Non DC Emulation and Homebrew News

[Hawq]

Emulator Mame32 .115

system PC - Windows

plain mame with gui, news:
-| game removed
+| game added
c| game changed from
C| game changed to

0.115
-|vp906iii "906III Video Poker"
+|boxingm "Boxing Mania"
+|capsnk "Capcom Vs. SNK Millennium Fight 2000 (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|code1d "Code One Dispatch"
+|code1db "Code One Dispatch (ver B)"
+|combh "Combat Hawk"
+|csmash "Cosmic Smash (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|cspike "Gun Spike (JPN) / Cannon Spike (USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|derbyoc "Derby Owners Club (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|doa2 "Dead or Alive 2 (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|doa2m "Dead or Alive 2 Millennium (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|dybb99 "Dynamite Baseball '99 (JPN) / World Series '99 (USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|dybbnao "Dynamite Baseball NAOMI (JPN)"
+|dyndek2b "Dynamite Deka 2 (Japan, Model 2B)"
+|filetto "Filetto (v1.05 901009)"
+|gdrawpkr "Gaming Draw Poker"
+|ggram2 "Giant Gram (2?) (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|gram2000 "Giant Gram 2000 (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|gticlub2 "GTI Club 2"
+|gwing2 "Giga Wing 2 (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|hginga "Hanafuda Hana Ginga"
+|hmgeo "Heavy Metal Geomatrix (JPN, USA, EUR, ASI, AUS)"
+|jpark3 "Jurassic Park 3"
+|koikois "Koi Koi Shimasho"
+|kokoroj2 "Kokoroji 2"
+|lgtnfgha "Lightning Fighters (Asia)"
+|mfightc "Mahjong Fight Club (ver D)"
+|mfightcc "Mahjong Fight Club (ver C)"
+|mjmyornt "Mahjong The Mysterious Orient"
+|mjmyuniv "Mahjong The Mysterious Universe"
+|mjmywrld "Mahjong The Mysterious World (set 2)"
+|mocapb "Mocap Boxing (ver AAA)"
+|mocapbj "Mocap Boxing (ver JAA)"
+|mocapglf "Mocap Golf"
+|nwarru "Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (USA 950406)"
+|otrigger "OutTrigger (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|p911 "Police 911"
+|p9112 "Police 911 2"
+|p911e "Police 24/7 (ver EAA)"
+|p911j "Keisatsukan Shinjuku 24ji (ver JAC)"
+|p911uc "Police 911 (ver UAC)"
+|pjustic "Moero Justice Gakuen (JPN) / Project Justice (USA, EXP, KOR, AUS) "
+|popn9 "Pop'n Music 9"
+|ppp2nd "ParaParaParadise 2nd Mix"
+|pstone "Power Stone (JPN, USA, EUR, ASI, AUS)"
+|pstone2 "Power Stone 2 (JPN, USA, EUR, ASI, AUS)"
+|quizo "Quiz Olympic"
+|samba "Samba De Amigo (JPN)"
+|sfexu "Street Fighter EX (USA 961219)"
+|slasho "Slashout (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|sogeki "Sogeki (ver JAA)"
+|spawn "Spawn (JPN, USA, EUR, ASI, AUS)"
+|sscopex "Silent Scope EX (ver UAA)"
+|suchie3 "Idol Janshi Suchie-Pai 3 (JPN)"
+|terrafa "Terra Force (set 2)"
+|thrild2 "Thrill Drive 2"
+|thrild2a "Thrill Drive 2 (ver A)"
+|tsurugi "Tsurugi (ver EAB)"
+|tsurugij "Tsurugi (ver JAC)"
+|viprp1hk "Viper Phase 1 (Hong Kong, Metrotainment license)"
+|virnba "Virtua NBA (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|vs2_2k "Virtua Striker 2 Ver. 2000 (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|vs2_2ka "Virtua Striker 2 Ver. 2000 (set 2) (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|vtennis "Power Smash (JPN) / Virtua Tennis (USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
+|wcombaj "World Combat (ver JAA)"
+|wcombak "World Combat (ver KBC)"
+|wcombat "World Combat"
+|xtrial "Xtrial Racing"
+|zombrvn "Zombie Revenge (JPN, USA, EXP, KOR, AUS)"
c|cameltrj "Cameltry (Japan)"
C|cameltrj "Cameltry (Japan, YM2610)"
c|cameltry "Cameltry (US)"
C|cameltry "Cameltry (US, YM2610)"
c|camltrua "Cameltry (US, alt sound)"
C|camltrua "Cameltry (US, YM2203 + M6295)"
C|camltrya "Cameltry (World, YM2203 + M6295)"
c|enigma2 "Enigma 2"
C|enigma2 "Enigma II"
c|enigma2a "Enigma 2 (Space Invaders Hardware)"
C|enigma2a "Enigma II (Space Invaders hardware)"
C|exctleag "Excite League (FD1094 317-0079)"
c|exctleag "Excite League (FD1094 317-0079?)"
C|freezea2 "Freeze (Atari) (prototype, 96/10/18)"
c|freezea2 "Freeze (Atari) (prototype, set 2)"
C|freezea3 "Freeze (Atari) (prototype, 96/10/07)"
C|freezea4 "Freeze (Atari) (prototype, 96/10/03)"
C|freezea5 "Freeze (Atari) (prototype, 96/09/20, AMOA-96)"
C|freezea6 "Freeze (Atari) (prototype, 96/09/07, Jamma-96)"
c|freezeat "Freeze (Atari) (prototype)"
C|freezeat "Freeze (Atari) (prototype, English voice, 96/10/25)"
C|freezejp "Freeze (Atari) (prototype, Japanese voice, 96/10/25)"
C|jokerpkr "Joker-Poker"
c|jokerpkr "Joker Poker"
C|nwarr "Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (Euro 950316)"
c|nwarr "Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge (USA 950406)"
c|pacland "Pac-Land (set 1)"
C|pacland "Pac-Land (World)"
C|pacland2 "Pac-Land (Japan newer)"
c|pacland2 "Pac-Land (set 2)"
C|pacland3 "Pac-Land (Japan older)"
c|pacland3 "Pac-Land (set 3)"
C|racinfrc "Racin' Force (ver EAC)"
c|racinfrc "Racin' Force (ver UAB)"
C|racinfru "Racin' Force (ver UAB)"
C|sfex "Street Fighter EX (EURO 961219)"
c|sfex "Street Fighter EX (USA 961219)"
c|soulclbb "Soul Calibur (SOC11/VER.B)"
C|soulclbb "Soul Calibur (SOC13/VER.B)"
c|soulclbc "Soul Calibur (SOC11/VER.A2)"
C|soulclbc "Soul Calibur (SOC11/VER.B)"
C|soulclbd "Soul Calibur (SOC11/VER.A2)"
C|suprleag "Super League (FD1094 317-0045)"
c|suprleag "Super League (FD1094 317-0045?)"
c|tekken3b "Tekken 3 (TET2/VER.A)"
C|tekken3b "Tekken 3 (TET3/VER.A)"
C|tekken3c "Tekken 3 (TET2/VER.A)"
get from EmuHQ to avoid the fileplanet queues

Emulator SDLMame .115

system SDL

mame with DX chopped out, theres no real SDL specific changes this time
get from here

Dat Mameinfo.dat v0.115

info on games in mame, news:
* Updated to MAME 0.115.
* Added 0.115 Source/Listinfo changes.
* Newest Bugs (xxth May).
* Completely re-added MAME 0.63-0.66 Source/Whatsnew/Readme-infos.
* Fixed Mameinfo.dat infos.
get from here as its for a full version its ready to go from the homepage

Emulator SDLMess .115

system SDL

Mess with the DX bits out, news:
more stability, better joystick/pad handling, and all the other good stuff from the SDLMAME 0.114 cycle.
get from here

emulator DSP 0.6ß2

System PC - Windows

ZX Spectrum & Z80 based arcade emu, news:
• General
# NEW: Now testing directories to avoid hangs.
# New icon for floppy disk.
# Updated to ZipForge 3.02

BUG:
# Stability reading ZIP when many of them were readed.
# Fixed many bugs here and there...

• Spectrum
NEW: Added Spectrum +3 floppy disk, at last.
# Press F5 to remove disk.
# Low-pass filter for speaker. In options you can enable/disable it.

BUG:
# The last line of Spectrum 128 and +3 was not draw.
# Enhanced contended memory.
# Now writes Spectrum +3 screen GIF.
get from here

Emulator WinUAE 1.4.2 Public Beta 11

System PC - Windows

Another beta of the best Amiga emulator there is, news:
- fixed randomly lost CDTV CD transfer finished interrupt in CE-mode
- fixed windowed mode size check
- added some preliminary SCSI hardware emulation stuff (1.4.3+ stuff)
- A3000, minimal support, KS driver detects SCSI controller with no SCSI devices connected. (SuperDMAC + WD33C93)
- A590/A2091, (DMAC + WD33C93), minimal support, boot ROM (tested with rev7) detects controller with no SCSI devices. (check log if for some weird reason you want to test it..)
- A4000T NCR53C710, nothing implemented yet (no datasheet)
- CDTV and A590/A2091 autoconfig chained with UAE autoconfig devices (fast ram, HD etc works in CDTV mode)
- more GUI debugger updates
get from here

[Hawq]

Emu WIP PSP Player WIP news

[quote]Although the emulator is pretty advanced, it is also in its early stages. This means that the screenshots you see here aren't that pretty yet.

2007-05-07 - Trigonometry Wars
Fixed textures up and now trigwars runs. In fact, it runs REALLY well, and is fully playable. Cool!


2007-03-24 - PSPTris (game)
Whoa! By some form of black magic, PSPTris now runs in game! Sometimes control input is missed, and there is a random flicker here or there but other than that the game runs PERFECTLY. I have two or three things to fix (the OSK doesn't work because it does something weird, and I need to implement clipping in the video driver), but after that I can say that it works! Well, classic and original modes do, anyway. The color mode runs really slow, and I'm not sure why.


