MAME comment round-up

[RabidYak]

Finally got off my arse to give my MAME set a good update and clean today and i've been stopping allong the way to check out some stuff added in the last few version that grabbed my attention.

First stop was Bishi Bashi, button-mashing videogame equivelent of Banzai. Its all in Japanese and the incomplete graphics emulation makes some of it unplayable, but its a right laff as well as being completly fucking mad. Will be keeping an eye out for any improvements to it.

Then moved on to the games on Playstation-based boards that have been added recently. Allot lack sound due to undocumented Namco audio hardware and most are unplayable with anything lower then the current top-end of machines, but the all look damn good emulation-wise. Much improvement on half-arsed video card pipelining, they'll be no excuse for any of that in a year or so for this stuff.

Stuff to return to includes Erghiez (Which looks like somesort of Japenese bare-knuckle boxing game), Mr.Driller (Dig Dug meets Columns) and Aquarush (Tetris with Water, but much better then Wetrix). I'll probably hammer these in the next version of Zinc when it comes out as a stopgap until my next PC.

Havent looked into the Seattle games yet, still getting CHDs for half of them and none of them appeal outside of technical interest. Talking of CHDs, was miffed to find out that my Area 51 image has been crap since I got it but managed to slip througth the looser standards in previous versions. Another 500 meg to download, shit happens.

Just noticed that emuchina has got the mpeg LD rips for Daphne, so i'll be giving Dragons Lair and Space Ace a whirl when i've done with MAME. Even worse size to gameplay ratio then mid-90s Atari, but havent played them since the 80s and its better then paying for the DVDs.

[were]

i bought the 25edition of dragons lair dvd pack last year..it was ok..but dragnslair 2 was screwy..so much stuff going on at one time..

[ivwshane]

I need to get my mame in order again as well. I'm really dredding the outcome when I run the chd images through clrmame:(

I can't wait to check out the psx stuff as well as the new saturn (naomi?) stuff, virtua fighter kids anyone?

[RabidYak]

i bought the 25edition of dragons lair dvd pack last year..it was ok..but dragnslair 2 was screwy..so much stuff going on at one time..

Never played the sequel, much diffrent to the original?

I need to get my mame in order again as well. I'm really dredding the outcome when I run the chd images through clrmame:(

I can't wait to check out the psx stuff as well as the new saturn (naomi?) stuff, virtua fighter kids anyone?

ST-V, Naiomi is Dreamcast.

The processor requirements of some of the stuff on that system will probably make the Playstation-based games look like Asteroids. Its the most powerful arcade system with 2D-based arcitecture ever, more processors and graphics features then you can shake a forest at.

[were]

yes it is..dirk has the option of "stopping time" and gather "key" items.In the 1st dragons lair,you can WATCH all the scenes)including the death..and unseens scenes(that includes the 2nd dl with pencil tests)

when i tried the 2nd dl,i got a big eye strain,but very enjoyable..:0

theres even space ace(very kewl)..and commentary on all the games,including sneak peek of dagins lair 3d(ugh)

if mame can emulate some psx stuff,then we FINALLy be able to see some games that nevered made it over here..

[release]

ST-V, Naiomi is Dreamcast.

The processor requirements of some of the stuff on that system will probably make the Playstation-based games look like Asteroids. Its the most powerful arcade system with 2D-based arcitecture ever, more processors and graphics features then you can shake a forest at.

yeah - I mean look at standard saturn emulation... working yes, but *extremely* slow.

[ivwshane]

I think saturn emulation is deficult because of sega's shoddy work on the console but the arcade boards were put together much better and therefore should be much easier to create an emu for.

[RabidYak]

yes it is..dirk has the option of "stopping time" and gather "key" items.In the 1st dragons lair,you can WATCH all the scenes)including the death..and unseens scenes(that includes the 2nd dl with pencil tests).

Sounds kind of funky, must take some of the challenge out of new scenes if you have more time to think about them.

I'd be interested to know how the DVD versions work, whether its a continous stream of video that the game jumps in and out of like the real thing or if its all stored in smaller chunks and accesed individually.

I think saturn emulation is deficult because of sega's shoddy work on the console but the arcade boards were put together much better and therefore should be much easier to create an emu for.

It will certainly be easier to do in MAME then a standalone emu since all the framework is already there, most of the major components already have proven solid cores and allot of the low-end graphics funcions (tilemaps etc..) are common to almost all SEGA hardware. I wouldent say theres any drastic differences between the two, but ROM chips instead of CDs and more RAM are definate advatages that the Arcade board has over the Saturn for both actuall hardware performance and ease of emulation.

What really did the Saturn in was that it was a ninja 2D machine with average 3D capabilties that was being sold on games ported from high-end 3D arcade hadware (Daytona, Sega Rally, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop etc..). The Playstation got away with being an overall inferior machine because Sys22 scaled down to it allot better then Model 2 scaled down to the Saturn (Ridge Racer, Time Crisis), Namco was using near-identical hardware for its cheaper games (Tekken series, Soul Blade) and it had a decent amount of popular games made specifically for it.

When it comes down to it, its still an absurdly complicated and powerful system in both forms. Dual SH2s, a swiss army knife full of graphics features and a sound system with more processing power then cheap shit like CPS-2 and NG had on thier entire board. My guess would be that 3.5 gig will handle the puzzle games and stuff like that, but games that use everything on offer we be up in the region of 6 or so.