MAME ROW #174 - Q*bert

[Impman66]

Toughie this time, torn between Q**Bert in the end. Mainly due to it's originality, nobody had seen that type of game before, whereas Op Wolf, despite it's great graphics was (albeit with a light-gun - I mean a light gun!!) just another shoot 'em up.
So again I went old school and voted for Q*Bert.

Weird, when I posted the "" was lost between the Q and B, and it turned the text into italics. The only way round it was to put in two ""'s Oh its done it again! Any ideas??

[IanDaemon]

@Impman66 To italicize Q*bert use *Q\*bert*. Essentially you use the backslash to escape the asterisk in the name.

In the example above I'm using the backtick " ` " (often on the keyboard next to the "1") around the characters to make them visible and highlighted inline without being translated. To put things in a multiple-line code block you can use:

` ` `
Q * b e r t
` ` ` 

Or you can use a blockquote with a single greater-than sign ">" preceding each line.

>Q*bert and then some more Q*bert and then some
>more Q*bert

Here's some info: https://commonmark.org/help/

[Impman66]

@IanDaemon Many thanks for that, didn't notice any issues until after I posted. Strange though how you cant put the * in-between a letter without making it change the format of the font.

[IanDaemon]

@Impman66 You can by escaping it; it's just that the asterisk is a reserved character.

[obsidianspider]

This week's winner is Q*bert

[IanDaemon]

I got 1175 with a four-way "+" joystick (instead of "x"), but I need to do something about these controls. I wonder what I can do besides turning my head/thoughts?

[IanDaemon]

I was able to improve it slightly (2700), but playing with a "+" joystick isn't ideal. (I'm sure this can be beaten easily. I only made it to the second level on my custom MAME cocktail cabinet.)

[IanDaemon]

I'm gonna go get my six inch tall Q*bert cabinet with its tiny "x" joystick.

Surprisingly, I didn't do much better (3875).

[IanDaemon]

I managed to slightly improve (4,950) on my MAME2003 cocktail cabinet (with a four-way joystick) by standing at 45 degrees and turning my head. (It's odd that the high score screen lists the scores "top to bottom" and not "left column-right column", but...oh well.)
[op deleted image]

[IanDaemon]

It's nice than the default scores are so low.

[IanDaemon]

5350

[IanDaemon]

7750

( @BuZz Curious, I can no longer upload pics. Is something wrong on my end? - Cool, it works now.)

[BuZz]

@iandaemon No - I will sort it (compatibility issue with nodejs v14) - It's fixed but a dependency needs to be updated but ill just downgrade for now.

[BuZz]

@iandaemon Should be ok now.

[obsidianspider]

MAME ROW #175 is now live!

[IanDaemon]

I was able to improve slightly with an "plus" arcade stick.

[IanDaemon]

@iandaemon I just had an idea for a modification to my control panel that would allow me to use the same four-way joystick for this and Pac-Man/Donkey Kong without opening up the machine OR any software changes.

[IanDaemon]

So that I don't have to stand at a 45 degree angle to play Q*bert, I thought about making a new control panel that would allow me to lift up on the stick, rotate it, and set it back down without changing wiring or settings. Here's my idea for a two layer CP , what do you think?
(this is looking from below)
[op deleted image]

[IanDaemon]

@iandaemon On second thought I really need two squares and not two pentagons/pentagrams/whatever shape that is. I wouldn't get a true 45 degree angle this way.

[IanDaemon]

@iandaemon I simplified the design as far as attaching the joysticks.