MAME 0.247

[cuavas]

MAME 0.247

With a change of season just around the corner, it’s time to unveil MAME 0.247! This is a huge release, and should have something for everyone!

Newly added systems, and systems promoted to working, include:

• The M&D Monon Color – a low-cost Chinese hand-held console. This required finding an exploit to extract the CPU’s internal ROM as audio. Said CPU is a high-performance derivative of Intel’s MCS-51 architecture.
• A prototype version of Tecmo’s Super Pinball Action that used separate screens for the simulated backglass and playfield. This version was presumably poorly received due to the need for an expensive dedicated cabinet.
• An initial driver for second-generation Sony NEWS workstations based on MIPS processors. This one has been a long time coming, with a lot of preparatory work, but it’s finally here!
• The Dracula and Game Pachinko – two Tsukuda hand-held games with vacuum fluorescent displays.
• Micom Mahjong – an example of an early CPU-based TV game, and possibly the first dedicated electronic mahjong system.
• Three new Casio synthesisers.
• Several Impera Magic Card games. This one’s also been a while coming, requiring several new devices to be emulated.
• A few Astro Corp. gambling games, including Dino Dino, Magic Bomb, Stone Age, and Zoo.
• Some previously missing NO CD versions of Capcom’s Red Earth.

You’ll also find numerous bug fixes and emulation improvements across the board. There’s better support for low-cost Macintosh models based on the V8 chipset (including the LC, LC II, and Classic II). There are quite a few fixes for issues with Nintendo’s NES/Famicom-derived arcade systems, the VS. System and PlayChoice-10. Several ZX Spectrum derivatives from the Eastern Bloc are in better shape. The Atari POKEY sounds better. The PC Engine pachinko controller from Coconuts Japan is now supported. There’s also an important fix for extracting CHD CD-ROM images.

The stream of prototype cartridges is still flowing, with a number of Atari 2600, Game Boy Color, NES, and Super NES additions landing this month. You’ll also find the Scholastic Microzine disks for Apple II, and several PC magazine cover disks. The new VGMPlay music rips include music from the recently-emulated Poly-Net Warriors arcade game.

As always, you can read about everything that’s happened this month in the whatsnew.txt file, or download the source and 64-bit Windows binary packages from the download page.

Read the rest of this entry »

[cuavas]

Here are some videos @davidhaywood has posted showing work that’s gone into this release.

Hard Times with sound emulated:

Monon Color – 神魄-失落的遗迹 (Zinba! The Lost Relics):

Monon Color – 铠甲勇士大乱斗 (Armor Warrior):

Monon Color – 洛克王国-大冒险 (Roco Kingdom: Big Adventure):

Monon Color – 僵尸猎人 (Zombie Hunter):

Monon Color – 洛克王国-魔法阵 (Roco Kingdom: Magic Array):

Monon Color – 喜羊羊与灰太狼-决战咩星 (Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf’s Comet Battle):

Monon Color – 赛尔号-能源大作战 (Seer: Energy Battle):

Monon Color – 逻辑拼一拼 (Logic Fight):

Monon Color – 洛克王国-王者徽章 (Roco Kindom: The King’s Badge) and 洛克王国-卡牌战纪 (Roco Kingdom: Card Wars):

Monon Color – 龙珠-武道大会 (Dragon Ball: Budokai):

Monon Color – Marvel Iron Man: Hero Strike:

Monon Color – 英雄联盟-终极格斗 (League of Legends: The Ultimate Fight):

BMX Stunts:

Monon Color – 脑力连连看 (Ultimate Brain Power):

Dual-screen version of Super Pinball Action:

Micom Mahjong:

[cuavas]

Sly DC wrote a blog post about Micom Mahjong, with plenty of pictures of the console itself (inside and out), as well as the magazines in which it was advertised.

These kinds of single-game CPU-based TV game systems are historically important as they represent a stepping stone between the “Pong consoles” that implemented built-in games using dedicated logic and the later CPU-based consoles that ran software from cartridges (or other removable media). It’s awesome to see this working in MAME.

Mahjong was a natural choice for a system like this:

• Popular game, and requires multiple people to play. There’s a market for an “electronic opponent” so people can play alone.
• Too complex to easily implement using dedicated logic, but relatively easy to implement with a CPU and limited RAM.
• Simple layout doesn’t require complex graphics hardware capable of drawing at arbitrary pixel offsets, detecting collisions, etc.

Using current market rates for USD/JPY is misleading. The Yen had less relative purchasing power in the early ’80s than it does now. Deflation from the mid ’90s onwards as the asset bubble collapsed meant the Yen appreciated against other currencies and its relative purchasing power increased.

It was about JPY230 to the USD in 1982, so USD208. After factoring in inflation of about 3.07, that gives about USD640 equivalent in 2022. Still expensive, but not as expensive as it would have been if it was USD360 equivalent in 1982.

[cuavas]

As he often does, Bob Zed has made a video showing a quick preview of newly added and promoted systems and software: