Here we go again, round and round, howling at the full moon! Unfortunately it's seems to be bows and arrows against the lightning. It's all been said before but here I go again ...(posted 9154 days ago)Several people want to administer/formulate new policies on MARP. Most of the new rules people want introduced pertain to cheating (either deliberate or unintentional). However none of those proponents for new rules are in a position to implement said policy despite what appears to be overwhelming support. The main reason for this is probably because it's too much work to put into place.
Check out my board entry "Non Standard Recordings - It's Getting Irritating" for my previous harrangue on the subject.
I still believe the best approach is to introduce a standard upload template of questions (for both tournament and MARP leaderboard) that has to accompany any uploaded recording. Below is a sample template that I use with all my recordings and would be a good starting point. It includes all the favourites - autofire, slomo, pausing, rerecording etc. I hope it cut and paste's alright:
STANDARD RECORDING INFORMATION
01. Name/Player 02. Initials 03. Date recorded 04. Game 05. Romname 06. Score 07. Stage 08. Recording Time 09. Dip switch settings 10. MAME version? 11. OS Version 12. Sound
ADDITIONAL RECORDING INFORMATION
13. Settings/command line used in recording 14. Where did you get your version of MAME? 15. Specify system details CPU : Memory: Video : 16. What input hardware did you use? 17. Did you have cheats enabled? If so specify what cheats you used. 18. Did you use any slow motion software? If so please specify. 19. What framerate was reported by MAME at the end of your recording (fps)? 20. Did you use autofire? 21. How often did you pause the game in the recording? 22. Please indicate other hardware/software methods used to make the game easier? 23. Any other pertinent details surrounding the recording?
Recordings will then be rejected (deleted) if
1. Any questions aren't answered (or don't make sense) on the standard upload form. 2. If any answers turn out to be false as demonstrated by other MARP users.
Finally, only certain answers are acceptable to be elgible for leaderboard points. e.g. framerate within 95% of 60 fps etc. Defining what's acceptable and what's not will have to go to a MARP vote.
My view is if your machine can't perform within acceptable limits for a given game then find another game or upgrade. I can't image any serious competitor having any time for people who upload recordings at 60% correct framerate. That is a joke, a very sad joke.
A good way to force the issue is to adopt Mark's tournament MAME.