32 replies to this topic

[Bencrest]

For those who are not aware, theres a bit of noise on some of the other forums about Scorpion 4 emulation. This is the hardware platform that BFG (Bell Fruit Games), Mazooma, and QPS have used in recent years.

All I would say at the moment is that there is something in the works, from a well respected member of the community. There is nothing concrete yet, but theres definately something going on, and portions of machines appear to be working (well, the Alpha display).

Just thought I'd keep you informed.

What does this mean?

Someone appears to be making progress on what would hopefully become a usable Scorpion 4 Emulator in the public domain. ASSUMING thats the case - machines like Crazy Fruits would hopefully become emulatable.

What does this NOT mean?

It does not mean it'll be available any time soon (necessarily). It does not mean that it will even get to the point of being released. It's a step in the right direction though, and theres plenty of pulling together of resources.

I'll update as anything else becomes apparent. At the moment theres no screenshots, or anything similar.

History :

1 - First video of emulator released (19:15 30th Aug 06)
http://www.fruit-emu....html#post69936

[skabaz]

as ben says this will not be available soon, in the next 3-5 years in my opinion as only today we received 4 brand new deal or no deal machines with scorpion 4 tech in them.

bellfruit are still making new machines with this technology as standard.

baz

[prizeguy2005]

Thanks for that info bencrest I always wondered why scorpion 4 never seemed to get a shout i.e it was always whens epoch mpu5 coming out? From a techinical point of view what was the scorpion 4 processor like? Was it up in power and complexity as epoch mpu 5.

Anyone not building hopes up yet but there were quite a few games out on this processor wasnt there? When did bellfruit go to scorpion 5?

[mocochoco]

as ben says this will not be available soon, in the next 3-5 years in my opinion as only today we received 4 brand new deal or no deal machines with scorpion 4 tech in them.

bellfruit are still making new machines with this technology as standard.

baz

I think theres talk about him making it only able to run certain machines, not any which are around at the moment...... not quite sure how he's gonna do this or how it will work, but exciting news none the less.

[Bencrest]

... Apparently theres a Video showing the emulator attempting to run the Crazy Fruits ROMs, I'll upload (somwhere)as soon as I can get a reencoded version which displays OK on my PC

Scorpion 4 is still in use, as Baz says it's being used in some BFG machines depending on how much you want to pay (apparently it's cheaper to get a Scorp4 kit than a Scorp5 kit, not sure of how correct that is though).

IF it were to be made public I'd assume we'd end up with something like the old 3 Year Rule again. Basically not hosting ANYTHING which is made within the last 3 years - possibly longer. That would have to be sorted out if / when the emulator was made public and / or completed.

[skabaz]

from a technical point of view,it wasn't really scorpion 4 technology that really needed to change as it is quite reliable and powerful but when serial hoppers and coin mechs were introduced bellfruit initially needed to upgrade their tech to handle this as they were the first manu to test and release the serial mechs and coinmechs with their machines.

then barcrest (mpu 5) and maygay(eclipse tech) started to use the serial technology rather than parralell technology.it seems that the parallel tech was still in demand so bellfruit started and still do produce machines with serial and parallel hoppers and coin mechs.

so
scorpion 4 parallel hoppers and coin mechs.
scorpion 5 serial hoppers and coin mechs


baz

[Bencrest]

Heres the first released video.

NOTE - You will need to unzip it (using something like WinZip, if you emulate machines however you should already have WinZip, WinRAR or similar).

It's the emulator attempting to run the Crazy Fruits ROMs. It ends giving Reel 4 Error 24.

You'll probably need to open it in 'actual' Windows Media Player - I tried in VLC and Media Player Classic with no real joy, but it played 100% in WMP.

Attached Files

•  crazywma.zip   8.67KB   84 downloads

[Johnnyafc]

Im amazing how many people are getting thier hopes up so soon! - shit whats next artwork 'Ready' Blimey - didnt it happen when SeVen Posted too everyone hoping its gonna work tomorrow? - I mean jeez lets see what happens before everyone wets themselves

[Bencrest]

1) 'Seven' was someone we'd never heard of who wanted to 'recruit' other people to do the stuff for him.

From what I've seen so far, theres clearly some development going on on Scorp 4, when I don't remember seeing anything of the sort from 'Seven'.

2) Yeah, people are getting excited. It's because FME has been a bit quiet and this has come pretty much out of the blue.

3) Me offering flyers for graphics purposes may not be anything significant but I've offered to donate something, rather than nothing. It's all I have that may (althought probably won't) be of use. Also with something like this it's important to throw support behind it. Unlike 'Seven' I have faith in the person (or persons) involved in this.

[Bencrest]

...not a great deal going on visually but just as an indication this is whats running

main processor core
Alpha display
memory map is 25% done
lamp multiplexing done

to be done

Reels
switches
hoppers
config screens
dip switches
meters

When its at a playable state there will be public betas available but at the moment nothing is worth spending the time getting ready for release

Just a bit more info

[stevedude2]

I don't want to sound like a c***, I really don't, but I think this thread should be deleted. It's all a bit too early to be broadcasting this sort of news. Before you know it, the floodgates will open and every Crazy Fruits player (and there are 1000's of them) will be hollering for this new tech tomorrow, even though you can see from Gary's video that it's some time away yet. Personally I'd keep it a bit more hush-hush for the time being. I mean, it's not like it's set for release next week.

The people who should know about this (like genuine sceners and layout designers) already look on FF and the Mecca anyway.

