johnparker007
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Posts posted by johnparker007
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11 hours ago, Gordon The Boss said:
ProTracker v2.3F was as good as it gets. Took a while to get the hang of it, but was quite simple to use with a bit of savvy...
Gordon The Boss
I used Protracker and Noisetracker - but ultimately found OctaMED Pro to offer the best editing features (I think partly because it was built on the OS native Intuition lib).
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On 17/10/2023 at 16:18, Gordon The Boss said:
Oooooh the old X-copy the most used Amiga App lol
Gordon The Boss
I did a work experience from, school at a place called something like Humberside Computer Services. He sold Amigas and printers etc, but the real cash cow was we had several amigas along the wall, and people would browse the games, and choose some, and then we'd write them a copy. I believe it was £3 for a single disc game; multidisc games were £2 per disc.
There became a problem with kids coming in, browsing the master copies (Dave was getting these via post and BBS) and then 'shoplifting' games... so then Dave set up a system, so his masters were all on 5 1/4" floppies instead - in X-Copy, it didn't mind if the source drive was an external 5 1/4" drive (so you'd then copy from DF1 -> DF0). The shoplifting dropped to zero overnight! (As no-one could use those massive discs in their Amigas).
He got busted by FAST three times, each time, the fine was far less than the money being made from selling the copies, so he'd just pay the fine and carry on
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On 17/10/2023 at 16:25, Gordon The Boss said:
There used to be so many cheats on the Amiga. Plus there was always the Action Replay cheat cartridge if you couldn't be arsed
Gordon The Boss
There was also a 'software only' version of this. It was a little hit and miss as to whether a game would overwrite the interrupt stuff and/or the RAM area of the resident program, but when it did work, it was pretty much the full hardware, but in software - was good for finding cheat values in memory, and general hacking. For ripping soundtracker modules from memory, I recall that it was actually better to do another way (soft reset machine while mod to rip is loaded, then fire up a memory ripper).
I amassed a lot of samples from games/demos to use for my own music making endeavours with this technique
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16 hours ago, MPU_FIVE said:
...before buying the complete game
At least someone actually paid the devs for games!
There was another awful lot of this going on in the late 80s-early 90s 
That said you did need to be linked to someone who could source the cracked games, ultimately coming from a BBS (or the snail mail). I didn't play many games, but I was lucky to be 'connected' to a couple of people who were in the scene
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For a little secret
At the very start when you collect these items from the rooftop, you can collect them in a specific order to enable cheat mode:
I didn't know this at the time, as I didn't have the internet (and it was early days of the net, may not have even be there/findable).
The order is the first letter of each item, to spell out the word C.H.E.A.T... so Cake, Hammer, Earth, Apple, Tap. A good platform game on the Amiga though, worth enjoying without any cheats!
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14 hours ago, Reg said:
Ground-breaking game for the time - out of interest, does the megadrive/genesis version work on your mistr fpga?
I remember this is the only game on genesis that features extra hardware in the cartridge (to provide the 3d)... weirdly it works on my real megadrive (a Japanese unit for best NTSC CRT picture without shipping from the states) with my X7 Krizzx flashcart, I think I probably paid like £40 extra just for the FPGA support for this one game, so the collection would be complete and playable! -
35 minutes ago, AK45 said:
While looking around the web looking for various things for the emulation side of things i do like hyperspin launchbox etc i came across this site which has this PDF file and thought it was quite interesting.Im not sure if this is well known but here it is anyway
Magic Tricks - The Fruit Machine Code.pdf 621.66 kB · 4 downloads
https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/manuals/magic/Magic Tricks - The Fruit Machine Code.pdf
AK45
lol from a quick scan through, and I'm certainly no expert, a lot of this stuff sound like made up nonsense
Like:
...like yeah this part is true (3x hold of double symbols means the win spins in on a lot of machines), but Step 1 & Step 2 of this is saying that when offered holds with 2 of the same symbol on the line, hold 2 reels, but not of the same symbol, and this will 'confuse' the fruit machine, so then it will be forced to offer you 3 consecutive holds on the win symbol. Sounds to me like they were doing that, which is essentially just credit cycling to build up the payout %age, and then in their head, retro-fitting the outcome to their made up theory... All they were doing was feeding the machine more cash, ensuring no accidental win could spin in, and then attributing the consequent 'readiness' to their made up elaborate system.
A fun read though from what I checked out so far!
