Q*Bert

[dbh]

This is a marathon mode score, not TG settings as stated in the description. 5-man score was around 140K.

http://marp.retrogames.com/inp/8/0/8/ba ... mame82.zip

[The TJT]

Should we have only tournament settings at qbert? I think yes.

[LN2]

Oh...I was wondering when I got the e-mail notice if that was 5-man only or not.

We definitely only want the 5-man only settings for regular Q*Bert and any clones that are also easily marathoned.

There are a couple q*bert clones though that aren't so easy and 2 with limited #men so regular settings for that are fine....5-men scores would be too low for them.

I'll beat 2.5 million with 5 men soon anyway.
I hope to move into a new place and get settled during August...then start playing Q*Bert runs on my days off(often only Sunday). I figure with 5-10 attemps I'll have a 2-2.5+ million run.

My personal 1-man best score is 1.1 million.

[dbh]

Should we have only tournament settings at qbert? I think yes

For the "qbert" romset there is already a special rule listed that says 5-man score only. I haven't looked at the other clones, but I certainly agree with LN2.

Hey Rick, I finally watched a little bit of your existing MacMAME recording using PC MAME 60 like you mention in your description. It appears we have nearly identical clearing methods for level 5-3 and on I'd have to watch more to see if we handle the weird cases similarly.

Is the 1.1M you mentioned the best man from the start of the game, or the best single-man score any time during the game? I think my best start was maybe 500K and best single man was maybe 800K.

[LN2]

Hey Rick, I finally watched a little bit of your existing MacMAME recording using PC MAME 60 like you mention in your description. It appears we have nearly identical clearing methods for level 5-3 and on I'd have to watch more to see if we handle the weird cases similarly.

Yeah, you figure they would have to be similar. The differences would come down to success rate of having to go through a ball or even Coily to prevent a death. I can't remember if I did it in that replay but the start where the first red ball comes all the way to the bottom left corner I went through it.

Is the 1.1M you mentioned the best man from the start of the game, or the best single-man score any time during the game? I think my best start was maybe 500K and best single man was maybe 800K.

The 1.1 million is estimated. I have several times done 1+ million without dying.

The first time I actually did this was during my 25 million marathon game....at the 20 million mark even! I got into a serious zone.

I am not sure of my best 1-man only game...but have a replay at MARP for one of the clones that's a 1-man only game at 400+k. I was going to do 5-men but had a brain fart or something and totally screwed up a round where I just decided to then kill it off.

I tend to play q*bert aggressively even for 5-men only games....where I am trying to get through rounds as fast as possible.

For marathon games I score at a faster pace than anyone else I have read or heard about. For my 25 million game I averaged around 560k/hour. Most marathon players are around 480-525k/hour.

My favorite rounds are the ones that end in 28 or 30 seconds...only using 1 disc for the round.

[Donut]

Games on the qbert romset are too easy so I agree with the TG rule of only 5 lives. Too bad you can't set the dips to make it harder. Now for the Q*bert clones, I agree that qberta should also use the TG rule because the game plays so similarly. In qberttst (early test version), the sideways characters (Ugg and Wrong-Way) come out on the second round of level 1, not the third round as in the other two versions, but it doesn't seem to play harder. I have an inp submitted in "marathon mode" on qberta, and one submitted in TG mode on qberttst.

I may start a poll to ask: should ALL clones of qbert follow the TG rules?

[Zhorik]

I like the idea that if there are multiple rom sets that play identical (or almost identical) and there are multiple possible rule settings (such as marathon vs 5 men or MAME defaults vs TG settings), then one ROM set could be played under each rule. It at least serves to differentiate the clone in some way from the original rather than having multiple score listings for identical play (although I suppose the later is a bit like having multiple machines of the same game in the same arcade and making sure you have the record on all of them).

[LN2]

I may start a poll to ask: should ALL clones of qbert follow the TG rules?

Nope they shouldn't. First, MARP follows that for the qbert rom set cuz to do otherwise just makes it a marathon endurance contest.

several members would be able to play it as long as they wanted.

5-men makes it a valid competition again.

it doesn't apply to all rom sets of qbert cuz some have very significant differences.

A couple of them only award an extra man every 20k and only up to 190k....beyond that you get NO more men...so the game is limited...and also plays harder....so it's not like regular qbert with 12 men or whatever #men that is.

myqbert is tough....try it if you haven't yet.
limited #men and several more green dudes come out.

qbertjp is harder also....but possibly could score millions if I played it tons....difficult to say.

sqbert is even tougher. It's a great variant of qbert....try it out if you haven't. It was a prototype and held by Gottlieb cuz I think in testing it was deemed too tough for average gamers...so they would play it once...then most likely would never play it again.

My score on myqbert is 290k.
My score on qbertjp is 516k.
My score on sqbert is 334,775.

I have long challenged anyone to dare try and beat my 334,775. I wanted competition on this title. Hmm, perhaps make it GOTW or use it in a deca.

My point is for the 3 qbert-like clones/rom sets listed above, the high score playing the game to completion isn't anywhere near a marathon....in fact the scores are far less than the 5-men qbert scores.

...so why on earth would you want to make those 5-men only?

I had requested 2 years ago that a sqbert track be added to the TG scoreboard. I think at that time it wasn't though just cuz there wasn't really an arcade version.

I think it would make a great MAME track...at it's default settings.

[MJS]

I like the idea that if there are multiple rom sets that play identical (or almost identical) and there are multiple possible rule settings (such as marathon vs 5 men or MAME defaults vs TG settings), then one ROM set could be played under each rule.

I think a split would be more appropiate. Clone relationships have nothing to do with different dip-switch settings.