MAME ROW #13: Wanted

meleu · 19 Dec 2016, 02:08

This is the 13th MAME Random Of the Week

UPDATE: "Wanted" won for this week.

So the three random numbers for this week are: 693, 2097 and 1929

(Discarded game: 2169 - "Yuuyu no Quiz de GO!GO!")

693
Game Name: Guzzler
Company: Tehkan
Year: 1983
ROM file name: guzzler.zip

2097
Game Name: Wanted
Company: Sigma Enterprises Inc.
Year: 1984
ROM file name: wanted.zip

1929
Game Name: ThunderJaws
Company: Atari Games
Year: 1990
ROM file name: thunderj.zip

Please vote: http://www.strawpoll.me/11908194

We will check the most voted game on Wednesday. So we have Monday and Tuesday for experimentations.

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 ROMset 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!

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" forum section with the 3 random games to be voted. And on Wednesday we check the results.

The current week's game thread is just where there are more people interacting/talking about the game(s). Feel free to post your hi-score (or any content about the game) anytime you want on the previous "rounds" topics (links below).

These "rules" are constantly being improved!

Explaining the randomness of the process

I took the 0.78 compatibility list and applied the following filters (in this order):

Parent: (empty)
Rpi 3 Status: (empty), OK, Untested
Rpi 2 Status: OK, Untested
Rpi 1 Status: Untested
Manufacturer: clear the "bootleg" checkbox

Saved a new spreadsheet with only the results of those filters here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13Q7QEqV5lUo662nvAC3zS_AvQvsjspEcGHVhaHcyzbI/edit?usp=sharing

And then went to www.random.org and generated a random number between 2 and 2185 (ignoring 1 because of the column headers).

Links to the previous "rounds"

Phoenix (not randomly chosen)
New Rally-X (not randomly chosen)

MisterMeeseeks · 19 Dec 2016, 05:33

These three games are certainly interesting.

Guzzler is a weird take on Pac-Man that involves drinking water and spitting it out to put out fires.

Wanted doesn't seem to control very well on a gamepad but is kind of fun anyway.

ThunderJaws is.. not what I expected. Give it a try and see what I mean.

Overall I think my vote goes to Guzzler, should be fun to try for a high score on.

UDb23 · 19 Dec 2016, 07:23

@meleu said in MAME ROW #13:

ThunderJaws

Looks funny: secret agent that has to save pretty girls ;-)
See

.

GtBFilms · 19 Dec 2016, 10:16

Guzzler

"Walk about a single-screen maze killing flame monsters by shooting them with liquid. Each shot reduces in range and after three shots you are empty. You move faster when empty and after some time, one shot will be replaced. There is also food comes in two sizes that replaces all or some of the shots. You are all yellow when full or an outline when empty. Monsters are generated from four fires which must be destroyed by shooting them with liquid. The final fire sometimes gains eyes and starts moving round the maze chasing you. A bonus cocktail glass appears in the middle of the maze which freezes all the current monsters. Between some of the levels a little sequence is played showing the monsters chasing you."
(from http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=8056)

Wanted

"A typical Western shooter where the player controls a gunfighter and shoots at cowboy outlaws, Mexican bandidos and Indians who lurk in the backgrounds of each Western-like setting."
(from http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10397)

ThunderJaws

"You play a diver who must face natural enemies sharks, other divers and underwater firing turrets. Other scenes include a platform shoot-em-up, similar to Bad Dudes. You can find weapon power-ups and health along the way. Bosses appear at the end of each level. At the end, you face Madam Q, who has transformed herself into a giant floating disembodied head."
(from http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=10106)

Excellent! I don't think I've seen any of these games before! Should be interesting to try them out.

meleu · 19 Dec 2016, 10:55

I thought Wanted needed a special hardwared, but I tested and it works fine with a typical joystick. I've also searched at http://www.arcade-museum.com/ and found this info:

Controls:

Joystick: 8-way

Buttons: 1 [Fire]

I found it fun! A little "rustic", but good for a hi-score tournament and fun. :-)

[I'm not telling my vote, I've not decided yet. Just sharing this info. :-) ]

meleu · 20 Dec 2016, 19:15

I tried all three games.

