United StatesDifficulty Switches don't affect the 100pt categories; Star and I took advantage of Game No. 2's higher speed to get a lower time
DSP = Difficulty Switch Position
The Super Metroid SRC page utilizes many different columns to display information about the specific run (they went way too far with columns imho). That could be the perfect solution here! Adding 2 columns to the board displaying Game Variation and DSP could:
- help prevent ignorance from new players, and
- allow runners to easily see what strategies are currently dominant per category.
Point 1 would prevent further instances of Dorito's frustration trying to run 500pts, as well as and my ignorance with Game Variation that made me submit Fast Moving Pac-Man categories unknowingly. Overall columns would allow for easier access of information allowing runners new to this game to be fully aware of the options at their disposal.
Selectors for the GameVar column would include the numbers 1-8 (In practice the Slow-Moving categories would only ever display 1, 2, 7, or 8; while the Fast-Moving would only display 3-6).
Selectors for the DSP column would include the letters A & B. Mockup:
In my testing DSP/A made Power Pellets last for 5 beeps, while on DSP/B they lasted for 10. BurgerTime Intellivision SRC page also utilizes columns. Difficulty Switch function is described here. My previous replies were bugging, I apologize for the clutter.
- Keep 100pt cat.
- In my opinion our options are: Ban Fast Moving Pac-Man, Allow him in existing categories, or Add a 2-option selector to each category to use either Slow Moving or Fast Moving Pac-Man.
- A Discord server could be interesting. I'm neutral on the idea but I would join.
C64 games can run on either PAL BIOS @50hz or on NTSC BIOS @60Hz, meaning NTSC runs games ~17% faster. Games such as Mario Kart 64 solve this issue by converting times, since that game behaves exactly the same either way, just at a differing speed. This may work for C64 Pac-Man but I am unsure if the same ROM behaves the same way on different BIOSes. Another option is to find out what BIOS the game was intended for. If for the slower PAL BIOS, then ban NTSC. If for the faster NTSC BIOS, then PAL becomes obsoleted anyway. A game's sound design can sound too fast or too slow when using a certain BIOS, meaning this can be used to presume a game's intended BIOS.. blah blah. I can't tell one way or the other for C64 Pac-Man based off of sound nor can i find anything online so.. whatever the mods decide, whether it be banning/allowing NTSC, or making separate categories, is cool wit me.
I'm unsure when to start the time on C64 Pac-Man. The 2 existing 10,000pts runs start on last menu input before game start. I don't mind this but it should at least be clarified in the rules. I would personally go for something like "Time starts when 'READY!' appears/reappears onscreen as the jingle starts" to account for the ingame Soft Reset function.
Certain Commodore 64 Pac-Man ROMs ask to enable things like Invincibility, Infinite Lives, etc. I feel enabling these settings should be explicitly banned in the rules. Use of the ROM itself is okay; as long as they press N to deny enabling of the cheats.
This is a sick idea for sure. People would definitely pick this game back up.
I personally think this page could benefit from a 10,000 Point run category. It could be a fun and interesting category to develop and other games such as Pac-Man have similar categories. I also love this game and want more excuses to run it lol. Please consider.
I am wondering why the page for this game is underdeveloped. I feel it should be formatted more like the Pac-man page with the different run categories as tabs, then you click a dropdown and choose which port of the game you want to see runs for. Also, the original game was the Arcade version, not the NES port. The list of ports according to Wikipedia are: Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Intellivision, Odyssey², NES, TI-99/4A, and Mobile. These should all be listed at the top of the page as well, and the image should be changed to an art or image reflecting the original Arcade version of Popeye. Please take these suggestions into consideration.
