M.A.M.E 0.126u4

MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
----------------------
01958: [Crash/Freeze] skns: Segfaults on load (Pierpaolo Prazzoli)
01817: [Crash/Freeze] intrepi2: Game stops at PCB test
(Pierpaolo Prazzoli)
02090: [Crash/Freeze] thedeep: Game didn't start (black screen).
(Pierpaolo Prazzoli)
02067: [Crash/Freeze] mustangb, tdragonb: Access Violation
(Aaron Giles)
02069: [Crash/Freeze] astrofl: Access Violation (Aaron Giles)
02068: [Crash/Freeze] All sets in mhavoc.c: Access Violation
(Aaron Giles)
02070: [Crash/Freeze] atlantol: Access Violation (Aaron Giles)
02066: [Graphics] All sets in mhavoc.c: all graphics is missing
(Aaron Giles)
02033: [Crash/Freeze] soccerss and clones: the romtest report
two bad roms (robiza)
02049: [Graphics] invaders: Built in red color overlay goes too low
and shows on top line of invaders heads in Vista only. (robiza)
02079: [DIP/Input] radr, radru: Dipswitch info (robiza)
02056: [DIP/Input] pbobble, qzshowby, spacedx, spacedxj: Unable to
enter coins (Fabio Priuli)
02060: [Graphics] spinlbrk, spinlbru, spinlbrj: Priorities wrong in
second level (robiza)



Source Changes
--------------
Added information to the 1943 driver (video) about priorities encoded
in PROM. [robiza]

Minor optimization to the DISCRETE_INPUT modules. The node output is
now calculated when a discrete_sound_w() is called instead of each
step in the simulation. Also removed the Enable line from the
DISCRETE_ADJUSTMENT modules. They should never be disabled.
[Derrick Renaud]

Removed per-frame metadata support from chdman. Creating an A/V now
simply requires an AVI file input. [Aaron Giles]

Changed laserdisc support to parse white flags and other data from
the VBI data directly, rather than relying on the textual metadata.
Expanded video frame cache to 3. Changed the way frames are assembled
to decrease the likelihood of getting an interlaced weave. Fixed sound
creation so that it is done at reset time instead of device start,
when the sound devices aren't yet live. [Aaron Giles]

Fixed bug in winwork that caused the creation of single work items to
return NULL, and thus lead to massive memory leaks when using A/V
CHDs. [Aaron Giles]

Added new functions cputag_set_input_line() to assert input lines
via CPU tag instead of index. [Aaron Giles]

Disks opened by the romload module are no longer identified by index.
Instead, they are identified by the region they were loaded in. This
generally means one disk per region. get_disk_handle() now takes a
region name in place of an index. Updated all callers to do this.
The SCSI modules in particular posed a challenge to make this work,
so watch out for potential bugs there. [Aaron Giles]

Changed the IDE interfaces to default to choosing the region with the
same tag as the device for its master disk (assuming no slave). Added
support for specifying explicit master/slave disk regions as part of
the configuration, though slave disks are still not supported yet.
[Aaron Giles]

Change the laserdisc interface to no longer require a disk number or
a custom sound device. Both are now assumed to be tagged the same as
the laserdisc device. Updated all drivers accordingly. [Aaron Giles]

Merged memory maps for drivers: blmbycar, blockade, blockhl, blockout,
bombjack, boogwing, and bottom9. [Andrew Gardner]

Added readmes for Galaga, The Outfoxies, Splatter House, Top Racer,
Kyros No Yakata, Bombs Away, Meikyuu Hunter G, Crazy Kong, Moero Pro
Yakyuu Homerun Kyousou, Lucky & Wild, Match It, Country Club,
Enforce, Elevator Action, Chuka Taisen, The New Zealand Story,
Buck Rogers Zoom 909, Head On, Victorious Nine, Youma Ninpou Chou,
Pairs, Woodpecker, Slap Fight, Alcon, Tiger Heli, Superman,
WWF Superstars, Area 51, Animalandia Jr, Avengers In Galactic Storm,
Alien 3: The Gun, Aquajack, and Missile Command. [Guru]

Fix region jumper on psikyo4 (loderndf). [David Haywood]

