Fba V0.2.97.24 For Caanoo

[dbr9]

I can't load any pce game.

rom is available in list but i've a load error message.

 

[freccia72]

Hi,

First of all thanks to Dave18 for the port, which looks very promising and already has some great work behind it, as I learn from the thread about the Pandora version. Many thanks to BAFElton too, whose donation made this project feasible to start with.

You can force vertical shooters to stay horizontal on the rotate options. If you do this fire 1 and 2 will remap to the home buttons and coin/start to the X and B buttons.

If I may ask, I've noticed that the rotation option in Capex doesn't seem to do anything (i.e. vertical shooters remain oriented in landscape regardless choosing "Horizontal", "Vertical" or "Auto"). I'm on FW 1.6.1, if that can help. Did anyone else notice and, if so, could it be an emulator or a frontend problem? Is there a commandline parameter to change screen orientation?

Thanks for your reply.

@Dave18: keep up the good work! Really, this project made me dust off my Caanoo after more than a year left untouched and I would love to see it further developed. Not meaning to put any pressure, but would you consider accepting donations as with the Pandora version, just for a little extra motivation? I, for one, would be more than willing to donate right from the start, as having an up-to-date FBA on the Caanoo is a great achievement already.

 

[mats158]

If I may ask, I've noticed that the rotation option in Capex doesn't seem to do anything (i.e. vertical shooters remain oriented in landscape regardless choosing "Horizontal", "Vertical" or "Auto"). I'm on FW 1.6.1, if that can help. Did anyone else notice and, if so, could it be an emulator or a frontend problem? Is there a commandline parameter to change screen orientation?
e than willing to donate right from the start, as having an up-to-date FBA on the Caanoo is a great achievement already.

Hi freccia72,

Rotation in Capex/FBA works pretty fine. I use it with DonPachi and DoDonPachi. Just Press "II" to change rom configuration and select "Horizontal" for Rotate. Use "Save FBA2x settings for <romname>.cf" to save your changes and launch the game with its configuration.

 

[freccia72]

Thanks mats158, you're right. Moreover, Capex stores per-game configurations in <parent rom zipname>.cf, which affects all clones of the same rom as well: handy.

On a different note, did anyone try this?

Playing NeoGeo games in console (AES) mode and/or with the UNIVERSE BIOS (thanks to original poster Manjuu)

I remember it worked on GP2X/Wiz. Will try and report once back from work.

Bye,
freccia72

EDIT:
Tested yesterday, it works.

 

[zsonance]

You guys will have to forgive me for not being extremely tech-y, but

How is this version different from the port that Reesy made? Do certain games run that wouldn't on his port? Do they run smoother and faster?

 

[freccia72]

Ok, I'll try to explain as best as I can.

This version is a port of the Open Pandora version, also by Dave18, which is based on the latest an updated version of FBA for Windows. Theoretically, it supports the same games as this last one (more than 5500, including Megadrive and PC Engine); practically, only arcade games (about 2800 games) run - unless i'm doing something wrong with md and pce - and not all of them: some (for example, CPS3 and larger Neo Geo roms) don't run on Caanoo due to insufficient RAM (but they obviously do on Pandora). Games that work, however, run reasonably smooth (CPS1/2, Neo Geo, Cave, Toaplan) or pretty slow (Sega).

I didn't test Reesy's port (the download link is down: could someone please upload it to OpenHandhelds, if only for archival purposes?) but I do know it is based on the GP2X version beta 7.3 by HeadOverHeels, which supports roms (arcade only, about 920 games) from FBA for windows ver. 0.2.96.72 (dating back to 2007/2008), except for Neo Geo games, which are from ver. 0.2.96.85 (=MAME 0.125u6).

I was an enthusiast user of the GP2X/Wiz version and I remember that, out of the games supported in theory, only roughly 690 did work: forum member bman did a great job sorting them out and you can still find the results of his work here. Compared to the Caanoo ports, this one is still the only version able to run the more RAM-hungry games, because it uses a caching system similar to the one implemented in the Neo Geo and CPS2 emus.

I don't know if Reesy's port had this feature too but, if it did, I would advise Dave have a look at it to see if he can implement it in his port.

 

[mats158]

On a different note, did anyone try this?

Playing NeoGeo games in console (AES) mode and/or with the UNIVERSE BIOS (thanks to original poster Manjuu)

I remember it worked on GP2X/Wiz. Will try and report once back from work.

Bye,
freccia72

EDIT:
Tested yesterday, it works.

Hi freccia72, what is the difference playing NeoGeo in console (AES) vs arcade (MVS) mode ?

Cheers.
mats158

 

[freccia72]

Well, when playing in AES mode you don't have to insert credits by pressing II (although some games give you limited credits anyway) and you can set the difficulty level at the start of a game.
BTW, Unibios also lets you set the game region (EU, US or JP), which affects language and graphics in some games (i.e. blood colour in Metal Slug, censorship in certain Samurai Shodown titles).
Finally, you can also use cheats or listen to the sound test (jukebox) on the selected game.
Unlike Gngeo, FBA doesn't save unibios settings (the same goes for service mode settings in non-Neo Geo games), so you will have to adjust them every time you load a game.

