Search found 138 matches

by macro
Thu Dec 14, 2023 10:23 am
Forum: MiSTer Updates & Changelog
Topic: MiSTer updates and changelog
Replies: 771
Views: 3443667

Re: MiSTer updates and changelog

Arcade games - Crazy Balloon, Cosmic Guerilla, Cosmic Z80 and Astrocade
- Update framework

by macro
Wed Nov 29, 2023 8:44 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Polaris
Replies: 13
Views: 10714

Re: Polaris

I've added a DIP to the Polaris MRA that allows you to 'overclock' the CPU and that seems to reduce the flicker.

It may have other effects as well, but gameplay seems the same to me!

It only affects polaris, and cannot be enabled for any of the other games supported by the core.

PolarisClock.zip
(1.36 MiB) Downloaded 61 times
by macro
Wed Nov 29, 2023 5:05 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Polaris
Replies: 13
Views: 10714

Re: Polaris

As far as I can see, it must flicker on the real PCB (although I guess CRT helps hide this a bit) It moves the sub on the interrupt driven from the vertical flyback, but if your sub is on the left of the screen, then it flickers as it takes several complete horizontal raster lines to erase and re-draw the submarine. The CPU (at 2Mhz, plus wait stat...
by macro
Mon Nov 27, 2023 12:51 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Polaris
Replies: 13
Views: 10714

Re: Polaris

pgimeno wrote: Sun Nov 26, 2023 9:46 am

With this core, I see shots disappearing in Space Invaders. Especially when shooting from approximately the middle of the 3rd and 4th bunkers. Reverting to the previous version of the core fixes it.

Flicker not caused by that then, will revert and see if I can find another reason - Cheers

by macro
Wed Nov 22, 2023 7:53 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Polaris
Replies: 13
Views: 10714

Re: Polaris

I made a few changes, updated the SYS files and have completed Polaris.MRA

need to do a pull request, but if someone wants to check this first ...

Polaris.zip
(1.37 MiB) Downloaded 64 times
by macro
Tue Nov 14, 2023 11:35 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Polaris
Replies: 13
Views: 10714

Re: Polaris

Looking at the core it seems (to me) that it is calling the interrupts back to front (it does one mid frame and one at end frame)

changing that to call them in the opposite order and the flashing sub stops flickering

need to check that it doesn't break anything else in the core (and maybe add some visible screen update to confirm my suspicion)

by macro
Sat Nov 04, 2023 11:54 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Polaris
Replies: 13
Views: 10714

Re: Polaris

I had a look, it basically works but does not look like it uses P2 controls plus the sound is totally wrong (if it makes any)

Also for some reason the sub 'flickers', not sure why that is, it even does it if you set it to B&W so it draws it in white.

by macro
Sun Oct 29, 2023 10:39 am
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Polaris
Replies: 13
Views: 10714

Re: Polaris

There is an MRA for polaris in the unreleased folder on github. (space invaders core) I need to look to see what was missing from that, I know it has no sound so samples and possibly the circuit for the boss plane up/down noise are required. I should be doing some changes to one of the other games as the daughter PCB has been found and traced out s...
by macro
Fri Jul 14, 2023 9:10 pm
Forum: Development for MiSTer
Topic: How Difficult Is It to Add Vertical Flip to a Core?
Replies: 15
Views: 5239

Re: How Difficult Is It to Add Vertical Flip to a Core?

"Coming from a programming background" is no excuse not to attempt FPGA coding. You can use VHDL / Verilog to describe hardware in detail and keep everything as close to the original design as possible something like this from Galaxian core :- u_8n : entity work.LOGIC_74XX138 port map ( I_G1 => '1', I_G2a => I_RDn, I_G2b => MEM_SEL, -- <=...
by macro
Sun Jul 09, 2023 2:27 pm
Forum: MiSTer Updates & Changelog
Topic: MiSTer updates and changelog
Replies: 771
Views: 3443667

Re: MiSTer updates and changelog

Arcade Astrocade: - New colour table based on measurements from PCB (Frank Palazzola) - Sparkle circuit re-written to work in LUMA and only convert to RBG when completed - Colour extended to 24 bit (was 12 bit) - Fix missing word "Near" in Gorf (Program 1) - Changes for Cabinet Mode (not used in normal MiSTer build) + DDRAM use fixed + A...
by macro
Sat Jul 01, 2023 11:25 pm
Forum: Other Console Cores
Topic: Astrocade Core
Replies: 23
Views: 19142

Re: Astrocade Core

I've been doing some changes on the arcade version to fix a few problems, but one is the difference in colours.

Can someone try this version and see if the colours now match the original a little closer.

Thanks

by macro
Wed Jun 14, 2023 10:19 am
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Cosmic Guerilla
Replies: 13
Views: 1880

Re: Cosmic Guerilla

Slight update. Option to toggle blue background in colour mode. I was in a retro arcade in Norwich last week and noticed that their cosmic guerilla cocktail had a blue background (as does the flyer for the cocktail) The schematic does not show anything that would achieve this, but it would only need a resistor and a couple of wires, and most cosmic...
by macro
Wed May 17, 2023 5:13 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Galaxian Update
Replies: 12
Views: 2017

Re: Galaxian Update

Yes, when flipped in cocktail mode the software allows for the change and puts them where they need to be however, who ever wrote the core allowed for a 'flip' setting, so I just offset it enough to put the missile back in the correct place. Give this a try, if OK with Galaxian (and other galaxian core games) I'll check it in. Arcade-Galaxian.zip
by macro
Fri May 05, 2023 10:12 am
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Galaxian Update
Replies: 12
Views: 2017

Re: Galaxian Update

When I get my galaxian PCB working again, I'll bung a scope on the various chips and see what waveform it creates and then see if any changes need to be made to what is there to get it a bit closer to reality.

by macro
Tue May 02, 2023 7:53 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Galaxian Update
Replies: 12
Views: 2017

Re: Galaxian Update

The rack noise is actually quite a complex circuit. it feeds 4 resistors (plus ground bias) into 2 transistors and an NE555V (as a VCO) which allows the CPU to select 16 different rack noise speeds. The two transistors seem to be used (of which it looks like mame only accounts for one, but my knowledge of analogue circuits is hazy at best, so this ...
by macro
Mon May 01, 2023 9:33 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Galaxian Update
Replies: 12
Views: 2017

Re: Galaxian Update

Yes, portman (porter) needed an extra 4k of rom and 2k of ram, moon quasar needed rom opcode decryption. it's a shame that guttangtn doesn't work, that would be a good one to have as well. but that was the only other game I found in mame that was plain galaxian hardware and looked worth adding. But if I need to spend ages trying to work out the cod...
by macro
Tue Apr 04, 2023 3:18 pm
Forum: MiSTer Updates & Changelog
Topic: MiSTer updates and changelog
Replies: 771
Views: 3443667

Re: MiSTer updates and changelog

New arcade core: Cosmic Guerilla

TMS9980 based game from Universal

by macro
Tue Apr 04, 2023 1:43 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Cosmic Guerilla
Replies: 13
Views: 1880

Re: Cosmic Guerilla

HerrBerzerk wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:53 am

Great game, played it a lot. How about the sound? Did you use samples or is the sound already digital?

All analogue so until I get my maths degree it's done using samples.

by macro
Fri Mar 31, 2023 11:12 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Cosmic Guerilla
Replies: 13
Views: 1880

Cosmic Guerilla

Back when I did the Z80 based 'cosmic' games I planned to complete the set with Cosmic Guerilla. This was a bit more work that I expected as the TMS9900 is not exactly a drop in replacement for the Z80. Different memory access signals, ports are accessed using something called a CRU which I'd never heard about and doesn't even use the data bus. Nee...
by macro
Thu Mar 16, 2023 4:11 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Shadow Mask Support for Older Arcade Cores
Replies: 5
Views: 1131

Re: Shadow Mask Support for Older Arcade Cores

toaks wrote: Sat Mar 04, 2023 5:13 pm

Anyone know if there are any plans to update to older arcade cores to support shadow masks?

If you list out which ones have not been done yet then someone may pick them up and update them.

by macro
Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:23 pm
Forum: General Discussions
Topic: Abandoned Cores, Long Outstanding Feature Requests
Replies: 24
Views: 3242

Re: Abandoned Cores, Long Outstanding Feature Requests

Peter-FPGA wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2023 3:24 pm

Acorn BBC and master support for normal disk and tape images, at the moment it only works with mmc images.

Disks now work on Master since AlanSW added DFS support - go into the settings and change the default boot and pick a disk to use.

You don't get the option on BBC B (yet!) - have to see how tricky it is to add.

by macro
Wed Jan 18, 2023 11:50 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Professor Pac-Man
Replies: 6
Views: 1095

Re: Professor Pac-Man

Professor pacman ran on a version of the bally astrocade hardware with different graphics hardware giving 16 colours and it also had masses of banked rom (768k)

it uses the same custom chips used by Gorf, Wizard of Wor, Robby Roto etc.

by macro
Thu Dec 15, 2022 10:15 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?
Replies: 24
Views: 2488

Re: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?

Final change for the moment, the DAC implementation has been moved into the sound chip - as per Gyurco's changes for Mist. (mame still implements it as an independant DAC, but his version seems more logical and does not need the silence hack) I may look at the IO side of things again later, with a view to adding 56XX and 58XX modules (and any other...
by macro
Thu Dec 15, 2022 9:22 am
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?
Replies: 24
Views: 2488

Re: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?

Fixed the aspect, added DIPs to mra (except coinage, since code for IO chip does not take any notice anyway)

Added some code to zero the DAC when it plays other sound effects (Grobda leaves it set to $07)

Please test this whilst I sort out what needs to be checked in as a pull request.

by macro
Wed Dec 14, 2022 5:11 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?
Replies: 24
Views: 2488

Re: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?

I have differences for sound (louder sound and maybe a slightly faster) between this RBF and the last release for the game "The Tower of Druaga" (I just checked this game for sound) There is DAC added for Grobda to be able to use speech. Could this change also influence other games ? The overall clock is the same at 49.147727Mhz so speed...
by macro
Tue Dec 13, 2022 9:53 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?
Replies: 24
Views: 2488

Re: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?

I've not done the DIPs yet, but self test, controls and speech should now be fine and I have tried some of the other games and they still seem to work.

so whilst I sort out DIP settings for Grobda, can you please do some testing and make sure that all of the other MRAs using this core still work as expected.

by macro
Mon Dec 12, 2022 11:18 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?
Replies: 24
Views: 2488

Re: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?

I have the shield button working and it now passes the self test.

Just need to tidy up the code and add the DIPS and DAC port.

by macro
Sun Dec 11, 2022 10:33 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?
Replies: 24
Views: 2488

Re: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?

That's great you found the problem, Grobda is a fun game that doesn't get a lot of attention. There is one other thing missing from Grobda, and that's the sound sample "Get Ready" that plays before the start of every stage. At least I think it is missing because I don't hear it on my MiSTer build. If I remember it is not really a digital...
by macro
Thu Dec 08, 2022 11:33 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?
Replies: 24
Views: 2488

Re: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?

I think I have worked out where the problem is. It seems that each game on the platform uses different IO controller chips and Grobda is the only one that expects button 2 in that particular location. It also seems that the IO chip is used in a bootup check, so the information being returned then will also be wrong (which may explain the '3' on sel...
by macro
Wed Dec 07, 2022 9:24 pm
Forum: Arcade Cores
Topic: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?
Replies: 24
Views: 2488

Re: Grobda - Shield Button not Working?

I updated the SYS files and had a look at this, but there is more happening than just the shield not working. The self test in GROBDA reports 0 0 3 (rather than the expected 0 0 0) so something beyond the control mapping needs sorting out, need to find out what the '3' is indicating. it does look (from Mame driver) as though GROBDA does some bank s...