Release Mednafen - Game Boy, Neo Geo, GBA, NES, lots more....

[Nightwind0]

Sorry if this has been covered. I just found this open source multi-platform emulator based on OpenGL and SDL called Mednafen that supposedly does a whole BUNCH of cool systems......

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mednafen/

Has this been discussed already?

 

[Nightwind0]

Re: Mednafen - Game Boy, Neo Geo, GBA, NES....

Sorry if this has been covered. I just found this open source multi-platform emulator based on OpenGL and SDL called Mednefen that supposedly does a whole BUNCH of cool systems......

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mednafen/

Has this been discussed already?

What I'm trying to ask is - couldn't we port this to Pandora and get a whole slew of emulators? Sort of like Little John but I think this one does a few that LJ doesn't

 

[Prophet]

Re: Mednafen - Game Boy, Neo Geo, GBA, NES....

Not sure it was specifically discussed, but I agree Mednafen would be a fine potential project to port to Pandora.

If I can access the old forums, I will try to move my emulation list to this forum later. I think it would be useful here as well since emus are always a hot topic.

 

[Nightwind0]

Re: Mednafen - Game Boy, Neo Geo, GBA, NES....

Not sure it was specifically discussed, but I agree Mednafen would be a fine potential project to port to Pandora.

If I can access the old forums, I will try to move my emulation list to this forum later. I think it would be useful here as well since emus are always a hot topic.

Cool, that's the list I was wishing I could access when i asked this question.

I was looking at the Mednafen main web page (http://mednafen.sourceforge.net/), and it looks pretty sweet. Just wonder how it runs...

 

[anexanhume]

Re: Mednafen - Game Boy, Neo Geo, GBA, NES....

Not sure it was specifically discussed, but I agree Mednafen would be a fine potential project to port to Pandora.

If I can access the old forums, I will try to move my emulation list to this forum later. I think it would be useful here as well since emus are always a hot topic.

Ugh, don't say that. I cringe to think of all the information we don't have the ability to refer to. If the forums don't come back, hopefully at least we can get the back up of the posts.

 

[sukhi-2006]

I want the following emulators to release for pandora which are Sony PSX,Nintendo 64,Atari Jaguar,Sega Megadrive 32x,Sega Saturn,Sega Dreamcast.

I hope these emulators run full speed with music, i wonder which one of these emulators will be available when pandora released.

 

[javaJake]

This, indeed, would have a good chance at being ported. The words "SDL", "portable", and "GPL" are all in its favor.

Anyone know what performance is like? I couldn't come by any system requirements.

 

[mindlord]

I use Mednafen on my crappy pIII 1ghz laptop with a absolute SHIT intel 830m video chip and it handles everything quite well with sound and it's pretty easy to configure. So not at all a bad choice for those who want to emulate from within the kdrive or X11 environment.

 

[Googer]

I have no idea how it actually performs since the system I use it on is a Q9450 (OC'd to 3.6 GHz at that), but I do very much like Mednafen on my HTPC for its PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 emulation, and my understanding is that its other emulation cores are at least decent as well.

 

[Nonis]

Re: Mednafen - Game Boy, Neo Geo, GBA, NES....

If I can access the old forums, I will try to move my emulation list to this forum later. I think it would be useful here as well since emus are always a hot topic.

Here ya go.

As more people around the world discover the Pandora, we're likely to get many requests for emulators. This topic is designed to clarify what sort of emulators are likely to work very well on Pandora, what sort probably won't, and what *might* happen (depending on many variables). This list will also begin indicating emulators known to already be in development, and/or being planned by reputable developers.

Last Updated: 9/14/08 (scroll to the bottom of this post to see a detailed list of updates)

THIS LIST IS SEMI-SPECULATIVE
DO NOT expect to see emulators for every system in the list!


Systems colored in green are known to have emulators already being worked on (i.e. not just planned) using Pandora hardware. When possible, the name(s) of the developers will be listed.

Systems colored in yellow indicate a well known developer has publically declared intent to emulate, but have not yet received Pandora hardware. If more than one emulator is planned, each will have its dev(s) listed in seperate brackets.

Emulators that COULD work well on Pandora: (full speed emulation, full sound, rare frame skipping)

8bit consoles, computers and other platforms including (but not limited to):

Adventure Vision
Atari 2600/7800 [zx-81] [Tinnus->Little John]
Colecovision [zx-81]
Fairchild Channel F
Gameboy & Gameboy Color [Tinnus->Little John]
Intellivision [zx-81]
Microvision
NES/Famicom/FDS [Tinnus->Little John]
Odyssey/2
Sega Master System & Game Gear [Tinnus->Little John]
Sega SG-1000 (pre-SMS console in Japan)
Vectrex [SDW->Vecx]

Amstrad [zx-81]
Apple II
Apple IIGS
Atari 800/XL/XE/5200 [zx-81]
BBC Micro (possible zx-81 port, not confirmed)
Commodore 64
Commodore PET
Commodore Plus/4 [zx-81]
Commodore VIC-20
Dragon 32/64
MSX [zx-81]
Oric 1
Sam Coupé [zx-81]
Sinclair QL
Sinclair Spectrum [Dio/Firefox->EMU]
Sinclair ZX-80/81 [zx-81]
Tandy Color Computer (CoCo) [zx-81]
Tandy TRS-80
Thompson TO7-70 [zx-81]

