2823a4c8 |
1 | -- gameplaySP Gameboy Advance emulator for Playstation Portable --\r |
2 | \r |
3 | \r |
4 | -- Release log --\r |
5 | \r |
6 | v0.91 (minor cleanup release)\r |
7 | \r |
8 | NOTE: I don't usually do minor releases but I rewrote a ton of\r |
9 | things in gpSP 0.9, much of it during the last few days, and although\r |
10 | I spent a lot of time debugging a few bugs inevitably crept in.\r |
11 | \r |
12 | # Fixed some issues in the new memory handlers that crept up, hopefully\r |
13 | should fix the problems between 0.8 and 0.9.\r |
14 | # Fixed a bug introduced in 0.9 that could cause crashes when selecting\r |
15 | things in the menu (I hope, at least).\r |
16 | # Fixed a bug with a certain invalid opcode causing a jump to be scanned\r |
17 | when there isn't one (fixes Sabre Wulf).\r |
18 | # Removed 2048 option for audio buffer.\r |
19 | \r |
20 | v0.9 (yes, it's still beta)\r |
21 | \r |
22 | NOTE: As some of you may be aware I'm pretty much tired of these\r |
23 | unofficial releases by people (okay, mostly single person) who\r |
24 | don't wish to follow my wishes. I'm in the process of asking this\r |
25 | person to stop, in his own language. However, I want to make\r |
26 | something clear. Look at the last six new features in this\r |
27 | changelog. I added these TODAY. I could have done them at any\r |
28 | time. But I didn't, because I spent many (dozens, quite possibly\r |
29 | hundreds) hours debugging games that people want to play. I have\r |
30 | always believed that this is far more important than spending time\r |
31 | on new features. Frankly, I'm tired of my emulator being hacked on\r |
32 | by other people, and if it doesn't stop I'm going to make this\r |
33 | project closed source.\r |
34 | \r |
35 | Since I know this information is most visible when updated on the\r |
36 | major sites, note that it is the news posters I am especially\r |
37 | talking to. Next time you upload unofficial releases of my\r |
38 | emulator (without even knowing what's changed) bear in mind that\r |
39 | you're only encouraging me to stop working on this. If you want\r |
40 | to pick sides between me and unofficial devs, be my guest. I'll\r |
41 | let you decide by the contents of this release who's doing more\r |
42 | for my emulator.\r |
43 | \r |
44 | Oh, and if you downloaded a version of gpSP that has more than\r |
45 | "gpSP" in its name then you're using one of their versions. Shame\r |
46 | on them for not even removing this threatening message, and shame\r |
47 | on you. Unless you're using a port I endorse (GP2X, Dreamcast, etc),\r |
48 | in which case everything's good.\r |
49 | \r |
50 | \r |
51 | # Fixed stereo output being reversed.\r |
52 | # Fixed a bug causing misaligned errors on 8bit writes to the gbc\r |
53 | audio channel 3 wave data (fixes various Super Robot Wars games)\r |
54 | # Fixed DMA with garbage in their upper 4 bits (fixes a crash in\r |
55 | Zelda: Minish Cap)\r |
56 | # Added double buffering to the rendering, removes line artifacts.\r |
57 | Big thanks to Brunni for the idea.\r |
58 | # Fixed a bug preventing some SRAM based games from saving (fixes\r |
59 | MMBN4-6)\r |
60 | # Fixed a bug causing part of EWRAM to potentially get corrupted if\r |
61 | code segments loaded in EWRAM cross 32KB boundaries (fixes\r |
62 | Phantasy Star 2)\r |
63 | # Fixed a bug causing games using movs pc in user mode (very bad\r |
64 | behavior) to crash. Fixes Colin McRae Rally 2.0.\r |
65 | # Improved timing a bit more. Fixes GTA Advance.\r |
66 | # Fixed a sprite clipping bug (fixes crash in third boss of Zelda:\r |
67 | Minish cap)\r |
68 | # Increased translation buffer size significantly (fixes Donkey Kong:\r |
69 | King of Swing)\r |
70 | # Fixed a dynarec bug causing add pc, reg to not work in Thumb code\r |
71 | (fixes crash in DBZ:LoZ, seems to fix crashes in battle in Golden\r |
72 | Sun, probably fixes other games)\r |
73 | # Made sprites using tiles < 512 not display in modes 3-5 (fixes\r |
74 | a couple minor graphical bugs)\r |
75 | # Removed abort on instruction 0x00000000 hack, was breaking a\r |
76 | certain bugged up game (Scurge)\r |
77 | # Fixed bug in flags generating variable logical shifts (fixes\r |
78 | SD Gundam Force)\r |
79 | # Fixed unaligned 16bit reads (fixes DBZ:LoZ in game)\r |
80 | # Redid contiguous block flag modification checking AGAIN and\r |
81 | hopefully got it right this time (fixes Mario vs. Donkey Kong)\r |
82 | # Redid ldm/stm instructions, fixing some cases (along with the\r |
83 | timing improvements fixes Mario & Luigi)\r |
84 | # Fixed 14bit EEPROM addressing (hopefully fixes saving in a lot\r |
85 | of games)\r |
86 | # Completely redid memory handlers, accurately emulates open and\r |
87 | BIOS reads now. Fixes Zelda: Minish Cap (roll bug, last dungeon),\r |
88 | Rayman, MMBN 1 (last dungeon), probably others.\r |
89 | # Fixed a minor graphical glitch on the edges of the screen\r |
90 | (thanks Brunni and hlide for the help!)\r |
91 | # Fixed crash on loading savestates from files of games not currently\r |
92 | loaded, but be sure you have the exact file you loaded it from or\r |
93 | gpSP will exit.\r |
94 | @ New memory handlers should provide performance boost for games\r |
95 | that access VRAM significantly (ie 3D games)\r |
96 | @ Added dead flag elimination checking for logical shifts, probably\r |
97 | doesn't make a noticeable difference but should have been there\r |
98 | anyway.\r |
99 | + Added rapidfire to the button mappings.\r |
100 | + Added auto frameskip. Removed fractional frameskip (don't think\r |
101 | it's very useful with auto anyway). Select auto in the graphics/\r |
102 | sound menu to activate it; frameskip value will act as the\r |
103 | maximum (auto is by default on). Thanks again to Brunni for some\r |
