Topic: Atari7800x V3 (Read 379 times)

XPort · « **on:** September 03, 2006, 01:06:00 PM »

Atari7800X - Atari 7800 Emulator for XBox v3

http://xport.xbox-scene.com/
http://www.mess.org/

What's New:

- Selectable palette
- MESS-NTSC
- MESS-PAL
- New Stella NTSC
- Old Stella NTSC
- Z26 NTSC

- New UI feature: Garbage Directory
Press "BACK" on the game selection menu to move games you don't
like into a garbage directory. The default for this is
E:\SAVES\<EMULATORNAME>\GARBAGE. You can change this location
by going to Configuration -> Change Default Directories

Stella, Gnuboy, SMSPlus, FCEUltra, HUGO, NeoPop, DGen, Bochs, HUGO-CD,
FMSXBox, Bliss, WinSTon, Gens, Z26X, StepmaniaX, PCSXBox, XBoyAdvance,
DOSXBox, AtariXLBox, MirrorMagicX, KoboX, MaelstromX, MarblesX, Vice64X,
Vice20X, VicePETX, KegsX, XPired, AdamX, WonderSwanX, BeatsOfRageX,
PowermangaX, LynxBox, BlueMSXBox, GladiatorX, AmphetamineX, StarfighterX,
PachiX, BlobWarsX, OdysseyX, ArnoldX, X68000X, WinUAEX, MekaX,
MednafenX-NES, MednafenX-PCE, MednafenX-Lynx, AbuseX, PokemonMiniX,
Classic99X, SoftVMUX, VirtualBoyX, SuperVisionX, Chip8X, Atari7800X
what's next?

Enjoy!

madmab · « **Reply #1 on:** September 03, 2006, 02:01:00 PM »

Cool multiple palettes. Now that is what I call colorful. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) Burgertime, Uh I mean Beef Drop seemed like the only title affected by the issue, but then the only other game I really tried was Centipede which appeared ok. Well they don't call NTSC "Never The Same Color" for nothing. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

As for the sound thing I think in V1 it was actually sticking after the save, but in V2 it would only play while saving so that ain't so bad.

The garbage directory will come in real handy when sifting thru multiple versions of stuff!

Thanks for the answer on the volume thing. I think I'll just run the menu mp3 file or whatever it is thru some tool to lower it's volume.

This post has been edited by madmab: Sep 3 2006, 09:01 PM

Toon_Army · « **Reply #2 on:** September 03, 2006, 02:59:00 PM »

QUOTE(XPort @ Sep 3 2006, 08:13 PM)

Atari7800X - Atari 7800 Emulator for XBox v3

- New UI feature: Garbage Directory
Press "BACK" on the game selection menu to move games you don't
like into a garbage directory. The default for this is
E:\SAVES\<EMULATORNAME>\GARBAGE. You can change this location
by going to Configuration -> Change Default Directories

Enjoy!

thank you, wanted this for a while.....

yankefish · « **Reply #3 on:** September 03, 2006, 04:22:00 PM »

thx again xport, my wifey loves playing pacman java script:emoticon(':rolleyes:', 'smid_19')
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

sicknasty413 · « **Reply #4 on:** September 03, 2006, 11:02:00 PM »

xport rules!!!

man o man.. atari pwnz0rs

sxxxe83 · « **Reply #5 on:** September 04, 2006, 07:03:00 AM »

Nice work Xport =)
Thanks

madmab · « **Reply #6 on:** May 08, 2008, 12:37:00 PM »

Well I'm working on a7800x now. Atarixlbox is pretty much done now and should be on xbins soon and I'll create a new thread for that one. Here is a small list of what I've done so far.

QUOTE

ROMS loaded via Samba/Relax now work properly.

Fixed fast forward so you can actually see what is happening. All it really does is set frameskip to 9. Anything higher causes display issues. I'm hoping to find a better way than frameskipping for fastforward. Seems unlikely though. I think the thing is pretty close to maxxed out.

Fixed rewind so it doesn't crash the emu on gameload. Seems mess doesn't like to do savestates while it is still "initializing". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

There is also some weird issue with the savestates. Have not completely nailed it down, but mess seems to "schedule" state saves so they do not actually "occur" until the user exits back into the game. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

That's it for now. I really don't expect to do a whole lot for a7800x like I did with atarixlbox. Maybe yet another palette change and a database (from the prosystem emu) for .bin files. I'm also hoping to figure out how to map the "pause" button on the 7800. But alot of stuff from atarixlbox should carry over. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy.gif)

This post has been edited by madmab: May 8 2008, 07:40 PM

run088 · « **Reply #7 on:** May 08, 2008, 12:56:00 PM »

QUOTE(madmab @ May 8 2008, 03:13 PM)

Well I'm working on a7800x now. Atarixlbox is pretty much done now and should be on xbins soon and I'll create a new thread for that one. Here is a small list of what I've done so far.
There is also some weird issue with the savestates. Have not completely nailed it down, but mess seems to "schedule" state saves so they do not actually "occur" until the user exits back into the game.

That's it for now. I really don't expect to do a whole lot for a7800x like I did with atarixlbox. Maybe yet another palette change and a database (from the prosystem emu) for .bin files. I'm also hoping to figure out how to map the "pause" button on the 7800. But alot of stuff from atarixlbox should carry over.