Arcade games from the 70's and 80's [MAME]
+ various other systems from that era

16bit consoles, computers and other platforms including (but not limited to):

Amiga CD32
Atari Lynx
Genesis/Megadrive/SegaCD [Tinnus->Little John] [Notaz->Picodrive]
NeoGeo AES/MVS [Squidge->Finalburn Alpha] [Pepone->GnGeo]
NeoGeo CD
NeoGeo Pocket/Color [Tinnus->Little John]
Philips CDI
SNES [Squidge ->PandaSNES, see here] [Tinnus->Little John]
Turbografx-16/PC-Engine/CD-ROM (technically an 8bit system but eh...) [Exophase->Temper port]
Wonderswan/Color [Tinnus->Little John]

286 DOS PC (& 386) [DJWillis->SCUMMVM] [Zodttd->DOSbox]
Amiga [Notaz]
Atari ST [Skeezix]
MacIntosh (early models i.e. 68000 based)
TI 99/4A [zx-81]
X68000 (Japanese computer with arcade quality graphics)

Arcade games from late 80's - 90's (i.e. M68000 based hardware etc.) [Squidge->Finalburn Alpha port] [MAME]
TI-92 Calculator [zx-81]

32bit consoles, computers and other platforms including (but not limited to):

Atari Jaguar [Firefox - see here]
Gameboy Advance [Exophase]
Playstation [ZodTTD & Tinnus *LINK*]
Virtual Boy

386 DOS PC (& 286) [DJWillis->SCUMMVM] [Zodttd->DOSbox]

Arcade games (i.e. PSX based hardware) [MAME - not sure these would run at good speeds on Pandora though)]

Emulators that MIGHT work decently on Pandora (these are all speculative!): (playable w/frame skipping and/or no sound etc.)

3DO
NEC PC-FX (CD based JPN-only system with mostly FMV games)
Nintendo 64 (no active projects)
Sega 32X [Notaz->Picodrive]

MacIntosh (later generations i.e. PowerPC based)

Emulators that probably will NOT work well on Pandora (these are all speculative!): (unplayable or just plain impossible)

Nintendo DS (might eventually move into the "work decently" tier, time will tell.)
PSP (might be attempted, believe it or not...)
Sega Saturn (altho 32bit, it's very messy hardware to emulate)
Dreamcast [drkIIRaziel->nullDC, see here]
Playstation 2
XBox
Gamecube
486 based PC's and higher
Current mainstream consoles (Wii, PS3, 360 etc.)

These lists are preliminary and semi-speculative. But hopefully they give some idea of what Pandora's emulation furture will hold. As always in emulation, you never know what some brilliant dev will do in the future, but it's good to have a sense of proportion. Remember, Pandora is very powerful (easily surpassing all current handheld game devices) but it's not a miracle machine. So don't hold your breathe for things like Dreamcast or PS2 emulation - you'll only end up dying! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Any mistakes or suggestions for additions/changes, please post below!

And remember:

THIS LIST IS SEMI-SPECULATIVE
DO NOT expect to see emulators for every system in the list!


