Where do you play Mame game competitions?

[Ummon]

A bit back, I started a thread on starting up a Mame comp here but got limited response. So now I'm curious how many of you play in such comps and where?

[Donkey_Kong]

Never have as of yet, but I hope to have classic gaming competitions once we have our youth center up and running. Seems like it would be fun.

[BUCKETHEAD]

Me and my brother-in -laws, Usually have competition every weekend.

I have a big 3 ring binder, with score sheets of every game we play in it.

Competition is serious biz here.

 

[TheShanMan]

Buckethead, I wish I had family near me to do the same. And sometimes we invite friends over for dinner but invariably my kids and their kids get all the arcade time. At first I thought my friends just had less interest in it than I figured they would, but I think it just boils down to "how can you kick the kids off when they're having so much fun". So I figure I've got to start inviting friends over by themselves (no family) for just a guy time with games and pizza or whatever. I love the tremendous enjoyment my family gets out of the cab, but I really look forward to playing with peers who enjoyed arcades as much as I did back in the day!

[BUCKETHEAD]

Too Bad you do not live near me!

You could come on over!

I see your DONKEY KONG score jumped waaaay up!

I have laid off since i finshed my TRON.

Trying to get the score up on it now.

[TOK]

Mainly at my house... I built the first cab in my circle of friends, now there are three of them and one in the works. I still have the most machines (6), so my place is kind of the default. For a while, we were going crazy. What I originally wanted to do was have all of us share a hiscore.dat from a server. Never really got that working right even though we were all running the same version of MAME.

I then did a little spreadsheet type page with the high scores just for us. The thing is that there was never a game that everyone could agree on. Time Pilot was the only game that everyone even gave a shot, and Galaga was the only one where high scores were traded back and forth with regularity, and that was only between three out of the five of us. It was a lot of fun for a very short time though.
Here it is, if you want to look just for curiosity's sake, but it's going on two years without an update. The game list is lame because we were trying to get stuff everyone would try. http://hiscore.home.comcast.net

The way things usually go now is that I have one or two buddies over and we'll play the really fun multiplayer games like Golden Tee, Track & Field and some other stuff. There have only been a couple of times when everyone is over. Its a blast to have like five people over that are really into it. You definitely get that old school arcade feel going with multiple machines going and people yelling and laughing at the games.

[Ummon]

Maybe I should've been more specific: where online do you play Mame comps?  Or does in-person play take the place of this?

[TOK]

Maybe I should've been more specific: where online do you play Mame comps?  Or does in-person play take the place of this?

Not into it. Maybe try this. http://marp.retrogames.com/t

[Ummon]

Maybe I should've been more specific: where online do you play Mame comps?  Or does in-person play take the place of this?

Not into it. Maybe try this. http://marp.retrogames.com/t

Yeah, it doesn't seem a big thing except for MARP, and most of those folks are freaks of nature.

[TOK]

I never had any luck playing back the .inp files. I actually really wanted to watch a couple of them, like a million point Defender game.
It's weird because I've configured multiple cabs with different front ends but I can never seem to get a playback to work. The closest I've come is having one load and getting kicked back to the desktop.

Is there a quick and easy way to playback .inp's from multiple versions of MAME? Like a MAME32 type thing that will play back .inp's from various versions of MAME by just clicking on them.

[collywobbles007]

If you want some fun MAME (and other retro computer) game competition try the Retroleague

http://z11.invisionfree.com/RetroLeague/index.php?act=idx

No fancy website, just fun, competition and banter!

Collywobbles

[Ummon]

I never had any luck playing back the .inp files. I actually really wanted to watch a couple of them, like a million point Defender game.
It's weird because I've configured multiple cabs with different front ends but I can never seem to get a playback to work. The closest I've come is having one load and getting kicked back to the desktop.

Is there a quick and easy way to playback .inp's from multiple versions of MAME? Like a MAME32 type thing that will play back .inp's from various versions of MAME by just clicking on them.

