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hey to everyone here nice to meet you all, cant wait to play some of those old classics that i used to play in the pub when i was younger

Been feeling a bit better, so got some more progress on porting/converting the MFME Layout Extractor from the old ArcadeSim project to the new MfmeTools application (this is a 'standalone' Windows-only component of the Layout Editor, which is a cross-platform component of the Oasis suite). Work ported so far, allows for a little more progress in this test extraction, is now puts Mfme in Edit mode, and copies off lamps to the background: Next, is to get the Window Handle of the Properties window, and then from there, it's working on the new window capture system itself, as I need to get: - window position/size from the handles - getting window content as a bitmap - redo the old scraping of the component name (used a fuzzy OCR in old system, this needs converting to my Delphi font scraper, as everything else uses)

Hi, I've got a Twilight Zone manual and have attached the DIP settings below. The percentages can be changed, and also the % token payout can be changed from high to low as well. Sorry about the state of the page, looks like the engineer poured coffee all over it at some point! Reading this thread with interest, would be great to see some of your work come to fruition guys, hope this helps anyway.

Thank you for the insight into CLASSIC v`s DX I did not realise the amount of work that goes into one, I am personally grateful to ALL the designers of any layout, you all do some fantastic work and I really appreciate the work and time that goes into recreating these masterpieces, and I'm really pleased I have been accepted here and that I am allowed to play these on my homemade machine. Here is a BIG 🆃🅷🅰🅽🅺-🆈🅾🆄 to you all

A little bit hacky, but more progress on the MfmeTools Extractor. Usually when right-clicking the left side of the layout to pull up the Properties window, we land straight on the first component (the background). This isn't always the case though, sometimes there might be a component like a checkbox there. So we must get back to the first component... I've added a large 'dummy test' lamp on the left of this Andy Capp layout I'm testing with, so we can test getting back to the first component. Here is the new window scraping code getting its first use, watching the component number change while clicking left, until it sees it has successfully reached the first component:

A small tech update on this project I have the general custom window scraping written (so it can grab the RGB value of specific pixels from the various MFME windows). Currently working on integrating that functional scraping code into MFME Tools - the first use of which will be to simply scrape the component number from the properties window (so we can 'rewind' back to component #1 after getting into Properties - this is how I found it best to do under the Arcade Sim Layout Scraper). The plan is that this custom scraping code, whilst also being complete independent of Unity (MFME Tools is written in C# as a Windows executable), will also provide missing stability, as the scraping system I used under Unity to drive Arcade Sim and also the layout extraction, had a tendency to crash! So hopefully when this is fully developed, I can leave it with a massive batch of DX layouts, and it will not crash even after many hours of extracting... Commits are all here for those interested in the code, this is all open source: https://github.com/johnparker007/Oasis/commits/main/

I think they are called classic layouts because in the original emulators there was no ability to have graphics, other than reels. So when the ability came to implement graphics, the term 'DX' (I assume shorthand for Deluxe?) came about, and the older looking, non graphical layouts became 'Classic'. But simply, a classic layouts is any layout which doesn't have graphical lamps, normally doesn't have the actual machine artwork. But it has all the bits working - and that's part of the challenge. I've made classic layouts, I've made DX layouts from scratch, and I've made DX layouts using an existing classic. The hardest in terms of logic is a classic layout, or a 'from scratch' DX. You are starting with a complete blank canvas, and need to work out the machine inputs (switches, opto sensors, coin validation) and outputs (reel positions, lamps, and probably hoppers, tubes, and meters too). On some machines it's almost like 'layout by numbers', especially if the machine has a test mode - once you've found your way into it - that gives you reel symbol positions and lamp positions. On some it's genuinely a massive game of trial and error until you find the right numbers. DX layouts based on classics, while they have a graphical challenge, have the machine's inner workings mapped out. So basically you start with an already working layout, and you then work with graphics to put on top of it. I'd hope people who create classics would be recognised as equally but I'd expect that to most people who come across as a site like this, the classics look 'basic', so probably don't get appreciated as much.

