lr-mame2003 driver improvement and backport

darknior

New working game Night Slashers : https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/pull/254

code via iq_132 and reworked for the MAME-2003 core.
one of the most heavily protected Data East games gfx, sound and inputs are encrypted, start by adding
in all the needed code into the driver mem maps, inputs, video routines, sound handling, protection and speedup.
By request and fully tested!! this code will only affect 20 or so Data East games which either use the
Deco 16 or 32 based video hardware and they all pass with flying colours after this update.
BTW a few files will need to change so bear with me ;)

Supporting Joe & Mac Return : https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/pull/262

@gamez-fan Due to the changes needed to get Night Slashers playable might as well make more use of them by adding
support for another new working game.
Actually this one supports quite a few more games but they need some changes backported to
the Arm CPU in order to work this would be dangerous as the CPU's are so different between
this core and the one i'd be backporting from.
So rather than maybe break the ARM CPU i just decided to leave it be and strip out the non
working games from the driver leaving just the one game playable that doesn't require further
updates to the aforementioned CPU.

Thanks a lot for these two games, i'm a great great fan <3 <3<3

Darksavior

@darknior @gamez-fan Excellent. Mame-2003 makes Night Slashers totally playable. I do get some slowdown to like 50-56fps on the second level with heavy transparencies, but I'm sure an overclock will help that. It's nowhere near as slow as mame2010. I maybe encountered a minor graphic bug..the carriage you chase down in level 2 is mostly transparent except for the wheels. I'll still play it this way.

arcadez2003

@darksavior said in lr-mame2003 driver improvement and backport:

@darknior @gamez-fan Excellent. Mame-2003 makes Night Slashers totally playable. I do get some slowdown to like 50-56fps on the second level with heavy transparencies, but I'm sure an overclock will help that. It's nowhere near as slow as mame2010. I maybe encountered a minor graphic bug..the carriage you chase down in level 2 is mostly transparent except for the wheels. I'll still play it this way.

You get better fps than i do on the ole Xbox :) with regards to the carriage on level two that bug with the alpha transparency layers happens in currant MAME i think..??
but a good friend of mine has fixed it for the next FBA build although im not sure if the speed will be good on this hardware for Night Slashers when using FBA.

darknior

@gamez-fan Declare the new games https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/pull/263#issuecomment-353885212

New driver for Boogie Wings : Code via iq_132 and reworked for MAME-2003, due to the recent Deco changes i did to get Night Slashers to work meant that all the video and protection this game requires is already present in the source just to need to hook up the Deco102 CPU decryption.
Boogie Wings one of Data East's best games totally unique you wont find another game like it.

New driver for Diet Go Go https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/pull/267

via iq_132 and reworked for MAME-2003, adding the Deco 102 CPU decryption for Boogie Wings
means we can have this game playable too might as well make the code go further.

ARM CPU MAME-2003 https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/issues/270

Not an issue per say just wanna mention here that after consulting the MAME WIP i've found
that for the DECO games there were two stages to the updates for this CPU core firstly a two
line change which will fix all the simpl156.c games that i left outta the driver when i commited
it the other day.

The second more hefty change was for the DECO-MLC games thats why my MAME84 ARM
CPU is so different from the one in use here as iq_132 updated it for both drivers, i feel confident
now to just go ahead and finish the simpl156.c driver and do the slight change in the ARM

I'll start on this later today make the change below and add 8 new games to the driver
So switch around the 3 and the 1 and bingo 8 more game to play

darknior

Finish off the simpl156 driver : https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/pull/271

@gamez-fan Added support for the rest of the games barring Party Time Gonta The Diver 2 as it's not working,
Osman, Charlie Ninja, Chain Reaction and clones will require a small change in the ARM CPU to fix
some graphical problems, original code via iq_132 and reworked for MAME-2003

Topical point : Osman in some ways can be considered a true sequel to Strider as the same
Dev team created both games plus it's far better than Strider 2

Cool excellent i don't know Oswan before :)

xFlesk

hello there
great stuff you got here ;)
unfortunetlly im not so good into compiling, dat-making etc :(
as far as i understand to get advantage of all those improvements i have to simply update my mame 2003 from source? so i did it and i cant get metal slug 4 to work with mame 2003 (plenty of neogeo games as well).
can someone please help me to understand how can i compile those sources to get it to work?
or maybe someone knows if those improvement will be added to retropie as an official thing some day ?
thank you in advance
regards

Darksavior

@xflesk Just update from source. I've never used dats. For neogeo I recommend fbalpha, but suit yourself.

xFlesk

@darksavior
but how can i check if its work ? metal slug 4 and 5 should work but they wont. i assuming im doing something wrong (i've tried several different rom files).

mitu

@xflesk Just use lr-fbalphaor fbalpha as emulators, instead of lr-mame2003, and they should work fine. If they still don't, then open a new topic for this problem.

arcadez2003

@xflesk said in lr-mame2003 driver improvement and backport:

@darksavior
but how can i check if its work ? metal slug 4 and 5 should work but they wont. i assuming im doing something wrong (i've tried several different rom files).

Hi sounds like your Roms are incorrect, head over to a site called CENSORED

dankcushions

@gamez-fan sorry, but please don't mention rom sites: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2/forum-rules

xFlesk

@gamez-fan at least tell me which mame set i should aim for ;) regards

Darksavior

@xflesk Please read and find out yourself which romset you need: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Arcade

There's no guesswork for this. Using random roms will be an endless struggle. In the special case for Night Slashers and newly added games is to try the rom from mame2003's romset first. I think I used mame2010's version of Night Slashers but I don't remember. Neogeo games have been working since forever so that just means you're using the wrong rom version.

