Hang-On Arcade vs MAME

[The_Pro]

So once again Funspot produces a game mystery. At first it was the Wonderboy romset they had which was not present in MAME at the time. Then it was the behavior of Twin Cobra which is likely an emulation difference but can't really be confirmed without access to hardware. This one however, I can't explain.

Funspot has two Hang-On simulator machines both of which act the same but very differently from the MAME romset and there's only one romset. First of all, at the beginning of the game you have 80 seconds. No matter what I did to the dips on MAME it was either 75 or lower. Also, the layout of the course is completely different. While in MAME the first leg has various gentle curves where you just have to lean in a bit to keep your position on the track the arcade has no such curves until the 4th leg. In general the arcade seems to have many more tough curves that you have to slowdown to take, making getting far more difficult.

Also in spite of having 5 less seconds on MAME to begin with, reaching the 2nd leg without slowing down yields the same starting time as the arcade, 77 seconds. Though I didn't do much experimenting on how many seconds are given at various legs vs time taken and such.

Now at this point you're probably thinking this is just an unknown romset. However, after speaking with Pat Laffaye he says that the machines at Funspot have somehow gotten harder over the years. He said long ago he got 33 million on the Funspot machine and could finish it more or less every time. Now he can't even break 10 million and reckons it isn't possible to beat the game as it is now. What could have changed inside the machine between now and then, and in both machines no less.

Anyone have experience with Hang-On?

[zlk]

I used to play the standup version of hangon in the arcades years ago. The version in mame seems to me to be about the same I remember in the arcades. I found stage 4 to be annoying in each version. It is easy to overshoot a corner and lose tons of speed while trying to stay on the track.

[The_Pro]

So the one you played was similar to MAME, that helps the case for FS having a different machine. Perhaps they got an early release as they did with many of their games. Doesn't explain the changes over time though. Guess I'll bother Gary at Funspot to see if they've made any modifications to those machines over the years. I should try and find some of the schematics as well.

[***PL***]

I think there are at least two different romsets, and MAMEDev hasn't figured that out yet! And it wouldn't be the first time they've messed up the default and/or difficulty settings for a game.

[The_Pro]

On my recent trip to Funspot I went to the nearby half moon arcade and tried 2 hang on sit downs and one upright. The simulators are both like the Funspot simulators and the upright is like the MAME version. It seems clear now that the simulators have different romsets than uprights. The course may also be designed specifically for those setups.

For example, the simulator romset seems to have less S-curves which would be difficult to handle precisely on a bike. There are also less gentle curves on the simulator, perhaps because if you're gonna ride on an actual bike, might as well have you actually lean all the way instead of a gentle lean. Makes the game more interesting.

Of note was that the half moon simulators had even higher time settings, 85 and 90 seconds, at the starting point. This would be enough to make this actually possible to finish, the 80 seconds at Funspot is ridiculous. Perhaps it was at this easier setting when Pat completed it?

I don't know if MAMEDev is aware of this other romset or not but I don't know of a way to inform them without being flamed to death.

[***PL***]

I don't know if MAMEDev is aware of this other romset or not but I don't know of a way to inform them without being flamed to death.

Either that or they simply ignore your emails!

I don't recall if I started with 80 or 85 on the clock. Definitely not 90, but now that makes me wonder if the WR was set using 90. That would easily give him 10m for the extra 5 (or 10) seconds of gameplay. I recall my run was virtually flawless save a couple of love taps in stages 4 & 5. Because the brake handle was missing, I lost some speed in the corners, yet still had great lines and hitting most apexes just right.

The machine at Funspot has gotten worse every year. The pot is off because you can't get low enough in the turns. That would be enough of an issue to prevent you from finishing (not even considering extra time). The best I could do this year was a few seconds short of Stage 5, so again I do not believe it is just the timer.

Were you able to finish the course at Half Moon starting at 90?

[***PL***]

OK, I figured out the FS settings are totally WRONG!!

Yes, the tracks are very different for the Upright/Sitdown vs. the Simulator (motorcycle), so there's TWO romsets!

And so are the starting times for Stage 1...

Code: Select all

Time Setting:   Upright/Sitdown      Simulator (Motorcycle)
Normal                80s                       90s
Medium                75s                       85s
Hard                  70s                       80s
Hardest               65s                       75s

FS Simulator is set to HARD (80s) should be lowered and set to NORMAL (90s) per TGTS


Likewise the competing bikes setting is probably wrong too. Forgot to mention they are more aggressive and will hit you more often. Clearly a factor!

Difficulty Settings (possible):
Easy - Normal - Hard - Hardest

FS Simulator is set to at least HARD should be lowered and set to NORMAL per TGTS

Special thanks to Mark Alpiger for providing me with the official WR settings.

[The_Pro]

I only played a quick game on each of them but I remember that I reached level 4 on the simulator in spite of playing quite badly. It also seemed like I was having less problems with the turns than at Funspot so you are likely correct that the pots are off.
Add in the settings you got and this looks pretty solved.

Will try to get the settings changed next time I'm at Funspot. Hopefully they can take a look at the steering issues as well. I'm not sure if it's a simple range adjustment they can do quickly or not, but at the very least I'll bring it to their attention.

[The_Pro]

Got things done at Funspot in regards to Hang-On. For the machine upstairs the time setting was indeed at hard. It has now been set to normal (90sec). I was just barely able to finish the game with 2.4 seconds left after many tries. I'm about 99% sure the traffic setting was at normal. Plus, the machine downstairs had more traffic and I assume that they wouldn't have put the downstairs machine at hardest, so hard there and one notch easier (normal) upstairs. I surely would have noticed if it said easy even if it was a quick glance.

Also, besides being uncentered, the steering range did not reach the upper and lower limits that you see in MAME. The same was true for the accelerator but I'm thinking this has less of an impact.

Long story short, you can finish the game now, but there's no way to approach a record score until it's completely fixed.

[***PL***]

Kind of hard to play for a WR when 1) accelerator rubber handles are worn/missing 2) no brakes 3) no ability to lean (knee dragging)

That is one game they outright refuse to fix or buy parts for.