Q: What is Modeler?
A: It is an emulator for the following Sega arcade systems: System 32, System 32 Multi and Model 1.
Q: Which games have been made for the above systems? Can you give me some descriptions of the systems?
A: Go to Sixtoe´s excellent site at http://www.system16.com and see for yourself. A list of what games have been dumped and what hasn´t is available right here.
Q: Does Modeler emulate the Sega 32X?
A: No, it does not. The Sega 32X home console has nothing to do with the Sega System 32 arcade hardware.
Q: Does Modeler emulate the Jaleco Mega System 32?
A: No, it does not. Jaleco Mega System 32 is an arcade board that contains the NEC V70, the same processor used by the System 32 Multi boards. The graphics and sound hardware is completely different though and the games are heavily encrypted (protected), so we are not interested in them. You can find some information about this board here (no, we don´t have an english translation).
Q: When will the next version be released?
A: To quote John Carmack, "when it´s done".
Q: What is the future of Modeler? Will you emulate
A: When we have complete emulation of the System 32 hardware that driver will be ported over to MAME for all to enjoy. Modeler will revert to it´s roots as a Model 1 only emulator at that point.
Q: Is Modeler portable?
A: Yes, mostly. There are currently ports available for Win32, Linux and Mac.
Q: Can you port Modeler to
A: Since Modeler will eventually be converted to a MAME driver (read above), we do not want to work on other ports.
Q: Who are the authors of Modeler? How can I contact them?
A: The authors are Farfetch´d and R. Belmont (not their real names of course). The only way to contact them is to post on the forums on this site. But please, be sure to have read all the questions in this FAQ before posting. Reading older posts can also be helpful in avoiding asking an already-answered question.
Q: What computer will give me 60 FPS in all games? Will
A: We have no idea how fast of a CPU Modeler is going to require. We will attempt to keep it playable on the development machines (P3-866 and Athlon Tbird 900), but this is not guaranteed, since many of the hardware´s most powerful features already run way too slow (like dual-screen System 32 Multi).
Q: Why is Modeler so slow? You really should optimize it!
A: Sega System 32 is one of the most advanced 2D systems ever produced. It has a fast 32-bit CPU, a very complex graphic system (capable of features like full scaling and transparency), and a powerful sound system (with _two_ Yamaha FM chips and one PCM chip). Even if we optimized it, I would not expect to play them full speed with sound on a Pentium II.
Q: The background graphics in Golden Axe 2 and/or Spiderman are corrupted after the first level!
A: We are aware of this bug, it happens because we do not emulate "tile banks" properly. We are working on this.
Q: My joystick seems to be not calibrated!
A: This is a known SDL bug. Go download the latest SDL.DLL (version 1.2.0) from http://www.libsdl.org, and overwrite the one that comes with Modeler. Some joysticks may have problems even with this fix due to a bug in Modeler which will be fixed in the next version.
Q: There are some corrupted graphics at the borders of the screen in fullscreen!
A: This is also fixed in SDL 1.2.0 and later versions. You can upgrade as described above for the joystick fix and it should also fix this problem.
Q: Can you please emulate
A: We will try to emulate all the games that run on the Sega System 32 and Multi32 hardware as long as they are dumped. Both authors have fairly demanding jobs and cannot spare large amounts of time to work on the emulation, however.
Q: What is the status of the emulation of the game "Dragon Ball Z - V.R.V.S."?
A: The game is protected by a custom protection chip from Hitachi. Since we prefer to spend our time on the graphic and sound emulation, the game is at a very low priority, right now. Note also that this game is the #1 cause of ROM begging on various message boards and unfortunately in email to our friend Sixtoe at system16.com. If people continue to bombard him or us with ROM requests we will cease all attempts to make DBZ run.
Q: Final Burn/AGES/
A: The filtering is done by the driver, that automatically activates it when you stretch a bitmap using DirectDraw functions. Most emulators do it to implement the 2x option (for example), hence you see the filtering. In Modeler, we do not use DDraw functions to stretch the image (due to SDL, the library we use to access the video), so the filtering does not show up, and will not ever show.
Q: When exactly will Modeler be turned into a MAME driver?
A: We do not set a deadline (this is our hobby, after all). Our plan is to fix all the graphic problems on non-protected games before doing it, and we will leave the protected games for MAMEDevs´ fun.
Q: What will be your next project?
A: We have not decided yet. We will likely continue working on the older currently unemulated Sega platforms (Model 1, ST-V, maybe something else too), and if any other games turn up based on the NEC V60 we´ll probably give those a look too.
Q: Model 1 games are missing 3D graphics!
A: Yes. Model 1 emulation is now at a good level for the 2D part, but the 3D part is not emulated yet.
Q: I cannot start the Model 1 games under Modeler!
A: The keymapping for the Model 1 games is really bizzare right now. Try the q/w/e/r/t/y/u/i keys. This will be fixed in the next version.
