21 replies to this topic

[banditboy]

hello all just wondering if there is any new news on the epoch emu

I have read past post and it say's in development

need to hammer a £15 20p funny money on 70%

robbing turks

[Jimmy_mac]

dead like corduroy fella

Nothings been seen of the elusive 'seven' who was to be teaching how to build said emu in near five months

so dont hold you breath for it

[mrcashpot]

I think Epoch is still in use by Global. The earliest Epoch machines like The Simpsons is not 10 years old yet! I think a minimum age of 10 years should be allowed for emulation of a particular machine.

[CrAzYbAr]

I thought Global used Eclipse, which is what Maygay made just before the big crunch.

[skabaz]

global now use eclipse in all their machines but we have just been told that they are soon to be binning this tech as well and may be using bellfruit tech.

baz

[avengah]

I think Epoch is still in use by Global. The earliest Epoch machines like The Simpsons is not 10 years old yet! I think a minimum age of 10 years should be allowed for emulation of a particular machine.

10 years?!? Most of the emulatable machines on this site are newer than that! Some of the JPM machines emulated are only a couple of years old!

Do I take it that you have not downloaded ANY machines that are less than ten years old?

[mrcashpot]

Actually, I mean to say that if Epoch is emulated in a few years time, then only the earliest Epoch machines like The Simpsons (Great Escape clone) would be emulated if Maygay/Global would not be too happy.

JPM have been the kindest manufacturer for emulation. They have allowed emulation for their machines at a minimum of three years.
Barcrest was not too happy about MPU3/4 when it was been done. However, no action was taken.

It actually depends on each manufacturer's comments about emulation. If one says that machines can be emulated after three years of them being made, that is absolutely fine.

If one says that machines can be emulated after ten years of them being made, that is absolutely fine.

If a current tech gets emulated like MPU5 for example, I suppose that is absolutely fine as long as a particular machine is old enough. In this case, machines like Eliminator would be realeased although it's still under 10 years old (8 years old to be exact). Please note I am NOT asking is Eliminator can be emulated yet - I know it still can't be done yet!

[CoasterDesignerpro]

I completely understand your point Mrcashpot, but under the circumstances of emulation there will still be people out here who will want the likes of Pie Factory, Hot Stuff, Bully 4 you etc to be emulated. A sudden leak of the ROMS ( even by accident) would be disasterous to say the least, it could potentially destroy the 'emulation experience' for a long time.

I would love to see the likes of Spiker the Biker, but it will not happen for a long time, until Barcest has stopped using this tech. (Which if it still proves very reliable then it will be used for a quite a while yet).

[impact]

right baz you are right as always global will be using the scorp4 mpu april or may we are due

The elcipse system has been sold on to games media (games warehouse group)

maygay had to complete the arragment with global to fill the full lenth joint get together parter ship which ended around dec05/jan06 as barcrest in 04/05 then bought the company out right but maygay had sold the epoch system back to onestop tech group who then push it over the revolutions/leisure link
who then sold parts to companys like my self and others to use for parts

what epoch stuff was still about maygay made x number of machines for global games before they then started using the eclipse

onestop still hold the copyright for the epoch system
it onestop who need to abandon the hardware but as LLink bought 51% of the maygay group for £80million

with the partership of LLink/rev/ and the copyright holders onestop

the ball for this system is still in there hands

and they all lived happliy together and pi**ed every one right off

The End

[GaryMPU34]

JPM have been the kindest manufacturer for emulation. They have allowed emulation for their machines at a minimum of three years.
Barcrest was not too happy about MPU3/4 when it was been done. However, no action was taken.

Ehhhh????? JPM have never said anything of the sort. As far as I know there are only 2 manufacturers to have ever said yes to emulation of their machines, Empire and Union. Empire have said anything but MPU5 machines and Union before they closed basically said ok to emulate without stipulating an age (boy they would have been pissed off if brand new machines had been released days after they hit the arcades )

Maygay gave a non commital answer when i asked their MD about how he felt about his machines being emulated about 3 years ago. He said "its all a bit of harmless fun" but that was after being told it was only M1A being done. He also passed a bit of tech info over regarding the IRQ and random numbers and how they were related. So you could say it was a non official OK but no roms changed hands.

JPM had early contact once JPeMu came out and once we told our contact with the top that only old machines that were no longer in production were going to be done they seemed happy and said their only concerns were over licenced machines and could people like Sega (Sonic) etc come after us for distribution of their copyrights. There was even talk about hosting layouts on their site but once some of the newer stuff came out I kind of "forgot" to email them back.

QPS were kind of close to saying yes as well but the german holding group said no from what I was told.