I don't care if no-one agrees with me.

[CrAzYbAr]

I don't want to sound like a c***, I really don't, but I think this thread should be deleted. It's all a bit too early to be broadcasting this sort of news. Before you know it, the floodgates will open and every Crazy Fruits player (and there are 1000's of them) will be hollering for this new tech tomorrow, even though you can see from Gary's video that it's some time away yet. Personally I'd keep it a bit more hush-hush for the time being. I mean, it's not like it's set for release next week.

The people who should know about this (like genuine sceners and layout designers) already look on FF and the Mecca anyway.

I don't care if no-one agrees with me.

Nah buddy...If Crazy Fruits is available they'd get a sudden interest to Pie Factory and ask about that, likewise if Pie Factory was available then Crazy Fruits would be asked about:)
You know what happens buddy if n00bs and Sods Law and Enulations mix:lol:

[prizeguy2005]

I know were not building up our hopes too much but its nice to see a little bit of excitement back on the fe scene. Anyone fancy starting a list of scorp 4 machines ? I dont really know my bell fruits that well

I will start us off with

1. Crazy fruits lol

[renoufchr]

check ff out for the list of machines we currently have the roms avalaible for scorp 4
the newer scorp machines have somethink else in the which gary will not be emulating so therefore current scorp 4 machines will not be emulated im sure BFG QPS and mazooma will be keeping a v close eye on the scene about this release

[stevedude2]

I know were not building up our hopes too much but its nice to see a little bit of excitement back on the fe scene.

I couldn't agree more with you on that, and it's great that Ben is cutting and pasting stuff from FF so everyone can see what's going on.

But it's not Space or Proconn that's being emulated this time. It's a tech that is still in use to this day, on brand new machines, and probably machines that come out when the new stakes and prizes come in. If BFG come knocking on the FME door, and Gary tells them, 'Yeah, I've cracked Scorpion 4 mate - but don't worry, we'll only do games up to 2003!' there's a good chance they might get a little bit awkward about it - look at JPM a few years back for an example of what might happen.

The less said about the subject at this moment in time the better. What's Ben going to do next? Change the paragraph at the top of the site and say 'Crazy Fruits will be along shortly, tune in for regular updates!'

I say get this thread deleted, and let Gary carry on in his own time. I can honestly see this as the best way forward, otherwise there will be threads with 200+ posts on about Crazy Fruits, and 'Whn cn we have King Kebab thn plz?'

[Gazeyre1966]

I couldn't agree more with you on that, and it's great that Ben is cutting and pasting stuff from FF so everyone can see what's going on.

But it's not Space or Proconn that's being emulated this time. It's a tech that is still in use to this day, on brand new machines, and probably machines that come out when the new stakes and prizes come in. If BFG come knocking on the FME door, and Gary tells them, 'Yeah, I've cracked Scorpion 4 mate - but don't worry, we'll only do games up to 2003!' there's a good chance they might get a little bit awkward about it - look at JPM a few years back for an example of what might happen.

The less said about the subject at this moment in time the better. What's Ben going to do next? Change the paragraph at the top of the site and say 'Crazy Fruits will be along shortly, tune in for regular updates!'

I say get this thread deleted, and let Gary carry on in his own time. I can honestly see this as the best way forward, otherwise there will be threads with 200+ posts on about Crazy Fruits, and 'Whn cn we have King Kebab thn plz?'

I totally agree as well. I can remember not so long ago Mods were banging at the door telling us that "current tech's cannot be emulated" and "if they were then there's a 3 year rule". If this technology is being created then leave it to those that are creating it as they know the rules. If it's done and scorpion 4 becomes obsolete then by all means inform the FME community. I can see repercussions and this getting out of hand if this is allowed to continue. Not that I care as I'm interested in older machines but I'm sure a lot of people are interested.

[Bencrest]

Straight from the authors mouth :

I will be honest and tell you i had not even seen the thread on there, even got a thread started on the old farts club as well I hear lol

I dont mind if you want to keep it on there, more places the better if you ask me

There you have it - Fruit-Emu will continue to be kept up to date with all latest developments - and despite what a couple of people think above, I think it's a good thing.

After all, nothing worse than a scene where everything is behind closed doors. This development is already out in the open, and what will happen will happen. Sooo... the attitude of some, which from the posts above is 'you at fruit-emu are not important, all the important people already know' is a bit off really

[GaryMPU34]

well glad to see that its stimulating debates on all forums.

Firstly I know S4 is a current tech, so was impact when it was first done and there was no fall out from JPM when everything was kept to old machines, there was even talk at some point that JPM would provide resources and maybe even host layouts for download but that all went when leaks and new machines were done.

I have worked out a fail safe to stop machines being emulated that are still current. The main one being forget about emulating cctalk and SEC meters, this will kill any of the new stuff running. Also the emulator will be coded to only run acceptable roms, it will know what machine is running and only allow those machines to run. There will be no private betas, when something is stable and useable it will be released so none of this "user x has something i dont have" arguments and nobody can be held to ransom over "full" versions.

Im not using any BFM bios code or anything like that either so legally there is no come back there. The infomation about the roms that can run will also not be part of the emulator either so nothing there that will break any copyrights

Its going to be a slow road but im confident I will get there

[Bencrest]

Cheers for taking the time to post Gary

[renoufchr]

bascially you want to know more updated on this visit www.fruitforums.com and register there as its where all the news will be first