Temper Pc-engine/turbografx-16 Emulator V0.55

[gwaine]

Exophase...just wanted to say thanks for your work on this brilliant emulator. It's so sweet to play Blazing Lazers again and be able to just quick-load the last state when I lose all my cool weapons. Everything seems to run so smoothly on the default Mhz too.

 

[euro48k]

try to set temper @ 100Mhz and save options will freeze the emu with no option but power off .. no matter if game loaded or fresh start
anyone with this thing ?

0.55 / 0.56

 

[Exophase]

try to set temper @ 100Mhz and save options will freeze the emu with no option but power off .. no matter if game loaded or fresh start
anyone with this thing ?

0.55 / 0.56

Weird, hasn't happened to me. Anyone else?

I plan to support the BIN/CUE format initially, unless there are a lot of objections. Although I like the idea of MP3 tracks in theory (who doesn't?) it could be really troublesome getting mp3 decoding in. Partially because of speed concerns, but also because I'd need to either use a non-restrictive open source one (under BSD or LGPL or some such), link against a library, or write my own (not happening). Maybe later on someone will have some suggestions, because I don't want to make it GPL at this time.

 

[geise69]

try to set temper @ 100Mhz and save options will freeze the emu with no option but power off .. no matter if game loaded or fresh start
anyone with this thing ?

0.55 / 0.56

Weird, hasn't happened to me. Anyone else?

I plan to support the BIN/CUE format initially, unless there are a lot of objections. Although I like the idea of MP3 tracks in theory (who doesn't?) it could be really troublesome getting mp3 decoding in. Partially because of speed concerns, but also because I'd need to either use a non-restrictive open source one (under BSD or LGPL or some such), link against a library, or write my own (not happening). Maybe later on someone will have some suggestions, because I don't want to make it GPL at this time.


Thank you for considering bin/cue format. Yeah it will be larger in size, but it's going to make things easier in the long run. I've been waiting for a portable pc-engine/tg-16 emu to do this for a long time. Also, for people that are going to dl cd games please know that there are a lot of bad rips going around. Most of the mp3/isos that have been on the net since the late 90's early 2000 are bad rips. The toc is all messed up with these games. Nightwolve made a nice little program called Tocfixer to fix this. You can get it here under the tutorials section. This has some nice info on ripping CD games. Anything that can do bin/cue though is fine.

 

[mth411]

Have you thought of using the ogg940 library, it decodes ogg vorbis on the second processor.

http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,19,2132

Then there will be no performance hit for audio (or not as much).

Quick comment from the archive
<< Thank you! It's all what I needed right now. I wanted to play OGG or any other music file with SDL_Mixer but it made my demo effects move jerky. But this one now is running on the second CPU and let my graphics code at peace. It all works great now!
>>

 

[DaveC]

I plan to support the BIN/CUE format initially, unless there are a lot of objections. Although I like the idea of MP3 tracks in theory (who doesn't?) it could be really troublesome getting mp3 decoding in. Partially because of speed concerns, but also because I'd need to either use a non-restrictive open source one (under BSD or LGPL or some such), link against a library, or write my own (not happening). Maybe later on someone will have some suggestions, because I don't want to make it GPL at this time.

PicoDrive uses MP3 decoding and it runs SegaCD fullspeed at 200 MHz. I think the Sega CD is much more complex than a TG-16 (maybe not, it is just a guess) so speed should be OK wouldn't it? Of course the GPL thing probably kills it Isn't there a way around the GPL thing?

 

[shinra]

Then I guess you already now it, but in Ninja Spirit not all the screen is showing.

Ninja Spirit is one of those high res games along side Sidearms, R-Type, Mr Heli, Hero Tonma... there are probably others. All the Irem ports I believe used this 352x224 mode (or whatever it was).

I've also found that 1943 has an option to use this mode to create a thinner aspect ratio on the real PC-Engine hardware.

I assume Exophase will put a scaling option in at some stage to accommodate this?

Any details or ideas on how CD support will be added? ISO? CSO? or perhaps rips with MP3 for audio tracks?
I'm curious because I have about 60 real PC Engine CDs ready for ripping.

how about a screen position option? this way it could be centered instead of resize and avoid a choppy downscaling.