2007-05-07 - Puzzle Bobble
First commercial game It runs fairly slow due to the lack of texture caching (all time is spent waiting on the GPU - my CPUs sit relatively idle at around 10-20% while running), but works. There are a few things missing, like the guide lines while playing, but other than that it works!
more here as it happens

Emulator AGEMAME 0.43 & SAGEMame 0.43

System PC - Windows, SDL

Arcade Gambling Extension, fruit machine emu, news:
# Included all updates from 0.114 to 0.115. The main focus here has been improving the MPU4 driver, to the point that inputs now work correctly. This would allow Connect 4 to be playable, but it seems that there are still issues with the lamping.
get from here

Emulator GP2X-THOM v1.0.3

System GP2X

Thomson TO7-70 emu, news:
* Improve speed
* Improve emulation accuracy
* Improve volume handler
* Add MMU hack stuff
* Add option to display frame rate
* New speed limiter function
* Bug fix in file requester
get from here

Emulator SNEmulDS 0.5 beta

System DS

Snes emu, news:
* Changed the Sound timers, now the timers should be a bit more accurate and removed the timers hacks
* Moved back the Sound RAM in the fast ARM7 RAM, removed unused code from ARM7 codes
* Now support sprite address change during frame (limited to two addresses by frame), this makes Ogre Battle much more playable
* Left handed people can now enjoy the SNES mouse option (right buttons can be used like left joypad).
* Options can now be saved in configuration file
* New SNES config menu
* Fixed some bugs

Optional feature (enabled by configuration file):
* Added sound synchronisation fixes, this is a set of flags that make ARM9 slowdown or make ARM9 wait for the ARM7.
Those options make Square games (and other games) sound much better, but also break sound in other games. So this option is available through the configuration file. I only changed for the configuration file for Chrono Trigger, SOM1 and FFVI. You will have to modify the configuration and test the options for other games.
* Added priority per tile for BG3, by detecting if there are more low or high priority per tile at each line (see README)
* Added priority per tile for BG1 and BG2, by using the fourth DS layer. Low priority tiles go to fourth layer, and high priority per tiles (this idea was taken from SNESAdvance).
* Sprites priorities can now be changed. See configuration file for more informations. The default is 1123 but 1223 makes some games look better (like Castlevania IV first level for instance)
get from here

Emulator YAPE 0.74

System PC - Windows

Commodore +4 emu, news:
* dialog window for custom joystick controls
* customizable RAM startup patterns
* adjustable interlaced line shade in double sized VDU emulation mode
* command line parameter for initial breakpoint (/BREAK:address)
* added CPU level emulation support in fast (line based) mode
* no need to reattach D64 files when switching from IEC to CPU level drive emulation
* deadlock on SCRATCH-ing unclosed files fixed (IEC/D64)
* slightly improved SID filters
* improved mixing of audio channels
* regression TED bug fix in fast emulation level
* a couple of minor fixes
get from here

Emulator Lameboy v0.5

System DS

GB/GBC emu, news:
# changed: new faster display method (with triple buffering), may cause visual glitches with games using pallette based effects

added:
# fps display
# rom selection menu sorting, key repeat and position history

fixed(?):
# video modes emulation, helps for some games but messes with others
# inverted GBC sprite priorities
get from here

Emulator MAME Plus! 0.115

System PC - Windows

unofficial mame, news:
* fixed buffer overflow in cheat menu
* fixed command list crash in MSVC build
* added Valencian(va_ES) support [Juanen]
* updated Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese text [Juanen]
* updated French text [Benjamin Siskoo]
* updated Hungarian text [Delirious]
get from here

Emulator Mame Plus! Plus! .115

System PC - Windows

unofficial mame with 3D plugin support & kaillera
get from here

Emulator Mame32Hp4 .115

System PC - Windows

P4 optimised version of mame plus, same changes as the regular version and the usual extra .dats etc..
get from here

[Hawq]

Well I just did a quick test with Tekken 3 & found that for that game at least the P4 build is twice as fast as an i686 one, the 686 had debug options enabled but that shouldnt slow it down that much surely? I expect Tekken to have similar results as it ran around 25% on the i686 one as well, the same at Tekken 3 did

[Ex-Cyber]

the 686 had debug options enabled but that shouldnt slow it down that much surely?

I wouldn't be surprised. Conditional compilation can be (ab)used to make some pretty major changes to debug builds, and I think I've seen a performance hit before with MAME in particular (although this could easily vary by CPU and driver).

[Hawq]

Emulator MEKA 0.72 WIP 20070508

System PC - Windows

Master System/Game Gear emu, news:
- Ports:
- Preliminary MacOSX port. [Proppy]
Compile and run under a x86-based MacOSX system. Missing sound (due
to Seal) and debugger (unknown problem to resolve).
Looking for someone who wish to improve and maintain this port.
- Blitter/Video:
- Fixed HQ2X stretched blitter when target output was not 16-bits. [Omar]
- Fixed TV Mode blitters broken since since switching to hi-color.
Implementation is slower than previously, but it works well. [Omar]
- Removed obsolete "scanlines" blitter, in favor of "tvmode". [Omar]
- Stretching works on all blitters. [Omar]
- Video depth, Vsync, Triple Buffering and Page flipping are now global
video settings, removed from each specific blitter. Greatly simplify
configuration and tweaking. [Omar]
- Triple buffering doesn't interfere with the refresh is not supported
by the current settings (eg: windowed mode), making it safe and more
simple to always leave it enabled. [Omar]
- CPU:
- Z80: Fixed RETI behavior (same as RETN, copying IFF2 to IFF1).
Fixes pausing in SMS Robocop 3 during legal screens/introduction,
probably other infrequent cases. [FluBBa, Omar]
- Z80: Accepting NMI doesn't copy IFF1 over IFF2, as suggested
by Sean Young's "The Undocumented Z80 Documented". [Omar]
- ColecoVision:
- Fixed emulation of pending NMI, pending flag is cleared when
reading VDP status. Fixes "Rock 'N Bolt" among other.
Thanks to the anonymous poster on SMS Power! forums. [Omar]
- Note that the compatibility list for ColecoVision titles is
severly outdated. At some point, James Carter worked on a new,
more accurate list, but I lost all contact with him.
- NES:
- Fixed video rendering, broken when switching to hi-color modes. [Omar]
- Added PRAM support in Memory Editor. [Omar]
- Added 8 palette switching in Tile Viewer. [Omar]
- Note: NES emulation is humor legacy code and won't be supported.
- GUI:
- Sorted default themes, removed non Sega 8-bit related themes.
- Now embedding background pictures in regular binary distribution.
- CALL FOR NEW OR IMPROVED THEMES SUBMISSION! Please contribute.
get from here

Emulator SMSAdvance V2.1

System GBA/DS

Master System/Game Gear emu, news:
*Optimised tile rendering for mode 0 & 2.
*Fixed a bug where GG games set the "lock-toprow" bit (Sonic Drift demo).
*Added support for the SG1000 games Mahjong and Home Mahjong.
*Added support RAM on some SG1000 games (The Castle, Othello...).
*Fixed clearing of SMS VRAM when no bios used.
get from here

Emulator Mame32b.115a

System PC - Windows

bugfix release of the plain mame with gui
get from EmuHQ to avoid the fileplanet queues

Emulator WolfMame .115

System PC - Windows

unofficial mame, news:
Major changes in the past few versions:

- Added a GUI version of wlfview. You will need the GTK+ 2.4 runtime installed
to run it. The old console-based version is still included.

- Disabling the auto state saving feature when recording. (0.101)

- Generates a .wlf file - this file contains more information about the settings
used and your system in general - is it not required for playback, but is
highly recommended that any distributed INPs include the corresponding WLF file.

- Random number generation 'fix' for the Pokey. Should make numerous Atari games
playbackable, but has only been confirmed on Centipede, Gravitar
and Cloak & Dagger thus far.

- Override function for forced settings. Use -override on the commandline if you
wish to use your own settings for playback.

The following drivers have been changed to set constant values to a real-time clock.
Please let me know if there are any issues with recording inps for any games that use/run on
this hardware:
- Dallas DS2404 (used by Seibu SPI)
- Kaneko SuperNova (looks like VS Mahjong Otome Ryouran has a randomness issue)
- Namco System 12
- Othello Derby
- IGS PolyGameMaster
- Sega ST-V



Features
--------

- Input viewer, use -inpview <player> to use this (fixed in 0.102).
- Cheats are no longer the GUI default (to match the commandline default)
- added sound/nosound check, the correct option will also be forced on playback
- CPU type check: to make the clock speed display mean more.
Checks for Intel, AMD, Cyrix, Transmeta. Other CPUs marked as 'other/unknown'.

- Now with version-based filenames - for those who want it all in one folder.

- Disabled when recording:
- Pause
- Graphics/Tilemap display (method of pausing)
- State saving (another method of pausing)
- Autofire toggle key (can still be used through the menus, are you quick enough?)
- Speed throttle toggle key
- Quit dialog

- Speed saved in the INP

- Version stored in INP header for checking the version that made the recording.

- Various other pieces of information stored in the INP header.

- Added -allownvram/-noallownvram switch for allowing NVRAM to be used when recording.
-noallownvram is the default.

- Regular format INPs can be played back now. Do note that there is no guarantee that
regular MAME INPs will work, although some do. Neo Geo games definitely don't. MAME
Plus Neo Geo INPs are unlikely to work either as WolfMAME doesn't compile in the hacks in
this driver.

- Driver changes:
- drivers/rohga.c: Other characters are selectable in Wizard Fire/Dark Seal
- drivers/psikyo.c: Fixed slowdowns in Battle K-Road [also included in MAME Plus now]
get from here

Emulator NEO·ARC MAME32 Plus ! 0.115

System PC - Windows

Neo-Geo only Mame
get from here

Emulator MAME32XT 0.115a

System PC - Windows

unofficial mame
get from here

[Hawq]

Emulator Lameboy 0.6

System DS

GB/GBC emu, news:
- fixed: 32k save (helps Pokemon S/G/Y, Dragon Warrior III)
- added: supports roms larger than 2MB (only unzipped - .gbc)
- fixed: directory browsing history
get from here

Emulator fMSX/S60 v1.19d

System S60 phones

MSX emu, news:
-Possibility to edit imported game cheats
-Support for 800x352 display resolution (Nokia E90 main display, "d" variant only)
-Fixed bugs in SCREEN 0 rendering and SCREEN 8 color palette
get from here

Emulator GPSP V09-2Xb_1

System GP2X

GBA emu, news:
It doesn't crash anymore occasionally.
get from here

Emulator Genesis Plus 08.05.2007

System GC/Wii

Genesis emu, news:
- corrected L & R buttons assignment: fixes Genesis X & Z buttons being inverted
- VINT timings are now a little more accurate: fixes Sesame's Street Counting Cafe
- SN76496 MAX_OUTPUT back to normal
- modified FB_WNOISE value in SN76496 core according to John Kortink's last informations
- added support for Maxim's PSG core, same as used in SMSPLUS (it becomes the default PSG core)
- updated FM core to the latest MAME version
- corrected DAC output level (fixes voices and some special FX being too low)
- added support for Gens YM2612 (FM) core (MAME's one still remains default FM core)
- added configurable preamplification for each sound cores (see Emulator Options)
- added some other configurable sound options (boost overall volume, FM improvment for Gens YM2612)


Some notes about this release:
1/ I didn't forget to include the injector executable this time, you can find it in the /pcutils directory

2/ I added a special version for PAL Wii users who have display problems (dark bar on the screen) with regular versions. This version runs at 50hz and use special resync mechanism to prevent NTSC games running too slow. NGC (PAL or NTSC) users or NTSC Wii users should use the regular dol as the frame timing is more accurate in this one.

