Un grand projet actif mené par Guitar. Project Amber peut émuler une grande majorité de jeux MPU4.
Supporte les Barcrest, BWB, Cristal, Coinworld, Empire, MDM, Il propose davantage d’options et de compatibilités que MFME. Un bon complément à celui-ci, Déjà une référence en matière de Fruit machine !
Une release se profile à l’horizon grâce au travail acharné de Guitar, aidé par une communauté soudée de passionnés de machines à sous, proche de l’auteur.
15/06/2014
Progress has been steady, but slower than I had hoped.
The synthesized sound is in, AY8910 needs a bit of work to sort the speed out on some machines.
For sampled sound the OKI chip is in and working, although it needs a few tweaks to sort out the dynamic frequency settings.
The NEC chip is written, and will be debugged later today to ensure its working.
The Crystal games decoding has been massively simplified and is now complete.
BWB, Coinworld & Simple Characterisers need doing.
Hoppers need doing.
1 Lamp Extender, 1 Reel Extender, and all the 7 seg extenders need completing.
That should see MPU4 complete and working.
Almost everything has been upgraded or tweaked to work more accurately, and to be easily re-used on later techs.
Getting FAME to initialize is step 1 of about 20, I am cautiously optimistic it can be made to work. IMPACT will be the next tech as I can use it as a test bed for the FAME dll. Getting a game going using just FAME will be much easier than running it as a second cpu.
MPU4 Plasma will either be a piece of cake or a nightmare, not likely any middle ground. MAME has a preliminary driver with it in but it looks very incomplete. If the memory map is pretty much right, it should be a doddle as there isn’t much to the Plasma board. If the memory map is wrong, or Barcrest are doing something funky with the board then it could be a bit of a mare to do. MPU4 video just seems like its going to be a massive pain in the backside to emulate we’ll see nearer the time.
9/06/2014
I’m toying with several ideas for server features. I haven’t decided yet what will make the final cut. One of the ideas was you could win a « Hot Tip » whereby the server would tell you which machines have high drift (i.e. are likely to pay out).
Other idea’s include a « Halves In » mode where you can go 50/50 with another player on a machine.
There will be 3 admin modes, master admin (me), minor admin (as assigned) and arcade admin (arcade owner)
admins will be able to change various settings and watch machines in real time, so if a machine needs a refill it will be able to be fixed without the original player leaving the machine.
Arcade owners will not be allowed to play in their own arcades. As an admin for an arcade you will be able to see various stats that would allow you to shark your own machines, so you wont be allowed to play in your own arcades.
There are other ideas too, but we’ll see what makes the final release. Be aware the when the new emu is released it will probably take a while to sort the bugs on the server.
Well, as per usual, things have been slower than I had hoped for.
But the coin handling is now in and working. Coin tubes are now emulated so token and cash low lights will go on and off as the real machine would. This also allows for different sounds to be played depending on whether a coin drops to tube, rejects, drops to cash box, or drops from tube A to tube B when tube A is full.
Small Lamp Extender is working, 7 Segs and Small extender is working.
The sampled sound framework is in and the OKI chip is 90% complete.
Thanks to a nudge in the right direction from DialTone, the FAME dll for the 68k core will now initialize without crashing the emulator.
This will (eventually) allow for MPU4 Plasma, MPU4 Video, M1 Video, JPM System 5, & JPM System 6 (IMPACT) to be emulated in future.
Sound, Extenders, Characteriser should see the regular MPU4 emulation complete.
01/06/2014
Todays 28 bugs later:
Lots of stuff has been fixed and most machines will boot now.
OKI and NEC sound is next on the agenda to allow sampled sound machines to boot without locking up waiting for the sound card.
Lamp, Reel & 7 Seg extenders can then be added as I need various machines working to test the various extenders.
I’m hoping tonight will see MPU4 (not Video or Plasma) near as dammit complete.
Some extra features have been added along the way, some extra bugs found in the original VB code too which have been fixed in the C++ version.
Once MPU4 is done I will post some screen shots or a video of the new stuff.
IMPACT will be next up on the to do list.
Vous trouverez tous les détails concernant Project Amber dans une section dédiée sur le forum de Fruit-Emu, où s’active une sympathique communauté.
