Lemonboy2x Emu

[DaveC]

I use standard sort routines. Maybe the strange sorting is due to the original case of the filename? In this case, 'Zelda' comes before 'mario' It is only an idea, I'll check it out. Thanks!

I noticed for example that I only have 1 rom shown for "H". When I look at the directory I have 16. I don't notice any weird characters. Something is wacked.

Also could the preview window be on top and then the filenames below? This way you could see long filenames AND the preview.

 

[pittpens2008]

How do you install lemonboy2x?

 

[Manjuu]

How do you install lemonboy2x?

Just like almost all the other apps, first download the file; extract the contents to somewhere, and then copy the necessary folders and files anywhere (unless specified) in the SD card. To run the app, locate and launch the file that has a GPE or GPU file extension in the GP2X. Also, read the Readme file for more info.

In this case, just copy the entire "lemonboy2x" folder (you can exclude the "src" folder inside), then launch the "lemonboy2x.gpe".

EDIT: You also need to copy the ROMs to the "roms" folder.

 

[pittpens2008]

I installed the lemonboy2x with all the files except the "src" folder and it won't launch, I just get a black screen.

 

[Manjuu]

I installed the lemonboy2x with all the files except the "src" folder and it won't launch, I just get a black screen.

What is your unit's model and firmware version?


EDIT:

@juanvvc:

It's working great now. I'm using the lastest one (10/27/08). It's good that the sound issue is fixed, and the new features are nice additions.

Here are some issues that I encountered and some suggestions:

- The emulation stutters from time to time. It causes the game and sound to pause a brief moment, which is very noticable.

- If the non-gameboy buttons (i.e. menu, save state, load state, change palette) are held down, the game pauses and the sound starts to loop.

- The sound also loops whenever the confirmation for overwriting save state is on-screen.

- If the palette was changed using the "change palette" button, the current palette will get reverted back to the original one after entering and resume out of the menu.

- The "brown" palette also doesn't have a color filter, and it just reverts back to the "colorful" palette.

- The emulator crashes after loading a few dozen or so ROMs, and the sound would also die. (You already mentioned about this though.)

- The filenames in the "save" folder would become shorter if the ROM filenames contains a '.' (period) in them (excluding the one for the file extension). Some of the ROMs that follow Cowering's GoodTools naming convention contains periods in them to indicate the version of the ROM. e.g. "Pokemon - Crystal Version (UE) (V1.1) [C][!].zip" would result in a save file named "Pokemon - Crystal Version (UE) (V1.sav" It would still load properly, but it might cause trouble for similarly named games or incompatible versions.

- As mentioned earlier, in Pokemon Yellow, Pikachu's voice is broken.

- In Megaman Xtreme 1 & 2, X's bullets would become invisible from time to time.

- It was only once, but in Heroes of Might and Magic 1 & 2, the text became gibberish. It also got stuck after the intro in HoMM 2. I'm not sure how to replicate this.

- The repeat when holding down a direction button in the menu takes too long to start.

- When the preview is enabled in the ROM selection screen, it would be nice to be able to at least see the longer filename for the currently selected one, or to be able to toggle the preview off right there to see the longer filenames then turn it back on to see the preview.

- It would be nice to have on-screen indicators when switching palettes with the "change palette" button and after saving or loading a state using the L & R buttons, as well as for the volume change.

- It also would be nice to have other options for the overwrite confirmation. It would be nice to have a confirmation for both saving and loading, as well as for loading only.

Anyway, thanks for this emulator. Keep up the good work.

 

[juanvvc]

Thanks for your great feedback, Manjuu,

The emulation stutters from time to time I noticed this, but no clue about the real problem.

If the non-gameboy buttons (i.e. menu, save state, load state, change palette) are held down, the game pauses and the sound starts to loop. The sound also loops whenever the confirmation for overwriting save state is on-screen. This is intentional, since the emulation pauses waiting for you to release the button. I can try to stop the sound while one of these buttons is pressed.

If the palette was changed using the "change palette" button, the current palette will get reverted back to the original This is intentional. When you close the menu, the emulator loads the configured game options and this includes the configured palette. I can think again this behaviour, anyway.

The "brown" palette also doesn't have a color filter Some palettes don't have effect on GBC games because I just couldn't think about any nice effect for them You can edit the file "palettes/brown" and/or define your own palette/filter. They are text files and their format is described in the CONFIG file.

The emulator crashes after loading a few dozen or so ROMs, and the sound would also die Actually, you cannot exit the emulator, but the game goes on Fortunately this bug is not as frequent as it was.

