Happy new year and please, run the update script (update_all).
Two weeks ago, the memory poll results were that 20% of users of 128MB modules had issues with the CPS1.5 core. That was too many people.
I spent many hours testing the memory modules, and I summarized most of m...
2021-01-01 18:39:15 +0000 UTC View PostThis week we are going to get some love from arcade hackers.
First, we have the SF Alpha for CPS1.5 project. Born in our Discord channel, this is a version combining the CPU+GFX of the CPS charger version with the QSound from the CPS2 version. You can use it with today's update of JTCPS15 core.
As this is a charger game, after all, you can use the charger pause key. And if you press that pause key and hol...
2020-12-18 17:19:12 +0000 UTC View PostCPS1.5 core is ready for public exposure now. Changes from the beta:
-The core is available from JTBIN now. Or you can use the update script.
-QSound is clear now. Note that it has a high dynamic range, which means that it may sound a bit low sometimes and then blast when there is action. It should sound with no hiss at 48kHz and 96kHz outputs in MiSTer.
-CPU bus accuracy improved
-FPGA internal timings are...
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Arcade systems have many memory chips working at the same time. Whereas a computer system of the same age will have all devices built around a RAM memory, arcade games had no single central memory. Each subsystem had access to its memory, which often was exclusive.
This difference meant that huge data transfer ratios were achieved when compared to computers. That is one of the reasons why even 8-bit arcade games could be more impressive than 16-bit home comp...
2020-12-04 17:37:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Although I wanted to wait for a perfect K007121 implementation before releasing any Konami title to the wild, I think Contra is in reasonable shape. There is still a bug related to barrel position but, as of today, nobody knows the secret of that. We are all waiting on Furrtek's discoveries to solve that piece of the puzzle.
Then for Street Fighter, I have solved the graphic glitch present in the beta but, ADPCM sound is still noisy. I ...
2020-11-27 19:57:57 +0000 UTC View Post
It's taken about 6 weeks of development but the DSP16A chip is now part of our FPGA family. This is the heart of QSound. Yes, we now have QSound, the sound system of CPS2, ready.
So here it is the second beta release of CPS 1.5, introducing QSound. There is still work to do but the experience is way better with the awesome sound effects of these games. Some notes:
1. You need the file qsound.zip to get the sound to play. Place it with the rest of your MAME roms if you use MiSTer.<...
2020-11-20 16:31:00 +0000 UTC View Post
FILES ATTACHED
ESPAÑOL ABAJO
You've been hearing me talking about CPS1.5/2 for ages. Well, it's not complete but I want to share a beta so you see that it is coming together step by step.
This beta features all CPS 1.5 games booting up and playable, albeit only 1P and 2P controls work. CPS 1.5/2 has a complex relationship between the M68000 and Z80 chips. In CPS 1.5, the Z80 ROMs are even encrypted. So getting the games to work hasn't been trivial.
No...
2020-10-23 09:30:02 +0000 UTC View Post
This week I bring you a new game running on Konami hardware: Labyrinth Runner, aka Trick Trap. This is a fantasy game, tough but with a nice learning curve.
This 1987 title runs on relatively cheap hardware. It uses a single K007121 (GFX) chip instead of two, which was more common. It has a single 8-bit CPU too which handles both graphics and sound. The PCB is thus quite smal...
2020-10-09 15:08:39 +0000 UTC View Post
Find the beta files attached.
2020-10-09 15:07:09 +0000 UTC View Post
ManuFerHi has made a new case for his SiDi FPGA platform (a MiST derivative) and he told me he wants to give one away. I was thinking to do a little contest... Let's decide it with the highest score achieved in the latest core: Higemaru. This will be open for a week, until 9th Oct at 17:00 CET. Please submit your screens via Discord (#high-scores) or by replying to 2020-10-02 16:50:07 +0000 UTC View Post
QSound is still going to take a few weeks. So I was looking for a core I could get together in a single day to share with you guys today. I had several options and finally decided on this little title: Pirate Ship Higemaru!
Although Vulgus is referred to as the earliest CAPCOM title, this one is definetely simpler in terms of hardware. No scroll layer. No overlaying of background over sprit...
2020-09-25 13:07:59 +0000 UTC View Post
After a beta period of one month and no bugs reported, I am releasing Side Arms to the general public. The files are in JTBIN as usual and if you use MiSTer you can use the update_all script to get Side Arms updates from now on.
The week has been about QSound and CPS1.5. I have been working in defining the MRA file format for the new CPS1.5 titles and studying CPS 1.5 details. It turns out CPS 1.5 uses Kabuki CPU encryption for the Z80 code so I spent one day studying the available docu...
2020-09-18 18:08:49 +0000 UTC View Post
This week I have been delivering updates to existing cores (Bionic Commando, CPS1, 1942 and Vulgus). So I'd like to take the chance of not having any major release to send you some stickers for the album.
The date in the sticker is the original beta release of each core. I am trying to randomize the sticker process to make it more fun but haven't found a good e-mail service for that yet.
Use the...
This week I have been delivering updates to existing cores (Bionic Commando, CPS1, 1942 and Vulgus). So I'd like to take the chance of not having any major release to send you some stickers for the album.
The date in the sticker is the original beta release of each core. I am trying to randomize the sticker process to make it more fun but haven't found a good e-mail service for that yet.
Use the attache...
