27th February - ** NEW RELEASE ** - "ANDY'S BIG TIME" - ROM & RES available now.

The fruit machine industry could teach the rest of the world a thing or two about recycling. In fact, if our everyday rubbish was recycled with even half the commitment that fruit machines are, we'd all be driving around in cars made from the remains of washing up liquid bottles and old newspapers. Mind you, if my last car was anything to go by, maybe we already are. Anyway, back to recycling, Andy's Big Time is Winner Takes All, but in the style of Andy Capp.

However, this is not a problem, Winner Takes All was an entertaining, if occasionally brutal pub machine, and it works just as well as a £250 club machine. There's nothing out of the ordinary about it, overlaid numbers climb to feature entry, wins can be exchanged (only up to £10 though, as if you exchanged a win higher than that you'd expect to start at the lottery ticket), start to finish feature trail, lots of features, lots of opportunities to get killed off. The objective is to reach the lottery ticket at the end of the trail, which gives you a one in twelve chance of getting the "top prize", which then gives you a one in nine chance of getting the jackpot. Probably easiest just to gamble it out on the cash ladder then eh?..... That said, the feature is very entertaining, and a straight force is a little bit of a soulless way to play, especially when you don't even get to win any real money.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of this release is that it's the first official Steve Phipps release. The original batch of layouts that helped kick off the entire fruit machine emulation scene were Steve's, but they were, shall we say, released on his behalf rather than him releasing them.... A few more of his original layouts appeared with a few tweaks a month or so ago, but again, these were unofficial. Quite what it is that's moved Steve to join the ranks of releasing layout designers I don't know, but it's good news for us all. His work has a very distinctive style, he's not big on colour or flashiness, tidiness and functionality are the order of the day, and for my money it's a policy that works well with classic layouts.

So then, it's a warm welcome to Steve in his new role as a releasing designer, and word has it that he has something of a stash of unreleased layouts in his top secret layout bunker, let's hope that more of them are allowed to escape in the weeks to come.... Beyond that, it's nice to have another club machine implemented in MPU3/4, especially such a fine one as this. Wicked!

26th February - New release frenzy!

** NEW RELEASE ** - "JACKPOT IS NOT ENOUGH" - ROM & DX Mod available now.
** NEW RELEASE ** - "EXCHANGES UNLIMITED" - ROM & DX Mod available now.
** NEW RELEASE ** - "SMASH 'N GRAB" (Barcrest) - ROM & RES available now.
** NEW RELEASE ** - "LUCKY LAS VEGAS" - ROM & RES available now.
** LAYOUT UPDATED ** - "ANDY LOVES FLO" - DX Mod available now.
** LAYOUT UPDATED ** - "FINAL FRONTIER" 5p - RES available now.

Ever wondered what drives crack addicts to the pipe? Ever wondered what fuels the murderous drive of serial killers? Ever wondered what it is that makes Super Streak seem like a wonderful wet dream with Atomic Kitten, the girls out of Steps and a bottle of baby oil? Well wonder no more because, available on an emulator near you now is THE WORST FRUIT MACHINE EVER, The Jackpot Is Not Enough. Lo-techs don't have much to get right, but equally, they don't have much to get wrong. So quite how TJINE manages to fuck it all up so spectacularly is utterly beyond me.

We have two new lo-tech releases today, ostensibly they're very similar, but in reality they're as far apart as possibly can be. Many lo-techs' gameplay revolves around a streak feature, it's usually triggered by getting three of a certain symbol in view, or on the win line. TJINE and Lucky Las Vegas both have a main streak feature, which is augmented by the usual selection of reel wins. They all feature holds and nudges, three holds (I assume, TJINE didn't give a single one during the £250 that I put through it), holds after a win and flasholds.

So why is Lucky Las Vegas jolly good fun, whilst TJINE is marginally less entertaining than ripping off your penis and feeding it to the dog? It's simple really, LLV gives the streak feature regularly, it can go for as little as £3, it can go for £30 and more. The streak feature is fun, takes the form of four varied sub-games, and can go on for a while. It gives lots of three holds and flasholds, it has great sound and music, it plays fast and fair.

TJINE, on the other hand, is a fat pig's abortion blended with the devil's ejaculate served up in a dirty glass. From a factory reset, set to 90%, it took an investment of £250 to get a £15 jackpot. In all that time it gave two flasholds (for £2 cherries and £4 melons). It didn't give a single third hold win (in fact, it hardly ever even holds twice). It let me nudge in a win three times (and never for more than £3). Whenever it wants to give you a win it simply drops it straight in, when the jackpot finally came (after £250) it just dropped in. There isn't even a jackpot tune. The streak feature is terrible, any three TJINE symbols in view starts stepping the reels and each jackpot symbol that passes the win line adds a quid to the bank. It gave this twice in £250, and dropped it straight in on both occasions, first time it went for £15, the second time for £18 (maybe lower values and higher frequency would be a good idea guys?). If you get three TJINE symbols in view including the middle "super" symbol an equally tedious but larger streak is awarded, the reels step as they did before, but each jackpot symbol now adds a fiver to the bank. I got this once (it dropped in of course) and it went for £30, it was over in around fifteen seconds. I was so excited I nearly farted.

I only played for as long as I did to hear the jackpot tune, but as we now know, it doesn't have one. The nudge tune is a god awful James Bond rip off. There is no other music. By the time I'd finished playing I was slumped in my seat, groaning without even realising I was doing it and desperately wishing that an extremist fanatical Muslim terrorist cell would kidnap and kill me, anything to end the agony. I've never seen TJINE in an arcade and it's no wonder, I mean, did anyone actually PLAY it before it was released? Did no one at Empire say "Hang on a minute guys, you can't possibly put this out, it's about as much fun as A.I.D.S. except you don't even get to have sex before the suffering begins"? Is this what we went to war for? Did our grandparents put their lives on the line so that sixty years later a greater evil than Nazi fascism could be unleashed on the British people by the back door?

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

And what is the point of machines that have an "auto-play" button? Lo-techs make little enough pretence of being an actual game as it is, but auto-play is simply taking the piss. Insert money, press auto-play, lose money, leave arcade. Why not just walk into the arcade, hand over your cash to the attendant and use the time saved for something useful, like trying to get the lobotomy reversed? Grrrrrrr.

In fact, so horrific was the whole TJINE encounter that playing the doddery old MPU3 cronk Exchanges Unlimited came as blessed relief. As MPU3/4 now supports MPU3 sound the overall experience is about as rich as it's going to get, which, surprisingly, is quite rich. I found myself far more entertained than I had expected to be, and there's a lovely old world quaintness about it. It's certainly about a trillion times more playable than TJINE, and the sound is better too.

