JOTEGO posts
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Service Release + Victorious Nine
The JTFLSTORY core now covers one more game:HistoryBaseball game released by Taito in 1984. The game uses the names of Japanese professional baseball teams of the time. Players who were active on their respective teams at the time also appear but with slightly different names. The batter and pitcher zoom screen was quite novel at the time, and it was a fairly authentic baseball game where the batting average and defence percentage also changed as players could be switched. However, the controls ...
TYPHOON GAL/ONNA SANSHIRO - RUMBA LUMBER
I resumed work on the JTFLSTORY beta. There are a few more games that run on similar hardware. The new beta brings support to two more games.TYPHOON GAL/ONNA SANSHIROReleased by Taito in 1985, this action game tells the story of a female fighter: Yuki, a dojo breaker. Dojo breaker means going to halls used for martial arts training and asking them to let you fight. The honor of the dojo is at stake. The game can be played by two players, but there is no player-vs-player mode. The two players tak...
JTTWIN16: Cue Brick Support
HistoryPuzzle game released by Konami in 1989. The stage is cleared by moving the blocks on the board and connecting the rails so that your ship can pass through all the rails. (Don't worry, the rails disappear once you pass through them.There were 100 stages in total, but the game board was equipped with the arcade industry's first save game function, so the last stage you played could be saved by registering a four-character password at the end of the game. However, this password could...
Gradius 2: Gopher's Ambition
This week JTTWIN16 beta is expanded to support Gradius 2. This game was originally failing because the scroll settings that affect the sprite location were not applied at the expected time. That caused the game not to detect any collisions so the ship would just have a peaceful travel to the boss scene, and then stay there as you cannot hit the boss. Gladly, it is working now.HistoryReleased by Konami in 1988. The newly developed super-time fighter Big Piper is now ready to launch in order to pr...
Ninja Gaiden/Shadow Warriors
Happy New Year and welcome to the first release of 2025. We just had JTTWIN16 beta featuring Dark Adventure a few days ago so I am sure you did not see today's one coming!Update your BETA.KEY file for this releaseHistoryDeveloped by Tecmo, this belt-scrolling action game was first released in North America and Europe in October 1988, note that the Japanese release came later! The evil general Bladedamus, who has the blood of Nostradamus in his veins, had kidnapped the President of the USA, a...
The Game with Three Names
HistoryDevil Worldin Europe, 魔獣の王国 Maju no Okokuin Japan and Dark Adventurein North America, where the game system was significantly changed. This Konami's 1987 game was developed by Hiroyasu Machiguchi, who worked on "Gradius" and "Life Force", together with other members of his team.The story is about an archaeologist professor who discovers an ancient coffin. The lid of the coffin was to be opened in front of a large crowd of TV and media people gathered to cove...
Service Release
A couple of small things that affect almost all JT cores in this week's release:Better low pass filter implementation, with more precise cut-off frequency, attenuation and much less quantization noise. This is a side effect of the work I have been doing on implementing the equalizer for JTFLSTORYSupport for screen rotation on vertical games over HDMI and VGA outputs (30kHz) for SiDi128, courtesy of robinsonb5 and gyurco. Support for The FairyLand Story on MiST, by gyurcoUse your preferred up...
The FairyLand Story
Saturday release this time, as there was a last minute hickup yesterday.HistoryThis fixed-screen action game was developed and released by Taito in 1985. Compared to "Chack'n Pop", a game with a similar system released by the same company the previous year, the number of items and enemy types increased significantly, making it an epic game with a total of 101 stages. Chack'n Pop and FairyLand Story lead up to "Bubble Bobble" in terms of character design and mechanics. Sad...
World Cup: Analog Controls and Audio Volume
Work on Tehkan World Cup electrical schematic diagrams is finished. It has brought up a number of new discoveries on this hardware:correct video timing (including frame rate)3kHz antialias audio filter for PCM16-step volume control for PCM audiopriority control for character and sprite layersComparing to last week's update, the new version of the core implements:analog controls via analog stick on game padantialias audio filter and variable audio gain, matching PCBvideo layer priority contro...
1985 World Cup
HistoryThe most popular soccer game in the 80's arcades was released by Tehkan, the former name of Tecmo in 1985.There were two types of cabinet of it: upright one which had a uniform shape when viewed from the side and table one which had a step or gap between the control panel and the table. Many people were injured by over-enthusiastic trackball operation, hitting their little fingers hard or pinching them in the gap.The game was controlled with a trackball, which was rare for a competiti...
