MAME ROW Rules and List Of Rounds

obsidianspider · 12 Oct 2020, 02:14

This post will serve as an ongoing list of all MAME ROWs. As things progress over time, having a long list at the end of each week's post will make those unnecessarily long.

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!

Notes:

We usually post hi-scores screenshots after playing with only one credit. If you used more than one credit, please mention it on your post.
There's no need to use RetroPie to join the MAME ROW! You can play it on any platform you want.
Feel free to post your hi-score (or any content about the game) anytime you want on the previous rounds topics (links below).

Every Monday we create a topic at the "General Discussion and Gaming > MAME Random Of the Week" forum section with the 3 random games to be voted. And on Wednesday we check the results.

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).

Lists of MAME ROW Champions

Previous rounds list

meleu · 20 Mar 2017, 04:24

@obsidianspider great idea!

Turgon · 21 Mar 2017, 23:42

Great, I have just finished my retropie cab and was just looking for a friendly competition to make playing these games even more interesting. So how do we submit the score? A simple cell phone snap?

meleu · 21 Mar 2017, 23:49

@Turgon said in MAME ROW Rules and List Of Rounds:

So how do we submit the score? A simple cell phone snap?

Yep. Usually we use a screenshot or a cell phone photo. Be sure to use the proper game topic.

And welcome to MAME ROW. :)

meleu · 31 Mar 2017, 14:57

@obsidianspider my suggestion for placement of the new text:

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!

Notes:

We usually post hi-scores screenshots after playing with only one credit. If you used more than one credit, please mention it on your post.
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 (...)

meleu · 31 Mar 2017, 15:09

@obsidianspider And remove the new text from the end of this paragraph:

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). We usually post hi-scores screenshots after playing with only one credit. If you used more than one credit, please mention it on your post.

meleu · 23 Jun 2017, 19:12

Wow. Looks like the MAME ROW has its own section now. :-)

@obsidianspider maybe we have to change this sentence accordingly:

Every Monday we create a topic at the "General Discussion and Gaming" forum section with the 3 random games to be voted.

obsidianspider · 25 Jun 2017, 00:17

@meleu Whoa. I wonder why. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing…

@BuZz What prompted giving MAME ROW its own section?

meleu · 25 Jun 2017, 00:28

@obsidianspider said in MAME ROW Rules and List Of Rounds:

I wonder why.

Because it deserves :-)

I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing…

I thing it's a good thing. This thread with the rules and previous rounds is sticky... I liked it.

The "side efect" (not exactly a bad thing) is that now we must keep it going! :-)

EDIT
By the way, if it's taking your time/you're busy, let me know. Things are calmer here.

obsidianspider · 25 Jun 2017, 00:37

@meleu I just prepped the thread for Monday. There was a new surprise in next week's selections that we've not seen before.

I wonder if the "What games are you playing this week?" threads are OK to keep posting. Those seem to be a good "random chat" thread, but it's not my forum.

meleu · 25 Jun 2017, 03:06

@obsidianspider said in MAME ROW Rules and List Of Rounds:

I wonder if the "What games are you playing this week?" threads are OK to keep posting.

Isn't it exactly what "General discussion and gaming" is about? I think it's fine.

meleu · 21 Sept 2017, 08:49

@obsidianspider Hello friend. I've just noticed that when we updated the "rules" text we missed an important information:

Feel free to post your hi-score (or any content about the game) anytime you want on the previous rounds topics (links below).

I suggest to add it as the 3rd item on that "Notes:". Could add it? Pretty please. ;-)

obsidianspider · 3 Oct 2017, 21:03

@meleu Done!

meleu · 3 Oct 2017, 21:03

@obsidianspider I would like to suggest this addition to the OP, right above the previous rounds list (I've put in codeblocks so you can copy'n'paste ;-) ):


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


### Lists of MAME ROW Champions

- [MAME ROW Champions - Season 1](/forum/post/107798)
- [MAME ROW Champions - Season 2](/forum/post/110568)

### Previous rounds list


- [Phoenix (Amstar)](/forum/post/25972)
- [New Rally X](/forum/post/27050)

1. [Bosconian (new version)](/forum/post/27572)
2. [Blue's Journey / Raguy](/forum/post/28476)
...

obsidianspider · 4 Oct 2017, 11:43

@meleu Done!

asdfgasfhsn · 27 Dec 2017, 08:16

@obsidianspider Wasn't quite sure where to post so I thought I'd reply here...

Anyways, I liked the idea of the MAME ROW so much that I put together a script that creates custom collections for the current ROW and/or all historic ROW's.

The script is available at;
https://github.com/asdfgasfhsn/retropie-mame-row

All feedback and PR's are welcome.

thelostsoul · 28 Feb 2018, 13:23

I have a question about the rules. I know its Mame row, but my setup have Neo Geo games in different folder and uses AES bios and is played with Final Burn Alpha emulator. I don't want add those games second time under Mame, even if they could use different bios and emulator. Still the same game.

Is it then still allowed to post highscores at this place?

AndersHP · 28 Feb 2018, 13:42

@thelostsoul
You can post hiscores, but the punishment for not using mame2003 on this board is hanging until death...!

Naah, I asked the same question here, you'll be allright I think :-)

thelostsoul · 28 Feb 2018, 14:00

Then I come back as an undead (zombie or vampire) :P

If it is allowed, then the question is if some default settings are different. Also playing as second player have some differences at some games, but I don't know at which. Maybe a rule should be added to allow first player only. And what about turbo buttons? Allowed?

Also hopefully nobody uses rewind or save states, if Mame supports it.

By the way, Mame supports .inp files (input records). Not sure if mame 0.78 does. So for who who does want, could upload them here too as a zip file for verification maybe. But all those steps are probably too complicated for casual lets-have-just-fun highscore gaming.

cosmo0 · 28 Feb 2018, 14:06

It's a fun way to discover games, not a high-stake tournament with Guiness Book records... I'm not sure anybody cares enough to prevent you from using FBA, or save state, or input record, or simply just infinite credits. But that would be a lot of trouble for basically nothing.