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Rolling Thunder, can't crouch and turn
#379991 - 12/11/18 09:10 PM
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Hi all,
I'm a gamer in his late 40s and i remember the golden age of arcades with much fondness.
But I have a big problem that is annoying me so much!
Rolling Thunder was my favourite game but it is unplayable under all the mame versions I've tried it on.
In the arcade when you crouch you can pull the stick left and right to switch direction while still crouching
However this is not possible under emulation.
I tried Robocop and it is fine with these movements so I don't think it's my controller. I've tried an 8bitdo and a stratus steel series.
I've just put together a raspberry pi 3b+ running virtualman 7 128gb image as well as retrorama rampage.
I'm building a usb arcade stick too but I have a feeling that this will not help.
Please, can anyone help? Is there anything I can do or is it just going to have to be??
Cheers
Matt
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Re: Rolling Thunder, can't crouch and turn
[Re: teardropexplodes]
#379992 - 12/11/18 09:35 PM
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> Hi all,
> I'm a gamer in his late 40s and i remember the golden age of arcades with much
> fondness.
> But I have a big problem that is annoying me so much!
> Rolling Thunder was my favourite game but it is unplayable under all the mame
> versions I've tried it on.
> In the arcade when you crouch you can pull the stick left and right to switch
> direction while still crouching
> However this is not possible under emulation.
MAME lists the game as having a 4-way joystick, so diagonals are not possible, that likely explains why you can't do it.
The service manual also explicitly lists it as a 4-way game, no diagonals.
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Re: Rolling Thunder, can't crouch and turn
[Re: Haze]
#379993 - 12/11/18 10:25 PM
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> > Hi all,
> > I'm a gamer in his late 40s and i remember the golden age of arcades with much
> > fondness.
> > But I have a big problem that is annoying me so much!
> > Rolling Thunder was my favourite game but it is unplayable under all the mame
> > versions I've tried it on.
> > In the arcade when you crouch you can pull the stick left and right to switch
> > direction while still crouching
> > However this is not possible under emulation.
>
> MAME lists the game as having a 4-way joystick, so diagonals are not possible, that
> likely explains why you can't do it.
>
> It's possible the service manual for official cabinets suggests 4 way sticks (meaning
> you were never meant to be able to do it) or it's possibly an oversight in MAME.
actually no, even disabling the 4-way stuff in MAME, the game simply doesn't read directional changes in that case, infact it makes it worse.
your memory must be faulty, the manual claims it to be a 4-way game, and it really only responds as a 4-way game
the rip-off 'Rough Ranger' and the sequel (Rolling Thunder 2) respond to direction presses when crouched (with a standing frame in the middle for Rough Ranger) but the original does not, the game expects you to release down before hitting left.
actually, since I've just noticed you've made the terrible choice of using a Raspberry Pi, that might be your problem, as the versions on it are so old.
The joystick input isn't flagged as 4-way in old versions, so will send a diagonal input, which the game doesn't like, it requires you to release crouch for a single frame before hitting left/right, which on a stick which can't hit diagonals would happen naturally.
you *can* turn and fire while couched in the game, as long as you release crouch and keep firing (and don't hit any diagonals) which again fits with the design of it being a 4-way game, even if it's a really bad design.
but yeah, basically the entire game control scheme is programmed around the limits of a 4-way stick, which can't do diagonals and requires directions to be released before pressing other directions, that's how the game was, MAME can't change that.
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Tafoid |
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I keep on testing.. testing.. testing... into the future!
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Re: Rolling Thunder, can't crouch and turn
[Re: teardropexplodes]
#379994 - 12/11/18 10:40 PM
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> Hi all,
> I'm a gamer in his late 40s and i remember the golden age of arcades with much
> fondness.
> But I have a big problem that is annoying me so much!
> Rolling Thunder was my favourite game but it is unplayable under all the mame
> versions I've tried it on.
> In the arcade when you crouch you can pull the stick left and right to switch
> direction while still crouching
> However this is not possible under emulation.
> I tried Robocop and it is fine with these movements so I don't think it's my
> controller. I've tried an 8bitdo and a stratus steel series.
>
> I've just put together a raspberry pi 3b+ running virtualman 7 128gb image as well as
> retrorama rampage.
> I'm building a usb arcade stick too but I have a feeling that this will not help.
>
> Please, can anyone help? Is there anything I can do or is it just going to have to
> be??
> Cheers
> Matt
I seem to be able to keep crouched and so long as you are rapid fire shooting, moving left and right allows you to switch and continue firing. As soon as you stop tapping fire button such movements will force you to stand.
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Re: Rolling Thunder, can't crouch and turn
[Re: Tafoid]
#379995 - 12/12/18 12:55 AM
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As Tafoid said, the only way to turn directions when crouching in Rolling Thunder, is when firing the gun. I've played it recently. You can read it at the game's faq at gamefaqs.gamespot.com:
6b. Turning and Shooting
------------------------
There is an odd and sometimes frustrating quirk with this game that has to do
with the design of the joystick. It can only register one directional input
at once, so if you are ducking from and shot fired by an enemy on the right
side of the screen and enemy approaches from the left side of screen, if you
try to turn and shoot at the enemy, Albatross will stand up and turn before
shooting. You can see how this situation can cost you a life, but it can be
avoided. While you can't normally change directions while ducking without
standing up, you CAN do it if you're shooting at the time. Try it while
quickly firing with the handgun or while firing with the machine gun. This is
an extremely important tactic, but can be hard to master without standing up
into the path of a bullet a few times.
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Re: Rolling Thunder, can't crouch and turn
[Re: Haze]
#379997 - 12/12/18 03:41 AM
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Thanks everyone for your help! I have to say you're all wrong though! You are definitely able to crouch and turn while remaining crouched on the actual cabinet. I played it to death in the 80s and our local retro arcade recently borrowed an original cabinet which I played last month!
https://youtu.be/IqNzdiunf_U
See the above video around 5:14.
I practically mastered the game back in the day and I'm itching to play it on my home systems but this glitch makes it unplayable.
Can anyone point me in the direction of a fix or will it be impossible to correct??
Like I said it's possible on games like Robocop...
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Re: Rolling Thunder, can't crouch and turn
[Re: teardropexplodes]
#379998 - 12/12/18 04:30 AM
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> Thanks everyone for your help! I have to say you're all wrong though! You are
> definitely able to crouch and turn while remaining crouched on the actual cabinet. I
> played it to death in the 80s and our local retro arcade recently borrowed an
> original cabinet which I played last month!
> https://youtu.be/IqNzdiunf_U
> See the above video around 5:14.
> I practically mastered the game back in the day and I'm itching to play it on my home
> systems but this glitch makes it unplayable.
> Can anyone point me in the direction of a fix or will it be impossible to correct??
> Like I said it's possible on games like Robocop...
5:14 is just what you've already been told, player can turn when crouching because they're firing at the same time, and firing takes precedence over standing up in the game logic. It's very easy to replicate what is shown here in MAME.
This is 100% how the game is, it's hardcoded into the game code, it isn't something MAME can change.
It might be easier to pull off if you're using a joystick that physically can't send diagonal signals and is instead releasing both inputs as you move from down to left/right, but really, the game code simply can't process 2 directions at the same time. Any recent MAME version will also ignore diagonals on an 8-way stick for this game because it is known that the cabinet joysticks didn't send them.
The behavior of the game is actually more more widely documented than I first thought, because yes, at first it does feel awkward, but it's one of the earliest examples of this type of game, from a period where 4-way sticks were still more common.
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