Btw here is step 2 from the above - this sounds like utter fantasy to me:
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1 minute ago, appstrader said:
I will release a version with a working upgrade link within the program so then its more automated and will check for new versions on start up.
Good call mate, I did the same thing with Arcade Sim, when you're still writing the software while people already want to use it, it's a good idea - as you don't want people running crusty old versions with bugs and missing features that have already been addressed!
Good luck with your ongoing FruitBar project.
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Paging @appstrader
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49 minutes ago, charlie3344 said:
Hi all, has anyone put a fruit machine emulator and roms on one of these (or anything like this) before?
I’ve had a quick scroll through the site and couldn’t see much.
Thank you
It looks good on paper, but I think most fruit emulation cab builders find that they want physical buttons to operate the machine, at least for the main buttons (Start, Hold 1/2/3 etc) - so trying to press down at the bottom of the touch screen, while it will work, will make for a fairly unsatisfying experience, especially in this pure vertical orientation.
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Those 3d cabs are looking good! Long way down the line but one day Arcade Sim will have all its layout in a clear open source format, along with the cabs themselves (prob in .json). Once that time comes, it'll be all open source so you can have at it
Also, there'll be the lamp data, so you could even show attracts running - keep up the good work man
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11 hours ago, Reg said:
That port has come out pretty well! It's by Ed Fries (who also did Halo 2600) - here's his dev thread for it:
https://forums.atariage.com/topic/218406-rally-wip/
It's really nice that he managed to use the 'playfield' aspect of the 2600 hardware in a 4 way scrolling fashion to do the map, very nice.-
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16 minutes ago, Matty.n said:
Incredible news on the Megatouch front, some revisions "do work" at the moment but are poorly optimized and others have graphic corruptions so hopefully this fixes some of those and leads the way to the newer gemstone systems working (Need my Boxxi/Look Out/Moondrop fix after all these years!)
Wow just checked out Boxxi, does look like good simple pure fun actually!
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Not technically FME-related, but I believe these were in arcades/bars in some countries alongside fruit machines...
"work on PC video cards is still progressing, with the added benefit of fixing MegaTouch XL 6000 graphics this month"
https://www.mamedev.org/?p=529
We also have an initial 3d model from @Spidy21982 for the future (as the new Arcade Sim will directly run latest MAME releases)
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22 minutes ago, DOND05 said:
I know we have recreations of slots from @CAshman_eq, but I was wondering if making MFME on Android was at all possible?
Technically possible using the source released version (from many years ago during the whole MAME source code situation), though it's old and buggy. At some point, the more promising approach will be using MAME... currently no official up to date port, though retroarach has an android lib, but it lags quite a lot of versions behind - plus the MAME team (and emulation scene in general) really aren't happy with the Retroarch project, so I'll not be using Retroarch as a dev pathway going forward.
TLDR: 2D FME on mobile will be coming one day, and probably 3D to via Oasis - but don't hold your breath for any of this, will likely be years away!
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Quick test of an MPU4. Seems the fix we put in (as Adders and Ladders synth sound tunes were running too slow), has also sped up the sound chip, so everything sounds too fast/high pitched! Will be fixed in a different way at some point (2x xtals, or different values per machine or something...).
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On 22/09/2022 at 20:05, Robsonmeg46 said:
Does anyone have Alphabet that works with touchscreen ? and shortcuts
i have one but it does not work with touch and there is no short cuts on it so when i edit and add shortcuts they still dont work after saving the layout.
If we're necro-ing old posts, I've had a quick edit of that layout to fix/improve:
- improved alphanumeric display
- made buttons clickable, with keyboard shortcuts (should now work with touchscreen)
- made main coinslot clickable, with 0 to insert £1
- made reel lamps and reel mask the default, which looks smoother and more realistic
Alphabet - Barcrest.zip
Have fun
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Just thought I'd record a very quick play with some of those new emulation features we get 'for free' (since this is using MAME for emulation backend), such as the save states...
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2 hours ago, Liverpool2008 said:
Ive downloaded it but it goes way past 100% on updates ie used over 6 gig in total and get errors on updates
Ah unfortunately it sounds like it is likely not compatible with your machine then unfortunately, sorry about that.
I just checked and the arcade sim website is live, and it boots for me past the update process, so all I can suggest is restarting your PC, then launching it again, a restart has been known to fix things!
Also, I guess try launching Arcade Sim as Administrator (find in Start menu, and right click, like shown below):
I'm a bit under the weather, so maybe someone else may be able to think of something if those steps don't work!
