0.56


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

- Fixed Gururin. [Miguel Angel Horna]

- Rowscroll in Kaneko16 games. [Luca Elia]

- Overlay for Demon. [Pete Ashdown]


These drivers have improved SOUND:
----------------------------------

- Fixed sound in Venture and other Exidy games. [Aaron Giles]


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

- Updated the cheat engine. [Ian Patterson]


Source:
-------

- V60 cpu core. [Farfetch'd, R.Belmont]


MAME Testers bugs fixed (there are probably more)
-----------------------

quizkof37b4gre
speedfrk055yel
vectorsshot055gre
chasehq055gre
blazstar37b16gre
mazinger053gre
block37b14yel
spacfury36finalgre


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

Water Match [Nicola Salmoria]
Spatter [Nicola Salmoria]
Raflesia [Chack'n]
Kosodate Quiz My Angel [Luca Elia]
Kosodate Quiz My Angel 2 [Luca Elia]
Puzzle De Bowling [Luca Elia]
Chameleon [Luca Elia]
Wai Wai Jockey Gate-In! [Luca Elia]
Metamoqester [Luca Elia]
Star Guards [Aaron Giles]


==========================================================================


0.55


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

- Preliminary road support in the Taito Z games. [David Graves]


These drivers have improved SOUND:
----------------------------------

- Added support for using AY8910 and YM2203 at the same time, fixing sound in
  City Connection. [Tatsuyuki Satoh]

- Sound in Money Money and Jack Rabbit. [Nicola Salmoria]


Source:
-------

- Changed vector games to use direct RGB modes. [Mathis Rosenhauer]

- New data type pen_t, use it instead of UINT32 when dealing with pens and
  colortables.


MAME Testers bugs fixed (there are probably more)
-----------------------

3wonders054gre
artwork054gre
bssoccer054gre
bublbobl054red
cps2c054ora
drtoppel054gre
galaxian053gre
ghostb054yel
holeland37b10gre
konami054red
madmotor054gre
mrgoemon37b9gre
offroad054gre
sharkatt37b15red
stfight054red
tailg054gre
ym2151_054yel


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

Ninja Baseball Batman [Bryan McPhail]
Sports Match [Sports Match]
Zero Hour [David Haywood]
Sky Smasher [David Graves]
New York New York [Darren Olafson]
Crazy Rally [Mathis Rosenhauer]
Space Fortress [Mike Coates]
Ultraman Club - Tatakae! Ultraman Kyoudai!! [Luca Elia]


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

Dream Soccer '94 (Japan)
Space Invaders DX (Japan v2.0)
Typhoon (= Ajax)
Rambo III (Europe set 2)
Space Invaders DX (US)
The Hand (=Got-Ya)
Ms. Pacman Champion Edition / Super Zola Pac Gal
Kuri Kinton (Japan, US)
Blomby Car (encrypted)


==========================================================================


0.54


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

- Fixed road lines in Top Speed. [David Graves]


These drivers have improved SOUND:
----------------------------------

- Decrypted the sound CPU in Dream Soccer 94. [Bryan McPhail, Nicola Salmoria]

- Fixed crowd noise in Premier Soccer. [Olivier Galibert]


Source:
-------

- Fixes to the YM2610 and YM2151 emulation, verified on the real chip.
  [Jarek Burczynski]

- New core function palette_get_pen() replaces the removed osd_get_pen().
  Renamed palette_change_color() to palette_set_color().

- Major changes to the CPU interface. As a result of this, some games are
  temporarily broken, most notably CPS2. [Aaron Giles]

- improved auto_malloc so that you can auto_malloc at machine_init time and
  have the memory disposed of on a reset. [Aaron Giles]


MAME Testers bugs fixed (there are probably more)
-----------------------

sidepckt37b16yel
tumblepb37b16red
strahl37b16ora
rtype37b1gre
poundfou37b1gre
tp8437b7gre
bloodbroc053red
terraf37b13gre/terraf053gre
cinemat053red
dotrone053gre
relief053yel
pbancho053red
goindolc053gre
namcona1c053red
hellfire053yel


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

Fire Barrel [Bryan McPhail, Nicola Salmoria]
Time Limit [Ernesto Corvi]
Youjyuden [Nicola Salmoria]
Gulf Storm [Nicola Salmoria]
Minesweeper [Frank Palazzolo]


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

Space Force (= Meteoroids)
Last Mission (Japan)
Gun Dealer '94 (= Primella)
Blue Hawk (NTC)


==========================================================================


0.53

We have abandoned the "beta" numbering scheme, which was becoming pointless.
The current version is 0.53 because 0.36 (the last "non-beta" release) + .16
(the number of "beta" releases since then) = 0.52.


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

- Fixed background in Bioship Paladin. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Fixed some issues in Taito B system games. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Real shadows in some Konami games (88 Games, Chequered Flag, X-Men, Asterix,
  Surprise Attack, Sunset Riders, etc.). [Nicola Salmoria]

- Real shadows in some SNK games (Ikari Warriors, Victory Road, etc.).
  [David Haywood]

- Real shadows in Cisco Heat and F1 Grand Prix Star. [Luca Elia]

- Fixed some protection related issues in Sunset Riders. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Fixed colors in Major Title 2. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Fixed colors in Berlin Wall. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Fixed radar display in Aztarac. [Mathis Rosenhauer]


These drivers have improved SOUND:
----------------------------------

- Decrypted the sound CPU in Gunforce, Blade Master, Lethal Thunder, Undercover
  Cops, Mystic Riders, Major Title 2, Hook, R-Type Leo, In the Hunt, and
  Perfect Soldiers. [Bryan McPhail, Nicola Salmoria]

