Page 1 of 1

Time to clean up the Robotron scores?

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2016 1:57 pm
by jerky
Howdy. Could someone please clean up the Robotron scoreboard when they get a chance? (Solid Blue romset). I finally started scoring over a million points on Difficulty 10 but I am not sure where I stand because some of the scores here don't seem to follow the special rules.
http://replay.marpirc.net/r/robotron
http://replay.marpirc.net/index.cgi?mod ... t=robotron

The #1 score here looks like it was done on factory default settings (which would actually be Diff 3 for the Solid Blue romset right?).
http://replay.marpirc.net/inp/2/4/3/sla ... n35tg3.zip

I could not get the #2 score to playback because it was done on a much older version of mame.
http://replay.marpirc.net/inp/3/9/9/pop ... mame36.zip

So my #3 score submission might actually be #2 or #1 (on MARP).
http://replay.marpirc.net/inp/b/3/7/jky ... olf175.zip

There is even a note in one submission that says all the scores below the #7 one were not done using Diff 10. So maybe just the scores from #3 to #7 are legit? I know that Mr. DBH and BBH both were at the correct settings (of course) but I have not had time to check all the rest yet.

Time for a cleanup maybe? I am hoping to stir up renewed interest and competition on Robotron so it would be helpful if we were submitting scores to a "clean" scoreboard.

Thanks in advance and happy gaming!
jerky (JRK)

Re: Time to clean up the Robotron scores?

Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 11:19 pm
by BeeJay
Part of the issue may be that some of the older scores were done before the special rules were introduced for this game?

Re: Time to clean up the Robotron scores?

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 2:27 pm
by Phil Lamat
Exactly. Discussion (link in the special rules box) at the origin of the special rule is from 2005, SLA's input is from 2002.
I'm quoting this from TJT :
"After brief postal exchange with DBH and BBH, we decided that:
Robotron.zip should be played at diff=10, that should make the game slightly easier than using old mame version and old settings. This also means that old recordings can stay, cause you should be able to score higher with these new settings."

Re: Time to clean up the Robotron scores?

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 9:44 pm
by jerky
Phil Lamat wrote:Exactly. Discussion (link in the special rules box) at the origin of the special rule is from 2005, SLA's input is from 2002.
I'm quoting this from TJT :
"After brief postal exchange with DBH and BBH, we decided that:
Robotron.zip should be played at diff=10, that should make the game slightly easier than using old mame version and old settings. This also means that old recordings can stay, cause you should be able to score higher with these new settings."
I do understand that the rules changed around 2005 and I like the change personally. But, I was a little confused about some of the things that were brought up in that old discussion especially that quote above. First I double checked and Solid Blue defaults to diff 3 not 5. Yellow/Orange starts at diff 5. So that older #1 SLA submission on the Solid Blue scoreboard would appear to be at diff 3 since it was played straight from the factory default settings.

That said I am confused about the quote saying that diff 10 made the game slightly easier than using older mame versions with poor emu of Robotron. I only have experience with wolfmame 106 forward. Robotron emulation has improved even more since then up through recent mame releases. With all due respect I don't see how the old SLA recording done at diff 3 could be beaten with the "easier" diff 10 settings and better emu from newer mame versions. Was the emulation so bad back then that even at diff 3 it would be harder than diff 10 is on wolfmame now? The playback of that submission sure doesn't make it look harder than diff 10 is now.

I just was wondering if people thought we should keep the older Solid Blue scores like SLA's #1 set at diff 3 on top of the newer diff 10 submissions since 2005? I wonder how the players who submitted those older scores under the previous rules feel? Maybe they would be willing to zero out their scores so we can move forward with a clean diff 10 scoreboard? They did nothing wrong but the rules have changed since their initial submissions is all. Not to keep picking on poor SLA but they do have a higher score with correct settings for the yellow/orange marathon scoreboard.

Just curious and it's not the end all be all since all of our scores are far below the handful of Robo masters who have been able to marathon diff 10 by scoring 10,000,000 points+. I brought this up because I was hesitant to submit to this scoreboard because of all the different settings that have been accepted and kept together for so long. I felt like this might keep others from submitting scores too so maybe we should try to clean it up finally.

Poor Robotron. Plagued by bogus arcade scores from the past. Cursed by the corner shot bug. Damned by poor emulation since then. Still one of the best arcade games ever no matter what.

Re: Time to clean up the Robotron scores?

Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2016 12:57 pm
by jerky
Here is another Difficulty 3 submission to the Difficulty 10 Robotron board (second one since yesterday) :
http://replay.marpirc.net/inp/5/f/f/rrr ... win122.zip

Re: Time to clean up the Robotron scores?

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2016 10:48 am
by Phil Lamat
One solution would be to create a split for master players (robotron-d10 ?) and move there all scores made with diff 10.
Would that be ok ?