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Thought I would share a story! As I had said in the memorial thread Chris had helped me out no end with trouble shooting many many mpu boards for me, within those emails he had mentioned he has an Ace sidewinder, my ears pricked up as I had not seen one since the 80's in an arcade I had worked in as a teenager. Anyway he said he had accidentaly necked the tube (means cracked the tv screen small end) Sidewinder is a video fruit for those not familiar. And is it was an odd size 16 inch Hantarex rather than the normal 19 inch one's he could not find a replacement! Well seeing this chance to help him for a change, so I set about searching for one posting on the many forums I use for my arcade obsession. I was delighted when I tracked one down in Italy of all places, the guy that replied was a guru on CRT tubes and knew what old TV's comtaind what tubes. So he had one tested and working, Chris was over the moon! The seller was spot on and packed the tube inside an old TV in a huge box with sponge etc, the cost was little shipping not so, as sidewinder was a memory for me also I paid some of the shipping which Chris protested about. This was in 2015 and I was delighted to help him out in a small way after all the help he had given to me and contiinued to give beyond that, Might be a bit of a boring read for others but I remember him sending me pics when he had the screen up and running in the machine, he had thought he would never find another, I'm like a dog with a bone with my OCD when I want something lol. And later he was telling me he was building an MFME machine in a JPM Vogue cabinet, I think that was 2018? I had a couple of bits he needed a 10p and £1 hopper and some coin entry bits, I was never going to be able to give him any tech help lol. I wonder how far he got with that project? Anyway sorry for ranting on! Just some of my memories Thanks Ronnie

Hi @Chopaholic and thank you so much for sharing this. I've only watched the most recent video, as I fear the first video you made may make me too emotional today. Everything you said was absolutely spot on. Cannot thank @Reg enough for bringing the light to our family with the letter he sent to the funeral directors about Chris and his legacy. I don't have much more to say, other than words of thanks to all of you who are taking the time to honour my uncles memory. I have been keeping up to date with each new message in Wizards Rest and I imagine I will for some time to come. Thank you also to he who made that beautiful guitar track. My PC unfortunately won't let me download it even though I downloaded an RAR converter.. Clearly technical genius isn't genetic Thanks again, and I will keep reading all that you post about my dear uncle. Amy.

Just got the news. Thanks Choppers. Not much I can say really. Over the past ten or more years I have begun to realise that you don't need to physically meet someone to mourn their passing. They just need to have touched your life, and for you to realise that without them your life will not be the same. It also wouldn't have been the same if you hadn't known them in the first place. My life moved in a very different direction over a decade ago and FME was not something I wanted to continue with. However that doesn't mean that I will ever not be thankful for the truly shit times it did get me through and the messes it kept me out of. Sadly I did give an open invite to Chris to meet up with myself and a fellow friend of his but he refused. I am glad I did that, I would regret it if I had not. Life has moved on greatly in the past 20 years, but that doesn't mean I am ever too complacent to forget. From the moment we met and spent hours talking about Line Up and MPU3 sound to our spats and arguments. I will never forget any of it, as everything was a lesson. God speed Chris. I hope you are coding up there. Pandy.

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@Yippee Nice to hear from you and I hope things are OK with you, it's been a while.

Completely lost for words, Most of us I think have barely scratched the surface on what lies within MFME and the work and dedication that went into it. I know for me it will give me years of pleasure tinkering around inside, the Electro Emulation side was the work of a pure genius defying all those that said it could never be done. Who can I bug now when I am stuck, well I have a feeling you will be there in spirit with a sign when I need it. Thank you Chris and RIP.

Rip Chris Thank you for all the wonderful memories that you gave me when i was playing all these fantastic layouts on the mfme emulator that you created.

I'll link this video first as it's the later one, this is bringing together the tributes from all of us and the uplifting knowledge that Chris's family found out at his funeral about how many lives he had touched and made such a difference to. My heartfelt thanks to the members here at DIF who made getting the message to him possible, and to Harvey for being the bedrock of the scene at this awful time. Thank you Chris - you made a difference in this world that most of us could never even dream of accomplishing. This is the earlier video from the day I found out about his passing.

