MAME ROW #49 - Battle Chopper

[obsidianspider]

This is the MAME Random Of the Week #49

The three random numbers for this week are: 123, 712, 1112

Click here to vote! Which game do you choose for MAME ROW #49?

The result of the poll is posted on Wednesday, so we have Monday and Tuesday for experimentation.

123
Game Name: Battle Chopper
Company: Irem
Year: 1987
ROM file name: bchopper.zip

712
Game Name: Hard Hat
Company: Exidy
Year: 1982
ROM file name: hardhat.zip

1112
Game Name: Moon Alien Part 2
Company: Nichibutsu
Year: 1980
ROM file name: moonal2.zip

What is the MAME ROW?

MAME ROW stands for MAME Random Of the Week. We randomly select an arcade game from the 0.78 MAME Reference Set to play on the week. The idea is to play games we've never played before, interact with other forum members, post hi-scores, share game strategies, fun facts, and (the most important) HAVE FUN!

Notes:

1. We usually post hi-scores screenshots after playing with only one credit. If you used more than one credit, please mention it on your post.

2. There's no need to use RetroPie to join the MAME ROW! You can play it on any platform you want.

Every Monday we create a topic at the "General Discussion and Gaming > MAME Random Of the Week" forum section with the 3 random games to be voted. And on Wednesday we check the result.

These "rules" are constantly being improved!

Previous Rounds

[pjft]

Darn. I wish I could take part in this one.

Battle Chopper - also known as Mr. Heli - is a game I hold some nostalgia for. I'm not sure it holds up especially well these days, but would certainly take the opportunity to revisit it.

[obsidianspider]

After proving last week that either fighting games don't make for good MAME ROW competition, or we are all not very good at them, this week has three strong contenders.

Battle Chopper is really fun. I like that it's a combination of a platformer and shooter.

Hard Hat has a really long boot sequence and it certainly lets us know that the game was programmed by one single person (or at least he gets the credit). Very neat idea that you clear out horizontal levels and things fall down.

Moon Alien is like so many Space Invaders clones. It also has a bit of a Phoenix style to it, that I'm sure @lilbud appreciates.

[lilbud]

@obsidianspider Oh yay, it's influenced by Phoenix, I will absolutely enjoy playing this game.
Obvious sarcasm is obvious

Now where in the hell in my baseball bat?

[UDb23]

@obsidianspider

;-)

[GtBFilms]

I had a go of these last night.

To begin with I found Battle Chopper pretty difficult, then I watched the YouTube video again and discovered that you can fire UP as well as forward! For some reason the second fire button doesn't work on my cab under LR-MAME2003, but in ADV-MAME 0.94 it works fine.

I tried some other games (Golden Axe) and discovered the same problem - so it looks like I've managed to screw up my MAME2003 controls somehow.

Anyway, once I got it working in adv-mame, it was a pretty good game.

I thought Hard Hat was going to be rubbish, but actually I quite liked it. It needs a bit of strategic thinking when the letters are at the edge of the screen. Played this one for longer than I thought I would.

Moon Alien Part 2 is a proficient contribution to the genre, but lacking anything special to make it stick out from the crowd, in my opinion.

Still undecided whether Hard Hat or Battle Chopper will get my vote !

[Fruitybit]

Tough one thIs week, a bit for everyone, (ok no fighting, so maybe not quite) I'm actually really hard pressed to pick one, each one merits more play!! In Battle Chopper when you're on the ground the 'fire up' button drops bombs, handy for breaking loose the extra fire power. I won't be sad if it wins. In Hard Hat pushing the letters off the screen, or even better, into targets, gets loads of extra points- did my best here maybe; 11160. Moon Alien is very Galagaesque, nearly got my vote purely as I live for the pewpew 😜

I'm not a stranger to playing devil's advocate (damn- why isn't that the name of a game!) especially with the more weird games on here, but I find myself wanting to play more...

Hard Hat. Direction buttons only, yet harder and more taxing because of just that.

So that's where my vote goes tonight:) if my 11160 stands more than 24 hours I'd be surprised!

[obsidianspider]

Voting closes in two hours!

[Fruitybit]

@obsidianspider After my post last night I went back to playing Battle Chopper, I was seriously tempted to change my mind. But seeing as my thumb is aching somewhat this morning(!) now I'm not so sure...

[obsidianspider]

It was a tie. Based on precedent from past weeks we'll leave it to Random.org to pick the winner.

Battle chopper was first in the list, that will be odd. Hard Hat was second on the list, that will be even.

The number chosen was 5. Odd.

This week's winner is Battle Chopper

[UDb23]

@obsidianspider
Flyer graphics are quite nice, instructions are available and useful... thought an overlay could be welcome ;-)

Brand new ! Available here.

[Fruitybit]

@udb23 Mr Heli... The Japanese version methinks? Now I have 'Mr Sparkle' in my head:)

[Fruitybit]

Thumb masher this game.

36930 at least got me onto the leader board!

[obsidianspider]

I was never able to get past the first level. Crazy hard game.

Never fear, MAME ROW #50 is here!