Sega Mega Drive/CD/32X

[night cape]

I would be happy with a Sega CD in software running on ARM attached to the 32X core.

[vital idol]

I didn’t realize there were any big issues with the 32x?

[fallow dome]

You can’t do 32X + CD games, that’s all

[vital idol]

Yeah, but Andy knows that. So I suspect there are actual issues that need fixing.

[fallow dome]

Ohhh ok 👍

Yeah I wonder what’s left? I don’t own a 32X so I wouldn’t know.

[cloud otter]

There are a few. Something is still causing crashing in Web of Shadows. Something is it's not quite right with flag latching (wwf raw), there's a planar edge bug somewhere that causes contact edges to sometimes be off by a pixel (opening to Knuckles). And I have no idea how accurate it is. The Egypt demo from sega won't ruin on the core. Or celtic. I can't remeber which is failing, but one of them is.

[vital idol]

hoping that the saturn changes continue to improve the 32x

[torn dome]

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/S32X_MiSTer/issues

[split moth]

wait where does web of shadows still crash? I know that the reproducible first level crash got fixed quite some time ago. Does it crash later into the game?

[cloud otter]

It crashes for me on the latest core intermittently. I swung very high in level 2 and it just locked up completely, in example. But it's not reproducable the way the gargoiyle crash was.

The level didn't scroll for me (the electro level) and just hung when I was running along in the first section of the level. And sorry, Web of Fire. I always get that mxied up.

Reset, worked fine. So...maybe it was a single anecdotal thing, but I made a note of it. I will see if I can repro it later.

Anything that keeps you from playing Web of Fire is an improvement though.

Oof, it also has some severe slowdown that's not on real hardware. Like when you encounter DD the first time.

[cloud otter]

I tried a couple of times to get it to lock up. I got some severe screen corruption (sprites swapped with the wrong address, it looked like) and couldn't get it to lock up, but the Dragonman (not Gargoyle) fight was basically unplayable the slowdown was so bad. Having played this on real hardware as a kid, I know it wasn't that bad so I looked up some direct captures and it's not in a good place. So lockup or not, Web of Fire is 'playable' for a very broad definition of the word playable.

[graceful tulip]

This is still the case for me, will it be changed soon? I understand that some features of the old core are liked by people but i really would like to switch to the new core and let the old one be removed.
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Downloader_MiSTer/issues/43

[echo scaffold]

-9687

[split moth]

interesting findings, thanks for looking into that! Here’s hoping that Saturn improvements will get back ported to the 32X core 🤞

[carmine pine]

@novel compass would probably be the one to fix that. the tag number being identical is interesting as was shown in that issue

[novel compass]

It's supposed to be a system alias, not a core alias, I was thinking of exceptionally adding a tag describing the core (nukemegadrive or something like that), but sorg told me the old genesis core would be removed "soon", so it didn't feel worth the effort

[glass shale]

Soon™️

[trim silo]

Anyone playing battle for arakkis? In honor of dune 2

[versed rapids]

Seems very interresting 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIJ6soqXY3o

[jagged sage]

Has there been any mention on a Direct Video update for the MegaDrive core?

[fickle hemlock]

i'm pretty sure it already does directvideo doesn't it?

[tulip surge]

does the retrotink metadata stuff need a framework update on the core maybe?

[prisma fiber]

There has been a Mega Drive test core for direct video to be used with external scalers for a few months. Still not officially released. All cores need a framework update. The other two test cores are Super Famicom and PC Engine. None have been released yet.

Maybe we will see this happen quicker now that the new analog board has been released and it requires a framework update on all cores. /shrug

I am guessing that this just has not been a priority because the majority do not have an external scaler.

[jagged sage]

Can you point me in the direction of obtaining this test core?

I have a Morph 4K that I’m testing cores with. SNES, PSX, N64 & Neo-Geo work good so far.

[prisma fiber]

Start at the posts from Jan. 2nd here:

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Main_MiSTer/issues/808

[chrome moss]

Hoping with the new IO board that requires framework updates to cores we see most cores get updated to support all the things. Lots more people are getting rt4ks Morphs, and OSSC Pros and I believe there is a strong overlap between people who but fancy scalers and mister.

[old sierra]

Srg320 has just done Saturn, so will likely do his others soon. Sorg did Megadrive and a load of others he oversees not long back and I imagine will do the same again in the next few days. Will be rolled out to all the more popular ones quickly I imagine

[manic ridge]

This happened when the composite code was added, lots of cores got updated

[narrow panther]

https://twitter.com/birt_shannon/status/1768233208381108233

Shannon Birt (@birt_shannon) on X

Warning : Blast processing overdrive !!
Whats better than 440 sprites in 440 colors on Sega Genesis (eg last sprite multiplex demo) ?
660 sprites in 660 colors !!
Did away with interupts and now fully racing the beam, Atari 2600 mode basically !
3 sprites re-positioned and…

Twitter · Mar 14, 2024, 11:10 AM

🤯

[astral merlin]

How’s it look in the core?

[glass shale]

Is there a ROM somewhere?

[manic ridge]

So I have to be the dummy and ask, why can't we do this with regular sprites in games etc.

[thorny pivot]

Don’t be a dummy alone. I’ll be a dummy with you. Is this not the same effect seen in Lightening Force in stage 5? https://youtu.be/kTjqg3ztZoA?si=KiImSzhD71Atin_z

19 mins in

[fading hare]

Lightening Force/Thunder Force IV may genuinely be the single best looking 16bit console game. I'm hard pressed to think of even a single SNES game that looks as good. And I'm a hardcore SNES fan.

[fallow dome]

I can’t believe Lightening force is spelled that way

[fading hare]

Lightening Farce am I right?

[blissful lagoon]

The effect there is accomplished with applying line scrolling to the background, which means everything on the same line must move at the same speed.

The homebrew linked doesn't have that limitation, but is practically not very useful

[tidal python]

I hope you're talking smack about the name and not the game itself.

[manic ridge]

and best sounding, IMO

one of my favorite genesis games and probably my favorite shooter even though I gotta cheat to beat it lol

[thorny pivot]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTQIiIKummw Metal Squad ❤️

[cloud otter]

Additionally it's displaying far more colors than the MegaDrive could, but again...not super practical outside of specific effects. It's really neat though and I'm glad to see it accomplished through SGDK. The fact that was also probably done in C is kinda neat.

[manic ridge]

yeah that's the one

[torn dome]

the terminally nintendo-brained will hear this masterpiece and still prefer their dollar-store midi keyboard

[fallow dome]

It sounds like chainsaw farts

[torn dome]

and snes sounds like a poor man's Saturn

https://tenor.com/view/cat-keyboard-keyboard-cat-gif-13025513

behold, snes sound in gif form

sorry

the gif fails to convey the

[fallow dome]

omg I love it!!

that’s literally me

[torn dome]

r e v e r b

[fallow dome]

That wonderful cat composed all our wonderful snes music, it all makes sense now

[glass shale]

Kitty Kondo

[thorny pivot]

I only recently discovered that Saturn is apparently an FM synth power house, but being CD based most stuff is red book audio.

Are there any Saturn games that really utilizes its FM synth capabilities?

[fallow dome]

Oh damn I didn’t know. I love Genesis music, would be cool to hear a powered up version of that.

🎶

[tidal python]

Ahem... that is not a hardware recording.

This is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iic_FCyOkM

(I have my own as well, but it needs to be redone)

[blissful lagoon]

A whole lot of games use the YMF chip for synthesized music, but except for in arcade ports most composers used the oscillators in PCM mode really. That way you got 32 channels of sample playback instead of for example 8 channels of 4-op FM.

[blissful lagoon]

The “race the beam” part is pretty much guaranteed to be written in assembler (anything else would be frustrating indeed)

[cloud otter]

I guess I misunderstood the intent of the post. I thought it was specifically calling out sgdk implementation.

Not that you can't include asm and fully compiled bins in the sdk, though....so probably still that.

[blissful lagoon]

Yup

[cloud otter]

Stef is just always surprising us with new features. Insanely cool work from him.

ZPF was missing entirely in the latest MegaCat update and they still haven't launched their KS ... I hope the project is still going well. It reminds me from the outside of a project I was working on where the devs did a stellar demo but the game just stalled (Starr Mazer DSP) at early access. I greatly wanna play more ZPF, I enjoyed the demo a ton.

[fallow dome]

I think I still have some promo material for Star Mazar they gave out at a PAX East

[narrow panther]

The ZPF demo release was fairly recent

[cloud otter]

I'm Cat Admiral and a bunch of the pilots.

[cloud otter]

Yeah, October 2023 I think but the KS was supposed to follow quickly. My hope is that they're subverting the model and will have the complete, or very nearly compete, game done at the beginning and the ks will just be polish and publish.

I used to work for a company that abused KS badly so I don't back anymore, but I'm making an exception for ZPF.

[cloud otter]

Also, the original plan had SM being a point and click adventure with an open middle section you could approach like a Star Fox path. Each section has a shooter quest (not mandatory). That's what got teased out into DSP when development stalled and a bunch of drama hit the team with the composer and the producer. Threats, legal kerfuffle, prominent YT copyright lawyer (at the time) got involved. It was nuts. It tanked the project hard.

None of us ever recorded anything but the trailer video for the adventure game, which is sad because that was the more exciting of the two to me. But at least it got me cast in Gibbous.

[fallow dome]

@cloud otter I'm sorry to hear dude : (

[cloud otter]

It's all good. I basically haven't worked on anything cool since Devolver split ways with Imagos. I'm resigned to suck.

[torn dome]

the Bulk Slash OST is rendered by the Yamaga SCSP chip, which is what I think you meant.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6zZvRoJBQbk&list=PLI4_8ctIYkBmhHT7agPdp7CeC_xcbICdd&index=11&pp=iAQB8AUB

here's a track I dig. it's upbeat and bouncy for a boss fight but very appropriate for the vibe of the game

but it's not FM Synth like Mega Drive or that era of arcade machines tho

[blissful lagoon]

Mostly if not exclusively oscillators in PCM mode, as is common like I mentioned above

YMF292 was a badass FM chip, but it’s understandable that it was underutilized

[cloud otter]

I think my favorite fm composition comes from it's ancestors. Transparent Obstacle is one of my all time favorite pieces of game music.

https://youtu.be/67fZSJKQfkQ?si=CaClNL6mxebu41pP

Hits like a sledge on large speakers.

[blissful lagoon]

Hell yes, probably my favorite mega drive track!

[fallow dome]

This is my favorite mega drive track - https://youtu.be/GpyTs9zGlxY

lmaaaaaao I should be banned ||I love Mega Drive music don’t hate me||

[thorny pivot]

Since ST-V was basically cartridge Saturn, did it utilize the YMF292 more?

