MAME ROW #19 - Thief

[obsidianspider]

This is the 19th MAME Random Of the Week

The three random numbers for this week are: 2135, 1925 and 151

2135
Game Name: War of the Worlds
Company: Cinematronics
Year: 1981
ROM file name: wotw.zip

1925
Game Name: Thief
Company: Pacific Novelty
Year: 1981
ROM file name: thief.zip

151
Game Name: Birdie King 3
Company: Taito Corporation
Year: 1984
ROM file name: bking3.zip

What game do you want to choose for MAME ROW #19?

The results of the poll will be posted on Wednesday, so we have Monday and Tuesday for experimentation.

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!

Links to the previous "rounds"

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

1. Bosconian
2. Blue's Journey / Raguy
3. Lizard Wizard
4. 4-D Warriors
5. Raiga - Strato Fighter
6. Pang!
7. Air Duel
8. Pac & Pal
9. Puyo Puyo 2
10. Forgotten Worlds
11. Moon Cresta
12. Frenzy
13. Wanted
14. Cop 01
15. Aliens
16. Mystic Riders
17. Scion
18. Cosmos

[lilbud]

So thief is a pacman clone?

[lilbud]

Best score: $7210

[obsidianspider]

@lilbud We haven't even chosen a winner yet! :-P

But yeah, Thief looks Pac-Manny

[Fruitybit]

Took me a while to figure out Birdie King needs a ball (serious pun intended there) and my thumb mouse works not half bad with it. I don't have any overlays for War of the Worlds, and there's no sound so it's a bit bare but I like the style. Hmmm, decisions decisions:))

$7470 so far- loitering with intent:)

[meleu]

The random.org seems to want to pay tribute to the 80's! :-)
@obsidianspider thanks for keeping it going!

BTW: I've created a repository for the MAME ROW management tool, and I'm slowly working on it. I just want to finish a RetroPie scriptmodule for generating launching images first.

[GtBFilms]

Quite a retro selection this week!

i really like the look of vector games, they don't seem to age as badly as other game technology which was around at the same time, and still have a futuristic feel to them, despite (or perhaps because of) the wire frame graphics.

Having said that, despite having the wotw.zip sample set, I still get no sound whatsoever. The gameplay is also a bit basic, and it did seem to be pot-luck whether I managed to shoot the tripods before me, or get my shield up in time.

Thief is interesting, and a good opportunity for me to make use of my 4-way controller that I got for Pacman. I thought the game is surprisingly fast for it's time. I also really liked the use of speech, which must have been amazing in 1981. The gameplay is pretty good, and has that one-more-time appeal. By contrast, the graphics are functional at best. A good example of substance over style, this one!

I couldn't play Birdie King 3 unfortunately. It runs but I don't appear to be able to hit the ball more than a couple of metres each time - and then I run out of shots. As @Fruitybit mentions, I need a different controller. Unfortunately a roller ball controller is way down my list, due to the fact I'm not that keen on games that use this control method.

Talking of which (but entirely unrelated) I noticed this the other day - a twistable joystick controller.

https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/Happ-Rotary-Arcade-Joystick.html
https://www.arcadeworlduk.com/products/USB-Interface-For-HAPP-Rotary-Joystick.html

£81 ($100 USD) is a hell of a lot to play the ONE GAME I can think of that would make use of that controller - IKARI WARRIORS. It's a good game, but it's not that good!

Anyway, my vote this week goes to THIEF - better fun than it initially looks!

[obsidianspider]

This week's winner is Thief!

[obsidianspider]

Wow, I'm pretty terrible at this game. But I do love that after you complete level 1 your crime level is "loitering"

$14580

[meleu]

I'm back in the game! Woohool!!
And this is my current score: 17170

After 15k you can put your initials on the ranking.

Tips for a nice score:

1. get all the 4 cars after getting the $ sign and you'll get several points (not sure, but I think they worth 100, 500, 1000 and 5000, respectively).
2. do it on the first level! ;-)

[obsidianspider]

Great score @meleu!

I was just working on the post for next week's MAME ROW and it's going to be a really good set of choices!

Back to Thief!

[GtBFilms]

Okay, so I couldn't really work out how to put my initials in properly - I couldn't rub out! - but this is my score, honest!

19660

[GtBFilms]

@obsidianspider has kindly posted the next MAME ROW:

MAMEROW#20

[obsidianspider]

@GtBFilms said in MAME ROW #19 - Thief:

@obsidianspider has kindly posted the next MAME ROW:

MAMEROW#20

I keep forgetting to update the old posts! Thanks for this.