Well, on the assumption that my maths was correct, and that no-one uploaded after JoustGod did his massive Gyruss improvement I will take this opportunity to give provisional congratulations to JoustGod.

JoustGod - you didn't do too bad for someone who didn't initially like the pick of the games and I've enjoyed our little battle to and fro. What a shame it didn't end in a draw.... ;-)

BBH - you took an early lead and then went quiet... it's good to know you're not a total machine as regular MARP would suggest. Then again maybe it was the lack of NeoGeo fighters that kept you down. ;-)

Krogmeister - where were you man?

QT - you looked ominous at one stage. Here's hoping you'll stay around for Tournament 2.

Cicca - a late spurt of uploads brought you into the top 4. Congrats.

Brian McLean - you gave us a real shock towards the end and did exceptionally well in such a short time period. Must be something in the name for two Brian's to finish in the top 3.... ;-p

Gameboy - apart from a few minor glitches - to be expected for the first tournament - I think we've set some good ground-rules for future tournaments and "Thingssssssssss can only get betterrrrrrr".

Pat - the Judge co-ordinator with well reasoned rulings where required and always quick responses to emails - especially to me when I was getting into a hissy fit when I couldn't upload my latest batch of inps. Not that it mattered in the end after I took account of JoustGod's last Gyruss upload. :-(

BeeJay.

PS:

usvsthem - shame about not being able to avoid being killed by laser disk imagery which effectively turned it into a hedron hunt on stage 1. I would love to see what this game looked like with it's laser disk images. Does anyone know if they've done a conversion with original artwork like they did for DL and SA ?

zzyzzyxx - if I never have to see that Lola again I'll be happy.

2020bb - I still can't hit the ball to save myself and I figured deliberately losing would get me accused of points leeching.

dotron - for a game I originally thought of as a crap 3d game I actually ended up liking it - a little.

dowild - I hate a pattern game where they change the patterns on you

lnc - ditto and I'll be happy never to hear that cheesy music/SE again.

combascb - I was pleased to finally complete the mission even if it was just before the finish of the tourney

pang3 - I think QT said it best "Too much adrenaline"

miexchng - I can't stage the way these "Tetris'esque" games always get to the point where they're inhumanly too fast to cope with.

bombjack, gyruss, galagads - what can I say I just loved it when these three games were going to be in the tournament as they would have to be considered in my top 5 favourite of games. (The other two would be Xevious and Juno First.)

-- BeeJay (bjohnstone@cardinal.co.nz), October 01, 1999

Answers

PPS: To anyone who took part in the tourney who I missed mentioning in that first post I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did and congratulations to everyone who achieved new PB's. Good luck to you all in the next tournament.

Unfortunately I won't be able to take part due to personal commitments over the next couple of months. I will be spending most of my spare time programming a replacement client case management system for a free Budget Advice Trust service here in Christchurch. There are 3 of us in the company I work for who have been volunteering our time free of charge to write their system and as it has to go live before y2k we need to finish it soon so they can do their user acceptance testing. Of course it's being written in JADE naturally - a copy of which they have been given by the company I work for.

Anyway, enjoy Tournament 2 and I will be keeping my eye on how it progresses. See you all again next year - the final year of the 2nd millenium AD and the last year of the 20th century..... and it is a leap year..... ;-)

Cheers, BeeJay.

-- BeeJay (bjohnstone@cardinal.co.nz), October 01, 1999.

Thanks BeeJay! The tourney was a blast, and that big rush right at the end was the best part for me. I might not have uploaded much, but you can bet I was playing right until the deadline. Congrats to JoustGod for taking the prize!

I found a couple of surprises in the games we played, mostly that I found I could actually live with a sports game (2020), and I ~really~ liked Discs of Tron. Until I got to the point where it looped, anyway. Then it wasn't as fun. :)

Zzyzzyxx was fun after I got over the initial boredom just because there's quite a bit of strategy in the later levels when you're trying to pick up 8 items per lap and do it ~3~ times without running out of options! Usvsthem, as BeeJay mentioned, was pretty much a bore after stage 4. I suppose if one took the time to play the game with continues and mapped out the necessary pattern, you could get through it eventually... Eventually. :)

But I'm ranting. I'm totally looking forward to the next tourney! I'll have to work on the regular leaderboard in the meantime... It stinks that you're not participating, BeeJay, but we'll carry on.

Cheers, Brian McLean

-- Brian McLean (bmclean84@hotmail.com), October 01, 1999.

It looks like I'd miscalculated as it did end up being a draw between myself and JoustGod. It was still great fun and extremely tense in the last few days/hours of the tournament.

BeeJay.

-- BeeJay (bjohnstone@cardinal.co.nz), October 02, 1999.

Congratulations to BeeJay and JoustGod! About your post, BeeJay, I had to look ominous while I could, before university started up again. Pity you won't be in the second tourney, but I can certainly sympathize. JG, a pleasure competing against you, as always.

Q.T.Quazar(suddenly fifth)

-- Q.T.Quazar (qan@home.com), October 02, 1999.

OK, now that it is official...I'd like to thank everyone for the stiff competition over the past 3 months. You guys are definitely some of the best on the planet! The final hours were kind of tense as I expected some last minute submissions to arrive...then the crash...could there have been worse timing?!?

