Advance Projects

The WIP version is available in git.

History For AdvanceCD

Upgraded syslinux 3.08-pre4 and makebootfat 1.2. This removes the limitation of 1 GB on the USB disks, and improves the USB boot support.
Added preliminary instruction for configuring an Arcade Monitor.
Fixed the hiscore saving on USB writable devices.
Added the AdvanceMAME `advcfg' and 'advv' utilities.
Upgraded AdvanceMAME 0.92.1, AdvanceMESS 0.92.0.0 and AdvanceMENU 2.4.6.
Upgraded ALSA 1.0.8.
Upgraded busybox 1.00.

Added a new "run" command in the configuration file advcd.rc to run a specific game instead of the menu.
Upgraded AdvanceMAME 0.89.1, AdvanceMESS 0.89.0.1 and AdvanceMENU 2.4.5.
Upgraded makebootfat-1.1.
Upgraded ALSA 1.0.7.
Upgraded syslinux 2.11.

New look.
Added support for the most recent Radeon and GeForce boards.
Auto eject of the CD before the shutdown.
Added support for custom configuration of the Advance programs.
Enabled the configuration interface in the emulators. It's required to load software in MESS.
Removed the use of doublescan modes. This is a workaround to solve some problems on buggy drivers like Radeon.
Upgraded AdvanceMAME 0.79.2, AdvanceMESS 0.79.0.1 and AdvanceMENU 2.3.2.
Upgraded ALSA 1.0.3b.
Upgraded BusyBox 1.00-pre4.

Added support for the nVidia GeForce4 and GeForceFX boards.
Added support for the Intel 740 boards.
Added support for the ATI Mach64 and Rage boards.
Removed all the old SCSI drivers. Now only the chipset AIC7xxx, AIC79xxx and NCR/SYM53C8xx are supported. This speedup the boot process and solve some compatibility problems with new laptops.
Fixed some problems with PCs with 1GB or more system memory.
Fixed the detection of the Joysticks connect on the game port.
Added support for booting from an UDF filesystem.
Added some extra key mappings.
Added the `probewin.exe' Windows utility to check if your video card is supported or not.
Added a list of supported sound cards.
Fixed the support of .chd games. The .dif files are now written in memory.
Upgraded AdvanceMAME 0.76.1, AdvanceMESS 0.74.0.1 and AdvanceMENU 2.2.14.
Upgraded ALSA 0.9.7c.

Simplified the ISO image creation process.
The Scale2x effect is now automatically enabled for games with a small screen.
Now only the the Linux FrameBuffer drivers are used. The SVGALIB library was removed.
Added a new graphics skin for the booting process and for AdvanceMENU.
Before the poweroff you have time to eject the CDROM.
Disabled all the special MAME keys and menus. Now you can only play games.
Upgraded AdvanceMAME 0.73.1, AdvanceMESS 0.73.0.1 and AdvanceMENU 2.2.12.
Upgraded Linux 2.4.22 + i810fb/savagefb/vmwarefb patches.
Upgraded ALSA library 0.9.6.
Upgraded syslinux 2.06.

Added detailed instructions on how to add roms at the CD.
Added isapnptools/pciutils/usbutils to detect PnP/PCI/USB hardware. This reduces a lot the boot time.
Updated AdvanceMAME 0.66.0, AdvanceMESS 0.66.0.0 and AdvanceMENU 2.2.4. This solves the problem with the 3dfx video boards, add a global volume control, and fixes a FrameBuffer color problem.
Removed the old not PnP hardware detection. The boot is now a lot faster.
Added a preliminary Linux Frame Buffer support. You can select it at boot time. Try it if the SVGALIB video drivers are not working.
Added SCSI support.
Removed support to boot from floppy.
Upgraded ALSA 0.9.1.
Added some patches at the SVGALIB 1.9.17 library to solve some possible problems.
The emulators are now configured to exit after 3 minutes of inactivity.