Handheld Cores

[rotund flume]

I was just trying to commiserate

[thorn atlas]

IMHO whenever the code is released it should just get ported to a proper core and maintained that way

having a console core with that whack framework seems like it will be problematic for the long run

in arcades it kind of works out because they don't have to cooperate with a lot, but console cores have lots of other things they need to go along with

wait this isn't color?

[wraith magnet]

That would be nice but I suspect would cause some serious drama

[thorn atlas]

whatever

[wraith magnet]

Nope, it's just B&W, apparently Color is planned

[thorn atlas]

wow

okay

I didn't expect that

maybe robert will just do it for us after he's done with n64

[unkempt idol]

You could do it

[thorn atlas]

I don't really have time to mess with any more handhelds now

[unkempt idol]

Oh. Working on something else?

[remote isle]

https://gbatemp.net/threads/glucoboy-found-and-dumped.633967/

[shadow rain]

Glucoboy? That's a cool find

[unkempt idol]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYyPQn0NE1RJB9h3YjATJHxQDO8nuZgVO

[hollow sail]

Is that the one with true love we’re making?

Shit no it’s the bad one

Oh wait it’s the good one that isn’t cvs

[unkempt idol]

People sure rag on SVC Chaos a lot

[hollow sail]

Because it’s janky trash

SNK clearly had their top talent busy with anything but SvC

[unkempt idol]

I dont really think its that bad tbh

[thorny apex]

falls under "nice for a few rounds" after a few beers and years after having it played the last time

[unkempt idol]

It's just a bit basic on the surface level gameplay wise. Perfectly fine if you're a fan of Super Turbo

[thorny apex]

bold statement

[unkempt idol]

The character roster is really diverse and fun, I like that every character has a conversation with every other too. It was a blast when it came out.

[shadow rain]

that crossover era had so many fun little character interactions

I remember the round starts for CvS2 are just filled with lots of good stuff

[primal lichen]

Apparently McDonalds released a real Game Boy Color game as part of their Grimace's Birthday promotion. It even works on the original hardware. https://grimacesbirthday.com/

[patent carbon]

Good afternoon, I have a question about the mister's gameboy core. Is there a way to have the filter that the analogue pocket provides for the gameboy core?

[modest loom]

Analogue Pocket doesn't even have the filters Analogue Pocket has for its cores.

[patent carbon]

I mean, achieving that effect that the analogue uses for the mister is impossible?😨

[modest loom]

Analogue hasn't released the filters, so they'd have to be reworked. The pocket uses a 4:3 1600x1440 panel which doesn't really have an...ugh...analog....in the MiSTer display modes. There are some enhancements and premade filter settings for GB that is sorta there, like pixel shadows. I'm sure it could be done but I don't think there's anything quite like Pocket currently out there for the MiSTer GB core.

Sorry, I'm wrong.

I just didn't see it when I tried to load pallets because it defaults to the SGB directory for some reason. If you load a custom pallet you can find the DMG pallet, then add shadows and you're mostly there.

Here's a video of the process I just did (I did remove the gamma correction to make it a bit brighter at the end):

For me it defaulted to SuperGameBoy, not DMG. But the second time it was already set, so you may have to go up a directory.

That being said, it's not as vibrant for sure, but it's honestly - to my eye - closer to a real DMG than the Pocket. I still prefer the Pocket's though. I wish they'd release them for openFPGA.

[patent carbon]

It's that I recently saw some videos, it seems to me that they are from the analog connected to the dock and that DMG seemed very nice to me and it caught my attention how it looked and if it could be done in mister

[modest loom]

I personally think my pocket looks better handheld than docked by a significant amount, but you can't really capture it that way. Just more subpixel area to play with on the higher res screen. Still, I'm glad this stuff is there.

I find both of these less pleasing than playing handheld on the pocket, but more pleasing than playing handheld on a DMG personally.

(TMNT was the only DMG cart I had on hand)

[modest loom]

Oh shit! Thanks for reminding me. I need to check my battery. It's been a very long time.

Yay! Past me wasn't and idiot and removed them.

[patent carbon]

In the analog it is capturing it with its respective dock, right?

It is because for some reason I do not know how to explain it. I like how it is represented in pocket

They are different effects and here it would be up to personal taste, right?

[modest loom]

Correct, docked 1080p (vs handheld 1600x1400). Turning off the pixel shadow would help for the issue there, but it's still not going to be 100%. Again, someone could probably make it, but we do have something closer. There are also a lot more blues in the MiSTer implemented pallet. Which some folks might not prefer.

Here's the MiSTer without the screen shadow. And a Party Dude instead of someone who does machines.

But it's still not going to be like the pocket.

TrashUncle has some additional palletes that may be closer to what you're looking for. https://github.com/trashuncle/Gameboy_Palettes

DMG Clean looks pretty close to my eye.

Well, closER anyway.

Yeah, this feels a lot closer.

[patent carbon]

is that what the analogue pocket does, even connected to the dock, is very beautiful

[modest loom]

It's probalby not eactly what the pocket does. TrashUncle (who I just found searching today) does some great work!

[patent carbon]

What you showed about TMNT is with your cartridge. I have one more question, does pocket already allow reading roms through the sd card for gameboy, color and advance games?

[modest loom]

The pocket can load ROMs from MicrSD for openFPGA cores....BUT...openFPGA cores do NOT support any filters at all. You can't change any display and just get black and white for GB and raw RGB for color cores. They have not released the filter APIs to the openFPGA community yet. So there are only 3 ways to get them.
Original cartridge
Everdrive/flash cart
GB Studio with .pocket roms.

That was what my original joke was about. Analogue Pocket doesn't even have Analogue Pocket filters.

You can use this tool to convert some .gb roms to .pocket to play through GB Studio: https://retropatcher.jonabrams.com/

Most original GB games are in the database. But it's an extra step.

[patent carbon]

ohhh I see if I use openFPGA to load GB GBC & GBA roms what I will get will be something like this so everything is normal 🙈

[modest loom]

Yes

[patent carbon]

😐

[modest loom]

Exactly. That face. Exactly.

[patent carbon]

the solution although it is not cheap but it is the least complicated Everdrive

[modest loom]

Yes.

[patent carbon]

It's good to have found someone who has both mister and analogue systems. You already convinced me to buy an analogue, so who knows when they will ship it until next year😭

[modest loom]

😦 Yeah. It's very slow.

But I love the device!

[digital pier]

Was just opening Discord to share this news. 🤣

https://kotaku.com/mcdonalds-grimaces-birthday-gameboy-free-game-pc-1850534656

[mystic barn]

Rom is on archive uploaded by mcdonalds if you want to play on mister/everdrive

Imagine if lrg made a physical version

[rotund flume]

The bigger shock would be if LRG didn’t make a physical version.

[thorn atlas]

LRG should dissapear and stop feeding these bad behaviors

[unkempt idol]

Burn your physical media

[rotund flume]

burn your physical media so you can’t control what you purchase or resell it

[low peak]

you will burn everything and you will be happy

become rentoid

[thorn atlas]

yeh like physical media for modern games solves that? it's still all downloads, and what are you going to sell it for, $10 for a used game? what world is this you live in.

[rotund flume]

Mods! Someone in here is using facts and logic.

Yah I didn’t buy Halo Infinite because of that.

Or alternatively day 1 patches also makes it difficult

[low peak]

do you think nintendo will leave your digital Switch games on Switch?

or will they feel compelled to keep your digital library with your next system?

[rotund flume]

Oh I have zero faith in Nintendo allowing digital game transferring

I buy physical on Switch every time, it’s foolish not to

The physical vs digital argument is missing the point anyways. The real thing at stake is consumer ownership and protections.

If I could own my digital games, resell them, and archive them how I want them I wouldn’t have a problem.

But with how controlled digital purchases are, requiring layers of authentication outside of your control to play, the push to digital is akin to saying “please revoke my rights as a consumer for convenience” and frankly that’s shit and y’all are corporate stooges.

I’ll dominate you in the post apocalyptic badlands with my modified super scope bazooka that shoots cartridges while y’all flounder throwing SD cards at me filled with roms.

[thorn atlas]

I think physical or not they will resell you as much as they can

digital has a higher chance of being backwards compatible than not

digital games will always be backed up by pirates for you

they're still there, so lets just forget this silly "the eshop is going away" thing

they're out there, at that point just go download them

there's tools to rip your own copy off into a preservable format too, if that's really your jam

then at least you get all the patches and dlc and other things not on the worthless physicla media too

[rotund flume]

the MiSTer is my dream device

[digital pier]

I would prefer a system where you purchase a license registered in some kind of blockchain (like nft) and be able to resell it. That would open the digital market for me.

Imagine you could sell your Steam games that way.

Steam would make millions if they took a cut from every transfer.

[rotund flume]

lol mentioning NFT to anyone but a corporate executive is the fastest way to get someone to dismiss the idea

[digital pier]

It has a bad name, but would you have a problem with it if it's a game license that would be transferable to someone else?

[rotund flume]

Nope

[sudden charm]

I don't see how a blockchain would do anything solve this problem at all

[thorn atlas]

why would you ever sell a game anyway

[primal lichen]

When the game gains sentience and is trying to murder you in your sleep.

[thorn atlas]

that's how you know you're alive

[rotund flume]

To flex on romsters (people who only play digital games)

[thorn atlas]

I have like a thousand games in my steam library and i've played like 12

and i'd never sell one

someday I will play them all O_O

[unkempt idol]

This is my list of DRMed junk

Mine

[rotund flume]

💪 <- me flexing on you romsters

[unkempt idol]

The moment you could run ROMs on real hardware or FPGA equivilant was the end of the line

[tawdry walrus]

We've been lucky that all older systems could be pirated. If it wasn't for nvidia's screwup we would not have Switch piracy. Even the piracy not using that bug is based on information they needed the bug to get to. We still don't have PS5 piracy.

[stable karma]

I mean that’s been true for all modern systems. Sometimes for many years until someone finds an exploit. Still early days for PS5. All that being said, who wants to pirate these bland derivative AAA PS5 games 😜

Consider yourself lucky you only have to play through them once

[rotund flume]

What exclusives does the PS5 even have that you could pirate?

[mortal dust]

Returnal

oh, apparently that is on Steam now. Nevermind.

[golden cipher]

https://vxtwitter.com/topapate/status/1669715673612681219

[unkempt idol]

https://media.tenor.com/oEj4seY7kwAAAAAM/droopy.gif

[rotund flume]

[golden cipher]

https://vxtwitter.com/topapate/status/1670107678201331712

[mighty isle]

I saw that. Seems to be getting closer

[primal lichen]

https://vxtwitter.com/iam_agg/status/1670929433996460032?t=0AoCNVrC1d5_UTQJxsLW9w&s=19

[golden cipher]

Does this overlap what MiSTer already has?

[thorn atlas]

don't we already have that?

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GnW_MiSTer

guess it's adding one of the extra chips?

[mossy sand]

I just asked about tiger electronics

🤞

[primal lichen]

Basically this one supports more games, specifically the ones that use the SM510 and SM5a chips. Which is 33 games.

[mossy sand]

https://twitter.com/iam_agg/status/1670971354777268224?s=20

Adam Gastineau (@iam_agg)

@kandowontu Yes, of course. I feel bad, because some of these CPUs/devices may simply need to be enabled and they'll just work in the core, but there's a lot to test, and I can't commit to that right now.

It would help if I had good info on the devices, instead of mostly reading MAME code.

Twitter · Jun 20, 2023, 1:46 AM

so basically one day

[primal lichen]

I can imagine that being a nightmare, because there are a lot of Tiger Electronics LCD games to convert.

[wraith magnet]

So is this guy looking to add the extra chip to Pierco's core?

