SURPRISE ANYONE?

Warmtoe · Post by **Warmtoe** » Tue May 27, 2003 1:23 am

The memory was the tricky bit.

At startup it needs 8 meg to decode the graphics into, from 4 meg of roms - and that really doesn't leave much space for anything else. Then I discovered that the decoding doesn't need to take up 8 meg, you can use graphics compression, and only use 4 meg... but that was too much too - so then, and this is the cunning part, I move the original non-decoded 4 meg to PVR memory (still got quite a bit of that to play with) and decode it to SH4 memory. As a result, the decoding stage takes a lot longer (black screen for ages at startup) but it works - I can then dispose of the PVR memory used for the original roms.

The problem I had then is that all the sprite graphics (the 8 megs were the sprites) came out wrong because they were being displayed as though they were uncompressed, when they were now compressed - so I worked that out too and bingo.

Speed is good with sound off - with sound on (yeah, it's that old swine sound again) it slows down... but I'll be doing more tweaking.

I'll be ready to put something out in a couple of days hopefully.

BaldMonk · Post by **BaldMonk** » Tue May 27, 2003 2:30 am

Excellant News Warmtoe. Keep up the great work

The Kron · Post by **The Kron** » Tue May 27, 2003 7:55 am

Warmtoe is it possible to utilise a low resolution mode from the mame source?, if you could add that it would be supurb through RGB

DcSteve · Post by **DcSteve** » Wed May 28, 2003 11:38 am

any more news on this baby?

Warmtoe · Post by **Warmtoe** » Wed May 28, 2003 2:43 pm

DCSteve! I meant to tell everyone, I only sat down and looked at SIMPSONS because you pushed me into it! thanks!

Anyways, yes, I've uploaded an SBI to my personal site, cos the homebrew site appears to be broke.

This SBI is not optimized - it works at nice speeds with sound off, and nicer speeds with pvr DMA on. You will be pleased to hear however that Reaper and I are collaborating on this one, I've sent him the required source changes and he's going to try and push up the speed - I've also asked him to send me the speedups he puts in, so I can incorporate them into my build (because I prefer the way my version looks so for my own personal use, I'd prefer it).

I'd appreciate feedback from people about settings that give people the best speed with this version etc and also whether > 1 player works (not easy for me to test, but in theory, 4 players should work).

anyway.. the URL you're after...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/ian_edward ... MPSONS.sbi

Can you guess what my real name is?!

bizzle · Post by **bizzle** » Wed May 28, 2003 2:58 pm

Oh.. LET ME GUESS!!!

Ian Edwards?

No, can't be, can any other genius help me out?!?!?

Post by **Dr. Zoidberg** » Wed May 28, 2003 3:00 pm

Awesome stuff Warmtoe!

ZacMc · Post by **ZacMc** » Wed May 28, 2003 3:01 pm

Can you guess what my real name is?!

Oh.. LET ME GUESS!!!

Ian Edwards?

No, can't be, can any other genius help me out?!?!?

Its homepage.ntlworld

strider · Post by **strider** » Wed May 28, 2003 3:10 pm

yes!,another interesting sga to the scene!!!

Orange_Ribbon · Post by **Orange_Ribbon** » Wed May 28, 2003 3:50 pm

OMG I can't wait to Burn this, I just burned the old TMNT arcade game, and said to myself...man if someone does the Simpsons I would be in heaven...I dumped soooo many quarters (and still do) in this machine. I actually made a friend play with me till the end of the game and beat it.....We almost got kicked out of a bowling ally for making to much noise.

Warmtoe · Post by **Warmtoe** » Wed May 28, 2003 4:11 pm

-Azathoth- wrote:what? still no Rastan port?

jk, this Simpsons port should own.

I do have a working RASTAN port by-the-way - it's just a little slow.

DcSteve · Post by **DcSteve** » Wed May 28, 2003 5:13 pm

thanks warmtoe, ill mirror this file at http://www.dreamgamer.com/mamed and i would like to thank you for letting me push you

P.S. I wonder if this same thing can be accomplished with X-MEN 4 player arcade

Demi · Post by **Demi** » Wed May 28, 2003 10:43 pm

I think I did it wrong or something.

I nabbed the sbi and made a DJ image, everything worked out fine, so I burn it.

I pop it in my DC, everything is cool, it loads to the inducer thingy.

I hit A to start up Simpsons, and it says "Loading..." and then goes to a black screen with garble I cant really read (if it says anything...) on my TV.

I wait a couple of minutes, and me, being impatient, hits random buttons.

After that I see the words "WARMTOE productions" fade into my tv. Realizing success, I get ready for some Simpsons action.

Boy was I wrong. Apparently my DC decided to reset itself. I repeated this about 2 more times.

...so I funked up, huh?

Warmachine · Post by **Warmachine** » Wed May 28, 2003 10:49 pm

wow that is going to be sooo cool.

DcSteve · Post by **DcSteve** » Wed May 28, 2003 11:08 pm

works fine for me, except i cant actually put coins in and play. Ive tryed every button on my controller and every button on my seganet keyboard and nothin

Anyone know the button to insert coins on the controller

NM- I had my unofficial lightgun plugged in port 4 so apparently that disables the keyboard. YOU NEED THE KEYBOARD TO INSERT COINS. After this, start works on all 4 controllers, meaning all 4 players work good! I have tested this throughly. Only prob is the insert coins w/ keyboard button #'s instead of L or R on dc controller

BlackAura · Post by **BlackAura** » Thu May 29, 2003 12:52 am

I think the coins button was remapped to the D-Pad, to free up the left and right triggers.

ZacMc · Post by **ZacMc** » Thu May 29, 2003 12:55 am

YOU NEED THE KEYBOARD TO INSERT COINS

nope..
just like in MDCNG
Start + Up = $0.25

DcSteve · Post by **DcSteve** » Thu May 29, 2003 1:16 am

ahh ok, thanx

BaldMonk · Post by **BaldMonk** » Thu May 29, 2003 6:45 am

Wow, this is great. Thanks for your amazing work WarmToe.

Anychance on the 1st_read.bin just being downloadable?

Oh, and DCSteve, Xmen would be grand woudn't it

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Thu May 29, 2003 6:53 am

Which version of the ROM does this require, the 2-player or 4-player version?

EDIT: Never mind, i figured it out.