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MAME source update 0.106u2!

Well, this is a milestone since MAME now has a new video core:

0.106u2
-------

IMPORTANT NOTE: The video system in this version has been completely
upended and redesigned. The old video system is still the default;
however, some features may be broken. These are not bug-worthy
reports, as the old system will soon be deprecated. The new system
can be compiled by setting the NEW_RENDER flag on in the makefile.

THE NEW SYSTEM IS STILL WORK-IN-PROGRESS! Apart from video card-
related issues (like it doesn't work on particular hardware or has
an incorrect display), bugs are not being tracked at this time.
There is already a laundry list of things that are broken at the
top of render.c, and there are many other things that still need
to be looked at.

In order to run the new video system with hardware acceleration,
your machine will require DirectX 8 or later.

There are a few new clones and games added but the significant change is what you just read right above. I believe that we are a step closer to bigger and better things!

New clones added
----------------
WWF: Wrestlemania (rev 1.20 08/02/95) [Corrado Tomaselli]
Heavy Smash (Asia version -4) [Corrado Tomaselli]
Mad Alien (Highway Chase) [Stefan Jokisch]

New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
------------------------------------
Pasha Pasha 2 [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
Trivia Madness [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

You may download the source update from the mamedev site. Enjoy!

Whacker

May 21, 2006

MAME source update 0.106u1 is here!

Aaron states that he's going to fix from scratch all the video handling routines in MAME. That means we will have to expect many games that used to be 'perfect' to suffer some glitches within these intermediate releases, but at the end we will have a much better MAME to play with. Read on:

0.106u1
-------

IMPORTANT NOTE: Major video-related changes are beginning in the
system. Attempts will be made to keep the existing video code
working to a large degree, but some features may be broken or
working improperly until the video changes are complete. Most
notably, in this release, RGB effects are broken for non-Direct3D
blitting. For the moment, do not report anomalies or problems in
the video system. If you like a nice, stable MAME, please stick
with the 0.106 release. You have been warned.

Download the source update from here. Don't forget to download the MAME32 source update for 106u1 too because you won't be able to complete the compile. Enjoy!

Whacker

May 18, 2006

Official MAME 0.106 is out!

Being away for a couple of days I missed the official build that came shortly after 0.105u5. This one is entitled "Fighters History" but I'm not sure what this is all about :). Download from here.

ClrMAME Pro 3.87c released.

Our rom manager of choice has a new update too. This one has been built using VS2005:

I made a little test compile with VS2005 again. If you got a little time, please test it. Especially on older Operating Systems or on 64bit architectures. It's just the 3.87c code compiled with VS2005, so don't expect anything new ;) Let me know if you find any issues or differences to the VS2003 build. I also included a UPX2 compressed VS2005 compile. Let me know if the compression causes any issues.

Read more about it and download the file from here.

Whacker

May 12, 2006

Year 2038 and a letter to Apple...

After a long history (15 years) with PCs I decided to move over and treat myself a Macintosh computer. This computer made me love the OS "X" platform and I really fell in love with Apple computers. Now I own a G4/800 Quicksilver, and two Ibooks a "Dual USB White" and a 466 MHz "clamshell" one.

After some time with Mac computers I have noticed a rather peculiar problem: The date & time routine into "System Preferences" failed to match a date over 01/01/2038! I did a small research on the matter and I came up with the idea of letting Apple Computers know, so I wrote them a letter... Read on:

Mailed on 07-05-2006 through http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback

Dear Sir / Madam:

I am a professional computer technician and IT consultant. I recently purchased an ibook G3/900MHz Dual usb White in order to get the idea of working with MAC OS X and propose such a configuration as an alternative choice in certain work positions of our department.

This was a used one so I tried to fix the hour to match my country settings. I found out accidentally that it was impossible to set the computer date to more than 01/01/2038. Having the responsibility to work with PCs as a programmer for salary programs and statistical Human Resource Administration Data, this was a rather unacceptable issue since I have faced a similar problem with the Y2K bug back in 1999 (but fortunately solved it back then, since I had made the source code).

I must state here that I have tried this (and has the similar effect) to a G4/800 MHz Quicksilver and a G3/466 'Clamshell' iBook. An interesting issue is that the G4 computer has had Virtual PC software loaded and I had tested the Date problem on a Windows XP virtual machine, without these problems whatsoever (went up to 2085 without a problem but it reverted back to the OSX system date after 2 minutes, due to the Virtual PC way of operation).

That means to me that the (BSD based) core of OSX has the problem, as many Unix-oid systems (based to 32bit processors) do. This seems to be a known issue to many forums over internet. A quick google search should come up with several discussions and proposed solutions on the matter.

Since my applications are strictly time-based (Salary etc), I cannot invest on such a solution for me or my company. I wonder if Apple has a proposal on solving this certain issue for these series of computers and please let me know if you intend to release a fix that does so.

Best regards. 

PS:
I’ll be glad to answer to any questions you may have related on this matter. Please mail me back.

I didn't have any replies from Apple yet, If you have any suggestions and/or additions please use the mail on the left.

MAME 0.105u5 released.

Another update of MAME source which suggests some extremely innovative ideas. Aaron describes:

Extended the gfxlayout structure to support "extended" arrays of
x and y offsets. These are used for layouts that are larger than
32x32. This enables the standard structure to be smaller for the
vast majority of games that don't require huge graphics decodes.
The end result is that the MAME .exe is ~3MB smaller.
[Atari Ace, Aaron Giles]
...
Added preliminary support for 64-bit targets. A new makefile define
PTR64 should be set if you are compiling for a 64-bit target. This
propogates a PTR64 define into the C files as well. Made the makefile
smart enough to auto-disable the drc cores for 64-bit, and removed
most of the roadblocks to a 64-bit build, apart from the assembly
blitters, which are currently undergoing a rewrite. [Aaron Giles]
...
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Hidden Catch 2 [Pierpaolo Prazzoli, Guru]
Fishing Maniac 3 [Pierpaolo Prazzoli, Guru]
Yu-Ka [Tomasz Slanina]
Yu-Jan [Tomasz Slanina]

New clones added
----------------
Greyhound Selection (Version 40.02TMB) set 2 [Brian Troha]
Greyhound Poker (3 new sets) [Brian Troha]

New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
------------------------------------
Master Boy [David Haywood]
Intersecti [David Haywood]

Get your compilers ready and head over here.

Whacker

May 6, 2006

MAME 0.105u4 released.

A new month - a new update. This is a major one for all you Nintendo fans out there. There's been a major bug fix from Ville Linde and Ryan Holtz. As for the rest of us here goes the new games' list from 'what's new' file:

New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Tetris (D.R. Korea) [David Haywood]
Knuckle Bash 2 (bootleg) [Quench]

New clones added
----------------
Metal Slug 6 (Metal Slug 3 bootleg) [Mame32Plus]
Metal Slug 5 (JAMMA PCB) [Mame32Plus]
SVC Chaos - SNK vs CAPCOM (JAMMA PCB, set 2) [Mame32Plus]
Night Slashers (Over Sea Rev 1.2) [Stefan Lindberg]
Double Dragon (World Set 2) [Stefan Lindberg]

New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
------------------------------------
DoDonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou (V100) [Wu]

This update is available for download from here.

ClrMAME Pro 3.87b released.

A few fixes and speed optimizations makes this version worth downloading. Read what's new and download from here.

Whacker

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