MAME Action Replay Page - News

There is no news today, I'm afraid. I've been too busy trying to climb the leaderboard. :o)

Minor tweak to the upload script. Now it shows the position that any new uploads achieved on the uploads page in brackets after the score.

Greetings WorknMan - welcome aboard! :o) In response to your Piranha question, I played your recording back. I see what you mean - that red baddie floating up and down the very side of the screen... I'd never noticed that before, but I've only played the game with the speedup cheat before. Not very helpful, am I? :o)

Uploaded a whole bunch of dreadful recordings and made notes against some of the unplayable games saying that they aren't playable. Basically, I'm trying to work out which games don't have scores because nobody got around to playing them yet, and which don't have scores because they don't work. Please feel free to upload any crappy scores if you can get an unplayed game to work, and make a note against it if it doesn't work. As a by product of all this I've gone up to 9th place in the leaderboard. Woohoo!!! :o)

Made a start at fixing the problem of the 280zzzap scores. Didn't finish though, and probably left the script so that it won't accept 280zzzap scores at all.

These games have only had their long names changed:

contra    "Contra" -> "Contra (US)"
contrab   "Contra (bootleg)" -> "Contra (US bootleg)"
dowild    "Mr. Do! Wild Ride" -> "Mr. Do's Wild Ride"
gryzorb   "Gryzor (bootleg)" -> "Contra (Japan bootleg)"
mikie     "Mikie (US)" -> "Mikie"
mikiej    "Mikie (Japan)" -> "Shinnyuushain Tooru-kun"

This game was added (actually, it was in m33b6 too, just m33b7 was missing it):

starfire  "Starfire"

Well well. A new MAME version becomes available. See my MAME page if you need a copy. Not much has changed, except that it's now a 0.33 release candidate. Here's what's happened:

Split the invds category into invds-ds and invds-inv, since it's really 2 different games.

I've been assigned a bunch of games to test before the final release. Most of them I have recordings for already (thanks!) but a few (gaunt2, invds-ds, invds-inv, lottofun, roundup and sdungeon) haven't got scores at all yet. I don't know yet whether these games work or not, for the most part, but having recordings uploaded for them would be useful! :o)

As requested by Krool, I've split the large link in the top frame up into more useful smaller links.

Updated the CGI script so that now when you move the mouse over a link you get to see a description of what the link will do. That should make things clearer.

I've posted a question on the message board about Neil's recent 4-in-1 pacman upload. What do people think? Me, I'm impressed.

There's a new link on the login page which you can click if you forget your password. It will email it to you.

Well, I guess you can call me stupid. I left the mail code in test mode last night, so it all got sent to me, not to you guys. Let's try that again then, shall we? Comments, as always, are appreciated.

OK, so I was lying again below. But now it's *really* fixed. Probably.

I think I might have got the automatic emailing script working, so now you can go to the 'edit user' area and tell it what you want to be emailed about. Do you want to be emailed about every upload to the site, or none of them, or something in between the two? There are lots of options, so it's almost bound to be broken in some way...

Please don't be too angry with me if you get hundreds of identical emails from me... :o) Gotta go, anyway - I just heard a friend of mine has had an accident. I'll fix any problems tomorrow (Monday).

Added a chat room again, and this one works well! CLICK HERE to go there...

I made quite a lot of changes to the script, to get it ready to start sending people emails. Hopefully you won't notice any difference at all yet, but if you do have problems, then please email me.

Tidied up the script index page a little.

You can now search by 'original version' on the search page. Type 'b7' in the 'version of MAME where game first appeared' box (well - have you got any better idea what I should have called it???) and your search will be limited to just the new beta 7 games.

Smartened up the 'uploads' page a bit too. Now it's a table, so it looks more like the rest of the pages.