Smash 'N Grab is an early (the first?) MPU4 machine. The classic layout is rather garish and scatterbrained, but it doesn't detract from the knockabout gameplay. The simple "smash or grab" nudge pot based game structure works well, and the early MPU4 bleeps and bloops are curiously tuneful. Then again, I was still just glad to be playing anything other than TJINE, in fact, after thirty minutes with it I was beginning to think that Terry Waite had gotten off somewhat lightly with being chained to a radiator in a darkened room for five years. At least he didn't have electricity, so even if there was TJINE in the cell with him, it wouldn't have worked.

And finally today we have two DAT updates. Harvey's Andy Loves Flo DX and Kev's Final Frontier classic. They've gained a few new funky 8.73 features during the conversion process, and in the case of FF, Kev's improved on the original layout quite substantially.

So then, a very busy day, and a sure sign of great times ahead for the scene. TJINE may be the fruit machine world's answer to famine, pestilence and nuclear armageddon in gaming terms, but the layout is every bit as good as we've come to expect from Gary, and it really is great to see him releasing again. Pandy's Exchanges Unlimited is a fine DX, and there's more on the way from Fruitworkz in the weeks to come. Harvey's Lucky Las Vegas classic is something of a stopgap until the DX is released, but as with Gary, simply seeing those Digital Fruit releases coming out again is what really matters (and the DX looks like it's going to be an absolute stonker too).

So then, download and enjoy, but don't say you weren't warned about TJINE.....

25th February - ** NEW RELEASE ** - "BIG CHEESE" DX - DX Mod available now.
(ROMs available from Empire's site).

We've seen so many stunning layouts released over the months that it's hard to point to one and definitively say that it's the best, but bollocks to that, I'm going to do it anyway. Big Cheese is the best MPU3/4 layout yet released.

It helps that Big Cheese is a mighty fine game in its own right, solid gameplay that feels more old-school JPM than Barcrest, loads of features, lots to do, and a great main feature board with proper opportunities to use sneaky bonuses and tricks. It's got a vicious streak as wide as Anne Widdecombe's ass, and can suck for a long time if you're trying to force a JP, but like many Empires, if you play a little more judiciously proftiable progress can be made. A good test of the quality of a game is how hard I find it to drag myself away from playing to doing the write-up for the site, Big Cheese was the most difficult yet.

However, what really makes this one shine is the sensational quality of Gary's DX. He's implemented all the fancy new features that V8.73 has to offer, there's a new alphanumeric display, skinned buttons, and backlit reels to get all warm and tingly about. I've reversed my earlier decision that I don't like backlit reels overly much; by using a slightly plainer, brighter decal for the reel lamps, along with the larger reels that the full screen layout style allows, Gary's created an illusion of real reels that is both convincing and pleasing to the eye (it might just be the fact that the reels are bigger which makes the difference, having looked again I'm not entirely sure that the Big Cheese and CCDX lamp decals aren't the same, can't be sure with my old man's failing eyesight). As a final flourish, the extra spurt of speed that V8.73 has over its more sluggish forerunner means that everything now moves along at a fair old rate, even when all the lamps are giving it large to the sounds of the wickedness (as I believe the youth of today might refer to it).

Beyond the elaborate decoration of V8.73's new features there's a thoroughly solid layout underneath it all anyway, fantastic clarity from the original flyer artwork, extremely "clean" lamps, genuine Empire reel scans, and the crisp yet warm feel that is one of Gary's trademarks.

Today has been a great day, and as the weeks and months pass by we will look back to the 25th February as the day the scene finally came of age. A new release of the emulator, official dev tools for everyone, and the awesome design team of Harvey & Gary back on top form, and back releasing again.

There's a real buzz about the forums, on IRC and on the MPU sites.
By common agreement, the good times truly are here again.

25th February - ** NEW LAYOUT ** - "CRAZY CAPERS" DX - DAT V5.00 available now.
(ROMs available from Empire's site).

What happened to V1.00 thru V4.00? Does anyone know? Does anyone care? I suppose not. What matters is that the release of the new version of MPU3/4 (extra high security protected layouts you see) means that Harvey can now start to work through the big pile of unreleased layouts he's been sitting on for the last few weeks. This is good news for us, because we get new games to play, and good news for Harvey's arse, because as splendid as his DXs are, they don't make particularly comfortable seats.

Crazy Capers has gained backlit reels during its transition from RES to DAT, but is missing skinned buttons. As for the backlit reels, I'm really in two minds about them (I thought it about V2.00 of Games Bond and CCDX has crystallised my opinion). On the one hand they're very fancy and groovy and all that stuff, but on the other hand the contrast and clarity of them (largely due to the graduated lamp effect) is much reduced from the plain white reels of old. So much so that on a bright layout with lots of other lamps flashing (like this one), it's irritatingly tricky to focus on the reels properly. One solution to this would be to implement the method I saw used on an 8.53 DX, this used solid grey and white for the reels (grey for unlit, white for lit), and whilst not looking as immediately fancy as the graduated effect, did make more of a practical proposition in gameplay terms. This is doubly true where Harvey's "real machine" DX style is concerned, which gives extra authenticity to the appearance of the layout but pays the price of smaller reels.

That gripe aside (and you know me, I do like to gripe), this is vintage Harvey. Vibrant colours, perfect lamps, original reel graphics, a splendid DX in all respects. Apart from the reels. But I already mentioned that. As for the game, "Crazy Capers is thoroughly OK", which is pretty much all this splendid review has to say, but it manages to take several more hundred words than that to say it. Naturally.

25th February - ** LAYOUT UPDATED ** - "GAMES BOND 6.00" DX - DAT V2.00 available now.

RES files are no more. Whilst V8.73 of MPU3/4 will still open and run the old RES file based layouts, expect them to be converted to DAT file based layouts in the days and weeks to come. Hopefully, they'll get a few tweaks during the conversion process which take advantage of some of the new features offered by V8.73. Also, you can expect that all new releases from this day forward will use the new DAT files.

Kev's first out of the blocks (wouldn't you just have guessed it?) with his update to Games Bond 6.00. Take a look at the screenshot below.... Notice anything different about the buttons? Notice anything different about the reels? Nice huh? It also benefits from the extra lick of speed that 8.73 has to offer, so it's happy days all round really.

Note that you're going to need V8.73 of MPU3/4 to load and run these new DAT file based layouts.

25th February - MPU3/4 V8.73 + DEV TOOLS RELEASED. Download now.

