Metal Slug 2 slowdown reduction patch

[system11]

http://blog.system11.org/?p=1442

Now you can enjoy smoother Metal Slug 2 without overclocking. Actually with OC it might even run as fast as X, but my motherboard is just a standard one.

Enjoy.

 

[Kid Panda]

This
Is
Rad

More proof that 2 > X

 

[pulstar]

Cool. Interesting to know that SNK built Metal Slug X from the ground up. I was always of the opinion that X > 2, but after playing 2 quite a lot it does feel a little better (and with this, hopefully better still). Can't wait to try this.

 

[Ray]

That looks like a pretty significant improvement! Fantastic job!
Now I'm just wondering how well this would run in 2 player mode. I love Metal Slug 2 but 2 player in that just goes way overboard with the slowdown.

 

[system11]

Yeah it's not night and day, but it feels better to play, sadly that's as far as it can really go without disabling graphical features or rewriting lots of code. Trap15 had a look into this for me after I .. encouraged him to spend some time on it for me, but there were no other obvious big wins to be had. I guess that's why SNK wrote a new engine in the first place.

 

[system11]

That looks like a pretty significant improvement! Fantastic job!
Now I'm just wondering how well this would run in 2 player mode. I love Metal Slug 2 but 2 player in that just goes way overboard with the slowdown.

It would still be terrible in 2p I'm afraid. The train level is still pretty rough too, apparently the code which tracks the train movement is somehow really slow.

 

[Ray]

It would still be terrible in 2p I'm afraid. The train level is still pretty rough too, apparently the code which tracks the train movement is somehow really slow.

Yeah, I figured that would be the case... Still, even with the slowdown MS2 is still a blast to play with 1 player, and this fix would help a lot, especially with some of the more notorious choking points like the bridge on the final mission.

 

[Razoola]

Very nice work.

I wonder if this is something the unibios could catch via a cheat?? I may have a look if I find some free time to see if that's doable if your ok with that.

Raz

 

[aha2940]

Nice work!! can a M27C160 be used with the fixed code in the lower half and the original code in the upper half (or viceversa) and solder a switch to the highest address line to switch between version? also, I guess some jumpers gotta be moved in the board, right?

Regards.

 

[GadgetUK]

Yes a 27C160 will work as a replacement for the 27C800. Just lift pin 1 (A18) and switch that between 5v (via 4K7 resistor) and ground on the other end of the switch. If the cart is using a 1Mb chip already there's no need to change the jumpers.

It's also cleaner to use a 74HCT161 or something to switch between ROMs using reset. I did that on my Magician Lord.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXWZlWuGljk

 

[aha2940]

Yes a 27C160 will work as a replacement for the 27C800. Just lift pin 1 (A18) and switch that between 5v (via 4K7 resistor) and ground on the other end of the switch. If the cart is using a 1Mb chip already there's no need to change the jumpers.

Nice, I think I'll give this a go when I fix the issue I'm having with 27C160's and my programmer.

Thanks!!

 

[system11]

Very nice work.

I wonder if this is something the unibios could catch via a cheat?? I may have a look if I find some free time to see if that's doable if your ok with that.

Raz

I'd actually like it to be kept standalone for a few reasons.

 

[DNSDies]

I wonder if this can be ported to the CD version of the game?

That would be flipping rad.

 

[trap15]

With a 16MHz overclock and the patch, the game is smooth as butter. As good or better than stock MSX in the frame rate department.

 

[kuze]

Nice work! Do you think it would ever be possible to sub in the entire Slug X engine so no OC is needed?

 

[bustedstr8]

Nice work!! can a M27C160 be used with the fixed code in the lower half and the original code in the upper half (or viceversa) and solder a switch to the highest address line to switch between version? also, I guess some jumpers gotta be moved in the board, right?

Regards.

Yes a 27C160 will work as a replacement for the 27C800. Just lift pin 1 (A18) and switch that between 5v (via 4K7 resistor) and ground on the other end of the switch. If the cart is using a 1Mb chip already there's no need to change the jumpers.

It's also cleaner to use a 74HCT161 or something to switch between ROMs using reset. I did that on my Magician Lord.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXWZlWuGljk

I remember we where talking about doing the switch with reset about a year ago. Cool to see at least someone did it
Are you able to test and see if the /RST is pulsed when you switch games on a multislot?

 

[trap15]

Nice work! Do you think it would ever be possible to sub in the entire Slug X engine so no OC is needed?

Not really. If that was something someone wanted to do, they'd have much better luck just hacking X to change things to be like 2. Trying to replace an entire engine's just not worth it or really feasible.

 

[Xian Xi]

Fucking sweet. Thanks a bunch to you and your team for helping with the slowdown in MS2. Looks awesome. You guys already made my year.

 

[GhostSeed]

Nice work! I'll have to let my friend know about this, he loves that game.

 

[HeavyMachineGoob]

It is now time to crack open my Slug 2 carts and give them the engine facelift they so desperately need.

Thank you kind person for taking pity on the rest of us!

 

[kuze]

Not really. If that was something someone wanted to do, they'd have much better luck just hacking X to change things to be like 2. Trying to replace an entire engine's just not worth it or really feasible.

Makes sense. Thanks for the work you put into this. Will definitely give it a try!

 

[shadowkn55]

This
Is
Rad

More proof that 2 > X

You mean this wasn't enough?

 

[trap15]

For those curious about what exactly the problem was and what was changed to fix it, I wrote a technical explanation of things: http://daifukkat.su/blog/archives/2015/03/30/its_turbo_time/
Forgive how terse and technical the writing is, but I tried to give a decent explanation while not leaving out details.

 

[Xian Xi]

For those curious about what exactly the problem was and what was changed to fix it, I wrote a technical explanation of things: http://daifukkat.su/blog/archives/2015/03/30/its_turbo_time/
Forgive how terse and technical the writing is, but I tried to give a decent explanation while not leaving out details.

Nice, so it did have something to do with updating, just not game logic. From the comparison vids it's like night and day. Is it true that in the PS2 MS Anthology version of MS2 that SNK just super over clocked the game to try and fix the slowdown?

 

[trap15]

Well, I'd really not call it even updating. It's just the lock code is terrible. The game logic is really slow though, as system11's post mentions. It's really really slow. They didn't put much work into optimizing the game.

I'm assuming the anthology versions just overclock the emulated machine, yeah. I doubt they went through the effort to optimize it. I've not looked, but I don't think it's even worth checking; it's almost a guarantee.