Rastan Saga
Important note: Road Fighter, Konami’s Ping Pong and Hyper Sports are promoted to public releases today. For the other games in beta phase, you will need a new beta key (jtbeta-zip). The new key is attached to this post, copy to MiSTerFPGA’s games/mame folder. Do not unzip it.
We come back to the 16-bit arcade world this week with a real classic: Rastan Saga. This game has an incredible if short sound track, that takes out the barbarian you have inside. And what did the game board have inside?
The game runs off the classic M68000+Z80 combo. The sound chips are the same as Double Dragon 1, the YM2151 FM generator plus an OKI MSM5205 for ADPCM voices. Interestingly, the PCB is prepared to swap the YM2151 for a YM3526 (as seen in Bubble Bobble) but they eventually decided to use the more powerful chip in terms of FM instruments. The graphics subsystem is powerful yet rather simple. It is made of a sprite layer and two scroll layers made of 8x8 tiles. Each tile can hold 16 different colours, chosen from 128 different palettes. The colour DAC had 5 bitsper RGB component, which made a total of 32768 colours. However, the game didn’t fully exploit all this colour capability. For instance, the clouds could be done using many more shades of blue. Maybe the artist designed the graphics fora simpler hardware.
Advancing the current knowledge on this game, this FPGA version brings accurate video timings and bus contention (the extra time the CPU takes when accessing video memory). The GFX horizontal offset should be correct in this version, compared to emulation. However, other aspects of the GFX chips relay on findings dating back to the RAINE emulator era, which I still want to double check before releasing the game to the public.
I had bought a bootleg version of this board when I started on Patreon. I also have an original board, which I think someone must have sent. But, it was back at the time I didn’t keep a log for donations and I do not know who sent it. Apologies for not being able to aknowledge this contributor.
I hope you will enjoy this title.
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Nota importante: Road Fighter, Konami's Ping Pong e Hyper Sports pasan a cores públicos hoy. Para los demás juegos en fase beta, necesitarás una nueva clave beta (jtbeta-zip), que estáadjunta a esta publicación, cópiala en la carpeta games/mame de MiSTerFPGA. No descomprimas el fichero.
Volvemos al mundo arcade de 16 bits esta semana con un auténtico clásico: Rastan Saga. Este juego tiene una banda sonora increíble, aunque breve, que saca al bárbaro que llevas dentro. ¿Y qué tenía dentro la placadeljuego?
El juego funciona con el clásico combo M68000+Z80. Los chips de sonido son los mismos que los de Double Dragon 1, el generador FM YM2151 más un OKI MSM5205 para voces ADPCM. Curiosamente, la PCB está preparada para cambiar el YM2151 por un YM3526 (como se ve en Bubble Bobble), pero finalmente decidieron usar el chip más potente en términos de instrumentos FM. El subsistema de gráficos es poderoso pero bastante simple. Está hecho de una capa de spritesy dos capas de desplazamiento hechas de mosaicos de 8x8. Cada mosaico puede contener 16 colores diferentes, elegidos entre 128 paletas diferentes. El DAC de color tenía 5 bits por componente RGB, lo que hacía un total de 32768 colores. Sin embargo, el juego no explotó completamente toda esta capacidad de color. Por ejemplo, las nubes se podrían hacer usando muchos más tonos de azul. Quizás el artista diseñó los gráficos para un hardware más simple.
Avanzando en el conocimiento actual sobre este juego, esta versión de FPGA brinda tiempos de video precisos y contención de bus (el tiempo adicional que tarda la CPU al acceder a la memoria de video). El desplazamiento horizontal de GFX debería ser correcto en esta versión, en comparación con la emulación. Sin embargo, otros aspectos de los chips GFX se basan en hallazgos que se remontan a la era del emulador RAINE, y que todavía quiero verificar antes de lanzar el juego al público.
Compré una versión alternativade este juego cuando comencé en Patreon. También tengo una placa original, que creo que alguien debe habermeenviado. Pero, fue en unmomento en que no mantenía aun elregistro de donaciones y no sé quién laenvió. Disculpas por no poder reconocer a este colaborador.
Espero que disfruten de este título.
