Nintendo GBA

[onyx lynx]

My take

Super retroid

[wide ember]

why tho

it's a well regarded vidyagame

[onyx lynx]

Don't know personally but a lot of modern, 90s gamers or even folks who came up on the snes era sometimes find nes hard to deal with

[honest viper]

Run button is hidden in plain sight on Super Metroid

[coarse cape]

real gamers never run

[honest viper]

They tape the run button down

There is only run

[onyx lynx]

well regarded doesnt mean often played. For example the SHEER AMOUT of silent hill 2 fans who run their gob but have never played silent hill 2 (I wish this was a joke)

[wide ember]

back then there was s booklet

we looked in the booklet

[wide ember]

wtf

[onyx lynx]

YEP

[wide ember]

I've never played it but would never claim to have either

[onyx lynx]

See they've watched lets plays and to them that's just as equal an experience as playing silent hill 2 and if you disagree they start crying about gatekeeping them

[wide ember]

u g h

yeah

[onyx lynx]

Yep. I fucking hate fandoms

And as someone who has played EVERY silent hill since the OG, I hate silent hill fans the most... Because they don't even play the game
and Most of the ones who HAVE PLAYED SH2? Played after Enhanced edition mod concluded development

And while I have problems with Bloober's previous output
SH2 is a perfectly good remake with one real dogshit part (the combat test in the labyrinth)

[wide ember]

I see

[onyx lynx]

yeah just a series of locked rooms with monsters under the floor stunlocking you

sucks ass

I do get the complaints about sh1 not being available for modern gamers though

but... honestly? The emulator Konami used on MGS1 kinda sucks ass

[wide ember]

I've drifted away from video games really

[onyx lynx]

its better to use duckstation, Mednafen or mister

[wide ember]

ah

[onyx lynx]

My gaming experience is weird myself

Stopped playing in 2012/2013 due to burnout. Mostly did movies, as I worked in the film industry. Didn't pick it up until 2021 when I got a switch, and covid. Then my dad passed away. I got burnt out on games again. AND NOW I'M A GAMEDEV LOL

[fathom lintel]

Seeing some weird visual glitch with the edge of the circle here when saving in Pokemon Emerald. Don't see it in the old core

I have save state and save here

[fathom lintel]

Happens on Pokemon Fire Red too

[low carbon]

hmm, interesting. Looks like the CPU/DMA isn't fast enough to update the window, maybe due to waiting for the save mem.
Unfortunatly not really good to debug, but maybe I can find something. Thank you

[fathom lintel]

No worries doesn't really affect that game or anything but figured i should report it anyways

[low carbon]

Typical issue when going for more accurate: there is no overhead. If it's even minimal slower at some spot, it can instantly have effects

Therefore it makes sense to research why. Will try to see if it's really the saving. That is typically not well tested for cycle accuracy

[ionic phoenix]

Maybe the way the core handles iris effects is bugged, because I remember Densetsu no Stafy having a similar bug where the iris out effect during a cutscene caused some broken lines.

[cinder prairie]

Wow I'm really late to the party. Looking forward to testing this!

[fringe comet]

Well the core has issues rendering iris effects when saving so it's basically unplayable 🤡

(that was a joke, this core has amazed me in its quality and speed of development)

[low carbon]

recently the speed dropped a bit due to work and summer. But I try to get at least one improvement out each week so this channel doesn't starve 🙂

[cinder prairie]

That is very much appreciated! I do wonder what will be the most noticeable differences between this and the other core.

Even if there aren't many, its still worth it if you're having fun

[flint notch]

thanks for your hard work!

the core is great

[honest viper]

I beat Metroid Fusion today on the core with no issues!
(aside from only getting a 55% completion rate)

Appreciate all the work on the best GBA core ever!

[cinder prairie]

I love playing through Fusion every once in a while

[low carbon]

The biggest difference is that the core can keep the original speed at all times.
You can notice that e.g. in that you can run it without sync to screen and it will never drop sync.

The "old" core could drop sync on excessive loading from cartridge without sync to screen, or with sync to screen drop a frame and catch up to the original frame by running faster afterwards

New core can also easier communicate with external devices, e.g. real GBA, while the older one might drop out due to that behavior. Of course it still needs to be implemented.

Same for cartridge access, if someone ever wants to do that.

(also the CPU can now be reused much easier for a potential DS some time in the future)

[fierce eagle]

You mean like the modretro chromatic does with the gb core? That's interesting, since they also mentioned they might make a version of the gba at some point.

[low carbon]

I know that nand2mario somehow got the old GBA core to work with cartridges on the tang but it has several issues that have not been in the original core.
So yes, any device with cart slot would for sure rather use the newer core.

[copper needle]

now i kinda want someone to port it to pocket 😄

[fierce eagle]

You are someone 🥳

[timber silo]

Could it be possible theoretically to have a potential DS core send video to two monitors like the 2P cores?

[low carbon]

sending the two screen via analog+digital out would be one of the easier tasks to solve.

[timber silo]

I'll take it

[fierce eagle]

DS core confirmed!

[timber silo]

A 3 screen layout would be neat to see on digital displays if possible. Obviously on CRTs it will probably be one screen at a time.

[low carbon]

this screen double would make me insane

the old core offered these layouts:

and same size horizontal, but i think it's not good on unrotated screens

[low carbon]

as soon as there is a hardware that is capable and used by more than 3 people...so probably not soon

[timber silo]

The triple screen is useful for games that like to show connected geometry between the two screens while also giving a screen to focus on but I admit it can look busy

[cinder prairie]

Any recommendations? :)

[cinder prairie]

This already is quite exciting

[low carbon]

There are board around the 1000$ mark that could do DS, but i guess that is still too much for a community solution.
With a custom board 300-400$ is reachable and maybe we see something like this in the next years.
I will be here when it comes 🙂

[cinder prairie]

Yeah that's what I'm waiting for... for someone like Taki Udon to make a $1,000 board at a lower price point

Ideally one that can potentially allow a Dreamcast core, as there's no way to play backups on the original hardware without paying a lot of money for an ODE and opening up the console. Either that or get a CD burner and manage a collection of CDRs

[low carbon]

Yes, all the more modern systems should be looked at if someone really wants to design such a board.
I also hope for more space and faster fabric. Possibility for Pentium like at 200+ mhz with a voodoo gpu would really motivate me 🙂

[cinder prairie]

You got a head start on a future DS core by developing one on another board, have you considered getting a head start on such a Pentium core on the MiSTer perhaps? 🤞 😄

[low carbon]

I thought about it, but I'm not sure if the slow fabric would lead to a lot of improvements.
For me it all depends on being able to run win95/98 and games there. It only makes sense if that is possible.
It would need to run at 100+mhz which will be very difficult on the de10-nano.
And for 3D graphics we have no space left.

[cinder prairie]

I'd like to think you'll discover shortcuts and breakthroughs along the way as you had to for PSX and N64 :D

At least to accomodate for the limitations of the de10-nano

Until the successor board finally comes to market

But overall I agree with your take on it. To even play half-life, the minimum system requirements was like a 133 MHz pentium

[low carbon]

Maybe, lets see what the future brings. I worked at the very edge of what is possible the last years and it's nice with the GBA currently to not worry about that all the time.

[crude marten]

ehem

Replay 2

should have more than enough raw horsepower and flexibility in its ram architecture to support upto PSP / DS

[cinder prairie]

If we get a board that could potentially run a Dreamcast core, that would mean its capable of a 200 MHz RISC processor, as well as a PowerVR2 GPU at 100 MHz. With such a board, a Pentium MMX at 233MHz might be feasible

It wouldn't be a pentium II though, so stuff like Quake 3 arena probably won't work well.

[cinder prairie]

Oh PSP would be fantastic!

