Vertical screen non-shoot 'em ups.

DougA

Hi
I am about 90% through building a cabinet with a vertical 4:3 (so 3:4 I guess) screen to relive my youth playing Pacman, Donkey Kong, Dig Dug etc on MAME 2003, and I wondered which other non-shoot em ups were recommended. Most vertical games seem to be shoot 'em ups, or at least those I know of, are. Any comments on controls needed would be useful - ie do I need to add a spinner or trackball, how many buttons? I currently have 3 buttons, as that was easily enough for the games I was familiar with, but I have space for more control if needed.

Once I have finished the cabinet, I will post some pictures. It is what is politely referred to as "wife-compliant", ie it has to tone in with the surrounding decor. The original plan called for artwork, but this changed after a "It's how big? You want to cover it with stickers?" conversation.

DougA

UDb23

@douga As you like the classics you I would suggest to consider also City connection, Pengo, Spiders, Burger Time, Congo Bongo, The Speed Rumbler (you actually shoot but I would not consider it a shmup).

Clyde

I'll add Bagman, Circus Charlie, Crush Roller, Jump Bug, Lady Bug, Mr. Do!, Q*Bert, Rock'N Rope, and Space Panic.

mitu

Any Bomberman game is easy fun.

DougA

Thanks guys, that lot will keep me occupied for a while :-) I had some of those, but you listed some I hadn't even heard of, so I am excited to try some new ones

UDb23

@douga If you want to play the classics the "right way" I would warmly suggest to use a 4-way stick (like I did here) or at least a stick that can be switched to 4-way (e.g. restrictor).
Many of the oldies were 4-way.

DougA

@udb23 Yes, you are absolutely right. I have a 8/4 way stick set to 4 way, though it feels a bit odd. Once I get everything finished, I may replace it with a 'real' 4 way stick. That I know of, the only 8-way games I have are the 19xx series shoot 'em ups, and they play OK with 4 way.

Its funny, I was watching Stranger Things Series 2 on Netflix, and there is a sequence in episode 1 where kids were in an arcade playing Dig Dug, and as soon as I said that would be on my cabinet, suddenly my kids were interested in retrogaming :-)

DougA

@UDb23 We had a conversation about 4 vs 8 way sticks on your breadbox controller thread yesterday.

UDb23

@douga Oops... You're right... too much work on arcade artwork today.. getting tired.

Clyde

@udb23 said in Vertical screen non-shoot 'em ups.:

@douga Oops... You're right... too much work on arcade artwork today.. getting tired.

And I made him do it, so it's partly my fault, too. O:)

UDb23

@clyde said in Vertical screen non-shoot 'em ups.:

And I made him do it, so it's partly my fault, too. O:)

lol.
No that's not true; at least not totally ;-)
I'm working (WIP) on multiple challenging bezels and marquees; today in particular for Nibbler (another nice vertical game), Crazy Ballon and Caveman ninja.
Challenging 'cause either no decent resolution scan / cabinet image can be found or scanned high res badly damaged (requiring patient restoration work).

Clyde

@udb23 You mean that I'm not as important as I think? 😭

quicksilver

@douga Mappy is one that comes to my mind

BennyProfane

One under-appreciated vertical game is Gain Ground on the Sega consoles. Can take some time to get into but can be fun in multiplayer.

pjft

@bennyprofane I didn't recall that one being vertical, but you may certainly be right. Runs great on AdvMame.

I believe Bomb Jack and Spy Hunter would also be good additions there.

UDb23

@pjft said in Vertical screen non-shoot 'em ups.:

Bomb Jack

Yes, great game.

btw: Gain ground is vertical according to progettoemma.

Clyde

@pjft I second you on Spy Hunter, but it may require some work to make it playable. It has issues at least on vanilla Mame 2003 (it spawns a non-removable Mame menu over the game) and it was originally controlled by a steering wheel and pedals that have to be mapped to analog or digital controllers without a wheel. Did you make it work on Retropie? If so, how exactly?

@DougA If you're interested in this great game, see this forum thread about its issues and some potential solutions: Spy Hunter

wstanek

Zookeeper, Rally X, Qix, Pooyan.

Oops Pooyan is a shmup.

markwkidd

@clyde is there a github issue filed yet for Spy Hunter?

Clyde

@markwkidd Alas, I don't know. I searched https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/issues and https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro/issues. I found the following issues, but I lack the expertise to say if they're relevant for the popping up of the mame menu.