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[XPort]

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[madmab]

ok since the atari emu's do not seem to be getting any loving.  I'll go ahead and dive in with a first post.  

Does not save screen shots correctly (colors are way off).

Sound emulation (old) has weird artifacts.
New is ok, but it is a whole octave higher so it sounds odd.  In fact I dont even bother using it despite the sound artifacts that exist in old.
I dunno the story behind the problems you ran into with sound, but you may be able to get some help over at the Atariage Forums there are some very knowledgable people over there and even a few emu authors frequent.

If you consider upgrading to a new core, just stay away from the most recent one.  It breaks alot of things.  But the one before that is fine.  (I'm referring to Atari800win)

5200 controller mapping is a pain in the butt. With a little work alot of this could be cleaned up. See idea further below.

Farily accuratel autodetecting file types would be possible as well.  Executable files have a (255,255) header and disk images, cartridges, etc have different headers too.  I'd have to tinker with it a bit but most 5200 games use only 2 of the ROM types and 1 or 2 use specific ones.  I could research more into this if you are interested in adding this.

Ability to save which disks where put in drives (1,2,etc).  Keep in mind drive one needs to always default to selected ROM.  I think this was 1st implemented in winuaex.  Save state may have to remember what disk was in what drive.

Not sure if this did not exist until winuaex, but it would be kinda cool to be able to combine multi-game disks into one zip and then have the emu ask which (disk) to use when picking the zip (or inserting disk in drive).

A suggestion that would apply (and be specific) to several emulators would be some pre-defined setups.  I know on winuaex some were made for default amiga configs.  

In this case I'm specifically thinking of controller set-ups.  A default for 5200 controller, standard atari controller (with space, enter, esc, start, option, select mapped), keyboard control (pad mapped to arrow keys on atari keyboard, button for space and enter).  As an example, for standard atari controller I usually map select->back, start->start, and option->black or white, space/enter to x/y respectivly, esc to either black or white.

Of course user defined mappings would be even better.  If interested I could work up mappings to the 5200.  The only disadvantage is the 5200 controller actually has a numeric pad as well.  Only a couple programs really use the number, most use the standard ones listed in your documentation.

Keyboard control defaults would probably be more useful to other computer emulators than atari.  I have found, though, that most cases across the board the same keys are usually used.  So it definetly would be handy.  Respective fans for each system could probably tell you more about common keyboard setups on other computer systems then I ever could.

The ability to assign controller 1 as being plugged into port 2.  There are probably only three games that require this, but it'd be nice.

Thank you for your time.

[madmab]

I hooked up a USB keyboard I picked up recentally to my xbox and I noticed the sensitivity is a little too much.  For example if I hit enter the Atari registers it as two enters.  This is on Scott Adam Adventures.

When I used the same keyboard in something more current like winuaex the keyboard seems to be fine.  Game used was Zork I.

I dunno if this is a difference in the emulator interface versions, or a difference in the sensitivity of the two respective computers (atari vs amiga).  But if this could be tweaked, or maybe a keyboard sensitivity option put in, that'd be great.

In the meantime I have to just try and tap the keys real lightly in Atarixlbox.

Thanks.

[Mclane]

REQ: Artifacting support (AE, Drol etc use this to display colour on NTSC systems) and the obvious source update.

Oh, maybe the screen syncing / anti tear code from WinUAEx (an update to all the older emu's with this would be brilliant)

Obviously the second request part 2 is just a wish knowing the time you already spend on the emulators as it is.

[madmab]

Thanks for mentioning the artifact support.  I totally forgot about that one.  A must for games like drol, lode runner, choplifter, a.e., hard hat mac, etc.

[Mclane]

Yup....

I always did wonder why it never made it into the port, Xport did such a lovely job it just seemed odd it was skipped

[madmab]

Dunno.....

It's possible that some features seem kinda pointless at first and just are not bothered with.  For example a black white/color switch in an atari 2600 emulator.  Seems kinda useless until you realize some games use it for controls (like bringing up a star map).  

Those crazy classic system programmers...  Always finding a use for even the most insignificant thing.

[madmab]

I was tinkering around in Atarixlbox and I noticed something that I did not before.

The sound quirks/artifacts occur due to the interaction of two (or more?) pokey sound channels.  So most likely there is a problem somewhere in how the sound is mixed, the X-box is interpreting it, or whatever.  Though I really do not know how X-box sound works enough to speculate in that direction.

