Coin-Op Collection Presents: Y-Unit (RC1)

Y Unit: Smash TV

This core is the first game in the Williams Y Unit Series: Smash TV. Generally it works pretty well, but we will continue to refine all the Y unit and Z unit as we go along in the beta series. It is all a shared codebase with many of the same chips shared on both. I hope you enjoy this excellent twin stick shooter on the pocket which was designed and created by the same person that created Robotron 2084 and NARC: Eugene Jarvis.

There are a couple of options in the menu on this one, firstly there is a test menu. The test menu options can be set freely and they are saved in CMOS memory as in the other games. The Rotary option is a placeholder for the future when I get rotary working. Originally SmashTV was both a Rotary and a Twin Stick game, with the former being an add-on kit. I tried to get it to work briefly on the MiSTer for a time, but unsuccessfully. Did not continue as the game did not play well there.

In addition, due to both issues with licensing, support and direction with JTFrame, I have decided to branch off and create my own framework. However, as this Midway work is in the validation and release cycle, I will do it after this first round of releases. The new framework I am creating will be open source.

Generally, I have been using JTFrame for a very long time. I think I was the first or one of the first developers to ever use it in a mainstream core other than Jose. I liked the idea of separating the FPGA target layers from the actual board modeling because I only really specialize in reverse engineering the arcade PCB. I am less experienced on the FPGA dev board side. I 100% think this basic idea of the framework is the correct approach. I don't like the default MiSTer template and the way it's setup, and I think it makes things confusing to me as everything is intertwined and you have to separate things yourself. It makes it quite cumbersome.

However, I have fixed tons of issues on it, and extended it in numerous ways to support our development. I learned a lot extending and fixing the framework to my liking over the years. I have not been able to update JTFrame in the past 8 months or so as now the framework has an increasing reliance on various golang scripts that not only give a boilerplate starter from MAME source code, but also configure the model memory and other modules. The JOTEGO organization is a scalable cores business. A lot of the processes behind building and creating new cores are automated by the various scripts you see in the jtcores repo, and private configurations on the build server. Generally the direction of the JTFrame is to mirror MAME as much as possible in as many aspects as possible, which I also disagree with in terms of the direction. It is hard for me to support the tech stack with the tools I work with.

In addition, more specifically, the JTPocket Framework I use is a closed source thing, for various reasons I have already explained and won't go into here. So, if I open source something, I would have to strip out parts of the code pertaining to the licensed framework. Even if I didn't have to do that, you would have to pay Jose a licensing fee to access the private target in JTFrame and use the various Go scripts to at least build it, since the core will not and cannot work on MiSTer. There is no way to verify anything in this case. So, this is not really a good situation from an open source perspective as that is usually the end goal after we feel the source is complete and we wont work on it anymore as it is stabilized with most if not all things covered. But I want to reiterate, and it has nothing at all whatsoever to do with #CoinOpCollection or anyone else, this has been going on since my very first core on the MiSTer - I will not, and cannot release source code that I feel is subpar or incomplete. I will open source my work and share it when I feel the quality is good. I have said this thousands of times over the years again and again. I will not bow down to pressure campaigns, harassment or anything else in terms of releasing my source code. I own the code, and it's my right to choose when to release it, on my terms.

Ok, so with that stuff out of the way, onto the release. This release marks the first time we are officially integrated with the updaters. We got lots of questions from people in our channel on how to copy the files, how to run the scripts, and other various aspects related to the manual way we used to do, which is retrieving files from Patreon and copying them to the pocket. Since we are separating pre-release versions and production cores, there was a necessity to add a license requirement to the cores. However, that part is made easy by a key server I developed.

We worked very closely with Matt Pannella, whom you may know runs the pocket updater project and tool, to integrate all our releases and licensing server. He did a wonderful job, and now with a complete end to end process for a user to retrieve releases seamlessly, member or not, the user need not concern themselves with handling files at all. The updater does the job for them, and is compatible with everyone else's cores out there. So thanks again Matt for taking the time out to work with us on the integration of the cores repo, and licensing server.

If you want to send Matt a couple bucks as thanks for helping us make all this easy, here is his Paypal. I just want to reiterate and note that each person's key file is completely different and encrypted. So, all the keys are personalized.

Below is the process for running Matt's Pocket updater:

To install Coin-Op Collection cores on your Analogue Pocket use the Pocket Updater (Windows, Linux, Mac) by mattpanella. For further information about the Pocket Updater and it's functionality view the readme.

Public Coin-Op Collection cores are accessible to all, the following information is for beta core access.

1. Navigate to [8] Settings and enter the menu. Select the following option: Enable Coin-Op Collection Beta Access. Save and exit.

2. Run your configured [0] Update All Option. You will be prompted with the following message:

   Unable to retrieve Coin-Op Collection Beta license. Please set your email address.

3. Enter the email address you used to subscribe to the CoinOp Collection Patreon:

   12345+encrypted@example.com

4. The Pocket Updater will retrieve your license and beta cores placing them in the appropriate location.

If you receive the following message Not a valid current member. Please sign up at https://www.patreon.com/atrac17 see the step below.

1.a If you need to reconfigure your patreon email address the option is located in [5] Pocket Setup. Select option [5] Set Patreon Email Address to overwrite and attempt download of the license.

Updated Release:

I've pushed an update for NARC and SmashTV for those users who experienced some issues. The updater takes roughly 20 minutes to sync. You should be able to update anytime after 8:40PM EST.