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diff --git a/pandora/readme.txt b/pandora/readme.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 68ef578..0000000 --- a/pandora/readme.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1223 +0,0 @@ --- porter's foreword --
-
-This is a Pandora port of Exophase's impressive GBA emulator, gpSP.
-Since nobody has released a functional port for more than a year after
-pandora's release, and the GINGE'd version doesn't do this emulator
-justice, I've decided to take this task. This version also includes
-my own tweaks from GP2X/Wiz version. In case anyone wonders, this
-release was done with author's consent.
-
-To use it, you'll first need to copy authentic GBA BIOS to gpSP
-appdata directory, which usually is <SD card>/pandora/appdata/gpsp/ .
-It must be named gba_bios.bin and should be 16kB in size.
-
-I've appended the original gpSP GP2X and PSP readme files as they
-contain lots of information that is still relevant for this version,
-as well as development history of this project.
-
-- notaz
-
-Changelog:
-
-0.9-2xb u8
-- fixed tv-out
-- integrated M-HT's neon scalers
-- merged an assorment of calc84maniac's bugfixes
-
-0.9-2xb u7
-- Pandora port, using hardware scaler for video output.
-- Fixed a few portablility issues in ARM asm and sound code.
-- Tweaked timing to suit pandora's LCD refresh nicely.
-- Maybe fixed GBC/digital sound channel desync over time.
-- Some other not-that-relevant cleanups and tweaks.
-
-Source code should be available at:
-http://notaz.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi
-
-
-
--- gameplaySP2X Gameboy Advance emulator for GP2X --
-
-gpSP2X is a version of my (Exophase)'s emulator originally for Sony PSP.
-A large amount of effort has been done to make it more optimized for the
-ARM CPU present in the GP2X, however it is still very much a work in
-progress.
-
-See readme.txt for the PSP version readme, which contains a lot of
-information relevant to the GP2X version (note that some of it does
-not apply however).
-
-
-Changelog:
-
-0.9-2xb u6
-- Fixed clock and scaling config saving.
-- Fixed occasional crash on first ROM load on 1.1 firmware.
-- Added LCD timing setup code, which can be controlled through
- 'pollux_dpc_set' environment vatiable (see gpsp.gpe wrapper script).
-
-0.9-2xb u5
-- Added portrait drawing modes. They eliminate tearing but are slightly
- slower.
-- Added page scrolling in ROM browser with L/R.
-- 32MB ROM support fixed.
-
-0.9-2xb u4 (unofficial notaz release, done on Exophase's request)
-- Wiz port. No emulation related changes.
-- Wiz: dropped SDL for video and hitting hardware directly (GPH SDL can't
- be trusted, it doesn't do double buffering as of firmware 1.0).
-- Added new optimized software scaler with interpolation.
-- gpSP is now saving ROM dir on exit. Delete romdir.txt if you don't
- want that.
-- gpSP now comes with wARM, new kernel module+lib for ARM cache control
- (replaces mmuhack).
-- gpSP no longer invalidates whole icache after recompilation, might
- cause minor speedup.
-
-0.9-2xb u3 (unofficial notaz release, released with permission):
-- Removed built-in CPU/LCD/RAM-Tweaker.
-- Improved usability of volume control.
-- Removed PSP-specific GUI options, adjusted help text.
-- Overclocking from menu now works, keep it at 200 if you don't want that
- (if you want to overclock using launcher, for example).
-- Fixed centering-on-first-run problem.
-- 3:2 scaled option now does what it says.
-
-0.9-2xb u2 (unofficial notaz release):
-- Replaced non-working mmuhack.o with proper one, added cache flush calls
- to avoid artifacts.
-
-0.9-2xb u1 (unofficial notaz release):
-- Fixed a problen in thread synchronization which caused deadlock after
- some time.
-
-0.9-2xb:
--- IMPORTANT-- If you're overwriting an old version, be sure to delete the
- gpsp.cfg file first, or be prepared to have a bunch of weird button
- settings that would require fixing.
-
-- Fixed some bugs stunting compatability.
-- Optimized alpha blends in renderer.
-- Some more optimizations to dynarec output.
-- Savestates should work better now.
-- Cheat/misc menu won't crash the emulator.
-- Main button config window works (not all buttons are in yet)
-
-0.9-2Xa: (Exophase release)
-- Redid autoframeskip. Should work more reliably.
-- Rewrote dynamic recompiler from x86 source (arm_emit.h, arm_stub.S).
- Has some more sophisticated behavior than the last version, more is
- still to come... Should notice a slight speed improvement over the
- last version.
-- Tweaked GUI to be a little more useable. Buttons are now mirroring the
- PSP version's.
-- Code unification + cleanup amongst versions.
-
-
-v9008: (zodttd release)
-- Updated the way autoframeskip works. Should be better now. Still has a max
- frameskip value.
-- Added a slight performance increase to the dynarec.
-- Added sync() to make sure files such as savestates and in-game saves are
- saved properly to the GP2X.
-
-v9006: (zodttd release)
-- Initial public release
-
-
-Installation:
-
-1. Place the "gpsp.gpe" and "game_config.txt" file in a directory on your SD
- card used with the GP2X.
-
-2. Place your GBA BIOS in the directory from step 1. This file must be named
- "gba_bios.bin" in all lowercase as shown, so rename it if needed.
-
- -- NOTE --
-
- There are two commonly available BIOSes - one is the correct one used in
- production GBA's worldwide and the other is a prototype BIOS. The latter
- will not cause some games to not work correctly or crash. If you attempt
- to use this BIOS you will be presented with a warning before being
- allowed to continue. This screen will give you a checksum of the real
- BIOS image (see readme.txt for further information).
-
-3. Place your GBA games in the directory from step 1. These files should have
- a ".gba" or ".bin" file extension. Zip compressed games should be supported
- and are recognized with the ".zip" file extension. Note that 32MB ROMs will
- probably not run if zipped. 16MB and smaller should be OK.
-
-4. Done. Run gpsp.gpe.