Good to hear! Have you given any thought to adding streaming screenshots to the new releases?If not thats cool.

madmab · « **Reply #8 on:** May 08, 2008, 01:27:00 PM »

If your talking about over a network, yeah I'll look into that when I get a chance.

It's just a matter of taking the time to set-up some test samples on my networked pc. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

XPort · « **Reply #9 on:** May 09, 2008, 06:36:00 AM »

QUOTE(madmab @ May 8 2008, 03:13 PM)

Well I'm working on a7800x now. Atarixlbox is pretty much done now and should be on xbins soon and I'll create a new thread for that one. Here is a small list of what I've done so far.
There is also some weird issue with the savestates. Have not completely nailed it down, but mess seems to "schedule" state saves so they do not actually "occur" until the user exits back into the game.

That's it for now. I really don't expect to do a whole lot for a7800x like I did with atarixlbox. Maybe yet another palette change and a database (from the prosystem emu) for .bin files. I'm also hoping to figure out how to map the "pause" button on the 7800. But alot of stuff from atarixlbox should carry over.

There are a few emulators that behave like this (schedule save states). The reason it's done is because typically save states are triggered by user interaction which is usually handled by an interrupt in the console the emulator is emulating. These "read joystick" type interrupts can happen in lots of different places during code execution. Scheduling the save/load states ensures that they only happen at one place in the code to ensure that things work correctly every time. In theory, if you save every single variable and then load it back it shouldn't be a problem, but practicality and implementation-wise it's not always easy to do this.

Basically, I don't recommend trying to change this behavior. What problem is it causing?

run088 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 09, 2008, 07:07:00 AM »

Isnt the in game menu screen you get by clicking the right thumb stick on any xport emulator more or less a build in pause for every emulator?This is what I use as a pause for all of them anyway I never gave much thought into people pausing any differently or what the advantage would be doing it another way.

madmab · « **Reply #11 on:** May 09, 2008, 07:57:00 AM »

QUOTE(XPort @ May 9 2008, 09:12 AM)

There are a few emulators that behave like this (schedule save states). The reason it's done is because typically save states are triggered by user interaction which is usually handled by an interrupt in the console the emulator is emulating. These "read joystick" type interrupts can happen in lots of different places during code execution. Scheduling the save/load states ensures that they only happen at one place in the code to ensure that things work correctly every time. In theory, if you save every single variable and then load it back it shouldn't be a problem, but practicality and implementation-wise it's not always easy to do this.

Basically, I don't recommend trying to change this behavior. What problem is it causing?

To be honest I have not completely figured it out but what was originally happening was I would save a state in the menu, and then go to the "load state" menu to confirm the file was there. The screenshot would be there but no savestate. Obviously, as I found out later, because mess was "scheduling" the saves. So for example if a user saves a state and then immediately exits the game they can kiss their save state goodbye. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

So once I discovered this I pretty much came to the conclusion that you mentioned, that chances are MESS needed the save/load to occur at a certain point in the emulation. So what I did (in the interm) is just modify it to kick the user back into the game after a save or load (only if a #MESS emu is running).

But then I noticed while playing the "Pacman Collection" that after playing for a certain period of time the save states did not appear to be taking. The "Pacman Collection" I think is a 32k bankswitched cart so I'm wondering if that has something to do with it cause after playing a while presumably some bankswitching would have occured.

So that is pretty much the issue that is occuring now. After playing that particular game for a period of time the save states do not seem to kick in. I was gonna just run in debug mode sometime and play it for a while and then trace thru the "handle_save" routine and see if it kicks out an error. There are a few sections in that routine that call ui_popup to report errors.

I did have another question, though about the command line section of the properties box. Is there any way for me to change any of those parms if I wish? There does not seem to be any way to edit it. Oh and I'm just curious, but is it your experience that MESS is running pretty close to the limit? It sure seems to get flakey while running in debug mode with rewind enabled.

Run088... the reason I'm gonna map the "pause" button is because some 7800 titles (like the homebrew Froggie) look for it to be pressed to perform certain functions.

This post has been edited by madmab: May 9 2008, 03:09 PM

madmab · « **Reply #12 on:** May 09, 2008, 09:22:00 AM »

Well I got the pause key mapped, although I had to do it in a way I would not prefer. It was originally mapped to "]". Unfortunately the keycode stuff is pretty neutered.

Now that I think about it I might do reset as well. I'll have to see how many games do not let you exit back out to the menu.

madmab · « **Reply #13 on:** May 09, 2008, 07:06:00 PM »

Nevermind about the save states. I figured out what was happening. Apparently MESS only queues up one save/load state request at a time so when rewind is enabled it was overriding when the user saved a state.

So I just put in a little check to make sure that don't happen.

Don't forget about my other two questions in the post two posts above this one.

XPort · « **Reply #14 on:** May 10, 2008, 07:46:00 AM »

I'm not 100% sure I know what you're talking about wrt the command line params - but if it's the arguments being passed to the main function that runs the emulation loop, you can feel free to edit those all you wish. If you break it, you buy it.

Yeah there's a lot of overhead in MESS. Debug has no optimizations and rewind is very taxing because it's always saving. A save state is essentially performed each frame. I did change this behavior for certain ports (I forget which) so that it would only save a state every 4th or 5th frame or something. It resulted in stuttering while rewinding, but the game ran more smoothly while rewind was on.

Author Topic: Atari7800x V3 (Read 379 times)