Hi!... My name is Roberto Fresca, and I'm part of the MAME Dev Team since 1998. Here you can find some technical things about rare hardware, and some of my work in progress about emulation. This site is also intended to avoid duplicated efforts. This page is *always* in construction... :-)
--- 2019/04/16 10:53 ---
Again, thanks to Team Europe that kindly bought some rare boards, we get this new game.
The hardware also is similar/derivative of Golden Poker, with a 6502 CPU, 2x PIAs, M6845 CRTC, and discrete sound.
The game has odd things as expecting changes in ROM space, but after some analysis and reverse-engineering, finally found a workaround to get it working properly. Here some snaps...
And with button-lamps support...
--- 2019/04/14 19:10 ---
Thanks to Team Europe, we have a different set of Casino Poker.
The hardware looks so similar to the parent set. This set cames with a wrong characters ROM, but the remaining graphics are similar to the parent set, so I confirmed the bipolar PROM for the parent too. Also borrowed the parent chars ROM to fix the glitches.
The game has German language like the parent set, and after some work (also button-lamps support) it's working properly. Here some snaps...
With the original chars ROM (doesn't match the game):
With the parent's chars ROM (100% matches):
--- 2019/04/12 23:20 ---
Well... Long time passed since I added this not working game to MAME. Here is the PCB.
So, just teamed with Grull Osgo to analize and reverse-engineer the hardware. It's a weird and complex derivative of TAB/Fun World hardware. Different memory map, different VRAM offset, Attr/color RAM is not even near the VRAM, and also has some sort of mirror at different offset to do critical video writes that are mixed in the final blitter.
Also as protection, the hardware has the 6845 CRTC and the AY8910 multiplexed, among a lot of complex checks and evil program loops.
Anyway!... The real name is Joker Card, and could be configured in English or German language through a DIP switch. The game is now working properly. Here the snapshots...
With normal VRAM and attr/color RAM:
After add the attr/color RAM mirror for the final mix:
--- 2019/04/12 22:53 ---
Thanks to Team Europe, we have a couple of new Fun World Quiz boards. These new ones are operated through a control panel instead of joystick, as the former set was meant for.
The brick has 1x Ricoh RP65C02G CPU, 1x 27128 ROM storing the main program, and 1x PAL16L8 as PLD.
Both games are working properly, with correct banking and sound...
--- 2019/04/04 11:21 ---
These are another long waited improvements. :))
The platform, based in Multi Win game is highly encrypted, and thanks to Andreas Naive's help we have the main game totally unencrypted, and other sets "almost" done (since we need to check some suspicious routines...). We strongly think that all the issues will be figured out soon.
Again, with Grull Osgo, started to work on them as soon as we got the *brillant* work Andreas committed. We reworked the memory maps, tilemaps, video start extended the encryption range, reworked inputs (still need some work), fixed graphics bitplanes, palettes, and many many things...
Here you can see some snaps of the games working...
Multi Win
Mega Card
Power Card
Joker Card 300 (Amatic / Vesely Svet)
This game unfortunatelly has one graphics ROM faulty. The address 08 line (pin 25) has the protection diode blown, and as result we got 0x100 bytes blocks duplicated along the whole dump. We're trying to figure out a forensic method to try to bypass the protection and get the original contents, so... Cross your fingers!!...
--- 2019/02/20 11:21 ---
Finally, after long years!!!. :))
The game/platform is highly encrypted (program, graphics and palette), and has something unexpected for the year: I2C bus.
Since the original eeprom (with critical data) was phisically broken years ago in an attempt to extract it from the board, plus the fact the board was lost in a sad accident where a partner house caught fire, we had nothing except reverse-engineering everything to get some improvements. I teamed with Grull Osgo to get a fresh start and after some weeks of hard work, we figured out and got the I2C bus working (it has inverted clocks), and also figured out the eeprom contents (critical for each game). Reworked the memory map, hooked the needed devices, constructed inputs from the scratch, fixed bitplanes and colors, and a lot of more things.
Here you can see some snaps of the games working...
--- 2019/02/16 19:32 ---
Thanks to Team Europe, we have a new Fun World board. This one is a derivative hardware with a special epoxy brick CPU.
This is a big complex suicide hardware. The brick has a ROM for the base firmware (acting as a sort of base software/kernel), and there are also a couple of RAM devices connected to the mainboard battery holding the main program.
As soon as you separate the brick, both RAMs are disconnected from the battery losing their contents. We need to find a way to dump a working board through the central connector, that was meant to program these RAMs from factory.
Just for debug and testing, we found an english module from another game program that matches all the calls, turning the game playable. Here the results...
--- 2018/11/26 15:02 ---
The Breakthru set from Tecfri has a different color PROM. The original 82s129 bipolar PROM for R/G was replaced with one 82s147 that has twice the size. Seems that A05 line was disconnected and the rest of higher addressing lines were displaced covering the hole... Anyway, colors are now fixed.
