Fuse PSP 0.10.0.1 is now out. New in this version:

• Fuse updated to version 0.10.0.1
• Miscellaneous bug fixes
• Support for compressed disks (see documentation)
• Option to enable/disable sound while tape is loading (only works with Fastloading disabled)
• Option to enable/disable “Issue 2” keyboard support
• Extra button options – Square/Cross/Circle/Triangle with L or R trigger held down
• Option to enable/disable tape fastloading (some games do not load correctly when enabled)
• Virtual keyboard: emulation should not lag as much when virtual keyboard is displayed
• Virtual keyboard: classic display mode (show when R held down), or toggle mode (show/hide when R is pressed)
• Added state exporting to other versions of Fuse – press Start while the ‘Save/Load’ tab is selected—an SNA file will be written to the snapshot directory
• Tape autoloading (not to be confused with save state autoloading, already in the previous release)
• Snapshots are now saved into PSP’s own PHOTO directory (/PSP/PHOTO), and can be viewed in PSP’s image viewer
• File selector snapshots – while browsing for games with the file selector, pause momentarily to display the first snapshot for the game

If you’re upgrading from an earlier version, I recommend backing up your save states, configuration files and ROM’s, and copying them to the new folders — as opposed to copying the new files over your current Fuse PSP directory layout.

Download

Fuse PSP 0.10 now compiles and runs fine, and is getting very close to a release — ideally, before the New Year. What’s fixed:

Bugs reported by ewgf:

• Multiple files in a ZIP archive does not crash the emulator
• TRD files should no longer persist after the emulator is shut down (although as before, Fuse may change the selected machine, if it’s necessary. This setting will persist until it’s changed again)
• On-screen keyboard should work as expected under supaplex.trd

Improvements, suggestions:

• Tape fastloading can now be toggled on and off, to support some of the finickier TZX files
• Issue 2 keyboard support can be toggled on and off
• Loading sound can be toggled on and off (only works with fastloading disabled — fastloading turns off sound while it’s active)
• New button options are now available (square/circle/triangle/cross with L/R held down)
• Virtual keyboard speed has improved a bit
• State exporting has been added, for support with other Fuse ports
• Tape autoloading, to begin loading tape immediately when selected

What’s still being worked on:

• Compressed disk loading — still not trivial

Also, virtual keyboard is likely to undergo some changes, but most likely not in the next release.

I’m not sure how many of you are curious/impatient enough to snoop around the svn repository occasionally, but if you are, you’ve probably noticed that work on Fuse PSP 0.10.0 has already started. The upgrade is complete, what’s remaining now are fixes for old bugs, and new ones, that are a result of the upgrade.

As anticipated, the change in the code is considerable - Fuse 0.10 no longer uses lib765 by John Elliott; instead, it uses its own 765 driver.

On the SMS Plus adhoc/wifi front - if any of you have access to Chris Swindle’s version of SMSPlus PSP, and can run some quick adhoc performance tests, please see if you can respond to this post I left in the emulation forum.

Carl Murray was kind enough to inform me that a release candidate of version 0.10 of Fuse, the popular Spectrum emulator, is now available for download. The PSP version will be released in due time; in the meantime, just glancing over the list of changes, here are some of the features that are likely to affect it:

• New upd765 FDC emulation; all known +3 DSK images now work
• Loading acceleration

Emulation core improvements

• Reading from the 128K’s memory control port causes that byte to be written back to the port
• Reading the AY data port on the +2A/+3 is the same as reading the register port
• NMI causes Z80 to unHALT
• Emulate C, H and P/V flags on repeated IO instructions
• Fix crash when using Interface 1 on unoptimised Fuse builds

Miscellaneous improvements:

• Loader detection now works with the Digital Integration loader
• Revert Pentagon 128 to being the “base” machine without extra ROMs
• Updated +3e ROMs
• Allow DivIDE, custom ROMs, Kempston mouse status and Simple 8-bit IDE interface to be saved in snapshots
• Better (but probably not perfect) TS2068 contention

For those who are wondering, I’m not dead - just swamped with work and an unhealthy obsession with Fable II. Which is unusual for me, considering that I’m really not much of an RPG buff.

Some great news in the PSP-3000 hacking front came and went, the most promising one being the motherboard of the new system — it’s a TA-90, hence “pandorizable”, though currently with some sort of protection. Let’s hope not for too long.

In other news, I’ve noticed that while Atari800 has not seen any releases since mid-last year, work on it has been ongoing. While the changes are mostly structural (code reshuffling, etc…), they have made me consider an intermediate, possibly beta release of Atari800 PSP, based on code in the CVS repository. If that happens, I’ll most likely post a build in the forum for those interested to test (I’ll post an update here as well).

For the Fuse fans, here’s the situation on future releases: Philip Kendall, the principal developer of Fuse, commented earlier about changes coming to a future release; these changes will be substantial (from the sound of it, and at least from a structural standpoint), going so far as to change how extended disk support functions. Fuse PSP is being actively developed, and will be updated when the next version of Fuse is released, or shortly before.

There are other things being worked on at the moment, but as I’m not certain of their status, I’m going to keep any comments to myself, until I know for sure.

The forum has started to get bombarded by spam from China; this has led me to block a number of IP ranges, as well as add spam protection - full details here. I’ve also added a new forum for posting bug reports — if you have any bugs to report, please do so here.

In the upcoming month or so, expect to see updates to a number of existing emulators - Fuse and fMSX are likely to be some of those updated. Updates are likely to range from very small fixes, to new (and hopefully interesting) features.

If you also own a GP2X, good news — I’ve been contacted by the author of the GP2X port of RACE!, who plans to use RACE! PSP’s state saving code his port. Speaking of which, all signs indicate that state saving works without a hitch — if you’re interested in details, here’s a list of tested games.

In an earlier post, I noted that extended DSK support in the latest version of Fuse PSP does not function correctly. After some testing, it looks like extended DSK’s do work, but only outside ZIP archives - I tested this by loading Robocop 2, and it works fine. Extended DSK support is provided by libdsk, which does not support loading from binary data, and which will be replaced in a future release of Fuse.

Until the next version of Fuse comes along, please keep extended DSK files decompressed if you wish to use them with Fuse PSP. Note that not all DSK files use the extended format, though there’s no easy way to tell the difference between the standard and extended formats without examining the file’s header.

This is a small update to fix current known issues. Changes in this version:

• A Spectrum joystick button/keyboard key can now be assigned to multiple PSP buttons
• Sticky key status will now be correctly reset when the virtual keyboard is toggled on/off

Download

I must say I find myself pleasantly surprised by the fan base of the Sinclair Spectrum. Not only has the interest in Fuse PSP been immensely overwhelming since release, but the fans of the system appear to be a hardcore and dedicated bunch. There have been already over 500 downloads from my page alone; I regularly receive suggestions and bug reports (not too many of the latter, thankfully ), and the interest doesn’t seem to fade.

Anyway, it’s great to see a classic system still enjoy popularity decades after its release, and have such dedicated fans.

This update fixes the following issues present in version 0.9.0.2:

• Palette corruption on various PSP units
• Bug in the sound rendering engine that would cause occasional sound slowdowns

Updates from 0.9.0.1 (just to reiterate):

• Added various game image types missing from the initial release
• New virtual keyboard
• Added monitor type selection (color/grayscale)
• Fixed a serious memory leak, which would manifest itself when opening ZIP files
• Fixed the “tape loading hang” bug
• Added +3 support
• Added Kempston joystick support
• Added “hack cursor” support (keyboard up/down/left/right)
• Lots of code reshuffling

Download