[torn dome]

good question

looks like Radiant is indeed all about that scsp

[void eagle]

I know Puyo Puyo Sun AC has FM tracks that were replaced by CD tracks for the Saturn.

[fickle hemlock]

is it just me or are there no unstable-nightly builds for the new megadrive core

[blissful lagoon]

There is one for the last commit (2024.01.27)

[fickle hemlock]

oh yeah - thanks, idk why i failed to find that

probably mspelled my search term

[stuck gull]

what is vart mode in the core

[cloud otter]

Vart or UART? The latter is the serial mode for the modem and a few other devices that use the serial bus.

I should say "I think" since I've never used it irl. I have one original console with a serial port on the back, which I've heard is a good indicator it has the better Yamaha chip....so on a real system, that's the only thing I've used it for.

[stuck gull]

so the modem is supported?

that's p cool

[bright pivot]

Shane Lynch Xenocrisis twinstick megadrive core

[earnest coyote]

Thanks, I meant to post that here. Player 2's stick acts as A/B/X/Y for P1 for aiming/shooting. You can also hit A and Y on P2 for dodge and grenade. Designed for those with 2 player arcade cabinets.

[bright pivot]

Np 👍🏼 thank you for this mod

[versed rapids]

https://twitter.com/yuzokoshiro/status/1771537450415857984?t=Tb5AY-NIzuYnMdj4VpsZtw&s=19

Yuzo Koshiro (@yuzokoshiro) on X

Just like I mentioned yesterday, we're excited to drop a new Earthion video here. You'll spot a lot of new stuff and scenes we've added in. Plus, there's a fresh track unveiled. And absolutely, everything you see and hear is straight from an actual Megadrive.

Twitter · Mar 23, 2024, 2:00 PM

[glass shale]

Whoa! Great music and lots of super cool special effects! 😍

[thorny pivot]

Definitely looks to be pushing the hardware to its limits. This is one of the first new games on an old system that actually looks like it’s from the period of the system’s heyday.

[proper agate]

I think some Dreamcast games did.

Some 2600 games did, but that's cheating.

[polar cargo]

Earthion looks fun. When's it coming out?

[fading hare]

At the earliest, late this year. Most likely next year.

[chrome moss]

It's amazing what people achieve on Genesis hardware. Makes me wonder what they could do with a SCD given all of the sprite/background scaling and rotation. That video looks technically impressive and fun. I'll definitely keep an eye on this one!

[vital idol]

Id also be interested in what he could come up with for cd audio

[carmine pine]

more gameplay in this trailer from last year too --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvFTLEGim_M

hopefully it will work on the mister core as is

it doesn't look like it does anything impossible that woudl require some crazy chip

[burnt badger]

Super excited for it, I just hope getting a physical copy isn't too hard.

[fading hare]

Have they confirmed if a digital copy will be available of the Genesis version? I know it'll be available digitally on modern consoles like Switch/PS5, but I'd rather play it on my MiSTer, and I don't want to pirate it. I'd much rather pay for a rom so I can support it.

[void eagle]

https://firstpressgames.itch.io/blazing-rangers Blazing Rangers has the ROM for sale, which was done by Ancient. Different publisher, though.

[modern stream]

Does the new core have known issues with analog YC output, or is it just me?

[trim silo]

Does mega man sequel wars work on og hardware and mister?

[fading hare]

Yes.

I've played the Mega Man 4 remake in it, and it's fantastic.

[polar cargo]

Either in emulation or my memory is misremembering things… Played Gunstar Heroes 2P the other day in the NukedMD core and notice mild to severe sprite flickering or pieces missing in the mine cart stage and in the 5th stage (especially at the end of it). I went back and tried the Genesis core and noticed I had it on high sprites. Having that on makes such a difference in keeping the flickering to a minimum. Really hope that comes to the Nuked core.

[fallow dome]

It won’t

There’s no room for more features

[drowsy hemlock]

Embrace the cycle accurate flicker!

[fallow dome]

I asked Sorg about something related with the core and he told me there’s no more room to add features and what we have is what fits.

Such is the price of full accuracy.

[drowsy hemlock]

Fully accurate sprite flicker

Not to mention that slowdown on sonic spinball 🤤

[polar cargo]

I've had my MD + Genesis packed away for so long, only playing on Wii VC, PC emulation, or SNES classic emulation, I'd forgotten how the flicker actually looks in the game. Them rose-tinted glasses are for real. O.o

[fallow dome]

yeah same haha

[stuck gull]

does the nuked core work without sdram like the old core did

that was the first core i played whilst i built my mister

[trim silo]

Works with 1 stick unless you mean naked de10

[cloud otter]

Sorg is pretty good at putting RAM requirements in the readme, so I'm guessing it's still fine on a bare MiSTer.

I was wrong, that's for the old core. The new core DOES require it per:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Wiki_MiSTer/wiki/Cores-that-use-SDRAM

(The "Yes" is SDRAM Required)

[cloud otter]

[Removed OC test core. Gonna test some more before I share]

[stuck gull]

i mean nakey

https://tenor.com/view/milhouse-sopracciglia-milhouse-milhouse-eyebrows-milhouse-sourcils-milhouse-cejas-gif-17955709

oop sorry i forgot the no gif rule

[polar cargo]

OC as in over-clocked as is like turbo mode from the old core? You’ve got my curiosity 🫡

[fallow dome]

Yeah

Andy is a smart dude

[cloud otter]

Oh, I'm not smart. I just keep running at the wall until the wall gives up.

[cloud otter]

Yeah, trying to get a 12.5Mhz OC. The PLL math is weird and may not actually DO anything. I'm not an FPGA dev and have been, on many occasions, 'out of my element, Donny.'

[fallow dome]

Andy is a tenacious dude

Wait a minute…..

Andy D is a tenacious dude

Andy D tenacious

D tenacious

tenacious D

[cloud otter]

Flying free, tenaciously... skinny dippin' in a sea of Lee.

[cloud otter]

No luck on the OC. I've tried bumping the output on the pll, creating a separate clock signal and dropping it in, etc. I don't fully know if the real hardware mod is just dropping in a new oscillator. I've never done one. It does look like the fractional divider on Nukey's core is a generated rom output from md.c, not hdl logic.
But upping the frequency isn't impacting it and one would think it would. Unfortunately, I have to leave town for a few days, but I'd like to keep looking at it. Adding clocks is less impactful on fitter size than rng luck. It's staying at 80-81% regardless. So even if a little logic has to be added, there's overhead for it. Any ideas from the MD geniuses?

It feels faster, but objectively cpu tests show 7.6

[fallow dome]

Thank you for the update!

[polar cargo]

Oh, well. Glad you gave it a shot @cloud otter

[cloud otter]

NP

[night cape]

Some mods are really like this, Halt the 68000, disconnect from normal clock, connect to 10 or 12 Mhz Oscilator disconnect the Halt pin, too bad it's not that simple for the core. Thank you for trying.

[carmine pine]

the real hardware mod is basically that yeah, just dropping in a new oscillator to overclock or having a toggle

[cloud otter]

I saw it in the wild and I had to.

[fallow osprey]

Elon Musk worked on that 🤮

[cloud otter]

Yep. Direct line to PayPal, too. The company got spun off and taken on by what would become paypal. It's like owning one of Judas' pieces of silver.

[void eagle]

I actually have that too. I heard it's missing content from the PC version?

Don't remember where I heard that, though. I had no idea that the infamous Elon Musk worked on it.

DOS version has an extra level. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aO0wxREQkY

[cloud otter]

I wish the DOS version worked on MiSTer ..
to be clear, it should absolutely work on MiSTer but their detection program is garbage.

With no way to skip it.

I need to get a debugger hooked up in DosBox or something and see if I can jmp it.

[manic ridge]

Where you die? Lol

[cloud otter]

Tully Bodin't

[safe ridge]

In a video I watched today on Youtube, the Youtuber casually mentions that the MegaDrive core on the MiSTer is superior to the Genesis core. Is this true?

I have been using the Genesis core this whole time.

[fallow dome]

It’s true and the MegaDrive core was a recent addition.

[safe ridge]

Cool.

OK I think I will use it from now on. Not sure what is better, but I'll trust the experts!

[fallow dome]

Mostly more accurate to original hardware and audio as well. Missing some features from the Genesis core that won’t be added due to hardware limitations but stuff like Turbo broke a lot of games anyways so no real loss.

[safe ridge]

Cool. I'll definitely have some fun with it today.
If this core is more accurate, then that will be stunning because the thing I felt about the regular Genesis core was that it sounded and played so good. Really felt like the original hardware.

But if this is better, I'll give it a shot!

I am just so impressed overall with the MiSTer.

This is the best buy of the last 20 years for me.

Seriously.

[fallow dome]

Honestly, I can’t tell the difference LOL

the people who would know tell me it’s more accurate and the other core is now deprecated

[fading hare]

I use the Mega Drive core for everything but my Road Rash rom hacks. I only bust out the old Genesis core for those to use the turbo function. 30fps Road Rash is

But yeah, the Mega Drive core is my go–to.

And like the illustrious Robby, I also can't tell the difference.

[safe ridge]

Cool.

I will transfer all my games into the Mega Drive folder

[fallow dome]

I never owned a Genesis as a kid and there’s so many awesome games for it.

[safe ridge]

Same here

I always wanted one

[fallow dome]

And the homebrew scene for it is spectacular.

[safe ridge]

But I was young then, and my parents said I could only have one.

So I chose the SNES.

[fading hare]

My older brother had the Genesis, and I had the SNES.

[safe ridge]

Haha I wish I could have fooled my parents into that kind of system. My sister could have had the Genesis! 😄

[fading hare]

I had friends that also a Genesis, so I had plenty of Sega goodness back in the day.

[glass shale]

Audio is actually less accurate on the MegaDrive core if compared to the Genesis one

[fallow dome]

Oh I had that backwards? My bad, thanks for correcting me.

[glass shale]

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/MegaDrive_MiSTer/issues/5

[fallow dome]

Goddamn I love this community. Amazing eye/ear for detail.

[glass shale]

I think we just need the guy that perfected the audio on the Genesis core to give some love to the MegaDrive core

[safe ridge]

Yeah, the thing that really struck me about the Genesis core was how similar Mortal Kombat sounded to my actual Genesis.

I probably wouldn't be able to tell the diff... other than maybe the MiSTer sounded a bit better since it's outputting digital.

[fallow dome]

Yeah! Artemio.

[manic ridge]

Did they ever sort out the volume leveling issues with the new genesis core

or megadrive or whaaaaaaaaaaaaaatever

[glass shale]

No. Volume still drops drastically in higher frequencies in the MegaDrive core

That god damn yellow line 😩

[manic ridge]

Dang, no hope for a fix? Does it affect any games?