GFX Patches
Work on Konami-compatible hardware continues. Impacting several cores. See the post images for examples of fixed scenes.Fixed missing button 3, missing OSD option for dip switches and shadow problemson X-MENFixed title logo did not display correctlyon Sunset RidersFixed some images missingon The SimpsonsFixed several,problemsof appearing horizontally on Parodius Da!Fixed graphical glitch when using blue bell explosionon Parodius Da!On the research side, I have been extracting the schematics for ...
JTXMEN Beta
We bring a new beta core, JTXMEN, compatible with KONAMI's X-MEN hardware. KONAMI's X-MEN is based on the 1989 US-aired PRYDE OF THE X-MEN cartoon, and the colourful costumes conform to those of the time. The appeal of this title was that players could choose from six main characters, with flashy explosion effects and flying gadgets to keep us hooked. Although there were not many units produced, a six-player cabinet existed, and the cabinet had six coin-op slots. Instead of choosing a ch...
Service Release
Service release this week, with special attention to NGPC as more games work now:Revisited shouse: flip not workingwhich did not work well on Analogue Pocket.Fixes on the NeoGeo Pocket color core have rendered many more games playable. This was tracked on the following GitHub issues: ngpc: fatal fury F-Contact (M2) waits for interrupt, ngpc fatal fury contact: a lot of the intro scenes are not visible, ngpc fatal fury f-contact: bad palette visibleand ngpc: memories off pure colors offThe Simpso...
The Other Avengers
There have been developments related to CAPCOM's Avengers (1987). A copy of the Trojan schematics appeared in the internet a while ago. It included a sheet for an MCU (microcontroller unit) that was not used on Trojan. Looking more into it, this was for Avengers. Recently too, a dump of this MCU also appeared on the internet. Dumping MCU ROMs is often done through silicon die shots. You have to identify each bit visually and we are talking of 32768 bits. If you are looking for an evening'...
The other avengers
There have been developments related to CAPCOM's Avengers (1987).A copy of the Trojan schematics appeared on the internet a while ago. It included a sheet for an MCU (microcontroller unit) that was not used on Trojan. Looking more into it, this was for Avengers. Recently too, a dump of this MCU also appeared on the internet. Dumping MCU ROMs is often done through silicon die shots. You have to identify each bit visually and we are talking of 32768 bits. If you are looking for an evening'...
Rumbling Super Stars
Do you remember the thrill of stepping into the arcade as a kid, hearing the roar of the crowd and the iconic entrance music of your favorite WWF wrestlers? WWF Superstars, released by Technos Japan in 1989, was the game that brought all of that action to life.It was the first WWF arcade game, and it had everything: real WWF legends, their signature moves, and even their classic entrance poses. You could tag team up with two of the six iconic wrestlers, including Hulk Hogan—whose name and size...
Circus Charlie & NGP Color
Very busy three weeks working on many, many items. Some of them involved changes to many cores. 515 files have been edited in the source codesince the last JTFRIDAY, so plenty of work. The main achievements are:A new classic game core: JTCIRCUS for Circus Charlie.Circus Charlie is an action game published in by Konami in 1984, the NES version is very popular. The player controls a circus clown named Charlie in six different circus-themed minigames plus a hidden stage named water trampoline.Charl...
Development Update/Trick Trap beta (Pocket)
No big announcements for this summer week but plenty of items to report.Legacy Cores for Analogue PocketAnalogue Pocket cores JTSLYSPY and JTFLANEare promoted to publicas not issues have been reported on them. JTLABRUNcore, compatible with Trick Trap/Labyrinth Runner, enters betaphase.MaintenanceAdded support for screen flip to JTSHOUSE core. This is vital for tate CRT users and was a requested featureFixed color merging problem in System 18/Super Hang-OnFixed music not stopping in Karate Champ ...
Sunset Riders & Pocket Analogizer
Sunset RidersFour gunmen looking for action under the hot sun. If you have not met Sunset Riders before, get ready to fall in love with its smooth animations, humour and saloon girls. We welcome a new core: JTRIDERS, compatible with Konami's Sunset Riders hardware. This core operates in all FPGA platforms (including the small SiDi) and should present no problems to CRT screens.The core has proved to be challenging due to its protectionchip. This is a chip that seems to reconvert some data wr...
Moonwalker, Fast Lane, public cores...
MoonwalkerThe arcade game with arguably the most popular music ever visits us this week. JTS18 beta adds support for Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. This game has proven hard to support. First, there were problems to make it boot up because of some odd timing issue with MegaDrive's VDP chip. Then the music was severely broken, which is a show stopper for this title. And finally, the children you have to rescue were not visible.The music bugs had been there in JTS18 all along. Some people h...