3/ You can now switch between sound cores and adjust the volume level for each one (PSG & FM), default values are automatically reset when switching between cores.
get from here

Emu WIP PCSX2 Xenosaga

movies: 20fps
menus: ~40fps
ingame: ~5 fps (but goes to 30fps with vu skipping)

tested on:
pcsx2 0.9.4
zerogs kosmos 0.96.4
linuzappz cdvd 0.7.0
an unreleased spu2 plugin

Game is extremely stable, all movies work without freezing, and sound is beautiful. I would call it playable if ingame 3d graphics weren't as slow and ZeroGS KOSMOS didn't consume my entire computer resources. If even there existed a fast enough processor (and I assure you, there doesn't), the wall outlet wouldn't be able to supply enough power to run the game in real time (this will be fixed by next official release). It should be noted here that ZeroGS was named after the character in this game due to this very reason.

This is the first dvd9 (dual layer) game to work for pcsx2. Coincidentally, it is also the first dvd9 game to be released on the ps2.

See the other shots here

mu WIP Daedalus wip update, Super Smash Bros, R11 Mario HUD issue & Goldeneye

'As I mentioned on Sunday, my main focus for R12 is to fix whatever's causing the dynarec to hang with SSB, but to start with I've spent a little time looking into fixing some of the graphical issues plaguing Super Smash Bros.

In the end I fixed four or five separate problems which were all causing quite significant glitches.

The first bug was that I was assuming that the fixed-point texture coordinates specified in the TexRect (i.e. 2d textured rectangle) commands were unsigned. It turns out that they're actually signed - SSB just happens to be one of the few roms that ever specifies negative values.

The next issue was that I was ignoring the RDP tile* mask parameters, and assuming that the tile width and height always defined the extents for both wrapping and clamping. As it turns out, the mask values (if set) define how many bits from the texture coordinate to accept - all the other bits from the texture coordinate are ignored. This means that if a tile defines a mask of 5, the texture will wrap every 2^5, or 32 texels. What's quite interesting about the N64 is that it lets you define different limit for clamping than for wrapping. For instance, you can wrap every 32 texels, but clamp the texture to a coordinate of 100 (i.e. after the texture has repeated 3 and a bit times.) It turns out this is exactly what SSB was doing.

A related issue was that as the PSP only supports textures with power-of-2 dimensions, I have to pad out non-power-of-2 textures from the n64 with empty space. As I was assuming that the n64 always clamped at power of 2 boundaries, it meant that the PSP occasionally displayed texels from bits of the texture that I hadn't initialised. To get around this I just manually repeat the last column/row of the texture when converting it on the PSP.

Another issue I fixed was relating to how I handled 'swizzled'** textures that were not an even number of texels. In the second screenshot on the left below, you can see a fringe of corrupt pixels down the right-hand side of each character's icon. This was due to me not correctly handling all of the texels the swizzled rows, but it only happened when the rows were not a multiple of 8 bytes (in the example below, the textures were 30x32 texels at 16bpp). Again, this is something SSB does that I've not seen in other roms.

I fixed a bug relating to how I was recolouring textures. In order to support some of the N64's more complex combiner modes on the PSP, I need to replace the RGB channels of a texture while maintaining the existing alpha channel. As it turns out, I wasn't handling this correctly for textures that weren't a power of 2. This is what is messing up the black background behind the 'Super Smash Bros' text on the first screenshot. Whoops.

* The RDP has 8 tile attribute descriptors, which are used to tell the RDP how to interpret the data loaded into it's 4KiB of texture memory. They define properties such as the tile's format, width, height and whether to clamp or wrap and so on.

** On the N64, all odd rows in a texture have pairs of texels alternated (or more precisely pairs of 4-bytes of data.) The reason for this is that the N64's texture memory is composed of two separate banks of 2KiB, and organising texels like this allows for multiple texels to be accessed simultaneously when sampling from the texture. I use the term 'swizzled' loosely as it's quite a different process than swizzled textures on modern consoles (such as the PSP and the Xbox (see page 28)), even if it is performed for similar reasons.'

Now the Mario news:

'As a few people have pointed out on the R11 release comments page, I broke the HUD in Mario 64 in R11

I investigated a little, and it turns out it was due to a tiny change I made sometime on Saturday. Basically I changed the alpha threshold test from >= to >, and so nothing with an alpha of 0 is ever rendered. This shouldn't be an issue, except for the bizarre render states that Mario sets up to render its HUD.

I don't think this is a too significant issue as Mario is just as playable in R10. I'd rather release R12 a little early to fix this than mess around releasing an R11b version or whatnot. We'll see how things go with the SSB work.'

And finally the bit I expect most people will be interested in the Goldeneye news:

'While I'm at it with the blog updates, I also invesitgated why Goldeneye no longer works in Daedalus (it did run with some of the very early releases, but stopped working some time ago.)

Goldeneye is quite an unusual game in that it's one of the few titles that executes code from virtual memory. I'm not sure exactly why it does this, but I suspect that it's to allow it to free up as much RAM as possible. It sets up a virtual memory range for the code, and pages in chunks of data to physical RAM as required (i.e. on TLB miss exceptions). I guess this means that it can just keep a few dozen KiB of code in RAM at a time, rather than the entire code segment.

Anway, emulating this accurately is incredibly slow - for every instruction that is executed, the emulator needs to check whether the instruction fetch would cause a TLB miss exception, and if so invoke the N64's exception handler. This is quite a time consuming process, so I tend to cheat and assume that the instruction pointer is in physical memory.

To get around this problem with Goldenye, I set up a couple of bogus entries in Daedalus' memory map that point directly to the correct region in the ROM image. In a way it's as if the N64 has a much larger TLB, and all the pages are permenantly mapped.

Normally (i.e. on the PC version of Daedalus) this all works fine. The problem as far as the PSP version is concerned is that the rom (all 12 MiB for Goldeneye) must be permenantly loaded into memory, and there just isn't enough memory left to do this anymore. As most N64 roms are simply far too large to fit in the PSP's RAM, I have to page chunks in from the memory stick on demand (pretty similar to what Goldeneye was doing on the N64 really )

* So, there are a few possibilities for getting Goldeneye to work: Permenantly disable dynarec for Goldeneye, and reuse the dynarec buffers (6MiB) the expansion pak (unneeded anyway, 4MiB) and anything else I can scavenge, to fit the rom in a contiguous block in memory.
* Investigate a way of getting the memory-mapping hack to work with rom caching.
* Re-examine how I handle TLB miss exceptions for instruction fetches, and implement them correctly.

Of all of these, the first solution is probably the easiest, but it's a bit hacky (I'd have to allocate a 12 MiB for Goldeneye at startup, and carve this up for different subsystems if other roms were run).

The second solution is a bit less horrible, but I'm still not sure it's possible without checking the instruction pointer for every instruction that's executed (and paging in chunks of ROM as required).

That leaves the third solution which is probably the most work, but I think will be the most stable solution in the long run. It may also help a few other roms that are using similar techniques to Goldeneye to run correctly. If I can get it to work in conjunction with the current dynarec implementation, it shouldn't even be any slower than the current hack that's in place.

Anyway, given the work involved Goldeneye isn't an immediate priority, but I am thinking about it.'

read more or comment here

Emulator FrodoPalm v4.2 Beta1

System PalOS

C64 emu, news:
New option: single cycle emulation added (known as FrodoSC in Windows and Linux)
get from here

Emulator ZX-Live v0.39

System Amiga OS3.x

ZX Spectrum emu, news:
* Improved TR-DOS emulation (low-level 1818VG93 emulation), but not right works a FORMAT command and MagicButton.
* Fixed bug in save .ZLS routine.
* Other minor fixes.
get from here


Emulator ASp v0.89

System Amiga OS3.x/OS4

ZX Spectrum emu, news:
* Added Kempston mouse support.
* Added key-overlay help image.
* Added support for .ZLS snapshot loading. (Amiga ZX-Live emulator.)
* Fixed Spectrum lockup if a flash-load was attempted with no tape inserted.
* Fixed OS4 lowlevel.library workaround was not closing library after use.
* Minor Z80 core optimisations that may help speed on '030 based machines.
get from here

[Hawq]

Emulator Ootake 1.03

System PC - Windows

PC-Engine emu, news:
- "Option" button was added to the screen of the start. The hardware use setting of the sound can be selected. Additionally, a similar selection item was added also to "Setting->Audio" menu. If it makes an error, it doesn't operate, and the noise is recorded, try changing this.
- "Tool -> TG16 ROM-image Bit Convert" menu was added to "Setting" menu. "TurboGrafx16's Rom-image" with the sucking out machine for Japan (Data has taken the shape at this stage) is output correcting it. The corrected file is preserved in "install" folder, and move properly.
* The preserved image-file becomes a breach of the Copyright Act when distributing it to the other. Therefore, please treat carefully.
- The processing speed & timing were elaborately modeled on a real machine. In "Forgotten Worlds", "Shin Onryou Senki", "Spriggan", "Spriggan markII", etc., the problem that the screen shook occasionally was solved.
- In "Quiz Tonosama no Yabou", overlapping the screen of the opening demonstration became correct.
- In "Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Yuna", the part where the opening demonstration had fallen into disorder became correct.
- In "Volfied", the problem that the screen has fallen into disorder (It is generated by v1.02) was corrected.
- In "Shin Onryou Senki", the problem that ADPCM voice is not correctly played (It is generated by v1.02) was corrected.
- "All Default" menu was added to "Setting" menu.
- Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected.
get from here

Emulator GP2X-TI92 v1.0.1

System GP2X

TI-92 Calculator emu, news:

XTiger is an unix emulator (under X Window) of a TI-92 calculator (Texas instruments).
It was originally written by Jonas Minnberg and was closed source.
Jonas Minnberg has not worked on XTiger for quite a while and he gave Misha Nasledov the code and permission to GPL it.

Here is a port on GP2X of the version 0.8 using GP2X-SDK environment.

The package is under GPL Copyright and sources are included.'

get from here

Roms 2 more from Exidy

Star Fire & Star Fire II:
Star Wars clones, apparently the hope was that either a license would be purchased or that they would change enough of the elements to avoid any legal entanglements. It was also it seems the first game to have an environmental cabinet & allow you to enter your initials on the high score screen.
get from here
Side Trak:
Rather like Crash but with trains and track changes by the computer￾fs train affect your path as well.
get from here

Emu WIP Daedalus WIP update, more Goldeneye

Ok, I know the last thing I said yesterday was:

"Anyway, given the work involved Goldeneye isn't an immediate priority, but I am thinking about it."

I couldn't quite resist having a quick hack to see if I could get Goldeneye working using the third method I outlined. It turned out to be relatively painless to crowbar in the required changes, and I'm pleased to say that I've managed to get Goldeneye booting again!

With the changes, Daedalus now dynamically pages the Goldeneye ROM into the PSP's RAM so that it no longer requires a free 12 MiB. I now check the instruction pointer on every instruction fetch in the interpretive core*, and raise a TLB Read Miss exception if required. If this happens, it causes Goldeneye's exception handler to realise that the required code isn't in memory, and to load it in from ROM before continuing execution.

