Strange that nobody noticed

 

Check the final level of Fairyland Story ending on MamEnd.

The background graphics are quite obviously broken in the top left corner! Strange that nobody reported this bug.

 

Anyway, I've fixed it now.

 

I've also been studying what the MCU does in that game, and the programmers made some interesting choices.

 

First of all, the MCU can return data stored in its internal ROM. This is done with short tables that are needed at the beginning of a level, and when you die. More interestingly, the text needed for the continue screen is stored there, and since you can't continue until level 8, it would take some time for a bootlegger to notice the problem. Even more interestingly, the endgame text is stored there, so one would have to play all the 101 levels to get to the protection.

 

Another wicked part of the MCU protection is that before action starts in a level, the game takes three bytes, performs complicated calculations on them to convert them into an 8-byte number passed to the MCU, and the MCU then performs more complicated calculations, recovers the original bytes and sends them back. A lot of work to essentially do nothing.

 

Finally, during the final level, the MCU is used to calculate and update the trajectory of the dragon's fireballs. Without the MCU, the dragon doesn't fire. I just have to wonder: why bother? How many people would have reached the final level in the arcades? And would bootleggers have bothered anyway? Figure some player going to the arcade owner and asking for her quarter back because the ending was too easy

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Magic Sticks

 

I haven’t had much time for MAME the past few weeks. There are a couple of things I’d like to look at but require fairly significant chunks of time which I just don’t have.

 

I did take a quick look at Magic Sticks by Playmark, but it’s incredibly boring to work on and I think I’ll spend my time on working on things I find more interesting than fixing the remaining problems in this..

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What's New:

 

1) Fixed some bugs.

 

2) Update to the Sound System. 52,000, 96,000 and 192,000 Khz sample rates are supported now. 24bit and 32bit playback is also newly supported.

 

3)3D Surround playback supported.

 

Other Messages and News:

 

Just a small update: added 3D Surround playback to v1.28 Seelama.A close frined of mine,called A Teng was died.A Teng was the debuger and art design of Gens32.You can find some of his works here.

 

-DarkDancer

From the folks here at 1Emulation, it is always a tragedy to see any emulation contributors pass away. Our condolences to A Teng and his family. Rest in Peace.

Importers have been debating the merits of Nintendo's Electroplankton art slash music 'game' released earlier this year in Japan. On one hand, it's not much of a game. You don't experience progress whatsoever. On the other, those who put in the time to immerse themselves in the game's possibilities as a musical device come away happier.

 

Either way, you'll have a chance to find out for yourself when Nintendo brings Electroplankton to the US early next year. On January 9, Nintendo will start offering the game through their website, at the Nintendo World Store in New York and online retailers. For whatever reason, the company has decided to hold back the marketing flood gates on this one.

 

Electroplankton was developed by artist Toshio Iwai, known for his array of music-related art over the years. Iwai is also responsible for developing SimTunes back in the 1990s. "Electroplankton represents just one of the many ways that Nintendo is developing new kinds of software to reach new audiences," said George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior VP of marketing and corporate communications

This could be a new way for Nintendo to sell awesome but rather risky unique games to gamers in outside of Japan.