Had a little tinker with my shelved Speccy shmup prototype - looking at impact of adding AY music. General conclusion being that I'll barely have any cycles left over to do collision detection! So I suspect next will be looking if I can get more efficiency by running very basic 1 channel music, and then sound effects on the other two channels... The music here is a little basic remix I did of a couple of tracks by Chris Huelsbeck, from the game Apidya on the Amiga. The plan is to do: - an alternative method for drawing the player ship 'laser' - get some config of AY sound working that is performant enough to allow for full collision detection - write that performant collision detection So then I could have a single playable complete level+boss as a vertical slice proof-of-concept. Here's an older video showing sprites moving and some test collision detection code (no audio implemented in this one):

Good eye, this is indeed using Denis's Engine he originally developed for Ringo, which he open-sourced here: https://github.com/DenisGrachev/Ringo-8 I've added the 'scroller', as the original engine is limited to a small level map, so this can do the much wider map required for a shmup. Also been experimenting with additional pseudo-sprites that will be drawn in spare cycles for the player's bullets/laser. Struggling a bit with spare cycles though, as I'm aiming to do a lot more than RIngo did, but still limited to the same damn Z80 CPU haha If I can figure out it, should be pretty crazy for a Speccy shmup, I may have to compromise on the audio though. It is showing an illusion of parallax scrolling, it's fairly limited parallax (same repeating tile on faraway 'layer'), but I have an idea to work around to some extent that with tilestrips. Haha yep, no color clash with this rendering technique. It involves both beam-racing and using a form of double-buffer. So there are two screens, that do obey the Speccy limitations of only two colors in every 8x8 attribute square. But then we toggle betweeen which one is being displayed in sync with the raster beam, every 8 pixels horizontally starting from x=4, and also every 4 pixels vertically starting from y=4, and so that gives us an effective resolution of 4x4 pseudo-pixels, that can display any of the 8 color values with no color clash. What you see: An example of one of the real buffer screens, that is rendering the above display:

This could be potentially interesting for slot machine layouts MAME now has support for touch screens on Linux and Windows 8 or later, opening up new possibilities for interactive artwork. If you have a suitable multi-touch screen, you can now play chords on systems with on-screen piano keyboards. Check the documentation for specifics on how touch differs from mouse control in menus. You’ll need to turn on the enable_touch option to use touch screen support on Linux.

I’ve had the streak on a 02 £4.80 Grand National. It does seem anything v04 £6 don’t have the same profile, likely due to the enriched period being outlawed. I’m still going to keep at these and make the line wins free, shame about those forced streaks as it was one of the pitfalls of doing the lines, giving it an element of jeopardy Still it’s kind of fun to experience the trick on the games we don’t have early software for. J

So, have been dabbling with this little project when have spare time. I started working on Pound for Pound. I started by making the jackpot wins off lines free, so I was testing and I'm thinking it's buzzing but where are the mini streak roll ins to compensate for being over %? I was thinking I'd done something to affect that but I loaded the original P4P 04 roms and indeed these don't have the corrective % watchdog profile. How odd as I've played a P4P 02 in the wild and it definitely had the roll ins!! So, I figured that I'd try other versions. So 05, and 07, none of these have the corrective %? How utterly odd that they would change this from earlier versions, all other versions of the clones seem to have the mini forced roll ins apart from P4P. I remember someone saying to me that there was something else on this machine, they could be right, maybe there is a way to manipulate it after all as it certainy won't try to level out when way under. Interesting. But, those lines are free, though I need to address the nudges being offered on Nudge Quick as I'm fairly quick but 03 seconds on start is might tighty J

I have noticed before on a Double Cash layout that on a particularly RAM I had (and I would keep reverting to), that on the 4th spin it would always nudge for Bars with the Double Cash. I thought it might be a one off and never thought about it again. However, I now have a RAM for the new Twin Pot layout by DAD (thanks for that, love this era of Astra machines) that will always offer 4 nudges (next spin) and a hold on the first go. Hold reels 1 and 3 and it will nudge for the Twin Pot feature which will then go for £5 with a repeat of £3 and a further repeat of £6. Every time! It's as though it has preplanned the next 4 spins. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Maybe it is just the nature of compensated machines that something is triggered in the code and will therefore always be triggered? I've attached the GAM and RAM files if you'd like to try it for yourself. Twin Pot DX.gam Twin Pot DX.ram

