days, then the person with the next highest score gets the pick.
7. If you play and beat any of the high scores from the previous games we've played, you can submit them here for the All Time Top Scores.

The Games:
(click the games for info and how to play)

Aero Fighters - Score to beat: devilshalo 292800
http://img2.echo.cx/img2/3162/aerofgt7zd.png<img src="http://img160.echo.cx/img160/704/aero00074rw.png" height=296/>

Gain Ground - Score to beat:~~PAL~~ 1343339
http://img2.echo.cx/img2/8196/gground6sg.png<img src="http://img207.echo.cx/img207/6957/ggro00013lk.png" height=315/>

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (US 960620) - Score to beat: D300 175980
http://img2.echo.cx/img2/8754/spf2t6fm.png<img src="http://img111.echo.cx/img111/6668/spf200019sc.png" height=224/>

Vs. Excitebike - Score to beat: Roto 118785
http://img2.echo.cx/img2/1371/excitebk1ig.png<img src="http://img260.echo.cx/img260/1598/exci00028fe.png" height=338/>

The Prize:
Whoever gets the high score for one of the current games picks the next game that replaces it. You also get your name <s>engraved</s> permanently etched onto this eye catching trophy with a genuine Sharpie!

The Champs:
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~dvdtalk/trophy.jpg" align="top"/><img src="http://img260.echo.cx/img260/1503/engraving374zu.jpg" height="320"/>

If Gain Ground is slow on your computer (press F11 and you can see if it's skipping frames): in the MAME32 menu, right click the game, go to properties and turn on Direct3D.
http://img245.echo.cx/img245/6033/untitled2sw.jpg

Sped it right up for me

http://img207.echo.cx/img207/6957/ggro00013lk.png
May as well start this one too
http://img99.echo.cx/img99/2800/spf200001uo.png

Try beating this score guys... :)

http://img154.echo.cx/img154/7360/gground7qa.png

Good choice of games this time. I really like Vs. Excitebike - but I end up running into someone or overheating.

Aero Fighters is a blast but with a keyboard, my wrists began to lock up. I really should look at buying one of those joysticks for arcade games.

If you wanted anyone to play this game you should've held back on that score for a bit. :p Now you are required to give tips because I'm sure I'm not the only one who has never played it before.

You don't really need an arcade joystick to play MAME games, gamepads such as a MS Sidewinder works as well. Anyway, as long as it is a gaming device that has been configured and recognized, it should work in MAME as well, you just have to enable it in the game or default properties.

I have an X-Arcade stick but I usually just use an Xbox gamepad connected with a usb adapter.

I did. Did you notice that was only the #7 highest score for me? ;)


Not a problem. The key to do well in this game is to keep all your guys alive. This is possible because in case one of your guy dies, he/she will become another POW that can be rescued and revived if another guy ferries them through the exit. But, should a second guy also die, then the second dead guy becomes a POW and the first dead guy will be lost forever. The bad thing about this game is that if you lose a particularly important guy on your roster it will become almost impossible to get through then. [Example - if you don't have the rocket man from the future that you rescued from Stage 2-1, you will not be able to get past Stage 2-3 at all.]

Secondly, know the firing range of your guys as well as the enemies. All range attackers will not attack until you come within their firing range. Therefore, it is most advantages to use a guy that has longer firing range than the enemies' and snipe them off while you are out of harm's way. It is also important to recognize whether your guys shoot from the left or right hand [look at the upper corners of the guy's portrait for that info], sometimes if you don't line up correctly your shots will whiff right by the enemy and you'd be dead. If you are dealing with a horizontal row of ranged archers, I've found that it is much safer to start killing them from left to right because of the way they shot off the arrows. Some of the grunts in Stage 1 runs in a strange "C" pattern, they are easier to kill if you shoot at them horizontally or diagonally rather than vertically.

Also, it is pretty much mandatory that you pick up all the POWs that you run across in any given stage. Yes, some of them are quite useless, but a few will be crucial to the completion of later stage areas. But of course the priority is still clearing the area of the hostiles first. I usually prefer to kill all but one enemy on the stage, then pick up the POWs and get them out. After all the guys were rescued, then kill the last enemy to end the stage.

You'll also need to know when to fight and when to just move on. The majority of the time your goal is to kill all enemies to clear the stage, but there are a few particular stages that are just too tricky and will take more time to kill everything than you are allotted. In those rare cases, you should concentrate on getting your guys safely to the exit rather than killing. If you are unable to kill all enemies before time runs out, any of your guys that did not make it across the exit will be gone forever.

Lastly, know the special capability of each of your guys. This will probably take some playing to get familiar. Every single guy in the game has two modes of attack. The A button fires their standard weapon in any of the 8 directions. The B button will either fire a second weapon [this is widely varying, ranging from bazooka to boomerang to spells to flame thrower], or the same first weapon in a different configuration [such as only vertically or only sideways or lobbed to shoot at elevated enemies].

Hope this helps. If I have time I might provide a stage-by-stage tips later. I've been playing Gain Ground for a couple of weeks now and I have been permanently stuck at Stage 4-7. This game allows unlimited continues until you get to Stage 4, after that, if you die or let time run out the game is over. Perhaps if enough people plays someone can figure out something here.

I play only using a keyboad. Don't succumb to the darkside, use the force. :D

That's a lot of info! Good thing we have 2 weeks now instead of 1.
But you can only use continues to practice. Any high scores have to be from one credit.

You did want some tips, so there it is... ;)

And trust me, my score was not cheated or with continues, it was only on a single credit. Everytime you do a continue, your score reset to zero; check it out.

http://img2.echo.cx/img2/1007/aero00042qo.png
Obviously, I knew I was dead here. I blew off all my bombs early on this level just to make sure I beat your score :D I just tried Excitebike again, but only got 83,000 :(

Crap, I haven't seen that level.

i cant seem to find gain ground rom can only help me find it.

edit:i found the rom but i cant get it to show up in available games.

Roto is hosting all the current ROMs for this period, check for the link on the very first post of this thread.