Sega GG + Nintendo GameBoy emulator for SP beta test

[Guest mikeeey]

so bitbank I have a htc kaiser, and when i have my keyboard out (slides out to the right), and use the D-pad as directions, the keys are all weird, left and right is down and up and down and up is right and left. when i configure the keys, i have to make it strange difrections, such as left = up, right = down..etc. also, right when i tap "define" it imediatly configured the key to a unsupported key (Looks like a box).

woops, i was using version .12 on the front page. now im using version .30, but it still has the sound click.

and when you say SmartGear doesn't currently support SNES, do you mean you have future plans to support it?

Edited November 2, 2007 by mikeeey

[Guest dario69]

so bitbank I have a htc kaiser, and when i have my keyboard out (270 degree orentation), and use the D-pad as directions, the keys are all weird, left and right is down and up and down and up is right and left. when i configure the keys, i have to make it strange difrections, such as left = up, right = down..etc. also, right when i tap "define" it imediatly configured the key to a unsupported key (Looks like a box).

Same thing with the Wing. I think if you open the program in landscape mode versus portrait it won't do that. Or something like that. It has been awhile since I used Smartgear on the Wing.

Off topic. Works great on the T-Mo Shadow. Thanks.

[Guest PolloLoco]

SmartGear currently supports GameBoy Color, GameGear, Master System, NES, TurboGrafx-16 and Genesis. The FM sound support is currently disabled in Genesis to allow it to run at full speed on mobile devices. The code supports all Windows Mobile devices 2003 and newer as well as desktop Windows.

L.B.

Is there any chance you can release a version with Genesis sound support enabled? I have a more powerful PPC - and would love to use this instead of PicoDrive if given the chance.

Thanks.

[Guest mikeeey]

Is there any chance you can release a version with Genesis sound support enabled? I have a more powerful PPC - and would love to use this instead of PicoDrive if given the chance.

Thanks.

yea i wish for the same. PicoDrive is good and all, but my kaiser has an arm11 CPU, which picodrive's code is only writen for arm9, so it's slower. i believe your code is writen to work with arm11?

[Guest wupuck]

SmartGear currently supports GameBoy Color, GameGear, Master System, NES, TurboGrafx-16 and Genesis. The FM sound support is currently disabled in Genesis to allow it to run at full speed on mobile devices. The code supports all Windows Mobile devices 2003 and newer as well as desktop Windows.

L.B.

Hi Larry,

I tried SmartGear to emulate Genesis games on my PC (I testing it because i'm thinking of getting a Treo 750). It looks pretty good, however I noticed I can't port any of my old saves from my other games nor could I program and use the other keys on the Genesis controlpad (Buttons C, X, Y & Z).

Can Smartgear actually play saves from other emulators as well as use those other buttons?

Thanks.

[Guest ssndk]

SmartGear is really nice! I'm THIS close to registering.. but for some reason.. the sound is way too fast.. both in game gear and in gbc... if I play mario brothers deluxe.. the time counter (seconds) in the corner is racing away with the music... like twice+ the speed...

I have a HTC TYTN II ... does anyone have the same problem? is there a fix for it? .. like a limiter of some kind.

Cheers,

Soren

[Guest mikeeey]

SmartGear is really nice! I'm THIS close to registering.. but for some reason.. the sound is way too fast.. both in game gear and in gbc... if I play mario brothers deluxe.. the time counter (seconds) in the corner is racing away with the music... like twice+ the speed...

I have a HTC TYTN II ... does anyone have the same problem? is there a fix for it? .. like a limiter of some kind.

Cheers,

Soren

i got the Tilt, but the only problem im having is the clicking sound. im using version .30.

[Guest ssndk]

i got the Tilt, but the only problem im having is the clicking sound. im using version .30.

I've got the clicking sound aswell... and i'm using v. 30. Maybe it's a stupid question, but wouldn't it be possible to remove the clicking sound with a lowpass filter.. just before the sound is outputted? that shouldn't be hard to code (the lowpass filter i mean) ofcourse I have no idea how the sound system works..

I actually have the same sound problem with PocketNES .. the music is too fast.. and it clicks sometimes.. but it sortof goes away (the clikcs).. PocketGnuboy runs Perfect.. sound and everything.. but it doesn't support using the screen horizontal..

