Pocketnes BETA! (3-18-08)

Dwedit · 2008-02-20 3:38:03 pm

Here's a new awesome Beta version!

Changes 3-18-08:
* More speedups from using EWRAM to store rom pages (instead of reading them from the cartridge)
* Many savestate fixes
* Now uses correct identification for savestates created with compressed roms. Old savestates made with compressed roms will not work.
* Added in something developed a year ago and then I forgot to merge it in o_O (I thought it had been integrated in, but apparently it wasn't)
* Fixed cheats getting lost after loading state
* Fixed compressed VS games
* Some internal code changes to allow certain features to be excluded at build time

Newest changes 3-13-08:
* Fixed loading state graphics glitches

Changes from 3-8-08:
Major bugfixes:
* Fixed the bug where the SRAM went back in time after entering the UI
* Fixed sprite collision when games don't update the sprite tables every frame (Bomberman 2 works again)
* Fixed a bug which may have caused sram corruption

No longer broken from alphas:
* Added the punchout hack back in
* Re-added PPU hack
* Re-added cheat finder

Minor bugfixes:
* Fixed a cheat finder bug (kept old cheats active after changing games)
* Fixed bug where savestates did not load correctly from previous alphas

Enhancements:
* Changed IRQs for Mapper 69 [FME-7], (Mr. Gimmick, Return of the Joker...)
* Savestates now save sound information

Download
Nespack
(previous Beta had ~600 downloads)
(previous Beta had 863 downloads)
(previous alpha had 136 downloads)
(previous alpha had 340 downloads)
(previous alpha before that had 109 downloads)

Don't forget PocketNES Menu Maker

Note: if you are not a programmer, then do not download "pocketnes_source_code_3_18_2008.rar"
Also, do not link directly to the file, since it goes away when I release a new beta.

Last edited by Dwedit (2008-03-18 4:10:37 pm)

Attachments:

pocketnes.gba, Size: 63,132 bytes, Downloads: 3,206

nespack.zip, Size: 40,633 bytes, Downloads: 3,821

pocketnes_source_code_3_18_2008.7z, Size: 169,338 bytes, Downloads: 3,591

Dwedit · 2008-02-20 4:36:51 pm

Here's the upgraded background tile system in action!

Before:

After:

Notice that the brick no longer disappears.

liuxiaocheng · 2008-02-20 10:10:09 pm

Extremely thank Dwedit to bring to us pleasantly surprised, this edition has the quantitive leap in the picture! But I most like the CHEAT function or could not use, pressed down had not reflected. Hoped the Dwedit eldest child can help to do decides. Thank once more! (Because does not understand English, therefore all is with the on-line translation. If has the sentence not to pass please forgives)

Dwedit · 2008-02-20 10:16:25 pm

Sorry, I forgot that I had broken the cheatfinder.

liuxiaocheng · 2008-02-20 10:17:12 pm

Why right also had a question is uses an edition nespack compression ROM not to be able to use in this edition Pocketnes. What new function new edition does nespack have? Resembled is bigger than 256K or not to be able to compress, moreover the compression ratio resembled has not changed. The young Bai question were very many, has disturbed, sorry.

Dwedit · 2008-02-20 10:27:59 pm

The new Nespack stores the rom checksum, so that you can use savestates with the compressed roms. Roms compressed with the old version of Nespack are rejected because they don't include the game's checksum. Thanks for the request, I'll try to add support for the old Nespack in future versions.

Dwedit · 2008-02-23 2:15:34 am

New alpha version gets Lagrange Point working, and fixes Pinbot, High Speed, and Metal Max (chinese pirate version)! Yay!

rememberthe8bit · 2008-02-23 6:55:43 am

Uh... I think you uploaded Pocket NES v9.98...

Rob Mocca · 2008-02-23 9:58:33 am

I've been trying to find any nes emu with save state support that works with Magic of Scheherazade, The (U).nes. Basically the only emu that seems to work is NesterDS, but that lacks save states. The password system in that game makes it hard to save your progress on the go while playing on the DS.

