Snes9xGP


Lord Namsu

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I just got my GP32 today and seeing as I won't get my smart media card until the next day so I decided to read the readme files.
In the Snes9xGP readme file it says that the emulator wont play files which are bigger than 4megs.
The Zip file i have for Tales of Phantasia is about 4.2 megs.
I know this is going to sound stupid but will it work?
 
4.2 megs? I thought ToP was 6 megs? I think most other people did to at a guess, so no-one that I know's tried it.

That said, 4.2 megs prolly really 4 megs as it were (since 4 megs doesn't really equal 4000000 bytes, but a bit more). But I don't know properly, I'm afraid. You'll just have to try it when the gamepark gets there and tell us all :)
 
It will not support ToP or any other game larger than 32Mbit (4MB), the zipped size is irrelevant.
 
As Pip says, unzipped rom size gives you an answer not zipped. Zipped files are good because you can upload more into your SMC, but emulator need to unpack it in order to run it.
 
Sorry... missed the fact that it was zipped... as the others said, unzipped ize matters, so it won't work... (without some *very* extensive hacking at least to get it down to size...)
 
*very* extensive hacking

as in taking apart your gp32 and adding more ram to it. That game won't run do to rom size and the amount of available ram so that is the only way that it might even be possible.
 
No, as in ripping bits of the game data out... say you took out all the digitized music, a load of monsters, and that sort of stuff, you might be able to hack the size down... but you wouldn't be left with quite the same game...
 
OR a virtual memory approach, which could work; ie: virtual memory might brutalize the speed if the game jumps all over, but if its a halfway smart VM system, it'd be okay; make pages of 32k or something, so they're pretty big but not too big, and then page in as you need them.. paging from SMC would be very slow, but what the heck. (ie: Pages of 32k.. not that big, but how big are graphcis on SNES? You dont' want the pages too big since you don't want to load in an extra few humdred K when you only need 5 bytes.. but not too small so you dont' page like mad).

I've thought about it on occasion..

vmmalloc() and vmfree() and then macros to access it VM(basehandle,ptr); so instead of just using foo[1000] you'd use:

handle = vmmalloc ( 3000000 );

Then use VMARR ( handle, 1000 ) to get foo[1000] type functionality, or VM(handle,p) to get "*p" type functionality.

But it'd slow your reads down by half.. so you woudlnt' do this for emulated memory or stack or thelike, but you would use it for accessing the memory mapped cartridge, say.

But its easier just to say "no SNES carts larger than 4MB" anyway, since SNES emulation is already slow and making it slower would just be a drag.

jeff
 
HI
thats a Terrible way to do Vm memory - it' would totally grind it up!!!
but you're right - it's really not worth supporting >6mb roms - it's just too much work.
 
The GBA emulator(beta) for the GP32 alerted me to the fact that about 4.5mb is the absolute max you can go. V-rally 3 for GBA is only 4.5mb and it runs whereas all of my other GBA roms above that size don't even boot-up.

Not very scientific I know but hell it's visual evidence.
 
The GBA emulator(beta) for the GP32 alerted me to the fact that about 4.5mb is the absolute max you can go. V-rally 3 for GBA is only 4.5mb and it runs whereas all of my other GBA roms above that size don't even boot-up.

Not very scientific I know but hell it's visual evidence.
 
There is a space issue with emulators. There are three partitions of memory that an emulator needs:

1 - For itself
2 - For the emulated hardware
3 - For the actual ROM image

As for a good reason why VM paging won't work - just look at the way the current emulators work. Really, only a portion of the ROM image is needed at a time. Emulators could load just a piece, but obviously that would be far too slow, or it would have been tried by now. I think the reason is that SMC access is pretty darn slow, so they're better off doing it all at once, rather then giving a lengthy "LOADING..." sign during gameplay.
 
The GBA emu is the one thats been around for around 9 months, its never been updated.

When i first reviewed the GP32 I just got ahold of the emu and assumed it was to be worked on and released, but it never happened it seems.

gp32news has loads of screen shots from it.

-Craig

www.gbax.com
 
Craig, where would we get the beta? :blink: I would like to amaze some friends by showing them the gba CAN be emulated. :D I know it runs at 3-5 fps but the only reason I would like to show them is proof that it could be done and nothing more. Please provide me and the rest who want to do the same with a link to where to get it.
 
not gonna happen buddy, you gotta wait like the rest of us till the author's ready to release it (whenever he feels like it!)

it stinks for those of us who've been drooling over all these pics we see, but if people go around leaking betas, emu authors get betrayed and act accordingly, and that just isn't good for anybody!
 
Maestro:

Here's a fact - any computer can emulate any other computer, when people say can it emulate machine xxxx what they really mean is "will the emulation run fast enough to be fun"
 
Wrong, not anything is possible. People were saying that gba emulation isnt possible to emulate because there isnt enough ram. The way you put it, someone could make a game cube emu for game boy color because you can emulate anything with anything.
 
thats like saying i can emulate a gameboy on a 8080 xt pc :p not everything is possible. Still the gba emulator didnt have sound working on it and ran at about 5 to 10fps so with heavy asm used i think u might get 30fps with no sound i dont know thats the 1 thing bout the gp32 the same cpu is used for sound so it takes even more power.

Plus the 1 problem is the ram size. A guy on gp32spain replaced the 8mb with a 32mb ram but all the software must be rewritten including the bios i think from what was said so it dont look good <_<

:ph34r:
 
Is he even working on the emu still? Wouldn't be a "leaked beta" if hes discontinued or just gave up on, now would it? I have some friends who would like to work of his source if I can prove to them that running the emu on the gp32 is possible and If theres signs of likeliness for a decent emu with massive asm.
 
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