Apart from that there are not really any other companies I can think of that have even spoken to anyone from the FME scene, barcrest ignored emails

[Bencrest]

Apart from that there are not really any other companies I can think of that have even spoken to anyone from the FME scene, barcrest ignored emails

You surprise me, I once asked for help with decals for a machine on the brink of going outside the 5 year support they offer, and was threatened with legal action regarding Intellectual Property Rights when I said 'if you no longer support them I suppose I will have to modify the existing artwork'.

Surprised it got no reply at all though. In all honestly I would have expected an outright no.

[skabaz]

lol impact

i had that info but i really couldn't be bothered writing it all down.

glad you did.

baz

[mythicos]

QPS were kind of close to saying yes as well but the german holding group said no from what I was told.

Yeah that's about the short of it Gar'.

Basically they were all up for it and were going to send out boxes of flyers/bands and so on but they had to check with Gaussleman before they could go ahead as Gaussleman called all the shots.

Gaussleman were not playing ball, so the 'contract' of sorts we had arranged was binned, very frustrating and saddening but ho hum.

I wont take anything away from the guy at QPS, he was a really nice guy genuine and very friendly but I suppose when it came to the crunch his hands were tied

Now though? QPS are free (so are BFM) so you may find things to be different (although the guy doesnt work there anymore according to sources in the industry).

Shame

[Zoltar]

Instead of simply asking manufacturers if we can emulate their machines entirely, would it be more productive to ask them what they would like or permit to be emulated.

I'm probably clutching at straws here. Barking up the wrong tree so to speak but I have this thought in my head that manufacturers have all the roms/resources they ever needed to produce machines right from the very beginning, stashed in a vault or backed up to some sort of storage media.

Instead of asking them if we can emulate their stuff, can we not ask if they have any resources for machines long obsolete instead?

I personally think that manufacturers still hold the illusion that fruit machine emulation is simply a means of recreating modern machines that allows a potential playing customer to gain an upper hand when playing the real things. I believe few, if any, believe that the core 'sceners' are strictly into emulation from a memoribilia/retrospective point of view.

I bet theres not one person at say Barcrest who doesn't feel a little emotion, maybe have a lump in his or her throat when they see Line-Up running on the emulator.

Fruit machine emulation is not just a hobbie for us, the sceners. It's a true attempt to preserve the history of the electronic gaming machine we know as the AWP. I feel the inability of the manufacturers to openly release old resources in order for us sceners to re-create an obsolete machine for strictly nostalgic purposes show that even today, with the tensions of the 'IMPACT' debacle long behind us and a scene blossoming into preservation first, shows theres still massive mistrust of the FME scene by the manufacturers.

I'd love to see the release of the very first issue roms for say 'Projects Crazy Pays' OFFICIALLY from the manufacturer, over the release of any Epoch emulator.

We need to convince the manufacturers that we are not a threat. Rather instead, an ally to preserve something we all have a common affection for. Machines that no longer exist.

[Gazeyre1966]

Compost raises a huge issue here.

Remember 2 years ago when a TV version of the old Atari Games Console came out? They kept their old ROMS so why don't Fruit Machine Manufacturers?

I am sure whoever holds the rights these days to old BFM / JPM / ACE / Barcrest Roms would rather receive a letter asking politely than someone demanding they give them the resources.

I can only emphasise the point that Compost made. Fruit-Emu is about keeping the machines alive and not about the "I want, must have" group of people who once they realise they can't get Pie Factory, piss off never to be seen again until they ask for the same machine 6 months later.

[GaryMPU34]

Well Barcrest is a total no go for old mpu3 and mpu4 roms. I have spoken to them regarding roms for old machines we needed at work a few times and was told that MPU3 stuff was dumped about 8 years ago and all the MPU4 stuff was dumped about 2 years ago. If its not on the BBS (and if it is, we have it).

As for QPS you are right Andy, Quinten is no longer with them and is now the MD of Reflex Gaming

[skabaz]

yeah i enquired ages ago to barcrest when we looking for viz fruit machine roms and artwork for a customers machine and they told us the same that any mpu4 machine resource is not supported in any way by barcrest anymore as they binned it all.

also we enquired to maygay when they were a stand alone company and they also told us that they had no resources whatsoever for m1a m1b machines.

baz

[MAGIK]

thats probably the biggest problem with emulation the now- evolution of technology. Manufacturers tend to scrap all there resources the minute something new appears- its the same with all things now , no one keeps resources ay more- everyone is racing to upgrade. Thats why people pay 3000 pound for certain mpu3 machines- they are like golddust.

[MAGIK]

still, i would probably be grilled by mr barcrest very quickly about my project ideas