MAME: Einstein Emulation

[Pernod]

The Einstein is surprisingly only emulated in MAME. The TC01 has been emulated for many years but was not until very recently that the ROM from an Einstein 256 was dumped, and made available to emulate.

Here are some screenshots from the current Einstein 256 emulation:

0001.png (3.82 KiB) Viewed 23951 times

0012.png (11.85 KiB) Viewed 23951 times

0009.png (6.52 KiB) Viewed 23951 times

[vanpeebles]

Certainly looks good. It's been a long long time since I last used MAME!

[fatbob_gb]

The MAME emulation of the Einstein has improved dramatically over the last couple of years, it is really useful to use as a debugger.

[sirmorris]

I've been using it a lot lately and it might be something I'm doing but I get frequent hangs. I have to force quit it. I'm on a Mac so this could be a factor.

[Pernod]

I've been using it a lot lately and it might be something I'm doing but I get frequent hangs. I have to force quit it. I'm on a Mac so this could be a factor.

Are you referring to the Einstein emulation, or MAME in general? I only use Windows and have never known MAME to hang.

[sirmorris]

The debugger. I think it's related to the PSG emulation as everything was huynky dory before I added the music & sound effect drivers.

[Pernod]

The debugger. I think it's related to the PSG emulation as everything was huynky dory before I added the music & sound effect drivers.

This sounds like a side effect of using the debugger, where reading a location triggers some change, ie. toggles the rom.

Can you provide steps for me to duplicate the issue?

[sirmorris]

This just repro'd it for me. Mac, OSX 10.12 sierra.

$ ./mame64 einstein -debug
(no disks are configured, tc01 will boot into MOS)
> g
(wait for tc01 to boot)
> g 100
(keys are echoed in einstein, which is curious but in this case a useful side effect)
> load biggoil.com,100
> g
(set some breakpoints, generally debug the code)
> soft

A lot of the time hangs here. The program in question is attached.

* EDIT - ignore the conjecture about sound, I've commented out the player and it still hangs. I've tried a few different builds of mame now with the same issue.

[Pernod]

I couldn't repro the hang, but the game sounds great!

Are you doing the 'g 100' from the debugger or einstein? From the debugger will be a problem as the ROM is likely paged in.

soft always performs a soft reset here (Windows) and never hangs.

Would it be useful to add a quickload option to load and execute .COM files?

[sirmorris]

Hmm, yes that makes a big difference. Typing G 100 on the TC01, rather than in the debugger, allows me to happily debug and reset to my heart's content!

Thanks for the pointer, this will make a big difference