I thought of this question when I saw the most recent recordings... but this evidence of starting after stage 1 to get bonus points exists all over the place, I think I'm even one person who's done that.

Should we allow starting at a higher level for bonus points or should be make them start at the very first level?

Why do I ask this? The biggest reason is that Twin Galaxies makes people start at the first level, no higher.

Oop, looking at the rules again, warping after starting at the first screen is allowed.

So my motion will be that you have to start at screen 1 period, but if you warp to a higher screen for higher points,(e.g. crystal castles, toobin') it's OK. Any debate?

Also, I want to establish which games would fall under starting at a higher screen at the beginning of the game,(probably major havoc and the star wars games for example) and which would fall under starting at level 1, then going to a higher screen?(probably toobin for example)

Thanks for reading :)

-- Gameboy9 (goldengameboy@yahoo.com), January 29, 2000

Answers

I was going to bring this up here when I got out of bed, but I see it was already done :) I don't have any problem with warping to a higher screen while already in the game, but its the starting at a higher level to get extra points that bothers me. I think the rules should be that everyone starts at level 1. My recent upload (soldamj?) is the only game I have done this on so far, partially to bring up this point.

-- seymour (seymour@iname.com), January 29, 2000.

I don't agree with this. What's the difference between warping to level 12 zillion on Major Havoc, or starting at 2 million on Soldam (Japan)? The answer: about 12 seconds. This is too fine a hair to split. Either we allow total freedom, or we restrict all warping as well. And since I can't see warping being disallowed, it doesn't makes sense for me to lose 50000 points in SnakePit just because I'm not allowed to start at a level that I can easily reach. Advanced starting points are there for a reason...it's because for some players, reaching them normally would be a waste of time. While it's hard to argue this case in Soldam, there are many other games where it is readily evident.

And please, let's have no more motions or voting until the autofire is cleaned up. MARP is about to have one hell of a huge vomit of scores as it is.

Sincerely, Q.T.Quazar

-- Q.T.Quazar (qan@home.com), January 29, 2000.

If u can walk into a arcade and obtain a larger score by starting at a later level that is not cheating..

Basically, it does no harm...

Everybody can do the same thing and this would make it fair!

This is getting a bit silly now, I think it is fair to ban the autofire technique, anything else seems fair though!!

(Unless your machine runs like a dog! ;-))

-- game guru (games.guru@cableinet.co.uk), January 30, 2000.

I don't think the question is silly or frivolous at all. Further I believe discussion of the rules is always a good thing. I don't suscribe to the argument that 'if you can walk into an arcade and do it' that it's ok. You can walk into an arcade and perform a multitude of actions to give your self an advantage in a game - some of them we consider ok others we ban. As for being disadvantaged for not being able to do start at the higher level - I disagree. You aren't disadvantaged if everyone has to start from level 1.

Unfortunately in case of 'alternant start' games there are a wide variety of games that allow this feature. In some games it is painful to watch someone start on a high level that they can't handle (i.e. lose all their lives in under a minute) and claim a high score. In other games it would be painful to make someone sit through an hour of the earlier levels just to prove that they can show mastery at the more difficult levels - life is too short. In my opinion it is probably best to leave this one alone and use the philosophy that when you drop in your virtual coin into the game, if you are offered a choice - select whatever takes your fancy, and may the highest score win.

-- Tim Morrow (tjmorrow@bigpond.com), January 31, 2000.

Nice comments Tim, lets stay away from this one...... There's too much going on at the mo anyway! ;-)

-- game guru (games.guru@cableinet.co.uk), January 31, 2000.