A while back, a few of you expressed interest in a Commodore emulator. I’m curious to know if there’s still interest, and if there is, can you suggest a fast, open-source emulator to port?
No promises are made yet, but…
Archive for June, 2008
Commodore, anyone?
Sunday, June 29th, 2008fMSX 3.5.35 released
Sunday, June 29th, 2008This is mostly a bugfix release. Here’s what’s new:
- Bugfix – many games, especially MegaROM games did not load correctly in the previous version (thanks Victor)
- Added Fast Forward button mapping – while disabled by default, you can map any button to fast-forward emulation in the Controls menu
- Custom mapper types can now be embedded in source code. This version includes built-in support for Zanac Ex and Mon Mon Monster. Contact me if you’d like to add additional mappings
This version no longer includes a version compiled for firmware 1.50.
Firmware 1.50
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008The recent issue with fMSX 3.5.3 (fw 1.50 version) prompted me to rethink future support for 1.50/kxploit executables. One option was to regress to an earlier version of the library, dropping any of the adhoc functionality; another was to simply stop working on versions for 1.50.
I (grudgingly) decided to stop providing support for fw 1.50 – reasons for this being threefold – a) the ps2dev community recommends moving away from this firmware, as continuing support for it is getting more challenging (flash0 memory being one reason); b) running simple applications in kernel mode seems counter-intuitive, and c) it’s becoming exceedingly more difficult to cope with two distinct programming models.
The emulators that are currently up will probably be the last ones with support for firmware 1.50; all future emulators are likely to only run on firmware 2.00 and greater.
UPDATE Wow, what a coincidence
fMSX version 3.5.3 released
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008New features in this version:
- Games/applications that require MSX Audio/MSX Music will no longer crash the emulator if either is disabled in System settings – there will simply be no Y2413/YM8950 audio
- ROM type settings are now saved between sessions – up to 500 different ROM’s can be tracked by CRC32 value
The second feature requires some experimentation, and I welcome any feedback you may have. As mentioned, the limit is 500 ROM’s – this is not counting the “auto-detect” ROM’s, for obvious reasons. The list is updated when ROM type is changed via the System menu – to remove an entry from the list, simply set ROM type to “auto-detect”.
Searching through the CRC values is done in linear time, when a ROM is actually loaded, but for 500 entries, this is not likely to take long (I’m not sure how long reading/writing these entries will take to memory stick, however).
The list is loaded from stick when the emulator starts up, stored in memory while the emulator runs, and saved back to stick when emulator is exited.
If you find this feature helpful and are willing to help, please see the previous post
UPDATE Version compiled for firmware 1.50 does not work. Please use the 2.00 version
Correct ROM type selection for fMSX, Atari800
Thursday, June 19th, 2008One feature that both fMSX and Atari800 could use is auto ROM type selection, as I’m sure I’m not the only person who finds selecting correct type of ROM an annoyance. I’d like to ask those of you who are dedicated fans of fMSX or Atari800 for help.
The method I have planned involves mapping a ROM CRC32 value to specific cart type, maintaining the settings in a growing list. Bunch of these lists would eventually be consolidated into a larger “super list” that would be included with the emulators, effectively eliminating the process of cart type selection (for vast majority of carts, anyway).
If anyone is interested in working to create such lists, please let me know by leaving a comment. Alternatively, if you’re aware of an existing list (perhaps for a different port), it would be great if you could point out the location. Thanks
Small Update
Sunday, June 15th, 2008This is just a small note to let you folks know that work on wifi netplay is continuing as before.
For fans of fMSX, look forward to an update that will fix the crashing of the emulator when MSX Music/MSX Audio are accessed while disabled in System settings. Because this is a small fix, this release is not planned for the immediate future, but if enough people show interest, a bugfix release will follow. Those who know how to, or don’t want to wait can compile from svn.
Ad-hoc matching diagram
Sunday, June 1st, 2008If you’re a PSP developer and/or considering developing wifi-enabled applications for the PSP, you might find this Adhoc Matching Diagram helpful. While it doesn’t explain everything in detail, it provides general idea on the steps that the generic PSP wi-fi enabled application takes, when setting up matching.
Ad-hoc matching is the initial step of setting up communication between PSP units – selecting which machines are going to participate in a communication session. It generally entails sending connection requests, and simultaneously listening for connection-related events (such as incoming connection requests). Because communication is peer-to-peer, the notion of host/client is implied – usually the machine requesting a connection is considered the client, while the machine receiving the connection request is the host.
I'm a programmer with too much interest in too many programming languages, and not enough time.