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MAME 0.79!

This release is entitled "Aaron's spring cleaning". This is the release that contains all the memory handling reconstruction and core fixes from Aaron Giles. Not many new games like in previous releases, but I'm sure most of you will notice the difference (especially if you're involved in the driver construction). Here's the new supported games list:

Scramble Spirits
Triv Four (1985 Status) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
Super Triv III (1986 Status) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
Winning Spike [R.Belmont]
Whizz [Chris Hardy, David Haywood, Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
More More Plus
Pairs Love [David Haywood]
Hard Head 2 [Luca Elia]
Jong Tou Ki [Luca Elia]
Competition Golf [Pierpaolo Prazzoli, Bryan McPhail]
Princess Clara Daisakusen [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
Wild Pilot [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
Target Balls [Luca Elia]
International Cup '94 / Hat Trick Hero '94 [David Haywood]

Source and binaries available here.

ClrMAME Pro 3.22b

This program will be your 1st choice when it comes to the rom-collecting. Fresh new MAME, Fresh new ClrMAME Pro. Go here to download it.

Whacker

January 23, 2004

MAME 0.78u5, u6 source & MAME32 plus binary.

Haze got the whole pack of Aaron's changes together into a nice two-pack file.  The comment says it all:

"...That crazy guy Aaron has done another big update and prepared a diff, you can download 0.78u6 here or read about it here. AM_BRASIL (1) ;-)..."

And a quick follow-up from Aaron's page:

"...Memory mirroring, easier shared pointers, and combined read/write maps all make an appearance. So far the games I've tweaked to take advantage of the new system have much cleaner implementations. I also made a trip through all the reported bugs, and have fixed the system1.c games (imsorry, raflesia, teddybb, etc), the cvs.c games (cosmos, etc), redbaron, asylum, and tigerh..."

For all us compiler freaks out there, here's the place to be... For all the rest, the latest binary (0.78u6) of MAME32 Plus is here for you to download.

Whacker

January 18, 2004

Raine v. 0.39.1

Raine has been updated once more reaching now version 0.39.1. Fixes and improvements from the official webpage:

"...It's still work in progress for the new taito f2 driver, but it has already enough fixes and improvements for a release...
The fixes :

- Fixed a gui crash when changing the video driver in win32
- When raine display was in 16bpp on a 32bpp screen, colors could get corrupted. Fixed.
- Dr Toppel was impossible to load

Taito F2 driver : added this driver to the driver selection menu in the gui (game list dialog). Improvements :
- Do Doko Don : dsw, works in any color depth, priorities fixes, and added the line scroll effect
- Liquid kids : alignement issue for player 2 fixed.
- Mega Blast : alignement fixed
- Drift out : priorities fixed, works in any color depth
- Drive out : now really use its bootleg hardware and priorities fixes
- dino rex : priorities and sprites effects issues fixed
- Mahjong quest : fully playable, but it's a japenese game, so well... it's rather hard to guess what you have to do !!!..."

Click here to read the whole story and download the emulator.

ClrMAME Pro v.3.22

Roman Scherzer has updated his rom manager to version 3.22 also as uploaded some new datfiles for all you collectors out there. Cutting and pasting directly from his page:

"....included the M1 engine (allow to overwrite your old engine.cfg when using autoupdate), fixed a little fakeclone rebuilder bug, added support for chds in a rompath without subfolders (grr...I still hate that))...and some misc stuff...."

Click here to download the latest update.

Whacker

January 14, 2004

MAME 0.78u4 "Test PLZ..."

Again a quick update from Haze who added more of Aaron's stuff into the core of MAME. Directly from the 'What's new' file:

"...0.78u4
------

Please continue testing, it is rather important during periods like this.

Phase 2 of Aaron's Updates [Aaron Giles]
----------------------------------------

Changes:
* CPUs with an implicit address shift (e.g., the TMS34010 shifts addresses
right 3 bits; the TMS32031 shifts addresses left 2 bits) now automatically
get that shift applied to addresses in their memory maps and in calls to
install_memory_read/write_handler(). This eliminates many ugly macros in the
memory maps. Affected CPU cores are the ADSP210x, CCPU, PIC16C5x, TMS3201x,TMS3202x, TMS32031, and TMS340x0. Note that the CPU cores themselves still need to pass shifted values to the core read/write routines. All drivers using these cores have had their icky macros and bitshifts removed..."

Click here to download the latest update.

Whacker

January 13, 2004

MAME 0.78u2 & 0.78u3

Sorry for the lack of updates of the last few days, but we had a gameland-gardening over the weekend ;-)
We have built Maddog's new PC (a powerful Athlon 3000+) so that he can play nebula's new games flawlessly :P In the meanwhile we had not one, but two diff updates from Haze who decided to implement the latest memory handling changes to the MAME core. Here's a pick of the latest news that accompany the u3 update:

"...Quick update, 0.78u3. This fixes most of the problems reported so far with u2, please continue testing with this so that we can continue to fix anything else that broke in u2...."

Click here to read the complete and detailed what's new file and download the latest update(s).

Whacker

January 7, 2004

ClrMAME Pro 3.20

Our favorite Rom-manager has a new version ready for you to download :

"...Quickly changed the jdreddb chd behaviour. When using fullmerged sets you have to put both chdfiles in the parentfolder (jdredd). Otherwise you'll get a wrong merge warning. With 3.20a it won't be listed as unneeded in there..."

Visit ClrMAME Pro website and get it.

Aaron's busy!

Aaron Giles has updated his page with a rather long list of his latest updates / additions / fixes into MAME's core. Here's a pick:

"...The general gist is that the memory system in MAME needs to have better support for a few common operations like mirroring, alternate address alignments (bit-, word- and dword- based addressing), and Harvard architecture CPUs like many of the TI DSPs we now support. In order to do this right, I've been going through the memory system and both simplifying it as well as adding the necessary flexibility. I've also made a bunch of naming changes for the sake of consistency. In the end, the changes require me to modify every driver in the system and make some big changes to all of MAME's CPU cores..."

Click here to read the whole story, and drool too... ;-)

Space Firebird samples on the leash!

If you too have had hard time finding the Space Firebird samples required by MAME 0.78u1, it's good to know that they're now available for download at Twisty's website.

Whacker

January 5, 2004

MAME 0.78u1 is out

GET YOUR COMPILERS READY! Haze has updated his page with the latest MAME source diff update! This one adds support for various new games, plus some fixes / additions:

New Games supported or promoted from GAME_NOT_WORKING status:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Princess Clara Daisakusen [Mariusz Wojcieszek]
src/drivers/stv.c
Wild Pilot [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
src/drivers/cischeat.c
various graphical problems, service buttons = start buttons
Target Balls [Luca Elia]
src/drivers/paradise.c
International Cup '94 / Hat Trick Hero '94 [David Haywood]
also changed the parent / clone relationships a bit on the football games
src/drivers/taito_f3.c
New Clones supported or promoted from GAME_NOT_WORKING status:
--------------------------------------------------------------
A Few PGM Clones
Additional Run & Gun sets [Brian Troha]
Q*Bert (Us Set 2) [Smitdogg]
Games / Sets Removed
--------------------
New Rally-X (vertical hack) [removed by Stefan Jokisch]
graphic hack (rotated tiles + display) not worth supporting
New Non-Working games / clones supported
----------------------------------------
Stadium Hero 96 [Bryan McPhail]
Skull Fang [Bryan McPhail]
src/drivers/deco_mlc.c
Encrypted (Deco 156)

Click here to read what's new, and download the update ;-)

Whacker

January 3, 2004

The first WiPs of the year

Gridle has updated the official MAME WiP page for all these days, adding a great deal of screenshots. Click here to read what's new.

R. Belmond has also updated his webpage, two days ago, adding some info about M1, Zinc and MAME. Also screenshots of a newly supported Konami game. Click here to read.

Whacker

January 2, 2004

Way back when...

We are at year 1984, same day of the year (02.01.1984). George Orwell was pretty 'must' back then, while he predicted some thirty five years ago a World that is being controlled by the -now famous- 'Big Brother'. I didn't care much about it back then, (nor do I now, anyway) as I was just a child who was about to earn his first 'Personal Home Computer'... A Brand New ZX Spectrum Plus. I say 'earn' because my father had promised me one *IF* I was good enough to bring a high 17+ out of 20 average grades, at the high school semester. You know what? I did it!

It was a GREAT personal computer back then. No rubber keyboard like its old brother ZX Spectrum, 48k of RAM, ZX Basic with one-touch Basic commands (you just pressed 'P' and PRINT was out), TONS of (cassette) games and a pretty good price too (about €120 now).

It's been twenty whole years from that day. Twenty magical years, full of excitement, new computers, new Operating Systems, new platforms, new games... The 'Informatics Era' has been evolved greatly to the equivalent of the 'Industrial Revolution' of the early 20th Century.

I (like many of you out there) am a part of it. I now own three new PCs and several old ones, like my trusty Amiga 2000B, and I make money as a Computer programmer and Tech. advisor for a big company here in my country; but my ZX Spectrum Plus was -and will always be- my very first computer.

Nowadays, many pages can bring back those memories alive. Nevertheless, there is one with special interest just for the present day. Fuse is a ZX Spectrum emulator and has been updated today. Go there and get your copy.

Whacker

January 1, 2004

Happy new year!

We wish a happy and prosperous 2004 to you and your families. Let there be peace on Earth and let's everyone learn to help our neighbor. Let's all try bring the child out of us. Let's play a game once in a while. Finally, let there be a medicine to heal all the politicians out there, let aside the selfish egoist inside of them and bring up the human instead. Let's all make this world a better place for our children; if we can't make it, at least let's try.

Happy new year everyone.

Whacker

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