Post by: Carcharius on July 23, 2004, 01:54:00 PM
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! SpeXtrum v0.3 Beta !
! 23rd July 2004 !
Note: This is a Beta release and as such should be considered in the Beta
stages of development. Please bear this in mind, as although this is a
vastly updated version from the Alpha, SpeXtrum may or may not work as
expected and may contain bugs. Use at your own risk!
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
Changes:
=------=
Changed for v0.3 Beta:
+ - Fixed memory leak which caused the xbox to hang after 10/15 mins use.
+ - Fixed bug which caused Flicker Filter level not to be saved.
+ - Improved file loading, more snapshots and tape images should work now.
+ - Better optimizations, improved frame rate especially with HQ2x.
+ - File list now 'remembers' its position.
=----------------------------------------------------------------------------=
I am very interested to know how people find the changed loading routines working. Hopefully most (all?) of the feedback will be positive.
Also included in the package is a skin configuration for people with a 16:9 display. If you want to try this out, in the skins\\default folder backup the existing skin.xml then rename the skin_169.xml to skin.xml then start SpeXtrum as normal.
As usual please let me know your comments/suggestions.
Carcharius
Post by: deathx88 on July 23, 2004, 07:34:00 PM
Post by: Carcharius on July 24, 2004, 02:45:00 AM
Post by: GreyLord on July 24, 2004, 02:52:00 AM
Keep it up!
Now where did I put mIRC...
Post by: dakidski on July 24, 2004, 03:23:00 AM
^^ THANKS!
dakidski
Post by: kvajnto on July 24, 2004, 04:13:00 AM
Post by: dakidski on July 24, 2004, 05:02:00 AM
dakidski
Post by: Danjuro on July 24, 2004, 05:31:00 AM
My best wishes for the future of your work.
Post by: kimota2004 on July 24, 2004, 05:45:00 AM
Any chance of being able to adjust the screen position in a future release? It sits just a little to the left on my TV.
Thanks again.
Post by: yadster on July 24, 2004, 05:51:00 AM
Thankyou.
Post by: Carcharius on July 24, 2004, 05:53:00 AM
| QUOTE (kimota2004 @ Jul 24 2004, 01:48 PM) |
| Any chance of being able to adjust the screen position in a future release? It sits just a little to the left on my TV. |
There's someone that hasn't read all of the readme then!
Yes screen adjustment will be in a future release, as will save states and control definition.
Carch
Post by: Mr Do! on July 24, 2004, 07:02:00 PM
Post by: Juganawt on July 25, 2004, 04:02:00 AM
Thanks Cacharius!
*hugs his xbox in a slightly excited, but otherwise sane and loving manner*
Keep up the good work buddy.
Post by: Carcharius on July 25, 2004, 05:04:00 AM
have been playing too much MAME this weekend! Carch
Post by: GreyLord on July 25, 2004, 06:44:00 AM
Post by: barrasxbox on July 25, 2004, 07:17:00 AM
| CODE |
| |
to
| CODE |
| |
Which should leave a nice gap around the window and add the normal background behind it so that there's no gaps around the emulation window. You can also compensate for a 16:9 display by changing the width to 400 and moving the posX in a little.
Post by: frakman on July 25, 2004, 01:15:00 PM
The speccy has seen more use than that other emulator everyone seems to be obsessed with right now
Oh, did I ever mention that the virtual keyboard f'in rocks?
Cheers
Post by: yadster on July 25, 2004, 01:59:00 PM
Post by: Carcharius on July 25, 2004, 02:03:00 PM
| QUOTE (yadster @ Jul 25 2004, 10:02 PM) |
| ...just out of curiosity's sake anyone tried a USB keyboard. |
Funnily enough I have!
USB keyboard is most definitely supported.
Carch
Post by: r3tr0dude on July 26, 2004, 03:34:00 AM
I have deleted all the old versions and save (from m$dash) but every time I load emu I am back at root dir. This still happening to anyone else or am I doing somthing wrong ?
Post by: Carcharius on July 26, 2004, 04:05:00 AM
| QUOTE (r3tr0dude @ Jul 26 2004, 11:37 AM) |
| 1 small problem with this release .. it isn't rembering its last dir in file browser still |
Thats cos it doesn't do that yet!
It now remembers the position in the file list when going from screen to screen when in the emu. When it is restarted it starts again at the root of the file browser.
This will change in a future version.
Carch
Post by: yadster on July 26, 2004, 10:52:00 AM
Post by: Mr Do! on July 26, 2004, 12:40:00 PM
Post by: Carcharius on July 26, 2004, 05:20:00 PM
| QUOTE (yadster @ Jul 26 2004, 06:55 PM) |
| So now that you have a shiny working emulator what sort of things you looking to add Carch? I know everyone (me included) are looking forward to the save state function, but wondered what else you'll be adding. Option to connect tape recorder via USB perhaps? |
Thats for me to know and you lot to spend your nights wondering about!
