Picodrive 1.80

[notaz]

PicoDrive is Megadrive / Genesis / Sega CD / Mega CD / 32X / SMS emulator.

http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/PicoDrive/PicoDrive_180.zip
(also supports GP2X F100/F200 and Caanoo)

From the last version, 32X and SMS support was added. This is still incomplete (32X needs work and I lack motivation for SMS), it has been in development for more than a year now and it started taking forever because of other projects, so I figured I should release something as it reached somewhat usable state.

32X needs heavy overclocking and not many games are playable, some glitch badly due to bugs. There is still a lot room for improvement though. For now it might help underclocking the SH2s and/or disabling PWM (will improve performance for games that dedicate one SH2 for sound, but cause missing sound effects).

Here is complete changelog from last released version:

• Added Caanoo support. Now the GP2X binary supports GP2X F100/F200, Wiz
  and Caanoo. Lots of internal refactoring to support this.
• Enabled 32X and SMS code. It's still unfinished but better release something
  now than wait even more (it has been in development for more then a year now
  due to various other projects or simply lack of time).
• GP2X: Added basic line-doubling vertical scaling option.
• Changed the way keys are bound, no need to unbind old one any more.
• Handle MP3s with ID3 tags better (some MP3s with ID3 did not play).
• Improved shadow/hilight color levels.
• Fixed broken cheat support.
• Internal refactoring for 32x/SMS support.
• Move mapper database to external file.
• Added preliminary SMS emulation.
• Added emulation of 32x peripherals including VDP. More work is needed here.
• ARM: Added new SH2 recompiler for 32x. Some unification with SVP one.

 

[Animan]

Yay! New version. Great to see 32x added. Haven't tried it yet. Downloading now!

 

[lukeskope]

Very Nice.

Do you have a list of some of the 32x games you consider 'playable'?

Thanks

 

[Animan]

Very Nice.

Do you have a list of some of the 32x games you consider 'playable'?

Thanks

Tried After Burner 2 and Space Harrier

After Burner 2 doesn't run, and Space Harrier is very choppy and not too playable...

 

[Reo]

SMS emulation is "preliminary", but is it unfinished or just unpolished?

 

[renejr902]

SMS work great. i tried sonic 1

But Gamegear colors are very strange and not normal. and no key are working. I really want to play gamegear with picodrive. thanks for help. thanks for help Notaz. i didnt try the wiz version yet. only the gp2x

 

[rorque]

great work Notaz, thank you!

 

[geise69]

This is a very nice release! It's great seeing some 32x working. I know you've been putting a good bit of work into this while working on stuff for the pandora and Ginge. It is very much appreciated! Thanks again for this nice release.

I do have a question. Will the timing issues that are causing some Wolfteam games to not load or freeze be fixed in a future release? I know it's nothing major and probably way down on your to do list, but I just wanted to ask. In the mean time I've just been using an older gp2x version in Ginge to play those Wolfteam games. Again, thanks for this great update Notaz!

 

[notaz]

I do have a question. Will the timing issues that are causing some Wolfteam games to not load or freeze be fixed in a future release?

Sure, I just want to do it properly as a quick fix will break another set of games again.

 

[mhadf]

Awesome Notaz, much appreciated.

Master System emulation seems spot on . Been playing some Alex the Kidd

Out of interest is there anyway to get the pause button (Was on the master system console) working in SMS mode? I'm assuming I missed a setting somewhere.

 

[notaz]

Out of interest is there anyway to get the pause button (Was on the master system console) working in SMS mode? I'm assuming I missed a setting somewhere.

It's not there yet, I'll try to add it along with GG support.

 

[renejr902]

thanks Notaz for GG support.i will wait for this

 

[mhadf]

No rush, I'm just over the moon that I can play SMS on the go

Sending some well earned beer money your way too.

 

[Crazyteknohed]

No rush, I'm just over the moon that I can play SMS on the go

Sending some well earned beer money your way too.

Absolutely brilliant. Tried Star Wars Arcade and Kolibri. SWA wasn't quick enough to be playable but Kolibri ran very smoothly, albeit with sound disabled. I'm just happy to have a decent SMS emulator at last. I know we had AlexKidd2x but it was a pain in the arse to use with that stupid rom selector. It did seem strange to me that its author stopped working on it when such a relatively simple fix, at least compared to optimising it or increasing compatibilty, would've made it a much more complete emulator.

 

[bowz]

Thanks Notaz,

You're making the Wiz community very happy with all of your hard work!

 

[Crazyteknohed]

Is anyone else having problems running Japanese Mega CD games? I tried playing Shadowrun, Keio Yugekitai and Sonic CD and none of them would load beyond the Sega splash screen. All three are bin/cue rips and all three ran fine with the previous version of Picodrive. All the US/PAL Mega CD games I tried seemed okay still.

 

[NEIL L]

Out of interest is there anyway to get the pause button (Was on the master system console) working in SMS mode? I'm assuming I missed a setting somewhere.

It's not there yet, I'll try to add it along with GG support.

Excellent job on this update.

A quick question could there be seperate settings for the Master System for scaling & button mapping etc? (and the Game Gear when we get it) as I run Mega Drive games unscaled but I scale all the Master System games.

Cheers, Neil

PS. Could the GP2X archive be updated. (Here: http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/gp2x.cgi?0,0,0,0,71,2040 )

 

[notaz]

Is anyone else having problems running Japanese Mega CD games? I tried playing Shadowrun, Keio Yugekitai and Sonic CD and none of them would load beyond the Sega splash screen. All three are bin/cue rips and all three ran fine with the previous version of Picodrive. All the US/PAL Mega CD games I tried seemed okay still.

It's a known problem, it can't be easily fixed but I hope to do it someday.

A quick question could there be seperate settings for the Master System for scaling & button mapping etc? (and the Game Gear when we get it) as I run Mega Drive games unscaled but I scale all the Master System games.

I think there could, added to my todo list.

 

[Crazyteknohed]

Is anyone else having problems running Japanese Mega CD games? I tried playing Shadowrun, Keio Yugekitai and Sonic CD and none of them would load beyond the Sega splash screen. All three are bin/cue rips and all three ran fine with the previous version of Picodrive. All the US/PAL Mega CD games I tried seemed okay still.

It's a known problem, it can't be easily fixed but I hope to do it someday.

Thanks Notaz. Is this problem restricted to bin/cue rips or has Japanese MCD compatibility become broken in general?

 

[notaz]

It's compatibility problem.