-
-
-Controls:
-
-How to use gpSP on the GP2X:
-Buttons are mapped as follows (GBA/ingame buttons can be changed in the menu):
-
-GP2X--------------------GBA
-X -> A
-B -> B
-L TRIG -> L TRIG
-R TRIG -> R TRIG
-START -> START
-SELECT -> SELECT
-
-GP2X--------------------------------gpSP
-
--- IN-GAME --
-
-VOL MIDDLE (UP + DOWN) -> menu
-PUSH STICK -> fps display toggle (second number is
- frames actually drawn)
-
--- IN-MENU --
-B -> select option
-X -> cancel/exit menu
-A -> escape (up one director level in the
- file selector)
-
-When gpSP is started, you are presented with the option to overclock your
-GP2X. Use the L/R TRIG to change the CPU clockspeed and press START to
-continue. You may also change RAM timings here - experiment with what
-works well. Note that going too high on overclocking or low on RAM
-timings can cause the game to crash or the GP2X to outright freeze up.
-
-If you do not want to overclock, press START without using L/R.
-You will now be presented with a menu to choose a game. Press the IN-MENU
-"SELECT" button shown above to pick a game to load.
-
-If you would like to test gpSP for the GP2X with a homebrew (free public
-domain) game, a game by Russ Prince works very well with gpSP. It is called
-Bust-A-Move and is a remake of the classic game it's named after.
-
-
-How to build from source:
-
-The makefile included in the source is geared towards the Open2x toolchain.
-If you use Open2x and installed it in the way recommended then it should
-work okay, assuming you also have up to date HW-SDL (and have
-arm-linux-sdl-config installed in the right place). The makefile is in the
-gp2x directory, so go there first then just type make to build gpsp.gpe.
-Might need a little tweaking if your setup is different. If you need help
-you can ask me, but I'll probably nag you about why you want to build it in
-the first place.
-
-
-GP2X version FAQ:
-
-Q) Help! This game doesn't work. Am I using a bad version of the ROM?
-
-A) First, make sure you're using the correct BIOS version. If you aren't
- gpSP should tell you. Other than that, there are some games that are
- known to not work now (and will probably work later), and perhaps
- many more games that I don't know about that don't work. I haven't
- launched a full scale compatability test at this version, so it might
- take a while before the compatability levels are high.
-
-
-Q) Why is this version slower than the PSP version?
-
-A) gpSP is still a work in progress. It might be possible to obtain more
- speed from both this version and the PSP one too (and others in the
- future). With that in mind, know that even a very agressively overclocked
- GP2X is still less powerful than a PSP, generally speaking. Still, I
- have a lot of ideas. It's unlikely that the GP2X version will ever be as
- fast/faster than the PSP version for anyone but anything's possible.
-
-
-Q) How high does my GP2X have to overclock to enjoy gpSP?
-
-A) That depends on you. Higher overclocking will mean less frames skipped
- on autoframeskip, or less frameskip needed if on manual. Or it can
- make the difference between whether or not virtual 60fps can be reached.
- For some games no GP2X in the world will be able to run them fullspeed,
- with any amount of frameskip. A few might run well with no overclocking
- and a generous level of frameskip (probably manual). If you don't care
- about battery life (or you're plugged into an outlet) you should push
- it as high as you can while still maintaining stability, because
- chances are high that whatever you play will benefit from it. Right now
- you'll probably want 260MHz if you can achieve it, but with a lot of
- luck this number will lower slightly in the future (and is just a vague
- ballpark figure anyway). I don't want to scare anyone off from using the
- emulator, you should give it a try and see how it plays for you
- regardless of how high you can overclock. Just note that this is far
- from a locked smooth experience for everyone on every game.
-
-
-Q) GBA has an ARM processor, GP2X has an ARM processor. GP2X is more
- powerful than GBA. This emulator should run great without overclocking,
- so therefore you're doing it wrong.
-
-A) That's not a question, but I'll field it anyway. Two things: first,
- "virtualization", or running the GBA code "natively" on the GP2X is
- probably not possible, at least not with the way I want to do things.
- For reasons why go read my blog (see below). So yes, you actually
- do need more than 16.7MHz of ARM9 power to emulate the GBA's CPU.
- Second: there is a whole lot of work behind emulating the pretty 2D
- graphics on the GBA, something it can do in hardware a lot better than
- this platform can.
- End result: GBA emulation on GP2X isn't as easy as you think it is.
-
-
-Q) What are you working on now? When will you release the next version?
-
-A) See the gpSP development blog:
-
- http://gpsp-dev.blogspot.com/
-
- Note that I don't give release dates, ever, unless I'm right on the verge
- of releasing. Be grateful that I've decided to be much more open about
- the development of the emulator now.
-
-
-Q) Thanks to your blog I heard that you made some improvement. Can I have
- a copy of the new code?
-
-A) No. Builds in transition often have a lot of problems, and I like for
- releases to be relatively substantial. I can probably be bribed out of
- them with donations though. :P
-
-
-Q) Why do the menu suck so much? Why do half the options not work or not
- make any sense?
-
-A) Sorry, the menu still hasn't been modified very much to fit the GP2X
- version instead of the PSP version.. hopefully this will improve in the
- future.
-
-
-Q) Who's in charge of the GP2X version anyway?
-
-A) Originally, zodttd was. I, Exophase, have basically usurped control of it
- now to encourage zodttd to work more on his PS1 emulator (that and I'm
- possessive of gpSP and get nervous when people work on it too heavily).
- zodttd will most likely still be around to work on things though.
-
-
-Q) I'm a super nice person and would like to donate some of my hard earned
- money to this one-off GBA emulator. Where do I send my money to?
-
-A) Exophase: exophase@gmail.com on PayPal
- zodttd: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=heirloomer
- %40pobox%2ecom&item_number=1&no_shipping=1&no_note=1&tax=0&cy_code=USD&bn=
- PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8
- ^ Click there for donating on PayPal (remove whitespace/linebreaks).
-
- GP2X people have already donated a lot more to me than PSP people have,
- even though there's an order of magnitude or two less users. And they've
- donated far more to zodttd than they have to me. So I'm not going to ask
- people to donate..
-
- However I won't lie: donating ups the chances of me actually working on the
- next version (for which I have a lot of ideas, but not necessarily time to
- dedicate to.. that time might need more incentive to be allotted from other
- things). This could change depending on my employment situation, but right
- now I feel guilty doing anything that doesn't help guarantee that I'll be
- able to buy food a year from now.
