Trebor
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Content Count
5,661 -
Joined
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Days Won
14
Posts posted by Trebor
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Sound Issues:
Montezuma's Revenge - Game start tune (Same tune as) Pick up items - Creates Scratchy/Tinny sounds.
Megamania - Your ships missile collision/enemy being destroyed sounds choppy.
Popeye - Popeye walking creates Scratchy/Tinny sounds
Video Issue:
Pitfall II - When the screen scrolls vertically, the Activision logo on the bottom right becomes a little "scrambled"
-Trebor
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Looks great, John!
Fantastic to see the Champ Games logo/style too on this new project.
Keep up the great work, I'm looking forward to seeing the final product
-Trebor
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Sounds like Pac-Man farts when he eats a blue ghost.
Yeah, the sound still needs some tweaking. For the most part Kat5200 sounds great. Down the road hopefully the few remaining sound issues will be addressed (Megamania and Montezuma's Revenge also has a couple of samples that don't sound quite right). Nonetheless, Brian has done a fantastic job thus far.
-Trebor
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OK...new angle on the issue at hand. I'm at work now, so I can't really find or try this out. I know there was a hack made of Missile Command called Missile Comman TB for the 5200. However, I can't seem to find it. Reason being why I want to find that hack is because I do not believe the issue if with trackball games, but as Goochman states earlier, "true analog stick" games.
It would explain why Centipede and Millipede (trackball supported games), work great (Even with D-Pad - Hat Switch mapping), while Gorf, Super Breakout and Missile Command ("True" analog stick games (?)), do not. Again, if I could find and test Missile Command TB it would really prove if my above explanation is the problem. Anyhow, just a thought I wanted to pass along.
-Trebor
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Trebor, with Missle Command, it's the same sort of thing. You must play with an analog stick. Super Breakout is the same way as well. What I find works best with *trackball* games like these (and Centipede) is to setup these games in the cart list to use the mouse as the controller. The emulated 5200 sees the mouse as a trackball and it gives a much better experience for me.It seems the analog control in the emulator is still a bit sensitive (although there may not be much that can be done with self-centering joysticks). I'll be looking at that in the future.
-Brian
Centipede and Millipede both work great (And I use the D-Pad - Hat Switch mapping). Indeed, Super Breakout, Missile Command, and Gorf experience the "jumping effect". Nonethless, it is true that all those games were truly meant for trackball or/and analog control support. I just wish the latter three titles controlled as smoothly as the former two with the D-Pad - Hat Switch Mapping. Adding a sensitivity adjustment setting would be fantastic. In any event, thank you for your continued work on kat5200. I'm looking forward to future releases
-Trebor
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Missile Command seems to behaving the same way (jumping) similar to Gorf.
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Trebor,Are you sure that's a bug, or does GORF JUST SUCK!
About that scratching sound in Pac-Man. I'm wondering if maybe I implemented voice (VOLUME ONLY) sound incorrectly, as it sounds louder than it should. I will be looking at it in the future, and to be honest I'm suprised the changes I made helped with sound.
Thanks,
Brian
My Bad. I never owned (Or even actual played) Gorf on the Atari 5200. I just could not imagine the controls being *that* horrible. Sure enough, I read some reviews and it *is* that bad. Jeez, how the heck did that every get passed "quality control" at Atari? I may have to try the game using the Axis controls instead, and fiddle with the Dead-Zone settings to see if that changes the controls (even slightly) for the better (As I mentioned in my earlier posts, I use the D-Pad normally).
In respects to the sound, right from the start I set the Frequency to 44100. Additionally, what I noticed affects the output greatly for me is the Sound Sample Rate. I tried at first bumping it up to 8192, and it sounded too distorted (Tempo/Pitch too Fast). Dropped it all the way down to 512 it still sounded a little 'off' (Tempo/Pitch a little too slow). I set it back to the default (1024) and it sounds "just right" (That will teach me to not always modify the default settings...lol). Every game sounds much better now. Again, thanks a lot for this release. Kat5200 is my official Atari 5200 emulator. It is so nice to have Atari 5200 emulator the works perfect in XP, great compatibility, control mapping, command line support, and is the first and prime intent of the emulator, and not an after thought or something just tacked on to an Atari 400/800 emulator.
I know it is still relatively early in development but just as a 'heads up', kat5200 does crash when trying to run the diagnostic test with the Atari 5200 Diagnostic Cartridge.
-Trebor
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Bug Found: In Gorf, your ship jumps to only three positions: far left, center, or far right.
