Mame Gp32 2.2 Has Been Released!

[slaanesh]

MAME GP32 2.2 has been released!

MAME GP32 2.2

If there are any issues, please let me know either in this or the MAME forum.

• Added initial .SAM sample support. Works best with FS = 0. May implement using "streams" in the next version for smoother playback when FS != 0.
  Seperate samples download pack included. Sample files go in /GPMM/MAMEGP32/SAMPLES
  
• Added Sega System 16: New fully working games: Alien Syndrome (aliensyn), Altered Beast (altbeast), SDI (sdi), Shinobi (shinobi), Wonderboy III - Monster Lair (wb3bl). Currently using 'C' Z80 core for sound, though it also works with DrZ80 core however always seems to crash on exit. This is consistent with the GP2X version which freezes on exit when using the "fast" version. Use "Old Core" to get graphics displaying correctly.
  
• Added Atari game Liberator. It's a largish resolution game that requires "Old Core" and screen scaling to display correctly.
  
• Added Atari game Canyon Bomber. Great Nostalgia!
  
• Added initial version of "Punch Out". Severe graphic glitches.
  
• Major update to 'C' Z80 core. Should be faster with some smart idle-loop detection and more accurate. 1942 and Jungle King now work! Possibly other Z80 games now working.
  
• Compiled with DevkitARM r18 using GCC 4.10.
  
• Latest 0.68 Cyclone/68K. Better compatibility.
  
• Optimized, faster video funcions. Thanks to Franxis and Chui.
  
• Fixed sync problem with SonSon. Music should be played now.
  
• Increased volume when sound is in accurate mode.
  
• Changes/optimizations to sound code. New Option for 22050hz and 11025hz modes. Other minor increases optimizations when sound is not emulated. Most games gain from 2-4FPS in the 11025hz modes.
  
• Updated Bubble Bobble/Tokio driver.
  
• Updated driver for Berzerk and Frenzy from MAME 0.35b5.
  
• Updated vector game Quantum. Orientation now portrait, not landscape.
  
• Updated sound driver for Battlezone. Full sound with no samples required.
  
• Updated Phoenix sound to use samples.
  
• Updated Stargate to used improved controls (like Defender).
  
• Rearrange taito.c sound effects driver to take priority over music channels. Means sound effects play now (Jungle King, Alpine Ski, etc ).

 

[sensible GP32]

you workhorse you ..... thanks

 

[ralp99]

awesome system 16!!!! i never thought i'd see that running on gp32, can't wait to try it out. thanks for the hard work!

gp32 mame is honestly what's kept me from buying a 2X...

 

[Vimacs]

yet another impressive release

 

[triksR4rabits]

I can't freakin wait to try this out... Thanks so much Slaanesh and Franxis!

 

[chaos engineer]

"Updated Phoenix sound to use samples."

cannot bear to wait any longer to check this out. Thanks for still working on this project

 

[chaos engineer]

finally, I was able to check this new release. It's wonderful, although the sound quality is not perfect, it is so much fun to play Phoenix with full sound support.

 

[slaanesh]

finally, I was able to check this new release. It's wonderful, although the sound quality is not perfect, it is so much fun to play Phoenix with full sound support.

Yes I agree it's not perfect, but in most cases it's not too bad either. Improvments can still be made. I will try to make use of "streams" in the next release - this will produce better results with no breakup.

In the meantime, games that run at FS=0 will play samples quite well. If there is any frameskip then the samples will still sound okay as long as the game doesn't entirely use samples.

ie.
Galaga uses a sample for the explosion, this sounds fine with FS=1
Galaxian uses a shooting sample and an explosion, this sounds fine was it can be played at FS=0
Gorf only uses samples, but really needs FS=1 to be played therefore sample sounds are not great in this case.

 

[chaos engineer]

Hey Slaanesh, which settings do you recommend for Phoenix (Amstar)? Sound accurate or just sound on? Old or new core? Frameskip?

 

[slaanesh]

Hey Slaanesh, which settings do you recommend for Phoenix (Amstar)? Sound accurate or just sound on? Old or new core? Frameskip?