With the Tiger games, I think they may already work in the core, the issue is nobody has built the files to try them to see if they do or not

[gleaming heath]

Sounds like he's added an extra chip, and tools to get the backgrounds in higher resolution

either way, glad to see lcd games getting some love

[wraith magnet]

Nice that someone is looking at it, was a shame that Pierco didn't go on to add the other chips and support the rest of the library

[primal lichen]

I believe there are 59 Game & Watch titles?

[golden cipher]

Based on the twitter thread, he started out porting MiSTer’s G&W to Pocket but he didn’t understand some of it and didn’t agree with the rom generation scheme. So he made his own implementation based on MAME; so I think it will be its own core with incompatible roms.

[wraith magnet]

Hmm, this could get messy then

Wonder if he reached out to Pierco

[mild glen]

I don’t think it will be messy. He is developing his own game and watch. He could point towards the same game folder but us having different roms

He is not adding it to main anyway

[golden cipher]

Not adding it to main and having two cores is messy to me

[wraith magnet]

Oh god is this another Dev who doesn't want to use the official framework for some dumb reason?

[torn jay]

Adam got into the whole FPGA dev thing with a pocket dev unit, has grown up with their framework and prefers it. They don't fit well together so doing both might already be kind of a pain for him. Maybe someone could convince him to only do the pocket part and have someone port it to mister as official core. But then someone has to do it. I think the tamagotchi core is in the same state

[mild glen]

Indeed, the beauty of open source

[wraith magnet]

Yeah, Tamagochi is using a different unofficial FW so is sitting there waiting for someone to port to Main

[mild glen]

Yup

[thorn atlas]

more like the dark side

it's one of the things about open source that gives people grey hairs

the forking and chaos and lack of organization

there's always inevitably someone with a chip on their shoulder that wants to reinvent things

[rotund flume]

That gets under my skin and I know it shouldn’t but c’est la vie. There are standards for a reason, don’t be selfish and stick with them. If you don’t agree try to state your case and improve but otherwise don’t make things complicated for everyone else.

[torn jay]

i don't think it has much to do with different standards or forking. That the pocket doesn't use the mister framework is obvious and that two cores for one system exist is also absolutly fine, otherwise you will be stuck with a non-perfect core(and most have at least something missing) forever if noone wants to dig into some existing code from someone else. I think the amount of improvement with FPGA cores is already at a very high level compared to software emulation.

Also if someone wants to port it and bring it to main, where is the issue? Adam brought the NES to pocket, so i don't see how he could be angry about someone bringing his core to mister

[mild glen]

Yes!

[rotund flume]

The reason given for the Tamagotchi core was due to not agreeing with binaries being added to a repository and being “uncompromising” about it.

The core author even goes so far as to say they won’t endorse their core being forked and being added to MiSTer-devlevel. Not exactly sure what that means but it is what it is.

I’m commenting on stuff that’s clearly outside my wheelhouse but I’m just voicing my opinion from an end user. I’d love to see uniformity and harmony across all core development and frameworks so things are a little less fractured.

[mild glen]

I understand but in this case, the developer has ported over cores from mister to pocket and part of the "open"fpga org

So for them to apply a license and say they do not endorse porting is confusing

[rotund flume]

Maybe I misinterpreted it. Here’s the link - https://github.com/agg23/fpga-tamagotchi/issues/3

They can do whatever they want. I installed their core with no issue. I just wish it was easier for more people to access it so everyone can enjoy their hard work on the MiSTer.

[mild glen]

Yeah

[rotund flume]

@mild glen appreciate you for reading my whiny post lol

[torn jay]

"Someone can fork it and add it if they wish", for me that's clear enough. And yes, it will be a fork, like e.g. all ports from MIST or other other boards are. His repo contains both mister and pocket stuff and would not fit well in mister devel. of course a fork is not fun to maintain, but the NES port to pocket has the same issue or if there are fixes to some MIST cores. I understand it's not the ideal solution, but honestly...he even made the mister version at all, it's free and from the start open source, so i don't see a big reason to complain here

[thorn atlas]

Not to dig up drama, but it looks like he fell in with that group of trolls that harasses sorg and me and a bunch of other mister devs. I'm pretty sure they've fed him a lot of bitterness.

[torn jay]

I had some contact with him and couldn't say that. We exchanged quite a bit and maybe i even helped at some spots with some questions about the mister framework. If it was really the case, he would have skipped it, but instead fought his way through it. We all know that understanding the whole framework including special stuff like savestates is not an easy task. I had so much help from Sorg and others with it, so taking on this task at all and completing it shows a lot

[thorn atlas]

he didnt use the mister framework at all in that project, he used the troll one

that dumb fork by booger

[torn jay]

oh really? i didn't know that

still needs to communicate the same way with mister main, so where is the big difference anyway?

probably only for the sake of being different

well, then even more reason to do a proper port

[rotund flume]

Hey man, I appreciate your responses. Thanks for explaining everything.

Well I think they did a great job with the Tamagotchi core and I look forward to it being ported so it’s easier for everyone to access it.

[thorn atlas]

for one thing its made by people who literally harass sorg and have doxxed me

that's really all the difference I need, personally

but beyond that, i'm sure it has enough annoying things that are changed to make it a pita to keep updated properly if the author doesnt

and enough to cause compatibility problems for users

just like JT's framework constantly breaks and lags behind mister features

[torn jay]

i agree it's a bad choise for various reason. At least a good reason for a port 🙂

but as it mostly works on mister currently, i guess the amount of developers with time and motivation for that is low

[thorn atlas]

it's probably like a 3 hour job but if I do it the trolls will probably harass me again

so imnot going near it

[torn jay]

i'm not so sure it's that easy, the savestate and savegame stuff has some "custom" solutions

but i understand that you don't want to touch it

[rotund flume]

I still have yet to read a good reason to deviate from the MiSTer framework if you plan on releasing something for the MiSTer. Maybe it exists? I just don’t see the value at all as an end-user.

[modest loom]

JT has dual targets of pocket and MiSTer (and I believe a generic JT framework for other FPGAs, but I don't use those) so I can see the allure, but from what Kintrix is saying I don't think the reason has to be 'good.' It just has to be the one in your camp. And switching from the known when you've already learned it is often harder, psychologically, than hacking around problems in your current workflow. So if the dev planted roots and considers that their core foundation, it's tough to change even if there is a better choice. And because there's drama involved, people who supplied help have probably also salted the earth, ideologically, on the other side.

It's easy to see from the outside, but much harder to see when you're invested. Thankfully I got the details about some of that stuff before getting too deep in the weeds (Thanks Kit!) and was able to pull back a bit. I do respect the hell out of JT and a lot of the devs who use that framework (though, it sounds like Agg is using BM's stuff?) and have quite enjoyed all of the stuff they've brought to both MiSTer and Pocket. But it IS more fragile for sure. And a lot more user-involved. I have to edit json on practically every release to get stuff working as intended. Still, it's neat to see the sausage makings sometimes if you can stay out of the social stuff surrounding it.

[rotund flume]

@modest loom thanks your insight and explaining it! I appreciate the sincere responses. Y'all are kind taking the time to educate people like myself who are ignorant on the whole thing.

[thorn atlas]

ultimately the goal is to have all these cores STAY maintainable after sorg or me or the people who made them move on to other things

you think all these standards we have are draconian but they are meant to keep things maintainable

most of the cores, the authors are long gone

it falls to the community to maintain them, and if they use custome frameworks and solutions they just decay into unusability

it's happened to some core

[wraith magnet]

Yeah, it does feel it makes sense to have a hard line and not accommodate console and computer cores that aren't using the official FW. Currently the Tamagochi core isn't being included in any databases picked up by the update all script, so you need to manually install it. As such very few people will have it. But, better long term if people know if they develop a core and don't play by the rules then their work will linger in obscurity than the messy situation we have with arcade cores with several different databases grabbing different cores using different frameworks, which is tolerable for arcade games but would be a nightmare in the long term for consoles and computers.

[mild glen]

https://twitter.com/topapate/status/1671747799451332609?s=46&t=j33yLl8p3dP1uKNH2get5Q

Soon

[gleaming heath]

So hyped for this....

[unkempt idol]

Hope color gets added

[sudden charm]

it'll never get added, b&w only forever

[mild glen]

It will

[wraith magnet]

"Hey mate, fancy coming round and watching Raiders of the Lost Ark?"
-"Yeah, that sounds fun, I haven't seen that in years"
"Cool! Just so you know, my TV only does black and white."
-"Umm... lets just do something else, I can wait and watch Raiders some other time in colour."

That's my general feeling about a NGP core.

[unkempt idol]

lol

[wraith magnet]

I can't help but feel considering how much of a slog this core has been for him, it would be better for everyone if he just left it after he gets the games running and went back to arcade cores, then another Dev can port it to Main using the official FW that supports consoles properly, and adds in colour support. That would be the best possible outcome here.

[unkempt idol]

Can't wait for a JTNGP ROM folder for the games

At least we'll get to be able to play the games, sometime soon I guess

[wraith magnet]

Well people are getting excited he has a glitched out FW/menu screen running, but who knows how his core will handle actually running games. Maybe they will all work just fine, or maybe there will be a long period of bug fixing for the library.

Do any of his arcade cores make use of the RTC or is that something else he would need to get working in his JT Framework so the time and date don't need to be set manually each time if you want them accurate?

[mild glen]

Jtframe supports rtc

[wraith magnet]

Do you know which of his cores use it?

[mild glen]

There are no arcade cores that supports rtc

https://github.com/jotego/jtframe/blob/master/hdl/clocking/jtframe_rtc.v

His framework is up to date with the mister framework

[golden cipher]

https://twitter.com/topapate/status/1672121994991620103

jotego (@topapate)

@owlnonymous @_atrac17 Once NGP works well, I'll add the color features. It looks like the differences are small.

Twitter · Jun 23, 2023, 5:58 AM

[unkempt idol]

👍

[fathom trail]

I was starting to doubt that, I'm not sure he had mentioned anything about the color until now

[unkempt idol]

At least we know its coming now

[primal lichen]

I figured the color would be pretty quick, since there aren't a lot of differences.

[rotund flume]

Hooooray!

[mystic barn]

Checking out grimace's birthday both on real hardware and on mister. Totally jarring to see McDonald's characters use Gen Z Twitter lingo on a 20+ year old device

[modest loom]

fr tho

[wispy gate]

Literally insane is Gen Z Twitter lingo?

[mystic barn]

maybe im just a boomer millenial

[wispy gate]

Well the usage probably denotes the more modern definition of literally so they might apply

You know, when literally doesn't mean literally

[mystic barn]

literally

[wispy gate]

I don't know if it's happened yet but I'd wage money on ironic bring redefined

[mystic barn]

there's another scene where grimace says "fr"

[modest loom]

The OMG caught me off guard the most.

Just because it's McD and that seems like something they'd not flirt with.

[mystic barn]

it feels more like a fan-made homebrew or something

[shadow rain]

They contracted some small studio to work on it, seems like they mostly gave them free reign

[mystic barn]

yeah hence the gamboy studio engine

still cool for a publicity stunt though, def made the rounds on all the retro news sources

[modest loom]

It was a fun way to waste 10 min, honestly.

[mystic barn]

imagine a LRG physical release, they wouldnt

[golden cipher]

https://twitter.com/iam_agg/status/1673100656675282944

Adam Gastineau (@iam_agg)

For you #MiSTerFPGA users, you can now automatically download all of my cores (so just Tamagotchi right now) through MiSTer Downloader.

Another core coming soon.

Visit https://t.co/mqQI6S0FZ0 and follow the instructions to set up the downloads

Twitter · Jun 25, 2023, 10:47 PM

https://github.com/agg23/mister-repository

[primal lichen]

https://twitter.com/iam_agg/status/1673131514601836545?t=3yCI4I49lFsSnwS6HjWt6g&s=19

Adam Gastineau (@iam_agg)

The Game and Watch Tiger variant of SM510 is looking awfully easy to support... I was supposed to be finishing up the release, but that's 48 more games

Twitter · Jun 26, 2023, 12:50 AM

That was fast.

