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Robotron patch
jasonbar:
Howdy-
Thanks for doing all this work, but I couldn't quite get it figured out...
I got my 2 text files as copied & pasted from the top post. I got the .exe file.
I ran the patcher once each w/ the 2 ROM files & the patcher said that it went OK.
I then replaced teh files in the robotron.zip file & ran Robotron.
I played a quickie game & got a high score & saved initials that were the same as 5 existing initials in the high score table. Robotron told me that there couldn't be more than 5 high scores with the same initials.
Do I have to wipe the high score table or other MAME settings? Are you sure that the 5-initials copy limit is also part of this patch?
Thanks,
-Jason
wongojack:
If you patched robotron.sbb with the Mame5EntriesRobo.txt file AND if you have that file in your rom .zip it should fix the 5 entries issue. I changed nothing in MAME or my UI, I simply gave it a new rom and the next high score I got was able to 'violate' the 5 entries limit.
The second text file is what is needed to fix the shot in corner bug and you have to patch robotron.sb5 to fix that.
You don't have to do both. these are totally seperate operations on 2 different files. If you only patch robotron.sbb with the text from Mame5EntriesRobo.txt you will fix the 5 entries issue. If you only patch robotron.sb5 with MameShotCornerRobo.txt you will fix the shot corner issue. If you patch both and zip them back up then you've got both patched files as part of your Robotron rom.
Be sure that your old unpatched robotron rom is no longer in a valid rom path for MAME.
robohobo:
A link to a discussion of the bug and the bugfix (for posterity)
http://forums.twingalaxies.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=24713&p=162060
CheffoJeffo:
SYSFPGA board is patched, according to jrok.
Haze:
bugs are just part of arcade games much as they are anything else.
Current aftermarket fixes for those bugs don't really go in MAME, but could be coded as a cheat or added to something like misfit. Exceptions would be made if for example such a fixed version ended up being used on mass produced bootlegs, but I can't see anybody mass producing robotron bootlegs for arcade use at the moment ;-)
if you started trying to fix every original bug in every game in MAME (even the ones which an obvious 'solution') then you'd probably have 10x the sets currently in there. Then you've got other things which are design flaws, some may consider them bugs, others may consider them essential to playing the game. There are cases which the designer of the game may have never anticipated happening too, I believe 'Beezer' is a classic example of where the original manufacturer managed to fix one bug, but actually broke the game even further in the process because the actual game design is somewhat flawed when considering the hardware. A lot of video bugs which occur in games happen because the capability of the original hardware was exceeded, again not really just something you can 'fix' anyway.
in the case of robotron the bug is mostly avoidable, and good players will avoid it, other games have more serious issues where the CPU AI can trigger fatal bugs, those are more of an issue, but it's still not really the role of the emulator coders to start fixing the bugs which were in the original games ;-)
it's cool that people are documenting these bugs, and impressive that these games only contain a handful of major flaws, under the same level of frame exact pixel exact scrutiny most modern games would fall apart completely.
robohobo:
Well,
--- Quote from: Haze on February 25, 2012, 08:02:44 pm ---if you started trying to fix every original bug in every game in MAME (even the ones which an obvious 'solution') then you'd probably have 10x the sets currently in there. Then you've got other things which are design flaws, some may consider them bugs, others may consider them essential to playing the game. There are cases which the designer of the game may have never anticipated happening too, I believe 'Beezer' is a classic example of where the original manufacturer managed to fix one bug, but actually broke the game even further in the process because the actual game design is somewhat flawed when considering the hardware. A lot of video bugs which occur in games happen because the capability of the original hardware was exceeded, again not really just something you can 'fix' anyway.
--- End quote ---
IMHO, we are not talking about a random game, but ROBOTRON. Which, except for this glitch, is basically perfect. I don't see why accepting this patch would necessarily open the floodgates for patches of random games.
Also, I'll quote from the twin galaxies discussion:
------ quote ----
Sean Riddle wrote:
...I did a little googling, and it looks like people think the blue ROMs fix the shot-in-the-corner bug, but that's not true. The patch came later- the text in the patch actually reads "1987 CHR.G". I think I originally got the patch from the Digital Eclipse Williams Arcade Classics for Windows 95 CD.
------ \quote ----
Which seems to indicate that an "official" patch was issued in 1987.