[Guest SCMOMO]

I have a Cingular 2125 and SmartGear is awesome on it. I paid the fee to keep it registered. The PCE emulation is really, really good - I treat the other platforms as a bonus! Really great work! I thought the 2125 was a bit underpowered but now I see that a good emulation *can* be done on the hardware.

One thing I noticed in NES emulation mode is that when playing Ultima 3 my 2125 display (240wx320h) is a little bit too small for the NES screen. I am guessing the rightmost ~20 pixels are lost. Would it be possible to add functionality to pan the emulated screen a bit and change size percentages in 1% increments instead of 100-75-50?

Thanks again for your hard work!

[Guest jmacdonald801]

I've got the clicking sound aswell... and i'm using v. 30. Maybe it's a stupid question, but wouldn't it be possible to remove the clicking sound with a lowpass filter.. just before the sound is outputted? that shouldn't be hard to code (the lowpass filter i mean) ofcourse I have no idea how the sound system works..

I actually have the same sound problem with PocketNES .. the music is too fast.. and it clicks sometimes.. but it sortof goes away (the clikcs).. PocketGnuboy runs Perfect.. sound and everything.. but it doesn't support using the screen horizontal..

Well I get that strange sound, even when I turn sound emulation off! Now that's a wierd one to me.

Is the author of this emulator still alive? I would love to purchase this for my Tilt, if and when this little issue gets fixed.

-James

[Guest bitbank]

Sorry I've been quiet for the last couple of weeks. Trying to ship some commercial products.

I'll try to answer all of the open questions here.

1) SNES support?

I've taken a stab at writing a SNES emulator and it works decently for a few games, but is much too slow. The CPU and sound of the SNES are not that daunting, but it supports many advanced video features with many layers which really kill the performance. It is possible to get full speed SNES on SmartPhones for some of the games which use minimal graphics features. Most games would have to look "wrong" to run at a decent speed. Overall it's not worth the time investment at the moment (especially since it will take away time from projects which actually make money).

2) Slide out keyboard orientation problems?

Windows should remap the direction pad codes when you open or close a sliding keyboard. The only issue might be if it's done AFTER you start playing a game. I have the S710 and old T-Mo MDA to test with. Please send me a set of steps to show how the problem occurs and I'll see if there's anything I can do to resolve it.

3) The clicking sound problem?

The clicking sound has to do with the audio buffers not being filled in sufficient time so there are gaps between the audio blocks. I've been battling this problem for a while and I thought I had it solved, but apparently not. I'll take another look at this one.

4) Use save states from other programs?

Saved games are stored in a programmer-specific, arbitrary way. There are currently no plans to support other software's save states.

5) ARM9 vs. ARM11 optimization?

There are a few new instructions added with the ARMv6 instruction set (in ARM11 CPUs). They won't have a whole lot of effect on game emulation; they're mostly for DSP applications. I code to the ARMv5 instruction set which works on all current and older PDAs. The biggest single factor limiting the speed is access to the display memory. All of the emulators within SmartGear use optimized assembly language CPU and graphics emulation. The remainder of the emulator code is written in C and for the most part does not have time-critical code.

6) Genesis Sound?

I have several powerful devices and will relook at this issue. Perhaps I can add a checkbox to the settings dialog to control it.

7) Strange speed issues?

I don't have access to the devices mentioned with the speed problems. Is it only the HTC TYTN II which shows the problem?

8) Latest release?

I've just wrapped up 0.31. The changes have to do with some fixes to the GameBoy emulation. As pointed out by some users, Pokemon Crystal had problems related to DMA timing and Dragon Warrior III had a bug which was caused by the C compiler. I'll have the build + new info up on my website shortly.

L.B.

Edited November 15, 2007 by bitbank

[Guest jmacdonald801]

Sorry I've been quiet for the last couple of weeks. Trying to ship some commercial products.

I'll try to answer all of the open questions here.

1) SNES support?

I've taken a stab at writing a SNES emulator and it works decently for a few games, but is much too slow. The CPU and sound of the SNES are not that daunting, but it supports many advanced video features with many layers which really kill the performance. It is possible to get full speed SNES on SmartPhones for some of the games which use minimal graphics features. Most games would have to look "wrong" to run at a decent speed. Overall it's not worth the time investment at the moment (especially since it will take away time from projects which actually make money).