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Excellent, Brian! Thank you for the new release. I can't wait to try it out. Special thanks for adding the ALT-F4 exiting. I appreciate it.
UPDATE: Wow! Holy improved sound Batman...lol! *Much* better sounds. Extremely noticable in Pac-Man. Sounds great now. Only thing that still sounds incorrect is the eating of the ghost. The noise still sounds very "scratchy". Nonethless, fantastic release! ALT-F4 works perfectly...Thanks again.
-Trebor
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Here's some screenshots using the ProSystem Emulator with the NTSC Palette colors obtained from Stella:
Ms_Pac_Man___Layout_2.bmpMs_Pac_Man___Layout_1.bmpMs_Pac_Man___Layout_3.bmp
The Prosystem emulator in better than MESS for these reasons:
A. Slightly better compatibility (No top line in Centipede, Kung-Fu Master is actually playable).
B. The option to load a Palette.
However, MESS is better for these reasons:
A. Controller mapping (Currently, ProSystem only maps to your keyboard).
B. More display options
I *really* want to make ProSystem my 7800 emulator of choice based on the palette option alone. However, a couple of other bugs persist too:
1. When loading from a command line via a front end (I.E. Game Launcher), it does start up, but the screen shows the Windows Taskbar and the rest of the screen blank with the Prosystem emulator running. You see it is running in the Taskbar, and hear ir running the game (You can start a game as well - Controls respond fine as too). However, as I stated the screen is blank/black except for the task bar.
2. In conjunction with the first item, the "menu bar" of the emulator should have an option or automatically be "off" when loading a rom. This is especially essential for those (like myself) who have the Left Alt key mapped as one of the controller buttons. Alt servers as a toggle to the menu bar when it is present on the screen.
3. The emulator always goes back to the default/internal palette when loading a new rom or exiting and entering the emulator. It never saves the setting to use the external palette (Although it shows using the external palette and not to use the internal one in the Prosystem.ini file).
On the other hand, MESS would remain my preferred choice if:
1. The ability to select an external palette or a corrected internal NTSC palette.
2. Better compatibility of the issues ProSystem has already addressed - Centipede/Ms. Pac-Man.
Anyhow, if anyone is curious how to get the better NTSC palette loaded into Prosystem just ask.
-Trebor
P.S. Sorry if I took the thread for a loop. I was just real excited about the graphic mod on the original Ms Pac-Man sprites, and how much it improves the look of the original 7800. I wanted people to see what it would look like with the correct colors as well.
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http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/
Version 1.28 is out. Changes for this release:
Windows Additions:
Sound volume level sliders.
More NTSC video filter options.
Scanline darkening level sliders.
Windows Changes:
Pressing the ALT-key when the menu is hidden should no longer cause "hickups" during play.
Recent files/directories menu lock state is now saved on exit.
Windows Fixes:
Window placement bug.
Emulator Additions:
Non-linear APU sound output.
Mapper 116 for "AV-Girl Fighting".
Mapper 163 and 167. Info from tpu.
Database entries.
Emulator Changes:
Update to version 0.1.7 of Blargg's NTSC composite video filter.
Fine-tuned the volume levels of the external sound chips.
More accurate SUNSOFT5B sound chip emulation.
Moved "Shanghai" to mapper 93.
Patch for "Dragon Ball Z II - Gekishin Freeza!! (redump)" to use the proper EEPROM type.
'No Sprite Limit' option should now be more responsive to games that make heavy use of OAM cycling.
Emulator Fixes:
Mapper 45, 53, 74, 90, 93, 164 and 165.
Dip-switch and input fixes for some VS.System games.
Database entries.
-Trebor
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Hi PacManPlus,
This is perfect. I was hoping you would modify the graphics in the original. I like your design a heck of a lot better than the original. Nice Job!
Thanks for doing this,
Trebor
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Just came across a nasty crash/bug. Start up Pitfall II, and whether at the title/opening screen or in game, press the top button controller input and it crashes the emulator.
UPDATE: Something else I though I share, I attached a Palette file converted from the files from here:
http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=83650
The palette choice colors originate from Stella. They are quite good, IMHO. It is my favorite palette (At least for now) for the 5200 new_stella_NTSC.xml
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One thing I bet Paranoid would like to know about your controller is if there is any jitter with the thumbsticks when the deadzone parameter is set to a low value, like 5%. I know I have heard these are good controllers and at the right price too.Games tested: Centipede, Berzerk, Ms. Pac-Man.
