mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support

arcadez2003

@sirhenrythe5th said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

@Darksavior i am the one that uses AdvanceMame here, maybe the only one 😄

Yes, Taito F3 games run pretty well using AdvanceMame on a Pi3.
They became even better with the 3.x versions (AdvanceMame got optimizations within this update specially for the Raspberry Pi and the overall performance grew with those)

Talking of advanceMAME i've contributed a little to that project of late..............
https://github.com/amadvance/advancemame/pull/57/commits/c51dd344d5a9f27740c2ad6b40eef58567c36cf2

sirhenrythe5th

@arcadez2003 Wow, this is great! Thank you so much for taking care of this project! 👍

REK607

Hello again, as always, I'm bringin new question! :P Have you ever tried goldnaxj.zip? It doesn't work for me. I'm using goldnaxe.zip but the japanese version is just a bit more enjoyable. Any idea?

barbudreadmon

@REK607 It's flagged as not working in mame2003plus, see https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro/blob/6c821ada3292270fe33d483e3c58753e8be136e7/src/drivers/system16.c#L7190.

You'll need a more recent MAME or FBNeo to run this one (NB : the romset was renamed to goldnaxej in those, its content is probably different too).

arcadez2003

Yes most versions of Golden Axe are either protected by the FD1094 encryption on the main CPU or the sound via the I8051 MCU
i guess we're lucky that the parent romset has no protection hence why it'll work with full sound and music in this core, however
the japan version wont work due it being encrypted via the FD1094 which is a pity as it's uncencored vs the other versions.

On a seperate note work still plods along with regards to this core the changelog contains a breakdown of the recent fixes and
or improvements but just a quick headsup we now support a couple more games...........

F1 Super Lap (World)

As per a request i fixed up this game a while back but we only supported the japan version, at least now with the World release
the game instructions will be in English which is handy if you want to suss out how and when to use the turbo/overtake button.

Xmen (6, Player Version)

As per another request we fixed up the 6 Player version of this game so now you can round up 5 of your mates or random complete
strangers and fire into this game at the same time :)

barbudreadmon

@arcadez2003 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

As per another request we fixed up the 6 Player version of this game so now you round up 5 of your mates or random complete
strangers and fire into this game at the same time :)

That's neat, you backported the recent FBNeo fixes/improvements too ?

arcadez2003

@barbudreadmon said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

@arcadez2003 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

As per another request we fixed up the 6 Player version of this game so now you round up 5 of your mates or random complete
strangers and fire into this game at the same time :)

That's neat, you backported the recent FBNeo fixes/improvements too ?

Well someone asked me to get the game playable that was my main focus firstly, however it does have a few graphical niggles here and there
nothing major from what i could tell, but yeah anything which will improve the game in that dept is always of interest i'll check the FBN git
later.

But as is always the case backporting code from the latest MAME or FBN cores to MAME2003 is not always straightforward ;)

barbudreadmon

@arcadez2003 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

however it does have a few graphical niggles here and there
nothing major from what i could tell

Most of the issues should be in later stages, dink also did a wonderful job at implementing the k054539 delay/echo sound effects

arcadez2003

deleted

arcadez2003

Ok i've backported the code to my MAME72 test core just trying it just now everything looks good so far all being well i'll port it
across to MAME2003+ sometime tonight.

@barbudreadmon thanks for the heads up around these improvements Cheers!!

Edit dinks fixes for the 6 player version of Xmen have now been added to this core.

Ashpool

6Player Version of Xmen -> Reminds me:
For ROMLister or similiar Tools, which version of the multiplayer.ini/nplayer.ini should/could be used? I guess that the one for .78 won't suffice and later ones may be inappropiate due to missing - and/or renamed roms?

REK607

Hello friends! Does your "In The Hunt" game have any sound? Mine seems muted but it wasn't last time I've played it. Everything else works flawlessly. I'm on a RPi3B+updated retropie version from a few days.

arcadez2003

@rek607 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

Hello friends! Does your "In The Hunt" game have any sound? Mine seems muted but it wasn't last time I've played it. Everything else works flawlessly. I'm on a RPi3B+updated retropie version from a few days.

Hi there

thanks for the bug report, it seems a commit by one of our dev's has broken the sound in this game and now Ninja Baseball Batman doesn't work
either, there might be more Irem M92 games with issues we'll have it sorted before the day is out.

Regards

REK607

Hi again!

