[Development Updates]

6 hours ago, johnparker007 said:

Hiya @bionic_beast   

I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this issue writing the dlls - please could I TeamViewer into your machine at some point to investigate further?

I don't see why not.

When would suit you best?

[Development Updates]

11 minutes ago, johnparker007 said:

Right, thanks for that info, that's good to know - well I'll try installing AVG Anti Virus free on test PC when I get time (hopefully in next day or so), and see if I can get the same bug to happen. 

The dll is required - as the source code for the MFME emulator I am currently using for fruit machine emulation is lost, and the author (Chris Wren aka Wizard) is sadly no longer with us.  So the dll is what allows for control over various MFME internal functionality so that Arcade Sim can use it.

As this involves intercepting system calls to do things like custom registry settings, turbo startup etc - some antivirus sees it as suspicious... so the fact it's failing on those exact files makes me think it is very likely an antivirus issue.  Hopefully I can replicate here later, and perhaps find a solution  

Finders Crossed alright

I made a comment back when this project was still just 3 reels and a light (the very beginning and while I had my Brendo account) and that statement is still true to this very day with eye candy additions such as bloom.

[Development Updates]

41 minutes ago, johnparker007 said:

Well that is very confusing!  I don't think any other user is having this error (at least that I've heard about).  Thnkas for giving it a try though.

In Windows Explorer - if you navigate to the folder:

C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Arcade Simulator\Game\ArcadeSim_Data\_Emulators\MFME\_dll

You should see some files like these (you may only see the 'REVERSED' versions):



If you delete all of those files so the folder is empty, then relaunch Arcade Simulator, does it make any difference?

I will make a note and temporarily install AVG Anti Virus Free on my test machines, to see if I can replicate the issue... as I suspect it is still somehow that anti virus that is causing the problem, even with the local whitelisting in place.
 

I tried that even deleting as many MFME folders I could and guess what?... Black Screen!

[Development Updates]

7 hours ago, johnparker007 said:

Ok - well I've tried to submit both dlls to them, but as always these whitelisting portals are flakey!  I got one of them through, but now it won't accept any more - sigh.




This means that in theory, your antivirus will eventually stop detecting that first file as a false positive (if AVG add it to their whitelist, then your antivirus downloads that update).  You will probably then still have a second error, as I can't submit the second file to AVG Free.  Then we can check the error message (to confirm it's now failing on a slightly differently named dll file), and I will contact AVG and try to find a human to accept the file and whitelist it.

If you want to solve this without waiting for AVG to fix on their end - you can exclude the Arcade Simulator folder from AVG, to stop the AVG program errors:

https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en&urlName=AVG-Antivirus-scan-exclusions&supportType=home

That's all I can do for now (as I believe the bug is not with me, but with the AVG Free false positive... we had this already, I had to whitelist with quite a few AV vendors) - hopefully I'll hear back from AVG with a human contact, so I can get the other file whitelisted.


EDIT:  No, I can't get AVG to whitelist until I set up email redirection as I'm currently using a gmail address:



This stuff is reeeally f**king annoying 

For now, if you could please add an exception for Arcade Simulator in AVG Free, it should work.  I'll put this on the todo list, but setting up email forwarding from the arcadesimulator domain I own is such a load of extra random work, as they have a stupid policy that restricts development of software - grrrrr.

Add this folder to AVG Free exclusions:
C:\Users\__YOUR_WINDOWS_ACCOUNT_NAME__\AppData\Local\Arcade Simulator

Instructions:
https://support.avg.com/SupportArticleView?l=en&urlName=AVG-Antivirus-scan-exclusions&supportType=home

Okay, after whitelisting Arcade Simulator, guess what?...

Black Screen!

