Best Genesis/Mega Drive emulator for DC?

This forum is for discussion pertaining to homebrew and indie software for the Dreamcast, such as homebrew games, emulators/interpreters, and other homebrew software/applications. Porting requests and developmental ideas are not to be made here; you can make those here. If you need any help burning discs for homebrew software, this is the place to ask as well.
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Segata Sanshiro
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Post by Segata Sanshiro »

alb3530 wrote:
Segata Sanshiro wrote:Almost all of the roms i tested (943) work, and work great!!
Did you create the ROM list for 943 games?
No, i did it using the tools provided for download: provlist and renamer.
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Post by alb3530 »

Juan wrote:
alb3530 wrote:International Superstar Soccer Deluxe needs the Mode button
The game seems to work, I mean, you can see the demo playing rather well, it's just that it hangs when you press start in the title screen :x
Fatal Fury 2 also needs Mode button.
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Post by Smurph »

Segata Sanshiro wrote:
alb3530 wrote:
Segata Sanshiro wrote:Almost all of the roms i tested (943) work, and work great!!
Did you create the ROM list for 943 games?
No, i did it using the tools provided for download: provlist and renamer.
Gawd, does anybody use my tool?
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Post by jessman »

Smurph wrote: Gawd, does anybody use my tool?
I do, and it works great. :wink:
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Post by Dreamcast4life »

Smurph wrote:
Segata Sanshiro wrote:
alb3530 wrote:
Segata Sanshiro wrote:Almost all of the roms i tested (943) work, and work great!!
Did you create the ROM list for 943 games?
No, i did it using the tools provided for download: provlist and renamer.
Gawd, does anybody use my tool?
hell yeah dude, your tool is PWNAGE to the max. Thanks,now making a gpwt disc is a snap :wink:
Have you played dreamcast today?
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Post by Smurph »

jessman wrote:I do, and it works great. :wink:
Dreamcast4life wrote:hell yeah dude, your tool is PWNAGE to the max. Thanks,now making a gpwt disc is a snap :wink:
Yay! Always good to know my work is appreciated (regardless of how much work it actually is = P).
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Post by DcSteve »

BA has stated on the dcemu.uk boards that the menu theme "uses more main memory than we have free." Anybody have any ideas on how to get around this?
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Post by BlackAura »

Rewrite the theme engine so it doesn't use as much memory, obviously.

The current one is based on a scripting language. The extra overhead of storing the loaded scripts, the script compiler, a bytecode representation of the same scripts, a bytecode interpreter, all the libraries and binding code required to get the scripts doing anything useful, and all of the stuff allocated by the scripting language is just too much.

The problem is partly that we just don't have enough RAM free. The GP/DC binary itself is well over a megabyte. The space required for storing the ROM, RAM, VRAM, sound buffers, and so on approaches six megabytes, and there's a fair bit of memory used by KOS, libc, and so on. Nearly half of main RAM is gone before we even do anything. Actually loading a ROM can itself require another 6MB of memory or more (something I've been meaning to fix).

It's also partly because of memory fragmentation - all those dynamic memory allocations the scripting system does leave the free memory fragmented into a thousand tiny pieces. As soon as we need a large chunk of memory (like a decompression buffer for a zipped ROM), we run out, and get a crash.

The only real solution is to rewrite the thing in such a way that it uses less memory, more predictably, leaving enough contiguous memory for the emulator to still work. That basically means ditching the scripting language, writing the menu in C with no dynamic memory allocations whatsoever, and limiting the theme support somewhat.
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Post by DcSteve »

Thats really great. Maybe a already made script or code can be used? Something from the library of already released things like the old nester code, or even SE's script.
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Post by JohnnyB »

If you could fix the long filename bug in Preview 3's menu it'd work just fine. Having it recognize supported file types and directories alone would clean things up too, along with hiding file extensions. I'd probably use something like that even after the fancy UI was up and running.