If the board could handle a PSP core, then it could easily handle a Dreamcast

Also 3DS would be well within reach

Maybe even a Nokia N8 or N95 for Symbian games :D

[waxen verge]

ds would be cool since there's not really a way to play those games on a crt without software emulators or the nitro dev kits

[timber silo]

Having an fpga solution for that era of PC gaming that's ridiculously temperamental on modern hardware would be great

[cinder prairie]

Pentium II would be an amazing feat. But due to the increased complexity of P6 architecture over P5, it might take 3x the logic elements for the CPU. Though it would certainly be possible for an FPGA board that can handle a PSP core

[copper needle]

i think it would be interesting to see like, what you can do with a completely custom design leveraging the strengths of the de10nano to create the fastest x86 you can on it, rather than trying to recreate a pentium specifically

we have memory speeds a pentium could never dream of for one thing

[cinder prairie]

That would be amazing, kinda like a fantasy x86

[copper needle]

i think we have more transistors to play with too

[zealous nacelle]

Ok pins updated

[hardy olive]

The new GBA build in Unstable channel is for the new core or the old one?

[low carbon]

old core, it's an automatic build because the readme was updated 🙃

[hardy olive]

Thanks for the info! Just downloaded the GBA build from unstable channel and the graphics are messed at my side

[timid phoenix]

New readme build!

[blissful garden]

I've noticed the GBA_NEW core runs at a lower resolution than the regular GBA core does, can that be fixed or nah? (It doesn't even come close to filling the screen no matter what video options I change.)

[lone canyon]

Can you share your ini file here so we can see if you've missed something

[ionic phoenix]

You're probably using the 2x resolution option in the menu of the old core, because on my end the resolution is identical between both cores.

[blissful garden]

Which exact .ini files do I need to grab to compare?

24.04.10 on the left, GBA_NEW_250615 on the right. I want them to both be like the left.

[gilded schooner]

The GBA borders options are activated on the right side.

Desactivate them on the OSD.

Audio & Video > Borders OFF

That should do the trick.

[blissful garden]

Thank you, that indeed did the trick!

Holy crap that emoji is huge

[wide ember]

feels like cheating to use a six foot dart board

[snow galleon]

New GBA update in main updates. Old or new core?

[honest viper]

#1347219390130688024 message

[snow galleon]

The description is different from the unstable

but it definitely lines up with the old core page

[low carbon]

Researched the issue. The game requests a flash sector erase at this point in time.
The core stalls the cartridge interface actions until the sector erase is finished, which means 4096 writes to sdram, where the flash save buffer sits.
Because this takes a while, about 3 lines of video pass in meantime, causing the window update to be delayed by 3 lines as well, causing the flickering.

So the issue is that we have ROM and Flash in the same sdram and cannot read ROM data while a FLASH erase is going on, which would work perfectly fine on a real cartridge.
Clean solutions would be:

• using dual sdram to split ROM and Save memory
• larger FPGA to allow the Flash memory to stay in internal FPGA RAM

Non-clean tricks would be:

• try to save faster using sdram burst writes. Possibly writing about 6 times as fast, maybe fast enough to prevent this to happen
• fake for the game that the erase is still in progress and with each erase-done-check only do some of the 4096 writes. Not sure if the game gives up before we are done.
• buffer Flash commands and run them in the background whenever the sdram is currently not busy. Currently these time slots are used for refresh cycles only.

Overall the tricks seem a lot of effort for a non-clean solution, while the clean solution would be near zero effort, so i'm not super motivated to try any of the tricks.
Mostly because the issue is very minor. If a game would hang because of that, it would be different.

The reason why this works in the old core, is that the old core would stall the whole core on this action, so internal time does not pass.
However, when sync video to core is off, you would get a sync loss and with it on it would skip 1 frame.

[fierce eagle]

Dual ram version would probably be a hassle to maintain for not much benefit?

[hollow leaf]

dual ram redeemed again?

[fierce eagle]

I have and like dual ram. It's worth it for saturn alone imo.

Making dualram a toggle is probably not possible? So it stays one core?

[ionic phoenix]

Could the dual RAM build bring back some of the scrapped turbo modes from the old core, or would the latency still be too slow?

[honest viper]

Wonder how many games this would effect

[coarse cape]

Dual ram undefeated

[low carbon]

Turbo would be possible on the core, just fast forward is not

a simple instruction cache for the CPU would make it fly

[low carbon]

not for some minor flickering while saving. But in theory it would be possible to have it. Issue is as always that's it's not switchable so two builds...

[coarse cape]

This is a real dumb question from a not smart person (me): with the 9.2 boards, the framework can detect if you have single or dual ram automagically now. Can cores hook into that (and potentially use it to swap?)

[delicate python]

Robert will have a better answer, but my understanding is cores are either one or the other, they so there is no way for a dual ram core to run on a single ram set up (although a dual ram set up obviously can run single ram cores.

I raised a ticket years back asking if Main menu could have an icon showing if you have a second ram stick in (like how it does for single ram) but it wasn't possible as any core detecting and using the second ram stick wouldn't work for single ram users.

[coarse cape]

Ahh ok. Yeah, after I wrote that I was like “I wonder if it’s even possible to have both versions in the same core.”

Ah well

[low carbon]

The issue is that sdram wants very special control over the pins and not some hot-multiplexing with analog out. This is only really good with a fixed design/build.
Sure, somehow it could probably work, especially if low clock speed on the second sdram is enough, but I wouldn't go that way unless it's really important.

[coarse cape]

Gotcha. Thank you (and dandy) for being gentle :).

and it doesn’t seem like you want to dabble in the dark dual ram magicks just for this tiny thing

[sand saffron]

We back on the dual ram train bois! ||Probably not.||

[coarse cape]

https://tenor.com/uFRo.gif

[fringe comet]

Such a wide range of acting skill

[fathom lintel]

I wouldn't call the issue important enough that it needs a fix, I played through FireRed without even noticing it until Pokemon Emereld

[coarse cape]

we can postpone it but, eventually, dual ram comes for us all

[lone canyon]

not for me. I like having proper analog output and the ability to capture via HDMI at the same time with filters and such for the laymen watching what I capture

MiSTer 2 will solve all our problems so I can wait

[waxen verge]

would love to see turbo on the core someday. not a huge deal, but there's definitely some slowdown in the mmz games that affect gameplay

[fierce eagle]

Instead of speeding up the games I just slow down my brain. Works for everything.

[waxen verge]

good idea. i'll see what substances i can start taking to make everything feel faster

[low carbon]

I didn't invest time into turbo functions because there is always the old core. With turbo, accuracy is gone anyway, so you could just use the old core that offers a decent turbo(2-3x CPU speed)

[cinder prairie]

Ah so would the old core be renamed to be the turbo core?

[tepid moth]

Can we call the new one GBA AF?
Accuracy Focused

[low carbon]

it already has a name:

and yes, I should create a new release

[cinder prairie]

Maybe the final names should have accuracy build as the plain GBA name, as accuracy is typically the goal. Then the old core should have a different name. I think that's what they did with the Genesis/MD core.

[tardy warren]

genesis/md is an entirely different repo, and honestly sorg's intent was to retire the old one.

I guess he just left the repo but archived it so it still gets picked up by distribution. not sure how intentional that is

[timid phoenix]

Renaming would probably cause more confusion tbh

I think the new GBA_accuracy name is fine. It does what it says on the tin

[slim dust]

Is there a reason why gba_accuracy can't be downloaded automatically alongside the older core? Besides user confusion of seeing 2 different cores for the same platform.

[delicate python]

Just a heads up to @stiff junco so he is aware of this, so names.txt can handle any new one gracefully

[cinder prairie]

My only concern is that this might imply that cores that don't say "accuracy" are not accurate.

At least to new MiSTer users who might see it that way

[timid phoenix]

I get that, but renaming will then mean that what “the GBA core” means will depend on the date, which is probably confusing.

