08853: exedexes, savgbees: Difficulty dipswitches are actually bonus life dipswitches + question about language dipswitch

ID	Category [?]	Severity [?]	Reproducibility	Date Submitted	Last Update
08853	DIP/Input	Minor	Always	Apr 12, 2024, 00:06	Apr 13, 2024, 05:31

Tester	ketburai	View Status	Public	Platform
Assigned To		Resolution	Open	OS
Status [?]	Acknowledged			Driver	capcom/exedexes.cpp
Version	0.264	Fixed in Version		Build
		Fixed in Git Commit		Github Pull Request #

Summary	08853: exedexes, savgbees: Difficulty dipswitches are actually bonus life dipswitches + question about language dipswitch
Description	While looking into the 1942 situation, I also decided to look into something similar with Exed Exes. Right now, MAME does not display switches for bonus life settings. This also strikes me as odd, and sure enough, there are switches for this. What's currently written down in MAME as a normal difficulty 1/2/3/4 setting is actually the setting for bonus lives, and this game doesn't seem to have difficulty switches at all. This time around, everything on Otokaru's page tests out in MAME seemingly correctly. Here's their Exed Exes page: https://otokaru.net/otocontents/dipsw/a-o/exed.html Current "Normal difficulty" is the 50,000 start, which I believe gets up to every 500,000. Switches 1-7 and 1-8 are shown as off in the test menu. Current "Easy difficulty" is the 100,000 start with the lower values, which I believe gets up to every 1,000,000. Switch 1-7 is off, switch 1-8 is on in test. Current "Hard difficulty" is the 100,000 start with the higher values, which I believe gets up to every 1,500,000. Switch 1-7 is on, switch 1-8 is off in test. Current "Hardest difficulty" is the 200,000 start, which I believe gets up to every 2,000,000. Switches 1-7 and 1-8 are on in test. Now, it could be argued that these are a kind of "difficulty setting" anyway, but that's clearly not what you're going for. It should be noted that as of right now, all gameplay-related dipswitches are set to off in MAME, which happens to be what Otokaru suggests. This brings me to my next question: the language dipswitch. It seems that this game only released in Japan and the US, and the two sets currently in MAME are those versions. So far, I haven't found anything that suggests otherwise. Assuming this is true, it might be best to have the Exed Exes set in Japanese mode. I'm not entirely sure about MAME's policy for what should be the parent set, as what I know would suggest that Savage Bees would be the parent. This seems to imply that there does exist an export release called "Exed Exes" that is represented by the current parent, though it seems strange that this set always has the title in Japanese characters even in English mode. If there is no such release, then my guess is that this switch was meant to prepare for one and it just didn't happen. As for why Savage Bees still uses this switch and even has unique names when in Japanese mode, I have no idea. While investigating the ports, I also came across something strange. M2's Capcom Arcade Cabinet port seems to confirm all the above info. However, Capcom's recent Capcom Arcade Stadium port seems to do something very similar to what MAME is doing with the bonus lives, naming them difficulties. I haven't fully gone through everything (and I'm not sure I want to), but I'm already seeing that the "Normal" setting does something different for each version; Exed Exes has the 50K start, while Savage Bees has one of the 100K starts (not sure which one). I'm really hoping this is some bizarre inaccuracy. Problem is, it calls into question what's going on with 1942... In any event, I think Otokaru can be trusted more than any home port, and their information can be verified in the latest MAME version. I'm kinda afraid to look into more old Capcom games, as there might be similar things playing out with all of them. Vulgus seems to be fine, at least...
Steps To Reproduce
Additional Information
Github Commit

Flags
Regression Version
Affected Sets / Systems	exedexes, savgbees

Attached Files