[mossy sand]

Tiger!!!!

[unkempt idol]

-Uppercut

[mossy sand]

TIGARRRRRRRRRRRRR

TIGARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[unkempt idol]

UWAAAAAAH thud

RAHAHAHAHAH

[mossy sand]

ryu wins

Perfect!

[unkempt idol]

Incorrect

[mild glen]

Good

[cinder peak]

Not personally endorsing porting is irrelevant to the legality of porting if your software is open source and the licenses are compatible.

Just read through the updates in this thread after a long while. Sorry for Necro...

[wraith magnet]

Interested in porting this one over?

[mild glen]

Yeah, open source doesn’t care about feelings

[mossy sand]

https://twitter.com/iam_agg/status/1673470578144182272?s=46&t=vYpQVd08L0MFg1Ap9BrPOQ

Adam Gastineau (@iam_agg)

Game and Watch (and Tiger handhelds) is now available on #AnaloguePocket and #MiSTerFPGA. Supports the SM510 (inc. experimental Tiger) and SM5a CPUs, with more coming. 89 supported titles. Get it at https://t.co/XeucuteRbb

I appreciate all donations: https://t.co/CKzOEi10SF

Twitter · Jun 26, 2023, 11:17 PM

[wispy gate]

Dang!

Gotta look into ROMs

[fathom trail]

Sick

[wraith magnet]

Impressive, does this core use standard pre built ROMs?

[hollow sail]

Game and Watch games are deceptively fun.

[wraith magnet]

ROMs are generated from MAME ROMs via a tool provided in the agg23...-Tools.zip file below. See ROM Generator for instructions

Would be nice if a precompiled ROM pack were to appear on archive.org...

[cinder peak]

I've thought about it. I don't like the potential of people reporting issues with the core here that might be the result of the unofficial forked framework potentially being different in many ways. It also works on MiSTer for now so if it ain't broke dont fix it kinda applies. It would be pretty simple to port over. I've already looked at the forked framework, it's just copy pastes of everyone's code in the framework but split into more files, for the most part.

When jotego forked the framework he modified it significantly to his needs in ways that have been useful to other devs. I didn't see anything interesting in the forked framework on the tamagotchi core, just a different preference of how to arrange things.

[wispy gate]

Yeah that's what I'm saying. If I have to mess with MAME roms, forget it

[mild glen]

I think there will be roms available soon

[wraith magnet]

If someone compiles them then maybe they could find their way into my LCD games database. What is the folder name for the new core?

[wispy gate]

okay we need a code word for when the pack drops on Archive

"The Tiger has reached the library"

[mild glen]

/games/Game and Watch

[arctic solstice]

Greenhouse is good stuff. DK3 is a follow up to it, but I like Greenhouse better.

AC DK3, I mean. Handheld DK3 is different and designed around 2p play.

[gleaming heath]

Is there a list somewhere of the actual games supported?

[primal lichen]

So is there an archive of the Game & Watch ROMs yet?

[wraith magnet]

I don't think so. I think it is going to take someone who knows what they are doing to get the MAME roms and convert them all using his script, then we may need to test them to see what actually works. There may even be other handhelds that do work that haven't been tried by him on the core, based off of a comment he made on Twitter that Lu mentioned in his weekly news video.

[mossy sand]

@unkempt idol hurry up and make a full set

https://tenor.com/view/doitdoit-gif-27670853

[unkempt idol]

Cant be that hard

What script

[mossy sand]

It’s on the GitHub

[unkempt idol]

OK so..

This is game and watch and tiger, or more?

I dont know waht roms to get

hm

[wraith magnet]

It may be worth converting and trying any other similar handhelds MAME has in the pack as they may also work

[mossy sand]

game and watch and tiger I think

[primal lichen]

Game and Watch and Tiger and Knuckles

[primal lichen]

https://twitter.com/iam_agg/status/1673735685193486336?s=19

Adam Gastineau (@iam_agg)

People are already going through the full supported library of 89 games in my new Game and Watch (and Tiger) core and finding things that don't work on lesser known titles, which is great! Crowd sourced verification of your core and tooling makes one's life much easier

Twitter · Jun 27, 2023, 4:50 PM

https://twitter.com/iam_agg/status/1673735687026401281?t=X0z5xFJEiTpAkbduUpw1yA&s=19

Adam Gastineau (@iam_agg)

I'm supposed to be taking a break, but I'm working on fixes right now...

Twitter · Jun 27, 2023, 4:50 PM

[wraith magnet]

It is very likely Pocket issues being reported as that seems to be his main target

[pulsar trench]

I converted some Game and Watch Mame roms, following the instructions on GitHub, and they work great on MiSTer.

Here are the instructions https://github.com/agg23/fpga-gameandwatch/blob/master/docs/rom_generator.md

[wraith magnet]

So... Any assembled ROM packs we can download that could maybe be added to a cheeky unofficial database...

[wispy gate]

If someone gets me a complete list of supported games I'm willing to work on it

[gray grail]

That's not a tiger, but "the cat is already inside the library."
Go to the library to see it.

[gray grail]

Its name is GameNWatch.
EDIT : Some files were missing, fixed.

[split cove]

Pixel Cherry Ninja has a video up on youtube which shows where to get 90 games that are put together already.

[proud rivet]

@gray grail great pack and really good core as well! Most games seem to be working and already look fantastic.

[gray grail]

Super Mario Bros. (Crystal Screen) doesn't work on that new core, as it needs a SM51 CPU variant.
(Like Zelda and others)

[hard sinew]

How does the gameboy core decide wether to start a game as gbc or gb when set to auto?

[mystic barn]

Guessing it reads the rom extension but don't know for sure

[hard sinew]

That would explain it. I have a modified version of pokemon red that's fully colored. When starting it on mister it starts as a normal gb and says it can only be played on a gbc. On original hardware and when I change the mister to gbc it works fine.

Just testet it and it works. Thank you very much!

[primal lichen]

https://twitter.com/iam_agg/status/1674854447334440960?t=A1jMFsX17yX4fKI84iXgPg&s=19

[fathom trail]

Can't see this without a twitter account, what does it say?

[gray grail]

I'm testing the Saturn core now.
0.2.0 version of the romset will be done later.
EDIT : Upload in progress.

[gray grail]

terminator2k2 seems to do corrections more rapidly than me, so check their archives at a later time.
Please use their archive instead as it is always up-do-date, mentioned on videos and faster to edit when/if new versions could appear.

[rotund flume]

So the new game & watch core completely replaced the one in the official distribution for me. Really enjoying it.

[rotund flume]

It’ll be in beta for several months anyways

[unkempt idol]

Your Mom's in b-

sigh fine

[rotund flume]

Not a fan of a console/handheld platform not being part of the official distro, but I have no control over it so c’est La vie

[unkempt idol]

When color gets added I'll consider being less stingy about the $3

[sudden charm]

it gets color, but it's a analogue pocket exclusive feature

[unkempt idol]

dp is trying to give me nightmares

[rotund flume]

Well beggars can’t be choosers I suppose so I shouldn’t complain

[unkempt idol]

🤪

[rotund flume]

I will ask for your opinions so I can live vicariously through you lol

[unkempt idol]

I am of the opinion that NGPC rules.

That is all.

[rotund flume]

@unkempt idol for President!

[sudden charm]

I still kinda wanna scoop a second ngpc up and do the mods

[unkempt idol]

backlight on an original would be good for sure. I cant play on tiny little screens anymore either way

[sudden charm]

I do enjoy playing handheld games on the big screen

ever since the super gameboy

playing pokemon at a slightly faster speed

[unkempt idol]

TV out for NGPC original hardware has been non existant unless you owned a rare K2 dev kit. Its why I want this core so bad lol

[uneven rover]

I have an NGPC, but yeah I really can't bring myself to mod it as it's in fairly pristine condition - I like modding Game Boys that are otherwise cosmetically damaged/need repairs, although not so much in recent years now that the modding scene has totally exploded and the prices have blown up even for "Broken/For Parts" listings...

[rotund flume]

I don’t mod any of my systems so I’m looking forward to this core when it’s eventually released publicly.

[low peak]

I bought a dead ngpc and brought it back to life via mods

[modest loom]

NeoCromancy!

[proud rivet]

I preordered the 8Bitdo Neo Geo controller with clicky thumb-stick, so I'll be ready for the NGPC core 😄

I do have an NGP and its thumb-stick is amazing. Too bad it's not the color version.

[wispy gate]

That remains to be seen

[proud rivet]

No, I meant my Pocket isn't a color version.

[golden cipher]

https://vxtwitter.com/topapate/status/1678072222362005505

[hushed raft]

getting there

[quasi oxide]

Not mister but close enough... Finished Golden Sun

Is it possible to have cheats activated on the Pocket similar to how the GBA core is on mister?

[mild glen]

No

[golden cipher]

https://c.vxtwitter.com/topapate/status/1680239506513903616

[hard sinew]

I've been thinking on ordering one of these. Is it really worth the money? I've already got a bunch of modded gameboys but I can never say no to a pretty handheld...

[unkempt idol]

Progress is progress

[quasi oxide]

If you have an alternative then I would suggest not to get one. It IS great and I have been playing Gameboy games more because of it, but that's cuz it's my only handheld of this type. The cores opened up the possibilities and I'm only using handheld systems on it, but again if you already have other emulation handhelds then I wouldn't get one. If you have original modded hnadheld and flash carts, then it's a 50/50. I do like the screen so much, but you can't use any sort of filters on the cores, only with original carts.

[hard sinew]

I have everdrives for gb and gba. My moded gbc and gba are boxy pixel shells with ips screens, which are almost to nice to take outside the house lol. The analogue is mainly interesting to me because it uses hardware emulation and I think with the open core business you can just put your games on the sd card?

Also congrats on beating golden sun, it was THE most epic adventure of my childhood and I loved every minute of it.

[quasi oxide]

Correct, the games are all on the sd card.
Haha if you don't wanna take the pocket outside then you have the mister 😝 I use this pocket a lot, I don't even have a screen protector on. As you said, if your original modded handelds do the job then I don't see a reason to get a pocket unless you have some extra cash and you absolutely love new technology.

I'm of the mindset to get the stuff that will make you play more. Since I know ppl getting all sort of different emulation handhelds and modding their Vitas and PSPs and 3DS but ending up not playing any games on them 🤷🏻‍♂️

[quasi oxide]

Looks gorgeous, love the colors

[hard sinew]

I hacked mine too when the eshops closed, but more as a means of preservation.

[quasi oxide]

Thanks 😁 it's my first time playing it. I didn't understand the Djinn system at first and had to do some online reading, but it got even more amazing after that.
Since I'm an Arabic speaker I was surprised by how many Arabic named places it had, idk maybe they thought they sounded cool 😂
Also wasn't expecting it to be half the story only 👀

[quasi oxide]

I did mine too, but I play more on the Analogue to be honest 😅 I really love this piece of wonder

[hard sinew]

Yeah even as a kid I loved how diverse the different pieces of the world are. And I also didn't know it was half the story and thought I was about halfway through. Boy was I angry the day I learned I have to wait another year to continue. 😄

[hard sinew]

Still better to have it opened now in case nintendo or sony push some stupid updates on it that make it harder later.

[quasi oxide]

Yeah, I was shocked as well. That don't seem right, how will we resolve everything in one cutscene... Had to open the second game and write a 6 pages password to know 😂

[quasi oxide]

I agree. I just know ppl that go to an extreme with it. Every device they have has the complete library of all retro consoles 😅 and literally not play on any of them. Idk it might be just me

[hard sinew]

Imagine doing that in a time before cellphone cameras when you had to write that down by hand and decipher afterwards! Never could get the gold password to work.