104 | help with this. Frameskip options are game specific.\r |
105 | + Added vsync to the rendering. Only occurs when frames aren't\r |
106 | skipped. Seems to reduce tearing at least some of the time.\r |
107 | + Added non-filtered video option.\r |
108 | + Cheat support (Gameshark/Pro Action Replay v1-v3 only), still\r |
109 | in early stages, doesn't support everything; codes may cause\r |
110 | the game to crash, haven't determined yet if the codes are bad\r |
111 | or the implementation is. See cheat section for more information.\r |
112 | + Added ability to change audio buffer size. Does not take affect\r |
113 | until you restart the game.\r |
114 | + Added analog config options.\r |
115 | + Added ability to set analog sensitivity and turn off analog.\r |
116 | + Added ability to change the clock speed. This is a game specific\r |
117 | option. Try lower speeds w/auto frameskip to save battery life.\r |
118 | + Fixed savestate speed on crappy Sony sticks.\r |
119 | \r |
120 | (legend: # bug fix, + feature addition, @ optimization)\r |
121 | \r |
122 | v0.8 - ("unlocked" beta)\r |
123 | \r |
124 | NOTE 1: It has come to my attention that there are actually BIOSes\r |
125 | out there that are being used that cause some games to not work.\r |
126 | The BIOS md5sum listed here is for the BIOS actually in GBAs and\r |
127 | is as accurate as you'll get, (if you have a GBA and a flashcart\r |
128 | you can dump it yourself, see http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/GBA_BIOS)\r |
129 | \r |
130 | NOTE 2: Since I know this is as far as a lot of people here I have a\r |
131 | little request. Please, please, (I'd italicize this if I could)\r |
132 | please stop constantly asking me when the next release will be,\r |
133 | what it'll have, etc. And while you're at it, please stop asking me\r |
134 | to implement wi-fi multiplayer, cheat support, or fix all of your\r |
135 | games. Some things will happen in due time, other things might not\r |
136 | ever happen. I devote about as much time as I can to this emulator\r |
137 | and I carefully include as much as I can in releases to try to\r |
138 | minimize the number of people who will nag me next time (erm, I\r |
139 | mean, to make the most people happy), so I don't release every other\r |
140 | day or anything like that. Sorry that I can't release once a week,\r |
141 | but I'm a lot busier now than I was when I was first developing this\r |
142 | emulator. Good thing I got the first version out before that, wasn't\r |
143 | it?\r |
144 | \r |
145 | Congratulations, you made it this far! Now read the rest of the this\r |
146 | thing. *_*\r |
147 | \r |
148 | \r |
149 | # Fixed bug in dead flag elimination, "alt" version no longer needed.\r |
150 | # Fixed EEPROM saves being saved as 32kb instead of 512bytes/8kb\r |
151 | + 32MB ROM support has been added. ROMS are "demand loaded" as\r |
152 | necessary and page swapped out; there might be a small loading lag,\r |
153 | but I have yet to ever really notice anything.\r |
154 | NOTE: 32MB ROM support only works for unzipped ROMs.\r |
155 | + Save states have been added. See the save state menu for save/load\r |
156 | options.\r |
157 | + Support for the real-time clock (RTC) chip in Pokemon cartridegs\r |
158 | and other games. The implementation is based off of VBA's, whatever\r |
159 | notes on gbadev I could find, and some of my own reverse engineering\r |
160 | of what the games do... it might not be totally correct. Also,\r |
161 | setting the time does not work.\r |
162 | + Per-game configuration. Currently this only saves frameskip and\r |
163 | frameskip variation options.\r |
164 | + Removed the flash type option from the menu and instead added it\r |
165 | to game_config.txt. Hopefully got everything - let me know if you\r |
166 | find something that isn't there. It's pretty easy to add them if you\r |
167 | have to.\r |
168 | + Added a display in the upper left-hand corner to indicate when\r |
169 | fast-forward is on.\r |
170 | + Added button bindings for save/load state.\r |
171 | @ Found a fix of StrmnNrmn proportion: far too much unnecessary mutex\r |
172 | synchronization was going on. Removing the two offending lines of\r |
173 | code gave a massive speed boost for free. Enjoy.\r |
174 | \r |
175 | v0.7 - (beta than ever)\r |
176 | \r |
177 | # Fixed a dynarec bug involving flags generating functions in\r |
178 | contiguous conditional blocks. Fixes music in Super Mario\r |
179 | Advance 2-4.\r |
180 | # Fixed a dynarec bug where Thumb mov imm instructions wouldn't\r |
181 | set flags. Fixes Zelda: Minish Cap, Megaman Battle Network,\r |
182 | probably others. Comes at a slight speed cost.\r |
183 | # Fixed a MIPS dynarec bug where some delay slots might not\r |
184 | get filled rarely, causing chaos. Don't know if it improves\r |
185 | any games.\r |
186 | # Improved self-modifying code detection. Makes Golden Sun,\r |
187 | Golden Sun 2, and Madden 2007 sorta work but excrutiatingly\r |
188 | slowly. Looking for a game-specific workaround for this - if you\r |
189 | want to play these games you'll have to wait for now :(\r |
190 | # Fixed a bug causing the interrupt disable flag to go down\r |
191 | when SWIs are entered, causing crashes/resets. Fixes\r |
192 | Super Mario Advance 2-4.\r |
193 | # Fixed menu crashing when strings with certain characters are\r |
194 | printed (for instance going to the menu after loading the\r |
195 | BIOS)\r |
196 | # Accidentally forgot to render win0 + win1 + objwin when all\r |
197 | active at the same time, many weeks ago. Added that, should fix\r |
198 | some parts in games that had frozen screens.\r |
199 | # Fixed some issues with gpsp.cfg needing to be present and\r |
200 | corrupting, hopefully. At the very least sanity checks are\r |
