AGEMAME HQ

112u3 patches are out (I’ve decided to do AGEMAME 32 and SAGEMAME only for stable versions now, just because it’s an uphill struggle to maintain all of them at once).

The development resource repository is now open at http://agemame.fruit-emu.com/resources/

Also, you will notice on the Downloads section an ‘Old MAGE/AGEMAME versions’ link, I’ve followed MAMEDev’s lead and made every public version available to the masses once again.

Looks like I didn’t get much further, after all ;)

SAGEMAME can wait for now, you can probably run the existing overlays.

…a video game running on MPU4 ;)

Seriously, CanonMan contacted me to talk about a game called Deal ‘Em. I’d always thought it came in only two different versions - a dedicated version on Summit Coin hardware, and a 2000 rebuild on the MPU4 Video platform. Not for the first time, I was wrong.

It turns out that Zenitone (of Merlin’s Money Maze fame) made an MPU4 conversion kit, designed for the early MPU4 machines. This took the form of a new gamecard, complete with graphics ROM, CRT controller (a 6845) and the associated logic - an entirely different system to the one Barcrest used later.

It’s not as powerful, having to rely on the original 6809 processor, but it is fairly simple. So simple, that a preliminary version of it will be in AGEMAME’s next release. There are no screenshots yet as I need to fix up the videoram, but there’s no obvious protection, so let’s see how far I can get before u2 comes out.

PS. AGEMAME32 will not be stopped permanently, it’s just that I ‘m waiting for MAME32 to be sorted out fully before attempting to remake it.

There appears to be a problem with the UI not loading, and since the core source has changed so dramatically, I can’t support this configuration.

I apologise, and recommend that users who desperately need a frontend look at http://www.mameworld.net/emuloader/ - which is designed with AGEMAME’s regular build in mind (it has it’s own lists, auditing features etc).

Also, there is a problem with source browsing, caused by me updating the script to the latest version - I’ll roll it back, and do the repairs when I have time.

All the source is available, as well as a binary, linked to here:

Binary

CanonMan has pointed out that the OR gates are actually AND gates, so it’s not as dumb as it looked before.

Today, I’d like to take you on a journey into the mind of a fruit machine PCB designer.

Picture the scene: you want to set up a 48 input system (16 on one bank, 16 on another and 16 DIP switches). You decide that it would be better to have them all run through one PIA, and have the selection timer controlled. So far so good, but it would be better if one bank of inputs was polled twice as fast.

The solution developed for MPU4 was to use a 74148 1 of 8 decoder to run 8 enable input lines, each line representing 8 of the 48 inputs. The bank that needed polling twice as fast was given two lines for each subbank, connected through an OR gate. This all makes sense so far, until you realise that there’s an OR gate on the side that is only being polled with one input line as well!

After much deliberation, it appears that the track for the second set of input lines has been split in two, so it will fit both entry points for the OR gate. I presume this is so that the input connectors only need to be fabricated once, rather than having two different designs.

The upshot of this is that AGEMAME now uses accurate input timing for the MPU4 system, although there are still some bugs to be worked out with the auxiliary connections which are direct links which bypass the timing circuitry.

I reversed the new timing code for the moment, since it has the potential to affect MPU4 on every level, it seems inappropriate to put it into a full release.

AGEMAME 32 and SAGEMAME are also up, and I’m currently working on setting up our version of the legacy archive, with all the old MAGE builds hosted for open access.

My cunning plan for an FME (Fruit Machine Emulation) wiki to be hosted here appears to be screwed, as most half decent solutions require a version of PHP much higher than this runs on. I’ve tried a few out now behind the scenes, and they all seem to be horrendous to administer if you aren’t on PHP5.

I will still be doing something, though, which may interest some, if not all of you, and that’s hopefully going to be announced when AGEMAME 40 comes out.

Incidentally, there is a delay on that release while I deal with a particularly nasty timing issue that has presented itself.

And in about three weeks time, the AGEMAME project as a whole turns 3.

I’m not planning anything as major as MAME are for our anniversary, but there are some things about their site revamp that strike me as interesting…

I leave it as an exercise to the readers whether this rather cryptic statement has anything to do with the server downtime a while back, which concerned me reconfiguring the site database to be more efficient.