-
-
-Q) Tell me all of your personal information.
-
-A) Again not a question, but why not. I'm Exophase, real name: Gilead Kutnick,
- male, 23 years old, current residence Bloomington, IN; straight/single/not
- actively looking, almost have an MS in Computer Science (do have a BS
- underneath it), likes PSP more than GP2X, will not write a Nintendo DS
- emulator for either, am currently looking for a job for after I graduate.
-
-
-Q) You said you're looking for a job.
-
-A) Yes. If you have one or know someone who needs a low level oriented
- programmer then I'm up for grabs. And this is my resume:
- http://exophase.devzero.co.uk/resume.pdf
-
-
-Credits:
-
-Original codebase: Exophase (exophase@gmail.com)
-Foundation gp2x code: zodttd
-GP2X dynarec/stubs + current code maintainance: Exophase
-
-
-
--- gameplaySP Gameboy Advance emulator for Playstation Portable --
-
-
--- Release log --
-
-v0.91 (minor cleanup release)
-
-NOTE: I don't usually do minor releases but I rewrote a ton of
-things in gpSP 0.9, much of it during the last few days, and although
-I spent a lot of time debugging a few bugs inevitably crept in.
-
-# Fixed some issues in the new memory handlers that crept up, hopefully
- should fix the problems between 0.8 and 0.9.
-# Fixed a bug introduced in 0.9 that could cause crashes when selecting
- things in the menu (I hope, at least).
-# Fixed a bug with a certain invalid opcode causing a jump to be scanned
- when there isn't one (fixes Sabre Wulf).
-# Removed 2048 option for audio buffer.
-
-v0.9 (yes, it's still beta)
-
-NOTE: As some of you may be aware I'm pretty much tired of these
-unofficial releases by people (okay, mostly single person) who
-don't wish to follow my wishes. I'm in the process of asking this
-person to stop, in his own language. However, I want to make
-something clear. Look at the last six new features in this
-changelog. I added these TODAY. I could have done them at any
-time. But I didn't, because I spent many (dozens, quite possibly
-hundreds) hours debugging games that people want to play. I have
-always believed that this is far more important than spending time
-on new features. Frankly, I'm tired of my emulator being hacked on
-by other people, and if it doesn't stop I'm going to make this
-project closed source.
-
-Since I know this information is most visible when updated on the
-major sites, note that it is the news posters I am especially
-talking to. Next time you upload unofficial releases of my
-emulator (without even knowing what's changed) bear in mind that
-you're only encouraging me to stop working on this. If you want
-to pick sides between me and unofficial devs, be my guest. I'll
-let you decide by the contents of this release who's doing more
-for my emulator.
-
-Oh, and if you downloaded a version of gpSP that has more than
-"gpSP" in its name then you're using one of their versions. Shame
-on them for not even removing this threatening message, and shame
-on you. Unless you're using a port I endorse (GP2X, Dreamcast, etc),
-in which case everything's good.
-
-
-# Fixed stereo output being reversed.
-# Fixed a bug causing misaligned errors on 8bit writes to the gbc
- audio channel 3 wave data (fixes various Super Robot Wars games)
-# Fixed DMA with garbage in their upper 4 bits (fixes a crash in
- Zelda: Minish Cap)
-# Added double buffering to the rendering, removes line artifacts.
- Big thanks to Brunni for the idea.
-# Fixed a bug preventing some SRAM based games from saving (fixes
- MMBN4-6)
-# Fixed a bug causing part of EWRAM to potentially get corrupted if
- code segments loaded in EWRAM cross 32KB boundaries (fixes
- Phantasy Star 2)
-# Fixed a bug causing games using movs pc in user mode (very bad
- behavior) to crash. Fixes Colin McRae Rally 2.0.
-# Improved timing a bit more. Fixes GTA Advance.
-# Fixed a sprite clipping bug (fixes crash in third boss of Zelda:
- Minish cap)
-# Increased translation buffer size significantly (fixes Donkey Kong:
- King of Swing)
-# Fixed a dynarec bug causing add pc, reg to not work in Thumb code
- (fixes crash in DBZ:LoZ, seems to fix crashes in battle in Golden
- Sun, probably fixes other games)
-# Made sprites using tiles < 512 not display in modes 3-5 (fixes
- a couple minor graphical bugs)
-# Removed abort on instruction 0x00000000 hack, was breaking a
- certain bugged up game (Scurge)
-# Fixed bug in flags generating variable logical shifts (fixes
- SD Gundam Force)
-# Fixed unaligned 16bit reads (fixes DBZ:LoZ in game)
-# Redid contiguous block flag modification checking AGAIN and
- hopefully got it right this time (fixes Mario vs. Donkey Kong)
-# Redid ldm/stm instructions, fixing some cases (along with the
- timing improvements fixes Mario & Luigi)
-# Fixed 14bit EEPROM addressing (hopefully fixes saving in a lot
- of games)
-# Completely redid memory handlers, accurately emulates open and
- BIOS reads now. Fixes Zelda: Minish Cap (roll bug, last dungeon),
- Rayman, MMBN 1 (last dungeon), probably others.
-# Fixed a minor graphical glitch on the edges of the screen
- (thanks Brunni and hlide for the help!)
-# Fixed crash on loading savestates from files of games not currently
- loaded, but be sure you have the exact file you loaded it from or
- gpSP will exit.
-@ New memory handlers should provide performance boost for games
- that access VRAM significantly (ie 3D games)
-@ Added dead flag elimination checking for logical shifts, probably
- doesn't make a noticeable difference but should have been there
- anyway.
-+ Added rapidfire to the button mappings.
-+ Added auto frameskip. Removed fractional frameskip (don't think
- it's very useful with auto anyway). Select auto in the graphics/
- sound menu to activate it; frameskip value will act as the
- maximum (auto is by default on). Thanks again to Brunni for some
- help with this. Frameskip options are game specific.
-+ Added vsync to the rendering. Only occurs when frames aren't
- skipped. Seems to reduce tearing at least some of the time.
-+ Added non-filtered video option.
-+ Cheat support (Gameshark/Pro Action Replay v1-v3 only), still
- in early stages, doesn't support everything; codes may cause
- the game to crash, haven't determined yet if the codes are bad
- or the implementation is. See cheat section for more information.