A side note...It's quite annoying when random youtubers still recommend to do this. I've been pointing it out to some how wrong they are but they have so much pride and arrogance about it because it worked for them. They got lucky the roms they used haven't been altered in almost 15yrs so they worked in mame-2003.

arcadez2003

@dankcushions said in lr-mame2003 driver improvement and backport:

@gamez-fan sorry, but please don't mention rom sites: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/2/forum-rules

The site in question is not a download site per say it's an Xbox dev forum, anyway please just remove my account from here as i've had two reprimands
in the space of a couple of weeks now and yet i've never had one telling off on the many other sites i've been a member of for over a decade now!!!.

A website with a draconian attitude to Romlinks and where you get a ban threat for a miner sweary word is not a somewhere i wish to hangout
over and out.

xFlesk

you see @darksavior
this topic is about adding "non standard" mame 2003 drivers. i do know exacly which rom set mame 2003 supports ;)
but since kind people adding more unofficial drivers then its clear we need roms other then from mame 2003 set (good example is mslug 4 and 5 which not appear on official list). thats why i've asked (kindly) from which mame set are new added roms ?

mitu

@xflesk They're described in the docs:

Please read and find out yourself which romset you need: https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Arcade

xFlesk

@mitu thank you
i saw a list, i was reading github about mame2003 etc, but i cannot find anything about changes which are made here.
the list is only about official 0.78 romset. i just dont know where to look for it.
thank you anyway ;)

darknior

New working game Rohga Armor Force https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/pull/276

@gamez-fan Last of the Data East work hook up the third input plus dip settings and fix the sound for
Rohga Armor Force some changes im going to make in Deco prot will make this game
fully playable

darknior

Big update for Kaneko16 : https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/pull/284

@gamez-fan Code via iq_132 reworked for MAME-2003 here is the full WIP.........

Kaneko Toybox and Calc3 MCU simulation added to the driver which gets some more
games playable, i then added a couple of extra games some rare prototypes that were dumped
a couple of years back and finally updated the sound and video handling for some nice
improvements in that dept.

when rolling the driver back i made a point of keeping the original Roms from MAME78 for the
games that worked previously that means only Roms for the new working games will be required

Original working games no functional change unless stated

The Berlin Wall
Magical Crystals
Blaze On
Great 1000 Mile Rally (Fixed the parent as it didn't work new Rom required)
Great 1000 Mile Rally (Evolution Model)
Great 1000 Mile Rally (USA)
Sand Scorpian (I fixed the background gfx game now playable)
Mille Miglia 2: Great 1000 Miles Rally

New Working games Roms will be needed unless stated

Bakuretsu Breaker (Rom hasn't changed)
Bonk's Adventure
Blood Warrior
Pack'n Bang Bang
Wing Force
B.Rap Boys..??
B.Rap Boys Special..??
Shogun Warriors..??
Fujiyama Buster.??

?? denotes im unsure if those ones will work as they didn't in my test build but they may do
when using this MAME core i guess we'll find out if or when users give em a go.

Forgot about this driver for Pocket Gal DX https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/pull/288

@gamez-fan Might as well add it here to further take advantage of the recent Data East update, i'll need
to hook in the prot and declare the new games and driver.
This is the last Data East driver which is backportable from my sources as with deco_mlc.c
and deco156.c the Arm CPU is not compatable with changes required to make the games
work, and with regards to backfire.c and dblwing.c some incompatable port tag to handler
code is the fly in the ointment.

Bubble Bobble and Operation Wolf https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/issues/292

Im not going to add support for any more new games to this core but i still have many
improvements i can backport like say an updated Bubble Bobble driver which has the
full dump of the MCU meaning the Emulation of this game would be 100%.

In this MAME core when playing Bubble Bobble the enemy movements are all wrong
plus some bonus pickups and the timer dont act correctly it's a similar story with
Operation Wolf i have a full simulation of the MCU which amongst other things means
the enemy has found you special levels and the boss at the end of the jungle level will
now trigger plus there is kill count in each level and when you hit it a barrage of new
enemies will come at ya.

This code for the above should be easy enough to add to this core or was that just
famous last words :)

Add proper MCU dump for Bubble Bobble https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/pull/293

0.107u3: Trinity and Nicola Salmoria added support for real Bubble Bobble MCU. Added M6801 (1MHz) CPU4 and TAITO JPH1011P MCU rom (a78-01.17).

darknior

ISSUE : NMK16.c https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/issues/298

@gamez-fan The nmk16 driver is in a sorry state at this point in the MAME dev cycle, alotta games dont have sound
or bad sound plus there are protection and graphical problems in quite a few others, so im going to attempt to backport mine which will sort all of the above plus add support for a couple more games.
The later nmk16.c has the Afega games and code to Emulate them rolled into the driver since these
are rubbish games and to significantly cutdown on the workload im going to strip out this code
and these games will remain as they were in this core not working in afega.c
NMK16 WIP 5 Stages
Add NMK004 machine this will Emulate the sound "done"
Strip Afega code from the driver and video "done"
Rollback my nmk16 driver to MAME-2003 codebase "ongoing"
Test all the games after the update "todo"
After full testing port the code to this core "todo"