On Red Hot Poker - £6.00 JP - the cards are pre scripted - even if you change your holds at certain points.... You can exit with no RAM save and reload - the next ten or so cards will be the same at certain times when it wants to give a win. The fun thing here though, is that cos its a poker game - if you hold different things - you can get different wins! So 2 pair instead of a straight for example, AWP's were just Donald Ducked back in the day. This trend even continued to the £35 era - I have the video screen lo-tech Bullseye dart game saved at a point where it will give a streak of between £95 and £140 within the next 10 credits. It can pay it in very slightly different ways - but its always there. I also like getting a game close to streak - and seeing the different ways it will play out.

There's always a video, and a story Very much what's being described by BarXQueen, a near 'scripted' series of events from the same RAM reset position, that happened to me, (profitably!), on a real machine (Spoiler alert, the battery for the battery backed RAM had gone flat, so if you were the first person to play it every day, you got it from a RAM reset, when it had a few quid profit in it on a repeatable cycle.)

It was quite common a long time back that AWPs would do the exact same thing from a particular RAM position, reset position being an example @Chopaholic did a video for (or mentioned in another video).

The DX is deluxe and the phrase was coined by Gary when he did the first DX which was Viva Espana way back in 2001. Before the DX, we just called classic layouts, layouts. I guess after the DX, we had to call non DX's something, so classic became a term for them. I only do classics and they can take tens of hours to do, particularly if you put some real effort into them. But even I don't keep any of my classics in my main collection, I keep them separate from it. I'd also be happy to see a machine I've done a classic for, get a DX ASAP. Back in the day though, I guarantee you if you wanted to play FME, you would have had more classics than DX's. But nowadays we are so spoilt, we can be very choosy.

Ah right that makes sense, thanks for the info, i thought maybe i was missing something

Hello all , been having a great time playing the layouts, but I've burned through my downloads XD Is there anyway to check how many I've done and when they'll refresh? I'm aware of the limits shown in the image in the FAQ but I cant recall where I'm at. (I'm probably out for the month) Alternatively, are there different donation tiers? I've browsed thru some of the threads but not spotted any thing specific Thanks for any help, wish you all a great weekend, been having great fun donding XD

I believe it's just £5 minimum for a year's subscription. There is a DONATE button on the main page.

Antivirus software can be a bit of a pain! This won't affect standard users of Oasis when that is done, since it doesn't need these dll's to run the fruity machine emulation. It will still be an issue for advanced users who want to convert MFME layouts into Oasis layouts themselves (as they'll need to install the MfmeTools add-on to extract the MFME layouts), but this will be a small number of users interested in that side of things.

How to fix: - Open Windows Defender - select the Virus & Threat Protection tab: - scroll down in the Window and click Manage Settings: - click Add Or Remove Exclusions (you may need to scroll down to see this option: - Click the '+ Add an Exclusion' button, and select 'Folder' from the dropdown list: - Choose the Arcade Simulator folder, on my machine this looks like this (on your machine the username will not be 'John!') Now you should be able to use machines running via MFME (the fruit machines) again!

Ah right, have just checked and the same issue is present over here. It appears that ArcadeSim is unable to start the'hack dll' I wrote to inject functionality into MFME. I wonder if it's to do with Windows antivirus having changed and it now sees the dll injection as a potential threat: Thanks for the info, I suspect it's something Windows antivirus has started doing. I'm a bit under the weather for coding at the mo, hopefully I can figure a workaround fix, so we can keep ArcadeSim working to tide us over until Oasis... I'll look into it hopefully soonish, fingers crossed I can find a simple fix, without needing to try build an ArcadeSim update, since the codebase it pretty much 'retired'... would like it to keep working though for the next 1-2 years if poss!