What happens in the game is when you are in the turn based RPG scenes in the game, say
against the enemy Amaries. When the enemy does a magic attack that causes the screen to flash. (like Amaries sings a song, the party was swallowed up by the wave) the game crashes back to the beginning with the culture brain logo. This happens in all versions of PocketNes, NesDS, and everything else I've been able to find besides NesterDS.

The rom is goodnes verified, and everything else works great in the game. I would love to see a older version of pocketnes with savestates still working (they are completely broken in this game in the new alpha) and that bug fixed if it would ever be possible.

Let me know if I have provided enough information for troubleshooting.

Thanks!

EFX

(yes , the Damaged Cybernetics EFX. ) :)

Dwedit · 2008-02-23 11:19:07 am

Do you know of a password or game genie code to take me to the crash quickly?
My guess is that it's related to crossing a non-contiguous page boundary. Quick test: If LoopyNES on the PC crashes, PocketNES will crash too.

rememberthe8bit · 2008-02-23 11:36:22 am

Yeah, I just tested Super Mario Bros. with the pocketnes version you posted (downloaded at 2:24pm today) and it does have the block flash problem, plus the emulator says PocketNES version 9.98 in the L+R menu...

Dwedit · 2008-02-23 11:40:24 am

I have no idea why you have the wrong file. The version I uploaded in this thread says "X alpha 2", and is 61040 bytes large with an MD5 hash of cf549b89c63c68ac05029d3656c38e35. Make sure you remove any traces of the old .998 from your rom builder tool's directory (including pre-built compilations).

rememberthe8bit · 2008-02-23 11:58:54 am

Yeah, the file I have is that exact checksum and it still does this. I've removed the old pocketnes file. I've attached the file I've used. I don't have any idea why this is not working... :(

rememberthe8bit · 2008-02-23 12:06:26 pm

EDIT: Wow, made a stupid mistake. Thanks for all the help, and I especially apprciate all the effort you put into this emulator!

Last edited by rememberthe8bit (2008-02-23 7:14:03 pm)

Dwedit · 2008-02-23 1:18:02 pm

Yep, just as I suspected...
Magic of Scheherazade runs code off the edge of a bank.
After the flashing screen from the enemy, the code runs from BFFE in bank #3 to C000 in bank #7.
The only thing I can do about this hack the rom to make it compatible with pocketnes.

Rob Mocca · 2008-02-23 1:22:15 pm

Hacking the rom to fix it would be fantastic if you have a means to do so, I would be more then pleased, and if needed I could take it in the means of a ips patch. Haven't done one of those in awhile. Would mean the world to me, thanks! :)

BTW, check out the homebrew game Snowbro and I have been working on

neotoxin moccamagic com We hope to actually finish it someday. :)

EFX

Dwedit · 2008-02-23 2:13:31 pm

Rather than hacking the rom here, I decided to hack the emulator. Now it specifically checks if it's running Magic of Scheherazade, and forces Bank 3 and Bank 7 to be contiguous.
No, I haven't uploaded the emulator yet. But the next alpha release will support the game.
So which problems are you having with savestates? They seem to work fine for me.

----

PocketNES menu maker lets you select a pocketnes rom. Make sure that is correct.

----

Hey EFX, I noticed your message board (hosted on proboards) is full of spam. Would you like the customized version of PunBB I'm running?

Rob Mocca · 2008-02-23 6:46:11 pm

I tried savestates with the compressed and uncompressed roms on the pocketgba from up top, I used GBA Rom Packer.exe to insert the game, should I have used something else? if so can you link to i t? Thanks.

I dont even think i have login access to the forums there, that was snowbro's making and he's been MIA since december or so. :D

EFX

Rob Mocca · 2008-02-25 8:55:47 am

All I would do was save a savestate anywhere, and when I went to load it it would just go black, I could still access the menus, but the game would be broken until I reloaded. Like I said I was using gb rom maker or whatever its called, do you have a different tool you choose to use?

