Seibu SPI

Post by **mahlemiut** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 8:49 pm

Basically, these games are unplayable without NVRAM being initialised. It will go through an updating process (presumably it is supposed to be flashing ROMs, as if a new cart was inserted) which not only takes ages, but also expects you to reset the system once done. Of course, you can't reset while recording an INP, as resets aren't recorded (not an input port).

Hardcoding in default NVRAM data is impractical - the data of 2MB is size.

Can't add a reset input port - that feature is go longer available in MAME.

Here's the discussion - should the use of default NVRAM be allowed for SPI games, if using MAME 0.99 or later?

Games on Seibu SPI hardware are:
Senkyu / Battle Balls
Raiden Fighters
Raiden Fighters Jet
Raiden Fighters 2
Raiden Fighters 2 2000
Viper Phase 1
E-Jan High School

Chad · Post by **Chad** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 12:58 am

For my opinion, if games require nvrams to playback properly then they should be allowed to use nvrams as long as they included them with the same gamename.nv in the marp zip file. But maybe we need to enforce the same nvram file for all submissions.

Post by **mahlemiut** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 5:03 am

Sure, default read-only NVRAM files could be made available at least for the clones added between 0.98 and 0.99. I just don't have them all (can only be bothered to get so many Raiden Fighters 2 clones

)

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 5:24 am

the .nv files are effectively the sound roms, decompressed.

hosting the .nv files would be the same as hosting roms.

Post by **mahlemiut** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 6:14 am

Well, no wonder they're so damn big then...

Guess there's no choice now but to effectively ban Seibu SPI games from 0.99 onwards.

The TJT · Post by **The TJT** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 7:47 am

Are those games playbackable without sound then?

If those nv's were exactly same as sound roms, then it wouldn't be a problem to have them at your harddisk(same as normal roms). They would be same for all playbackers and there wouldn't be playback problems. I guess there is usual nv data written too, which makes a problem that Barry described.

p.s. Emulete Turbosub plz, thx tia

Post by **mahlemiut** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:17 am

Decompressing its own sound data seems an odd thing for an arcade game to do...

I'd be pretty confident that enabling sound would make absolutely no difference whatsoever. The sound hardware is still there being emulated regardless.

The TJT · Post by **The TJT** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:00 am

Errr, ummm, hmm...I guess that was for Haze then...

The TJT wrote: p.s. Emulete Turbosub plz, thx tia

Incidentally, reading mame.net:

mame.net wrote:Now on the brighter side of things, I'm in the process of obtaining the FINAL (Completed) release of TurboSub. This set was never duplicated and exists only on prototype machine. I'll post more info on my site, sometime this week. I should also have scans of the schematics also for those who have been asking.

Now you see that it allways pays off to say plz and thx in tia!

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 2:37 pm

you could pretty easily write a tool to remove the user data from the .nv files, just leaving the sound data.

Haze · Post by **Haze** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:14 pm

actually I assume (unless it stores time data in there, I haven't checked) you could flash the EEPROMs first time you run any of the SPI games, change the update dipswitch to OFF, DON'T RESET, exit MAME, set the .nv files to READ ONLY and then run them.

The data after the flash SHOULD be the same every time. (I haven't checked mind)

If it is the same after the flash every time then there shouldn't be an issue providing those NV files are then set to READ ONLY and always used.

failing that you'd need to write a little tool to clear out the user data from the .nv file.

I see no real reason to ban them, afterall, you're never going to have sound in them if you use an older version.

Post by **mahlemiut** » Mon Oct 31, 2005 6:55 pm

Ok, time for a test replay.

http://mahlemiut.marpirc.net/br_senkyutest_wolf101.rar

I've created this using default NVRAM. This was done by starting the game clean, but with -allownvram. When the counter reaches zero, quit MAME. Then set the NVRAM file (whatever.nv) to be read-only. It should playback with -allownvram. Remember to add -nvram_directory <folder> if you have this set to NUL.

Remember to always use wolfmame for recording Seibu SPI games too, otherwise the RTC will screw it up. (Methinks MAME needs its own time routines)

Kaede · Post by **Kaede** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 1:42 pm

So, what should we do about Seibu SPI games ?
Are you still interested in people testing your replay, malhemiut ? (I can do that...)