I suspect most people just see what’s names.txt brings up, so it’s all academic really anyway 🙂

Plus anyone who is buying a MiSTer probably knows ahead of time how accurate the cores are

Otherwise they’d save some money and get a pi

[delicate python]

Still might be worth putting one of them in the "Other" section

[timid phoenix]

Or an “Extra” section with the various turbo cores

And relegate the old Genesis core over there too

[honest viper]

I still vote for the old core being GBA Turbo, like N64 Turbo. Turbo implies more hacks, and there is precedent. That way the new core loads by default (useful for mgls).

[timid phoenix]

That’s not a bad idea either

Same with the Genesis core

[delicate python]

How many "turbo" cores do we have?

[timid phoenix]

But I still feel it will lead to confusion on here if “GBA” depends on the date

[timid phoenix]

4?
GBA (old), Genesis, PSX2X, N64_80MHz

[delicate python]

What benefits does the old Genesis core have over the current Nukey based one?

[timid phoenix]

Adaptive composite blend, turbo functionality, that’s probably it

Less accuracy

At this point it’s just the Sonic Spinball core for me

[lone canyon]

who needs adaptive blend ye? just go full authentic smear mode baby

[waxen verge]

extra sprites in the older genesis core as well

i really like it. i still use it over the megadrive core

[zealous nacelle]

That option breaks certain games unfortunately

[waxen verge]

does it? what games

[zealous nacelle]

Uhhhhh, off the top of my head Sonic. The title screen is missing like half his body.

My first experience with the MiSTer was that lol. Busted ass Sonic title screen.

[waxen verge]

damn

[zealous nacelle]

I don’t know if anyone catalogued what issues that option causes. Maybe it’s just Sonic?

It’s funny though, you should try it. I think it was Sonic 1.

[waxen verge]

i'll give it a go, thanks robby

[mental tendon]

wonder if theres a way to turn off rtc like on everdrive to simulate a dry battery on gen 3 pokemon? 🤔

[cinder prairie]

I wonder if that's a question better suite for #help

as that may be a simple matter of having the MiSTer ignore the rtc so the core would behave as though there isn't one

[mental tendon]

yes sorry. i will test that though. (feel like i did something similar)

[timid phoenix]

And this is why you’re a Pi Zealot!

[low carbon]

you can delete the RTC portion(last 16 byte) of the .sav file
Better backup the file before, but that should do it

[mental tendon]

thanks. will try that!

[patent nexus]

neat conformance tests and fixes from the mGBA folks: #783964415800246272 message

knowing Robert, probably already on top of it and collaborating, but didn't see any mention in the scrollback 🙂

[low carbon]

sorry, i currently don't have the time to skim all the important emudev channels. At least in this case it seems Mister already passes the test.

[fathom lintel]

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is completable on the core, didn't notice any issues

[low carbon]

new release build is available: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GBA_MiSTer/tree/accuracy/releases
Small fix for the CPU is integrated. (now passes the BLX test of alyosha)

[lean remnant]

thank you for the new release 😀

Have you check this issue on google sheet ?
Graphical Issue : "In the intro of Recca no Honoo - The Game (Japan), The lettering scrolling up the screen appears before it should and is black in the area where it shouldn't be visible. Then when the screen flashes white before going to the main title screen you see the last bit of text that scrolled up flash on screen for a few frames." Correct behavoir taking on Gameboy player https://imgur.com/a/N9taPHj (mgba have the correct behaviour)

[fathom lintel]

Jet grind radio also has a weird graphical issue on sprites, whether or not its connected to this

[low carbon]

Thank you, will add both to my list and take a look soon.
If anyone wants to help and speed it up: a savestate that loads directly into the issue(first frame after load) and is issue-free on the old core does help a lot.

[lean remnant]

the old core has the same issue for Recca

[low carbon]

that makes it more difficult. Let me check if it works in my emulator

is that how it's supposed to look?

[lean remnant]

yes it is the issue

the correct behavior is the video posted above

[low carbon]

i see, the text should be invisible instead of starting black?

[lean remnant]

yes

[low carbon]

like this?

[fathom lintel]

Here's a savestate for jet grind radio, just need to push up on d pad to see the issue

[lean remnant]

Yes like that
https://imgur.com/a/N9taPHj

[low carbon]

great, thank you. I assumed this was the bug as the text flickers when leaving the screen at the top 🙂

[lean remnant]

thank you 😉

[low carbon]

Please test, both games should be fixed. Didn't test much else to check if it broke anything else, so further testing would be great.

[lean remnant]

Awsome 🙂

[ashen heath]

The Recca issue looks good, on the non accuracy core currently in update_all also noticed a lot of bugged text and rendering in the database section, this is fixed in the new accuracy build too which is great.

I did notice that if you go to story mode there is what looks like a chunk of bugged pixles in the top left corner on the character select screen, it changes appearence or looks normal depending on which box you are on, would need to check this against real hardware. It shows on the old core too.

[ionic phoenix]

Isn't Recca no Honoo one of the rare GBA games that has compatibility problems with the DS?

[low carbon]

8x8 pixels looks like a stray sprite that wasn't hidden properly or a single background tile. Could be the core or a bug in the game, hard to tell.

[ashen heath]

Gone through a few youtube videos and they all show the same thing as the core. However, none of them state if they are real hardware capture so not much else I can do to look into it. Note that the left hand picture above is when you already have a saved game and are hovering over the continue game box, you won't see that option or the pixles if not.

[gilded schooner]

Fluke on original hardware, original game bug.

On my GBA.

Only visible with selecting the last character.

On the old core.

On today's accuracy core.

[ashen heath]

Yep, last character or if you have a file to continue on, all good, thanks for checking!

[stiff junco]

I think putting the GBA_accuracy core behind the established naming would be best, as I understand it is going to be the more accurate and from a pure replication viewpoint the "better" core? In 18 chars "Game Boy Adv. " leaves me only four characters and I would like to make it consistent with other alternative cores, like the old Genesis core. Instead of naming the old GBA and Genesis cores "(old)", which does not fit "Game Boy Adv. " anyways, I am thinking about just adding a "+" in the 18-chars versions.

Thus, GBA_accuracy would become "Game Boy Advance" and in the 54 char version "Nintendo Game Boy Advance (No Turbo, Higher Accuracy)"
The current GBA would become "Game Boy Adv. +" and "Nintendo Game Boy Advance + (Turbo, Less Accuracy)" in the 54 char version.

Nothing else I feel is feasible and it removes the negative undertone of "old".

[low carbon]

I wouldn't call it turbo, rather "extra features" or something like that. The core isn't faster unless you activate turbo and we might see turbo as option in the newer one as well at some point

[stiff junco]

Okay, that should work. Thanks for the input 🙂

[delicate python]

Thanks for keeping on top of all this. names.txt is a great feature we pretty much all appreciate maybe without even realising it. You are one of the project's unsung heroes. 🙂

[stiff junco]

Thanks a lot, Moondandy, it's much appreciated and thank you for keeping me in the loop.

The changes to names.txt are now live, including the same changes to Genesis/Mega Drive as well as fixes to qualifiers (symbols appended to core names) and Japanese core names. I added a description of the qualifiers to the github's main page:

• +: Alternate version, often older version with more features, but less accuracy.
• 2P: 2 Player Support
• 3D: 3D Support
• LLAPI: Low Latency API Support
• S: Sinden Light Gun Support
• W: Wide Screen

[coarse cape]

I need to put names.txt on a mister so I can keep up to date on this stuff

[flint notch]

NDS core so we can play SM64DS and be Wario Whenever Possible

[lean remnant]

Animaniacs: Hollywood Hypnotics working great on the core 🙂

[zealous nacelle]

How complete of a game is it and is it fun?