Yeah. It's called, put it in the folder, then in Mame32: File>playback input - select game file desired. It plays.

If you want some fun MAME (and other retro computer) game competition try the Retroleague

http://z11.invisionfree.com/RetroLeague/index.php?act=idx

No fancy website, just fun, competition and banter!

Collywobbles

I'll check it out.

[TOK]

Is there a quick and easy way to playback .inp's from multiple versions of MAME? Like a MAME32 type thing that will play back .inp's from various versions of MAME by just clicking on them.

Yeah. It's called, put it in the folder, then in Mame32: File>playback input - select game file desired. It plays.

[/quote]

That will only play ROM's on that version of MAME, and only recorded in that version of MAME, right?
You kind of glossed over my real question. Since MARP has replays from .37 to .126, is there something that will play all of those .INP's without having 75 versions of MAME installed? Its no wonder that scene is stagnant.

[Ummon]

If you want some fun MAME (and other retro computer) game competition try the Retroleague

http://z11.invisionfree.com/RetroLeague/index.php?act=idx

No fancy website, just fun, competition and banter!

Collywobbles

I checked Retroleague out. Certainly live up to the name in that a season can include any platform. And you folks are really into it, more like a sport, which is a little too involved for me to keep up with. Just the number of games played (in so short a time) and then exempted for the next season is a little much. Thanks for the invite, though.

That will only play ROM's on that version of MAME, and only recorded in that version of MAME, right?
You kind of glossed over my real question. Since MARP has replays from .37 to .126, is there something that will play all of those .INP's without having 75 versions of MAME installed? Its no wonder that scene is stagnant.

I thought you were mainly having trouble with replaying them. As for the rest, it would make sense one would need different versions....and then again....I played one from someone of which I think their mame version was different. Or maybe I just didn't know and got lucky. Try it out. It would only take a few minutes.

[Spaced Ace]

I was thinking about doing a local arcade fest anually.  But moving 4 to 6 arcades around, as you guys know, is a huge task.  But it would be something awesome.  Do they still have like trade shows or anything alike here in the US? 

We need to have something anual that takes place in various cities.  But youre talking major funding.  If Monster Truck shows can make a profit and stay afloat, why cant we have an Arcade trade show or something?

[retrometro]

I was thinking about doing a local arcade fest anually.  But moving 4 to 6 arcades around, as you guys know, is a huge task.  But it would be something awesome.  Do they still have like trade shows or anything alike here in the US? 

We need to have something anual that takes place in various cities.  But youre talking major funding.  If Monster Truck shows can make a profit and stay afloat, why cant we have an Arcade trade show or something?

The arcade group in Houston hosts one every year.  It's one of the largest in this part of the country and they set all the games for free play.  I taped last year's event and linked in previous year's.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_HKs0Shyws[/youtube]

[Ummon]

I was thinking about doing a local arcade fest anually.  But moving 4 to 6 arcades around, as you guys know, is a huge task.  But it would be something awesome.  Do they still have like trade shows or anything alike here in the US? 

We need to have something anual that takes place in various cities.  But youre talking major funding.  If Monster Truck shows can make a profit and stay afloat, why cant we have an Arcade trade show or something?

Dude, monster truck is like Nascar is like wrestling. There's enough rednecks in the south alone, but they've bred and migrated so it's quite simple.

I was thinking about doing a local arcade fest anually.  But moving 4 to 6 arcades around, as you guys know, is a huge task.  But it would be something awesome.  Do they still have like trade shows or anything alike here in the US? 

We need to have something anual that takes place in various cities.  But youre talking major funding.  If Monster Truck shows can make a profit and stay afloat, why cant we have an Arcade trade show or something?

The arcade group in Houston hosts one every year.  It's one of the largest in this part of the country and they set all the games for free play.  I taped last year's event and linked in previous year's.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_HKs0Shyws[/youtube]

Ah, I thought maybe that first scene was all there was! Nice selection. A Starfighter cockpit?! What's that other cockpit sort of cab at 6:30? And what's with the disco? That's not 80s.  Actually, whoever set the playlist needed replacing.

