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Golden Era Game of the Week 12/2/06: Frogger

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 12:46 am
by Weehawk
Golden Era Game of the Week

See introduction here

The Game: Frogger

romname: frogger

Screenshot:
ImageImageImage
(click to see current MARP scores)


Reward: $100 (usd)

Deadline for submission to MARP: December 8, 2006 2359 hours GMT

Further Bounty: $250 (usd) for exceeding 863,050 points by February 28, 2007.

This was one of the most popular games from the Golden Era, and one of the simplest. We have several world-class players who frequent MARP. Don Hayes, the current world-record holder, is a regular here, MARP Editor Pat Laffaye is a former record holder, George Strain has shown great promise recently, and German Krol a few years ago submitted a recording scoring higher than the arcade machine record, but which was disqualified. The circumstances regarding the latter will not be discussed in this thread.

Since Don Hayes has already recently raised the bar in real life, the further bounty will be for surpassing the fictional record of George Costanza, a character from the television program, Seinfeld. George's former glory on the game was relived, but not preserved, in this episode:

http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/11Lyr7EPid5LR2Hms

Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frogger

In order that our results may be more directly comparable to well-known TG sanctioned scores on the title, we will use the TG settings startings with 5 frogs and 1 extra at 20k. No time limit.

Note Well:

I am well aware that:

1) This is a game where slow-down would offer a tremendous advantage.

2) There are methods of slowing down WolfMAME which the program itself will not report.

You should be aware that:

1) I can determine if the game was not played at proper speed through methods that you are probably not aware of.

2) If I determine that someone has cheated in GEGOTW they will not simply have their entry disqualified and be invited to try again. They would be permanently banned from any GEGOTW consideration and, since I would consider it a personal attempt to steal money from me, well...as my hero Pinhead, from the Hellraiser movies once said: "Your suffering will be legendary, even in Hell."

This will also not be subject for discussion in this thread.



Random prize: One player submitting in excess of 100,000 points, selected randomly from those who do, will receive a Tron warm-up jacket from Adidas:

ImageImage
(Click for more info)


Use WolfMAME .106

On Deck game: none

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 1:20 am
by Zhorik
How many frogs are we playing with? MAME defaults are 3 with 1 extra at 20K. TG settings, which are used for pretty much all the top MARP scores, are 5 with 1 extra at 20K.

If settings are MAME defaults, do players have to beat their previous score to qualify for the weekly bounty since the previous scores were generally done on easier settings?

-zhorik

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:41 am
by Weehawk
Zhorik wrote:How many frogs are we playing with? MAME defaults are 3 with 1 extra at 20K. TG settings, which are used for pretty much all the top MARP scores, are 5 with 1 extra at 20K.
I'll go against normal policy here because I would like for the scores to be more directly comparable to the well known TG scores.

Start with 5 frogs and 1 extra at 20k.

I'll update original post.

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 2:09 pm
by Zhorik
I assume the 1 hour limit is not in effect this round? Several candidate players this round can play the game in excess of an hour, and Don and German Krol can play for a couple of hours.

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 2:36 pm
by Weehawk
Zhorik wrote:I assume the 1 hour limit is not in effect this round?
Correct.

Marathon that sucker. I dare ya.

Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 8:34 pm
by Weehawk
Sunday's bonus points to Don Hayes.

Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2006 4:28 am
by destructor
Weehawk wrote:Sunday's bonus points to Don Hayes.
:lol:
And next too :)

Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:59 pm
by Weehawk
destructor wrote:
Weehawk wrote:Sunday's bonus points to Don Hayes.
:lol:
And next too :)
Amazing!

Who do you like in the Browns/Steelers game this week?

Simple Frogger Query

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:22 am
by RTM
Hello everyone:

I have a question concerning the randomly appearing object on the top level. Years back a few local NYC players called that the "Galaxian".

Just wondering if anyone knows what this object was originally designed to resemble as for as the original programmers go.

Thansk.

Robert

PS - sorry I missed last month's selection, "Weehawk", I was still catching up at work due to my return from Funspot. "Barrier" was a good choice. I remember playing that in the arcade ages ago.

Re: Simple Frogger Query

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 7:24 am
by Weehawk
RTM wrote:I have a question concerning the randomly appearing object on the top level. Years back a few local NYC players called that the "Galaxian".
As George Costanza yelled while the kid was playing in that Seinfeld episode: "Eat the fly. EAT IT!"

It's a fly.

Re: Simple Frogger Query

Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 12:55 pm
by Zhorik
RTM wrote:I have a question concerning the randomly appearing object on the top level.
Its not completely random. Its possible, but difficult, to completely pattern the first screen and get a fly every time you put a frog into a slot. For an example of this, watch how German Krol plays the first screen in his MARP replay.

I don't know if you can pattern the flies on later screens or not.

-George

Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2006 12:11 am
by Weehawk
Clean sweep for Don on the bonus points.

Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 12:12 am
by Weehawk
Results:

1st: Don Hayes (434,920)
2nd: gastrainga (109,680)
3rd: MarcoMarocco (34,250)


Don Hayes takes 1st and 6 bonus for 16 total.

The Tron jacket too geeky? I thought a few more folks might struggle to 100k for a shot at it.


Eligible for the random prize:

Don Hayes (1-27)
gastrainga (28-54)


Watch at 0400 hours GMT for the numbers drawn here:

http://www.txlottery.org/online/winmegamillion.cfm

which will determine the winner. The first ball drawn will be the winning number.

Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 12:38 am
by zylquin
For what it's worth, I struggled all week to a high of 76K to have a shot at that cool jacket. :(

Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 1:09 am
by Zhorik
Weehawk wrote: The Tron jacket too geeky? I thought a few more folks might struggle to 100k for a shot at it.
I'm a bit surprised some of the ringers (Martin, German and Sampras) didn't submit anything. But I think 100K in a week on this game from scratch is more difficult than you realize. Sure Martin pulled off 200K+ in a Deca with very little practice, but that's Martin. On some of the popular "classics" looking at MARP scores can be misleading about the difficulty of scores since they've frequently been very heavily played.

I've got no good excuse for my lame effort this week. Work's been busy, I've gotten hooked on DDR, and Don quickly took the wind out of my sails. I wasn't going to let the week go by without taking a shot at the jacket though. It would be great to wear it while watching Joysticks :) [Edit 4:40 GMT: Damn, Don wins the jacket too :( Edit 6:44 GMT, Don corrected me, I won the jacket after all! I'd forgotten which ball we were using.]

-Zhorik