--- 2018/10/18 11:20 ---
One new bootleg board found in Argentina thanks to Martin Mejia Britez. This version has a different title and looks like Euro League.
Here some snaps...
--- 2018/09/10 16:40 ---
Grull Osgo got access to a board that turned out to be Novo Poker II. It's an Argentine hack of American Poker II with some differences and spanish language.
However, the game is not working ATM. Will try to find why...
***** EDIT 2018/09/13 *****
After play with the game status and the inputs system, We got the game finally working...
Here some snaps...
Now we have an extra set emulated thanks to reverse-engineering the code... :-)
--- 2018/08/24 23:05 ---
This is a brilliant development. It's a nice LED's roulette based on a Z180 + MCU + DAC + TMS9938 VDP platform. The game has an attractive big bonus jackpot, and very good graphics keeping in count the graphics VDP type used.
Now, thanks to:
1) Daniel Gallimberti (CEO of Sielcon, programmer and owner of this roulette) that kindly agreed to add this game to MAME and share it for non-profit purposes, releasing sources and schematics. And...
2) Grull Osgo, that returned to the scene (welcome back, BTW!) doing some workarounds for unimplemented things in the Z180 core and helped in the driver development,
We're proud to say that we have a new working game, preserved for the further generations: Lucky Ball 96.
Here some snaps...
Nice to see devs like Grull back in the scene, and people like Daniel, understanding the preservation and contributing to the cause... :-)
--- 2018/08/14 09:11 ---
More rarities... One doesn't find often rare things on the wild. This time we made a trip with Tomas Garcia-Meras (aka ClawGrip), to buy some boards from a former small arcade company owner (almost burned a car in middle of it).
To our surprise, we got a couple of Gaelco's Master Boy 97 PCB's. One matches the supported set, but the remaining one turned to be a better set, with the addressing seen in the schematics, plus some extra questions banks that the former set lacks. So we have a new parent!
Here some snaps...
--- 2018/07/31 22:27 ---
Well... Talking about rare games, a PCB appeared thanks to the big efforts of recreativas.org. It's a very rare EFO game running in a 2x CDP1802 CPU, plus two customs EFO90501 VDPs (turned to be TMS9928 remarked), and a speech system through another custom IC EFO90503 (TMS5220).
Also proud of working side by side with Tomasz Slanina and be the bridge that brought him back to the scene. Devs like Tomasz are so necessary... :-)
Welcome back Dox!!!...
--- 2018/06/02 23:50 ---
Long time since my last post, but I was moving back to Europe.
This is the "Spanish Polybius". The Holy Grial of spanish games. There were only a couple of flyers laying around, but it always was in doubt whether the game has ever been released, or even made...
So... After a hard work, recreativas.org got the impossible: Find, document and dump this legend. You can see the story at their site. I'm proud of having been part of this milestone, teaming with ElSemi to bring this game back to life.
Here some snaps...
:-).
--- 2018/04/01 19:15 ---
o_O
Could be possible after 20 years trying to catch a ghost?
--- 2018/01/26 14:45 ---
After hooked the new graphics ROMs to the second set of Ypovrixio, it turned out to be...
And here some tiles from the game...
o_O
The program and palette encryption is similar to the one found in "Missing In Action".
--- 2018/01/23 3:10 ---
Just received a couple of dumps from two rare boards. The owner told me that the game is called "Ypovrixio" (greek for "submarine"). Looks like a sub-marine thematic game running in a protected Bordun/Rolla type hardware. Program ROMs are encrypted, but I'm working on them...
After decrypt the program and spent some hours working in the emulation, I found the real title:
Colors are wrong due to palette encryption.
**** EDIT ****
Decrypted also the palette. :)
The game is not currently working and need more work in the emulation. Here you can see the title and some tiles with the correct palette...
--- 2017/12/17 22:15 ---
New Aristocrat MkV titles dumped. These are the last ones of the a big planification started more than one year ago. There is another source, but I think is unreachable for now. Unfortunately the owners are close to destroy everything, so only a miracle could give us access to their machines. Cross the fingers and pray...
- Enchanted Forest (JHG0415-99, US).
- Enchanted Forest (AHG1615, US).
- Mine, Mine, Mine (NHG0416-99, US).
- Penguin Pays - Cash Express (AHG1544, US).
- Queen of the Nile (GHG4091-03, US).
- Queen of the Nile (AHG1608, US).
- Wild Cougar (NHG0296-07, US).
- Wild Cougar (NHG0296-99, US).
- Wild Cougar (AHG1531, US).
snaps...
Enchanted Forest (JHG0415-99, US) and (AHG1615, US).
Mine, Mine, Mine (NHG0416-99, US).
Penguin Pays - Cash Express (AHG1544, US).
Queen of the Nile (GHG4091-03, US) and (AHG1608, US).
Wild Cougar (NHG0296-07, US) and (NHG0296-99, US).
Wild Cougar (AHG1531, US).