I've updated everything for the new MAME beta 7. There were a lot of changes to the game names this time. I hope I've got everything right - it gets bit confusing, because some of the old recordings will now show up under the wrong name, for example, what was called 'asteroid' is now called 'asteroi1' and what was called 'asteroi2' is now called 'asteroid'. I've removed a couple of the games, since they seem to have been removed from MAME. Here's what's happened. Please yell if I made any mistakes:

These games were added:

bagman    "Bagman"
contra    "Contra"
contrab   "Contra (bootleg)"
darkseal  "Dark Seal"
devstors  "Devastators"
galagads  "Galaga (fast shoot)"
gatedoom  "Gate Of Doom"
goldstar  "Golden Star"
gryzorb   "Gryzor (bootleg)"
jackal    "Jackal"
kicker    "Kicker"
llander1  "Lunar Lander (rev 1)"
mainevt   "The Main Event"
mikiej    "Mikie (Japan)"
mooncrgx  "Moon Cresta (bootleg on Galaxian hardware)"
ninjak2a  "Ninja Kid II (alternate)"
ninjakd2  "Ninja Kid II"
ogonsiro  "Ohgon no Siro"
pballoon  "Pioner Balloon"
pengo2    "Pengo (set 2)"
polaris   "Polaris"
roundup   "Round-Up"
solomon   "Solomon's Key (Japan)"
stactics  "Space Tactics"
teedoff   "Tee'd Off"
tehkanwc  "Tehkan World Cup"
tempest   "Tempest (rev 3)"
tempest2  "Tempest (rev 2)"
theglob   "The Glob (Pac Man hardware)"
topgunr   "Top Gunner"
vindictr  "Vindicators"
zookeepa  "Zoo Keeper (set 2)"

These games were deleted:

alpine    "Alpine Ski"
arkabeta  "Arkanoid (BETA bootleg)"
futspy    "Future Spy"
galagabl  "Galaga (bootleg)"
hunchy    "Hunchback"
joustg    "Joust (Green label)"
pool      "Pool"
starfire  "Starfire (Exidy)"

These games have had their short names (and also long names in some cases) changed:

    1942 -> 1942a       "1942 (alternate)" -> "1942 (set 2)"
asteroid -> asteroi1    "Asteroids (rev 1)"
asteroi2 -> asteroid    "Asteroids (rev 2)"
  bagman -> bagmans     "Bagman" -> "Bagman (Stern)"
centiped -> centipd2    "Centipede" -> "Centipede (revision 2)"
centiped -> centipd1    "Centipede (revision 3)" -> "Centipede (rev 1)"
digdugat -> digdug      "Dig Dug (Atari)"
  galaga -> galagamw    "Galaga (Midway)"
galaganm -> galaga      "Galaga (Namco)"
hbarrel2 -> hbarrelj    "Heavy Barrel (alternate)" -> "Heavy Barrel (Japan)"
 pengo2u -> pengoa      "Pengo (set 2 unencrypted)" -> "Pengo (alternate)"
 pleiads -> pleiadce    "Pleiads (Centuri)"
 pleitek -> pleiads     "Pleiads (Tehkan)"
 quantum -> quantum1    "Quantum" -> "Quantum (rev 1)"
quantum2 -> quantum     "Quantum (version 2)" -> "Quantum (rev 2)"
slapboot -> slapbtjp    "Slap Fight (Japanese Bootleg)"
slpboota -> slapbtuk    "Slap Fight (English Bootleg)"
spacfury -> spacfura    "Space Fury (revision A)"
spacfurc -> spacfury    "Space Fury (revision C)"
 tempest -> tempest1    "Tempest" -> "Tempest (rev 1)"
  tmnt2p -> tmht2p      "TMNT (2 Player USA)" -> "TMHT (2 Players UK)"
 xevious -> xeviousa    "Xevious (Atari/Namco copyright)" -> "Xevious (Atari)"
xeviousn -> xevious     "Xevious (Namco copyright)" -> "Xevious (Namco)"

And these games have only had their long names changed:

