New adventures in MAME

[AnonTet]

Not sure if this counts, though seriously considering pulling the trigger on this monitor. Looks to be an almost perfect MAME monitor, ticks a lot of boxes and I can get it $100 off...should I...?

LG 32'' Full HD IPS Monitor with AMD Radeon FreeSync™ : buy online | LG Australia

Shop LG 32MN500M-B on the official LG.com website for the most recent product information. Buy online now with delivery or in-store pick-up.

www.lg.com

*edited to include a shot of my other arcade inspired pinball.

Freesync (or g-sync) is great for those weird arcade refresh rates of old that you get with accurate emulation so I don't recommend anything without this type of tech.

For me it has one "fault": 60Hz refresh rate.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Perfect :)

Ah... you made me laugh *HEARTILY* many a time there, Tiago.
You earned it, matey, right so!
*lol*

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

So I was looking through the site's digital screenshots just now, and discovered this Entex Black Knight handheld, which I'd never seen or heard of before:

Black Knight (Entex, 1982) Handheld Unit

pinballnirvana.com

Did a little searching on it and realised the ROM had been recently scanned and added to MAME. Woohoo. Unfortunately: 1) looks like it's pretty dang weak as a game, and nowhere near as good as similar games like Parker Bros Wildfire, and 2) seems the art file still hasn't been created.

Just for fun I might fool around with trying to create the LAY (layout) file, we'll see. Never done that before, so..

Meanwhile, also noticed a couple more cool additions to MAME (actually these are from 2021, but hey). One is a Ms Pac-man bootleg from Argentina that was modified to not just let two players play at once, but for each player to have their own set of dots!

The other one is a pretty cool nixie-tube clock homebrew. Screen caps from MAME below.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Wowsers, just realised that Tsukuda's handheld pachinko has begun emulation as of MAME 0247. Like Black Knight above, it's still in need of an overlay, but this one is already vastly more playable due to its colorful, detailed graphics.

The real thing looks and plays like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lFw-wnc76k

In MAME it's called Slot Elepachi. (slepachi ROM available at AO)

Unlike many handhelds of the time, it features a VFD (vacuum fluorescent display), not LEDs. This gives the graphics a lovely, tube-like kind of glow. Unfortunately, so far it seems MAME doesn't make any attempt to recreate that appearance for handhelds like the way it simulates vector graphics so well. I did try playing around with GLSL & HLSL effects, but those didn't help.

In other words, from what I can tell, so far MAME simulates handheld LED & VFD displays in a binary / digital sense, like as flat cutouts with no sense of "glow." Hmm, but maybe one of the MAME forks tries to address all that..?

The original game looks like this, followed by MAME's view:



​

I must say, it's a pretty fun, cute game for a handheld.

 

[AnonTet]

I like handhelds but really don't get pachinko or any luck-based game for that matter. There's not one pixel of skill in this type of game.

I once found on eBay a handheld I had as a child... they wanted 400$ at the time. Last time I tried to look for one I couldn't find it any more, especially because there's no unified names on this stuff like original Nintendo's Game&Watch. And of course, me being lucky (not) this one wasn't in ANY collection.

Eventually, I did find it in a "standalone" emulation but obviously, I lost that in my recent "big hard drive crash of 2022" crash and now I don't even remember what I need to look for.

If you're into handhelds you have all the game&Watch on MAME as you know, but you may also be interested in Madrigal

/edit
Found the game again. I played it so much back when I was young... https://www.zophar.net/gw/circus-circus.html

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

I think the limitation with pachinko is that the type of skill required is hugely niche-based, and translates poorly to other games. Well, outside of certain redemption games, which are usually rigged, anyway. Like claw games. And this one, which is a better example of needing precise timing:

VP8 - Stern - SS - Flipperless - Recreation - Monopoly Redemption (Stern, 2002) VP8

Monopoly Redemption (Stern, 2002) VP8 v1.0 by TAB, destruk KEYS: Player 1 = Right Side Player 2 = Front Side Player 3 = Left Side Press 3 to Add a coin for Player 3 Press 4 to Add a coin for Player 2 Press 5 to Add a coin for Player 1 Press...

pinballnirvana.com

I've read that longtime pachinko players (usually Japanese), besides having ridiculous skill at timing their ball releases, develop an impressive ability to predict how tiny bounces will go off the nails, with the point being winning balls. At the end of their session, they get up, turn in their balls for a prize, and walk out the door to a nearby location where they "sell" the prize for cash. Evidently it's a time-honored gambling tradition in Japan, and the police don't get involved.

Then at the end of the night, the operators check which machines lost the most balls, and subtly reposition the nails slightly so that whatever tactics worked the day before will be completely different the next day.

