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DU: This magnet moment, so different and so new
#377676 - 07/19/18 02:06 AM
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Re: DU: This magnet moment, so different and so new
[Re: Smitdogg]
#377677 - 07/19/18 02:09 AM
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Re: DU: This magnet moment, so different and so new
[Re: Haze]
#377680 - 07/19/18 03:20 PM
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Holding my breath to see if Double Dragon and Flying Shark appear one day!
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Re: DU: This magnet moment, so different and so new
[Re: Haze]
#377685 - 07/19/18 11:52 PM
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> > Thanks to Miguel Bragado and Recreativas.org we got dumps of 3 Magnet System games, > > The Burning Cave, A Day in Space and Paris Dakar. > > > > > > > > > > > > Hammy dumped a bootleg of Galaxian > > Paris Dakar disk is dead, and the first tracks aren't giving good reads, might not be > usable at all since that's where the game code is on the disk. > > Burning Cavern gave 3 identical reads so is presumably good > http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/pics2018/burn_00.png > http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/pics2018/burn_01.png > http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/pics2018/burn_02.png > http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/pics2018/burn_03.png > > A Day In Space gave 3 inconsistent reads, although 2 are identical right up until > near the end, which might no longer be game data (needs checking) so we have > something usable, but potentially errors later in it > > http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/pics2018/dayspace_00.png > http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/pics2018/dayspace_01.png > http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/pics2018/dayspace_02.png > http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/pics2018/dayspace_03.png > > There was also another War Mission dump, which seems to be a different code revision. > (read consistently 3 times too)
just a follow-up
Paris Dakar disk has visible damage, we'll need another, can't get valid code from that one. (Another might have been sourced, we'll see, but there's no guarantee it will be a better disk, or the same code revision)
Day In Space was re-read with another drive, which interestingly gave consistent reads, and re-read with the magnet drive a few times, which didn't. The inconsistency is still in later unused area tho. What's very curious is there's one byte, right in the middle of the game data that reads consistently, but different for each drive, needs manual inspection.
We're dealing with old media here, where they squeezed more onto the disks than should have been possible by over-clocking the controller by 25% meaning they're even more error prone than they should be, all good fun :/
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simzy |
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Re: DU: This magnet moment, so different and so new
[Re: Haze]
#377690 - 07/20/18 05:43 AM
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Thank you for the update.
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Re: DU: This magnet moment, so different and so new
[Re: Haze]
#377740 - 07/23/18 11:48 AM
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Hello guys,
First of all, let me introduce myself. I am a owner of Magnet 1 since long ago (+30y). The cabinet died 20 years ago and we stored it in the basement until now...
Yesterday I was taking a look into the board and it seems that something is damaged. I found some pictures of the board and I'll do my best to fix it (if possible)
On the meanwhile, I found some threads like this, trying to preserve all these old games.
I am not sure if the floppy disks will work yet, but if someone could give me some advice about how to dump them, I'll do my best to preserve them. It would be amazing if we could let them work in Mame
After a quick check, I'll found the following games: Booby Kid Cocomania (aka Pacmania) Dodge Ball Double Dragon (Test) Double Dragon Exzisus Flying Shark Paris Dakar Super Contra (Lenta) Super Contra War Mission War Mission 090487 World Wars
Looking back to hearing from you.
[ATTACHED IMAGE - CLICK FOR FULL SIZE]
Edited by Zalorpas (05/08/23 08:09 PM)
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Second picture...
[ATTACHED IMAGE - CLICK FOR FULL SIZE]
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gregf |
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EFO diskettes etc.
[Re: Zalorpas]
#396211 - 05/09/23 09:53 AM
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A bit lengthy with my post, but I hope the url links help out.
> I am a owner of Magnet 1 since long ago (+30y). The cabinet died 20 years ago and we stored it in the basement until now...
>Yesterday I was taking a look into the board and it seems that something is damaged. I found some pictures of the board and I'll do my best to fix it (if possible)
Some pcb hardware documentation is within some of the source code files.
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/efo/cedar_magnet.cpp
If any particular pcb parts are not yet documented in the source file, an opportunity to help out with any missing pcb hardware details.
A couple folks to contact are Haze and ClawGrip. Haze does the software emulation work and ClawGrip does the hardware side contributions such reading ROMS, diskettes etc and Spanish or European hardware documenting.
Haze visits here, but also has his own Twitter feed
https://twitter.com/mamehaze
Visit Bobby Tribble’s unMAMEd web page https://unmamed.mameworld.info
and look for link to Haze's MAME WIP web page https://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/
Look for page entry 2018 – Starting Early https://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2018-starting-early/
Some mention of Dinamic / Inder products, and EFO products and the emulation of some of the games in 2017 and 2018.
— Spanish Rarities
Digging up obscure pieces of history is one thing MAME has a good reputation for, and by emulating Hammer Boy MAME once again fulfilled that role in 2018. The Arcade release of Hammer Boy probably never left a handful of arcades in Spain. It runs on the same board as the previously emulated Mega Phoenix, which too was a very rare title.
The Cedar Magnet System is another piece of Spanish hardware. Previously the only dumped games for it were unofficial bootleg remakes of better known arcade titles, with little hope being held for any of the original software for the platform being discovered. Amazingly a disc for one of the original games, War Mission was found in 2018. The disc didn’t give a perfect read first time, and even when using the original game drive it was problematic, but with the original drive only the later tracks on the disc were reading inconsistently, and while they did contain —
For following updates visit MAME on GitHub. https://github.com/mamedev/
The products of EFO SA (Electrónica Funcional Operativa SA) are in this link.