- Fixed a EX550x bug that caused Taito F3 and Incredible Tech games to sound
  bad. [Aaron Giles]


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

- Fixed the remaining issues in Slapstic emulation.
  - Pit Fighter works to the end
  - Rampart works to the end
  - Tetris now uses the slapstic code
  [Aaron Giles]

- Fixed the protection in the original Robocop. [Bryan McPhail]

- Decrypted the original Popeye. [Nicola Salmoria]

- Fixed Free Play mode in Galaga. [Scott Brasington]

- Added support for the target data extracted from the laserdisc to MACH 3.
  [Fabrice Frances]


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

- The Windows port is now called "MAME" (instead of "MAMEW"). The DOS port is
  called "DMAME".

- [Windows] CLI improvements:
  * config option for steadykey (default: OFF)
  * parse debug.ini in debug builds
  * mamew \anywhere\roms\pacman.zip works
  * improved -log option
  * mame will now parse argv[0].ini instead of mame.ini.
    i.e. if the mame executable is called "m37b17.exe" it will
    parse m37b17.ini instead of mame.ini
  [Paul Priest, Bernd Wiebelt]

- [DOS] Support for C64/Atari/Sinclair joysticks connected via DB9 or
  Turbografix interface. [Aley Keprt]


Source:
-------

- Big changes to the palette system. 8-bit modes are no longer supported, only
  16-bit ones are used. 8-bit support may be removed from the OS dependant
  code; the core will never ask for an 8-bit deep screen. 8-bit bitmaps could
  still be used though.

- Palette compression has been removed. palette_recalc(), palette_transparent_pen
  and palette_used_colors[] are not available anymore. Drivers that relied on
  PALETTE_COLOR_TRANSPARENT for transparency effects must be rewritten to
  implement them differently.

- tilemap_update() is gone. Everything is handled by tilemap_draw().

- IMPORTANT CHANGE FOR PORTERS: the OS dependant code is now required to
  guarantee, in 16-bit palettized mode, that Machine->pens[i] == i. The "pens"
  argument to osd_allocate_colors() will be NULL, actually it has been renamed
  "rgb_components" since direct RGB modes are the only ones that will pass that
  argument.

- Remove VIDEO_MODIFIES_PALETTE and the "modifiable" parameter from
  osd_allocate_colors().

- New flags VIDEO_HAS_SHADOWS and VIDEO_HAS_HIGHLIGHTS that automatically extend
  the palette creating a darker(brighter copy for shadows handling.
  palette_set_shadow_factor() and palette_set_highlight_factor() allow to
  control the adjustment to apply (shadow can be > 1.0, making it an highlight,
  and highlight can be < 1.0 making it a shadow - the names are just conventional).
  [Nicola Salmoria]

- New function palette_set_brightness(), allowing selective control of palette
  brightness independently of the palette RAM contents. [Nicola Salmoria]

- MachineDriver.color_table_len can now be 0, meaning that the colortable is a
  1:1 mapping from the palette. Note that you CANNOT use this feature if you use
  TRANSPARENCY_COLOR; but of course, if you need TRANSPARENCY_COLOR you'll not
  have a 1:1 colortable.

- New function tilemap_draw_roz(). [Phil Stroffolino]

- New function auto_malloc(); this is the same as malloc(), but the memory is
  automatically freed when the driver exits. [Aaron Giles]

- osd_bitmap.line is now a void ** to prevent confusion.


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

Mazinger Z [Luca Elia, Nicola Salmoria]
Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon [Luca Elia, Nicola Salmoria]
Sokonuke Taisen Game [Luca Elia]
Mahjong Doukyuusei [Luca Elia]
Mahjong Doukyuusei Special [Luca Elia]
Big Run [Luca Elia]
Magical Crystals [Luca Elia]
Sand Scorpion [Luca Elia]
Continental Circus [David Graves]
Chase HQ [David Graves]
Battle Shark [David Graves]
Special Criminal Investigation [David Graves]
Night Striker [David Graves]
Aqua Jack [David Graves]
Double Axle [David Graves]
World Grand Prix 2 [David Graves]
Super Real Mahjong Part 3 [Takahiro Nogi]
Mahjong Yuugi [Takahiro Nogi]
Funky Jet [Bryan McPhail, Nicola Salmoria]
Sotsugyo Shousho [Bryan McPhail, Nicola Salmoria]
Hasamu [Bryan McPhail, Nicola Salmoria]
Kengo [Bryan McPhail, Nicola Salmoria]
Dirt Fox
Mighty Guy [Victor Trucco]
Ultra Tank [Phil Stroffolino]


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

Astro Flash (= Transformer)
Twin Hawk (= Daisenpu)
Omega (= The End)
Gingateikoku No Gyakushu (bootleg, set 2)
Point Blank (= Gun Bullet)
Robocop 2 (World, Japan)
Don Doko Don (US)
Thunder Fox (World)
Camel Try (US, alt sound)
Robocop (World rev 4)
Chelnov (World)
Twin Hawk (World)
Swimmer (set 3)
Boulder Dash (Japan)
Robocop (Japan)
Great 1000 Miles Rally (USA)
Super Real Darwin (World)
Pit Fighter (bootleg)
Klax (2 prototypes)
Up'n Down (encrypted)


Removed:
--------

Speak & Rescue bootleg (identical to Speak & Rescue with copyright notice removed)
