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

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.

Clyde

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

@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.

Especially since AdvMAME isn't an RA core and thus, doesn't benefit from RA's unified interface and configuration. At least that's my main reason to prefer m3plus & fbneo, with no clear preference for one over the other.

Ashpool

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

the drawing algorythm somehow expect the PAR (pixel aspect ratio) to be 1:1, setting DAR (display aspect ratio) to width:height

Sorry to step in here, but out of curiousity(!): How is a PAR (or SAR) value for a vector based rom, or better to say display width/height information, obtainable? The FBNeo xml structure is AFAIK nearly omitting all valuable information in those regards and with mame.xml datfiles the display/video entry for screen == vector roms have no width/height information, though the orientation of the display (horizontal/vertical) is included. So my assumption so far was that vector games comply to the DAR == 4/3 or 3/4 rule of thumb (see last bullet point in: LAY File Basics - Part I)? Have I missed something, or am i just interpreting your words beyond or wrongly within their scope?

Riverstorm

That’s true it’s missing the Libretro benefits and features. Though it is a strong, stable, flexible core that’s matured.

I know some use it as a primary core. Hopefully they figure out the “slowness” issue at some point as it’s one of the more well rounded solid alternatives to play and test with. Backdrops and overlays are solid but in regards to shaders, AdvMAME falls short, it’s hard to beat crt-pi and zfast on these low end boards.

barbudreadmon

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

How is a PAR (or SAR) value for a vector based rom, or better to say display width/height information, obtainable?

In RetroArch, you can get all those informations by enabling statistics in on-screen display settings

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

So my assumption so far was that vector games comply to the DAR == 4/3 or 3/4 rule of thumb

It seems to have been the assumption when writing those drivers in FBNeo too, however the width:height doesn't always match that ratio, meaning you end up with a PAR different from 1:1, which i think is the only PAR making sense for a vector game (width and height of a point should be the same).

arcadez2003

This post is deleted!

arcadez2003

Work still continues on with regards to the MAME2003+ core but i wont rabbit on about the new game support or the many
fixes and improvements here as that is what the changelog and the whatsnew build files are for, but i thought it worth a mention
that you can now play three classic Sega games which due to the usual drama and politics will not be supported in the
official MAME releases.

They wont set the heather on fire right enough but if your a fan of the genre or Sega games in general you might wanna give em a whirl...

Head On Channel

Oo Parts

Sega Sonic Bros

Also some of you might be aware a long lost game turned up recently which was meant to be Midway's attempt at creating
a NBA Jam like version of a baseball game, it didn't really pan out and it's release into the Arcades was cancelled
but now you can also play this curio in MAME2003+

Power Up Baseball

Just lemmie know sometime if you think the trackball inputs need some tweaking as per the pitch and batting speeds.

Clyde

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

you can now play three classic Sega games which due to the usual drama and politics will not be supported in the official MAME releases.

Thanks! Could you elaborate a little about MAME? (just curious)

barbudreadmon

@clyde 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:

you can now play three classic Sega games which due to the usual drama and politics will not be supported in the official MAME releases.

Thanks! Could you elaborate a little about MAME? (just curious)

iirc those rarities were dumped for the sake of preservation but not added to MAME because the group that dumped them forbade it (something along the lines of "if you add those games to MAME, we won't dump anything anymore for you"). those dumps were leaked anonymously some time ago. they were added to HBMAME though so i don't understand the logic.

Clyde

@barbudreadmon Thanks. Whatever the reasons of the dumping group were. As for HBMAME, maybe its developers just did it anyway and the group either didn't care or didn't go through with their announced consequences.

edit: typo corrected (devekopers)