Donkey Kong High Score List General Discussion

[SQUIIDUX]

I dont want to beat a dead horse here:

what about versions on mame that are being captured with screen recording that show start up and also have the frame-rate and game speed (eg 100%) visible to show that the game is not being slowed down or paused during the game-play. i feel that the newer versions of mame would be more desirable as they, in theory, more faithfully recreate the hardware and better interpret the software of original machines.

for the record i am asking this because i want to make a mame machine with an original control panel from an original machine that i can record (screen capture) from but still feel like im playing a real machine. i have an original one that i play on, but let's face it, they arent making them anymore and the less wear i can put on my original the better.

[corey.chambers]

SQUIIDUX, I don't think you are beating a dead horse. I just don't think you are getting an adequate response. I wish I had a Mac so I could evaluate sdlmame but I do not. I wish I knew more about MAME programs, Ubuntu, and other issues you have raised. As I said, I think you have a valid point, if the community is willing to evaluate a proposed MAME program then I am more than willing to allow other versions of MAME that are comparable. I don't see any reason why we can't accept other MAME programs for the same reasons offered for why we are accepting all versions of WolfMAME. Until someone takes the initiative to do some investigation, or if someone can make a convincing case for WolfMAME only, then the issue remains tabled. Until then, I would recommend playing WolfMAME any way you can. I apologize that I can't give you a better response, and I am sorry that it is not ideal for you. Maybe we don't know too much about other MAME programs, maybe mistakes would be made in the evaluation process, maybe it will become a slippery slope. I don't have all the answers for you, I just don't know enough about all of this to give you the kind of reasoning and response that your questions deserve.

[corey.chambers]

A few weeks ago I downloaded M.A.M.E. .146 from MAMEdev.com so that I could try out D2K. I have gone through all the settings and have found no way of gaining any kind of advantage on the game. So this is a case in point, perhaps? There are those that are not recording their inp while streaming on Twitch, but as long as pausing is not done, I have accepted those scores. So whether the emulation is done by WolfMAME or not pausing is always a possibility. I do think that something can be said for everyone using the same MAME program. I do understand that this would force Mac users to use the Virtual Machine. When I worked at a college in the Online Department we had about 1% of our students and prospective students using Mac. We were not in a position to assist with Mac. There were issues with Firefox and we knew nothing of Thunderbird, etc. But then 2 years passed, and Apple was pushing Macs out like nothing else and now about 6% of our students were using it. So we were force to buy a Mac and have a technician learned it well to work with our system. The moral of the story is that there were many students during that 2 year period that were forced to jump through a lot of hoops and I am sure some got discouraged and even quit to find a more compatible program. Maybe in the future, if there are more people making proposals, and there is a higher demand, maybe someone would be more willing to assess this issue to the nth degree. We will see if someone steps up, but in case someone doesn't at this time, I don't want you to feel like we don't care.

[SQUIIDUX]

Im going to do some research about this and see if i cant get a comparison video up between the mame in the ubuntu repositories and wolfmame side by side to see if anyone can see a difference. please post below for things you want me to specifically test on each so that i can get my ducks in a row and see whats up. i would also like to see how wolfmame on WINE compares to wolfmame running on a windowsXP. again post your ideas as to how to best compare these so we can get rid of this doubt.

[xelnia]

Shall I put together the game summary now, or wait 4 hours for the next update?   

Let's give it a couple days. I'm not sure I can sustain that level of improvement indefinitely. 

[xelnia]

Great job, Jeremy! You moved way up the list. Also, thanks for the zip folder attachment. I really like being able to link it to INP for the source of your game. I added this procedure to the normative and auxiliary rules. "(If you are using MAME then also attach a zip folder to your post containing the inp and wlf files.)" This is more of an option at this point but I think it would be great if we were in the habit of doing it.

Thanks Corey! Regarding the INP, I figure it's better to have as many sources as possible for a game. What if Twitch goes down or I lose my own files for some reason? Besides, people might want to watch an INP rather than a 55 minute game of DK brought to you by Creative Cursing! 