日本語
重要なお知らせ：ロードファイター、コナミのピンポン、ハイパースポーツは本日公開されました。ベータ段階の他のゲームでは、新しいベータキー（jtbeta-zip）が必要になります。新しいキーがこの投稿に添付されています。MiSTerFPGAのgames/mameフォルダにコピーしてください。解凍しないままで良いです。
今週は、本物のクラシックであるラスタンサガで16ビットアーケードの世界に戻ります。このゲームには、あなたの中にいる野蛮人を連れ出す、サウンドトラックも超良いですから音量を上げてからプレイしてみてください。そして、ゲームボードには何が入っていましたか？
ゲームは、スーパーコンボであるM68000+Z80で構成されました。サウンドチップは、YM2151 FM音源に加えて、ADPCM音声用のOKIMSM5205です。ダブルドラゴン1 と同じチップの組み合わせです。興味深いことに、PCBはYM2151をYM3526に交換できるようになっています（バブルボブルと同じように）が、最終的にはFM機器に関してより強力なチップを使用することを決定しました。グラフィックサブシステムは強力のわりに、かなりシンプルです。スプライトレイヤーと8x8タイルで作られた2つのスクロールレイヤーで構成されています。各タイルは、128の異なるパレットから１６色できます。色DACはRGBコンポーネントごとに5ビットで、合計32768色になりました。ただし、ゲームはこのすべてのカラー機能を十分に活用していないようでした。たとえば、雲はもっと多くの青の色合いを使用して行うことが可能です。たぶん、デザイナーはよりシンプルなハードウェアに向けてデザインしました。
このゲームに関する現在の知識を進歩させるこのFPGAバージョンは、正確なビデオタイミングとバス競合（ビデオメモリにアクセスするときにCPUが余分にかかる時間）をもたらします。このバージョンでは、エミュレーションと比較して、GFX水平オフセットが正しいはずです。ただし、GFXチップの他の側面は、RAINEエミュレーターの時代にさかのぼる調査結果を中継します。これは、ゲームを一般に公開する前に再確認したいと思います。
Patreonを始めたとき、このボードの海賊版を手に入れましたが、オリジナルのボードもあります。誰かが送ったに違いないと思います。でも、寄付の記録を残しておらず、誰が送ったのかわからない時のことです。この寄稿者を確認できなかったことをお詫びします。
このタイトルを楽しんでいただければ幸いです。
Comments (72)
This version is so good! Any chance Rastan will be coming to the pocket? Two fingers crossed!
dont waste your time on this JT either kevtrus or some other dev will port your code over to the pocket
jose lo unico que puedo es agradecer tu trabajo y te admiro.tambien he tratado de instlar el archivo en la carpeta games mame y no puedo jugar el rastan que puedo hacer?
Lo más fácil es usar update_all y tan solo copiar jtbeta.zip a la carpeta games, tal cual sin descomprimir. En el correo de bienvenida a Patreon hay más detalles
Thanks Jose!
Never mind, I think I have it under control. :-)
Hi there... I've been off the grid for some time, and just jumping back into my MiSTer... can someone help me understand where to put "jtbin.zip"... trying to get Rastan working and failing hard. :-)
Hi John, sorry I see this know. I guess you have already sorted it out. jtbin.zip goes in the MAME folder. Do not unzip it.
One of my favourite games, thanks! It runs a bit fast as mentioned above but such a great game!
Thank you sir. Finally have some time to try this out, jtbeta.zip ready to go :)
Is there any plans to fix compatibility with monitors that aren’t working
where have the files gone?
Sorry if this has already been mentioned - Volume of Rastan's sword swing sound effect is too loud. Very nice core. I have the real hardware and the bootleg. This compares pretty nicely.
I'll take it down a bit, thanks
Same thing, sync problem on consumer crt and bvm.
I'm working on it right now, thanks.
One of my all time favourites. Any chance of an eventual forced 60hz option on this as I'm getting sync issues with a rolling picture my B&O CRT.
on my crt tv screen shaking like it's pal.
The pixel clock has a bit of jitter in this core. I'm trying to improve it for the next update.
It was me who sent you the Rastan from Arizona. Igo by "Phonedork".
Thank you! I can now credit you as deserved. Sorry for taking that long to make the core. I hope you are enjoying it.
Great game! However, while the jtbeta.zip is correctly placed, the Rastan ROM isn't found, apparently. All the necessary ROMs are in the folder, though. Updated using the update all script. What am I missing?
Do you have another jtbeta.zip? Try to erase and replace it
Great work Jotega
Where do I put beta.bin ?
In games and mame
ok
Hi Jose! Are the minor bugs in Alien Syndrom fixed (counter too fast at the end of the level?) regards
Yes, I fixed a bad bug in Alien Syndrome last weekend. I didn't check whether the timeout counter bug is still present. I'd assume it is.