Such sad news, I still find it difficult to process like many others. Thank you for the wonderful emulator and the constant improvements over the years. If it wasn't for MFME I would probably be spunking my money away every pay day. Thanks for helping cure my addiction (11 years and counting) and many other people's. I now have a wife and 3 boys and am eternally grateful for your part in helping me kick the nasty habit. I can play all these machines for free now so thanks again. RIP Chris (wizard)

Watching Degsy's vid on this just now, Welsh beer in hand, sat with my cat Chorlton. Thanks for the memories Chris. Mark

I read this last night but wanted to give it a day to just give it time to sink in. I didnt know Chris personally but i echo a lot of people in this thread..i feel so so sad. Like a lot of people on here Chris' software opened my eyes to the realities of fruit machines. I think the more i was able.to play on my pc the less i was bothered to play for real and im forever grateful to him. Rest in Peace Chris

What a great story, I remember over at the Mecca there was a thread which concerned Sevens and Melons (or Devon and Melons as per the thread title) Wizard was trying to work out the lamping and someone posted a video that was only giving sound, he asked if someone could convert it so he could see video. I duly converted the video (which showed images on my PC) and posted it praying that the upload would work, as I so didn't want to make a pillock of myself in front of Wizard. Thankfully the conversion and upload worked and my dignity remained intact. Pete

A lovely and thoughtful story and read it twice. Just goes to show how many unselfish people we still have in this world. Thank you for sharing.

Very nice Degsy, well done. You’ve been very respectful but managed to draw some positives from this awful situation. One thing I’d love to see is a video that goes through the main milestones of MFME from the very beginning, with a focus on Chris’s work down the years. Chris was all about the task at hand, so it somehow seems appropriate to celebrate him that way. Also, many won’t understand the true scale of what he has achieved across 2 decades. 2 damn decades! I know this isn’t an easy task, so it’s something to consider if/when you are ready.

A great loss to the scene. Thank you Wizard for giving us all the chance to play these games with your wonderful emulator. You will be missed RIP

Very nice tribute. It's been a sad week, that just keeps on and on and on and I can't keep telling people, no I've been sneezing.

Well.... for starters you know I cannot watch that video again you did firstly, you know what will happen but on to the second one I did not get upset (tbh a little choked) and just smiled a little for a few things that you said. Managed to gain a bit of strength from your lovely and positive words so very much appreciate that. @evo1 is right about lots to do but in our own time though Thank you for your video Alex it was a breath of fresh air and especially love the ending of the scenery.

What that man gave us is a legacy, he gave us the opportunity to play the games we loved (and hated) that we can never lose, he didn't just fling together some flimsy piece of software, he constructed something to emulate what an entire industry has made it's money on, for free, many people look at FM's as a plague, probably rightfully so, however it became part of our lives at some point, he gave us the opportunity, at absolutely zero cost to wind away hours upon hours of nostalgic memories, for some as mentioned before, it helped save there lives, finances, marriages, everything! Now in this day of what is certainly the swan song of analogue fruit machines, there legacy is most important and he, himself created it, he will go down in history, maybe a small part of history but history nonetheless, RIP my man.

This is a very brief tale that I think will bring a smile to peoples faces... ...there was once a day that I walked up to the door where Chris lived and knocked on the door. He opened the door and his face was an absolute cross between shock / horror and what is happening. There I was standing on on his door step, car parked at the edge of the road where he lived with a very large suitcase next to me that look like it belonged in an airport depature lounge. Painted across his face was a WTF look that was priceless. We were friends, but that did not mean he needed a house guest ! So what happened to this point... ...years ago, @Gary collected a whole lot of resources for machines. This included glasses and reel bands. Gary and I were talking on ICQ that day ( that shows how long ago it was ) and he says he was getting rid of them. I said that I wanted them and could I collect and the answer was yes, the problem was they were in Leeds. I popped up that day. Gary did not tell me quite how many he had, there were crates and crates of these from all kinds of machines, even non-UK ones. Back home, the missus was not pleased that I had all of these, the loft was always constantly full of crap and rubbish and this was just more clutter for her to be annoyed about. Over the weeks and months I used to send some of them over to Chris taking photos and passing them over until the day I stopped... ...this was the day that I walked up to the door where Chris lived and knocked on the door. What had happened inbetween, was aside from all the relevant banter that I had with him - I had asked to give him the bands. I truely thought that he was paying attention when he said yes as I told him it would be at some point over the next two weeks. He had clearly forgotten this and when I did turn up - it was WTF ! That was just such a silly priceless moment that will be with me forever. I then spent the evening with him messing about on his machines and got to see the garage again which I always loved doing every time I was there.