2) Slide out keyboard orientation problems?

Windows should remap the direction pad codes when you open or close a sliding keyboard. The only issue might be if it's done AFTER you start playing a game. I have the S710 and old T-Mo MDA to test with. Please send me a set of steps to show how the problem occurs and I'll see if there's anything I can do to resolve it.

3) The clicking sound problem?

The clicking sound has to do with the audio buffers not being filled in sufficient time so there are gaps between the audio blocks. I've been battling this problem for a while and I thought I had it solved, but apparently not. I'll take another look at this one.

4) Use save states from other programs?

Saved games are stored in a programmer-specific, arbitrary way. There are currently no plans to support other software's save states.

5) ARM9 vs. ARM11 optimization?

There are a few new instructions added with the ARMv6 instruction set (in ARM11 CPUs). They won't have a whole lot of effect on game emulation; they're mostly for DSP applications. I code to the ARMv5 instruction set which works on all current and older PDAs. The biggest single factor limiting the speed is access to the display memory. All of the emulators within SmartGear use optimized assembly language CPU and graphics emulation. The remainder of the emulator code is written in C and for the most part does not have time-critical code.

6) Genesis Sound?

I have several powerful devices and will relook at this issue. Perhaps I can add a checkbox to the settings dialog to control it.

7) Strange speed issues?

I don't have access to the devices mentioned with the speed problems. Is it only the HTC TYTN II which shows the problem?

8) Latest release?

I've just wrapped up 0.31. The changes have to do with some fixes to the GameBoy emulation. As pointed out by some users, Pokemon Crystal had problems related to DMA timing and Dragon Warrior III had a bug which was caused by the C compiler. I'll have the build + new info up on my website shortly.

L.B.

Glad to see you're still around.

Something odd is happening that I can't reproduce.

Two times I ran version 0.30, I was mucking about with the settings and all of a sudden, the sound was dead on, no clicking. Something must be working, under certain circumstances, but I can't figure out why it happened. All other times it goes back to the clicking.

I've played around with all the settings and I can't reproduce this scenario again. Perhaps the sounds does work, but there is some other bug causing an issue relating to it. Vsync?

-James

[Guest bitbank]

Glad to see you're still around.

Something odd is happening that I can't reproduce.

Two times I ran version 0.30, I was mucking about with the settings and all of a sudden, the sound was dead on, no clicking. Something must be working, under certain circumstances, but I can't figure out why it happened. All other times it goes back to the clicking.

I've played around with all the settings and I can't reproduce this scenario again. Perhaps the sounds does work, but there is some other bug causing an issue relating to it. Vsync?

-James

It might be related to other software running. Any clues you can provide would be helpful.

L.B.

[Guest bitbank]

Hi.

I am interested in Smartgear but I have a question. Bitbank, do you plan to emulate the time system of Pokemon ? I tried with the demo version, but the time is not emulated correctly. There are also graphics problemes in the game.

I believe I've corrected all of the graphics problems in 0.31. What is the Pokemon time system and how should it work?

L.B.

[Guest upurii]

I believe I've corrected all of the graphics problems in 0.31. What is the Pokemon time system and how should it work?

L.B.

In pokemon gold, silver and crystal, there is a time system. I am not good enought in english to explain it correctly but i will try. When you start a new game you must enter the real time and date. The game use them for the gameplay (ex day/night in game), and the game is like a clock, when you shut down the GBC and restart it the next day, the time and date will be the real one.

[Guest ninjaw]

In pokemon gold, silver and crystal, there is a time system. I am not good enought in english to explain it correctly but i will try. When you start a new game you must enter the real time and date. The game use them for the gameplay (ex day/night in game), and the game is like a clock, when you shut down the GBC and restart it the next day, the time and date will be the real one.

Yeah smartgear does not save time info or anything else

[Guest jmacdonald801]

It might be related to other software running. Any clues you can provide would be helpful.

L.B.

I just tried running 0.31 again and I still had the strange clicking. I checked my task manager and there wasn't anything else running, at least anything visible. My Tilt was also not connected to my laptop.

