readme

MPU3/4 Emulator Version 6.0/6.5 by C.J.Wren - wizard@kaboom.demon.co.uk

Readme version 1.6 by Alex Maroney - maroney@advsys.co.uk

24th September 2001

NOTE - For a step-by-step guide to getting things running, take a look at beginners.htm

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Many, many thanks to Chris for making this emulator available to the public. It's a fantastic piece of work, and, as far as anyone can tell, is the first fruit machine emulator coded by anyone, anywhere in the world.

Some of the options can seem a little confusing at first, this readme file is intended to make your immersion into the world of nudging, hi/lowing and cursing at missed skillstops as smooth as possible.

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UPDATE FOR VERSION 1.5 (10th Aug2001) : (V6.5) :

There are now two versions of the emulator available at http://maroneyswebhovel.emuunlim.com. V6.0 and V6.5. It appears that there are some issues with older games running on V6.5, but at the same time, the latest RES files (such as Ghost Train and Crazy Capers) will only run properly under V6.5. My suggestion would be to have both versions available (they're only a single executable) and have a shortcut to each.

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:

The emulator is quite CPU intensive, a PII-300 or better should be fine. Be warned, it does clunk somewhat on anything less than a PII class system.

The emulator uses Direct X components and requires a graphics card that supports Direct Draw. If you get errors when you try to load a ROM, update your graphics card drivers and bung the latest version of Direct X onto your system. If it still doesn't work, bin your PC and buy a new one.

A Windows soundcard would be desirable, to enable you to hear all the funky sounds, samples and tunes.

It appears that there a couple of issues with MPU3/4 running on Win XP and Win2000 (a lag on the third reel dropping in has been reported by a few people). Installing the latest version of DirectX and graphics card drivers seems to be fixing this for most people. Try installing the latest Win2000 Service Pack as well.

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GETTING UP AND RUNNING:

Launch the MPU3/4 emulator, go to file>load and browse to where you've unzipped the file to. Load in the xxxxxx.gam file and away you go. It's just that easy!

Some of the more recent games will give an error "WRONG SOUND NEED V1.0" after the self test. If this happens, just press the "START" button and the emulation will continue as normal. This does not affect the emulation or the sound, the sound hardware is being incorrectly reported, that's all.

As of 1st August 2001 ROMs and LAYOUTS will *not* be supplied together. All layout components will be supplied in one zip file, all ROM components will be supplied in another. *They must not be distributed as a single file*. To play a game you will need both the ROM and RES zip files, unzip them into one folder, and load in the xxxxxx.gam file in the usual fashion.

NOTE - All ROMs and LAYOUTS are supplied as two separate zip files on all current MPU3/4 sites.

1.6 UPDATE (24/09/01) - Files supplied from always adhere to the following naming convention:

Game layout (RES) files are called <<gamename>>layout.zip
Game ROM files are called <<gamename>>rom.zip
DX Mods are called <<gamename>>dxlayout.zip

DX MODS - DX Mods are enhanced versions of standard RES files (they use original artwork to more closely resemble the original machine).

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BASICS:

Most, but not all games support the following keyboard commands:

SPACE - Start
1,2,3 - Hold/Nudge
Tilde - Cancel/Collect
F10 - 3 reel view
F11 - 5 reel view
0 - Insert £1 coin

You can also use the mouse to click on various buttons (you'll have to for those that don't have keys associated with them).

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NOTE - It is a good idea to keep the original ROM zip file, as it is possible to trash a ROM. Sometimes you'll get an internal error on the machine which you won't be able to clear, or you may muck about with the settings to such an extent that you can't get things back to how they should be. In these cases, being able to unzip the ROM and start again from scratch is very definitely A Good Thing.

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OPTIONS & SETTINGS:

The "Configuration" menu:

Number of reels, 7 segment display, payout type, lamp extender board, program type and alpha display are all set as they should be for each ROM. You can mess around with them, but at best it'll do nothing, at worst it'll stop things working properly.

Sampled sound - Only applies to more recent games, if you have problems with samples not looping properly you could try toggling this (choice is Early or V1), it may help. It may not.
UPDATE FOR VERSION 1.5 (10th Aug2001) - applies to V6.5 of MPU3/4. The sampled sound menu now consists of Setting 1/2/3 as opposed to Early/V1. I'm not entirely sure what difference there is between them.
1.6 UPDATE - Some Empire machines require different sound settings to be used (Ghost Train for example). If a machine doesn't sound right, try using a different sound setting.

Meter display - Select stats for this session (since you loaded the ROM) or long term (since the meters were last reset).
1.6 UPDATE - applies to V6.5 of MPU3/4. This option has now been removed from the config menu, to toggle between current session and long term stats press F12.

Game name - Displays the current game name, I have added in stake, jackpot and %age details for each ROM. You can change this name to suit your own tastes, or to reflect any changes you make.

Meter settings - This *does not* affect the payout the machine, you should set this to reflect the %age that the machine is set to, so that the meters keep track of the machine's payout cycle accurately.

