raz0red

Unfortunately, at this point, it only supports 7800 emulation. JS7800 is an enhanced port of ProSystem, while A7800 is a greatly enhanced version of the 7800 MAME driver. So, while they may be similar in some respects, A7800 is going to be superior with respect to accuracy, additional hardware compatibility, and other features. Hopefully, JS7800 can incorporate some of those features over time. Also, thanks for sharing the link to your WIP game. How have I never seen this before? It looks fantastic! Chris

As @RevEng mentioned, when you specify a cartridge via the cart request parameter, it loads that cartridge when JS7800 initially loads. For this to work, the cartridge must be available from a publicly-accessible URL (in Mike's particular case, it is hosted on AtariAge as an attachment). Unfortunately, there isn't currently a way to upload ROMs to the JS7800 site for direct hosting. Thanks, Chris

Hi- Thanks a lot for the kind words! Currently, there is not a way to use paddle controllers. There are a couple things that need to be done to make that happen. First, paddle support needs to be integrated into JS7800. I did make some progress (as a POC) during my development on the latest version of the Wii port. I spent some time looking through the A7800 source, which has excellent support, and was able to make it function (albeit it was a quite hacky on my end). The second thing that needs to be done is to add the ability to provide custom mappings from the HTML Gamepad API. The HTML Gamepad API provides a "standard" mapping that most modern controllers should map to. This essentially takes the common buttons of modern controllers and maps them to a standard layout. My guess is that the "2600-dapter II" may not map to the standard mapping, and therefore would need a custom mapping. You can actually test this if you go into the "Settings" portion of JS7800 and go to the Gamepads page. That page displays whether the connected controller(s) have a standard mapping. It will also indicate if the buttons (or paddle) is currently being mapped. If you press the buttons, etc. on a controller, a "white dot" will appear to show what 7800 control it is being mapped to (this is only applicable to joysticks at this time). The paddle controller, I assume, would need to map to an analog input. Further, this site, can be used to get more detailed information about the connected controller. I would be very curious to know what that site has to say about the "2600-dapter II". Does it map the POT movement to an analog input? I do definitely want to add paddle support. I think the first step would probably be supporting it via mouse input (or touch once a mobile version of JS7800 is released). The second would be figuring out how to map adapters such as the "2600-dapter II" it to the HTML Gamepad API. Thanks again, Chris

Sure, absolutely. Just send me a PM and we can figure out how to do that. Thanks, Chris

Great, thanks! I will check it out.

Yes, he absolutely is! Chris

Wow, that is great! thanks for the feedback. It would be great to work with you to integrate it. I will send you a PM and we will make this happen. I will also integrate it into the Wii port. Thanks again, Chris

Ah, interesting, that is a really great insight. Just out of curiosity, have you heard of, or experienced similar issues with Pokey on Atari 8-bit computer emulators? The reason I ask is that it appears that most of the emulators out there leverage some variant of Ron Fries' PokeySound. If other emulators are not having the same issues, it is most likely an issue with the way PokeySound is being driven from ProSystem. Sorry if this has already been discussed previously. Thanks a lot, Chris

Wow, those look fantastic!

Yes, that is not too surprising. However, if you look at the code, you will see it is quite a bit different than the version that is part of the last ProSystem release (includes updates to Ron Fries PokeySound). Also, it adds support for RANDOM and POTS. The latter is needed to support the way a number of cartridges detect the presence of XM and Pokey chips. But, you are absolutely correct, the Pokey sound is far from perfect. Chris

72,680

Thank you very much, I really appreciate it! Also, thanks again for all the help. Sadly, all my scores in Scramble have already been topped... 😬 Chris

Hi all- For the past several months I have been working on a JavaScript port of Wii7800, my Wii port of the ProSystem emulator. This really started out as an exercise to learn some newer web APIs, but has progressed to the point where I figured it is worth sharing. You can find it at the following location: https://raz0red.github.io/js7800 It does not currently support mobile (something I plan to add in the future), and requires an updated version of a modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) on newer hardware to run without lags. It also definitely lacks the accuracy of the latest 7800 emulators, such as the excellent A7800. This is something I also hope to work on integrating in the future. However it does include my Wii modifications to ProSystem, so it should support most cartridge formats, larger sizes, improved bank switching, updated header detection, improved Pokey support, partial XM support, etc. Some of its features include: Global high score support: For games that support the High Score Cartridge (HSC), I have set up a central server that will serve and persist high scores. Towards the end of the default cartridge list (below emulator), you will find a collection of excellent homebrew titles that support global high scores (grouped in the category, "High Score Compatible"). It is worth noting that not all variants of these cartridges are supported globally. This is due to the fact that the scoring models may have changed between releases. You can find a raw dump of the compatible cartridges, identified by MD5 hash, here. USB Controller support: Modern controllers such as Xbox, Playstation 3 or newer, and Switch should work. Dual-analog controls are also supported for Robotron and TiME Salvo. Customizable cartridge lists: By default, the cartridge list drop-down menu contains a collection of excellent homebrew titles. But, you can also define and share your own lists. I have documented the list format along with a step by step tutorial on the Wiki found here that shows how to create and share a list. Drag-and-drop ROMs: You can drag-and-drop ROM links directly into JS7800 and they will load. As shown in the image below, a ROM link is being dragged from the AtariAge forum into JS7800 and loaded. It is also worth noting, that you typically need to start the drag on top of the download count (as shown below). This feature makes it pretty easy to navigate AtariAge and try the latest homebrew releases without downloading them directly. (JS7800 also supports drag-and-drop of local files) There is a "help/info" button located below the emulator that provides fairly detailed documentation. I also want to personally thank RevEng, PacManPlus, and mksmith for graciously answering all of my annoying questions. 🙂 Finally, I tried to contact most homebrew developers to obtain permission to include their ROMs in the default list of cartridges. However, if for some reason you do not want your title included, please just let me know. I will immediately remove it from the default list. As this is fairly early, I am sure a number of defects exist. Please just let me know what is happening and I will try my best to address it. Thanks a lot, Chris