-+ Added ability to change audio buffer size. Does not take affect
- until you restart the game.
-+ Added analog config options.
-+ Added ability to set analog sensitivity and turn off analog.
-+ Added ability to change the clock speed. This is a game specific
- option. Try lower speeds w/auto frameskip to save battery life.
-+ Fixed savestate speed on crappy Sony sticks.
-
-(legend: # bug fix, + feature addition, @ optimization)
-
-v0.8 - ("unlocked" beta)
-
-NOTE 1: It has come to my attention that there are actually BIOSes
-out there that are being used that cause some games to not work.
-The BIOS md5sum listed here is for the BIOS actually in GBAs and
-is as accurate as you'll get, (if you have a GBA and a flashcart
-you can dump it yourself, see http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/GBA_BIOS)
-
-NOTE 2: Since I know this is as far as a lot of people here I have a
-little request. Please, please, (I'd italicize this if I could)
-please stop constantly asking me when the next release will be,
-what it'll have, etc. And while you're at it, please stop asking me
-to implement wi-fi multiplayer, cheat support, or fix all of your
-games. Some things will happen in due time, other things might not
-ever happen. I devote about as much time as I can to this emulator
-and I carefully include as much as I can in releases to try to
-minimize the number of people who will nag me next time (erm, I
-mean, to make the most people happy), so I don't release every other
-day or anything like that. Sorry that I can't release once a week,
-but I'm a lot busier now than I was when I was first developing this
-emulator. Good thing I got the first version out before that, wasn't
-it?
-
-Congratulations, you made it this far! Now read the rest of the this
-thing. *_*
-
-
-# Fixed bug in dead flag elimination, "alt" version no longer needed.
-# Fixed EEPROM saves being saved as 32kb instead of 512bytes/8kb
-+ 32MB ROM support has been added. ROMS are "demand loaded" as
- necessary and page swapped out; there might be a small loading lag,
- but I have yet to ever really notice anything.
- NOTE: 32MB ROM support only works for unzipped ROMs.
-+ Save states have been added. See the save state menu for save/load
- options.
-+ Support for the real-time clock (RTC) chip in Pokemon cartridegs
- and other games. The implementation is based off of VBA's, whatever
- notes on gbadev I could find, and some of my own reverse engineering
- of what the games do... it might not be totally correct. Also,
- setting the time does not work.
-+ Per-game configuration. Currently this only saves frameskip and
- frameskip variation options.
-+ Removed the flash type option from the menu and instead added it
- to game_config.txt. Hopefully got everything - let me know if you
- find something that isn't there. It's pretty easy to add them if you
- have to.
-+ Added a display in the upper left-hand corner to indicate when
- fast-forward is on.
-+ Added button bindings for save/load state.
-@ Found a fix of StrmnNrmn proportion: far too much unnecessary mutex
- synchronization was going on. Removing the two offending lines of
- code gave a massive speed boost for free. Enjoy.
-
-v0.7 - (beta than ever)
-
-# Fixed a dynarec bug involving flags generating functions in
- contiguous conditional blocks. Fixes music in Super Mario
- Advance 2-4.
-# Fixed a dynarec bug where Thumb mov imm instructions wouldn't
- set flags. Fixes Zelda: Minish Cap, Megaman Battle Network,
- probably others. Comes at a slight speed cost.
-# Fixed a MIPS dynarec bug where some delay slots might not
- get filled rarely, causing chaos. Don't know if it improves
- any games.
-# Improved self-modifying code detection. Makes Golden Sun,
- Golden Sun 2, and Madden 2007 sorta work but excrutiatingly
- slowly. Looking for a game-specific workaround for this - if you
- want to play these games you'll have to wait for now :(
-# Fixed a bug causing the interrupt disable flag to go down
- when SWIs are entered, causing crashes/resets. Fixes
- Super Mario Advance 2-4.
-# Fixed menu crashing when strings with certain characters are
- printed (for instance going to the menu after loading the
- BIOS)
-# Accidentally forgot to render win0 + win1 + objwin when all
- active at the same time, many weeks ago. Added that, should fix
- some parts in games that had frozen screens.
-# Fixed some issues with gpsp.cfg needing to be present and
- corrupting, hopefully. At the very least sanity checks are
- performed on the config file.
-# Made it so assigning the frameskip button to something besides
- triangle actually worked as expected.
-# Fixed ability to restart current game if nothing is loaded
- (ie, crash)
-# Added interrupt on cpsr modification support to the dynarec
- (fixes backgrounds in Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance)
-# Added open addressing for ldm/stm instructions (fixes
- Super Mario Advance 3)
-# Improved cycle accuracy a little. Don't know of anything this
- fixes, but games with idle loops will run a little better w/o
- idle loop elimination (but should still be added when possible)
-# Fixed some bugs causing sound to play sometimes when it shouldn't.
-@ Added dead flag elimination for Thumb code. May possibly have
- noticeable performance increases (Thumb emited coded size can
- have a reduction of 20% or more)
-@ Added code generation for divide SWI. May have a small speed
- increase in some games.
-+ Added analog nub support (special thanks to psp298 for the
- code)
-+ Added fractional frameskip. Go below 0 to get them. A frameskip
- of 1/2 for instance means render 2 out of every 3 frames, 2/3
- means render 3 out of every 4 frames, etc. Possibly useful for
- games that are not quite fast enough at fs0 but fullspeed at
- fs1...
-
-v0.6 - (still beta quality, look out for new bugs)
-
-NOTE: Please include gpsp.cfg with EBOOT.PBP, this shouldn't be
- necessary but I think it is right now.
-
-# Fixed a nasty bug that shouldn't have made it into the initial
- release; a lot of games that TECM.. erm.. crash won't anymore.
- NOTE: This doesn't mean that no game will ever crash, freeze,
- otherwise not work.
-# Fixed some crashes in the GUI and the ability to "go up" past
- ms0:/PSP. Made the "go up" button square like it was supposed to
- be (instead of cross).
-+ There's now a menu that you can access, by default press right
- while holding down triangle for the frameskip bar.
