Question for Robotron Owners

[DaveStall]

I purchased a Robotron machine in good working condition over the summer, and I have noticed that the real game as compared to MAME runs a bit slower.

[XtraSmiley]

Actually you're wrong, MAME does emulate the hardware 100%, to include slowdown, just check out any Metal Slug game!

Odds are you have the CPU throttle turned on in MAME which makes the game hardware run at the increased speed of modern computers allowing one to avoid the slowdown in older games.  Just turn this feature off to get true speed (with real world slow down).

Now that being said, maybe there is something wrong with your RT.  Can you give specific levels and such and I'll try and see if mine slows down as well. 

[JODY]

F10 will toggle running a game at full CPU speed versus normal.  Unless you're running on an old PC it is obvious when you're running at full CPU speed.  Robotron would eat you alive on a fast PC.  We're talking at least a 10 fold increase in speed on my PC and it is 2 years old.

[SirPeale]

Actually you're wrong, MAME does emulate the hardware 100%, to include slowdown, just check out any Metal Slug game!

Actually, in this case, YOU'RE wrong!  This is a known issue with Robotron, where there IS no slowdown (there should be).

I know it's been looked at, but I'm unsure of the progress, if any.

[DaveStall]

Thanks for the replies.  Indeed I do have CPU throttling enabled, so I will try deseleting that option to see what the difference is (although it sounds like it might not be much).

Robotron on MAME pretty much does eat me alive through MAME (although I rarely play it emulated for obvious reasons).  I have yet to break 1.5 million playing Robotron through MAME, but I can easily hit scores well over that on the real thing.

Dave

[OSCAR]

This is correct, the Robotron emulation in MAME (with default settings) is faster than the real hardware.  I have had a Robotron boardset hooked up in a cab sitting right next to my MAME cab running Robotron.  Even just in attract mode, the MAME cab will "lap" the real Robotron, meaning that they can both hit the title screen at the same time, but after a given amount of time (maybe 20-30 minutes, didn't really time it), the MAME cab will have hit the title screen one more time than the real hardware.  Hope that makes sense....  In short, you are right, MAME runs Robo faster than a real boardset does.

[RayB]

On another topic, does anyone know where to get replacement leaf switches for the player start buttons?

Just save a search on Ebay, as replacement leaf switches often pop up (sometimes new, sometimes a bunch of old ones like this: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6149257580&rd=1

[XtraSmiley]

Actually you're wrong, MAME does emulate the hardware 100%, to include slowdown, just check out any Metal Slug game!

Actually, in this case, YOU'RE wrong!

[Lilwolf]

I try not to think about it...  And one day... when someone figures out the timing issues... I will FINALLY be able to master robotron!

Setting on easy I'm still not as good as I used to be at the arcade

But it couldn't be my reflexes in old age catching up to me... I wont hear it!

[DaveStall]

Thanks Oscar, that's pretty much what I was seeing as well when running Robotron through MAME compared to my actual Robotron cabinet (my PC sits only a few feet from the cabinet).  The only reason I was asking is because Robotron almost felt too easy once I started playing the real thing again.  The game is still difficult, but I guess playing the MAME version on and off for several years was good practice.

And Lilwolf, I was wondering about my reflexes slowing down as well, but I had been playing MAME'd Robotron on difficulty level 3 and I can get much higher scores on the real machine at the default setting of 5.

Dave

[JODY]

For those wanting a Mame Robotron with slowdown true to the arcade, check out Aaron's April 13th blog where he describes blitter work to try to reproduce the slowdown:

http://aarongiles.com/

[delta88]

Robotron rox! I rebuilt my high score batt holder with the lit batt replacement but yeah.. mame aside the real thing you can so totaly tell a differance.. its funny. I'm better at it on the mame cab as oppsed to the real ting

d88

[paigeoliver]

I am knocking on 1 million on my JAMMA Multiwilliams (which is Mame, so it runs the same speed as Mame) in Robotron as it is.

I imagine I should be able to marathon a real machine once I get a little better at the Jamma one.

[Tiger-Heli]

Odds are you have the CPU throttle turned on in MAME which makes the game hardware run at the increased speed of modern computers allowing one to avoid the slowdown in older games.  Just turn this feature off to get true speed (with real world slow down).

You're also wrong on what CPU throttle does.  Try Sky Shark with CPU throttle turned on and the game with play at 60 FPS, but slow down when the screen gets full of baddies.  Turn CPU throttle OFF and the game with run at 200-300 FPS depending on the horsepower of your CPU.  (Press F11 to see the speed).

If the slowdown bothers you, you can try UNDERclocking the game processors (Tilde menu, might need a cheat file and cheats enabled).  Perhaps OVERclocking the processors would help enable it.  But this also often screws up the audio, FWIW.

[Lilwolf]

underclocking wont really do it.

The trouble is in the video.  The video hardware is being pushed on the real hardware.  (again, look at aarongiles.com and read his second post on blitters).

MAME current doesn't slow down the blitters if its trying to display more then it can handle.  It doesn't effect most games out there.... But robotron is one.  Aaron describes it pretty well. 

But slowing down the processors you might get it the right speed for some levels... But it would be VERY slow in others.

IE its dead on until the screen becomes full of baddies...

[Rocky]

I hate to burst the MAME bubble, but I've run side by side tests between MAME and original hardware for several games, and the timing is always different.

[Lilwolf]

Yes.  That is what everyone is saying.

But its NOT the processors.   Its that the robotron stops the processors when blitting... But in mame, there aren't any slowdowns for the drawing.   So you will see different results for different speed computers.

So underclocking the processors will not help.  They need to add appropriate waits into the video emulation.

[JCKnife]

I hate to burst the MAME bubble, but I've run side by side tests between MAME and original hardware for several games, and the timing is always different.

[SirPeale]

.95u3 came out today.  Aaron Giles rewrote the Williams driver, so give it a whirl.