AGEMAME HQ

I feel I have to apologise for leading you all on with promises of something interesting.
At the time, I was working on adding support for BFMulator style ‘layouts’ to AGEMAME, (ab)using the MAME artwork system.

However, while adding the support needed to drive the lights on the test machine, it became clear that such a system would
drain system resources to nothing. As a consequence, it has had to be pulled from the release builds.

However, in the months to come I will be placing the source for this engine on the site, with some artwork calculation spreadsheets
I made, and perhaps someone somewhere can find a way of making the system work.

I must stress though, that this has not been time wasted, as during the process Re-Animator has contributed yet more to the Bellfruit drivers,
and I’ve been adding a few little bonuses too.

And anyway, I never know just what I’ll find in the submissions tray between now and release day.

As the MAME rendering engine is in a state of flux right now, I see little point in trying to keep up with it.

So, you won’t be seeing an AGEMAME release until MAME 0.100 at least, and even then it probably won’t be the same day.

But, without wanting to say too much, it’ll be worth the wait.

I ‘think’ we might have this sorted now.

Currently I’m checking over the entire Scorpion 2 driver, to rename everything we have in there to sensible alternatives (game.bin isn’t all that useful really):)

Re-Animator sent in a whole bunch of fixes to the Bellfruit drivers, which I’ve merged with a few cleanups of my own.

I’ll warn you now, some filenames and ROM names are going to change in the next release (I’m not changing any files at present, just the names), so if you don’t have a MAME compatible auditing tool, you might want to get one (it’s always handy, anyhow).

I’m also changing the input system back to MAME’s own, to make it easier to share code between the projects.
It shouldn’t affect users at all, because the inputs can either be changed in AGEMAME’s menu, or using a default configuration file I’ll upload here nearer the time.

Early this morning, it suddenly occurred to me that there’s no real worth in this project stopping, as let’s be honest, the gambling game coverage in MAME right now is smaller than the number of GAME_NOT_WORKING titles.

So, you haven’t got rid of me yet, but expect a little more text-based work from us, rather than just drivers, we have a much larger group of people to talk to now.

Well, I hope that surprised you as much as it surprised me, most (but not all) of AGEMAME is now in regular MAME.

This was always the private aim of setting up the build, and I’m still in shock that we achieved so much so quickly.

However, the game is not over - when the MAME core reaches 0.100 (as it will soon), AGEMAME will be relaunched.

We don’t think that anything will be changed yet as regards source delivery (we know some like the gambling-only setup), but naturally such a change will mean that AGEDEV becomes less important as an innovative group.

We will bring you more news on the situation soon, as I need to have a few words with MAMEDEV.

PS. I have started to use my real name on these posts, as hiding behind a pseudonym seems hardly worth it any more. I’ll still be ElCondor on the forums though, because I’m too lazy to change that.

There are some minor glitches left, but nothing that could be considered to be above ‘green’ level on the MAMETester colour code, so I’m continuing the release.

The full set of links is now available on the Downloads page.

This is only a soft release for testing, if nobody can find anything wrong with the inputs in working games, I’ll make this more formal.

Main binary:

Source addon for MAME 99u1:

(EDIT: Links no longer valid, see older releases for files)

I’ve been in Dorset watching the Red Arrows, and doing a bit of machine scouting for some people.

I feel that an input system change as big as the one trialled in 99u1 probably needs some time to be checked against AGEMAME drivers, many of which slightly abuse MAME’s input system.

Those of you that add the AGE extension to your own builds will probably have no problems (inptport.c will need editing to include the special AGEMAME definitions), but for the main build, the new CFG system will warrant a version number change.

But I will with this one…

“Someday love will find you
Break those chains that bind you
One night will remind you
How we touched
And went our separate ways
If he ever hurts you
True love won’t desert you
You know I still love you
Though we touched
And went our separate ways”

Moving on, the usual special AGEMAME patch is available.