[quasi oxide]

Oh trust me I know the feeling 🤣

When I was a kid I used to play a lot of Captain Tsubasa II on the Famicom, if you're not familiar with it it's a football game with RPG "battle" system and character upgrades. So I had to write down 2 lines of Japanese letters that didn't look familiar to me at all and not being able to continue the next day cuz of few wrong letters

[rotund flume]

@quasi oxide is that your name

[quasi oxide]

My name is Ali. Polo is a nickname 😬

[rotund flume]

Oh ok, it’s cool. When I read it it’s like it says “a lil pollo”

I didn’t want to offend which is why I asked first

[quasi oxide]

It's fine 😁

[mortal dust]

I just thought Ali was wearing a nice collared shirt.

[primal lichen]

https://vxtwitter.com/topapate/status/1680315080804560896?t=Q3ql9FrSWuQVqzrvqObFSw&s=19

[unkempt idol]

Can't wait to have my rom folder named JTNGP

Good to see some nice progress today 🙂

[rotund flume]

I used mgl in the past because of the core developer using bad rom folder names lol. Only been an issue with unofficial cores because they dgaf.

[unkempt idol]

Theres an idea.

[rancid matrix]

I've been seeing a weird horizontal smearing pattern when using composite video on the Gameboy core. Has anyone else using the YC composite output noticed anything like this?

Photos of crts are hard -_- but I'm talking about how the top of the "F" in "Final" is blurry looking at the top but sharper at the bottom. Pretty much any straight vertical lines in the gameboy core like that seem to phase in and out of blurriness from top to bottom like that. I've only noticed it on the Gameboy core and only when using composite video.

[unkempt idol]

https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExdDRtZzlic3BvNnRqYjVyNmdvcmh1cXp3Zm94anEwN2R2OWg5OXlxZiZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/TFsyVKsaQBqB1hbJU1/giphy.gif

[rancid matrix]

🙃 Yeah yeah I know, composite video smearing and such. But this is clearly something else going on. A timing issue or something, I guess? It's not that it's blurry, but that it's inconsistently blurry in such a weird way and only on the Gameboy core specifically. On horizontal scrollers it kind of creates a shimmer effect, similar to using non-integer scaling without interpolation. Really I'm just wondering if anyone else is seeing the same thing that I am, or if maybe I have something set up incorrectly.

[fallen linden]

Just curious, have you tried Super Gameboy?

As far as I understand, a real gameboy's video signal had always been digital

So I would be surprised if the core itself is handling the analog signal

[shadow rain]

I think that's just how composite looks for some of the cores that would have never had composite displays in mind.
I would agree that trying it on super Gameboy might give you better results

[mystic barn]

it is interesting playing gba on a crt, still looks pretty good

[wispy gate]

It's a shame it can't scale to fill the screen properly

[gleaming heath]

I personally think this is where the 'iPad' screens shine, using them with handhelds. Wonderswan, and GBA looks amazing on it. GB/GBC, GG, Lynx etc all are fantastic as well.

[mystic barn]

i do like playing metroid fusion on the ipad screen

[fallen linden]

@rancid matrix anyway, hope this helps

[rancid matrix]

Yes very much, thank you. I haven't tried the Super Gameboy core out yet, but that's a great idea. What I have found out via some messing around is the pattern I'm seeing is almost impossible to see if I change the gameboy palette so there is a white background. It seems the monochromatic green palette really causes it to pop visually. Comparing to the SGB core will be a good comparison when I find some more free time. Thanks again for the suggestion

[fallen linden]

It would of course be interesting to see if others have the same experience as you, I certainly would try if I had a CRT.

[rancid matrix]

Well I ended up spending a lot of time messing with the yc.txt file, and found a value for the gameboy core that has everything looking a lot better. The value originally was 58647000448, but 58642596832 is looking a lot better on my screen

[wispy gate]

@gilded wolf do you have any thoughts on this?

[gilded wolf]

There can be a trade off

It can also introduce a lot of flicker that I found when finding different values

And most of the time was not great on the eyes

[rancid matrix]

Yeah I noticed that flicker effect too when messing around, but the value I found seems stable at least. Maybe a tiny bit flickery, but kind of in a 480i kind of way and not too offensive. The pattern I was seeing before with the old value was actually more headache inducing.

Since my CRT photo earlier was garbage, here's a mockup I made to better show what I was seeing just for reference. The pattern was stationary on the screen, not moving or scrolling at all. It also seems monochromatic red, green, or blue palettes are perfect for making this effect appear very drastically. Palettes with varied colors and even the default greyscale palette make the pattern almost impossible to see unless you're specifically looking for it, and even then it's very subtle.

I imagine my particular setup using the regular GB core on a CRT over composite with the DMG green palette isn't very common at all, so I'm happy to use this different yc.txt value knowing I'm the odd man out 🙂 I appreciate you all discussing and helping me out with my weird edge case!

[fallen linden]

I really can't help but to wonder what the benefit is over the SGB core.. I believe it also uses gameboy hardware, and you can set it to the same framerate

[rancid matrix]

A couple of things I noticed is the video timing is the same as the SNES, which means you get a frame stutter every 2ish seconds. crazy minor, but it's there none the less, whereas the GB core matches the video timing perfect to an actual gameboy. Also, I didn't see a way to set the proper aspect ratio on the analog output. The video option for aspect ratio in the core only affected the digital output.

[wispy gate]

You can change the timing right in the options

[rancid matrix]

The options I saw were SGB1, SGB2 and SNES, right?

[wispy gate]

Sounds right

I believe 2 should be accurate to an actual Gameboy

[rancid matrix]

SGB2 is accurate game speed, but the framerate is slightly fast still, hence the stutter ever 2-3 seconds. Happens on real SNES with a SGB2 as well

[wispy gate]

I thought the SNES setting was supposed to fix that issue

By running it slightly faster

[rancid matrix]

right, the SNES setting fixes the framerate issue, but it seemed the entire game was then running slightly faster in order to accomplish it. Gonna say again this was crazy minor like I don't personally care, but I think it's trivially neat that GB core on mister was the only time I've ever played GB games on CRT at proper game speeds without video stuttering, however minor it is.

In the same vein, I think it's awesome how accurate the SGB core is to actually running SGB on a SNES.

Ultimately, though, SGB can't play gameboy color games, so I think it just makes more practical sense to use the GB core for play any kind of GB games without having to think about it.

[wispy gate]

Yeah that's how it works I believe

[rancid matrix]

I think the GB core will be my daily driver pretty much because of gameboy color support and more versatile display options (palettes, borders, shadows, analog aspect ratio), but I totally want to try out some SGB exclusive features and some MSU-1 hacks with the SGB core some time

[wispy gate]

There's a sweet SGB bios with vaporwave themes

[rancid matrix]

This one? https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6449/

looks pretty nice!

[wispy gate]

Yes!

[fallen linden]

Personally I couldn't tell apart SGB2 from the real thing, but I totally understand about GBC

[gilded wolf]

It wont, its basically just the SNES core

[fallen linden]

not trying to be funny but.. how does it play gameboy games if that's the case?

[uneven rover]

it depends on the SGB model used as to how the timing in those systems worked (and I assume the SGB core simulates this faithfully), the original SGB actually ran game slightly faster than the original Game Boy, while the SGB2 ran games closer to the original speed

[twilit basalt]

Hi! I'm having an issue running a gameboy on the MiSTer. My partner is translating a GB game called Little Master 2. He put a patched rom in the mister, but it's not loading in the GB core and the SGB core doesn't even list the rom at all (it lists all the other roms just fine).
The patched game works on emulator, on the Analogue Pocket using a flashcart and also on a real SGB using a flashcart.
Does anyone know why this issue could be happening on the MiSTer?

[wraith magnet]

Does the unpatched rom run OK?

[twilit basalt]

Yeah

I imagine it's some issue with the rom, I just have no idea what it could be since it runs on everything else. We even tried on a real gameboy color with a flashcart

[wraith magnet]

Might be worth stating your workflow for how you patched it, that might give some clues

[twilit basalt]

That's a copy of the rom he hacked the translation (so there was no patching process beforehand)

[wraith magnet]

You can't share roms here, but you could share the patch file and the rom file name and someone could try patch it and see if they have any luck or can see why it wouldn't work

[twilit basalt]

He's going to try to patch a Japanese version of the rom and see if that works

[twilit basalt]

Nope... :/

[uneven rover]

you should post an issue on github, if you are able to provide some kid of repro at least

if something works on original hardware then ideally it should work on the MiSTer core also

[fiery vault]

@twilit basalt I like your Zinger profile pic. As a lifelong Kremling, I approve 🙂

[twilit basalt]

Hahah thanks! 😛 The Zinger from DKC2 is my favorite

[twilit basalt]

I'll talk to my partner about it. We're currently testing the patch, so he feels a bit uncomfortable releasing it while it's not done yet. Thanks! 🙂

[torn jay]

SGB should list it, as it lists all files ending with GB and GBC wqithout checking them. Unless you have a bin file, then it's only listed on the gameboy core. Make sure to have the correct directory when looking

if it doesn't work: are you sure the file sizes are still the same and the header info about mbc type isn't changed?

[still oak]

Does the gameboy core change resolutions? Playing Super Mario Bros. Deluxe on my TV & the screen jimps/adjusts between loading screens

[torn jay]

you have stabelize video on? Gameboy can halt video rendering/output and restart the frame, often in screen transitions, causing low latency output to have sync loss

[still oak]

Not sure, I'll check!

[still oak]

So I had stabilize video OFF, when I turned it on, it stopped doing the above behavior. I'm assuming that's the correct behavior

[wispy gate]

Yep

[vital hull]

@torn jay did you do the GBA core?

[torn jay]

yes, back in 2019

[vital hull]

I played Mario Golf with the 2x resolution thing last night and it looked really good. Amazing work

That is a feature I never knew I wanted

[torn jay]

thank you. Only few games profit from it, but if they do it can be nice, yes

[primal lichen]

Imagine if some psycho actually made a game.com core.

[unkempt idol]

Gross.

[shadow rain]

I'd play the re2 port over and over

[rotund flume]

I think it would be pretty interesting to be honest and possibly simple enough where it wouldn't be a huge undertaking.

[wraith magnet]

Was looking at what I wrote about this one:

"Yet another Asian handheld, this one from 1997 and in fairness Tiger went to the effort of licensing Jurassic Park, Batman & Robin, Sonic Jam and Resident Evil, but only 20 games were actually released. It has a Sharp SM8521 CPU, and despite being released in 1997 graphics are black and white. Kevtris hasn't done this one, and it has a CPU we don’t have, so it is quite complex. Curiously someone has made cheats for this system, so it must have at least one fan. I am hopeful we will see this one day."

The issue is we would need someone who is able to make the CPU. I'm not sure if that chip would be useful for anything else eg

any arcade boards

[rotund flume]

Ohhh. Thanks for weighing in my friend. That makes perfect sense!

[primal lichen]

Apparently there is documentation of the Sharp SM8521 already available. Not sure if it would help at all.

[wraith magnet]

Oh, probably would but still the hard part is someone making a core out of it. My understanding is making a CPU core is one of the more complex tasks in core making and only a smaller group of Devs have this level of experience, so would take a Dev wanting to level up and try take on a CPU or one of the top Devs to want to do it (unlikely).

If nobody here does then maybe one of these new pocket Devs will have a stab at it at some point

I would say we are more likely to get Game King than this one any time soon, but that also does require CPU

[wraith magnet]

After some googling I don't think this chip is used in any other system, so sadly we can't hold out for someone to do it as part of an arcade board for example

[gleaming heath]

I actually had a Game.com, and I would go so far as to say the games are probably worth playing. The thing sucked not because of the games or lack of features but because of the god awful screen. Easily the worst screen on any handheld ever. I'd love a core of it though with clean HDMI output on an iPad screen, would be nice to re-explore the library.

Of course there is the challenge of getting something to feel right with it's stylus touch screen abilities

[wraith magnet]

Do many games utilise that?

