I just posted the source for MAME TG3. This is a public release with all encryption removed. I'm also going to submit this to the MAME Dev people, as it could be a useful tool in finding if MAME bogs down in a particular area.

The URL is: http://www.snipercade.com/cubeman

It has been tested to a reasonable degree, and any feedback is welcome. If MAME 35 Final has a slowdown or bug, then MAME TG3 will have the same bug. When MAME 36 Final becomes available, I'll make a corresponding version.

-- Mark Longridge (cubeman@iname.com), December 10, 1999

Answers

supa coo. Hopefully nicola won't mind that an insignificant (non- game driver) piece of code is removed from the distribution.

I had a tgmame question, how do you verify the frame rates you've recorded or is this confirmation reserved to those who have the decryption algorithm?

-- Chad Hurwitz (churritz@cts.com), December 10, 1999.

oops one more question, will there be a x-tg3mame and/or a win32- tg3mame? Although the source differs slightly from the dos source, xmame is incredibly easy to compile on a linux box (no extra modules to make sure are installed, everything you need is in the tar.gz file, and you just type make -f makefile.unix and it works.)

-- Chad Hurwitz (churritz@cts.com), December 10, 1999.

So what does it mean that the encryption is removed, i take it that i can compile the source and submit scores for tgmame ?

Stig

-- Stig Remnes (sremnes@samsen.com), December 10, 1999.

Stig, seriously, do you have any contributions to make to MARP? Or are you just interested in harrassing Mark? You seem to always be looking for some reason to cry "Foul!". At least Mark is trying to do something to keep all of us who are concerned about inp legitimacy from whining any further. This whole thing is really getting old with you constantly being on the attack. If you have some REAL suggestions on how we might be able to co-exist with Nicola and the MAME dev team while serving our interests here at MARP, then we would be more than glad to hear your thoughts on this.

JoustGod

-- JoustGod (pinballwiz1@msn.com), December 10, 1999.

Mark, I still haven't received any answers from you (2 emails and 1 board post). Maybe they got lost in that Internet trashcan in the sky! Did the MAME TG3 exe detect the moslo and turbo programs I emailed you and does it detect what dip switch settings are in use?

-- Tim Morrow (tjmorrow@bigpond.com), December 10, 1999.

Joustgod !

The only way we can co exist is to follow the Mame license 100 %. And remember i deffend using TGMame for marp, as long as everybody can play, (that requires a tgmame32 and a Xmame version too). So i am not trying to make this difficult, i just feel that we as huga mame users should follow the license.

I got one question,if i dont compete in this tourney,am i allowed to play vote in the next tourney ?

Stig

-- Stig Remnes (sremnes@samsen.com), December 10, 1999.

Um! Mark, I went to the url you specified above and clicked the link called "New! MAME 35 TG Version 3, New Tournament Version Source" and it only downloads m35tg3.zip that contains m35tg3.exe and m35tg3.txt. Conspicuously absent is the actual source code. Am I missing something or did you link the wrong file.

-- Tim Morrow (tjmorrow@bigpond.com), December 10, 1999.

The source is not absent, it's at a link right beside the link for the exe file.

To answer your question about whether or not it can detect moslo or other slowdown type programs the answer is yes, it easily detect it.

As for the question of can you compile from the source I posted and submit scores, the answer is you don't need do compile it. The executable is already there, and it is only the DOS version for now.

You can use MAME TG3 or not. I'm going to leave it as it is for now. There is nothing missing from the source except the encryption. I'll take the issue up with Nicola, but I think this is a reasonable compromise.

-- Mark Longridge (cubeman@iname.com), December 10, 1999.

Tim, the link is the word "Source", you'll note it is separate from the other link.

My message to MAME Dev was undeliverable, but it will retry for up to 5 days.

-- Mark Longridge (cubeman@iname.com), December 10, 1999.

Whats the point with a source if you dont get the same exe file if you compile it ? Distributing the official mame source is no point, the license is clear if you distribute a modified Mame, you are not allowed to called it Mame, and the complete source has to be available, and Mark you told me that aint a problem, so thats cool.

Stig

-- Stig Remnes (sremnes@samsen.com), December 10, 1999.

Whats the point of having a protected mame if people can modify it and make it unprotected? I'm sure when the mame team wrote the license they were thinking of gameing souce being publicly available, so that there would be no restriction of how the games are emulated. the encryption is not gameing source, it's not even an enhancement to mame.

The decision of the mame team to allow this or not will rule if we use it or not, that's that, right now there is no word from them so it's still a possibility. if they mail mark back and say he can't distribute it we wont use it, and continue with the cheating arguments.

-- Chad Hurwitz (churritz@cts.com), December 10, 1999.

Thanks Mark. I got the source now - I missed the source link because the two links blended together on my browser. I read your source readme.txt and there appears to be no information about dip switch settings - so I take it they are NOT being stored in the *.inp so they can be interrogated later (unless it was done previously in MAME)? In particular it appears you did not disable the -cheat option. I hope these can be detected by some means.

-- Tim Morrow (tjmorrow@bigpond.com), December 11, 1999.

It proly is a good idea to disable the -cheat option, although it does let you use two buttons at once more effectivley if you use the keyboard. some fighting games require you to press all four keys at the same time which is nearly impossible with a keyboard, the -cheat option lets you map all four buttons being hit at the same time to a single keypress='v'. There is no way to tell if the person used the - cheat option from just looking at the inp file (it appears since i just did a recording with cheat and a recording with out cheat and their frames look identical), but if they used the "cheats" of a game you can most likely determine this from how many lives they have or if they don't die if they get shot, etc. still it proly shouldn't be in tgmame.

-- Chad (churritz@cts.com), December 11, 1999.