1942      "1942" -> "1942 (set 1)"
amidar    "Amidar (US version)" -> "Amidar (US)"
amidarjp  "Amidar (Japanese version)" -> "Amidar (Japan)"
amidars   "Amidars" -> "Amidar (Scramble hardware)"
amigo     "Amigo (Amidar US bootleg)" -> "Amigo"
arkanoid  "Arkanoid" -> "Arkanoid (Taito)"
arkbl2    "Arkanoid (Bootleg)" -> "Arkanoid (bootleg)"
arknoidu  "Arkanoid (U.S. Romstar)" -> "Arkanoid (Romstar)"
astdelux  "Asteroids Deluxe" -> "Asteroids Deluxe (rev 2)"
astrof    "Astro Fighter" -> "Astro Fighter (set 1)"
astrof2   "Astro Fighter (alternate)" -> "Astro Fighter (set 2)"
atetcktl  "Tetris (Atari) (Cocktail version)" -> "Tetris (Cocktail version)"
atetris   "Tetris (Atari)" -> "Tetris (set 1)"
atetrisa  "Tetris (Atari) (alternate)" -> "Tetris (set 2)"
atetrisb  "Tetris (Atari) (bootleg)" -> "Tetris (bootleg)"
bubblesr  "Bubbles (Red Label)" -> "Bubbles (Solid Red label)"
ccjap     "Crazy Climber (Japanese version)" -> "Crazy Climber (Japan)"
cclimber  "Crazy Climber (US version)" -> "Crazy Climber (US)"
chelnov   "Chelnov - Atomic Runner" -> "Chelnov - Atomic Runner (US)"
ckong     "Crazy Kong (Crazy Climber hardware)" -> "Crazy Kong (set 1)"
ckonga    "Crazy Kong (alternate version)" -> "Crazy Kong (set 2)"
colony7   "Colony 7" -> "Colony 7 (set 1)"
colony7a  "Colony 7 (Alternate)" -> "Colony 7 (set 2)"
crbalon2  "Crazy Balloon (alternate)" -> "Crazy Balloon (set 2)"
crbaloon  "Crazy Balloon" -> "Crazy Balloon (set 1)"
darwin    "Darwin 4078" -> "Darwin 4078 (Japan)"
dkjrbl    "Donkey Kong Jr. (bootleg)" -> "Donkey Kong Junior (bootleg?)"
dkjrjp    "Donkey Kong Jr. (Japan)" -> "Donkey Kong Junior (Japan)"
dkong     "Donkey Kong (US version)" -> "Donkey Kong (US)"
dkongjp   "Donkey Kong (Japanese version)" -> "Donkey Kong (Japan)"
dkongjr   "Donkey Kong Jr. (US)" -> "Donkey Kong Junior (US)"
docastl2  "Mr. Do's Castle (alternate version)" -> "Mr. Do's Castle (set 2)"
docastle  "Mr. Do's Castle" -> "Mr. Do's Castle (set 1)"
douni     "Mr. Do VS The Unicorns" -> "Mr. Do vs. Unicorns"
elim2     "Eliminator (2 Player)" -> "Eliminator (2 Players)"
elim4     "Eliminator (4 Player)" -> "Eliminator (4 Players)"
espial    "Espial" -> "Espial (US?)"
espiale   "Espial (European version)" -> "Espial (Europe)"
firetpbl  "Fire Trap (Japanese bootleg)" -> "Fire Trap (Japan bootleg)"
frogger   "Frogger" -> "Frogger (set 1)"
frogger2  "Frogger (alternate version #2)" -> "Frogger (modified Moon Cresta hardware)"
frogsega  "Frogger (alternate version)" -> "Frogger (set 2)"
galagab2  "Galaga (NAMCO alternate)" -> "Galaga (bootleg)"
gallag    "Gallag (bootleg Galaga)" -> "Gallag"
gaunt2p   "Gauntlet (2 Player)" -> "Gauntlet (2 Players)"
gngjap    "Ghosts'n Goblins (Japan)" -> "Makai-mura (Japan)"
hbarrel   "Heavy Barrel" -> "Heavy Barrel (US)"
hyprolym  "Hyper Olympics" -> "Hyper Olympic"