Zero jittering even at 5%. Works beautifully. Only slight issue I noticed is that "pull the right" (I believed mentioned earlier in this thread) rarely in Ms. Pac-Man only when it was set to 5%. This may be contributed to sloppy game control mechanics by me though. Typically, with the Atari 5200 joystick (Or any joystick for that matter), I find my hand never leaves the controller. However, with the thumbpads found on modern game controllers, I do find myself more careless and less exacting with my movements. Hope that makes sense...lol
Anyhow, like I said - No jittering - Even @5% (Although honestly, I like the control and response of the 50% deadzone). If you want me to test or try something specific, just let me know.
-Trebor
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@Paranoid: You almost took the words out of my mouth. I am *real* excited about this emulator. And yes, my gripe with the other emulators for the 5200 are the same - The lack of working/good two player controller support. Some have many compatibility issues or other problems. But kat5200 is fantastic and yet so early in development. I'm super impressed with the controller options too. You can really tweak every function and aspect of the controller(s). It's great.
Ditto with the lack of attention and news to this emulator. Albert needs to really see this thread. Kat5200 deservers front page news item entry.
@Brian: I'll try out the thumbstick 'test' when I get home, I'm at work now. I'll let you know how it goes.
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@Paranoid: I know your question was directed to Brian, but just thought I throw my 2 cents in as well. I currently own two Saitek P880's. See here: http://www.saitekusa.com/usa/prod/P880.htm Highly recommend. Well made and very affordable ($19.99 a piece). A lot of buttons (Up to to 16 - one button 'shifts' the others), programmable (Although I don't even use that feature), a nice D-Pad, and great analog sticks to boot (Although, I don't like them for 5200 emulation - More suitable for PSX/N64/PC games). Pad works great in kat5200 and all other emulators/games. No problems/no complaints.
@Brian: Thanks, I appreciate you even considering implementing the 'Esc' key exist option. Is there *any* other way to exit the emulator outside of going through the menu/gui (Meaning key/key-combination press)? I even tried the 'trusty' ALT-F4 - doesn't work for kat5200. Is it possible to make ALT-F4 work for exiting for the next release?
One last thing (directed to Brian and everyone else), not an insult or complaint, but the sound is different from any other 5200 emulator: VSS, Atari800Win(Plus), Jum5200. Is it something wrong with my set up? I haven't changed any of the default options for sound. I know I brought the point up before (My second of the two items in my last post), but no one else seems to have mentioned any problem with the way the emulator sounds. Again, I just want to verify that it is not just my system or setup and that the sound in kat5200 needs improvement.
Thanks again. I appreciate any input provided.
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With the following setup:
Win XP Corporate SP 2 with all Patches/Updates
Radeon 9800 Pro
SB Audigy Gamer
Saitek P880 USB Controllers (x2)
P4 2.8 Ghz 640MB RDRAM
kat5200 version 0.2 runs really well. I can set D-Pad for use on both controllers mapping the HAT function for Up-Down-Left-Right. I run it from a command line via Game Launcher. I love the Palette options and the fact that I can use my D-Pad for the Up-Down-Left-Right movements (Analog sticks don't feel right for 5200 games on this controller, regardless that the system did use as analog 'stick'.).
Anyhow, two things (One a request) concerning this fantastic emulator:
1. Is it possible that if you launch from command line, the emulator will exit instead of going to the menu/gui ?
2. Just needs improved sound...I know in the works
That rest is great. Thanks for reading and distributing the emulator. I appreciate it.
-Trebor
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Wow. I didn't think there were any around for those 'times' here. Yes, I remember when he was just a C64 games page, and then became Dave's Video Game Classics.
His site was good prior to the whole PSX Bios fiasco. Once it became Video Gaming Network, it was all downhill from there. Nothing personal against Dave, just an observation and opinion.
Other previous great sites:
EMU News Services
JoseQ Emu Views
Atmospheric Heights
And although not as big as they use to be, but still around:
Retrogames
Zophar's Domain (Although no Archaic Ruins...lol).
Probably missing some others.
My first console emulator: ColemDOS. First computer emulator: C64S. First arcade emulator: DASArcade (Evolved into Sparcade).
Golden days of emulation...lol.
-Trebor
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Trebor,I took the hex values for the palette from the source code for Stella. I'm attaching TIA.cxx, which contains both the PAL and NTSC palettes. They are in a format similar to the 7800, except instead of 3 8Bit numbers for each color, there is one 24 bit number, in the format 0xrrggbb, for red green and blue.
