03043: src/emu/sound/ay8910.c: Write to EShape/ECoarse register detected - please inform www.mametesters.org

ID	Category [?]	Severity [?]	Reproducibility	Date Submitted	Last Update
03043	Sound	Minor	Always	Mar 19, 2009, 17:21	Apr 30, 2022, 12:54

Tester	wilbert	View Status	Public	Platform	Other
Assigned To		Resolution	Open	OS	MacOS X
Status [?]	Confirmed			Driver	amstrad/amstrad.cpp
Version	0.130	Fixed in Version		Build
		Fixed in Git Commit		Github Pull Request #

Summary	03043: src/emu/sound/ay8910.c: Write to EShape/ECoarse register detected - please inform www.mametesters.org
Description	The message "Write to EShape register detected - please inform www.mametesters.org" appears with certain demos in MESS's emulation of the Amstrad CPC Also, as etabeta mentioned, a debug build run of "bigdeal" (funworld.c) comes up with this message.
Steps To Reproduce	Get a copy of the cpc6128 bios and a copy of the Odyssey demo and boot the cpc6128 driver in mess. Mount disk 1 of the demo type 'run"odyssey"' in the emulation. The demo will play and the message above will be displayed. The demo can be found at: http://www.aroms.com/roms/amstradcpc/odysseyuk194disk1of2/ and http://www.aroms.com/roms/amstradcpc/odysseyuk194disk2of2/ Another demo that breaks but which may be untestable in current mess because emulation issues is the Voyage 93 demo. This demo can be found here: http://www.aroms.com/roms/amstradcpc/voyage93me93disk1of2/ http://www.aroms.com/roms/amstradcpc/voyage93me93disk2of2/
Additional Information	Sets in 0.130 which trigger either EShape/ECourse is attached. Nearly 30% of all sets with AY891x/YM2203 use this..
Github Commit

Flags
Regression Version
Affected Sets / Systems	src/emu/sound/ay8910.c

Attached Files	EShape-ECoarse List.txt (19,682 bytes) Apr 6, 2009, 00:58 [Show Content]

No.04004 Tafoid Administrator Mar 19, 2009, 18:02 edited on: Mar 19, 2009, 18:03	I've tried to duplicate with the provided images.. All I get are recurring "Invalid MC6845 Screen Parameters - display disabled!!!" messages. The demo appears to crash back to prompt after the picture with the car and woman posting. I'm using the SPACE BAR to go through the images. This is the "odyssey" demo you mentioned first. I'll leave this open for Couriersud .. he might know at least why the message appears in a MESS usage.
No.04005 couriersud Developer Mar 19, 2009, 18:22	The message appears so that I can document in the ay8910 source which games use the envelope functionality. This seems to be used only by very few games. This makes testing it quite tedious.
No.04011 wilbert Developer Mar 20, 2009, 06:56	I am still working on redoing the mc6845 emulation to make it work more like the real thing, so I'm not getting the mc6845 messages any more. Do you get the EShape message if you comment out the 2 popmessages in src/emu/video/mc6845.c ? If not, then fixing this will have to wait until I'm ready to commit the mc6845 changes.
No.04013 hap Developer Mar 20, 2009, 09:50	couriersud how about testing it in MESS then?
No.04015 wilbert Developer Mar 20, 2009, 18:21	It seems the current mess version does not trigger the ESape writes yet. You will have to wait until I'm done with the 6845 rewrite, after that the writes will be triggered.
No.04019 Robbbert Senior Tester Mar 21, 2009, 02:45 edited on: Mar 21, 2009, 02:48	I've tested this in MESS with normal and debug builds, and no error message was seen (at svn 4426).
No.04054 etabeta Developer Mar 24, 2009, 18:26	I receive the same message when starting bigdeal (in funworld.c)
No.04055 Tafoid Administrator Mar 24, 2009, 18:33	Sure enough - it shows up in a debug build only. I'll confirm this now.
No.04058 etabeta Developer Mar 25, 2009, 08:12	elevator and elevatob show the message as well as soon as you start playing in-game shall we create a list of the game showing the message in MAME?
No.04059 Tafoid Administrator Mar 25, 2009, 12:15	Since it's debug only stuff, I wouldn't stress about it too much. Firewave is due to perform another regression test soon enough and we'll get a nice list from that.
No.04060 Haze Senior Tester Mar 25, 2009, 13:05	I don't think an automated regression test would pick them up. Firstly, it's a popup message, not any kind of exit code. Secondly, it depends on sound / music playing, and many games only have minimal (if any) sound in attract mode.
No.04061 etabeta Developer Mar 25, 2009, 14:01 edited on: Mar 26, 2009, 09:09	It depends on couriersud, if he needs a list of drivers to check or not EDIT: buggychl.c shows the message as well.
No.04089 Tafoid Administrator Mar 27, 2009, 20:25 edited on: Mar 27, 2009, 20:27	I took the time today to go through U1 and in an automated process, run each set for a couple seconds to check for triggers to EShape and ECoarse calls. I've added them to the Additional Information area. It's probably no surprise that a lot of them are gambling titles....
No.04090 couriersud Developer Mar 28, 2009, 00:25	Thanks everybody! I left a note in source pointing here for now. This information sure will be very useful going forward.
No.04091 Tafoid Administrator Mar 28, 2009, 02:12 edited on: Apr 6, 2009, 00:55	I ran a new test .. 8 seconds and also included all YM2203 (Escaped my mind that it contained a YM2149/AY chip). We now have more sets. As I see others sets not on the list - I'll append it. EDIT: I've done some manual checking of the 1800 or so sets that use AY8910/YM2203 and it's much more widespread than probably first believed. I'll post when I've completed the manual checks - which may be later in the week. EDIT2: After about a week of plugging away at the list, I have a decent list of what drivers/what games have those commands... nearly 600 of the 1800 or so (substantial amount). I didn't check all the gambling machines that require intricate setup due to time constraints. I've attached the list rather than included it inline due to size.
No.05299 Firewave Senior Tester Dec 21, 2009, 17:30	It also appears in scramble.c: hncholms.
No.06654 wilbert Developer Aug 29, 2010, 20:20	On the MESS side, the Amstrad CPC Plus test cartridge has a sound test mode which tests all different EShapes.
No.20144 Robbbert Senior Tester Apr 30, 2022, 12:54	I think this message was removed with the rewrite?