It's been a long time coming, and for a while it didn't look like it would come at all, but the official new release of MPU3/4 with dev tools is now with us. V8.73 (beta) of MPU3/4 has been released by Chris Wren, and is now available to download from this site (actually, it's already been available for the best part of a day from some of the other MPU sites, but that's what going to bed before 2am does for your ability to keep up with releases).

Individual changes are too numerous to list, but most significant are much improved overall speed, the inclusion of support for MPU3 sound, proper reel lights (so no need for the 3x3 grid anymore), and support for skinned buttons. Most significantly, of course, is the fact that this version of MPU3/4 comes complete with official development tools, the holy grail of the scene.

The debate about the release of official tools has dogged this scene since its very beginning, and yours truly has done much of the dogging. There has never been so much as a single cogent and persuasive argument put forward by anyone as to why "the masses" should not have access to development tools; and indeed, despite dire warnings of hacks, defacement and damaging layouts being released if dev tools should ever go public, MERC was given to the scene (along with much back-handed passing of dev tools in the form of hacked 5.9s and full 6.4s), and had nothing but a wholly positive impact - giving as it did, a voice to the suppressed talent of so many would-be layout designers.

So, after seven months we have now all arrived at where we should have started from, but now that we are here there seems little point in reliving past traumas, the past is gone, the lessons have been learned. One can confidently expect that the scene will now enter an unprecedented period of harmony, growth and positive development - the culture of secrecy and the "haves and have nots" has been a cancer eating away at this scene since its troubled birth, but this is a cancer for which there is a cure, and it's this public release of MPU3/4 with dev tools.

There's no implied criticism of anyone intended in the last couple of paragraphs, least of all Chris. No one's played a perfect hand in all of this, and mistakes have been made by many people, but at the same time there has been no malice or destructive intent at play. There can be little doubt that Chris' approach to the scene has caused a few problems, but that doesn't make what he has done wrong in itself. He's done things according to his own rules, and as I have said before, he's never sought the limelight or thrown his weight about - moreover, I'd be the first to admit that my blunderbuss style has caused its fair share of trouble, I'll let others make their minds up as to whether or not I was driving at the right objectives.

However, all that said, don't go chucking away your 6.5 just yet, (or, for that matter, if you still want to play Luxor, your 6.0 either). Many layouts will exhibit rather strange behaviour in 8.73 (DX Mods appear to be the main culprits), in some cases there might be a fix for this which you can apply yourself, in other cases you're going to have wait for the layout to be re-released by the original author in the new DAT format (which will replace the old RES file).

If you're not already a regular visitor to MPU Forums, now would be a very good time to start, as discussions regarding various problems and fixes, along with future developments and releases, are already well underway. I'll track the main developments on this site, and will host the new DAT files as they are released (removing the old RES files at the same time), but if you want the in-depth story the forums are definitely where the smart money's at.

There seems every reason to conclude that the future success of the fruit machine emulation scene is now assured. Chris has shown that in spite of everything (and perhaps, to some small extent, because of everything), he is prepared to keep the scene alive not only with new versions of MPU3/4 itself, but also with the long overdue public release of development tools as well. MERC and leaked dev tools have already proven that the scene plays host to a huge pool of talent, who have nothing but the best of intentions and the strongest desire to see the scene succeed in a fashion which benefits everyone. This new release of MPU3/4 will build on these foundations and send the scene to a place where, a few months ago, few of us would dared to have dream that it could travel to.

We can now all look forward to the future with nothing but optimism and the firm belief that the best times are still to come.

23rd February - ** NEW LAYOUT ** - "CASH ATTACK" PSEUDO-DX - RES available now.

Rogue's second pseudo-DX (the first being Pot Black) arrives on the scene and continues the noble tradition (if you can call something a tradition, noble or otherwise, after only two instances) of making a valiant effort to look like the original machine, rather than disappearing off into the realms of fantasy land and appearing as something like "Cash Attack in the style of Gran Turismo 3 with added boobs". Not that there'd be anything inherently wrong with that of course, and it'd certainly make holding a pair of melons more interesting.

Cash Attack pseudo isn't as good as Pot Black pseudo, mainly because of the rather bright main feature board area; the simple primary colours used for Pot Black pseudo worked well as they matched the original machine, Cash Attack was a little more subtle in its official incarnation, and some of that has been lost in the translation to pseudo-DX. That's a small niggle though, the rest of the layout is well up to standard, and it's certainly a whole lot better than the classic layout. (A good test of a pseudo-DX's worth is whether or not you prefer it to the classic layout). Cash Attack itself is a quality game, in fact, now I come to think about it I wrote a review many moons ago, which you may like to read if you've tired of disembowelling yourself with a china teapot.

Rogue's certainly got a knack for conjuring up a quality pseudo-DX where the real thing isn't an option, hopefully he's wearing a nice big jumper with huge sleeves, out of which he can pull many more layouts as the weeks and months pass by.

21st February - ** NEW RELEASE ** - "BIG APPLE" - ROM & RES available now.

Picture this. You're merrily strolling through town on a balmy summer's afternoon. You're happy and you're bubbling over with excited anticipation, because you're on your way to meet your new girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other, and you know that there's some seriously high quality rumpy pumpy coming your way when you arrive.

However, as you enter a quieter side street you become aware of an ominous presence, and before you know it you're surrounded by a group of burly toughs. Without hesitation they strip you naked before forcing you to put on a large pair of plastic pants, sealed at the ankles. Conscious of the fact that your day is taking a serious turn for the worse they proceed to empty several buckets of hungry crawfish into the plastic pants, which immediately begin to snap and bite at your exposed legs and genitals. As if this weren't bad enough, the toughs also begin to beat you viciously about the head and body with baseball bats. Whilst all this is going on, the aggressive sexual deviant of the group, in a state of visible and alarming arousal, forces you to ground, and pausing only to remove the plastic pants and crawfish, has his wicked way with your already seriously nipped and clawed ass. Leaving you writhing in agony in a pool of your own blood and somebody else's man jelly, a final act of indignity is inflicted upon you, an "I love S-Club 7" t-shirt is forced over your head as you slip into unconsciousness.

Now then, by any standards, that would have to count as a pretty bad day. But imagine if the following week exactly the same thing happened to you again, but instead of crawfish, lobsters were used.

Well there you go then, first there was Colossus, now there is its clone, Big Apple. And frankly, there's no need for this sort of inhuman cruelty. Layout by Russ, tidied up by me (similar sort of input to Cash Machine), no sound ROMs, absolutely dreadful game. If it's a choice between crawfish (or lobsters), baseball bats and homosexual rape, or a quick session on Big Apple, go for the crawfish (or lobsters). At least you'd be able to say that something interesting had happened to you.