[glass shale]

The drop was a side effect of a filter sorg put in place in order to fix a whine in After Burner II

[manic ridge]

does it mess up audio in some games with the filter in effect?

[glass shale]

Probably. But most people won't even notice. Not everyone has @tidal python 's ears 😏

[manic ridge]

well no that would be gross

[tidal python]

I feel like what this needs, if it's at all possible, is to put a higher-order filter further up the spectrum.

That way, you get a sharper rolloff starting at a higher frequency.

[manic ridge]

Whose Patreon do I pay, I'm in

[glass shale]

https://tenor.com/view/shut-up-and-take-my-money-futurama-fry-take-my-money-money-gif-15195954

[manic ridge]

literally yes lol

[thorny pivot]

This sounds like a great reason to keep the depreciated core on updated framework. I love Road Rash.

That and the more accurate audio lol

Love the YM2612. It’s so rad.

[safe ridge]

It really is.

I got to meet a dude who 'scored' a relatively newer video game that uses the YM2612 fully

He made legit Genesis music

I thought that was so awesome.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/764790/The_Messenger/

Steam

The Messenger

As a demon army besieges his village, a young ninja ventures through a cursed world, to deliver a scroll paramount to his clan’s survival. What begins as a classic action platformer soon unravels into an expansive time-traveling adventure full of thrills, surprises, and humor.Dynamic, acrobatic gameplay and ultra tight controls worthy of an epic...

Price

$19.99

Recommendations

8180

Metacritic

83

▶ Play video

Music is pretty sweet.

Cool thing is it starts out as more of an 8bit style game with 8bit music, but as you play on it turns into 16bit

[cloud otter]

We did a project with him for Devolver I think. https://youtu.be/d7VhIMBt7Yw?si=8rNBmtdOMddWmgRL

I just did some uncredited background voices.

I miss working with Devolver

[manic ridge]

I love The Messenger!

[stuck gull]

that game was fun, but i lost interest when it turned into a metroidvania

[manic ridge]

it's not much of one

I was able to 100% it and I can't find my way through symphony of the night

[stuck gull]

the best metroidvania is quackshot on megadrive

[light mist]

I want to argue that it isn't a metroidvania, but blank trying to name a game that is.

[night cape]

Wonder Boy in Monster World.

[oak jungle]

It’s a tough discussion to have when the ur example is just that damn good

[stuck gull]

i would say dragons trap is. mw 3 feels more rpg

[stuck gull]

you acquire plunger upgrades which let you access different areas

like the phone lines in duckberg

and flying across the arctic on a bird

you also have to backtrack to get keys and shit

[jagged sage]

It was so hard to play any of the other Disney titles after Castle of Illusion

[void eagle]

Konami's Goonies games have some Metrovania like elements, especially Goonies II on NES.

[chrome moss]

Quackshot is awesome. Underrated for sure

[cloud otter]

Hard agree

[light mist]

one of my yearly playthroughs (hotel stage doors can fuck off though)

[vital idol]

I don’t know about underrated, I think everyone holds it in high regard?

[light mist]

maybe underrepresented

[fallow dome]

Yeah I think it is, at least from my perspective as a recent Sega fan. I see more love and attention thrown at the usual suspects. Hell I even hear more about Fantasia for how bad it is.

[light mist]

maybe it would have a higher standing if a certain someone did not take 2030 years to widen his horizon

[fading hare]

So if Robby didn't play it, does that make it underrobresented?

[cloud otter]

He can't play Quackshot until he mods his 3DS. Told the IRS the same thing about taxes.

[fading hare]

Legit excuse.

[cloud otter]

I think he's got a good case

[stuck gull]

3ds has some v good megadrive ports too

sonic 1, streets of rage 1, shinobi 3. they all have nicely done 3d and it fits the gameplay

the emulation is ok too

[night cape]

Last time I played Quackshot, I somehow was able to go through swiftly. It even surprised me.

[fallow dome]

I am playing QuackShot Starting Donald Duck, which if I may point out is NOT “Donald Duck QuackShot” for sooooome reason?

🫨

Also why does he look so dumpy in this game?

Also like why is there a skeedaddle button? You hood down A and he does a little skeedaddle before he runs. NO you duck, please make with the running!

Ok so you shoot plungers

And when you hit enemies they do a little shimmy shimmy ay? They just vibrate uncontrollably for like three seconds.

🫨

Omg this game just told me to get bent when I beat the first level

lmao I just got told to get bent in Mexico!

No lady I don’t know I need a special key, the video game DIDN’T TELL ME

🫨

Hahahaha Donald Duck is macking it

Holy shit a ghost just told me to get bent, what the hell.

Oh wow great game.

8/10

Let me get this straight. To regain my health as Donald Duck I need to consume roasted duck, basically cannibalism?

10/10

[chrome moss]

haha

It's a great game. Good music, great art, decent story and pretty cool mechanics. My expectations were exceeded when I got it as a kid for sure.

[fallow dome]

I’m done for the night, wish the core has a save state function as I just unlocked four new levels.

Cool game though

[chrome moss]

Do what we did when we were younger, leave it running!

Turn off the TV but keep the Genesis rollin'. 68000 can handle it

[vital idol]

Haha, yeah, I got to the point where I could sail through the game in a sitting as a kid.

About the only criticism I have for the game is that awful plunger sound.

[fading hare]

Yeah, the one use I have for save states is simply being able to continue where I left off in games that don't have a save feature.

[oak jungle]

Even just pause on home menu (pretty much the same the thing) is really nice, pretty much essential to be able to just pause the game no matter what at any time as a dad…

[stuck gull]

don't fatshame

[cloud otter]

It's a foie gras pas.

[stuck gull]

I beat the Aladdin game on mister recently too. That had a sort of directors cut for a rerelease on modern consoles but the rom is playable on anything. Cool game

[oak jungle]

The SNES version is better…don’t hurt me…

[stuck gull]

Get outta this channel with that talk

[light mist]

Wjat is wrong with you? Why would you even think the title being donald duck quackshot?
The game gear series szarts with the name. Maybe you should put some effort into your 30 years too late sega fetishisation

[stuck gull]

pervert robby 😔

[fallow dome]

Oh no, I knew! I was just pointing that out that YES the star of the game “Donald Duck, and the reason why you bought the game, is playing second fiddle to QuackShot,

What’s even a QuackShot anyways? It’s a made up word!

[light mist]

So are all words

[vital idol]

It is a play on https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crack shot

Robby loses one briskets work of respect for being in Texas and not knowing that 😆

[void eagle]

The JP title is "I love Donald Duck" for some reason.

[red quail]

Playing through Shining in the Darkness and some scenes have a flickering line like this, is that expected/does it happen on real HW?

[light mist]

could be CRAM dots?

[fallow dome]

Yes that's normal and yes that happens on real HW. Like @light mist said above, they're CRAM dots that are normally hidden by a CRT's overscan.

What are CRAM dots? A huge oversimplification is to consider them the unwanted byproduct of really clever programming tricks. Here's an article with more information: https://rasterscroll.com/mdgraphics/graphical-effects/palette-swapping/

[light mist]

you sound like sorg

[red quail]

So given that this is a CRT, I'm guessing im just seeing them because my overscan options arent on?

[fallow dome]

Possibly, they were also visible on some games too.

[light mist]

depending on region

[red quail]

Gotcha

[light mist]

overscan could not be large enough to hide them with pal consoles

[red quail]

Yeah i did see some that were more towards the middle of the screen rather than on the top border

[pine crystal]

"you sound like sorg"

[chrome moss]

This scene, when I got to it the first time, blew my mind as a kid. Pretty sure there is some unique music there too from what I remember. Such an underrated RPG on Genesis.

[red quail]

Yup, very pretty music too

I hesitate to recommend the game cus it has almost no depth in the gameplay, but i am enjoying myself

Ive heard Holy Ark is a big improvement

[chrome moss]

Holy Ark is good but it has some things that I don't love. The art is...decent but it has that early CG look. Overall it's a good game but I do not love it as much as SitD. Could be nostalgia though.

Yeah, but the lack of depth is par for the course for an RPG in what...89? 90?

[red quail]

91

And between 90-91 we got DQ4, Megami Tensei 2, and FF4, all of which are orders of magnitude deeper than SitD

SitD has like 5 spells lol

But like i said, fun game, but hard to recommend unless youre someone who really likes drawing maps

Incidentally thats why i picked it up, this is my first time doing manual cartography for a game

[red quail]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_role-playing_video_games:_1990_to_1991

SitD seems even more stripped down than the basic jrpgs of the day, intentionally so

It feels like they wanted to make a dungeon crawler for people who were intimidated by dungeon crawlers

[chrome moss]

Aye, it's also really short. Definitely on the simpler and smaller side

I remember it being 5-6hrs total. Not much at all

[red quail]

Idk my playtime but its def longer than that tho lol

But i wager a fair amount of that was just me getting lost and/or playing it safe by leaving the dungeon and saving when needed

Im using it for my work breaks so i also prematurely exit the dungeon if i need to get back to work

[chrome moss]

Ahh, that'll extend you for sure. If you can do longer playtimes you can spend a lot of time in the dungeon and get pretty deep in quickly. Random battle encounters can get high in certain spots but you can also cheese it to spawn mini bosses multiple times for those fat XP gains. Or the crystal slimes I think they are. So much XP so fast but that comes towards the end. The game def helps you get caught up if you haven't grinded at all. Really no reason to grind.

[red quail]

Yeah the only time i really had to grind was the very beginning, and i didn't have to do much of it

[hard hull]

there's a few quality of life patches for shining in the darkness that make it a lot more palatable these days.

[light mist]

That so?

[fading hare]

I could only find the antigrinding patch. I haven't played through the game before, is the grinding that bad in the unpatched version?

[hard hull]

it can be. you're kind of at the mercy of the rng for encounters. You can wipe pretty easily early on especially if you don't know what you're doing.

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/2579/

I like this one because you can pick and choose what you want to change

The antigrinding patch seems like it just makes it too easy/boring

maybe not bad if you just want to run through it

[fading hare]

That's what I was worried about. Based on what it said, it sounded extreme.

[hard hull]

This was a big game for me as a kid. Spent a lot of time mapping it out with my brother. The art and music just hit right.

[red quail]

Honestly i dont find the vanilla version that hard at all, and im pretty far into it

I think ive only had one party wipe

[cloud otter]

SitD was a personal favorite...kind of a direct sequel to half of Phantasy Star. It WAS grindy though. Not hard, but very very grindy. Do your slimes, head back to the door. Do your slimes, head back to the door.