Thanks, look forward to that next release, hopefully by my bday in june. I'm gonna be 30+ :(

EFX

Dwedit · 2008-02-25 9:12:43 am

Which nes game? Which flash cartridge?
I've never heard of a "gb rom maker". The tools used are Nespack to compress roms, and "PocketNES Menu Maker" to build the GBA file.

Rob Mocca · 2008-02-25 9:33:38 am

Still talking about Magic of Scheherazade, you asked where I was having savestate problems at. The only difference in our backup roms is likely the software I was using to insert the game into your latest pocketnes alpha.

So my above message was regarding that, and I'm using a R4. I'll try inserting the game using pocketnes Menu Maker when I get home later, and look forward to the version with Magic of Scheherazade Bank3/7 hack.

Thanks!

EFX

Dwedit · 2008-02-25 10:06:20 am

As far as I know, the R4 does not load GBA games at all, only Nintendo DS games. And NESDS is way behind, since it was a port of PocketNES prior to many of Flubba's changes, and naturally doesn't include any of my changes. It's got a lot of catching up to do, since I haven't applied any of my changes to PocketNES to NESDS.

If you are using NO$GBA to test out the GBA pocketnes, then you'll run into major problems, since NO$GBA emulates a mirrored 32k sized SRAM save on the cartridge instead of a full 64k size which PocketNES expects to see. I doubt savestates would work with that incorrect SRAM size.

Rob Mocca · 2008-02-25 11:33:13 am

I misspoke, been a busy day ,I'm using a GBA ez-flash II 128mb cartridge. With EZ-Client to load it. And your pocketnesgba. Let me know if I should still be having the savestate issues given this new information thanks!

EFX

Dwedit · 2008-02-25 3:25:45 pm

I don't have an EZ Flash, and have no clue whether it properly allocates 64k of SRAM or not.

Also, never mind the current alpha versions, savestates are completely broken on those builds.

rememberthe8bit · 2008-02-26 5:56:36 am

Rob Mocca wrote:

I misspoke, been a busy day ,I'm using a GBA ez-flash II 128mb cartridge. With EZ-Client to load it. And your pocketnesgba. Let me know if I should still be having the savestate issues given this new information thanks!
EFX

If you need to have 64kb of RAM allocated, maybe you check this thread out:
http://ezflash.sosuke.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2801

Dr. E · 2008-02-27 10:38:00 am

You sir have come through, thank you for keeping my promise of you. It is unfortunate that you are now distracting this poor EFX kid with idle PocketNES talk, instead of letting the kid work on the NES game dedicated to you.

E

Dwedit · 2008-02-27 6:54:47 pm

I've uploaded a version which should properly play Magic of Scheherazade with savestates.
Also works nicely with Pinbot/High Speed, Lagrange Point, etc.
Also supports 4-screen vram again.
Also fixed several bugs

Savestates are still buggy for games which use SRAM. They are also broken for games which use Frame IRQs or DMC IRQs.

robmocca · 2008-02-28 7:18:16 pm

thanks for the work dwedit, I'm a very proud 31 year old kid. I'll get back to slaving away on my game that's apparently dedicated to you and not the entire community of nes gamers now. :D

Here's some light reading from back in 96' for our friend from above, should shed some light on what I've been doing with my time. :)

EFX

rememberthe8bit · 2008-03-01 7:28:40 am

Wow, this is working loads better than 9.98.

By the way, is there any way to include an option to remove the 8 sprite limit, like in other emulators? Or would that be too much to ask for?

Dwedit · 2008-03-01 9:49:16 am

It ignores the 8 sprite limit already. Actually supporting an 8-sprite limit is much harder on a GBA. I don't think I could add an 8-sprite limit.

There's a big 'hack' in there already, where it checks if 8 sprites are intentionally placed in a row, then blocks all sprites from appearing in that row.
In order to avoid graphical artifacts in Zelda 1's dungeons and Gremlins 2's intro, I had to add that hack.

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Pocketnes BETA! (3-18-08)

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