Like an eternal arms race, with gambling being the theme.


I remember using Madrigal in the past. Very impressive to see that guy continuing his work through 2022. Besides MAME, I also know of this one:
http://bdrgames.nl/lcdgames/

There was also the one below, which I suddenly realise-- I'll have to see if I can rescue those flash files!
EDIT: Nvm, I see they've already been archived in FlashPoint.

/Pica Pic | retro handheld games collection

Hipopotam's digitalised collection of handheld electronic games

pica-pic.com

EDIT2: Confirmed that they're indeed working in FlashPoint, which they need in order to run properly.


So you found the emulator for your Circus Circus game, is that right?

 

[xenonph]

You can also find a bunch of handhelds, and manuals for them here...

Emulation _Autres Jeux Electroniques - Liste des Emulateurs _Autres Jeux Electroniques

Tout simplement le site francophone reference en matiere d'emulation depuis 15 ans. Actualite 24H/24, Exclus, Tutoriels, Tests, Hebergement et plus de 2000 emulateurs a telecharger...

www.emu-france.com

The 595MB package has all the other Handheld Simulators that are not on MADrigal's site, and are made by other people in the Handheld emulation community.

There are also many manuals included in the package, but they are not built in like MADrigal's.

 

[AnonTet]

there's just one problem with that pax @xenonph; it doesn't run on win11 (updated yesterday), not even in compatibility mode with win 7. I get a big box saying "this app can't run on your PC. To find a version for your PC, check with the software publisher"

The link I posted above for circus is, apparently, the exact same file in that pack. doesn't run either. No matter what compatibility settings I use. I recall it ran on win10... weird.

 

[xenonph]

there's just one problem with that pax @xenonph; it doesn't run on win11 (updated yesterday), not even in compatibility mode with win 7. I get a big box saying "this app can't run on your PC. To find a version for your PC, check with the software publisher"

The link I posted above for circus is, apparently, the exact same file in that pack. doesn't run either. No matter what compatibility settings I use. I recall it ran on win10... weird.

Sad!
They run on my Win 8.1.
I just tried Auto Race [9879] (Mattel Electronics - 1976) (Peter Hirschberg - v1.1, 2000xxxx) [Setup]
Are you setting the compatibility on the exe installer, before you install? Or are you going into folder where it is installed, and checking compatibility there?

 

[AnonTet]

I tried up to win95 compatibility and I'm sure I've run that simulator on win10.

I don't need to install anything. "Circus Circus" is a standalone simulator of the game.

 

[xenonph]

Circus Circus does not run on my Win 8.1!
Says same thing.
"this app can't run on your PC. To find a version for your PC, check with the software publisher"

 

[AnonTet]

Funny I have more info by running the app from a linux shell in windows. Mistery solved.

 

[xenonph]

Funny I have more info by running the app from a linux shell in windows. Mistery solved.

View attachment 36516

I also am using 64-bit version of Windows. Dang!
I tried running it through DOSBox also. No go.

 

[AnonTet]

wine is the way to go probably. Either that or install a windows version that still supports 16 bit.

But this is weird. I'm sure I've run this same file in win10... it was a while ago, of course, and I wonder if I had installed win10 32bit version (that could probably have 16 legacy support).

Anyway, for the moment maybe it is better to save these links under an appropriate thread... just in case because I had almost forgotten about Madrigal, for example, and there are not THAT many people interested in these games, I bet.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Dogbone it! Just realised there was a game I was waiting a long time for that was already in my .248 build from last year. The game is Turbo (Sega, 1981). I remember it as being something of a sensation in arcades, and soon enough, there were all kinds of imitators and spiritual successors.

Here's what it looks like in MAME in 'cabinet view':
(somebody did a sweet, sweet job with the artwork)

Bonus pts for the shifter moving position and the (LED?) lights
for "RPM" & "Speed" working just like in the original game.​

The gameplay itself isn't too amazing. There's a never-ending string of cars to squeeze past, and control is a bit herky-jerky. Still, it was a classic game for its time, and being able to play it again is a real treat.

And some highlights from arcade-history's game entry:

Turbo was the world's first full-color, sprite scaling racing game and not, as many assume, Namco's Pole Position. Turbo was released a full year before the Namco legend and is a further example of how Sega has dominated and innovated within the arcade racing genre.

This was the first game ever to feature the now common 3rd-person perspective (action is viewed above and behind the player's car), that virtually all subsequent racing games would come to utilize.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

As usual, Mark Rober is hilarious & ingenious.

In this video, he builds a series of specially-engineered backpacks to defeat five classic arcade games. The basketball and air hockey versions are particularly delicious:

He also points out a few more games that are pure scams, many of them targeted towards kids.