Get ready for a real classic arcade: simple gameplay yet very addictive! Ideal to play with the kids during Christmas. I am happy to announce the public release of Popeye.
Although the core is better than the beta version, particularly in sound, it is still not complete. That's why the OSD ...
2019-12-27 07:06:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Santa's little present for Christmas eve is a gamepad driving game: F-1 Dream!
Controls:
button A: slow
button B: fast
buttons A+B: turbo
no buttons : break
This...
2019-12-24 07:50:49 +0000 UTC View Post
(español abajo)
After three weeks of intense work, here it is for your enjoyment: Double Dragon!
The core follows the original schematics, which I eventually found, and there are
no compromises regarding accuracy. The only point I need to check is whether the 6801 CPU ...
2019-12-21 09:04:12 +0000 UTC View Post
A nice graphical effect is to have the characters go underneath elements in the screen. Like the soldier behind the palm tress in Commando.
One way to create this effect is to have that background drawn directly on the sprite layer, using sprites as though they were tiles. That is the appro...
2019-12-15 12:42:43 +0000 UTC View Post
I sent emails a couple of days ago with each person's number for the raffle. I asked Torlus to give me a random number today to pick up the winner. Why Torlus? Torlus is one of the pioneers in FPGA retro cores. He developed the initial versions of many beloved cores such as the Megadrive or the J...
2019-12-03 19:26:25 +0000 UTC View Post
I read this week that on a certain CPS0 game it was possible to select the start level if the test mode DIP switch was set after the game had started. The level was selected by using the price DIP switches.
So far, I had always set these switches to 1 credit 1 coin. I...
2019-12-01 20:41:41 +0000 UTC View Post
I am releasing the Bionic Commando core only slightly improved over the beta. The scroll related glitches are almost gone but there is still no sound. Actually, I am precisely releasing it because there is no sound. In computer simulations of the core I do get sound. The attached file is the outp...
2019-11-29 07:27:09 +0000 UTC View Post
As you requested on last month's poll, I have worked this month on Black Tiger (beta files here). This is an aw...
2019-11-24 21:24:33 +0000 UTC View Post
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When Paul Leaman wrote emulators for CAPCOM games he came across a constant writing by the CPU to a misterious address. The CPU didn't seem to be waiting for any data after that writting. It also kept writting the same value. What could that be for? He assumed it was...
2019-11-21 11:03:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Tiger Road PCB has an empty socket for an intel microcontroller (MCU). Also some chip footprints are drawn on the board, but the chips are not there. If you fill those gaps you will just get a F1 Dream PCB! Yes, it looks like these two games shared the same design!
It has been rather easy t...
2019-11-18 18:46:28 +0000 UTC View Post
(español abajo)
Today is my son's birthday. To celebrate it with all of you, here is the public release for Tiger Road (also known as Tora e no michi). This includes both western and Japanese versions. The Japanes...
2019-11-14 17:20:34 +0000 UTC View PostAs I told you about here, I was working on the cores for better sound. I have the update finally ready. Grab it using the update script, or directly from the binary repository 2019-11-13 06:34:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Tiger Road uses ADPCM recordings for the Japanese version. I needed a core for the MSM5205 ADPCM decoder and there was not anyone ready to use in the scene. I have written one and made it public here.
This is an import...
2019-11-10 10:46:27 +0000 UTC View Post
The old AY-3-8910 3-channel programmable sound generator (PSG), used in the Atari ST and Amstrad CPC computers along many arcades had a second life inside the FM chips YM2203 and YM2610. You may recognize them as the sound synthesizers used in NeoGeo and many arcades from the 80's.
This PSG...
2019-11-06 18:34:38 +0000 UTC View PostThank you for your support. This month work has been focused at gaining experience and developing IP. I chose two 16-bit games for this purpose:
- Bionic Commando
It was my birthday today, so here is a present for you :-)
This has been an intense month with a lot of new components. Trying to gain momentum for the CPS1 task I have worked on two cores that share elements with it:
-The M68000 CPU
-The brightness control ...
