Emulation News – The internet\’s largest, and longest running emulator, rom, online game archive with PSP homebrew and free online games too!
As mentioned a couple days ago, Devhook 0.50 is now out! Check out this PSPUPDATES post. It supports all the 2.8x firmwares, but apparently requires FW 1.50 to run. (Glad i have’t flashed ;-). Booster r0x j00.
shash also posted some news regarding his Nintendo DS emulator for Windows development:
I’ve spent the past few days working on 2D related stuff and minor fixes. Quite a few hours have been invested “only” logging and debugging some demos still not working properly, because, for example, some basic stuff seems to be still failing. Also, I’ve worked a bit onto getting more speed from 3D, which got a bit faster, but still needs quite a lot of work.
Today I’ll talk a bit about the last one I’ve been working on, even if the actual implementation is more a raft from what it should be. I’m talking about the pixel blending, which can be used, for example, to cross fade from one image to another (as used in Zelda Gallery), or blending multiple images (for example, I think that’s what it’s used for “MP: First Hunt” menus). You can get a proper reference here. I’ve still to make some proper improvements, because I still don’t support some effects that can be achieved with multiple source selections, for example, but I’ll fix them in a few days.
Today I prefered to leave the technical details aside, as I don’t really still feel confident about how the special color effects work. Anyway, here’s the blend support as seen in Zelda Gallery (source, half blended, and destiny):
For the first time since February, there is some WIP news on Meka (Sega Master System/GameGear/SG-1000/SC-3000/Colecovision emulator for Windows):
SVN server: https://svn.smspower.org/svn/meka/trunk/meka
Web viewer: http://svn.smspower.org/
Web viewer, Log: http://svn.smspower.org/log.php?repname=MEKA&path=%2Ftrunk%2F&rev=0&sc=0&isdir=1
As for MEKA development, not much but here it is:
– Updated k.
– Emulation:
– Fixed data corruption/overflow in VDP emulation when seeking and
writing to an invalid palette address. Thanks Maxim. [Omar]
– VDP palette write do not mask out current VDP address, so performing
the (unprobable) set address/access palette/access VRAM sequence will
keep address in the full 16KB range. [Omar]
– Fixed VDP line interrupts not properly running in overscan area in
224 lines mode. Fixes bottom of the screen in Charles Mac Donald’s
BB2K6 demo. [Omar]
– Video:
– Changed default fullscreen blitter configuration in the hope of getting
something more compatible (640×480 by default), as so many people have
problems with fullscreen modes.
– Got rid of “parallel” blitter that displayed both odd and even frame
next to each other. Seems useless now. Could be brought back if some
four-eyed person request it. [Omar]
– Debugger:
– Added “CLOCK” command, to display/reset a Z80 cycle counter.
Very simple but can be helpful to time Z80 routines. [Omar]
– (Win32) Forward debugging log to Windows debugging stream via
OutputDebugString(), so running MEKA from Microsoft Visual studio
will display log in the ‘Output’ window. [Omar]
– Project:
– (Win32) Added new targets supporting shared standard libraries. [Omar]
– Updated SOURCES.TXT documentation. [Omar]
– GUI:
– Fixed background picture not loading on startup. [Omar]
– Removed closing fadeout since the current implementation is way
inefficient and cannot garantee proper speed. [Omar]
– Fixed bug with window closing button widget. [Omar]
– Fixed bug when quitting using the menu, configuration files were
not saved. Thanks Jacko. (Omar)
– (Un*x) Fixed bug where menus would not clear themselves. [Omar]
(This was due to Allegro.h defining TRUE as -1 and a 1 value being
hardcoded in some part of the code).
– Added and modified entries in the checksum and compatibility lists. [Omar]
Database update available for download below.
