Atarilympics Poll/Suggestion Thread

[bjk7382]

So it's very likely that in any further competitions, I'll likely ...disallow emulators

Please don't , that would (have to) be the end of my participation.

 

I think you missed this part

not offer any prizes, or disallow emulators

So as long as there is no prize to be won, I think emulators would be allowed.

[Shannon]

So it's very likely that in any further competitions, I'll likely ...disallow emulators

Please don't , that would (have to) be the end of my participation.

 

Agreed... Do any of the atari emulators have the ability to display the average framerate? Maybe a requirement would be that an emulator be running full speed.

 

I didn't exactly participate or pay a whole alot of attention to the olympic HSC (not much for sports games) so I may be shooting in the dark here. But why not do like in the real olympics where each team decides WHO will participate in which events.

[Shannon]

Just another thought, but maybe requiring emulator users to take pictures (with a digital camera) of their scores might limit photo-shop like editing.

[keilbaca]

now that's a good idea... especially when you run an emu on my tv, it looks exactly like the real thing.

[Shannon]

now that's a good idea... especially when you run an emu on my tv, it looks exactly like the real thing.

 

Shhhh you werent supposed to say that...

[keilbaca]

now that's a good idea... especially when you run an emu on my tv, it looks exactly like the real thing.

 

Shhhh you werent supposed to say that...

 

 

Not too many people has video cards that good anyways. Besides, I prefer the real hardware, using a psx stick on a off-timed emulators sucks.

[gdement]

I didn't participate, but the competition was pretty entertaining. I do have a suggestion though:

 

 

I'd like to see the events scheduled to occur for a specific period of time, as happens in the real olympics. For example, the swimming events could be scheduled from Day 1- Day 6 or whatever. Meanwhile the javelin would be scheduled from days 5-7, and so on. On any given day there would be a limited number of events that are currently running.

 

This would help even out the number of scores being posted, since different events would be ending on different days. Also, I think most people would rather not have to worry about monitoring and defending a medal score for weeks. Once somebody is done with an event, they'd probably like it to end within a few days so they can forget about it. By having everyone compete in a limited number of events at a time, there will be more score-wars and the competitiveness will be more even throughout the 2 weeks. And every time an event ends, the results of that event will lend themselves to more spirited rivalries in the upcoming events.

 

I think running 30-something events all at once is too confusing, and people feel little incentive to post early since there's too much time left for their scores to hold up.

 

There might be some problems with how to handle the team participation rules, since by the time a team realizes they need more scores from a certain team member, there might not be enough events left.

[Jeffy Arensmeyer]

It would be tough to eliminate emus, especially if you include games like Track & Field. Many people aren't going to have the games, so you've alienated more than half the field by excluding emus.

 

And cheating should be valued for what it's worth. To put restrictive rules on everything from emus, to photos, to joysticks, just for a friendly "merit-type" system is somewhat overkill. The cheaters will cheat, or at least cause enough confusion to periodically disrupt trust and confidence. This shouldn't evolve into photos of scores signed in blood. This should be incentive for everyone to know the games well enough to decisively "call out" cheaters and elminate them, instead of "How is that possible", or "It must be the emu" or "What kind of stick", etc.

 

Some type of system for event scheduling is needed as well. Announce all of the games upfront, but have specific time periods for each event. And as a reinforcement for all events, limit any team member to a specific number of score posts per event. Essentially everyone would be allowed to post no more than 3-5 scores for any one event. That would help keep the thread from "photo clogging" as well as reduce the so-called sniping. If you've posted your 3-5 photos, hope they stand or save some shots for the next event.

 

And I've not said it in this thread, but I thoroughly enjoyed the games and thought they went very well. Ze_ro has taken a large bull by the horns and won. Thanx for all you've done, and continue to do here.

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[Thomas Jentzsch]

The deadline should be somewhere around midnight Middle European time. Then we could snipe too.

 

But I agree (IIRC I had suggested that at the beginning of the competition anyway), different periods, where you have to submit a number of scores are IMO a good idea.

[the 5th ghost]

Make screenshots mandatory for (medal) results.  

 

If somebody wants to cheat, he should at least invest some extra efford.

 

Mandatory screenshots would eliminate me from future competitions because I do not have the means to produce screenshots

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Mandatory screenshots would eliminate me from future competitions because I do not have the means to produce screenshots  

As long as you can use emulators too, there shouldn't be any problem.

 

Or just borrow a modern mobile phone from a friend.

[the 5th ghost]

Mandatory screenshots would eliminate me from future competitions because I do not have the means to produce screenshots  

As long as you can use emulators too, there shouldn't be any problem.

 

Or just borrow a modern mobile phone from a friend.

 

Hehe, I don't have any friends with those fancy phones

 

Not that I can't use emulators, I just choose not to. Nothing can replace the feeling and play of the actual hardware in my opinion, and I love the Atari so much that I can't bring myself to have an affair with an emulator

 

One of my Lime Smiley team-mates didn't have a Decathlon cart so I hooked him up with my spare copy so he could play the real deal. T'n'F I know is a rarer title but when teams assemble, it should be known who has what so each team can have someone that owns at least one of the carts for the competition.

 

I'm just not convinced yet on the whole emulator thing. Obviously it serves a great purpose for many gamers out there and without them, many wouldn't have been able to participate; and I'm not one for excluding other gamers. I just haven't been able to bring myself to use them yet.

[liquid_sky]

i was busy with work and then violently ill with a stomach virus.. but the skill level was a bit out of my range and offsetting to my willpower i guess.

[sku_u]

So it's very likely that in any further competitions, I'll likely either purposely not offer any prizes, or disallow emulators (and likely *require* pictures).