Very nice story, love these insights to the man of mystery. Wonderful thanks for sharing.

Feel free to ask for help anytime you wish, we are here for all of our members including the special ones like you. Big J

Incredibly saddened to hear this news. It's hard to put into words that would be ample enough to convey my gratitude for you being the driving force behind such a special scene. Emulation has always been about the preservation of the hardware, the fact we derive such pleasure from it is a bonus. Thanks for creating an amazing piece of software that we will all still be playing for many years to come, if that is your legacy.. How truly awesome. Rest easy fella! Nick

I have only just picked up on this news as I have not been around the site for a few weeks. This is such sad news. My thoughts are with all of his family.

I can't believe what I'm reading. To say I'm shocked, and saddened would be an understatement. My deepest sympathies goes out to his closest family, and friends. He will be sorely missed in the FME community. Wizard was the man! If it weren't for him I would still be throwing away money in the fruities, probably. Finding MPU3/4 in the early 2000's cured me of my addiction - so I'll always be eternally grateful to Wizard for that. Thanks for the memories, and the last twenty years.

Fantastic story Ronnie, thank you for sharing it with us

Many thanks for sharing this nice story Ronnie.

Thanks so much for this video, which is heart felt and respectful. I'm not the best with words but I am at the same point with you on how it feels running MFME now without it's creator being present. I hope that feeling changes with time. Great to hear Bungle's guitar track as well. I really hope you continue with your FME videos because I really enjoy them and it provides another angle to FME which is just not text based. I have to be honest in all of this lately I have really missed the days or IRC when we could have chatted in real time about things. What this community has done here over the last few days has been amazing and I am proud to be part of it even though we fall on hard times now.

Just logged on horrendous news so sad for someone who did so much. Over the last 15 years whenever have had difficult stressful times just loading up fme can help so much especially during lockdown. Helped me with anxiety over the years so much. Thanks for making it possible never met you but clearly a very talented individual who gave so much words cant express to the fme scene. RIP wizard

The end of a most fantastic and often special journey. Thank you for everything Chris x.

love you degsy brilliant videos

Great story Reg , thank you for sharing this with us.I bet there are many people who would give their right arm to have met him,you are very lucky soandso hehe

Degsy.....tears mate tears. Thank you!!! for that tribute to a great person. Chris pushed the boundaries every time a new update came along, theirs still lots to do with what Chris left us, plus all the remakes of back catalogue. Theirs still huge amount of work to be done. Desert island, the members, the scene, are not going anywhere.

@Chopaholic what a brilliant touching video you have made there. It's a great tribute and also such a positive message on why we should carry the torch as a scene and move onwards.

R.I.P Chris and a big thank you for all the years of enjoyment love to all your family at this sad time you will be missed

This is so true, Top Stop and others had roms released by him, despite our difference of opinions in the early days and he knew I was desperate to see it emulated as I used to keep going on about the machine.

I know its hard Gary..but i hope that us members with what Chris has left us, that we shine so bright and continue his work, so when Chris looks down upon us, He is so proud of what enjoyment he has left for others.

RIP Chris AKA Wizard I am unsure what to say except Thank You for everything you have done and provided for the MFME Family.

A big Glass of Captain Sparrow Rum and a Jackpot after just 3 Spins - Cheers Wizzard! Thank you for all you´ve done. Marc

R.I.P chris you were the legend of all creating something for us all to play and enjoy you put alot of time and effort on mfme. Big cheers from me And thank you Give my love to all your family x

Sleep well Chris - You programming legend. We ALL hit the Jackpot the day you invented Fruit Machine Emulation. It is really uplifting to hear people speak about you and your life beyond Fruit Machines. It is also wonderful that you were able to spend years working on something you were so passionate about and dedicated to. The way you reverse engineered and worked out the fruit platform technologies is an outstanding achievement and still boggles my mind (and this coming from a professional software developer of 25 years) I am honoured to have known you and raise a glass to you sir. May you rest in peace.