2020-09-11 17:08:28 +0000 UTC View Post
SEE FILES ATTACHED
English
This game is quite something! The PCB has three layers and almost no custom chips. It is not easy to power it up because of the sheer ammount of chips on it. Although it follows classic CAPCOM designs, it features a large mode for sprites (32x32 or 16x16). An arguable design feature as it meant the custom chip in 1943 could not be used and it is not so clear it is needed in the game.
The hardware and ROM size of th...
2020-09-04 14:56:36 +0000 UTC View Post
I'd like to discuss a technical topic this week: missing elements in emulators and, well, some FPGA cores. Let's use the palette memory of Side Arms for our case study.
Side Arms uses a regular RAM chip to store colour palette values. The GPU decides which pixel has priority from the character, scroll, object and star layers. Then the pixel value of that layer is used to address the palette RAM. The value at the addressed position is taken to the video digital-to-analogue converter...
As usual, busy week with too much to talk about but let me be brief
-First, I'm making the TAITO core (Bubble Bobble and Tokio games) public. It still has the problem with the bubbles but I think it is related to the M6801 CPU core for which I have no replacement and fixing that CPU is not my priority now. By making the source code public maybe another developer will have an interest in fixing the M6801 CPU.
Get the files either through the MiSTer update-all script or attached to this post. Source code.
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Takashi Nishiyama... you don't know him. Wait, you do: Moon Patrol, Kung-Fu Master, 2020-08-07 10:26:11 +0000 UTC View Post
TOKIO/Scramble Formation files here.
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Although I'm spending most of my time on QSound, I'd like to release some titles in the meantime. These games will not take me too long so QSound development won't get halted.
This week I bring you Tokio, aka Scramble Formation. This is a game that runs on very similar hardware to Bubble Bobble 2020-07-31 13:11:09 +0000 UTC View Post
The same RBF is used for Bubble Bobble and Tokio. Please find the files attached. Not all MRA files work yet:
-Bubble Bobble: some bootlegs will fail.
-Tokio: original game will fail. Use the bootleg.
2020-07-31 13:10:51 +0000 UTC View Post
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This has been my first week working on Q-Sound. CAPCOM abandoned the YM2151 FM chip for the last few CPS titles and started using a PCM-based solution. PCM is the main sound source used in NeoGeo titles too, although the NeoGeo can do FM and PSG sounds too. CAPCOM had already abandoned PSG sounds when entering CPS, and the transition to PCM was sharp too: FM was left behind.
The PCM solution used by CAPCOM was not based on a hard wired ADPCM controller, like that ...
2020-07-17 14:59:46 +0000 UTC View Post
FIND FILES ATTACHED -MISTER, MIST, SIDI-
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I'm sorry for being one week late. This was meant to be a special release for the 4th of July but last week was very busy and couldn't finish it. So here it is anyway, happy 4th of July (!)
This is Konami doing another sports game. And it's a really fun one. I originally only met it in the Amstrad CPC. It was a very well done port, fast, good music, impressive graphics... So when I was able to grab th...
2020-07-10 16:04:28 +0000 UTC View Post
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As you know, Antonio Villena offered a MiSTer case for us. Today, through an unusual tweet I got the ASCII characters to look for the winner. I opened the tweet in a private browser so I get the answers sorted by time and then inserted the characters in Patreon one by one until it stopped providing matches. It...
2020-07-03 15:44:31 +0000 UTC View PostFILES ATTACHED TO THIS POST
Then there was music and wonderful flowers... Yes, we finally have music for Bubble Bobble. I have written a Yamaha OPL1 core based on the best reverse engineered data I have found. I got a lot of good information from Nuked. He has written cycle accurate emulators of some Yamaha chips and his code is a very good represen...
2020-06-26 08:02:05 +0000 UTC View Post
This has been the FM week. I have fixed some NeoGeo sound issues, which have been released on MiSTer today and continued work on the YM3526 OPL sound chip. Let me talk about FM sound a bit.
NeoGeo, Megadrive and Ghosts'n Goblins have something in common: FM sound chips built around the OPN Yamaha operator. These FM chips were capable of producing realistic sounds. A key aspect of that feeling was the envelope of each sound.
The envelope is how the...
2020-06-19 15:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post
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It is the beginning of a fantastic story... Yes, your favourite bubble spitting dinosaurs come to the FPGA world. And they move better than ever. Files attached!
This was a request from one of the patron directors and I was a bit afraid because the game contains four CPUs! Two Z80 for game control, one Z80 for music and one microcontroller (M6801 inside) for protection. Memories are shared, bus is shared, and there was a big potential for problems. Yet, it has gon...
2020-06-12 15:54:26 +0000 UTC View Post(español abajo)
What is the best way of getting the attention of a core author -not just me- to get an issue effectively solved? That's github issues.
For problems on my arcade cores, please go to jtbin/issues and enter the problem there. You will need to make a github account first, I know, but it is completely worth it. Issues reported on other media may get lost as I get too many me...
2020-06-08 08:56:12 +0000 UTC View Post
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Antonio Villena has donated a MiSTer case kit to hold a raffle among my patrons. His case has a DB9 connector so you can use a SEGA Genesis (or Atari) controller on it. These controllers have no lag as they don't go through the USB polling. I have received the code to support it from Miguel-T80c and I am looking into integrat...
2020-06-05 07:53:04 +0000 UTC View Post
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I'm very happy to bring this week the classic Contra from Konami (files attached). As a child I only knew the Amstrad CPC version except for a night out with my parents when I could just see the arcade game for a few minutes. Couldn't play that night. Amstrad version was very good and it left a fond memory on me. I think it was around the year 1996 when I got a copy of this game ROM dumps and wrote 2020-05-29 16:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
