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DU: Sit down before you read this...part 2
#382135 - 04/26/19 01:13 AM
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After 34 years, Bryan McPhail and ArcadeHacker finally did the impossible and figured out how to correctly emulate the original Bubble System version of Gradius!
Andrew Welburn dumped the "B version music" version of Carnival
gc8tech sent us several hacked IGS carts labeled as follows:
prog_hack_aoshisangu0_h3_2_noenc
prog_hack_aoshisangu0_h3_enc
prog_hack_lsqh_h4_noenc
prog_hack_sango_h4_noenc
prog_hack_wdf_gsyx_h2_enc
ClawGrip dumped four Bandai Legendz "crystals". These figurines can be used on the Game Boy Advance "Legendz - Sign of Nekuromu" and "Legendz - Yomigaeru Shiren no Shima" games, and also on some Bandai LCD games.
@LosTrastosDeXaX sent us a dump of "Cricket", a darts machine from the Spanish company "Daryde"
Bonky dumped a bootleg of Bubble Bobble
Darran sent us a Japanese language Moon Cresta on Galaxian hardware boot/hack
DU donations
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Re: DU: Sit down before you read this...part 2
[Re: Smitdogg]
#382140 - 04/26/19 08:36 AM
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> After 34 years, Bryan McPhail and ArcadeHacker finally did the impossible and figured
> out how to correctly emulate the original Bubble System version of Gradius!
Depending on your philosophy on emulation, "correctly" could be something of an overstatement.
This doesn't at all cheapen what they've achieved, but the code in question doesn't emulate the bubble memory management controller, which is believed to be some sort of MCU. It's more of a high-level simulation of the bubble memory system rather than emulation itself.
It's somewhat akin to various drivers where MAME had a 100% correct simulation of a given protection MCU: From an end user's perspective it's functionally "there", but there's still work to be done on the team's end to bring up the level of hardware documentation and accuracy.
Not trolling, just pointing out a few caveats regarding this admittedly impressive achievement.
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Re: DU: Sit down before you read this...part 2
[Re: MooglyGuy]
#382142 - 04/26/19 01:15 PM
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> > After 34 years, Bryan McPhail and ArcadeHacker finally did the impossible and
> figured
> > out how to correctly emulate the original Bubble System version of Gradius!
>
> Depending on your philosophy on emulation, "correctly" could be something of an
> overstatement.
>
> This doesn't at all cheapen what they've achieved, but the code in question doesn't
> emulate the bubble memory management controller, which is believed to be some sort of
> MCU. It's more of a high-level simulation of the bubble memory system rather than
> emulation itself.
>
> It's somewhat akin to various drivers where MAME had a 100% correct simulation of a
> given protection MCU: From an end user's perspective it's functionally "there", but
> there's still work to be done on the team's end to bring up the level of hardware
> documentation and accuracy.
>
> Not trolling, just pointing out a few caveats regarding this admittedly impressive
> achievement.
I think it's a good starting point tho, and gaining a better understanding of this hardware, to at least allow extraction of the correct data is better than nobody having a clue about it.
You've authored things yourself where current media access functionality is HLE that will be replaced later (cdi comes to mind) although obviously with the cdi that allowed a lot more development to occur, while here the rest of the hardware is basically already understood as Konami quickly realised bubble memory was a mistake and re-released them using ROMs on otherwise practically identical hardware.
There are plans to get the Bubble Memory MCU decapped, and the people working on it are people who have produced proven results before, so I have confidence we'll see more progress, and maybe even replacement Bubble Memory MCU controllers developed to make dumping Bubble Memory at at lower level (prior to error correction etc.) easier. I imagine there are a lot more places BM was used outside of the arcade games considering several companies had hardware supporting it.
Even in this preliminary form, this does rank for me as one of the most pleasing things to see so far this year as at the very least it means a usable copy of the data from one Bubble Memory game has been preserved, and that is one area were there is a definite time limit on it happening as it's very fragile media.
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Re: DU: Sit down before you read this...part 2
[Re: Smitdogg]
#382145 - 04/26/19 03:38 PM
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> After 34 years, Bryan McPhail and ArcadeHacker finally did the impossible and figured
> out how to correctly emulate the original Bubble System version of Gradius!
>
That's truly an impressive feat because for years, people here were saying it couldn't be done.
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| gregf |
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Ramtek's Trivia promoter
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Re: DU: Sit down before you read this...part 2
[Re: Smitdogg]
#382152 - 04/26/19 08:34 PM
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>After 34 years, Bryan McPhail and ArcadeHacker finally did the impossible and figured out
>how to correctly emulate the original Bubble System version of Gradius!
Props and kudos. I agree with Moogly's take, but it is a great start no matter what.
>Andrew Welburn dumped the "B version music" version of Carnival
Hooray. *crosses fingers that PSE Maneater might surface later*
Is the Carnival music the same, but with bug-fix corrections? Or is the music actually different than the familiar Gremlin/Sega Carnival music that the older generations remember?
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| gregf |
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Re: DU: Sit down before you read this...part 2
[Re: Haze]
#382153 - 04/26/19 08:45 PM
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>this does rank for me as one of the most pleasing things to see so far this year as at the
>very least it means a usable copy of the data from one Bubble Memory game has been
>preserved, and that is one area were there is a definite time limit on it happening as
>it's very fragile media.
Laser disc preservation could be a close runner-up if anything happens later this year.
For now, I am happy about the netlist progress.
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| gregf |
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Re: DU: Sit down before you read this...part 2
[Re: Master O]
#382154 - 04/26/19 08:51 PM
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>> After 34 years, Bryan McPhail and ArcadeHacker finally did the impossible and figured
>> out how to correctly emulate the original Bubble System version of Gradius!
>That's truly an impressive feat because for years, people here were saying it couldn't be
>done.
Same with mcus emulation of other hardware whether company is Toaplan, Gaelco etc.
After another round of laser disc progress could become a reality, I hope the tape hardware (coinop or console) still has a chance at a later time.
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Re: DU: Sit down before you read this...part 2
[Re: Haze]
#382163 - 04/27/19 03:32 AM
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Absolutely a great first step. It's good to have the original release of Gradius dumped for historical reasons, and hopefully we'll find more of those Bubble System boards that are still functional.
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Try checking the MAME manual at http://docs.mamedev.org
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| The tECHIDNA |
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Re: DU: Sit down before you read this...part 2
[Re: Smitdogg]
#382167 - 04/27/19 05:30 AM
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Truly awesomesauce -- without the EmuDramaTM this time no less 
For those wondering about the technical details, here's the GitHub commit.
Cheers for this and the other machines in this post being rescued/preserved.
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