Open the Box 02 will work, just exchange double bar wins and take any line. We don't have a HiDeHi 02 version sadly. I'm hoping to make a Pay Rise, Camelot and Pound for Pound, though the Pound 4 Pound we have plays very oddly. J

It's not hard to do, but the issues would be more complex layouts. Every (or almost every layout) will use 1,2 and 3 for the 3 hold buttons (and 4 if a 4 reel machine). Also the Start / Gamble button will normally be spacebar, and cancel will normally be tilde (to the left of 1 on Qwerty keyboards). Collect will normally be c if it's not shared with cancel. The issue would be machines with additional buttons elsewhere. Exchange can be E or X being an example. On a hi-tech machine with multiple buttons on the top glass machines could use any combination of keyboard inputs. You could edit the keyboard shortcuts in MFME edit mode to try and standardise for your controller?

Xpadder is also good

A good starting place would be to grab Joy2key: https://joytokey.net/en/ You can then bind the keyboard shortcuts used in MFME to a button/direction of your choice.

Thanks for your help vectra

That would be “what’s up doc!” There’s a dx by me somewhere

I think you mean All in a days work which amongst others like it can be found via the download section under global

@Matt Try mine...

The first thing that comes to mind (and I think we are all over it now) is the old Fairplay video by Stuart Campbell. He shows the interviewer a machine, I think it was Maygay Monopoly Club, and how from loading the RAM the same sequence happens - same small win is awarded, same gamble ladder, e.t.c. up to the point it becomes unwinnable. I'd never really thought about it with lo-techs - I've got 'streak happy' RAMs but I don't recall any giving the exact same result (same exact win) after the same amount of spins. They probably do it all the time though

1stly please accept my apologies if this has been asked before and I do apologise in advance if this offends people it's not my intention to i just wish to know more about what a classic layout means. Do I need to put this somewhere else or are they meant to be like this to allow people to add artwork - if that makes sense, I appreciate all the work that goes into these, and always look forward to them but I usually grab the DX ( whatever that means ) version as it looks like the real machine would - I hope I'm making sense Many thanks. Dave.

Correct. I rarely use an existing Classic these days.

I certainly appreciate all the hard work all designers do - without the "classics" we would never have got to the DX's So thank you one and all.

Does the dx editor brighten the various arts up it darkens em down with more contrast etc goto edit mode (red bar up top) dx editor then add brightness to each art off/on1/on2 make each one the same brightness ie +50 on all three click apply to each then remask

You will need to remask all the lamps that use transparency then mask the off image too !!

Thanks!

You really need the machines manual to see what they do and sometime several machines on the same tech, by the same manufacturer may do the same thing. Very very very rarely, a machines layout producer has used the emulators ability to have tags added to the dip switches, which when you hovver over them, shows a pop up message with what the particular dipswitch does. I'll see if I have a manual for an emulated machine and you can switch them and see what happens.

The sound rom is SC4 and the program roms are SC5. It clearly states this in the added 'txt' file. Do you not check these things? [EDIT] These are the SC2 roms.......no sounds though. Casino Bar 7's (Bellfruit) [Rom].zip

Hi all! I just wanted to say a huge great 1 big thanks to all! I have made so many online friends here. So first to the late, great, Chris J Wren Wizard RIP for the emulator, Reg for starting the sight, all donaters and friends, layout creaters, Chopaholic, cheerful pecimist, whatwhat what and on a bucket for youtube emulation vids, infection for ROM and looking for awktions for roms/machines on ebay, anyone else? OH yeah, steve lansett and chris217's youtube channels, well, the whole lot of you! Just one big thanks! The amount of machines that have now been emulated, from the old MPU2's to the whole way upwards to the £500 randomers. again, ONE! BIG! THANK YOU!

depends on how may files you have downloaded, there are limits in place for non donors. It is in the faq if you want to read..... https://www.desertislandfruits.com/forum/index.php?/topic/4898-faq/ There are download restrictions in place for members that do not support the site. At the time of writing the FAQ these are what they are set to assuming you are in a standard membership group. The limits above may go up, they may go down. The only way to remove them is given something back to the community on an ongoing manner or support the site.