Anyways a program called "Race In Space" is a perfect example of the interaction.  If a player is "moving" their ship when the countdown timer "beeps" you can hear it mess up.  If the player is not moving the timer "beeps" fine, plus the player movement sounds fine when the timer is not "beeping".

[Mclane]

I'll have a listen to race in space (used to love that when we were quiet in the shop). Have you tried it with the Xbox set to NTSC / PAL and via old and new pokey emulation?
 

[madmab]

There is no point in using new emulation, cause the sound artifact goes away.  Problem is, then the sounds are an octave (or about) too high.  The game was written for an NTSC machine so I doubt PAL will differ either.

Only effect I've seen switching to PAL is usually more lines top to bottom, slower framerate (PAL runs at 50 as opposed to NTSC 60).  If a game was written for PAL sometimes the video will be screwed up, or something else due to timing differences.  All of these are normal issues.

[rxd]

What I'd LOVE to see is the ability to map both Atari 5200 Controller 1 and Atari 5200 Controller 2 on to 1 xbox controller using both analog joysticks for certain games. This would be AWESOME for games like Robotron and Space Dungeon that use 2 Atari 5200 joysticks as controllers.

[LamerWitANoBrainer]

I have used Atarixlbox, ver, 4, 5, And while playing Alternate Reality© you have to change disks often. ...Well most of the time AtariXLBox crashes/freezes when trying to go back into the game after changing a disk(floppy).

I have had a good few hours once or twice but most of the time i can't change the floppies more than a few times before AtariXLBox will lock up going back into the game after a disk change.

I have used both AR-the City and the Dungeon(8bit), two different versions of each game and they all seem to crash out in the same way after a floopy change going back into the game. It does not seem to have much of a pattern on which disk is being loaded or anything else, Just that hitting the 'B' button or 'selecting return to game' locks up AtariXLBox version 4 and 5,...

I imagin it's an issue with just this game, so I'm not holding my breath for an easy fix, I've tryed tweekin' a few of the easy(GUI) settings; AtariXL type and the like, Re-installed and cleared AtariXLBox game save data, all with no luck.

Don't knock yourself out on a fix, just thought you might wanna know.

Otherwise Lovin' the X-Port's!!! THX

[LamerWitANoBrainer]

Again, this is just For Your Info, No response or action is needed, unless one knows an easy answer. I just wanted to help out, or maybe I like to type,... ^_^
~~~

Have tryed the Dungeon on WinXP SP1, With Atari800Win PLus 3.1 (ATARIOSB.ROM) and it seems to work just fine, played for 10 mins, switched the disks at least ten times, The game did have an issue seeing a disk with an HP cheat on but turnin' off the cheat let it find the disk and continue the game.

It looks like my issue was with using cheat codes, even turning them off did not help, I had to delete XLBox game save folder, and then the crashing seemed to go away, as long as one did not use the cheats, I guess,...

But AR the Dungeon did not seem to find any disks in the "B floopy" it only found disks in "A drive".

~~~
I was using X2 4977 and evox 1.8.3572.

And upgreading to; X2 4979.67 or 4980.67 and AvaLaunch 0.49.1 did not help either.

Turned off the X2 IGR and the FTP and unpluged the link cable as well, no help there.

Fresh game disks and XLBox files did not help either.

When the games seemed to work better, besides not having cheats and a clean save folder on E: drive, I was using the default controler settings as well. When the games were buggerin' I was using a custom controler setting as well, but I imagin it was the cheats/a buggered "E:/SAVES/AtariXLbox folder.

~~~


I hope some of this helps y'all with future issues/coding stuffs!

Happy Holidays to you and yours~

[k8track]

Hello, I had a question specific to this emulator.  It's excellent and I enjoy using it very much.  The only thing that I would like to be able to change, though, is the way it handles music--as you know, the music plays one octave higher than it should.  I was wondering if there were a way that I could get into a menu and change some settings to correct this.  I've navigated everywhere possible and have researched the FAQs and threads here to no avail--is there an answer?  

I'm assuming I have the latest version--it was installed on my Xbox in October of 2005.  I've emailed the guy who did it for me, but can no longer reach him--so I'm not for certain.  In any case, any word on a future update of this emulator?

Again, great work here.  Just wondering if there's a way to change those settings.

[madmab]

Under configuration set the "Pokey Type" to old.  But be warned.  The sound will be the right frequency, but there are certain "artifacts" present that aren't always too kind to the ears.  

You can change the configuration of an already configured game by pressing the X button instead of the A button.