Pandora's Emulators - What Will Work And What Won't

[Chip]

Wikipedia says:
QUOTE
The ColecoVision contains the same CPU and graphics chip as the MSX and Sega SG-1000/SC-3000. It also shares a sound chip with Sega consoles (including the Master System), making them identical in hardware capabilities.

I don't profess to understand this... but were they basically the same system with different cartridges?


Those systems all used a Z80 CPU. The Z80 was (and still is) a very successful processor. It was bopth cheap and versatile, so it got used in damn near everything.

However, just because systems share a CPU (and even GPU) doesn't mean they're essentially the same. There are other components and a whole lot of software that differentiates them. For instance, the iPhone and the Motorola RIZR Z8 share the same CPU and GPU, and they're certainly not intercompatible.

I believe what the author was trying to convey is that those systems are equally powerful and can run the same types of (though not the same) software.

 

[Kyo]

I still have some Z80s lying around here, I have no idea what to make with them, though. Build a gameboy?

 

[palmertech]

I just overclocked my gameboy color. I think more emulators need a "turn off frame limit" option, it makes Pokemon a LOT more fun. As is that were possible! :lol:

 

[Esn]

I just overclocked my gameboy color. I think more emulators need a "turn off frame limit" option, it makes Pokemon a LOT more fun. As is that were possible! :lol:

The GP32 Little John emulator for NES had a really neat option where pressing L would make the game go at 150% speed. Very useful for certain tedious RPGs with a lot of walking around and slow battles.

 

[Exophase]

I believe what the author was trying to convey is that those systems are equally powerful and can run the same types of (though not the same) software.

Back then a lot of companies weren't doing their own video and/or audio designs but instead were using commodity ones. In this case all three platforms contained not only a z80 at the same clock speed but very similar or the same video processors by Texas Instruments, and Colecovision/SG-1000 both contained the same pulse sound generators, also by TI (the MSX had another very common sound chip). Because of this the machines are all very similar and it's not uncommon to see emulators that handle more than one of these.

 

[Kyo]

I just overclocked my gameboy color. I think more emulators need a "turn off frame limit" option, it makes Pokemon a LOT more fun. As is that were possible! :lol:

The GP32 Little John emulator for NES had a really neat option where pressing L would make the game go at 150% speed. Very useful for certain tedious RPGs with a lot of walking around and slow battles.

I know that on NesDS, L is rewind (awesome feature) and R is speed up
I'd like to see emulators who can do both of these on the pandora

 

[Ayla]

I know that on NesDS, L is rewind (awesome feature) and R is speed up
I'd like to see emulators who can do both of these on the pandora

Oh yeah !! +1 for rewind !

 

[vampire8bit]

I hope notaz ports his Nes emu, GPFCE after picodrive.

 

[Tinnus]

Rewind is kind of annoying to do because you have to keep state-saving all the time, I'm not sure of the impact this has in an embedded scenario. That's mostly why I haven't added the feature to Little John (the new big thing, not the GP32 emulator ) yet.

I mean, if a NES save state is something like 200KB, then that's probably OK, but a SNES or Genesis one is a lot bigger than that... not to mention people worried about their flash memory lifetime.

 

[Kyo]

It should be done over the RAM, not the SD card, otherwise it would be too slow. And because it should be done in the ram, it should also be optional.
But it is definitely something I'd like to see

 

[Tinnus]

Yes, in the Pandora there's space enough to keep several saved states in RAM, but for most of other embedded devices there isn't.

 

[Kyo]

other embedded devices?

 

[Tinnus]

PSP, GP2X, PDAs etc. I was talking about the Little John project which is multiplatform, not specifically for Pandora emulators.

 

[Kyo]

I realize that, but how does some of the supported platforms not being able to run them stop you from adding optional features (like, you should be able to turn the setting on in options)

 

[Tinnus]

What stops me simply is that it doesn't motivate me to add a feature that simply wouldn't work on the majority of currently supported target devices. Of course if (when) all the Little John stuff gets ported to Pandora this will probably change my view on certain features

 

[Kyo]

Fair enough. Well I'd love to see that feature in there, so I'm hoping you will indeed!

 

[Exophase]

From a gameplay perspective, I don't like rewind. Unlike savestates and even cheat codes, they really serve no purpose but to really easily cheat at a game and never really have to worry about losing. Using savestates you can help mitigate the challenge level down to something you can manage by just saving to prevent having to redo the same kinds of parts over and over again but rewind doesn't really do anything but let you take the challenge all the way down to zero. You can do this with savestates too but rewind is pretty much an automated system for doing nothing but this with them.

Actually I think most people don't really want it anyway, it's more of a novelty feature that looks cool and some emu devs have fun implementing. However, like fast forward, it's only really useful if you have a lot of extra CPU time to spare.. rewind in particular eats CPU just by being on (and of course memory). And it needs a lot all at once, so if the platform isn't fast enough to save state really quickly (relatively speaking) then it'll hiccup just while running normally. Then, for the actual rewinding, there's a tradeoff between memory and CPU time.

If you do want to do it it's best to store savestate deltas/diffs in memory (just the parts that changed), although this adds even more CPU time to everything.

 

[Kyo]

I care about rewind in portable emus because often when you sit in a bus you screw up because you're sitting in a bus. I barely ever use the function to cheat (sometimes when something is impossible for me to beat), otherwise I just use it to fix "enviromental faults"

 

[Prophet]

I care about rewind in portable emus because often when you sit in a bus you screw up because you're sitting in a bus. I barely ever use the function to cheat (sometimes when something is impossible for me to beat), otherwise I just use it to fix "enviromental faults"

Switch to limousine service.

 

[daemonaholic]

Hmm, was gonna say I could work on a Wonderswan emu, 'cept it looks like Tinnus already has the covered. This is probably better in the long run since he's more experienced with this stuff and Little John will cover much more than my singular emu could .