Mupen64 Will It Have....

[j6cubic]

Will there be support for emulating a partially dislodged cartridge? I'd like to get down on the Pandora.


Yeah, it's not the most serious of requests. But hey, it would be kind of awesome (if pointless).

 

[Prometheus]

If anyone uses Mupen64 for Windows/Linux, could they tell me why they have no cheat function either?
I'm running Mupen64 OSX which does not have a save function

I'm running Mupen64Plus on my MacBook (my secondary box). I just took a look - it has a cheat function (the Linux version does too, but I don't know about the Windows release). The Mac OS X version of regular Mupen64 is ancient! I'm surprised to see someone still using it.

EDIT: While I'm here... Ari64, I hope you don't mind me asking, but does Star Fox 64 run ok, by any chance?

 

[JayFoxRox]

I would like to know if it would be possible to use a USB device (keyboard, controller, etc) as a controller for a second player, so that you could play 2 player games with a friend.

Generally with linux you just plug stuff in and it works right away. Keyboards/USB Gamepads are no exception. Even xpad (driver for XBox controllers) seems to be included all over. Personally I think I'll end up using my Logitech ChillStream a lot
You could also plug in a USB hub, 4 controllers and a TV-Out cable

EDIT: Pertaining to mupen64plus, it'll let you use pretty much anything as a controller

I wrote the input plugin mweston used while making his video (with Y axis inverted, because I didn't have any way to test it myself as I don't own a devboard). It was hardcoded for the pandora-controls and didn't allow any other forms of input. We had problems getting another input plugin to compile for testing (we didn't really try getting it to work, but only said: well doesn't work without further looking).

Now the other input plugins seem to work and I wrote a driver (not related to the emulator - its a general solution) which creates a joystick device (just like any other USB / Serial / ... gamepad) from the Pandora-Game-Controls. The project is called Pandora-Input-Drivers. A version I just hacked together can be found here (My pandora-related projects).
I also made another "driver" which is able to recreate pandora hardware (some sort of "virtual hardware") for testing on a computer or beagleboard for example, which don't have the real hardware in place.

This should make the decission easier to not hardcode anything into the emulator, but move stuff to joystick devices.

 

[Tokiopop]

I hope those features will be added, but if they are I bet it wont be for a while.

We can hope so anyway

 

[zhasha]

This should make the decission easier to not hardcode anything into the emulator, but move stuff to joystick devices.

You mean to tell me that the pandora game buttons/nubs don't register themselves as a joystick device node? In that case, you'd have to use a pandora specific plugin of course; but it does seem like a strange thing not to have.

EDIT: Nevermind, I am and idiot. Your driver looks good by the way. Exactly what I'd expect

 

[guizm]

Could you please tell how well Ocarina runs?

It runs fine, a little slow in certain areas. Last I checked there were some graphical glitches, but I haven't tried Adventus's latest code.

I really don't know how to say a really big thank you! Having Oot portable was my dream since i was a child. BTW Majora's mask use the expansion pack, will this cause trouble?( yeah, that's my 2nd dream since i was a child )

 

[fusion_power]

I tried Goldeneye with the current emulator and it's crashing due to some TLB mapping issues. This one is going to need more work.

Does Golden Eye uses the N64 Hardeware in a different way than Mario 64? Or is it "just" because G.E. uses much more Polygons and Textures ingame? (I think it doesn't use more hardware hungry graphic effects but I can be wrong)
By the way, what means "TLB"?

Oh, and how runs "Lylat Wars" (Starfox 64) if it runs at all?

 

[JayFoxRox]

Goldeneye was made by Rare. Who pushed the N64 to its limits using custom uCodes. I'm not sure wether they used it in Goldeneye, but this could be one of the reasons why its hard to emulate. I have no clue of N64 emulation tho so I better step away to make room for the real men.

 

[j6cubic]

I tried Goldeneye with the current emulator and it's crashing due to some TLB mapping issues. This one is going to need more work.

Does Golden Eye uses the N64 Hardeware in a different way than Mario 64? Or is it "just" because G.E. uses much more Polygons and Textures ingame? (I think it doesn't use more hardware hungry graphic effects but I can be wrong)
By the way, what means "TLB"?

The translation lookaside buffer is a kind of CPU cache used for virtual memory mapping. Essentially you use it to turn a virtual memory address (where the software thinks the data is) into a physical address (where the data actually is). If the emulator has a different opinion on the workings of the TLB than the game has, the game can't reliably read and write from/to the RAM because it goes to the wrong places.