-+ Menu option: resize screen aspect ratio, the default is now
- "scaled 3:2" which makes it look more like a normal GBA. You
- can use "fullscreen" (what it was like before) or "unscaled 3:2"
- (tiny but pixel for pixel like a GBA)
-+ Menu option: You can now load new games while the current one
- is running.
-+ Menu option: You can now restart the currently running game.
-+ Menu option: Frameskip variation - this defaults to "uniform"
- whereas it defaulted to "random" last release. Basically, turn
- it on random if you find that frameskip causes flickering
- animations to make things disappear. Other than that it will
- generally look better on uniform.
-+ GUI and file loading now have "auto repeat" on the buttons so
- they're not such a pain to navigate.
-+ Menu option: Added support for 128KB flash ROM, some games
- require it (Pokemon Firered/Leaf Green, Super Mario Advance 4),
- turn it on before running the game to make sure it works.
- NOTE: There are some versions of these ROMs that have been
- hacked to get around their 128KB flash, and may not even work
- properly at all. Look out for them, these games should save
- 128KB save files after you set the setting to it, IF they use
- 128KB flash.
-+ Menu option: Added ability to make the .sav files only update
- when you exit the emulator, use with extreme caution (in other
- words, it's not a good idea to use something like this in beta
- quality software if you care about your saves). Does NOT update
- if you exit through the home button, don't use the home button
- if you can help it.
-+ Zip support thanks to SiberianSTAR. It will load the first file
- with the extension .gba or .bin that it finds.
-+ Menu options are saved to gpsp.cfg. Note that it does not save
- frameskip options or flash ROM options because these are very
- per game particular.
-+ The emulator will now try to save backup files to something
- more matching the backup size than a fixed 64KB.
-@ Loading ROMs and the auto save of the .sav files is MUCH faster
- now. Thanks for the heads up on how to improve this from pollux!
-@ While coding for the screen resize code I found that SDL just
- wasn't cutting it and had to code for the GU myself. Turns out
- the new code is faster (but because it is render code any
- improvement will be diminished to nothing as frameskip is
- increased). Special thanks to Zx-81 for the tips on this one
- and for his GU code in the PSPVBA source as an example.
-@ Added some games to game_config.txt. Note that not all versions
- of these ROMs will work with these options, try to use the USA
- version if possible.
-
-8-19-2006 v0.5 - Initial release (public beta quality)
-
-
--- About --
-
-gameplaySP (gpSP for short) is a GBA emulator written completely from
-scratch. It is still pretty young (only having started a 3 months prior
-to the first release) and thus rather immature, but it does a decent
-job of playing a number of games, and is being improved upon somewhat
-regularly. It is currently somewhat minimalistic, in the sourcecode,
-presentation, and features. Its number one focus is to deliver a GBA
-gaming experience in the most playable way that PSP can manage, with
-frills being secondary (although still a consideration, at least for
-some of them).
-
-Having said that, optimization was the important way in achieving this
-goal, with overall compatability being a near second. Because of this
-some games may not run at the favor of running more games significantly
-better. Of course, the compatability will improve with time. The
-compatability in the current version (0.8) is perhaps around 80%
-(assuming the correct BIOS image is used).
-
-Many games will run at their best out of the box, but some games will
-run very slowly unless idle loops are taken care of. There is a supplied
-ROM database, game_config.txt, that gives idle loop targets and other
-settings that may help a game to run better (or at all) on a per-game
-basis. Currently (as of version 0.8) a few dozen games are on this list,
-mostly only USA versions. This list will continue to be updated; there's
-no real telling exactly how many of the ~2500 GBA games will need to
-appear here.
-
-gpSP currently requires an authentic GBA BIOS image file to run. It will
-make no effort to run without one present; this file is 16kb and should
-be called gba_bios.bin and present in the same location as the EBOOT.PBP
-file. Please do not ask me where to obtain this, you'll have to look
-online or grab it from a GBA. Note that it is not legal to have this file
-unless you own a GBA, and even then it's rather gray area.
-
-
-
--- Features --
-
-gpSP mostly emulates the core Gameboy Advance system. As of right now it
-does not emulate any special hardware present on various GBA cartridges.
-
-
-What it emulates:
-
-GBA CPU: All ARM7TDMI ARM and Thumb mode opcodes except block memory w/
- s-bit (probably aren't used in GBA games)
-Video: Modes 0, 1, 2 almost completely, basic 3-5 support, sprites,
- windows/OBJ windows
-Interrupts: HBlank, VBlank, all timers, all DMA channels, keypad
-DMA: Immediate, HBlank, VBlank, sound timer triggered
-Sound: Both DirectSound channels and all 4 GBC audio channels
-Input: Basic GBA input delivered through PSP controls
-Cartridges: Currently supports ROMs up to 32MB in size (the maximum for
-GBA) with the technique of ROM page swapping to fit within PSP's RAM.
-Backup: 32/64kb SRAM, 64/128kb flash, 512bit/8kb EEPROM
-RTC: The real-time clock present in cartridges such as most of the
- Pokemon games and some others.
-
-
-What it lacks:
-
-Video: No mosaic, bitmap modes lack color effects (alpha, fades),
- there might be some minor inaccuracies in blending...
-Cycle accuracy: Very cycle innacurate; CPU is effectively somewhat
- overclocked, meaning games with rampant idle loops will probably run
- rather poorly. DMA transfers effectively happen for free (0 cycle).
- Please do NOT use gpSP as a first source for developing GBA homebrew,
- try No$GBA instead.
-
-
-Additional features it has:
-- The ability to attempt to run games at faster than GBA speed (sometimes
- they can end up a lot faster, other times not so much)
-- Savestates: the ability to save a game's state to a file and resume
- playing where you left off later.
-- Mild cheat support
-
-
-Features that it doesn't have (please don't ask me to implement these!)
-- Wi-fi multiplayer
-
-
--- Controls --
-
-The default control scheme is very simple. If you don't like it you can
-change it in the configuration menu.
-
-At the ROM selection screen:
-
-Up/down: navigate current selection window.
-Left/right: switch between file window and directory window.
-Circle/start: select current entry.
-Square: go one directory up.
