150 replies to this topic

[I have finished]

Ady, I totally agree with you on everything you said. Total respect for Guitar. Vids are good evidence of X Y and Z running smoothly but I didn't think Epoch was buggered? Who said this?

[connor55]

Sounding better and better after every update given!! All I have to say is Que serar, serar!!! It's a moment as a forum we've been dying to see for an extremely long time and to finally see proof of it happening, well... it's like a dream come true!! So what if there are little niggles n naggles, nothing can't happen without hitches and a case of trial and error!! But whatever happens, I for one am looking forward to what we have and the future!! It could be this time next year we could play our Scorpion 4/5's and Late MPU5's and all the MPU6's, which we all endeavor?? Who knows! But I am just glad to see a breeze of fresh meat arrive in the land of FME, muchly needed!! And there's only one person which we can thank for making this happen... Guitar! You're a genius and many things! And thanks for making epoch become reality instead of a distant dream...!

 

Connor55

[I have finished]

Well Connor55, you have really said it all from all of the fruit-emu team here mate. I'm sure Aaamusements also agrees. I don't know how I can celebrate. In fact, to guitar, I have my Epoch crazy mate Sarah here tomorrow til Friday, she'd love to see a vid of it all running smoothly on Simpsons or Meltdown, "I new Epoch would come crawlin' back!" Unfortunately the other emu from KC didn't happen, but the future's bright, the future's Amber! 3 cheers for guitar!

[Guitar]

 

I wonder

 

Like I said before, it would be nice just to see a single and stable platform.

 

I have total respect for all Guitar 'has' and 'is' doing trying to get  running, but all I read is "I have done this and it's ready....just add x, y and z...oh it's now buggered".

 

This ISN'T healthy for FME in the slightest.

 

Can't it be worked on with the creator and a few select members as testers 'till it's running?

 

I don't think you've understood what I've been writing. I've had a copy of EPEE for ages so I assumed Epoch was pretty much 100%, just add it to a front end and boom, epoch emulator.

 

So having got the source, put it into a dll, and started running games with autothrottle on, it wasn't running at the right speed, sound was odd on Impulse games, and a host of other issues.

 

I've now worked on 10+ techs over time and I can recognise when it's a core bug, or a timing issue or whatever.

 

When I initially got the code from DT he said "you can have it, but you'll have to finish it", which I thought meant I'd have to add the hoppers and give it a quick once over. I didn't realise at the time that the core was fairly incomplete in places.

 

Epee has no layout tools or speed control, it's just yellow boxes to represent lamps, and they are in a grid not a "classic" layout or anything, so it was almost impossible to see the weirdness in some of the games until I had a layout set up and tried to time it to run at 16MHz. Which then turned out to run too slow.

 

The hoppers, coin mech, coin tubes, & meters, are all very simple items and will be a copy-paste job from IMPACT with some very small changes to account for the drives coming from different places. It was important to get the core correct first, otherwise I can't be sure that the peripherals will still work when the core works correctly. I am now fairly confident that the core is good, if we do encounter any problems with roms not running later on, it will be a timing issue as the timer is only half complete. There are about 16 different modes for the timer, only 3 or 4 of which are ever used as fruit machines do not require a lot of esoteric timing features, but they come as part of the cpu anyway. Over the years I've tested many roms in EPEE and they seemed to run ok, so now that the core has had a thorough going over, I don't forsee any issues, certainly no major ones.

 

As for the front end, it's getting better all the time as I fix things as I find they don't work. Pretty much everything that is there works ok now, but I don't yet have everything coded yet. I still need a new layout wizard. I can make a new layout by copy-pasting an existing layout and changing some of the setups manually, but that's not ideal for public use.

 

I will happily work with a "select few", if only you can find a select few who have the time to commit to being a tester.

 

And as for being "unhealthy" for the FME scene. It's not like we have many alternatives, there's always MAME I suppose but are they ever going to complete a tech? And will it ever get a front end with proper layout tools?

[Guitar]

Does this help at all? Sorry, but I no longer own an epoch machine but this is a pic from the dot matrix display that was in there. (Reel good time)

 

I know there are a few different REV versions of the Dot matrix display too, unsure of the differences but Im sure I've tried the wrong version before and it has not worked.