20th February - ** NEW LAYOUT ** - "JOLLY GEMS" DX - DX Mod available now.

Dean's second DX release (following on from Final Frontier DX) is a welcome addition to the DX stable in itself, but it's not one of the best we've seen. First and foremost, the image used as the basis for the DX simply isn't good enough, and the whole layout is very smudgy, to the point that it's all but impossible to make out the text on the features.

The contrast between lit and unlit lamps is not great enough (particularly on some of the feature board spaces), the "Take" buttons on the pots are far too big and the reel bands are lurid and hard on the eyes in five reel view mode.

This layout also suffers very badly from slow down, in all fairness, the classic layout is also afflicted with this problem, but it isn't as pronounced. On my PC (PIII-500 @ 560) the slow down when lots of lamps are flashing (hi/lo gambles when feature exchange is available and when exchanging to the feature for starters) is so great as to be intolerable, rendering the layout effectively unplayable. If you're packing a 1ghz Athlon or something equally meaty you should be OK, but if you're using a lower spec machine you're going to be in for a bit of a tawdry time.

Full marks to Dean for having a go, but before embarking on a DX one needs to ask themselves if the source material available to work from is up to the task, and in this case it isn't. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for future releases from Dean, as there's no denying his ability to put a quality DX together (Final Frontier DX being a good example), but Jolly Gems DX is going to have to go in the "not quite" folder.

20th February - ** NEW LAYOUT ** - "GAMES BOND 6.00" DX - DX Mod available now.

Is it a Harvey? Is it a Gary? Nope, it's 100% genuine Kev, and full credit to the chipper young Scot for delivering a DX that's every bit as good as those produced by the original DX Duo in times gone by. The Games Bond 6.00 classic layout was jolly good, but as you can now see for yourselves, the original machine artwork is excellent, so a DX is very welcome.

Everything about Games Bond harks back to a better time for fruit machines, and in turn, fruit machine players; the tongue in cheek humour, the cheerful cartoony artwork, the regular wins and features, the long involved game trail, the bubbly music and samples, the whole package holds together as something that's actually worth playing as a game in its own right, and there are precious few machines around these days about which you can say that.....

Kev's DX is absolutely spot on, and is every bit as competent as any DX we've previously seen. The image definition could be a little clearer, the text in the first chase section is a little hard to read, but this is as much a problem with the original artwork as anything else. Beyond that, there's nothing whatsoever to fault about it. A fantastic DX of a fantastic machine - short of actually being Games Bond, gallivanting through exotic places and even more exotic women, what could possibly be nicer?

19th February - ** NEW RELEASE ** - "SMASH 'N GRAB" - ROM & RES available now.
(Note - Relatively recent MDM machine, not the venerable old Barcrest that went by the same name).

The inevitable takeover of the world by mute MDM games comes a step closer with the release of Smash 'N Grab, Munsta's latest attempt to render PC speakers across the world depressed and unfulfilled. For you see, there are no sound ROMs available, which means you're going to have to pay closer than usual attention to the gameplay. Now if Smash N Grab was any good, that might be an acceptable state of affairs, but it's shit, so it's not.

It's an amalgamation of many crappy rip-offs into one appalling game, although the form book suggests nothing particularly horrible or out of the ordinary. One to seven feature entry trail, overlaid bonus on the middle reel, wraparound trail once on the feature to add to three pots, a few bonus and mystery squares, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, above and beyond everything else, it's BORING. This is perhaps the only machine I have ever played where being killed off on the feature is often something of a blessed relief (and that also applied when I occasionally played the real thing with real money several years ago). The only "add to pot" squares on the board are +1, which means it takes an age to get anywhere. There are no interesting bonuses to liven things up a bit, and all the features are dull. The nudges hardly ever offer anything worth taking and the first feature that's worth having is Skill Cash, so it'll usually kill you off before it's available (but only after several soul-destroying loops of the board), the whole thing adds up to the fruit machine equivalent of a hefty dose of ketamine, but without the outside chance of finding inner peace and a beautiful alternate reality before you fall asleep.

On the plus side, Munsta's layout is excellent. It's well thought out with a few nice touches, and manages to make the game appear a lot more enjoyable than it actually is, although a digitised image of a dog's arse in the middle of the screen could achieve much the same effect. There is an occasional problem with the game locking up, if this should happen to you, tap the "Take Feature" button and you should be able to continue, but don't feel obliged to do so.

Munsta's clearly got what it takes to piece together a great classic layout, all he needs now are some decent ROMs to work with. Anyone got a set going spare?

15th February - ** NEW LAYOUT ** - "POT BLACK" PSEUDO-DX - RES available now.

Full marks to Rogue for finally getting the hang of what pseudo-DX layouts should, (in my humble (but correct) opinion), be all about. In the absence of original artwork and images with which you can produce a "true" DX, try and make your pseudo-DX look as much like the original machine as possible.

After all, the name of the game is emulation, and emulation is about recreating, as accurately as possible, the subject being emulated. Merrily constructing personal interpretations of the originals is all well and good, but if you're that way inclined, why not just, you know, go and paint a picture of a hill with a sheep on it or something?

However, the authenticity that this splendid Pot Black pseudo-DX has to offer comes with a price; namely that you're going to need a beefy PC to get it to run comfortably. My PIII-500 (oc'ed to 560) struggles somewhat at feature entry, when landing on a "shoot pool" square and particularly when getting a jackpot. This is something that the simple classic layout suffers from, and it's exacerbated by the use of colourful hi-res graphics. That said, it's arguably a price worth paying for receiving much more of a genuine feel about the whole emulation experience. (Try that one in a nightclub, "Hey baby, would you like a feel about my emulation experience?", slap in the face included at no extra charge).

The 8.xx versions of MPU3/4 that I've seen running use some form of optimisation not present in 6.5, because the "lots of lights slow down" problem is drastically curtailed. As was the release of V8.xx of MPU3/4. Still, not to worry eh?

15th February - ** NEW RELEASE ** - "GAMES BOND 6.00" - ROM & RES available now.

Laugh? I almost did! Games Bond 6.00, short on humorous name but long on fun is a Barcrest machine dating back to the early 90s. The fashion in favour at the time was very much one of start to finish trail based games, and Games Bond 6.00 was one. Of them.

