MAME ROW #113 - Super Cobra

[GtBFilms]

I'll try and do a proper assessment of these this week, didn't get time last week I'm afraid as we had the in-laws visiting.

I remember playing Prop Cycle in an arcade - it was a huge cabinet with a bicycle attached! You got a work-out playing that game!

Ah yes, this is what it was like:

I think I tried this quite recently on the pi, it runs, but it's slow, and not having the unique control system does detract from the game a fair bit.

Look forward to trying it (and the others) again though.

[IanDaemon]

@GtBFilms I could not get Prop Cycle to run on my RPi last night. Well, it ran, but was unplayably slow. It was so slow to respond that I thought it locked up the RPi at one point. I still haven't cracked anything with "3D graphics".

(Maybe it's a ROM/emulator pairing issue. Most times "tinkering" is not my friend. I often try to get one thing running better only to have something else run worse.)

[GtBFilms]

@IanDaemon you are right, it runs like a dog! I got a bit of a speed improvement by using advmame0.93, it's nearly playable but still probably only about 30% speed.

The announcer at the start "Prop Cycle!" sounds drunk!

I think it may have been on my PC based MAME cab that I managed to get this working properly . But it's a lot more powerful than my pi.

[VictimRLSH]

@GtBFilms Yeah, I had to play that one on my laptop as well. I think not having to pedal takes some of the flavor out of the game and it is meh without the gimmick.

[GtBFilms]

I've already commented on this weeks selection, but I thought I'd do my usual round-up anyway, since I missed last week.

Superior Soldiers

I had great expectations for this one, it looks pretty good on the preview video. The game has a decent roster of characters, and is of course yet another Street Fighter II clone. Something very odd happened with the controls under MAME2003 for me - the P1 start seemed to always start Player 2, then the joystick and buttons didn't work. I checked the settings and P1 start was mapped correctly. This behaviour didn't happen under FBA or Advmame. In the end I just mapped all my buttons to the P2 equivalents for this game, thinking I would just play as P2 in a single player game. Then when I restarted it, the P1 start started Player 1 as it should have! I have no idea what happened here.
The game's okay, but nothing special. I guess if it was the only fighter game in the arcade/takeaway, I might have ploughed some coins into it, but if it was sitting next to a real SFII, then it wouldn't get much attention. Just doesn't feel as fluid as SFII. Not bad, just nothing to write home about.

Super Cobra
Plainly a Scramble clone, I thought this one was probably going to be too dated, but playing it I was pleasantly surprised - yes it's a copy of Scramble, but it also adds in a few things like the homing missiles. I never really played Scramble in the arcades, but I was aware of it, and had 'Penetrator' for the ZX Spectrum which was a decent clone.

Penetrator, ZX Spectrum, 1982

I have really fond memories of that game, it was one of the first I bought, so this one, as another Scramble clone scores highly in the nostalgia stakes for me.

My only annoyance with this one was that you need to score more than 10000 to get on the high score table, and when you do, you go straight to the top. That probably wasn't even considered when the game was in an arcade, but for playing at home, I prefer the challenge of working my way up to the top of the table with practice.

Prop Cycle
This was a pretty decent game in the arcades, but as @VictimRLSH says, mainly because of the large and unusual control system gimmick. It loses an awful lot when you replace the analogue bicycle with a couple of micro-switched buttons and a digital joystick. Also I'm afraid the rpi isn't really up to the task of running it at a decent frame rate, which rules it out for me.

So this week, my vote goes to...

Super Cobra

[obsidianspider]

This week's winner is Super Cobra

[VictimRLSH]

One thing I did notice about Prop Cycle is you have to plan your course and moves well in advance. Novice mode seemed rather easy (aced it on 3rd game), BUT putting balloons under the fair tents was just plain evil for a beginning course.

[GtBFilms]

Wow, this is a tough one.

Still haven't managed to make it into the high score table but got to stage 3.

7480

[VictimRLSH]

@GtBFilms Yep. Definitely a step above "Press B not to die".

[obsidianspider]

MAME ROW #114 is live

[GtBFilms]

Well I'm a bit late, but cancelled trains meant I was stuck at home today and finally managed to get on the high score table. In common with a lot of oldies though, it's just the score that's recorded, you don't even get to put your initials in!

13750 , I'm satisfied with that!

Really enjoyed this one. My only tactics were:

Level 1
Stay as far right as possible, that way you get maximum time for your bombs to take out the rockets, or at least time to take avoiding action. It's annoying when a rocket takes off when you are at the left of the screen and there's no-where you can go to avoid it.

Level 2
A lot easier when you realise the artillery shells have a limited height (apart from a couple which sometimes enter the screen from the right very high up) you can basically fly around the shells if you are lucky.

Level 3
I just ignored everything but the red stars, trying to shoot as many as possible before the fly towards you. Of the ones remaining, by alternating high/low you can avoid most of them - once they start flying towards you they don't have time to adjust to your height. Luckily nothing much on the ground seemed to attack me.