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#1 duplu

duplu

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Posted 24 April 2003 - 09:47 PM

This is probably the best F.A.Q around for FME :

FME FAQ - UPDATED by Pete_w 10/01/03

Acknowledgements

Alex for the original FAQ on which this is based.

Useful Sites
------------

POUND RUN HTTP://WWW.POUNDRUN.COM
DXCELLENT HTTP://WWW.DXCELLENT.COM *** Site no longer avaliable ***
MPUWORLD HTTP://WWW.MPUWORLD.CO.UK *** Site no longer avaliable ***

THE REPOSITORY HTTP://ROMS.FRUITEMU.CO.UK *** Site no longer avaliable ***



1) What and who is this F.A.Q. for?

It's intended to address a few points that get made on a regular basis on the Fruit Forums, and by e-mail to various longstanding scene members. It should be read along with the readme file and the Beginners' Guide if you're really lusting after an encyclopaedic knowledge of the whole fruit machine emulation shooting match. A few of the points covered here are also touched upon in both the readme file and the Beginners' Guide.

2) What is MPU3/4?

MPU3/4 emulates the MPU fruit machine hardware. Two revisions of the hardware are emulated, MPU3 and MPU4. By itself, MPU3/4 is an accomplished, but largely useless chunk of code. In a similar fashion to how MAME needs game ROMs to run for it to be of any use, MPU3/4 needs the game ROM and a game layout DAT/RES file to show off its stuff.

MPU3/4 was written by Chris Wren, it was a project that had taken years to reach fruition. Originally conceived as a tool for fruit machine professionals, as development time grew its relevance to machines that could be played in pubs and clubs diminished. MPU3/4 was finally released a commercial product through a small UK fruit machine mailing list, intended to be a bit of a fun and a trip down memory lane for dedicated fruity players. However, Barcrest got a bit cross about this and insisted that MPU3/4 could not be sold with their ROMs and other copyrighted material. MPU3/4 was then released as freeware without any ROM images and the rest, as they say, is history.

The last freeware release of MPU3/4 was V8.75. (Previous releases were V6.0, V6.5, V8.73 and V8.74) - This has now been superseeded by MFME (See 3).

3) What is MFME?

MFME (Multi Fruit Machine Emulator) is what has followed on from the development of MPU34. It adds more features to MPU3 and MPU4 machines including Yamaha Sound and more games now work (e.g.Superwin).
Its biggest new feature is the emulation of M1a technology which was used by Maygay (and a few others such as Global) up until a few years ago.

MFME was written by Chris Wren and Tony Friery (The Author of JPEMU - See 4). It is hoped many more technologies will be added to this emulator in the future.

Two Versions of MFME have been released so far versions 1.0 and 1.1.

4) What is JPEMU?

JPEMU is an emulator for JPM Impact based Fruit Machines. This covers many classics such as Rollercoaster and Indiana Jones. It is currently still in use by JPM and sister companies today.

JPEMU was written by Tony Friery.

5) Why aren't the development tools available for JPEMU?

As Impact is still a 'current' technology the author has decided not to make the tools available to everyone as they could be used by professional players to work out manipulators for current machines, this doesn't really fit in with the spirit of emulation - which is bringing old machine back to life for your enjoyment.

6) You mentioned a DAT/RES/JEL file - what might one of those be?

The game ROM is sufficient for fruit machine emulators to emulate the game software, but you still need a visual interpretation of the machine's reels, lights, buttons and so on for it make much sense, this is where the DAT/RES/JEL file comes in. Emulated games are usually supplied as two zip files, a game ROM zip file and a game DAT/RES/JEL zip file. Generally speaking, all you need to do to play a game is unzip both of these files into the same folder, and then load the <<gamename>>.gam file in MPU34/MFME or the <<gamename>>.jpm file in JPEMU.

7) I want to play <> in one of the emulators. Please do it for me. Now.

MPU34/MFME only emulates games that use MPU3/MPU4/M1a hardware and JPEMU emulates games which use Impact hardware, and even then there are issues with some machines and ROMs that make this difficult or impossible. As a general guide, the following manufacturers have used MPU/M1a/Impact hardware.

Ace have recently started using Impact Technology.

Barcrest used MPU3 and then MPU4 hardware from the early 80s to 1996 (at which point they moved to MPU5). The vast majority of games currently implemented in MPU3/4 are by Barcrest.

BWB used MPU3 and MPU4 and also have used M1a. Nowadays they rebuild old Barcrest machines, usually for the 5p £5 market.

Crystal use Impact Technology and mainly rebuild old JPM machines.

Empire used MPU4 hardware from 1996 to 2000, as well as a couple of Impact and M1a based machines (they have recently moved up to the MPU5 platform).

Global have used both MPU4 and M1a for a few years although their more recent games use the (unemulated) Epoch Technology from Maygay.

QPS have used both MPU4 and Impact.

JPM have been using Impact since 1995/96.

