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Playing through Undercover Cops in MAME (see entry 1541) using a ROM extracted from Irem Arcade Hits (see entry 1572)!
You can extra Undercover Cops and 17 other Irem arcade ROMs from the trial version of Irem Arcade Hits ( http://games1.gamefools.com/downloads/installers/IremArcadeHitsInstaller.exe ) by following these instructions: https://github.com/farmerbb/RED-Project/wiki/Irem-Arcade-Hits . If you're using Windows, you'll need to install Windows Subsystem for Linux to run the script that descrambles the arcade ROMs from the data installed on your computer as part of Irem Arcade Hits' included DotEmu emulation package.
I paid the princely $2.99 fee for the full version, but I'm not linking to the purchase page because it turned out that giving them my payment info also signed me up for their $14.99 or so per month gaming service, until I went and canceled it. Horrible business practice. Buying the full version gives you what appears to be the exact same installer file, only with your registration code inserted in the file name. : P
I couldn't get the extracted ROMs to run in current MAME (version 0.253); I had to go back to the MAME 0.119 command-line for most of them, which was able to run the extracted Undercover Cops ROM using a command something like this:
mame uccops -video gdi -waitvsync -joystick -volume -18
This "World" version of the Undercover Cops ROM apparently has cut-down sound and omits a few player character attack moves (missing an additional throw animation, and a dash jump attack that probably would have helped with one boss I can think of in particular) compared with the Japanese version or the apparently ultra-rare "Alpha Renewal" version (Japanese music & moves + English text).
Even with cut-down music, this version gets soundtrack copyright claims on YouTube! Sheesh. So there are a few ~minute-long chunks of muted audio in this video, blah.
It's got Irem's future Metal-Slug-creating (see entry 1185) Nazca Corporation team's signature obsessively detailed animation action sprites, but the gameplay isn't great, with somewhat clunky control (a frustratingly short dash range, for instance, and a jump animation that delays take-off to show the character bending their knees, which has got to be an Action Game 101 no-no) and lots of cheap-feeling enemy attacks (tunneling up from the ground to transform into exploding mines, for instance, or just having an instant, unerring wide-range counter attack move) making it more frustrating than fun. |
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| | | | Taking vsync out of the command line. ^ _^ I'd thought I'd needed it for recording games well but doesn't seem to be the case, at least for the ones I've checked now; and they're mostly noticeably more responsive with it off, whee! : ) |
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