[lean remnant]

On Hidden place it is mentionned that game is completed
"But was the game finished? With today’s release, we can now confidently say yes, it was! Though still rough around the edges, the build we’re sharing today is playable all the way through to the final “battle” with Pinky and the Brain. Gameplay-wise, it’s somewhat akin to the Dizzy the Adventurer series: players solve puzzles across six studio lots using items found around the map or traded with NPCs. While the puzzles are generally straightforward, the game’s roughness does show in places. Players may find themselves stuck due to non-obvious alternate paths, unclear item interactions, and misleading NPC dialogue. There's also a double-jump mechanic that can be glitched through rapid button mashing. In fact, the ease of triggering it suggests it might be a bug, but the game begins requiring the extra height around half-way through, so it's a mystery whether this mechanic was going to be further refined or just left as-is. "

it is kind of point & click game with menu to change actions

[lone solstice]

Really?
I thought only that one Megaman Man Battle Network game had a weird bug when played on a phat ds. There are other GBA games with bugs on the DS?

[dapper forge]

Getting a lot of screen artifacts in Super Mario Advance 4 (latest release core)

It’s actually in any game 🤔

Lines showing up and disappearing randomly like the one over SFX

[zealous nacelle]

DiD YoU TeSt aGaInSt rEaL HaRdWaRe???

||just in case, the joke is people say that but in this case it’s obviously broken||

[dapper forge]

Lemme try to update main to the latest unstable

Same thing. It wasn’t like this a few days ago 🤔

Not happening with the previous stable. Latest stable is broken.

[gilded schooner]

Must be an incorrect seed used for the compilation by the bot.

We know for quite some time that the older GBA core needs some Fitter adjustments, like using seed 6 or 10 for the correct timing requirements.

Accuracy branch and latest unstable versions aren't affected.

[zealous nacelle]

I know there is sound and precise logic for the differences but I find amusement in something that’s so very digital like programming to have an almost analog like random result when compiling.

[dapper forge]

Accuracy release wen

[low carbon]

Is this the released core you get from update all?

It's probably the same old scaler(?) issue we have for 1 year now. N64 and PSX are also affected, no idea which other cores as well

Please try the latest unstable from the nightlies channel if it behaves the same

[dapper forge]

Yes! Latest stable from update_all

Previous stable doesn’t have the issue

[sleek pivot]

I’m getting the same issue on my machine with the stable release - affects every title for me, even the BIOS screen

All titles have a variant of this same issue - the lower center graphics keep cycling in the upper left corner of the screen with colors in the wrong hue

[low carbon]

please try this builds:
#unstable-nightlies message

[dapper forge]

Latest unstable is even worse

[low carbon]

ok...but at least this image is for sure the known bug

[sleek pivot]

I have the same issue as bootsector with the latest unstable core:

[tardy warren]

I swear what I'm about to say isn't as accusatory as it sounds, because I'm actually curious: why does it seem your cores seem to hit this weird scalar corruption issue more than others? why do you have the magic touch?

like there's probably a legitimate root cause here, you just seem good at getting it to show up for some reason

[sleek pivot]

ao486 also had a version of this issue, as well. I think it still does with the main version in update_all; I moved to the 25.01.13 build for most of my 0MHz stuff because I found it to be the most stable

[tardy warren]

meanwhile people were raw dogging unstable Saturn builds for like a year, every single one failed timing constraints. such a weird bug

[hollow leaf]

Soundless psx time was nice

[low carbon]

probably because all these cores (including ao486) are very full?

At least that seems more likely than me hiding the same weird bug in 4 different cores without anyone noticing 🙂

[tardy warren]

it's weird because saturn is absolutely packed too

[low carbon]

I never built Saturn, maybe i should throw in a some change so it also profits from my luck 😅

[ionic phoenix]

Never forget the Grandia RAM lottery.

[tardy warren]

yeah, but that is more deterministic

like I can make grandia work much better by just overclocking the ram

[coarse cape]

ramdoubler.exe

[tardy warren]

purchasable for $25 from my patreon

[timber silo]

Could it be gate interference when things get that tight?

[coarse cape]

gonna see if I can hit a build without corruption now

[gilded schooner]

Normally seed 10 should be fine.

[coarse cape]

that is the first one I am building with

[coarse cape]

This build looks ok to me. @dapper forge @sleek pivot Can you take a look if you have a chance?

[sleek pivot]

Sure - will take a look soon

[zealous nacelle]

I PEEEEEEEN’D

@coarse cape also you’re an awesome dude. I mean this sincerely; we are a richer community with you having joined us. I wish I had half your talent so I could also help.

[gilded schooner]

If I followed well, it's the older GBA core, not the accuracy one.

[zealous nacelle]

Oh OOPS

[zealous nacelle]

Ok thank you, I put it back lol

[coarse cape]

It’s really not much, duder. I’m just stealing valor

[sleek pivot]

Yep - you’re awesome, this one fixed the issue completely for me!

[dapper forge]

Who would think Jesus would be the best user in this server? Issue is 100% fixed!

Wondering what seed does the Saturn core use 🤔

[dapper forge]

Magical Seed 🫘

[coarse cape]

@gilded schooner @low carbon What are some historically problematic games I should test on this seed 10 build to make sure it's ok?

[hollow leaf]

Shrek2

[olive tinsel]

That build fixed the issues I was having the artifacting..

[coarse cape]

god I should go to bed. Spent like 20 minutes testing different games to make sure there was no corruption........

On my crt

[low carbon]

I wasn't aware that this issue is with GBA at all. No one reported an issue until now, so I think it's good.
Please tell me if you want to open a pull request or if I should upload it into the repo.

And thank you for spending time building it. Hopefully it was the first build 🙂

[olive tinsel]

I have been mostly playing handheld cores on the analogue pocket until this weekend so I just noticed it.

[coarse cape]

While I think most folks here have been playing the accuracy core, it is weird that the reports all kind of showed up at the same time. Both here and on the forums.

[coarse cape]

I have a PR ready - I just want to make sure the build is good

Shrek 2 runs so maybe it’s fine :p

[tardy warren]

did they all show up because another build got released?

[coarse cape]

the stable is from june 21st so it’s nearly 2 weeks old

[tardy warren]

yeah, that seems about right

people aren't terminally weird update_all runners

[coarse cape]

yeah, that’s fair

and the update_all aficionados are probably playing the accuracy core anyway

[fossil ridge]

I've been using the accuracy core for a while now, but update_all doesn't install it in any way, does it?

I mean, I've been installing it manually

[dapper forge]

I found out about the bug because my kid wanted to play “Mario 3 with voices” 🤣

[coarse cape]

“fixed” core is in update all

[coarse cape]

nah, accuracy core isn’t in update all yet

[coarse cape]

I take that back - I had it in the wrong folder. New PR for you @low carbon

[zealous nacelle]

every time I see PR I read it as “Puerto Rico” lol

[low carbon]

thank you, didn't notice when looking at the PR either

[coarse cape]

@low carbon I have no idea what but something got messed up with the release. It's not booting (even though its the same file from this channel). I must have messed something up. The file from this channel still works, so if you want to use that one and just re-upload it, that should fix it. No idea how I messed that up

[coarse cape]

I think I broke it when I moved it. I used rename since I wasn’t in front of my computer

[low carbon]

i see, it's only 1 kbyte in size.
Fixed it

[woeful ember]

Yeah I think I vaguely mentioned it to you like 2+ years ago when i did a framework update that I had to run a few seeds to find one that didn't have graphic issues in some games.

[unborn yew]

Why do they have issues, and would it possible to allow the GBA core to act as a DS playing a GBA game?

[low carbon]

you can read the details about it here: https://mgba.io/2017/05/29/holy-grail-bugs/

[lone solstice]

There's no real benefit to doing that other than your games running 0.12% slower
https://youtu.be/KM0w4USono0?t=8m58s

[unborn yew]

I’ve always wanted GBA games to run 0.12% slower, this is mandatory by 2030!

