News: FakeNES (!) October 26 WIP is now available!

 

Whats New:

 

    * 10/26/05

    * ALL: Added support for decoding NESticle raw patches. [siloh]

    * ALL: Modified main loop to only consume as much CPU as neccessary (experimental). [siloh]

    * ALL: Added automatic VRAM page buffering (greatly reduces the need for VSync). [siloh]

    * AUD: Implimented 60FPS Audio [siloh]

    * AUD: Overhauled all pAPU buffering code. [siloh]

    * AUD: Vastly improved audio playback code, eliminates skewing of emulation timing (experimental). [siloh]

    * AUD: Removed support for user-defineable audio buffer lengths (fixes some playback problems). [siloh]

    * AUD: Added 'Stereo Mix' mode that produces mono sound while allowing stereo effects. [siloh]

    * AUD: Added audio anti-aliasing. [siloh]

    * AUD: Added audio 'hard sync' option to emulate old pAPU behavior. [siloh]

    * GUI: Added support for custom fonts, loading dialogs/menus into malloc'ed memory, assorted bug fixes, and more. [siloh]

    * GUI: Added unfinished 'Panta' GUI theme. [siloh]

    * GUI: Changed 'Audio > Mixing > Speed' menu title to 'Frequency'. [siloh]

    * GUI: Removed 'Audio > Mixing > Advanced' menu [siloh]

    * GUI: changed 'Reverse Stereo' to 'Swap Channels' to match the configuration file entry. [siloh]

    * GUI: Improved mouse handling. [siloh]

    * GUI: Misc Fixes [siloh]

    * SRC: Renamed 'mouse_sprite' to 'gui_mouse_sprite' to fix API conflict with Allegro-djgpp. [siloh]

    * SRC: Casts are no longer used on lvalues. (for GCC4) [siloh]

    * SRC: Replaced 'yield_timeslice' call with 'rest (0)' and removed support for 'usleep'. [siloh]

    * SRC: Fixed some compiler warnings. [siloh]

    * SRC: Updated copyright notices. [siloh]

 

    * Changed Default Settings: Vid Res: 320x240 -> 640x480

    * Vid Blitter - Automatic -> Stretched

    * Palette - Default -> Modern NTSC

    * Linear Echo - ON -> OFF

    * Audio Filter - LPM3 -> OFF

    * Spatial Stereo - Mode 2 -> OFF

    * Sample Rate - 96000 -> 48000

    * Pseudo Stereo - Mode 2 -> Mode 3

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Strange that nobody noticed

 

Check the final level of Fairyland Story ending on MamEnd.

The background graphics are quite obviously broken in the top left corner! Strange that nobody reported this bug.

 

Anyway, I've fixed it now.

 

I've also been studying what the MCU does in that game, and the programmers made some interesting choices.

 

First of all, the MCU can return data stored in its internal ROM. This is done with short tables that are needed at the beginning of a level, and when you die. More interestingly, the text needed for the continue screen is stored there, and since you can't continue until level 8, it would take some time for a bootlegger to notice the problem. Even more interestingly, the endgame text is stored there, so one would have to play all the 101 levels to get to the protection.

 

Another wicked part of the MCU protection is that before action starts in a level, the game takes three bytes, performs complicated calculations on them to convert them into an 8-byte number passed to the MCU, and the MCU then performs more complicated calculations, recovers the original bytes and sends them back. A lot of work to essentially do nothing.

 

Finally, during the final level, the MCU is used to calculate and update the trajectory of the dragon's fireballs. Without the MCU, the dragon doesn't fire. I just have to wonder: why bother? How many people would have reached the final level in the arcades? And would bootleggers have bothered anyway? Figure some player going to the arcade owner and asking for her quarter back because the ending was too easy

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Magic Sticks

 

I haven’t had much time for MAME the past few weeks. There are a couple of things I’d like to look at but require fairly significant chunks of time which I just don’t have.

 

I did take a quick look at Magic Sticks by Playmark, but it’s incredibly boring to work on and I think I’ll spend my time on working on things I find more interesting than fixing the remaining problems in this..

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What's New:

 

1) Fixed some bugs.

 

2) Update to the Sound System. 52,000, 96,000 and 192,000 Khz sample rates are supported now. 24bit and 32bit playback is also newly supported.

 

3)3D Surround playback supported.

 

Other Messages and News:

 

Just a small update: added 3D Surround playback to v1.28 Seelama.A close frined of mine,called A Teng was died.A Teng was the debuger and art design of Gens32.You can find some of his works here.

 

-DarkDancer

From the folks here at 1Emulation, it is always a tragedy to see any emulation contributors pass away. Our condolences to A Teng and his family. Rest in Peace.