Sinistar: Synamax 2025 Mod Revision

[jasonbar]

Have you guys seen this? Pretty awesome documentary, & I want to get it onto my cabinet.

https://youtu.be/lCuoUSDBVac?si=TmsrWH7zYvFcT2Cj

https://archive.org/details/sinistar_synamax_mod_2025


Anybody succeeded in getting this into their cab?

Thanks!

[bobbyb13]

I had been following Max's work on this back when he began just looking into the audio stuff.
I got really distracted with life things that couldn'e be ignored, and then he decided he would teach himself how to disassemble the original code, find a new assembler that could manage the task of rebuilding this game entirely, and then rewriting the ENTIRE thing to compile with what he had talked with the original developers as being the way they really wanted the game to be.

WOW

So finally I may have time to get around to working on this for my Jrok Sinistar scratch build.
I am code stupid mind you, and have no clue how anything works on getting things off GitHub but I believe that properly named roms copied to my Jrok may actually work.

We'll see who succeeds first I guess?

Are you working with an original machine or a mame box or...?

I am overdue with sending him some $$ to show appreciation for the YEARS he spent working on this.
I know he has a Patreon acct and somewhere on klov I saw a paypal address for him too.

That gent has earned some cheddar for sure.

[jasonbar]

I messaged him & he pointed me to the ROMs. I'm just super busy, & this is a low priority, so I'm not sure when I'll get to putting it on my old MAME cab. You'll probably win.

Thanks

[bobbyb13]

Well, I've had a go at it, a few times (maybe 10 different ways) and have failed.
No surprise to me that there is something that I am missing.
I was failing so miserably that I decided tontrybit in mame on the laptop to see what was up and I get warning banners of roms missing (but only some of them,) checksums bad, and something else I can't recall.

I'm at a loss presently, so you may still beat me.

[jasonbar]

Darn. Sorry to hear that. I played it at California Extreme the other day. Pretty neat. It was set on 30k free guys & still super fast. I'm way out of practice...

[PL1]

Well, I've had a go at it, a few times (maybe 10 different ways) and have failed.
No surprise to me that there is something that I am missing.
I was failing so miserably that I decided tontrybit in mame on the laptop to see what was up and I get warning banners of roms missing (but only some of them,) checksums bad, and something else I can't recall.

I'm at a loss presently, so you may still beat me.

Not sure what version of MAME you're running, but it's working in MAME 0.262 and 0.238 when launched via shortcut, .bat file, or command line.
- Also tried it in MAMEUIFX 0.153, but it did not work.
- Looks like you need at least MAME version 0.225 based on changes to the names of the ROM files inside sinistar.zip -- see list at http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/dettaglio_mame.php?game_name=sinistar.

If you want to keep the original sinistar ROMs so you can switch back if you don't like the modded version, rename the original "sinistar.zip" to something like "sinistar_orig.zip".

Put the 90kB .zip file with the modded ROMs in your "mame\roms\" folder.
- IIRC, it's a merged ROM containing files for sinistar, sinistar2, sinistarc, and sinistarp.

Rename (or copy/overwrite) the modded ROMs file to "sinistar.zip".

*** Modded ROMs have different checksums than the originals so it will not run from MAME's built-in UI. ***

Launch from shortcut, .bat file, or command line with the command "mame sinistar" or "mame sinistar2" or "mame sinistarc" or "mame sinistarp".
- It will warn you that the checksums don't match, but it will still run.   


Scott

[bobbyb13]

Thanks for chiming in Scott!
I'll have another try.  Man, do I suck at this part of this hobby.
I believe I was using 0.278 but I could be wrong.
The ultimate is to be able to add these to my jrok board in the Sinistar repro cabinet so we'll see how I do with that too.

[Mike A]

When I get some time, I am going to burn the ROMs for my Sinistar cab.