Colecovision! New (pre-alpha) Release Of Gp2xmess

[telengard]

Hi everyone,

This version has support for the Colecovision console. After wrestling w/ the Atari 7800 emulation all last week I was beginning to get a little dissapointed. The coleco emulation however, is quite good. I played some Carnival and Donkey Kong (very difficult without a 4-way joystick btw) and they play at close to 100% w/ the default settings. I had to fix some video issues w/ centering and an xmess bug w/ the file selection dialog, but it's looking quite good.

Until I get a virtual keyboard going, you will have to map buttons to what you'd like. It's quite easy and works well. I added sync calls after running gp2xmess so your config files are sure to be saved. By default I have mapped the '1' in coleco to the gp2x's Start button in coleco.cfg.

I also did a fair amount of performance related stuff. After running gprof on the Atari 7800 driver it seems that the core emulation of this system is what keeps it from running full-speed. I eliminated video and input as being the culprits. Running with a null blit routine did nothing to improve performance so that says a lot.

However, with the performance tweaks I did make and a willingness to overclock it isn't too shabby for some games. Ballblazer is not there, but Asteroids is very playable and runs over 90% when overclocked to 248 (or whatever the LCD tuning thing does). I will add the ability to overclock within gp2xmess soon. I'm not giving up on the Atari 7800, just going to put it to the side for a little while. It runs ok enough for me though when overclocked. Please give the Atari 7800 some love.

As requested by someone in the last thread I improved the initial file selection dialog w/ sorting by name, cwd, etc. I bet though most of you will want to run the coleco driver which doesn't need the initial fs dialog. Just hit the left shoulder button for the menu, choose "file selector", and pick your cart.

Here's a pic of Donkey Kong, the Coleco's "killer app" running on the gp2x (what a bad digital camera I have)

See the changelog for details of what's changed, and I'm still looking for some feedback on the readme.

You can grab everything from here.

http://users.adelphia.net/~bsturk/gp2x.html

When I get some spare cycles I'll open an account on http://archive.gp2x.de/ and start putting releases there too.

It's going on 3am so I have my fingers crossed that this release will have no issues (as far as running etc) like the last release.

So, should I take a poll of which driver to tackle next? I know a few folks have mentioned the TI 99/4A. That one needs some work as it locks up on startup on the gp2x. The vectrex was mentioned too. Maybe I'll put up a poll tomorrow so see where the interest is...

Enjoy and please let me know how it's working for you!
~telengard

 

[nubie]

The vectrex was mentioned too. Maybe I'll put up a poll tomorrow so see where the interest is...

​

Vectrex, definitely, I need it to impress my friends who own 2 original units.

Anyone who tries this please try it with the TV-out cable too if you have one and the 1.2.0 firmware.

 

[ingrin]

iS APPLE ii family supported? I know that would mean the most to me, but I understand the Apple II doesn't have a huge following. Also many Apple II games are available on the C64, and we already have Frodo. I just have to acclamate myself to the different keyboard layout...
But man, I could use some Aztec and Rescue Raiders right about now...

 

[nubie]

iS APPLE ii family supported? I know that would mean the most to me, but I understand the Apple II doesn't have a huge following. Also many Apple II games are available on the C64, and we already have Frodo. I just have to acclamate myself to the different keyboard layout...
But man, I could use some Aztec and Rescue Raiders right about now...

​

I really dig playing montezuma's revenge on the atari800 emu (I first played that game on the Apple //c and //e at school.)

If you are into that stuff the Lode Runner that *comes with* the atari800 emu is really fun too.

 

[ingrin]

iS APPLE ii family supported?  I know that would mean the most to me, but I understand the Apple II doesn't have a huge following.  Also many Apple II games are available on the C64, and we already have Frodo.  I just have to acclamate myself to the different keyboard layout...
But man, I could use some Aztec and Rescue Raiders right about now...

​

I really dig playing montezuma's revenge on the atari800 emu (I first played that game on the Apple //c and //e at school.)

If you are into that stuff the Lode Runner that *comes with* the atari800 emu is really fun too.

​

I loved both, actually. need to DL the 800 emu and check them out...

