Release PandaVision (jzintv) - Intellivision Emulator


EvilDragon

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So, the next emulator of a classic system is ready.
We already had a port of jzintv, but it was a bit incomplete (didn't run all games) and used GTK as simple file selector.

intv3.png



PandaVision should run almost every Intellivision game out of the box (automatically recognizes the mapper to be used), including Intellivoice and ECS Support (the latter needs ecs.bin).

Controls are:
D-Pad / Left Nub: Controller Disc
A,X,B: Fire Buttons
Y: Pause Game
0-9: Keypad
Backspace: clear
ENTER: enter

ESC: Quit Game
F4: Break into debugger
F5: Switch to keymap 0 (default keymap)
F7: Switch to keymap 2 (ECS keyboard keymap)
F9: Toggle fullscreen/windowed
F10: Toggle movie recording
F11: Take screen shot
F12: Reset emulator

The emulator needs two BIOS files to work: exec.bin and grom.bin

Simply place them into the appdata/pandavision directory.

Let me know if you find any games that don't work or any other bugs.

Download: PandaVision or use PNDManager
 
Thanks ED, I'm trying this out ASAP. I know the last Intellivision emu has some game compatibility issues, so hopefully this one works better. I'll report back once I get set up. Keep these classics coming.

Chris
 
Alright, every game seems to boot up just fine, at least all the ones I tried. There are a few games where the controls don't seem to work though. I can start Turbo and River Raid, but I can't control the car or plane during gameplay.

Otherwise this emu seems to work great, and along with Colem, are great new additions to the Pandora classic gaming pool. I'm planning to delete my previous Colecovision and Intellivision emu's.

I can't wait for more. Thanks again ED.

Chris
 
Well, the problem with some games like RiverRaid is that they use the keypad for controls, not the disc.


Not sure how to solve that easily... if jzintv would allow config files for key input, it would be easy, but it's fixed inside the sourcecode.
 
Well, the problem with some games like RiverRaid is that they use the keypad for controls, not the disc.


Not sure how to solve that easily... if jzintv would allow config files for key input, it would be easy, but it's fixed inside the sourcecode.
Thanks ED, I figured it was something along those lines. The Intellivision was one of the only consoles at the time that I had very little time with or exposure to. I was thinking the keypad may have been the issue.

Why the hell would anyone make a keypad control system over physical controls is beyond me, or at worst, allow both. Oh well, nothing's perfect. It's great besides this small issue.

Chris
 
Neato! New (old) emulator release!


I think Burger Time has a controller problem too, as I don't seem to be able to do anything in it. This game plays fine in the old version of this emulator.


Also, I've copies of Defender and Centipede that don't work, but they also don't work in the old emu, so I don't know if I've good dumps there or not.


In addition, most homebrew titles I've tried either fail or crash. The 2000 version of 4-tris works, though the 2001 version doesn't appear to.


But easily more games work than don't, so thanks very much for another excellent retro emu!


Edit: I also can't figure out how to start a race in Auto Racing - numbers and enter fill the menu screen, but nothing seems to take me on from there. Also, I've not been able to get the debugger to start, if that's supposed to work. And F1 seems to also quit games (useful when Esc doesn't work).
 
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Hmm, ESC is just an alias for F1, so it should always work.


Will take a look at the controls, really weird.


About the nonworking games:


The INTV used different memory mapper for different cartridges. Normally, you need to tell jzintv manually which mapper to use.


I've made that automatically using md5sums (based on GoodINTV).


Let me know the games that don't work incl. their md5sum and I'll add those.


And please zip up the homebrew games here, I'll add them as well.
 
Okay, found the control issue.

We need to remap the joystick with a kbdhack file. Works fine with Beta 3, but seems to be broken with Beta 4.

I'll try to fix that.
 
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Aaaand a major update (I'd say):
 
UPDATE 2014-10-04:

  • Updated to SVN1123, which adds Scale4x filter
  • Used WizardStans keyboard-Hackfile to make controls usable for more games
  • Changed to notaz' SDL with VSYNC and Doublebuffering (smoother graphics)
  • Keyboard-Hackfiles for specific games can now be created and put into the same directory as the ROM (named ROMNAME.kbd)

This increases the playability a lot :)

Enjoy :D

Next step for me: Test out which homebrew games use what mappers and add them.

And please post any games incl. md5sums which you find that won't run, so I can fix those as well.

Thanks :)
 
Nice, will post some md5sums and games when I get a chance (later today if I'm lucky).


FWIW, I think the F1 versus Esc thing seems to mostly apply when I'm using the ECS keyboard mapping - if I press F7 last, Esc stops working as the quit button, but F1 works. I'll have to test if F1 also works in the F5 keyboard mapping mode.
 
Sure, when switching to the ECS keyboard, ESC is mapped to ESC, so not anymore to quit ;)
 
Thanks EvilDragon, sorry I'm so lazy about maintaining the things I start.
 
I've tried this emulator with Carl Mueller Jr.'s D2K Arcade, a lovely homebrew port of Donkey Kong and it works great...

..for the first time, at least.

The rom is a .bin file that only works in combination with an additional .cfg file which contains the mapper info to make it work.

After I load the game for the first time the .cfg file gets deleted and the game stops working.

The game's author did not want it to be distributed (I paid him a few bucks for the rom file), but he has stopped selling the game a few months ago:

http://www.intellivisionrevolution.com/entries/intellivision-merchandise/intellivision-d2k-arcade-and-dk-arcade-digital-rom-sales-end-in-july-2014

Well, if I send you the rom file, could you implement the mapper into the emulator to make it work?

I desperately want this game to work, it's one of the best Donkey Kong ports ever created.

By the way, one thing that I'd love to see in a future update is an option to stretch the games into fullscreen without keeping the aspect ratio.

(No more black borders)

With Donkey Kong, for example, the player character is so tiny that it strains my eyes after a while...

Any chance of that happening?
 
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Yes, you can send it to me and I'll implement it.

I will not keep the game afterwards.

And thanks for the bug report - I'll change the script so that it only deletes the config file in case it didn't exist before.

About fullscreen: It's possible, I just don't know yet how to use different options with Picklelauncher yet... maybe someone can help me here?

I can send you a file tonight which you can simply put into the appdata/pandavision directory which always runs in fullscreen mode.
 
Yes, you can send it to me and I'll implement it.

I will not keep the game afterwards.

And thanks for the bug report - I'll change the script so that it only deletes the config file in case it didn't exist before.

About fullscreen: It's possible, I just don't know yet how to use different options with Picklelauncher yet... maybe someone can help me here?

I can send you a file tonight which you can simply put into the appdata/pandavision directory which always runs in fullscreen mode.
No problem, I sent you a download link via pm. I've uploaded the roms for all three versions of the game to mediafire.

Fullscreen stretch would be awesome, please send me that file when you're ready!

Thanks for doing this, I really appreciate your efforts to get emulators for older systems like Intellivision and Colecovision patched up! ^_^
 
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