[unborn yew]

Now that I’ve actually read it, I’m extending the deadline to 2050, the root cause seems quite low level, and would prolly be hard to simulate-
Wait, would it be harder to simulate the DS’s flawed logic on an FPGA or would-

I have no clue how FPGAs actually work.

[fierce eagle]

You take a stone, flatten it, put electricity into and trick it into thinking. That's how all computers are made.

[unborn yew]

I meant in terms of programming one.

[lone solstice]

I guess aesthetics-wise, maybe you're into your GBA games having the Phat DS look

[mild root]

any big downsides to me replacing the old gba rbf with the new one?

[olive tinsel]

Probably depends on what's important to you. The extra features of the old one or more accuracy of the new one.

[mild root]

what were the extra features?

ngl i mostly just changed the color correction to 75% and played like that

[olive tinsel]

Im not sure I havent tried the new core yet I just know fpgazumspass said some features were sacrificed for it to be more accurate.

[mild root]

Oh it's the 2x scaling on mode 7 stuff that's cut out

[honest viper]

If you want both you can use the better names option in update_all, and put the new core in as GBA_accuracy_20250629.rbf, and it'll show as Game Boy Advance. The old core will show up as Game Boy Advance +

[mild root]

personally im using games menu so I rather just keep one

[zealous nacelle]

I think there was a fast forward and rewind feature too on the old core but I never used those so I’m not too sure

[honest viper]

Full list here:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GBA_MiSTer?tab=readme-ov-file#features

[fierce eagle]

@warm galleon how's that GBA audio filter coming along?

[warm galleon]

I'm currently not working on it, taking some time off from working on non-work related projects until September.

[warm galleon]

Taking the measurements of the handheld should be fairly quick and easy to do. Note however that the current IIR filter within the Mister framework fully bugs out the audio output with 8 out 10 filter presets that I create, or even more, making filter development incredibly difficult, especially if audio filters should be accurate. That is besides the aliasing distortion issue I discovered. There are some much required solutions necessary to improve audio quality and the stability of the audio filter of the main framework, before I can really start to pump out filters presets on a more regular basis.

[fierce eagle]

Enjoy your time off! That's really weird about the filters bugging out.

[warm galleon]

As far as I understand the code for the audio filter presets was public code offered by a university website, and the specific page is no longer available. I'm not sure what exactly this means, likely nobody now really knows how to improve it. Even back when it was implemented it was known that in some cases the filter would be bugging out the audio output, such as when setting the corner frequency too low, but it happens in plenty other cases as well, and I do not understand why it is happening.

The other issue is that the code to generate the filter presets behaves weird with generating 3rd order low pass filters. 1st and 2nd order low pass filters work just fine.

However when I want to create a 3rd order low pass filter, there is a discrepancy between the Python generated frequency response graphical representation, and the actual measured frequency response of the filter. As you can see in the first two images there is a large bump in the actual measurement of the filter, that is boosting frequencies before the filter starts to attenuate the high frequencies. This shouldn't happen with a Butterworth filter. The third image shows the responses of 1st and 2nd order filters in comparison, with a perfect response as expected.

To work around this issue, instead I resorted to use the Chebyshev filter option with has the ability to define a ripple value, which I used control the amount of the bump before the attenuation happens. However in this scenario even just very finely adjusting the ripple value can hugely displace the corner frequency of the entire filter, making it a very difficult balancing act to find a working combination of values to get the desired outcome. For the N64 filter I had to build roughly 300-400 different filter presets and manually measure them to find the closest possible match to the real console's frequency response. It's an extremely time intensive process for something that should in theory be very simple to create, and unfortunately many of the new filter presets I created just completely bug out the output, even when using 1st and 2nd order filters.

[crimson gate]

@pure talon made a matlab generator for filters at some point so that web site wasn't needed I think

[warm galleon]

That is exactly what I'm using. Unfortunately it has those issues that I mentioned earlier. Soltan has been providing me with as much information as he had available, including the scripts to generate the various audio filters.

[crimson gate]

there's limits to what it's reasonable to implement in the framework unfortunately

if there's something we can fix without increasing resource usage then feel free to point it out

but realistically we'll never have a FIR filter or something

[warm galleon]

I understand, and appreciate the support. I will look into it some more in early autumn and run some additional tests, and share my findings then. Even if just to provide feedback on what to improve and to draw attention to these aspects, for when a follow up device to the Mister becomes available and more resources can be dedicated to the audio side.

[woeful ember]

you could have an FIR filter, just it would have so few taps it wouldn't accomplish the brickwall desired for the areas where it would help over an IIR 😛

[low carbon]

specialized time multiplexed FIR filter isn't that bad with cores that still have space.
But it will not be possible to have it as part of the framework

[warm galleon]

Would it be a better approach then to try and improve the current IIR filter, and to take care of the aliasing distortion issue? I'd really love to use a FIR filter, but if we can not have a solution that can be implemented across all cores equally that might not be ideal.

[zealous nacelle]

@low carbon my kid loves playing Pokémon Fire Red on the new core, thank you!

[low carbon]

Thank you...but you are cruel! You let them play without fastforward like we had to do when we were childs?
Seriously I couldn't anymore today, but back then I somehow was not annoyed by it.
Maybe child time was not under constant time pressure like today and we could just enjoy the games as they have been. Good times.

[cinder prairie]

So we'll have ⏩ on the new core? 👀

[olive tinsel]

FF RW and Save states...things Ill never use for 500 Alex..

[fringe comet]

Kids need to learn that life is a hard, uphill battle. And Pokémon without fast forward is the perfect way to learn this.

[coarse cape]

probably not

[warm galleon]

I don't mind the slow game play, to me it feels like a time capsule into a more simple and slower paced life.

[fathom lintel]

I feel like i enjoy Pokemon more without fast forward. If i can zip through grinding i get bored alot quicker

Prevents me from spending too much time grinding too so i don't just one shot everything

[mild root]

that's the best part tho

[inner torrent]

Just don't grind

[wanton egret]

Something something Robby’s mom?

[zealous nacelle]

How bout your mom tough guy!

[hollow leaf]

Even you can do better robby

[jade wraith]

Robby is mom

[ashen axle]

Does anyone know if you need the RTC module for the MiSTer for the RTC to work on the GBA core?

[vagrant plover]

If your MiSTer is connected to the Internet you don't need the RTC module at all

[ionic phoenix]

RTC module is mainly for convenience if you don't have a wired or wireless internet connection.

[ashen axle]

Ah okay got it, thanks

Not sure why but my time/date is widely off from the time/date on my MiSTer

[fierce eagle]

Afaik there is an rtc script you should run if you have a rtc module installed. You only need to run it once.

[ashen axle]

Hm yea I don't have the RTC, that's why I was wondering if it was necessary for RTC support on the core, pokemon ruby the clock is just spinning around widly, pokemon firered is showing 00:00, but my system time is correct in MiSTer

Not a huge deal anyway was just wondering

[fierce eagle]

Is it the same on the old and new core?

[lean remnant]

https://bsky.app/profile/yoritoshi.bsky.social/post/3lu3dsumqm22u

Yoritoshi (@yoritoshi.bsky.social)

METALGUN SLINGER HAS BEEN FANTRANSLATED
METALGUN SLINGER HAS BEEN FANTRANSLATED
METALGUN SLINGER HAS BEEN FANTRANSLATED
retrogametalk.com/repository/g...

Bluesky · Jul 16, 2025, 11:46 AM

[ashen axle]

Does it on both cores lol

[fierce eagle]

Time flies.

[thorn osprey]

Do you have an RTC board installed in your Mister?

[ashen axle]

No I do not

[thorn osprey]

Is your Mister connected to the internet? Even without a valid clock to read from, I don't think the game should behave like that. I wonder if is it a bug, or an already known issue.
Time flies indeed lol.