I should try to be more clear about what I experienced about the sound, having worked properly in two instances.

In those two instances, the sound was not working at first when I launched Smartgear (clicking) but after some amount of playing with settings, and playing with the screen orientation (sliding out my keyboard), the sound suddenly worked.

I've tried and tried and tried and I can't reproduce how I got it to work two times.

I'm not experiencing anything odd with any other software. Smartgear does exhibit the sound issue on all varieties of the custom cooked roms I've tried on my phone as well.

[Guest mikeeey]

ok so heres what i have to do to assign keys if i wanna play in landscape 270 mode.

i open my keyboard, and assign the keys as if it was portrait mode. for example, the up button facing the screen is up, and so forth. it will say right = up, left = down, and so forth.

this combination seems to work

there still is the bug when trying to assign a key it imediatly assigns it to an unknown character, unless i click the button i wanna assign as i press the "assign" button.

[Guest mikeeey]

EDIT

solution to setting keys when opening keyboard

here is what ive found out. If you launch smartgear with the keyboard closed and then try to open the keyboard and set the keys and play the game, the keys will be all weird and the wrong direction.

here is how to prevent it, just simply launch smartgear with the keyboard already open, you dont need to do any changes such as making the orentation different or re setting the keys in a weird way just to make it work.

additional bugs

bitbank, when running a game with the keyboard open in landscape 270 mode on 150%, the game will be half off the screen to the right, the only way to fix this is to make it Fit2Win*

another bug that has been here since hte first build, is that the audio on nes games is too high pitch.

[Guest bitbank]

Yeah smartgear does not save time info or anything else

I've just added GBC RTC support to SmartGear (0.32). Please download it and let me know if it works correctly. The RTC is only updated while SmartGear is running a game. The RTC data will be saved and loaded with a game save state; since the RTC functionality is only part of MBC3 game cartridges, it doesn't make sense to include it with games that don't include the hardware.

You can download it here:

www.bitbanksoftware.com/smartgear_ppc.exe

www.bitbanksoftware.com/smartgear_sp.exe

L.B.

[Guest mikeeey]

I've just added GBC RTC support to SmartGear (0.32). Please download it and let me know if it works correctly. The RTC is only updated while SmartGear is running a game. The RTC data will be saved and loaded with a game save state; since the RTC functionality is only part of MBC3 game cartridges, it doesn't make sense to include it with games that don't include the hardware.

You can download it here:

www.bitbanksoftware.com/smartgear_ppc.exe

www.bitbanksoftware.com/smartgear_sp.exe

L.B.

both links are not working...btw is the audio fixed in this version?

[Guest bitbank]

both links are not working...btw is the audio fixed in this version?

Sorry, links working now.

[Guest mikeeey]

Sorry, links working now.

clicking noise still occurs, and NES game sound is too high pitch.

hey btw i got a suggestion. maybe there could be 2 sets of keys avaible? 1 for landscape and 1 for portrait? that way if we're switching between landscape and portrait we dont need to keep switching keys.

so wait u tried SNES but it was still slow, wasnt Sega Genesis like that to beging with? but your getting it better and better? whats the difference between the two as far as CPU power.

[Guest ninjaw]

I've just added GBC RTC support to SmartGear (0.32). Please download it and let me know if it works correctly. The RTC is only updated while SmartGear is running a game. The RTC data will be saved and loaded with a game save state; since the RTC functionality is only part of MBC3 game cartridges, it doesn't make sense to include it with games that don't include the hardware.

I tried to save in Super mario bros deluxe GBC and still nothing

[Guest Menneisyys]

Congraytulations to Bitbank!

They've won in the following PPCMag Awards 2007 categories:

Pocket PC: Emulators: Desktop Game Consoles - TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) (see http://www.pocketpcmag.com/awards/category...p?cat=Emulators )

Pocket PC: Emulators: Handheld Game Consoles

Pocket PC: Emulators: Multiplatform Game Console Emulators (they've beaten MorphGear!!!)

Smartphone: Handheld Game Console Emulators (see http://www.pocketpcmag.com/awards/categorysp_2007.asp )

They, in addition, have been finalists in numerous other categories.

Way to go, Bitbank ;)