Quiz machines available on mame

quizard · Post by **quizard** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 12:54 pm

QuizMaster wrote:Duuno how you do it in mame, but there's one in Jim's Chippy in Llandudno if you're interested. Old trick still works too!

You mean the old trick that worked on all the old Bell Fruit cabinets and is probably illegal!

ZAX wrote:
Quizvaders is rock hard btw- I can't believe how nails the questions are right from the off as well! Quiz games have gone soft...!

The Bell Fruits were the first quiz machines that played an alternative more difficult set of questions when it didn't want to pay out. If you lose enough money on it, it the questions should get easier

ZAX · Post by **ZAX** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 1:06 pm

[
The Bell Fruits were the first quiz machines that played an alternative more difficult set of questions when it didn't want to pay out. If you lose enough money on it, it the questions should get easier

[/quote]

Cheers quizard. I am guessing on mame when you switch the game off it 'forgets' theres any money in it and starts from scratch when you load it up again.

QuizMaster · Post by **QuizMaster** » Wed Nov 21, 2007 1:12 pm

Questionable whether it was illegal. Certainly unethical though! I shan't reveal it since it's a moot point.

You're right about quiz machines having gone soft though - lots of games from those 'glory' days would kill you with spoilers after you'd got about 2 right. Having said that, Quizvaders was 20p a go back then for a £20 jackpot. Now we pay 50p for £10 and £20 jackpots which aren't even real, although you do get to run around the board for half an hour before gettng the Old Kent Road, or opening the box that says 'Fuck off'.

Take It Or Leave it probably the closest of the current crop to the old style games i.e. questions can stop you quickly but 15 of 'em gives you a decent wedge.

elcondor · Post by **elcondor** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:20 am

Hi, Just wanted to post here about quiz machines in MAME. I'm still working on Crystal Maze (the Barcrest version) - it uses a slightly weird hardware setup in that you've got an original MPU4 PCB in there handling the coins and inputs, which then connects via a serial link to the board that runs the rest of the program. Getting the two cards to talk to one another is the big issue.

As for the Top of the Pops type stuff, because MPEG has too many patents surrounding it, it's legally very dodgy to try to emulate it in software.

I should mention that we have a few of the older JPM quizzes in there now as well, like Scrabble, Hangman and Cluedo - just be warned that the timers are very fast, due to some emulation bug somewhere that I can't find.

To find out button info, press TAB when you're in game and a menu'll pop up, look at Input (this game) and all the details are there.

As for MAME 'forgetting' what's in the pot, it does the first time you load it, but it should be storing the contents of the NVRAM when you end the game

quizard · Post by **quizard** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:44 pm

Thanks for you efforts elcondor.

The only snags I have got with the Bell Fruits is the bonus doesn't work in Treble Top (its supposed to be F). And I can't get the endgame to work in Every Second Counts. The keys that key A and B in the main game (V and B) dont appear to work in the endgame.

A great game to emulate would be Give Us A Break if you can get hold of it.

ZAX · Post by **ZAX** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 10:02 pm

quizard wrote:Thanks for you efforts elcondor.

The only snags I have got with the Bell Fruits is the bonus doesn't work in Treble Top (its supposed to be F). And I can't get the endgame to work in Every Second Counts. The keys that key A and B in the main game (V and B) dont appear to work in the endgame.

A great game to emulate would be Give Us A Break if you can get hold of it.

Yeah - ESC final game doesnt work when Ive tried it either. it just hangs.

Not sure about MAME remembering the coins though- played Quizvaders to death the other night and it remained rock hard all the way through- which might just be my hopelessness I admit!, but when I checked the coin counter it wasn't registering and I'm sure one of the others keeps a log of how many coins you put in- might be ESC actually.

Cluedo and Hangman sound great though- any idea where you get the 'roms'- I got the quizvaders etc ones off that link posted above. I presume theres a site for them somewhere?

Istenem · Post by **Istenem** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 10:31 pm

it is my bad but i still can't make this work. i am a luddite.