201 | performed on the config file.\r |
202 | # Made it so assigning the frameskip button to something besides\r |
203 | triangle actually worked as expected.\r |
204 | # Fixed ability to restart current game if nothing is loaded\r |
205 | (ie, crash)\r |
206 | # Added interrupt on cpsr modification support to the dynarec\r |
207 | (fixes backgrounds in Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance)\r |
208 | # Added open addressing for ldm/stm instructions (fixes\r |
209 | Super Mario Advance 3)\r |
210 | # Improved cycle accuracy a little. Don't know of anything this\r |
211 | fixes, but games with idle loops will run a little better w/o\r |
212 | idle loop elimination (but should still be added when possible)\r |
213 | # Fixed some bugs causing sound to play sometimes when it shouldn't.\r |
214 | @ Added dead flag elimination for Thumb code. May possibly have\r |
215 | noticeable performance increases (Thumb emited coded size can\r |
216 | have a reduction of 20% or more)\r |
217 | @ Added code generation for divide SWI. May have a small speed\r |
218 | increase in some games.\r |
219 | + Added analog nub support (special thanks to psp298 for the\r |
220 | code)\r |
221 | + Added fractional frameskip. Go below 0 to get them. A frameskip\r |
222 | of 1/2 for instance means render 2 out of every 3 frames, 2/3\r |
223 | means render 3 out of every 4 frames, etc. Possibly useful for\r |
224 | games that are not quite fast enough at fs0 but fullspeed at\r |
225 | fs1...\r |
226 | \r |
227 | v0.6 - (still beta quality, look out for new bugs)\r |
228 | \r |
229 | NOTE: Please include gpsp.cfg with EBOOT.PBP, this shouldn't be\r |
230 | necessary but I think it is right now.\r |
231 | \r |
232 | # Fixed a nasty bug that shouldn't have made it into the initial\r |
233 | release; a lot of games that TECM.. erm.. crash won't anymore.\r |
234 | NOTE: This doesn't mean that no game will ever crash, freeze,\r |
235 | otherwise not work.\r |
236 | # Fixed some crashes in the GUI and the ability to "go up" past\r |
237 | ms0:/PSP. Made the "go up" button square like it was supposed to\r |
238 | be (instead of cross).\r |
239 | + There's now a menu that you can access, by default press right\r |
240 | while holding down triangle for the frameskip bar.\r |
241 | + Menu option: resize screen aspect ratio, the default is now\r |
242 | "scaled 3:2" which makes it look more like a normal GBA. You\r |
243 | can use "fullscreen" (what it was like before) or "unscaled 3:2"\r |
244 | (tiny but pixel for pixel like a GBA)\r |
245 | + Menu option: You can now load new games while the current one\r |
246 | is running.\r |
247 | + Menu option: You can now restart the currently running game.\r |
248 | + Menu option: Frameskip variation - this defaults to "uniform"\r |
249 | whereas it defaulted to "random" last release. Basically, turn\r |
250 | it on random if you find that frameskip causes flickering\r |
251 | animations to make things disappear. Other than that it will\r |
252 | generally look better on uniform.\r |
253 | + GUI and file loading now have "auto repeat" on the buttons so\r |
254 | they're not such a pain to navigate.\r |
255 | + Menu option: Added support for 128KB flash ROM, some games\r |
256 | require it (Pokemon Firered/Leaf Green, Super Mario Advance 4),\r |
257 | turn it on before running the game to make sure it works.\r |
258 | NOTE: There are some versions of these ROMs that have been\r |
259 | hacked to get around their 128KB flash, and may not even work\r |
260 | properly at all. Look out for them, these games should save\r |
261 | 128KB save files after you set the setting to it, IF they use\r |
262 | 128KB flash.\r |
263 | + Menu option: Added ability to make the .sav files only update\r |
264 | when you exit the emulator, use with extreme caution (in other\r |
265 | words, it's not a good idea to use something like this in beta\r |
266 | quality software if you care about your saves). Does NOT update\r |
267 | if you exit through the home button, don't use the home button\r |
268 | if you can help it.\r |
269 | + Zip support thanks to SiberianSTAR. It will load the first file\r |
270 | with the extension .gba or .bin that it finds.\r |
271 | + Menu options are saved to gpsp.cfg. Note that it does not save\r |
272 | frameskip options or flash ROM options because these are very\r |
273 | per game particular.\r |
274 | + The emulator will now try to save backup files to something\r |
275 | more matching the backup size than a fixed 64KB.\r |
276 | @ Loading ROMs and the auto save of the .sav files is MUCH faster\r |
277 | now. Thanks for the heads up on how to improve this from pollux!\r |
278 | @ While coding for the screen resize code I found that SDL just\r |
279 | wasn't cutting it and had to code for the GU myself. Turns out\r |
280 | the new code is faster (but because it is render code any\r |
281 | improvement will be diminished to nothing as frameskip is\r |
282 | increased). Special thanks to Zx-81 for the tips on this one\r |
283 | and for his GU code in the PSPVBA source as an example.\r |
284 | @ Added some games to game_config.txt. Note that not all versions\r |
285 | of these ROMs will work with these options, try to use the USA\r |
286 | version if possible.\r |
287 | \r |
288 | 8-19-2006 v0.5 - Initial release (public beta quality)\r |
289 | \r |
290 | \r |
291 | -- About --\r |
292 | \r |
293 | gameplaySP (gpSP for short) is a GBA emulator written completely from\r |
294 | scratch. It is still pretty young (only having started a 3 months prior\r |
295 | to the first release) and thus rather immature, but it does a decent\r |
296 | job of playing a number of games, and is being improved upon somewhat\r |
297 | regularly. It is currently somewhat minimalistic, in the sourcecode,\r |
