Salamander Issue Fixes

[Raki]

I recently released a Salamander core, which unfortunately had some issues. I fixed most of them today.

1. fixed input issues with the 3-button game(lifefrcej)
2. fixed lifefrcej DIP settings
3. fixed an issue where changing DIP settings did not reflect in a game
4. added "spclone" fan-made clone rom mra from HBMAME, by request
5. fixed an issue where some PCM sounds were playing incompletely

I wasted 6 hours today trying to fix the PCM sound issue, which was caused by the "T80" Z80 core behaving slightly differently than the actual chip.
The remaining issue is the disappearing sprites in the stage 3 boss. I sacrificed a board to decap a custom chip, and will fix the core as soon as I understand everything about the chip.

I uploaded the modified files today, but it will take a while before they are supported by update_all. If you are in a hurry you can get the mra and rbf from my repository.

I'm currently working on a Bubble System(ROM) core with four titles: TwinBee/Gradius/RF2/Galactic Warriors. With any luck, I can see a boot countdown next week.

Enjoy!

[jfml1974]

spcloneo I have a hard time finding this file I only got the spclone

*** edit I just found file with spclone and spcloneo

[kubbie]

I recently released a Salamander core, which unfortunately had some issues. I fixed most of them today.

1. fixed input issues with the 3-button game(lifefrcej)
2. fixed lifefrcej DIP settings
3. fixed an issue where changing DIP settings did not reflect in a game
4. added "spclone" fan-made clone rom mra from HBMAME, by request
5. fixed an issue where some PCM sounds were playing incompletely

I wasted 6 hours today trying to fix the PCM sound issue, which was caused by the "T80" Z80 core behaving slightly differently than the actual chip.
The remaining issue is the disappearing sprites in the stage 3 boss. I sacrificed a board to decap a custom chip, and will fix the core as soon as I understand everything about the chip.

I uploaded the modified files today, but it will take a while before they are supported by update_all. If you are in a hurry you can get the mra and rbf from my repository.

I'm currently working on a Bubble System(ROM) core with four titles: TwinBee/Gradius/RF2/Galactic Warriors. With any luck, I can see a boot countdown next week.

Enjoy!

Thanks for your time and efforts.

[jfml1974]

Very good job thanks

[rok]

What a great classic of a game! Thanks a lot for your work.
repository: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Arcade- ... der_MiSTer

TwinBee/Gradius/RF2/Galactic Warriors - yes!

[Mr Mister]

Insane work. I've been looking forward this this core for years. Thank you.

After some playing around, I realized I'm experiencing a weird issue with the full screen setting on one of my alternate configs. Usually I'm able to choose a full screen option within a core to prevent the video from squishing in the center of the screen. However, with the Salamander cores, the full screen option just makes it slightly less squished, but nowhere near full screen. Might there be a fix for this?

[Raki]

Insane work. I've been looking forward this this core for years. Thank you.

After some playing around, I realized I'm experiencing a weird issue with the full screen setting on one of my alternate configs. Usually I'm able to choose a full screen option within a core to prevent the video from squishing in the center of the screen. However, with the Salamander cores, the full screen option just makes it slightly less squished, but nowhere near full screen. Might there be a fix for this?

I'm not sure I understand your setup:

• full screen setting
• squishing in the center of the screen

By "full screen" do you mean scaling the video to 16:9? And it is the first I've heard of the squished video. I've never encountered it on my LCD monitor. I don't use a CRT, so unfortunately I can't predict how my cores will look on a CRT.

[Mr Mister]

I apologize for the confusion I will try to explain it a little better. I also attached a photo detailing the issue.

I currently have two configs on the MiSTer:

Config 1 is pretty vanilla and works with almost everything. Salamander looks good on both CRT and LCD via HDMI

Config 2 has some pretty weird settings dialed in on the inisettings, but has some of the most beautiful scanlines I've ever seen. It doesn't typically work with the LCD via HDMI because the signal isn't compatable, so I use it as my "CRT only" config. Usually cores boot up with a squished screen because of these settings, but I'm usually able to jump into the core's video settings and set the aspect ratio to full screen in order to fix the problem.

In the photo, you can see how the "original" aspect ratio is squished on both the Playstation core and the Salamander arcade core. This is expected. However, when I switch the aspect ratio of the Salamander arcade core to "full screen", it only slightly widens it by a few pixels, whereas something like the Playstation core fills the screen.

Hopefully this makes sense.

example.jpg (6.82 MiB) Viewed 4028 times

[limi]

I'm currently working on a Bubble System(ROM) core with four titles: TwinBee/Gradius/RF2/Galactic Warriors.

Incredible. And, thank you for your work on Salamander, a bona fide classic if there ever was one!

[paulbnl]

By "full screen" do you mean scaling the video to 16:9? And it is the first I've heard of the squished video. I've never encountered it on my LCD monitor. I don't use a CRT, so unfortunately I can't predict how my cores will look on a CRT.

You need to setup the aspect ratio the same way as the template otherwise full screen and custom aspect ratios will not work correctly.

Example:

Code: Select all

assign VIDEO_ARX = (!ar) ? 12'd4 : (ar - 1'd1);
assign VIDEO_ARY = (!ar) ? 12'd3 : 12'd0;

"O[122:121],Aspect ratio,Original,Full Screen,[ARC1],[ARC2];",

[Raki]

Wow, the template has changed. I used to dislike writing configuration strings, but now it's so much easier.
I'm making a TwinBee/Gradius core now, I'll test it out to see if it works, I'll update all the cores I've made so far.

[Mr Mister]

I was playing the Life Force (US) ROM today and noticed that the dialogue was substantially quieter than what it is at my local arcade. Is there any way to adjust this manually?

Also, is there any progress on the full screen setting via OSD?

This is still a crazy good game. It's amazing to me that it can be played on the MiSTer. Thank you again.

[Raki]

I was playing the Life Force (US) ROM today and noticed that the dialogue was substantially quieter than what it is at my local arcade. Is there any way to adjust this manually?

Also, is there any progress on the full screen setting via OSD?

This is still a crazy good game. It's amazing to me that it can be played on the MiSTer. Thank you again.

I've implemented the fixed full-screen code and OSD volume settings on the Bubble System core I released yesterday and things seem to be working. I'll be implementing this in the Salamander core soon.

[spotUP]

Hello. I use a mistercade with my arcade.
I can’t map the coin input to a real coin in your cores.
The work in most other arcade cores, any idea what could cause this?

[niknak]

I own both the J and D boards (and the UK Upright to go with them) just so you know as I saw you mention it, the boards do flicker at the end of level 3 if you have all multiples, lasers and missiles firing. Usually the scores vanish and the ship.