JG · Post by JG » Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:15 am

Yeah, an idiot's guide to getting MAME to work wouold be great. I mean fruit emulation is a synch compared with this. From what I can make out I have to compile my decompiler into several sub root DOS directories that hold the....whijjumys....for the CPU, disk, thing and the peripheral circuitry. Then when the dedicated whooplas are in place I need a suitable front end if DOS is not pretty enough or I'm not knowledgable on using this as DOS just goes C:> abort, retry, fail It's not like there are any wizards or easy installations. Wowser. Look it's 1:11, my brain has ceased working. Any clues tints or hips as tp getting this thing working.
blarp.

I mean where is the .exe file? I got MAME 1.023u blah, I think. Now what? I is stucks.

quizard · Post by **quizard** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:29 am

Download an up to date version of the emulator like from here:

http://www.mameworld.net/agemame/downloads/

The windows binary not the source

Just unzip the contents it to your hard drive.

Download the roms that were given on the thread on the Fruit Forum site linked earlier in this thread.

Do NOT unzip the roms or do anything with them other than put them in the ROMS folder that is in the emulator's folder that you just previously unzipped ie age0121b/roms in this case.

Run the program: age.exe and it should just work. The games you have put in the roms folder should appear on a menu.

Select a game to start it. Type ok a couple of times and press enter to start the emulation. Once the game has loaded you can press TAB to see configuration info including input mapping of the keys

To save you time the key mappings for the Bell-Fruit games are:

Input coins 10p = 5, 20p = 6, 50p = 7, £1 = 8 (tip: just tap the key, if you hold it down it will throw an error).

Functions: Start New Game = 1, A = V, B = B, C=C, Pass = A, Bonus = F, Collect = D, Continue = S

Fire gun in Quizvaders = Left-hand Ctrl. Move gun with L and R arrow keys.

escape to exit.

Everyone got it

JG · Post by JG » Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:17 am

Thankyou very much

elcondor · Post by **elcondor** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 11:29 am

I'll look into the apparent problems with the bonus key, I think it does work, but only in certain circumstances in game. Also, ESC has a communications bug that stops the prize game from working.

ZAX · Post by **ZAX** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:08 pm

Streakypoos wrote:Yeah, an idiot's guide to getting MAME to work wouold be great. I mean fruit emulation is a synch compared with this. From what I can make out I have to compile my decompiler into several sub root DOS directories that hold the....whijjumys....for the CPU, disk, thing and the peripheral circuitry. Then when the dedicated whooplas are in place I need a suitable front end if DOS is not pretty enough or I'm not knowledgable on using this as DOS just goes C:> abort, retry, fail It's not like there are any wizards or easy installations. Wowser. Look it's 1:11, my brain has ceased working. Any clues tints or hips as tp getting this thing working.
blarp.

I mean where is the .exe file? I got MAME 1.023u blah, I think. Now what? I is stucks.

I used MAMEUI 32 to get them running. Its like a front end for MAME which makes it a lot easier! Once youve downloaded it- from Mame.net, then you should see the exe file. As per agemame put the roms unzipped in the rom folder, run MAME and your away. Wouldnt bother with the binaries- they look like a nightmare as youve noticed!

Dont really know what the difference is between MAME and AGEMAME though. Do the games run exactly the same on both of them? Anyone know?

quizard · Post by **quizard** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:52 pm

They run just same on mame32 Plus - which has a Win32 graphical interface with loads of whistles and bells. The only really useful advantage of using mame32 is you can run game in a re-sizable window so you play it while doing something else

I just suggested using Agemame as it has a simple text interface so there is less to confuse the errr..... technically challenged

elcondor · Post by **elcondor** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:46 pm

MAME has the interface too - AGEMAME just takes non-gambling games out, and has added support for AWP machines. You might as well use MAME for playing these quiz games, since there's nothing any different in the coding.

DildoDez · Post by **DildoDez** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 11:19 am

elcondor, using AgeMAME, neither Treble Top or QuizVader save their memory on close down, Giving a RAM Error 1 on restart. Is their anyway to fix this?