MameZach blog turns one year old

[pinzach]

Happy MAME-iversary.  Interestingly, in that year, I’ve made 247 Game of the Day posts (the first was Nitro Ball) and another 171 other posts for a total of 418.  Who knew I was so full of hot air?

Anyway, now that there are more readers, it’d be especially cool to have some of you guys contribute if you’d like.  The two main ways would be to offer a quickie review on some obscure game that you love, or to write up a strategy guide on any game you like to play and know very well.  There have been a couple of strategy guides written by guests and they get many views.

Hope you enjoy the crap I sling on the blog and if you’d like to contribute, just let me know and/or send me something.

http://mamezach.blogspot.com/

[Seith]

Congrats, Zach!  If my machine was up and functional, i'd drop a quarter in it and fire up a GOTD in honor of today... but it's not.

[wp34]

Congrat's Zach.  Thanks again for doing this.   

[dekar24k]

Congrats Zach! Love your blog. Lots of goodies I'd never find out about if it wasn't for your blog.

[Unstupid]

I thought you shut it down?

[pinzach]

I thought you shut it down?

There was a point a few months ago when I was going to stop, I didn't think I could keep spending the time.  But, many guys suggested that I just post a little less frequently (it was daily+) and that way could keep it going without the every day pressure.  That's what I did - and so now I post every 2 or 3 days and thus it lives on.

[the_gamer]

Happy Birthday Mamezach! There are a lot of people here being glad you didn't shut it down!

[shponglefan]

Happy Birthday Mamezach! There are a lot of people here being glad you didn't shut it down!

Indeed!  It's one of the best resources for reading about lesser-known MAME games.

[brad808]

Great blog and awesome gotd reviews. I like to read them when I'm at work then get excited to go home and play some of them!

Sent from my Desire HD

[sharpfork]

Wow, I'm really glad I stumbled across this post.  Having never seen the blog before a few minutes ago, I now have a bunch of interesting reading for boring conference calls. 

Thanks for putting this together pinzach/mamezach
 

[mindcycle]

Congrats man! I just started reading your Blog yesterday after someone else mentioned it in a post here and i've discovered some awesome new games to try out. Thanks for all the hard work.

[Dizzle]

Just started reading your blog too. I had no idea it existed. And after just 5 minutes, I've come across several games I had no idea were on my cabinet!  Thanks!   And Happy Birthday!

I'll be checking the site out all the time from now on.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Gray_Area]

So I guess no one wants to guest contribute....

[Haze]

So I guess no one wants to guest contribute....

I think he's already covered most of the games I'd want to write about :-)

Maybe Dommy & Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory, but I think both are quite well known

[chiLLbiLLy]

Nahh, there's plenty more games to cover that aren't the really super common stuff.  I don't think that many folks, outside of MAME hardcores, really know about games like Dommy & Peter Pepper's ICF, for instance.

But hell, he's covered some games that I'd say were pretty darn common, like I-Robot, Astro Blaster, Reactor and Warlords, but who cares.  I still like reading about 'em sometimes, regardless.

Or he could go a different route altogether and review games that aren't necessarily great...just weird or unique, or downright awful, ala the Angry Video Game Nerd.   No shortage of material there.

[pinzach]

I think he's already covered most of the games I'd want to write about :-)

Maybe Dommy & Peter Pepper's Ice Cream Factory, but I think both are quite well known

I agree with the above poster (chillbilly).  While people very much into MAME may know these titles, in general they score very low on the known/popular scale.  I actually have an obscurity scoring system for all games based on the number of mentions/popularity of the arcade cab and the number of downloads of the roms on sites that track those things.  I explain it a little more here....

http://mamezach.blogspot.com/2012/01/game-mame-popularity-and-games-of-day.html

That being said, Dommy and Peter Pepper both score very low on this scale and would be new games (and great finds) to many people.  In fact I am surprised when I review games that score higher on the popularity scale how many folks still write and tell me that it was new to them.  I guess that other than the Top 50 that everyone knows, it's somewhat arbitrary who knows what games.

For reference, my scale of non-obscurity (how well known a game is) goes to 16 (Galaga, X-Men, Donkey Kong).  The highest I'll review is a 6 (Warlords, Narc, Forgotten Worlds).  Many old school games have been completely missed and ignored by anyone under 35.  And most MAMErs only download a small set of roms to play.  So, my goal isn't to find games that nobody has heard of (impossible) but simply to find games that many people can discover or rediscover and have some fun with.  By the way, on my scale of how well known they are, Dommy and Peter Pepper's both score a 1.  Rarely mentioned on arcade sites and roms almost never downloaded on emu sites.

[Woodshop Flunky]

You've created a great resource Zach!

Thanks! 

[dekar24k]

http://www.joystick.net/zachs-daily-picks-of-the-best-mame-games/

[cigardude]

Congrats, glad the site is still going strong!