[corey.chambers]

It may be helpful to move this conversation back to your thread on Mac users. I will just reference it. This thread is 25 pages long and the conversation can get lost easily among score posts, etc. Let's talk over there. Your thread is smaller and the conversation will not get lost. Sorry, I didn't think about that.

[danman123456]

The rational for Wolfmame is the files it creates. It also prevents using cheats or pausing. There is a copy of wolfmame for most every Mame version released as well.  Regarding 1.06 I am not sure why this version is required other then it becomes a nightmare to keep track of all the versions. (This inp was done on wolfmame 1.14 while this was done on 1.36/etc). 1.06 is the "Standard" as it maybe for now.

Dan

[corey.chambers]

WolfMAME creates two files when you play and record, the .inp and the .wlf. The .wlf when opened in a notepad really only contains the version it was played on. As far as I know. The .inp is just the recorded game. But people are not always recording their game when they stream. There is no requirement to Play and Record. And if people are only playing DK on WolfMAME without recording, then there are no files created, and pausing is possible. But we can obviously see the game, and know that there was no pausing. Using WolfMAME for our forum and TG has been the norm, it is accessible to all, and most use it anyways. But is there any functional reasons, other than the so called nightmare of keeping track of different versions. If it is streamed, it all looks the same on our end. Are there cheats that exist for DK on other emulators, and if so, offer a case and point.

[stella_blue]

WolfMAME creates two files when you play and record, the .inp and the .wlf. The .wlf when opened in a notepad really only contains the version it was played on. As far as I know.

Corey, don't bother with Notepad when verifying the INP and WLF files.

The wlfview32 program, supplied with WolfMAME Plus, exists for that purpose.





The INP Data tab reports the number of frames and average recorded speed, while the Validity tab performs a checksum validation on the INP and WLF files.

[corey.chambers]

Thanks, Scott. I didn't know about this program in the Wolf folder. I couldn't get it to work on my computer, why is that? That helps as far as having the inp and wlf files available. A lot of people just stream their game and don't have inp's to offer like Jeremy did or those posting to MARP. I listed it as a requirement but as long as it can be seen to be WolfMAME, I don't think there are any cheats available, and I don't think that one can really alter the emulation speed. Some people may not be aware of the adjustment so I have to becareful to exclude people on a technicality. Of course, having only WolfMAME allows us to check the inp and wlf files when they are offered, and hopefully they will be offered more often now for the reasons given by myself and Jeremy. Sharing save-states is much easier. Which I thought was a good idea. I hate to say it, but in reality it is easier to have a WolfMAME-only requirement and have one or two jump through a hoop or two, then to continually evaluate MAME programs. I don't even know what binaries are. Having people record the inp will make it so that pauses can't be used, and emulation speed can be checked easily in this program, otherwise I would have to watch every second of every game that is posted, and that is simply impractical for me. 

Edit: I am on my 7th .dll file download because when I try to open wlfview32 it keeps giving me more .dll files that my computer is missing. Is there an easy fix for this?

[stella_blue]

Edit: I am on my 7th .dll file download because when I try to open wlfview32 it keeps giving me more .dll files that my computer is missing. Is there an easy fix for this?

Yes, you'll need the GTK+ Toolkit (version 2.4 or later), which you can get here:

GTK+ for Windows Runtime Environment Installer

I've been using this one (with no problems):  gtk2-runtime-2.24.8-2011-12-03-ash.exe

[stella_blue]

I think Hank brought this up before, but Tongki Linderman in 87th place and Jimmy Linderman in 23rd place are the same person.

Hey Corey, the Linderman duplication has not yet been corrected.

Sounds like a movie title:  "The Linderman Duplication", in theaters everywhere on June 28th.

[corey.chambers]

Thanks that fixed the issue. Wlfviewer works now. What is checksum and how does that verify anything? I fixed the Linderman issue.

[gstrain]

Thanks that fixed the issue. Wlfviewer works now. What is checksum and how does that verify anything? I fixed the Linderman issue.

Checksum just checks to make sure the files aren't corrupt and also adds a bit of security by making is slightly harder to hack the files.   You're just looking to make sure the checksum test passes.

-George