UPDATES:
5/26 - started indicating systems that are actually in development using Pandora dev hardware
5/27 - indicated that PSP emulation is being considered *LINK*
5/27 - started yellow lighting declared emulators by well known devs who don't have Pandora hardware yet; added NeoGeo CD to list
5/28 - yellow lighted various classic systems since zx-81 announced intent to adapt his many emu ports for Pandora (including ZX-80/81, MSX, Intellivision, Thompson TO7-70, Amstrad, Atari 2600 & 7800, Sam Coupé, Commodore Plus/4, Colecovision, Atari 800/XL/5200, TI 92 calculator)
5/28 - moved Atari Jaguar to "work well" category and yellow lighted Firefox for intent to emulate (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (Tempest 2000 on a handheld, yum!)
5/28 - semi-alphabetized "work well" & "work decently" lists in this order: consoles,computers,arcades,others
5/28 - removed "defining terms" section since this info is repeated in the list headers
5/28 - yellow lighted Pepone for a GnGeo (NeoGeo) port, and Tinnus for a Little John (NES, SNES, GB/C, SMS/GG, Genesis, NGP, Wonderswan/Color and Atari 2600 + possibly others!) port
5/28 - yellow lighted Genesis/Megadrive/SegaCD for Notaz' intended port of Picodrive
5/29 - yellow lighted Amiga having found this post by Gnostic (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
6/3 - yellow lighted all arcade sections in regards to the inevitable MAME port to Pandora
6/3 - yellow lighted TG16/PCE/CD in regards to Exophase indicating a port of Temper
6/4 - yellow lighted 286 & 386 PC in regards to SCUMMVM (it's an interpreter really but eh...) DOSbox is also likely but awaiting confirmation
6/5 - indicated DOSbox for x86
6/11 - yellow lighted TI-994A & Tandy Color Computer for zx-81, added MacIntosh, BBC Micro and NEC PC-FX to the list
6/11 - readded Gameboy & GB Color, must've accidentally deleted them when I alphabetized parts of the list
6/13 - added Sega SG-1000 to the list, there are still a few more obscure/unusual things to possibly add (i.e. PalmOS)... wondering if I should add GP32?
6/13 - moved NEC PC-FX from "work well" to "work decently" group in light of Exophase's comments on emulating it on Pandora, adjusted list format a little for clarity
6/20 - added Oric 1, TRS-80, Apple IIGS Commodore Vic and Commodore PET. NOTE: generally I will only add platforms that had software uniquely written for them (i.e. won't list every version of a particular computer platform; like Amiga for example), and which were reasonably popular and/or well known in their day and/or historically significant to some degree
6/20 - added Adventure Vision, Microvision, Fairchild Channel F, Dragon 32/64 and Virtual Boy
6/21 - added Sinclair QL and later gen Macs (i.e. PowerPC based)
7/19 - Atari Jaguar green lighted since Firefox successfully ported his emulator, and it's running very, very fast!
7/24 - added link to Firefox's PandaSNES thread (note PandaSNES is by Squidge, not Firefox) for SNES
7/27 - green lighted Genesis/SegaCD since Picodrive is now confirmed to be ported and running on Pandora hardware
7/29 - yellow lighted Vectrex (SDW) and Dreamcast (drkIIRaziel) - personally I'm not expecting DC to ever run well, but you don't know until you know, ya know? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) Good luck devs!
7/31 - yellow lighted Sega 32X, since Notaz has said he will add it to tocoPicodrive _after_ Pandora is released
9/14 - Amiga greened for Notaz, GB/GBC yellowed for Tinnus, greened Speccy for Dio/Firefox, added Amiga CD32 to list
9/17 - N64 blackened. Zod backed out.

 

[Kyosys]

Hooray for google cache!

This should be stickied, or at least a topic where this is the first post.

 

[TyBO123]

Mednafen is great! The one feature that really sets it apart from other emulators is the ability to "rewind," a la Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Having that feature on Pandora would be nice.

 

[Nightwind0]

Mednafen is great! The one feature that really sets it apart from other emulators is the ability to "rewind," a la Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Having that feature on Pandora would be nice.

And it gains us GameBoy Advance, which I really would like. As well as TurboGrafx (aka PC Engine). Little John already has everything else covered, I think, but it sure doesn't hurt to have a choice of emulators.

 

[Username]

For NES and Gameboy you COULD (and that's a big could) emulate an Amiga that's emulating Gameboy/NES, because I'm pretty sure the Amiga can run them. I don't know why you would ever do that though.

 

[Nightwind0]

For NES and Gameboy you COULD (and that's a big could) emulate an Amiga that's emulating Gameboy/NES, because I'm pretty sure the Amiga can run them. I don't know why you would ever do that though.

LOL. That's a crack smoking idea. :wink:

 

[GoblinX]

Will we see Scumm for this system? Monkey Island on GP2X was a thing of beauty.

 

[ab966126-f71c-4abc-98a3]

I just hope that GBA, N64 and PSX emu's are finished properly.
My DS can emulate the others.

I can also do GBA emulation on my Ds (thanks M3 real) but honestly, this will be smoother, have better compatability.
Who knows, maybe even cheat support!

 

[Wolfspirit]

I know scumm would definitely work and another treat that would be awesome is the SCI interpreter to play all of those old Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest games on the go. :lol:

The topic of Mednafen though.. I believe a lot of the developers are already working on emulators from a low level standpoint to utilize the pandora's hardware to it's full potential and if that's true, Mednafen would most likely be too beefy compared to these optimized alternatives.

 

[qwerty15]

I'd rather see VBA-M ported.

 

[Exophase]

And it gains us GameBoy Advance, which I really would like. As well as TurboGrafx (aka PC Engine). Little John already has everything else covered, I think, but it sure doesn't hurt to have a choice of emulators.

I'm porting my GBA and PC-Engine emulators, you don't need Mednafen's.

I like Mednafen (and I like Mednafen's author), but it's mostly a compilation of other emulators. The only parts that I know of that are mostly unique are the PC-Engine and PC-FX emulators. GBA emulation is provided with VBA, which might be fast enough at 600MHz (but probably with frame skipping a good amount of the time), but is not really an efficient use of MHz. My PC-Engine emulator is a lot faster than Mednafen's as well, since it has been well optimized for ARM.

Mednafen also has a lot of dependencies, so it might be a pain to get everything working on Pandora first shot. Or maybe not, I don't really know. Compilation emulators are good for a quick bulk port but the only thing it really covers that we couldn't easily get good optimized ARM versions of instead is PC-FX. And there's no way its PC-FX emulation will run well enough on Pandora. It isn't going to take long for all the other emulators to come here, in fact some would probably be out before Mednafen is even ported. Especially considering that it has no GUI, so unless you want an emulator without one that you have to use a shell for (which is not as good as an in-game GUI for obvious reasons) then you have to wait for someone to make one.