MiSTer FPGA – RoboCop / Data East Arcade

RoboCop now has a public release and I’ve been long overdue to check out some of the new arcades on MiSTer, so I gave the game a couple tries and then recorded a playthrough. The game is just as ridiculously hard as I remember, so I turned on the dip switch that gives you more health. This makes for a much fairer challenge, although some sections will still drain your health in a couple seconds if you’re not prepared!

I remember seeing this cabinet everywhere when it came out. Movie theaters especially all seemed to have this one. I don’t remember ever beating the first stage back then, but revisiting it now its quite a bit easier to get used to the control quirks. Jumping in particular is a very powerful move in this game because of how much it speeds you up. This can be a double-edged sword with how often you can accidentally throw yourself into fire with a poorly timed jump though, so be careful. It’s also odd the way RoboCop will stay pointing in the same direction upwards until you move again. Somewhat of a useless mechanic with how much you need to move to avoid fire.

The absolute worst part about how this game was made, is that it slows down so heavily in sections that it stops accepting player inputs. You just stay planted on the ground unable to jump and dodge the incoming fire because of the poor game/input design, and it feels really damn frustrating. It’s really a shame these parts made it through Q/A.

Overall its been fun revisiting this on MiSTer and finally clearing the game. There were a couple issues I had with this core, that carries over to other Jotego arcade cores. Adaptive scanlines seem to be broken, and do not apply the brightness value, so there is one setting for each opacity level instead of the proper adaptive curve that can be used on other cores. This made me revert back to the old style scanlines for this video, and is hopefully something that can be improved in these arcade cores in the future. I also don’t like how the original aspect ratio is not a choice in the menus by default. I think this is an important thing to have for all arcade cores, and not just the corrected output- given how drastically different they can be at times. In RoboCop it’s not so much an issue because the art assets throughout the game are clearly geared for 4:3 overall, just the option to have the raw output would be nice. You can do this on your own through the ini, but should the end user really have to calculate the default aspect ratio?

Data East MEC-M1 arcade beta core by Jotego. You can support his efforts to bring arcade classics to MiSTer at his patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/topapate

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Data East MEC-M1 core 4-29-2022 build – RoboCop

Filter Hori: Gaussian Sharp 60 // Filter Vert: Scanlines – Brighter110_80

Shadow Mask: Off // Gamma: Poly 2.4

Dips: Max Health

Played using a Hori Real Arcade Pro VX-SA (with Seimitsu LS-62 lever) arcade stick & 1ms USB polling.

Video: Integer scaled to 1080p // HDMI to Datapath e1s capture card

Volume reduced 52% (Loud game!)

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|:=-Timestamps-=:|
00:00​​ – Boot
00:15​​ – Intro / Title / Demo
02:03 – Full Game

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Occasional livestreams on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/WalrusFPGA

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WalrusFPGA

=—————CONTRIBUTE—————=

None of this would be possible without the constant hard work of Sorgelig. It cannot be overstated how much he has done and continues to do for this project, since its beginning. You can support him either at his Patreon in the link below, or on Paypal depending on your preference. MiSTer is a paradigm shift in how we can experience these classic games. This is a long-term preservation project that will continue to grow so that gamers today and in the future can experience these excellent systems as accurately and lag-free as possible. Donating what you can will help keep the updates coming. Thank you.

Patreon: https://patreon.com/FPGAMiSTer

PayPal: https://paypal.me/FPGAMiSTer

=—————–INFORM—————–=

Github link for this core: https://github.com/jotego/jtcop

MiSTer Forum: http://MiSTerFPGA.org

MiSTer Documentation: https://mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_MiSTer

Official MiSTer Discord (live chat/help): https://discord.gg/misterfpga
(Be respectful; this server is moderated. New users must be verified.)

=——————BUILD——————=

Worldwide list of sellers for MiSTer expansion boards: https://misterfpga.org/viewforum.php?f=34&sid=74e1c5e7dae1b99284789d93194cfa0b

I have personally ordered all my parts from https://www.MiSTerAddons.com and have been 100% satisfied with the quality and service there. (North American seller. Different region? Check list linked above for best local shipping rates.)

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