Multi-system emulator

0.8.4-rc2:

 

Added meaningful descriptions to the command.* settings.

 

PC-FX: Added an experimental feature to use mmap() to create a virtual 32-bit address space to speed up V810 instruction reads. Enable by setting "pcfx.use_mmap" to 1. Of course, it won't work on 32-bit CPUs! Please read the documentation, there are caveats!

 

PC-FX: Removed some redundant logic in the KING BG 8x1 drawing functions.

 

PC-FX: FX VCE and VDC port access are now emulated as 16-bit, as in the real PC-FX, instead of 8-bit.

 

PC-FX: Altered the debugger's memory peek and disassembly functions to not read the emulated memory map in the 0x80000000-0xEFFFFFFF region. (Reading those addresses can cause side effects, and this is a temporary workaround)

 

PC-FX: Changed the V810 memory read handlers to read RAM faster than BIOS ROM. This will probably increase host CPU usage while in the BIOS loading screen, but decrease it in the actual game.

 

PC-FX: Altered the V810 opcode fetch logic to do 16-bit reads instead of 32-bit, fixing potential crash issues

when Mednafen is run on CPUs that don't support unaligned memory accesses.

 

PC-FX: Factored-out a few address masks in the memory read and write handlers.

 

PC-FX: Replaced most of the V810 signed-variable bit-size converting code that uses conditional branches to code that uses 2 shifts, taking advantage of modern 2's-complement CPU's arithmetic right-shift capabilities. It reduces generated machine code size slightly, and should provide a slight speed boost as well.

 

PC-FX: Optimized V810 address mode decoding by removing an unnecessary conditional jump.

 

Added an important warning to the documentation regarding Mednafen's ripped CD image support:

 

Mednafen does *not* correct bit errors in the user data of "raw" data track rips. It is strongly recommended to use "cooked" data track rips(2048 bytes/sector for mode 1, not counting any subchannel data) with Mednafen.

 

PC-FX: Improved exception handling, and added untested emulation of the TRAP instruction.

 

Debugger: Rewrote the memory load and dump functions to be faster, and also to fix a bug in the load function that would trash memory if the user tried to load more data than the specified file contained.

 

Debugger: Using the Goto function will no longer cause memory edit mode to be exited.

 

Debugger: Fixed a bug that occurred when entering a prompt(goto, change charset, etc.) while in editing mode, that caused keyboard focus to be misdirected.

 

SexyAL: The ALSA driver will try to set smaller period sizes when lower playback rates are used.

 

GBA: Changed the heuristics used to detect SRAM/Flash usage, though they're still not perfect...if a game tries to use flash memory improperly, it could be detected as using SRAM instead, or silently corrupt parts of flash memory...

 

GB: Fixed sound register initialization on reset, fixes missing sound in A Boy and His Blob

 

GB: Slightly increased the contrast of GBC colors.

 

GB: Reworked blitting of mono GB colors for future features.

 

GB: Removed a redeclaration of a variable in the same scope in a function in gfx.cpp.

 

Debugger: Fixed PCE VRAM breakpoints to work with block memory transfer instructions.

 

Debugger: Fixed parsing of single-address breakpoints after range breakpoints.

 

Mednafen will now print out SDL version information when it starts.

 

(The Win32 build will now be distributed with SDL 1.2.12)

 

Debugger: Fixed -/+ opacity adjustment to not be done when entering text(such as in a dialog).

 

Debugger: Fixed null termination of the ASCII string buffer displayed in the memory watch section.

 

PCE, PC-FX: Fixed the frequency of the highest-frequency noise generation register setting, hopefully!

 

PCE, PC-FX: Changed the LFSR to 16-bit, and to use a maximized tap configuration, to make the noise sound a bit closer to a real PC Engine's(at least, in my opinion! It still sounds slightly more bassy than a real PC Engine, but that might be due to filters on the PC Engine's sound output...).

 

Non-power-of-2-sized-textures will not be used when a pixel shader is selected and enabled, to prevent a severe graphical corruption regression introduced in 0.8.3-beta. I'm not sure if it's a problem with Mednafen's pixel shaders or the graphics card...

 

SMS: Fixed soft reset.