As a more general guide to the settings, I start with the following settings:

• Frequency of 133Mhz
• New core
• Screen Fit Off
• Frame Skip 0
• Buffering Normal
• Video and Audio Clock 80%
• Sound Accurate (22050)

Depending on the age of the game and the hardware it uses you may want to change this.
Typically older hardware will run faster and often at full speed/framerate.

A good way to check is to use the FPS Display setting it to On.
Most games run at 60hz (which will be displayed as anywhere from 60-63). Some games are 40 or even 30. These are rare. For example, Vektor is 40hz, Juno First is 30hz. Twin Cobra is 54hz (very odd).

If you are achieving this, than great, no need to change anything.

For Phoenix I use:

• Frequency of 150Mhz
• New core
• Screen Fit Off
• Frame Skip <=1
• Buffering Normal
• Video and Audio Clock 80%
• Sound Accurate (22050)

And it tends to run fairly nicely. Most older games will run fine like this, in fact, you can often stick with the original Frequency of 133Mhz to save batteries. Note that Frequency is highly dependent on the capability of your GP32 and will vary from machine to machine! For example, my FLU does a maximum of 150Mhz.

For more demanding games that are still playable with sound (1943 and Ghosts and Goblins) I use:

• Frequency of 150Mhz
• New core
• Screen Fit Off
• Frame Skip <=2
• Buffering Normal
• Video and Audio Clock 80%
• Sound Accurate (22050)

And for the most demanding games I will switch sound to not emulated as this saves the most processing.

• Frequency of 150Mhz
• New core
• Screen Fit Off
• Frame Skip <=1
• Buffering Normal
• Video and Audio Clock 80%
• Sound Not Emulated

Triple Buffering is expensive to run and I don't think worth the bother.
For some games, you can lower the Video and Audio clock even more without any adverse effects on the game, but this is very much a per game basis.

Hope that helps!

 

[Angel]

i'm suprised this hasn't been posted on the front page yet.

 

[Han]

Nice!! Looking forward to be testing this one... Thx !!!

 

[chaos engineer]

Hey Slaanesh, which settings do you recommend for Phoenix (Amstar)? Sound accurate or just sound on? Old or new core? Frameskip?

As a more general guide to the settings, I start with the following settings:

• Frequency of 133Mhz
• New core
• Screen ...
  Hope that helps!

• 
  
  Yes, this was really helpful. Thanks you for this holistic answer.
  I always switched audio and video clock to 100%. Does this parameter not affect the speed of the game? I have to check this out. .

 

[slaanesh]

The Video and Audio clock is the percentage of the original speed of the CPU(s) used in the arcade machine.

The Video clock actually refers to the main CPU and the Audio clock to the sound CPU (if any).

The old arcade machines generally had CPUs that were in most cases were fast enough to do everything that needed to be done well within a single frame. However, generally, you can't pause a CPU to not do anything, so what the programmers did was to let them run in a tight loop waiting until the end of the video frame had drawn so that it could start on the next frame. (By "tight loop", just means waiting for a specific condition - usually a memory address to equal a specific value).

Now MAME, being an accurate emulator would also emulate this "waiting around" period. By reducing the clock speed we are lessening the amount of work MAME needs to do to emulate the machine.

So, if a machine was running at 10Mhz but could do everything that needed to be done within 75% of a frame, you could safely underclock the CPU to 80% and the game would work pretty much as the original.

So as a rule of thumb, 80% is a good starting point. Early games, like Mr Do don't need to be underclocked at all, but most games will get a direct benefit from underclocking the CPU(s).

 

[Mirrorhead]

This rules, thanks slaanesh and Franxis!

It's great that some developers still work with the beloved GP32!!

 

[bomb_dog]

Thank you!

Its great to see the GP32 still being supported - thanks for sticking with it!

 

[pete_w]

Cheers Slaanesh - great work

 

[Angel]

and again, i'm suprised nobody put this on the front page. maybe they need to rename the website to gp2x extreme if they are going to not post GP32 news on the front page.

 

[triksR4rabits]

It was on the front page. It's already passed, though, because of updates.

edit: @ Angel- I think it went up the 5th. you know the deal with the news posts; they need to be mod approved, so I believe it was put up the same day as the post

 

[Angel]

well from my first post on 8-08, til today, it was never put on the front page, if it was on before that, i must have missed it but I visit this site everyday looking for news and i could swear there was nothing about it on the front page.