Mark
Thank you. I appreciate it.
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I have a small program I wrote for the 2600 that displays all 128 colors at once, which I've previously posted in other forums/threads at AtariAge. And I now have a working 7800 again, with a Cuttle Cart 2, so I've taken several digital photos of my 7800 running the 128-palette display. Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to get a decent photo, so I didn't post any of them yet, but I'm going to try again tonight when I get home, and post a good one in this thread "for the record." Then we can compare the actual 7800 palette in the photo to the palette in the emulator.Michael Rideout
Excellent. I would appreciate that Michael.
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Since the 800 and 2600 used the same palettes for NTSC, I've converted the three different types of palettes used by Stella. The user who pointed it out said that the new Stella palette was the best, and that is what I have found in Stella also, but I've also converted the original Stella and the Z26 palettes.Great job! The new_Stella_NTSC.pal looks dead-on match for the colors. I use the Atari800Win Plus emulator for Atari 5200 emulation and the colors look much more like the actual system produces.
In respects to your above post, the Atari 800(5200) and the 2600 use the same palette, I would presume then the palette would also be valid for the 7800 (?) That being the case, I would love to modify the current palette used in MESS for Atari 7800 emulation to match more closely what should be the accurate colors.
How did you create/edit the palette? What tool(s) did you use? Is there a way to obtain the hex values from the palette? Pardon my ignorance, but I would love to see better, 'more' accurate NTSC colors for the 7800 in MESS. I've attached the source code file which list what the current palette values are in MESS. The file is from the mess\systems folder from the v104 source. I would appreciate any advice or direction you could provide me.
Thanks for reading,
Trebor
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http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/
Version 1.27 is out. Here are the changes:
Windows Additions:
Any input key may now be mapped to a joystick.
Alternative set of icons provided by Pongbashi.
Windows Changes:
Auto-monitor-frequency setting is now applied after exiting the dialog.
Windows Fixes:
Grayed Power-off menu item.
Controllers in netplay.
Emulator Additions:
Mapper 102 (SUNSOFT-3R) for "Shanghai (redump)".
RP2C03B/RC2C05-03 palette. Info from Kevtris.
Color decoder control via R-Y/G-Y/B-Y angle+gain. Comes with three presets.
Support for NSF files that use more than one external soundchip.
Emulator Changes:
More accurate NES chroma/luma coefficients. Info from Blargg.
Emulator Fixes:
Mapper 83. Fixes intro in "World Heroes 2".
Mapper 185. Patch for "Seicross (redump)".
APU triangle step-sequencer reset bug.
Some NSF player bugs.
Some database entries.
-Trebor
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Hi Eduardo,
Hopefully, any more posts will stay on topic this time...lol.
Still checking in...any updates with this port?
-Trebor
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http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/
Version 1.26 is out. Here are the changes:
Windows Additions:
Automatic joystick axes recalibration.
More video filter options.
Windows Changes:
::GetLongPathName() is now used in conjunction with ::GetCommandLine().
Better logic for when and when not to preserve the NES picture scale factor in fullscreen.
Minor aestetic fixes.
Windows Fixes:
Crash on start in 98/ME.
Crash on exit when two or more video devices are present.
Invalid fullscreen view on dual displays.
Parameter change in ::CompareString() for 98/ME/2k compatibility.
Correct LIB linking order for MSLU.
Bug in WM_DROPFILES and WM_COPYDATA handlers.
Certain input keys are now ignored. Fixes some japanese keyboards.
Can now parse unquoted filenames from the command-line.
Emulator Additions:
MD5 instead of CRC when checking for modified data.
New image file CRCs for auto detection of controllers.
Database entries.
Emulator Changes:
NTSC filter optimizations.
Minor palette modifications.
__attribute__ ((fastcall)) removed. Seems to be broken in GCC.
Emulator Fixes:
Some NTSC filter bugs.
Patch for "My Life My Love - Boku no Yume - Watashi no Negai" to use another revision of the MMC3 chip.
NST_ASSERT() macro bug on platforms other than Win32.
-Trebor
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kat5200 (new 5200 emulator) Version 0.2.3 released
in Emulation
Posted · Edited by Trebor
Just for the record, and to have a definitive list:
Gorf, Missile Command, Star Wars, and Super Breakout could use "Pengo mode" adjustments.
However, Centipede and Millipede work great! No adjustments needed for those games (IMHO).
@jum: LOL...Mr. Do's Castle is my test for Atari 5200 emulation too.
-Trebor