 

Spot On, thanks very much, just what I needed!

[spa]

I don't think Ady is looking.thinking like that mate. It's more of a, new tech, rush, rush, rush. All done this time next month.

 

I think?

[I have finished]

OK Spa and Ady, misunderstood. We all make mistakes and as I have Aspergers on the tale end, I think that things are for the worse all the time. I will be one of the select few to test a layout and a few epoch games as I have been waiting for years and years since KC worked on his emu as I wanted to test this. Now Epoch's on the go I would love to test it, sound, speed and visually my mother can see where there's problems.

[Guitar]

http://www.dailymoti...m/video/x4750a1

 

Test Video 3.

[connor55]

Thanks again for the speedy updates!  

 

Connor55

[I have finished]

Thanks for vid, got it converted to MP3, will listen to it now. Keep the speedy updates coming when pos Guitar!

[TommyC]

Excellent stuff,the speed looks perfect now,whats the crack with multi coloured lamps,for wipe out and grid runner? will it support the blue red green and white lamps?

[I have finished]

Just to say, I'm playing the M1A Simpsons old £3 jackpot. Certainly not the same! Epoch is much tetter! I really want to hear the farting sound on the holds, and the burp sound too. They are both hilarious! The sound is running amoothly on the simpsons, but I haven't tested it yet myself so I cannot judge for myself, only by hearing the mp3. Sorry if I have not told you about my autism, but it's best you know before you post as I am always on here. I'll be off to bed quite early.

[I have finished]

With Aspergers, I do have anxiety sometimes, and Epoch is a tech I really wanted emulated. Thanks to the one and only guitar, this has been possible. If speedy updates are continuing, I will be checking back regularly. And I would like to hear f I can be a tester once layouts of Epoch games are ready?

[Guitar]

Excellent stuff,the speed looks perfect now,whats the crack with multi coloured lamps,for wipe out and grid runner? will it support the blue red green and white lamps?

 

Colored lamps can be done using 2 methods, either color filtering of the white image (see simpsons), or by putting different colored items (such as notes where the values change) on different layers.

Amber2 has 1 off image, and upto 8 4096*4096 on images which can be selected individually for each lamp.

Color filtering is 8bpp 16 million possible colors. The front end was designed with epoch in mind and wipeout is one of my favorite games, which needs colored lamps.

 

Short answer, yes.

[Guitar]

And there's only one person which we can thank for making this happen...

Don't thank me, thank Dialtone!

[vectra666]

I take it my alpha image wasn't of much use?? or is it a much later alpha than what you required?

i'm loving the video's coming along nicely especially hearing the simpsons sounds via an emulator

as burn's says

 EXCELLENT!!!!!!!

Edited by vectra666, 26 April 2016 - 08:31 PM.

[vectra666]

@Aaamusements we will definitely need the download section upgrading for these new techs epoch, eclipse etc and is there a gallery section set up for epoch etc for resources etc!! 

[TommyC]

 

Colored lamps can be done using 2 methods, either color filtering of the white image (see simpsons), or by putting different colored items (such as notes where the values change) on different layers.

Amber2 has 1 off image, and upto 8 4096*4096 on images which can be selected individually for each lamp.

Color filtering is 8bpp 16 million possible colors. The front end was designed with epoch in mind and wipeout is one of my favorite games, which needs colored lamps.

 

Short answer, yes.

That's great to hear then wipeout is also a number one of mine,was thinking about prepping art for grid runner,maybe you can use the art to test the multi coloured lamps when the time comes.I also have pick yer pesos prepped but the flyer is grainy as owt at the minute,that only uses the normal red lamps for super features and red when invincible.Edited to add if someone else is working on art for any of the ones i mentioned,an heads up would be good to stop doing dupe layouts,art etc.

Edited by TommyC, 26 April 2016 - 08:40 PM.

[Guitar]

I take it my alpha image wasn't of much use?? or is it a much later alpha than what you required?

i'm loving the video's coming along nicely especially hearing the simpsons sounds via an emulator

as burn's says

 EXCELLENT!!!!!!!

 

Sorry I didn't see the 2nd image, is that an Epoch alpha? If so I'll have to look into that one as well, it looks as though it could be different again.

[vectra666]

no its reflex gaming sorry.