Irem Arcade Hits for PC - R-Type Leo, Air Duel etc.

[Observer]

Did a few tests based on BPzeBanshee's comments...

DOSBox (with Ultimate Doom and Quake)- fine. MAME (with GunForce 2 and In the Hunt)- fine. Taito Legends- fine. Taito Legends 2- fine. F.E.A.R.- fine. F.E.A.R. 2- fine. Flatout 2- fine. Tyiran 2000 (from GOG using its pre-programmed version of DOSBox)- fine. Resident Evil 5- fine. Dragon Age: Origins- fine.

I'm very much doubting it's my CPU getting ready to die, if those more demanding games are running as they always have. Something definitely seems wrong with the compilation, but the $64,000 question is... what?



Observer- I've got a pair of questions for you, if you don't mind...

1) Did you contact the DotEMU folks about your issue as well?
2) What kind of sound are you using? Is it on-board (like my Realtek AC97) or a sound card?

1) Nope. I first wanted to uninstall/reinstall to see if that was causing it (some installation error). But no cigar. I'll mail them today since this bug, whatever is causing it, looks pretty weird!
2) UH-OH. I have the exact same soundcard as you, onboard and all. And it's not the first time the Realtek soundcards prove to be the reason of a lot of problems... I mean, I've NEVER ever had issues with the SoundMax soundcard of my old 2002 comp, in fact, it also has better sound overall.

Hopefully they already fixed this in the next version but it won't hurt to contact them.

[BPzeBanshee]

1) Nope. I first wanted to uninstall/reinstall to see if that was causing it (some installation error). But no cigar. I'll mail them today since this bug, whatever is causing it, looks pretty weird!
2) UH-OH. I have the exact same soundcard as you, onboard and all. And it's not the first time the Realtek soundcards prove to be the reason of a lot of problems... I mean, I've NEVER ever had issues with the SoundMax soundcard of my old 2002 comp, in fact, it also has better sound overall.

Hopefully they already fixed this in the next version but it won't hurt to contact them.

I'm very much doubting it's my CPU getting ready to die, if those more demanding games are running as they always have. Something definitely seems wrong with the compilation, but the $64,000 question is... what?

I agree with you there, if anything was wrong hardware-wise it'd be obvious with other games (especially poorly emulated MAME games in my experience). That was what I was trying to figure out with the questions.

The onboard audio stuff has me a little worried though, mine's a Realtek audio as well though Device Manager isn't being very specific past "Realtek High Definition Audio". Most things onboard with me tend to have compatibility issues with games especially on 64-bit architecture machines, but that usually only extends to stuff not working at all, or no background music or something like that. And this certainly shouldnt be happening with Pentium 4s and above-performance nVIDIA graphics cards.

Seems to me the developers should investigate recent changes to their sound core, possible memory leaks and that animated background Observer mentioned. Something new in the program is definitely going wrong.

Any of yous have MSN or something similar? I'm interested in getting into some sort of live contact for further narrowing down on the program's issue. Or maybe I'm being too serious on the matter.

[The Coop]

I don't think it's just related to Realtek AC97 on-board sound. I have an old Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer card, and decided to hook it up. Same results. Stuttering audio, slightly slower gameplay when the stuttering's happening, then a brief moment of everything being fine (two games of In the Hunt) before it all starts up again. I didn't use the launcher at all today either.

[BPzeBanshee]

I don't think it's just related to Realtek AC97 on-board sound. I have an old Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer card, and decided to hook it up. Same results. Stuttering audio, slightly slower gameplay when the stuttering's happening, then a brief moment of everything being fine (two games of In the Hunt) before it all starts up again. I didn't use the launcher at all today either.

How peculiar.

I'd take a look at the program myself but I'm living in a North Korea when it comes to online purchasing. How did you guys buy it, just with PayPal?

[The Coop]

I don't think it's just related to Realtek AC97 on-board sound. I have an old Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer card, and decided to hook it up. Same results. Stuttering audio, slightly slower gameplay when the stuttering's happening, then a brief moment of everything being fine (two games of In the Hunt) before it all starts up again. I didn't use the launcher at all today either.

How peculiar.