No, you are not doing anything incorrectly. The emulator has to specifically add USB support, and the currently released versions of my ports do not. I am currently going through the ports and enhancing them, with one of the additions being USB support. I don't have a specific date for Wii2600 as it will be released after WiiColEm and Wii7800, which should both be released in the next couple of weeks. --Raz.

Received a Jaguar composite cable from Ledorien. It was exactly as described with fast shipping. Would gladly do business with him again. --Raz.

Just released a new version of the Wii emulator (0.3). http://www.wiibrew.org/wiki/Wii7800 I went ahead and released this so I could get this tested version out prior to introducing the changes that GroovyBee is working on and having to re-test. The changes are as follows: If you have made changes to the ProSystem.dat file, you will need to manually merge them into the version of ProSystem.dat distributed with this release as several things have changed. Also, although I doubt this will affect anyone, if you have a saved state file for Ballblazer, you should delete it as it will cause issues with the changes introduced in this release. --Raz.

Hmmm... good question, I don't think one has been specifically created for it yet. However, you may be able to build your own using: http://code.google.com/p/customizemii/ Not sure how much effort is involved... --Raz.

I am familiar with that adapter, but if it does work, it definitely won't support the keypad. Yurkie who did a great job testing this emulator has been experimenting with building a Coleco joystick adapter. Unfortunately, even the Classic Controller doesn't have enough digital inputs to make such an adapter trivial. I have been thinking that the best way to do it would probably be via USB. Using a device like RetroZone's Coleco USB adapter might work. However, the Wii is pretty picky about what USB devices it can support. I did some experiments with StellaAdapter and was unable to get the Wii to recognize it (Although it appeared that the vendor id and device id weren't properly set in the device itself). So, I may pick one of those up and see if I can get the Wii to talk to it. Another option would be to use something like an I-Pac which could easily support two controllers. The down side is that it would require hacking of the Coleco controller (unlike RetroZone's kit). I-Pac has a high probability of working due to the fact that most USB keyboards are compatible with the Wii. On a total aside, I am currently working on an updated version of Wii7800. If anyone is interested in helping me test it, please shoot me a PM. The help would be greatly appreciated. --Raz.

I have a pretty decent Colecovision port in the works (latest version and sound seems to be perfect). If anyone is interested in some early testing, please let me know. Thanks. --Raz.

Ah, very cool. I will run the emulator side by side w/ my 7800 and see if there are differences. It may be an issue with the way I implemented it, or possibly the current ProSystem Pokey implementation. --Raz.

I used the implementation from the Atari800 emulator, so I am not sure how accurate it is. I will take a look at a couple of different implementations tonight (MAME, etc.) and see how they compare. The other thing to note is that I didn't change the core Pokey implementation, I just added support for RANDOM. The implementation used by ProSystem is quite old and there are a number of newer revisions of it. I am going to upgrade it to incorporate the latest changes when I get a bit of free time. --Raz.

The problem is that ProSystem doesn't currently have SKCTLS (write) or RANDOM (read) implemented in the Pokey emulation. I added these to Wii7800 and all the sounds now appear to be present. If anyone wants to test a pre-release version, just send me a PM. Otherwise, I will probably be releasing it this weekend after I get some decent testing in. Thanks. --Raz.

Thanks for the kind words, but to be honest porting emulators and adding little tweaks is trivial compared to the amount of work it takes to write the emulator itself. The fact that the emulator works as well as it does is a testament to the huge amount of work Greg put into it along with the contributions of the devoted forum members (as well as the portions of open source code that have been integrated into it). --Raz.

Wow, I didn't even notice that. I fixed it (I believe) and sent you a link to a pre-release version. I will do so more testing today on all the other ROMs prior to releasing it publicly. As far as the sound goes, there are some definite issues with the current sound emulation of ProSystem. If I get some time this weekend, I will mess with it a bit and see what I can come up with. Thanks. --Raz.

I have never played with the gun on real hardware either, and it was very cool to play these games for the first time. Alien Brigade is a complete blast (although I keep shooting the wrong people). I also really enjoy Meltdown as it is a very unique take on a lightgun shooter. --Raz.