04726: aes [ridhero, ridheroh]: Riding Hero AES mode's intro and menu-select is extremely slow.

ID	Category [?]	Severity [?]	Reproducibility	Date Submitted	Last Update
04726	Gameplay	Major	Always	Mar 11, 2012, 22:08	Jan 19, 2014, 22:01

Tester	Samurai Fox	View Status	Public	Platform
Assigned To		Resolution	Reopened	OS	Windows Vista/7/8 (64-bit)
Status [?]	Confirmed			Driver	neogeo/neogeo.cpp
Version	0.145	Fixed in Version		Build
		Fixed in Git Commit		Github Pull Request #

Summary	04726: aes [ridhero, ridheroh]: Riding Hero AES mode's intro and menu-select is extremely slow.
Description	Running the game on the MESS AES driver causes severe slowdown in the intro and the title screen's menu-select, making it very difficult to start the game at times. The slowdown also happens in MAME if you use the Uni-BIOS and force console mode, or if you set the "Link Enable" dipswitch to On. EDIT: I found a video to confirm my suspicions that this is not normal behavior (see comment below).
Steps To Reproduce	Start the game in any of the conditions listed above. To force console mode on the Uni-BIOS (instructions are for version 3.0 of the BIOS): Hold player 1 buttons A, B and C (called 1, 2, 3 by MAME) during startup. Select "Region Setup" from the menu. Press A, B or C to select Japan, US or Euro region. Press B to select Console mode. Press C to exit the Uni-BIOS menu and start the game. Note: Running games in console (AES) mode on arcade (MVS) hardware using this method is a documented feature of the Uni-BIOS which definitely works on real, unmodified hardware (unmodified other than replacing the BIOS, I mean). It is not the same thing as running an actual AES BIOS on an MVS, which is a hack supported by some derivative MAME builds and other emulators but which doesn't work on real hardware.
Additional Information
Github Commit

Flags	Verified with Original, Noted in Source
Regression Version
Affected Sets / Systems	aes [ridhero, ridheroh]

Attached Files

No.08332 Samurai Fox Tester Mar 11, 2012, 22:17	Here's a video for reference, showing that this shouldn't even occur on a real AES (even using the Uni-BIOS).
No.08333 Haze Senior Tester Mar 12, 2012, 04:52	Technically this is a MESS bug, even if you can run the AES mode with the Uni-Bios in MAME I don't know how it would behave on an MVS unit if you did that.
No.08336 NekoEd Senior Tester Mar 12, 2012, 23:47	Should we close this one as invalid? I think there was discussion long ago about the Uni-BIOS not being acceptable for testing, but I can't recall and don't want to step on any toes closing a report I'm not sure about.
No.08337 Tafoid Administrator Mar 13, 2012, 01:29	A few things: - First off, I cannot duplicate your issues using the bios "uni-bios_2_3". I saw no slowdown or delay in the startup intro animations/sounds or selecting items after start is pressed using MAME. The bios itself detects the game/hardware as Arcade, not Console as your linked video shows. I see no user detectable way to 'force' the bios to use AES mode. Even if that were the case (abiltiy to force AES), MAME does not emulate AES hardware and such comparisons cannot be made. - The video is of a modded console (overclock and audio/video mods). While the comments says "standard clock rate", this can not be proven and I'd avoid ANY confirmation on any modded home console for arcade related behavior. - I don't see a uni_bios option for MESS's AES support, just Japan and Asia regions of consoles. - If it happens with MESS, as Haze mentions, it's a MESS / AES error and you'll need to make a Bugzilla report: http://bugzilla.mess.org Closing.
No.08338 Tafoid Administrator Mar 13, 2012, 15:46 edited on: Mar 13, 2012, 15:57	Further information suggests that in this instance the problem might be due to the fact that this particular game was set up to use a not so well known feature which allowed you to 'link' to another console/game of the same type. Emulation may not be handling this correctly on the home side of things therefore the delay/pause you are seeing. Games known to have this feature are Riding Hero, League Bowling, Thrash Rally and are noted to have plug holes on the top of their carts. As far as duplicating in MAME, you can by toggle the hard dip for "link enable" to ON to mirror the same behavior as MESS, regardless of bios assigned. Still, this is a MESS-specific, home console AES only issue.
No.08339 Robbbert Senior Tester Mar 13, 2012, 19:25	This explains how to use the unibios. Once you enter the bios menu, you can choose the region, AES/MVS, etc. http://unibios.free.fr/howitworks.html
No.08340 Tafoid Administrator Mar 13, 2012, 19:50	You get the main menu with most of those code and can pull up in-game cheat/debug menus, but I didn't see any explicit instruction how to change a unit's region or AES/MVS.
No.08343 Robbbert Senior Tester Mar 14, 2012, 07:08	Here is an example of how to choose AES Japan: From the Misfitmame faq: "When you see the Unibios screen, press the keys Ctrl, Alt and Space together. Now you are at a menu. Press Ctrl. Press Ctrl to select Japan, then Alt to select Console-AES. Then choose Play Game and press Ctrl to start. These settings will be remembered for next time."
No.10191 AWJ Developer Jan 19, 2014, 21:25	Reopened as a MESS bug. Edited description to reflect reclassification. Added Noted in Source flag.