Maybe analogue stick as a mouse input and cursor could work? Would need some thoughts on implementation logistics as well

[gleaming heath]

The pack-in game 'Lights Out' uses it, along with the built in functions like time and calendar. Been a long time since I had mine, so I'm fuzzy on what games used it.

[arctic solstice]

The built in solitaire game uses it.

[primal lichen]

Hey, the GBA core was recently updated. What's changed in the new update?

[cinder peak]

Check the news channel for the change. Savestate hotkey no longer requires the start key and the auto increment savestate slot feature from the psx core was added.

Same change as the wonderswan core.

[atomic hinge]

I’m running my mister into my CRT using YPbPr native and when I’m playing the GB core whenever the screen switches it will flicker very quickly. Almost like it has to resync in between each screen change. Anyone else run into that?

[strong sierra]

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Gameboy_MiSTer#video-output

[atomic hinge]

Ahhh, thank you!

Interesting quirk of the system

[strong sierra]

Yeah, i'd never heard of it either until needing that setting 🙂

[atomic hinge]

Also, is the mister menu being squished normal for that core?

[strong sierra]

Hmm, I'm not a person of the tube so not too sure sorry, it's ok over hdmi

[atomic hinge]

Gotcha, no worries lol

[atomic hinge]

How much delay does the stabilize video setting add? It’s some sort of frame buffer, right?

[torn jay]

as the video timing does change all the time with gameboy due to jumps to the top of the screen, it will be random every time between near zero and 1 frame, so 0.5 on average. But i'm not sure how large it is without the option

[wispy gate]

Half frame average ain't bad. Could be worse

[atomic hinge]

Are there any CRTs that support the native wonderswan refresh rate?

[uneven rover]

I imagine some VGA monitors would

[atomic hinge]

Oh good call, didn’t even think of PC monitors lol

[twilit basalt]

Hi! A few days ago, I asked for help because a translation patch my partner for a GB is working on doesn't work on the MiSTer GB core, even though it works on some emulators and the GB Everdrive X7

Could anyone help with that?

Back then, someone asked for the patch to investigate and I had to ask my partner for permission since it's not a public patch yet and he said it's okay

[radiant eagle]

@twilit basalt if you want to send me the patch, I’ll take a look

[twilit basalt]

Thank you! Can I DM it to you?

[radiant eagle]

sure

[quasi oxide]

Any suggestions on a cozy fun game on the GBA? Having a rough week I need a game to cheer me up.
Preferably not an RPG, I want something quick

[hard sinew]

The castlevania titles are awesome. Or if you want something really colorfull, kurukuru kururin. And yes, thats the english title.

[quasi oxide]

Thanks. Will start Kururin

[hard sinew]

I can rumage through my childhood shoebox of gameboy games and see if there're some other happy memories in there you can share 🙂

Ooohhh mech platoon! Its a really fun rts if you're into that

Spyhunter was jank but fun

And if gbc is also ok try aliens thanatos encounter

[quasi oxide]

Oh I haven't heard of any of these, just Spyhunter. Will go through them and see.
Kururin is fun so far

[hard sinew]

Glad to hear 🙂

[olive echo]

Aria of sorrow is great, one of the best handheld castlevanias

[gleaming heath]

Give Mr. Driller a try. Colorful fun quick arcade style.

[rotund flume]

There was a heck of a lot of great games released for the GBA’s short lifespan.

[quasi oxide]

I want to sit down and play this while in a good mood 😀

[hard sinew]

If golden sun had been a launch title as originally planned I'd even say it'd had the strongest launch line up of any handheld/console.

[uneven rover]

Astro Boy Omega Factor, any of the Kirbys, Minish Cap, Wario Land 4, Gunstar Super Heroes, Drill Dozer

just looking at some carts in my draw that I think fall into that description 😄

[radiant eagle]

Ninja Five-O is really fun

[vital hull]

Just finished Minish Cap and it was not fun.

I hate playing games that feel like work, where the punishment for failure is so much lost time. Also Vaati was unfair and the Dark Nuts really are a chore.

Wait... Maybe I am not done....

[vital hull]

There was unfortunately one more phase

[radiant eagle]

interesting, I played Minish Cap back on an emulator when it was newer and I remember it being pretty short and also not very difficult…maybe I was spamming save states or something 😅

[uneven rover]

I haven’t played for a long time, although yeah I don’t remember it being any more or less frustrating than other 2d Zelda games

[vital hull]

It isnt hard. The problem is that a fetch quest always feels like it is two steps too long, a dungeon feels like the checkpoint comes far too late, the bosses arent difficult, just poorly communicated. Also clues to what comes next are sometimes pretty opaque, and sometimes it feels like the game knows it.

Progression also feels slight because nothing ever looks interesting. The Gameboy games at least all have interesting places to go and things to see

[arctic solstice]

A is my favorite of the GBA Mr. Driller games, though 2 and the GBC Mr. Driller have English versions and much less text to bother with. I used a translation guide for the dristone mode.

[olive echo]

If you like Mr. Driller, give Shovel Knight Dig a try as well

I mean, not a gba game, but it has a similar spirit

What’re the best gba RPGs besides Mother 3 and Golden Sun?

[uneven rover]

I quite like FF Tactics Advance, if you are into that sub-genre of RPG, very cute and fun game

Mario and Luigi is good

obviously there is Pokemon also

[sudden charm]

if you like first person dungeon cralwers, the GBA version of Shin Megami Tensei is the most complete one and the translation uses the script from the iOS port (which didn't make it over the 32bit -> 64bit migration, so it's unplayable these days)

[olive echo]

Ooh

[sudden charm]

I will say compared to the SNES and PSX ones the music suffers a bit, and the visual are a GBA'ified version the PSX ones, but it's got the visionary items which add extra story and it's on the GBA which is neat and like I said the translation uses the 'most official' script

[uneven rover]

hmm, I might try it on my actual GBA I guess, which is part of the appeal

although yeah not a huge fan of other SNES -> GBA conversions, because yeah the audio in particular always suffers

[olive echo]

Any rom hacks that put in the smt snes music or would that mess everything up?

[uneven rover]

so at least part of the reason GBA games sound so terrible is because they used a terrible software audio driver by default

there is a better one out there now, but jamming it into games isn't quite trivial, you can read about it here: https://github.com/ipatix/gba-hq-mixer

[sudden charm]

technically it's a SNES->PSX->GBA conversion, so it went up and then back down, the visuals and (IIRC) music are downsamples from the PSX updo

[wispy gate]

I would love to see updates to games like the Metroids to get the best possible sound

[fossil stag]

any chance this is possible in the wonderswan core? https://twitter.com/cbrzeszczot/status/1692877179305029670

asie (@cbrzeszczot)

In 2000, the WonderSwan received a web browser supporting a subset of HTML 3.2, tables, GIF files, reading Japanese text, bookmarks, and cookies - all on a handheld competing with the Game Boy Color.

From 2004, it no longer worked due to a missing gateway server. UNTIL TODAY

Likes

4910

Retweets

1182

Twitter · Aug 19, 2023, 12:32 PM

[digital pier]

https://youtu.be/4YpRJtvFmP8. So Linus has a 3DS dev kit and it actually has a FPGA on board. Would this mean that if you somehow get the source code from this thing, you could port a 3DS to a different FPGA?!

[stable karma]

Goddamn I hate that “content” ^

[low peak]

I heard someone describe Shakespeare as a content creator.

[stable karma]

So much super annoyingly written lead-up with superfluous text overlayed to get to a sponsor bit and then I bailed

Anyway FPGA get used in a lot of things, there’s no reason to assume that one was used to simulate all the hardware

Segas Naomi2 arcade hardware has like 3 or 4 Altera FPGA in it, none of them are used for gpus or cpus or anything significant for example

[torn jay]

it's a cyclone 3 with 16k LUTs...probably used for some interconnect, but has no chance to fit the real CPU/GPU

[rotund flume]

I used that and the original devkit which was a giant ass motherboard

omg that’s a capture AND debugger?

We never got those lol

PARTNER-CTR DEBUGGER $2,620
PARTNER-CTR CAPTURE $2,620
PARTNER-CTR DEBUGGER/CAPTURE (Dual Functionality) $3,905

oh that’s why LOL

I used to have a Wario World account 😢

[digital pier]

Yeah, they explain later it's probably for the capture device. Still it was a nice video and interesting to see the inside.

[rotund flume]

Those were good but didn’t hold a candle to the sheer wonder and enjoy ability of the IS-Nitro systems. The DS was and still is my favorite debugger of all time.

Push a change and play it literally two seconds later? Game dev on the DS was glorious!

[hard sinew]

Which game(s) did you develop?

[rotund flume]

Star Wars Elite Squadron (was BF3), James Bond 007: Blood Stone, and James Bond: Goldeneye 007

[hard sinew]

Thats actually quite impressive. Good job!

All I did is a pokemon romhack, which had an impressive physical release of 5 cartridges.

[sly gazelle]

What the latest with the NGP core? That seemed to have gone quiet as of late

[fallow spade]

Jotego Core best to ask on his discord

[gleaming heath]

Latest Patreon update from a week ago mentioned work was continuing and they found a small bug in the cpu implementation.

[sly gazelle]

Thanks for the update!

[unkempt idol]

https://youtu.be/2FIuXpojfyY?si=aTGZshl-rx9y7D5Y

[rotund flume]

This game was real cool

It was my wallpaper while I worked on 007 Blood Stone DS

[unkempt idol]

Ill have to check into that DS game

[wide violet]

Loved that 007 Gameboy game. Was basically a Zelda-lite.

[shadow rain]

yeah, that game is super cool

gonna need someone to make a DX hack eventually

[wraith magnet]

Could be a nice game of the month, remember it being really fun with nice gameplay

[rotund flume]

It’s a Super Game Boy game too

[radiant eagle]

I beat that 007 GB game on my Pocket last year. It’s a good game with some really frustrating/annoying sections

[hard sinew]

I just destroyed a gbc I was trying to mod. From now on I stick with mister. 😦

[hollow sail]

But those are even harder to mod

[hard sinew]

Nah you just pick the core and the game. Maybe I can fix it at work, have to wait till monday.

[wide violet]

Gameboy Colors are pretty robust. How’d you break it?

[hard sinew]

I tried to solder to a via, the via disintegrated. Monday I'll try to solder a new wire from the pin where the trace ends to the p13 test point, hopefully restoring the start button.

[wide violet]

Yeah, definitely don’t give up. It’s fixable.

[fading scroll]

Totally broken, you should send it to me so I can use it in my Pocket Color build 😁

I had to patch some vias on my Game Gear that suffered a similar issue due to corrosion. Definitely very fixable

[hard sinew]

I still feel like an idiot for breaking it. I'm also pissed all the tutorials on YouTube never mentioned the very accessible testpoint instead of the vias.

[fading scroll]

Don't feel like an idiot! These are older PCBs and even exercising care can end up in ruined vias

Ruined vias, pads coming off, all sorts of damage when you intend to be as careful as possible

[uneven rover]

I've done sillier things to devices that are now happily working thanks to the magic of scraping off the mask and bodge wires

[unkempt idol]

https://twitter.com/tanks404/status/1698035160325710306

Go★Tanks (@tanks404)

I have created a monster. Meet 1x GBAintVideo, a model designed to *fix GBA Video

Likes

550

Twitter · Sep 2, 2023, 6:08 PM

[wispy gate]

The comments cracked me up lol

[hard sinew]

Managed to fix it, start button is also working well. Thanks for your encouragement ❤️

[rotund flume]

Hooray, way to go!!

[fading scroll]

Off-topic but also a little on-topic:

Time to find a for-parts GBC

[uneven rover]

I really want to try making a Color Pocket, but I’m so worried I’ll cock it up

I’ve even got a whole tub of GBCs of varying degrees of brokenness to salvage parts from

[rotund flume]

I believe in you! 🤜💥🤛

[fading scroll]

👀 so....funny story....

