I am new to MARP and I really enjoy the site. (Great job on the automation of everything) I have a few questions/suggestions about the leaderboard.

1. Is it possible to show a "Latest Upload Date" on the board. That would help to identify who the "active" members are.

2. How does one become a confirmer? I have downloaded several .inp files just to see "How did they get a score like that" only to find out that it only plays back to a fraction of the advertised score.(unconfirmed .inps obviously) My guess is that loads far outpace confirms.

3. It sounds (based on old messages) like there used to be an arrow that showed if a player moved up or down the leaderboard. Whatever happened to this?

4. Is it possible to sort the leaderboard based on 1st/2nd/3rd points (the old method) or based on Avg. points?

Thanks for creating such a fun site.

-- Scott Perrault (sperrault@woh.rr.com), January 21, 2002

Answers

yeah marp has to be one of the coolest websites in functionality and content, even if playing back inps is more of a skill than an art.

1. activity probably consists of a # of last uploads in the last X months, a most recent last upload doesn't nececesarily mean most active.

2. confirmer status i think involves a "stay" at marp for a given time, so you can appriciate the importance of a recording being confirmed and at least remember how you got it to playback if someone asks you. there is a big problem getting things to playback, since sometimes you have to replicate exactally the settings and configuration of the recorded machine (some games you can record on a xbox with 22khz sound and frameskip7 and are able to playback on a mac with no sound and a default nvram file, others you have to playback using the exact same mame with the same mame.cfg file or settings and in some cases the same computer is required of course those recordings are banned since no one else can play them back but the uploader.)

there are a few things in general to try to playback a recording you're having trouble with.

(A) have the same version of mame, if it's a mac mame recording and you're playing it back with dos mame, fo-get-a-bat-it! however usually winmame recordings will playback on dos, dos plays back on windows with some exceptions. Of course you must have the same version # if mame (mame35,win36,mame37b12,mame55w, dmame57,) as well that the recording was made with.

(B) try playing back with out sound or changing the sample rate 44/22.

(C) DELETE YOUR NVRAM DIRECTORY, that's the biggest bugger.

3. it's gone.

4. use sort.exe :) or wait for the change to be made, usually if someone makes a suggestion and enough people like it it's implimented.

have fun.

-- Chad (churritz@crash.cts.com), January 22, 2002.