MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: Random generators in PCB vs mame

> Beyond that, most games' random-number generation is entirely internal to the game
> (ie, MAME cannot influence it as such), and frankly only Don Hodges knows how they
> operate.

I for one find this to be a very interesting topic. I would enjoy knowing how arcade hardware generated random numbers (it would be different for every system, I imagine, but there are probably enough similarities to be able to discuss how it works in general).

So if Don Hodges wants to share any juicy tidbits on this topic I would really love to hear them!

Also - just out of curiousity - has the random number emulation of any games ever been rigorously tested? For some hardware I would imagine this would be easy - if, for example, the hardware always started every game with the same seed, or successive games with predictable seeds - and for others, much harder (if a counter that is latched when the game is started is used as the seed, for example, in which case starting a game on hardware with a known seed would be quite challenging). Comparing a game played with 'no inputs (inputs would affect the way the game played out)' on hardware versus MAME with a known random number generator seed for each would allow validation that the RNG is correctly emulated. This sounds like a royal pain in the butt so I would understand if nobody has ever done anything like it; but if anything has been done, I'd find it interesting to hear the specifics.