Introducing MaLa

I've been nusing the MAMEWah frontend for a couple of years now. Its great - seems to work with all the emulators I want. But, theres a few issues :

• my installation is a bit messed up and any changes seem to break it
• MW hasn't been updated in a long while
• MW doesn't directly support the LedWiz so have to rely on 3rd party software

The LedWiz "addons" I've been using are okay but theres a 30 second pause from exiting a game and going back to MW - which is too long.

So I started looking around and found a fair few posts from people on BYOAC singing the praises of MaLA.

So to cut a long story short - MaLA is ace ! All the functionality of MW but with built in support of the LedWiz (via a plugin). The buttons for each game light up as you scroll through the list, you can light buttons for a specific game or emulator - so I get lit buttons on Daphne games (game specific) and also on Megadrive and SNES games (emulator specific).

The attract mode animations are excellent too.

So, its goodbye to MAMEWah for now but I will continue to run WAHCade! in Linux (Balki - add LedWiz support please - ta.)

Tournament Night 21

"It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail."
- Gore Vidal (1925-)

The following (somewhat biased) write-up was penned by non other that Balki "Scoop" Schmalki....

1UP - Manic Miner (1983: Spectrum 48k)
First up was Matthew Smith's seminal platformer Manic Miner. Buks steps up to the plate and virtually completes the game. Balki sits down manages to lose a life on the first level, something which never happened in practice sessions.

Oh Dear. An all too predictable 2-0 to Buks.


2UP - Blue Max (1984: Atari 800)
Next was the lost gem Blue Max - This early example of an isometric shooter has the player piloting a Sopwith Camel, shooting & bombing various targets.
Manfred von Balki dons the scarf & goggles and achieves a respectful, if not unbeatable score. Buks opts for the "I'm a passenger, not the pilot" style of playing and loses 0-2.


3UP - Sensible Soccer (1992: Sega Megadrive) Time for 90's cult football game Sensible Soccer. Two player was the only logical choice here, which was unfortunate for Balki as Buks knows the funny old game only too well. Result: a 2-0 drubbing for sick-as-a-parrot Balki.


4UP - Frak! (1984: BBC Micro Model B)
Possibly the best platformer ever witnessed on the Beeb. A purple caveman, his purple yo-yo, purple balloons and some monsters (also purple) - What more do you need in a game? Balki (ex BBC owner) hammers Buks (ex Spectrum) into the ground with this one: Result 0-2.


Scores on the doors: It's a tie 4-4, so...


Tie Break: Peggle (2007: Windows)
"A modern classic". Perhaps. This "skilled" game of firing a ball at some pegs and hoping for the best went right down to the wire, but Balki pulls out all the stops and comes out the clear, undisputed championship winner 1-2.

Final Score: Buks 5 - Balki 6

Balki wins ! (finally).......