I appreciate the romhack for the time savings more than the difficulty.

The saloon was always so fun to see who was in there next when you progressed. The graphic work was (is) very impressive to me.

[hard hull]

Yeah it’s a great take on the crpg dungeon crawler. Holy ark was an obvious evolution.

[red quail]

im surprised everyone's saying it's so grindy, im fairly far in (level 3 of the upper dungeon) and i breezed through most of it

your description definitely fit the very beginning of the game for me, but that's it

basically til you get your other two party members

[red quail]

Camelot always shines in presentation and it's just as true here

the UI/UX is really good too, menuing is very snappy and responsive

[cloud otter]

No, that's totally accurate. Early game is the big grind. Once you start getting advance fois and what not, it is more 'go to the next challenge' than the grind.

[red quail]

advance fois?

[cloud otter]

The higher level fire spells.

And weapons etc.

[red quail]

ah

[cloud otter]

It does become less grindy for sure.

[red quail]

level 3 frost is doin some work for me rn

[cloud otter]

Level 3 frost like a mofo!

I always loved getting the flail a little early because it was pretty damned brutal.

OK, I'm going to dive in again. This thread has me chomping at the bit.

[red quail]

question, and don't answer if it's a spoiler/thing i'm supposed to figure out from in-game info: what're the blue fountains for?

i figured out what the gold ones do, but not the blue ones

[cloud otter]

They're landmarks, as far as I remember. It's been a minute (literally 30 years) since I've played it, though.

Kinda like Wolfenstein's wells.

[red quail]

ohh, ok

i didn't realize they were fountains until i got the medallion for the gold one, i thought they were special treasure chests lol

well good to know i didn't miss something then

[cloud otter]

Well, unless both of us did. Hehe.

But I think they were just landmarks.

[ocean vault]

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/04/the-reason-sega-lost-the-32-bit-war-the-32x-says-yosuke-okunari

[woeful goblet]

Will the Genesis core be update with the new framework?

[drowsy hemlock]

I suspect not, but I guess only Sorg knows - assuming he's the only one who's likely to update it

Feels like that core is sailing off into the sunset

Enjoying its retirement etc

[fallow dome]

He won’t be updating it, he’s already deprecated the core.

[drowsy hemlock]

^ this man knows, he has a direct line to the boss

well maybe not, but still 😄

[fading hare]

So you're saying that Robby is a boss for knowing the boss.

[drowsy hemlock]

If that's what it takes to get a shiny coloured name, I won't disagree.

[fading hare]

Or you can do what I do and become a challenge champion!

[drowsy hemlock]

I tried once. You guys are too good. My old man reactions can't keep up with you whipper snappers

[fading hare]

Hey, I'm both old and have arthritis!

[drowsy hemlock]

No excuses for me then!

[chrome moss]

I think there is an item you use on them. Not to give away any spoilers but that's what my memory is telling me. I could be wrong though. There is also another type of fountain of which there is only one if my memory is to be trusted at all.

[cloud otter]

I only remember one gold one.

And yeah, it's possible I'm misremembering, but I really am pretty sure the blue ones ended up doing nothing.

[red quail]

Id be surprised if that was true, cus theres a LOT of them and they show up very early on

But old jrpgs, you never know

The gold one you can definitely use an item on

[chrome moss]

And maybe that's the confusion

There is one with fairies I remember

[cloud otter]

I'm just going to look it up. I've played it. It won't be a spoiler.

[chrome moss]

But that one came pretty late into the game I think. You use some item for a complete heal of your team?

Yeah, let us know. I am curious now. Weird how memory works. I could be pulling in something from a completely different game for all I know

[fallow dome]

I don’t chat with Sorg often but I do ask him questions from time to time. That was one of them.

[cloud otter]

Yep, decorative.

Three different sources.

[chrome moss]

Thanks Andy, that clears it up!

[cloud otter]

But...if you can beat the game 6 times without getting hit, you can unlock Sheng Long. My friend's cousin's girlfriend's brother's parole officer told me so.

Hehe, we lived in the stone ages back then.

[red quail]

And then there's Tower of Druaga, the game that asks "what if all the items in the game were like the Sheng Long rumor, but real?"

[void eagle]

Funny that the Sheng Long rumor came from a mistranslation of Ryu's dragon punch.

[cloud otter]

Yep. Then EGM dragged us and punched us with it.

[void eagle]

Super Mario Bros 2 J also has an unbelievable requirement that is real. Beating the game 8 times to unlock more worlds.

[red quail]

At least that one is somewhat discoverable cus of the stars on the title screen

Druaga gives you absolutely nothing

[void eagle]

Good thing later ports/emulations of druaga have hints, sometimes even in physical form.

[proper agate]

Then there's getting Nei back in the Phantasy Star 2 remake.

[cloud otter]

Oof, didn't that one totally break the game if you did it on Megadrive back in the day? Like basically you sac'd your save for a glitch?

[proper agate]

You're thinking of something else.

They remade PS2 for the ps2 (no pun intended). The remake has a complicated way to keep Nei from dying.

If you look up a guide, the guide will tell you you do it by talking to everyone and seeing all dialog.

I believe what you have to do is trigger specific things, saying to see all the dialog isn't wrong but it's a little more specific.

And no guide actually tells you the things you have to do in more detail than "see all the dialog".

[cloud otter]

I'm not talking about the playstation version at all. But it was probably a GameGenie code or somesuch.

I remember seeing an old video (VHS) and the sound was messed up for the rest of the game after they did it. But also... could have been faked. So much was back then.

I might also be conflating it with a Final Fantasy phoenix down situation.

[proper agate]

There was a glitch but I believe it was a display glitch. I believe it just shows Nei in the lead ifyou die while it brings you to the cloning facility,the character isn't really alive.

[cloud otter]

That might well be it.

Are the PS2 remakes worth playing? I'm guessing the answer is yes, I've just never grabbed them.

[proper agate]

That sentence is messed up. Shows you Nei when you die and when after that it brings you to the facity. Not if yoy die while....

I have not played them. They have been fan translated though.

[cloud otter]

I may give 'em a go at some point. I love 1 so much and I have very fond memories of 2 and 3. I've never played 4.

[simple apex]

only 1 and 2 got the PS2 remake dressing

4 is v good tho, genesis at its best

[cloud otter]

I'll have to check it.

[red quail]

I wasnt a fan of 1 but i do wanna play 4 at some point

SitD is putting me in a mega drive rpg vibe tho, i was thinking of doing Landstalker next

[fading hare]

Didn't fool me! ....only because they did fool me with the Simon Belmont code for TMNT The Arcade Game on the NES first.

[hard hull]

Landstalker definitely had the vibe. The jumping is a bit painful now days. Ooof. I couldn't do it, and I don't know how I ever did as a kid.

The diagonals just messed with my brain and I gave up quick

Yet somehow made it the whole way through as a kid

[red quail]

I handled SMRPG platforming pretty well, i feel like i could translate the muscle memory

But also theres prolly a 50/50 chance of me falling directly on my ass

[hard hull]

it's wayy less forgiving than mario rpg. Like single pixel landings and punishing blind jumps.

[red quail]

I am now rethinking my plan

[light mist]

though there are only 2-3 times where it really messes you up and make you lose an infuriating amount of time

[prisma fiber]

Any Mega CD devs willing to look at the two GitHub issues related to Dark Wizard? I attempted to play last night and the game keeps freezing. Also some issues with non-CD audio (there is none), but I was not able to confirm this because of the game locking up. After about 3 tries, I moved on.

[fading hare]

I believe that was the one game that I needed to use bin/cue format. I remember it crashing when trying to use chd.

[velvet mural]

I don't know about MegaDrive, but there were some bad rips of PC Engine stuff way back when. For that reason, it's important to find an original (and ensure exact match on all TOC), and/or burn a CD-R of your image and check how it plays on real hardware.

I say this because I had never heard of this game, so I suspect it's not so common, and as such, the rip may not be done with all the care that recent rips might get (and emulators may just compensate for the discrepancies)

[void eagle]

I think the game just hates one of the model 2 Sega CD bioses. My actual, very good condition, disc, had issues locking up on my sega cd 2, but not when I used an everdrive to force a different bios.

No issues with emulator using same disc either.

[velvet mural]

Well that sounds like pretty important information

[narrow aspen]

Something I noticed with the Mega Drive/Genesis cores - when turning the border off, it doesn’t look like there’s any option to play the system in the PAL aspect ratio, even when using the EU region setting. When you turn the border off, the graphics revert to the aspect ratio used for US/JP games instead.

[narrow aspen]

Which is surprising, considering how different it looks. I’ve found a number of games going through the PAL set where it looks like graphics were specifically optimized with that AR in mind, like The Ottofants, Phantom 2040, and Cannon Fodder.

[prisma fiber]

Thanks all! I will try a bin cue and a different BIOS.

[stuck gull]

Rip old core

[plain quiver]

I tried with a BIN+CUE file and a US 1.10 BIOS file with the game, I can make it work once again.
With a CHD file, the game tends to freeze on the menu screen or after the introduction.

I don't have time to test further today, but we should test the game with that configuration now.

[drowsy hemlock]

Another great song: https://youtu.be/8O7VTw1E3b4

[prisma fiber]

I tested last night as well and it seems to be working. I actually used to have this game back in the day. I believe I played it on a model 2 and a CDX. I don’t remember any freezing.
Thanks again to everyone for the work around suggestions. 🤘🏼

[teal roost]

Are the sound effects fixed? That’s been an issue for years

[prisma fiber]

I believe that is still broken

[harsh iron]

the Mega CD core is still based in the old Megadrive core, right ?

[hard silo]

Correct

[cloud otter]

And likely to remain that way due to size constraints. Not saying impossible...I don't say that anymore, these devs are wicked smart. But the Nuked core is likely too big to integrate into mcd and 32x.

Without a lot of reengineering, at which point you're basically doing an FX68K style implementation again anyway.

[old sierra]

There is also the issue that the Nuked core is much harder for developers to work with due to the nature of how it was built

[cloud otter]

Yeah, that too. It's a microscopic view vs the 10,000 ft view of assembling IP. Most devs are finer detail than the 10K view, but very few are ready for the 'make the tiny mosfet pass electricity in conjunction with the whole fabric at the basest level' view.

It's also not organized for human consumption so it's like trying to read obfuscated java, except harder because it's so much lower level.

Neat stuff, though.

[fallow dome]

what's better, Phantasy Star III or IV?

[cloud otter]

That's a very personal question. The correct answer is the first one. But the next correct answer is IV for me, though I know some people LOVE III.

I really liked II but it's a bit of a slog. IV is technically impressive. III has some fun mechanics and some really great charm.

