MAME ROW #12: Frenzy

meleu

One more frenzy session this evening and this was my best results:

pjft

@meleu good scores! I haven't had the chance to play anymore so I ended with that score I posted earlier.

@mediamogul @dankcushions OK, so I'm curious now. Where do I find such option, or how do I make it work?

The only other saving options seem to be save configuration, and save new configuration, but they always seem to go to a retroarchxxx file. Maybe there's a setting I need to enable somewhere?

So much learning, haha!

Thanks all.

dankcushions

@pjft said in MAME ROW #12: Frenzy:

@meleu good scores! I haven't had the chance to play anymore so I ended with that score I posted earlier.

@mediamogul @dankcushions OK, so I'm curious now. Where do I find such option, or how do I make it work?

The only other saving options seem to be save configuration, and save new configuration, but they always seem to go to a retroarchxxx file. Maybe there's a setting I need to enable somewhere?

So much learning, haha!

Thanks all.

quick menu > save game overrides

pjft

@dankcushions thanks. I'm starting to think it may be a retroarch version thing. I'm on 4.0.2 I believe. My upgrade to 4.1 botched up my system so I ended up rolling back to a backup.

I'll dig into it.

Thank you sir!

lilbud

One of my first attempts:
alt text

This game is damn hard. Once they start shooting and banking their shots, you don't stand much of a chance.

meleu

@lilbud said in MAME ROW #12: Frenzy:

Once they start shooting and banking their shots, you don't stand much of a chance.

Following the "always look on the bright side of life" way of life: the good thing is that when they shoot each other you still earn the points.

GtBFilms

@pjft

Thanks, yes I did have 'Configuration Save on Exit" set to YES in RetroArch!

I switched it off, but the issue still remains.

I noticed that under basic libretro settings, the overlay was set to Unset, but on the arcade specific libretro settings, it was still set to use the Frenzy overlay.

I unset that, and games were fine (no overlay) until I play Frenzy (with an overlay), at which point it sets the arcade overlay setting back to use frenzy by default, and all games end up with the Frenzy overlay!

Am I setting the retroarch autosave on exit option wrongly do you think?

It's not a major issue, the bezels all work fine on my other setup, just my Picade that seems to be confused.

meleu

@GtBFilms said in MAME ROW #12: Frenzy:

yes I did have 'Configuration Save on Exit" set to YES in RetroArch!
I switched it off, but the issue still remains.

This is exactly the problem. Once you enabled it, and started using various cores, there's a big chance that you messed up your various retroarch.cfg files. Maybe this post here can clarify this issue for you:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/1714/retroarch-config-confusion-and-issues/2

pjft

@GtBFilms I think you're doing it right. There maybe just a place - or a few - where the save on exit setting still remains.

The best way to do it is to repeat all those steps, and one by one at each step open the emulator and see on the menu whether it's set to save on exit. That'll tell you if there's more than one file you need to change. The save hierarchy and file locations should be described in @meleu 's post (on my mobile, sorry for lack of copy and paste).

Best of luck!

UDb23

Complete Artwork Pack for Frenzy created; in addition to the previous overlay it includes:

new Overlay for Integer Scale ON (max scale @ 1080p)
rom launch splashscreen
original game Flyer image, for ES theme's detailed view (made for Carbon but should work with other themes)

Pics and download here.

Let me know what you think about "Artwork pack" concept.

Have fun!

P.S. As I used time to make this... my Frenzy score is still bad.. about 3400...

meleu

@UDb23 said in MAME ROW #12: Frenzy:

my Frenzy score is still bad.. about 3400...

But you are the winner!! :-)

meleu

The new overlay made me try harder, but I couldn't beat @GtBFilms ' hi-score: 7170

GtBFilms

@meleu Awesome, thanks for that, I read your post, and the penny dropped when I read:

"each libretro-core loads its own specific retroarch.cfg file. Now go and take a look at some of these retroarch.cfg files. (in /opt/retropie/configs/SYSTEMNAME/retroarch.cfg)

All my ROMS are in the arcade directory, so I looked at:

/opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg using WinSCP to edit the file, because it's pretty big and my Linux text editor skills are a bit rusty.

Sure enough, searching for 'exit' brought up the following:

config_save_on_exit = "true"

Even though I presumed setting it in the Retroarch settings available via the RetroPie Setup menu would have switched this off."

I changed the setting in the editor to:

config_save_on_exit = "false"

Problem solved! I get the Frenzy marquee while playing marquee, but no longer get the Frenzy marquee being overlaid on other games as well.

Thank-you very much for your patience and help, everyone!

I understand a little more about RetroArch now, I think this explains some issues myself and a friend had with stubborn CRT shaders as well.

meleu

@GtBFilms I'm afraid that just setting config_save_on_exit to false on your big arcade/retroarch.cfg file is not the best solution. Look at this part of my post:

Keep in mind that the config uses the "first match if finds" approach, so for you override a global config, keep the #include line at the end of file.