 

--Zero

 

Disallowing emulators would restrict the field to the point where there's no reason to run a contest, especially when games carrying a rarity of 3 or higher are chosen to be part of that contest. PAL TVs have a different refresh rate than NTSC TVs. I was told that PAL games are slightly faster than NTSC games. Does this mean they should also be eliminated to level the field?

 

Unless you're having a major prize awarded at the end, requiring pictures is more than enough.

 

I enjoyed playing these games and competing in the competition even though I didn't put up the scores of the superstars of the competition. These button masher type games have always been difficult for me. Games requiring tight steering, or quick reactions, like Galaga have always been my forte. The one gripe I had was that the team aspect of the competition was too confusing. I couldn't figure out who was playing what or when, so I simply played the games and entered the scores I thought were competetive. I like the earlier suggestion of emphasizing individual achievements while having the team aspect mostly being a loose one like it is in the real olympics should you do something like this again; and I think a Halloween tournament focused in on a few "horror" classics would be a nice time to do something like this again.

 

I also think that the setup of both this and the HSC as it currently stands isn't working out. The same people are putting up the kind of scores every week that the casual gamer can't compete with. To stimulate more interest in the HSC, I suggest having two brackets: a "professional" bracket for players who have records over at Twin Galaxies or seem to dominate on a semi-regular basis and a "novice" bracket for people who either don't have the time, or don't have the knowledge of the games being played each week. I suppose things could also be handicapped like they are in bowling and pocket billiards (another passion of mine) leagues, but it would probably result in more of a headache for Ze_ro. I'm sure by now it'd be pretty easy to figure out who should be in what bracket if a change does occur.

[Shannon]

Hmmm, I dunno. I've always ignored the higher scores and was happy to make it into the top 15.

 

[gdement]

... And as a reinforcement for all events, limit any team member to a specific number of score posts per event. Essentially everyone would be allowed to post no more than 3-5 scores for any one event. That would help keep the thread from "photo clogging" as well as reduce the so-called sniping. If you've posted your 3-5 photos, hope they stand or save some shots for the next event.

 

If you limit the number of posts per event, then I'm afraid that would only cause people to save their screenshots but not post them until they know which one was best. Everyone will post their best scores at the last minute and the competition could end up like a silent auction.

 

Ideally there should be a built in incentive for people to post good scores as soon as they get them. Right now there isn't any. The only thing I can think of is to award a provisional 1-point to anybody that gets a score that holds for 24 hours, even if it gets beaten later on. That seems like an ugly hack though.

 

If we want to cut down on excess posts, then maybe a combination would work. A 1-point award for holding the lead for 24-hours, but at the same time have a post-per-event limit. In that scenario, people won't post uncompetitive scores but they will want to post their good ones in hopes of getting the bonus. I dunno about the bonus point thing, I still think its kind of weird.

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

I think a Halloween tournament focused in on a few "horror" classics would be a nice time to do something like this again.

 

Anyone wanting to join team "Crystal Lake"?

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[iguana]

I think it went great and I had a lot of fun with it (even though I stink at most everything, sorry team Xype)

One suggestion I have, and it would not nessesarily make it better, just different) is to hold 1 or 2 events a day instead of all of them at one time. FOr instance Day one could be Shot Put and Biathlon Day 2 could be T+F 100 M and Decathalon High Jump Exc. It would run more like the olympics and also avoid the "sniping" people are complaining about. SInply have people post the scores by 10PM Central time or so for that days events.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I was told that PAL games are slightly faster than NTSC games.  Does this mean they should also be eliminated to level the field?

Actually some (not all) run at a noticable different speed which is usually slower on PAL (~20%). Especially Activision was notorious for not adapting the speed when converting to PAL (though fortunately they did for Decathlon ).

 

So, you don't have to eliminate them all, just some of them.

[Stingray]

Cheating is just sad in a just for fun contest like this anyway. I'm sure there was some cheating, but really who cares? I'm only in it for the fun of playing these games with my AA buddies anyway.

 

Oh and I was using a real 2600 and Track & Field cart, but I was using a home-built controller just in case that disqualifies the lone medal that I won.

 

-S

[Ze_ro]

Whoa, don't worry guys... I'm not about to give up allowing emulators anytime soon. However, I almost certainly won't be giving out prizes... even if they're donated to me like the gift certificates Albert gave out, I might just refuse them because I can't be sure that they'll go to rightful winners, y'know? I don't mean to imply that Team Activision were cheating... I'm sure they weren't... it's just that when I have no sure way of verification, I don't feel comfortably giving out awards.

 

I definitely like to allow emulators so that we can enjoy ALL the games equally regardless of rarity... I'd like to see Quadrun or Meltdown as HSC choices one of these days. We certainly couldn't do that without emulators.

 

Mandatory screenshots would eliminate me from future competitions because I do not have the means to produce screenshots  

Ironically, neither do I! I have no digital camera or anything like that. In fact, the fact that I have no way of taking pictures is probably the #1 reason I specifically didn't mandate that pics were required in the HSC and Atarilympics.

 

I'd like to keep things as they are as far as emulators and screenshots are concerned.

 

--Zero

[Jeffy Arensmeyer]

...I don't feel comfortably giving out awards.

None of this (HSC) is about that anyway. It's about fun. Of the games we've played, most I had never really sat down with until the HSC. That's why we're here; To play new games and gauge our playing abilities. And the Atarilympics were just and extension of the HSC that paralleled current events.

 

...I'd like to keep things as they are as far as emulators and screenshots are concerned.

Good deal. It's not worth causing a division (of haves and havenots) in a vain effort to eliminate cheating and dishonest scores. They're going to happen, just like eating grapes at the supermarket or cheating on taxes. Some people will do it because it's an alternative.

 

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