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I've been having a think, and come to the conclusion I will actually focus on the standalone version first, rather than having the online mode as the 'base project'. Currently it is already hooked up to a multiplayer server, even in all the test videos - I'd planned to build for online as standard, and the standalone mode as an extra. I've realised it's going to be much better to get the system optimised, bug-fixed, and running well on a range of PCs... without all the extra added headaches/complications of the online server(s), streaming and all that entails (there will be at least 2 servers for it to work). Good news for guys like @Reg who I know is more interested in the offline version at this stage! While there'll be an initial hump to refactor stuff to work the other way round (offline is default, online is an extra mode) - it will actually simplify development over the long term, which is a good thing (for my sanity!) As there's a lot of new (perhaps never been done before) tech to develop for the online stuff... So, the new plan is to do the standalone PC version first. Once that's stable and we're relatively happy it does the main core features we want, that will be a solid foundation to build the online mode on top of. This also means it'll be sooner that I'll get to the stage of providing vaguely stable alpha builds for people to play with

Thanks man I think for standalone mode, randomised machine floor plans can be a thing (along with duplicate machines each with own RAM) - for online multiplayer mode, they must be fixed, as everyone needs to be seeing the exact same arcade, or things will go very wrong! But online mode can also have duplicate copies of machines (for a row of Bar X machines or whatever), and bots will probably silently play machines server-side when they are not in use via my/MFME autoplay system, to get those RAMs happy.

Rendering fine-tuning for stuff like that is not set up until quite a bit later, when I've got everything working on a logical level - so the reels are just the unlit raw textures for now. Sorting all that out will be a bit of a learning curve, there are various 'render pipelines' to consider, I'll be implemented LOD'd shaders - 3d rendering these days is all bloomin' crazy So I'm just getting a functional first/second pass in here for now - which will cover reel lamps, general control of the arcade illumination and balancing out lighting of the unlit glasses. Then later can come the proper scalable stuff - so the better graphics cards will get the extra shiny graphics, the weaker graphics cards/onboard graphics will get less fancy graphics, but still at a good enough framerate to enjoy (hopefully!)

Just wanna say thanks folks for these donations to the project - it's really very kind, and is super appreciated. I'm honestly quite touched Done a few little bits tonight, thought I'd record a video when I had a quick test at the end First pass of alpha displays done (fixed scaling bugs, slightly smaller but more 'correct' now), started tinkering with some lighting (colored trim around cabs and couple of other elements), and fixed a couple of bugs that were causing the character/camera to slightly oscillate and slowly drift over time - it was making the entire screen slightly fuzzy when stood still. Saw a couple of machine having issues loading/capturing MFME when started up, will have to get to the bottom of that bug. Next big job - seven segment displays, and maybe a bit more on the lighting...

Keep up the ROM hacking Looking forward to future geekends man

Yeah, I still do it I love to mess with this stuff. I did in fact reprogramme the original emptier back into a ‘fixed rom’ of Monte Carlo or Bust. Yeah still good times ahead mate. Once lockdown is over my house is also open for our geeky weekends fella J

Thanks mate - good to know Ah wow, I remember that! I remember you had a chip writer, and then we somehow ended up getting into how a ROM might know it's been tampered with... good times - I also remember you doing some pretty impressive ROM hacking, to change stakes, jackpots and maybe even program flow - all the awesome stuff

Lol yes. It was having these that got me into rom hacking. I learned so many new skills . Also you gave me some amazing pointers to help me on my way regarding the types of checksum protections that I may encounter etc. J

MFME does do these, it’s been WIP in MAME for many years, great to see they got there in the end. They had some of the Barcrest video ones running I believe but to get the BWB’s running is awesome. J

Ah so MFME doesn't do these video techs then? Well - just like back in the DOND days when we made the layout in MFME, to play in MAME... it would be possible to do the same approach here Though would have to be further down the line, as I'll need to do time consuming work to sort out getting a 'data layout' into MAME and some other things. So you'd make a MFME DX layout of the front of the machine with a screen component - I'd have a data layout in MAME that is running the ROM, to give me the display graphics and the button lamps/sound/input handling etc. Then it could be in the 3d arcade working, via the standard 2d 'panel warping' stuff I do for the fruits Very low priority from my side though as it'd take me away from the core 3d arcade work - but there's no reason why that wouldn't work - something for the future I do remember you had one (two?) of these in your front lounge at one point! I was very impressed

Your the man, man PS Slightly off-topic I did see that a lot of the BWB video machines are pretty much emulated in MAME now, which is bonkers good. I love MFME it's an amazing emulator, but MAME it's probably the only way forward for a new branch of fruit machine emulation. I totally missed this back in July!! Great work by them for sure. J

Best news I've heard all day... ...thank you sir.

Wow. Just watched the latest video, this is looking superb. Are the reels anti-aliased? Or can these settings be changed on user end? Really looking forward to the beta testing, I'd love to have a play on it for sure J

Hell yeah. Good move mate Totally makes sense to build the standalone offline version first. The online stuff will introduce it's own hassles Hope you're doing good John J

That is very good - multiple arcades that are random ! Think you might even make it feel like you are walking into a new arcade everytime you play.

Wow! That's really coming along nicely:) I can just imagine rows of 80s machines flashing away. I was just thinking, if this can randomise what MFME layout goes where, we could have multiple copies of our favorite games, and never know if what we are playing is due or not. That would add some extra spice.

Good to see you replaced the glass which was missing on the last vid, bet that cost a few bob to fix Awesome vid again.

Hiya mate. Have a look here If you're still stuck, give us a shout

There's been talk of donations - so I've set up a quick system here - so everyone can see/make donations, and also see the purchases made: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pVJB5VBvI1eTtB1-7DKGJ67j6RSHk-dBaM9irmZShBI/edit#gid=0 Thanks to anyone who wants to chip in! I'll post updates if/when new project purchases need to be made (new sports car etc )... not sure what they'll be yet, but there's usually something now and then with these projects.