-
-In game:
-
-Up/down/left/right: GBA d-pad
-Circle: GBA A button
-Cross: GBA B button
-Square/start: GBA start button
-Select: GBA select button
-Left trigger: GBA left trigger
-Right trigger: GBA right trigger
-Triangle: Adjust frameksip
-
-In frameskip adjustment:
-
-Hold down triangle to keep up, press up/down to increase/decrease
-frameskip, respectively. Press down at 0 to change to auto, and up
-at auto to change to 0.
-
-In the menu:
-
-Up/down: navigate current menu.
-Left/right: change value in current menu selection (if a value is present)
-Circle/start: select current entry (see help for entry to see what this means)
-Square: exit the current menu.
-
-
--- Frameskip --
-
-The purpose behind frameskip is to cause the emulator to not render every
-frame of graphics to make the emulation closer to fullspeed. Many games will
-run fullspeed without skipping any frames, however, some (particularly more
-graphically demanding ones) will require this.
-
-Frameskip can be set to two forms, either auto or manual. Auto will attempt
-to skip only as many frames as necessary to make the game full speed, and
-will not skip more than 4 in a row no matter what speed the game runs at
-(at this point the benefits of frameskip yield diminishing returns).
-
-It is recommended that you keep frameskip on auto, but manual is maintained
-as an option if you want it and works as follows:
-
-Manual frameskip will only render one out of every (n + 1) frames, where n
-is the current frameskip value (so 0 will render everything). Increasing
-the frameskip can improve speed, especially with very graphically
-intensive games.
-
-
--- Cheats --
-
-Currently, gpSP supports some functionality of Gameshark/Pro Action Replay
-cheat codes. To use these, you must first make a file with the same name
-as the ROM you want the cheat code to apply to, but with the extension .cht.
-Put this file in the same directory as the ROM. To make it use a normal
-text editor like notepad or wordpad if you're on Windows.
-
-To write a code, write the type of model it is, gameshark_v1, gameshark_v3,
-PAR_v1, or PAR_v3. gameshark_v1/PAR_v1 and gameshark_v3/PAR_v3 respectively
-are interchangeable, but v1 and v3 are not! So if you don't know which
-version it is, try both to see if it'll work.
-
-Then, after that, put a space and put the name you'd like to give the cheat.
-
-On the next several lines, put each cheat code pair, which should look like
-this:
-
-AAAAAAAA BBBBBBBB
-
-Then put a blank line when you're done with that code, and start a new code
-immediately after it. Here's an example of what a cheat file should look
-like:
-
-
-gameshark_v3 MarioInfHP
-995fa0d9 0c6720d2
-
-gameshark_v3 MarioMaxHP
-21d58888 c5d0e432
-
-gameshark_v3 InfHlthBat
-6f4feadb 0581b00e
-79af5dc6 5ce0d2b1
-dbbd5995 44b801c9
-65f8924d 2fbcd3c4
-
-gameshark_v3 StopTimer
-2b399ca4 ec81f071
-
-
-After you have written the .cht file, you have to enable the cheats
-individually in the game menu. Go to the Cheats/Misc menu, and you will
-see the cheats; turn them on here. You may turn them on and off as you
-please, but note that some cheats may still hold after you turn them off,
-due to the nature of the system. Restart to completely get rid of them.
-
-IMPORTANT NOTES:
-
-This is still very work in progress! I basically added this in only 1.5
-or so hours, and I don't have a lot of time right now to work on it
-before releasing. So I'll probably improve it later.
-
-Not all of gameshark's features are supported, especially for v3. Only
-basic cheats will work, more or less.
-
-Cheats may be unstable and may crash your game. If you're having problems
-turn the cheats off.
-
-Really, there's no guarantee that ANY cheats will work; I tried a few and
-some seem to work, others are questionable. Try for yourself, but don't
-expect anything to actually work right now. Do expect this feature to
-improve in future versions.
-
-
-
--- Frequently Asked Questions --
-
-Q) How do I run this on my PSP?
-
-A) Provided is an EBOOT.PBP which will run as is on a 1.0 firmware
- PSP or custom firmware that can run unsigned EBOOTs. On 1.5 firmwares
- you must use a kxploit tool to run it (try SeiPSPtool). On 2.0
- firmwares and higher further exploits must be used - see
- http://pspupdates.qj.net/ for more information. Note that I have NOT
- tested this emulator on any firmware version besides 1.5, and it's
- very possible that it doesn't run well, or at all on higher versions.
- Therefore I strongly recommend you downgrade if possible, and use
- Devhook to run games that require > 1.5 version firmwares.
-
- Be sure to include in the same directory as the EBOOT.PBP file the
- game_config.txt file included and the gba_bios.bin file which you
- must provide yourself.
-
- gpSP does not run on PSPs with version 2.71 or higher firmware yet,
- nor does any other homebrew executable.
-
-
-Q) What is a BIOS image file? Why do I need it to run gpSP? Other GBA
- emulators don't require this...
-
-A) The GBA BIOS image file is a copy of a ROM on the GBA system that
- has code for starting up the GBA (it shows the logo), verifying the
- game, and most importantly, providing utility functions for the games
- to use. It is the latter that gpSP needs the BIOS present for. It's
- possible to replace all of these functions with equivilent code, but
- this will take time - in the future gpSP may not require a BIOS image.
-
-
-Q) I can't find this BIOS image.. please send it to me.
-
-A) Sorry, but you're on your own. I won't send you a BIOS or tell you
- where to get one (unless you want to rip it from a GBA yourself, in
- which case I'll just give you the same link at the top). I can't do
- this because it's not legal to send it around and I don't want to
- get a reputation for illegally distributing BIOS images.
-
-
-Q) How do I know I have the right BIOS?
-
-A) If you have md5sum you can check if it has this hash:
- a860e8c0b6d573d191e4ec7db1b1e4f6
- That BIOS should work fine. I think that some others work fine too,
- although I haven't confirmed this with absolute certainty. It's also
- theoretically possible to use custom (and free) BIOS replacements,
- but I don't know of any publically availablone ones.
-
- As far as I'm aware there are two BIOSes floating around, I doubt
- you'll get one that isn't one of those two. There's a very easy way
- to determine which one you have - just look at the very first byte in
- a hex editor. The correct BIOS begins with 0x18, the buggy BIOS begins
- with 0x14.
-
-
-Q) My favorite game won't run.
