Twin Galaxies Recording Rules

[JCHarrist]

I just went by the normal arcade recording rules for my recent DK submission and and it was verified with no issues.

Who did you end up sending it to out of curiosity?

Stephen Boyer

[JCHarrist]

It seems TG has reinstated the Special DK rules again. If you click "Official Settings", this link now appears at the top of the DK high score list:

http://www.twingalaxies.com/donkey-kong-recording-rules/

[corey.chambers]

I do most of these rules now anyways, except that I keep the back door off at all times. I never have it on the machine at all. Maybe I should lock it up, I mean, I wouldn't want anyone to steal my stuff.

Doesn't turning on and then off and then on again negatively impact the monitor and boards at all? I am accustomed to turning my machine off every night and it is left off most of the time. I don't like leaving it on for long periods of time.

Don't forget people, no "garbage" screen no valid score submission, oh and make sure you have the original power supply, and we all know how the game plays differently if you put more than one credit in the machine, lol.

[hchien]

I'd probably close the back door as UV light can corrupt the ROMs.  The garbage screen rule was probably there to distinguish arcade from MAME.  I don't know enough about the power supply to comment.  Apparently some games do behave differently if there is more than 1 credit... certainly DK isn't one of them.  These rules were written in an era of paranoia and they served their purpose, but I think we've outgrown them now.

[Fast Eddie]

i doubt they have reinstated those rules, id guess someone who didnt know whats what just fixed the link or something?

 

[mikegmi2]

^ Yea that's what I was thinking...someone maybe accidentally changed the link. 

[up2ng]

Did we ever get a straight answer over why they wanted to see an original power supply?  I read one post a long time ago where it was mentioned that a different power supply could cause flickering enemy sprites to appear in places where they didn't belong (but I don't think you could score points off of them because they didn't actually exist), and this CLEARLY would NOT be an advantage to the player.  Was there some concern that it could potentially cause the game to run slower than 60 frames per second?  I don't know enough about the hardware of these games to understand how the speed of the game is guaranteed to remain consistent so maybe that had nothing to do with it I don't know.  It was definitely the one piece of the DK rules (other than the restart rule) which got the most scrutiny as it made no sense to any of the players.

[Fast Eddie]

it was PSP who made that rule, he said something about graphic glitches, i dont remember exactly what though...iv also read people refer to 'sparkles'...i do have a switching PS that causes white pixels to 'sparkle' in certain areas of the screen on my DK cab...if i remember right they went away when i plugged the switcher into an emi filter gang plug. i never saw any other sprite issue...

iv been thinking of reinstalling the switcher now those rules are unofficially dead, ill see how it goes...

 

[corey.chambers]

Thanks for the mention of the UV light, Hank. I have my cabs in a dark basement which have no direct sun light, very dim if at all, and behind a wall to that dimness as well. If that is still a problem then I can definitely still set it up against the back if nothing more than that.

[hchien]

Thanks for the mention of the UV light, Hank.

Yeah it's definitely more than a theoretical concern.  When I first got my DK machine (the back faces my balcony) I left my back door open as I was constantly fixing/adjusting things.  After a few months my ROMs became corrupt and I had to buy a new board.

[ChrisP]

Put a covering (electrical tape is good) over the windows on the ROMs and they'll be protected from light exposure.

Many game manufacturers did that, but not Nintendo. I don't understand why.

[LMDAVE]

Looks like with the recent announcement today of Twin Galaxies now accepting submissions that DK is officially back under the realm of normal arcade recording rules. Even though the link on the DK score page does not bring you there, here is the FAQ for a normal arcade record. It's a long read, and looks to be pretty much what the old normal arcade procedure was. But, at least we are free of the shackles of the special DK rules officially now:

http://www.twingalaxies.com/FAQ/#14

Think I'll play and record a good game tonight to celebrate. 

I'm linking back to this message as a record of when the TG DK recroding rules switched back to normal. As a test, if you "submitted" a score for DK, on the submission page you were linked to the basic arcade recording rules.

Before this, The old TG had the extended rules, then one day the link stopped working, it stopped working for a while, over a year, however we were still following them.

Fast forward, to after the quoted message, The new TG was still in development, someone on the IT side of it must have been asked why this link to the DK rules is not working, then suddendly the link gets fixed, but the link was pointing to the special rules.  See quote below:

It seems TG has reinstated the Special DK rules again. If you click "Official Settings", this link now appears at the top of the DK high score list:

http://www.twingalaxies.com/donkey-kong-recording-rules/

Now of course I don't know the real reason, but it just "appears" that all that happened was a glitch was fixed. Because I know Ken played a big part in helping us get DK back in line with the rest of the recording.

[hchien]

I don't think the rules were ever switched away.  I think the link to the DK rules was broken for a while, people heard unofficially via word-of-mouth that the rules were going to be switched and assumed that the rules were already changed.

Everything that's being said is unofficial.  Even Ken says that it's their intention to change the rules to be the same as every other arcade game, but that it hasn't been done officially yet.

At the same time, I don't know anyone that's still doing the pre-game/restart verification steps.  I certainly don't want to be the only one.

[LMDAVE]

Well, if that's the case, a lot were under the impression for a while. I think I was one of the few that was still doing the full rules up to that point. But, the prerecording to show dipswitches and board # and cycling of screen all were pointless.

Lately I flip on the camera with the machine off looking at the machine, I introduce myself with the date and time and intention, I flip the machine on, I zoom in, I restart to show the rug pattern, and boom, I flip twitch on and start playing.

If I get a score, I will record all of the inside and show the control panel....I wasn't planning on doing the 2-player start thing, and techincally I wasn't going to take the board out, but now I would.

Other than skipping the 2 player start line, what really would be wrong with what I just said I'll do, and Stephen was goign to be OK with it. My pre/post record wouldn't have been broadcasted to twitch anyway for scrutiny. Streaming your game is not a requirement.

[JCHarrist]

I don't think the rules were ever switched away.  I think the link to the DK rules was broken for a while, people heard unofficially via word-of-mouth that the rules were going to be switched and assumed that the rules were already changed.

Back in June when I submitted, the link went to the normal arcade recording rules. Sometime around August, it started going to the "Special DK Rules" again.