Is CPU speed going to be a factor in the selection of games for each tournament?

In T2 it seems that a P200 is the barest minimum to play and thats cutting it close(ssprint).

When the final judge selects games for the random selection, does CPU requirments come into the factor of choosing games? If so, the minimum CPU speed for playing in a tournament should be posted and all games in the tournament should be able to play at the CPU speed.

-- Dave Kaupp (info@kaupp.cx), December 12, 1999

Answers

Isn't it frame rate that really matters? As long as you can get a minimum fps (60,59,55 whatever is decided on) then you can enter, tg3mame records the fps so if an entry doesn't have the encrypted minimum fps then it's not allowed.

-- Chad (churritz@cts.com), December 12, 1999.

Yes, I'm asking, are the judges going to try to target games that can run on a particular CPU. Say a P333(just an example). Any games that require a P333 or higher to get a 95% framerate would not be chosen for a tournament.

If its not considered and say Mortal Kombat is chosen, the minumum CPU to get 95% framerate would be somewhere around a P400 (I'm guessing here).

So if MK was chosen, the minimum CPU for that tournamanet would be a P400. Even if the rest of the games could be played on a P100.

-- Dave Kaupp (info@kaupp.cx), December 12, 1999.

The reason I'm asking, is if the target CPU is going to be a P166 and a player has only a P120 (or a 486), they will know upfront before the voting even starts that they will not be able to participate in the tournament due to hardware limitations.

-- Dave Kaupp (info@kaupp.cx), December 12, 1999.

Why did I even complain about voting if I'm not gonna be allowed in the damned tournament anyway? I might as well let you all know I have a P133. All I'll say is...yes, I did use that to my advantage sometimes. (Some games I did just as good on with high frameskip, and some were fast enough without frameskip, Atari puzzles and L- System games, for example) The only games I used controls to boost my advantage on were Sente games, where I can double speed the trackball with a joystick and a keyboard. Other than that, I'm only guilty of my parents not getting a new computer. Until I'm 18 (next year), I can't get my own. But enough bitching. Feel free to lay down the law. I only did it because I was tired of being an also ran (I wanted something to be proud of) and becausee others were doing it. --Sports Dude (Everyone else was admitting it. I must too, I guess. I'm not leaving though, MARP is an escape from the real world for me...long story behind that, but it's a place I can be accepted at, I'm happy for that. I'm speaking the truth, but I'm now being sappy. LOL)

-- Sports Dude (shyboy820@aol.com), December 13, 1999.

This is what i was getting at, you can't exclude people just because of the machine they have, it all depends on frame rate. Sports Dude is religious about not using sound in his games to get his frame rate up to speed, so most of the games he might be qualified for even though he doesn't have a fast computer.

The law shouldn't discriminate computers that might still make recordings at acceptable framerates. You can warn and give reccommendations but not force people to buy a computer when they just need to disable sound to get it to an acceptable frame rate.

-- Chad (churritz@cts.com), December 13, 1999.

To complicate matters further...I often STILL can't reach 100% even with frameskip 8, the maximum frameskip I'll play at. Pole Position is an example. It used only a 3mhz Z80, and 2 other 3mhz problems. It should run decently in theory. But it runs at only HALF SPEED for me. (It's funny, Pop 'n Pop plays faster in Raine, with little frame droppage, and it was released 15 years later!) MetroCross reaches about 80 percent, and it uses 3 processors, none of which are more than 1.5mhz! About the only games that are truly optimized are anything Atari Games (1984-onward). Off the Wall will play at 75% at no frameskip, and 100% with a couple frames skipped. Hydra isn't quite that fast, but it's near that level...and even Relief Pitcher plays fast. But those are the only games that are recent that are fast. Neo Geo games are actually close to getting there, dropping frames isn't a big deal, but I can't play Turf Masters much anymore because even when they're disabled, raster effects slow it down too much. I can still play the slower games, but I don't think of it as an advantage. I'm very good at Trog usually, and I have a high score, because of legal warps, but it's damned hard thinking slowly in that game. High Impact Football is even harder to think slowly on. And most Neo Geo games have an added slow-thinking difficulty. Puzzle games are the only time it would help...but I've been able to do good with a couple frames dropped...the scores won't be as high, but they'd be in the area. --Sports Dude

-- Sports Dude (shyboy820@aol.com), December 14, 1999.