Dipswitches - In short, leave well alone. Muck about if you must, but you can stop things working properly. On some club machines changing dipswitch settings will alter stake, jackpot and %age settings - the machine's display will inform you about these before they take effect.

Total In and Total Out - Leave these as they are, or the emu will not properly keep track of how much it's paid out. (The machine itself will function properly, but the emu won't report accurately).

Delay - Determines how fast or slow the emu runs, best setting will depend on the speed of your PC. Try around 200 as a starting point and adjust from there. On the older machines the authenticity of the sound is directly affected by this setting - around 175 seems to work best here.

THE FOLLOWING SETTINGS REQUIRE YOU TO "OPEN THE DOOR" with the "Door" button to be activated:

Stake/Prize - Only works on the newer Barcrest pub machines. You can select price of play (from 5p to 30p), jackpot (from £5 to £15) and %age (from 70% to 98%). Note that the layouts have a set jackpot value shown on screen and this will not change to reflect any changes you make here.

Also note that some settings will be invalid for certain machines (a £15 jackpot on a machine whose software can only handle an £8 jackpot for example). Generally speaking, you're best off just adjusting the %age, and leaving stake and jackpot as they are.

Changing the jackpot or stake settings will result in the machine resetting itself when you "close the door" (display will show NEW JACKPOT KEY), make sure you manually reset the IN/OUT meters to 0. If you've changed the %age setting make sure you alter the meter settings to reflect the new %age. If you don't, the IN/OUT meters will not accurately reflect the true state of the machine's profit/loss.

1) Open the door (using the "Door" button), and open the Configuration window.

2) Change the dipswitches to the setting you want.

3) Close the door again, wait for the alarm message to clear (opening and closing the door a couple of times seem to help) and open it again. When the game resets you'll be able to see the new settings on the display in the format:

XX is the %age, YY is the stake, ZZZZ is the jackpot.

4) Close the door again, wait for the reset, and off you go.

I've been doing a bit of messing around with the dipswitches and have come up with the following combination (Y=on N=off).

This gives 25p play, 84% payout and £10 jackpot. You can alter the Game Name field in the config menu to reflect the new settings, and it might be an idea to reset the IN and OUT meters to 0 and the Meter Settings to 84% so that everything is kept track of properly.

Obviously you can experiment with other dipswitch combinations to get other settings but the one shown above will give you a decent game.

UPDATE FOR VERSION 1.5 (10th Aug2001) - The following information does not apply to Empire machines. Also, it does not apply to some Barcrest machines.

"Open the door" with the "door" button. You'll now be able to cycle around the machine's diagnostics, settings etc. The buttons that you can use will light.

As a general rule, open the door and wait the machine to reset in test mode. Then put credits in using Start, then enter refill mode, you should then be in the machine's menu system - and will be able to cycle through the various menus using Start, where there are menu options you'll normally use the hold buttons.

The older machines and club machines do not have the same menu system as the 1990's pub machines - just have a play around with them, they're pretty self explanatory.

One thing of interest in here are the "VTP" meters. These will report the *machine's* money out, money in and how close it is to %age. If there are any discrepancies between where the machine thinks it's up to, and what the emu's meters report, manually set the emu's meters to the correct figures as reported by the machine.

(It doesn't make any difference to the operation of the emu if its meters get screwed up, it just won't report properly).

Exit refill mode and "close the door" to carry on playing the emu.

1.6 UPDATE - The easiest way to do a factory reset on a machine is to simply delete the .ram file associated with it. When the game is next loaded MPU3/4 will recreate the .ram file.

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OTHER STUFF:

Real fruit machines have a small amount of RAM that they use to "remember" where they're up to in their payout cycle, how much money's in the bank etc when they're turned off.

The emu saves the machine's RAM state when you load another ROM or exit the emu. This means that if you take a jackpot out of a machine, load in another ROM, then return to the original ROM it will "remember" that it had just paid a jackpot before you quit. This is especially useful for the club machines, which can take hundreds of pounds before paying a jackpot. Also, it allows you to examine the machines' entire payout cycles.

Basically, this means that the emulator is a totally accurate representation of the real thing - and that you don't have to worry about "losing where you're up to" if you load another ROM or quit the emu. (By the same token (pun), if you take a load of cash out of a machine before quitting the emu, expect that machine to take a chunk back before it pays again).

Real fruit machines tend to be set to really shitty payout %ages (around 76% is common), if you want to find out how fruit machines can actually be quite good fun and value for money try setting the machines to 84% or higher, over 90% and you'll find that they're transformed into something totally different from what you're used to. Blame greedy operators and money-grabbing arcade owners for setting their machines to such low %ages - vote with your wallets, only play machines set to high %ages.

1.6 UPDATE - All new RES and DX Mod files that are being produced require MPU3/4 V6.5 to run. The main MPU3/4 sites all note whether or not a RES file requires V6.5 to run.

CRAZY CAPERS - The layout (RES) file released requires the M574.chr file from the MadHouse layout file. Place a copy of M574.chr file from your MadHouse folder into your Crazy Capers folder.