-
-A) There probably isn't anything you can do about this, although a
- change to game_config.txt might help. gpSP is still an emulator in
- its infancy so the compatability is not superb. I don't have time
- to test too many games so I'm releasing it as a public beta to get
- a feel for some things that don't work. The next version could
- perhaps fix it, or it might never run. There are always other
- emulators of course, please try one.
-
- However, before nagging me there is one thing I recommend you try,
- and that is to add the option "iwram_stack_optimize = no" for the
- game in game_config.txt. See the file itself for more information
- on how to do this. If this fixes your game (and it's not already
- in the game_config.txt) please tell me about it.
-
-
-Q) My favorite game is very slow.
-
-A) Emulating GBA takes a number of resources and getting it done well
- on PSP is no simple task by any means. Some games are just going to
- overwhelm the emulator completely. Of course, there is one special
- case of game (a lot of early generation games fall under this
- category) that can be made much faster by a simple addition to the
- game_config.txt file. Wait for a new version of this file or the
- next version of the emulator and the game may be improved.
-
- That aside, there are still numerous optimizations that can be done,
- and I sure you future versions will be faster (I just can't tell you
- how much)
-
- Also, a lot of games will be sped up considerably by adding an
- idle_loop_eliminate_target line for it in game_config.txt. There
- are some more obscurer options there that can improve speed too. If
- the game is VERY slow there might be something wrong with its
- emulation that can be improved. For instance, if you can't get a game
- to run fullspeed on any frameskip you should e-mail me about it.
-
-
-Q) Some games run fullspeed but the sound is messed up. Why?
-
-A) At least 9 out of 10 times it means the game isn't really running
- full speed, but just that you can't notice the difference. Increasing
- frameskip will almost always improve sound quality in these
- situations, to a certain point (after around frameskip 3 you
- probably won't be seeing many more returns if it isn't already
- fullspeed). The rest of the time it means there's a bug somewhere else
- in the emulator, probably in the CPU core. Chances are that all you
- can do is wait for it to be fixed in a later release.
-
-
-Q) The emulator crashed!
-
-A) Most games that don't run will probably take the emulator down with
- it, or it could be an emulator bug completely unrelated to the game
- (but unlikely). Press home and wait for the next version.
-
- There is some information that comes up when the game crashes. This
- information may be slightly useful to me, but chances are it
- usually won't be all that interesting.
-
- These days games are more likely to exit with a "bad crash" error.
- This number is possibly useful to me, but to debug a game I'll have
- to reproduce the crash anyway. When this happens it's probably due to
- a bug in the CPU core that hasn't been fixed yet.
-
-
-Q) Why won't my game save?
-
-A) The game might need 128KB flash turned on and might not be listed in
- game_config.txt. See game_config.txt for more information regarding
- this. Be sure to include game_config.txt with the EBOOT.PBP file.
-
- Other games might simply have bugs in the save support. For now, use
- savestates as an alternative if you can't save.
-
-
-Q) How do I change sound quality?
-
-A) Right now, you can't. For those wondering, sound is locked at 44.1KHz
- (sounds a bit high? It is, but it's currently necessary to play
- everything correctly). I don't have any plans to allow changing this
- right now, because I don't think there's really much reason to be
- able to (it'd be a tiny speed boost at best and I don't think SDL even
- allows for anything besides this sampling rate on PSP)
-
-
-Q) What is this emulator's name?
-
-A) Um.. what? It's gameplaySP, isn't it? You call it gpSP for short.
- Somehow the name can't have the acronyms gbSP, gbapSP, or really
- just about anything else you feel like giving it. Oh, and if you
- really want to make me happy get the capitalization right too.
- That's gpSP, not gPSP, GPsp.. you get the idea.
-
-
-Q) Does gpSP run Gameboy/Gameboy Color games? Will it later?
-
-A) No. Even though GBA can run these games it uses separate hardware
- that proper GBA games have no access to (save for the audio chip),
- and thus there's no point including it in a GBA emulator (it
- doesn't help run GBA games). I recommend using a GB/GBC emulator
- like Rin for playing these games. It'll probably give you a lot
- more options anyway. gpSP will never actually emulate GB/GBC
- games. You'd may as well be waiting for it to emulate PS2 games...
- (that was an analogy. gpSP won't ever emulate PS2 games. >_>)
-
-
-Q) Other emulators use the PSP's graphical hardware to accelerate the
- video emulation. Is this possible for gpSP?
-
-A) I'm honestly not too sure at this point. It's definitely a rather
- complicated procedure, and I don't think it'll be possible to
- accurately accelerate alpha blending. On the other hand, affine
- transformations could perhaps receive a speed boost this way. Any
- solution would have to be hybrid hardware/software, which might be
- possible due to the nature of the PSP's VRAM. Maybe someone will
- be willing to help me think of possibilities here?
-
- But don't bother of you're just going to tell me to render a list
- of quads...
-
-
-Q) Other emulators use the PSP's second CPU to offload the sound
- emulation. Is this possible for gpSP?
-
-A) Yes, but it wouldn't improve it nearly as much as say, SNES9x TYL.
- This is because most of the processing that goes into sound on a GBA
- game is done in the CPU, not in dedicated audio hardware. It could
- help a little, but probably not a lot. Maybe enough to be worthwhile.
- It might also be possible to split the video rendering to the main
- CPU and the main emulation to the secondary one, but there are a lot
- of coherency issues involved.
-
-
-Q) I heard gpSP can only load games 16MB or smaller in size. Is this
- true? What about zipped games?
-
-A) As of version 0.8 gpSP can play 32MB ROMs. However, they must be
- unzipped. The reason for this is that parts of the ROM are constantly
- loaded to memory as needed, and for this to be as fast as possible the
- ROM has to be present on the memory stick in raw format.
-
- You might be wondering, why not just have gpSP unzip the ROM to a file
- then delete the file when it is done? The reason why is because this
- would impose a "hidden" requirement of 32MB on the user that very
- likely may not be there. Furthermore, there are only a few 32MB games
- that anyone actually wants to play. If you only have one 32MB game on
- your memstick then it'd actually require signifnicantly more free space
- to hold both the ROM and the 32MB raw file. With 2 32MB ROMs you only
- gain a around 10-25MB of free space, depending on how effective the
- compression is.
