MagicEngine

FluBBa · Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 58 Location: GBG, Sweden

Mmmm, yes, but I'm still having some problems with it.
If anybody knows what can be wrong with my emulator please explain it for me.
These are the games that I still have trouble with:

"Aero Blasters (J)" BSOD. Us version works.
"Air Zonk (U)" Bgr flickers.
"Battle Load Runner" BSOD.
"Battle Royale" BSOD.
"Bonk's Revenge (U)" Doesn't start.
"Boxy Boy (U)" Doesn't start. "Soukoban World (J)" works.
"Burning Angels (J)" locks up at first screen.
"Cadash (J)" BSOD. Us version works.
"Chase HQ (U)" Game doesn't start. Jap version works.
"Chikudenya Toubee (J)" Doesn't work.
"Cyber Core" BSOD.
"Don Doko Don (J)" BSOD.
"Doraemon Meikyu Daisakusen (J)" BSOD.
"Download (J)" BSOD.
"Final Blaster (J)" Sprite collision doesn't work?
"Hit The Ice (U)" BSOD. Jap version works.
"Lode Runner - Ushina Wareta (J)" - Doesn't start.
"Magical Chase" Bad sprite collision?
"Military Madness (U)" BSOD. "Nectaris (J)" works.
"Momo Tarou Densetsu Gaiden" BSOD.
"Moto Roader (J)" Intro ok, game locks up. Us version works.
"Neutopa II (U)" BSOD. Jap version works.
"Parasol Stars (J)" Intro screen then BSOD.
"Parasol Stars (U)" BSOD.
"Pc Denjin - Punkic Cyborgs (J)" Bgr flickers.
"Rabio Lepus" Lots of glitches.
"Salamander (J)" BSOD.
"Soldier Blade (Special) (J)" BSOD. Us version works.
"Super Momo Tarou Dentetsu II (J)" BSOD.
"Tricky (Kick)" Stops at the first cutscene.
"Valkyrie no Densetsu (J)" No sprite collision.
"World Sports Competition (U)" BSOD.

If you want to try the emulator please go to
http://hem.passagen.se/flubba/gba.html
If you don't have a GBA and flashcart you can find a good GBA emulator here
http://vboy.emuhq.com.
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Kaminari · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2003 1:35 pm Post subject:

Hi Fredrik!

Nice to see an Amiga developer around here Wink

I gave a try to PCEAdvance (via VisualBoyAdvance) and it's already very impressive. I remember having compatibility problems with some ROMs, but no BSOD so far. I will test the games you mentioned above and see what it gives.

On the emu technical side, David will certainly be of greater help than me. I'm sure he will read this thread Mr. Green

- but I nevertheless suggest you contact him privately at info@magicengine.com.

FluBBa · Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 58 Location: GBG, Sweden

Hu? somebody knows who I am?! Cool

mmm, I hope that David and maybe some more people who knows about the PC-Engine and the emulation of it reads this message.
It has been going quite nice with adding and fixing stuff up until now, I feel like I'm out of ideas soon. There are some more features that I can fix but that's it...
Edit: Just saw that ME had problem with Wonder Momo, would be cool to know what the problem was, not that it's a big problem or so...
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pixyjunket · Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2003 6:35 pm Post subject:

Wow. I just tried this out (on Visual Boy). This is quite amazing I must say. I tried (of course) Bikkuriman World. It was sluggish but seemed to work quite well. The flickering I assume is normal because of screen size differences. The boss room background flashed orange/red which was wierd.

Really like it though, if by some miracle you got it to work with 90/100% speed I'd be desperate to get a flash rom for my GBA. Smile

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http://pixyjunket.dragonpalace.net/monsterland/index.html

cgfm2 · Visitor Joined: 23 Jul 2002 Posts: 9

> "Air Zonk (U)" Bgr flickers.

This game uses the RCR interrupt quite extensively, and if it's not emulated right the game acts quite weird.

For what it's worth, out of a single 262 or 263 line display the RCR interrupt is checked from line 0 of the active display period onwards, until the last line of the display. So values of $0040 to $00145/$0146 are valid, where the last two values are the last line before the first line of the active display, depending on the # of lines per frame. It's relative to the active display and not line 0 of each frame.

> "Cadash (J)" BSOD. Us version works.

Both the 384K and 512K versions need to be split to run right. If the non working one locks at the Taito logo, it's being loaded as a regular 512K ROM and should be split.

> "Cyber Core" BSOD.

