JOTEGO

1943 Pause Screen

Added 2019-04-25 06:37:56 +0000 UTC

Last weekend I completed the 1943 core pause screen with patrons on $10+ tiers. For the first time, the pause screen includes avatars of $20+ patrons. It has been very interesting to convert the images to the arcade format. Remember that the pause screen is rendered using the arcade GPU. I basically disconnect it partially from the CPU -which I leave halted- and connect it to an alternative video memory.

I originally thought of this as a way to give recognition to patrons but it has turned out to be a great learning experience to me, testing my understanding of the hardware.

My plan was to publish the core last Sunday, but both MiST and MiSTer versions still need a couple of tweaks. So I think the public release will be this weekend.

The core for May will be Popeye, remember that I had it quite advanced and stopped it to do the YM2610 chip (NeoGeo). I am preparing one surprise for Popeye that hard-core 8-bit fans will love. Stay tuned!