[fierce eagle]

I'll check out what the core does when I get home but I don't remember these kinds of shenanigans.

[ashen axle]

Yea I have it connected via ethernet, clock on my MiSTer menu reads correctly

[fathom lintel]

I never noticed it either but i only played a couple hours of emerald and didn't check what the clock did. I'll check it later too when I'm home

[low carbon]

I tested RTC with Pokemon Ruby on the old core, so I'm quite sure it should work there. Didn't test with the new one yet

Maybe some romhack?

[ashen axle]

No its just a plain vanilla Pokemon ruby

[zealous nacelle]

Ok so, Metalgun Slinger was translated and interestingly it does not work in Ares but it does work on this core and on real hardware (with flash cart).

It also works on the previous GBA core.

[fierce eagle]

I tried vanilla ruby on the new core (250705) (probably not up to date), started the game, set the time, saved, did a cold reboot of the mister and loaded the game back up and the clock works as you'd expect. I have a RTC module installed though, dunno if that is important.

[ashen axle]

Yea so I did exactly what you did with the same core, started a new save on sapphire this time, and it works fine now? Except I don’t have the RTC module installed.

[fierce eagle]

Could you try it again with ruby? How close were you to the speed of light/black holes when you first tried ruby? Maybe it's just time dilation? Also check whether the ruby version you have is a good dump.

[ashen axle]

Yea probably should have mentioned I was in a tight orbit around Sagittarius A*.

Dump is good, ruby works fine too. Idk maybe it was something with the old save?

[fierce eagle]

I just wish there was a really cheap and shitty twilight zone show that would cover this kind of phenomena and get 10 million views. 😅 Maybe I finally found my calling.

[jade wraith]

I really think this is the cause, does it still happen if you move a little further away?

[ashen axle]

Kinda tough with that whole gravitational pull thing

[jade wraith]

Weeellllll yeah alright you got me there

[fierce eagle]

I can send my Battlestar when it's finished. Maybe tomorrow or the day after.

[sudden fulcrum]

OSD there's no Audio & Video > Borders ON/OFF in either of the last 2 cores (June/July 2025) cores that update all downloaded. Do I need to delete/reset something somewhere?

[coarse cape]

update all isn't downloading the accuracy core yet. you need to grab it from here. it should be in the channel pins

[sudden fulcrum]

Oh do I need the accuracy core to see the borders option? I thought it was supposed to be in both?

[coarse cape]

I believe it's just in the new core

someone can correct me if that's incorrect, but I don't remember it being in the old core

[honest viper]

Borders are new core only

[sudden fulcrum]

Interesting. In that case I'll grab the new core. Thanks guys. ❤️🙏🏾⭐️

[short anvil]

When will update all have the accuracy core?

[zealous nacelle]

Dunno, there’s still the internal debate of having two cores that do the exact same thing to solve.

Preferably this accuracy core just becomes the new GBA core and the old one is no longer distributed by update_all and can be added manually like the PSX2X core.

Granted there might be incompatible cfg files but that’s a small pain point that can be pushed through and shouldn’t be an issue at all.

[timid phoenix]

I understand the perspective of MiSTer not turning into retroarch with multiple cores, but it really seems an inevitability to me that we’ll end up with multiple cores for different consoles at some point

Whether or not they become “official” is another matter, but it’ll happen imo

[fierce eagle]

It's open source, you can make and put on it what you want. But I think the main distro should stay sleek and committed to accuracy.

[sudden fulcrum]

Doesn't the Megadrive core already have 2 cores that "do the exact same thing" though. In this case it's not exactly the same at all as some games are better on the accuracy core while others benefit from extra features like fast forward and save states.

[coarse cape]

No one is entirely sure why the old core is still in there. The assumption is that it offers a couple of things the MD core does. But it could just as easily be “it’s something sorg hasn’t gotten around to archiving”

but either way, there is no “standard” set for systems with multiple cores as that is the only system that has 2 cores in mister_devel

[delicate python]

I don't think update script grabs the old Genesis core anymore though, does it?

[coarse cape]

It does

I’m pretty sure

[zealous nacelle]

The intent is for it to no longer be distributed

But no one has gotten around to do that, I’ll ping Sorg again

[timid phoenix]

I’m well aware of that - my point is that over time I suspect there will be more cores that come out (because generally no dev likes taking other people’s code 😅), and over time it may be that some of these are “better” than the official ones (e.g. new MD core). It might be that the newer ones end up replacing old ones (e.g. MD), but it shouldn’t be the case that the official ones are just a case of “who got there first”. Not saying this is the case though

Also “accuracy” is kinda vague. What if a new core comes out but is more accurate in some ways and less in others?

(But it’s not my project and I’m sure the maintainers will continue to have the highest quality cores)

[hushed narwhal]

I like that we get to choose between cores for the same console. Especially when there's different features between them.

Like take this core for example, Il play all my GBA games on it bar pokemon. I don't think I could play Pokémon without fast mode or some sort of fast forward mode found in the other GBA core.

And vise versa. I think there was mention and talk of GBA link support being supported with this core. Whereas the other GBA core doesn't have it I believe

[delicate python]

Yeah, realistically it would be a really bad user experience to remove the current core and replace it with the new one, as there are too many features in the old core that people use that would be a terrible user experience to just remove. Hopefully we get some compromise where one of the cores moved to the "Other" folder or somewhere, so it is still there and can be kept up to date for people who prefer it.

[timid phoenix]

I believe even Robert said that he saw value in both

[delicate python]

Yeah

[timid phoenix]

But I do expect there will be a lot of “what core should I use” questions 😅

As there already are with the genesis/MD

[delicate python]

Unless there is some tangible benefits in the new core then people are going to have a better experience using the old one with the extra bells and whistles.

[timid phoenix]

I was going to use the new one since I never use the bells and whistles

And I tend to prefer accuracy over anything else, even if it’s imperceptible

[hushed narwhal]

I just have that tiktok rot brain where I apparently cannot deal with slow Pokémon games anymore.

[timid phoenix]

Don’t play them

[hushed narwhal]

Then Il never beat Pokémon mystery dungeon

To be fair, I've only ever beaten Pokémon Omega Ruby

[fringe comet]

Pokémon randomisers with fast forward on my phone was my perfect way to kill time when I was on my lunch at my old job.

[zealous nacelle]

If the intent of MiSTer is to deliver accuracy, then it would be a direct conflict of the project’s mission statement to prioritize a core with added emulation features over a core that is more accurate.

Now can I tell the difference between a more accurate core and the old one? Nope lol.

[waxen verge]

what does the old core have that the new one doesn't? fast forward and turbo?

[zealous nacelle]

Some other nice things like overclocked processor and 2x resolution for super fx style games, for the moving ground layer

The overclocked processor option gives that pop up pirate polygonal golf game a playable framerate

I am 100% confident I am the first human alive to have ever typed that sentence

Potentially also the only human alive who gives a shit about the pop up pirate polygonal golf game lmao

[waxen verge]

i really liked the overclocked cpu option in the old core, but that's about the only thing i'd say the new one is really lacking as i don't care much for fastforward

[mild root]

i liked the 2x res for f-zero

[unborn yew]

Can’t wait to play 4 Swords Adventures with this core!

(That is sadly a lie, as I do not have a working OG Wii or GameCube to play 4 Swords Adventures on)

[slim dust]

Most of us would be ok if the accuracy core replaced the original core as a default, and manually download the other if needed, but that is up to Robert and he seems to be fine with how things are now. Maybe once the core is finished something could be done about that. But I don't think replacing it now when the accuracy core is really a beta is the right call.

[zealous nacelle]

Yeah definitely not, it’ll be a while.