invrvnge  "Invaders Revenge" -> "Invader's Revenge"
jjack     "Jumping Jack (Japan)" -> "Jumping Jack"
joustr    "Joust (Red label)" -> "Joust (Solid Red label)"
karnov    "Karnov" -> "Karnov (US)"
klax      "Klax" -> "Klax (set 1)"
klaxalt   "Klax (Alternate)" -> "Klax (set 2)"
llander   "Lunar Lander" -> "Lunar Lander (rev 2)"
mappy     "Mappy (US version)" -> "Mappy (US)"
mappyjp   "Mappy (Japanese version)" -> "Mappy (Japan)"
marble    "Marble Madness" -> "Marble Madness (set 1)"
marble2   "Marble Madness (version 2)" -> "Marble Madness (set 2)"
marblea   "Marble Madness (alternate version)" -> "Marble Madness (set 3)"
mhavoc    "Major Havoc" -> "Major Havoc (rev 3)"
mhavoc2   "Major Havoc (alternate version)" -> "Major Havoc (rev 2)"
mikie     "Mikie" -> "Mikie (US)"
moonal2b  "Moon Alien Part 2 (alternate)" -> "Moon Alien Part 2 (older version)"
mranger   "Moon Ranger (bootleg Moon Patrol)" -> "Moon Ranger"
nemesis   "Nemesis" -> "Nemesis (hacked?)"
nemesuk   "Nemesis (UK version)" -> "Nemesis (UK)"
nibbler   "Nibbler" -> "Nibbler (set 1)"
nibblera  "Nibbler (alternate)" -> "Nibbler (set 2)"
paclanda  "Pac-Land (Namco alternate)" -> "Pac-Land (Namco set 2)"
paclandn  "Pac-Land (Namco)" -> "Pac-Land (Namco set 1)"
pacmod    "Pac Man (modified)" -> "Pac Man (harder)"
panic     "Space Panic" -> "Space Panic (set 1)"
panica    "Space Panic (alternate version)" -> "Space Panic (set 2)"
pengo     "Pengo" -> "Pengo (set 1)"
qbert     "Q*Bert (US version)" -> "Q*Bert (US)"
qbertjp   "Q*Bert (Japanese version)" -> "Q*Bert (Japan)"
radarscp  "Radarscope" -> "Radar Scope"
robotron  "Robotron" -> "Robotron (Solid Blue label)"
rocnrope  "Rock'n'Rope" -> "Roc'n Rope"
rollingc  "Rolling Crash - Moon Base" -> "Rolling Crash / Moon Base"
rygar     "Rygar" -> "Rygar (US)"
sidearms  "Sidearms" -> "Sidearms (US)"
spaceplt  "Space Pilot (bootleg Time Pilot)" -> "Space Pilot"
spiero    "Super Piero (Japanese Do! Run Run)" -> "Super Piero (Japan)"
sprint1   "Sprint1" -> "Sprint 1"
sprint2   "Sprint2" -> "Sprint 2"
srumbler  "Speed Rumbler" -> "Speed Rumbler (set 1)"
srumblr2  "Speed Rumbler (alternate)" -> "Speed Rumbler (set 2)"
stratgyb  "Strategy X (bootleg)" -> "Strong X"
stratgyx  "Strategy X (Stern)" -> "Strategy X"
swimmer   "Swimmer" -> "Swimmer (set 1)"
swimmera  "Swimmer (alternate)" -> "Swimmer (set 2)"
tmnt      "TMNT (4 Player USA)" -> "TMNT (4 Players USA)"
tmnt2pj   "TMNT (2 Player Japanese)" -> "TMNT (2 Players Japanese)"
tmntj     "TMNT (4 Player Japanese)" -> "TMNT (4 Players Japanese)"
toki      "Toki" -> "Toki (bootleg)"
trackfld  "Track'n'Field" -> "Track & Field"
venture   "Venture" -> "Venture (set 1)"
venture2  "Venture (alternate version)" -> "Venture (set 2)"
yiear     "Yie Ar Kung Fu (Konami)" -> "Yie Ar Kung Fu"
zookeep   "Zoo Keeper" -> "Zoo Keeper (set 1)"