So here are the first screenshots of Goldeneye running under Daedalus R12 - you can see there are a handful of graphical glitches to sort out, particularly on the main menu:

Not bad for an hour's work!

There's still quite a long way to go though. Firstly, I can still only get the rom running with dynarec disabled on the PSP, so the framerate is currently just 6-7 fps. Interestingly it runs fine with dynarec on the PC with the same set of changes, so this indicates a bug somewhere in the PSP dynarec implementation. Secondly, I've not been able to get in-game yet - it just seems to hang with a black screen shortly after starting to load the level. I've not figured out whether this is just running very slowly without dynarec and taking its time, or if there's another bug to be fixed somewhere.

Getting the rom booting is a great first step though - it can only continue to improve from here

-StrmnNrmn

*I probably want to tidy things up to avoid doing this for most other roms as it can be quite expensive - especially if dynarec is disabled.

more as it happens here

Interpretor SCUMMVMgcP3 (10.5.07)

System GC/Wii

Scumm engine interpretor, news:
* implemented some control changes allowing the user to input enter (for Simon) and the number 0 (for Monkey Island 2).
* added fine cursor control with the C stick plus restarting ScummVM without rebooting the GameCube.
get from here or here

[Hawq]

Interpretor Wine 0.9.37

System PC - Linux

run windows stuff on yer penguin, news:
* MSI automation with JScript/VBScript support.
* Various MSHTML improvements.
* The usual assortment of Direct3D fixes.
* Support for a few more exe protection schemes.
* Lots of bug fixes.
get from here

Emulator DeSmuME v0.7.0

System PC - Windows/Linux

DS emu, news:
# general: Added support for *.duc files [cyberwarriorx]

gpu:
# Added support for sprite rotation/scaling [shash]
# Added support for the 3D core (openGL and null plugins) [shash]

windows port:
# A bunch of fixes [Dmitry Krutskih]
# Fixed a bug in sound that was causing it to still not work for some people [cyberwarriorx]

gtk:
# Added 3D emulation
# Added command line options.
# Added option to use OpenGL to render window (allows resizing).

gtk-glade:
# Added 3D emulation
get from here

Emulator SSF 0.08 alpha R10

System PC - Windows

Saturn emu, news:
Processing of the 68000 invalid instruction exception was implemented.
EG processing of the SCSP was updated.
The sound stack data of the SCSP, was set up so data is written to it.
Renewal/update processing of the sampling position of the SCSP was updated.
SCU DSP processing was updated.
VDP1 draw wait processing was updated.
BIOS emulation processing was updated.

It is possible to Reset now when no BIOS is used.
get from here

Emu WIP PSP Player WIP, Tales of Eternia in game

[quote]2007-05-11 - Tales of Eternia
'Trying to find something else to work on; ToE is one of my favorite games so that's the next logical choice. Having some issues, but the logo shows up!'


2007-05-11 - Tales of Eternia (Menu)
'Got it to the menu... kind of. The scene animates in, but when I try to hit start it crashes.'

get the source or read more here

[Hawq]

Emulator WinUAE 1.4.2

System PC - Windows

Amiga emu, news:
New features:

- "Windowed fullscreen" for users with multiple monitors, fullscreen
Amiga on secondary monitor, Windows on primary monitor, no more lost
fullscreen when focus changes to Windows program.
- A600/A1200 and A4000 IDE harddrive (HDF) hardware emulation, includes
also "4-Way IDE" / "IDE splitter" emulation.
- Directory, HDF, IDE and Picasso96 statefile support. WARNING: data loss
possible if data in HDF has changed between saving and restoring!
Picasso96 statefile support not 100% compatible yet.
- 68030 and 68060 (with FPU. 68060.library required) emulation. (no MMU)
- 68881/68882 FPU type selectable.
- Global brightness, contrast and gamma adjustment.
- "PAL" TV-like filter, with brightness, contrast, gamma, scanline level,
blur and noise adjustment.
- GUI debugger, debugger improvements. (xx switches debugger modes)
- New GUI font if running under Windows 2000/XP/Vista.
- Interpolation and filters supported in 4/6 channel sound modes.
- Log and debugger console position stored in registry.

Bugs fixed:

- Improved CDTV emulation compatibility.
- 1.4.0 FPU clamping fix.
- Missing channels in 4 channel sound mode. (Emu10K based cards)
- 10x+ performance increase during "decrunching" color effects when
no filters enabled and only background color was visible.
- Crash when loading config and specific chipset extra model was selected.
- Direct HD support improved, SyQuest removable drives detected properly.
- Minor custom chipset emulation updates.
- Rare emulator crash when running Amiga program crashed badly.
- Filter centering improved.
get from here

Frontend mGalaxy v1.1

System PC - Windows

mame frontend, news:
- GUI sounds added.
- Virtual keyboard to search in your roms
- Snapshot maximized option
- Filter on user's roms only
- Shutdown when quitting
get form here

Emulator PSPXTI v1.1.0

System PSP

TI-92 calculator emu, news:
- New user interface !
- Use Virtual keyboard !
- Use SDL library
- Render mode max (fullscreen)
- Add keyboard mapping menu
- New help window
- New background image
- Multiple keyboard mappings feature :
You can now toggle between 3 different keyboard mapping using
LTrigger and RTrigger keys
- Delete files option
- Bug fix in the file requester
get from here

[Hawq]

Emulator WinUAE 1.4.2a

System PC - Windows

Amiga emu, news:
Bugs fixed:
- Path handling problems fixed. If you still have problems with paths,
select Paths-panel "WinUAE default (old)" and click "Reset to defaults"
and then manually adjust paths if needed.
- Windows 98SE (and ME?) incompatibility.
get from here

Emulator Hatari 0.95

System PC - Windows, Linux, BSD, BeOS, Mac OS X, SDL

Atari ST and STE emu, news:
This release brings you basic Atari TT and Falcon emulation! Please note that both new emulation modes are still highly experiemental,some few games and demos work, but most still have more or less big problems. Basic emulation of Falcon video shifter (Videl), NVRAM and DMA sound is in place. The biggest drawback: There is no working Falcon DSP emulation yet.

Other things that have been added / fixed:

- Screen/Shifter emulation timings have slightly been changed. Some things
now work better, some others work worse...

- Some patches for compiling on RiscOS and AmigaOS have been included.

- Compiling Hatari for Windows now works better.

- Added Hatari icon (hatari-icon.bmp).

- Fixed "movec" bug in 68020 CPU mode.

- Keyboard shortcuts for loading & saving memory snapshots (AltGr+k & AltGr+l).

- The built-in debugger has been slightly improved to be more user-friendly.

- Added "hmsa" tool - a little program for converting .MSA files to .ST and vice versa.
get from here

Emulator blueMSX 2.7.0

System PC - Windows

MSX, MSX2, MSX2+ emu, news:
- Added support for MEGA-SCSI, WAVE-SCSI and MSX Club Gouda SCSI (NOVAXIS)
- Added support for SCSI CD Audio and CD-ROM
- Added support for keyboard input in the Philips Music Module (MSX-Audio)
- Added support for MIDI input and output in the Philips Music Module (MSX-Audio) and SFG-05 (Yamaha CX5M/CX7M)
- Added support for ESE-SCC, ESE-RAM and Mega Flash ROM SCC cartridges
- New trainer with improved search capabilities and a new .mcf file format
- Added remove all harddisks feature
- Added support for sprite mirroring (screen 2) in MSX1 machines
- Added pixel accuracy in screen 0
- Added Home hotkey in debugger to go to current command
- Added new values in the cpu register window of the debugger
- Added ability to use registers in the 'Go to' feature and the memory viewer of the debugger
- When CPU is stopped by a breakpoint, the sound buffer is cleared
- Fixed z80 timing bugs
- Fixed z80 instruction bugs
- Fixed bug in Cas and Disk leds
- Vram pointer updated correctly in MSX1 machines
- 5th Sprite status bits updated correctly
- Fixed bug with collision detection for transparent sprites
- Screen 0 masking handled correctly
- Fixed digitize enable bit (ignoring it) in screen 0-4
- Fixed scroll bug in screen 4
- TC8566AF format bug fixed : filler byte was not used.
- Fixed a bug in the Panasonic FDC that caused some MSX2+ machines to fail
- Fixed aliasing in SCC filter
- Improved Moonsound emulation
- Fixed bug in mirrored mapper
- Re-added support for old command line rom types
get from here

Emulator UberNES version 3 revision 2

System PC - Windows

Nes emu, news:
* Added support for iNES mapper 5 (MMC5)

* Added time-trial support
o When you play time-trial enabled games, UberNES will record your completion times
o Upload your times to the UberNES database to compete with other UberNES users for the fastest times
o Download the worldwide NES stats to see the fastest worldwide times
o The currently-supported time trial games are:
+ Metroid
+ Super Mario Bros.
+ Super Mario Bros. 2
+ Mega Man 2
+ Castlevania 3

* Added "Download all movies" feature to online movie gallery

* In conjunction with this version, we are releasing a related project - our Nintendo Screen Saver
o It's a stand-alone Windows screen saver that displays NES games
o Games are played intelligently by using UberNES movie files as input sources
o The screen saver can tap into the online UberNES movie gallery to quickly import a large amount of unique, quality gameplay footage.
get from here

Emulator Ootake 1.04

System PC - Windows

PC-Engine emu, news:
- At "TG16 ROM-image Bit Convert" menu (added it by the last update), when the convert was completed, the bug to which "install" folder did not open by the automatic operation was corrected.
- The sound initialization part has been corrected and improved. In the personal computer environment that cannot be operated up to now, it might have come to be able to be operated. Moreover, when it is not possible to operate, a concrete error message is displayed as much as possible.
- In the environment to which the CD-ROM(DVD-ROM) drive cannot be recognized, the stability of "Hu-CARD game play" has been improved.
- Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected.
get from here

Emulator Snes9xTYL++ ( BETA )

System PSP

Snes emu, news:
Faster than before?
get from here

[Hawq]

Emulator Hoxs64 v1.0.4.12

System PC - Windows

C64 emu, news:
* 1) Added disk image, T64 and SID file inspector to the Auto Load dialog box.
* 2) Added Quick Load to the Auto Load dialog box for fast loading PRG files from a CBM DOS disk image.
* 3) Minor adjustment to the SID noise waveform. The California Games title music drums now plays correctly.
* 4) Bug fix to the "Save As D64" option that guessed the wrong speed zone of a track which resulted in a corrupted saved D64. The default speed zones are now assumed during a "Save As D64".
* 5) ROMs are searched for in the following order. The folder of the executable. The current system path.
get from here

Emulator MAME GP2X 3.8

System GP2X

mame in yer hands, news:
* DIP-Switches support.
* Merge witch Chui's MAME4ALL Alpha v2.
* Sarge controls fixed.
* Fix in the samples support. Thx, Slaanesh.
* New icons by DaveC have been included.
get from here

Emulator Zsnexbox v3.0 Fix

System XBox

Snes emu, news:
* Fixed the TV calibration option
* Fixed the target when calibrating the lightgun.
No dl, info here

Emulator Gens32 Surreal v1.76 Girl

System PC - Windows

The silly names continue for this Genesis/Sega CD/32X emu, news:
* 1)Some update on sound stuff.
* 2)Fixed a bug,which caused slient while dump audio.
* 3)Update render plugin Gens32 Antialiasings to Gens32 Antialiasings II
* 4)^_^ I just forget update what...toooooo long since I finshed this stuff.
Warning: This version requires a powerful PC. * 1)Some update on sound stuff.
* 2)Fixed a bug,which caused slient while dump audio.
* 3)Update render plugin Gens32 Antialiasings to Gens32 Antialiasings II
* 4)^_^ I just forget update what...toooooo long since I finshed this stuff.
Warning: This version requires a powerful PC.
get from here

[Hawq]

Emulator Hoxs64 v1.0.4.13

System PC - Windows

C64 emu, news:
1) Bug fix to Win9x file open/save dialogs introduced in v1.0.4.12.
get from here

Emulator Gngeo V0.7a B4

System GP2X

Neo-Geo emu, news:

# Most important change: Sound support on the 2nd CPU!
That means you can play most games Fullspeed with sound at 200MHz!

