I think Angry has made an excellent point here. I was the same as him
when it came to topping out any available game in an arcade that I
was good at whether it was one game or 3...didn't matter, my ego just
wanted to see "JDR" at the top of the board.
<p>
Secondly, we are all gathered here my friends, in competition using
an emulator called MAME (whadda ya think the "M" in MARP stands
for?). The MAME dev team (well, with an exception or two maybe
)
could probably care less about us MARPers and our debates. Thus, they
have developed a wonderful piece of programming that we all use for
our competition without regard to how including clones/ re-licensed
or any other variation affects MARP. We have chosen this particular
emulator as our vehicle to ride in and it's a fine vehicle indeed. If
there happens to be a multitude of games with clones that a
particular player is good at and gives him a slight advantage (and I
emphasis slight...remember, we are past the 1400 game mark and I
seriously doubt that a game with 10 clones is going to affect
anything that dramatically) then so be it. For those of you familiar
with baseball, I offer this analogy. I doubt if Mark Mcgwire sat
around and bemoaned the fact that Sammy Sosa had an "advantage" by
playing in the home run-friendly Wrigley Field. Instead, he worked
with the situation he had and overcame such an "advantage" in winning
1998's baseball home run race. What I'm saying is, let the clones
stay as in the past. I'm sure that all of us at some point will find
a favorite game that has clones attached to it. If not, then there
are 1400+ games to attack! That's more than enough to eliminate any
perceived "advantage" that the clone-playing MARPer seems to have.
<p>
The thing about MARP that I've always enjoyed is that it has an open,
"wild west" feel about it. I'm hoping that it doesn't succumb to
being shackled with restrictions. Of course, there has to be some
kind of order as far as settings and game play techniques go and
that's what Angry's page addresses.
<p>
For those who want a more structured type of competition, I believe
the upcoming MARP tourney will suit you fine. It is an excellent idea
and I hope we have a lot of participation. Also on the structured
side, our fellow MARPer, Mark Longridge, does a great job in
maintaining the Twin Galaxies MAME high score page. If recognition is
what you're looking for, this is certainly an important site to check
out. The mission of TG differs from MARP and that's OK by me as I
think the two sites complement each other very well.
<p>
Well, I've gone on long enough. (I can now see everyone's head
nodding in agreement!)
<p>
JoustGod
--
pinballwiz1@msn.com
)
my mistake