Squidge Is Going To Work On Pce For The Gp32 Again

[Jarska333]

Newb question, what was the PCE. I know it was a 16 bit console of some kind but thats all. What good games did it have? and where they in english.

Thanks

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8bit, I should think...?

 

[Squidge]

It was an 8-bit cpu with a 21-bit address bus, and a 16-bit graphics chip with a 16-bit address bus. So, for all marketing reasons, it's 16-bit, but technically it's somewhere in the middle unless you want to base it on one of the above

 

[Mark]

Excellent news

 

[Squidge]

Hmmm, ok, this seems to be going better than I had thought. It's already showing the first piece of the R-Type title screen

I've decided to change around the way I'm doing things too, because debugging asm code is a hell of a lot easier to do on the gp32 (thanks to jtag and all), I've decided to write that one first before the Zodiac version.

 

[White Demon]

It was an 8-bit cpu with a 21-bit address bus, and a 16-bit graphics chip with a 16-bit address bus. So, for all marketing reasons, it's 16-bit, but technically it's somewhere in the middle unless you want to base it on one of the above

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Back when I originally read about it in C+VG they always said it was 8 bit.

 

[Huxley]

I've decided to write that one first before the Zodiac version.

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Hurrah!

Well, either way it's good.

 

[Reesy]

Good news Squidge, keep up the great work

 

[Fishbong]

is he coding a complete new emu, or were the lost sources of GPEngine found?

anyways, it sounds great and i'm really hoping that we will get a pce-emu with savestates one day

good luck, squidge. may the force be with you!        omg, i'm a nerd...

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save states are for lamers

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They can be quite useful when playing RPG´s and there´s no other save possibility (like in Gpengine).

 

[Huxley]

Most PC Engine games never allowed the player to save their game, so arguably the feature isn't needed at all. BUT, as we all know, playing games on a handheld is a very different experience to sitting at home on the sofa...when you're on the move sometimes you just can't possibly continue playing so a save feature is very handy to pick up where you left off. Of course, most people will use savestates to make the game easier, but that's their choice

 

[johncross85]

Most PC Engine games never allowed the player to save their game, so arguably the feature isn't needed at all. BUT, as we all know, playing games on a handheld is a very different experience to sitting at home on the sofa...when you're on the move sometimes you just can't possibly continue playing so a save feature is very handy to pick up where you left off. Of course, most people will use savestates to make the game easier, but that's their choice

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Agreed. I love R-Type on GPEngine but am sick to death of playing through the first level and then having to switch my GP32 off. I actually like the way it works with Mario 3 on GBA - you can save progress at any point but can only use the save to continue once.

Thanks for the progress report Squidge. I, for one, can't wait!

J(ohn)

 

[argon0]

What John said!

 

[bast525]

I've decided to change around the way I'm doing things too, because debugging asm code is a hell of a lot easier to do on the gp32 (thanks to jtag and all), I've decided to write that one first before the Zodiac version.

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There is a god!!!


Thank you Squidge for not abandoning us or this project like so many others have done!!! I agree that the speed on GP Engine is already perfectly fast, toggling between the three different clock settings and the different frame skip rates I have gotten every game I love on PCE playing at full speed... and even at 20fps the games run perfectly smooth IMO, so as long as you can keep it from getting any slower it's alllllllll gravy. And with saves (shut up y'all I dont care if they had saves originally saves are very convenient to have especially on a handheld system!) and maybe a little bit better compatibility this plus Reesy's DrMD will just be heaven on a handheld.

Squidge I only glanced over that thread at emuboards... apparently the thread does talk about PCE CD emulation, what have you to say about this one? I guess it's already been done on the PCE emu for the GBA (how this is possible is beyond me), so it should be doable on GP right? Maybe with Mp3 support we could actually put one or two full games on an SMC... what do you think about this or is it something you're even thinking of trying?


Reesy - awwww but I was so looking forward to seeing you port over Flubba's Pocket PCE So... are you already started on that next bit secret project of yours? Also, hows the work situation?

 

[DaveC]

I've decided to change around the way I'm doing things too, because debugging asm code is a hell of a lot easier to do on the gp32 (thanks to jtag and all), I've decided to write that one first before the Zodiac version.

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There is a god!!!


Thank you Squidge for not abandoning us or this project like so many others have done!!! I agree that the speed on GP Engine is already perfectly fast, toggling between the three different clock settings and the different frame skip rates I have gotten every game I love on PCE playing at full speed... and even at 20fps the games run perfectly smooth IMO, so as long as you can keep it from getting any slower it's alllllllll gravy. And with saves (shut up y'all I dont care if they had saves originally saves are very convenient to have especially on a handheld system!) and maybe a little bit better compatibility this plus Reesy's DrMD will just be heaven on a handheld.

