Am I the only one who thinks that encrypting arcade games is stupid? I was going to release the new version last night but a few encryption issues put it on hold.
Thankfully I have solved them all now, but it boggles my mind that companies wasted time and effort encrypting arcade games. There were quite a few bugs in my cycle accurate Z80 core, for some reason I thought I had finished all the undocumented instructions but Fantasy Zone 2 was calling some. This refreshed my memory "aha, I didn't quite finish that did I". It would be good to run a test over all the Sega Master System games and see which ones use the more obscure undocumented instructions.
You see even in undocumented terms there are instructions which are MORE undocumented than other ones. Sort of like a good niche cafe that everyone knows about, there are undocumented instructions everyone uses. Then there are the type that asperger sufferers find when they are sitting home alone on Friday night that help push their game title over the edge.
It's a bit weird that these Sega System E games are the ones that use them *A LOT*, but it's a good test for my core. Usually consoles are the games that really push systems to the brink because they have to find every advantage they can to make their game stand out. Arcade games are different, these systems are pretty much built for single games in a lot of cases. If a programmer goes "Hey I want to be able to put 100 sprites on a line for Street Figther 2", someone at Capcom goes "good idea". On console you know your basic limitations , but if you find some instruction or method which saves you a few extra cycles you could have the next Super Mario Brothers on your hands.
Anyhow, all the SEGA-E games are added and work. Better than MAME even (MAME has some obvious glitches). The next release should be out tomorrow! It's been a long time.
The games are :-
Astro Flash / Transformer
Riddle of Pythagoras
Fantasy Zone 2
Tetris
Hang-on Jnr!
Opa Opa
There is apparently an undumped Slap Shot SegaE game. If anyone has the arcade board and wants to dump it for me, I'll add it too.