I'd take a look at the program myself but I'm living in a North Korea when it comes to online purchasing. How did you guys buy it, just with PayPal?

Yep.

[Rozyrg]

None of the games seem to work for me.
I know my netbook isn't exactly a top of the line gaming PC; but none of them seem to load at all.... and I have to kill them with the Task Manager just to get out.

edit: I downloaded the older version (1.0) and all the games work fine now. I still can't figure out how to close them without having to use blunt force to do so.

[The Coop]

More testing, and I think the results are rather interesting. I ran Image Fight this afternoon, and things worked out that at first it played fine, then an hour later (after closing the program), it began stuttering. Here's what I found. Keep in mind, I have a Pentium 4 3.00GHz Hyper-Threading processor, and I'm starting the game with its executable, not the launcher...


Image Fight (running normal)

Initial startup sitting on the "Controls" menu = 50-52% CPU usage on the "Processes" tab (spikes to the mid-60's on the "Performance" tab)
Game running = 20-27% CPU usage on the "Processes" tab (spikes into the 40's on the "Performance" tab)
Pause menu = 5-6% CPU usage on the "Processes" tab (spikes into the 20's on the "Performance" tab)


Image Fight (stuttering)

Initial startup sitting on the "Controls" menu = 50-53% CPU usage on the "Processes" tab (spikes to the mid-60's on the "Performance" tab)
Game running = 0-2% CPU usage on the "Processes" tab (spikes into the teens on the "Performance" tab)
Pause menu = 0-4% CPU usage on the "Processes" tab (no spikes on the "Performance" tab)

As if that weren't enough, I noticed that one CPU thread was maxed out, while the other wasn't. The second was clearly being used, but it wasn't spiking at the top of the "Performance" meter.

Something is definitely wrong. It's like the games just stop using the CPU, and thus have no power to be run properly.

[BPzeBanshee]

Well bugger me, that is odd indeed.

Are you running Windows 7 or Vista? If so, maybe try setting it to compatibility with XP. Though in all fairness I';m not optimistic that will help though, that sounds like something within the program not initialising properly and causing stuttering.
I'd take a look at the program personally but I haven't managed to set up anything Paypal-related just yet.

[The Coop]

I'm running Windows XP SP3.

[BPzeBanshee]

I'm running Windows XP SP3.

Well that just blew my last idea out of the water.
Looks like it's nothing that you can really do to improve it on your end, just reload the program when it goes stuttery and see what happens.

[Observer]

So we are running on the same OS, with the same sound card... I'm beginning to see a pattern here (pun intended ). *House mode*

I did one last test today and it's pretty much the same as before: it goes well half the day without issues and nice, the other half it suddenly stutters and becomes unplayable. I insist the moving background when you pause behaves way too weird, besides being terribly pointless.

Anyway, after this I'm finally contacting DotEmu to see if they already fix this or are planning to or something.

[BPzeBanshee]

So we are running on the same OS, with the same sound card... I'm beginning to see a pattern here (pun intended ). *House mode*

I did one last test today and it's pretty much the same as before: it goes well half the day without issues and nice, the other half it suddenly stutters and becomes unplayable. I insist the moving background when you pause behaves way too weird, besides being terribly pointless.

Anyway, after this I'm finally contacting DotEmu to see if they already fix this or are planning to or something.

That'd be a good idea, add The Coop's CPU testing with it as well and possibly provide some kind of a log file regarding your computer specs. AIDA32 or a similar program should do it.

[Observer]

Yep. Will do so. And I'll link to the thread, which I think was linked before but it won't hurt to do the same again.

http://www.dotemu.com/en/contact

Is this the proper way of contacting them or is there a mail I'm missing? Don't wanna fill a form in vain...

[Ghegs]

That form is how I originally contacted them.

[esreveR]

GUNFORCE 2 FUCK YES

Such an underrated and yet SHINY SHINY SHINY gem.

[The Coop]

Well, January 15th is nearing it's end, and no v1.2 yet.

Hope they get this fixed. I'd like to play what I paid for, and not have to continually go to MAME to play my purchases.