[Spaced Ace]

I just think our hobby should be a little more organized.  We need a club or organization that spands across the entire US.  I said this in another thread, if guys can have a car club, why cant we have something simular?  That way there is one place to go, events, shows, meetings & information, all in one place.  Everything is so scattered across the internet, its hard to keep up with it all actually.  Personaly, I have about 80 bookmarks in my favorites list and it gets anoying.

I live in El Paso, which is about 12 hours from Houston, but I would have went or contributed if I had known about the group. 

Just frustrating at times.  I feel like I am the only person in El Paso that is into arcades. 

[retrometro]

Ah, I thought maybe that first scene was all there was! Nice selection. A Starfighter cockpit?! What's that other cockpit sort of cab at 6:30? And what's with the disco? That's not 80s.  Actually, whoever set the playlist needed replacing.

Yeah, I thought the same thing about the selection at first.  After paying for admission, I was really disappointed when I went inside that first room.  It turns out that was the spill over room and vendors area.  If the stuff wasn't so expensive, I would have liked to have bought some of those original arcade manuals.

Oh man, i was so upset that I didn't even get to SEE the starfighter cockpit!!!!  I have no idea how I missed that.  It was even listed as one of the special attractions.  Apparently this was one of only a handful of prototype models that never went into full production.  My buddy did see it and said it looked somewhat liked the movie game.

The playlist was actually a lot better than what was in the majority of the video.  I don't know how they got that "get up and boogie" super extended remix version there right as I'm filming.  I looked up that song and apparently that was from 1976.... not even the last 70's which I would have been okay with in terms of the arcade era.  Sure there were arcade games in 1976 but the golden age didn't begin for another 2 years with space invaders, then galaxian, and the rest.

[Ummon]

I may make a trip next year for that Starfighter cockpit, if it's there. Is there a page for it, or newsletter, etc?

I just think our hobby should be a little more organized.  We need a club or organization that spands across the entire US.  I said this in another thread, if guys can have a car club, why cant we have something simular?  That way there is one place to go, events, shows, meetings & information, all in one place.  Everything is so scattered across the internet, its hard to keep up with it all actually.  Personaly, I have about 80 bookmarks in my favorites list and it gets anoying.

It would be nice if there was one site that covered everything, at least in reference - but even that would be a massive project.

[erictrumpet]

Why not just start a few game-specific threads where people can post screenshots? Break 500k in Galaga, shoot a digi pic of your screen and post it. Nothing official, just fun. If someone wants to go to the trouble of photoshopping a higher score than they can actually achieve, more power to 'em.

Eric.

[Ummon]

Why not just start a few game-specific threads where people can post screenshots? Break 500k in Galaga, shoot a digi pic of your screen and post it. Nothing official, just fun. If someone wants to go to the trouble of photoshopping a higher score than they can actually achieve, more power to 'em.

Eric.

Yeah, maybe, something like that. Then if people get into it, there could be next-game votes, and it could be requested for sticky.

[extendedplayarcade]

I was thinking about doing a local arcade fest anually.  But moving 4 to 6 arcades around, as you guys know, is a huge task.  But it would be something awesome.  Do they still have like trade shows or anything alike here in the US? 

We need to have something anual that takes place in various cities.  But youre talking major funding.  If Monster Truck shows can make a profit and stay afloat, why cant we have an Arcade trade show or something?

The arcade group in Houston hosts one every year.  It's one of the largest in this part of the country and they set all the games for free play.  I taped last year's event and linked in previous year's.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_HKs0Shyws[/youtube]

Wow looks fun.

Doesn't http://www.twingalaxies.com/ run mame tournaments or stuff like that.

[Ummon]

Doesn't http://www.twingalaxies.com/ run mame tournaments or stuff like that.

Already discussed above. Same with MARP.

[Ummon]

Okay, I'm going to pic a game and start a thread and see who wants to join in.