MAME ROW #141 - Cyvern

quicksilver

@IanDaemon with the info you provided I was able to break 1000000 points twice now. But both times I ran out of lives on the 2nd level's end boss.

b3k

What is everyone's preference for the dragon to use? I've mostly used the green one, but it's firing is narrow (but stronger?) until you get some powerups. I feel I need to stick to one before I can start making progress.

quicksilver

@b3k I'm consistently better with the blue dragon. It's standard attack and banish attack cover a wide area and hit multiple targets at the same time. The green dragon is definitely more powerful with it's concentrated fire but I have a much harder time clearing the screen of multiple enemies. The red dragon is also more powerful but it's banish attack has a limited range so I find it the least useful.

IanDaemon

The second level end boss is the farthest I've gotten. In four tries (with the blue dragon) I was able to get 532,670. :(

b3k

@IanDaemon you're doing much better than me!
This is the type of game where I think it could definitely help to have a player 2. Even if they aren't very good, they could help you tee-up some big points by grinding away at the bosses with you.

IanDaemon

@b3k I agree wholeheartedly with the "player two" thing.

AndersHP

Wanted to give Cyvern a go, but my system really suffers.. Sound is studdering and framerate very low.
I'm using FBA version 0.2.97.43.

How do you play it, any tweaks or something to get it rolling?

Edit: just switched to mame2003, and now my arcade is bricked. Well, damn...

quicksilver

works fine for me using mame2003. By fine I mean that it mostly plays full speed with some minor slow down when there is a ton of action on the screen. I'm using a 3 b+.

Here are my top scores so far. I'm not sure I can do too much better than this. I can't get past the second level end boss without adding a second coin (or third and fourth for that matter). The games difficulty curve really ramps up at this part of the game.

IanDaemon

Yeah I'm just using three lives.

quicksilver

@IanDaemon I can usually get through the first level without using any lives but the second level boss always mops the floor with me lol

AndersHP

@quicksilver Mame2003 version just dumps me back to EmulationStation. And I already have the skns.zip BIOS file in my BIOS folder...
Any tips?

b3k

@AndersHP yes, skns.zip is the bios

AndersHP

@b3k Found that, thanks. But it's there, just replaced the bios from the same MAME2003 0.78 romset as the game is.
Emulator is lr-mame2003 (also tried mame-2003-plus, to no avail)
Why will this game not run if noone else has any issues?

b3k

@AndersHP sorry, I think I skipped over where you had the skns.zip bios mentioned.
I put it in my ROM folder. I know it should work how you have it, but may be a quick test to see if you can get it to run.

AndersHP

@b3k Ah this did the trick - thanks!
Wonder why the BIOS folder file doesn't work though. I guess the SKNS.zip will show as a game now?

Anyways, muuuuch better performance than FBA, still a bit of sound stuttering though. Do you also experience this?

AndersHP

Also, kudos to @obsidianspider for setting up this new MAME ROW v.2.
I think it already works better than the old format. I personally saw this MAME ROW a bit late and would normally have missed it, but now I have a whole week to give it a proper shot. Love it!

quicksilver

@AndersHP which model pi are you using? I have a 3b+ slightly overclocked to 1450mhz. Overall cyvern runs well but I do get some occasional slow down (this is the audio stuttering that you are noticing). It's really only noticable during some of the boss fights or when there are a ton of enemies on screen at the same time.

AndersHP

@quicksilver
I'm also using a 3b+ although not overclocked. Should I try this?
The slowdowns and stuttering was simultaneous, and I think I had 9 tanks on screen or something like that.

quicksilver

@AndersHP it's probably not likely to help that much. I may have other settings set to give better performance. I'll check the fps and see what I'm averaging.

IanDaemon

I don't think I'm using any special bios file for this one. And I'm using a MAME 2003 on a Pi3B+. :thinking: