Coin-Op Collection Presents: Y-Unit (RC2)

Yesterday, we successfully transitioned to distributing via the Pocket Updater (pupdater) for our first Midway Y-Unit beta release, with only a few users encountering issues related to the SmashTV RC1 build. Pramod and I spent today resolving these issues to improve the experience for all users.

Issues Addressed:

• Issue: Red screen on core boot or when manually loading ROM
  
  Action: Removed Load ROM option;  Seed 7 to Seed 10 for user stability
  

• Issue: Grey screen during attract mode
  
  Action: Seed 7 to Seed 10 for user stability

• Issue: No display during attract mode, but display active when test mode switch activated
  
  Action: Seed 7 to Seed 10 for user stability

• Issue: Enemy movement out of play area / game not progressing
  
  Action: Seed 7 to Seed 10 for user stability

• Issue: Input order not matching Pocket control layout
  
  Action: Reordered inputs to reflect directional pattern on Pocket
  

• Issue: No FM sound output after entering "Test Mode"
  
  Action: The "Test Mode" option is a momentary switch on SmashTV hardware. After toggling it on to enter the service menu, toggle it off before exiting the core menu. Your changes are automatically saved, quit and restart the core.
  
  
  

• Issue: Incorrect H-Total; reported as 54.815Hz instead of 54.707Hz
  
  Action: Adjusted H-Total to reflect correct refresh rate
  
  

In FPGA design, a "seed" refers to an initial value used by the place-and-route algorithms to determine the physical layout and routing of connections on the FPGA. For high-frequency applications like the Midway platform, which operates at a clock speed of 128MHz, seed selection is critical. The choice of seed impacts the fitter phase and routing, directly influencing performance, power consumption, and efficiency. As different seeds can yield varied effects on the FPGA layout, multiple seed values are often tested across different hardware variants to ensure compatibility and performance.

Yesterday’s release initially used a suboptimal seed for certain Pocket revisions. We tested seed 7 (RC1) on two Pocket Developer units and three retail units from wave 3 (translucent). However, thanks to community feedback, we identified a more appropriate seed (seed 10), highlighting the vital role of thorough testing in FPGA configurations to achieve optimal stability across all device variants.

Enjoy the updated SmashTV release. Please report any issues you on the Coin-Op Collection Discord. If you are an active Discord user and have not linked your Discord account to Patreon please let me know in the comments and I will send an invite. If you are not active on Discord reporting issues in the respective post is fine. We'll see the final entry to the Technos16 core released this weekend, The Combatribes is a fun beat 'em up. Have a great week everyone!

2024/09/28: Please run pupdate to retrieve SmashTV version 0.0.4