This game seems to lock if you don't have the I/O buffer thing emulated where reading $0800-$17FF from page $FF latches some bits from the last device accessed. Specifically, I think implementing this for bit 7 of $0C00/$0C01 was what fixed the game, but that's from memory.

> "Valkyrie no Densetsu (J)" No sprite collision.

This game uses the SET instruction and needs that to work right, but I can't remember if I had sprite collision problems prior to implementing that instruction. I wonder if there's a CPU or memory bug in your emulator, because some of these games don't need anything special to work right.

BTW, thanks for posting the info about Fighting Run at Zeograd's, I had been wondering what was wrong with that game. :)

FluBBa · Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 58 Location: GBG, Sweden

The main problem I had was with the TAI instruction.
Even though your document said it was adding first and then subtracting I used EOR... stupid me, just to save some precious cycles.
Zeograd built a version of his emulator with logging of all the cpu registers, and did so I. So it was all a matter of comparing the output later on.
So that fixed most of the games, and with your help I've just fixed Cyber Core and Download, thanks!
So now there's only 9 games left that doesn't start, and I think most of them break because of my Timer IRQ implementation, could be VRAM DMA IRQ also.

I will look into "Air Zonk/Pc Denjin - Punkic Cyborgs" soon.
Thanks for the help again.

/FluBBa
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FluBBa · Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 58 Location: GBG, Sweden

V5.5 of PCEAdvance is out.
Since it was such a long time since I wrote anything about it here the history would be too long.
Suffice to say it has evolved significantly since my last post here, more compatible and faster.
Now there are 4 games (of the hucards) which doesnt start:
"Chase HQ (U)"
"Chikudenya Toubee (J)"
"Davis Cup Tennis (U)"
"Lode Runner - Ushina Wareta (J)"
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FluBBa · Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 58 Location: GBG, Sweden

V5.9 is out! Smile

Added HScroll option in menu, use L & R.
Added double buffering of background.
Fixed some sprite updating (sprite option should be redundant).
Fixed SRAM initialization.
Fixed more problems with folders under pogo.
Fixed multibooting from PogoPCE and on XG cards.
Changed the default values for Gamma and Scaling.
Changed detection of max screen height:
"Chase HQ (U)" starts.
"Air Zonk (U)" scrolling is ok.
Speedhacked:
"Dungeon Explorer".
"Final Lap Twin".
"Galaga", hopefully doesn't break it. Wink

"Jyuohki (Altered Beast)".
"Blazing Lazers/Gunhed" (intro).
And a lot more...

get it here.
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FluBBa · Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 58 Location: GBG, Sweden

If anyone still is interested, I've fixed some static in the sound and optimized the CPU a bit and.....
Added CD-ROM emulation Shocked

I don't have that many cd games to test it with but the few I've tested work quite good.
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Squaresoft74 · Elder Joined: 19 Apr 2002 Posts: 366 Location: France

You can use the link in my sig for your Tcd files, i think that might help you Wink

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FluBBa · Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 58 Location: GBG, Sweden

Yes I've allready used it, thank you very much for your hard work.
But I need more actual games now to test it (hint)... Rolling Eyes

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Kaminari · Posted: Tue May 25, 2004 2:24 am Post subject:

Great work Flubba!

How does the CD support work? I suppose the GBA can't handle the whole Redbook thingy, so I guess only the data track can be used somehow. Does it work the same way as HuCards -- embedding them in a GBA ROM along with the emulator? What is the maximum ISO size allowed by a GBA ROM?

FluBBa · Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 58 Location: GBG, Sweden

The GBA can address a maximum of 32MBytes and the emulator is around 50kBytes + the CD-ROM System which is 256kBytes.
That should give the datatrack(s) 32MBytes - 320kBytes of space.
I'm thinking about adding cd audio at 11kHz 8bit mono, but it might be too cumbersome to actually use it though...
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Kaminari · Posted: Tue May 25, 2004 10:16 pm Post subject:

Mmm, if the audio format is uncompressed PCM, the practical use may indeed be quite limited (though not every PCE game weighs 500 MB). ADPCM in 4 bits could eventually make it, and Vorbis support would be definitely interesting for that kind of low sample rate; it really comes down to which compressed audio format the GBA would be able to support without choking.

FluBBa · Member Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 58 Location: GBG, Sweden

11kHz 8bit mono gives you 50min of audio on a 32MByte card, so can probably work for some games, but it will need a good program to be of any use. And I'm not that great on coding Windows apps (only been poking around in VB a bit).
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