Quick update Dot matrix alpha displays very nearly done now (just a minor scaling touch up left to do). Had a bloomin' power cut part way through fast re-converting the batch - which made Monopoly Road To Riches come out looking a bit weird so I left it in for fun. Here's 5 working anyway, sourced from MFME DotAlphas and MFME MatrixAlphas... starting the Seven Segment displays next

I have considered a feature like that - at the moment it's essentially always in 'walking around' control mode. The plan is to add an 'playing machine' control mode. So when you are walking around, you look at a machine, press enter/zero, and it will engage the machine. It'll automatically move you into a preset ideal viewing spot in front of the machine. Now walking controls won't function (you are locked in place). In this 'playing machine' mode, the mouse pointer will appear, allowing for clicking on buttons on the machine (with left mouse click). Hovering over a button will change mouse pointer to a finger (similar to MFME). Holding right mouse button down will change mouse pointer to an 'eye' icon with arrows - while right mouse is held down, moving the mouse will control the freelook camera, same as the 'walking around' mode. Another option might be to have camera move if user moves mouse pointer to edge of screen... not sure yet, will see what feels most intuitive. Plan was to do some form of zoom in/out with the mouse scroll wheel. Of course it'll be more worth zooming if/when I can work out how to do streaming AI upscaled textures (8-16k per glass panel), there were some demos of this tech investigation I did on another thread on this forum Long way off before I can work on that AI upscale streaming stuff though, still tons of basic functionality to do...

I am a bit late too, thanks to time zones. Here is a final toast to Chris for everything that he has given to us. I hope that MFME lives on in all of us for many years to come.

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.

'The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very brightly.'

I light a candle for you Christian and hope it stays lit forever, I light this in memory of you and take a few moments for your family and friends too who will miss you just as deeply, I feel it for them too immensely In life there are rare individuals that come along and bring something great into this world and not just emulation but a great many things just like you did. I hope you had a great journey into the afterlife and can bring just as much love and enjoyment to them like you did me. You are a gent, you are a great man. Your heart, your spirit, your essence still runs within me and that will never change and for the time I have been here you brought me magic and light, for what you gave me is something I could never forget. I will pop in from time to time to send you a message and take it easy on those up there they are beginners and will need your tutelage they might not be quick learners like down here. I won't say Goodbye but will say see you around and feel free to pop into your home here from time to time.

Thank you Chris, thank you for bringing so much joy into my life through your amazing creation. Over the last 19 years I've been through some bad times, and it's no exaggeration to say that your emulator is something that has always managed to bring me comfort when things have been dark. I think I can say that here at DIF without sounding insane, as I'm among fellow FME nutcases. Like many people here, a fruit machine emulator was literally a dream for me, and as such, you truly made my dream, and the dreams of so many others, come true. Even though you are gone, what you made will continue to bring happiness into the lives of many, and every time I load in MFME from this day forward, I will pause for a moment to say a quiet 'Thank you' to you. Gone far too soon, but you leave a legacy behind you the likes of which most of us can only ever dream of. Your light has gone out, but we will keep the lights of the scene and the communities you made possible, very much turned on, and as such, you will live on with us in spirit.

Chris - there are a million words I could write - they will save for another day, but just know this. You took me on a magical journey and delivered dreams for people like me and saved me from god knows what with my gambling addiction. I am proud to have known you and hope you are looking down on us with the angels. Thank you and rest in peace - you were fantastic and brilliant - truely one of a kind. Sleep well my friend. Harvey.

Good Morning All, On a day where I have to do some reflection on my job ( for a task I've got to do later ) it's also time to reflect on this site and why we are here. It is MFME that @Wizard has given us. We've thanked @Amot for the very generous supply of resourses, but the elephant in the rom is what about MFME, what about @Wizard who puts tireless hours into the pot to make this happen - the decks need to be balanced here to show our thanks and this is how I propose to do this. Due to my job, family and other commitments and expecations I am only slowly starting to get back into MFME. This site actually takes a lot of admin with the new souls, but that is my cross to bear but is nothing considering the man hours that Wizard has put into coding MFME. I am also trying to pick up some legacy programming from about thirty years ago - so my time is pretty full... ...now consider this... ...my time maybe full but it does not compare to all the hours that have gone into MFME for the past twenty years and still go on. I don't think anybody can really understand the depth of work here - even in the dark years of MFME with no product - Wizard was coding on and on and on. It's time to say thank you as a scene and the below is a statement as admin of this site what I am going to do at Desert Island Fruits. "Wine for Wizard" From the time of this post until the end of June 2020, all donations given will be given directly to Wizard at the end on 1st July 2020. Years ago, I passed my thanks to him as his emulator had taken me off the machines where I had been known to put entire wages into a machine and have nothing for a month and I don't regret a penny of that. I do believe that I am not a lot different from other people here and if you want a chance to buy some Wine for Wizard, this is your moment. If you are a non-supporter of the site and you donate, you still get your 2020 donator badge and the special badge below as well as your access - but all money will be kept in a pot and transferred to Wizard. If you do support and already have a donator badge, then you will get a special badge like this as you have access. If you do choose to buy Wine for Wizard but you DO NOT want this badge that shows your support and maybe encourages some new members to also buy wine, then PM me as soon as you've donated and I'll make sure I do not apply it as per your wishes. Now begins the celebration of MFME and a two month window to support Wizard for twenty years he has put into MFME and why this site exists today and I hope he can buy himself a machine he likes or something like that from what we do as a scene. Thank you all for reading and thank you Wizard.