getting an old game working

A Former User

i am working with a friend who is building an arcade cabinet using retropie pi4 2gb but we want a specific game called shark jaws i found a rom for MAME 0.184 but that version isn't supported by retropie does anyone have any ideas?

sleve_mcdichael

@xcissors280 https://web.archive.org/web/20200919231939/http://www.progettoemma.net/gioco.php?game=sharkjaw

I don't speak Italian, but I'm pretty sure this says "this machine is NOT functional in MAME" and "in MAME since version: .153". (That doesn't mean it works in any version, just that it exists.)

I see it in the "latest" (as of .239) MAME set as well as in MAME 2016 (.160). Both of these are "experimental" in RetroPie, but if it's going to work (BIG "if"), that'll be how.

barbudreadmon

@xcissors280 MAME - including current version - doesn't seem to emulate this game, neither any other emulator afaik.

A Former User

@barbudreadmon ok that makes some sense but one quick question how did they make a rom of a game when the original cabinet didn't have a processor?

barbudreadmon

@xcissors280 I would assume it's a handcrafted rom (following a certain specification that might be written somewhere ?) supposed to be a digital representation of that analog circuitry. Sorry but i actually don't know much details about this, FBNeo has yet to implement support for that analog circuitry emulation.

jamrom2

@xcissors280

Many of the very old vintage arcade games have issues with sounds and correct speed. They were not just ROM/chip boards but also had sounds created by discreet circuits... meaning solid state devices dedicated to making only sounds. So they were never fully supported by MAME due to the specific design of those boards.

Games like the one your friend wants to play just won't run right or will be missing sounds until someone records them and adds them in as a sound sample file.

For that game, instead of trying to get it to work, use Shark Attack. It's actually an updated version of the same game made in 1980. The sound samples are available and the game is a lot of fun to play.

I used to beta test many of the old MAME games from this era back when MAME first came out. They never ran right, or when they did, they had no sound support. It's just not worth going that far back in the MAME library. Not enough support for those super old games.

Here is Shark Attack. I have it running on all my MAME horizontal screen cabinets and my RetroPie build.

The sound kicks in at about :27 when the game actual starts. However, this user failed to load the voice pack into his samples folder. You need that, it makes the game a lot more ... Well.. menacing with screaming, and shouting.

barbudreadmon

@jamrom2 that information is very outdated, many games using analog circuitry are emulated by MAME since they implemented "netlist" years ago, at the cost of usually being extremely demanding (note : afaik a pi4 can't handle pong which is using the same technology), this one just happens to not have any support yet.

jamrom2

@barbudreadmon It's not really that it's outdated... the games really don't run well because many of them simply have a hard time being software emulated.

A lot of work has been done since then,and a lot of success. Games like Gorf sound nearly identical to the original. But some of these super old titles still are not fully emulated. Hopefully, some day they will be.

Would love to see Omori's Space Guerilla (sound and graphics still have issues) and the original Bally/Midway Demolition Derby.. or even Atari's Tank.. if they're not already. It's been a while for me with MAME as I've reached a point where it's not worth while to update unless something really good comes out. 6 machines later... I'd have to do them all.