1 -- gameplaySP2X Gameboy Advance emulator for GP2X --
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3 gpSP2X is a version of my (Exophase)'s emulator originally for Sony PSP.
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4 A large amount of effort has been done to make it more optimized for the
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5 ARM CPU present in the GP2X, however it is still very much a work in
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8 See readme.txt for the PSP version readme, which contains a lot of
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9 information relevant to the GP2X version (note that some of it does
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15 0.9-2xb u4 (unofficial notaz release, done on Exophase's request)
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16 - Wiz port. No emulation related changes.
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17 - Wiz: dropped SDL for video and hitting hardware directly (GPH SDL can't
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18 be trusted, it doesn't do double buffering as of firmware 1.0).
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19 - Added new optimized software scaler with interpolation.
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20 - gpSP is now saving ROM dir on exit. Delete romdir.txt if you don't
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22 - gpSP now comes with wARM, new kernel module+lib for ARM cache control
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24 - gpSP no longer invalidates whole icache after recompilation, might
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27 0.9-2xb u3 (unofficial notaz release, released with permission):
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28 - Removed built-in CPU/LCD/RAM-Tweaker.
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29 - Improved usability of volume control.
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30 - Removed PSP-specific GUI options, adjusted help text.
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31 - Overclocking from menu now works, keep it at 200 if you don't want that
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32 (if you want to overclock using launcher, for example).
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33 - Fixed centering-on-first-run problem.
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34 - 3:2 scaled option now does what it says.
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36 0.9-2xb u2 (unofficial notaz release):
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37 - Replaced non-working mmuhack.o with proper one, added cache flush calls
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40 0.9-2xb u1 (unofficial notaz release):
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41 - Fixed a problen in thread synchronization which caused deadlock after
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45 -- IMPORTANT-- If you're overwriting an old version, be sure to delete the
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46 gpsp.cfg file first, or be prepared to have a bunch of weird button
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47 settings that would require fixing.
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49 - Fixed some bugs stunting compatability.
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50 - Optimized alpha blends in renderer.
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51 - Some more optimizations to dynarec output.
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52 - Savestates should work better now.
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53 - Cheat/misc menu won't crash the emulator.
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54 - Main button config window works (not all buttons are in yet)
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56 0.9-2Xa: (Exophase release)
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57 - Redid autoframeskip. Should work more reliably.
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58 - Rewrote dynamic recompiler from x86 source (arm_emit.h, arm_stub.S).
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59 Has some more sophisticated behavior than the last version, more is
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60 still to come... Should notice a slight speed improvement over the
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62 - Tweaked GUI to be a little more useable. Buttons are now mirroring the
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64 - Code unification + cleanup amongst versions.
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67 v9008: (zodttd release)
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68 - Updated the way autoframeskip works. Should be better now. Still has a max
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70 - Added a slight performance increase to the dynarec.
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71 - Added sync() to make sure files such as savestates and in-game saves are
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72 saved properly to the GP2X.
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74 v9006: (zodttd release)
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75 - Initial public release
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80 1. Place the "gpsp.gpe" and "game_config.txt" file in a directory on your SD
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81 card used with the GP2X.
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83 2. Place your GBA BIOS in the directory from step 1. This file must be named
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84 "gba_bios.bin" in all lowercase as shown, so rename it if needed.
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88 There are two commonly available BIOSes - one is the correct one used in
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89 production GBA's worldwide and the other is a prototype BIOS. The latter
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90 will not cause some games to not work correctly or crash. If you attempt
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91 to use this BIOS you will be presented with a warning before being
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92 allowed to continue. This screen will give you a checksum of the real
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93 BIOS image (see readme.txt for further information).
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95 3. Place your GBA games in the directory from step 1. These files should have
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96 a ".gba" or ".bin" file extension. Zip compressed games should be supported
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97 and are recognized with the ".zip" file extension. Note that 32MB ROMs will
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98 probably not run if zipped. 16MB and smaller should be OK.
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100 4. Done. Run gpsp.gpe.
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105 How to use gpSP on the GP2X:
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106 Buttons are mapped as follows (GBA/ingame buttons can be changed in the menu):
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108 GP2X--------------------GBA
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116 GP2X--------------------------------gpSP
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120 VOL MIDDLE (UP + DOWN) -> menu
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121 PUSH STICK -> fps display toggle (second number is
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122 frames actually drawn)
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126 X -> cancel/exit menu
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127 A -> escape (up one director level in the
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130 When gpSP is started, you are presented with the option to overclock your
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131 GP2X. Use the L/R TRIG to change the CPU clockspeed and press START to
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132 continue. You may also change RAM timings here - experiment with what
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133 works well. Note that going too high on overclocking or low on RAM
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134 timings can cause the game to crash or the GP2X to outright freeze up.
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136 If you do not want to overclock, press START without using L/R.
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137 You will now be presented with a menu to choose a game. Press the IN-MENU
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138 "SELECT" button shown above to pick a game to load.
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140 If you would like to test gpSP for the GP2X with a homebrew (free public
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141 domain) game, a game by Russ Prince works very well with gpSP. It is called
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142 Bust-A-Move and is a remake of the classic game it's named after.
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145 How to build from source:
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147 The makefile included in the source is geared towards the Open2x toolchain.
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148 If you use Open2x and installed it in the way recommended then it should
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149 work okay, assuming you also have up to date HW-SDL (and have
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150 arm-linux-sdl-config installed in the right place). The makefile is in the
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151 gp2x directory, so go there first then just type make to build gpsp.gpe.
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152 Might need a little tweaking if your setup is different. If you need help
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153 you can ask me, but I'll probably nag you about why you want to build it in
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159 Q) Help! This game doesn't work. Am I using a bad version of the ROM?