I might well have made a mistake. Either the list above isn't what has really been changed in MAME, or maybe what I've changed on the replay database doesn't match what I've listed above. If you notice any errors anywhere, please let me know!

Um... you can download the recordings again now. Sorry about that - I had made a likkle mistake in the script.

Added the number of 1st/2nd/3rd places scores on the leaderboard. Happy now? :o)

Added a chat room. Come and give it a try.

The other thing I was going to do was get the script to send you an email if somebody beat your score. It would be an option, like there would be 5 levels or something:

• mail me whenever a score is uploaded
• only mail me when a 'gold medal' (5 points) score is uploaded
• only mail me when a score is uploaded which reduces my score
• only mail me when a score is uploaded which takes a 'gold medal' score away from me
• never mail me

Would anyone be interested in such a feature?

I'm still messing with the scoring system. It seems that since there's a 'one score per player per game' rule, that making the points for 1st and 2nd place so similar does the guy in first place out of something. If the guy in 2nd wants the points then let him come first! So the current scores on the doors are 10, 3 and 1 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Let's see how that goes.

Hi again, gang. Made some far-too-bright arrows for the leaderboard, and my PC crashes if I try to change the colour of them. :o(

This server seems to be going really slowly today. I can barely connect to it, so if you're having problems, you're not alone... I don't expect many people will be able to upload for a while - it seems that some of the other sites on this ISP have also discovered CGI scripting, but haven't quite got the hang of how not to make every other site on the same ISP run at the speed of an acturan mega-donkey in the process... What's funny is that instead of fixing the problem, they have just disabled the 'top' system monitoring problem - "wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous)"

I received an email from people working on the next edition of the Twin Galaxies World Record Book. Apparently they will be looking around this site for scores to include in their book. The only problem, though, is that they are pretty strict about the difficulty settings used on the games. They publish a list of 'Twin Galaxies Settings' (see here). In the past I've always asked contributors to this page to use the default MAME settings when making recordings, but since the Twin Galaxies settings are generally harder than the default MAME settings, please feel free to use them. If you use the Twin Galaxies settings for a recording and wish your score to be included in their book, then please include the word 'TG' in the description field on the upload form. I've added a reminder of this to that form.

Of course, if you would rather play the games on the default settings, then feel free to do that, too. Some people have been getting upset at what they see as people 'cheating', whereas other people have been getting upset at other people taking things too seriously. So - I guess the message is - do what you want! If you want to take it seriously, mark your recordings with 'TG' and ignore all the ones which aren't so marked... You can use the 'edit your recordings' link to go back and put the 'TG' marker in your old recordings if you like.

I hope that keeps everyone happy. How about we move the discussion to the Message Board (see the 'board' link at the top of this page) instead of having all the discussion go through my mail box??!?!!?

I've changed the way the leaderboard scores are awarded. Check THE BOARD for full details. And while you're at it, tell me what you think about the change. :o)

Well - I'm off home for the weekend. It's the Ashton Court festival in Bristol, UK this weekend - Europe's biggest free festival - come on down! :o) Anyway, I've made too many changes this afternoon after drinking too much this lunchtime, so don't be surprised if it all goes horribly wrong as soon as I go home. :o) Have a good one!

A 'MAME Replay' first: today someone (on domain student.soc.unitn.it) has been leeching a copy of the entire site. Does that mean the site has finally made it??? If it makes it easier for you, I can email you the collection of recordings, or make them available as a single download - just email me!

I've extended the CGI script further to include this page and some of the others. You may have been bothered on the way in by a screen whinging at you to change your bookmark. The new change will allow you to log in once and bookmark the resulting page. After that, you shouldn't need to log in again.