Ostensibly it doesn't seem to be a whole lot different to games such as Andy Capp, Luxor and Road Hog; and that's because it's not. It's a standard reel based game where overlaid symbols award the feature. Wins, once gambled to the appropriate point can be exchanged to the trail. Get all the way to the end and a bonanza of prizes is to be found in the casino at Monte Carlo. (Except that sometimes it shafts you with a derisory figure like £1.40, which is obviously a hilarious misunderstanding of some sort on Barcrest's part).

Games such as this live or die on their gameplay, and back in whenever it was (1993?), the somewhat feeble jackpot of only £6 in stupid 20p tokens meant that the designers had to concentrate on putting together a genuinely enjoyable gaming experience to draw the punters in. (Except for the Bar-X crowd who always have, and always will, shovel their money into anything. They'd probably play a machine whose jackpot was a lump of crap. "Why are you playing that? The jackpot's only a lump of crap!", "Yes I know but someone streaked it the other day and got a bucket of diarrhoea out of it, I'm going to empty it today, I can just feel it, now where did I put my benefit cheque?").

Anyway, back to Bond. The trail is split into three sections, there's an initial chase (you have every right to be cross if you get killed off here), a mid-way "lucky lips" stretch (which can often be very unlucky, maybe the person doing the kissing is afflicted with oral herpes or something equally distasteful), and a final "danger zone". There's plenty to see you off here, but if you've been fortunate enough to collect some gadgets along the way you might be able to survive the perils of shark attacks and electric shocks. Make it to the final casino square and you get a (hopefully) big fat win series. I always thought that a win series was a much better final prize than a straight jackpot, but obviously no one else does because they've all but vanished now. Not that I'm going to sulk or moan about it. Much.

This release is brought to us by Kev of MPU World, whose designer credentials are improving by the day. There's very little to fault in this layout, apart perhaps from the lurid green background, which is certainly not the type of wallpaper one would have expected a fine chap such as Games Bond to approve of; beyond that the final casino section could look a little fancier (I don't know how particularly, I'm just having a moan about it), but essentially this is a spot on classic layout.

All sound ROMs are present and correct, which is just as well as the sound's a big part of what makes this game as enjoyable as it is (not least because of the dodgy Sean Connery impersonator).

Off you go then, you've got a world to save.

14th February - ** NEW RELEASES & NEW LAYOUTS ** - It's a Valentine's Day new release massacre!

"CLUB TAKE YOUR PICK" - ROM & RES available now.
"JIGGIN' IN THE RIGGIN'" - ROM & RES available now.
"CLASSIC TUPPENNY NUDGER" - ROM & RES available now.
"FINAL FRONTIER" DX MOD - DX Mod available now.

For Valentine's Day I would like the various layout designers to talk to each other and work out a vaguely sane release schedule between them, but for now we'll do it like this, goddamn crazy merry motherfuckers, the lot of them.

First out of the blocks is Club Take Your Pick, which is the first release from "Fishsta", or Ian "really nice bloke" Fishwick as he's also surely known in some quarters. A regular feature over at MSN from near enough day one and now a stalwart of MPU Forums, he's finally breaking into the RES file release market. CTYP itself is a typically lazy Barcrest club enhancement of the original pub machine (it's practically identical apart from the cash trail and the "Bank Buster" feature at the top of the keys ladder), but this is perfectly acceptable as TYP is a fine machine and already one of my favourites. Fishsta's first layout is a superb effort, he's captured much of the overall appearance of the original machine along with the clever use of a splash of colour. Only niggle is that at 10p play the gameplay is a little slow, but it does serve as a telling reminder of a bygone era of genteel gambling habits.

Next up is Munsta's Jiggin In The Riggin'; a Global release that suffers from the same gameplay destroying curse of no sound ROMs that some MDM releases do (let's hope that the condition isn't contagious). Munsta's none the less done a great job with the classic layout, and full credit should be given to him for managing to make it not look outwardly too much like another clone/rip-off of Boulder Dash (for that is what it is), a feat that Global also managed to pull off with the original machine. The sooner these missing Global sound ROMs can be located the better, as their machines are an entertaining bunch, but without sound they're all a bit soulless.

Most bizarre release of the evening award must go to Kev and his Classic Tuppenny Nudger layout. The original machine was something of a 2p play legend, and by all accounts this is a pointless modern rebuild by MDM. After all, The Black Plague was a disease of some considerable legend, but no one feels the need to bring that back for a second innings. Whatever, you can now play it again and realise that, yes, machines really did use to be this simple. (Note, some people have had problems with this release, if you are afflicted, fiddle with the delay and/or delete the "Sound" line from the .gam file and you should be OK).

Bringing up the rear (fnaar) is Dean and his Final Frontier DX layout. This had an aborted release earlier in the week, when Kev pounced upon it with typical Celtic vigour and sent it back for some much needed improvements. Dean's now put these in place (along with a few final tweaks from Kev) and the finished result is now available for you to download. And fair's fair, this is now a very respectable DX layout, the original image that Dean had to work from isn't too hot, but he's still managed to produce an extremely competent finished product. Final Frontier is a great MDM machine (with sound ROMs, yay!), and this DX improves it no end.

And now if you'll kindly excuse me, I think that's quite enough new releases for one day.

From top left to bottom right:
Club Take Your Pick, Jiggin' In the Riggin', Classic Tuppenny Nudger, Final Frontier DX.

11th February - MERC (RES file reader and creator) V1.99b RELEASED - Download now.

MERC V1.00 was a great step forward for the scene, representing as it did the first chance that the vast majority of people had had to create a layout of their own, but it did suffer from a few niggling bugs.

V1.99b can be seen as interim release, V2.00 (which Tony promises us will contain all manner of new goodies) should be along soon, but in the meantime V1.99b fixes all the major bugs present in V1.00 and adds in a few new features. Perhaps most notable is its ability to open existing RES files, which means that you can take a proper look at what makes a RES file tick without going through the tortuous process of creating one for yourself from scratch. You can play around with the opened RES file to your heart's content but you won't be able to save it out again with the changes made, presumably this is a nod towards the prevention of hacks.

Many thanks to Tony for this fine release, and even if you haven't got any intention of creating your own layout, it's probably worth downloading just for the ability it gives you to take a closer look at the inner workings of a RES file.

You can find a full list of changes here, on the Fruitworkz website.

10th February - ** LAYOUT UPDATED ** - "ROAD HOG CLUB" PSEUDO-DX - V3.1 RES available now.

Please note that V3.1 is an "unofficial" release. V3.0 was released by Fruitworkz yesterday but still had a few problems with it, (and was never uploaded to this site), so I made the final few changes to the layout and am releasing it as V3.1.