 

[Coder_TimT]

I plan to support the BIN/CUE format initially, unless there are a lot of objections. Although I like the idea of MP3 tracks in theory (who doesn't?) it could be really troublesome getting mp3 decoding in. Partially because of speed concerns, but also because I'd need to either use a non-restrictive open source one (under BSD or LGPL or some such), link against a library, or write my own (not happening). Maybe later on someone will have some suggestions, because I don't want to make it GPL at this time.

PicoDrive uses MP3 decoding and it runs SegaCD fullspeed at 200 MHz. I think the Sega CD is much more complex than a TG-16 (maybe not, it is just a guess) so speed should be OK wouldn't it? Of course the GPL thing probably kills it Isn't there a way around the GPL thing?



I don't know about speed or ease of use, but libavcodec from ffmpeg should enable you to decode mp3 and is LGPL...

 

[Tobriand]

I must say, cool though Bin/Cue is, I'd be much less likely to use the CD functions without MP3 support (although I suppose if you supported compressed CD-images, and they compressed sufficiently small, then that's a different matter; I don't know how much uncompressed ISOs compress to using bzip though, nor whether you could support that anyway).

Ogg would be fine, if ogg940 is an option, of course - it's the size that's awkward, after all.

Could you get around licensing issues by having a separate mp3 daemon running in the background? I.e. not a part of the program just used by it (I'm fairly sure GPL wouldn't force you to release the code of the rest of Temper then, only of the mp3 daemon)... I can see performance issues being problematic then, but nonetheless...

In any event, Bin/Cue will be cool in it's own right - best of luck

 

[senquack]

There's also this OGG decoder mostly coded in ARM ASM:

libTremolo

http://wss.co.uk/pinknoise/tremolo/index.html

I helped him debug it for the GP2X so I know it works well and it has a low-accuracy mode to help speed things up. Has a dual-license both GPL and non-GPL but I don't know if there is still lingering code from Tremor in there.

(unfortunately the F200's sound crash bug reared its ugly head whenever I used it but that is probably unrelated to the library itself, just a certain combination of code can do it)

 

[geise69]

Well bin/cue or maybe even ccd/img would be the most compatible. It's all really going to boil down to how all of you are going to be "getting" your pc-engine/duo cd games. I'm trying to let everyone know that a lot of these games going around the net are bad rips that are in mp3 format. They are going to have issues with the audio tracks synching up with the toc files. (if you're going to be using toc for this emu) It's fine if you find a game that is in bin/cue format or is in ogg with a .bat converter to make them mp3 or wave tracks. However most of these iso/mp3 games going around are bad. Using what others have mentioned here about ogg and mp3 is a good idea, but I just want people to be aware if they are going to download games off the net there's probably going to be audio sync issues. Many pc-engine games load data from hard coded sectors and not just track numbers like sega cd.

 

[vampire8bit]

Yes I would definately recommend supporting Bin/Cue format first. This was the format of choice for archiving PCEngine cd games by the awesome PC Engine archiving groups. They were perfectionists and used this format to ensure perfect lossless 1:1 cd copies of the original.

 

[slaanesh]

Of course the best way of "archiving" the games is to buy them in the first place

 

[geise69]

Of course the best way of "archiving" the games is to buy them in the first place

Of course! Although a lot of people don't have 100 bucks or more for Dracula X or 349 bucks for Beyond Shadowgate, or 300 or more for Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire. Granted a lot of good games go for 19 bucks or less. Some are around 49-79 like Macross 2036. (great shooter) Also stealbay is one of the few places that has these rare games. I'm lucky enough to have bought these at regular price back in the day, but a lot of people are probably just learning about the pc-engine or just never bought them. That's very cool I saw you had around 60 cd games. That's awesome!

 

[vampire8bit]

Of course the best way of "archiving" the games is to buy them in the first place

Yes, absolutely. I only meant that bin/cue is the best format for backing up PC engine cd games from the original cd's you actually own.

 

[slaanesh]

Actually I probably have more than that. I've got loads of Hucards too.

I always liked the PC-Engine - it was the first jaw dropping experience I ever had when I read about it back in 1988 (or so) in the British C&VG magazine.
I saw some screen shots to some games and was think this is so much better than anything else i've seen!
I wanted a PC Engine back then but read it had loads of problems with even getting a picture (due to being NTSC RF only). Some of the grey importers modified them but it was all too expensive for me anyway.