Backported a bunch of FM OPN (YM2608/2612) fixes from Genesis Plus
GX. All of this was verified on real hardware.
[Eke-Eke, Nemesis, Alone Coder, AamirM]
- implemented PG overflow, aka "detune bug" (Ariel, Comix Zone,
Shaq Fu, Spiderman...)
- fixed SSG-EG support
- modified EG rates and frequency
- fixed EG attenuation level on KEY ON (Ecco 2 splash sound)
- fixed LFO phase update for CH3 special mode (Warlock, Alladin)

Scanline exact rendering for dkong & clones [couriersud]
* Sprite limit of 16 sprites per scanline implemented from
schematics.
* Proper wrap around from bottom to top
* Added some notes about sprite limits and hardware to dkong
driver (thanks to R. Belmont)

Added edge connector pinout info to flower.c. [Brian Troha]

Some initial work on the adp driver. [robiza]

Fixed window in shanghai and shangha2. [robiza]

8257dma and z80dma devices now require device callback handlers
instead of machine handlers. Updated affected drivers accordingly.
[couriersud]

Improved Dsp56k CPU interrupt handling. Polygonet Commanders now
advances past its first dsp handshake. [Andrew Gardner]

Added proper laserdisc support for MACH 3, Us vs. Them, and Cobra
Commander (MACH 3 hardware). Old laserdisc hacks are now removed.
The code now talks to the standard Pioneer PR-8210 interface. Also
removed hacky "target list" from the MACH 3 ROMs; this information
is now decoded on the fly from the right channel laserdisc audio.
[Aaron Giles]

Other Gottlieb cleanups: [Aaron Giles]
- fixed rev 2 sound again
- fleshed out memory maps and behaviors according to the schematics
- hooked up coin counters.
- moved sound inputs to audio/gottlieb and included them in
all relevant drivers
- ordered input ports and ROM definitions consistently

Other laserdisc changes: [Aaron Giles]
- changed PR-8210 interface to work consistently for both Gottlieb
and Stern games
- added audio callback mechanism to allow drivers to peek at the
raw audio streams

Set the initial 8253 timer output to 2 to indicate that it is
undetermined. [Wilbert Pol]

Removed obsolete makemeta tool. Replaced it with new ldverify
tool which walks through either an AVI or CHD capture from a
laserdisc and ensures that there are no anomalies lurking in
the VBI data. [Aaron Giles]

Added new option to chdman, where if you use -createav with
a special filename (either 2:2 or 3:2) it will create a fake
laserdisc files with the equivalent cadence. This can be used
for testing until full captures are available. Most games used
2:2 apart from Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, which were 3:2.
Note that even though these files are essentially blank, they
are Huffman-compressed, meaning that the maximum compression
ratio you will get is 8:1, so they still end up ~5GB. [Aaron Giles]

Moved error strings from chdman.c to chd.c, where they can be
fetched from any caller via the new chd_error_string()
function. [Aaron Giles]

Updated vbiparse to improve Manchester code decoding. It now
assigns a confidence level per bit based on how solid the
data is. Also added a new function vbi_parse_all which parses
the white flag and all three lines of metadata from a
laserdisc frame. It then compares line 17 and 18 against each
other and selects the most likely candidate based on per-bit
confidence and other factors. [Aaron Giles]

Added frame number display to laserdsc.c. It is off by
default, though most players can be configured to turn it on
(not sure if any actually do). It can be manually toggled via
the backslash key during playback. [Aaron Giles]

Discrete sound core optimizations: [couriersud]
* moved a couple of exp(x) from _step into _reset where appropriate
* use tabulated function values for the transfer function in
DSS_INVERTER_OSC

Forced synchronization (stream_update()) before the YM2151 status is
actually read. [Jarek Burczynski]

Added Discrete Sound to Fantasy, Nibbler and Pioneer Balloon.
[Derrick Renaud]

Fixed I/O watchpoints. [Aaron Giles]

Changes to the cheat.xml format: [Aaron Giles]
- new tag <comment> (within <cheat>) is read and preserved
when saved
- removed variable attribute from <parameter>; it is now
assumed to be 'param'
- added default attribute for <parameter>