(i'm trying to find a decent for-parts one but man, ebay)

We had a games shop around here that had a parts bin full of stuff but they closed down a year or two ago

[uneven rover]

yeah the GBC modding scene exploding has ruined the prices on everything

you don't happen to be in Australia or NZ?

[fading scroll]

Sadly I'm not, in the US

I might have to resort to Buyee even though I don't want them using FedEx again, since they lost my last item for two weeks

[unkempt idol]

https://youtu.be/ALSvWAohJvk?si=lHUNOhXNTaL5TZIG

[sudden charm]

I had this one as a kid (actually probably still have the cart somewhere) and it was some years until I learned there was a PSX game that came out first

[unkempt idol]

GBC is a library I've been meaning to search through

[rotund flume]

I have that game!

Oh wait no I have the PS1 version

[thorny apex]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1096614378968727652/1150435097821061211/download_4.jpg

[fallen linden]

@steady pier you might have heard already, but the GBA issue blocking custom boot roms seems to be addressed and closed already 🙂

[wraith magnet]

Very nice to have Mega Duck support in the GBC core, these dodgy Asian handhelds are going for silly money now. Thanks Rysha!

[thorn atlas]

no accounting for taste

[gleaming heath]

Still need support for the Mega Duck Super Junior Computer and Printer

http://videogamekraken.com/mega-duck-super-junior-computer-by-welback-holdings

[wraith magnet]

One of those sold as well by the same guy, is it all dumped and documented?

[gleaming heath]

I've found very little info about it, unfortunately. Though, admittedly, hasn't been a priority.

[wraith magnet]

Ah, should have flagged it when it was up for sale. Not sure what it ended for

[rotund flume]

Wow, here’s another thing that needs @thorn atlas support.

[sudden charm]

I just packed up my virtualboy, I need to get one of those tripod adapters for it 'cause the stand is just broke

[thorn atlas]

Hey I might seem a little cold, or perhaps even mean sometimes, but i'm not so cruel to subject people to that

[unkempt idol]

Sometimes she says. Oye

[steady pier]

Oh good. I will get back to the boot rom then. I had something in the works but I put it aside when I noticed it would not load.

[still oak]

isnt Lonks Awakening DX the colorized version?

[arctic solstice]

Love that description!

[fallen linden]

Awesome! Looking forward to getting it set up on my MiSTer when it is ready!

[mystic barn]

anyone know what kind of save file is needed to transfer from gba everdrive to mister? Playing through metroid II and thought it would be cool to pop onto the ipad screen. I tried the save converter with .srm and .sav

[golden cipher]

What save converter did you use? This one?
https://savefileconverter.com/#/mister

[mystic barn]

yeah

[golden cipher]

Does the converted save file work in an emulator like mGBA?

[mystic barn]

interestingly, the source file is 32 KB, and the converted .sav file is 8KB, might be the culprit

32 KB .sav file not seeming to make a difference, will test in emulator

same result

I remember getting this to work with advance wars, but gba probably different

[uneven rover]

I could swear I remember copying an FF 1+2 save I unmodified from everdrive to MiSTer and it just working without issues…
wait no that was a dump from actual cart

[mystic barn]

I wonder if I flashed it to cart and then redeumped it if that would work

i guess its not a big deal to keep playing on SP in bed lol, but I thought it was an easy sram to sav swap

[wispy gate]

Just try changing the file extension

[mystic barn]

oh yea

nope

[wispy gate]

Dang sorry lol

[mystic barn]

all good, just weird

maybe metroid ii is a special case, or there's some setting I'm missing

like I just went back to test the everdrive again to make sure it was the right save

[golden cipher]

Isn’t Metroid 2 a gameboy game, not a GBA game?

[mystic barn]

yeah

I've been playing on the gba everdrive

[golden cipher]

Via the goomba emulator?

[mystic barn]

yep

[golden cipher]

The goomba emulator might make a weird save file. Does the save work if you try it on the GBA core via the goomba emulator?

[mystic barn]

investigating the goomba save app
https://github.com/libertyernie/goombasav

i remember when I was doing this with advance wars 2, there was a weird quirk where when I booted on mister it would be the save before the save from everdrive. Maybe it's a failsafe sort of thing? When I would save 2x in a row it would be seamless

[mystic barn]

More info about Goomba save files for those interested.
https://www.lakora.us/gba/goomba/

[golden cipher]

Did you get a working save file?

[mystic barn]

No wasn't able to. Appreciate the help though

Need to experiment further I'm sure someone else could benefit

[mystic barn]

Deeper in the rabbithole. In the ever drive you can change the save file type to flash or eeprom

[wispy gate]

I'm wondering if the emulator throws a wrench in things and changes format

[mystic barn]

Happy to upload the save file if anyone else wants to take a look at it

[mystic barn]

ok I got it to work in mgba by using the goomba emulator to convert the gb rom into a gba rom and then using the converter site to go from .srm to .sav
Unfortunately even though the new gba rom runs on the mister core, the save file isn't reading still

[shadow rain]

Pretty sure srm to sav is actually just renaming the file

On a future note I wouldn't expect playing on goomba is very portable to anything other than goomba lol it's also a bit of a buggy emulator.

[mystic barn]

yeah im so in the weeds now

one other thing I tried just as a test.
-GBA core on mister, running converted metroid rom.
-Get to a save point, bring up OSD to backup ram onto SD card.
-FTP into SD card and delete all metroid 2 saves in the saves folder, and reset the core.
-Starts at save point, lol

[mystic barn]

update went ahead and just finished up the game on SP , good game overall

[fading scroll]

Off-topic but also a little on-topic again:

[hard sinew]

Good job! But isn't the screen lense missing?

[gray grail]

Development hell.

[rotund flume]

I HAVE FAITH!

[fading scroll]

It is, I had one on order, it arrived, the way the package was taped up made it so me cutting the tape caused it to unfurl and drop the glass lens right onto my garage's concrete floor

So...I have another one on order.

[hard sinew]

At least they're rather cheap. I'm also a big fan of the pre-laminated screens, no dust between screen ans lense.

[pliant python]

In the meantime I recommend the powkiddy RGB30 for this. First 1:1 emulation handheld and it’s pretty cheap

Really would love a 1:1 monitor for mister

[unkempt idol]

Whats a 1:1 emulation handheld?

Oh, display?

[pliant python]

Yeah, it’s 720p

It has cheap plastic but a really really nice screen, viewing angles are good. It’s really nice in particular for horizontal stuff so wonderswan

And dodonpachi in mame

[unkempt idol]

Im not much into handhelds (old, small screens and eyesight, etc) but that sounds good for what it is

[fading scroll]

Sadly the available kits make the prelaminated options a no-go.

[cosmic yarrow]

Woah, off topic, but where'd you get that mat? 😳

[fading scroll]

Funny story, that's a mat for playing card games on, I got it at a game shop a long time ago lmao

I did a tournament and uhhhh forgot one, so I was just like "uhhhhhh yeah this one sure"

Miku's a deskmat now

[shadow rain]

any day now 👴

[hard sinew]

Pokemon crystal legacy seems like a fun new way to play crystal

[uneven rover]

Another improvement hack? Vanilla mechanics, or do they try and rebalance moves and mons?

[hard sinew]

They balanced some base stats of weaker mons and ghost is now special and dark physical

Also level curve and all pokemon catchable

[fading scroll]

I played a 251 hack recent-ish, actually hacked onto it to introduce Gen 6-style EXP shares

[shadow rain]

That's pretty cool, certainly saves a lot of time

[fading scroll]

Gen6-style EXP share is a godsend to someone like me who just does not have the time to spend grinding out a full team

IIRC I did it where the Pokemon that fought get 100% EXP, anyone benched gets 50%

[hard sinew]

I think that really depends on the game. The trainers in gen2 really don't keep up in levels so there is less exp to go around.

[timber wraith]

(I don’t know anything about MiSTer coding but) I’ve searched the web and found that RobertPeip started a DS core. What happened with it? Not possible? Put aside?

[thorny apex]

Tested it and only saw the 2d part as mister viable ( something like that)

[timber wraith]

Oh? Too bad. Castlevania trilogy stays on DS for the meanwhile.

[buoyant warren]

what is the current LE utilization % for the GBA core?

[torn jay]

somewhere around 90% or so? i filled it up with all kind of extra features

[mortal dust]

So potentially room for someone to implement link cable support via SNAC? Any takers? My lifestyle cannot currently allow for learning everything from scratch to do it myself 🙂

[wispy gate]

90% is upper limit or the core becomes unstable I believe

[mortal dust]

https://tenor.com/view/dumb-and-dumber-lloyd-theres-a-chance-jim-carrey-gif-11098164

[hard sinew]

Is there actually a finished core thats way below 90% alm utilization? I feel like no developer would not use the spare ones for extra features.

[torn jay]

yes plenty are. In handhelds: gameboy, lynx, wonderswan for sure

[torn jay]

This would not take much space, so sure, if "someone" is not me, there is a chance 🙂

however, it most likely means the serial module in the core has to be rewritten or modified. The current one only really works because the other side(in case of the GBA2P) is just as broken

it's only implemented to the point that two GBA cores can talk, but not to the point it really works with a real gba. I think blue1 tried at some point

[mortal dust]

I remember you putting the definitive statement of not working on that feature a few different times over the years

[hard sinew]

Workaround: just copy your save file to an everdrive, do your pokemon trades and copy it back. 😄

[mortal dust]

Even crazier: get it working on the core in order to have four MiSTers and four screens linked up to a GameCube for Zelda Four Swords or FF Crystal Chronicles 🤪

[hard sinew]

Or have a gc core on the next fpga, attach 4 smaller misters to it, have mister take over the world!

[mortal dust]

Now you're talking!

[radiant eagle]

Ran into an issue with the GBA core that I surprisingly never noticed before…I have a zip folder of USA games and I noticed that when I was trying to load one of the “3-in-1” or “2-in-1" games they just wouldn’t even start the loading process when selected. If I move them outside of the zip folder they load fine..

What I discovered is that it’s the "+" character in the filename. If I replace it with an "&" and try to run it from a zip file, it runs just fine. Can anyone else confirm?

oh wait hmmm. I just came across one of those titles that doesn’t have a "+" in the title and it doesn’t load from inside the zip file either 🤔

ok this is really weird….my zip file is called "1 - USA.zip"….none of the 2-in-1, 3-in-1 or 4-in-1 games load…there are 978 files in the zip…

if I move any of those games over to their own zip file (ex: 2 Games in 1 - Dragon Ball Z - The Legacy of Goku I & II (USA).gba) and try to load it, it loads fine…going to try moving all of those to their own zip to see what happens

maybe I should just change it so I have a USA folder with every game in its own zip file instead 😅

[radiant eagle]

I moved all the multi-game pack roms over to their own zip file and then placed usa and europe specific ones in their own subfolders and they work fine 🤷‍♂️ it’s only when they’re in a zip file with the rest of their respective region’s roms (usa/europe) that they don’t work

[wraith magnet]

That's funny the core doesn't like + in the file name. Have you tried putting a + in a zip for another core and see if it loads? Could maybe be a Linux/FW thing rather than GBA core.

[teal sky]

wild guess: the path name + the zip name + the ROM name > some char buffer

in MiSTer, not the core

[solemn tartan]

Lu's Retro Source linked this in his latest video, I thought it was interesting: https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/GBA_Tests

[wraith magnet]

I wonder what these tests mean in the practice, if any of these fails are impacting any retail games on the core or it is all academic

[cinder peak]

The tests are written by mgba's author primarily.

Is that table actually up to date though?

Looks like it is.

September 2023

For MiSTer anyways.

[torn jay]

The table should be correct. A lot of information has been found in the last 4 years. The mGBA column represents about what was known when the GBA core was made. NanoboyAdvance has gone so much beyond that. It would be worth redesigning the GBA core with all the new knowledge

The main things that should be fixed can be found in the GBA core bug list on github. So with all these games there are only some known with minor flickering pixel issues

There is only 1 retail game known that doesn't work in the Japanese version (US works), that's it, so it didn't age that bad 🙂

[mild glen]

Redesigning the GBA core, would it be something that you would consider after you are satisfied with the N64 core?