Changes made are as follows: All keyboard shortcuts (lost in V3.0) and lamps (some broken in V3.0) are now present and correct. Buttons and LEDs have been resized for better looks and greater functionality. Bizarre "hello" checkbox that appeared in V3.0 has been removed and its requirement embedded into the file (so it's now invisible to the player). File size is now only 751k (as opposed to 2.3 mb). Reel bands have been resized in Paint Shop Pro, rather than letting the emu do the scaling, which gives a much better appearance to the reels and has reduced the file size dramatically.

This should be the final update to this layout. And if it isn't, I'll scream.

10th February - Choose an answer to this question, "Are you adept with a soldering iron?".

YES - I am a soldering superstar, and I would love to build an EPROM reader.
NO - I would most likely solder my middle finger to my upper thigh and sustain a nasty burn.

If the answer's yes, then you could perform an extremely valuable service for the community by taking a look through this document, Build your own EPROM reader. It doesn't look frightfully difficult, but it's certainly beyond my non-existent soldering abilities.

If you're able to piece together an EPROM reader as shown in the document linked to above, there are several people who have access to fruit machine ROMs, but don't have access to an EPROM reader (myself included), who could use such a device to get fruit machine ROMs dumped and fed back to the community at large with a view to getting more MPU3/4 layouts released.

If you're able to help in this endeavour, please make yourself known over at MPU Forums or drop me a mail.

9th February - ** NEW LAYOUT ** - "ALPHABET" PSEUDO-DX - RES available now.

There's an ongoing debate about the worthiness of these "pseudo-DX" rebuilds, (as I like to call them). One could argue that the spirit of emulation is to recreate the original machine as accurately as possible, and with that in mind a classic layout is perhaps a purer form of emulation than a pseudo-DX rebuild. Obviously the preferred option would always be a true DX, but this isn't always possible.

Doubtless MFB (a regular over at MPU Forums) would have done a proper DX had the images to work from been available to him, but in the absence of such resources he has produced what is an undeniably a stunning original piece of work. MFB is currently working on a true DX of Ooh Ahh Dracula, his artistic talents clearly can't be doubted, so it should be well worth looking forward to.

9th February - ** NEW LAYOUT ** - "RED HOT ROLL" REAL DX - RES available now.

What can you say about the third layout for a rather dull machine about which there wasn't a great deal to say in the first place? Well, you could take the easy option and simply point people towards a review. So I'll do that. Thanks.

As for the DX itself, Little "I own" Russ of Fruitworkz has conjured this DX up for us. The original image he had to work with had quite a few imperfections in it (light reflection, not particularly well defined), and this is reflected in the layout itself, but it's still a big improvement on the classic layout. We already have a "pseudo-DX" of this machine created by Rio G, which is all well and good but you can't beat a "proper" DX now can you?

7th February - **NEW RELEASE ** - "CASH MACHINE" - ROM & RES available now.

A proper team effort this one, and also the first officially released layout that's had any creative input from myself. Despite the turmoil this scene has endured since "BF-Day" (Beaver Fever day, a bit like D-Day in World War II, but much more devastating), it continues to thrive and prosper. Most recently we have seen the long promised release of the completed new version of MPU3/4 be cancelled, but the new layouts continue to appear, the Forums continue to grow, and, if anything, there is now a stronger feeling of community and of a genuinely inclusive scene than ever before. Victory has indeed been snatched from the jaws of defeat.

Mark Stainsby (a.k.a. Bellman) originally requested the Cash Machine ROMs on MPU Forums, which Harvey kindly provided him with. Mark then went away and made a start on producing the RES; he got 95% of the lamps done (which is no mean feat in itself) but hit a problem with getting the reels sorted out and the overall appearance of the layout, therefore he requested some assistance on the forums. Knowing that an arcade only 30 minutes drive away from me still has one of these, (I knew the insistence of arcade owners here on keeping ancient machines in their line ups for ever and a day would pay off sooner or later), I set off armed with a digital camera, a piece of paper and a pen. A few pounds in credits later and I'd managed to get all the reels down, add in a few shifty snaps (which attracted the attention of the standard issue grumpy bastard suspicious arcade owner, what is it they have to hide?.....) for layout design purposes and the mission was complete, so I forwarded the information on to Mark.

He then got the layout pretty much completed (these initial stages are by far the most difficult, so this is very much Mark's release), and sent it to me for play testing. However, it was rather scruffy, missing a few lamps, and designed to rather bizarre dimensions (1280x768 or thereabouts), so I decided to take forward Mark's excellent hard work in getting the lamps and reels in place and redesign the layout with a view to making it as true to the original machine as possible.

Several hours learning the hard way using MPU3/4's own dev tools, and a few mails back to Mark who did some sterling work sorting out the final few lamps (so he's done all the hard work, I've just done the relatively easy layout design bit) and we arrived at the layout pictured below. The finishing touches were added in the form of far superior reel band scans and a new hi/lo reel - many thanks to Harvey for providing those.

As far as we can tell, this layout is 100% accurate, all significant lamps are present and correct, the reels are perfect and every button has a keyboard shortcut. It's not entirely true to the layout of the original machine, but it's close.

As for the actual game, Cash Machine is an evolution of Take Your Pick. The play structure is the same, climb into the nudges through the 1-8 entry trail (using the bonus at 4 to give you a leg up), nudge in a win if you can, gamble as far as you dare, and then use your cash cards to exchange across to either cash or features should you want to, using each card as a knockout pick. It beats TYP as a game by letting you get up to the nudges much more often, and generally playing a kinder game. There are many more features available (some of them quite good fun), and six different "credit card streaks" should the feature be offered. The bottom streak is generally only worth five or six pounds, the other streaks are (usually) worth progressively more, right up to the sixth streak which can go absolutely mental (but you won't be offered it very often).

Mark and I are keen to start work on another layout as soon as possible, anyone got a ROM set going spare?

The completed "rebuild" layout:

Mark's original test layout:

4th February - ** NEW RELEASE ** - "BLAZING TRAILS" - ROM & RES available now.

As the calming and beneficial influence of MERC diffuses throughout the scene, we are starting to see an increasing number of great releases from first-time layout creators.

Joining the rest of the crew in the posh designers' bar for a well-earned pint or two after a hard days RESing is Munsta, who's a regular (albeit slightly unhinged) feature of MPU Forums (but I mean that in a nice way). He's managed to get his hands on the ROMs for the MDM machine Blazing Trails and has come up with a splendid first layout. Unfortunately, it's afflicted with the curse of the missing MDM sound ROMs, which is a great shame as MDM machines tend to have quite funky music. Still, can't have everything.

