David Haywood’s MAME(tm) WIP

I’ll admit, this post has very little to do with emulation, but, if you’re a fan of arcade style games (and chances are, if you’re reading this site, you are) then you’ll probably be interested to know that a brand new version of Geon is out today (in the US, Next week in Europe) on PSN / Playstation Network.

I’ve spent the last couple of months working at Strawdog Studios on this project and can honesty say it’s shaped up to be a highly enjoyable arcade style game, especially the online multiplayer modes, and high-score style challenge of the time attack mode (complete with leaderboards)

Like most arcade games the rules are simple, and the action is fast paced. You must keep an eye on your opponent(s) while strategically planning and collecting pellets before going on a mad dash to score a goal.

Parts of the game have been significantly reworked since the original XBLA release (which was put out prior to my arrival at Strawdog Studios) and overall it’s resulted in a more enjoyable, more competitive and more challenging version of the game.

The whole game is bright & colourful with a visual style very much of it’s own, and as a fan of arcade games I can only say it’s a crying shame this was never a real arcade game because I think it would have worked really well. It grabs your attention and always offers a challenge.

I’ve really enjoyed working on the game, it’s been a big change from the usual emulation tasks I work on in my own time, and it’s highly rewarding to see an actual title I’ve contributed towards released on a major platform. I hope if any readers here do buy the game from the PSN store they’ll find it just as enjoyable to play.

(end plug)

As a side-note, if you don’t have a PS3 yet it’s definitely worth making a note that it’s the also the only current console platform with an approved version of MAME (SDLMame can be compiled for PS3 Linux) and while performance isn’t really on-par with a good PC (due to the PS3 architecture, limitations of Linux on the system, and only really using a single core) it’s still pretty good.

In other news, I helped dox with the Chanbara driver, fixing up the sprites. It’s a rather obscure dual joystick game from Data East, not really their best game but definitely one of their rarer ones.

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*edit* Geon is out on PSN in Europe now, a few reviews are staring to appear too. Geon PSN review

I’ve not had much time for MAME stuff recently, between ‘behind the scenes’ work, and taking another look at some Sega stuff (32x support in HazeMD) I’ve not really done a lot.

I took a quick look at a ‘Space Win’ set from Playmark that showed up recently, appears to run on the same hardware as Super Derby (different memory map tho) When it first booted under another title I wondered if the set was mislabeled, but it turns out the title / gfx type is selectable in the test mode.

still needs proper gfx offsets and inputs properly mapping.

I’m also taking this chance to highly recommend “Don’t Forget To Remember” by Puressence. Best album of last year by a mile, by a seriously underrated who haven’t put out a bad album to date. Money well spent.