johnparker007

I heard this game has one of those JPM tells; if it starts rolling in number ones and number twos, that means it's numbering, and it's ready to splash out the jackpot (three brown 7s). (warning: using the above method can lead to a full hopper dump).

lol that's so uk - guy breaks the pub fruit machine open and grabs the cashbox (?) - and then the guy filming shouts out 'Go on my son!'

Waaaah!

Welcome Andrew Your comment about the Union Jackpot exploit along with @Chopaholic's video did indeed cause quite the stir over here lol

Nice idea!

I suspect the paper are showing 'cherry-picked' results, as is quite common with these things. However it does show potential promise, depending on how well it does like you say, with the more complex font stuff that you see on fruit machine art. Never be as good as a redraw (at least in its current approach of pure image gen at the pixel level), but could be useful for sprucing up some old layouts

There is a new 'text aware' AI upscaling model, it's not fully publicly released (yet), I'll keep an eye on this repo https://cvlab-kaist.github.io/TAIR/ A couple of examples of it in action, this may be useful for our low resolution resources... (the TeReDiff / Ours images show the output of the model, impressive stuff)

In p3 I see the text JPMNFC. JPM Fruit Chaser perhaps? They're tiny so prob sys 80 or something super early like that. No messages, as too early for Alpha displays. They are all different, so probably good dumps. Prob worth some tinkering in MFME, swapping the order etc - probably a game in there.

You can usually find a bit of text if it's non-interleaved ROMs just by loading up the ROM in a hex editor or summats If it's interleaved set, the bytes alternate between two ROMs - so you can still search for text you see on the alpha - say "BARCREST" appears on the alpha, you can search for either: BRRS or ACET As the bytes in each ROM look like: ROM 1: B R R S ROM 2: A C E T Hope that helps for some quick ROM identification, without needing to emulate first

@Spidy21982 has done some great models

Coming along nicely @appstrader

Hiya @dec1962 Amazing to see others working on FME in MAME! I have some (non PR'd) FME fixes too, but I've been a bit under the weather for a few months now, so my progress has kinda stalled until I feel a bit more in the zone again I have another Maygay sound fix for another sound chip, but it's in progress from last year (will fix some looping issues and softlocks on M1A/B): I have some other projects on the go also, but I'd been tinkering with MAME as it's the new emulation backend for 'Oasis': Here's Oasis running a 'classic' layout, which will later be exportable to create MAME built in (to the MAME.exe) text only layouts, it is using a MAME.exe process in the background to run the emulation: It also does graphical layouts, so that the new version of 'Arcade Simulator' will use MAME.exe for its emulation backend rather than MFME.exe. Here's a demo of the original version of Arcade Simulator: So I do have a couple of irons in the emulation fire, just been unwell so had to take a step back for a bit. So I am super interested to see more work going into MPU3 (or any of the reel-based FME drivers!) - thanks for your work so far!

This is a nice application of spreadsheets guys I do like a good spreadsheet.

It will be 'somewhere' on the Fruit Machine Rom Archive, you will have to find it though! [ Fruit Machine ROM Archive ] The archive: https://tinyurl.com/3jhzbueb

I'd recommend asking him in the comments on one of his most recent youtube vids.

This is a modern project, but a guy Bernard Mitchell has been making some impressive MPU3 era machine simulations that run on a humble 48K ZX Spectrum (mainly based around Line Up type machines): The audio is particularly dialled in, and he's also implemented the G.A.I.N system, plus it plays to a realistic VTP.

That is very cool @dad! Also found an recentish Follin interview @thealteredemu

Wow not heard that one, it's got some riffs from his Chronos music! Yeah, he really made the beeper sing

No unfortunately, it would make things easier! Things like the reel controllers, I believe they've just been reversed engineered thus far... they were custom chips, so it's not like they're super plentiful for decapping shenanigans...

If you are ever curious about having a dabble (since you mention proficiency in c/c++), the full live source for MAME is here: https://github.com/mamedev/mame If you wanna see how a driver works that isn't too crazy (Scorpion 4 is currently 50,000+ lines, so I may refactor that one!), I've very recently been looking at Maygay M1A/B platform (which needs some work, it has various issues), it's a bit more sane in terms of source size, and the game configs are mercifully already split out to a separate file from the machine logic: https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/maygay/maygay1b.cpp No pressure though, it is a steep learning curve if you're not familiar with chip pin outs and clocks etc! ...but always good to see a fellow coder around these parts

Maybe we could lure you into some emulation programming on MAME...?

I've had a very small taste of the addiction when I was young and relatively skint - I was going down to the local arcade ('Smithies' in Cleethorpes), and contrary to my usual super-frugal approach of going to the seafront with little to no money, then slowly boosting myself up to a few quid so I could play video games, I was doing the danger dance of just taking 'big bucks' for me at the time of like a tenner down there. Then if the machine seemed overdue to payout, but wasn't playing ball according to my expectations, it was like my brain would enter into a grim determination mode, where it was a case of pull a big win/jackpot or die trying (i.e: go skint). Just mechanically slinging my much-needed food money in there (I was on the dole). I remember at the time being probably pretty lucky ironically from also doing a few drugs (not while I was playing!), and recognised that 'end of the night' fiending behaviour. Looking back it still holds true, even after having had access to more and 'better' drugs; there comes a point where you are just fiending, and not getting the 'original pleasure' which motivated you to take the specific drug in the first place. As an example (as I realise I might be more of a fiend than most, so this isn't 100% relatable)... if you haven't taken alcohol for a week, then you get into some drinking (and your brain is wired/tuned up for alcohol)... you'll get a sense of almost euphoria, possibilities seem endless if you just keep doing what you're doing (drinking). Cue 8 hours later, and you're 'chasing the high', earlier a couple of pints and you felt on top of the world, but now an additional two pints is just keeping the wolves from the door (disclaimer I've had various drink/drug issues lol ). That brief dalliance with fruit machine gambling I had in my youth felt very similar - I had transitioned from that phase where was exciting, to the phase of grim determination, where I just had to keep it going because my subconscious brain was willing me too, and I was just along for the ride. I think the parallels between gambling and drug addiction (speaking from experience on the latter) are really similar - your brain gets desensitised to that specific spectrum of stimulus, yet seeks it out, leading to increasing 'dosages' (i.e: stakes in gambling). Unfortunately I'm a bit drunk now, so clearly I haven't learnt! But yes, gambling is a bad path, just like booze and drugs - very similar scenarios ensue. Also - to be clear, I'm not comparing my experience to folks who've spent their entire livelihoods on gambling, just chipping in with my thoughts

OK I've added that to my sig - will do a post for it in the future once it has a comprehensive set of test/settings access procedures for the various platforms [ Fruit Machine Settings/Tests Guide ] https://tinyurl.com/yuebw8b5