Years went by and I found some information again on the PC Engine and my interest was rekindled. Now that I had some disposable income I started buying up. My first international eBay purchase was for PC Engine games

Imagine my disappointment when I connected my white PC Engine to my PAL TV and couldn't get a good picture. Stupid RF out - why this was ever used is beyond me. So I bought the uber model PC Engine complete with CD drive and relatively nice composite video out. I must say that it this is one of the best quality composite out signals and must have been awesome back in it's day. Very clear, excellent color contrast and saturation.

At that point and for the next seven years or so I've been buying PC Engine games. Most of them were bought in the first 18 months but I've managed to collect virtually all the "good" PC Engine games - notable exception is Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire (which I've recently learned is the last game in the "Aleste" series... which i love).

I've got a few of the RPGs/Life Sims but without Japanese knowledge it's just a waste of time. Pity there are no translations for these games. When she's old enough, I'm going to try and get my daughter to learn Japanese for me

 

[DaveC]

Of course the best way of "archiving" the games is to buy them in the first place

The problem there is many games are almost impossible to find. Then there is the fact that it would cost $1000 to get all the ones that I like due to the stupidly high prices of the "rare" ones (Drac-X etc).

The "backups" that could be "found" are all ISO+MP3 unfortunatly.

Still, any kind of CD support would be fantastic.

So I bought the uber model PC Engine complete with CD drive and relatively nice composite video out. I must say that it this is one of the best quality composite out signals and must have been awesome back in it's day. Very clear, excellent color contrast and saturation.

Yeah I noticed that too. I had all of my systems connected via hacked together RGB cables so I was doubtful how good it could be. I was suprised to see how good the TurboDuo composite was. Definetly the best of any composite I have seen.

 

[Noremakk]

Of course the best way of "archiving" the games is to buy them in the first place

The problem there is many games are almost impossible to find. Then there is the fact that it would cost $1000 to get all the ones that I like due to the stupidly high prices of the "rare" ones (Drac-X etc).

The "backups" that could be "found" are all ISO+MP3 unfortunatly.

Still, any kind of CD support would be fantastic.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you just rename .iso files as .bin and they work fine? Or am I thinking of Genesis games? (.bin renamed to .smd; it works perfectly)

Either way, can't you use Toast to convert them?

 

[slaanesh]

...high prices of the "rare" ones (Drac-X etc).

I paid under US$70 for mine. I kept bidding on auctions until I got one cheap enough. This is still a fair bit of money but compared to any modern release it's only a little more.
It was money well spent - it's one of the few PC Engine games I've completed to the end and as critics say the best of the Castlevania games.

I was suprised to see how good the TurboDuo composite was. Definetly the best of any composite I have seen.

So you have the US model Turbo Duo? You're missing out on some of those Japanese games that never made it to the US. Unless you have one of those Kisado converters?
I've got a single US Hu-card "Order of the Griffon" - for collecting purposes only as I can't play it on my Japanese system.
I'm going to give this a go on Temper - I've found that other emulators can have trouble with this particular game.

Although done to death in other threads, here's a list of good PC Engine shooter games on Hucard if you are wondering what to play:

SHOOTERS
Aeroblasters
Atomic Robo-kid Special
Coryoon
Dragon Saber
Dragon Spirit
Fantasy Zone
Final Solider
Galaga '88
Gradius
Gunhed
Hana Tahka Daka
Kyuukyoku Tiger
Mister Heli
Parodius Da!
R-Type I
R-Type II
Raiden
Salamander
Sidearms
Space Harrier
Soldier Blade
Super Star Soldier
Tatsujin

 

[geise69]

I could put a nice little payment on my mortgage principal with all the hu-cards, CD, and SCD games I own. I also was lucky enough to pick up a kisado converter rev.b back in the early 90's. The PC-Engine/Duo is my favorite system. I remember buying the TG-16 CD add on when it was first released. Popping in Ys Book I&II for the first time is the greatest gaming experience ever for me. Also Ginga Fukei Densetsu Sapphire has nothing to do with the Aleste series. Compile did not make that game. I think you might be getting it confused with Spriggan or Spriggan 2. Both of those games are great. Especially the first Spriggan. Spriggan 2 is side scrolling, so it makes it feel less like an Aleste series game.

For people that are going to dl iso/mp3 rips (since they seem to be the easiest to find) make sure you use the tocfixer program.