Can Stack Columns be added on this site?
2 years ago
Michigan, USA

I read the rules for requesting games, and it looks like a moderator needs to do that. I've discovered a game called Stack Columns, released for arcades in 1994, which is very similar to Columns III with a tournament storyline.

Here, your father has died a mysterious death 10 years ago while he was participating in the "Rose Stack Tournament." And now, you have to win your way to the finals in this tournament, to meet the master and get the truth of your father's death. It's very difficult to 1CC this game, sort of like it's very difficult to get a time worth something at Columns III on Hard.

I've managed the 1CC once with 214,231, and even attempted to record it for a speedrun (in fact it was originally supposed to be only a test, but I turned it into the 1CC!), but the video came in almost non-existent a bit into the game (getting down to one frame per MINUTE) while the audio was intact at least. I was using OBS Studio, and it only seems to be this bad if I go into MAME from Windows PowerShell. It's not perfect for recording, say, Columns III windowed on my desktop, but at least I can see my gameplay and it kind of comes and goes. I can at least use it to get commentary and prove I didn't pause emulation in the emulator's built-in recording, but I'm not sure if "double recording" will slow down the OBS one or even the Fusion one, possibly leaving me without a good video! That will require further testing.

I don't want to spoil the "true" ending here right now.

RoyTheDragon has a "quickplay" video of this on YouTube which scores an amazing 360,391 and 1CC's the game, and because high scores are so closely associated with fast times, it would actually make a good speedrun even with letting the time bonus tick at the end! The time comes in at about 12:05, and it could have been about 11:52 if the last time bonus was skipped. You can watch it here:

It would be left up to a moderator to decide whether the 1CC is required, as well as standards of proof. At least I know now I don't have to jump straight to becoming a moderator to ask for this game! I can do it here and in messages to moderators.

So do you think Stack Columns can be added to this game series on the site with Roy's time here? There are a few other 1CC's on YouTube and Twitch, but the next best score (262,413 by Rubycored) is a "longplay" which shows everything about single-player mode, and the others have lower scores, so they aren't really fit for speedruns. Perhaps someone can put instructions on how to get MAME and Stack Columns to work so people can play!