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diff --git a/readme.txt b/readme.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..15bf6fd --- /dev/null +++ b/readme.txt @@ -0,0 +1,880 @@ +-- 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.
+
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