If still not joy, perhaps you could post a screenshot of the errors you saw ("get errors on updates") ? Might help to narrow down the issue... -
2 hours ago, Liverpool2008 said:
I have a Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4570 CPU @ 3.20GHz 3.20 GHz
16 Gig DDR3 Ram
AMD Firepro W2100 2GB GDDR3 Dual Display Port Graphics Card - 0Y5FR3 / Y5FR3
also solid state drives plenty of space too
I think the CPU should just about be fast enough to even do the videos, RAM is fine, SSDs are fine... however your graphics card looks to be one designed for CAD workstations rather than standard 3d gaming, and I think that may really pull your framerates down.
I'd say your best bet is to install it and see! Like I mentioned, download is here:
Arcade Simulator:
Pre-alpha installer: http://arcadesimulator.net
You'll also want the latest MFME installed for the fruit machines, though I'd try installing Arcade Simulator first, then try walking around in the arcade, see if your graphics card can run it ok. The graphics card looks to be one specialised for working with wireframe models and things like that rather than playing games. So I suspect it may not work/work very well due to that, but you might get lucky! -
2 hours ago, Liverpool2008 said:
what's this incredible piece of software love to try it myself
It's 'Arcade Simulator', there's a download link in my forum sig below
(You'll need a half-decent PC to run it btw, it's more demanding than just MFME, since it's 3d, realtime lighting etc...)
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2 hours ago, Fruity Nut said:
I have no settings on the main menu is that normal? (see pic)
This is normal, that menu was placeholder - this Arcade Simulator was a (very large) initial proof-of-concept of a large playable 3d arcade (as was not sure if was even feasible), the new one is going to be built as a component of the new Oasis project (it will have more tightly integrated emulation via live MAME exe which will solve a bunch of problems with the current system). This will be quite a while though (at least a year, probably longer), but I felt that I left Arcade Sim in a good spot to keep people going, there's plenty of machines in there!
2 hours ago, Fruity Nut said:Where can I find the keyboard controls and can they be changed or can I use a joypad?
For the video games, the keys are QAOP and Space for up/down/left/right/fire, and then I believe it was MNB for additional buttons. Some standard joypads will automatically work (Xbox pad etc), however for custom ones, you'll need to use some software like Joy2Key (which maps definable USB joystick inputs to keypresses). Not ideal, but this was where I was up to, so hadn't gotten to doing definable input system yet.
2 hours ago, Fruity Nut said:Will the simulator update automatically when you add machines?
It did while it was under development, however, the new Arcade Simulator (as part of the Oasis Suite of arcade emulation software), will be a whole new install. There are no more updates planned for this version of Arcade Simulator.
2 hours ago, Fruity Nut said:Really loving it and will definitely be donating. Need to buy another PC for my living room now so I can enjoy on my big TV.
Keep up the great work
I play it on a TV for the fruit machines from time to time, it's nice relaxing experience!
All donations are gratefully received, there's a link in my sig below They will go towards future expenses for the Oasis project, as stuff comes up - ta very much!
Also, the Oasis project is open source (as are all my new FME projects going forward) - source code links also in my sig. -
4 hours ago, Fruity Nut said:
Anyone know why the mame cabs are not running their Attract mode?
Just freshly installed. The games all play fine just no images when walking round the arcade.
Fruities are all lit fine.
TIA
If you've not changed any settings, this is usually that your PC setup is not quite powerful enough to run with the attract videos, as they are a demanding feature.
In the ingame settings menu, one thing you could try is:
Set the 'Pop-in Protection' and 'Distance/Resolution' sliders down to zero. Then exit to the frontend, and click Play to reload the arcade. Though usually if the PC is struggling, they will not work very well / cause performance issues. Best option in very likely to simply disable the 'Attract Videos' feature. In the future version of this software (Oasis), there will be an option to cycle through a few screenshots per machine instead of full video, but that is a very long way off.-
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10 minutes ago, Jason White said:
Jason
Quoting so you get a notification, see above reply
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Pinball Fantasies - Amiga
in 16-bit
Posted
Even though I was involved, I have to admit that the Amiga may have faired better had it not been for the ubiquity of software piracy. All the talented game devs got out of the Amiga ecosystem, and focused on SNES/Megdrive/Saturn/PS1 and the poor old Amiga was bereft of software... amazing computer for its time though