The filenames in the "save" folder would become shorter if the ROM filenames contains a '.' (period) in them OK

As mentioned earlier, in Pokemon Yellow, Pikachu's voice is broken. In Megaman Xtreme 1 & 2, X's bullets would become invisible from time to time. Lemonboy uses the PC version of Gnuboy in its core. I lack of the knowledge to tweak gnuboy in depth, so I cannot solve these little bugs for some games. Check the PC version of the emulator for these bugs. If they aren't there, it's my fault Anyway, you can try to save a specific configuration for Megaman and add a line "set sprsort 1" at the end of configs/Megaman.rc According to the original gnuboy authors, this may solve your problem.

The repeat when holding down a direction button in the menu takes too long to start. OK

it would be nice to be able to at least see the longer filename for the currently selected one, or to be able to toggle the preview off Good idea!

It would be nice to have (other) on-screen indicators (...) OK

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[DaveC]

So am I the only one having problems with the emulator displaying all of the ROMs? I have a little over 500. It just eliminates ROMs and the sorting is messed up for no good reason.

Everyone using this and have 500 ROMs or more please check to see that all of your ROMs are displayed, and in the right order.

Also it would be nice to be able to browse directories. For example one may want to break down their ROMs in sub directories like "ABC" "DEF" etc. to make easier to manage. Or one may want to have the Gameboy Color games in a different directory than the original Gameboy ROMs are.

Thanks for the great work.

 

[doc5avage]

So am I the only one having problems with the emulator displaying all of the ROMs? I have a little over 500. It just eliminates ROMs and the sorting is messed up for no good reason.

Everyone using this and have 500 ROMs or more please check to see that all of your ROMs are displayed, and in the right order.

Also it would be nice to be able to browse directories. For example one may want to break down their ROMs in sub directories like "ABC" "DEF" etc. to make easier to manage. Or one may want to have the Gameboy Color games in a different directory than the original Gameboy ROMs are.

Thanks for the great work.

I will check that all my roms are displayed when I get home.

As per the directory browsing, I believe the juanvvc has previously stated that Directory support will be added in.

 

[Manjuu]

If the non-gameboy buttons (i.e. menu, save state, load state, change palette) are held down, the game pauses and the sound starts to loop. The sound also loops whenever the confirmation for overwriting save state is on-screen. This is intentional, since the emulation pauses waiting for you to release the button. I can try to stop the sound while one of these buttons is pressed.

If the palette was changed using the "change palette" button, the current palette will get reverted back to the original This is intentional. When you close the menu, the emulator loads the configured game options and this includes the configured palette. I can think again this behaviour, anyway.


Okay, I was just wondering. Since they were intentional then it's alright. Although, it would be good if the sound could be muted during these pauses, especially on the overwrite confirmation.

The "brown" palette also doesn't have a color filter Some palettes don't have effect on GBC games because I just couldn't think about any nice effect for them You can edit the file "palettes/brown" and/or define your own palette/filter. They are text files and their format is described in the CONFIG file.


Yeah, I did open them to see why the "brown" palette didn't have any effect on colored games. It was the only palette (aside from the "colorful" palette) that didn't have any values in there for the color filters.

As mentioned earlier, in Pokemon Yellow, Pikachu's voice is broken. In Megaman Xtreme 1 & 2, X's bullets would become invisible from time to time. Lemonboy uses the PC version of Gnuboy in its core. I lack of the knowledge to tweak gnuboy in depth, so I cannot solve these little bugs for some games. Check the PC version of the emulator for these bugs. If they aren't there, it's my fault Anyway, you can try to save a specific configuration for Megaman and add a line "set sprsort 1" at the end of configs/Megaman.rc According to the original gnuboy authors, this may solve your problem.


I tried the "set sprsort 1" for both Megaman Xtreme 1 & 2, but it didn't work. The bullets still disappear on certain circumstances like when loading a state, accessing the menu, or events in-game; doing one of these will also make the bullets appear again.


I want to suggest another feature to be included. Could a manual "Save SRAM" be added in the menu? From what I gather, the SRAM is only saved during one of these 3 events, when restarting the game, loading a new ROM, or exiting the emulator. It would be handy to be able to manually save it without ending the current game. If the battery dies while playing a game continiously (or when turning the power off without exiting), the SRAM won't get saved; at least with a manual saving, the progress wouldn't be completely lost. I understand that the save state would replace the need for this, but I do prefer to use SRAM saving on games that do support it, as it feels more like playing a real system.