-
-
-Q) Savestates? From other emulators??
-
-A) See the savestates option in main menu. gpSP will probably never
- support savestates from other emulators, there's just too much in the
- way of emulator specific data in them.
-
- Savestates are currently 506,943 bytes. They would be a little smaller
- without the snapshot, but I find that very useful and it wouldn't help
- size immensely. Compression would help, but I wanted the size to be
- constant so you knew exactly how much you could hold and to improve
- save/load speed.
-
-
-Q) What's with the zip support?
-
-A) I hear stories that some games work unzipped and not zipped, so you
- might want to try unzipping them if it gives you problems. You also
- might want to try making fresh zips with WinRAR - users have
- reported some higher success rates doing this.
-
-
-Q) What's with the config file? Should I make it read only?
-
-A) There was a bug in version 0.6 that caused the config file to not
- get updated or get corrupted sometimes. Hopefully this is fixed now,
- but if it DOES get corrupted making it read only can prevent this
- from happening in the future.
-
-
-Q) So when WILL the next version be released?
-
-A) Sorry, but I almost never announce release dates. Furthermore, I'll
- probably be pretty hush hush on internal development, just to keep
- people from nagging me about it and building too much suspense.
-
-
-Q) I don't like this emulator. Are there other alternatives?
-
-A) Yes. Try PSPVBA by Zx-81 (http://zx81.dcemu.co.uk/). Overall I doubt
- the compatability is significantly higher than gpSP's anymore, but
- I'm sure there are some games it runs that gpSP doesn't.
-
-
-Q) I heard there was a version of gpSP for PCs. Is that true?
-
-A) I developed this emulator internally on PC. It might have a speed
- advantage over other PC GBA emulators, although the PSP version has
- more sophisticated optimizations. Most people have fast enough
- computers to run better GBA emulators for PC and gpSP lacks some
- important features (screen resizing) that the PSP version kinda
- hides. Even though gpSP spent a majority of its development
- gestation as a PC app it was always developed with the PSP in mind,
- so the PC version will probably not see the light of the day unless
- I get overwhelming demand for it. It is, however, possible to
- build it from the source. But I request that you don't distribute
- such builds. If you happen to find one, bear in mind that I don't
- offer any support for it, and as far as I'm concerned it won't
- exist.
-
-
-Q) I hear there's a version of gpSP for other platforms too, like
- Dreamcast. And I hear they're slow! What gives?
-
- These are ports, done by other people (or maybe myself?). This is
- possible because gpSP is open source and its base version is fairly
- portable, but to run fast enough on anything but platforms quite a
- bit faster than PSP it at least needs a CPU specific dynarec backend.
-
- I don't (necessarily) maintain all builds of gpSP, so you'll have to
- contact the authors of these ports for more information. That
- notwithstanding, I try to get as involved in other ports of gpSP as
- I can.
-
-
-Q) I want to modify gpSP. How can I do this, and am I at liberty to do
- so?
-
-A) Yes, you are, under the terms of the GPL (see the included
- COPYING.DOC). You can download the sourcecode from whereever you
- downloaded this; if you can't find it please e-mail me and I'll give
- you a link to it. I would vastly appreciate it if you contacted me first
- before forking my project, especially if you're just looking to gain
- recognition without adding much to it. It's better to keep all changes
- tidy in one branch of development.
-
- I would like to stress this a little more seriously (hopefully those
- interested are reading this). Although you are legally entitled to
- release your own forks of gpSP it would be much more benficial to me,
- to you, and to the users of this program if you instead tried working
- with me to get your changes incorporated into the next version. I
- really don't feel like competing with other builds of my source
- anymore, so please do me a big favor and send me an e-mail if you want
- to work with gpSP.
-
-
-Q) How do I build gpSP?
-
-A) make will build it. You need to have SDL for PSP installed, as well
- as the standard PSP toolchain/PSPSDK and zlib. gpSP isn't much of a
- "build it yourself" program so please don't bother me much about how to
- build it unless you have a good reason for wanting to do so.
-
-
-Q) What is with the version numbers?
-
-A) Anything less than 1.0 means beta. Beta means that I still have major
- plans for working on it, and that I don't fully back it as being
- stable or reliable software. Of course, if it does hit 1.0, that doesn't
- mean it'll be perfect. It just means I'll have spent a lot of cumulative
- time working things out. The closer it gets to 0.9, the happier I am with
- it overall.
-
-
-Q) Donations?
-
-A) Very appreciated. exophase@gmail.com on PayPal. <3
-
-
-Q) How can I contact you?
-
-A) exophase@gmail.com, Exophase on AIM, exophase@adelphia.net on MSN. I
- welcome IMs, but if you nag me a lot you'll make me sad inside. And
- don't ask me for ROMs or the GBA BIOS. I figured this was common sense
- but apparently not.
-
-
--- Credits --
-
-Exophase: main developer
-siberianSTAR: zip support
-psp298: analog nub code
-
-Beta testers for 0.7:
-theohsoawesome1
-thisnamesucks837
-blackdragonwave9
-dagreatpeewee
-xsgenji
-
-Beta testers for 0.8:
-Runaway_prisoner
-theohsoawesome1
-tanyareimyoko
-spynghotoh2020
-
-Beta testers for 0.9:
-RunawayPrisoner (my right hand man)
-Veskgar (my left hand man)
-qasim
-
--- Special thanks --
-
-Quasar84: He's helped me in so many ways with this. We both kinda learned
-GBA together, he did little demos for me and I got them emulated. It was
-great trying out your more advanced code for your own projects once you
-got to them, it was equally rewarding to see your work and to be able to
-run it at the same time. Least of all I wouldn't have been able to do any
-of this without your constant support and presence. I really owe this
-release to you.
-
-gladius: You are an amazing GBA coder. I wouldn't have been able to get
-through some tough parts without your help. Its been good talking about
-ideas with you.. I'm sure you're glad to see that there's finally a GBA
-emulator with dynarec ;)
-
-
-Many, many others of course, probably too many to name, and I don't want
-to make anyone feel bad by putting others above them (well, except those
-two, heh) so if you think you should be on here, you probably should be!
-Just pretend you are for now, and maybe I'll put you here next time.
-
|