[manic ridge]

Well on the one hand, one has three 'I's

But the other has a 'I' and a 'V'

A 'V' is like two 'I's leaning away from each other

So based on this information I think it's pretty clear which is better.

[fading hare]

Phantasy Star IV is one of the best 16bit RPGs, regardless of platform! Love that game!

[light mist]

I don't think robby is mature enough for either of them.
He should start with vanilla II.

[fallow dome]

I played and beat 1 and 2 because I am king gamer!!! 🫅

[cloud otter]

I know it's basic b territory, but I still think Phantasy Star on SMS is my favorite RPG of all time that isn't called Chrono Trigger.

[earnest geyser]

PS was my first long-term effort RPG to complete, it took a year or so I think.

[fallow dome]

I played them on the GBA

[cloud otter]

Nothing wrong with that

[vital idol]

Yeah. I am surprised with the apparent dislike of phantasy star 2

[earnest geyser]

I just went through ps2 completely a couple months ago , anyway the dungeons IMHO are a mix of OK and confusing dumb

[vital idol]

I will agree that the dungeons were dumb, but it did come with a strategy guide to alleviate some of that

[earnest geyser]

did the guide come with every copy of the game?

[vital idol]

I think so?

[earnest geyser]

oh ok

I knew some friends who had the guide but I thought maybe they got it seperately

I never had ps2 on cart back in the day

[vital idol]

https://segaretro.org/images/a/a7/Phantasy_Star_II_Hint_Book_US_Book.pdf

[earnest geyser]

yah i remember they scribbled all over it

[vital idol]

Trying to find the link to the story about that…I think they gave the dungeon designs to some intern who just went way too far into the process?

[earnest geyser]

"maze"

took that literally

like some big god-like person is making a maze for a child

[cloud otter]

I really like it, nostalgically. But if someone were picking it up new today, I can see the problems they'd have.

[earnest geyser]

i also realized the bug in ps2 with the technique

i cant remember but one technique just doesn't work

[cloud otter]

I just like that it has Dynamite Duke but not really.

[vital idol]

Ah, not an intern, just a new employee https://shmuplations.com/phantasystarii/

And yeah, it is probably nostalgia. I went from final fantasy I and dragon quest to phantasy star 2 (didn’t have a master system back then)

Ps2 was just a new paradigm in story and experience

[earnest geyser]

my paradigm was definitely shifted by that series of games

PSIII , I thought wtf but oh well not every game is a banger

[fallow dome]

But PSIV is good?

[cloud otter]

Yes

[earnest geyser]

yes

[cloud otter]

If you're into that sort of thing, it's excellent.

[earnest geyser]

i'm planning to play through PSIV soon on some FPGA device

[polar cargo]

I always thought the lady on the cover looked like Deanna Troi, with horns of course.

[vital idol]

Hah. I played before phantasy star before I started watching next generation, but I definitely see the resemblance now.

Doesn’t look anything like nei from the game.

[modern fox]

And old man Rolf on the cover

Those two as anyone who played the game experienced them:

But IV was amazing. I played all four games in order. PS2, at the time, had plot situations unlike anything else on console at the time that really pulled me in. PS3 was ok. I liked the robots that join the party and how the game goes across your heirs. PS4 just told a great story in-continuity that even gave a nod to PS3 even though it took place outside of Algo.

[cloud otter]

Watch me whip. Watch me Nei Nei.

[vital idol]

:s/whip/Rolf

[carmine pine]

also, phantasy star iv by a mile

phantasy star iii was very rough around the edges, it was made during a major strike at sega

[fallow dome]

Ok cool I’ll play 3 then

[carmine pine]

https://tenor.com/view/no-the-office-michael-scott-scream-gif-16929305

leave it to Robby to cross the picket line

the main music composer had never done a game soundtrack before and was not a musician at all, and as a result the soundtrack is kinda rough on the ears

[modern fox]

It was also jarring how all but 3 used cartoony sprites for your character sprites who walked around. It made the initial feel seem off.

[carmine pine]

it's probably one of the hardest in the series, the battle balance is all over the place throughout the game, the locations of dungeons and what you need to do next is unclear. the one cool thing going for it is the multi-generation lineage thing

the juxtaposition of the futuristic with the fantasy sorta was not done well aesthetically in it

versus the others in the series

[modern fox]

When I scored the third generation heir in all black and a black cape, I thought I had the best guy

[carmine pine]

haha

[fallow dome]

omg lol

[fading hare]

I see Robby woke up again this morning and chose violence.

[narrow aspen]

I mean, I’d say start with the SMS Power translation of the OG game, but that’s just me.

I think each of the first three entries got a retranslation patch, and Phantasy Star III’s also fixes some game-breaking bugs in the original.

[vital idol]

Robby is the type of person who says “I’m going to play strider 2” when everyone told him to play strider 1, then complain about how the genesis sucks 😄

[modern fox]

It grows on you if you stick with it. It can be hard to start.

[fallow dome]

I don’t get the love for Phantasy Star. PSIII is super boring.

I can’t imagine how worse the previous two games must be if this is what they put out on their third outing.

[light mist]

why do you think we let you play it?

[fallow dome]

LOL I’m kidding, I forgot I typed that.

PS1 and 2 are amazing

[void eagle]

There's no Strider 2 on Genesis. The real Strider 2 is on PlayStation 1.

[teal roost]

“US Gold was neither US nor Gold, discuss!”

[void eagle]

I refuse to think of that game as Strider 2.

[light mist]

Did they just reuse the western coverart by slapping a 2 on it?

[carmine pine]

Masterful troll, well played

[fallow dome]

Thank you lolol

I’ll check out 4, thanks for the recommendation.

One day I’ll look at 3 though. But I’ve got less and less time every day.

I think I’ve said this here already but the MiSTer has turned me into a huge Sega fan. So much amazingly cool shit on all their systems.

[carmine pine]

yeah if you are going to play one phantasy star game making it number 4 is perfectly fine

[stuck gull]

https://tenor.com/view/emperor-star-wars-good-goooooood-evil-gif-12447951

[polar cargo]

Hope you’ve played Gunstar Heroes. Excellent run’n’gun and a total blast co-op. 🤘

[fading hare]

Also try out the sequel on the GBA! It's better than the original in some ways.

On the Genesis, Contra Hard Corps is my personal favorite run'n gun game.

[fallow dome]

Hell yeah it’s friggin amazing!

[polar cargo]

How so? Can’t be the music. :p I think MiSTer will be the first proper play through I give it.

[fading hare]

Controls being one of the big improvements. It has the Contra III style controls where holding the shoulder buttons lets you stand in place and aim freely. Basically the original Gunstar Heroes compromised on that front by having one character run'n gun, and the other always locked in place while shooting, which was always my biggest complaint about the game.

[vital idol]

Oh, and pit fighter!

[fading hare]

The GBA hardware also allowed for even crazier special effects from the Treasure team, which makes for even more wild bosses.

[polar cargo]

Never minded the lack of Contra III shoulder button standstill in Gunstar but it would be a welcome addition. It was more necessary in C3 cuz of the one-hit kill nature of the game.

You ever play Gunstar Super Heroes in 2P in the core?

[fading hare]

Nah, I've only ever played it 1P.

You need friends for 2P! ....

[polar cargo]

I’m maybe 30/70. Friends are often busy so that’s where extended family comes in handy

[vital idol]

Heh, if only. As @fallow dome would say, a spoonfull of skepticism helps the disappointment go down.

[fallow dome]

lol I should just really steer into that, the moment anyone gets excited I show up and yell “NO FUN ALLOWED, only skepticism!”

If you’re always expecting disappointment then you can’t be disappointed!

[vital idol]

Well, you can be, but then disappointment is a pleasant surprise!

[plain quiver]

Some Paprium dead stocks in a warehouse.

[light mist]

I hope it is dlc so that the input jack finally has a role to play

[torn dome]

time extension ran an article on it then immediately had to caveat with a disclaimer that the source could be a fake

[long cairn]

starting 4 this week actually, finished up 3 on sunday. what a game that is hehe....

[light mist]

See, why can't you do that robby?

[floral ingot]

https://mikejmoffitt.itch.io/lics-md
Complete and free to download.

[fallow dome]

Thanks for sharing! Is the game neat?

[red quail]

Finished Shining in the Darkness today, aside from some event trigger bullshit at the end, had a fun time

I had to consult a map for the first time in my playthrough because i had 4 light arms but didnt realize i was missing the shield, nor did i realize i had to have that equipped and talk to the princess to make the final boss survivable

[floral ingot]

Yes, it is! A very solid metroidvania.

[safe ridge]

Are bin files and md files basically interchangeable? ie all I gotta do is change file extension?

[tulip surge]

likely the same, best to get a no-intro set to be safe
core will load both extensions (assuming they're good dumps): https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/MegaDrive_MiSTer#installing

[safe ridge]

Cool

I just tried out the NHL 2024 bin and it worked great.

It is pretty amazing the work that has gone into that rom hack.

I didn't expect all the team logos and players to be updated.

Amazing!

[tulip surge]

yeah, there's a lot of very dedicated ROM hackers doing great stuff 🙂

[cloud otter]

Since Seattle has a relatively new NHL team, it's awesome to see them in a Genesis game. I truly loved 94 back in the day, so keeping it fresh has been amazing.

[safe ridge]

I love Seattle. So yeah, super cool.

And also seeing Vancouver's new logo is great.

Although the old will always have a special place in my heart.

[fading hare]

I know so little about the NHL since we don't have a team here in Wisconsin. You'd think we'd have one, but nope. And as a result, NHL hockey gets zero coverage on TV around here. Nothing on the news. No games airing on TV. Etc. I loved playing NHL 94 back in the day since the game itself is amazing. But sadly, an updated roster would be lost on me!

[safe ridge]

Heh, well as a busy adult with a life, I cannot fathom how some guys I know (who are busy and have families and lives) can name all the players and know their stats and stuff.

I have never been super into any sport really, but hockey is probably my fave.

I live in Vancouver Canada, played hockey as a kid, and went to games with my family so hockey will always have a bigger place in my life than other sports games.

[fading hare]

Interesting, I just noticed that the patched version of Mega Man The Wily Wars that allows the game to save does not actually save on the new Mega Drive core. But it does save on the old Genesis core. This is the first example I've seen of this. I only noticed because I booted up the game tonight for the first time since the Mega Drive core was released and noticed that my old save wasn't there even though I know I copied it to the new Mega Drive save folder. Tested the game on both cores, and yeah, it saves just fine on the old Genesis core, but it doesn't save at all on the Mega Drive core.

[cloud otter]

Someone mentioned another save romhack a while ago. So it seems to be endemic with the core, sadly.

