29 replies to this topic

[Deathclaw]

A Guitar and Fruitworkz collaboration.

 

Nick and I have been in discussions about a proper launch of MPU3 for Amber. The tech was already there but not quite finished and there were a few bugs that prevented MPU3 machines from being made properly. These bugs are being worked on by the day and the emu is now progressing.

 

There are a few machines being talked about between Nick and I right now, but first up will be Line Up.

 

The Concept.

 

Many years ago MDS procured a flyer for a machine that was never released to the public. The machine was Line Up, and urban myth says that there were many, many pre-production prototypes before Barcrest settled on what was to become one of the most memorable fruit machines ever.

 

So here is the mythical machine...

 

 

Sadly you can't DX it. However, with many hours and a bit of knowledge Fruitworkz came up with this.

 

 

It's all completely hand drawn and accurately recreated with the guidance of MDS, who says he actually saw one of these creations in action.

 

Here is where I am up to. Basically the artwork is almost complete and only needs a 20p mech and a 50p mech...

 

 

Note the use of Novalamp to make the lamps glow.

 

 

 

To make the artwork look realistic I used scans of 1980s arcade carpet, which hilariously is still sold as 1980s arcade carpet.

 

 

When the machine is finished it will be released along side a special Line Up 1981 version of Amber to celebrate what is one of the best fruit machines ever created.

 

More soon...

[andy-1]

Looking Good, would'nt even like to guess how many hours it has taken you to do what you have so far.

[vectra666]

again another brilliant edition for amber, glad to see you designing for amber as said previously this emulator Is a stage up from Mfme or at least the current versions we have. Go online and give it a bash lots of fun n games to be found on there, I promise you,ll enjoy yourself. look forward to giving this a bash when complete, does this layout come with 80,s music to complement the layout. also show how much work you put into each and every layout you produce old n new alike. 

[Deathclaw]

If we can nail this one (and I think we can...) then there will be quite a few more to come. I have a stash of MPU3 resources I got when I visited a FME pal and I got lots of photos.

 

It's actually 100% bang on really. The sound is quite crackly *but* it works properly. MFME's sound for MPU3 was always miles off. For example, from 8 nudges and up the sound should scream. On 12 nudges it goes absolutely berserk,  but the pitch was always way too low in MFME. Not only that, but the sound on MPU3 in MFME had a problem with the timer, so the start and three reel sounds never worked properly. IE - you press start and the start button makes the blip sound, but you only get one or two of the reel stop sounds.

 

I spoke to Chris about it (Wizard) a lot, and he said he really didn't know what to do about it. Then it was completely broken in Windows Vista and up, and we never saw a proper release after that.

 

Whatever. One thing that always annoyed me about Chris was the way that he refused to push his emulator further graphically. He just didn't care, all he wanted to do was keep jamming in techs without making sure they all worked as they should. There was no step by step help, no beta emulators, no working alongside the layout designers. These are all things that we now have with Amber.

 

Even with it as it is I would still take Amber, because Line Up was all about making the machine scream.

[Guitar]

MPU3 sound is pretty simple once you get your head round it. But you have to align things by the cycle counts.

 

I run the sound frequency at 100,000 samples per second as that's as fast as is really allowed. 64k would be more compatible but makes the maths more awkward.

 

MPU3 runs at 1,000,000 cycles per second. So every 10 cycles I update the sound by running a second set of timers with the current timer setup in.

 

The update function will fill up the sound buffer til its full, which should be 1 sample, but due to the way the emulation works it can be more or less.

 

When CW uses delay counters, he often delays by a number of instructions, rather than cycles, which results in refreshes at an altering number of cycles, which plays havoc with trying to time anything.

 

Everything in Amber is timed by cycle count and seems to be successful.

[nails]

awesome guys

[Deathclaw]

I am absolutely made up that my personal favourite machine of all time is being DX'd as a first for MPU3 and, looking at the WIP piccies, pleased you have decided not to f*** about with the reel symbols this time around.

It would be a fitting tribute if you could get hold of the original ROM set for this for the release. Haven't played that version in far too long now.

One point I do not understand is ithe reference to 1981. Line Up was released in January 1983, 30 years ago last year. Unless it is reference to the year MPU3 came out, which would then make a small amount of sense.

bj

 

The prototypes were 1981. 

 

Edit.. Quick reply, am building today...

 

Reels. Effects were always added in MFME because MFME does not allow for a alpha blended image to be laid over the reels creating the glass effect. As thus raw white symbols looked, well, raw.