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161 A) First, make sure you're using the correct BIOS version. If you aren't
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162 gpSP should tell you. Other than that, there are some games that are
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163 known to not work now (and will probably work later), and perhaps
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164 many more games that I don't know about that don't work. I haven't
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165 launched a full scale compatability test at this version, so it might
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166 take a while before the compatability levels are high.
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169 Q) Why is this version slower than the PSP version?
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171 A) gpSP is still a work in progress. It might be possible to obtain more
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172 speed from both this version and the PSP one too (and others in the
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173 future). With that in mind, know that even a very agressively overclocked
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174 GP2X is still less powerful than a PSP, generally speaking. Still, I
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175 have a lot of ideas. It's unlikely that the GP2X version will ever be as
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176 fast/faster than the PSP version for anyone but anything's possible.
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179 Q) How high does my GP2X have to overclock to enjoy gpSP?
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181 A) That depends on you. Higher overclocking will mean less frames skipped
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182 on autoframeskip, or less frameskip needed if on manual. Or it can
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183 make the difference between whether or not virtual 60fps can be reached.
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184 For some games no GP2X in the world will be able to run them fullspeed,
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185 with any amount of frameskip. A few might run well with no overclocking
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186 and a generous level of frameskip (probably manual). If you don't care
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187 about battery life (or you're plugged into an outlet) you should push
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188 it as high as you can while still maintaining stability, because
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189 chances are high that whatever you play will benefit from it. Right now
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190 you'll probably want 260MHz if you can achieve it, but with a lot of
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191 luck this number will lower slightly in the future (and is just a vague
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192 ballpark figure anyway). I don't want to scare anyone off from using the
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193 emulator, you should give it a try and see how it plays for you
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194 regardless of how high you can overclock. Just note that this is far
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195 from a locked smooth experience for everyone on every game.
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198 Q) GBA has an ARM processor, GP2X has an ARM processor. GP2X is more
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199 powerful than GBA. This emulator should run great without overclocking,
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200 so therefore you're doing it wrong.
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202 A) That's not a question, but I'll field it anyway. Two things: first,
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203 "virtualization", or running the GBA code "natively" on the GP2X is
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204 probably not possible, at least not with the way I want to do things.
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205 For reasons why go read my blog (see below). So yes, you actually
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206 do need more than 16.7MHz of ARM9 power to emulate the GBA's CPU.
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207 Second: there is a whole lot of work behind emulating the pretty 2D
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208 graphics on the GBA, something it can do in hardware a lot better than
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210 End result: GBA emulation on GP2X isn't as easy as you think it is.
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213 Q) What are you working on now? When will you release the next version?
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215 A) See the gpSP development blog:
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217 http://gpsp-dev.blogspot.com/
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219 Note that I don't give release dates, ever, unless I'm right on the verge
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220 of releasing. Be grateful that I've decided to be much more open about
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221 the development of the emulator now.
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224 Q) Thanks to your blog I heard that you made some improvement. Can I have
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225 a copy of the new code?
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227 A) No. Builds in transition often have a lot of problems, and I like for
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228 releases to be relatively substantial. I can probably be bribed out of
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229 them with donations though. :P
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232 Q) Why do the menu suck so much? Why do half the options not work or not
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235 A) Sorry, the menu still hasn't been modified very much to fit the GP2X
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236 version instead of the PSP version.. hopefully this will improve in the
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240 Q) Who's in charge of the GP2X version anyway?
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242 A) Originally, zodttd was. I, Exophase, have basically usurped control of it
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243 now to encourage zodttd to work more on his PS1 emulator (that and I'm
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244 possessive of gpSP and get nervous when people work on it too heavily).
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245 zodttd will most likely still be around to work on things though.
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248 Q) I'm a super nice person and would like to donate some of my hard earned
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249 money to this one-off GBA emulator. Where do I send my money to?
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251 A) Exophase: exophase@gmail.com on PayPal
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252 zodttd: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=heirloomer
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253 %40pobox%2ecom&item_number=1&no_shipping=1&no_note=1&tax=0&cy_code=USD&bn=
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254 PP%2dDonationsBF&charset=UTF%2d8
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255 ^ Click there for donating on PayPal (remove whitespace/linebreaks).
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257 GP2X people have already donated a lot more to me than PSP people have,
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258 even though there's an order of magnitude or two less users. And they've
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259 donated far more to zodttd than they have to me. So I'm not going to ask
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262 However I won't lie: donating ups the chances of me actually working on the
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263 next version (for which I have a lot of ideas, but not necessarily time to
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264 dedicate to.. that time might need more incentive to be allotted from other
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265 things). This could change depending on my employment situation, but right
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266 now I feel guilty doing anything that doesn't help guarantee that I'll be
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267 able to buy food a year from now.
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270 Q) Tell me all of your personal information.
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272 A) Again not a question, but why not. I'm Exophase, real name: Gilead Kutnick,
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273 male, 23 years old, current residence Bloomington, IN; straight/single/not
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274 actively looking, almost have an MS in Computer Science (do have a BS
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275 underneath it), likes PSP more than GP2X, will not write a Nintendo DS
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276 emulator for either, am currently looking for a job for after I graduate.
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279 Q) You said you're looking for a job.
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281 A) Yes. If you have one or know someone who needs a low level oriented
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282 programmer then I'm up for grabs. And this is my resume:
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283 http://exophase.devzero.co.uk/resume.pdf
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288 Original codebase: Exophase (exophase@gmail.com)
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289 Foundation gp2x code: zodttd
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290 GP2X dynarec/stubs + current code maintainance: Exophase
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notaz.gp2x.de / gpsp.git / blob