[wispy gate]

I'm also wondering this

[torn jay]

if i ever do DS, i would redesign GBA first

it makes sense, as DS is basically 2xGBA + some extras (very simplified)

[wispy gate]

That's it, DS core confirmed

Only catch is you need two MiSTers linked via IO cable

[torn jay]

to bad it needs 3-4 mister to cover the internal ram needs 😅

[mild glen]

Yeah makes sense

[unkempt idol]

Perhaps hardware opportunities will present themselves in the future for DS

[mild glen]

https://x.com/LIJI32/status/1344067474371846153?s=20

Can this be added?

Plz

I know it is a weird ask but “accuracy”

More info: https://blog.gg8.se/wordpress/2013/01/16/mystery-rom-explanation/

[cinder peak]

It's been requested before I think. I'm sure someone could if they wanted to and knew how to.

It's pretty undesirable though, I assume if it was done totally realistically it would sound worse on MiSTer than it does in that emulator because we have a simpler audio filtering chain. The original interference likely had frequencies outside the human hearing spectrum, so it would probably be a close approximation :p

The second link isn't the same thing as the first link though is it? I thought one was just the background noise of the SoC, the other is a method to abuse the CPU to manipulate that background interference, right?

You could use it as a 1-bit DAC the way the commenter says there, but you don't have volume control so it's mostly pretty weak, it's so quiet the person had to put the microphone right up to the speaker.

[mild glen]

Oh ok, I thought they were related.

But yeah it would be considered as an unecessary feature, (tbh I don't know if many would even enable it, maybe only those that finds it nostalgic), but it would be cool to have it 🙂

[hard sinew]

Which audio filter is recommended for the gba core?

[rotund flume]

I actually use the SNES filter, haha

[hard sinew]

I love the gba but the audio isn't all that great without a filter. A have a decent filter in gbi but I don't know enough about that stuff to transfer it to mister.

[zinc narwhal]

generally im ok with GBA audio but then a game like Sonic Advance comes along

[mortal dust]

You mean you don't like 1940s radio?

You don't like Phonographs?

[solemn tartan]

what if you could compose a song using the noise generated by the interference? 🤔

[buoyant warren]

@torn jay sorry to at you directly, but do you have an estimate of how much block ram would be needed for a DS core?

[torn jay]

about 1.5Mbyte, better 2 Mbyte

[buoyant warren]

Thank you 🙂

[torn jay]

everything except main ram and firmware should be internal

it adds up to 1.2mbyte or so, then you need the line buffers. Ideally you would also have the render buffer internally, otherwise it might get hairy as the you cannot jump back to line 0 midscreen

this is all without framework(scaler)

[buoyant warren]

Yeah so 2MB to be comfortable sounds about right then

[torn jay]

i had a board with 1.6Mbyte and gave up doing 3D on it as it only had 1 ddr3 and having main ram and multiple framebuffers in there would just not work in the end. Or at least, i had no room to debug anything

(not to mention that routing with near 100% blockram used is horrible)

[buoyant warren]

Yeah, I can imagine

It seems as though 2MB is where you start to need licenses for the dev tools

At least for Xilinx/Altera

[torn jay]

depends on the generation

[buoyant warren]

Yeah was looking at older generations mostly as they are lower cost

Ultrascale+ seems possible

(Without license)

KV260 in particular

It’s not even that far away from the DE10 in price

[north ice]

There was a request to add this in a while ago here: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Gameboy_MiSTer/issues/124

While it is possible, my understanding is that the interference is introduced from different analogue components in the SoC. This would be very difficult to implement "correctly" but analogue emulation can be done in the digital domain. I made an effort recently to split out the digital emulation hardware from analogue emulation hardware (i.e. summing amplifier, DAC decay) so in principle someone with the interest could add some interference artefacts to the code at this point https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Gameboy_MiSTer/blob/4b06b6600683cf6b8b242d00c75baab160cd61ee/rtl/gbc_snd.vhd#L1644

[keen laurel]

-- Analog hardware emulation

[untold iron]

I’n experiencing screen tearing on the GBA core. I’ve tried all VSync adjust modes, and sync core to video is on.

The only thing that seems to resolve it is turning on Turbo Mode.

Is this a bug with the core or is something wrong with my settings?

[rich mason]

it's there to make you tear your hair out

[rotund flume]

I’d first try with a different display

[torn jay]

Great to have you here, as it's much easier than writing on github

please tell if all your core settings are at default, especially "sync core to video = On" and "2XResolution = Off" and what your vsync_adjust setting in mister.ini is

[untold iron]

Thanks for the response!

All settings are at default. “2xresolution” is off and “sync core to video” is on

Vsync adjust is set to 2

I’ve tried the other vsync adjust modes and have the same tearing

Also tried other resolutions

Mainly 1080p and 2560x1440p both at 60hz

I am using mario vs donkey to test as it’s very noticeable when going in and out of the options menu at the tile screen

However I notice the tearing in every other game as well

The tearing goes away completely when I turn Turbo on

And also the input lag goes down when turbo is on which is a nice, but confusing, bonus as these games don’t seem performance limited

[torn jay]

wait, do you only have that when you have a transition screen?

maybe that is the reason then, as the GBA does restart the image from top sometimes in the middle of the screen

[hard sinew]

I can check the games on gb player/gba when I get home. Only have modded systems at hand though. Dunno if that makes a difference for the tearing.

[torn jay]

maybe compare a game with fixed scrolling like mario world if it also tears, as it does not for me

tested mario vs donkey and i can get it like that

but that is not tearing, the game just changes the brightness at a specific line

maybe you get something else

[untold iron]

Yep you are right!

Looks like super mario world doesn’t have any issues.

Seems like this happens only during transitions

I noticed it in mother 3 too

However I forget if mother 3 experienced it while moving around the overworld

Yep looks like it’s not tearing in mario vs donkey kong. Just how it does brightness

Why does turning on turbo mode make the whole screen fade uniformly then?

Also turbo mode doesn’t stay on even after the settings are saved.

[torn jay]

It's the same for other consoles like SNES: turbo mode is inaccurate, so it's not saved

With turbo, the game probably can handle the transition faster, so you don't see it

it speeds up the CPU significantly, about 2.5x-3x

[untold iron]

That makes sense.
Thanks for the help!

[uneven spear]

Is there a way to transfer saves from the gba core to the gba2p core without just popping into a file browser and copying them to the other folder?

[torn jay]

not really i fear. Maybe you could link the folders one time if you really want that

[uneven spear]

I'll probs just make a script for it I guess.

[uneven spear]

idk if I've gone insane, but shouldn't this script work?#!/bin/sh cp -ruv /media/fat/saves/GBA/. /media/fat/saves/GBA2P/ exit 0If I am running it from the scripts folder?

it does work, but my old nemesis \r\n had to be kneecapped to get it to work

[wheat urchin]

I love the Gameboy2P core, but I wish there was an option to show only 1 screen instead of 2 (like the GBA2P core). How difficult would this be to implement?

[torn jay]

showing only 1 would be possible, but what would happen with the second? GBA can output on vga and hdmi, but GB has no seperate ddr3 framebuffer output

[wheat urchin]

It doesn't have to go anywhere necessarily; I was mainly thinking of games like Double Dragon II where a split screen really serves no purpose.

[torn jay]

it should be enough to change line 971 in gameboy.sv to have aspect ratio of 10:9 and in lcv.v line 181 to have 160 pixel width only. If anyone wants to try a build with that...

will only work via hdmi however, crt still has both images then

[wheat urchin]

Cool. Would that allow me to switch btwn split-screen & single screen, or would it only be single screen then?

[torn jay]

if a OSD option is added for it, it can switch at runtime

but i would try it first to see if that really works, it's just an assumptions currently

[wheat urchin]

Compiled & it seems to work just fine changing those variables! Could something be added to "localparam CONF_STR" to switch between those values?

[torn jay]

Yes, take a look at the line "P1ON,Seperator Line,Off,On;" the N is status[23] you can find in line 912, so you could make a new line like "P1OO,Single Screen,Off,On;" for status[24]

then use this status[24] bit for switching aspect ratio

.ARX((!ar) ? (12'd20) : (ar - 1'd1)) => .ARX((!ar) ? (status[24] ? 12'd10 : 12'd20) : (ar - 1'd1))

LCD you need to exchange the parameter H to be a wire

parameter H = 9'd320; -> wire [8:0] H = singleScreen ? 9'd160 : 9'd320;

then you only need to add the singleScreen to the port list of lcd and port mapping like the seperator is

i hope that helps 🙂

[wheat urchin]

Thanks so much for all the info! I've made the changes you recommended, but now Quartus is complaining that "H isn't a constant"; I'm guessing the issue is that it needs H to remain the same to calculate Htotal?

[torn jay]

i think you can merge Htotal with the line wire [8:0] h_total = HTOTAL;

so wire [8:0] h_total = H+HFP+HS+HBP;

[wheat urchin]

https://tenor.com/view/de-niro-very-good-analyze-me-gif-21831887

That did it! Thanks so much for guiding my grug brain through that!

[torn jay]

so it works now, including the OSD switch?

if yes, feel free to do a pull request so others can also have it 🙂

[wheat urchin]

Yes! I haven't committed anything to github in years, so I have to refresh myself on how to do that.

[rotund flume]

I just want to say @torn jay and @wheat urchin you two are the example of what an awesome community MiSTer is.

This entire exchange has been wonderful to read and follow-up on. You’re both good people! 🍻

I love being here!

[thorny apex]

come on, it is not friday yet

[unkempt idol]

https://tenor.com/view/debo-friday-movie-gif-19721894

[shadow rain]

They didn't tell you? Every day is Friday now

[jagged marsh]

I dumped one of my GBA cartridges to get a ROM from it (it's a fan translation cart so unofficial), but after loading it up in the GBA core and saving the game, the options related to Saving/Loading/Autosave Backup RAM are greyed out. Is there something I need to update to recognize this ROM so it knows how to save?

[jagged marsh]

After more testing, other games I dumped work fine, specifically it's Mother 3 that isn't giving me the option to save the backup RAM or set Autosave. I tried this with a copy found elsewhere and still not getting the option to save.

[sudden charm]

I made my own Mother 3 by taking the original rom from nointro and patching the latest english patch myself, and it definitely works swell on the core

[jagged marsh]

The game works fine, but all I can do is save state

Can't persist actual game saves

Let me see if patching myself yields different results

[sudden charm]

yeah I meant my copy can definitely trigger the saves normally

[jagged marsh]

Patching the japanese version myself yields a file matching the same one I downloaded and tried before

same CRC ID

Same checksums

For giggles I tried loading my freshly patched ROM, still can't set autosave or backup RAM

Core version is v230803

Alright, so for some reason Mother 3 doesn't show the option to backup RAM or autosave until you actually save a game, and close the in-game save menu

Before I wasn't closing the save menu, I saved, but then opened the MiSTer menu while the save slots were still displayed

Doesn't quite make sense since once it's saved it should be visible, and I'm certain I've powered off from the save menu and the save has been there when playing from the cart

[torn jay]

I think the core doesn't show the option until a write to the savemem has really happened

[jagged marsh]

That makes sense, but the weird thing is the options weren't ungreying until I closed the in-game save menu

I probably need to do another test to make sure I didn't miss anything

[torn jay]

maybe the game does not commit the save until it's closed? i don't know

i can hardly imagine how this can be a bug, considering it required a write to saveram when you close the menu, but who knows

[jagged marsh]

I'm testing on cart now. I wasn't trying to report a bug, I actually thought it might have been a CRC mismatch or something, and the core didn't know how to save or something

Nope, don't have to close the menu after all

[torn jay]

can you try on the core with an existing save?

