Picodrive 1.10

[Cervante]

new update?

 

[White Demon]

Sounds awesome, off to try it soon

*thumbing through MegaCD collection* here's what I'd like to to see eventually work (in order of personal preference):

Snatcher
Final Fight CD
Batman Returns
Mortal Kombat CD
Sol-Feace

The interactive movie games like Cobra Command, Time Gal, Road Avenger (and Microcosm was one too I think) would be nice but they would probably be too demanding. Still would be nice to see even as just a proof-of-concept.

Right, must go try it now.

 

[reiboul]

another great achievement in Genesis emulation but tell me, how can I make MP3 play? I have SonicCD and MP3 (320kb 44khz) with names Track01.ISO (game) Track02.MP3 TrackXX.MP3, 44khz sound, 940 activated and MegaCD option ON, but MP3 don't play

 

[krosfyah]

another great achievement in Genesis emulation but tell me, how can I make MP3 play? I have SonicCD and MP3 (320kb 44khz) with names Track01.ISO (game) Track02.MP3 TrackXX.MP3, 44khz sound, 940 activated and MegaCD option ON, but MP3 don't play

The readme tells you how to name the files. The mp3 files should begin with the same name as the iso. So in your case would be Track01_02.mp3, Track01_03.mp3 etc

Edit: Then again I don't have any games for this so I'm probably wrong.

 

[notaz]

another great achievement in Genesis emulation but tell me, how can I make MP3 play? I have SonicCD and MP3 (320kb 44khz) with names Track01.ISO (game) Track02.MP3 TrackXX.MP3, 44khz sound, 940 activated and MegaCD option ON, but MP3 don't play

Currently extentions must be lowercase, i.e. Track01.iso Track02.mp3 Trackxx.mp3
also use lower bitrate for better performance

 

[PokeParadox]

Just a FYI but SonicCD *BETA* also works!

I figured out my MP3 problem also. It seems for whatever reason my files were being downsampled to different samplerates as a transcoded them to lower bitrate VBR MP3. I set the bitrate to 130VBR and they stayed a 44100... so that's fixed, and VBR works fine

 

[DTH]

Can you play your own MP3's with this, or am I being stupid?

 

[reiboul]

another great achievement in Genesis emulation but tell me, how can I make MP3 play? I have SonicCD and MP3 (320kb 44khz) with names Track01.ISO (game) Track02.MP3 TrackXX.MP3, 44khz sound, 940 activated and MegaCD option ON, but MP3 don't play

The readme tells you how to name the files. The mp3 files should begin with the same name as the iso. So in your case would be Track01_02.mp3, Track01_03.mp3 etc

Edit: Then again I don't have any games for this so I'm probably wrong.

The readme also mention a format like the one i used

Sonic the Hedgehog CD (US) - Track 01.iso
Sonic the Hedgehog CD (US) - Track 02.mp3
Sonic the Hedgehog CD (US) - Track 03.mp3
...

Thank you Notaz i'll try your solution!

Is it only me or is the game very boggy? some graphics seems to simply don't match, I see rings on places I can't go (over ground tiles), but I haven't tried with Gens yet... So is it the emulator's early state, or my rom? :huh: Also I can't dash (pressing down + a, b or c) unless I stay crouched for a little time

Whatever, it's still a great achievement but tell me one more thing : are BOTH 68k CPU in use? (7mh for the genesis, and 12 for MegaCD) Or does the MegaCD processor take over all the processing?

 

[notaz]

Whatever, it's still a great achievement but tell me one more thing : are BOTH 68k CPU in use? (7mh for the genesis, and 12 for MegaCD) Or does the MegaCD processor take over all the processing?

Both. All pieces of Genesis hardware are functional when it is expanded with Sega CD (the expansion port was something like an additional cartridge port).

 

[DaveC]

Whatever, it's still a great achievement but tell me one more thing : are BOTH 68k CPU in use? (7mh for the genesis, and 12 for MegaCD) Or does the MegaCD processor take over all the processing?

Both. All pieces of Genesis hardware are functional when it is expanded with Sega CD (the expansion port was something like an additional cartridge port).

Just curious. Since you are so good at working with multi-chip type systems do you think that an Amiga 1000/500 emu is possible at full speed? It only had a single 68K running at 7 MHz, an 4 channel 8-bit DAC for sound, and some simple co-processors and blitter.

I am not asking for you to work on it, I was just wondering if in your expert opinion think full speed would be possible on the GP2X hardware.

 

[Amon_Re]

Whatever, it's still a great achievement but tell me one more thing : are BOTH 68k CPU in use? (7mh for the genesis, and 12 for MegaCD) Or does the MegaCD processor take over all the processing?

Both. All pieces of Genesis hardware are functional when it is expanded with Sega CD (the expansion port was something like an additional cartridge port).

Just curious. Since you are so good at working with multi-chip type systems do you think that an Amiga 1000/500 emu is possible at full speed? It only had a single 68K running at 7 MHz, an 4 channel 8-bit DAC for sound, and some simple co-processors and blitter.

I am not asking for you to work on it, I was just wondering if in your expert opinion think full speed would be possible on the GP2X hardware.

Well, the Amiga has some freaking hard to emulate hardware, the 68k is probably the simplest part to emulate, things like angus, paula, the OCS/ECS chipset and blitter are what's making it very hard to emulate.

I honestly think that full speed A500 is near impossible on the more demanding titles, the Amiga was a fairly powerfull machine for it's day, just check out some of the more recent OCS demo's, it's nuts

 

[DaveC]

Well, the Amiga has some freaking hard to emulate hardware, the 68k is probably the simplest part to emulate, things like angus, paula, the OCS/ECS chipset and blitter are what's making it very hard to emulate.