I am remaking again my retropie setup as they've moved to a newer kernel and I love new updates, it's a tedious task for me but it will be definitely a trimmer version as I'm always touching and changing stuff. I just had a couple of questions related to mame2003plus:

Will we be able to update mame2003plus in older retropie versions such as 4.6 in the future?
Would you recommend mame2003plus over final burn neo for neogeo games? I found mame2003plus runs pretty good with some exceptions (zoom-in scenes on neo turf masters were laggy, or some metal slug series scenes). Is it maybe a matter of taste or are there any other technical aspects that can make a clear decission in this subject?

barbudreadmon

@rek607 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

Would you recommend mame2003plus over final burn neo for neogeo games?

There are very few games that have arguably better emulation in mame2003plus than in FBNeo, and neogeo is definitely not in that list, afaik 17 years ago neogeo emulation in MAME was already inferior to FinalBurn's, and even now i heard from users FBNeo is still the superior neogeo emulator against MAME (supposedly they saw some glitches in latest MAME, but they didn't give me the details). So the answer is no, but i believe mame2003plus is still a solid option for neogeo emulation if you simply prefer MAME, tbh you probably won't encounter that many issues even with mame2000.

Riverstorm

@rek607 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

Will we be able to update mame2003plus in older retropie versions such as 4.6 in the future?

You should be able to update mame2003-plus on 4.6 just fine.

I've even updated mame2003-plus as far back as 4.4 (built on Stretch) and it worked fine. On 4.4 you can only update from source (vs binary) if you want the latest build. If you're updating mame2003-plus it's probably due to an addition and you'll want it from source anyway. RetroPie just recently (I think yesterday or so) disabled binary downloads on Stretch.

I use a lot of backdrops and overlays (bezel type) in mame2003-plus that I've never tried in FBNeo. Shaders seem to work fine in either.

Also there are some must have games in mame2003-plus that don't exist in FBNeo. On the other hand FBNeo has some games that mame2003-plus doesn't. You could go with either core if one has all or a majority of the games you play. I still use mame2003-plus as my main core and supplement with FBNeo.

Also when it comes to vector games I think AdvMAME is the way to go but I think the recent version (3.9) on RetroPie has issues or maybe it's been fixed now. I don't know if there's a way to pull AdvMAME 3.8 into the RetroPie 4.7.1, then it would be the perfect version.

Here's a pic of AdvMAME vs. mame2003-plus. I tweaked a lot of settings and just couldn't get them the same. The pic clearly shows the difference but when you're back a ways and playing mame2003-plus does look great too but AdvMAME just has smoother thinner lines. I don't know about FBNeo as I've never tried vector games with it.

AdvMAME vs. mame2003-plus:

barbudreadmon

@riverstorm I'm pretty sure mame2003+ has something in core options for upscaling vector gfx, did you enable it ? FBNeo also has core options for upscaling vector gfx, but there is no backdrop support.

Riverstorm

@riverstorm I'm pretty sure mame2003+ has something in core options for upscaling vector gfx, did you enable it ? FBNeo also has core options for upscaling vector gfx, but there is no backdrop support.

Hey thanks, yeah, I think I've tried most of the settings. Here's what I settled on using for vector games below (HD horizontal). Honestly it does look more than acceptable. I would try both and maybe he'll prefer one core over the other. It's almost like they have entirely different implementations. I know the settings are subjective and some prefer a real solid vector line or higher flicker or intensity, etc. and some monitors I've tried simply just look better than the TV.

With a high res backdrops they look pretty amazing. The pic above on the left is Omega Race with an updated high res backdrop vs. the one on the right is the original backdrop.

mame2003-plus_vector_antialias = "enabled"
mame2003-plus_vector_beam_width = "1"
mame2003-plus_vector_flicker = "20"
mame2003-plus_vector_intensity = "1.5"
mame2003-plus_vector_resolution = "1440x1080"
mame2003-plus_vector_translucency = "enabled"

barbudreadmon

@riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

It's almost like they have entirely different implementations

Thanks for pointing this out, it turns out that FBNeo has the same issue than mame2003+, and after some investigations i figured out the issue : the lines are uneven because the drawing algorythm somehow expect the PAR (pixel aspect ratio) to be 1:1, setting DAR (display aspect ratio) to width:height makes those lines smooth.

From there, i have 2 theories i must confront with other FBNeo devs :

either the DAR (display aspect ratio) must always be set to width:height indeed for vector games
or the current DAR are right, and it's the job of the drawing algorythm to take DAR into account

Riverstorm

@barbudreadmon - That’s great news, thanks! I look forward to how it turns out. I use AdvMAME mainly for vector games. I think the current version has some regression issue(s) and it runs slow with Retropie. This might be an opportunity to drop the core and stick with m3plus & FBNeo for retro gaming.