Since Goldeneye probably uses arcane low-level code (as JayFoxRox said) it's entirely possible that it directly messes with the TLB, which the emulator is not prepared to handle. But that's all armchair CompSci from someone studying in the wrong direction to actually know anything useful about that.

 

[Exophase]

Does Golden Eye uses the N64 Hardeware in a different way than Mario 64? Or is it "just" because G.E. uses much more Polygons and Textures ingame? (I think it doesn't use more hardware hungry graphic effects but I can be wrong)
By the way, what means "TLB"?

Oh, and how runs "Lylat Wars" (Starfox 64) if it runs at all?

"Translation Lookaside Buffer", it's something that maps memory addresses that the CPU deals with to different addresses that are used on the actual system. Most N64 games don't use this mechanism and thus the addresses map directly to system components. It's slower to emulate, but especially tricky when it's used on addresses where code's at. Games like Golden Eye use it so that it only has to keep a fraction of the game code loaded into RAM - when the memory it's accessing is not in the TLB the CPU is alerted and can load it to RAM, then throw something else out to make room for it.

j6cubic; rarrr you beat me

 

[Shock-Socks]

I've been following the Daedalus project for about 3 years now (in case you don't know, Daedalus and DaedalusX64 are n64 emulators for the psp) and i've played a somewhat active role in the development of the emulator. right now OoT is running at about 14 fps with frameskip set to 1 and texture update check set to every 10 frames (you can probably figure out what both of those mean by their titles) so basically OoT is running at about 50% speed(no sound emulation). as far as super mario 64 goes, it's practically fullspeed (with no sound emulation), but i still play it with frameskip set to 1, however, there are still some slow down in high activity areas and when loading new areas. That being said, Strmnnrmn (original daedalus coder) along with the Daedalus x64 team have had roughly 3 years to optimize the code and clean it up specifically for the psp. so when i see a port of mupen64Plus running super mario 64 on the pandora (with sound emulation turned on) about as well as the psp can run it with sound emulation turned on, in roughly 3-4 months time (and without many optimizations), there is not doubt in my mind that the pandora will eventually be able to emulate n64 and all it's games at 100%, especially considering that the pandora has almost 3 times as much raw CPU power, along with much more powerful graphics, and way more ram than the psp.

in my opinion what n64 emulation was to the psp, Dreamcast emulation will be to the pandora, although, dreamcast is already running much better than i expected and the pandora hasn't even been released yet.

 

[Exophase]

Ocarina of Time is a 20fps game (NTSC version), not 30fps.

 

[Tokiopop]

Ocarina of Time is a 20fps game (NTSC version), not 30fps.

Yeah, and at 15fps on a PSP it doesn't seem that bad. Still a bit slow with no sound though.

 

[kingoddball]

I've got something a little more fun to add!

Forget the upsetting FPS part..

N64 controller on the Pandora?? Is it possible? Drivers? That should be it?
You dont need to use Amazon, eBay would have it too!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8565000168?ie=UTF8&tag=goldonli-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=8565000168

 

[El Jefe]

I've got something a little more fun to add!

Forget the upsetting FPS part..

N64 controller on the Pandora?? Is it possible? Drivers? That should be it?
You dont need to use Amazon, eBay would have it too!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8565000168?ie=UTF8&tag=goldonli-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=8565000168

aesir mark II...

 

[kingoddball]

Any translation on that? "aesir mark II..."?
You come out with some random sh!t, dude, :blink:

 

[Prometheus]

@kingoddball - You asked a valid question. The answer is that you don't need drivers for such adapters, as the controllers connected to them appear as standard "HID" (Human Interface Device) joysticks to the system.

Personally I would recommend the ones from RetroZone, though - I've had excellent experiences with their SNES and NES to USB adapters. I bought my N64 adapter elsewhere (from Play-Asia), and annoyingly it doesn't allow the combination of down on the analogue stick along with any of the C-buttons (it acts as though they've been pressed separately, not at the same time), meaning that, for example, essential moves (loops and turns) in Star Fox 64 cannot be pulled off, making the game an awful lot more difficult to play properly.

 

[Shock-Socks]

Ocarina of Time is a 20fps game (NTSC version), not 30fps.

Ocarina of Time is a 60 fps game. what are you talking about?

 

[kingoddball]

Apparently the adaptor I linked to is meant to be quite a good one.
It's what most of the people over at goldeneye forever are using for online play (no, I'm not some kind of GE freak, I just stumbled across it yerteday and remembered how much fun old N64 games are!).

 

[MDave]

Ocarina of Time is a 20fps game (NTSC version), not 30fps.

Ocarina of Time is a 60 fps game. what are you talking about?

It's 20 dude. 17 for PAL versions.