Hey,

Over a month ago I spoke to David R. Archey about the top 1943 score for Mame. I believe that theres a strong chance theres been an error somewhere that has added a 0 to the end. To back this up I found an archive of TG scores at the following address
http://cubeman.vg-network.com/mame.txt
You can clearly see the same guy with the same score minus the extra 0 as well as a number of the other scores that are still in the TG highscore table.
This also ties in with my thoughts that the score isn't a realistically possible score (due to a bonus that is very rare and you'd need a number more than you'd ever get statistically)
David replied to say he'd passed it on my information but wasn't able to research it directly. I asked him a while later if there was any news and he suggested I contact David Nelson for further info. This I did but I've heard nothing back. I also then mailed the TGI cares address (altho that might also be David) and got no reply either.
Finally I sent another message to DavidA asking for a followup but again got nothing.

I understand that people can be busy but not getting even a "we're looking into it" response is a little frustrating.
Is there anyone reading this that might be able to update me or help out?

Cheers

Podbod

Indeed. It looks like an error, but not being an expert on the game I can't assure it.
Something similar to what we found on a 2 players score some weeks ago.
In Varth there's a record of 12,857,000 points for 2 players, by Fred Buggman and Vicente Morales. I think they must have added a zero to the end by mistake. By itself, the score is almost impossible to reach, but can be, with hours and hours and hours of practice and top skills. I mean, really top. If the game doesn't loop it's not even possible. Again, not being a master at that game I can't tell with accuracy, but I think I'm right.
2,148,700 and 1,404,000 are the scores for these 2 players on Single Player. If they really scored more than 12 millions when teaming up, they should have improved their single scores too. Specially since the 2 players score was done in between that two single player scores.
This is the most concluding fact, but it can also be noted that the highest score on MARP is 7,635,400. So when scoring more than 12 millions we are talking about almost the double for at least one of them.
Even farther than that, the japanese record on Arca (compilation of scores by italian player Gemant) is 9.999.700 with autofire off. That means that top players from Japan, which are usually higher scorers than western players, can't reach 10 millions.
The document also registers a top western score of 8,510,200.
Since the INP can't be seen, the only way to confirm it is by asking to David R. Archey, something that I did.
He did reply to me, and told me that David Nelson would look into it. I didn't write again, so I am just waiting now.
It's one of the last games we have to play for 2 players with out team, but we can't submit if we don't know if the score is real or not. I mean, there's a couple of scores we couldn't beat still, and a few that we don't think we are going to beat (Mario Bros for example). If Varth 2 players score is real, that would put it on the same high level that Mario Bros 2 players score is.
If it's indeed real, I don't understand why they didn't improve their single player scores, being able to register a legendary score, possibly a world record or at least a western record. And it would be amazing, if real, and both of them deserve the highest congratulations.
But before submission we have to know. We think that it's a typing error and that the real score is 1,285,700, which is a real good, better than standard score for two players, but something beatable, with practice.

I sent an email to see about getting ahold of the .inp, but haven't heard back yet. I might be able to find a way to get it somehow, but it'll take some time (had to do the same with a Lethal Enforcers 2 score a while back and was finally able to get the file). On my end, I've been busy keeping the MAME queue at a minimum and with everything else going on with my end of things (work, writing for another site, my own personal projects), I haven't had the time to try and get the file. Thanks for bringing it back up though. I'm off all day Saturday before an upcoming trip, and hopefully the MAME queue will be closer to 0 so I can focus on trying to dig up the file for this.

Yes, you always know that there's no rush Russell. I just mentioned it because it looks like a similar mistake (adding a zero to the end of the score). But I wasn't trying to speed things up or anything. Besides, the MAME queue being so large is pretty much because of us 4, with our 2, 3 and 4 players scores.
As I said, you did a great job, I thought it would take months to all the scores being uploaded, but you've been verifying night and day, so again I thank you in the name of all of us. I don't want to be misunderstood. We always got quick reply from you and you always found the way for working out every problem we had with any INPs, so there's no problem man, really. We appreciate all you've been doing.
It's weird that there are so many mistakes dating from lots of years ago. And not only MAME. But it's good there's always someone who can point them to be corrected.
Farther than that, posting it here could help that someone who knows the game could tell if the score is realistic or not. Even the players who submit it can tell if there's a mistake or not.
Getting back to 1943 score, it seems really, really high. But it would take someone expert on the title to verify if it's possible.

I'd argue I know it as well as most given my score is second. I missed 20k from the final Yamato gun and you can probably chalk up 10k per level for missed battleship tower pieces. Maybe another 20k for hidden bamboos I might not know about.
That puts me roughly level with the top marp score too.
All that's left is the 100k alphaman bonuses that spawn from the battleship towers. Most games you'll get 0-1 across all 16 levels. A highscore run (3m) needs 2. The top score therefore needed 7! That's never going to happen. I've played with savestates and it's truly random.

Pod

Btw. Thanks for the replies. I do appreciate the help in getting this worked out.

Pod