Snapshot: meka.nam (Last updated 2006/11/18, 126.817 bytes)
2006.02.26
Did not get around to release 0.72 as of yet, so I’m making a MEKA database (meka.nam) update available. As usual, this is mostly aimed at maniacs. Some particular renaming includes:
SMS – e5ff50d8 – Back to the Future II –> Back to the Future Part II
SMS – 2d48c1d3 – Back to the Future III –> Back to the Future Part III
SMS – 953f42e1 – Castle of Illusion –> Castle of Illusion – Starring Mickey Mouse
SMS – b9db4282 – Castle of Illusion (US) –> Castle of Illusion – Starring Mickey Mouse (US)
SMS – 59840fd6 – Castle of Illusion [SMS-GG] –> Castle of Illusion – Starring Mickey Mouse [SMS-GG]
SMS – 9942b69b – Castle of Illusion [SMS-GG] (JP) –> Castle of Illusion – Starring Mickey Mouse [SMS-GG] (JP)
SMS – 695a9a15 – Jungle Book, The –> Jungle Book, The (Walt Disney’s Classic)
SMS – 24e97200 – Land of Illusion –> Land of Illusion – Starring Mickey Mouse
SMS – 6350e649 – Legend of Illusion (BR) –> Legend of Illusion – Starring Mickey Mouse (BR)
SMS – c352c7eb – Lion King, The –> Lion King, The (Disney’s)
SMS – 1de2c2d0 – Strategic Defense Initiative (JP) –> SDI (JP)
GG – 423803a7 – Gambler Jikochuushin Ha (JP) –> Gyuwanburaa Jikochuushin Ha (JP)
GG – 90100884 – Jungle Book, The –> Jungle Book, The (Walt Disney’s Classic)
GG – 30c09f31 – Jungle Book, The (US) –> Jungle Book, The (Walt Disney’s Classic) (US)
GG – 52dbf3e1 – Land of Illusion –> Land of Illusion – Starring Mickey Mouse
GG – 0117c3df – Land of Illusion (JP) –> Mickey Mouse no Mahou no Crystal (JP)
SG1 – 545fc9bb – Ashizawa’s Hatchidan Tsumeshogi (JP) –> Ashizawa Hachidan no Tsumeshogi (JP)
SC3 – ae4f92cf – Uranai Angel Cuty (JP) –> Uranai Angel Cutie (JP)
Otherwise, the update mainly consists in entries being converted to the new database format and verifications/fixes going along with each conversion.
Today seems to be the WIP news day, as even Magic Engine news has been posted (Commercial Turbo Graphx 16/PC Engine emulator for Windows):
Some news from MagicEngine-FX beta testing…
Things are going very well, a lot of tiny bugs have been fixed as well as some big ones. As a result emulation quality has improved and there are about 12 more games that are playable : all the Angelique series, Can Can Bunny Extra DX, Super Real Mahjong P.IV, Team Innocent, and… Battle Heat!
Heres someone i’ve not heard of much developing for MAME, but nevertheless has updated his WIP site with the following:
Wow. How long has it been? A couple of years I think. I’ve switched jobs and moved apartments twice since I started on this stinking driver, and now, finally, it’s starting to do something. Still *tons* to do (and no time to do it), but heck, it’s a start. I have to admit though, I made a big mistake awhile back: I purchased a Polygonet Commanders PCB. Man, that game stinks! Good thing it’s of historical significance :P…
As far as the network error (in the network) goes, it should be fairly straightforward to fix up – there remain a hearty hunk of writes that aren’t going anywhere, and who knows, maybe I can convince Arbee to take another look at this’shizzle after i touch up a few more unimplemented dsp56k opcodes…
For those of you who like to use homebrew and emulators on your PSP, this post from Maxconsole should be of interest:
Ville Linde posted info on his MAME developments:
November 24, 2006
Try to map this to your controller…
That’s right, I finally managed to emulate the keyboard controller in Keyboardmania 3rd Mix. Unfortunately MAME doesn’t support MIDI keyboards, so playing it would be a bit difficult.
MAME OS X is a native OS X port of the popular MAME emulator. It is designed to take advantage of all the latest OS X technologies, like Core Video and Core Image.
This Maxconsole article mentions a new Genesis emulator for the Nintendo DS:
PicoDriveDS 0.1.6 Changelog
- Added Max Media Dock FAT support (thanks chishm/Bonic)
- Added EZ4 FAT support (thanks cory1492/Rudolph)
- Reduced memory usage, 3MB ROMs should work again
- Added EXPERIMENTAL support for using the additional RAM on SuperCard SD carts to load ROMs larger than 3MB. This comes with the standard warning that this feature may cause file corruption on your SD card. The SCSD may also keep the Genesis ROM in GBA ROM space after a reboot, causing PicoDriveDS to see it as an appended ROM and crash on startup – to fix this issue simply power down, take the SCSD out, and wait a few seconds.
