OK....here I am.....never to late to thank everybody for this great Tourney. In few words, let me thank Zwaxy for giving us this chance, gb9 for organizing and all the judges for their efforts.

Then congrats to all of you, MARP regulars and newcomers (top quality ones, as Brian, are always most welcome !!!), and particularly to my friend JG. Forgive me if I don't name everyone, but any of you did great things which deserve sincere compliments.

Just a few lines to tell how I lived this tourney: the first being surprised of me ranking #4 is .... myself !!! At the beginning my target was to rank above Renzo Vignola, being so the 1st italian in the tourny (out of 2!!! ;-) ) . But keeping on playing with those games, most of them I've never played before, I relized I could do much better, dropping the games I really hated (Dowild !!!) and those it were nothing to do with (Galaga, BJ), and concentrating in those I started enjoing. The last day were just lucky ones, with little improvements in a few games, and an unbelieving game at 2020 (it gave me 12 pts in the leaderboard).

As far as the single games (I did not voted for them!!!):

- 2020: Never oplayed before, but now I like it !!! ;-) Who says Italians are not good at baseball !?! It means I did not wasted my time playing Hardball for years... ;-)

- Bomb Jack: I've never been good at, and never I will !!!

- Combat school: I hate platform games, and IT IS a platform game !!!

- DoTron: I'm bringing to me all your blame, but I find it a little boring....don't you...!?!? ;-)

- Galaga: it's like running the 100mt with Ben Johnson in the next lane !!!

- Gyruss: always loved it !!! I used to hold the Italian top score for a while at the arcade (5,2M scored in mid 80's), now I should take one day off from work, and seriously challenge BeeJay !!!

- lnc: quite a funny game, nothing more.

- miexchng: never played before, but I like games in which your manual ability only it's not enough.

- Dowild: damn....sooooo boring !!! I don't like, I don't like, I don't like, I don'.......................

- Pang3: never played before, but it's a VERY challenging game !!! Think I'll improve my score.

- UsvsThem: Still I'm wondering who voted for such a crappy game !!! ;-)))

- zzy: without the tourny, probably I would have never played this game, so crappy at first sight, but really funny instead!!!

Well....I really hope to see you all in the T2, and many more competitors (if any of us brings just 1 friend....). I saw no mention of the Tourny results at Retrogames, nor at Dave's .... I'll post to the major emu sites a mail....tha last time I did such a thing, it worked !!!

Ciao a tutti !!! Cicca

PS: JoustGod...don't forget me in your Chicken Shift challenge !!! :-)

-- Cicca (cicca@writeme.com), October 04, 1999

Answers

Well, everyone else is doing it (it being giving a round of accolades for the tourney), so why not me?

It's certainly been an intriguing 3 months, so say the least. After all, it was only as I was "surfing" while downloading MAME 35 FINAL that I noticed that this site I'd never been to was holding a tournament. Of course, I decided to give it a try, and eventually ended in 8th, much better than I could have hoped for at the start. With any luck I can be as equal a "force" in T2, although I'll have much less free time, mainly due to a longer commitment to number checking 3 fantasy football leagues & running a fantasy hockey one.

Speaking of the heavy burden of administration, first I must thank those who served as judges and organizers of the tourney. I know that it's hard keeping 10 to 12 people who know each other "happy", let alone 34 people from around the world.

A special "Thank You" goes to Pat Laffaye, who was patient and fair with yours truly. I especially fear that I might have made Pat spend more time dealing with the last 44-point INP for miexchng than I did playing the game over the 3 months :)!

Anyway, onto my competition, which was certainly top-notch. I guess I'll start at the top, with the somewhat fitting tie between BeeJay and JoustGod. Congradulations to both of you !!!!

And let me take note of others with at "least" a 1st place in a game: Brian McLean (I can only imagine what you're capable of with MORE than about half a month to compete in), Cicca, Skito, Renzo Vignola (who would have passed me overall with ANY score in 2020bb), Donut (only the enforced maximum kept me within 20 points of your score), Phil Lamat and Stig Remnes.

And of course how can I forget Q.T. and BBH and... the list IS too long, so basically, everyone else is the tourney.

Finally, I must thank Zwaxy for providing the site and dealing with 3 months of more work than usual. I know that if _I_ was the one maintaining and updating all this, I would have been content to find the time to compete at ALL, let alone finish 16th.

-- Sandman (msander@journey.com), October 04, 1999.

As for T1, congrats to both winners.... About the games, even though a nice number of my (what I though were my) favs were in, I didn't do too well (top 15). Here's a lookdown of the games. 2020 Super Baseball (Still love the game, but not a McGwiresque player, as I am more strategy and skill. Heck, I just had a 14-inning game last night that went 4-2 Tropical Girls over the Metallic Brains. Bombjack - Never voted, never knew, never gave a chance... Never had a chance. Could be interesting if ever got into it. Combat School- Again, didn't vote, but it proved to be interesting (as it was one I judged) Discs of Tron - I loved it, and still do, but many people did better. Even though the leeching problems that came with it (mild and severe), it was a good game. Gyruss/Galaga Both space shootups, which didn't that violate the 1 of a type game rule? All questioning aside, I knew Galaga, of course that didn't mean I could score, and Gyruss, forget about it. Nice scores on both of these. Lock 'n' Chase - What is to hate about this game. It rocks (although the home version for the Intellivision is better. Lupin caused many a fit, and that is good for a tourney game. Pang 3 - Proved too easy (also galaga, gyruss, and combat school) for tourney play. (Although really high scorers wouldn't say that) MPE - Obligitory puzzle game that proved better than the average tetris game. I personally loved it (having it to do with money helped, j/k) Awesome 63 pter Us vs them - Awesome space shooter that had it's bugs, but it made for an interesting time. Players stayed away from it in the beginning because of it, but came to it in the end for the points... ZZY - Boy meets girl, boy gets girl gifts, girl not happy, boy needs to spend more! Note: Would never work today, hence the bliss of the early 80's. Gameplay is simple, but rather challenging... The tourney ROM page has been updated, and the new ROMs will appear there. There is news to report: Tripod has stated if we hit 3,100 visitors this month, we can get rid of the annoying popup once and for all!!! So do your part, visit and click as often as humanly possible! Also, CyberSportsBook has offered my sports readers, and I am extending it to you, $10 free to visit their site. Take a look now, a link is at the top of the tourney rom page.

-- Chris Parsley (cparsley1@hotmail.com), October 04, 1999.