American Laser Games (Mad Dog McCree and others)

[phasermaniac]

Hi! I can't load Space Pirates.
Winuae shows HALT2 in the bottom bar and the game hangs in a black screen with white dotlines with characters and numbers on the top.
The problem seems to be the rom, as it doesn't react to the credits nor any button, which should work even without any video file.
I have these four files, but none seems to work:
alg_sp_01.dat
alg_sp_02.dat
alg_sp_14_u1.bin
alg_sp_14_u2.bin
I rescan roms and then select "American Laser Games Space Pirates v1.4 (256k)" from the selector
Or maybe it's another thing problem?
Also, I'm missing the shot sound. Any advice on this? In other pc I had this working for Gallaghers Gallery and Mad Dog Ita, but now I don't get it.

[phasermaniac]

I got an easy fix for Fast Draw Showdown orientation:
Use _original video file. I think that if you use _rotated file it wont line up with the rom hitbox data.
Use either the native windows screen rotation ( verical inverted) or Reshade with ArcabView to rotate entire screen or game window.
In Winuae, set Xaxis - Lightpen Vertical Inverted, Yaxis - Lightpen Horizontal

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by phasermaniac

Hi! I can't load Space Pirates.
Winuae shows HALT2 in the bottom bar and the game hangs in a black screen with white dotlines with characters and numbers on the top.
The problem seems to be the rom, as it doesn't react to the credits nor any button, which should work even without any video file.
I have these four files, but none seems to work:
alg_sp_01.dat
alg_sp_02.dat
alg_sp_14_u1.bin
alg_sp_14_u2.bin
I rescan roms and then select "American Laser Games Space Pirates v1.4 (256k)" from the selector
Or maybe it's another thing problem?
Also, I'm missing the shot sound. Any advice on this? In other pc I had this working for Gallaghers Gallery and Mad Dog Ita, but now I don't get it.

Hi phasermaniac,

If you read through the thread you will see that nobody can get "Space Pirates" working in WinUAE.

There is some issue with the ROM, that needs to be addressed somehow.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by phasermaniac

I got an easy fix for Fast Draw Showdown orientation:
Use _original video file. I think that if you use _rotated file it wont line up with the rom hitbox data.
Use either the native windows screen rotation ( verical inverted) or Reshade with ArcabView to rotate entire screen or game window.
In Winuae, set Xaxis - Lightpen Vertical Inverted, Yaxis - Lightpen Horizontal

Note that I haven't setup / tried this game as yet in WinUAE...

Thanks for this phasermaniac, but IMHO that's a complete faff...

What I think would be two possible better solutions are as follows:

1. Perhaps Toni can implement some code for this game that rotates the screen automatically when it starts; then the original ripped .AVI can be used.
2. Some clever coder / hacker could possibly look at the ROM, find the hitbox area, and swap the horizontal / vertical data around; then the rotated ripped .AVI can be used.

[mrbabbage]

Space Pirates has different ROM scrambles based on the version - I can't post a link, but the Dragon's Lair project has examples of the different combinations of PALS in the board.

As I recall, the first version of Mad Dog McCree has a unique scramble, as does Who Shot Johnny Rock, then everything else ALG uses the same with the exception of the older version of Space Pirates. it might just need tracking through to check that the right decryption is being used on the ROM.

[DamienD]

Alrighty, have now just completed reprocessing / recreating .AVIs for:

• Gallagher's Gallery
• Fast Draw Showdown
• Mad Dog McCree

================================================================================


"Gallagher's Gallery" and "Fast Draw Showdown" are the only two American Laser Games that also contain .YUV files:

YUV is a file extension for a raster graphics file often associated with the Color Space Pixel Format. YUV files contain bitmap image data stored in the YUV format, which splits color across Y, U, and V values. It stores the brightness (luminance) as the Y value, and the color (chrominance) as U and V values.


These needed to be analysed, replaced with .JPGs in a certain order...


================================================================================


Regarding "Mad Dog McCree"; previously I mentioned that there were issues with the start of the game in the "shooting bottles off the fence" section. Basically when you shoot a bottle, another one randomly, very quickly appears elsewhere for a split second, before disappearing, and a new target bottle in the correct position appears for shooting.

I then checked the old "343MB" .AVI versus the new "1.61GB" .AVI. This also occurs in the old .AVI, but is less prevalent.


Ran this by mrbabbage and this is what he said:

I believe it's WinUAE seeking too quickly, in the Arcade there's both a blackout on seeking, and a slight (1-2 frame) lag. So the game hits a frame or so early.

This is supposed to be the disc for the earliest version of Mad Dog McCree, a later pressing changes part of the attract mode, but it happens there too.


================================================================================


So, am now reuploading everything to the TURRAN FTP... will take about two hours to complete.

Anyone that downloaded all the previous archives, you don't need to redownload these as they haven't changed:

• Crime Patrol
• Crime Patrol 2: Drug Wars
• Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold
• Space Pirates
• The Last Bounty Hunter
• Who Shot Johnny Rock

================================================================================


Phew!!! That was an absolutely mammoth task in order to bring these to you... I really hope you guys appreciate all the effort that went into this i.e:

DamienD:
... 3 months to actually get the .LDIMG files from my initial rejection / refund.
... Paying 2.5 times what I should have, for various reasons that I won't disclose here.
... 2 weeks solid of 8 hours daily ripping data, reorganising, producing an .AVI, testing various codecs, doing again when issues arose etc.

mrbabbage:
... Contacting me via e-mail and providing detailed instructions on the complex process involved.

DamienD and mrbabbage:
... Over 100 e-mails back and forth dealing with everything and anything that cropped up; issues, suggestions and workarounds to produce the perfect .AVIs.