Here's another debug screenshot:

[Development Updates]

42 minutes ago, johnparker007 said:

I've had a look at the code that's doing this stage.  It looks fairly reliable, so if you could please try:

- run Arcade Simulator as Administrator... this may fix the issue.

if it doesn't fix, please could you let me know if you are using any specific anti-virus software?  As that's the other probable cause... so it is picking up the file I'm trying to create, deciding it is suspicious and quarantining or whatever - which is the causing the problem.

If that's the case, I can contact the anti-virus company, and get them to add the file signature to their whitelist, which means it will work when that patch goes out to your antivirus software.

Additionally you can add the Arcade Simulator install folder to your anti-virus exceptions to potentially fix the problem sooner. 

Alright, I just tried it and... black screen, the Antivirus software I'm using is AVG AntiVirus Free.

[Development Updates]

51 minutes ago, johnparker007 said:

Hiya   Ok, well I just rolled out a fix for at least on of these black screen issues last night, so that's a little surprising.  Could I ask you to please:

- launch Arcade Sim

- when you get to the black screen and it is stuck, move the mouse up into the top left (even though the mouse pointer is hidden, it is still there)

- left-click rapidly three times (you should see a small white square flash if you have the hidden mouse pointer all the way up in the topleft of the screen)

- after clicking rapidly three times, a screen should appear, with some text on it

- please take a screenshot of that screen that has appeared and post in here - it may give me some clues to help troubleshoot

Cheers  

Here's the debug report

This also confirms that it was a soft lock

[Development Updates]

Hey there, bug report:

So when I was trying to boot up arcade simulator it goes through the usual installer checks of installing anything from the website that needs to be, but then it does it again much quicker this time and then black screen:

by this point (I think) this software has completely soft locked. Any ideas on what's going on here?

Also this was after the usual uninstall/reinstall process so I don't think it's that.

[WTF to Final Frontier]

I don't think that's the case, if it was an alpha glitch then the machine wouldn't soft-lock i don't have the video because I'm a moron but trust me, it did soft lock trying to find a number somewhere in the stratosphere, also I don't think the machine ever intended all the hi-lo lights to be on at the same time.

[WTF to Final Frontier]

Okay so seemingly out of nowhere when I booted up MDM's Final Frontier this happened:

I have no idea how this happened but it seems the Hi-Lo lights went to all sorts of shenanigans outputting bonkers numbers like 6545 that you see in the image instead of the usual   1-10. I wish I had gotten a feature instead of a hi-lo gamble so I could see the hilarious board moves. Why? Because after a while of selecting a number for the hi-lo gamble the machine just stops advancing the lights softlocking the machine, reseting the game corrects this glitch.

[Please help (again)]

9 hours ago, Reg said:

This is the fix...

 

Thanks Reg, I'll upload one of my true mini compositions as free material should anyone want to make a custom fruit machine in say Gamemaker Studio. (I plan on doing this every time I get successful help from here on)

nudge material.wav

[Please help (again)]

Yes I know, I'm asking for more help (haha)

I just downloaded Pook's old Cosmic Casinos layout and was greeted with a Character error.
Does anyone know how to fix this error (and before you ask, yes I did try all the different characters in the configuration menu it did not work)

[In Memory of the Great Wizard]

To the Wizard of MFME himself

Thank you for this great legacy

Sorry for my dismissive attitude

and... Wish you the best

(but to the worst to the flipping police, but unfortunately I guess that's to be expected knowing the current world of EntitledPeople we live in)

[Fruit machine with Arabic theme.]

Just throwing this out here even though I don't think it's it

Sheik Yer Money maybe?

[Case Build Thread]

Hot Damn, That's cool!

The lights, displays, this thing looks like a piece of eye candy.

The case is one thing, but the fact that you got the display to show whatever system/game your using/playing is something that belongs on r/OddlySatisfying.

[JPM Big Wheel]

The font for the number reel and bingo card is Nubian

Here's a download link: https://fontsgeek.com/fonts/Nubian-Regular

Looking forward to this fresh-off-the-press DX as Big Wheel is one of my more favourable JPMs alongside Club GIve Us A Break.