Zmick's Blog & Dinky PBs Thread

[Zmick_tricK]

Zmick finally PBs! 170k!

http://www.twitch.tv/zmick_trick/v/16809382

Soon to hit 200k! Kill screen coming by tomorrow. 1.2 million by next week!   

[homerwannabee]

1.2 million by next week?  Sounds doable.

[Zmick_tricK]

I haven't been doing much arcade gaming lately, both because my current hardware set up makes it inconvenient and because I've caught the speedrunning bug. But I've got some good news! I just bought a rasperry pi 2 model B and will be setting it up as a MAME 'console'. Once I do that, I expect that playing and streaming my games will be a lot easier.

Since the rasp pi has composite output, I'm excited to see how it will look and sound on my CRT TV as opposed to on my LCD PC monitor and desktop speakers. Maybe a bit more authentic for the classic arcade games? Maybe? Also, I'd like to see if using a CRT makes a dent in the input delay. There will still be some emulator delay, but it would be a HUGE boon to my Robotron attempts if I can make my split-second decision making more reliable.

Lastly- yes, this does mean I'll be spending some more time practicing Donkey Kong and maybe going for a Kill Screen one of these days.

I'll post more about this when I have everything set up. I'm still waiting for the case to arrive and I've yet to set up my SD card. This should all be ready in a week or so. I can't wait.

[aarontruitt]

Careful if you're submitting any scores on the Pi. In RetroPie, there is no way to record an INP as far as I know. I've messed with RetroPie quite a bit. Good luck with your setup and if you have any questions about setting the pi up I have a lot of resources bookmarked. The newer versions of RetroPie are a lot more user friendly than the older.

[Zmick_tricK]

Careful if you're submitting any scores on the Pi. In RetroPie, there is no way to record an INP as far as I know. I've messed with RetroPie quite a bit. Good luck with your setup and if you have any questions about setting the pi up I have a lot of resources bookmarked. The newer versions of RetroPie are a lot more user friendly than the older.

I'm not really worried about submitting scores. I would like to record INPs however, and didn't realize it was an issue. I'll have to look into it. I'm sure someone out there has it figured out already and I'll just have to copy whatever they did 

[aarontruitt]

I've heard you can "record" from the consoles under Retroarch, but the supported versions of MAME are not able to. If you find a way to record an INP, do share with me as I'd love to be able to do the same from my Pi!

[Zmick_tricK]

I finally acquired the requisite a/v wire to be able to display the Pi on my CRT TV. I now can play and capture MAME just as if it was any of my consoles, which will make it much easier to stream. Even better, the games have a much more arcade-y look and feel when they're on the TV rather than on the monitor. Even betterer is that there is barely any input lag. I can feel a slight bit of input lag when I load up the NES emulator and play a game I speedrun- Contra, but I feel no lag when I'm playing games I haven't logged thousands of attempts on 

On top of MAME, I also have the full romsets loaded for Vectrex, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Sega SG1000 and TurboGrafx16 (only HuCard games so far). Other than the Vectrex and the NES, all the emulators feel so much like I'm playing on original hardware that it's uncanny. It FEELS like I actually own a TG16, which I would like to one day, but for now I think I have the second best option.

 

[Zmick_tricK]

Retropie is out. Shmupmame is in.

I'm on a break, maybe an extended break, from speedrunning and have started playing arcade games again after a long time away. I'm having more fun than ever and I'm back to being addicted

I think that with ShmupMAME I have a very good shot at finally getting the scores I've always wanted in Robotron and Bubbles. The reduction in latency is very noticeable and it's making me wonder how I ever played the games any other way. Just gotta get the rust out first.

Also, at some point, I also want to start doing some 1cc attempts on some shmups. Now, more than ever, I realize that the key to continuing to enjoy games is to switch up what I'm doing when one endeavor gets to frustrating. Do some speedrunning, some arcade high score attempts, some completion attempts. Keep it fresh. Enjoy life