I included JyCet's most recent beta of Rage2x which laready supports these features.

get from here

Emulator Gp2xpectrum 1.4b1

System GP2X

ZX Spectrum emu, news:
* Fixed some instruction timings
* Added bus contention for IN and OUT
* Replaced the memory contention emulation using a more precise model

With all of this timing has improved a lot (Aquaplane's border change is now where it should be), but it's still not perfect (demo effects in Overscan or Shock Megademo show some small glitches). I've also set the CPU speed a bit higher (170/125), but I must make some tests to check if it's necessary or not.
get from here

Emu WIP PSP Player WIP news, more Tales of Eternia progress

2007-05-14 - Tales of Eternia
The menu is now complete, with fades and everything.


2007-05-14 - Tales of Eternia
Fixed the texture alignment issues! (and the random sprites)


2007-05-14 - Tales of Eternia in game!
Removed one assert and now the game goes past the menu Chat boxes don't show up, and of course the clamping issue remains, but things are working! woo!

more as it happens here

Emulator fMSX 3.2

System PC - Windows, MSDOS, Symbian, MacOS, Unix

MSX, MSX2, MSX2+ emu, news:
* Added ChangePrinter() function to set printer redirection file.
* Moved disk operations to a separate submenu of the built-in menu and added "Eject Disk" options.
* Added an easy "Load File" option to the built-in menu and the fMSX-Windows.
* Added options to redirect printer and sound logging output to the built-in menu and the fMSX-Windows.
* Added error messages to fMSX-Windows and fMSX-Symbian.
* Added frame rate display option to fMSX-Symbian.
* Added "fill screen" zoom option to fMSX-Symbian.
* Added MIDI soundtrack logging to fMSX-Symbian (saved into E:Sounds and can be used as ringtones).
* Added configurable button and key mappings to fMSX-Symbian.
* fMSX-Symbian application menu is now split into three pages.
get from here

Emulator B-em v1.4

System PC - Windows

BBC Micro emu, news:
* 65c012 tube emulation (+ Master Turbo) - from 4mhz to 64mhz
* Fixed bug in ARM tube emulation
* Sideways ROMs supported in Master emulation
* Windows version now releases unneeded CPU time
* Sound should hopefully be better
get from here

[Hawq]

Emulator plus4emu 1.1.0

System PC - Windows

C16/+4 emu, news:
* implemented 1551 drive emulation
* added floppy drive LED display to the GUI (1541 is red, 1551 is
green, and 1581 is yellow)
* the debugger now allows for debugging floppy drives; the drives are
also mapped to the physical address range $180000-$1BFFFF
* fixed 1541 disk change detection
* keyboard map can be configured with the GUI
* external game devices like joysticks and gamepads are supported, and
can be assigned in the keyboard map like normal keys
* the 'step over' button in the debugger now also skips branch
instructions
* invalid opcodes that normally jam the CPU can be used as breakpoints
(with the priority assumed to be 3) that open the debugger, and the
execution of the program can continue as if there was a NOP
instruction
* added new command line options for loading disk image, snapshot, and
demo files on start-up; on Windows, D64 and D81 files are also
optionally associated with the emulator
* it is now possible to use WAV, AIFF, and other sound file formats as
tape images; these files can be read and written, however, new files
are created in plus4emu format
* blank video output is generated when the TED is disabled by setting
bit 5 of $FF07
* reduced horizontal texture resolution to 384 in OpenGL mode when the
quality is set to 0, for improved performance
* minor GUI improvements and fixes
get from here

Emulator BeebEm 3.7

System PC - Windows

BBC Micro emu, news:
-Added ARM Second Processor support.
get from here

Emulator Hoxs64 1.0.4.15

System PC - Windows

C64 emu, news:
1.0.4.15:
1) Fixed restore key freeze bug introduced in v1.0.4.12.

1.0.4.14:
1) Added 25 pixel sprite feature used in the "Krestage 3" Demo by Crest. The demo will now run unpatched.
2) Bug fix to broken sprite timing introduced in v1.0.4.12 that was noticed in the "Royal Arte" Demo By Booze Design
get from here

Emulator Zsnexbox 3.1

System Xbox

Snes emu, news:
-Added option to use the Path.ini or to have ZsnexBox create all the directories on the E partition. This will allow users to easily put ZsnexBox on a CD/DVD and run it on any Xbox (without having to create all the directories Path.ini points to). Just change "usePathINI=1" to "usePathINI=0" in the Path.ini before you burn the CD/DVD.

-Screenshots larger than 512x512 are no longer supported. If ZsnexBox finds a preview larger than this, it will not display it. Extremely high res box art will cause a crash (i.e ZsnexBox runs out of RAM), and 512x512 is plenty big enough. HD users at 1080i might want to go even lower (256x256). If ZsnexBox freezes after 2 or 3 games, you are running out of RAM and ensuring previews are no bigger than 256x256 will likely fix the issue.

-Tweaked all the skins to make them easier to read.
no dl, info here

Emu WIP Daedalus WIP update, Dynarec Fixes

In the previous update I mentioned that the dynarec wasn't working with Goldeneye:

...I can still only get the rom running with dynarec disabled on the PSP, so the framerate is currently just 6-7 fps. Interestingly it runs fine with dynarec on the PC with the same set of changes, so this indicates a bug somewhere in the PSP dynarec implementation.



I've spent a couple of evenings investigating this problem, and I've finally had a bit of luck in determining the root cause. As I suspected it was due to a bug in the PSP dynarec implementation - it turns out that I was fiddling addresses to compensate for the different endianness of the PSP twice (essentially having the same effect as not compensating in the first place).

The fix was very easy to implement (just a single line of code). It's quite a significant bug, so I'm hoping that it will fix dynarec issues with a few other roms too. Unfortunately it looks like the bug which is preventing dynarec working with Super Smash Bros. is a different issue, so I'll have to spend some more time investigating that.

I'm pleased to say that Goldeneye is now running fine with dynarec, so it now boots and runs the intro sequence very quickly. Although the intro and menu run at around 30-60fps, in-game is still very slow (around 5-8fps) so I need to profile this and see what's going on.

As I've hinted above, the next job is to have a look why dynarec is causing Super Smash Bros to hang. A cursory look revealed that it's still broken even when I disable most of the native code generation and directly call the interpretive instruction handlers from the compiled fragment. Because of this I think the problem has something to do with how traces are selected and the resulting fragments are linked together. I'll know more later in the week.

read more as it happens or comment here

[Hawq]

Emulator Meka 0.72

System PC - Windows

Master System/Game Gear/ColecoVision & now Nes emu, news:
Updated k.
# Ports: Preliminary MacOSX port. [Proppy]
Compile and run under a x86-based MacOSX system. Missing sound (due to Seal) and debugger (unknown problem to resolve).
Looking for someone who wish to improve and maintain this port.

Video/Blitters:
# Upgraded everything to hi-color video modes and got rid of old, 8-bit indexed video modes. This is a major change in MEKA core.
Some of the benefits are:
# No more snow and/or color flickering on video card drivers which disliked palette changes.
# Better integration with desktop (usually run faster).
# Getting possible to use various kind of graphics filters.
# No more hassle with color limitation for the programmer meaning more features implemented for the end-user).
# Finally possible to show all Game Gear colors at once, and to implement LCD screen persistence (not yet done).
Some of the features above goes hand to hand with the blitter system, which will be improved soon. [Omar]
# Fixed HQ2X stretched blitter when target output was not 16-bits. [Omar]
# Stretching works on all blitters. [Omar]
# Video depth, Vsync, Triple Buffering and Page flipping are now global video settings, removed from each specific blitter. Greatly simplify configuration and tweaking. [Omar]
# Triple buffering doesn't interfere with the refresh is not supported by the current settings (eg: windowed mode), making it safe and more simple to always leave it enabled. [Omar]
# Changed default fullscreen blitter configuration in the hope of getting something more compatible (640x480 by default), as so many people have problems with fullscreen modes.
# Removed obsolete "scanlines" blitter, in favor of "tvmode". [Omar]
# Removed "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]

Sound:
# Added support for VGM 1.10 header type. [Omar]

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]

CPU:
# Z80: Fixed cases were address arithmetic would not wrap in the 16-bit address space, effectively crashing the emulator (those cases were mostly happening on corrupted data, but it also legit Z80 code, and in any case we don't want the emulator to crash). [Omar]
# Z80: Fixed RETI behavior (same as RETN, copying IFF2 to IFF1).
Fixes pausing in SMS Robocop 3 during legal screens/introduction, probably other infrequent cases. [FluBBa, Omar]
# Z80: Accepting NMI doesn't copy IFF1 over IFF2, as suggested by Sean Young's "The Undocumented Z80 Documented". [Omar]

ColecoVision:
# Fixed emulation of pending NMI, pending flag is cleared when reading VDP status. Fixes "Rock 'N Bolt" among other.
Thanks to the anonymous poster on SMS Power! forums. [Omar]
# Note that the compatibility list for ColecoVision titles is severly outdated. At some point, James Carter worked on a new, more accurate list, but I lost all contact with him.
# Removed detection of supposed 128-bytes headers and 512-bytes footers (from some old soft/copiers?), due to many false detections, particularly on homebrew ROM images (the code was introduced in 2001 when Dig Dug and Pac-Man prototypes were released with such header, but ROM images now circulating are without the header). [Omar]

