alekmaul Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 (edited) Hello, I'm currently doing a new emulator for Colecovision to help me doing homebrew. This emulator is a "hommage" to Martin Korth no$xxx emulators. Currently, the core emulation works fine and I'm now working on I/O Map window and Screen datails windows. I tested this screens with mode 1 and mode 2, they work fine. Now, I have two requests for the community : 1) I have no rom image with mode 0 and before doing such rom, I just want to know if someone has a Mode 0 rom image to test my emulator. 2) Also, i want to add Super Game Module support. If someone has a rom image of such game, can it send me the link or the rom (if it is not a problem with copyright issues of course). This screen show you my emulator in action. Edited September 6, 2014 by alekmaul 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 There's a SGM diagnostic program created by nanochess which should help you in adding SGM support to your emulator. I'll let nanochess post the ROM himself, in this thread, to make sure it's the latest version. nano? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 There's a SGM diagnostic program created by nanochess which should help you in adding SGM support to your emulator. I'll let nanochess post the ROM himself, in this thread, to make sure it's the latest version. nano? I'm glad to help Link to my SGM test ROM http://atariage.com/forums/topic/211871-sgm-test-rom/?do=findComment&comment=2748035 I think Epyx Pitstop game uses mode 0 for the intermission blue screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alekmaul Posted September 6, 2014 Author Share Posted September 6, 2014 I think Epyx Pitstop game uses mode 0 for the intermission blue screen. Thanks a lot for that. I think I have epyx game on my hard drive. I will use your test rom regarding SGM. Hope to release my emu soon even if some features are not yet available to know if community think it is a good idea to have a new emu for Colecovision Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIAD Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Loved the No$..... series of emulators and look forward to see how things progress with you emu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Hope to release my emu soon even if some features are not yet available to know if community think it is a good idea to have a new emu for Colecovision Aside from accurate emulation (colors, sounds, hardware quirks, etc.) an emu needs to have certain features in order to be "useful": - PC game controller support (gamepads, etc.) - Savestates - Emulation pause (i.e. pause even if game itself offers no pause feature) - Screenshot snapper (PNG usually preferred) That's the basic stuff that most people usually look for in an emulator. If you want homebrew ColecoVision developers to use your emu, you'll probably want to include a runtime debugger as well, but make sure it's user-friendly and I invite you to get lots of feedback about that. blueMSX offers all those things, but some people don't like the debugger (and prefer Meka's debugger). A debugger that implements the suggestions from today's ColecoVision bedroom coders would be much appreciated by the community, I believe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 I'm guess this will be for PC only? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digress Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Hey, internet multiplayer. 2 player over the internet. I seen this option on a genesis emulator I believe. I'm reaching. And while we are at it. A colecovision emulator could have a mud game. Imagine that. Throught the emulator of course... for now. That would make colecochat more interesting to a wider audience too. We all play a mud game and chat at the same time. Of course programmers would all be wizard ranks and omnipotent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Hey, internet multiplayer. 2 player over the internet. I seen this option on a genesis emulator I believe. I'm reaching. That would be really cool! I'd love to play a game of Artillery Duel with someone over the internet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alekmaul Posted September 6, 2014 Author Share Posted September 6, 2014 (edited) Aside from accurate emulation (colors, sounds, hardware quirks, etc.) an emu needs to have certain features in order to be "useful": - PC game controller support (gamepads, etc.) - Savestates - Emulation pause (i.e. pause even if game itself offers no pause feature) - Screenshot snapper (PNG usually preferred) Savestates will be done. Pause is OK , you have a step by step debugger and you can change what you want in memory Sreenshots are done, BMP version, not png, sorry about that. Regarding PC game controler, what do you want exactly. Currently, you're right, only keyboard is supported ... Regarding Internet, why not, but it is not the prior task for me. As I said, i'm using it for myhombrew devs. Also, evg2000, you're right. PC windows only, it's made with an old version of c++builder. Sorry about that. Edited September 6, 2014 by alekmaul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixelboy Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Savestates will be done. Pause is OK , you have a step by step debugger and you can change what you want in memory Screenshots are done, BMP version, not png, sorry about that. It's better than nothing, as long as the colors are accurate. Regarding PC game controler, what do you want exactly. Currently, you're right, only keyboard is supported ... Most people don't like playing console games with keyboards. I can only speak for myself here, but I've got a good ol' "Logitech Precision" gamepad, and I love it. Regarding Internet, why not, but it is not the prior task for me. As I said, i'm using it for my homebrew devs. Synchronizing two emulators running on different PCs over the net is probably much easier to do today than it was a decade ago, but it's still a technically difficult feature to implement. That's why you'd win quite a few points in this community if you managed to pull it off, because no ColecoVision emulator today has that feature, AFAIK. On the other hand, if your emulator is geared towards development, then there's not much point in adding online play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 Regarding PC game controler, what do you want exactly. Currently, you're right, only keyboard is supported ... I believe that the best way to support this is to include support for input from Windows USB Human Interface Devices (HID) with appropriate options within the emulator to map the HID outputs to appropriate actions on the ColecoVision controllers. blueMSX includes this functionality and has been recently expanded to include mapping to Super Action Controllers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoTonah Posted September 7, 2014 Share Posted September 7, 2014 I'd love for Stage 2 of this project to be a full ADAM emulator/development system for both Mac, Windows and Linux. LOL Do I ask for much? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted September 8, 2014 Share Posted September 8, 2014 I would love a new coleco emulator , for me ideally. -It most super all colecovision graphic mode (including "non official one" like the Screen Mode 2 Text )... blueMsx support it , but for instance i have been very frustated with the Coleco emulator on Nintendo DS. It does not support it correctly, so i can not play my own game on my DS . -It should have a very good debugger. -It should offer some feature to display Memory in a graphic way. (means for instance, i could say 'i want see memory (RAM and VDP RAM) as if all bytes are graphic pattern. -It should offer some tools to help to rip sound. Like just a way to log what is send to Sound Chip. -It should offer a tools to export VDP 's pattern, color and Name tables to file (compatible with Daniel pattern editor for instance). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alekmaul Posted September 9, 2014 Author Share Posted September 9, 2014 (edited) I would love a new coleco emulator , for me ideally. -It most super all colecovision graphic mode (including "non official one" like the Screen Mode 2 Text )... blueMsx support it , but for instance i have been very frustated with the Coleco emulator on Nintendo DS. It does not support it correctly, so i can not play my own game on my DS . -It should have a very good debugger. -It should offer some feature to display Memory in a graphic way. (means for instance, i could say 'i want see memory (RAM and VDP RAM) as if all bytes are graphic pattern. -It should offer some tools to help to rip sound. Like just a way to log what is send to Sound Chip. -It should offer a tools to export VDP 's pattern, color and Name tables to file (compatible with Daniel pattern editor for instance). Ok Youki, I will update ColecoDS for you if you want OK for non standard modes, will add them but do you have rom regarding such use of non standard mode ?. Regarding display memory, take a look at screenshot, I think it is what you want. Ripping sound and VDP values is a good idea took, i put that on my todo list. Currently, i'm fighting against direct sound, i usually use SDL and DirectSound is not so much easy to implement than SDL. Edited September 9, 2014 by alekmaul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Ok Youki, I will update ColecoDS for you if you want OK for non standard modes, will add them but do you have rom regarding such use of non standard mode ?. Regarding display memory, take a look at screenshot, I think it is what you want. Ripping sound and VDP values is a good idea took, i put that on my todo list. Currently, i'm fighting against direct sound, i usually use SDL and DirectSound is not so much easy to implement than SDL. Cool!! . when i have a moment i will do a Rom using the Screen Mode 2 text for you. Ah , and one more point very important for me (at least for one of my project), is that the emulator emulate the "Driving Module" . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+nanochess Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Also Megacart support would be great 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ikrananka Posted September 9, 2014 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Plus support for the Super Action Controllers including the spinner would be awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted September 11, 2014 Share Posted September 11, 2014 OK for non standard modes, will add them but do you have rom regarding such use of non standard mode ?. I 've just remembered that few years ago i made a "wonderfull" game for colecovision that is freely downloadable, and it uses Screen Mode 2 Text. You can download it here : http://www.atomicfe.com/colecovision/gt5/gt5.htm click on "Telecharger!!!" button to get it. It should be ok for your tests. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alekmaul Posted September 11, 2014 Author Share Posted September 11, 2014 (edited) I 've just remembered that few years ago i made a "wonderfull" game for colecovision that is freely downloadable, and it uses Screen Mode 2 Text. You can download it here : http://www.atomicfe.com/colecovision/gt5/gt5.htm click on "Telecharger!!!" button to get it. It should be ok for your tests. Got it youki, thanks a lot. I really love the comments regarding this game (I'm French but I think you know that ). Regarding news : I'm currently working on DirectInput integration to support joypad. I'm also working on ini file config to save all things done on emulator and also last rom opened. Edited September 11, 2014 by alekmaul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted September 14, 2014 Share Posted September 14, 2014 But why not starting from bluemsx sources that are by far more accurate than no$xxx ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alekmaul Posted September 14, 2014 Author Share Posted September 14, 2014 (edited) There is no no$xxxx emulator for colecovision. I did some colecovision emulators for other consoles, so I know how to code it. As I said previously, my goal is not to do "bluemsx" clone but another emulator to help me coding homebrews for Coleco. So I put inside it what I want to help me (sprites / bg preview, I/O memory stuffs, also symbols for asm view, and so on). Edited September 14, 2014 by alekmaul 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoTonah Posted September 14, 2014 Share Posted September 14, 2014 I'm glad that you're writing it from the point of view of a homebrew programmer. There are plenty of emulators just for playing, but what we need are development tools. So, thank you! I look forward to seeing how this develops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alekmaul Posted September 14, 2014 Author Share Posted September 14, 2014 Thanks LoTonah, that's the reason why i requested about needs for such emulator. For example, Youki gave me some works for lots of week now, i'm on his requests. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youki Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 For example, Youki gave me some works for lots of week now, i'm on his requests. Super!! Thanks a lot! If you need more work , another feature that would be interresting, a kind of runtime analyzer , that allow you to detect that is code and that is data. Few time a ago,i have modified a spectrum emulator to log address that are data , Rom and Ram. You play the game few minutes and at the end you have a log file that report you read/write for Rom access and Ram access.( without duplicating entries) when i did that on a spectrum emulator (in Delphi) , it really slow down the emulation that that was still very usefull. Just in case you don't know what to do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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