Aaron Giles releases another U update to MAME with these changes:
We now have our second Dreamcast emulator for Windows that actually plays commercial games. This new one is DEmul. The emulator was started to development early in 2004 year by Wind, but just canceled after Chankast released. About half a year it has been in hibernating, but Chanka was still imperfect and emu was continued to developing. About a year it takes before it shows up BIOS spiral, then early in 2006 year Wind found some emu-russia members and run his first most desired commercial game Resident Evil: Code Veronica. Next progress was very fast and last six of seven month took improvements and debugging. Now emulator is able to run most commercial releases by various groups all along with homebrew demos and free software. Emulator still imperfect and incomplete. A lot of work still needed. Sound, timing and graphics need improvement and speed up. Since main developer is going to be little busy to do something with DEmul next year, they do not promise fast promoting and emulation progress. But they try their best to fix as many bugs as we can and improve emulation.
Download at our Sega Dreamcast emulation page
You can also check out the compat list.
Wow, this is a total shock, but MAYBE a step in the right direction, regarding preserving old classic video games (as well as other games). According to this Yahoo article, basically, the US Copyright Office is now bending a little and FINALLY allowing for exemptions for archivists, cell phone recyclers and computer security experts. One point regarding video games was this:
What this basically means (with my small amount of a legal background, not being an attorney) is that The US Copyright Office has effectively legalized modchipping/softmodding consoles if you’re doing it for the purpose of emulating an older, no longer available on the market consoles. If you can still buy the console in a store, like an Xbox or PS2, Gamecube, etc it wouldn’t fall under this exception. For systems previously released to these, it could apply.
Also note, notice the article says “for computer software and video games that require machines no longer available.” That means you have to legitimately own the computer software / video game, or have owned it at some point. While this doesn’t mean we can start posting Atari 2600 and Coleco commercial roms on this site, nevertheless, this is a HUGE CHANGE in the law, and a HUGE HIT against the DMCA! This change doesn’t only apply to video games, but cell phones, dvds, and other things. I HIGHLY recommend you read the article.
For those of you who DO have the legal knowledge regarding such issue, we invite you to post your comments.
Ootake is a Turbo Graphx 16/PC Engine emulator for Windows with these changes:
- “Fast Seek” was added to “Speed” menu. When a fast CD drive is used, the time of the CD seek is shortened. – When CD drive not fast is used, the noise might mix with a built-in sound source at the CD seek. In that case, leave the check removed (default).
- “Start FastSeek” was added to “Setting”->”CD Drive” menu.
- In event scene of “Ys IV”, the problem that the screen and the voice shifted occasionally was solved. – When CD drive not fast is used, it is likely to shift still a little. In that case, use virtual CD drive software.
- In event scene of “Ys IV”, the problem being uncommonly drawn to the noise of one line was solved.
- In “Nectaris”, the problem that the scroll of the map has slowed was solved. I think the operation timing of other software has approached a real machine, too.
- In “Wonder Momo”, the problem that the borderline of the division scroll flickered occasionally was solved.
- When “Open bram Folder” of “File” menu is executed, the “bram file (buckup memory RAM file)” is updated. – The update of “bram file” is done at “The state is saved” or “Ootake is ended”, too.
- When the “HES file (sound file of PC Engine)” is opened, it is automatically set to the “BigSoundBuffer” mode. (The sound buffer is enlarged, and the frame rate is lowered.)
Get it at our TG16 emulation page
The MAME history.dat file saw another big update adding info on the following games:
shash posted some news on his development on the Nintendo DS emulator for Windows:
Also did some misc bugfixing here and there, that’s not even interesting to talk about. Only one of the minor tweaks in the texture handling routines, that I thought would give crappy results, fixed hell a load of stuff.
So, as the proverb says, a picture is worth a thousand words:
Dave Widel
(This update is in reference to his 11/18 update of a 7-11 version of Q-Bert for those who are wondering what he is talking about):
2006/11/20: Here’s what it would look like in an emulator. I don’t expect to see this in MAME anytime soon though.
Roberto Fresca
Funworld Rewrite…
Since last update, I decided to rewrite the entire funworld driver because the thing was becoming a whole mess. Additionally, a lot of improvements were made. I’ll post a partial list of changes later. For now, here are some shots…
Both games are working properly with full sound and perfect colors.
Cuore 1 and Elephant Family have some odd things, but I’m planning to write a program that can run in the real hardware to output some answers… (thanks to f205v/kold/stekka that will send the boards).
Rich Whitehouse released an update to his Nintendo DS port of Nester (NES Emulator). Current version is 0.3, released 2006-11-23. New version features improved compatibility and speed. Source code is included.
You can get it from oiur download page HERE
I didn’t? ;_;
We at VGN would like to wish yall a Happy Thanksgiving!