 

Roms. AFAIK there are only a couple of people with those roms and both are a little odd about sharing them.

Edited by Deathclaw, 27 April 2014 - 08:56 AM.

[niallquinn]

Well, I never thought I'd see another FW Pandy release!

 

Top stuff.

 

Looking forward to it.

 

NQ.

[Deathclaw]

Well, I never thought I'd see another FW Pandy release!

 

Top stuff.

 

Looking forward to it.

 

NQ.

 

That would make two of us

 

Quick update. The lamp problem is now fixed, I have one lamp left to do.

[Deathclaw]

That would be pretty ace BJ. I've been playing it tonight whilst I work on it and it's got a really annoying 50p block that repeats until it's ready to pay out anything. It makes gambling up the cash trail really annoying.

 

I added shit effects to the reels (if you wish to call it that) on MPU3 layouts a long time ago because plain white symbols (they can't be lamped in the emu or any masks used) look stupid. Reels on an MPU3 machine are lit by a tube light so have that glow to them that MFME will not let you add.

 

Doing it synthetically is pretty hard. So it was a toss up between that or just flat white images.

Edited by Deathclaw, 27 April 2014 - 05:39 PM.

[Deathclaw]

Afternoon guys. Update time.

 

OK, so basically Nick coded in three sets of lamp arrays. The way Amber works is by a swap method that's actually quite clever. You look at your graphic lamp, input the number and then swap it with the correct lamp. It threw me a bit at first (it would do it's new) but I really quite like it.

 

OK, so we got the doubled up lamps done. That means Start collect (as it uses the same lamp wires as start gamble) and the three nudge up lamps which al share the same lamp no (54 IIRC).

 

The only issue was that Nick found an issue with the reel image loader (it didn't work) and in his attempt to fix that the other lamp arrays are now dead. He may have compiled it with older source, I just don't know.

 

I've now drawn in the 20p and 50p mechs, so those are done. Ive also been ripping genuine sounds from the actual machine being played on Youtube.

 

I've uploaded it for you all, but this will be coded into the emu for Line Up (the special edition).

 

Enjoy !

Attached Files

•  10p clank.mp3   20.46KB   41 downloads

[stevedude2]

Looks great so far

 

I would swear that there was a framed flyer just like that on eBay a month or two ago, plus a couple more MPU3 games.

 

EDIT - Here it is

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=p2047675.l2557

Edited by stevedude2, 28 April 2014 - 07:07 PM.

[stevedude2]

Incidentally, I have a rare Happy Viper glass (cross between Hyper and Snappy) that I could take some pics of if you ever wanted to have a go at that for a layout.  Snappy on one side of the side-art and Hyper on the other would look tasty

[Deathclaw]

Incidentally, I have a rare Happy Viper glass (cross between Hyper and Snappy) that I could take some pics of if you ever wanted to have a go at that for a layout.  Snappy on one side of the side-art and Hyper on the other would look tasty

 

I have some very large fully prepared glasses for Snappy. I used them for my HD DX I released a little while back.

 

So, I would love to take you up on that Steve. PM me your email addy and I'll fire over an email you can reply to mate.

[stevedude2]

£2 Jackpot for bells, bars and 4's.

[Deathclaw]

Afternoon guys.

 

Just a quick update. The reels are now in and working properly. I had to do them three times, as I wasn't happy with how they looked. I then had an issue where the win line was two stops out and could not find the offset so I ended up loading them all in two stops out to match the emu but it didn't work lmao.

 

Any way, the reel lamp is in (one flo light) and I must say I'm very happy with the results. The lighting is absolutely spot on.

 

Then I had a couple of niggles with the artwork I wasn't happy with (the reel border had a black stroke but it was breaking up because the emu sees black as transparent) but I've fixed that now too.

 

Work on the emulator continues, more and more support and bug fixes are continuing to happen so it's looking good.

 

Next up is the custom skin for the emu to celebrate the full support for MPU3.

 

I will up some pics of the reels later when I get a chance as I'm on my lappy now and the stuff is all on the workstation.

[Deathclaw]

Reels.

 

 

Still a few things left to do but you may notice I've cleaned up the reels, cleaned the segs, sorted the 20p and 50p mechs and so on.

 

Am working on a custom skin for Amber to celebrate MPU3 being fully emulated, then I will move on to making more layouts (Happy Viper is next... Maybe )

 

Be good.

 

DC