@DaveC: I would love to test the ROM list bug, but I don't have that many ROMs (38 currently). All of them are present and are in proper order (although some filenames are too long).

 

[doc5avage]

I went through my entire list, and they are all showing.
I thought there might be an issue with sorting, comparing it to my Mac's Finder directory view they were vastly different. But I double checked how Unix's 'ls' display's the directory, and it is exactly the same as Lemonboy2x. So I am happy with sorting.

 

[juanvvc]

Thanks for your feedback, everyone!

If you do not object, this is my list for this weekend:

- preview box on/off (done, not published)
- save SRAM
- directory support
- check the sorting issue
- little bugs you reported: names with dots and sound while pressing a button.
- different fullscreen modes

 

[doc5avage]

Your a champ juanvvc!

PS, have you done any other dev work on the gp2x?

 

[juanvvc]

Thanks, doc5avage. I collaborated in the last versions of fba2x, in the version of stppc2x that is about to be published and several board games in Python for me and my wife (these not officially published, but available in the internet)

 

[frefol]

I was just trying the latest version and it seems to lockup if I try to load an unzipped rom. If I load the zipped one it loads just fine. I have been playing the unzipped one in the original version since it came out so there shouldn't be any problem with the file. I guess it isn't too big a problem since people would probably want to use the zipped ones anyway but I figured I would let you know anyway. Thanks for a great emu so far.

 

[doc5avage]

I was just trying the latest version and it seems to lockup if I try to load an unzipped rom. If I load the zipped one it loads just fine. I have been playing the unzipped one in the original version since it came out so there shouldn't be any problem with the file. I guess it isn't too big a problem since people would probably want to use the zipped ones anyway but I figured I would let you know anyway. Thanks for a great emu so far.

Just make sure that the rom is the only file in the zip archive. Also, which zip program did you use to compress it? If I use the built-in zip funtion from OSX's Finder, most emulators cannot handle it, I use the command line zip instead.

 

[frefol]

I think you read it wrong. The zipped roms are working just fine. It is the UNzipped one that does not load.

 

[juanvvc]

I think you read it wrong. The zipped roms are working just fine. It is the UNzipped one that does not load.

You are right, obviously. I've just uploaded what I think that is a stable 0.4 version for a while, except if you find critical errors (http://147.83.47.153/~juanvi/lemonboy2x.zip). Changes:

- Nearly all you suggestions: SELECT shows/hides the preview box, save SRAM option, more accurate timing for 60FPS, confirm saves and loads, more messages on screen...
- Previews are now in PNG. That means saving about 90% of disk space (from 40KB to 4KB). If you were using previews, delete files in the previews directory since they are different now.
- Bugs: unzipped games now load, file names with dots work ok, stop sound while pressing a button...
- new fullscreen modes: double size and deformed double size. In the default configuration, button 'A' changes between these modes. Change etc/system.gp2x to roll through other video modes or bind 'A' to the 'palettes' action.

Bugs that you reported and I cannot replicate:

- Menu-game-menu-game crashes.
- Roms that dissapear. I tested up to 1400 files and only the last 300 disappear (since there is a 1024 limit) Sorting is standard and capital letters come before normal letters.

Things that I put aside for the moment:

- Directory support. Sorry, it is more boring than I though
- TV support. I do not own a TV set, I cannot test the code so...
- Unstable sound if you load tens of roms. It is beyond my knowledge to solve this, but I think that is stable enough for normal usage.

See README, CONFIG and CREDITS for more information. Source code is included in src.zip

 

[herr_prof]

- Unstable sound if you load tens of roms. It is beyond my knowledge to solve this, but I think that is stable enough for normal usage.

Great update. I am interested in using this to run LSDJ, a gameboy music tracker. It works well, but the samples do not play. Is this something you can fix for a future version? Also Could you (optionally) have a yes/no style prompt for when you load savestates?

 

[juanvvc]

LSDJ, a gameboy music tracker. It works well, but the samples do not play. Is this something you can fix for a future version? Also Could you (optionally) have a yes/no style prompt for when you load savestates?

I'll see what can I do with LSDJ. There is a yes/no promp for loading savestates: open etc/system.gp2x and change 'set confirmload' to 'true'. I think that you should delete configs/default.rc or save new default settings through the menu, as well.

Thanks!

 

[slaanesh]

- Unstable sound if you load tens of roms. It is beyond my knowledge to solve this, but I think that is stable enough for normal usage.

If Lemonboy2x is using a separate thread for sound, you can try killing and restarting the thread per each game launched. This doesn't solve the original problem but it is a simple enough work around so that sound isn't lost after launching many games.