[sudden fulcrum]

doesn't the older md core have much better sound iirc. Where there's good reasons for more than one core of the same machine, cleanup should be avoided imho eg psx, md and now gba.

[zealous nacelle]

Basically we don’t want to be like Retroarch. I say we but what I mean are the MiSTer devs and not me lol.

What Retroarch does is offer the end user the choice of which emulation core to use for each system because some emulators do things better than others. Understandable and for some people that’s perfect.

MiSTer takes a different approach where accessibility is prioritized, meaning we don’t want to give the end user multiple options, we just want the one core that’s best and that’s it. Of course people can load whatever they want, just speaking strictly about the official update script and what it provides.

Is that reality? Maybe not but that’s the goal anyways.

[ionic phoenix]

It doesn't. The mega drive core is derived from the "nuked" FPGA schematics, so the accuracy should be accurate right down to the die.

[zealous nacelle]

If I come across as hard headed about this then I apologize. I don’t intend to come across as counter to what people want or not respect other’s preferences. I just try to echo the MiSTer dev’s goals and I really do value the simplicity of that approach.

Ultimately, regardless of what happens or what decisions are made, I’m happy playing my little magic retro box.

[sudden fulcrum]

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/MegaDrive_MiSTer/issues/5 I remember this discussion and there was something about megacd too and something not fitting due to the newer md core being so much bigger due to netlists (can't remember if that's the correct word)..sorry for the vagueness but yeah these probably account for why there are still 2 MD cores.

[sudden fulcrum]

Not hard-headed at all, at the end of the day we're all just looking for the best possible solution without losing anything of value. The fact that there are people like yourself trying to simplify that for people and make everyone's gaming life a little better is absolutely awesome. The love (for quality gaming and for the community itself) is a big part of what makes MiSTer such an amazing project.

[zealous nacelle]

Thank you, means a lot.

[sudden fulcrum]

imho these are symptoms of a much bigger problem that can't be solved overnight. Current setup:

1. Choose a core
2. Load a game
3. Hope that the settings are optimal for that game because a lot of setting are core-oriented and not game-oriented
4. When the game doesn't work as expected, or at all in the case of a lot of computer games for certain systems like vic20 or atari st, mess with settings. Then if those settings mess things up then end up having to delete settings files by ssh'ing into the mister or worse : unplugging the card and putting it ito a pc to fix problems (MGL files are touted as one solution but it doesn't work in these cases.

Optimal setup (hopefully on MiSTer 2 or at some point in the future)

1. Choose from a list of systems, eg MD or SNES, whatever.
2. Choose from a list of games for that system/console/computer/whatever
3. the game you chose loads it's optimal settings (and core if needed).
4. Play the game without problems, in its optimal environment, using a controller perfectly configured for that particular game.

[fringe comet]

In terms of the MD core's sound accuracy, my current understanding is that After Burner II is an outlier due to its weird audio trickery. Outside of that, I think it should be pretty damn accurate?

But this whole accurate/boost core situation is a pickle. For me, I'm more bothered about accuracy but I'm just one of many human MiSTer users who may have differing opinions.

[waxen verge]

i still use the old genesis core because i really like the extra sprites and cpu turbo options, even if they're not perfect

for casual genesis gaming, it still feels just like the real thing to me

also the old genesis core is more in-line with the sega CD and 32X cores, at least as far as settings go

[final prism]

I wouldn’t say the older core has “much better sound”. The issue linked shows that the only difference lies in how the audio is filtered, and with no filtering the audio is very similar to a model 1 VA0.

There is the issue of the 8khz whistling in After Burner 2, but again that’s down to filtering differences..

I would like to see the final issues resolved, it looks like what makes it difficult is that the Nuked MD core is rather “heavy” on FPGA resources and there isn’t much space left.. but surely it can be done

This might sound like I’m putting the old Genesis core down but I actually am a bit disappointed it was archived

It’s exceptionally accurate, only real issue was the bus arbiter hacks

I wonder if that could be rewritten with new knowledge gained from Nuked MD FPGA

[fringe comet]

It doesnt have proper DV1 support does it?

[final prism]

Not at the moment but all that it needs to get proper DV1 is to replace the framework and recompile

Like as in just copy the files in the sys folder on Template MiSTer into the sys folder in the Genesis core source

[fringe comet]

I'm gonna jump over to the MD channel is I'm aware this is getting off topic lol

[final prism]

Oh yeah good call!

[mild root]

was wondering

could the borders feature from the accuracy core be added to the gameboy and game boy color core?

[zealous nacelle]

It has Super Game Boy support

[mild root]

yea but that's only for og game boy games

[zealous nacelle]

The GBA core supporting the borders is effectively simulating a GB Player

[mild root]

yea and you can play Game Boy and Game Boy Color on a GB Player

[zealous nacelle]

GBC games work too but you lose the nicer GBC colors

Well the dual cart ones

Err you know what I mean lol, the black carts

[mild root]

I remember playing GB and GBC at a friends place with that Game Boy Player method back in the day

Namely just to show off Pokemon on the screen

[blissful garden]

Quick question about this before I pull the trigger and buy the kit...

1.) Is the long adapter board necessary for the link port to function at the right voltage?

2.) Are there any GB/GBC/GBA cores that don't support link cable functionality on MiSTer yet?

[honest viper]

You can play the GBC core with SGB borders. Good way to play certain GB games with special GBC colors like Metroid II

[lone canyon]

You can enable super Gameboy borders for Gameboy and Gameboy color. I have a whole collection of borders and use them with GBC core.

You don't have to use the super Gameboy core itself.

[jade wraith]

Even supports gbc hacks that have sgb borders despite not being possible to play on an sgb, like shockslayer’s crystal clear

[delicate python]

GBA cores don't support SNAC link cable, GBC does though. It may come to GBA one day, the same adaptor should work if/when it does.

[ionic phoenix]

There hasn't been an update in a while. Guess summer is slowing down progress.

[coarse cape]

are there still outstanding issues? I haven't checked

we had those scaler issues but that was with the old core

[delicate python]

Robert must be busy adding Shrek support to both cores. Only thing I can think of.

[coarse cape]

Ogre Accurate

[olive tinsel]

We all know a gba core isn't truly cycle accurate unless shrek works

[delicate python]

We are going to have to wait about four years for Robert's third GBA core before we can enjoy the majesty of 120p Shrek

[sand saffron]

It finally arrived...

[fierce eagle]

What lighty clad lady is this?

Also wasn't this the game with the dirty cartridges?

[sand saffron]

Yes...

No idea if the collector's edition has that issue, but most likely. It's a different cart though.

[fierce eagle]

Open it up and show us the gunk!

[crude marten]

the old recycled f-ram chips were apparently necessary cause they are long out of production

no way the grifters at lrg got some new ones just for the customers who paid more

they only confessed to this lower case fraud cause they were caught red handed

[fierce eagle]

Yeah but you could still clean the boards after soldering those chips in.

[mild root]

Lrg still doing lrg things I see

[lone canyon]

FeRAM chips are still produced, and they easily enough could've gotten alternative newer chips and made those work, but I think they did this whole "used chip" thing to probably save money and increase profits

[fierce eagle]

This may be a stupid question, but agaik inside gadgets also uses fram for savefiles instead of sram, so do the new modretro cartridges. How come those companies get their hands on new fram chips and lrg can't? Also it's not hard to clean pcbs after soldering.

[lone canyon]

like I said, I think they did it for profit margins.
using old original chips supposedly for the "authenticity" aspect perhaps to make it like an original cartridge, but in reality, money.

I can't see any other reasoning.

[fierce eagle]

I'm still mad they couldn't at least clean the pcbs tbh. 😅

[lone canyon]

ye, they could've done that, but that would've cost time and labor which is money

[fierce eagle]

Not that much labor. Production facilities I've seen have these big cleaning machines that basically work like you dishwasher at home.

