MAME 0.37b4

Release Date

MAME 0.37b4 was released on 16 June 2000.

Contributors

The known contributors for this version are, in alphabetical order:

• Aaron Giles
• Jarek Burczynski
• Nathan Woods
• Nicola Salmoria
• Paul Leaman
• Zsolt Vasvari

Specific Contributions

The known contributions for this version are, in the order specified in the whatsnew:

• Nicola Salmoria smoothened the background in Return of the Jedi.

• Aaron Giles greatly improved Star Fire / Fire One.

• Nicola Salmoria fixed the final fireworks in Ajax.

• Aaron Giles fixed the sound in the Exidy games.

• Paul Leaman improved the YM2413 emulation.

• The SEAL patch of the DOS version was bugged on mono sound cards, a new one is included.

• Nathan Woods fixed save_screen_snapshot() to save VIDEO_PIXEL_ASPECT_RATIO_1_2 games with the correct aspect ratio. Also introduced save_screen_snapshot_as(). Porters are STRONGLY ADVISED to use one of these functions to save screen shots, instead of providing their own. Note that osd_save_snapshot() now takes a bitmap argument, so it must not be hardwired to save Machine->scrbitmap (overlays wouldn't be saved otherwise).

• Nicola Salmoria made a few changes to allow run time changes to the visible area, and to simplify the OS dependant code by moving some functionality to the core.
  • Added visible_area to struct RunningMachine. Drivers must now use Machine->visible_area instead of Machine->drv->visible_area. The field in struct MachineDriver has been renamed default_visible_area and it should normally be used by the core only.
  • New function set_visible_area() that can be used by drivers to change the active display area at run time.
  • New function osd_set_visible_area() used to tell the OS dependant code the portion of the bitmap that has to be drawn on screen. It is passed coordinates relative to the actual bitmap, so no further processing is required for rotated games. The OS dependant code is allowed to display a smaller portion of the bitmap if necessary, but it must not draw a larger portion (which might contain garbage). The function must call set_ui_visarea() to tell the core the portion of the bitmap which is actually visible (which might be smaller than requested), so the user interface can be drawn accordingly.
  • osd_update_video_and_audio() takes a bitmap parameter so must not be hardwired to draw Machine->scrbitmap.
  • New fields vector_width and vector_height in struct GameOptions. The OS dependant code must initialize them to force different resolutions for vector games. If left at 0, the default 640x480 is used.
  • osd_create_display() must no longer create the screen bitmap, this is done by the core. It must only create the display screen / window, and return 0 on success. Note that the width and height parameters passed are now the dimensions of the visible area, not of the bitmap as they were before; therefore the function only has to create a screen / window of the requested size, without further processing, and without peeking into the drv->visible_area field. This applies to osd_set_display() as well.
  • Changed osd_new_bitmap() and renamed it osd_alloc_bitmap() to avoid confusion with old drivers. The function is the same as before but it must not swap width and height for vertical games - this is done by the core. osd_new_bitmap() and osd_free_bitmap() must not be called by drivers, they are reserved to the core. Drivers must call the equivalent bitmap_alloc() and bitmap_free() which take care of rotation for vertical games.

• The meaning of the full_refresh parameter to vh_screenrefresh() has been slightly extend. It usually means "don't make incremental updates to the screen bitmap, redraw it completely", however if the driver wants it can also mean "redraw all temporary bitmaps". This happens when using the functions below. This way, drivers doing lots of memset(dirtybuffer,1) can be simplified and schedule it just at the beginning of vh_screenrefresh.

• Added some functions that make flip screen handling a little more eloquent: flip_screen_x_w(), flip_screen_y_w(), flip_screen_w() to set the flip_screen bits, and 3 variables flip_screen_x, flip_screen_y, flip_screen to read them back. If the flipscreen changes, the funtions automatically set full_refresh to true for the next call of vh_screenrefresh. The functions also call tilemap_set_flip(ALL_TILEMAPS), so no further operations are required when using TileMaps. Finally, the functions also adjust the visible area, mirroring it, in case it is asymmetrical. For example, rockola.c relies on this.

• Zsolt Vasvari added 2 helper functions:
  • void set_vh_global_attribute( data_t *addr, data_t data ). This takes a pointer to any variable and a value, and sets the variable to the value. In addition, if the value has changed, it sets full_refresh to true by calling the next function.
  • void schedule_full_refresh(void) This just sets full_refresh to true for the next screenrefresh. See vidhrdw/galaxian.c for examples on this and set_vh_global_attribute.

Game Support

New Games added or promoted from GAME_NOT_WORKING status

• Victory
• Hana Awase
• Hit the Ice
• Rambo III
• Quiz Sekai wa SHOW by shobai

New clones added

• Rescue Raider (Stand-Alone)
• Pang 3 (Euro)
• Sangokushi II (= Warriors of Fate)
• Ashura Blaster (US)
• Exodus (= Defend the Terra Attack on the Red UFO)