The struggle to not cash in on Neo Geo AES consoles and games..

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Posts
12,514
You mean what's been basically available for years on GroovyMAME and has been only recently implemented in baseline? https://github.com/mamedev/mame/pull/5901

How cool.

Too bad that emulation still isn't perfect due to incorrect bus timing and lack of wait states in the emulation of the Motorola 68000 CPU.

Although that might change in the not too distant future... https://twitter.com/topapate/status/1199782781091532800?s=20

I don't think you fully understand who bulbousbeard is. He said Nazca and pretty much any developer back then were idiots and couldn't program themselves out of a paper bag.

He is obviously the greatest programmer that ever lived because he made a front end for MAME. He even is working on a metal slug 1 port that runs @120 hz and NEVER slows down.
 

Late

Reichsf?rer-Finnland,
20 Year Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2001
Posts
8,348
Don't forget the 32-bit Dos version of Aladdin!
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Posts
12,514
Just want to put this here.

"Some hobbyist." Almost every MAME dev works as professional software engineers (many times even in the game industry). Most of the people who worked on the Neo Geo driver in MAME are smarter than anyone who ever worked at Motorola, Yahama, or SNK during the Neo Geo's heyday.
Does this explain why over 75% of new games look and run like shit? I need you to clarify by "fixing" Metal Slug 1 that you said you would. Or are you too busy working on Bubsy 2: Dickbags on fire?
 

donluca

Ninja Combat Warrior
Joined
Aug 19, 2015
Posts
529
I don't think you fully understand who bulbousbeard is. He said Nazca and pretty much any developer back then were idiots and couldn't program themselves out of a paper bag.

He is obviously the greatest programmer that ever lived because he made a front end for MAME. He even is working on a metal slug 1 port that runs @120 hz and NEVER slows down.

Oh, he's THAT guy.
I somehow missed his username, I just read the post without looking.

Thanks for pointing that out, I stand corrected.
 

Dr Shroom

made it in japan
15 Year Member
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Posts
23,226
I don't think you fully understand who bulbousbeard is. He said Nazca and pretty much any developer back then were idiots and couldn't program themselves out of a paper bag.

He is obviously the greatest programmer that ever lived because he made a front end for MAME. He even is working on a metal slug 1 port that runs @120 hz and NEVER slows down.

he's too busy with his four player hack of final fight
 

bulbousbeard

Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
Joined
Jul 31, 2013
Posts
481
Nazca's programmers were terrible. It's why Metal Slug games ran at 30hz and still managed to slow down.

A MAME dev fixed the slowdown in Metal Slug 2 in like 30 minutes.

Video games in general are trashy programs full of spaghetti code that was rushed out the door.
 

Missile

Another Striker
Joined
Nov 18, 2007
Posts
311
Nazca's programmers were terrible. It's why Metal Slug games ran at 30hz and still managed to slow down.

A MAME dev fixed the slowdown in Metal Slug 2 in like 30 minutes.

Video games in general are trashy programs full of spaghetti code that was rushed out the door.

To be fair this is true - the slowdown part. The slowdown in Slug 2 is just shocking. I don't even know how that could pass QC. You could probably even write a slowdown free Metal Slug in C just using the Devkit.

Did a MAME dev really fix the slowdown though? If they did - why didn't they release this new slowdown-free version? I've seen a patch that fixes *some* of the slowdown.
 

donluca

Ninja Combat Warrior
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Posts
529
Because that slowdown was intentionally put there. It wasn't bad coding, it was a routine intended to slow down the game. The fix is astonishingly easy and it's just, IIRC, remove like two lines of code and that was it.

I remember a thread (or maybe a discussion on a Youtube video) where people speculated that they did it to make a somewhat "dramatic" effect in slow-mo along with all the explosions and screams, but nothing was confirmed so far.
 

Kid Panda

The Chinese Kid
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Posts
12,514
Nazca's programmers were terrible. It's why Metal Slug games ran at 30hz and still managed to slow down.

A MAME dev fixed the slowdown in Metal Slug 2 in like 30 minutes.

Video games in general are trashy programs full of spaghetti code that was rushed out the door.

Wake me up when you program that 144hz Metal Slug pc port, Shigeru Miyamoto.
 

theMot

Reformed collector of junk
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2012
Posts
7,589
This is controversial but I really hate game shelves and games rooms the way most people organise them. It's like people just cram in as many games and consoles as possible. The best way to display them is to get maybe 10-12 games out and put them on display with a console ready to play them. Put the rest out of view. Looks way better and people actually notice and talk about what games you have. There's a reason why when you go to an art gallery they don't try to cram all the paintings into one small room.

Yeah, but autism.
 

Neo Alec

Ned's Ninja Academy Dropout
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2000
Posts
11,923
Because that slowdown was intentionally put there. It wasn't bad coding, it was a routine intended to slow down the game. The fix is astonishingly easy and it's just, IIRC, remove like two lines of code and that was it.

I remember a thread (or maybe a discussion on a Youtube video) where people speculated that they did it to make a somewhat "dramatic" effect in slow-mo along with all the explosions and screams, but nothing was confirmed so far.
I've heard some crackpot theories, but that's certifiable. Not even I am that far up SNK's asshole.
 
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donluca

Ninja Combat Warrior
Joined
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Posts
529
I've heard some crackpot theories, but that's certifiable. Not even I am that far up SNK's asshole.

If you read the article made by the patch author you'll see that there's a routine which was meant to deliberately cut in half the FPS and it was easily patched. http://daifukkat.su/blog/archives/2015/03/30/its_turbo_time/ It was posted a couple posts above.

Now, from a developer perspective, this is not some kind of "bad coding" but rather "poor foresight", if you will. They wanted the slowdown in the game, but probably they didn't thought it could drop down to such abysmal levels.

Matter of fact, I still find it enjoyable while playing in single player but becomes unbearable when a second player joins in.

They probably tested only in single player mode and that was it.
 

bulbousbeard

Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
Joined
Jul 31, 2013
Posts
481
Because that slowdown was intentionally put there. It wasn't bad coding, it was a routine intended to slow down the game. The fix is astonishingly easy and it's just, IIRC, remove like two lines of code and that was it.

I remember a thread (or maybe a discussion on a Youtube video) where people speculated that they did it to make a somewhat "dramatic" effect in slow-mo along with all the explosions and screams, but nothing was confirmed so far.

HAHA it was not intentionally put there, you slope. MAMEdevs identified the error and fixed it, and Metal Slug X also fixed it.

There's some pretty creepy ass cult like behavior going on around here.

There ARE games with intentional slowdown like Samurai Shodown 2, but Metal Slug 2's was not by design.
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
15 Year Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Posts
22,333
HAHA it was not intentionally put there, you slope. MAMEdevs identified the error and fixed it, and Metal Slug X also fixed it.

There's some pretty creepy ass cult like behavior going on around here.

There ARE games with intentional slowdown like Samurai Shodown 2, but Metal Slug 2's was not by design.

Alright so now that it's settled, how much better is your life now? :keke:
 

donluca

Ninja Combat Warrior
Joined
Aug 19, 2015
Posts
529
Is he one of those trolls that just go away if you ignore them? Or is he the more obnoxious sticky one?

My fingers are kinda itching to reply to him, but the past decade has taught me to resist the urge to waste time on those kind of people.
 
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BIG BEAR

SHOCKbox Developer,
20 Year Member
Joined
Dec 14, 2001
Posts
8,230
Is that Metal Slug 2 Turbo patch released for hardware the equivalent of this MAME patch being discussed? How much better is the game with the TURBO patch in 2 player mode?
Thanks.
BB
 
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