[fading hare]

That's a shame since that's the only way to save with Wily Wars.

I do wonder why that's the case though.

[cloud otter]

Huh, there's some discussion around it from a few months ago: #1096614378968727652 message

[fading hare]

Oh weird, so it works now without the SRAM hack?

[cloud otter]

@carmine pine would have to clarify...I'm still parsing what's going on. Maybe it needs the original, non-hacked Genesis Mini version?

I have my mini and my extractor, so I can take a look.

[fading hare]

I'll have to test more tomorrow. Getting a bit late on my end!

[cloud otter]

Looks like it saves, but I don't have a MD controller hooked up and I legitimately can't play it with the Ultimate. It just messes me up entirely.

[carmine pine]

Yeah don't use the sram hack version

That game should function normally now since sorg added eeprom support to the megadrive core.

[reef flame]

IIRC the product ID in the header is used to identify EEPROM saving. So if you use an SRAM hack you also have to change the product ID.

[fading hare]

Ah dang, I was also using a patch that speeds up the speed of your weapon so it matches the NES games more (how fast the "lemons" move). But looking on romhacking.net, there is absolutely no patch that exists to fix that, that doesn't also add the SRAM patch. So the only way to play the game on the Mega Drive core, is with it in its vanilla state, which just isn't very good.

Guess I have to still play the game on the old Genesis core.

[cloud otter]

That's probably a pretty easy fix. I can do the sram patch and diff the speed patch against that and original. I'll be at my comp in a few, but that should be pretty easy to fix.

[fading hare]

Nice! I feel like the "Rockman Mega World Fixer Upper" is the best one since it makes a few additional fixes that also bring it more in line with the NES versions. If that patch can have the SRAM part removed, it would be perfect.

Ironically, it says that the "v1.0.5 Update" for that patch is what added the SRAM update. So previous versions of that already existing patch likely were already what we needed!

[cloud otter]

Oh, you could wayback it maybe

If you want it now. I've still got probably an hour until I can look at it

[reef flame]

If you have a hex editor, try changing offset 0x189 from 0x36 to 0x37. That should make the ID different so the core doesn't identify it as an EEPROM game.

[fading hare]

Just tried to wayback it, but couldn't get an older version to download.

[fading hare]

I'm looking at a hex editor, and I have no idea what I'm looking at!

[fading hare]

Absolutely no rush by the way. It's just a nice to have since the game can still be played on the old Genesis core, and it's not like I need my fix right away! Your help is already much appreciated! 🍻

[cloud otter]

Give this a go.

That should retain the stuff from World Fixer Upper apart from SRAM.

[fading hare]

Going to test this out now! I'll let you know how it goes.

[cloud otter]

Sweet!

[fading hare]

Actually, which version of the game is the patch for? The Genesis Mini version, or the European version?

[fading hare]

Just patched it with the Genesis Mini version of the rom, and it works! Thanks for this! The legend of Andy D will be forever remembered! 🤘

[cloud otter]

Sorry, I had to step away. Yep, you got it! Gen Mini!

[fading hare]

Going back and testing out the unpatched rom again, and it is remarkable just how slow your shots are in vanilla Wily Wars. It seriously messes up your timing against the bosses if you're used to the NES games. That patch makes the Wily Wars version so much better.

[cloud otter]

I thought I was playing bad. I mean, I was playing bad, but not THAT bad. The wolves in the Wood Man stage were just TEDIOUS. Plink. Wait. Jump. Plink. Wait. Jump. This is WAY better.

[fading hare]

Yep, it's shocking how slow it is normally in Wily Wars.

You should post that patch in the games-and-patches thread. It's perfect for MiSTer.

[modern fox]

That's awesome. Wily Wars was on my list to play, so now it will be that much better when I get to it!

[limber pine]

Had this problem some time ago @fading hare

#games-and-patches message

[manic ridge]

This

I think I was like, vaguely involved in making that happen too since I was randomly all "can we make eeprom work" and Sorg was like "yeah"

[cloud otter]

The issue MARI0 was having was that the other QoL patches were built on top of the SRAM patch. It is much nicer to have the bullets at a normal speed. Versus 'shooting through jello.'

[manic ridge]

yeah I hated the slow bullets

[cloud otter]

They are... it honestly makes it almost unplayable.

[hard hull]

the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference

[manic ridge]

https://tenor.com/view/dancing-cowboy-finger-gun-pointing-moves-gif-17170914

[cloud otter]

How did you know I was smelling ashes this morning? I thought I was having a stroke.

[prisma fiber]

What is the best way to get 2-player SNAC in the Mega Drive and Mega CD cores?

[torn dome]

there’s not a best way

there is a way

with the db15 forked cores, but their level of maintenance is wanting

[prisma fiber]

I have the Sega Tap, but havent figured out how to get it to work.

[torn dome]

you’ll need the 2x db9 snac adapter, it’s made by one guy in spain

and you’ll have to hope it’s properly supported

again those forked cores were a problem for me when i used them

[prisma fiber]

Bummer…I wonder why 2-player SNAC is so challenging on this core? I will stick with USB for now with 2-player games.

[fickle hemlock]

its because of how sega did controllers they use way more pins then almost anything else

[fading hare]

I remember using a Genesis controller on my Atari 2600 back in the day. Good times.

[manic ridge]

I mean, daemonbite adapters are like 1 ms lag I think it's worth the tradeoff

[prisma fiber]

Agreed

[narrow panther]

https://x.com/GabrielPyron/status/1793028572677841161

Pyron (@GabrielPyron) on X

I always want to say this..

The future is now #SNK on #megadrive

#KOF running at 60 fps of blastprocesing without chips or tricks

Video shock, Speed shock, Sound shock!

#indiedev #pixelart #sgdk #hamoopig #sega

Twitter · May 21, 2024, 9:18 PM

[glass shale]

Today I Learned that the MegaDrive core doesn’t support analog output. Is that true? 😱

[idle yew]

I don’t think that’s true, I’m sure I’ve used it on a crt.

[glass shale]

Good to know! I will try to help my friend and make it work for him

[fading hare]

I don't own a CRT anymore, so I've never tried it. But yeah, I feel like it would be shocking if it didn't work.

[void eagle]

I have been using it in Y/C in composite and S-Video

[modern fox]

I used it today. I have a digital I/O board and did direct video into a VGA adapter into a component adapter, but I was previously using svideo.

[split moth]

Yeah, I’ve definitely used the core with the misteraddons y/c adapter

it’s been a while…I need to go get my CRT table back from my Mom’s house

oh wait, it’s been so long I don’t think I’ve ever used the Nuked core actually

[cloud otter]

I've used Nuked pure RGB out to a Commodore 1084S. Works great.

[limber pine]

Been using it too on Mike's Active YC Adapter. Does dithering and all well on NTSC

[pale plover]

So what does the latest Mega Drive unstable build fix exactly?

[narrow panther]

Something relating to sound, I guess. It's in ym3438_op.v
https://github.com/nukeykt/Nuked-MD-FPGA/commit/c8a3f3efafc072796f025103e7f6a2b58949043b

[manic ridge]

does it fix the current sound issue where a filter has to be applied?

[glass shale]

No as the issue lies externally to the chip

[rotund bluff]

hmm.. what filter has to be applied?

[manic ridge]

there's some filter coded in to account for some high pitched screech or something that happens in one game as I recall since nobody could figure out the cause

[rotund bluff]

Ah I see, what a mistery 😄

[carmine pine]

afterburner II, it's because the frequency from the chip raw is so high that downsampling it causes ringing artifacts without a filter

[carmine pine]

it looks like it fixes a minor typo that no one reported any bugs from yet

[manic ridge]

is the new code related to this

[carmine pine]

nope

[manic ridge]

damn

I thought there were other audio inaccuracies that were unexplained

[carmine pine]

this one is a case of it being so accurate that the mister's method of downsampling from over 200khz to 48khz creates artifacts whereas on a real system connected you are getting analog audio

[manic ridge]

gotcha

[carmine pine]

it's because the psg could basically multiplex sound out of each channel independently without regard for the combined output's frequency

so it was variable depending on how the game programmed used it

the ringing you are hearing is the gibbs phenomenon

as you downsample to lower frequencies it will amplify these peaks and valleys

so that's why low pass filtering usually comes in to hide this

[manic ridge]

gotcha

Thank you for the explanation

[carmine pine]

no problemo mr dinierto

[rotund bluff]

Great explanation, indeed. Thanks for explaining us 🙂

[manic ridge]

Yeah that's the first time I've heard it explained

[fading hare]

I'm exactly the type of person who would fix this just because I know it would bother me until I did!

[glass shale]

I think it was soltan that fixed this issue in the old Genesis core

We need to get him motivated to fix the MegaDrive core now

[carmine pine]

technically it wasn't

the fix was present in jotego's jt89 module

[manic ridge]

wait so there's a fix

[carmine pine]

there is a way to fix it, but the way that the core is written makes it very difficult to replicate since it's similar to an emulator-style fix

[late lynx]

Hey all, I posted this in #help but it might be more appropriate here. I have my mister hooked up to a crt via S-Video through the misteraddons yc active encoder board. Most cores work absolutely flawlessly, but on my genesis the image is rolling up the screen very quickly. Do I have to edit the genesis core manually to stop this? I thought all cores supported YC from the main .ini file now?

[carmine pine]

While technically the genesis core has support for YC added, it's also not being actively updated whereas the Megadrive core is actively updated. What does the Megadrive core do instead? Any different?

[late lynx]

You know, I haven't tried that

I'll give it a look when i get home

[void eagle]

Also, if NTSC, make sure that the game isn't set to PAL. That can cause rolling too.

[late lynx]

Thank you! I'll try this as well. I'm curious if this might be the issue

[late lynx]

Mainly because when I boot the core up, it's not rolling, but when i load a game it is

[glass shale]

My friend is using an YC board. Just saw there are some mandatory ini settings in order to make it work properly.

Asked him to tweak his ini and report back

[carmine pine]

https://mister-devel.github.io/MkDocs_MiSTer/advanced/crttable/#crt-configuration-table

yeah look at the S-Video Native and Composite Native options for what are relevant to the YC board

pretty sure it's just setting composite_sync=1 and vga_mode=svideo

[night cape]

Why don't we take a gpio pin to outup composite directly? I know there is a good explanation about why this is not possible.

[carmine pine]

if you look at the yc adapter it's more hardware than just a single pin

[night cape]

Doing this circuit inside the FPGA would be expensive, it's what I meant.

[carmine pine]

Yup.

[fickle hemlock]

there actually is the ability to generate composite without an external adapter, but its terrible apparently

i'm not even sure why it was left in tbh

[heady jungle]

Sorg put that in when y/c was added to framework. It..... sure is something....

