why was Cruis'n Exotica never emulated ?

[mebronx2000]

i have been waiting many years for a playable Cruis'n Exotica ! anyone know why one was never finished ? 

[vandale]

Correct me if I am wrong but I read somewhere a long time ago that the proprietary 3DFX video hardware never got reverse engineered to a point where they could code a linear solution in MAME 

[MrThunderwing]

Correct me if I am wrong but I read somewhere a long time ago that the proprietary 3DFX video hardware never got reverse engineered to a point where they could code a linear solution in MAME 

I believe that's also the same reason we haven't seen a working version of Hydro Thunder in MAME yet, something I'd very much like to see as someone who never got to play (or even see) a HT arcade machine, but who played the heck out of the Dreamcast version. I believe the differences are minimal, but I'm still curious.

[BadMouth]

A lot of the time it's just that nobody with the proper skills has taken an interest in it, or there is some roadblock that is going to take more time to work out than they currently want to invest.  Offroad challenge had a graphics bug for the longest time.  Turned out it was a simple coding error, but nobody bothered to revisit the code until someone with an interest in the game came along and easily fixed it.  Looks to me like they're applying things they learn elsewhere, but nobody feels like dedicating themselves to this specific hardware at the moment.

- 0.146u5: Fix compile error (video\midzeus.c) [Miodrag Milanovic].

 - 0.145u7: Aaron Giles fixed crash before OK in Midway Zeus driver.

 - 0.142u6: Midway Zeus improvements [Phil Bennett]: Added some alternate FIFO commands used by clone Mortal Kombat 4 (version 1.0). Hooked up the short-format draw command (used to draw life bars and shadows in Mortal Kombat 4). Added support for alternate 4/8 bit texture formats (used by Mortal Kombat 4).

 - 0.138u4: Miodrag Milanovic fixed Midway Zeus driver assert in debug build.

 - 0.130u4: Aaron Giles fixed MAME asserts during load time in all Midway Zeus sets.

 - 0.129u2: Phil Bennett fixed a access violation (debug) for all Midway Zeus sets.

 - 0.127: smf identified compatible timekeeper used by Midway Zeus II. Removed all the timekeeper memory handlers, except for 8 bit & changed the drivers to use the conversion built into the memory system.

 - 0.125u7: Fabio Priuli updated the Midway Zeus driver which shared some input code.

 - 0.122u3: Added layout\crusnexo.lay. Zeus updates [Aaron Giles]: Better documented various bit latches. Hooked up crusnexo lamp board (added layout). Fixed year in MK4 startup test.

 - 0.122u2: Zeus2 (+related) updates [Aaron Giles]: Fixed save states for DCS games. Cleaned up Zeus2 waveram handling. Added Zeus2 save state support. Added preliminary model and quad rendering support for Zeus2. Added support to timekpr for the ZPRAM used on Zeus2. Hooked up ZPRAM in Zeus2 games. Hooked up controls in Zeus2 games. Updated poly.c to ensure it is idle before saving state. Added artifical Z offset of -2 to make the full screen show in crusnexo.

 - 27th December 2007: Aaron Giles - When I first started working on the Midway Zeus 3D hardware, I was hopeful that the so-called "Zeus 2" chip would follow logically from the original. So it was with heightened expectations that I started looking at Cruis'n Exotica and The Grid, during a couple of free days I had off. Sadly, my wishes did not come true. While the second generation Zeus chip shares a few fundamental concepts with the original, there is quite a lot about it that is very different. For example, the Zeus 2 renders to a 32bpp framebuffer instead of 16bpp, and directly accepts some parameters in the wacky TMS3203x floating-point format rather than requiring the main CPU to convert everything to integers first. But even worse, all the registers and data formats are different, so it's like starting from scratch again. It's been pretty frustrating making progress, but at least I have something to show. The game is "playable" as long as you don't mind not seeing large chunks of geometry and enjoy having your view blocked by the background. But at least textures and colors seem to be mostly right, and the geometry is fundamentally there, if a bit mis-sorted. The Grid is proving even more problematic, demonstrating a fundamental flaw in the TMS3203x interrupt handling that is causing me to rework it in the core and then fix all the other games that use it.

[BadMouth]

For anyone interested:
http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/Midway_Zeus_2

[Howard_Casto]

If it ran on Zeus 2 then don't hold your breath.  From everything I've read, Zeus 1 was a crazy backwards mess that took years to sort out and it was in the death thrawls of midway's arcade division, so Zeus 2 was made when they were shoveling dirt on the coffin.

Also even if it was emulated.... note the speed at which MK4 runs in mame...... it'd be like that only slower.

[dmckean]

It would be a lot of work for only two games.

[mebronx2000]

thanks for all the replies !     maybe someone will make it ! 

[Malenko]

there is always the N64 version, I have it and I love it.

[Yenome]

Correct me if I am wrong but I read somewhere a long time ago that the proprietary 3DFX video hardware never got reverse engineered to a point where they could code a linear solution in MAME 

I believe that's also the same reason we haven't seen a working version of Hydro Thunder in MAME yet, something I'd very much like to see as someone who never got to play (or even see) a HT arcade machine, but who played the heck out of the Dreamcast version. I believe the differences are minimal, but I'm still curious.
[/quote

I played on the arcade version at walmart all the time still play it anytime i see a hydro thunder machine. i got the pc version of it think it is slightly better than the dc version as i have that one too.