Squidge I only glanced over that thread at emuboards... apparently the thread does talk about PCE CD emulation, what have you to say about this one? I guess it's already been done on the PCE emu for the GBA (how this is possible is beyond me), so it should be doable on GP right? Maybe with Mp3 support we could actually put one or two full games on an SMC... what do you think about this or is it something you're even thinking of trying?


Reesy - awwww but I was so looking forward to seeing you port over Flubba's Pocket PCE So... are you already started on that next bit secret project of yours? Also, hows the work situation?

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It actually would still be worthwhile to port over the GBA PCE emu. It would be much more efficient that porting a PC emu. It would probably run full speed w full sound at fs 0 and 133 Mhz. Plus who knows how far Squidge will get, or how compatible it would be etc. It is always good to have some redundancy in case one doesn't work out and/or gets abandoned halfway through.

GP-engine actually does have good compatibility, while not perfect, there are many games that run on that that don't run on my PC.

As far as CD support, the GBA version does not support the CD music, just game SFX. Running an MP3 plus the emu at the same time is not likely on a 166 Mhz machine.

 

[bast525]

yeah I would still hope Reesy or somebody would get around to porting Pocket PCE just for the sake of doing it... yeah I keep forgetting that people have mentioned that running MP3's alone takes up a lot of the GP's processing power so running it this way to play CD games probably wouldn't work... sorry forget that one before I asked.

Dave - which emu are you running on your PC? Thought you have to pay for it, MagicEngine on the PC, as far as I"ve found, plays every rom out there, and also plays all the CD games I have which is like 20, perfectly.

 

[DaveC]

yeah I would still hope Reesy or somebody would get around to porting Pocket PCE just for the sake of doing it... yeah I keep forgetting that people have mentioned that running MP3's alone takes up a lot of the GP's processing power so running it this way to play CD games probably wouldn't work... sorry forget that one before I asked.

Dave - which emu are you running on your PC? Thought you have to pay for it, MagicEngine on the PC, as far as I"ve found, plays every rom out there, and also plays all the CD games I have which is like 20, perfectly.

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I am running HuGO because it is free. As far as Reesy porting the GBA one it would be nice but I don't know if Reesy is even coding for the GP32 at all at the moment. I haven't heard anything so maybe DrMD burnt him out. There aren't really too many other coders left that could port the GBA PC-Engine emu so I would get used to using GP-Engine it may be all we have for a awhile, even forever. As far as Squidge goes, it would be nice but he doesn't seem to have the time to get very far with GP32 stuff. He has done a few "teasers" like the Vectrex and Lynx emu but those were abandoned before they got too far. We will see, but don't get your hopes up.

 

[Thraka]

This is awesome! would it be open source so incase anything happens (No please no!!! dont let anything happen ) someone would be able to take over?

 

[BobBorakovitz]

thanx, Squdge, welcome back!
I really look forward to a PC Engine emulator with auto frameskip and savestates...
keep up the most excellent work!

-BobBorakovitz

 

[bast525]

Dave - stop being so negative all the time will ya? Seriously lighten up a little bit! You gotta be encouraging to the guys we have out there that are willing to put their time into the GP still.

I dunno but it sounds to me like Squidge is pretty commited to releasing another PCE emu for the GP, as he stated he'll do this one BEFORE porting it to the Zodiac... sounds like a new release is pretty likely to me.

 

[Squidge]

Well, I must say I'm really interested about the PCEngine, and think I'll be playing it myself quite a bit once it's done, so I'd like to complete it. Emu's such as Vectrex were fun to get working, but I quickly lost motivation after the challenge of getting it run quick enough was over, due to the fact that I wouldn't actually play many of the games available for it.

I've looked at a few PC emulators, and have decided to use them for reference purposes, rather than attempting to port them, so this is still a "start from scratch" emulator - it's so much easier to optimize your own code than someone elses.

Hopefully, it'll end up like PCEAdvance - but optimized for the GP32 and Zodiac, rather than the GBA. Don't forget that PCEAdvance takes advantage of the GBA's graphics system - as in, the PC Engine's graphics system is tiled based, and the GBA has several tile based modes too, so the hardware can help out by a huge margin. This is the same on the Zodiac, which goes one better and supports variable sized tiles. The GP32 however, doesn't support any kind of tiling, so will always be the slowest and require optimized assembler.

 

[bast525]

Squidge - with every post you make the hopes just get higher... it's very good to hear that you have a love for the PCE and that alone motivates you to really want to get this emu running again even worth starting from scratch for.

One question, you say that, due to the fact that the GP doesnt support a tile system, it would always be the slowest PCE emu... I'm assuming you're speaking from some unseen technical standpoint that only a devver would know? Not to be goofy but I gotta say, GP Engine runs WAY faster than PocketPCE does on the GBA....