Added new variable 'frame' accessible from cheat scripts. This
can be used in the conditional to prevent execution on every
frame, or for other effects (like displaying temporary messages).
[Aaron Giles]

Added new variable 'argindex' which is the index when processing
an <argument> with a count attribute greater than 1. [Aaron Giles]

Reinstated the cheat menu. It now displays all loaded cheats and
allows for them to be activated. All known cheat behaviors should
be working now. Cheats are toggled on/off with the left/right
arrow keys. Oneshot cheats are activated by hitting enter. Pressing
enter on other cheats resets them to their default values.
[Aaron Giles]

Continued the cleanup of inputs in drivers starting with C (the
remaining ones), D and E. Improvements include conditional dips
added to dynduke and diplocations for chinagat, chqflag, circus,
citycon, cloak, contra and dynduke. [Fabio Priuli]

Added tags to EVERY input port in drivers starting with F->Z.
[Fabio Priuli]

Removed PORT_START macro. Renamed old PORT_START_TAG to PORT_START.
All input ports must have tags. [Aaron Giles]

Added support for DEL as well as BS for backspacing in the game
select menu. Also limited input to ASCII characters. [Aaron Giles]

Fixed Rim Rockin' Basketball to use the HD6309 core. [Tim Lindner]

Added diplocations to bigrun, scudhamm, cischeat & f1gpstar.
Removed the current hacky handling of f1gpstar coinage dips to use
conditional ports instead. In order to do this, the possible
conditions were extended to support less than/greater than
comparisons. [Fabio Priuli]

Fixed bug that would break conditions on ports using the
PORT_DIPUNKNOWN_DIPLOC macro. [Aaron Giles]

Added diplocations to the following drivers: combatsc.c, copsnrob.c,
cosmic.c, crgolf.c, crimfght.c, crospang.c (here I also added service
dips to heuksun and bestri, which allowed me to verify locations),
crshrace.c, dambustr.c, darkseal.c, dassault.c, dblewing.c,
ddrible.c, deadang.c. Also added locations to the following games:
ddragon & ddragon2 on ddragon.c and docastle, dorunrun & dowild in
docastle.c. [Fabio Priuli]

Verified CPU clocks for athena. [Corrado Tomaselli]

Added module profiling to discrete sound core [couriersud]
* added DISCRETE_PROFILING macro to discrete.h
* Upon discrete_stop, the worst performing modules will be listed

Verified and corrected CPS1 refresh rate. [Corrado Tomaselli]

Changed sound cpu clock of Spinal Breakers to 5Mhz as verified on the
pcb. [Corrado Tomaselli]

Corrected MPU4 AY8910 output weightings. [James Wallace]

Added word alternates for operators in expressions: [Aaron Giles]
+ plus
- minus
* times or mul
/ div
% mod
! not
~ bnot
&& and
& band
|| or
| bor
^ bxor
lt <
le <=
gt >
ge >=
eq ==
ne !=

Changed cheat escaping to automatically escape && & < and <=
to and band lt and le. [Aaron Giles]

Decrypted Da Ban Cheng (dbc set in igs_blit.c) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

Removed bad dumps from ad2083. [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

Fixed bug in aviio.c which could cause an infinite loop if attempting
to read sound beyond the end of the file. [Aaron Giles]

Added expression validation callback to verify names for CPUs and
memory regions. Extended error codes to report incorrect memory
spaces, memory names, or memory sizes. Added verification callback
to the debugger to validate CPU and memory region names, as well
as verifying that a requested address space exists for a given
CPU. [Aaron Giles]

Restored previous behavior that allowed popmessage() messages to
overlay menus and other UI. [Aaron Giles]



New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Kyuukyoku no Othello [robiza, Fabio Priuli]
S.O.S. [Alex, Max, Antro]



New clones added
----------------
Indianapolis 500 Deluxe [Kris Anks]
Champion Poker (v200G) [Luca Elia]
Megatouch III (9255-20-01 RON) [Brian Troha]
New clone: Crystal Castles (joystick version) [Guru]



New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
------------------------------------
Quiz Punch 2 [Luca Elia]
Jingle Bell [Luca Elia]

http://mamedev.org/updates.html