MAME: Einstein Emulation

[Lardo Boffin]

@Pernod I’d certainly be happy to see DSK supporting saves but to be fair there are a load of Spectrum and CPC emulators out there which probably already do this so you would only really be doing it for the tatty?

[Pernod]

I'm updating the MAME software lists for the Einstein and have a few questions on various titles that I hope people more familiar with will be able to advise upon.

The MAME software lists basically document all known good dumps of software and are tagged as to whether they are supported (working) or not. The current software list mainly consists of floppy images from www.tatungeinstein.co.uk, but has not been updated in a few years so is missing some of the later additions which will be added. I'd also like to add the recently dumped Infocom adventures, and anything else I'm not aware of?

I've heard the 256 Master Disc and 256 Games Pack from Merlin are identical, but even though they may contain the same games can't be identical as the 256 Master Disc will not load on a TC01 due to incompatible DOS. Mario provides a download for the 256 Master Disc with an photo of the 256 Games Pack which is confusing. Can anyone clarify, or provide another image for the 256 Games Pack that is known to work on the TC01?

The games Starbase and Deadzone from Marios site are not DSK images but are MFI (MESS Formatted Image). Looking at the content of the images they claim to be dumps from 5.25" floppies, is this correct? They do work in MAME, but you need to swap the 3" drive for a 5.25" to be able to mount the floppy image.

The image for Konami Four Game Arcade contains 80 tracks on a single side, and so MAME rejects it as invalid. The first 40 tracks appear normal but tracks 40-79 contain no sectors. If I manually edit the DSK image changing the track count to 40 then it works. If this genuinely represents the original floppy then I need to get MAME to accept this rather than hacking the image. Anyone have this and able to redump it to confirm?

There are a few games tagged as not supported, such as Buzz Off!/Shark Hunter, Le Mans, NorseMan/Backgammon, Turbo Chess, and The Wreck. Have these ever working in MAME, and if so, in which version?

[fatbob_gb]

I arent too sure about the specific games litest but any basic loader games last worked in 0.191

[fatbob_gb]

The Konami 4 game arcade is incorrectly dumped - IIRC Elite & Highway Encounter were also a bit dodgy

[Pernod]

The Konami 4 game arcade is incorrectly dumped - IIRC Elite & Highway Encounter were also a bit dodgy

Definitely bad dump, or protection related?

The current Elite dump seems fine. The Highway Encounter DSK image contains the same side repeated 8 times in a single file, think I'll give that a trim!

So without the source of these dumps (Mario) being available, what does anyone here actually have on original floppies, that could be redumped to compare with what we already have?

So far I'd like to see redumped:
Konami 4 Game Arcade
Einstein Master Disc (clean copy)

[fatbob_gb]

I've heard the 256 Master Disc and 256 Games Pack from Merlin are identical, but even though they may contain the same games can't be identical as the 256 Master Disc will not load on a TC01 due to incompatible DOS. Mario provides a download for the 256 Master Disc with an photo of the 256 Games Pack which is confusing. Can anyone clarify, or provide another image for the 256 Games Pack that is known to work on the TC01?

I suspect the TC01 version has just had an older version of xtaldos copied over onto the system tracks - I have 2 copies, one with xtaldos 1.31 and another with 2.05 both of these work on the TC01 & the 256

[Pernod]

I arent too sure about the specific games litest but any basic loader games last worked in 0.191

I wasn't aware of this issue until very recently. Can you list a few examples of titles that will only work in 0.191, and a few titles that will only work in 0.192 and later?

Are there any other known issues that I should be aware of?

[fatbob_gb]

Any basic program should be able to be run with "xbas menu" (to load menu.xbs) command.
Try the Apollo 11 disk as an example. In 0.191 it runs the menu in later version you get a "No File Error in 0" error.

I thought that this was well known - Gamebase has had a workaround for quite a while (they just use 0.191 for basic programs)

[Pernod]

I thought that this was well known - Gamebase has had a workaround for quite a while (they just use 0.191 for basic programs)

I now see you've mentioned this a couple of times in this thread. It was not known to any developers, and should've been submitted as a bug years ago.

The 0.191 release doesn't perform a reset on the WD1770 on accesses to IO port $00, which is incorrect. The 0.192 and later releases do reset the WD1770, but incorrectly. All other WD FDC's perform a Restore command on reset, but the WD177x doesn't, so needs to be handled differently. Should hopefully get a fix in for next release.

Using multiple versions of MAME to workaround issues is never a good idea, get the issues reported, preferably at https://mametesters.org/

[fatbob_gb]

I now see you've mentioned this a couple of times in this thread. It was not known to any developers, and should've been submitted as a bug years ago.

I should have known better and reported the fault when i saw it, thinking that would have already reported it is a stupid thought. Especially since my job is as a software tester.

Am looking forward to seeing Einstein updates in MAME, it is a sadly underlooked platform, it good to see it getting some love.