[jagged marsh]

I actually tried it on both

[torn jay]

if you have your mister in reach you can also check when the LED goes on

[jagged marsh]

I know, neat indicator for a pending save

I guess I made a mistake in assessing then, sorry

It's late for me lol

[torn jay]

wait? it works now?

[jagged marsh]

Yeah, it seems to be

I'm doing one more test with the ROM I dumped from the cart I have

Maybe it was something weird with that revision

Okay, so there is something up with the translation ROM I dumped. Might be because it's not the latest version of the translation?

After saving and closing the in-game save menu, I'm not getting the light or getting the options to backup RAM. It seems that using the latest translation works fine though.

Maybe I forgot to open the menu when I saved using the ROM I found the first time, but thought I did

[twilit narwhal]

Hey guys. I could use some advice with saving games on the GameBoy core.

[hard sinew]

There is nothing special to it. Just turn on autosave in the osd and it writes the save to sd card every time you open the osd.

[twilit narwhal]

OK. I knew I was missing something.

[hard sinew]

This is the case for pretty much every core. Remember to open the osd before you turn off the mister, else it won't permanently save to sd card!

[jagged marsh]

I'm having an issue with loading Minish Cap saves I've dumped from cartridge. The Minish Cap cart is a verified retail cartridge, not a repro.

With my Mother 3 translation cart (re-flashable cartridge), I was able to easily dump the save from cartridge, copy to MiSTer_Card/saves/GBA and give the file a .sav ending, and it would load fine in the core. When I'd want to continue on cart, I'd copy the .sav to my BurnMaster, and write the save back to cart. Everything worked fine. Save type for this game is Flash.

With Minish Cap, I follow the same process. Dump the save from cart, then copy to /saves/GBA with a .sav extension. However, upon loading the ROM for Minish Cap,I have no save data available to load in-game. Additionally, if I play anyways and save, and then write my .sav file to cartridge, the game freezes on startup unless I re-write my known-good backup save dump. Save type for this game is 64K EEPROM.

Is there an extra step for EEPROM game saves I need to do in order to make my cartridge save compatible with the MiSTer core, and vice-versa?

[rotund flume]

Try this - https://savefileconverter.com/#/mister

[torn jay]

Are you sure you use the real bios? the normmatt bios has issues with the game, could also be a reason

[jagged marsh]

I get the Gameboy license splash screen, so I assume it's the real BIOS. It's whatever update_all grabbed

I'll give that converter that a try and see if it works, thanks!

[jagged marsh]

Alright, so I dumped my cart save and ran it through savefileconverter as shown in the screencap, but when I load the game on MiSTer it still has no file data when the save file is copied over to the saves folder

.sav filename matches the ROM, it's one I dumped though I confirmed the CRC matches what's in the no-intro database

[torn jay]

can you upload the file from console, so i can compare them?

[jagged marsh]

Sure

Do you want both the .eep (the raw dump) and the converted .sav?

[torn jay]

best the untouched

maybe also one from mister, i don't have that at hand

[jagged marsh]

Here is the fresh dump

Do you want me to create a new game save on MiSTer, and send you that .sav? Or do you want me to send you the converted .sav I made from the .eep?

[torn jay]

i thought you already had one on mister

if not, i just create one

[jagged marsh]

I have one at a similar spot in the game I can restore, I think

I have a same I can restore, the "i think" is for the spot on the game

[torn jay]

i cannot look into the contents much anyway, so status doesn't matter

mostly general format, size, ...

ok, have one, isearched under minish cap, but of course it's legend of zelda 😅

did you notice that your eep file has no content?

[jagged marsh]

This one should work

No, I didn't

[torn jay]

the whole file has this pattern after the first 32 bytes

this cannot contain a savegame

[jagged marsh]

Hmm

One sec, let me test something

I was able to restore functionality to my game when it was in the hang state after importing the save from MiSTer

And if memory serves it had the same game state it had prior

But I can double check real quick

[torn jay]

i would assume the main issue is that this is either the wrong file or got corrupt at some step, but this is really not a working save file, that's all i can say 🙂 (unless 32bytes are enough to save a minish cap save, which i highly doubt)

[jagged marsh]

I'm erasing my game and re-flashing the backup I just took. First test was just to flash the backup and my save remains intact

Yeah that is definitely not a working save

Good thing I wasn't very far 😄

Must be something with the BurnMaster/sammi software, then

Minish Cap is 64Kb EEPROM save type, correct?

[torn jay]

yes

[jagged marsh]

Well I think it's safe to say the issue is on my end. Thanks for taking the time to help

This is my first time dealing with dumping saves and doing stuff with them, just got the BM a few weeks ago

Though Mother 3 and Minish Cap are my first attempts with GBA games (it seems to be working fine with GB saves at least)

[jagged marsh]

Yeah after further testing it seems this thing has issues with EEPROM save types in general. Flash and SRAM save I can dump and restore fine, but 4K and 64K EEPROM save types have problems. Other 64K games exhibit the same behavior, can't even get 4K to flash back to the cart without a hang

[rotund flume]

The cool thing about MiSTer is that I’ve discovered it’s usually an issue with other devices and not the MiSTer. The attention to detail and quality with the MiSTer cores is second to none.

[jagged marsh]

I had a feeling the BM was doing something weird, and it wasn't a fault of the core, but wasn't certain

Fired off something to Funnyplaying about it, but I did find a GBA game in my collection with the SRAM save type I was willing to experiment with, and I'm able to dump and restore successfully (COTM), so I'll see if I can import that into MiSTer successfully

[jagged marsh]

Alright, so with a cartridge that uses a save type that works with the BM, I'm able to freely move the save file to MiSTer and re-flash the save to cartridge, without having to go through the save converter

I just wanted to confirm that moving saves between the core and retail cartridges worked, of course my first retail attempt blew up spectacularly

[shadow rain]

For dumping saves, I usually check it in emulator before copying it over to the MiSTer to at least verify it's working in something first.

But yeah, sometimes the nature of trying to dump carts and saves you get some weird results. Always good to try dumping the file multiple times too

[jagged marsh]

I did try multiple dumps.

What made me think the saves were good is that when I first tried importing my Zelda save from MiSTer into the cart, it corrupted something and the game would no longer boot. Writing the backup I took before importing the save (which turns out was empty except for what I assume is the header) seemed to restore my original file. But now it's clear the BM wasn't reading or flashing EEPROM correctly which resulted in weird behavior.

Doing additional research, and after inspecting the cartridge connector of the BM, might be an issue with the pins used to r/w EEPROM saves (though I don't have a multimeter at the moment to confirm). It's new enough that I should be able to RMA the board for a replacement, anyways, rather than fix it myself.

[shadow rain]

ah I see, hopefully you can get it replaced then

[hybrid panther]

taki udon

[low peak]

howdy lu

[sly gazelle]

Would the Panic Playdate be possible on the MiSTer?

[hushed raft]

No. The CPU is too fast for it

[rotund flume]

Even if possible I don’t think anyone would pursue it as it would encourage piracy of an actively sold and supported commercial device. Which is pretty shitty.

[timber wraith]

That's the handcrank portable, isn't it?

[rotund flume]

Yeah

[sly gazelle]

I can see shitty people doing that. I have a nice catalogue of games on itch.io that would be cool to play on my MiSTer.

I have thrown it to the big screen via Steam Deck and the Play date Simulator 🤓

That will have to do I guess 👍

[muted dragon]

Hey y'all, I was wondering if communication features are supported with the DS and gameboy cores? Like hypothetically if I had two misters that were playing Pokemon, could they trade?

[torn jay]

with gameboy core, yes, it can interact with a real gameboy and most likely second mister(not sure if anyone tried). GBA cannot. DS core doesn't exist. Gameboy and GBA also have splitscreen cores, where you run 2 gameboy cores or GBA cores on one mister

[thorny apex]

oh, it is friday again

nice

[hot sparrow]

been playing klonoa on wonderswan and noticing i'm losing save progress despite it seeming to save after each act and going into the osd to have it save to the sd card. bit confused. don't think my sd card is bad but maybe? or maybe it could be the translation hack?

[rotund flume]

I was thinking about that this morning

[unkempt idol]

https://tenor.com/view/you-gonna-do-something-about-it-abe-lincoln-saturday-night-live-snl-do-something-about-it-gif-18018698

[rotund flume]

I can’t. I don’t know how to make a core and I don’t want to bug him, haha.

[unkempt idol]

https://tenor.com/view/city-hunter-ryo-saeba-shrug-i-dont-know-i-dont-care-gif-14623021

[hot sparrow]

Is this a known issue or are you fucking with me lol

[rotund flume]

Oh man sorry, I was replying to @unkempt idol’s comment on not having a Neo geo pocket core yet and I forgot to hit reply to her.

[hot sparrow]

Oh right yea I wanna play Neo geo sonic

[rotund flume]

Unfortunately it’s the black and white Neo Geo Pocket and not the color hardware.

[torn jay]

did you check if the file is on the sdcard? i can only tell you that i completed the game on the core over multiple sessions, so the saves work

[hot sparrow]

Yes it does save I just end up having to repeat acts. I’m gonna test it today

Did you also use the translation?

[torn jay]

no, i played the japanese

if the game cannot save in between levels(i don't remember), you can always use savestates

[sharp rose]

I've got a couple of question about the GB SNAC adapter;

1. Does it still only allow for linking GB/GBC games, or is GBA linking now supported?
2. Is it possible to connect a GBA for using it as a controller (like one would with the GBA-GC link cable on Game Boy Player/GBI)

[fading scroll]

I think this was answered recently but the short answer is, I don't think GBA is supported: #1046941428758102086 message

[hot sparrow]

yknow maybe it was my button mapping making me hit the wrong button when it asks to save. gonna back myself up with save states and see if it keeps happening or not. wonderswan button mapping is confusing

[rotund flume]

I agree, I use mgl to launch a core variant for vertical games so I can have those buttons mapped on the four face buttons

[mortal dust]

For #2, I have something I bought on a whim in the past that links a GBA wirelessly to a receiver to make it act like a USB controller. I'll have to find it and get more details as it's been several years since I even looked at it. It worked, though!

[fading scroll]

So it looks like there's a "GBA as controller" project, I think it's a part of GBI Player

One option is "run that on a flashcart and use GC to USB adapter with GC-GBA cable"

[sharp rose]

Thank you so much!
Haha I even tried searching before posting, of course it was right up here xD

[sharp rose]

Oh that's pretty clever. Will that actually work? O_o

[fading scroll]

My assumption is the way GBI Player does it is basically "output something in a form that makes it appear to be a controller"

https://github.com/extremscorner/gba-as-controller

[sharp rose]

Awesome, thanks!

[mortal dust]

Apologies! It's been a busy day. This is what I have, the GBA version:
https://shop.insidegadgets.com/product/wireless-gameboy-controller/
I have the USB-A, USB-C and Wiimote connector receivers. Doesn't look like they support the USB-C receiver anymore.

[bold valve]

My brother got a Gamate about 30 years ago. I had a Gameboy myself, but would play the Gamate for variety. I remember getting some enjoyment out of it. I tried the Gamate core yesterday, and Holy cr@p. Sometimes dead is better.

[sharp rose]

Ah ofc!
I remember those.
Thanks!

[fathom trail]

Anyone know why sometimes when loading the gameboy core instead of getting the Nintendo logo coming down you get that corrupted rectangle version?

[sudden charm]

I always get the rectangle on the first load, but ofc get the Nintendo logo after loading a game

which makes sense, since first load there's no game to complete the checksum

[fathom trail]

Personally, I believe I very rarely get the rectangle but I've seen a person consistently get the rectangle and then the rom won't load until resetting a few times

I guess the question then would be why wouldn't loading work the first time

[sudden charm]

I also have my core set to use real bios and not the built in sameboy bios

[fathom trail]

Is sameboy the default?

[sudden charm]

yeah I wouldn't know why loading wouldn't work the first time

yeah