Donkey Kong High Score List General Discussion

[gstrain]

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?

Requiring a version of WolfMAME and .inp files would be the easiest way to deal with MAME.  It would require folks that stream to also always record, but it would make it easier to make sure no pausing is going on and that no slowdown was occurring.  With arcade you don't have to worry about those, but with a stream of MAME the only way to check is to watch the whole thing.

It's your list so you'll need to decide where to draw the line on how much "authentication" you want to enforce, while still making it relatively easy to get scores listed.  My vote would be to require a version of WolfMAME and require the .inp file to be available or the score to have been verified by TG.  That's fairly strict since it requires always recording, but I don't think it is unreasonable.

-George

[corey.chambers]

I have already added the requirement for people to begin adding the inp, etc to their post. It may take a little while for people to catch on to that so I will allow a period for a transition. Thanks for your insights.

[Svavar]

Following up on getting a video of the owner of Chassis arcade stating that my game was done on 3 men settings. Julian (in the video) is one of two co-owners of Chassis arcade. He recorded one of the clips that I uploaded of the ending of my 1,008,800 game. I know the quality is horrible, I recorded this on my phone which has terrible video/sound quality but I still think you can make out what he says.

Chassis arcade says: 3 men settings

[corey.chambers]

Thanks for the video, Svavar.

On another topic, I have included the new requirement of having a player include an attachment of the zip folder containing the .inp and .wlf files to their score post. I am also keeping the list WolfMAME only. There are several reasons for these items.

WolfMAME is used by all of us. Apart from the few that TG may have allowed many years ago all of our MAME scores are WolfMAME. The present required emulator by TG is WolfMAME .106. We are going to allow any version of WolfMAME. We can more easily verify our scores and share saved states with a single emulator. Much can be said for us all using the same emulator.

Requiring people to post the zip folder containing the .inp and .wlf files allows me to verify the checksum and speed of emulation. It also requires the player to Play and Record which will automatically disallow pausing, so this will never be an issue. If someone is recording and had used cheats (if there are any for DK) then the input will not play back for me at all. This will also help with the concern of people trying to stream a MAME game that looks real through software and save-states which had been mentioned at one time. Requiring the inp and wlf files will eliminate this streaming issue. Having the files adds evidence to the list which I will hyperlink as INP in the source category. If anyone has their .inp and .wlf files for the game they have on the list, please feel free to put a copy of these into a zip folder and attach it to a post in this thread.

If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.

[SQUIIDUX]

WE HAVE A RULING!
do dispel all doubt i have attached a screen shot of my desktop to show the commands run and i have included a zip with my inp and wlf file i made as a test. please let me know if this would be acceptable for a score submission.

Setup:
Ubuntu 11.10 Server (64bit)
Wolfmame .106 operating (for windows) in wine
as you can see from the terminal window it was running at 60.000044 for 10813 frames (this was during playback) and 60.000038 (during recording, not pictured)
 

[corey.chambers]

SQUIIDUX, this looks fine. If you are on the list of streamers, stream your game and then post the highlight and the zip folder with the .wlf and .inp files, then I think it would be acceptable for a score submission. Thanks for your patience.

[danman123456]

I just use a .bat file to play DK so its ALWAYS recording and increments it. I probably have 200 inp files I should clean up at this time.

[marinomitch13]

Following up on getting a video of the owner of Chassis arcade stating that my game was done on 3 men settings. Julian (in the video) is one of two co-owners of Chassis arcade. He recorded one of the clips that I uploaded of the ending of my 1,008,800 game. I know the quality is horrible, I recorded this on my phone which has terrible video/sound quality but I still think you can make out what he says.

Chassis arcade says: 3 men settings

Excellent! Thanks Svavar! It was good of you to make this video since your score didn't quite fit the normative rules at the time. I think Corey amended them since, but it never hurts to provide as much evidence as you can just to be safe (even though I'm sure everyone on DKF believed you). Thanks again!

[JNugent]

I unfortunately overwrote my inp for my 229k that was recently posted to the high score list.  If you need to take it down, that's okay.  Like I said, I'm planning on upping my score again very soon.  Good addition to the submission rules!

[SQUIIDUX]

newer versions on wolfmame do not produce .wlf files. any guidance on this?

http://www.classicarcadegaming.com/forums/index.php?topic=1138.0

[corey.chambers]

I am not going to take it down. That is not how I am working with this new added criteria. It is just some added security from this point forward. It may take awhile for people to become aware of it and to get into the habit of always clicking Play and Record input. Let alone restarting a new input at the beginning of each game. Hopefully this is what people do, because getting an input that has lots of games on it before the actual score is annoying, lol. Having the game streamed on Twitch was good enough at the time, this is just a little more added security to address some concerns. I am hoping that this gets around quickly so that we don't get a lot of MAME submissions that don't offer the zip folder with files. I am not going to be removing any scores for the same reason I am not going to be removing any TG scores that were not done on WolfMAME back in the day. I will allow a set period of time for it to become known, and then it will be fully enforced.

[corey.chambers]

SQUIIDUX, I downloaded a newer version of MAME but I can't figure out how to even record an input so that I can see what can be done to view it. Anybody have the easy, quick instructions for this.

[SQUIIDUX]

if you run it from the command line it should be /path/to/mame.exe -rec nameofrecording /path/to/rom

[SQUIIDUX]

Please let me know if this would be acceptable for a score submission:

http://www.justin.tv/squiidux/c/2407801

Setup:
Ubuntu Server 11.10 running WindowsXP (VirtualBox)
Wolfmame 0.106
.wlf and .inp included in this post...

[corey.chambers]

Looks good. You don't need to show the fps or the speed because my check on the inp and wlf files shows this to me. Are you on the list of streamers? https://donkeykongforum.net/index.php?topic=3.0. You will want to be on that list so people have the opportunity to see your streams.