When full-3D video games began to arrive in the early 90’s, some companies were more prepared for change than others. In fact, it will take almost a decade of experimentation before 3D virtual spaces feel natural. Even then, Konami seems to have shot herself in the leg with their first entry into the 3D arcade game at the beginning of this era. [Mog] Shows the in-and-outs of these platforms as we try to bring them to life via MAME.
These arcade machines were first available with a full-3D environment, but curiously less powerful than other companies’ offers, even for the time being. They only include a single digital signal processor that is tasked with calculating all the visual geometry when competing machines will use multiple DSP chips to do the same thing. As a result the resolution and frame rate are very low. Still, [Mog] It is set out to work in MAME.
To accomplish this task, [Mog] In the early 90’s Konami became a set of development tools provided by developers that would mimic the system on PCs of the time. Surprisingly it still works with minor tweaks in Windows 10, and with some other tools provided by others working on MAME for decades, these old Komi machines have got some new life with this emulator support.
Not everything works perfectly, however [Mog] Reports that most bugs and other issues have been worked on recently or other experts in the field are actively working. If you remember these arcade-era games from the early 80’s and 90’s, it might be time to relaunch it by grabbing an old CRT.