I honestly think that full speed A500 is near impossible on the more demanding titles, the Amiga was a fairly powerfull machine for it's day, just check out some of the more recent OCS demo's, it's nuts

I don't know that the Amiga 1000/500 is all that impossible. Forget ECS, A1200 for sure. I know the Amiga was stunning in it's day. Things change.

The CPU is emulated quite well now. The GP2X handles the faster NeoGeo and CPS2 speeds quite well.

The sound was quite rudimentary. 4 channel 8-bit DAC. No DSP, No Z80, No FM syntyhesizer, no effects, few channels. It would seem that the SPC in the SNES was much more complex with it's DSPs for reverberation etc. The Genesis had alot of things as well with it's YM, Z80, FM synth etc.

The blitter was fairly simple as well. It wasn't all that complex (by today's standards) and didn't have alot of functions.

The copper chip wasn't all that massive in power either. It kept track of palette changes, resolutions, playfields etc but not too much.

The Sprite hardware in the Amiga was quite anemic too. What did it do like (8) 4 color sprites per scanline or something like that? An NES had better sprite hardware.

Then there is the fact that it could only display 32 colors at once out of 4096 at a resolution of 320 x 200 (NTSC). It had no special effects like transparency or alpha blending etc either. Any transparencies on the system were done in software. The emu would probably have trouble with HAM mode but almost no games used it, that could go unemulated and few would miss it.

Perhaps again the problem is lack of documentation.

 

[Yono]

Well, the Amiga has some freaking hard to emulate hardware, the 68k is probably the simplest part to emulate, things like angus, paula, the OCS/ECS chipset and blitter are what's making it very hard to emulate.

I honestly think that full speed A500 is near impossible on the more demanding titles, the Amiga was a fairly powerfull machine for it's day, just check out some of the more recent OCS demo's, it's nuts

I don't know that the Amiga 1000/500 is all that impossible. Forget ECS, A1200 for sure. I know the Amiga was stunning in it's day. Things change.

The CPU is emulated quite well now. The GP2X handles the faster NeoGeo and CPS2 speeds quite well.

The sound was quite rudimentary. 4 channel 8-bit DAC. No DSP, No Z80, No FM syntyhesizer, no effects, few channels. It would seem that the SPC in the SNES was much more complex with it's DSPs for reverberation etc. The Genesis had alot of things as well with it's YM, Z80, FM synth etc.

The blitter was fairly simple as well. It wasn't all that complex (by today's standards) and didn't have alot of functions.

The copper chip wasn't all that massive in power either. It kept track of palette changes, resolutions, playfields etc but not too much.

The Sprite hardware in the Amiga was quite anemic too. What did it do like (8) 4 color sprites per scanline or something like that? An NES had better sprite hardware.

Then there is the fact that it could only display 32 colors at once out of 4096 at a resolution of 320 x 200 (NTSC). It had no special effects like transparency or alpha blending etc either. Any transparencies on the system were done in software. The emu would probably have trouble with HAM mode but almost no games used it, that could go unemulated and few would miss it.

Perhaps again the problem is lack of documentation.

Dave, do I perhaps hint some optimism coming from you?

 

[craigix]

Yeah it can emulate the amiga but it is like the SNES situation - the graphics core of UAE needs to be rewritten to get max speed.

I'd like to go on about how amazing the amiga HW was now... but i'm tired

 

[Sadistictoaster]

Wow , just . . . wow.

Sonic CD runs at 60 FPS in '8 bit fast render' mode - and to be fair , I can't see any difference between that and the 16 bit accurate render mode.

Noticed it locks up if I press the right shoulder button.

Think it's time I got myself a bigger SD card , these games are massive.

 

[shinneri]

I've noticed that the settings don't seem to be working properly. I saved a setting specific to Sonic CD that makes the GP2X clock at 200mhz. For all other games I have a global setting to 140mhz. However, when I go from Sonic CD to load another game, which should cause the GP2X to clock down to 140mhz, it retains the 200mhz.

Can somebody confirm this is happening? Note that I'm going straight to another game without exiting entirely out of Picodrive.

 

[sbock]

@all

Just in case you didn't notice: I set up a Sega CD poll just as notaz recommended.

Look here.

Regards,
Stephan

 

[Eso Rimmer]

Is it only me or is the game very boggy? some graphics seems to simply don't match, I see rings on places I can't go (over ground tiles), but I haven't tried with Gens yet... So is it the emulator's early state, or my rom? :huh: Also I can't dash (pressing down + a, b or c) unless I stay crouched for a little time

The same experience here. Mechanical fireflies act strange too when they are going to glow.

I hope there will be some progress with this emu. As first version looks promising.

 

[craigix]

I thought sonic CD was about travelling in time and those parts of the levels are open in other time zones?

Have to admit though i've not played it much, i just remember the idea behind the game.

 

[Eso Rimmer]

craigix:
ok, but I still think there is some strange behave:
1. When you pres down+button and release it, sonic stops spinning and nothing happens.
2. Wen you are in level with fireflies: When firefly is going to glow it sticks on screen at some XY position and moves with sonic for few seconds. It can move few screens with you if you were moving fast. And you can't hit it because you can't reach it because it's still fixed on some XY coordinates on screen.
3. Don't know why, but music sometime stops and then starts after a while.

I won't to complain and I understand it's experimental version but these details make me think that Sonic CD is running with some bugs.