298 | presentation, and features. Its number one focus is to deliver a GBA\r |
299 | gaming experience in the most playable way that PSP can manage, with\r |
300 | frills being secondary (although still a consideration, at least for\r |
301 | some of them).\r |
302 | \r |
303 | Having said that, optimization was the important way in achieving this\r |
304 | goal, with overall compatability being a near second. Because of this\r |
305 | some games may not run at the favor of running more games significantly\r |
306 | better. Of course, the compatability will improve with time. The\r |
307 | compatability in the current version (0.8) is perhaps around 80%\r |
308 | (assuming the correct BIOS image is used).\r |
309 | \r |
310 | Many games will run at their best out of the box, but some games will\r |
311 | run very slowly unless idle loops are taken care of. There is a supplied\r |
312 | ROM database, game_config.txt, that gives idle loop targets and other\r |
313 | settings that may help a game to run better (or at all) on a per-game\r |
314 | basis. Currently (as of version 0.8) a few dozen games are on this list,\r |
315 | mostly only USA versions. This list will continue to be updated; there's\r |
316 | no real telling exactly how many of the ~2500 GBA games will need to\r |
317 | appear here.\r |
318 | \r |
319 | gpSP currently requires an authentic GBA BIOS image file to run. It will\r |
320 | make no effort to run without one present; this file is 16kb and should\r |
321 | be called gba_bios.bin and present in the same location as the EBOOT.PBP\r |
322 | file. Please do not ask me where to obtain this, you'll have to look\r |
323 | online or grab it from a GBA. Note that it is not legal to have this file\r |
324 | unless you own a GBA, and even then it's rather gray area.\r |
325 | \r |
326 | \r |
327 | \r |
328 | -- Features --\r |
329 | \r |
330 | gpSP mostly emulates the core Gameboy Advance system. As of right now it\r |
331 | does not emulate any special hardware present on various GBA cartridges.\r |
332 | \r |
333 | \r |
334 | What it emulates:\r |
335 | \r |
336 | GBA CPU: All ARM7TDMI ARM and Thumb mode opcodes except block memory w/\r |
337 | s-bit (probably aren't used in GBA games)\r |
338 | Video: Modes 0, 1, 2 almost completely, basic 3-5 support, sprites,\r |
339 | windows/OBJ windows\r |
340 | Interrupts: HBlank, VBlank, all timers, all DMA channels, keypad\r |
341 | DMA: Immediate, HBlank, VBlank, sound timer triggered\r |
342 | Sound: Both DirectSound channels and all 4 GBC audio channels\r |
343 | Input: Basic GBA input delivered through PSP controls\r |
344 | Cartridges: Currently supports ROMs up to 32MB in size (the maximum for\r |
345 | GBA) with the technique of ROM page swapping to fit within PSP's RAM.\r |
346 | Backup: 32/64kb SRAM, 64/128kb flash, 512bit/8kb EEPROM\r |
347 | RTC: The real-time clock present in cartridges such as most of the\r |
348 | Pokemon games and some others.\r |
349 | \r |
350 | \r |
351 | What it lacks:\r |
352 | \r |
353 | Video: No mosaic, bitmap modes lack color effects (alpha, fades),\r |
354 | there might be some minor inaccuracies in blending...\r |
355 | Cycle accuracy: Very cycle innacurate; CPU is effectively somewhat\r |
356 | overclocked, meaning games with rampant idle loops will probably run\r |
357 | rather poorly. DMA transfers effectively happen for free (0 cycle).\r |
358 | Please do NOT use gpSP as a first source for developing GBA homebrew,\r |
359 | try No$GBA instead.\r |
360 | \r |
361 | \r |
362 | Additional features it has:\r |
363 | - The ability to attempt to run games at faster than GBA speed (sometimes\r |
364 | they can end up a lot faster, other times not so much)\r |
365 | - Savestates: the ability to save a game's state to a file and resume\r |
366 | playing where you left off later.\r |
367 | - Mild cheat support\r |
368 | \r |
369 | \r |
370 | Features that it doesn't have (please don't ask me to implement these!)\r |
371 | - Wi-fi multiplayer\r |
372 | \r |
373 | \r |
374 | -- Controls --\r |
375 | \r |
376 | The default control scheme is very simple. If you don't like it you can\r |
377 | change it in the configuration menu.\r |
378 | \r |
379 | At the ROM selection screen:\r |
380 | \r |
381 | Up/down: navigate current selection window.\r |
382 | Left/right: switch between file window and directory window.\r |
383 | Circle/start: select current entry.\r |
384 | Square: go one directory up.\r |
385 | \r |
386 | In game:\r |
387 | \r |
388 | Up/down/left/right: GBA d-pad\r |
389 | Circle: GBA A button\r |
390 | Cross: GBA B button\r |
391 | Square/start: GBA start button\r |
392 | Select: GBA select button\r |
393 | Left trigger: GBA left trigger\r |
394 | Right trigger: GBA right trigger\r |
395 | Triangle: Adjust frameksip\r |
396 | \r |
397 | In frameskip adjustment:\r |
398 | \r |
399 | Hold down triangle to keep up, press up/down to increase/decrease\r |
400 | frameskip, respectively. Press down at 0 to change to auto, and up\r |
401 | at auto to change to 0.\r |
402 | \r |
403 | In the menu:\r |
404 | \r |
405 | Up/down: navigate current menu.\r |
406 | Left/right: change value in current menu selection (if a value is present)\r |
407 | Circle/start: select current entry (see help for entry to see what this means)\r |
408 | Square: exit the current menu.\r |
409 | \r |
410 | \r |
411 | -- Frameskip --\r |
412 | \r |
413 | The purpose behind frameskip is to cause the emulator to not render every\r |
414 | frame of graphics to make the emulation closer to fullspeed. Many games will\r |
415 | run fullspeed without skipping any frames, however, some (particularly more\r |
416 | graphically demanding ones) will require this.\r |
417 | \r |
418 | Frameskip can be set to two forms, either auto or manual. Auto will attempt\r |
