MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: What is your new years wish for MAME in 2023?

> > The legal rules around slot machines make getting hold of them to dump their
> software
> > much harder I suspect. Especially so anything that is still current and in use in
> > venues somewhere (if random people could get hold of the hardware and/or software
> and
> > poke around in it, they might discover flaws in the machine and cheat the system)
>
> I think that happened on some games people where able to work out the RNG and then
> turn that info into when to hit the spin button to win

Even if you know the RNG seed, you would still need TAS-like reflexes to press the button at the exact 1/60th of a second required to get the result. Miss the button press by 1 frame and the RNG will pick an entirely different result or not even spin at all because the last reel hadn't finished spinning (most games this side of 2003 don't let you hold down the button to play automatically). Get a win and the machine will also lag a few frames while it stops counting up, shows the full win amount, stops the music, adds the win to the credits (why may or may not be slower if the gamble/double up option is enabled), stops the flashing/animated symbols and finally starts a new game.

More likely it was just pure luck that the spin, relying entirely on a lowly, imperfect, error-prone human pressing the button at that exact 1/60th of a second, and not one single frame either side, triggered the free game feature/bonus on consecutive spins and actually fluked some decent wins inside the feature. You can't really mess around with the RNG during the feature as the buttons are usually locked (on most MK6 games, it unlocks just the Take Win button after counting up the win for 30 seconds or 500 credits, but some machines let you take win at any time) and free games spin automatically in almost all cases (games like Big Red being outliers - as with the Hold & Spin features on modern Lightning Link-style games). Even if you could TAS a feature trigger, you're not guaranteed to win big during the free games if you can't have 100% control of the outcome. If you're lucky, maybe the Game Rules button might work between spins to change the RNG, but usually that's disabled too once you have started the feature.

Regarding dumping slot machine software, it is legally no different to dumping an arcade PCB or a PlayStation disc - the legal part is entirely down to whether private ownership of slot machines is allowed in your country/state/territory. Basically, don't become an illegal casino and no-one will bat an eyelid. As for finding undumped ROMs (or CF cards), they're not that hard to come across (eBay USA probably being the most prominent).