I already commented about Wanted above.

About the Guzzler, it has some fun, but we have more options...

I enjoyed ThunderJaws, I wish I had seen this game on NES or maybe MegaDrive (IMHO it has a Mega Drive game "look & feel").

I would vote for ThunderJaws, but I think we'll get a more fun tournament playing Wanted. And it got my vote. :-)

GtBFilms · 21 Dec 2016, 10:51

I only got the chance to give these a quick try this week, I'm afraid.

Guzzler looked interesting but I didn't know what I was doing. I've since looked up the instructions and discovered I'm supposed to put the fires out! I'll give it another try.

Wasn't sure about Wanted, (apart from the politically incorrect premise of shooting native Americans with a gun while they throw arrows at you!) there seemed to be no way to avoid quite a few of the projectiles. Also the target moving up and down appeared to be totally redundant, as as long as something happened to be in your bullet trajectory, you hit it.

Thunderjaws does look good, but I got a bit swamped by sharks. I'd like to ply it some more though, so my vote (admittedly without much play testing) goes for Thunderjaws!

Not sure how much time I will have for playing over the next few days though.

Wishing everyone here a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays etc.

meleu · 21 Dec 2016, 13:15

@GtBFilms Curiously I had the same "politcally incorrect" feeling when I finished the first stage of Thunder Jaws and saved three hot girls. And then all girls came at me and did this:

This talk of feminism is being very common in Brazil nowadays...

meleu · 21 Dec 2016, 13:16

And Wanted won:

mediamogul · 21 Dec 2016, 15:50

@meleu said in MAME ROW #13: Wanted:

I had the same "politcally incorrect" feeling when I finished the first stage of Thunder Jaws...
This talk of feminism is being very common in Brazil nowadays...

Here in the States, we're starting to debate whether or not the 1944 holiday favorite 'Baby it's Cold Outside' promotes unwanted sexual aggressiveness toward women. Frankly, I'm more concerned that 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' is promoting unfair competitive practices by profiling applicants for the reindeer games. All in all, these Christmas songs really set a horrible example for our children.

UDb23 · 21 Dec 2016, 22:02

@meleu Unfortunately it seems no Wanted cabinet artwork or game flyer exists.
Unless somebody can provide me those, I can't create an overlay this time.

meleu · 22 Dec 2016, 01:57

@UDb23 do you accept a suggestion from a previous MAME ROW?
Pang (from MAME ROW #6) is funny game to play with my kids and nephew. And I would love to see your art while playing! :-)

UDb23 · 22 Dec 2016, 08:54

@meleu Also for Pang it seems no cabinet artwork is available.
On the other hand original Pang Flyer is available.

Overlays made for Mame do exist but those are for Buster Brothers ,the USA version of Pang, and used artwork (that btw I don't like) is quite different from the original Pang.

Making an original Pang overlay it's quite a challenge...
therefore I'll make it :-).

wip:

meleu · 22 Dec 2016, 13:00

@UDb23 I'm I daring too much... asking if it could be possible to put the power ups info on the overlay? :-)

I really appreciate your instructional overlays. Maybe you can get some pictures from here (those info at the bottom-left):

GtBFilms · 22 Dec 2016, 14:12

@meleu Is that hourglass one really 'all balloons move slower'?

I always thought it just increased the level timeout time at the top of the screen?

meleu · 22 Dec 2016, 14:39

@GtBFilms I have tried now and didn't notice a significant slowing on the balloons, but the timeout didn't increase neither.

UDb23 · 22 Dec 2016, 19:30

@meleu Of course! They were already included in my plan ;-)

Currently recreating logo as vector
...coloring in progress...

meleu · 23 Dec 2016, 16:34

Damn! I can't even put my initials on the list! It's f*cking hard!

I did 6190 and the 5th place is 10000...

GtBFilms · 23 Dec 2016, 23:09

@meleu pretty good, I didn't manage much more than 1000!

UDb23 · 24 Dec 2016, 15:29

@meleu: new Pang overlay is ready!
Info & download here.