07430: ultstunt & clones: The Ultimate Stuntman - corrupted intro screens and level 1 unplayable due to playfield corruption

ID	Category [?]	Severity [?]	Reproducibility	Date Submitted	Last Update
07430	Graphics	Major	Always	Sep 20, 2019, 16:58	Dec 5, 2022, 05:25

Tester	Gryzor1363	View Status	Public	Platform	MAME (Unofficial Binary)
Assigned To	AJR	Resolution	Fixed	OS	Windows Vista/7/8 (64-bit)
Status [?]	Resolved			Driver	nintendo/nes.cpp
Version	0.211	Fixed in Version	0.214	Build	64-bit
		Fixed in Git Commit		Github Pull Request #

Summary	07430: ultstunt & clones: The Ultimate Stuntman - corrupted intro screens and level 1 unplayable due to playfield corruption
Description	Some corruption prevents correct display of a part of the intro screens, but can y bypassed to start level 1. The problem starts right upon the beginning of the first stage, where the player will not be able to make anything of a graphically glitched playfield, with big gray squares overlays plaguing visibility and superimposing on the game scene, only briefly allowing it to be observed.
Steps To Reproduce	Load ROM; Pass the intro screens (some are corrupted but are not game-breaking as they can be bypassed) Start level 1. Glitching and successive "gray scaling" will be apparent all over the screen in parallel to the scrolling field.
Additional Information	Bugs observed using build MAMEUI64 0.211. Gameplay, even if graphically corrupted, is not stuck (i.e. not a game-breaking bug, unlike Timelord reported in issue #06902). As far as I have experienced and tested, the ROM runs fine and doesn't hang at any point in time. Hence theoretically, the player can insist on grinding through the level and get past it, even though I haven't managed to clear the level with the critical visual impediment incurred by the bug.
Github Commit

Flags
Regression Version
Affected Sets / Systems	ultstunt & clones

Attached Files	0008.png (96,534 bytes) Sep 20, 2019, 17:03 Uploaded by Gryzor1363
	0010.png (99,045 bytes) Sep 20, 2019, 17:04 Uploaded by Gryzor1363
	0003.png (102,887 bytes) Sep 20, 2019, 17:04 Uploaded by Gryzor1363

No.16941 Tafoid Administrator Sep 20, 2019, 22:34 edited on: Sep 20, 2019, 22:35	I"m not seeing any of these severe corruption with MAMEDEV's latest binary (0.213) or current Git source. It actually seems quite playable to me. Are you using your own image, or the image detailed on the softlist for the system? Can anyone else duplicate this?
No.16944 Gryzor1363 Tester Sep 20, 2019, 23:25 edited on: Sep 21, 2019, 00:17	You mean you do not see any perceptible glitches, intro screens included ? AS for MAME, I just tried with the latest binary 0.213, via the MAMEUI64 frontend, and the results are exactly the same as depicted in the screenshots, for me at least. Indeed as I said this is no game-breaking glitch, other than the inherently annoying nature of the alternating grey scales covering the playfield as it scrolls. I am not sure I understand your last question entirely right about the softlist. If you mean whether I used a custom/hacked Nes dump or an officially acknowledged one from reliable sources, then the answer is the second : I used several images marked as original/unaltered from different well-known sources. The caps come from the US version.
No.16945 AJR Developer Sep 21, 2019, 01:57 edited on: Sep 21, 2019, 02:23	I can confirm this occurs with Ultimate Stuntman, but only when loaded in a loose merged format and not through the softlist. It has to do with faulty mirroring, since changing "vertical" to "horizontal" in the softlist definition results in identical misbehavior. I'm not sure that trying to detect the specific cartridge here is reasonable, though. On further examination, this is a real bug. The header specifies vertical mirroring, and MAME detects this correctly yet winds up installing horizontal mirroring instead.
No.17008 Gryzor1363 Tester Oct 1, 2019, 20:34	As per my testing, issue seems to be identical with MAMEUI64 0.214, can anyone else attempt to reproduce it ?
No.17009 Tafoid Administrator Oct 1, 2019, 21:28	It would only be fixed if you updated all files (hash files.. in particular nes.hsi) with your install. Try MAME 0.214 from mamedev.org if MAMEUI doesn't come packaged with the proper files.
No.17010 Robbbert Senior Tester Oct 2, 2019, 08:45 edited on: Oct 2, 2019, 13:49	Just checked, MAMEUI64 has the same nes.hsi that comes with MAME. I cannot check the loose format roms listed in nes.hsi as I do not have them. MAMEUI does not explicitly support hsi, as it is a legacy format, however if mame does, then it should work. The game works perfectly from the software list.
No.17013 Gryzor1363 Tester Oct 2, 2019, 22:10 edited on: Oct 2, 2019, 22:15	My bad gentlemen, I simply did not think about the hash directory... used to copy over fresh configuration, rom, hlsl, nvram and bgfx-related artwork folders that I thought were the only ones critical to every new release.... Note duly taken, thank you both for your valuable input I will keep in mind for the future, Tafoid & Robbert. I can now confirm that using the latest hash directory fixes The Ultimate Stuntman entirely also from the MAMEUI64 0.214 package, if that's still in question for any of you. As of right now, Timelord in issue #06902 happens to be the only NES game I know of from my personal list comprised of dozens of titles that would still be plagued with bugs rendering it unplayable, but that's would be off-topic here. Keep up the great work, and kudos for the new release's many fixes on multiple machines. Also, my apologies for again bumping a ticket in Resolved state without solid prior testing. Regards, -G
No.17015 Robbbert Senior Tester Oct 3, 2019, 00:26	Everything supplied is critical to a new release. Extract it all and don't pick & choose.
No.17019 Gryzor1363 Tester Oct 3, 2019, 23:06	I indeed realized that the hard way, an event that is sure to guarantee that I will not be caught mishandling any future release extracts.