I made a piece of music a while back,which I feel is a fitting tribute to wizard,this tune has never been heard by anyone before as I am quite reserved and very self conscious.It may make you a little sad,but you are probably feeling like this anyways.It's the least I can do to honour a wonderful human being, which is exactly what we found in Christian J Wren..The tune is called MFME Magician. R.I.P. Chris! Dedication to Chris J Wren - MFME Magician.rar

Chris, you were a gentleman, a scholar, a genius, a friend, and a brother to us all. never did we dream that one day we would be playing all our favourite fruit machines on the p.c and remembering our misspent youth.(happy days) but!! you realised that dream with your passion with your brilliant emulators. not only that, but you saved countless people from the dreaded curse of gambling and losing everything they had. you have had a big impact on us all and we thank you for that. your parents must be very proud of you, because i know we all are. may you rest in peace my friend, and may god bless your family and friends at this sad time, and give them strength to carry on. god bless ... seb

Oh Chris. I really don't know where to start. So let me start with my day today. The day of your funeral. The day I spent doing what you loved. This morning I woke up and went to collect a fruit machine. Yes, another Maygay. After driving home I struggled, as usual, to get the machine in the house on the laughable home made ramp I built all those years ago. It was 26 degrees today and the sweat was pouring off me. An hour later the machine yielded and was in my shed, the ramp now broken. Just like my heart. Yes that's the shed already stuffed with machines, stuffed with parts. I learned from the master on that one. This afternoon the roms were in my new reader being dumped ready for a layout. I then fired up MFME to check the roms and thought about the reason I wanted emulation all those years ago. Solid Silver. So I went back to my old development folders and found the folder of six different versions I started and abandoned. Hundreds of hours of work. Nowhere near the time you put into coding of course. So I found the most recent and tried to load it and of course dat files are no longer supported. So I took the long road, loaded into 5.1 saved out and back into 20.1. Each time being forced to read your copyright notice to the end. Each time reminding me, (c) C.J.Wren. Once the layout loaded, I was horrified. It looks awful. No wonder I abandoned it, for the sixth time. Then I remembered how far I have come since I abandoned the last one and the reason I have progressed so far. Your emulator. When I started this my artistic skills were truly awful. Stick men, blocky cars with two wheels, a sun with a smiley face. That was about my limit. Then you changed all that. I was always interested in emulation and sought out Spectrum, Amiga, SNES etc then wondered one day about fruit machines. The idea was somewhat preposterous, why would anyone want to play a fruit machine on their PC? Of course I searched anyway not expecting to find anything. Of course I didn't. I checked again, and again, and again as time passed. Then I eventually found your Nifty Fifty demo. Credit limited, very classic layout, no sound. Laughable now - but I was hooked. When Nifty Fifty starts it says "HI THERE". Yes it's cheesy, but you really did have me at "hello". I spent the rest of that afternoon in the office reloading the demo trying to beat my previous bank. Not a single iota of productivity. I must have reloaded it a hundred times or more. Highest bank? God knows. It was so long ago - but like so many of us a day that sticks in the mind. We all remember the day we discovered fruit machine emulation. Your emulation. So then started the journey. The forum sign ups, the downloads. The Hovel, Poundrun. Me seeking the elusive Solid Silver. Buying my first machine (Nudge Nudge Wink Wink) and finding you on ICQ. The nervousness, the trepidation as I typed. I thought why would you waste your time talking to me? I need not have worried. A few days later I am visiting you in person to dump the roms. Oh. My. God. I couldn't believe it. You lived alone. You lived my dream. As you led me through the house showing me your collection of pinballs, arcade cabinets and parts I was in awe. Star Wars upright in your kitchen? WTF! It was heaven. Heaven of course until you then showed me your garage. An unbelievable collection of MPU3's. Never seen anything like it before, your garage door was like stepping through a portal straight into an early 80's arcade. Your personal babies. Not a chance I could play them! Then at some point you achieved my dream, my personal holy technological grail, M1 emulation. I started taking this a bit more seriously. I visited you several times over the years. More roms to dump, some bits of tech for you to look at. I remember your excitement at the program card you hadn't seen before. You wouldn't let me leave with it! Some months later, it was emulated. Of course it was emulated. You relished the challenge with insatiable hunger. Any feature I requested, duly considered if not always implemented. Any bug I raised, later fixed. You even emulated mechanical machines from schematics showing just how far you were willing to go to achieve the perfect emulator. Your dedication surpassing all others. Of course the journey hasn't been without its upsets and turmoils. I don't need to remind you of these. I had to personally remove myself from FME for a while. You did too. While I was engaged in other serious matters, you were still there working on