GUI:
# Sorted default themes, removed non Sega 8-bit related themes.
Now embedding background pictures in regular binary distribution.
CALL FOR NEW OR IMPROVED THEMES SUBMISSION! Please contribute.
# KeyPad Enter key now works on input boxes. [Omar]
# Added shortcut CTRL-F4: closes current window. [Omar]
# Added shortcut CTRL-TAB: cycles thru windows taking inputs. [Omar]
# Reworked theme (skin) system from stratch: [Omar]
Changed MEKA.THM file format.
# *Using explicit names for variables.
# *Added more variables, making the skin system a little more complicated but also more configurable.
# *Using de-facto standard of specifying colors in #RRGGBB format.
# *Rewrote most code since it was all legacy from old MEKA 0.10.
# Added link to debugger documentation in HELP menu. [Omar]
# Removed closing fadeout since the current hi-color implementation is way inefficient and cannot garantee proper speed. [Omar]

Development:
Debugger:
# Fixed various command-line parsing bugs. [Omar]
# Added line history. Navigate history by pressing Up/Down.
List or search in history using HISTORY (HI) command. [Omar]
# Added conditionnal breakpoints. [Omar]
eg:
BREAK r C000.. =01,02,03,04 ; break on read of 01020304 in RAM
BREAK x =C9 ; break on CPU execution of RET
BREAK x =0,0 ; break on CPU execution of NOP NOP
BREAK w pram 0 =03 ; break on PRAM write of color 0 as red
# Added display line event breakpoints/watchpoints. [Omar]
Useful for debugging line interrupts.
eg:
BREAK line #13 ; break on display line 13
# Added "B nopnop" shortcut to break on two successives NOP instructions.
This is basically equivalent to "B x =0,0". [Omar]
# REGS (R) command in debugger now display shadow registers as well. [Omar]
# Added cursor before current instruction in disassembly. [Omar]
# Added access to shadow registers in expression evaluator. [Omar]
eg:
PRINT AF',BC',DE',HL'
# Added SET command to modify Z80 registers. [Omar]
eg:
SET BC=$1234 ; set BC register to $1234
SET DE=HL,HL=0 ; set DE=HL, then zero HL
# Added MEMEDIT command to spawn a new memory editor. [Omar]
# 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]

Memory Editor:
# Added viewing and editing of VDP registers (VREG). [Omar]
# Added configuration file directive for resizing window. [Omar]
# Fixed cursor position when inputing an address on last page. [Omar]
# Added NES PRAM support. [Omar]

Tiles viewer:
# Added NES palette switching (8 palettes). [Omar]

Tilemap viewer:
# Added tilemap viewer. [Omar]
Shows tilemap, hovering or clicking a tile shows specific info about it, allows filtering BG/FG, disabling tile flipping, display of scrolling box, with or without raster effects, manual selection of tilemap address, etc.
# Made '$' default prefix for hexadecimal values in various places. [Omar]

Datadump: [Ambil, Omar]
# Fixed "palette" dumping. Blue and green components were inverted.
Replaced dumping of target host RGB values by actual SMS/GG components.
# Added sprite pattern base address in "sprites" dumping.
# Cleaned Technical Information Viewer content, renamed a few fields to their official names, removed redundant information. It's not yet all clean. [Omar]

Miscellaenous:
# Various fixes.
# Increased max length of directory/filenames. [Musuruan]
# Added "Automatically crop and align screen captures" option.
This option aligns screen captures on the nearest visible tile, helping to simplify the process of creating game maps by pasting captures next to each other. [Omar]
Note: May not work properly on game using scanline based effects.
# Updated various tidbits in the configuration file. [Omar]
# (Win32) Removed flickering from initialization message console. [Maxim]
# (UN*X) Renamed main executable to 'meka' (instead of 'meka.exe').

Sources/Project
# (Win32) Added new targets supporting shared standard libraries. [Omar]
# (Win32) Updated Allegro library from WIP 4.1.18 to 4.2.0, including various fixes/improvements:
http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro/o ... anges.html
# (Win32) Now linking to zlib.lib instead of zlibs.lib (name for standard static build of ZLIB). [Omar]
# Removed password encryption from MEKA datafile (became useless). [Omar]
# Fixed a bunch of warnings on higher warning levels. [Omar]
# Hacked a lot of old GUI code (box, widgets, menus among others), cleaned and renamed various structures, replaced several usage of indexes by pointers, added const qualifiers, rewrote parts of various applets, got rid of some old obsolete code, etc. Hopefully broke nothing. [Omar]
# (Win32) Fixed MSVC project to reference LIBPNGDIR.
# (Win32) Including statically compiled libpng.lib in package. [Omar]
# (UN*X) No more need to manually edit .ASM files to compile. [Omar]
# Updated SOURCES.TXT documentation. [Omar]
# Added and modified entries in the checksum and compatibility lists. [Omar]
Some particular renaming includes:
SMS - 0e21e6cf - Astro Flash (JP) --> Astro Flash [Hack] (JP)
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 - 42fc3a6e - Deep Duck Trouble --> Deep Duck Trouble - Starring Donald Duck
SMS - 65d7e4e0 - Fantasy Zone --> Fantasy Zone [v2]
SMS - 5d08e823 - Fushigi no Oshiro Pit Pot (JP) --> Fushigi no Oshiro Pit Pot [Hack] (JP)
SMS - a4ac35d8 - Galaxy Force [50 / 60 Hz] --> Galaxy Force
SMS - 6c827520 - Galaxy Force [60 Hz] --> Galaxy Force (US)
SMS - dabcc054 - Ghost house (JP) --> Ghost House [Hack] (JP)
SMS - c1e699db - Great Baseball [JP] (JP) --> Great Baseball [JP] [Hack] (JP)
SMS - 84665648 - Great Soccer (JP) --> Great Soccer [Hack] (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 - 87b9ecb8 - Satellite 7 (JP) --> Satellite 7 [Hack] (JP)
SMS - bcd91d78 - Seishun Scandal (JP) --> Seishun Scandal [Hack] (JP)
SMS - a71bc542 - Spy vs Spy (JP) --> Spy vs Spy [Hack] (JP)
SMS - 1de2c2d0 - Strategic Defense Initiative (JP) --> SDI (JP)
SMS - 95cbf3dd - Super Tennis (JP) --> Great Tennis / Super Tennis (JP) (note: this one is tricky. Official game name is "Great Tennis" but title screen says "Super Tennis").
SMS - 9dfa67ee - Teddy Boy Blues (JP) --> Teddy Boy Blues [Hack] (JP)
SMS - 60c19645 - Zillion --> Zillion [v0]
SMS - 5718762c - Zillion (US) --> Zillion [v1] (US)
GG - bb4f23ff - Adventures of Batman and Robin --> Adventures of Batman & Robin, The
GG - 7a41c1dc - Aladdin --> Aladdin (Disney's)
GG - 770e95e1 - Aladdin (JP) --> Aladdin (Disney's) (JP)
GG - 4457e7c0 - Deep Duck Trouble / Donald Duck no.. --> Donald Duck no Yottsu no Himitsu (JP) (was Japanese dump)
GG - f6af4b6b - Dynamite Headdy --> Dynamite Headdy (JP) (note: US/EU version is another dump)
GG - 36aaf536 - Evander Holyfield Boxing --> Evander Holyfield's "Real Deal" Boxing
GG - 423803a7 - Gambler Jikochuushin Ha (JP) --> Gyuwanburaa Jikochuushin Ha (JP)
GG - 9f64c2bb - Ichidanto-R (JP) --> Ichidant~R (Puzzle & Action)
GG - 8c048325 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade --> Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [BAD]
GG - 4a98678b - Joe Montana Football --> Joe Montana Football (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)
GG - 0cd9c20b - Lion King, The --> Lion King, The (Disney's) (EU)
GG - 9808d7b3 - Lion King, The (US) --> Lion King, The (Disney's) (US)
GG - 00c34d94 - Madou Monogatari I - Mittsu no.. (JP)--> Madoh Monogatari I - Mittsu no Madokyuu (JP)
GG - 12eb2287 - Madou Monogatari II - Aruru 16.. (JP)--> Madou Monogatari II - Aruru 16-sai (JP)
GG - 0a634d79 - Madou Monogatari III - Kyukyok.. (JP)--> Madou Monogatari III - Kyuukyoku Joo-sama [v0] (JP)
GG - 7ec95282 - Madou Monogatari A - Dokidoki-.. (JP)--> Madoh Monogatari A - Dokidoki-Bake Shon
GG - cc90c723 - Pocket Jong Sou (JP) --> Pocket Jansou (JP)
GG - afcc7828 - Psychic World --> Psychic World (JP)
GG - 445d7cd2 - Royal Stone (JP) --> Royal Stone ~Hikarishi Toki no Tobira~ (JP)
GG - 95efd52b - Ryu Kyu (JP) --> Ryuu Kyuu (JP)
GG - 09f9ed60 - Shadam Crusader (JP) --> Shadam Crusader ~Harukanaru Oukoku~ (JP)
GG - 2ae8c75f - Shanghai 2 (JP) --> Shanghai II (JP)
GG - 4d1f4699 - Shining Force Gaiden (JP) --> Shining Force Gaiden ~Ensei Jashin no Kuni e~ (JP)
GG - 30374681 - Shining Force Gaiden II (JP) --> Shining Force Gaiden II ~Jashin no Mezame~ (JP)
GG - 6019fe5e - Shining Force Gaiden Final Con.. (JP)--> Shining Force Gaiden ~Final Conflict~ (JP)
GG - 742a372b - Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade'..--> Spider-Man / X-Men: Arcade's Revenge
GG - f1732ffe - Tale Spin --> TaleSpin
GG - 09151743 - Tanto-R (JP) --> Tant~R (Puzzle & Action)
GG - 3d8d0dd6 - World Series Baseball [A] --> World Series Baseball [v0]
GG - bb38cfd7 - World Series Baseball --> World Series Baseball [v1]
SG1 - 545fc9bb - Ashizawa's Hatchidan Tsumeshogi (JP) --> Serizawa Hachidan no Tsumeshogi (JP)
SG1 - 5970a12b - Champion Baseball --> Champion Baseball [16k]
SG1 - 6d909857 - Sega Mah-Jong (JP) --> Mahjong (Sega) (JP)
SG1 - e7e0f0e3 - Home Mah-Jong (JP) --> Home Mahjong [v1] (JP)
SG1 - 09196fc5 - N-Sub (1988) --> N-Sub [16k] (1988)
SC3 - 622010e1 - Sega Music Editor --> Music
SC3 - b67ea1c4 - Sega Music Editor --> Music [BAD]
SC3 - 2ec28526 - Sega Music Editor (JP) --> Music (JP)
SC3 - ae4f92cf - Uranai Angel Cuty (JP) --> Uranai Angel Cutie (JP)
get from here

Emulator MAME 0.115u1

System PC - Windows etc..

diff time, news:
0.115u1
-------


MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
----------------------
asserts0115ora [Aaron Giles]
scregg0115red [Zsolt Vasvari]
mysticri36rc2gre [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
m92c053gre2 [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
aerofgt.c0115ora [Roberto Fresca]
midyunit0115red [couriersud]
nekkyoku0115red [couriersud]
exerion0112u4yel [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]
dragngun067yel [R. Belmont, Ryan Holtz -- please verify]
cidelsa0114u4gre [Aaron Giles]
missile0115yel [Aaron Giles]



