0.35 BETA 1

Note: the configuration save format has changed. You may just as well delete
all of the cfg/*.cfg files, since they won't be loaded. Old .inp files will not
work either.
The good news is that the default key assignments can now be modified, so you
don't have to change them for all the games. The code is a quick hack put
together in fifteen minutes, but it's bettern than nothing. It will be improved
in future versions.


New games supported:
--------------------

Atari Football [Mike Balfour, Patrick Lawrence, Brad Oliver]
Battle Lane Vol. 5 (preliminary) [Paul Leaman]
Mariner [Zsolt Vasvari]
Pocket Gal [Bryan McPhail]
Rolling Thunder [Jimmy Hamm, Phil Stroffolino, Ernesto Corvi]
Turtle Ship [Victor Trucco]


New clones supported:
---------------------

Black Dragon (bootleg, hacked) [Nicola Salmoria]
Burger Time (DECO set 1) [Nicola Salmoria]
Carnival (cocktail) [Nicola Salmoria]
City Connection (set 2) [Thierry Lescot]
Crazy Kong (Orca bootleg) [David Winter]
Exciting Soccer (alternate music) [Thierry Lescot]
Gate of Doom (set 2) [Thierry Lescot]
Pac Man (Hearts) [a zillion people]
Sector Zone (= Seicross) [Nicola Salmoria]
Sly Spy (set 1) [Nicola Salmoria]
Wild Fang (= Tecmo Knight) [Thierry Lescot]
Zig Zag (Dig Dug hardware) [Nathan Barber]


Changed ROM sets:
-----------------

- Replaced Super Punch Out with a good set

- Added missing PROMs to Black Tiger


These drivers have improved GRAPHICS:
-------------------------------------

- Fixed Psychic 5 and Toki title screens. [Jarek Parchanski]

- Proper support of the playfiled/sprite priority and palette system in Return
  of the Jedi. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Accurate colors in Spelunker II. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Fixed Heiankyo Alien colors. [Zsolt Vasvari]

- Fixed NeoGeo palette - it's 5 bits per gun, not 4. Of course this makes the
  reduction to 256 colors even more difficult. 16-bit video modes will be
  supported in a later version. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Added a kludge to avoid leftover sprites in Rally-X. [Larry Bank]

- Fixed missing background behind the three towers in Metal Slug level 1.
  [Nicola Salmoria]

- Fixed missing line in the tank's shot in Metal Slug intro. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Fixed the Swimmer side panel background color. [Gary Walton]


These drivers have new or improved SOUND:
-----------------------------------------

- Fixed shoot sound in Juno First. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Added PCM samples to Ninja Kid II. [Jarek Parchanski]

- Added the 007232 to TMNT. Another sound chip is still missing to get 100%
  sound. [Howie Cohen]

- Sound in Psycho-Nics Oscar. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Partial sound in The Real Ghostbusters. The YM203 doesn't seem to work
  correctly. [Nicola Salmoria]


These drivers have HIGH SCORE support:
--------------------------------------

- Road Fighter, Iron Horse. [Howie Cohen]

- Lizard Wizard. [M.C. Silvius]

- Space Tactics. [Zsolt Vasvari]


Other drivers changes:
----------------------

- Analog joystick support in Sinistar and Blaster. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Worked out the Super Punch Out protection. [Tatsuyuki Satoh, Ernesto Corvi]

- Hacked the protection in Super Sidekicks. [Battlepriest]

- Fixed two players games in Phoenix, and the protection in Pleiads (which
  made game resets not work). [Zsolt Vasvari]


Changes to the main program:
----------------------------

- Support for the Namco System 1 sound system. [Ernesto Corvi]