The quality of emulation matters the most in the end.
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Post by Dr. Doom »

Praises:

Just wanted to chime in here and applaud the work of BlackAura and Wormtoe; this is a spectacular emulator. I thought DreamSNES was as good as it would get, but GenPlusDC blows it away.

The whole point of a console emulator is to mimic the console so closely that it would be difficult for a player to tell the difference between the emulator and the real thing. After experiencing Sonic, Gunstar Heroes, Final Zone, Last Battle and several other games again after all these years, I can honestly say that GenPlusDC is 97% of the way there to being a perfect emulator. It's been years since my mother threw away my Genesis (while I was at school one day) and I feel like I have finally been reunited with my Genesis again!


Comments/Suggestions:

1. I know some people are clamoring for a nice GUI, but the way I see it, it's simple and totally functional as it is. I say leave it alone and waste more time playing the games then staring at the menu.

2. I wanted to add that I'm experiencing the sound issues mentioned by other posters in this thread. In every game I've tried, there is a fast ticking noise in the background; it sounds almost like a vinyl record with a scratch on it and the needle keeps hitting the scratch as the record rotates at a fast speed. This couldn't be caused by the CDR, could it?


Completely Off-topic:

What would it take to get BlackAura to work on fixing DreamSNES and making it nice and shiny like GenPlusDC? What kind of convincing do you need (read: $$$)?
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Post by jessman »

You're right about the menu, dude. What's eye-candy if the program itself sucks? Anyways, about the ticking...there's no way that the CD could be making it because it comes through the speakers. Anyways, I'm sure it'll be fixed soon.
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Post by Segata Sanshiro »

Sonic 2 crashed at the "oil ocean" zone! Did someone else had the same explerience?

Thanx in advance


...further testing showed that lots of titles crash or reset at random points of the game...
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Post by alb3530 »

I'm also happy with the current GUI.A black screen with white and yellow fonts.Simple, light and cool.

Segata Sanshiro: is it a 100 % crashing, that always happens when you reach some point of the stage?If yes, what is the point and act you've experienced it?
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Post by Segata Sanshiro »

sonic 2 Oil Ocean act 1... 1/3 of the way. I havent tested it again, because i dont have time to play ~30 minutes again to look for the crash. I experienced crashes on other games as well (tested with different CPU settings)
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Post by alb3530 »

Well, i've just tested Sonic 2 and i concluded the crashes happen when the CPU is C68K.In Oil Ocean act 1, when i moved fast through the oil pipes, the game froze 2 times.And if you enable debug code, when you press B to turn into a object, the game (or even the whole thing) crashes
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Post by Smurph »

alb3530 wrote:Well, i've just tested Sonic 2 and i concluded the crashes happen when the CPU is C68K.In Oil Ocean act 1, when i moved fast through the oil pipes, the game froze 2 times.And if you enable debug code, when you press B to turn into a object, the game (or even the whole thing) crashes
Oddly enough, that doesn't seem to happen with Sonic 2 & Knuckles. I got to Metropolis, but failed on the boss because pink echidnas can't jump.
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Post by bramenjam »

Some question, I could not find the answer to:
- Can you use subfolders in this emulator?
- Can spaces be used in the rom names, or do I have to rename everything?

Thanks.
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Post by jessman »

Spaces CANNOT be used or else the roms won't appear properly in the list. Also, sub-folders can't be used because the rom list appears on screen and only loads the rom directory up.
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Post by alb3530 »

Smurph wrote:
alb3530 wrote:Well, i've just tested Sonic 2 and i concluded the crashes happen when the CPU is C68K.In Oil Ocean act 1, when i moved fast through the oil pipes, the game froze 2 times.And if you enable debug code, when you press B to turn into a object, the game (or even the whole thing) crashes
Oddly enough, that doesn't seem to happen with Sonic 2 & Knuckles. I got to Metropolis, but failed on the boss because pink echidnas can't jump.
Did you use C68K when playing Sonic 2&K?Have you tried turning into a object when in debug mode?
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