Dice 0.2 has been released. Now supports 3 games, sound, and more.Note that Dice now has to be run from the command line, using the following format:
dice gamename options
Where "gamename" is the name of the game to be run (pong, rebound, or gotcha), and options is any number of optional command line switches.
Download Link
SourceForge.net Project Page
What's New
-2 new games are supported:
Atari Rebound
Atari Gotcha (driver written by Dan Boris)
-Preliminary Sound support
-Optimization: Pong runs about 30% faster than previous versions
-Fullscreen Mode: Add the command line option -fullscreen to run in full screen mode
-Mouse Support: Add the command line option -mouse to use the mouse for Player 1
Enjoy!
Is there a way for me to easily tell if the emulation is working full speed? One of my cores shows full load, but I don't know if it's actually being maxed out or if Dice just doesn't sleep.
ReplyDelete>Is there a way for me to easily >tell if the emulation is working >full speed?
ReplyDeleteNo UI support yet nor features such as frame rate speed etc.
DICE started within past few months. Those various features would be items for adding later.
Great additional user support with full screen option. Seeing Rebound emulated is awesome.
ReplyDeleteIf Atari Space Race is supported later, thanks.
one of the earliest, most important games? Gets my vote! - This contribution is just wonderful.
ReplyDeleteFantastic work - god knows how you're doing it but keep up!
And surely the MAME team are interested :P ?
Thank you so so much!
Thanks for the great simulator and now fullscree/mouse support. Would request 4:3 aspect ratio support too as Dice stretches out on my 1920x1200 24".
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great project! The fastest discrete simulation I have encountered so far.
ReplyDeleteHere are some bug reports concerning the games:
Gotcha: the game does not realize collisions with the "cross" player and horizontal maze elements.
Pong: in the simulation, all graphic elements are white. On the real board, they should have slight luminance variances as indicated by the schematics (net, player and score mix with different resistor values).
Otherwise: great job! Looking forward to Space War, Tanks, Stunt Cycle and (LOL) Indy 800.
I'm really enjoying your work so far, and can think of many other games I'd like to see. (Death Race, anyone?)
ReplyDeleteAre you looking for bug reports? See my MAMEWorld post for more details.
Thank you for your work
ReplyDeleteWow! Great job already making so much progress with the emulator. Stunt Cycle is one of the only games left from my childhood that I've been wanting to play again for ages. Someone mentioned that there's already some placeholder code for that driver in the current build--any progress to report on getting that one to work?
ReplyDeleteAgain, FANTASTIC work and I can't wait to see what you're able to do in the future.
Cheers,
m@
Great work. I've been looking forward to a simulator like this for years, and even discussed writing one with Mike Cuddy some years ago, but it never panned out. Looking forward to subsequent releases!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant fledgling work! Please keep going with this - bronze age video game preservation needs you!
ReplyDeleteEventually, I'd love to see Atari's Steeple Chase emulated - perhaps the first ever one button accessible game.
Barrie
www.OneSwitch.org.uk
Gotcha was the first coin-op video game that I ever saw. Nice to see you working on a software emulator!
ReplyDeleteI see some strange bounce behavior in your emulator. About a year ago I had similar problems when I emulated Gotcha in a Xilinx FPGA. The culprit was the original (scary) hardware design - it relies on TTL propagation delays to move some signals into the next clock cycle. I solved the problems by delaying HBLANK and FLASH by 0.5 CLOCK cycles, and by delaying MHBLANK by 1.5 CLOCK cycles. I delayed both the true and compliment versions of the signals. Maybe the same fixes will work for you. The 0.5 cycle delays made sense to me, but I never figured out why MHBLANK needed so much delay.
If anyone is wondering how fast Gotcha should run, the upper-right digits should count seconds during game play. The wall change should take about ten seconds to wipe from top to bottom. The player should move from top to bottom in about five seconds.
First of all, thanks so much for doing this. I recognize that you're doing this all on you're own time and you'll work on what's most interesting for you, but if you're interested in feedback on where to develop, i'd love to see dual mouse support and/or configurable keys. i've got two spinners on my mame cabinet just waiting to play some pong.
ReplyDeleteHey Adam, what would I need to do to use a second mouse with your emulator? I'd love to be able to have both players have the analog feel of the mouse. -Malcolm
ReplyDeleteIt occurs to me you could solve the player 2 mouse problem by using the second coordinate from the single mouse. Most MAME cabinets have a spinner that just acts like a single axis mouse. For Pong and Rebound, you could split the single mouse into two controls...
ReplyDeleteFantastic !!
ReplyDeleteKeep up with this very important work! Thanks for bringing back to life the very early gems of arcade video games!!
Cedric
hey!! are you still on this awesome project? please dont kill it. :]
ReplyDeleteI'm working on getting DICE supported in Hyperspin.
ReplyDeleteAny chance we can see keymapping anytime soon?
Ogytork
Still looking for dual mouse support!
ReplyDeleteHi there
ReplyDeleteDICE is very important historically for the emulation scene. Please, find sometime to continue this wonderful project. The world needs it!!!
There are so many early games that we can't play anymore or don't know much about. Their emulation would help people remember it.
I send all my positive vibrations for you to continue.
Best regards
Olivier
from www.old-computers.com