Support for Rompers, Bakutotsu Kijutei and bug fixes
New GamesJTSHOUSE core (beta) gets support for the action puzzle game Rompersand the action shooting game Bakutotsu Kijutei this week. These were the final two games pending on this core.Rompersreleased by Namco in 1989. The aim is for the main character, Chap, to get into a demon-controlled labyrinth to save his girlfriend, kidnapped by the devil. Each stage is like a maze. When you collect all of the multiple keys scattered throughout the stage, you will progress to the next stage. The stone w...
Support for Clutch Hitter, Hi Scores and more...
Español abajoMany topics for this JT Friday:JTS18 core (beta) adds support for the baseball game Clutch HitterJTSLYSPY beta (compatible with Data East's Sly Spy, Boulder Dash 2) core for Analogue PocketJTSHOUSE core (beta) adds support for the 4-player version of Tank Force 626JTCPS1 core adds support for the SF2 Quicken Bootlegs. Thanks to terminator2k2 for the reference MRA file. 693Parodius sprite scaling and position correctly implemented. 548and 652Sprite position in Bionic Commando fi...
Support for Alien Storm/Bionic Commando
Español abajoWe have added the MegaDrive VDP chip to the JTS18 core. This chip is responsible of all the graphics and part of the audio in a MegaDrive console. On SEGA System 18 boards, it was only used for auxiliary video. Pretty much all you see in the screen is always coming from arcade-exclusive graphics chips but in some scenes of some games, the MegaDrive chip will come in to help.How much was that help needed? It is a bit unclear. The pink flat enemies at the beginning of Alien Storm are...
System 18, More JTSHOUSE Games
Español abajoLots of items to cover this week:Beta Key ChangeAfter using the same beta key since January, we are refreshing it. The new one is attached. As usual:MiSTer users, copy jtbeta.zip to games/mamePocket users, unzip jtbeta.zip to Assets/jtpatreon/commonor folow the instructions of your Pocket updaterJTS18 core compatible with SEGA System 18We have the first beta of the new JTS18 core. Shadow Danceris the first compatible game. The beta seems quite solid after a lot of testing and the g...
CRT Usage
What type of screen do you use to play FPGA cores?The information from these polls guides development effort.
Netlists and Other News
Español abajoSeveral SEGA System 18 games are booting up in the upcoming JTS18 core but I found an unexpected hiccup in the connection of the MegaDrive VDP. This arcade system uses a combination of video chips in which the MegaDrive VDP also plays a role. We have two versions of this VDP available, which you may have already experienced in the old and the new MegaDrive cores for the MiSTer. Sadly, there is something going on messing up what should just have been a simple plug and play step. Deb...
Tanks and Sports
Very quick update this week for five new games supported on the JTSHOUSE core.Tank gamesBlazer, an isometric tank shooter that looks really good and has solid playTank Force, a funny game to play with friends. Only the two player version is available in today's updateSports gamesThree games with a clear Japanese accent:Face Off, ice hockeyPro Tennis World Court, tennisPro Yakyuu World Stadium, baseballSee you next week with more games and a more detailed update.
Shooters!
Public ReleasesWe are giving priority to finishing off the cores in beta phase. This week we promote two to public releases:JTTMNT, supporting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, MIA and PunkShot is finally ready for prime time after implementing ROM checksJTMX5K (Pocket), supporting MX5000 as no issues have been reported after a monthShooters!As the JTSHOUSE core completion advances, more games become playable. We bring this week support for the shooters in the system:Dragon SpiritDangerous SeedBlast...
Support for Pac-Mania. JTCOMMND for Pocket
Español abajoWork continues toward closing the JTSHOUSE and JTTMNT betas. More GFX features have been implemented for JTSHOUSE, fixing problems in Splatter House and Galaga '88. We also bring support for Pac-Mania in this week's update.Reports about music instruments going crazy in Splatter House led to detailed research. It turns out that Namco's sound driver in this system does not comply with Yamaha's specifications. After checking with two other researchers, we all agree tha...
JTSHOUSE: Support for Galaga 88
Español abajoThe sound conversion for JTSIMSON, JTTMNT, and JTALIENS, cores compatible with 16-bit Konami titles, is ready. With this update, the problem of FX being too faint is solved. The FX-music balance of Bubble Bobble took a bit more work. We found that the percussion instruments did not have the right volume in JTOPL and fixed it. Then we discovered that JT03 (compatible with Yamaha 2203) was producing sound -6dB lower. After fixing these issues, Bubble Bobble should be perfect. Continu...
