I was going through the tournament list, and saw something that suprised me. That being a recording done on a MAC!!! (Short for macintosh) Here is my question, how is a mac game ever going to be verified, neither does the Judge coordinator, the maintainer of this site, or anyone involved in validating recordings can view a MacMame recording. My suggestion would be this, it is a lot easier for a Mac to run PC items on it, then it is for a PC to try to do anything Macintosh. So, Neko, my suggestion would be to run SoftWindows or something to that effect, and then run MAME (probably WinMAME) and record under that environment. Maybe I am off-base here, but I don't think so. What does everyone else think?

-- Chris Parsley (cparsley1@hotmail.com), July 12, 1999

Answers

I was just about to flame you, Chris; tell you to leave him alone, that all colours and creeds are welcome here; not to be so excluding, and so on. Tell you that one of his mac recordings has *already been verified* by Pat, and that the mac version is bound to produce recordings that are entirely compatible with the DOS version, since they use almost exactly the same source.

But then I tried playing back his recording of bombjack, and it failed on the first level. So I reckon we should burn the infidel. What does anyone else think?

I guess you've got a point. I was thinking that it's unfair to ban any system (any AmigaMAME users out there???) - we can't insist that Mac users should run a dos emulation to run a bombjack emulation now, can we. (They might even get a slow enough frame rate to beat us then, and that would *never* do!).

Maybe we could say that the recording has to play back with a DOS version of MAME to be accepted, or leave it up to the judge in question. If the 'bombjack' judge has access to a Mac, then let him accept the recording.

Over to the mob... :o)

Chris.

-- Zwaxy (zwaxy@bigfoot.com), July 12, 1999.

well, well, well...we have appeared to have fallen into to the "overlooked canyon" with this one and have smashed ourselves to smithereens on the rocks below now haven't we? It just points out the righteous, smug, superior (as in numbers) feeling that we have here at MARP. As far as I can remember (and I'm one of the old veterans at MARP) this is the first Mac submission that we've had to deal with. Correct me if I'm wrong, Chris.

Solution seems to be at hand here as far as verification goes. The framerate issue is really no different than what we have already. It's an honor (honour to you that speak and spell the Queen's english) system that we go by and that's about all that can be done about it as things stand now. You can play at slower speeds whether you have a Mac or a PC...doesn't matter. I say let him (or her) play using the Mac. If someone can produce solid evidence that this just can't work, then fine we'll hear you out.

Now back to a fun game of 2020bb where it is always a delight to watch as your favorite Tropical Angel (or whatever that team's name is) smashes a home run and bounces her way around the bases! Gee, betcha attendance would soar at Major League ballparks around the US if this were the kind of home run trot being done with that bikini top and all. Sorry, don't think I'd get the same thrill watching McGwire or Sosa doing the same thing...;)

JoustGod

-- JoustGod (pinballwiz1@msn.com), July 12, 1999.

This is very interesting........

Bomb Jack plays back incorrectly but at least it completes stage 1 for me. Gyruss playes reasonably well then loses the plot at around 50k. ZzyZzyXx never looks like getting it right. But Combat School plays back to perfection or at least the final score after I replayed it equalled his posted score.

BeeJay.

-- BeeJay (bjohnstone@cardinal.co.nz), July 12, 1999.

I've had similar problems trying to play versions of PCmame on Xmame. (Not playing correctly)

What version of Macmame weas the recording done on?

I've tried a few of my Xmame recordings here at work under Winmame32, they played fine. I was using close to the same version numbers though. Xmame.35rc1 and Winmame32.35rc2.

-- Dave Kaupp (info@kaqupp.cx), July 12, 1999.

The recordings were done on MacMAME 0.35 final.

JoustGod is right that this is the first Mac recording we've had, so far as I know.

I'm wondering whether the fact that the Mac has some assembly cores in it is what makes the difference. Since the assembly cores are by definition non-portable, the Mac version and MSDOS versions of the cores could well produce subtle timing differences, leading to bad replays. I wonder if there's a correlation between whether a recording plays back and the CPU being emulated (and whether either DOS or Mac versions of MAME use an ASM core for those processors).

Yet another can of worms... :o)

Chris.

-- Zwaxy (zwaxy@bigfoot.com), July 12, 1999.

Boy did I open a can of worms... Personally, I never thought anyone else out there ever used MacMAME of any version. Now, depending on the Macintosh he is using, it will make differences in the attempted playback under either DOS Mame or WinMame. I have found the trick, though, a macintosh emulator that runs on a PC... (Talk about going backwards) Then I can download MacMAME, and run it there. (Damn Apple and Jobs!)

-- Chris Parsley (cparsley1@hotmail.com), July 13, 1999.