Source Changes
--------------
Added support for playback of "extended" INP files that are commonly
found on compete sites. [David Haywood]

Added lswx and stswx opcodes to the PowerPC core. [Ville Linde]

Changed DRIVER_INIT macro to prepend driver_init_* instead of simply
init_* to be consistent with the other initialization functions.
[Atari Ace]

Corrected the pulse shape of the timer output in the MPU4 driver,
and also correctly identified the AY sound chip as an AY8913.
[James Wallace]

Merged leprechn driver into the gameplan driver and added correct
video timings. [Zsolt Vasvari]

Cleaned up the dorachan driver. Replaced fake color map with actual
color PROM decoding. [Zsolt Vasvari]

Cleaned up the supertnk driver. [Zsolt Vasvari]

Move Atari vector PROMs into separate regions. [Mathis Rosenhauer]

Added DIP switches for Excite League. [Barry Harris, Yasuhiro Ogawa]

Improved m92 sprite drawing. [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

Rewrote the magicfly driver: [Roberto Fresca]
- Figured out how the protection works.
- Removed the hacks/patchs that formerly allow boot the games.
- Figured out how the buffered inputs works.
- Demuxed all inputs for both games.
- Unified the memory maps from both games.
- Added NVRAM support to both games.
- Mapped DIP switches.
- Managed the planes to get the 3bpp GFX colors accurate.
- Renamed the ROMs acording to pcb pictures and ROM contents.
- Cleaned up and optimized the driver.

Fixed throttle range in gforce2. [David Haywood]

Moved Win32 UTF-8 wrappers into a new module (winutf8.c), and added
some new wrappers that Oliver Stoeneberg created for MAME32.
[Nathan Woods]

Aleck64/N64 update: [Ryan Holtz]
- RSP: some opcodes bugfixed plus should work on big-endian targets
- Real PIF ROM dump now used and required
- Various other fixes

Fixed eeprom handling in surfplnt. [couriersud]

Fixed carry flag calculation for SUB/SBC/CMP family instructions in
the ARM core. [R. Belmont, Ryan Holtz]

Improvements to the ARM7 core: [R. Belmont, Ryan Holtz]
- fixed 32-bit unaligned reads to "scramble" properly
- fixed carry flag calc for SUB/SBC/CMP family instructions
- fixed multiply-and-accumulate instructions
- added more instructions to the disassembler
- fixed logical and arithmetic shifts
- added more Thumb instructions
- fixed relative loads and stores
- fixed LSL/LSR with zero shift values
- fixed the disassembly of CMN
- verified behavior when ADD destination is the PC on real h/w

Rewrote the Space Firebird driver: [Zsolt Vasvari]
- Added star field, matches with the screen shot perfectly
- Video timings/memory map/interrupts from schematics
- Added support for the color fade effect

Identified a couple of new opcodes in the Irem V30 CPU which improves
matchit2. [Pierpaolo Prazzoli]

Significantly cleaned up the Spiders driver. [Zsolt Vasvari]

Changed memory system behavior so that masks can be specified
independently of mirrors. By default if the mask is 0 and a mirror
is present, the mask is implicitly ~mirror, just as before. But if a
mask is specified, it is not limited to the non-mirrored bits. This
allows you to independently control the mapping versus what is
returned to the read/write handler. [Aaron Giles]

Rewrote Astrocade driver: [Aaron Giles]
- fully implemented all function generator modes
- implemented pattern board according to schematics, including timing
- fixed interrupt handling
- added crosshairs to SeaWolf II
- added stereo sound and panning to SeaWolf II samples
- rewrote Astrocade sound emulation according to patent
- sound generation now uses proper LFSR for noise effects
- added partial support for Ten Pin Deluxe, including sound board
emulation and internal layout

Fixed sound in Inferno after all these years. Sadly, it required a
hack. [Aaron Giles]

Added correct video timings for the Williams games. [Aaron Giles]

Added support for misaligned PIXBLT operations in the TMS34010 core.
The code still needs cleanup but improves the new JPM driver.
[Aaron Giles]



New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Magic Fly [Roberto Fresca]
7 e Mezzo [Roberto Fresca]



New clones added
----------------
Captain Silver (World) [David Haywood]



New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
------------------------------------
Ten Pin Deluxe [Aaron Giles]
get from here

Emulator iDeaS 1.0.1.5

System PC - Windows

DS emu, news:
# Added LDRD and STRD opcodes.
# Added HuffUnComp BIOS function.
# Added Square Root BIOS function.
# Added command line options.
# Added zipped rom support (the emulator slows down).
# Added basic frameskip.
# Added support for M3, Supercard CF and Supercard One files.
# Added Run to Cursor(F6) and Step Over(F8) in debugger.
# Added support for Shadow Polygons.
# Added support for .ds.gba and .sc.nds files.
# Added Rotation feature.
# Added Save/Load game capability.
# Fixed unaligned memory access on LDRH opcode.
# Fixed a bug in textures management.
# Fixed a bug in 3D matrices management.
# Fixed a bug in LIGHT_VECTOR register.
# Fixed a bug in NORMAL register.
# Fixed a bug in GXSTAT register.
# Fixed a bug in Extended Draw Mode management.
# Fixed a bug in microphone support.
get from here

Emulator AmiArcadia/WinArcadia 4.22

System Amiga OS3.5+ PC - Windows

Emerson Arcadia 2001 & clones, Interton VC 4000 & clones and Elektor TV games computer emu, news:
* Compatibility improvements.
* "Watch reads?" option.
* Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
get from here

Emulator MAME Plus! 0.115u1

System PC - Windows

unofficial mame, news:
-fixed crash in vector games
get from here

Emulator SDLMame 0.115u1

System SDL

mame with DX taken out & SDL put in, news:
* Support for -joymap and -joymap_file switches, which together let you remap the order your joysticks/pads appear in to MAME by their device name. (Ask about this on the board for more details) (couriersud)
* Cleaned up verbose TTY output to use MAME's core functionality (couriersud)
* Silence audio when paused (couriersud)
* Fixed compiler warnings in testkeys utility (couriersud)
* Fixed behavior of -artwork_crop in software and OpenGL render modes (couriersud)
* Better support for environment variables in paths, including no longer crashing if a variable that isn't set is specified (couriersud)
get from here

Dat Mameinfo.dat v0.115u1

info on games in mame, news:
* Updated to MAME 0.115u1.
* Added 0.115u1 Source/Listinfo changes.
* Newest Bugs (17th May).
* Added HardDisk/CD-ROM/Flash infos.
* Added Romset (kb/files/zip) infos.
* Completely re-added MAME 0.67-0.76u2 Source/Whatsnew/Readme-infos.
* Fixed Mameinfo.dat infos.
get from here if you patch it yourself or here fora ready patched version

Emulator AGEMAME 0.43/.115u1

System PC - Windows

Fruit machine Mame, news:
JPM IMpact support has also been added [Philip Bennett]

# Source Changes Changed DRIVER_INIT macro to prepend driver_init_* instead of simply init_* to be consistent with the other initialization functions. [Atari Ace]
# Corrected the pulse shape of the timer output in the MPU4 driver, and also correctly identified the AY sound chip as an AY8913. [James Wallace]
# Moved Win32 UTF-8 wrappers into a new module (winutf8.c), and added some new wrappers that Oliver Stoeneberg created for MAME32. [Nathan Woods]

Rewrote the magicfly driver: [Roberto Fresca](A)
# - Figured out how the protection works.
# - Removed the hacks/patchs that formerly allow boot the games.
# - Figured out how the buffered inputs works.
# - Demuxed all inputs for both games.
# - Unified the memory maps from both games.
# - Added NVRAM support to both games.
# - Mapped DIP switches.
# - Managed the planes to get the 3bpp GFX colors accurate.
# - Renamed the ROMs acording to pcb pictures and ROM contents.
# - Cleaned up and optimized the driver.
get from here or get a binary from here or both the same file just a choice of where to get it

Emulator Pom1 0.0.3

System PC - Windows

Apple 1 emu, news:
-fixed most of the previous problems and it now behaves more like the original Java version
get from [url=http://pom1.sourceforge.net/]here

Emulator Snes9xGx 2.0.1b5

System GC/Wii

Snes emu, news:
* B button implemented in all menus (returns to previous menu)
* Fixed bug when freezing state to SD card - would crash if SD support was not previously initialized
* Fixed double A button press needed after manual prefs/sram save to memory card
* Fixed delay after pressing A button after saving freeze to SD card
* Fixed problem of ".srm" SRAM file being created when SRAM was saved with no ROM loaded
* Fixed version number in SRAM and preferences
* Minor other code revisions

Not a lot of new features this time, but I'm finding and fixing bugs and working toward a final version of 2.0.1.
get from here its in post 13

[Hawq]

Emulator Ootake 1.05

System PC - Windows

PC-Engine emu, news:
* In "Windows Vista", when the dialog to open ROM-image is displayed, the bug that Ootake closed uncommonly (generated by v1.04) was corrected.
* In playing "Hu-CARD game", when "F1" key is pushed while pressing "Ctrl" key, not reset but "CD Play" was made to be able to be executed.
* The happiness of the game is the world human race commonness. It longs for peace.
get from here

Emulator VB81 XuR

System PC - Windows

ZX81 emu, news:
* Binary editor changed updated.
* Window to change and edit a REM line added.(disassemble or print the type-in listing)
* In Artic assembler window, you can save the compiled ASM line (line 2), without opening the binary tools window.
* Sound debugger window added to display all values sent to the sound card.(&H0000 to &H4000)
Note: The direct sound wasn't implemented to avoid any problems on old PCs.(DX compatibilities)
* Disassembler: relative jump displayed in decimal values.
* minor changes.
get from here

Emulator Emulator2001 v2.0

System PC - Windows

Arcadia 2001 & clones, Interton VC4000 & clones and Elektor TV Games Computer emu, news:
* Standard windows API.
* Embedded frontend user interface and CLI
* Source level and machine language debugger.
* Machine code assembler.
* Highlighted syntax disassembler.
* Built in Compiler for creating your own ROM images.
* Sprite graphics and media tools.
get from here

Interpretor Portable ScummVM V1.51

System PC - Windows

ScummVM for sticking on a memory stick, news:

I updated the program, and it no longer reports "Dodgy behaviour" in AntiVirus.