Also, it suffers from minor reel stepping problems, but a quick F10/F11/F10 will fix that (switching from the three to five reel view and back again or vice versa). Other than that, lots to be happy about; well designed, colourful, another great addition to the MPU3/4 line up. Personally I've always felt that bold text looks much better than plain text on a layout, but maybe that's just me. Some of the text justification could be better (Lose Cash and Features +1 squares on the board for example), but all in all a fine classic layout which makes good use of the space offered by the choice of 1024x768 resolution.

As for the game itself, I've never played the real thing but as far as I can tell it's a bit of a variation on the Great Escape/Simpsons (both Maygay machines) theme, but don't quote me on that. As if you would anyway, great to impress the girls with I'm sure; "Well yeah apparently Alex Maroney says that Blazing Trails is nothing more than a variation on the rather laboured Great Escape theme". "Really? My, I'm frothing at the gash already you intellectual giant, take me now!", she would exclaim, whilst sliding off her seat.

4th February - ** NEW RELEASE ** - "TEN OUT OF TEN" - ROM & RES available now.

The dead have risen and are walking the earth! Or so you might think, because this is the first release from Harvey (otherwise known as Digital Fruit) in oooohhhh, absolutely ages.....

Now is not the time to dwell on the arguments and falling outs of the last six weeks, now is the time to look to the future, to what is to come for the fruit machine emulation scene. There's a new feeling over on the MPU Forums that everyone's absolutely had enough of arguing and that we all just want to get back to the fun stuff, namely playing fruit machines emulated through MPU3/4.

Harvey's joining the charge towards a better future by changing his course regarding protected layouts, and as such, is making a start on converting the releases he had stored up for the now-not-going-to-appear new version of MPU3/4 so that they will run on V6.5 of MPU3/4 (a substantial task - so full credit to Harvey for this very welcome change of heart).

So here we have Ten Out Of Ten, the bigger, better version of Top Tenner. It's not a clone, but an evolution of the original ideas, and a damn fine machine to boot. Harvey always did have a flair for excellent classic layouts, and his unfortunate leave of absence clearly hasn't dulled his talents. By using a splash of original artwork a la Andy Capp, a good dose of colour and a lovely cosy fit into the 800x600 layout size, he's created a classic layout that somehow manages to feel more like a DX. And if that isn't clever, I don't know what is.

3rd February - ** LAYOUT UPDATED ** - "CASH LAB" DX - RES V2.0 available now.

Apologies to Kev for the late addition of his updated Cash Lab DX layout to this site, but my dog ate my PC after it had finished eating my little brother's homework. Greedy little bastard is now the only dog in the world that can generate 2 million polygons per second and has 40gb of storage space, although it'll probably just go and fill it all with Spaniel porn.

So then, layout update time. A fair few changes have been made to the original, some are quite substantial, such as reworking all the graphics to give a clearer distinction between "on" and "off" bulbs; others are rather minor, such as "making the 'Insert 10p' font bigger and bolder", a change so minor that it doesn't really count as a change at all, but just goes to show how dedicated Kev is to making his layout the best that it possibly can be. Honestly, it makes me go all warm and tingly just thinking about it.

Full details of all the changes are included in a text document that Kev has thoughtfully added to the zip file. If you've already got V1.0 of Cash Lab DX (and you jolly well should have), then you only need to overwrite the cldx.res file when you unzip. If you're a Cash Lab virgin (which is just like being a real virgin except you don't chuck all your money away down the arcade), then unzip the whole lot, and make sure you grab the Cash Lab ROMs as well.

2nd February - All Empire downloads removed from this, and other fruit machine emulation websites.

Although we had been hoping against hope that Empire would not feel the need to take any action following the hacking of their website, what was effectively inevitable has now happened. Empire have requested that I, and other webmasters remove all copyrighted Empire material from their websites.

I did argue the case as best I could against this action being taken, but it seems that enough is enough for Empire, and in all honesty, who can blame them? The only company to offer tangible support for this scene has had it thrown back in their face in the form of their website being hacked and all their ROMs being leeched.

It has been a recurring problem with this scene for so long, the actions of the tiny (not even necessarily ill-intentioned) minority have caused the acquiescent majority to suffer time and time again - and this is no exception.

On the bright side, most of Empire's "authorised" list of emulatable machines have previously been implemented in MPU3/4 and released, so if you need to get hold of any of them, you'll probably be OK if you put a few feelers out on MPU Forums. I have left the downloads table on this site intact, but made the links to Empire files inactive, and removed the Empire files from the emuunlim server - however, you will still be able to work out what you're missing from the downloads table.

Chances are that there will be future MPU3/4 Empire releases, as amongst the ROMs taken from Empire's site were a few sets that will run comfortably with V6.5 of MPU3/4 (which are, ironically, on the original list of "authorised" machines). I will announce such releases on this site, but I will not be hosting the ROMs or layouts. It should also be pointed out that as Empire have now withdrawn permission for their machines to be emulated, owning or running Empire ROMs if you do not own the original fruit machine itself is now illegal.

From a personal point of view, and I'm sure also on behalf of the scene, I'd like to thank Empire and particularly Steve Brown. Their decision to support this scene was a bold and unusual one; unfortunately, it has come to pass that it has not worked out as well as we might have hoped, but their support was, and always will be, very much appreciated.

2nd February - This is not the end. (Caution - Standard tedious Maroney essay follows).

So then, no new version of MPU3/4. Boo hoo. End of scene? Not a bit of it.

Let's face it, if there were really such a thing as "The school of hard knocks" then the fruit machine emulation scene would have graduated with two black eyes and a set of knuckle dusters after its first month, and given the head teacher an almighty kick in the bollocks on the way out just for good measure. 

The FMES (Fruit Machine Emulation Scene) has been fighting an uphill battle since day one. You can call it any way you want to, but an emulation project that is closed source and closed development is, with the best will in the world, always going to have more than its fair share of problems. MPU3/4 has had extra difficulties beyond that. Chris Wren, MPU3/4's author, has always chosen to do his thing from behind the scenes, the posts he has made to MSN and MPU Forums only amount to single figures. We have had no Work In Progress (W.I.P.) updates, no news about new releases, basically, a wall of silence (bar, if memory serves, a single post to MPU Forums soon after it opened). I'm not knocking Chris for that, and I never have. It's his way of doing things, it's his emulator, he can do, and not do, what he wants with it. Indeed, there is much to be said for going about your work in silence and just getting on with the job, an art I'm sure many people wish I would have mastered over the months.... However, that does not change the fact that Chris' methods have made things difficult for some, an air of mystery has built up around the emulator and what's happening with it, and that has led to problems.

