As promised, here’s the unfinished version of SMS Plus with Ad-hoc play. I’m posting it here with the hope that someone will be interested enough in continuing/finishing the project. Please note that the program is pre-alpha, and unsupported – it will allow you to start and play ad-hoc games, but the two sides may eventually get out of sync and go off on their own. Additionally, once you leave a game to return to the menu, you may not be able to resume the game successfully.
Archive for the ‘Emulators’ Category
SMS Plus PSP 1.2.5 Ad-hoc pre-alpha
Saturday, May 15th, 2010Status update
Monday, May 10th, 2010It’s been almost a month since my last post, and about as long since I’ve been able to work on any of my PSP and Android projects.
There’s not a lot to report at this point on the PSP front, I’m afraid, though I’ve been considering simply posting the unfinished (and still alpha) version of the SMS Plus Ad-hoc, with the hope that someone might find it interesting enough to finish the project. Real-time networking always leaves a bad taste in my mouth – especially when error correction is completely missing (as is the case with Ad-hoc networking).
Spark has a shiny new Gamercard widget available, though without an auto-refresh feature, it seems almost useless. So it looks like the next feature has already been decided for me – my original plan was to implement auto-updates last. One of the annoying things at this point is Android’s widget size requirement – widgets cannot simply be of arbitrary size, which will require more tinkering with layouts, hence a lot more time.
Future PSP releases; Time rewind in computer emulators
Thursday, March 18th, 2010ColEm will be the next emulator to be brought up to the latest version of the PSP library. It will also include the ‘time rewind’ feature found in several other emulators.
I have not completely given up on Castaway PSP (I’m still poking it from time to time), but I am rather running out of options and patience.
For those of you wondering if/when the ‘rewind’ feature will make it to other emulators, especially computer emulators such as fMSX and Fuse, the issue is as follows.
fMSX PSP version 3.5.41 released
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010This release fixes the “Button mode” (US/JP) bug in 3.5.40 reported by several users. The bug caused the emulator to start in US button mode, even when Japan mode was selected.
If you always use US mode, you do not need to download this version.
fMSX PSP version 3.5.40 released
Monday, March 1st, 2010It’s been almost two years since fMSX PSP last saw an update, so today seems as good a day as any to release an updated version. New in this release:
- PSPLIB updated to latest version
- Images are now saved under PSP/PHOTOS/fMSX PSP
- Virtual keyboard updated, option for “toggle display” mode
- Screenshot previews in file browser
This release also significantly improves the save state format by adding versioning, and automatically switching the emulated machine to the system specs appropriate for the save state (no more cryptic state loading errors). To clarify, say you save a game in MSX1 mode, then switch to MSX2. In earlier versions of the emulator, unless you switched back to MSX1 prior to loading state, state would refuse to load. If you changed other features, such as memory sizes and video mode (NTSC/PAL), you would have to remember the specific setup for the game, or the game would not load. In 3.5.40, save state format includes all the necessary system data, and will automatically switch to the appropriate setup. This is the normal behavior in most other computer emulators, such as Fuse and VICE.
That said, please note that only new states will benefit from this – while fMSX PSP is backwards compatible, previously saved states will only load if you restore system setup prior to loading, as before. Of course, if you never switch from the usual setup (MSX2, 128kB, NTSC), this whole discussion is probably moot 
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- Game preview
gsDroid version 1.05 released
Saturday, February 6th, 2010gsDroid 1.05 has been released. This update fixes @msn.com logins, which up to now have not been working. Special thanks to those that helped me troubleshoot the issue (emails to the dev are always more productive than negative reviews on Android Marketplace! )
In PSP news, work on fMSX PSP continues; I am in the process of updating the save state format.
PSP and Android updates, possible cause for gsDroid login error found
Thursday, January 7th, 2010Some progress to report: on the PSP front, I have updated fMSX PSP to use the new psplib; remaining are the new virtual keyboard layout, and the changes I detailed earlier – especially better compatibility for saved states.
Work is continuing on Spark as before; a lot of new features have already been added; an update detailing them may follow soon. Regarding login error being reported for gsDroid – everything suggests that this is limited to msn.com accounts, and I should be able to look into it soon, so stay tuned.
I'm a programmer with too much interest in too many programming languages, and not enough time.