 

SexyAL: Removed smallc.c, and modified the OSS driver to use snprintf() instead of the single function smallc.c provided.

 

SexyAL: "sexyal.h" is now included before all other header files.

 

SexyAL: Revamped parts of the ALSA driver to fix reported lockup issues under certain conditions.

>> Get it HERE.

Gameboy, Gameboy Color and Super Gameboy emulator

V2.03 (2007-9-10)

-----

Many thanks to Toshi for providing the good dumps and the information about MMM01 to me.

 

-New games supported:

* Support MMM01. Momotarou Collection 2 and Taito Variety Pack is now playable.

* Mortal Kombat I & II (U).

- Bugs fixed:

* Cheat is now work again. This bug was introduced since V1.54.

>> Get it HERE.

GBA emulator

This release includes fixes to the line coincidence interrupts, EEPROM and FlashROM allocation, and several BIOS routines that have been causing memory corruption. The debugger has got a new GBA-specific view and several bugfixes that have been due for a long time.

 

Both VGBA-Windows and VGBA-MSDOS use 640x480 display mode now and include much better TV scanline simulation. I have also added a "soft video" mode that smoothes over pixelized edges.

 

VGBA-Symbian has also got a new "Fill&Soften" zoom mode, screen orientation and backlight controls. Several important bugs affecting VGBA-Symbian stability have been fixed, so it should be much more stable now.

 

New in This Version

 

* Fixed line coincidence bit not being cleared with each new scanline. This made Treasure Planet dialogs work.

* Fixed inline WRdARM() function to read from serial EEPROM.

* Fixed a memory corruption bug in the SoftReset() and RegisterRAMReset() routines. Lufia no longer crashes after a quick-save.

* Moved FlashROM and EEPROM memory allocation to ResetGBA() where it belongs.

* Now preserving debugger breakpoint settings when loading state.

* Now locking keyboard processing when inside built-in configuration menu or debugger.

* Added GBA-specific debugger view (press [N] in debugger).

* Added new, much better, scanline simulation and video softening effects to VGBA-Windows.

* VGBA-Windows full-screen mode now runs in 640x480 resolution.

* Now switching sound off when entering built-in menu in VGBA-Windows. This mainly affects melodic sound mode (i.e. MIDI).

* VGBA-MSDOS now runs in 640x480x15bpp VESA screen mode when -zoom or -tv options used, otherwise it runs in 320x200x15bpp screen mode.

* Added new "Fill & Soften" zoom mode to VGBA-Symbian. It is rather slow though.

* Added screen orientation and backlight controls to VGBA-Symbian.

* Fixed possible source of instabilities in the S60 open file dialog in VGBA-Symbian.

* Fixed exit via Symbian-specific menu.

* Fixed premature termination of the emulation thread when exiting VGBA-Symbian, soundtrack recording and config saving work again.

* VGBA-Symbian signed with a new certificate, as the old one has expired.

>> Purchase it HERE.

Front End

ML TNG Release Notes

----------------------------------------

September 10th, 2007

Beta u24 Released

 

- Added browser launch integration. While using COMPLETE DATA CHECK (F3), ML will use your default browser to open up an information page. The options available are mapped to: F5 = HISTORY.DAT Edit Page or MESS Sysinfo Page (depending on what you are using), F6 = MARP High Score Page and F7 = MAWS Information Page. ML does not detect if you have internet connected or not and will blindly attempt to open a browser.

 

- Cleaned up the mess that was created on screen when loading fonts. All characters are now plotted directly into the buffer rather than put on the screen first, then captured.

 

- Added a major improvement to MESS usage - File Selection. You can now pre-select an image to use with MESS! This was done mostly for the cartridge-based systems which will not run without a file. When you select a system, [right SHIFT + ENTER] to bring up the File Selection. Based on the system you choose, you will get a choice as to which device/media type to load (cart, flop, etc). You can simply hit TAB to return to your last system selection. F11 (Randomize) has been enabled here to allow you to randomly pick a file/folder.

 

- Fixed ability to use filenames containing a space when selected for an option (For instance: "-effect scanlines 50.png" will now work).

 

- Updated resource.ml with the new -REFRESHSPEED command introduced in 0.118u5.

>> Get it HERE.