[Shatterhand]

Yeah the piracy concerns really bug me.
I noticed that a few of the people who read my blog were googling for irem arcade hits cracks.
It's a $10 release for crying out loud.

That's really silly, not only because the compilation is cheap, but because you can easily download all of those games for MAME!

[TVG]

Holy shit they really seem to care about this. Also the price tag is so right. I wasted money on the PSP collections which are packaged with 80% of meh games at a hight price.

I'll buy it, probably never gonna play it but who cares. Sad to see the piracy issues. I think we should spend 10$ out of principle here.

[moonblood]

It would be nice if they'd at least include a printable dvd case insert with this. I filled out their form and asked about it but they didn't even reply.

[The Coop]

Time for a bump.


As anyone who bought this can tell, v1.2 is still not out. I contacted them, and was basically told it's their "production pipe."

Basically, the only real progress that I could gleam from the response is that the Japanese/Alpha version of Undercover Cops is good to go for being added, but improving performance, adding extra features and all that is something they're still looking at. They said they wanted to get v1.2 done by the end of February, but given what day it is today, I wouldn't hold my breath (even they're not sure they can). So for those of us with stuttering sound and all that? We're still shit out of luck for at least the immediate future.

[originalz]

I'm really hoping this shows up on GOG eventually. It seems like all Dotemu "exclusives" end up there anyway, and there have even been Dotemu promotions on GOG. Maybe after the patch?

[MathU]

How would purchasing it at GOG be any different than at their own site?

[originalz]

Eh, would rather just have it all on my main account instead of having to register for another site. I know that Dotemu is also DRM-free and whatever, but GOG stuff usually comes with extras and I really like the service.

[The Coop]

I e-mailed the folks at DOTemu again. I'll let you know what excuse they decide to give this time.

[The Coop]

Well, it took two and a half weeks, but I finally heard back after contacting them again. The news? Not good.

Basically, it's taking more time than they thought it would. They said it's still in the works, but the only date given for its release is 2011. So yeah, any time within the next seven and a half months, we'll get the patch... maybe.

Of course, if you multiply that given patch date by how things have been going with past patch release dates, we're looking at, what... 2014?

[BPzeBanshee]

That's pretty shocking. I thought CAVE was bad when it came to patching their 360 releases.

[Observer]

Bumping this thread. The pack will be 50% OFF starting today. Dunno how long it'll last.

http://www.dotemu.com/en/download-game/ ... rcade-hits

Perhaps it's a good time to re-float the issue with stuttering because I never got a reply. It definitely has to be the interface/overlay/whatever used to wrap these games... Or the codec for the sound. Or something but it's been like 4-5 months now and not much has been said other than "we're working on it".

[Klatrymadon]

Thanks for the heads-up! I haven't had access to a PC for a while, but a chap would have to be tremendously stupid in the brain not to seize it at that price.

[Rozyrg]

Does anyone else have a problem with bringing up the menu (ESC by default) once a game has started? Some (mostly the older ones) let me do it at least once or twice; but some don't let me at all. I have to force quit nearly every game just to exit them every time I play. Ugh.

Some of them run pretty slow for me too (R-Type Leo, Blade Master, In the Hunt); but on this PC, that doesn't exactly shock me. I can't say if it's the same 'stuttering' yall are experiencing; but the audio does go a bit wonky in those cases.

Somewhat Minor annoyances considering Gunforce 2 is on here, though. Awesome, awesome game.

[Edmond Dantes]

I bought this thing too. I gotta be honest I love it, as it introduced me to so many games I had missed in their heyday and even (indirectly) helped me find my favorite shmup X-Multiply (via reviews complaining that it's not in the collection, if that makes sense).

I have had some problems:

1. Mr. Heli Battle Chopper seems to run faster in MAME than here (considering that game is pretty hectic, this may not be a good thing...)
2. Sound is a little scratchy (yes I too have an onboard sound card).
3. When playing with an X-Box 360 controller you can't remap directional commands to the digital pad--you have to move with the analog stick. Which I don't find very comfortable.

If they would just fix it up a bit, and maybe port it to a console of some sort (I'd love to play Image Fight on a PSP!) then we'd be in business!