v0.66 2006.4.27

 

*Core Improved: more program run-time error can be detected by the crash report

* Core Bugfix: fix the bug that the sometimes program will crash when display chat message

>> Get it HERE.

Release 1.28 04-27-2006

==================

* Heavyweight popup link menu didn't handle double-clicks

  correctly. Changed behavior to ensure lightweight popup.

* Minor visual fixes and look and feel optimizations.

>> Get it HERE.

Howdy MAME fans! I bring you another HUGE update. Dozens for fixes and changes to the core, and a new games filter with various systems to choose. There are even some "old school" filters that are a collection of different systems.

    Some files and directory structures have changed so, I recommend you to do a clean install if you do not want to keep old files that will not be used by this build (clean install is NOT necessary but preferable).

I tried to kill all the bugs I could find (both functional and visual), and I took the opportunity to change the appearance of some screens. My goal is to make EL as intuitive and easy to use as possible.

 

Changelog:

 

.changed: Buttons icons in.bmp format with 2 states: normal / disabled... "resources\images\toolbars\buttons". This fixes the bad background for some Win9x / WinXP users (Vista still have bugs)

.changed: Unzipped arcades images from "resources\images\controllers.zip" again

.changed: Removed some old code and optimized some functions

.changed: Updated Graphic32 component to latest version 1.8.1...faster and new image filters

.changed: Renamed "Filters" menu to "Resampler" (main menu "Images") and added some new filters

.added: Reminder message for Custom Game Appearance feature: Dsplays a reminder message after customizing game appearance (deription, category, font)

.changed: Frame box "Customized Game Strings" renamed to "Customized Game Appearance"... preferences screen, general / games tab

.changed: Emulator version info now extract from -listxml output (MAME based emus)... if info cannot be extracted, the old way will be used (-help output).Note: in emulators setup screen, the info is still extracted from the -help output

.added: Frame box "Control Games List With", listing all supported arcade controllers... preferences screen, general / miscellaneous tab: Devastator II, HotRodSE, SlikStik, X-Arcade tabsheets removed

.added: Menu option "Arcade Controllers Layout" (main menu View) to display the images of all controllers and their keys layout used to control games list in the frontend: (Devastator II, HotRod SE, SlikStik, X-Arcade)

.changed: Audit feature. Game name replaced by game title and game name appears in second column (same line as game title)

.fixed: Error in audit feature for games and bios that have "game" / "bios" strings in their titles

.added: Support for 48x48 sized icons in main screen's tool bar buttons: Main menu "View" / "Large Tool Bar" (disabled by default)

.changed: A bunch of icons in "images\toolbars" folder were remade and others added

.changed: Library "IconTools v2.01" replaced by a new library called "TExIcon" created by Colin Wilson (http://www.wilsonc.demon.co.uk/index.htm)

.removed: The library "IconTools" is not used by this project anymore

.fixed: Tons of memory leaks caused by "IconTools v2.01"

.changed: Dynamic loading of tool bar icons / large image type icons to save memory and increase speed

.added: New feature: "Scan Not Used Images". It searches for filenames that do not have a corresponding game name in the games list (main menu "Images"). Note: only unzipped images are supported

.fixed: Zipped icons were not being properly handled in "search missing icons" feature

.added: New feature: "Scan For Missing Images". It searches your entire games list for games that do not have a screenshot (main menu "Images"). Note: both unzipped and zipped images are supported

.changed: Old MAME builds that use "-listinfo" output are automatically detected when creating new MAME games lists

.removed: Check button "Use XML" from emulators setup screen / MAME tabs

.fixed: Splash screen background disappearing when switching between EL and other apps

.fixed: A few actions were not being properly executed when controlling games list with arcade controllers (most noticeable PG_UP / PG_DOWN)

.added: New actions to arcade controllers (when feature enabled). There is also a change in the actions layout for all controllers (see main menu "View" / "Arcade Controllers Layout")

.changed: Game documents feature rewritten to merge all docs functions and to fix several memory leaks when using automatic game info

.added: "Show All" in "Game Documents" games popup menu item. Use this option to view all docs at once from the selected game (game info, history, game driver info, faq). Note: this is not the same as automatic game info!

