TechTools Archives: RE: [techtoolslist] Work in progress, opinio

From: James Bright <james_at_quarterarcade.com>
Date: Mon Sep 15 2003 - 22:43:59 EDT

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Awesome…

I have a little bit of work to match up
the MAME ROM files to my existing data structures. The ontology of this is
actually rather complicated. For example, how is “Pac-Man (Galaxian
hardware)” classified? It will probably be matched to the Pac-Man game
entry because of the name, but it’s more appropriately matched to the
Galaxian entry because of hardware…

And yes, as soon as I get comfortable
with TL/1, it will have an option to save as a TL/1 test stub.

JB

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--James Bright 
www.QuarterArcade.com 
Restored Arcade Games for your Home

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-----Original Message----- 
From:
owner-techtoolslist@www.flippers.com
[mailto:owner-techtoolslist@www.flippers.com] On
Behalf Of David Shoemaker 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003
10:28 PM 
To: techtoolslist@www.flippers.com 
Subject: Re: [techtoolslist] Work
in progress, opinions...

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I like it, (though I will want the same utility function for
the 9100 :)

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And yes the 9100 keyboard wedge is getting close.  I
spent a wasted week trying to get a software uart to work so I could use the
small sexy 8 pin parts for this.  Yes I know EVERYONE told me to just use
the 20 pin part with the uart built in.  But I am stubborn, plus I didn't
have the 20 pin parts on hand.

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I have parts on order for the 20 pin.  Once I get them
(later this week I expect) it's some code tweaking and bread boarding to finish
it up.

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Then I will probably just release the works to the list,
while I would really like to get a pcb made for it I haven't got the first idea
how to start that process.  And this thing is going to be dead simple to
build on protoboard I think.

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David

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----- Original Message -----

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From: <a
href="mailto:james@quarterarcade.com" title="james@quarterarcade.com">James
Bright</a>

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To: <a
href="mailto:techtoolslist@flippers.com" title="techtoolslist@flippers.com">techtoolslist@flippers.com</a>

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Sent: Monday, September
15, 2003 6:33 PM

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Subject: [techtoolslist]
Work in progress, opinions...

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Well, I’m not really working on boards or 9010A
scripts right now because I know the 9100A keyboard converter is near complete
(or at least I hope! :)  So I’ve been playing around with something
that kev and John were talking about a while ago.

I’ve been hacking around the MAME code, and I’ve
got it to the point where I can walk through the data structures and pull out
information like ROM files and addresses, and read & write addresses. What
I am thinking of building is a simple “pre-code” generator that
will help you build a 9010A script based on this simple memory map. It would
build the map for any of the supported MAME games (even if the game isn’t
working; that is not what is important). It could also link you directly to the
MAME source code for quick reference. Just wondering if people would find this
helpful or useful. Although it would be a first pass, here are possible
pitfalls:

* ROM banking is frequently “hacked” in MAME
(see Qix.c)

* read/write addresses in software are not always read/write
in hardware

* I have no good way to insert the actual 9010A signatures
right now because I would need to have all of the MAME ROMs (I don’t) and
my programs don’t yet unzip the ROMs

* I don’t know exactly how precise or accurate the
memory map is in MAME

* I almost guarantee mismatches between reality and the MAME
driver :) Not that the programmers didn’t do a good job, but just that
the software emulation might not match the actual hardware

But… the good would be that you have something to
start with given a game that you’ve never worked on (the memory map is
usually where I start). I would also be able to add in other hardware
information to my database (CPU, # CPUs, type, etc.) and provide a cross
reference to other games.

Does this reference material sound helpful? John, is this
sort of what you’d had envisioned?

--James
Bright 
www.QuarterArcade.com 
Restored Arcade Games for your Home

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RE: [techtoolslist] Work in progress, opinions...