Sega8bit & SMS Power! 2013 Event - 10th August

[Phil]

I had a great time and it was good that new faces attended as well as the 'usual suspects'.

Shame we didn't use the handle controller and footpedals in one of the events games. Maybe next year we could hook up 2 sets and play F1 or Super Monaco GP...

Anyway already looking forwards to next year's meet...

[flatapex]

F1 or super monaco gp sounds good mate, I have both (well super monaco gp is on master games 1 but it isnt hard to get it on its own)

Great to meet you yesterday mate, oh and I dont think I mentioned on here, the mega drive I got free off mike downstairs when I bought that bundle of games is now working, I spent about 20 seconds this morning cleaning it up, I'll get the casing cleaned up later this week.

the group shot


front row left to right: ninjabearhug, playgeneration, jono (will edit with his username when he signs up), flatapex
back row left to right: rupert, ian, phil, maxim

Thanks to Mike from retrogamer forums for taking the picture of us

[Deleted]

Nice to see that you all had fun. Playgen got the cup, yeah? Congratz, gambler

[rupert]

Thats a good photo of everyone. I may actually practice a bit this year ready for next time!

[ian]

Had a great time as usual, thanks to everyone who came. Apologies if I wasn't quite myself, I've been pretty ill the last few days (I'm currently bedridden).

Wasn't sure if I preferred being upstairs or not. It was definitely easier to move about in than the snug.
Congrats to Playgen on winning the competition, well deserved. I didn't see Maxim's method of points calculation though, so perhaps I should demand a recount

Thanks for putting up the photo flatapex, your article has now also been published on the website: www.smstributes.co.uk/view_page.asp?articleid=252

I've also put together a video from the footage I got, it's nothing exciting though!

[flatapex]

Aug 12, 2013 13:20:13 GMT ian said:

Had a great time as usual, thanks to everyone who came. Apologies if I wasn't quite myself, I've been pretty ill the last few days (I'm currently bedridden).

Wasn't sure if I preferred being upstairs or not. It was definitely easier to move about in than the snug.
Congrats to Playgen on winning the competition, well deserved. I didn't see Maxim's method of points calculation though, so perhaps I should demand a recount

Thanks for putting up the photo flatapex, your article has now also been published on the website: www.smstributes.co.uk/view_page.asp?articleid=252

I've also put together a video from the footage I got, it's nothing exciting though!

I agree the room we had was much better than the snug, I cant imagine 8 people and 5 systems fitting in there comfortably. Especially as being downstairs there would be more interest from random passers by than upstairs. Hope you feel better soon mate

[rupert]

Good write up Andy, nice to hear a newcomers take on the event.

Also, enjoyed the video but now feel the need to go on a diet!! I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I didnt make more of an effort to come in to Manchester earlier and join in the retro shopping trip. I know all the locations well but it would have been cool to actually walk around them with other people actually interested rather than dragging people from the office who arent bothered about it.

[flatapex]

Aug 12, 2013 20:25:02 GMT rupert said:

Good write up Andy, nice to hear a newcomers take on the event.

Also, enjoyed the video but now feel the need to go on a diet!! I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I didnt make more of an effort to come in to Manchester earlier and join in the retro shopping trip. I know all the locations well but it would have been cool to actually walk around them with other people actually interested rather than dragging people from the office who arent bothered about it.

Thanks mate

I'll be up for a retro shopping trip one day, I get one weekday off every 4 weeks when I work saturdays, plus up this neck of the woods we have a legendary electronic junk shop turned retro store, he does px too so might have to see if I can get some md stuff now its been resusitated.

[rupert]

Aug 12, 2013 20:49:54 GMT flatapex said:

Aug 12, 2013 20:25:02 GMT rupert said:

Good write up Andy, nice to hear a newcomers take on the event.

Also, enjoyed the video but now feel the need to go on a diet!! I'm a bit annoyed with myself that I didnt make more of an effort to come in to Manchester earlier and join in the retro shopping trip. I know all the locations well but it would have been cool to actually walk around them with other people actually interested rather than dragging people from the office who arent bothered about it.

Thanks mate

I'll be up for a retro shopping trip one day, I get one weekday off every 4 weeks when I work saturdays, plus up this neck of the woods we have a legendary electronic junk shop turned retro store, he does px too so might have to see if I can get some md stuff now its been resusitated.

I've been in that shop a few times, its a real shame he kept so many games in the window to get sun damaged

[lambrettadave]

Sorry I wasnt able to make it this year, hopefully next time I can make it.

Thanks for posting the vid too and well done play generation for Winning

[flatapex]

Aug 12, 2013 20:59:11 GMT rupert said:

Aug 12, 2013 20:49:54 GMT flatapex said:

Thanks mate

I'll be up for a retro shopping trip one day, I get one weekday off every 4 weeks when I work saturdays, plus up this neck of the woods we have a legendary electronic junk shop turned retro store, he does px too so might have to see if I can get some md stuff now its been resusitated.

I've been in that shop a few times, its a real shame he kept so many games in the window to get sun damaged

one of those was my copy of golvellius, only cost me £4, shame though as it would have been an amazing find in the right condition

[Batman666]

Looks like you had a lot of fun

Quartet arcade! No wonder you use that pub

The 3D Out Run with glasses plus flight controller and I'm guessing paddles was an awesome combo

[Maxim]

rupert: You did win the Putt & Putter competition, possibly due to us not trying to screw with each other, I'm not sure anyone else had the restraint necessary... (It'd probably be better to have a 1-player points-based competition to avoid that.)