.fixed: Image type tool bar icons were not being set at startup

.fixed: Tool bar button systems was not included in [ToolBar] section ("EmuLoader.ini")

.changed: move sections "[MAMu_]", "[Audit]" to a new file: "\ini_files\el_extras.ini" since those section are updated only when using certain features. Also, added section "[GameInfo]"

.changed: FMOD always use "Windows Multimedia Output" driver for playback now... this output gives you the best audio quality anyway

.fixed: A few bugs when running EL on Windows Vista (betas)... still, a bunch of visual bugs due Vista's new GUI that will not be fixed until "Delphi Longhorn" is released in 2007

.changed: All updates up to MAME 0.105u3 are supported

.changed: New about screen image ("resources\images\logo\"), new arcade controllers layout images ("resources\images\")

.added: new section in "docs\el-readme.txt" named "Useful Links" with some interesting articles about advanced frontend usage and integration with other apps

>> Get it HERE.

Only 18 hours late...

0.105u3

---------

 

MAMETesters Bugs Fixed

----------------------------

mystston097u3yel [David Haywood]

decocass0105u2yel [Aaron Giles]

taitosj0105u2yel [Aaron Giles]

vicdual0105u2gre [Aaron Giles]

chqflag0105u2red [Aaron Giles]

 

Source Changes

------------------

Fixed and cleaned up the DIP switches in the dec0 driver. [Roberto Fresca]

 

More improvements to the PGM video code. Also added hooks for halting the sound CPU which allows ddp2 to boot. [David Haywood]

 

Fixed incorrect lightgun names. [Derrick Renaud]

 

Fixed Bonze Adventure levels 2 & 9. [bryan McPhail]

 

Refactored the 8530 CIA code from the Amiga into a separate module and made it support both the 6526 and 8530 variants. [Nathan Woods]

 

Fixed/improved DIP switches in the megasys1, dietgo, and yunsun16 drivers. [Twisty]

 

Fixed some DIP switches and added controls for 2nd player in cocktail

mode in Lost Castle in Darkmist. [sonikos]

 

Fixed a number of issues in the Windows rendering code: [Giuseppe Gorgoglione]

* fixed blit_vectors so it used the dirty pixel array in D3D mode

* fixed blit_vectors rotation issue for dirty pixels as well

* changed -full_screen_brightness to -full_screen_gamma (which is a more correct description)

* changed -d3dfilter to be a boolean, since the other filtering modes are either obsolete or not applicable to MAME

* removed limitations on windowing position so you no longer need to be aligned on an 8-pixel boundary

* cleaned up a number of unused global variables

* improved multi-monitor support to work in GDI mode as well as in non-full-screen modes

* added missing documentation for the -screen parameter

 

Fixed some remaining errors and inconsistencies in the content and usage of MAME header files by comparing declarations against actual definitions. Removed many orphaned/duplicate declarations. Added #includes where appropriate, and moved a few declarations to another file when they were in the wrong location. [Atari Ace]

 

Removed a number of unused ROM regions. Most (but not all) of the empty ROM region warnings are now taken care of. Also uncommented/added missing undumped ROMs/XORs in the Namco and CPS2 games. [Aaron Giles]

 

More Amiga cleanups: [Aaron Giles]

* fixed dual playfield mode

* rewrote blitter code (fixes glitches in ar_bowl and others)

* changed Arcadia boot loading to use ROMtags instead of autoconfig

* swapped Kickstart 1.2 in for Arcadia BIOS (fixes ar_sdwr)

 

 

 

New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status

------------------------------------------------------------------

Puzzle Star [XingXing]

Marine Date [MAME32Plus]

Speed Up [Aaron Giles]

Up Scope [Mariusz Wojcieszek, Tomasz Slanina, Aaron Giles]

Greyhound Poker (Version 50.02) [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

 

New clones added

--------------------

The Pit (Bootleg) [brian Troha]

Amidar (Bootleg) [brian Troha]

Moon Cresta (bootleg set 3) [brian Troha]

Xexex (ver AAA) [Corrado Tomaselli]

 

New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING

--------------------------------------------------

The Gladiator [David Haywood]

http://www.mamedev.org

Derivative Builds:

MAME32qa

MAMEplus!

MAME32PlusSpecial

MAME32Hp4

MAME32plus (Ash-build)

Dats:

MAMEinfo.dat

History.dat 1.06m

Info.dat

Notes:

MAME Plus! 0.105u3 2006-04-27

First, we'd like to convey appreciation for the works of XingXing in the latest pgm drivers ^^

 

* fixed M68K ASM core for encrypted games

* added save state support to 68040 FPU registers

* disabled SMS VDP Display for megatech single monitor mode

* integrated official MAME32 BIOS view with ours

* added View PCB Info to GUI [MASH]

* new image enhancement filters:

** updated HQ/LQ filters from AdvanceMAME / MAME32 More! 0.83a

** enabled all 4x filters