419 | to skip only as many frames as necessary to make the game full speed, and\r |
420 | will not skip more than 4 in a row no matter what speed the game runs at\r |
421 | (at this point the benefits of frameskip yield diminishing returns).\r |
422 | \r |
423 | It is recommended that you keep frameskip on auto, but manual is maintained\r |
424 | as an option if you want it and works as follows:\r |
425 | \r |
426 | Manual frameskip will only render one out of every (n + 1) frames, where n\r |
427 | is the current frameskip value (so 0 will render everything). Increasing\r |
428 | the frameskip can improve speed, especially with very graphically\r |
429 | intensive games.\r |
430 | \r |
431 | \r |
432 | -- Cheats --\r |
433 | \r |
434 | Currently, gpSP supports some functionality of Gameshark/Pro Action Replay\r |
435 | cheat codes. To use these, you must first make a file with the same name\r |
436 | as the ROM you want the cheat code to apply to, but with the extension .cht.\r |
437 | Put this file in the same directory as the ROM. To make it use a normal\r |
438 | text editor like notepad or wordpad if you're on Windows.\r |
439 | \r |
440 | To write a code, write the type of model it is, gameshark_v1, gameshark_v3,\r |
441 | PAR_v1, or PAR_v3. gameshark_v1/PAR_v1 and gameshark_v3/PAR_v3 respectively\r |
442 | are interchangeable, but v1 and v3 are not! So if you don't know which\r |
443 | version it is, try both to see if it'll work.\r |
444 | \r |
445 | Then, after that, put a space and put the name you'd like to give the cheat.\r |
446 | \r |
447 | On the next several lines, put each cheat code pair, which should look like\r |
448 | this:\r |
449 | \r |
450 | AAAAAAAA BBBBBBBB\r |
451 | \r |
452 | Then put a blank line when you're done with that code, and start a new code\r |
453 | immediately after it. Here's an example of what a cheat file should look\r |
454 | like:\r |
455 | \r |
456 | \r |
457 | gameshark_v3 MarioInfHP\r |
458 | 995fa0d9 0c6720d2\r |
459 | \r |
460 | gameshark_v3 MarioMaxHP\r |
461 | 21d58888 c5d0e432\r |
462 | \r |
463 | gameshark_v3 InfHlthBat\r |
464 | 6f4feadb 0581b00e\r |
465 | 79af5dc6 5ce0d2b1\r |
466 | dbbd5995 44b801c9\r |
467 | 65f8924d 2fbcd3c4\r |
468 | \r |
469 | gameshark_v3 StopTimer\r |
470 | 2b399ca4 ec81f071\r |
471 | \r |
472 | \r |
473 | After you have written the .cht file, you have to enable the cheats\r |
474 | individually in the game menu. Go to the Cheats/Misc menu, and you will\r |
475 | see the cheats; turn them on here. You may turn them on and off as you\r |
476 | please, but note that some cheats may still hold after you turn them off,\r |
477 | due to the nature of the system. Restart to completely get rid of them.\r |
478 | \r |
479 | IMPORTANT NOTES:\r |
480 | \r |
481 | This is still very work in progress! I basically added this in only 1.5\r |
482 | or so hours, and I don't have a lot of time right now to work on it\r |
483 | before releasing. So I'll probably improve it later.\r |
484 | \r |
485 | Not all of gameshark's features are supported, especially for v3. Only\r |
486 | basic cheats will work, more or less.\r |
487 | \r |
488 | Cheats may be unstable and may crash your game. If you're having problems\r |
489 | turn the cheats off.\r |
490 | \r |
491 | Really, there's no guarantee that ANY cheats will work; I tried a few and\r |
492 | some seem to work, others are questionable. Try for yourself, but don't\r |
493 | expect anything to actually work right now. Do expect this feature to\r |
494 | improve in future versions.\r |
495 | \r |
496 | \r |
497 | \r |
498 | -- Frequently Asked Questions --\r |
499 | \r |
500 | Q) How do I run this on my PSP?\r |
501 | \r |
502 | A) Provided is an EBOOT.PBP which will run as is on a 1.0 firmware\r |
503 | PSP or custom firmware that can run unsigned EBOOTs. On 1.5 firmwares\r |
504 | you must use a kxploit tool to run it (try SeiPSPtool). On 2.0\r |
505 | firmwares and higher further exploits must be used - see\r |
506 | http://pspupdates.qj.net/ for more information. Note that I have NOT\r |
507 | tested this emulator on any firmware version besides 1.5, and it's\r |
508 | very possible that it doesn't run well, or at all on higher versions.\r |
509 | Therefore I strongly recommend you downgrade if possible, and use\r |
510 | Devhook to run games that require > 1.5 version firmwares.\r |
511 | \r |
512 | Be sure to include in the same directory as the EBOOT.PBP file the\r |
513 | game_config.txt file included and the gba_bios.bin file which you\r |
514 | must provide yourself.\r |
515 | \r |
516 | gpSP does not run on PSPs with version 2.71 or higher firmware yet,\r |
517 | nor does any other homebrew executable.\r |
518 | \r |
519 | \r |
520 | Q) What is a BIOS image file? Why do I need it to run gpSP? Other GBA\r |
521 | emulators don't require this...\r |
522 | \r |
523 | A) The GBA BIOS image file is a copy of a ROM on the GBA system that\r |
524 | has code for starting up the GBA (it shows the logo), verifying the\r |
525 | game, and most importantly, providing utility functions for the games\r |
526 | to use. It is the latter that gpSP needs the BIOS present for. It's\r |
527 | possible to replace all of these functions with equivilent code, but\r |
528 | this will take time - in the future gpSP may not require a BIOS image.\r |
529 | \r |
530 | \r |
531 | Q) I can't find this BIOS image.. please send it to me.\r |
532 | \r |
533 | A) Sorry, but you're on your own. I won't send you a BIOS or tell you\r |
534 | where to get one (unless you want to rip it from a GBA yourself, in\r |
535 | which case I'll just give you the same link at the top). I can't do\r |
536 | this because it's not legal to send it around and I don't want to\r |
537 | get a reputation for illegally distributing BIOS images.\r |
538 | \r |