- [DOS] Widened the frameskip range. It now is 0-11, meaning the number of
  frames to skip out of 12. For example, if the game normally runs at 60 fps,
  "-frameskip 2" will make it run at 50 fps, and "-frameskip 6" at 30 fps.
  Also, if a frame takes more than the allotted time to display, the lost
  time can be recovered in the following frames. Moreover, improved the way
  audio streams are handled, so they stay more in sync with the video. There
  should never be any more audio breakups EVER (as long as your system can
  keep the game running at 100% speed).
  All of these changes together mean that it is now possible to run at much
  higher frame rates than before (if your system is fast enough).
  [Nicola Salmoria]

- [DOS] Implemented auto frameskip. It dynamically adjusts the frameskip
  setting to display the maximum possible frames without dropping below 100%
  speed.
  It is on by default; to turn it off, specify an explicit frameskip value,
  e.g. "-frameskip 0". Autoframeskip only works well if your machine is fast
  enough to run the game at 100% speed. If it isn't, you had better use a
  fixed frameskip.
  NOTE: you must delete mame.cfg (or manually change the line "frameskip = 0"
  to "frameskip = auto") for the auto frameskip to become the default.
  [Nicola Salmoria]

- [DOS] "vmame" modes 320x480 and 400x600, which speed up scanlined VESA modes
  for some games and graphic cards which support these resolutions.
  Currently, these modes will not be autodetected, that is, the commandline
  options "-320x480" or "-400x600" have to be used.
  [Nicola Salmoria, Michael Cunnanan]

- [DOS] Joysticks are now selected by a symbolic name (e.g. "-joystick wingex"
  for Wingman Extreme) instead of a number. For the list of names, look into
  readme.txt. Numbers are still supported, but may not be in future releases.
  SNES gamepads on parallel ports are supported now, provided you have some
  additional hardware (the "official" Snespad-Support site is
  http://snespad.emulationworld.com). [Bernd Wiebelt]

- [DOS] For cosmetical reasons, added support for VESA3, which can be selected
  by putting "vesamode=vesa3" into mame.cfg. It is highly unlikely that you'll
  get any speed improvement. [Bernd Wiebelt]


Source:
-------

- New function cpu_getcurrentframe() which returns the number of the video
  frame currently being played. It can be used by drivers to control effects
  which spawn over multiple frames (e.g. blinking) without using static
  internal counter (which would require a custom interrupt handler to avoid
  problems when the game is paused). [Nicola Salmoria]

- Frame skipping is entirely handled by the OS dependant code.
  osd_skip_this_frame() no longer has the "recommend" parameter.
  Also, replaced osd_update_display() and osd_update_audio() with the single
  osd_update_video_and_audio().
  IMPORTANT: osd_update_video_and_audio() is called *every frame* by the main
  core. It's its responsability to know whether the frame has to be skipped.
  osd_skip_this_frame() is used by the main core only to know if it can avoid
  calling drv->vh_update(). [Nicola Salmoria]

- New Z80 emulator. [Juergen Buchmueller]

- Fixed several bugs in the I86 emulator. [Juergen Buchmueller]

- New CPU interrupt system. The functions cpu_set_irq_line() and
  cpu_set_nmi_line() can be used to precisely control the status of the CPU
  physical lines, instead of using the limited control granted by
  cpu_cause_interrupt(). [Juergen Buchmueller]

- Konami 007232 sound chip emulator. This is used by TMNT. [Hiromitsu Shioya]

- The driver input ports are now 16 bit. This allows for higher resolution
  analog inputs (Arkanoid 2). Also, the 68000 based games no longer have to
  read and mix two 8 bit ports to get a 16 bit value. [Brad Oliver]

- [DOS] Now compiled with Allegro 3.1. Unfortunately the standard allegro.h
  doesn't compile with the pedantic compiler setup we are using, you'll have to
  use the provided fixed version instead. [Bernd Wiebelt]

- Added a horrible dirty hack to allow opcode encryption on CPUs other than
  the main one. It's really ugly and needs a rewrite, but it's enough to get
  sound in Pocket Gal and The Real Ghostbusters. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Exported info_cpu_name(), info_sound_name() and other similar functions from
  info.c so they can be used by usrintf.c and by anyone else who needs them.
  [Nicola Salmoria]