Choplifter in M.A.M.E.

[Brutal DLX]

I've been using M.A.M.E. for quite a while now. Absolutely love playing the original arcade versions. One problem, though: I've never been able to get Choplifter working. Anybody had any success?

[h0ffman]

Funny you should mention that, i was playing it in CCS64 the other day and thought I'd have a go a the MAME version and couldnt get it working either.

[Brutal DLX]

I know there's a bootleg version that allegedly works, but I've never had any luck getting it to run. From memory, it gets to the first screen of the game and freezes.

When I first got into MAME, I had a smiliar problem with Xevious. I ended up downloading an earlier version of MAME and it actually worked. I've tried the same thing with Choplifter, but no luck so far.

While I'm quite fond of the C64, I have to say that the C64 version of Choplifter isn't exactly brilliant. I've been so desperate to play the arcade version of the game, I've even resorted to running FreezeSMS and playing the old Sega version.

[tomcat666]

The unprotected version works fine in the latest mame (it did for as long as I can remember that it is in mame)...

[Brutal DLX]

Interesting... I probably should have pointed out that I use Extra MAME, which is a GUI wrapper for MAME. I'll try running the unprotected versions in MAME (without using Extra MAME) and see if they work...

[tomcat666]

I am using the MameUI 64bit version. You do need to wait for quite some time before the game ends the checksum, but its not more than a minute or so...

[jotd]

Originally Posted by Brutal DLX

I know there's a bootleg version that allegedly works, but I've never had any luck getting it to run. From memory, it gets to the first screen of the game and freezes.

When I first got into MAME, I had a smiliar problem with Xevious. I ended up downloading an earlier version of MAME and it actually worked. I've tried the same thing with Choplifter, but no luck so far.

While I'm quite fond of the C64, I have to say that the C64 version of Choplifter isn't exactly brilliant. I've been so desperate to play the arcade version of the game, I've even resorted to running FreezeSMS and playing the old Sega version.

The best version is reported to be Apple II version. Arcade version is too difficult.

The problem with MAME is that they're integrists when it comes to the ROMS. At some point your ROM is OK, and the next moment it does not work anymore because some hardcoded stuff has been removed and now is in the new romset that 2 or 3 people only own legally but are not able to dump them anyway So you have to juggle between 2 or 3 versions of MAME to play all your games, or try to get them from ROM world or ROM nation (both excellent ROM providers).

OT: The most ridiculous MAME affair is with Marble Madness II : Marble Man.
Only 3 people have working cabinets and the ROMs are nowhere to be found.
A MAME driver has allegedly been written but is not available. Do you think the guy who wrote the driver deleted the ROMs afterwards (because it's very unlikely that one of the owners has the skills to write a MAME driver, even if one of them is particularly good at electronics and could repair his board himself) ?
Such an hypocrisy... and this for a 1991 game noone could sell now...

[Brutal DLX]

Originally Posted by tomcat666

I am using the MameUI 64bit version. You do need to wait for quite some time before the game ends the checksum, but its not more than a minute or so...

I just downloaded MameUI (32 bit version for me) and lo and behold, Choplifter runs without a problem. Awesome.

[tomcat666]

Originally Posted by jotd

OT: The most ridiculous MAME affair is with Marble Madness II : Marble Man.
Only 3 people have working cabinets and the ROMs are nowhere to be found.
A MAME driver has allegedly been written but is not available. Do you think the guy who wrote the driver deleted the ROMs afterwards (because it's very unlikely that one of the owners has the skills to write a MAME driver, even if one of them is particularly good at electronics and could repair his board himself) ?
Such an hypocrisy... and this for a 1991 game noone could sell now...

Unfortunetly 99% of the people are generally greedy. They figure (and they are probably right) that since there are only 3 cabinets around and no ROM dump exists it will make it worth MUCH more then if the ROM dump was available and everyone would be able to play the game on the computer...
It does suck though Because of greediness we will probably never see or play this game.

[Brutal DLX]

Originally Posted by jotd

The best version is reported to be Apple II version. Arcade version is too difficult.

I'll see how I go with the arcade version. I'd be interested to have another look at the Apple II version anyway. We used to have Apple IIes at my high school back in the mid 1980s (in fact, we had more Apple IIes than pcs).

Originally Posted by jotd

The problem with MAME is that they're integrists when it comes to the ROMS. At some point your ROM is OK, and the next moment it does not work anymore because some hardcoded stuff has been removed and now is in the new romset that 2 or 3 people only own legally but are not able to dump them anyway So you have to juggle between 2 or 3 versions of MAME to play all your games, or try to get them from ROM world or ROM nation (both excellent ROM providers).

OT: The most ridiculous MAME affair is with Marble Madness II : Marble Man.
Only 3 people have working cabinets and the ROMs are nowhere to be found.
A MAME driver has allegedly been written but is not available. Do you think the guy who wrote the driver deleted the ROMs afterwards (because it's very unlikely that one of the owners has the skills to write a MAME driver, even if one of them is particularly good at electronics and could repair his board himself) ?
Such an hypocrisy... and this for a 1991 game noone could sell now...

Yes, I remember reading about the "integrity" factor with MAME. I suppose for the majority of us end users, the ability to actually play an old game outweighs any ideas of "purity". I find the philosophy quite anal.

As for Marble Madness II, I didn't even know that existed!

[adolescent]

SMS Choplifter was pretty good too. The C64 and Apple versions are still the best. (Apple played on monochrome brings back memories...)

[Qun Mang]

Originally Posted by tomcat666

Unfortunetly 99% of the people are generally greedy. They figure (and they are probably right) that since there are only 3 cabinets around and no ROM dump exists it will make it worth MUCH more then if the ROM dump was available and everyone would be able to play the game on the computer...
It does suck though Because of greediness we will probably never see or play this game.

This had been discussed several times at the old mame.net and mameworld.info and the story for this game apparently is a few of the original developers helped repair the Marbleman machines with the qualification that the rom images could never be given to be used in emulation. The owner of the machines we're told has contributed other games though, so he is not a greedy hoarder.

EDIT: I just fired up MAME (one of the recent releases) and tried Choplifter. The bootleg and unprotected sets both work fine. The bootleg skips the IC test so that might be the best choice for the impatient who don't want to have to wait to play. And yes, it is quite difficult, even after setting the dipswitch to easy. Or maybe I just need some practice.

[jotd]

Originally Posted by Qun Mang

The owner of the machines we're told has contributed other games though, so he is not a greedy hoarder.

The owner commited himself not to distribute his roms. I understand why he keeps his promise. But after all those years someone should unleash them at last!

[Codetapper]

It will be amusing when their boards die and they are the proud owners of one of only 3 original broken versions in existence.

[tomcat666]

Originally Posted by Qun Mang

The owner of the machines we're told has contributed other games though, so he is not a greedy hoarder.

Maybe he is not a hoarder but in my book it is greedy... noone else but those 3 people will be able to play the game... maybe ever. What would you call that then ?

[Qun Mang]

He regularly brings the Marbleman machines to one of those arcade shows, I forget which, but it's not anywhere where I could afford to go right now so while others can play them once or twice a year I'm not one of them. Everyone who's played it says it's terrible though, but like many I really would like to find out for myself.