================================================================================


From me, a massive thank you to mrbabbage; as without his in-depth knowledge in relation to how these .LDIMG format work, and the process required to create working .AVIs... this never would have happened

There's no way I could have figured this out on my own...

[phasermaniac]

Many thanks you both! I was eagger to play the real thing instead the shitty singe versions.

If you read through the thread you will see that nobody can get "Space Pirates" working in WinUAE.

apeezyfosheezy said he got it working

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by phasermaniac

apeezyfosheezy said he got it working

Ok, maybe I misremembered and it's actually "Who Shot Johnny Rock?" that he couldn't get working... if honest, been a while since I've reviewed the thread.

Personally, I haven't had the chance to set up / try anything besides "Gallagher's Gallery", "Mad Dog McCree" and "Mad Dog II: The Lost Gold"; as I've been far too busy trying to create these damn .AVIs

[mrbabbage]

I don't know if this board has one of those summoning type things for posts, but I think I see 'why' these games don't work, and I don't know how best to talk to Toni about it.

Firstly, on Dragon's Lair Project the ROMs for the later Space Pirates have a .dat filename, and it seems to me that WinUAE only scans them when they're renamed to .bin

As for Who Shot Johnny Rock, the older (better) Space Pirates and the 1c Mad Dog, the methods for descrambling the data are different.

I guess there's a per game check, but it's working out whether it follows the right path, as not all versions of the same game use the same equations it seems.

As for the bottle seeking - I've tried with other laserdisc captures and got exactly the same thing, I don't know how exactly the seeking behaviour is emulated as I haven't yet looked at that code, but I've managed to trigger a few bugs in it just clicking around which might be part of it.

[Fiery Phoenix]

Originally Posted by phasermaniac

Many thanks you both! I was eagger to play the real thing instead the shitty singe versions.

apeezyfosheezy said he got it working

Just re-released new Singe one's in HD, along with all the Daphne ones too. All polished up and looking sharp as hell

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by mrbabbage

I don't know if this board has one of those summoning type things for posts, but I think I see 'why' these games don't work, and I don't know how best to talk to Toni about it.

Firstly, on Dragon's Lair Project the ROMs for the later Space Pirates have a .dat filename, and it seems to me that WinUAE only scans them when they're renamed to .bin

As for Who Shot Johnny Rock, the older (better) Space Pirates and the 14c Mad Dog, the methods for descrambling the data are different.

I guess there's a per game check, but it's working out whether it follows the right path, as not all versions of the same game use the same equations it seems.

As for the bottle seeking - I've tried with other laserdisc captures and got exactly the same thing, I don't know how exactly the seeking behaviour is emulated as I haven't yet looked at that code, but I've managed to trigger a few bugs in it just clicking around which might be part of it.

Hey my friend,

Toni reads most thread as far as I am aware

...but you could always contact him via PM with your thoughts / what needs to be changed etc. and I'm sure he'll get back to you / look into this.

After all the trouble I've been through to source / rip / create these .AVIs, with your kind assistance also; it would be great to play all these in WinUAE

[Zarnal]

Good evening, I have a problem with the calibration of Mad Dog McCree and 4.9. It is not done correctly. Is there a solution ? I saw a link for an nvr file with the correct calibration but that link is broken. Thanks.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Zarnal

Good evening, I have a problem with the calibration of Mad Dog McCree and 4.9. It is not done correctly. Is there a solution ? I saw a link for an nvr file with the correct calibration but that link is broken. Thanks.

I'm still working my way through adding all these into my collection...

Only "The Last Bounty Hunter" and "Who Shot Johnny Rock?" left to add now

...but you can have my configuration and .NVR files.

Look in The Zone!

[Viceroy]

Nice to see you back DD ;-)

[Zarnal]

Originally Posted by DamienD

I'm still working my way through adding all these into my collection...

Only "The Last Bounty Hunter" and "Who Shot Johnny Rock?" left to add now

...but you can have my configuration and .NVR files.

Look in The Zone!

Once again thank you. I will test a bit later today.

[phasermaniac]

Originally Posted by DamienD

I'm still working my way through adding all these into my collection...

Only "The Last Bounty Hunter" and "Who Shot Johnny Rock?" left to add now

...but you can have my configuration and .NVR files.

Look in The Zone!

Hi! I just looked at your Space Pirates config file, and I see the ext rom file is alg_sp_22_u1.bin. Where can I get it?
mrbabbage said to look at Dragon Lair project, but there there are only .dats for the 2.2 versions.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by phasermaniac

Many thanks you both! I was eagger to play the real thing instead the shitty singe versions.

apeezyfosheezy said he got it working

Space Pirates works fine, just set the controls the same as Gallagher's Gallery.

Originally Posted by phasermaniac

Hi! I just looked at your Space Pirates config file, and I see the ext rom file is alg_sp_22_u1.bin. Where can I get it?
mrbabbage said to look at Dragon Lair project, but there there are only .dats for the 2.2 versions.

TheZone/files/_2016/alg [American Laser Games MAME game roms (+alg_ prefix added)].zip

..then rename the .DAT --> .BIN

[DamienD]

So now that I've finished adding in all these American Laser Games to my collection... thought I'd improve the "Gun Calibration", set "1 coin = Play", and rename all ROMs in a uniform / consistent manner

Here's how the "Gun Calibration" now looks for each game:

Crime Patrol:



Crime Patrol 2 - Drug Wars:



Fast Draw Showdown:



Gallagher's Gallery:



Mad Dog McCree:



Mad Dog II - The Lost Gold:



Platoon:



Space Pirates:

In The Zone! you will now find a new archive: ALG_Config & NVR & ROMs.rar

[Viceroy]

Well done ;-)

[Sandancer]

Awesome work Damien, and welcome back