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Stern SAM - Testing colorized ROM before installing on real machine


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Good morning everyone,

 

I'm trying to understand whether I can test colorized ROM generated by Pinball Browser macro system on a virtual pinball, before actually trying to install it on a real machine

 

To give some context:

- I have a Stern SAM Shrek

- There is a colorization macro available on PB repository, which I can use to generate a colorized ROM (either inband or side channel)

- Before installing it, I wanted to check if the colorized ROM was actually working correctly in the first place

 

Unfortunately, VPX reports an error when trying to load the Shrek table with this modified ROM (ie "could not launch").

 

Hence my questions:

- Is is conceptually possible to take an inband colorized ROM and run it as is with VPinMame ?

- Or if not, how are vpinmame colorized rom being generated ? (note that I would be interested to know in order to generate a colorized ROM using PB macro repository, running on the latest Star Trek code)

- In reverse, what would prevent to use the colorized ROM available through the latest Shrek table/PuP Pack download and flash it on a real machine, would it work (through sidechannel or in band), assuming ROM fits within machine EEPROM - which is not the case on Star Trek for ex

 

Now if someone had generated a Shrek colorized PAL/FSQ or PAC file (since PIN2DMD supports that since a few months for SAM), that would be awesome, and much more practical than reflashing the ROM...

 

Regards

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51 minutes ago, Ashram56 said:

- Is is conceptually possible to take an inband colorized ROM and run it as is with VPinMame ?

 

Yes. As far as I remember the Shrek colorized ROM for VPinMame uses Inframe colorization method of pinball browser

 

53 minutes ago, Ashram56 said:

- Or if not, how are vpinmame colorized rom being generated ? (note that I would be interested to know in order to generate a colorized ROM using PB macro repository, running on the latest Star Trek code)

 

Exactly like for real pinball machines. The only difference is that the machine serial number is set to all zero in the sidechannel commpatch.

 

55 minutes ago, Ashram56 said:

- In reverse, what would prevent to use the colorized ROM available through the latest Shrek table/PuP Pack download and flash it on a real machine, would it work (through sidechannel or in band), assuming ROM fits within machine EEPROM - which is not the case on Star Trek for ex

 

It  would work for Inframe but not for sidechannel because the sidechannel code (commpatch) checks for the serial number of the machine as a copy protection to prevent sharing of the ROMs.

 

1 hour ago, Ashram56 said:

Now if someone had generated a Shrek colorized PAL/FSQ or PAC file (since PIN2DMD supports that since a few months for SAM), that would be awesome, and much more practical than reflashing the ROM...

 

That is exactly what vbobrusev demonstrated with his POTC colorization.

 

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I'll need to dig further then, as currently when I use the rom I created using PB macro system, inband, it crashes when run through vpinmame 

 

With regards to generating for vpinmame : obviously there is no constraint on eeprom size, how can you force pinball browser to increase rom size in order to avoid 'out of memory errors'? (probably more of a question to Oga, but just in case someone knows) 

 

This question is in relation with Star Trek colorization macros, which in PB throws out hundred of 'out of memory' errors, so can't complete. Yet there is a colorized rom for 1.61 for vpin. I have already adjusted the shiftid to accommodate for the ID shift on 1.62, but I can't anyway complete the rom creation precisely because of these errors 

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3 hours ago, Ashram56 said:

how can you force pinball browser to increase rom size in order to avoid 'out of memory errors'?

 

There is no way to increase the memory size above the hardware memory size of the pinball machine.

Extend Memory already increases the size to the maximum possible in real pinball machines.

A long time ago I talked with Oga about possible improvements for that, but he is not interested in any further development of the

colorization feature of pinball browser . 

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So I'm puzzled, how was the Star Trek colorization done then? When trying to run it, it throws a lot of these out of memory errors. I always assumed that on vpin, it could be done because you had no physical limit to comply with. 

 

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So I'm puzzled, how was the Star Trek colorization done then? When trying to run it, it throws a lot of these out of memory errors. I always assumed that on vpin, it could be done because you had no physical limit to comply with. 

 

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A solution could be a "hybrid" colorization. Simple replacement scenes without dynamic content could be removed from the macro and moved to a pin2dmd editor project to overcome the memory problem. The avengers project was done that way .

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On 8/28/2022 at 4:01 AM, Ashram56 said:

I'll need to dig further then, as currently when I use the rom I created using PB macro system, inband, it crashes when run through vpinmame 

 

With regards to generating for vpinmame : obviously there is no constraint on eeprom size, how can you force pinball browser to increase rom size in order to avoid 'out of memory errors'? (probably more of a question to Oga, but just in case someone knows) 

 

This question is in relation with Star Trek colorization macros, which in PB throws out hundred of 'out of memory' errors, so can't complete. Yet there is a colorized rom for 1.61 for vpin. I have already adjusted the shiftid to accommodate for the ID shift on 1.62, but I can't anyway complete the rom creation precisely because of these errors 

 

you are better of just moving on  from the colored project made with Pinball browser.

 

1.  the colored file created with PB is very limited. some of the colored scenes only have 4 colors.

2. you need a to donate to PB in order to create  your "real pinball" color files.

3.  You can now created a  64 color project that

a.  will give you a larger ranger of coloring

b.  more important you no longer need to upload a Hacked rom to your machine.  The 64 color project will run on your original unmodified rom.

 

Look at my Merlin scene

my 64 color project has 4 skin tone colors,  4 hair colors

wile the Pinball Browser project only has a total of 5 colors 

I have a project that is about 90% plus captured and tested, but allot of scenes need to be colored

if you are interested in coloring scenes and moving this project along, as I currently have no time to work on it

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jsxmmh3yhtsxrb6/shrek WIP.zip?dl=0

Capture.PNG

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