See this thread: http://portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1741

I removed the games from the download, to make the size smaller, but here are some download links to compatible games:

Beneath a Steel Sky: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/scum ... p?download
Flight of the Amazon Queen: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/scum ... p?download

get from the link in the quote or from here

[Hawq]

Emulator Genesis Plus 18.05.2007

System GC/Wii

Genesis emu, news:
- you can now switch between FM cores without reseting the game. FM registers value are automatically restored when switching.
- modified PAL framesync a little bit: the 20ms period is now applied between the start of 2 consecutive frames, no more between the end of the previous and the start of the next one, which seems more correct to me (am I wrong ?)
- removed the previous VINT timings modification because it brokes some games (Rocket Knight, Thunderforce III,...)
- added automatic Timing configuration (VDP latency, VINT timing & alternate Line Timing) at game loading, based upon specific romname detection.
This means you can still modify some of these options afterwards but they are now automatically set/unset when loading a game which need special timing fixes. These fixes are also automatically desactivated when the current game doesn't need them.

For information, games that are actually detected and need special timings to run properly are:
.Legend of Galahad & Road Rash series (single line not rendered properly)
.Sesame Street Counting Cafe (don't boot)
.Chaos Engine/Soldiers of Fortune (graphic glitches on scrolling)
get from here

Emulator Mame32 Plus! Plus! 0.115u1

System PC - Windows

mame with kaillera & 3D plugin support, news:
# updated to Mame Plus! .115u1 Sand ￾\￾c ™Ö snake prize clone edition additional ¥ ¥ ¥ nemesis.c
get from here

Emulator MAME32XT 0.115u1

System PC - Windows

unofficial mame, not sure whats new
get from here

Emulator Hoxs64 1.0.4.16

System PC - Windows

C64 emu, news:
1) The VIC emulation as been enhanced to include a 4 pixel delay before responding to changes to the sprite multicolor register. Stray pixels have been removed from the "Krestage 3" Demo by Crest 50 pixel sprite upper border.
get from here

Emulator AmiArcadia/WinArcadia 4.23

System Amiga OS3.5+, PC - Windows

Arcadia 2001 & clones, Interton VC4000 & clones and Elektor TV Games Computer emu, news:
* Interton VC 4000, Elektor TV Games Computer: compatibility improvements.
* "View PSGs status" command.
* Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
get from here

[Hawq]

Emulator Mame32Hp4 .115u1

System PC - Windows

P4 optimised mame plus, changes are the same as the regular one and it has the regular extra files, cheat.dat, command.dat, info.dat etc,, & some pd roms
get from here

Emulator Nestopia 1.37

System PC - Windows

Nes emu, news:
Shell Additions:
• Menu option for DIP switch window popup on file load.
• Movie recording now supported during netplay.

Shell Changes:
• Smaller netplay data packets.
• Minor GUI adjustments.
• Refactoring.

Shell Fixes:
• Scaling artifacts with NTSC filter on certain resolutions.
• Auto NTSC/PAL window resize bug.
• Sound stuttering on window clicks.
• Netplay bugs/quirks.
• Joystick auto-calibration bug.

Core Additions:
• Mapper 63.
• Mapper 121 and 134. Info from CaH4e3.
• Mapper 136 for Sachen board SA-002 3011. Info from Enri.
• Mapper 178 for "San Guo Zhong Lie Zhuan (Ch)". Info from temryu.
• UNIF boards: AX5705, T-230, CTC-65 and 190IN1. Info from CaH4e3.
• Adaptive sound streaming synchronization.
• More optimization hints for GCC.
• Database entries.

Core Changes:
• Movie file format rewritten. Older files will no longer work (sorry, had to be done sooner or later). New format is much more flexible and extendable.
• Lower memory consumption.
• APU speed optimizations.
• Most DIP switches are now configurable through dialogs instead being soft-reset-triggered.
• Board names. Info from Pongbashi and Bootgod.
• Refactoring.

Core Fixes:
• Mapper 41 and 43.
• Mapper 112. Fixes "Fighting Hero III". Info from temryu.
• Minor save state inaccuracy.
• FDS sound emulation inaccuracy. Fixes "Nazo no Magazine Disk - Nazoraa Land Dai 3 Gou".
• Small rewinder bug.
• Database entries.
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Frontend All-in-1 Emuloader

System GC/Wii

-=[ Explanation ]=-
# This is a NGC program that enables you to load & run the following emulators on your Nintendo Gamecube: Genesis Plus (Sega Megadrive)
# SMS Plus (Sega Master System & Game Gear)
# FCEuGC (Nintendo Entertainment System)
# GnuboyGX (Gameboy & Gameboy Color)
# Snes9xGC (Super Nintendo)
# HugoGC (NEC Pc-Engine)
# NeoPop (SNK NeoGeo Pocket)
# Neo-CD Redux (SNK NeoGeo CD)

This is mostly designed for modchip users to be used as bootloader DOL on a Selbooting DVD but you can also simply load&run emupack.dol with the method of your choice.
See "Usage" section on how to generate emupack.dol and eventually a selbooting DVD

-=[ Features ]=-
# Nice GUI (I hope ) which let you choose the console system to play
# "All-in-1" DOL which directly includes all the supported emulators executables
# LZMA (7Zip) support for emulator package in order to reduce the final dol's size (thanks to Softdev !)
# automatic bootable DVD iso generation (batch file and all needed tools included)

-=[ Requirements ]=-
# the main program, emuloader.dol (precompiled and included)
# a 7zip archive containing the emulators dols (not included)
# Modchip and/or SoftMod
# 7zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) to create the emulators package
# DevkitPPC environment & last libOGC if you want to recompile the sources

-=[ Usage ]=-
Please understand that emuloader.dol is useless alone as it doesn't include any emulator executables. It's only the program that will provide the interface and will load the appropriate emulators for you.
You have to attach a 7zip archive to it, containing all the emulator dols, using Softdev's lzmaadd utility (included in /pcutils folder).
This is useful so that you can easily update the emuloader with future versions of the emulators programs.

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Homebrew Ghostbusters

System PSP

The old 8bit 'classic' in flash on the PSP, info:

This is a Flash game based on Ghostbusters for the NES. You drive the Ectomobile (the 1959 Cadillac Miller-meteor from the movie) through the streets of New York, running over ghosts, and dodging cars.

There are a few issues with the game due to the limitations of the PSP's Flash Player. The game will run pretty slow at normal speed (222mhz), but using Dark Alex's Custom Firmware, you can set the CPU speed in the XMB to 333mhz giving you a nice speed boost. You can pick from three songs from the Ghostbusters Soundtrack and you can turn the siren on and off. If you have both a song and the siren playing, you will not have sound effects. The PSP's flash player can only handle two sounds playing at once . So, you can ether have music and the siren with no sound effects, or you can turn off either the music or the siren and have the sound effects work.

This game is playable on PSP's running Sony's 2.71 and up or using Dark Alex's Custom Firmware. I recommend using DA's FW.

For instructions please read the Read Me (it's there for a reason you know )

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Homebrew Lemmings DS V5 Alpha

System DS

Its Lemmings what else do I need to say? well other than the news of course:

Alrighty! Here's a DLDI alpha version for y'all!

Unrar that into the root of your card, and update the config file if you don't like the 'LemmingsDS' directory.

It works on my Supercard SD, and that's currently all I know.

Give the levels that are there a shot... the level system works a bit differently now:

There are two level categories, Standard and Custom. When the game starts, it'll take a minute (it won't take this long in a non-debug version ^_^) to cycle through the directories in /LemmingsDS/levels/1player/standard and custom and tries to identify all the levels it can find. It groups them together based on the directories they're in... (you'll know what I'm talking about if you give it a go.)

The level format for this version is different to the old one, so old levels won't work. (If you try and copy them into the directories, they should be ignored by Lemmings DS.) I'll get to making a convertor when I've figured out what needs to be in the new format.

If anything weird happens, post about it and include the debugout.txt which magically appears in the root.

Edit - As with all homebrew, back up before you run this! I don't take responsibility if this makes your flash cards go funny. (It hasn't done anything weird to my SCSD stuff in these last months, but I can't guarantee behaviour on other devices, 'cause SCSD is all I got.)

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[Hawq]

Emulator MAME32FX 0.115

System PC - Windows

unofficial mame, news:
Updated to MAME 0.115 - MAME32 0.115a
# Some good fixes/hacks from various sources: Fixed MAME Testers bug Batrider0114Red.
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Battleg0113u4Red.
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Blktiger37b15Gre. (Robiza)
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Bonzeadv0107Red. (RAINE)
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Bonzeadv0108u3Yel. (RAINE)
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Hotchase060Gre.
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Kingofb47b6Gre. (Robiza)
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Legendoh0114Yel.
# Fixed MAME Testers bug M92c053Gre2. (Reip)
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Metamrph0112Red.
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Missile0115Yel. (Aaron Giles)
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Tapper0102Gre1.
# Fixed MAME Testers bug Timber099Gre.

NOTE: You have to delete \INI\MAME32FXPP.INI before start the emulator.
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Emulator Hoxs64 1.0.4.17

System PC - Windows

C64 emu, news:
1) Adjustment to the VIC sprite Y expand register. The game Flying Shark now displays correctly.
2) Adjustment to the CIA serial shift register to raise the initial byte complete IRQ after 15 timer underflows instead of 16 timer underflows. The game Athena now displays correctly.
3) Adjustment to the VIC display enable bit. The game Elven Warrior now displays.
4) Adjustment to the SID ADSR. The HVSC sid tune /VARIOUS/M-R/Nata/Future_Impulse.sid missing instruments have been restored.
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Emulator Virtual GameBoy 3.3

System PC - Windows/Dos PocketPC, 3rd edition S60 symbian phones

GB/GBC emu, news:
* Now only autorecognizing GameBoy hardware model when loading a new cartridge.
* Removed unused fields in the Z80 structure. State file format has changed!
* Now always showing registers, interrupts, and stack in the built-in debugger.
* Added -prnfile command line option.
* Rehashed built-in menu to stick more options into scarce screen space.
* Added built-in menu options to record MIDI soundtrack, hit MIDI drums on noise, choose soundtrack and printer output files.
* Added frame rate display option to VGB-Symbian.
* Added "fill screen" zoom option to VGB-Symbian.
* Added MIDI soundtrack logging to VGB-Symbian (saved into E:\Sounds and can be used as ringtones).
* Added "Save Printer Output" menu option to VGB-Windows.
* Added error messages to VGB-Windows.
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Emulator NeonDS 0.0.3

System PC - Windows

DS emu, news, post translation:
Chinese trans
Realization demon (sprite) revolves and puts shrinks the demonstration.

Translating from Japanese gives us this:

Support spirit? Rotation? Harmony releasing?

So from that it seems Sprite rotation is fixed, or at least somethings happening with it.
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Interpretor Portable ScummVM 1.6.0.1

System PC - Windows

ScummVM for use on a flash memory stick, news:
-Small change to directory structure
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[Smiley]

seriously, I could never get any mame roms requiring a chd file to work, despite doing as instructed by many tutorials. Can someone dumb it down and explain?

[mankrip]

seriously, I could never get any mame roms requiring a chd file to work, despite doing as instructed by many tutorials. Can someone dumb it down and explain?

Example:

roms\kinst2.zip
roms\kinst2\kinst2.chd