I couldn't be happier with the final outcome as I've felt all along that BeeJay was the man to beat in this tourney. He absolutely dominated a quarter of the games and didn't fare too badly on the rest of the bunch. I just happened to get lucky on a few games and ended up higher than expected (I was only hoping for a top 10 finish).

To Pat Laffaye...my thanks are not enough to repay you for the work you've put into this. You're decisions were quite fair in regards to several situations that arose during T1. Yes, one of those cost me a point at the end...but I still feel you did the right thing with dotron...Good work! :)

Zwaxy - unending thanks for providing the field of battle for us. You were most formidable on pang3. Now let's work on some kind of Qbert Qubes tournament, huh? ;)

Gameboy9 - you performed a task that was forever underappreciated. It is an impossible task to please all of the people all of the time (I know, I coach my softball team and at times I get the pleasure of hearing 10 other people telling me how to make a lineup card!), but you did an admirable job in attempting to do so.

To the judges - thank you for your diligence in the task of score confirmations. It's not the most glamorous job, but certainly one of the most important.

Brian McLean - man, you are smoking with a capital "S"! Incredible finish for someone who joined in two-thirds of the way into this. You are certainly going to be a force to be reckoned with in T2.

Cicca - where'd the baseball skills come from? You are Italian, aren't you? Well...we did have a player by the name of Joe DiMaggio... ;) Super Gyruss score as well as zzyzzyxx. What a last 2 weeks of activity to move up! Good going!

Q.T. Quazar - what can I say? You were a constant in the top ranks of this tourney from beginning to end. When you decided to take a break from your MARP "mission", you gave us tremendous competition and really held your own. Now back to that "mission"...watch out BBH! :p

BBH - I have a sneaking suspicion that you went easy on us mortals! A great batch of scores from one of MARP's all-time best. Looking forward to see what you do when the games are a bit more to your liking.

Skito - super job with dowild! And your baseball skills weren't too shabby, either. Now back to that Chicken Shift battle...

Donut - incredible miexchng score! You nearly did the seemingly impossible with this one.

Renzo - unbelievable pang3 submission. Not too bad on several others, either. You'll be a force in T2.

Aqua - kicked my butt on dowild. :p Now just get one of those wrestling games in T2 and you're on your way to the top!

Others who should fare better in the future provided they play more of the tourney games...NotMan (I really thought you'd be there with us in the top 10, for sure), Phil Lamat, Steve Krogman (one of the planet's premier arcade and MAME players...he gave us a break on this one!), KiLLerCloWn (wow, some impressive scores you posted).

As for the games...Like BeeJay mentioned above, I didn't really have an affection for ANY of these games and was prepared not to play at all as I was afraid of sucking too much in front of an audience. Well, the competitor in me nudged me back in and I ended up shocking myself by actually playing some of these games without extreme embarrasment. It surely didn't hurt to have so many masters out there providing me with blueprints for strategies. To you guys...thanks!

Here's looking forward to T2! Now on with the voting...

JoustGod

-- JoustGod (pinballwiz1@msn.com), October 03, 1999.

My belated thoughts on this past tournament:

First of all, congratulations to BeeJay and JoustGod! It was only fitting that the tourney would be won by two of the old-schoolers. :) No offense towards the "newcomers" like Q.T. Quazar and Brian McLean of course. All the competitors made it a lot of fun!

As for the games... well...

2020 Super Baseball - I do like this game a lot when playing 2-player, and the money thing seemed interesting at first for the tourney play. But you have to rely so heavily on getting hit by pitches and clutch grand slams... Bomb Jack - I've never been a big fan of this game. I managed to get the lead early on but I never did as well as that recording, I knew BeeJay was going to take it back. Combat School - If you can actually finish the mission, it all comes down to that 1st firing range. I once was scoring 1000 points per shot but couldn't figure out how to do it. :( Discs of Tron - Gets boring fast, and I wasn't that good at it either. ;) I prefer other analog/rotary input games like Time Soldiers... Galaga - It's Galaga, what do you expect? I've never been that great at it. Gyruss - Ditto. Lock 'N Chase - I hate this damned game. Don't even get me started on it. Money Puzzle Exchanger - the tourney game I liked the most. But I just couldn't beat 63 points :P Mr. Do's Wild Ride - No more. I never want to see this game again in my life. I never want to see Mr. Do bounce around the screen for 10 seconds after dying. Give me Mr. Do Run Run any day... Pang 3 - actually a good choice for tourney play IMO. Just kinda frustrating. Us vs. Them - How did this flawed game get voted in? Zzyzzyxx - See what I wrote for lnc and dowild? apply it here too.

I could have done a bit better on some of these games, but after the first few weeks my interest in the tournament dropped because I wasn't having fun with most of these games. I decided my time would better be spent focusing on regular MARP than attempting to win this tournament, since I knew I wouldn't be able to... besides, if you aren't having fun, why bother playing?

BeeJay - I don't need no steeenkin Neo fighters, dammit! ;)

JoustGod - I don't go easy on anyone... I got whooped, plain and simple :)

-BBH

-- BBH (lordbbh@aol.com), October 09, 1999.