So if you change something on your global all/retroarch.cfg, probably these changings won't reach the arcade/retroarch.cfg because this file is full of settings and probably the #include is at the last line. My suggestion is to put only this content on your arcade/retroarch.cfg:

# Settings made here will only override settings in the global retroarch.cfg if placed above the #include line

input_remapping_directory = "/opt/retropie/configs/arcade/"

#include "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg"

Cheers!

R1n0X

SCORE: 5806
Meego T07 / Windows 10 / MAME 0.139

meleu

@R1n0X I was only waiting your score to post the MAME ROW #13: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/6337/mame-row-13

Cheers!

MisterMeeseeks

Hope I am not too late, I have been following MAME ROW for a few weeks now, but just registered my account to start posting.

Frenzy was a tough game, after several tries the best I could do was 4336.

Looking forward to being more active in the next one!

GtBFilms

@meleu Awesome, thanks for that, I think that solution will prevent a lot of (my) future confusion!

I'll do it tonight.

backstander

@MisterMeeseeks

Hope I am not too late, I have been following MAME ROW for a few weeks now, but just registered my account to start posting.

Welcome! We're not so strict about when you can post scores. You could post your score a year from now and we'd be excited for you :)

Frenzy was a tough game, after several tries the best I could do was 4336.

I did about the same but I really didn't get to play it much this weekend.

VictimRLSH

Still quite rusty, I can normally make it to lvl 6 on a credit. Among hardcore players lvl 8 is considered a good run for 700 health. This is another game that had a rep for being a voracious quarter muncher, but in reality was quite the opposite.

What you need to beat Gauntlet is superhuman patience, and preferably a partner or three. If you are playing alone, you don't have your most powerful weapon available, screen control. You will always be in the center of the screen. With at least 2 players, you can control how the screen scrolls (since all characters in play must be on the screen) and only expose the generators, food, treasures, etc. that you want to deal with at that moment. Treasure box blocking you from shooting a ghost generator? Scroll only the treasure box onto the screen, then grab it and you can shoot at the generator. Too many generators appear on screen when you move? Send all the other characters up into the corner and scroll them on one at a time. This was a good way to clear lvl 3. Too many demons shooting at you and you can't get at them? Put the valkyrie and fighter in front, then the wizard and elf PUSH them from behind, multiplying the power of their melee attack, cutting through demons like butter and they won't fire while they are in melee range. You can even shove them through the generators that way. You can also trap Deaths behind walls with careful scroll tactics.

There are a couple tricks that work better for single play, which require monumental patience. Just remember that 700 health ticking away at one per second is still about 11 1/2 minutes, which is a VERY generous play time for one quarter. You can get a lot of points just monster farming. TAKE YOUR TIME. I always play the wizard, as you will want to be able to nuke everything with one potion. It's kinda pointless to waste a potion and still have generators to deal with.

If you are not currently holding any keys, waiting 16 seconds without moving or firing will automatically drop all doors. This could be good or bad. It's 32 seconds if you have keys before the doors automatically open. Watch for Deaths when the doors auto open, as traps auto open too.

If the level is a complete ghost town (literally) or full of demons, you are likely to lose a LOT of health if you play it through without helpers. Waiting 180 seconds without moving or firing will turn all the walls to Exits on later revisions of the game (rev 14 has this). The 180 health you lose may be quite a bit less than what you would lose fighting through the game alone. Demons can shoot over the newly exposed exits, so if you are on a demon level, exit immediately. If it is a ghost or grunt level, you have an opportunity to fire on generators that would normally be blocked, and might be able to recover some health or grab potions before you leave. If you want to stay, be VERY careful how you move, one wrong move and you'll exit.

Getting hit by any monster is bad, but you should try to NEVER be hit by ghosts. The big ones take out 30 health instantly. Advance on ghost generators very slowly, and if ghosts start to pile up, retreat and kill them, then try again. You will be farming a lot of points this way as well. If there is a ghost generator just off the edge of the screen, instead of trying to overcome the onslaught of ghosts by firing at it, fire a shot, release the fire button, then quickly follow the shot so it hits the generator just as it scrolls onto the screen. This will take practice. If you fail to hit the generator, back up, kill the excess ghosts, and try again.

Grabbing treasures while playing alone results in no score multiplier at all, just 100 pts. You can get this easily by farming monsters. Never take a risk to grab a treasure box.

The massive point boost you CAN get playing alone comes from using potions on Deaths. These guys drain your health rapidly anyway, if you nuke them with a potion, you get a multiplied score based on how many you take out at once.

Demons will fire if 1) You are in their line of fire, and 2) If the space directly in front of them is empty. This is why they die so easily to the melee characters (even though those are really bad to play alone). What this means is demons will shoot each other and even their own generators if you dance around a bit. It doesn't matter if there is a wall in the way either, as long as the demon isn't directly touching the wall so there is no space in front of their head. Unfortunately, this also means they will shoot unarmored potion bottles and food in jugs. :(

Sorcerers will teleport behind you if both you and the sorcerer are on the screen. This is when you'll wish you had a melee character, because when they mob you, it's kinda impossible to move anywhere. They also often hang around with Deaths, so if you don't have a potion handy, don't kill ALL the sorcerers because they make handy barriers to getting away from the Deaths.