TVicHW32 Shim for MK6Emu

A drop-in replacement for TVicHW32.dll that allows MK6Emu to run on modern Windows (10/11) without requiring Win2000 compatibility mode or the original kernel-mode hardware I/O driver. Also replaces KEYBOARDCONNECTOR.exe with a built-in keyboard hook.

What it does

TVicHW32 stubs: The original TVicHW32.dll is a kernel-mode driver library for direct hardware I/O port access (by EnTech Taiwan). It requires a .SYS/.VXD driver that won't load on modern Windows due to driver signing requirements. Since MK6Emu doesn't need real hardware I/O, the shim stubs all 10 imported functions — OpenTVicHW32 returns a fake handle, all port read/write functions are no-ops, and MapPhysToLinear allocates a zeroed memory block.

Version spoofing: MK6Emu's audio initialization (DirectSound/waveOut) fails on Windows Vista+ because the app or its MFC runtime branches on the OS version. The shim uses IAT (Import Address Table) hooking to intercept GetVersion and GetVersionExA calls, making the app believe it's running on Windows 2000 SP4 (version 5.0, build 2195). This causes the audio subsystem to take the legacy initialization path, which works correctly through the modern WASAPI translation layer.

Keyboard connector: A low-level keyboard hook (WH_KEYBOARD_LL) replaces the external KEYBOARDCONNECTOR.exe AutoHotkey app. The hook is active whenever the "MK6 Emulator" window or any "Roms Screen" window is in the foreground, and inactive for all other applications.

Keyboard map

Native keys (forwarded to MK6 Emulator)

These keys are sent as keystrokes to the emulator window when a Roms Screen is in the foreground:

Key	Function
1-8	Top button row (Reserve/Gamble, Bet lines)
Q W E R T Y U I	Bottom button row (Take Win, Play Reels, etc.)
Space	Equivalent to 'Y' (Play largest number of lines)
F4	Toggle panel visibility

Button clicks (sent as BM_CLICK to emulator child buttons)

Key	Button	Function
CapsLock	Button17	Audit
F	Button18	Jackpot
A	Button19	Logic
S	Button20	Main-Opt
D	Button21	Main-Mec
Enter	Button22	Coins

Special keys

Key	Action
G	Credit payout combo: finds the "Collect" / "Take Win" button by label (any position), clicks it, then clicks Jackpot (Button18) twice. Falls back to q key if no matching button is found.
Shift	Toggle fullscreen (Alt+Enter) and move cursor off-screen
Escape	Close emulator

Exported functions

The shim exports the following functions by ordinal (matching the original DLL's export table):

Ordinal	Function	Behavior
1	OpenTVicHW32	Returns a fake handle (always succeeds)
2	CloseTVicHW32	No-op
3	GetActiveHW	Returns the fake handle
12	GetPortByte	Returns 0
13	SetPortByte	No-op
14	GetPortWord	Returns 0
15	SetPortWord	No-op
16	GetPortLong	Returns 0
17	SetPortLong	No-op
30	MapPhysToLinear	Allocates zeroed memory via VirtualAlloc

Building

Requirements

A C compiler targeting 32-bit Windows (PE32). The EXE is a 32-bit application.

MinGW (any platform)

i686-w64-mingw32-gcc -shared -nostdlib -o TVicHW32.dll TVicHW32.c TVicHW32.def -lkernel32 -luser32 -O2 -Wl,--enable-stdcall-fixup -Wl,-e,_DllMain@12

MSVC (x86 Developer Command Prompt)

cl /LD /O2 TVicHW32.c /link /DEF:TVicHW32.def /OUT:TVicHW32.dll /NODEFAULTLIB kernel32.lib user32.lib

Windows batch

build.bat

Installation

1. Back up the original TVicHW32.dll in the MK6Emu directory.
2. Copy the built TVicHW32.dll into the MK6Emu directory.
3. Run MK6Emu.exe — no compatibility mode needed, no KEYBOARDCONNECTOR.exe needed.

How the IAT hook works

When the shim DLL loads (DllMain at DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH, before WinMain), it:

1. Resolves the addresses of the real GetVersion and GetVersionExA in kernel32.dll
2. Walks the main executable's PE import table
3. Finds the IAT entries pointing to those functions
4. Overwrites them with pointers to the shim's replacements that return Windows 2000 version info

This is the same technique Windows' own Application Compatibility Engine (apphelp.dll) uses when you set compatibility mode on an executable.

License

MIT