Gp2xpectrum

[hercules]

I would like to ask Hermes or Metalbrain if their are any plans in the pipeline to fix the tzx support in gp2xpectrum.

Only the first block is loaded with any tzx file, and I would love to be able to listen to my tapes loading up again via tzx images. Their must be some developer stuff for Linux somewhere to fix the tzx stuff ?

I found a second bug with regard to the kempston joystick compatability; some games address the kempston interface port differently, which makes for incompatability with a few games. You can test
this by loading Jack The Nipper 2 - Cocunut Capers, and choosing Kempston joystick.

Thanks for the efforts on this emulator; I eagerly await the fixes to tzx support.

aMiGaJuNkIe :rolleyes:

 

[dosteridge]

I seem to remember metalbrain saying, in a thread a long time ago, that he did not have any plans to incorporate tzx support.

But you never know

 

[euro48k]

i second that ..and again the trd support for more zx-demo-scene fun

 

[hercules]

I seem to remember metalbrain saying, in a thread a long time ago, that he did not have any plans to incorporate tzx support.

But you never know

Let's hope either the source get's made available so others can add these features, or metalbrain changes his mind and adds tzx support. It would be however a great shame if the author abandoned the project; the emulator is near perfect and certainly the best on the gp2x )

 

[rlyeh]

I found a second bug with regard to the kempston joystick compatability; some games address the kempston interface port differently, which makes for incompatability with a few games. You can test
this by loading Jack The Nipper 2 - Cocunut Capers, and choosing Kempston joystick.

Thanks for the efforts on this emulator; I eagerly await the fixes to tzx support.

aMiGaJuNkIe :rolleyes:

I found that issue with jack2+kempston while coding fZX32 (which is derivated gp2xpectrum from).
But... are you sure is not a bug in the game? has anyone tried it in a real spectrum?
I tell you this because I have found no PC emulator able to map kempston joystick with jack the nipper 2.

 

[hercules]

I found a second bug with regard to the kempston joystick compatability; some games address the kempston interface port differently, which makes for incompatability with a few games. You can test
this by loading Jack The Nipper 2 - Cocunut Capers, and choosing Kempston joystick.

Thanks for the efforts on this emulator; I eagerly await the fixes to tzx support.

aMiGaJuNkIe :rolleyes:

I found that issue with jack2+kempston while coding fZX32 (which is derivated gp2xpectrum from).
But... are you sure is not a bug in the game? has anyone tried it in a real spectrum?
I tell you this because I have found no PC emulator able to map kempston joystick with jack the nipper 2.


Hello

Some emulators address the kempston joystick in only one way.

You are correct no PC emulator is able to map the kempston joystick with Jack The Nipper 2. However, if you were to test it with Ian Greenways ASp (Amiga Spectrum Emulator), his emulator has two different ways of addressing the joystick port for problem games such as this (via normal and Smart Kempston joystick) which fixes those problems.

AFAIK, their are also some games which actually address the kempston joystick differently on a real Spectrum too, which is why some non branded kempston interfaces don't work. This is why ASp gives too options to address the kempston port.

 

[rlyeh]

I found a second bug with regard to the kempston joystick compatability; some games address the kempston interface port differently, which makes for incompatability with a few games. You can test
this by loading Jack The Nipper 2 - Cocunut Capers, and choosing Kempston joystick.

Thanks for the efforts on this emulator; I eagerly await the fixes to tzx support.

aMiGaJuNkIe :rolleyes:

I found that issue with jack2+kempston while coding fZX32 (which is derivated gp2xpectrum from).
But... are you sure is not a bug in the game? has anyone tried it in a real spectrum?
I tell you this because I have found no PC emulator able to map kempston joystick with jack the nipper 2.


Hello

Some emulators address the kempston joystick in only one way.

You are correct no PC emulator is able to map the kempston joystick with Jack The Nipper 2. However, if you were to test it with Ian Greenways ASp (Amiga Spectrum Emulator), his emulator has two different ways of addressing the joystick port for problem games such as this (via normal and Smart Kempston joystick) which fixes those problems.

AFAIK, their are also some games which actually address the kempston joystick differently on a real Spectrum too, which is why some non branded kempston interfaces don't work. This is why ASp gives too options to address the kempston port.


ok got it, its an easy fix
any other issue to fix? (apart from tzx/russian/trdos which I'll add asap)

 

[stevepb_uk]

QUOTE

ok got it, its an easy fix
any other issue to fix? (apart from tzx/russian/trdos which I'll add asap)


Hi,

The only other issue I have noticed is with the Spectrum 128k sound. It seems a bit dodgie. It would be great if it could be fixed.

Thanks

Steve

 

[euro48k]

@ryleh

fZX32 is coming to gp2x ???
this is great great great news
tell us more please

 

[WhizzBang]

any other issue to fix? (apart from tzx/russian/trdos which I'll add asap)

On GP2xpectrum, you cannot map the 'Y' key and I have found that once I have saved a key config, if I want to change it my new saved config is not saved. The only way to change the key config is to delete the existing config and then make a new one.

I have loads of suggestions as to how I would like the Spectrum emulator to improve (mostly menu and config things as emulation is great as it is) but I shall hold back for now as these things seem to be the stuff emu authors/porters hate doing.

 

[Metalbrain]

I would like to ask Hermes or Metalbrain if their are any plans in the pipeline to fix the tzx support in gp2xpectrum.

Thanks for the efforts on this emulator; I eagerly await the fixes to tzx support.

