08848: 1942, 1942a, 1942b, 1942w: Clarification on default lives

ID	Category [?]	Severity [?]	Reproducibility	Date Submitted	Last Update
08848	DIP/Input	Minor	Always	Apr 8, 2024, 23:16	Apr 12, 2024, 12:52

Tester	ketburai	View Status	Public	Platform	MAME (Official Binary)
Assigned To	ketburai	Resolution	Fixed	OS
Status [?]	Resolved			Driver	capcom/1942.cpp
Version	0.264	Fixed in Version	0.265	Build
		Fixed in Git Commit	700ed63	Github Pull Request #

Summary	08848: 1942, 1942a, 1942b, 1942w: Clarification on default lives
Description	Hello. I completely forgot that I ever made this account or submitted anything. I went over my previous submissions, and I'm not happy about some of the things I've said. I am sorry. It's clear that you take even minor submissions seriously, and I appreciate that. MAME currently has this game default to 2 lives, and from what I can tell, it has for a very long time. After looking into things a bit, I wanted to ask about this. This default might not seem strange compared to Final Fight and the like, but it does seem strange compared to other games in this genre coming out at the time, and compared to the other early Capcom shooting games like Vulgus and Exed Exes, which use 3 lives. Otokaru, who I currently have no reason to distrust, simply says this game defaults to all switches off, which would be 3 lives: https://otokaru.net/otocontents/dipsw/a-o/1942.html (MAME would ignore the cocktail switch as you've explained before.) Unfortunately, the commonly available Romstar manual does not seem to specify any setting. When manuals do this, I've always wondered if that means all off is the factory default, but that's a topic for another time. The Capcom Arcade Stadium rerelease seems to default to 3 lives. Unfortunately there is no Arcade Archives rerelease yet, Hamster would be good about things like this, but I haven't heard anything about Capcom themselves messing up defaults either. I did not see any comment in the driver source about this topic. (I named the 4 official boards MAME currently has, because this would more likely pertain to those specifically, but maybe this applies to the bootlegs and the hack as well.) I was wondering if anyone happened to have further information for or against a 2 or 3 lives default. Thank you.
Steps To Reproduce
Additional Information
Github Commit

Flags
Regression Version
Affected Sets / Systems	1942, 1942a, 1942b, 1942w

Attached Files	1942manual.jpg (167,303 bytes) Apr 10, 2024, 02:25 Uploaded by Fujix 1942 manual

No.22052 Fujix Administrator Apr 10, 2024, 02:26	I found a copy of 1942 DIP switch settings. The DIP switch A 1 and 2 are OFF by default.
No.22053 ketburai Tester Apr 10, 2024, 04:49	It's great to have this photo, thank you. I'm just happy to see a photo of a Japanese arcade manual at all. Of course, the question is always "which versions were actually released in Japan?", but unlike Time Pilot '84, there don't seem to be clear regional differences... I hope.
No.22057 ketburai Tester Apr 11, 2024, 23:13	I looked into Capcom Arcade Stadium, as well as its predecessor, Capcom Arcade Cabinet. Unfortunately, all I've discovered is that ports may simply be an unreliable source for arcade dipswitches. It should be noted that these two ports are by different developers. Cabinet is by M2, while Stadium appears to be by Capcom themselves. I'm not sure what happened, but this did lead to some oddities. Both ports do specify 3 starting lives as default. However, the oddity is in a completely different setting... these ports specify different point values for extra lives as default. For some reason, M2's port uses the "every 100K" setting, while Capcom's port uses the "20K, then every 80K" setting that is confirmed by Otokaru and the posted attachment here. Additionally, both ports have "Japan" and "International" versions of most games, and somehow 1942 is no exception... but it's not at all clear if either version even matches up with the versions we have available. At any rate, the "International" setting does not have any of the strange changes made for the Williams version, as far as I can tell. Additionally, switching between Japan/International does not change defaults in either port, for what that's worth. This could mean that one of the versions currently in MAME is specifically the one that Romstar published, or even that the Japan/International toggle doesn't actually do anything for this specific game. I also decided to check Capcom Generation, just for the sake of it. This port feels like it'll reveal itself to be wildly inaccurate if I stare at it too long. Regardless, it still uses 3 lives and the every 80K setting. It is all a big mystery, and I don't know what to make of it. At this point, I'm really depending on Otokaru and on the manual. That being said, nearly everything I've looked at specifies 3 lives and every 80K, which might be helpful. I just wish I could understand why M2, who otherwise seems trustworthy with these things, would make such a change, assuming it is a change at all.