Maygay used M1a Technology until 5 or 6 years ago then they moved onto to use Epoch Technology (unemulated).


Who's missing from that list? Astra, BFM (BellFruit), Electrocoin, Impulse and Mazooma amongst others. Machines by these manufacturers are not emulated by any current emulators, they won't be for quite some time yet, so please stop asking about it. If you really really want an Epoch emulator, or you absolutely have to see newer versions of The Simpsons emulated yesterday, you'd better get your coding hat on.

Even if the machine you're thinking of can be emulated, the ROMs will need to have been dumped, and someone will have to create a RES/DAT/JEL file for it. By all means ask about it on the Fruit Forums, but don't get too upset if the response isn't what you were hoping for.

8) Hang on a minute i've seen a BFM (Bellfruit) Emulator knocking about! What about Crazy Fruits then?

The BFM Emulator currently doesn't run UK games correctly, but i'm sure it soon will do. However this would not mean Crazy Fruits can be emulated because it uses a newer technology than the emulator emulates.
Currently the BFM Emulator emulates BFM System 85 and Scorpion 1 technologies which ceased to be in use some years ago. Crazy Fruits uses Scorpion 4 technology which is a long way from being supported at the moment.

9) MPU5 sounds promising, it's only a different number on the end of MPU. Do an MPU5 emulator please. Now.

Barcrest have used MPU5 since 1996, some people have commented that since the games seem to be so similar the hardware must be also. For example, Boulderdash is MPU4, one of its clones, Ooh Ahh Dracula is MPU5 (note: see 4a). Some machines that have used MPU5 hardware when made by Barcrest have used MPU4 hardware when rebuilt as a BWB machine. So MPU4 and MPU5 must be pretty similar, right?

Wrong. For a start, the main CPU (MPU4 = 6809 (8-bit), MPU5 = 68040 (16-bit)) and hardware is radically different. Secondly, the ROMs are encrypted, newer ROMs use a similar protection system to that employed by the Capcom CPS-2 games, with a completely different decode table for each ROM. Word is that Barcrest think it's uncrackable. Of course, it probably isn't, but if you look at the time and effort that went into breaking the CPS-2 encryption (and still has to be done again for each extra ROM set), it's probably safe to say that MPU5 is secure for quite some time.....

Moreover, no one (as far as we know) is working on an MPU5 emulator, and until someone's prepared to take on the ROM encryption, there'd be precious little point in them doing so. Short answer, there is no MPU5, and there isn't going to be. That means that no Barcrest game made since 1996 will be emulated, and even if you mail me ten times asking about it, it still won't be. Sorry.

It turns out that Ooh Ahh Dracula is a very good example (when I originally wrote the FAQ it had not been emulated at all). Barcrest used MPU5 for the original machine, BWB used MPU4 for the rebuild, the MPU4 BWB version is now emulated by MPU3/4. Note that this does not mean that any MPU5 machine can somehow easily be "converted" to MPU4 and then emulated. Barcrest will have decrypted the ROMs and recompiled the code for BWB to produce an MPU4 version of Ooh Ahh Dracula. This is not something that we are able to do. Unless there is a specific MPU4 version of an MPU5 game already in existence (and we have the ROMs), then MPU5 machines are still totally off-limits.

10) Hmmm, OK then. I will stop asking about it.

Thanks.

11) Games are running too slow / too fast. What on earth can I do?

Alter the delay setting in MPU34/MFME's configuration screen. Higher values make things slower, lower settings make things faster. As a general guide, around 300 seems to be right for most people, but tweak as you deem appropriate. (Note: There is no "100% original speed" option or setting, you'll just have to mess around to get the right delay value for your setup, and quite often use a different value for each game. Also note that when the emulator is very "busy", most notably with lots of lights flashing at once, things will slow down regardless of delay setting).

12) The sound in <<gamename>> is choppy / distorted / offensive to the ear.

Open MPU34/MFME's configuration screen and try a different "Sampled Sound" setting. However, in the case of Fright Night, it's actually supposed to sound like that. Honest.

You can also try these two fixes:

i) Run "dxdiag" from the Windows RUN command in the start menu. Turn off Direct X Sound Debugging, or change its setting to "basic".

ii) Follow these instructions (I originally posted this fix for the same problem with Visual Pinball, but apparently it might work for MPU34/MFME too).

As supplied by Microsoft, DirectX versions 8.0 and 8.1 run a sound debugging program in the background under Windows. This debugging program may cause performance degradation and possibly execution errors in Windows applications using DirectX (such as OFP).

The DirectX sound debugging program can be safely disabled by downloading this DirectX applet and following these instructions:

Extract the DIRECTX.CPL applet file to your Windows 98 SYSTEM subdirectory or your Windows 2000 SYSTEM32 subdirectory.
Go to Windows Control Panel and open the DirectX properties utility.
Click on the DirectSound tab. You should see a Debug Output Level slide control on the upper left. Slide it all the way to the left, where it says "Less".
Click APPLY and then OK to save the settings and exit the utility.