I'm looking into adding zx4all's tzx support.

I seem to remember metalbrain saying, in a thread a long time ago, that he did not have any plans to incorporate tzx support.

Could you quote me on that? I think I said I had no plans for pentagon/trdos support, because there were more important issues, such as tzx support and improving sound pending. OTOH, I might have said I had no current plans to do it.

On GP2xpectrum, you cannot map the 'Y' key and I have found that once I have saved a key config, if I want to change it my new saved config is not saved. The only way to change the key config is to delete the existing config and then make a new one.

I have this one already fixed, and I'm trying to improve the interrupt handling to fix some timing issues before I make another release, but it will be soon.

(apart from tzx/russian/trdos which I'll add asap)

OMFG! You will? Maybe I should wait before I try to integrate tzx support myself.

 

[dosteridge]

I seem to remember metalbrain saying, in a thread a long time ago, that he did not have any plans to incorporate tzx support.

Could you quote me on that? I think I said I had no plans for pentagon/trdos support, because there were more important issues, such as tzx support and improving sound pending. OTOH, I might have said I had no current plans to do it.

Quite probably correct, like I said it was a long time ago. My apologises if I have misrepresented you :unsure:

 

[rlyeh]

OMFG! You will? Maybe I should wait before I try to integrate tzx support myself.

I have this one already fixed, and I'm trying to improve the interrupt handling to fix some timing issues before I make another release, but it will be soon.

Yeah I will.
However, I think it will be easier if you finish first the interrupt handling and those timing issues (which ones btw?), then I add the missing bits into gp2xpectrum (probably I'll change quite a few things since adding pentagon/scorpion, trd/scl/tzx/csw support etc is not a trivial task)

Btw, do you want me to fix the sound?

 

[Metalbrain]

OMFG! You will? Maybe I should wait before I try to integrate tzx support myself.

I have this one already fixed, and I'm trying to improve the interrupt handling to fix some timing issues before I make another release, but it will be soon.

Yeah I will.
However, I think it will be easier if you finish first the interrupt handling and those timing issues (which ones btw?), then I add the missing bits into gp2xpectrum (probably I'll change quite a few things since adding pentagon/scorpion, trd/scl/tzx/csw support etc is not a trivial task)

I'm mainly concerned about failures with fine-tuning tests such as Patrick Rak's timing program and Philip Kendall's fusetest. More tests can be found in this topic.

In Patrick Rak's one, I get a frame time measure of 69887 states instead of 69888 for the 48k model, and the source code states:

CODE

.int ; 20T+ (1T+ is ULA offset, 19T IM2 handling)
inc sp; 26T+
inc sp; 32T+
ei ; 36T+
ret ; 46T+
.intend



I don't know yet what that "ULA offset" means.

And I've been looking into interruption handling, and so far GP2Xpectrum isn't handling the interrupt delay caused by the EI instruction or the double interruption case (more info here). I'm not sure if any of those will affect the wrong timing observed by those tests or the demos such as overscan.

Btw, do you want me to fix the sound?

Of course!

 

[Metalbrain]

In Patrick Rak's one, I get a frame time measure of 69887 states instead of 69888 for the 48k model,

I've already fixed this one, it wasn't related to interruptions, but HALT taking 8 states instead of 4. Now there's only one test failing in fusetest.

 

[rlyeh]

In Patrick Rak's one, I get a frame time measure of 69887 states instead of 69888 for the 48k model,

I've already fixed this one, it wasn't related to interruptions, but HALT taking 8 states instead of 4. Now there's only one test failing in fusetest.


Hey great work

When I added multicolor effects to fzx32 I knew I would have to adjust the ULA/CPU timing-perfect nightmare at some further point. Thankful god you came from darkness and fixed it quickly. You 've done a good work on timing indeed. Congratulations

So back to our nearly-perfect emulator, what's the current status with other battery tests like floatspy, float48k, qaop's zxtest, zexall, etc?

 

[Metalbrain]

Hey great work

When I added multicolor effects to fzx32 I knew I would have to adjust the ULA/CPU timing-perfect nightmare at some further point. Thankful god you came from darkness and fixed it quickly. You 've done a good work on timing indeed. Congratulations

So back to our nearly-perfect emulator, what's the current status with other battery tests like floatspy, float48k, qaop's zxtest, zexall, etc?

Still fails. I get good results with Patrick's timing tests, and Jan Bobrowski's ULA Test 3 shows nice contention timing, but bad floating bus emulation. After displacing 4 tstates the beginning of floating bus table, all ULA Test 3, fusetest and floatspy works.

But Aquaplane's right border doesn't behave well since I fixed interrupt timings (it was taking too much time before), so there's something else going on. And overscan and other demos are still wrong.

As for zexall, it isn't related to timing, just flags behaviour, and version 1.3 of GP2Xpectrum already passed it.

I'll probably make a release tomorrow.

 

[rlyeh]

Looking forward to your release

 

[Retroid]

So am I!

Spectrum = my second fave 8bit computer

 

[karmaKid]

So am I!

Spectrum = my second fave 8bit computer

I'm just entering the GP2X world, as I've just ordered an F200 for Xmas, and I'd like to thank Metal for all his hard work in getting a quality emulator on the GP2X.

I'm really looking forward to giving it a shot.

BTW, is the F200 D-pad any better for games where running along diagonals are involved, such as Atic Attack?

Also, will I be able to use a USB keyboard with the EMU via the cradle I've ordered?