When you confirm a score, it won't log it to the 'uploads' page any more. It was getting silly, with the uploads page being full of confirmations are no uploads!

In case you don't know about the 'speedup cheat' in the games I listed yesterday, all you need to do is run MAME with cheats enabled (either like 'mame pacman -cheat' on the command line, or your front end will probably have some way to turn cheats on) and then whenever you press the control key, the appropriate member of the Pacman family will run like the clappers (ie. faster).

More mods to the script. Now it will display the 'optional description' text that you enter when you upload the recording. It will also allow you to edit the text, so if you forgot to say anything when you uploaded the recording, you can go back and put it in. I think it might even allow HTML tags in the description, so things could get a little ugly. But I'll wait and see how it goes. :o)

If you already have a recording which uses the speed-up cheat then you should now be able to edit the recording to use the new name using the 'edit your recording details' on the script menu. Click on the long link on the top line of this screen to get there.

Added new games for the 'speedup cheat' versions of the games which have that cheat. The new names to use are: hangly-fast, jrpacman-fast, mspacatk-fast, mspacman-fast, namcopac-fast, pacman-fast, pacmanjp-fast, pacmod-fast, pacplus-fast, piranha-fast and puckman-fast.

I've been hacking at the CGI script again. The new feature is that you can correct the uploads that you've made, if you enter a game as 'galaga' when you really meant 'galaga-ff' then you might be able to correct it. Oh - except I just remembered I didn't test it yet, so I suppose I'd better not upload it yet, or it will probably trash all the recordings, or something.

Added a search engine for the site. It only searches the static files, not the dynamically updated ones, so it won't find much, I guess. But click HERE to try it out, anyway...

Krool was asking me why he was 2nd in the Boot Hill scores when he had the same score as Dith (they both had 9 points). I told him that since Dith uploaded the score first, he got the point for the leaderboard, but Krool thought that he should a point as well. As it turns out, it doesn't make any difference now, since Krool has since uploaded a score of 11 big points and settled the dispute, but for future reference, what do you reckon is the best way to do it? I reckon there should only be 1 point available per game (other than the ones I've split, like Fax etc.), and it should go to the person who registered the score first in the event of a tie. But what do you think?

Made the adverts bigger. See? I've got too much time on my hands now that you're all using the upload script. :o) If anyone visiting has any good ideas as to how I can increase the number of people submitting scores then please tell me. Especially welcome would be a big shiny flashing link to http://come.to/replay on your web site. Maybe you could graffiti it all over your town, too. Or perhaps that's a bad idea. Yes. I think it is.

In an attempt to draw a few more players to the site, I signed up with the top 25 emulation sites page. If you click on the links saying 'top 25' then I get to be advertised on their site. Or something.

My PC's disk crashed a couple of weeks ago, and since then I've been using a UNIX machine. This means that I'm unable to decode MIME attachments. So if you have emailed me any recordings in the last couple of weeks, I have been unable to upload them. I would suggest using the automatic upload form (click 'submit' above, then 'submit a new recording') if any of your recordings didn't appear on the page yet. Sorry about that. For the 'weird' recordings (like the mysterious exploding invader one), I'll hang on to them until I get MIME email back.

Split the Fax game into 4 games, according to subject. Thanks to JoustGod for the suggestion. Would you like me to split Joust into 128 variants as well? :o)

I've been having a lot of trouble with my email recently. If you've emailed me and I've not got back to you, please email me again, since I've lost track of what's gone out and what's bounced back...

Improved the 'most recent uploads' page a little. Now it's a list which always shows the 50 most recently uploaded files, so it won't ever get too big. The newest ones are listed first, too. It's HERE if you want to see it - or just click 'Uploads' on the top line.

Thanks for your continuing support while I was away - I was very pleased to see that the site continued to be used and uploaded to in my absense - I was worried it might wither and die, you see...