[narrow aspen]

It's a shame that no one has quite figured out the LaserActive yet, either in software emulation or FPGA.

We're all missing out on glorious FMV like this lol:

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxFS5QiVEaQCzdr7t1pIZXqAE5AkMibGw3?si=5p4E5-WjAHKd4mom

[prisma hill]

so I'm a bit out of the loop, is nuked-md core integrated into the megacd core? If not, any plans to do so?

[fading hare]

It is not. I doubt it will be since from what I've heard, the nuked core is pretty full.

[prisma hill]

k thx

[frigid tapir]

Nuked Core VERY accurate 🙂

[thorny pivot]

Isn’t there something with the sound though? Heard it mentioned a bunch that Nuked audio is not accurate yet?

[glass shale]

Core audio is 100% accurate. The issue lies on the filter side. Someone needs to come up
With the right formula for the filtering.

[thorny pivot]

Ahh thanks for that explanation.

[fallow dome]

And that someone is you! Thanks for volunteering on figuring out the right filter formula.

I’ll ping you in a week to see how things are going. 👍

[thorny pivot]

Sure! Model 1 VA7 sound filter here I come!

[fading hare]

Dis just got real.

[thorny pivot]

It’ll include a mandatory jailbar video filter complete with rainbow banding for those of you that chase waterfalls.

[manic ridge]

Which one is better

[vital idol]

Probably the first one. Everyone knows you don’t use the pistol once you have the shotgun.

[manic ridge]

oh sorry I'll edit it

[leaden jungle]

Hi! So I just got a CRT and running through analog IO ... everything seems to work great on all cores....EXCEPT Nuked-MD... which for some reason is giving me odd distortion and jitteringin the top of the screen. The original genesis core does not have this issue, nor any other core I have tried. Does anyone know if this is a known issue with this core specifically? I don't believe it is the CRT since all other cores don't have issues. https://photos.app.goo.gl/rE56mxNJKCPkAf9dA

worst case I will use the old core instead but...

[fickle hemlock]

what crt is it?

i think there is a general suspicion something is slightly wrong with sync on the nuked-md core, it confuses some dacs too

[heady jungle]

Definitely true for my setup. I'm using old genesis core more these days as it's more stable for me and has composite blending. Zero chance I can tell the difference in emulation quality.

[fickle hemlock]

i think mike was going to have a look at it on his scope but he's not been around much lately

[leaden jungle]

Toshiba 14AF44 I believe. Not perfect, but nothing happening in any other core like in my video there.

[heady jungle]

Oh I see. Y/c is not stable for me for psx and groovy cores also so I hope they can be addressed. Dont know if it's core issue or adapter issue....

[fickle hemlock]

yeah - i highly doubt its your crts fault just good to have as much data as possible

analog IO board?

[leaden jungle]

I am actually running ironclad plus board with analog out

into component

will be getting another CRT this weekend to test so I can certainly follow up if the issue persists on that CRT as well

[fickle hemlock]

might be interesting

[leaden jungle]

or! Boring as hell hahah

[fickle hemlock]

with how near the top it is some crts would probably overscan it off the screen

[leaden jungle]

I've noticed with most arcade cores anyway the overscan on the top is fairly severe

usually cutting off part of high scores etc.

I'll see how it goes with the new one but yeah, figured I'd bring it up to see if this was a known issue or not

[thorny pivot]

@leaden jungle how’s the SNES core via component?

[leaden jungle]

no issues with it. tested that as well to make sure.

also with nuked-MD, noticed this in a couple of games I tested (Twinkle Tale and Light Crusader specifically but could be more):

top right

[thorny pivot]

Do you have an active Y/C adapter? I’m curious if s-video or composite would make a difference. MiSTer is known to have sync instability with its component output.

[leaden jungle]

I don't actually... haven't tried any other outs at this stage

[thorny pivot]

My CRT hates SNES Component (top curl with jitter) but S-vid and composite from an active adapter work great.

[leaden jungle]

I may check that out. definitely was hoping to use component, and for the most part everything else seems good from what I've noticed. That's good info though as I wasn't aware there were sync issues on mister

I'd most likely be perfectly happy with svideo if worse came to worst, or RGB mod if I was feeling ambitious

[thorny pivot]

I prefer Component for Arcade and composite for consoles. Svideo is a nice compromise to component.

@half zinc has a new IO board coming out that can natively do most of the good signals we want. I believe it’s supposed to have a more stable sync on component than the standard IO board.

[leaden jungle]

Yeahhhhh.... sadly I'd have to turf the whole ironclad plus then

which i really like a lot lol

can't win em all I guess

[half zinc]

Modularity for the win!

[half zinc]

Yeah it’s out, and is doing great. Really proud of this one 🙂

[stiff grove]

Not sure if you checked the issues in GitHub, but I noticed that I needed to have cleaned v sync to get proper sync on my ikegami pro set

There’s a test build on that issue. It messes up 480i though, so sonic 2 2p mode the fields won’t align correctly so it gets blurrier

Hopeful someone smarter than me can figure out how to disengage the cleaning routines for interlaced, but keep them for progressive

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/MegaDrive_MiSTer/issues/45

[leaden jungle]

I'll definitely keep my eyes on this. Thank you. Meanwhile I will probably use the old core for now since it's not causing me any issues.

[stiff grove]

You can also try the 20230915 build to see if you still have the issue

[leaden jungle]

I may also muck around with the test build to see if it makes a diff for me

For science

[stiff grove]

in case you don't want to download a mystery zip from github

same build, just had to zip to add to issue

The slight flagging bothered me so much on the 32x core and certain resolutions on Saturn… wasn’t sure of the correct way to fix the vsync, but at least on MegaDrive core the flagging wasn’t always present hence why I dug

[leaden jungle]

Oh dear... I better look at Saturn too...

[stiff grove]

Might be okay on your set

later professional CRTs are pains in the butt

[leaden jungle]

Yup Saturn looking ok. Phew.

[bright totem]

Anyone else having audio issues when trying to play Snatcher? My audio gets messed up in the intro write before the cutscene with dialogue starts..its happened to me twice in a row just now

[random marsh]

https://tenor.com/view/monkey-monkey-hitting-someone-sword-13world-reaction-gif-23469319

now stop looking for glitches and start playing!

[languid oxide]

where did this get moved to?

oh

they just renamed it to MegaDrive_MiSTer

or rather, this seems like a new core

[tulip surge]

yeah megadrive is the newer/more accurate core, port of nuked_MD

genesis is still in distribution_mister so update_all gets both
name.txt renames it to '<regional system name> (old)'

[fallow dome]

Genesis core is deprecated. It’ll be eventually removed from update.

[light mist]

Hey Robby. Finished PS III yet?

[fallow dome]

PSIII depreciated it’ll be eventually removed from update.

[light mist]

sad to see you fail

[fallow dome]

I don’t think I even started it lol

[glass shale]

Then you’ve failed already

[late lynx]

Is anyone actually working on a laseractive core?

[narrow aspen]

BlastEm’s lead dev is currently working on figuring out the hardware for software emulation; I’m currently figuring out how to make rips of the discs with assistance from the Domesday86 team.

I was hoping to post the first samples of that today, but the LaserDisc player I have has a built-in software lockout which prevents the LD-ROM video track from being played.

[late lynx]

A little off topic, but does anyone have a VCD/LD player built for mister?

The LA project seems cool. It'd be fun to revisit some of the weirder titles

Like the London one you shared

[languid oxide]

What is your current setup like, are you using the white card?

[narrow aspen]

I don’t have the actual system; BlastEm’s lead dev does. I’m duplicating the discs with Domesday hardware from an off-the-shelf Laserdisc player, via a direct capture of the disc’s RF stream through test mode.

[narrow aspen]

Out of curiosity, what's the white card? I haven't heard that term mentioned before in regards to the LaserActive or Sega Genesis.

[safe ridge]

Been exploring the Genesis and Megadrive cores.
Didn’t feel a big difference.
Both have no save states.
Might rehook up my Genesis since I wanna use save states.

Not much time in one day to beat an entire game.

[glass shale]

You can always keep the console on just like in the good old days 😌

[fallow dome]

Save states are for the weak of spirit!

[granite mountain]

Anyone having issues with latest 32X core? For me MiSTer reboots a few seconds into some games (such as Virtua Racing attract mode). Previous release had no issues at all.

[fallow dome]

What's the release you're using?

[granite mountain]

S32X_20240418.rbf is giving me issues. S32X_20231204.rbf works fine for me.

[fallow dome]

weeeeeird

[granite mountain]

Yeah. No idea whats with that. Just me then?

[fallow dome]

Probably not. It's great to report these things in-case others have the same issue.

[granite mountain]

I'll watch this space..

[fallow dome]

Thank you and sorry that you're having that problem, friend.

I'll give the game a go later today too. Let it run attract mode to see what happens.

[granite mountain]

Thanks for that - it's literally a few seconds for me, JP and US versions

[plain quiver]

Works fine for me (20240418).

I've tried the attract modes on the JPN and US versions of VR Deluxe.

Have you tried to remove your config file and trying with a fresh one ?

[faint onyx]

Yeah, no problems with Virtua Racing Deluxe in attract mode. Deleting old config files often help with issues like these.

[granite mountain]

That is weird then. I'll try messing with the config file, thanks both for testing!

[frigid tapir]

There are some differences. For instance (and I did report this on the previous Genesis Core) the CRAM Dots aren't implemented correctly and actually corrupt the graphics Underwater in Sonic 3. This doesn't happen on NukeMD and the Dots behave the same as my Model 1 Japanese MegaDrive (Yes I have been that sad and tested to these sorts of levels).

Audio wise, I am aware of an issue with filtering in the NukeMD core with some games (I think After Burner being one) but to me, games I play regularly and use as a "Yard Stick" when testing Mega Drive / Genesis Emulation, look, feel and sound absolutely on point (Streets of Rage 2 with its excellent sound track being 1 example).

[fallow dome]

Not sad at all, friend. It’s thanks to people with amazing eye for details that we’re able to enjoy these games at such high degrees of accuracy. So thank you!

[pine crystal]

Well... it's a little sad. 😏

...but sincerely appreciated.

[safe ridge]

Wow, interesting. Well, I still think the cores are pretty good. But I was able to squish my old Genesis back into the mix. I have that Terra Onion rom cart, RGB, so it's pretty awesome.

As much as I like the MiSTer cores, having game save states is really awesome.

TO has made a pretty nice rom cart I must say.

For now, I think I'll keep it hooked up. Maybe if the MiSTer cores get game save states, I can think about putting it back into the closet...