Really it all depends how much time I get and how motivated I'm feeling when and if I get that time.
There are still some areas of the emulation that need improving so I'd like to spend some time working on those. Also I'm not 100% happy with the way the ui is working in places (specifically the in-game menu and tape control area). Also as well as save states there are a couple of other things which I haven't gotten round to yet - screen resizing and control definition.
Other than that I'm not sure - will have to see what takes my fancy, as always any sensible suggestions are welcome.
Carch
Post by: khayman on August 10, 2004, 04:34:00 AM
| QUOTE (Carcharius @ Jul 27 2004, 01:23 AM) |
| Also as well as save states there are a couple of other things which I haven't gotten round to yet - screen resizing and control definition. Carch |
Hi Carcharius,
IMHO, control definition is one of the main things for an emulator like this where one tipically doesn't have a keyboard attached to the console. I tried to emulate Chukie Egg (one of the 1st Spectrum games) and it appears to work perfectly but since it doesn't have an option for Kempston/Sinclair joysticks, one can't play it. I tried redefining the keys on the game to map the Sinclair joystick controls and still wasn't able to because the game doesn't let me choose some of the keys (already being used for other functions).
One interesting detail I noted. I transferred some snapshots (.sna) that I had on my pc to the XBOX and the games were unplayable, ie, they would load but the controls would not work *in game* (the virtual keyboard worked ok in the menu). I tried the same snapshots on a PC emulator and they worked. I downloaded .tap versions from the web and they worked both on the pc emu and in SpeXtrum.
Anyways, it is still great to see the Spectrum work on my tv, courtesy of all the work you've done. Thank you very much for SpeXtrum, I really appreciate being able to review some old games I enjoyed very much.
Regards,
K
Post by: Carcharius on August 10, 2004, 11:32:00 PM
| QUOTE (khayman @ Aug 10 2004, 12:37 PM) |
| Hi Carcharius, IMHO, control definition is one of the main things for an emulator like this where one tipically doesn't have a keyboard attached to the console. I tried to emulate Chukie Egg (one of the 1st Spectrum games) and it appears to work perfectly but since it doesn't have an option for Kempston/Sinclair joysticks, one can't play it. I tried redefining the keys on the game to map the Sinclair joystick controls and still wasn't able to because the game doesn't let me choose some of the keys (already being used for other functions). One interesting detail I noted. I transferred some snapshots (.sna) that I had on my pc to the XBOX and the games were unplayable, ie, they would load but the controls would not work *in game* (the virtual keyboard worked ok in the menu). I tried the same snapshots on a PC emulator and they worked. I downloaded .tap versions from the web and they worked both on the pc emu and in SpeXtrum. Anyways, it is still great to see the Spectrum work on my tv, courtesy of all the work you've done. Thank you very much for SpeXtrum, I really appreciate being able to review some old games I enjoyed very much. Regards, K |
Chances are when the snapshot is loaded it is expecting a certain kind of input but you SpeXtrum settings don't match. i.e the when the snapshot was taken the game in question was configured for kempston input but you have SpeXtrum set to sinclair.
Try changing the joystick emulation option and see if that helps, if that doesn't help then please e-mail me one of the snaps in question (address is in the readme) and I will have a look and see if I can track down the problem.
Carcharius
Post by: Carcharius on August 15, 2004, 12:30:00 AM
| QUOTE |
| Just a question - I seem to be unable to load games (tzx files) that use protection (Speedlock 1 etc) is that something i am doing wrong or is it that the emu cannot handle the turbo load yet? I can use tap or z80 files i know but theres something about hearing the sound of the load that is very satisfying, and tzx files are the most accurate representations of the original code (or so i'm lead to believe.) |
TZX files in general should work fine, although there may be problems with some files. Can you tell me which games you had problems with? If I can get the same game then I can work on improving support.
If you want to hear the loading sound when using TAP images, just turn off the instant and high speed loading options in the emulation settings.
As for your Amiga emulations questions - sorry but I haven't a clue, perhaps someone else reading this thread might be able to help. But I'd suggest you post your question in an amiga related thread.
Carch
Post by: stebai on August 15, 2004, 05:10:00 AM
Just go to this link:
http://www.worldofsp...rg/archive.html
(Its got to be the best spectrum romsite online btw.)
And download any US Gold game (Raid over Moscow, Blue Max) with Speedlock 1 or 2 protection - it also doesn't like ant game with code VGC1005 (whatever that means! - have a look at Virgins Racing Manager there.)
Hope i have been of some service.
Kind regards