 

[Belgarath]

Just had a try of this and here are my initial thoughts

File selector is much better, although it looks a little strange because it doesn't list folders first and files second (or the other way round if preferred)

also with the mess rom selector when selecting a new game it starts at the top and you have to scroll down several lines before reaching the games themselves, if it wrapped around so by pressing up you reach the games quicker that would be great.

Atari 7800 emulation is actually pretty good overclocked to 250 although still not quite full speed.

Atari 2600 emulation is incredibly slow even at 250, we have stella so i don't think theres much point working on the 2600

ColecoVision at 250 was excellent and definitely looked fullspeed, now and again I seemed to notice some strange sprite flicerking though.

Keep up the excellent work!

 

[Eolair]

Yes! Thank you so much for working on this!! I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am. I just donated $5 too I'm going to try this right NOW

Edit: Btw, about the 4-way problem. If you haven't done so already maybe you could try DaveC's case 5 setup:

Case 5 simulates an unbiased 4-way stick and works pretty well for 4-way games. But if you use it you would need a menu item to switch to 8-way config for 8-way games. (For 8-way games case 2 is arguably the best config btw).

If you need help with the code take a look at the source code for the gp2x joystick config tester: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=23980&hl=

Edit: I've tried a few games now. It plays very well. Donkey Kong, Mr Do! and Pepper II rule! The joystick is a bit tricky but that can be fixed or maybe I just need some practice

 

[remowilliams]

Enjoy and please let me know how it's working for you!
~telengard

​

This is great, nice work so far!

iS APPLE ii family supported? I know that would mean the most to me, but I understand the Apple II doesn't have a huge following. Also many Apple II games are available on the C64, and we already have Frodo. I just have to acclamate myself to the different keyboard layout...
But man, I could use some Aztec and Rescue Raiders right about now...

​

I too would like to see Apple II emulation. I'm partial to TI99/4A though

MESS does do a nice Apple II, but telengard would have to add it in to his port.

 

[telengard]

The vectrex was mentioned too. Maybe I'll put up a poll tomorrow so see where the interest is...

​

Vectrex, definitely, I need it to impress my friends who own 2 original units.

Anyone who tries this please try it with the TV-out cable too if you have one and the 1.2.0 firmware.

​

I'd like to know how this looks too.

~telengard

 

[telengard]

iS APPLE ii family supported? I know that would mean the most to me, but I understand the Apple II doesn't have a huge following. Also many Apple II games are available on the C64, and we already have Frodo. I just have to acclamate myself to the different keyboard layout...
But man, I could use some Aztec and Rescue Raiders right about now...

​

Nope not yet, tried firing that one up but it crashes pretty quick on startup. Will need some work.

Heh, the Apple ][ is a big deal to me too. I love Oregon Trail, Cavern Creatures, Choplifter (best on the apple), Loderunner (again best on apple IMO 2 buttons!!).

~telengard

 

[telengard]

Just had a try of this and here are my initial thoughts

File selector is much better, although it looks a little strange because it doesn't list folders first and files second (or the other way round if preferred)

Hmm, I didn't notice that but I will check that out. I am sorting by name but can also sort by dir too.

also with the mess rom selector when selecting a new game it starts at the top and you have to scroll down several lines before reaching the games themselves, if it wrapped around so by pressing up you reach the games quicker that would be great.

Yep, that would be nice. I'll add that to the TODO, not sure what it would entail though.

Atari 7800 emulation is actually pretty good overclocked to 250 although still not quite full speed.

Yeah I'm finding it pretty decent. I'd still like to optimize it though. I was hoping some of the more straightforward things to try would help (hw accel, gcc opts, etc) but most of the bottlenecks are int the 6502, maria, and a7800 irq code. Doesn't mean I won't try and make it better though.
I did read that Dan Boris, the fella who did this code claim that it's quite slow.

Atari 2600 emulation is incredibly slow even at 250, we have stella so i don't think theres much point working on the 2600

Yeah, I think I'm going to remove the startup script for now. I was playing with it. I think part of the massive slow down is the 2x stretch horizontally. HW accel SDL might help with that. But as you said Stella is coming along very nicely.

