Ridge Racer 2 and Rave Racer link play working in MAME WIP test build.

[SailorSat]

Made *some* progress...
"mode 9" games still show "link 1" in test mode - even if the 8 player link is working (as tested with suzuka8h and fourtrax).

oddly enough, the 8th car in rave racer is flickering in and out of existence.

[John Bennett]

A year or so ago, I'd have been upset you'd beaten me to it.
Now I'm just relieved I don't have to look at it again  . That's excellent stuff   

I couldn't come up with a reliable vsync mechanism, but I'd never twigged that those were multiple TX video frames queuing up in that buffer. Makes a lot of sense now.

You can finish it and run the gauntlet of putting it all into Mame now 

I wonder how many people have seen an 8-player Ridge Racer 2 setup! That panorama is ridiculous!

[anchounio]

That's some incredible work !

Thanks John Bennet for starting it, and SailorSat for continuing it.... It seems close to be done!
Great teamwork !

[SailorSat]

I wonder how many people have seen an 8-player Ridge Racer 2 setup! That panorama is ridiculous!

[John Bennett]

Mmm, yes, that'll do 

Did you just alter the C138 and the System2/21/22 drivers, or does your build have changes to the networking code vs. standard MAME?

I'll admit, I had a play dropping those above drivers from Cabmame into my build of MAME and it made a bit of an attempt to sync two instances, but presumably dropped loads of packets as the games wouldn't show a link. So I was wondering what I was missing.

[SailorSat]

I did indeed. -- https://github.com/mamedev/mame/commit/c729acf5613522e1b44bdbd4534ded655753db1d

[John Bennett]

I should've said the other day, but that works great  .
It's also great seeing the triple screens being properly sync'd at last.

One oddity though - Tokyo Wars. I can get it to start in 2 player but it ends the game immediately. So I guess it's getting enough data across to see the other machine, but not to play a game without faulting.

[xbrunox]

I did indeed. -- https://github.com/mamedev/mame/commit/c729acf5613522e1b44bdbd4534ded655753db1d

Hi Sailor.
When will we have a version of mame also in beta version with these implementations?

[SailorSat]

It should be in 0.276.
As long as my pull requests gets merged.

Bonus:

[anchounio]

Hi SailorSat !
Your PR is incredible. It might be the hugest improvement for MAME LAN emulation ever in a single PR !!!
Thank you for such an amazing work!
Will the changes in C139 LAN emulation be enough to, at least, run a 4 players LAN with those games?   or is it too unstable?

enough for 2 players maybe?

[SailorSat]

Well I've had it running with 8 players too.
Depends on the game and the speed of the machines.

Ridge Racer 2 on my 8-Player Daytona is like gambling... sometimes all 8 link up (and can play), sometimes only two link up (although they can race each other)

[anchounio]

This is interesting... So once the cabinets have linked, the link won't break ?

[SailorSat]

Yes. I can only guess it has to do with some timing. Once they detected each other, they stay detected.

[SailorSat]

I am amused to see we still don't have the correct dump for ridgeracer fullscreen in MAME yet.

[anchounio]

I am amused to see we still don't have the correct dump for ridgeracer fullscreen in MAME yet.

I had not understood your message untill I searched for Ridge Racer fullscreen in youtube. I did not know this 3 screens version existed....  And now I know what you mean: Broken graphics due to a bad dump.

[xbrunox]

It should be in 0.276.
As long as my pull requests gets merged.

Hi Sailor.

Are your implementations merged?
which new games have now lan support?

thanks

[John Bennett]

Sorry to see it's looking like such a chore to get it merged into MAME @SailorSat.
Even when I had 3-screen working on Drivers Eyes and Full Scale, it was something I never fancied doing as the code review gauntlet looks about as much fun as root canal.

[John Bennett]

I am amused to see we still don't have the correct dump for ridgeracer fullscreen in MAME yet.

I had not understood your message untill I searched for Ridge Racer fullscreen in youtube. I did not know this 3 screens version existed....  And now I know what you mean: Broken graphics due to a bad dump.

I am amused to see we still don't have the correct dump for ridgeracer fullscreen in MAME yet.

Yeah, that's would appear on the surface to all be down to me and it's less than amusing

The last Full Scale was saved from a destruction by a large UK retro arcade (who had to go to some trouble and expense to negotiate, buy and transport ).
They allowed me to dump the good ROMs from it on the agreement that, prior to me releasing them, they would be allowed to get their machine up and running first, after all the trouble/expense.

To help matters in this deal I made up a PCB so they could drive all the lights and speedo/tacho dashboard from MAME, should they struggle to get enough original boards working. This took me quite a fair bit of time and money as there's a motorised speedo on the MX-5 with servo feedback, but I thought it was worth it to get the ROMs out there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q702CC6RtkY&feature=youtu.be
(all that vertical tearing between screens is actually now fixed with SailorSat's update to the comms).

But I don't see any progress on the machine being made after about 3 years.
However if I break my word and those ROMs go out, then I think it's very likely all incentive to repair the last Full Scale will disappear and it will remain in storage forevermore, or worse.

So I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't  .

But trust me, I wanted to put those ROMs out there 3 years ago, I gain nothing personally in keeping them, I just get insulted from time to time.

[John Bennett]

It's also worth noting that there's ANOTHER version of Ridge Racer and it isn't dumped anywhere that I'm aware of.



I've tried e-mailing the shopping arcade it's in, but I got no response.

That's basically the final version they did - you can see it's 1994. I think they basically took the 3-screen code of Fullscale and put it into normal Ridge Racer. It has the POV of the normal game and the dials are on-screen. Should be a doddle to add to the emulation, if it ever gets dumped. (and if I get it, it's going live on Internet Archive immediately - no exclusivity deals )

[2huwman]

Yeah, that's would appear on the surface to all be down to me and it's less than amusing

The last Full Scale was saved from a destruction by a large UK retro arcade (who had to go to some trouble and expense to negotiate, buy and transport ).
They allowed me to dump the good ROMs from it on the agreement that, prior to me releasing them, they would be allowed to get their machine up and running first, after all the trouble/expense.

To help matters in this deal I made up a PCB so they could drive all the lights and speedo/tacho dashboard from MAME, should they struggle to get enough original boards working. This took me quite a fair bit of time and money as there's a motorised speedo on the MX-5 with servo feedback, but I thought it was worth it to get the ROMs out there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q702CC6RtkY&feature=youtu.be
(all that vertical tearing between screens is actually now fixed with SailorSat's update to the comms).

But I don't see any progress on the machine being made after about 3 years.
However if I break my word and those ROMs go out, then I think it's very likely all incentive to repair the last Full Scale will disappear and it will remain in storage forevermore, or worse.

So I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't  .

But trust me, I wanted to put those ROMs out there 3 years ago, I gain nothing personally in keeping them, I just get insulted from time to time.

How frustrating, and not cool if you're getting hassle for not releasing them. But do you really think the owner's incentive to repair the Full Scale would reduce if the ROMs were released? It doesn't sound like the owner has much motivation to complete the repair currently anyway (and I'm sure has lots of competing demands on their time). Enthusiasts are always drawn to the original hardware - I could play the 30+ cabs I own on my phone, but that doesn't stop me from going to great lengths to get the real thing! I would think that people will want to play it, if it finally gets completed, whether or not the 3 screen ROMs are out there. Lots of enthusiasts don't know/understand/like/or care about MAME.