539 | \r |
540 | Q) How do I know I have the right BIOS?\r |
541 | \r |
542 | A) If you have md5sum you can check if it has this hash:\r |
543 | a860e8c0b6d573d191e4ec7db1b1e4f6\r |
544 | That BIOS should work fine. I think that some others work fine too,\r |
545 | although I haven't confirmed this with absolute certainty. It's also\r |
546 | theoretically possible to use custom (and free) BIOS replacements,\r |
547 | but I don't know of any publically availablone ones.\r |
548 | \r |
549 | As far as I'm aware there are two BIOSes floating around, I doubt\r |
550 | you'll get one that isn't one of those two. There's a very easy way\r |
551 | to determine which one you have - just look at the very first byte in\r |
552 | a hex editor. The correct BIOS begins with 0x18, the buggy BIOS begins\r |
553 | with 0x14.\r |
554 | \r |
555 | \r |
556 | Q) My favorite game won't run.\r |
557 | \r |
558 | A) There probably isn't anything you can do about this, although a\r |
559 | change to game_config.txt might help. gpSP is still an emulator in\r |
560 | its infancy so the compatability is not superb. I don't have time\r |
561 | to test too many games so I'm releasing it as a public beta to get\r |
562 | a feel for some things that don't work. The next version could\r |
563 | perhaps fix it, or it might never run. There are always other\r |
564 | emulators of course, please try one.\r |
565 | \r |
566 | However, before nagging me there is one thing I recommend you try,\r |
567 | and that is to add the option "iwram_stack_optimize = no" for the\r |
568 | game in game_config.txt. See the file itself for more information\r |
569 | on how to do this. If this fixes your game (and it's not already\r |
570 | in the game_config.txt) please tell me about it.\r |
571 | \r |
572 | \r |
573 | Q) My favorite game is very slow.\r |
574 | \r |
575 | A) Emulating GBA takes a number of resources and getting it done well\r |
576 | on PSP is no simple task by any means. Some games are just going to\r |
577 | overwhelm the emulator completely. Of course, there is one special\r |
578 | case of game (a lot of early generation games fall under this\r |
579 | category) that can be made much faster by a simple addition to the\r |
580 | game_config.txt file. Wait for a new version of this file or the\r |
581 | next version of the emulator and the game may be improved.\r |
582 | \r |
583 | That aside, there are still numerous optimizations that can be done,\r |
584 | and I sure you future versions will be faster (I just can't tell you\r |
585 | how much)\r |
586 | \r |
587 | Also, a lot of games will be sped up considerably by adding an\r |
588 | idle_loop_eliminate_target line for it in game_config.txt. There\r |
589 | are some more obscurer options there that can improve speed too. If\r |
590 | the game is VERY slow there might be something wrong with its\r |
591 | emulation that can be improved. For instance, if you can't get a game\r |
592 | to run fullspeed on any frameskip you should e-mail me about it.\r |
593 | \r |
594 | \r |
595 | Q) Some games run fullspeed but the sound is messed up. Why?\r |
596 | \r |
597 | A) At least 9 out of 10 times it means the game isn't really running\r |
598 | full speed, but just that you can't notice the difference. Increasing\r |
599 | frameskip will almost always improve sound quality in these\r |
600 | situations, to a certain point (after around frameskip 3 you\r |
601 | probably won't be seeing many more returns if it isn't already\r |
602 | fullspeed). The rest of the time it means there's a bug somewhere else\r |
603 | in the emulator, probably in the CPU core. Chances are that all you\r |
604 | can do is wait for it to be fixed in a later release.\r |
605 | \r |
606 | \r |
607 | Q) The emulator crashed!\r |
608 | \r |
609 | A) Most games that don't run will probably take the emulator down with\r |
610 | it, or it could be an emulator bug completely unrelated to the game\r |
611 | (but unlikely). Press home and wait for the next version.\r |
612 | \r |
613 | There is some information that comes up when the game crashes. This\r |
614 | information may be slightly useful to me, but chances are it\r |
615 | usually won't be all that interesting.\r |
616 | \r |
617 | These days games are more likely to exit with a "bad crash" error.\r |
618 | This number is possibly useful to me, but to debug a game I'll have\r |
619 | to reproduce the crash anyway. When this happens it's probably due to\r |
620 | a bug in the CPU core that hasn't been fixed yet.\r |
621 | \r |
622 | \r |
623 | Q) Why won't my game save?\r |
624 | \r |
625 | A) The game might need 128KB flash turned on and might not be listed in\r |
626 | game_config.txt. See game_config.txt for more information regarding\r |
627 | this. Be sure to include game_config.txt with the EBOOT.PBP file.\r |
628 | \r |
629 | Other games might simply have bugs in the save support. For now, use\r |
630 | savestates as an alternative if you can't save.\r |
631 | \r |
632 | \r |
633 | Q) How do I change sound quality?\r |
634 | \r |
635 | A) Right now, you can't. For those wondering, sound is locked at 44.1KHz\r |
636 | (sounds a bit high? It is, but it's currently necessary to play\r |
637 | everything correctly). I don't have any plans to allow changing this\r |
638 | right now, because I don't think there's really much reason to be\r |
639 | able to (it'd be a tiny speed boost at best and I don't think SDL even\r |
640 | allows for anything besides this sampling rate on PSP)\r |
641 | \r |
642 | \r |
643 | Q) What is this emulator's name?\r |
644 | \r |
645 | A) Um.. what? It's gameplaySP, isn't it? You call it gpSP for short.\r |
646 | Somehow the name can't have the acronyms gbSP, gbapSP, or really\r |
647 | just about anything else you feel like giving it. Oh, and if you\r |
