MAME ROW #16 - Mystic Riders

[GtBFilms]

I gave both Super Bagman and Mystic Riders a try last night.

Super Bagman is an odd one, it wasn't bad but strikes me as the sort of game I used to play on my home micro (8 bit ZX Spectrum), it isn't what I have come to expect from an arcade game at all. It requires a lot more planning and thought that a traditional arcade coin-gobbler, and doesn't really seem to have a 'flow' to it.

That said, I didn't dislike it.

Mystic Riders, while not perhaps an IREM classic, does look excellent. Perhaps just a little too busy at times, it doesn't have the pure visual clarity of earlier titles like R-Type, and suffers a little from the 'unexpected death from a bullet I didn't notice' syndrome. Button-mashing both buttons at once seems to work well when things get chaotic, which does detract a little from the feeling of skill in playing.

For pure arcade-style play, and the fact it does look really nice, my vote this week goes to Mystic Riders!

[meleu]

Grab your brooms and let's shoot some cute enemies!

[obsidianspider]

A few tips I've figured out:

You can charge up your shot by holding down A (using the default controller bindings), and if you press Down then Up quickly you'll do a backflip.

The "I got killed by a thing I didn't see because of everything going on" factor is strong with this game.

[meleu]

@obsidianspider I think you and @GtBFilms got one of those Usopp's diseases. :-)

(He is an One Piece's character.)

[obsidianspider]

@meleu I definitely had to Google "Usopp" ;)

[meleu]

@obsidianspider One of the most frequently used excuses when he's scared is that he gets a disease named, for example, "I-can't-go-on-this-island-or-I'll-die-disease".

One Piece is really fun manga. I started reading it when I got the I-have-a-kid-and-I-can-use-this-as-an-excuse-to-read-mangas disease.

[lilbud]

@meleu I tried reading manga, I just can't. It hurts my brain after a while.

[meleu]

@lilbud does it happen because you have to read/turn pages from right to left? You'll get used to it after a while...

[lilbud]

@meleu Yeah, I can't do that. I have tried several times.

[backstander]

When I was in grade school I picked up this odd habit of browsing through magazines in reverse. Like I would open at the back of the magazine and flip through the pages moving towards the front and I would stop at the articles I wanted to read, then when done with that article, I would keep moving towards the front. I had forgotten about this until @meleu mentioned "read/turn pages from right to left". I mostly did this when I was waiting at the doctor's office or wherever.

[GtBFilms]

@meleu I had never heard of usopp before, but you're right, I definitely have that disease!

In the words of Tony Hancock, "Hypochondria is about the only disease I'm pretty sure I DON'T have"

Here's my-best-score-so-far score!

151700

For some reason the screenshot won't upload though. (edit: was Firefox weirdness, it worked using Chrome instead)

I've replaced the screen on my cabinet with a 12 inch rather than an 8 inch which makes things a bit easier to see!

[obsidianspider]

@GtBFilms Nice. I've been looking for a thin 4:3 display and they're few and far between, almost all are old monitors from ten years ago. It's almost impossible to find a "large" one or any that have a digital input.

[UDb23]

@GtBFilms nice cab ! Can you post some pictures ?

[GtBFilms]

@UDb23 Thanks! I jump at any excuse to post pictures of my cab!

It's a modified Picade (desktop) kit from www.Pimoroni.com.

It's gone through quite a few changes, as I have got a little addicted to tinkering with it!

From the stock build I've changed the artwork, added a marquee light, changed the joystick and buttons (multiple times!), changed the joystick handle to a heavier solid aluminium one (recommended), changed the joystick restrictor place to a circular one (still not entirely convinced this was a good idea), moved the volume control to the back, added a PowerBlock switch to shut down safely, and the last (maybe?) thing was to swap out the screen for a bigger one. (the new screen is a relatively cheap one from a Chinese Ebay seller, it's okay for the money, but the viewing angle is pretty shallow and the lighting isn't uniform from top to bottom - only really noticeable when the screen is entirely black though, there are better screens about, but it was pretty cheap!)

This is it now:

Previously, with the standard 8" screen:

Size comparison with my bartop (this was the reason for building it, because that bartop is made of extremely heavy PVC and isn't as portable as I expected it to be, whereas you can carry the picade in one hand!)

[mviars]

@GtBFilms At least it looks like you could make the screen bigger down the road when your ready.

[mviars]

@meleu said in MAME ROW #16:

@obsidianspider One of the most frequently used excuses when he's scared is that he gets a disease named, for example, "I-can't-go-on-this-island-or-I'll-die-disease".

One Piece is really fun manga. I started reading it when I got the I-have-a-kid-and-I-can-use-this-as-an-excuse-to-read-mangas disease.

Yeah I definitely enjoy watching the anime of One Piece.

[mviars]

@obsidianspider said in MAME ROW #16:

@GtBFilms Nice. I've been looking for a thin 4:3 display and they're few and far between, almost all are old monitors from ten years ago. It's almost impossible to find a "large" one or any that have a digital input.

I'm with you on that one. I am trying to modify my old cab with a 32" tv in it to a 32" high res monitor except I want the monitor to rotate for horizontal or vertical play like this guy did

[UDb23]

@GtBFilms Great Work !!
Now I'm really tempted to try to build one.

[GtBFilms]

@UDb23 I'd recommend it, it's a fun project and quite satisfying when you work out a solution to the inevitable problems that crop up. There's a lot of people online who have done similar and can give advice too.

Both of mine have been from cabinet kits of one sort or another, I'm quite tempted to try making one from scratch now too, for the challenge.

My advice is to set a budget at the start, tell that to your wife, then proceed to spend at least three times that amount while you tinker with the build for months and months!

@mviars Yeah, the big selling point of that Picade kit is how moddable it is. There's a decent amount of additional space inside, so you can swap out the screen, buttons, joystick with alternatives and add lighting etc. as you go along.

[mviars]

@GtBFilms Yeah although I have just ordered the computer parts and monitor to redo that system I may still wait a little while as I am still burned out on building my virtual pinball machine that took about 5 grand and a year of my life to complete.