some of the bugs we discussed. The emulator grew and grew. What a treat to come back to. Blended lamps, wonderful. Untold new techs. Multi player boxes. Video support. Your never ending drive for perfection. When I look back at the years gone by I now realise what MPU34 and MFME are. They are windows into our personal pasts. It's like your great aunt who you see once a year pulling out the photo albums. You see yourself, 10/20/30/40 years ago. In this case the photo album is the emulator. Everyone has their favourites from their past. When they discover your emulator and a DX for the machine they used to play, you transport them back in time. You tap their personal history, their memories. As they play and think about the times they used to play the real machine, holidays they were on, towns they visited. That's MFME. Everyone's own personal history book. Every book with different pages. Every player with different favourites. So Sunday night happened. On my phone, browsing the fruit machine groups on facebook I saw the announcement with a link to Desert Island Fruits. The news was you had been taken from us. I immediately dropped everything and went straight to the PC. As I read Harveys words I couldn't believe it. It must be a joke. Then I saw the funeral list. Christian J. Wren, Ilford. I knew where you lived. Then it hit. This was serious. Devastating news. Then the replies came. The outpouring of grief. Bloody hell. I was grieving, others were too. We were united in grief. Equally shocking, the amount of emotion for someone most of us have never met. The words people posting hitting home like right hooks. So many of us in tears. Why was I personally so upset? All you did was dump some roms and have a laugh with me a few times. Of course, it's that hook you have. Your life's work on all of our PC's. Our personal history books, open and playable. The emulator connects us all. All thanks to you. Then my eyes were further opened. It's not just a few hundred UK fruit machine players here. Just last night I saw a comment on Degsys YouTube video from a member of the German scene and how you touched their lives too. They are running their German machines in the emulator. Your emulator is not just national, it's worldwide. You have literally touched the lives of people around the globe. Now the development is over. There won't be a 20.2 (c) C.J.Wren, at least not on this earth. My personal anger is palpable. Some bastard illness or accident has befallen you. Cruelly denied you the chance for your own perfection when you were so close. We don't know what the cause was, but I hope we do eventually find out. Something to direct our blame, our anger. Our Wizard taken from us at least 30 years too early. Will this anger bring you back? No. Will it lead to a new emulator release, no - but it sure will help us feel better with something to blame. Of course you are no doubt the angriest of us all. You never got to fix that coin mech bug, that video machine will never run properly, you know the list. I know exactly what you are thinking up there. Why are we wasting time on this when we could be working on layouts? Just let us have our moment. To let you and your family know how you have personally touched our lives, changed our lives. The addicts you have cured. The escape you have provided. The entertainment you have given us. Literally the lives you have saved. Yes Chris, you did what so many of us fail to do in life, you made a difference. As I am typing this out I wonder if I can post it. Does it need little improvements here and there. Small changes. It's your fault sir. That drive for perfection you have fired within me. Like so many layouts before now this message will never quite be good enough - but post it I must. I must because I have to let you know what a difference you have made to my life, to all of our lives. The emulator that took me out of my destructive means of escape, arcades. The emulator that then became my means of escape, without the cost of credits. The emulator that then became my cost, buying machines and storing them! I can only hope that there is a heaven on the other side. No doubt when you arrived in heaven and were asked what you wanted in paradise, it was a PC and a spiritualised copy of your development environment. There's still work to be done, after all. Maybe you can look up Roy Howell and get a bit more info, he's hopefully up there with you somewhere, nothing like a bit of inside knowledge from the top man. As for us, what else can we do but do what you want, such is your power. We will carry on. Find machines. Dump roms. Create layouts. Remember that sixth version of Solid Silver? The dream you realised for me? Yes of course I will start again. In 4k. With your shiny new 20.1 emulator with all the features I so desperately wanted so long ago that you have poured your time into. It's the only way I have to honour your memory, using your creation to the best of my ability. Will the layout ever be finished? You know the answer to that one Chris - but I will get it out there for you, dedicated to your memory. Your life changing emulator. I could type so much more Chris. Then like usual, I will miss the deadline. So in its imperfect form, it's time to release this work in progress. v1.0 of my memories of you, my eternal thanks. So it's farewell my friend. It is my hope that one day we will meet again. I'll bring my roms and my spirit warehouse of every machine ever made. You will bring your perfect MFME v65.3, (c) 2065 C.J.Wren. We will share a beer. Share some more memories. Pump out some fixed layouts for the FME afterlife. Can't wait.