13) <<Gamename>> has no sound at all. Can you fix it? Now?

The Game currently doesn't have any sound roms available - maybe you could help out and ask your local arcade etc. and see if they will give/sell you one. OR the game uses Yamaha sound (MFME only) and you need to change it on the configuration page of MFME!

14) The layout doesn't fit on my screen properly. I am upset and confused, what should I do?

The majority of classic layouts use an 800x600 resolution. However most of the DX Mods and some classic layouts use a 1024x768 resolution. If your desktop resolution is set to 800x600 and you load a 1024x768 layout, bits are going to be missing. The solution is to increase your desktop resolution to 1024x768 (or even higher, if you feel like it). If your PC / monitor can't handle 1024x768 then I'm afraid you're rather stuck. Try doing some yoga to relax.

15) That DX Mod thingymajig you just mentioned - what's that all about then?

A DX Mod is an enhanced version of a standard DAT/RES/JEL file it incorporates artwork from the original machine into the layout, to give a much more authentic feel to the emulation experience. DX Mods require high quality images of the original machine to be available to the layout designer, and take a lot longer to produce than a classic style layout, so please understand that DX Mods are not available for every game released.

Note that whether you're running a classic style layout or a DX Mod you will always require the game ROMs. Generally speaking, the classic style layout and DX Mod can be unzipped into a common folder with the game's ROMs, as different filenames are used so that they can comfortably coexist.

16) I fancy myself as a DAT/RES/JEL file designer. How do I go about that?

Currently, there are several people working on producing new RES/DAT/JEL files. The development tools are publicly available in both MPU34 (version 8.73 and above) and MFME. The tools for JPEMU are only available to certain designers, mainly those who have proved their capabilities in mpu34 over a period of time first.

17) Ok, i fancy doing a layout - What help can I get getting started?

There have been various pieces written to help out here. You will find them either at Fruit Forums or archived in the Repository, Dxcellent or MPU World. Also a visit to our IRC Channel could be of great help as a number of experienced designers hang out there regularly.

Also there are lots of Machine Graphics, Roms and other things available at the Repository to help you out. The address of these sites are at the top of the FAQ.

18) I'm using WinXP / Win2000, there's a delay before the third reel drops in.

The fix for this (or any other strange behaviour that you experience running MPU34/MFME/JPEMU under these operating systems). is to set the Emulators process priority to low in the Process Manager.

19) The text doesn't fit on the buttons properly, and/or it looks crappy on the feature trail. Why is this, are you all stupid or something?

It looks like you might need the Lithgraph font installed in your Windows/fonts folder.

20) I want to do a factory reset on a machine, how do I go about that?

Delete the machine's RAM file (it will have the same name as the GAM/JPM file but with a RAM extension), this is what MPU34/MFME/JPEMU uses to simulate the machine's flash RAM. Next time you load the game, it will think it's fresh out of the factory. You'll want to open the door and manually reset the IN and OUT meters to ensure that they accurately reflect the machine's internal meters. If you're going to mess about with stake, jackpot and %age this is a good time to do it (note that altering these settings on some machines will reset all the meters anyway).

The RAM file will automatically be recreated when you exit the emulator, load another game, or reload the same game. (The Emulator writes the changes to the RAM file, or creates a new one if necessary, at the end of the game's "session").
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21) How do I change the payout percentage (On MPU34/MFME)that a machine is set to?

Hmm, that's a bit a of an awkward one to answer, do you really want to know?

Yes, that's why I asked, you dickhead.

OK then:

a) Club machines: Adjust using the dipswitches (with the door open), generally speaking, the display will tell you what the new stake/%age/JP setting is and give you a timer before it applies them or wait until you close the door before applying them. Ordinarily, it's the top row of dip switches that you'll be using.

B) Barcrest and BWB machines: On the newer stuff, %age can almost always be changed using the drop down menu in the config screen and, in some cases, so can stake and JP. If you can't change stake and JP using the menus, it's going be a dipswitch job, and you're on your own there. On the older stuff, I'm not even sure the dipswitches do much (even with regard to percentage).

c) Empire machines: The first four switches on bank 1 add the following amounts (cumulatively) from a base of 70%. Switch 1 adds 2%. Switch 2 adds 4%. Switch 3 adds 8%. Switch 4 adds 16%. You could have a mess with the other dipswitches if you're after changing stake and JP, but I've never really bothered trying to be quite honest.

Whatever you do, note that if you do change the jackpot value the layout will still be showing the old (now incorrect) jackpot value. Changing the stake is a fairly pointless, so there's not really anything to be gained from trying to do so. The %age is the main factor, follow the guidelines above and you should be OK. Also bear in mind that fiddling these settings can often cause a machine to reset its IN and OUT meters (so that it can start working towards the new %age) so you'll need to do that manually with MPU3/4's IN and OUT meters. Safest bet is to do a factory reset (see Q15) if you're going to change %age, stake or jackpot settings.

22) Is that everything?

For now, yes.




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