Regarding development; I have been banging on about this pretty much since day one. The way I see it is this, the emulator and what happens with it is entirely Chris' business. But controlling who may and who may not take it upon themselves to create something that can run on that emulator is another matter, everyone should be able to have a go, plain and simple. The fact that someone actually went to the trouble of creating their own RES file designer (MERC) and the way that the entire scene jumped on it as a godsend demonstrates that one. (Take Visual Pinball as a point of reference, the emulator itself is closed source and in the hands of the authors, but the table creation tools are 100% open and available to everyone).

The hierarchy and structure of this scene has been deficient since day one. It has been geared, albeit not deliberately or maliciously, towards secrecy, suspicion, jealousy, mistrust, resentment and anger. 

Yet it has not only survived, it has prospered. It has been done the hard way, but it has been done.

Innovation, determination and vigour have always triumphed over restrictions and confinement. Harvey and Gary, despite being part of "the system" in many peoples eyes, have done their bit (and then some), and been as subversive as anyone when the situation demanded it. They used a hacked V5.9 of MPU3/4 to get out of the starting blocks; Gary used it to create Viva Espana DX (and created quite the most wonderful thing I had ever seen my PC produce in the process), and they both went forward from there. The effort that has been put into sourcing ROMs, artwork, flyers, reel bands and so on is well documented and recognised and appreciated by all. Subsequently, Chris released V6.5 of MPU3/4 which fixed some early problems that had been identified with the emulator, and everything looked set for a great future.

Of course, it didn't work out quite like that. The history is there for anyone who wants to read it, the MSN Community is still on-line, and is also available as an archive should you want to do your research.

What were the problems? As the scene got bigger, so did the voices questioning the "closed shop" nature of development. It was regrettable but inevitable. My voice was one of those that joined the discord in the early days, but as time went on I did the best I could to defend the status quo, what we had was what was, and it didn't seem likely that it would change. Better to grab a paddle and help row the boat than sit at the back and complain. But fast forward to Beaver Fever (the culmination of weeks of problems on MSN which I did my level best to help contain), and the scene that had become dependent on Gary and Harvey for 95% of its releases lost both of them; Gary apparently for good, Harvey until a new version of MPU3/4 that offered protected layouts appeared.

Then it started to get nasty. The scene that so many had enjoyed and loved was thrown into turmoil. In fact, it was precisely because so many peopled genuinely cared about the scene that it was thrown into turmoil. Like a crowd left hanging when the band walks off stage, FMES' fans didn't really know what to do. I certainly didn't, behind the scenes I passed dev tools to a few people in the hope that one of them might be able to pick up the ball. Time dragged on, no new release of MPU3/4, no new layouts, a ROM archive apparently available but lying dormant. MERC was released but it was too little, too late. The rot had set in, the seeds of an apocalypse had been planted and were finding fertile ground in so much confusion and disappointment.

Most recently, in apparent desperation for ROMs, someone has hacked Empire's website and leeched the ROMs available for download there. An unfortunate and ill-considered move against a company that has given this scene near unprecedented co-operation (a move for which they still deserve our unreserved thanks), but one which I sincerely hope does not see them alter their stance on the emulation of their older machines. The Empire hack was the latest in a long line of increasingly frantic attempts to try and get something to happen. ROMs have no intrinsic value, Empire's old ROMs are of no use to anyone except someone who has a real Empire fruit machine which needs replacement ROMs, or someone who wants to try and design a layout for an MPU emulator. Desperate measures in desperate times. That doesn't justify hacking a website, but it goes some way towards explaining the state of play as some people see it.

But what is the state of play? Really? The truth of the matter is this; despite everything, despite all the shit, things still look very, very good. Triumph out of adversity, victory from the jaws of defeat, clichés on a stick, call it what you will - there is an undeniable and marvellous tenacity about the FMES' fans, they simply will not let it die (and quite right too, as little Russ would say, it owns like him (MPU Forums in-joke....)). Many regulars over at the forums, given a chance to design their own layouts with MERC have set about the task with astonishing fervour. There are some unemulated ROM sets out there, and people are working on creating layouts for them now. As for the apparently now "lost" ROM archive that had been established, the fact that is has been established once tells us that it can be established again.

We have a public release of MPU3/4, we have a public release of development tools, we have a committed group of people who are going to ensure the survival of this scene, we have a few ROMs, we have people who will stop at nothing to get hold of more. In short, we have enough to make this scene the success it deserves to be, the success that it will be.

We may not see another release of MPU3/4, but as anyone who has used V6.5 for any period of time already knows, it is a very capable piece of software. It has limitations, but there are still a hell of a lot of ROMs out there that it can run perfectly well. If Chris chooses never to release a later version of MPU3/4 then we will have to accept that. MPU3/4 is his work, it is his decision to make. It would be a tremendous shame, and a great loss to the worldwide emulation community as a whole, if the all but completed new version of MPU3/4 were never released, but as we already know, this will not stop us. I for one truly hope that Chris will help us all by giving us a new release, but if he chooses not to, we must respect that decision, even if we don't like it.

If you've only been following this scene from the various websites dedicated to the subject, then you're missing out. Get over to MPU Forums and join in. Times have been difficult recently, but everyone is just about argued out now (including me, and that's saying something), and the one constant truth that has held things together for this long still remains, we are all committed to this scene, we all love this scene, and none of us can bear the thought of seeing it die.

I have been accused of many things over the months, but one thing I have never been accused of is not caring about this scene. From the very first time I loaded the demo version of V5.2 of MPU3/4 onto my PC (I still have it), I just knew I was looking at something that could and should start up a whole new emulation scene. I was right about that. However, I am not too proud to admit that some of the ways in which I have gone about things since then have been wrong. I have made mistakes, there is no doubt about it. Blind enthusiasm is no excuse, but it is, in some respects, a reason.

In spite of everything, or perhaps because of everything, and the fact that we're all still here, I do not believe for one second that this scene is on its way out. Harvey has put a lot of his time and money into MPU Forums, and I've never seen 200 members (and growing) on a forum make quite so much noise, vibrant doesn't even describe the half of it. Indeed, Harvey's had to let his excellent site take a back seat for a while so that he can devote extra time to the forums - but don't interpret that as a death knell for the scene, quite the opposite, the determination to see the forums succeed is the only motivating factor behind his decision.

And that's what it all comes down to, a determination to see this scene succeed. There are too many people who care too much to let it all end now. One way or other other, with or without one thing or another, we are all going to make this work. Count me in now, because this is one ride I want to be along for......