Guys, I've been asked to forward a message to you all on behalf of Chris's family. They have been reading all your messages of condolence, and also this virtual wake thread. This was penned by his niece, Amy. "I've spent time reading the comments on the forum and honestly I cannot believe the impact he's had on people. I spent the afternoon reading his virtual wake aloud to his sister and his dad and it was so amazing to see how loved and respected he is. We are so grateful that you've let us into just a fraction of this part of his life. I feel lucky to have had an uncle who touched the lives of so many. So I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It turned a very sad day into something which sparked joy. Our choice of Pinball Wizard for the end of the service is now more meaningful than we even knew." Very touching words, and so wonderful that all the love for Chris within the community has brought joy to the family at the darkest hour.

Hello, @davep180 has asked if I could post some details of my cabinet build so here goes Following re-discovering MFME in 2017 I got properly into rediscovering a misspent youth, many hours enjoyment was had playing MFME on my PC. Then seeing Uptown47, StoneyNo1 and Reg building their fantastic cabinets I decided to start collecting the bits and have a go. This is likely to become an image heavy post, so apologies to anyone viewing on a phone or tablet. Below is a brief discussion of the process and some issues I hit (and how I would do something differently) I started looking around at cabinet designs and decided that I fancied something along the lines of a Maygay Italian Job or Simpsons. I do not have the space to handle a full sheet of MDF, but did some research and reading and discovered that with some of the modern wood glues, Edge bonded 18mm MDF is nearly impossible to break at the bond once cured. I started by drawing the plans and then created a full size template and created the cabinet sides in 3 parts which were then glued and left to cure: These were then attached to a CLS Frame to establish a free standing clamped structure to ensure that the machine was an acceptable size: Once I had made some minor adjustments this was removed and the back was attached using assembly joints (knockdown fittings): Although it is difficult to see in the image above, the back is in 2 parts, so either can be removed to access various parts once both sides we added to back the cabinet became free standing: Thoughts then turned to position of the buttons around the screen, I made a couple of templates until I found one that I was happy with. the final screen surround layout was 10 round buttons either side and then a number of square buttons under the screen: I was planning to mount the monitor by placing blocks around three sides of the screen (bottom and two sides and then create a holding piece, however when I posted a similar thread over at Fruit-emu, I got some great advice from Reg, which was to think how you will access x or Y once the cabinet is complete. This mean that I decide to go with smaller blocks and put a panel across the back of the monitor and use the VESA mounting points: The monitor I used was an HP z24i which I got from ebay, it had some slight scratches on the screen and was thus cheap, however they mostly polished out and a tip I found online described how to nullify the effects with of all things Vaseline which when applied sparingly is almost optically clear. When fitted in the cabinet the screen looks like: And from the back the mount looks like: Hope I haven't bored everyone to death so far and I will sort the rest of the photos and add to this later. Pete

If anyone wants, I'm using this as a profile picture on Facebook and here. Feel free to use too.