I find the Gennie looks great through RGB, unlike the Super Nintendo, which I prefer to use the MiSTer for.

My SNES is sadly smeared looking.

[fallow dome]

It won’t get save states

The Megadrive core fills up the FPGA so there’s no more room for other features. Save states is also something that needs to be accounted for when building the core and adding it in after is difficult.

[fading hare]

Was playing Gaiares for a bit last night. And yep, the difficulty lives up to its reputation. Anyone who can beat that game without using cheats is a shmup god. It's fun at its core though, and has great visuals for a 1990 game!

[safe ridge]

I see.

Well, I don't mind playing on the real hardware.

If I am up for a long play session or big challenge, then I'll play on the core.

Some games do have in-game saves, so could also play those on the core.

But I just don't have as much time these days to replay levels again and again.

[carmine pine]

It could get save states one day, but it's probably one of the hardest cores to add save states to at the moment because it is written like a netlist.

[fading hare]

Planting that seed of hope! You've opened the floodgates!

[fallow dome]

It would be for the Mi2STer

[fading hare]

Don't crush our dreams!

[reef flame]

Don't let your dreams be memes

[pine crystal]

2 MiSTer
2 Furious

[drowsy hemlock]

Surely the MiSTer 2 will be called Mi2Ter

Sadly 5 is a better S, but unless Sorg does a Microsoft with the naming, we can’t have that

[fallow dome]

Oh yeah oops, I mistyped

[fallow dome]

I hope so lol

[drowsy hemlock]

I will forgive you. This once. You’re on thin ice, sunshine…

[weary meadow]

I have an issue that I recently discovered, I have my direct video out connected to a VGA convertor to a RGB to S-Video fed into my CRT. The newer core in update all I get a slow scrolling screen but if I use the old Genesis core that I believe is not longer being developed for the game display correctly

[hushed vine]

What does that mean exactly

[graceful edge]

https://www.patreon.com/posts/netlists-and-103978875

This is the best explanation for netlists that I have seen, hope it helps.

[carmine pine]

much of it is written off of the reverse engineering of the chip structurally, meaning instead of "if this, then do this" it's more like "flip flop b12's inputs are connected to flip flop d13's outputs" but like 1000x times

it's like a physical schematic converted to code without a lot of behavior translation done

[fallow dome]

Is flip flop a real term or are you making it up

[carmine pine]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip-flop_(electronics)

😛

my "im making this up" go-to is "giffoogleflab"

[narrow panther]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/megacatstudios/zpf-a-new-sega-mega-drive-genesis-game
👀

[fading hare]

Doesn't look like there is a digital option...

[carmine pine]

this has been in development for quite some time, i remember them announcing stuff for it 2 years ago, glad they finally got it to the point where they wanted to do a kickstarter, looks like fun

[cloud otter]

The demo is great

[prisma hill]

https://hiddenpalace.org/Out_of_the_Vortex_(Sep_13,_1995_prototype)

[nocturne glacier]

"Comics Greatest World" -- hadn't seen that in many years. 🙂

[carmine pine]

the differences mostly come down to the bus arbiter timing being accurate in the megadrive core and not being accurate in the genesis core

[fallow dome]

I think you’re one of the greatest in the world comics!

[nocturne glacier]

Aw shucks. 😊

[winged goblet]

I want this:

hahah

now that is a controller

[void eagle]

Interesting that it has a blue start button like the JP controllers.

[fallow dome]

oh yeah, that was at e3 2019, i used that

[winged goblet]

hehehe

[polar cargo]

Insert joke about the size still not the size of the OG Xbox duke

[idle yew]

Man if I’d known that would be the last e3 I’d get to go to I’d have waited in line to play that thing 😢

[fading hare]

Nice arm injury!

[nocturne glacier]

Good on you for not accidentally breaking it with your 24" pythons!

[drowsy halo]

That looks really fun

[carmine pine]

i've played on the NES equivalent at sparkfun's hq lounge

https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/35

[terse meadow]

Don't forget fringing around any white text and edge pixellation around anything that isn't simulating a specific video encoder.

[trim silo]

I was at that e3

[modern fox]

What is a game/song that really showcases the different sound chips?

(as in, it makes the difference super noticeable)

[frigid tapir]

For me with Streets Of Rage 2 I can usually hear differences (especially with Emulators).

[void eagle]

Thunder Force III?

I'm tempted to say Earthworm Jim or Hellfire, but those aren't intentional differences.

[narrow aspen]

I suppose no difference is intentional, if you think about it.

[void eagle]

yeah. I mean that Earthworm Jim and Hellfire's music plays incorrectly on some hardware

[stuck gull]

I was trying to utilitise this in sonic 2 and found it doesn't function the same way in the nukedmd core (doing a reset just wipes the emeralds you've already collected) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB7lMu0FhZY

idk if this is something that ought to be replicated but it's a difference from real hardware seemingly

[cloud otter]

I just tested and it worked for me. I was able to get an emerald, then reset, and it was still in my collection.
A few notes: first you have to use Reset, not Reboot (I am sure you did that). Second, you have to use Options to start the next game after the reset. Not 1P. You have to go into options and select Sonic and Tails, Only Sonic, or Only Tails. But yeah, Nuked had no issues and I kept my emerald.

(Menu reset, not core reset from the hat buttons)

[stuck gull]

oh thats cool. i didn't realise the hat buttons would function differently

[cloud otter]

Looks like the core doesn't grab the signal, so it probably just has a default action that wipes RAM in the hps handler. But I'm not an expert in the Nukey core at all. It's a nightmare to try to read for me.

Nevermind. It does look like it uses it and for the correct reset. It's the USER button, though. Not the RESET button.

I can give that a try...

[stuck gull]

i actually didn't do the options bit as i'd seen several people mention this "hack" and only that video showed the options thing so i didn't pay attention to it

i was using the user button tho yeah, i thought that matched hitting reset in the core menu

yeah you're correct you do have to go through the in game options menu. works now lol crisis averted

[cloud otter]

Sweet! Yeah, I just verified, too.

Cool trick!

[plain quiver]

As srg320 corrected a bug for a Saturn game when updating the SH7604 code, I've recompiled the last version of the core with those changes too.

[woeful goblet]

Thanks!

Hoping that the new core fixed the Golden Axe 32x intro

[plain quiver]

Too bad.

And I don't see any issue report about that.

[woeful goblet]

I think that’s because Its a rom hack but seens to works fine on real hardware

[plain quiver]

I've opened a report about that on the tracker.

[old sierra]

Does Knuckles Chaotix still have issues or is it playing fine now?

[woeful goblet]

Thank you!

[plain quiver]

EDIT : Nothing, error from my part, sorry Andy.

[plain quiver]

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/S32X_MiSTer/issues/56
I've added some quick context - like the homebrew demo ROM to the issue report.
And the source code of the program, as it could be really useful for tracking where the problem is located.

As the build is compeletely unofficial, not even on Unstable, I think we need all details for the issue report.

[pale plover]

Any plans to eventually make the updated core official?

[plain quiver]

As there is a regression on Star Wars arcade with the recent changes, it won't.

"So this latest combination of commits hangs star wars arcade after 15 minutes or more. something subtle is wrong, and it started happening in febraury.

Definetely is not mergeable."

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/S32X_MiSTer/pull/49

[pale plover]

Sounds like a classic case of old coding clashing with the new coding.

[light mist]

It is a special feeling having to revert a "do not merge" mr.

[dense bane]

Was playing jeopardy on sega cd and some weird stuff happened .. gonna try to recreate it

Game locks up and displays nothing but garbage on the screen .. can anyone please confirm ?

Just try to start a game

[thorny pivot]

@dense bane I was able to get in and play; US region REDUMP in CHD format.

[dense bane]

Ok cool , maybe I just have a bad dump

I’ll recheck here in a little bit

[bright pivot]

@earnest coyote Any news/ETA of your projects? (Mega play Arcade, Xenocrisis double stick core based on nuke)

[earnest coyote]

Been sort of running all around all summer so not a ton of progress on Mega Play after getting my custom BIOS to boot Mega Drive games.

School starts in 2 days, and things return to normal.

[oak jungle]

when you've marked it with "Draft:" in gitlab so it becomes unmergeable, and someone goes ahead and edits your MR to remove that, rebases it and pushes it through CI anyway...

just because it solved their one niche issue, ignoring all of the other problems it might cause due to not being ready yet

[drowsy hemlock]

A real horror story!

[manic ridge]

hey maybe you're just bad at Jeopardy

[cloud otter]

Please phrase your shade in the form of a question

[fading hare]

Is his dignity in jeopardy?

[dense bane]

https://tenor.com/view/suck-jeopardy-suck-it-trebek-speaking-white-hair-gif-17917718

I will recheck today!

[normal rivet]

Since the newest core has a regression on Star Wars Arcade, what is the consensus on the best 32X build at the moment?

Official from April 18?

[plain quiver]

Star Wars Arcade hangs on Attract mode after 15 minutes or more.

Something that should be very subtle, so either the last unstable if you think that's acceptable, otherwise the official one.

WWF Raw seems to boot correctly on the last unstable builds when I tried it as the first game loaded.

[normal rivet]

great thank you

[ocean vault]

https://youtu.be/gIVZZcY9vBA

[gray hearth]

Hi, has anyone been able to figure out why for some the Mega-CD core gets stuck on the bios screen after core version 23.02.24? Can't figure out why this happens or how to solve it. Tested a bunch of different bioses, including the ones in update_all

[gray hearth]

bios is not corrupt, games work okay on version 23.02.24 and prior to that. Bios screen unfreezes after Releasing Backup RAM, but game never loads.

[glass shale]

Do you have each game on its separate folder?

[gray hearth]

Yup

[cloud otter]

Can you expand a little on 'stuck on the bios screen?'

Like, is it loading the CD Player? Is it stuck on SEGA?

Here are my hardware settings, just in case there's an issue with hardware matching bios.

Also what version of MiSTer main are you on?

[carmine pine]

it really seems like the MiSTer main binary is outdated or maybe you are using a JAMMIX and the DIP switches are incorrect, or something like that

because it works for me when i test

resetting the core settings and trying again is important to test as well

[gray hearth]

Thx @carmine pine saw your comment on github as well. Spoke to @restive merlin earlier today and both of ya agree on updating MiSTer main binary, so I'll try that next. Thought update_all updated the main binary, but I guess not.

[restive merlin]

The update doesn't check against your current version. It will only pull a new update when there's a release update on github. So your main file might be out of date.

Basically if you install an older main file on a current update, update all won't fix it.

[gray hearth]

It worked, yeah! Updating the main binary did the trick. You guys rock!!!

[cloud otter]

Happy MegaCDing!