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/tree/master/src/mame/efo
and the magnet product is in this main file while other related files are also in the same folder.
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/efo/cedar_magnet.cpp
The supported games can be found on line https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/d50...agnet.cpp#L1164
The games that are supported is a minimal amount and what you listed would be a great addition for preserving this type of hardware.
After a quick check, I'll found the following games: Booby Kid Cocomania (aka Pacmania) Dodge Ball Double Dragon (Test) Double Dragon Exzisus Flying Shark Paris Dakar Super Contra (Lenta) Super Contra War Mission War Mission 090487 World Wars
> I found some threads like this, trying to preserve all these old games.
You found the best place to get things underway.
> I am not sure if the floppy disks will work yet, but if someone could give me some advice about how to dump > them, I'll do my best to preserve them. It would be amazing if we could let them work in Mame
Probably expect a message or two in your account when visiting later for contacting to see what can be done such backing up diskette images or repairing pcb.
Another EFO SA (Electrónica Funcional Operativa SA) product that has yet to be fully emulated is
— Night Mare is an earlier game by the same developer, EFO, on very different hardware. It’s definitely a better playing game than any of the Magnet System ones too. The Spanish version was found and dumped as one of the highlights of 2018, although the sound ROM was missing from the PCB, so the speech, which is one thing people remembered about the game, is entirely missing, along with the rest of the sound. There should also be an English version, called Clean Octopus, that was exported from Spain. —
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/efo/nightmare.cpp
A complete, hopefully working pcb, of the game is on want list in order for all the roms to dumped and supported. If you have Night Mare or Clean Octopus pcbs, those would be welcomed additions. Although Night Mare is supported, there are no audible sounds because audio ROMS were removed from a pcb when game was being preserved a few years earlier.
I hope things work out with games preserved or pcb able to be repaired, The diskette photos already help out with more documentation of what games the system supported. Expect the info from the photos to be added to the source file eventually and hopefully the games too.
You might also get a question about the pcb as well.
Edited by gregf (05/09/23 10:30 AM)
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Re: EFO diskettes etc.
[Re: gregf]
#396235 - 05/11/23 08:46 PM
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Hi Gregf,
Thanks a lot for all this information, it will be really useful.
I've been seaching info on Internet and, I've noticed that you already worked with people from Recreativas.org, so I tried to reach them aswell.
Hopefully, they went back to me with a local contact to generate the dumps (it seems that they have all the HW necessary for this purpose) so, as soon as we find a suitable slot, we will start backing up the disks. I'll keep you updated.
Meanwhile, I found some pictures of the Magnet 1 boards, and I will start checking this. The arcade machine was working fine and, suddenly, it died... so I expect to find something like a dead resistor/capacitor.
If I manage to fix it, I'll be more than happy to help you improving the emulation (as far as I read, with the sampling, pins, etc.)
I never heard about the Night Mare board/game. Anyway, I'll take pictures of all the PCB's just in case.
Happy to see that this thread is alive! Thanks!
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Re: EFO diskettes etc.
[Re: Zalorpas]
#396237 - 05/12/23 01:28 AM
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Just saw this. Whatever happens, please don't insert those floppies anywhere before the guys at recreativas.org get back to you.
If you want to talk to Clawgrip directly, feel free to join the retroLEL Discord server here: https://discord.gg/Z3JQPJF
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gregf |
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Re: EFO diskettes etc.
[Re: ICEknight]
#396238 - 05/12/23 02:59 AM
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> Whatever happens, please don't insert those floppies anywhere before the guys at recreativas.org get back to you.
Agree as well. Those diskettes need to be run through a setup specifically design to capture entire diskette image.
Going by comments in source file, fortunate that any of the diskettes has been able to be imaged at this time.
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/efo/cedar_magnet.cpp
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gregf |
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Re: EFO diskettes etc.
[Re: Zalorpas]
#396239 - 05/12/23 03:23 AM
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> I've noticed that you already worked with people, from Recreativas.org so I tried to reach them as well.
ClawGrip and maybe to some extent Haze. Haze does the emulation work to get saved images working in MAME. ClawGrip does the hardware work. Go with ICEknight’s suggestion. The preservation group should have some specific equipment setup to be able to read the diskettes in order for a complete image capture as best possible so the complete contents will be captured and hopefully working in MAME.
> Meanwhile, I found some pictures of the Magnet 1 boards, and I will start checking this. The arcade machine > was working fine and, suddenly, it died... so I expect to find something like a dead resistor/capacitor.
> If I manage to fix it, I'll be more than happy to help you improving the emulation (as far as I read, with the > sampling, pins, etc.)
Recreativas.org and ClawGrip are the ones you will want to talk with since that hardware will be familiar to them.
What you have and what information could be added to MAME source file in the future should help getting the system better preserved. Thanks with showing photos of the diskettes. A good start with source file getting updated with game names and version info regarding each of the games on the diskettes. Good luck with getting system in working shape.
> I never heard about the Night Mare board/game.
With that being another product from same company, I was guessing you might have that.
I believe a couple Dinamic / Inder brand video games are also on preservation list. Some are already preserved, but there might be a couple not yet emulated such as After the War (Dinamic, 91)
https://unmamed.mameworld.info/non_other90.html#AfterTheWar
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