Muchas gracias for this wonderful work Jose, I first played Rastan on vacation in Salou circa 1987/8 it's ironic that it's hardware recreation should be completed by a Spaniard. :)
How about rastan 2 ?looks not as fun though
I think the hardware isn't related to this one, so I don't plan to tackle it soon.
Amazing! Another of my all time faves!! And that music!!! Absolutely awesome work José
Im having the same issue and I dont have more than one mame folder
Update all works again 😃
After putting jtbin in games folder altered beast and Golden axe don't play
That should have been fixed on Saturday. I hope it's working for you now.
Isn't there a MIST or SiDi version of Rastan? Did I miss any posts?
Muy poco amor hay por Taito en Mister, así que ver una joya como Rastan es muy de agradecer.
Rastan still having frequency issues with some monitors, but the update_all for 4/9/22 fixed the Sega16 bugs
Another classic. This game can (and should) be completed with one credit! do not spoil the fun using continues!
Altered Beast shows a message at start of the core games/mane/debug.zip/debug.bin debug.bin not found
I'll remove it. You can safely ignore it.
as Brian Buck mentioned above, Altered Beast freezes, but for me Rastan does load and play so far.
This was one of my childhood favorites in the arcades! I LOVE this game and the incredible soundtrack. Thank you so much!!
¡Muchas gracias! Uno de mis juegos favoritos de los 80s.
Another minor issue is garbage above Strider’s head when he walks up inclines. Possible I just didn’t notice before…
I see that too, like a few small black blocks a little away from him following above
I am no longer able to get past the character select screen in Golden Axe.
im having similar issues with altered beast now, it freezes after a few seconds, and Rastan is just a scrambled image on screen
Fantastic! One less of my old PCBs I have to worry about eventually dying! :D :D :D Thank you!
What a pleasant surprise! Thanks for all your hard work.
One of the all time great arcade games for me. Blew me away back in ‘87 when it arrived in the arcade. The gfx and sound plus epic barbarian world were amazing. Really happy to play the authentic experience again.
One of my favorite games of all time. Literally I was waiting for this and Rainbow Islands on MiSTer. I'm so happy!
¡¡Qué gran regalo!! Era un juego que cuando llegó a la sala de recreativas, era de las más solicitadas… y que he seguido jugando (Mame). ¡¡ Gracias !!
I loved this game on the master system - never knew there was an arcade version. Much hype
If you didn't know the arcade version, you're going to have a lot of fun!
Thanks so much yet again Jotego for your weekly gems!. Im getting graphical corruption on Rastan, ping pong and now Hyper Sports when I try to change scandoublerfx to hq2 or any of the crt modes. EDIT: I have fixed the problem with Hyper Sports and Ping pong by enabling the Force 60hz option in the menu, I can then change the scandoubler settings, Rastan does not have this 60hz option.
HQ2X requires some video conditions that are not always met. I added the 60Hz constraint to the Konami games because they had quite odd numbers. I'll check if it makes sense to add the option to Rastan too.
I can’t get it to load, it begins to then scrambles the screen and the video drops out
Try copying the RBF file again. It sounds like it got corrupted in the way to your SD card.
wow I am speechless this man is a genius thx Jose
Rastan and Gladiator were at the roller skating rink back in the day. Great memories - thanks for bringing this to the platform Jotego!
Thanks for the real and best Rastan! All-time favorite from my childhood arcade memories. There's something about this game, the music and the sfx and the weapons just make it feel so damn epic to play! And now I can afford the credits to get somewhere in it haha
Awesome! I've been waiting to see Rastan on MiSTer. I wrote an emulator to run it awhile back. Another fairly simple to emulate/get going arcade game is Ninja Gaiden. Hopefully we'll see that in the future too!
Awesome!, thanks Jotego.
It ran great and the music sounds awesome. The only thing I really noticed is that the sound effects seem to be a little lower pitched compared to the original board, but I need to double check to make sure. I mostly noticed it on the sword swing sound and the voice when you are doing a downward sword slash.
Awesome Jose, I really enjoyed the home version of this on the Sega Master System back in the day. The arcade version has such superb FM music and is an 80s classic.
Wow RAINE emulator, that brings back memories.
Looking forward to playing this one! Thanks Jose :)
Es la misma placa que Rainbow Islands. ¿Verdad? Espero que sea el próximo en llegar, ese juego es parte de mi infancia, puro amor. Gracias por tu excelente trabajo!
Regalazo!! Thanks a lot Jose!!