The competition was a bit light on simultaneous two-player games, which I think work better overall; you get more rounds in a knockout tournament (even more if you want to get a full ranking), but I think it's a lot more fun that way.

I thought the upstairs room was initially disappointing - the website pictures don't show it painted black with non-removable black cloth over the windows - but you get used to it after a while. The snug is a lot more characterful, but really cramped and probably not much lighter. You end up spilling out into the bar and not playing games as much. I think I prefer it though.

Here's the competition results...

Sonic The Hedgehog
Rules: Stage 1-1, score the number of seconds on the clock + the number of rings you collect × 2. If you lose rings, either be honest (and add them up) or die and try again. Lowest total wins.

Person	Time	Rings	Total	Rank
flatapex	0:44	11	66	8
ian	0:32	10	52	3
Jono	0:32	11	54	4
Maxim	0:34	13	60	5
ninjabearhug	0:38	12	62	6=
phil	0:37	7	51	2
playgeneration	0:33	6	45	1
rupert	0:40	11	62	6=

Ms. Pac-Man
A bit of a wildcard, given that everyone knows how to play Pac-Man but nobody ever played Ms. Pac-Man in two-player competitive mode before. We figured out the techniques as the games progressed so some of the earlier players felt a bit hard done by... and there was a bit of continuation on the game after we finished as a result. But it didn't count for the competition

Winner is whoever has the most points at the end of level 1 on the default settings.

Round 1:
Jono beat ninjabearhug
playgeneration beat rupert
flatapex beat phil
maxim beat ian

Losers are all 5th equal.

Round 2:
playgeneration beat Jono
flatapex beat Maxim

Losers are all 3rd equal.

Final:
playgeneration beat flatapex

Competition cart
Rules:
Play Alex Kidd in Miracle World level 1, followed by Hang On up to the first Goal market, followed by Columns with default settings. Your game ends after 4 minutes total spent in all three games. Your score is the money collected in AKMW × 128 + score in Hang On + score in Columns × 8.

It turns out that's a bit unbalanced as the score in Hang On is pretty much fixed at 19-20K, it's hard to score in Columns and thus the best payoff is to get as much money as possible in AKMW... which only playgeneration seemed to figure out during the competition.

Also, I had to fix some bug in the scoring after people had had a bit of practice... but it should mean next year's will be less buggy! I'll start some techinal discussion of it over on SMS Power! at some point if anyone's interested.

Person	Points	Rank
flatapex	29190	7
ian	63180	4
Jono	0	8
Maxim	68200	3
ninjabearhug	69810	2
phil	56190	6
playgeneration	71240	1
rupert	58600	5

Putt & Putter
Rules:
Play course 1 in 2-player mode and record your score. Lowest wins!

Person	Score	Rank
flatapex	47	8
ian	24	2=
Jono	35	5
Maxim	24	2=
ninjabearhug	37	6
phil	26	4
playgeneration	41	7
rupert	23	1

Missile Defense 3-D
Rules:
Using the official oche, i.e. a chair, score as much as you can on round 1. Using the 3D glasses was optional, although switching the game out of 3D mode wasn't.

Person	Points	Rank
flatapex	3750	6
ian	13250	1
Jono	3350	7
Maxim	8350	3
ninjabearhug	8700	2
phil	3000	8
playgeneration	7300	5
rupert	7600	4

Overall results
Rules:
8th place = 1 point
7th place = 2 points
6th place = 3 points
5th place = 4 points
4th place = 5 points
3rd place = 6 points
2nd place = 8 points
1st place = 10 points

Rank	Person	Points
1	playgeneration	36
2	ian	33
3	Maxim	30
4=	ninjabearhug	26
4=	rupert	26
6	phil	21
7	Jono	18
8	flatapex	15

This is a little different to what I did on the day, as I hadn't handled ties properly; fixing that spread out the top 3 a bit but didn't change the positions. It turns out this scoring business is more complicated that you might think...

[flatapex]

ah yes black walls with non removable black sheets on the walls, laurence llewelyn bowen meets teenage goth that listened to too much bauhaus, the cure and marilyn manson.

having said that i'm not one to talk, my games room used to house my lodger before I settled down with laura and I still havent pained the lilac walls with something a bit more manly

[playgeneration]

It was a grand day out, enjoyed it a lot and it was a welcome distraction from the craziness in my life recently! I don' t know where I'm looking in the photo, typical for me
I guess not practicing playing any games at all lately is the way to go, didn't expect to do well at all let alone take the trophy this year for the first time, very pleased with that result

Aug 13, 2013 13:46:43 GMT Maxim said:

It turns out that's a bit unbalanced as the score in Hang On is pretty much fixed at 19-20K, it's hard to score in Columns and thus the best payoff is to get as much money as possible in AKMW... which only playgeneration seemed to figure out during the competition.

Actually I kind of took the opposite approach, rushed through Alex Kidd as fast as I could, while still collecting the easily hit money in that quick route, so I could have as much time as possible in Columns to rack up a decent score in that.

I thought the competition cart was great, you did a great job on it, I'd like to put it on a standalone cartridge for myself too sometime.