648 | really want to make me happy get the capitalization right too.\r |
649 | That's gpSP, not gPSP, GPsp.. you get the idea.\r |
650 | \r |
651 | \r |
652 | Q) Does gpSP run Gameboy/Gameboy Color games? Will it later?\r |
653 | \r |
654 | A) No. Even though GBA can run these games it uses separate hardware\r |
655 | that proper GBA games have no access to (save for the audio chip),\r |
656 | and thus there's no point including it in a GBA emulator (it\r |
657 | doesn't help run GBA games). I recommend using a GB/GBC emulator\r |
658 | like Rin for playing these games. It'll probably give you a lot\r |
659 | more options anyway. gpSP will never actually emulate GB/GBC\r |
660 | games. You'd may as well be waiting for it to emulate PS2 games...\r |
661 | (that was an analogy. gpSP won't ever emulate PS2 games. >_>)\r |
662 | \r |
663 | \r |
664 | Q) Other emulators use the PSP's graphical hardware to accelerate the\r |
665 | video emulation. Is this possible for gpSP?\r |
666 | \r |
667 | A) I'm honestly not too sure at this point. It's definitely a rather\r |
668 | complicated procedure, and I don't think it'll be possible to\r |
669 | accurately accelerate alpha blending. On the other hand, affine\r |
670 | transformations could perhaps receive a speed boost this way. Any\r |
671 | solution would have to be hybrid hardware/software, which might be\r |
672 | possible due to the nature of the PSP's VRAM. Maybe someone will\r |
673 | be willing to help me think of possibilities here?\r |
674 | \r |
675 | But don't bother of you're just going to tell me to render a list\r |
676 | of quads...\r |
677 | \r |
678 | \r |
679 | Q) Other emulators use the PSP's second CPU to offload the sound\r |
680 | emulation. Is this possible for gpSP?\r |
681 | \r |
682 | A) Yes, but it wouldn't improve it nearly as much as say, SNES9x TYL.\r |
683 | This is because most of the processing that goes into sound on a GBA\r |
684 | game is done in the CPU, not in dedicated audio hardware. It could\r |
685 | help a little, but probably not a lot. Maybe enough to be worthwhile.\r |
686 | It might also be possible to split the video rendering to the main\r |
687 | CPU and the main emulation to the secondary one, but there are a lot\r |
688 | of coherency issues involved.\r |
689 | \r |
690 | \r |
691 | Q) I heard gpSP can only load games 16MB or smaller in size. Is this\r |
692 | true? What about zipped games?\r |
693 | \r |
694 | A) As of version 0.8 gpSP can play 32MB ROMs. However, they must be\r |
695 | unzipped. The reason for this is that parts of the ROM are constantly\r |
696 | loaded to memory as needed, and for this to be as fast as possible the\r |
697 | ROM has to be present on the memory stick in raw format.\r |
698 | \r |
699 | You might be wondering, why not just have gpSP unzip the ROM to a file\r |
700 | then delete the file when it is done? The reason why is because this\r |
701 | would impose a "hidden" requirement of 32MB on the user that very\r |
702 | likely may not be there. Furthermore, there are only a few 32MB games\r |
703 | that anyone actually wants to play. If you only have one 32MB game on\r |
704 | your memstick then it'd actually require signifnicantly more free space\r |
705 | to hold both the ROM and the 32MB raw file. With 2 32MB ROMs you only\r |
706 | gain a around 10-25MB of free space, depending on how effective the\r |
707 | compression is.\r |
708 | \r |
709 | \r |
710 | Q) Savestates? From other emulators??\r |
711 | \r |
712 | A) See the savestates option in main menu. gpSP will probably never\r |
713 | support savestates from other emulators, there's just too much in the\r |
714 | way of emulator specific data in them.\r |
715 | \r |
716 | Savestates are currently 506,943 bytes. They would be a little smaller\r |
717 | without the snapshot, but I find that very useful and it wouldn't help\r |
718 | size immensely. Compression would help, but I wanted the size to be\r |
719 | constant so you knew exactly how much you could hold and to improve\r |
720 | save/load speed.\r |
721 | \r |
722 | \r |
723 | Q) What's with the zip support?\r |
724 | \r |
725 | A) I hear stories that some games work unzipped and not zipped, so you\r |
726 | might want to try unzipping them if it gives you problems. You also\r |
727 | might want to try making fresh zips with WinRAR - users have\r |
728 | reported some higher success rates doing this.\r |
729 | \r |
730 | \r |
731 | Q) What's with the config file? Should I make it read only?\r |
732 | \r |
733 | A) There was a bug in version 0.6 that caused the config file to not\r |
734 | get updated or get corrupted sometimes. Hopefully this is fixed now,\r |
735 | but if it DOES get corrupted making it read only can prevent this\r |
736 | from happening in the future.\r |
737 | \r |
738 | \r |
739 | Q) So when WILL the next version be released?\r |
740 | \r |
741 | A) Sorry, but I almost never announce release dates. Furthermore, I'll\r |
742 | probably be pretty hush hush on internal development, just to keep\r |
743 | people from nagging me about it and building too much suspense.\r |
744 | \r |
745 | \r |
746 | Q) I don't like this emulator. Are there other alternatives?\r |
747 | \r |
748 | A) Yes. Try PSPVBA by Zx-81 (http://zx81.dcemu.co.uk/). Overall I doubt\r |
749 | the compatability is significantly higher than gpSP's anymore, but\r |
750 | I'm sure there are some games it runs that gpSP doesn't.\r |
751 | \r |
752 | \r |
753 | Q) I heard there was a version of gpSP for PCs. Is that true?\r |
754 | \r |
755 | A) I developed this emulator internally on PC. It might have a speed\r |
756 | advantage over other PC GBA emulators, although the PSP version has\r |
757 | more sophisticated optimizations. Most people have fast enough\r |