ColecoVision at 250 was excellent and definitely looked fullspeed, now and again I seemed to notice some strange sprite flicerking though.

A good way to test is to map a button in gp2xmess to toggle showing FPS. I usually map it to the right shoulder. This allowed me to see if there was an effective speed-up/down after making changes. Going by my ears/eyes can be a bad idea at 2am.

Without overclocking and the default fs it was very close to 100%

Keep up the excellent work!

​

thanks for the great feedback!
~telengard

 

[telengard]

Yes! Thank you so much for working on this!! I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am. I just donated $5 too I'm going to try this right NOW

Awesome and thanks! Glad to see someone diggin' the Coleco. I always wanted one as a kid, I had a 2600 and had coleco envy. Venture was so close to the arcade version compared the Atari 2600. I'm not sure if I'll ever get over that.

Edit: Btw, about the 4-way problem. If you haven't done so already maybe you could try DaveC's case 5 setup:

<snip image>

Case 5 simulates an unbiased 4-way stick and works pretty well for 4-way games. But if you use it you would need a menu item to switch to 8-way config for 8-way games. (For 8-way games case 2 is arguably the best config btw).

If you need help with the code take a look at the source code for the gp2x joystick config tester: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=23980&hl=

I've been following this stuff a lot. I will put this in the TODO for sure.

Edit: I've tried a few games now. It plays very well. Donkey Kong, Mr Do! and Pepper II rule! The joystick is a bit tricky but that can be fixed or maybe I just need some practice

​

Hehe, pepper II was the game I was playtesting a while back. Love that game! Even w/ the arcade version the handling can be a little tricky and I'm using a 4-way on a mame cabinet.

PS How do I go about getting stuff posted to the front page? Maybe stating that gp2xmess has a new release w/ improved Atari 7800 support and support for the Colecovision. Or are alpha releases not to be put on the front page?

~telengard

 

[Eolair]

Awesome and thanks!  Glad to see someone diggin' the Coleco.  I always wanted one as a kid, I had a 2600 and had coleco envy.  Venture was so close to the arcade version compared the Atari 2600.  I'm not sure if I'll ever get over that.   

Colecovision was my second console (first being a SD-050 pong clone). I still remember my friends' envy The games were awfully expensive though. I never had more than 10 or so. And I never owned Venture but I used to rent it ever so often. It was a fantastic game on the Coleco. Almost like the real arcade

PS How do I go about getting stuff posted to the front page?  Maybe stating that gp2xmess has a new release w/ improved Atari 7800 support and support for the Colecovision.   Or are alpha releases not to be put on the front page?

~telengard

​

I think EvilDragon decides that himself. Maybe pm him and ask him. Otherwise I think you should submit release news like this one in the "News zone" section. I think it's more likely to be noticed that way. (Since it has to be approved by a mod before it's actually posted).

 

[remowilliams]

Yes! Thank you so much for working on this!! I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am. I just donated $5 too I'm going to try this right NOW

Awesome and thanks! Glad to see someone diggin' the Coleco. I always wanted one as a kid, I had a 2600 and had coleco envy. Venture was so close to the arcade version compared the Atari 2600. I'm not sure if I'll ever get over that.

~telengard

​

Just got more time and played a bunch of Coleco games - looking brilliant!

 

[Alpha2]

Vectrex? YES PLEASE.

I've been trying to get Mess runing on PC and it seems to refuse to notice the full set of vectrex roms sitting in it's belly. Coleco..man it's been so long, I'm almost frightened to play it again., does it support Coleco Adam games aswell?

 

[telengard]

Vectrex? YES PLEASE.

I've been trying to get Mess runing on PC and it seems to refuse to notice the full set of vectrex roms sitting in it's belly. Coleco..man it's been so long, I'm almost frightened to play it again., does it support Coleco Adam games aswell?

​

Not yet, but I do plan on adding support for it. I need to get the virtual keyboard stuff done for that. What good Coleco Adam games were there? I only remember Buck Rodgers tape I think. Don't be afraid of the Coleco, it won't hurt... unless you fear Smurfs.

~telengard