 

[freccia72]

On the other hand, the TV out works perfectly and the USB controllers (so maybe we can replace picodrive for megadrive now).

How did you manage to make USB controllers work? Thanks in advance.

Sorry for double posting, I was just too curious.

 

[Cory]

How did you manage to make USB controllers work? Thanks in advance.

Sorry for double posting, I was just too curious.

Actually I did nothing special, just select the USB mode from the options Caanoo connect my USB control, start the emulator and that was it

 

[Dave18]

I've updated to v1.2 on openhandhelds. Don't know when it will show up as I believe some manual intervention is required.

I've also uploaded to google drive here

Changes:
Gone from SDL to frame buffer access, not sure if it will be any faster but worth a try I thought. Hopefully this won't break TV out.
Input is also changed from SDL, hopefully this won't affect USB joysticks.

Fixes:
IREM drivers are now working (at least R-Type is), not very fast unfortunately.
Fixed loading of Megadrive/Pc Engine roms
Shoulder buttons skip to the next letter in CAPEX
Holding down B in CAPEX allow for faster scrolling

 

[yoshi41dragon]

Hey Dave. Thanks for this version.

Scaling performance has improved a lot. The new scrolling options are great too.

I still have random freezes after loading a ROM.

Bigger ROMs like MS3/4/5/X still abend with malloc errors. Do you think there is something you can do about this ?

Scaling is now pretty fast and also pretty much required by CPS1 games for example. Filtering seems to be still basic, I hope this can be improved as well.

Keep up your good work. FBA is the best emulator on the Pandora IMHO. B)

 

[dbr9]

thanks for release

i'm trying to load PCE game final match tennis using fba FB Alpha v0.2.97.24 rom (renamed with pce_)

but after load (no more error message with this version like changelog) : black screen and nothing happened.

thanks for help.

 

[Cory]

Thanks, thanks, really thanks for the update . Is awesome, there are a lot of improvements in speed, the games run fine even with scaler set to full, tv out still works ok. the usb controllers don't work anymore if is the only way to make the emulator better is ok once again really thanks for the update

Edit:

I tried the same games as before http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/63086-fba-v0-2-97-24-for-caanoo/page__view__findpost__p__965967 and are at the same FPS the difference is that before they ran with scale none and now run with scale set to full the games with problems like snow bros 2, aliens, and bigger roms like street fighter III still have the same problems

 

[damianiw]

Will this work on the wiz

 

[MrRetrostage]

CPS1:

Forgotten Worlds: 60 FPS
Ghouls n' Ghosts: 60 FPS

Agree.

CPS2:

- 1944 - the loop master: 60 FPS
- Capcom Sports Club: 60 FPS
- Mighty! Pang: 60 FPS
- Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter: 60 FPS (short drops to 53-55 FPS)
- Marvel vs Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes: 60 FPS (short drops to < 50 FPS)
- X-Men vs Street Fighter: 60 FPS
- Street Fighter Alpha 1: 60 FPS
- Street Fighter Alpha 2: 60 FPS (short drops to 55-57 FPS)
- Street Fighter Alpha 3: 60 FPS (short drops to 55-57 FPS)
- Hyper Street Fighter 2: The Anniversary Edition (only Japanese version works): 60 FPS
- Progear: drops to 40 FPS

Hmmm, that's the thing I does not understand: FBA sometimes works flawlessly and sometimes, there a lot of graphical issues (sprites with glitches, wrong colours or sometimes there is even no image! All with the same configs! Sometimes with scaling, sometimes without. It's infuriating! Then, I have the right config, play a while and if I restart the game, the glitches are back.

What can I do? I use the v1.2.

 

[Akabei]

Did you give the CPS2 emulator a try? It might be a little complicated(e.g. only the brazilian version of Street Fighter Alpha 3 works), but it's worth the time, if you really want to play the games on your caanoo. There's(almost) always a way to play the games on your caanoo, but it can get really complex.

 

[MrRetrostage]

Thanks a lot for your suggestion. I just tested the emulator and it runs fine (~30 FPS). Everything worked till I understood making the cache files...

Why is only the brazilian version working?

 

[MrRetrostage]

Am I right that there are currently no save state features in FBA?

Where is the main benefit in using FBA instead of MAME4All + CPS2?

 

[geise69]

Am I right that there are currently no save state features in FBA?

Where is the main benefit in using FBA instead of MAME4All + CPS2?

There's quite a few games that are playable in FBA that are not added in MAME since it's based off of a really old build (around v0.36 or something). Also certain games like the Taoplan shooters are much smoother and require less overclocking. However FBA doesn't emulate certain games that are in MAME like the Konami X-Men or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.