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Ridge Racer 2 and Rave Racer link play working in MAME WIP test build.
flybynight:
Over on the UKVAC forums, John Bennett has posted a WIP build of MAME with his Ridge Racer 2 and Rave Racer link play code working for testing. More details in his post at the link below
www.ukvac.com/forum/ridge-racer-full-scale-3-screens_topic378519_page2.html
Hopefully John submits the code to the main branch of MAME. It's great to have another driver cab working in link play. We are spoiled with all the link play progress lately :)
Hydreigon:
Sadly the forum is inaccessible for non UK VAC members.
I'm praying for Konami network play as well.
Boomslang:
very cool
it takes all of 2 mins to quickly sign up to their forum so not a huge deal. I just registered and grabbed link etc
*EDIT*
actually i see John Bennett already gave permission for link and info to be posted elsewhere so here is his post below
Ok, I've not done anything much on this in a while, but folk wanted to have a try of the multiplayer linkup WIP.
So, if you download this link, you should be able to have a go at:
Rave Racer
Ridge Racer2
https://philwip.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Mamejb_1.zip
Install it then get the ROMs for those 2 games.
In the folder you will see some batch files
linkup1_to_2.bat
linkup2_to_1.bat
Run both of these to open 2 MAME instances and open the game twice.
It will run like sh*te (1fps) until both instances are open as there's a comms wait in there I need to improve somehow.
Anyway when both running, go into the service menu (Tab, dip switches) and set the CPU number to 2 in the second player and maybe pick a different car colour). Unset the dip to save it. MAME should have two sets of configuration folders - one for each instance. It might be a pain to do as the keyboard may input to both sides, but you should be able to muddle through.
It should now work with 2 players on one PC. Windows will ask for access rights for MAME - say yes. This is because it uses 'globalcomms' to link the games up, the same way the Sega stuff does.
If you read up on how to use that, you should be able to put one instance on another PC over a LAN. It'll involve editing the addresses in the bat files. I've never tried it.
If you want a play of fullscale, then so linkups1_to2, 2_to_3 and 3_to_1 (as it's 3 instances). I think I set the jumpers right for it to run. It's obviously a technicolour nightmare with bad video ROMs. Needs a beefy PC, but it's now spreading the load over multiple cores, unlike one instance of MAME, so I can run it at 60fps here
3 or more players craps out on RR2 and Rave Racer - too many dropped packets in the chain. I need to think of a sync method, but it's hard when there is no 'master' PCB in the Namco system (all boards are considered equal).
Ignore any other 'supported' games in this mini-build - just things I've been dicking on with. You'll want to turn scanlines down too - not appropriate for VGA games and looks awful.
Anyway, this is NOT any kind of official release and I don't know when I'll get to work on it again, but consider yourselves playtesters if you like.
flybynight:
If you are using two PC's, add these to the mame.ini file:
PC#1 Left side, Car 1, hostname: PC1 mame.ini settings:
# CORE COMM OPTIONS
comm_localhost 0.0.0.0
comm_localport 15111
comm_remotehost PC2
comm_remoteport 15112
comm_framesync 0
PC#2 Right side, Car 2, hostname: PC2 mame.ini settings:
# CORE COMM OPTIONS
comm_localhost 0.0.0.0
comm_localport 15112
comm_remotehost PC1
comm_remoteport 15111
comm_framesync 0
Then start up PC2, launch the game and tap F2 to enter service mode. Set it to Car 2 and change the colour to Yellow.
MrThunderwing:
Thanks for sharing the link and the info from the site Boomslang. I've created a single batch file for each game that'll load both versions of MAME (P1 & P2) at the same time and go directly into the game without having to navigate the MAME GUI. I'm sure you all know how to make batch files, but for anyone who doesn't, just add the following text into a notepad file then save it with the extension .bat on the end of whatever you call it.
for Rave Racer add the following:
start /b jb_build64.exe raveracw -w -cfg_directory cfg -nvram_directory nvram1 -comm_localport 15111 -comm_remoteport 15112 -comm_localhost 0.0.0.0 -comm_remotehost 127.0.0.1
start /b jb_build64.exe raveracw -w -cfg_directory cfg2 -nvram_directory nvram2 -comm_localport 15112 -comm_remoteport 15111 -comm_localhost 0.0.0.0 -comm_remotehost 127.0.0.1
For Ridge Racer 2:
start /b jb_build64.exe ridgera2 -w -cfg_directory cfg -nvram_directory nvram1 -comm_localport 15111 -comm_remoteport 15112 -comm_localhost 0.0.0.0 -comm_remotehost 127.0.0.1
start /b jb_build64.exe ridgera2 -w -cfg_directory cfg2 -nvram_directory nvram2 -comm_localport 15112 -comm_remoteport 15111 -comm_localhost 0.0.0.0 -comm_remotehost 127.0.0.1
Navigating the test menu was a bit of a pain in the arse as I was trying to figure out what keys you press to select the options. Pressing F2 will take you straight into the test menu without having to use the dipswitch options. Once in there, use the left arrow key on the keyboard to move through the options. Use the ctrl button (the default accelerator) to select the option you want and use left and right arrow keys to select the car number and the CPU number (I think it was under 'machine options' off the top of my head).
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