2019-10-27 21:49:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Bionic Commando and CPS1 systems feature brightness control. Let's see how that works.
Most arcade games have four bits for each colour component: red, green and blue. These four bits are each a digital signal which can be either 5 Volt or 0 Volt. Arcade boards connect resistors to these si...
2019-10-26 17:02:08 +0000 UTC View Post
I have spent a few days bringing my YM2151 core up to some design practices I didn't follow at the time. I have added clock gating, which allows to use a single clock domain for all the FPGA core -this helps synthesis. I have also updated its CPU interface to work better with CPUs that use a diff...
2019-10-26 11:43:34 +0000 UTC View PostBionic Commando and Tiger Road cores are fairly advanced now and I will release the beta versions soon. I would like to get a sense of popularity for you guys about remaining CPS0 games.
Please vote (you can pick more than one) If it is not in the lis...
2019-10-21 13:30:01 +0000 UTC View Post
The 1943 object (sprite) engine was implemented in a custom chip so it wasn't possible to look inside. However, the pin names are similar to those used in other CAPCOM games so it was pretty much obvious how to hook it up to an already working object engine.
Ghosts'n Goblins is designed for...
2019-10-20 15:41:57 +0000 UTC View Post
(español abajo)
I am looking now at 16-bit CAPCOM games, particularly Bionic Commando and Tiger Road. I have the Tiger Road PCB and I'd like to give it away among patrons supporting that core.
If you are not already a patron and reading it, join in to support the Tiger Road core and ...
2019-10-12 18:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
(español abajo)
GunSmoke and Vulgus cores are ready. These are two boards I bought in Japan thanks to the support you give me. These games have been possible because you were there! Thank you so much :-)
128 MB SDRAM module support for all cores, plus many bug fixes in SFX sound ...
2019-10-07 17:36:34 +0000 UTC View PostI have spent a few hours today fixing sound problems in the NeoGeo core. Thanks to loloC2C for showing specific examples of broken sounds so I could debug it.
Sorgelig will eventually update the repository and publish the changes but if you want to catch up with the latest ...
2019-10-05 20:20:27 +0000 UTC View PostThis has been an intense month:
1. GunSmoke beta for patrons
2. Vulgus beta for patrons
3. First work on a Motorola 68000 based system
4. First work on a system with an intel 8051 MCU
I am focusing now in closing up the CPS0 games as I think I have a good momentum with th...
2019-09-29 07:42:00 +0000 UTC View Post(Español abajo)
128MB memory modules have a different arrangement for memory pins which prevents the released JT cores to work.
I am currently waiting for my own 128 memory module to arrive so I can test the updated cores with it.
I will release updated versions of all cores te...
2019-09-26 05:03:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Find them here. Please do not distribute, this is beta work only for patreons.
2019-09-21 08:58:20 +0000 UTC View Post
A few months ago, Frédéric Mahé, one of our director patrons, asked me for Vulgus. I hadn't played it before. I soon learnt that it is considered the first CAPCOM arcade game. And when I played it, I found its difficulty curve to be unusually kind and it makes...
2019-09-21 08:56:24 +0000 UTC View PostIn case you didn't receive the private message, here is the link to the GunSmoke beta.
2019-09-14 15:58:17 +0000 UTC View Post14th Sept 2019
* Fixed ogre sound
* Fixed sprite alignment with background (stairs)
* Fixed bug that erased the first pixel of the sprite line buffer
* Added more DIP options through OSD menu
...
As you know, sound is a repetition phenomenon. Each note is a complex waveform repeating at a given frequency. And the music itself advances at a fixed pace.
In all the CAPCOM cores released so far, the sound frequency source was closely related to the rest of the system: a pixel clock was ...
2019-09-13 15:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post