334 replies to this topic

[Heihachi_73]

As the topic says, Aristocrat MK5 games have now been added to MAME for emulation as of 0.129u3. Note that nothing actually happens as of yet, it's just a black screen so far. You most likely won't find any ROMs for these games as of yet though, until the driver actually runs some code.

That said, you're not missing anything as of now, the two games currently listed in MAME are just older, slower, 256 colour versions of one game you've been playing on the MK6 emulator; exact same games but no train feature (hint).

Don't ask for ROMs of these games, you'll get nowhere until the actual chips have been dumped. E.g. they're non-existent as the machines are still turned on and being played inside the venues across Australia (and elsewhere).

[1nd1an]

hello i need the aristocrat software to run some fruit machines...pls help

[sia]

Can anyone assist me, how to audit change percentage variation ,
it seem the field been lockup. unlike 50lions
it it very difficult to free games (tapee)

[Heihachi_73]

Just for the record - if am option doesn't change in the menu, the game doesn't support it (for legal reasons in some cases, like a max bet or certain percentage). Some games don't actually have code for different reel strips (in the form of percentage). This is true for the emulated MK6 Indian Dreaming, but the MK5 non-hyperlink version can be changed to various amounts. You'll find that out when the games start working in (AGE)MAME.

Also, another two games have been dumped, bringing the tally up to 6.

[freddy1]

Which other two games have been dumped other than the 4.

[Heihachi_73]

They're already in MAME, but nothing except a black screen of course (unemulated hardware).

Indian Dreaming and Reelin-n-Rockin are the same games but with different graphics (Native American theme vs a 1950's theme), the latter being the first of the two, but the former being the most popular. 3/4/5 scatters gives you 10/15/20 games with bonus x3/x5 symbols (both = x15).

Adonis is identical to Queen of the Nile (not dumped yet) but with a Greek theme. 3/4/5 coins gives you 15 free games with everything x3 (x6 with the Adonis statue). 20 line game.

Margarita Magic is one of the later games on the hardware, released just prior to MK6. Can't remember how it works, I think you have to get three drums. 20 line game.

Sweet Hearts II is one of the 'classic' games, and only requires 2 scatter symbols rather than 3, however they have to be the first two to start the feature and can sometimes be even harder to get than the regular games; however, the free games pay between 8 and 281 times your total bet. Unfortunately, this version is in Spanish since it's for the Venezuelan market rather than the normal Australian one. 9 line game, usually set to 5¢ ($1 buys 20 credits) in the gaming rooms.

I have never seen a Diamond Touch machine yet, it wasn't released in my state AFAIK. 9 line game.

[freddy1]

Not bad at all. When do you think these games will be able to be played.

[Heihachi_73]

When they're ready; it's impossible to know until someone with ARM knowledge studies them. It could be next week if someone stumbles across it, or it could lay dormant for years with its Acorn-on-a-chip style hardware left untouched.

About the Acorn Archimedes MESS driver:

The driver was quite preliminary and it got worse when I split the code out into shared and MESS-specific (MAME has some arcade machines that ran on an Archimedes board). Basically the MEMC chip (MMU) is complete but not well tested and there's partial handling for the VIDC (video controller). It was sufficient to get fairly far into the RiscOS bootup tests at one point but not quite enough to actually boot or show anything.

Full page here.

[palindrome]

Interesting. Had a quick look at the source code and started debugging my favorite MK5 game.

The game actually runs if you step through the code but does not even complete the startup checksum routines with some errors and goes into an infinite loop at the 2Khz timer routine. Tracing down side by side with the roms loaded into IDA Pro, this is what seems to be happening.

Eprom Checksum OK
DRAM Check Ok
CPU Error !!
SRAM Error !!
2Khz timer

Lack of output to screen is due to no video_update implementation in the C driver code and the video mapping looks wrong amongst a few other things.

[Agua]

Sounds pretty exciting!!! It would be great to see one of these games work!

[pokiesfun]

Hey, palindrome & Heihachi_73,

Nice work so far

It's a good start!!

Just hope people don't scr_w this thread and ask for roms and rubbish.

Cheers!

[dandy1355]

2 more Aristocrat games are available?...OMG...where are they available?...Adonis is my wife's absolute favorite game, Queen of the Nile comes 2nd...Marguarita Magic, love that one too....please someone point me in the right direction for these games...anything that can keep us out of the casino in these hard times is greatly appreciated....

[Heihachi_73]

Someone actually got game code running for a split second? I'm actually impressed considering that it only has about 2% in common with the Archimedes that everyone else is trying to emulate as the base machine for it!

[Agua]

I too have had a look and i think the hardware isn't archimedes, its an i386-engine (either Ptm or Mtm). There's a schematic site, http://www.myslotnot...-Engine-P&M.pdf where reference is made to the MKV.

[pokiesfun]

Hey Agua,

That little board is for connecting to the comms board and other things such as links/jackpot etc. The actual main board does not have anything to do with an i386 (wish it did!)

The actual CPU is ARM based.

With the guy 'palindrome' who has got some code to sorta execute so far, I think the missing parts such as the driver board are causing the CPU error, and the comms board will cause it to die also... but he prob already knows that!

[Agua]

Ahhh...I've seen some actual MKV boards for sale online for about $30 but i don't know if it would help if there's no documentation for them.

[palindrome]

The CPU used in the Mark V is the ARM250, the same CPU as used in the Acorn Archimedes range of Computers ( A3010, A3020..etc ). These were very advanced RISC machines introduced around the same time as the Atari ST and Amiga. Very popular in schools at the time. The ARM250 is basically a complete computer system on a chip incorporating IO, video, sound and a memory controller.

I can kludge the code in various places to execute further but I am having problems displaying anything to the screen. Normally, video data is stored somewhere in memory $0x0 - $0x01ffffff then written directly to the video controller 0x03400000 - 0x035fffff. Erotictac/Tactic seems to do this, not sure at this stage if the Mark V does this with its games.

I have the MVP service manual, parts list and schematics but cannot provide them due to copyright issues.

[MALA]

Just a question. Is there any video poker in Aristocrat mkv?

Better than the player's edge + from IGT that we can find in MAME.

[palindrome]

Just a question. Is there any video poker in Aristocrat mkv?

Better than the player's edge + from IGT that we can find in MAME.

There may have been some but not many, I have seen a Keno style game running on a Mark V platform so who knows. From what I know, Video Poker/Blackjack style games pretty much died off when pubs in NSW were allowed to install spinning reel style games in the early 90's.

[Heihachi_73]

Yeah, the only games I remember prior to the current machines were old random number games at bingo centres and similar places, these were in Aristocrat MK2.5 cabinets using whatever 8-bit hardware they had back then. Mostly 50c or $1 games.

The only other 'different' machine that I remember seeing was Arishinko, an early MK6 pachislot type game that was phased out pretty quickly, probably only lasted a year or so, back in around 2002-3.


The only machines I remember with card games on them were the old VLC multigames. Keno, BJ, Video Poker, and various slot games (had up to 10 games in one). They were common down here and had programs made especially for the operator (e.g. Tatts Pokies had Georges Wild and Bonus Fives slot games; the latter still remains but only as a 'retro' game in an IGT Multistar machine).

Would that MK5 keno game happen to be Clown Bingo? One such game with a ©1999 on it. Good luck finding anything useful about it on Google though.