758 | computers to run better GBA emulators for PC and gpSP lacks some\r |
759 | important features (screen resizing) that the PSP version kinda\r |
760 | hides. Even though gpSP spent a majority of its development\r |
761 | gestation as a PC app it was always developed with the PSP in mind,\r |
762 | so the PC version will probably not see the light of the day unless\r |
763 | I get overwhelming demand for it. It is, however, possible to\r |
764 | build it from the source. But I request that you don't distribute\r |
765 | such builds. If you happen to find one, bear in mind that I don't\r |
766 | offer any support for it, and as far as I'm concerned it won't\r |
767 | exist.\r |
768 | \r |
769 | \r |
770 | Q) I hear there's a version of gpSP for other platforms too, like\r |
771 | Dreamcast. And I hear they're slow! What gives?\r |
772 | \r |
773 | These are ports, done by other people (or maybe myself?). This is\r |
774 | possible because gpSP is open source and its base version is fairly\r |
775 | portable, but to run fast enough on anything but platforms quite a\r |
776 | bit faster than PSP it at least needs a CPU specific dynarec backend.\r |
777 | \r |
778 | I don't (necessarily) maintain all builds of gpSP, so you'll have to\r |
779 | contact the authors of these ports for more information. That\r |
780 | notwithstanding, I try to get as involved in other ports of gpSP as\r |
781 | I can.\r |
782 | \r |
783 | \r |
784 | Q) I want to modify gpSP. How can I do this, and am I at liberty to do\r |
785 | so?\r |
786 | \r |
787 | A) Yes, you are, under the terms of the GPL (see the included\r |
788 | COPYING.DOC). You can download the sourcecode from whereever you\r |
789 | downloaded this; if you can't find it please e-mail me and I'll give\r |
790 | you a link to it. I would vastly appreciate it if you contacted me first\r |
791 | before forking my project, especially if you're just looking to gain\r |
792 | recognition without adding much to it. It's better to keep all changes\r |
793 | tidy in one branch of development.\r |
794 | \r |
795 | I would like to stress this a little more seriously (hopefully those\r |
796 | interested are reading this). Although you are legally entitled to\r |
797 | release your own forks of gpSP it would be much more benficial to me,\r |
798 | to you, and to the users of this program if you instead tried working\r |
799 | with me to get your changes incorporated into the next version. I\r |
800 | really don't feel like competing with other builds of my source\r |
801 | anymore, so please do me a big favor and send me an e-mail if you want\r |
802 | to work with gpSP.\r |
803 | \r |
804 | \r |
805 | Q) How do I build gpSP?\r |
806 | \r |
807 | A) make will build it. You need to have SDL for PSP installed, as well\r |
808 | as the standard PSP toolchain/PSPSDK and zlib. gpSP isn't much of a\r |
809 | "build it yourself" program so please don't bother me much about how to\r |
810 | build it unless you have a good reason for wanting to do so.\r |
811 | \r |
812 | \r |
813 | Q) What is with the version numbers?\r |
814 | \r |
815 | A) Anything less than 1.0 means beta. Beta means that I still have major\r |
816 | plans for working on it, and that I don't fully back it as being\r |
817 | stable or reliable software. Of course, if it does hit 1.0, that doesn't\r |
818 | mean it'll be perfect. It just means I'll have spent a lot of cumulative\r |
819 | time working things out. The closer it gets to 0.9, the happier I am with\r |
820 | it overall.\r |
821 | \r |
822 | \r |
823 | Q) Donations?\r |
824 | \r |
825 | A) Very appreciated. exophase@gmail.com on PayPal. <3\r |
826 | \r |
827 | \r |
828 | Q) How can I contact you?\r |
829 | \r |
830 | A) exophase@gmail.com, Exophase on AIM, exophase@adelphia.net on MSN. I\r |
831 | welcome IMs, but if you nag me a lot you'll make me sad inside. And\r |
832 | don't ask me for ROMs or the GBA BIOS. I figured this was common sense\r |
833 | but apparently not.\r |
834 | \r |
835 | \r |
836 | -- Credits --\r |
837 | \r |
838 | Exophase: main developer\r |
839 | siberianSTAR: zip support\r |
840 | psp298: analog nub code\r |
841 | \r |
842 | Beta testers for 0.7:\r |
843 | theohsoawesome1\r |
844 | thisnamesucks837\r |
845 | blackdragonwave9\r |
846 | dagreatpeewee\r |
847 | xsgenji\r |
848 | \r |
849 | Beta testers for 0.8:\r |
850 | Runaway_prisoner\r |
851 | theohsoawesome1\r |
852 | tanyareimyoko\r |
853 | spynghotoh2020\r |
854 | \r |
855 | Beta testers for 0.9:\r |
856 | RunawayPrisoner (my right hand man)\r |
857 | Veskgar (my left hand man)\r |
858 | qasim\r |
859 | \r |
860 | -- Special thanks --\r |
861 | \r |
862 | Quasar84: He's helped me in so many ways with this. We both kinda learned\r |
863 | GBA together, he did little demos for me and I got them emulated. It was\r |
864 | great trying out your more advanced code for your own projects once you\r |
865 | got to them, it was equally rewarding to see your work and to be able to\r |
866 | run it at the same time. Least of all I wouldn't have been able to do any\r |
867 | of this without your constant support and presence. I really owe this\r |
868 | release to you.\r |
869 | \r |
870 | gladius: You are an amazing GBA coder. I wouldn't have been able to get\r |
871 | through some tough parts without your help. Its been good talking about\r |
872 | ideas with you.. I'm sure you're glad to see that there's finally a GBA\r |
873 | emulator with dynarec ;)\r |
874 | \r |
875 | \r |
876 | Many, many others of course, probably too many to name, and I don't want\r |
877 | to make anyone feel bad by putting others above them (well, except those\r |
878 | two, heh) so if you think you should be on here, you probably should be!\r |
879 | Just pretend you are for now, and maybe I'll put you here next time.\r |
880 | \r |