[lone canyon]

still costs to do it compared to not. every penny matters to a company like LRG.
they don't care about the product itself, they care about profiting off nostalgia and FOMO while under the guise of game preservation.
That's just the unfortunate truth.
I still bought the collector's edition of Scott Pilgrim though

and I also got a Scott Pilgrim Switch case

[fierce eagle]

To my mind stuff like that is always a bad idea when you're selling to a vocal end customer like gamers. The residue on the cartridges is probably from no-clean flux and not corrosive at all, but everybody who doesn't know about pcb manufacturing will only see a dirty plate and complain and damage your reputation. Just clean the boards for 50c, increase price by 5$ and everybody's happy.

[naive spruce]

Rumble doesn’t work with the nso n64 controller. I tried the wario land jungle mod and drill dozer

[zealous nacelle]

Dumb question but is it in Xinput mode? Can it go into that input mode?

[naive spruce]

Iiiii don’t know, but i do know that the rumble works in other cores…?

[zealous nacelle]

Oh you know, there’s a GPIO hack option you need to turn on. It’s under one of the core options, forgot what it’s called.

[naive spruce]

I tried that it didn’t work for me, but I swapped over to a DualShock 4 and it worked straight away

[tardy warren]

oh

I see why

it looks like the NSO n64 controller only supports 'strong' motor rumble

assign joy_rumble = {8'd0, rumble_reg};

which the core never sets

[timber silo]

Perhaps forcing hard rumble should be implemented for those controllers

[tardy warren]

the problem is that the driver reports it supports weak rumble

I don't know if the controller is lying or the driver is tho

[coarse cape]

Soy Rumble? Not in MY controllers

[tardy warren]

I think that cores that only have a 'on/off' type rumble should just set both weak/strong motor values

[zealous nacelle]

Yeah fair point, might as well go all-in

[naive spruce]

So is that a core fix or a mister fix?

[low carbon]

core fix, unless Zakk has a good idea how to handle it in main. But given the small number of rumble cores, it probably makes sense to do it there?

[unborn yew]

“working serial port” would equal support for the GBA link cable over the User Port, right?

And the GBA to GCN link cable isn’t critically different from a GBA to GBA link cable, right?

[tardy warren]

it could be a driver issue with that n64 controller in particular, I'll look later today

[unborn yew]

Must have asked a stupid question, if no one answered.

[final prism]

Nah it’s just quiet around this time. But yeah, working serial port does mean the link cable. Not sure if gba to gcn cables would be supported but that would be awesome

[unborn yew]

It would also make me wish that the Morph-4K supported PiP.

(I don’t think it does, anyways)

[low carbon]

yes link cable support and possibly also GC support would be the plan. Recently I didn't have time to tackle it yet

[ionic phoenix]

Summer keeping you busy?

[fierce eagle]

It's been constantly raining in south Germany for over 1 week. 😦

[timid phoenix]

Maybe you did something to anger the gods

Like not worshipping Nintendo enough

[coarse cape]

In the list of potential things germany has done to piss off the gods, I feel like that may not be as high as say, other things

[brazen cradle]

‎ 🎩

🧿👄🧿 ✨
‎ 🫴

[hollow leaf]

Temps are going down('ish), so I take it as a win

[timid phoenix]

I don’t mean Germany, I mean Quirrin

[coarse cape]

oh, then yeah, definitely the nintendo thing

[fierce eagle]

What I meant to say was that summer shouldn't be too distracting for Robert right now. 😦 but thanks for explaining my karma to me.

[low carbon]

Job is keeping me busy, new position, new tasks. More challenging tasks than in the last years, so my need to tackle challenging things in the evenings and weekends dropped 😅

[fierce eagle]

But they will never love you as much as we do! 💔

[slim dust]

Maybe this is a known issue but I wanted to ask about super Mario advance 4. I can't get saves to work. I can get into the game and play, but every time I restart, it mentions a corrupted save and the save will be empty. Is there a workaround? Maybe I am using an incorrect rom?

[coarse cape]

Old core or new one

[dusty river]

check your rom

[sand saffron]

Maybe try deleting the save file as well. Back it up first though of course.

[dusty river]

I've had no issues with saving in sma4 on both cores

[slim dust]

Thanks guys, user error on my part. Happened in both cores. It seems the game needs you to save every time you stop. Once you continue if you don't save afterwards the save is deleted. Still getting the corrupted save error upon startup but the save works.

[fierce eagle]

Still weird it says it's corrupted. I take it this doesn't happen on real hardware?

I just tested it on the new core and I had a data corrupted note when booting for the very first time (the game probably doesn't expact there being no save data at all) but after that no issues saving and loading.

[low carbon]

very likely the old issue of random data in the sdramwhen no save game exists. Some of that old data might never be overwritten by the game and could result in permanent warnings.
There is a testrom that checks sram/flash content on startup that both cores fail, might be worth looking into some clear function when no save file exists.

This is a general mister issue however as it hits basically every core. Ideally the framework/linux would just overwrite the save area with a fixed pattern when no save file exists instead of burden that to each core.

[tardy warren]

I'm not sure it can, since when there is no initial file main has no size information for the save area, and most of them are implemented as file mounts that are lazily created on write

[low carbon]

Yes, probably needs some special support code in main for each core...

[slim dust]

At least it is playable on both mister cores. I tested using the analogue pocket GBA core and although you don't get the corrupted save error (you get a formatting indicator upon startup instead), I only get a black screen when in game.

[low carbon]

the analogue one or the ported mister core?

[slim dust]

The analogue one, I don't think the ported mister core is out. There hasn't been any updates on that for months.

[copper needle]

are they porting the new core or the old core?

[slim dust]

The old one, but never got to the finish line. I guess it is still in the works. Or maybe pivoted to wait till the new one is finished to port that one instead, which would make sense.

[vagrant plover]

budude2 slowed down on his porting work after he started a new job

[coarse cape]

And I think his intention is to port the new core? Although maybe that has changed

[vagrant plover]

I don't remember him really committing either way. He'd already started porting the old core quite a while before the new core was a thing.

Yeah the last conversation I can find with him talking about the new GBA core over on the fpgaming discord he said he'd looked at the code and that was it, no decision on if he'd port that version

[coarse cape]

Yeah, he’s been super busy

[vagrant plover]

His last comment about progress from a month ago

[blissful garden]

What's stopping you talented folks from dumping the cores from the Analogue Pocket firmware? Is it encryption? It'd be nice to get the NGPC core dumped and ported over to OpenFPGA.

I don't know how it all works, just spouting ideas out my ass. 😵‍💫

[low carbon]

Dumping is easy, but their FPGA is smaller than hours and uses different pins.

[zealous nacelle]

Analogue’s cores are all closed source and openFPGA is just a marketing term that has no real meaning beyond the analogue pocket.

[timid phoenix]

The MiSTer is the most open FPGA

openestFPGA

[fierce eagle]

Didn't development of the ngpc pick up again?

[slim dust]

It did, jotego has mentioned ngpc alongside Sega system 18 as the cores he wants finished and out of beta.

[timid phoenix]

I wonder why this one has given him so much trouble

[copper needle]

does seem strange

lack of motivation? first console core? span it off to an intern?

[tardy warren]

it required writing a new cpu

and the original person/people he gave it to apparently didn't do a good job so that wasted a bunch of time

and I assume he couldn't dedicate a lot of his time to it, because to do so would mean a long stretch of no releases

[copper needle]

oh yeah come to think of it i'm not sure he's done a whole cpu from scratch before

[delicate python]

I feel like a broken record, but if we want a NGPC core, at this stage his patreons would need to push him to publicly put development on indefinite hold and have him and make sure all the code etc. was publicly available (which it may be already) so someone else can pick it up

[blissful garden]

I just want to play SNK Gals Fighters, but it won't boot yet. Makes me sad. I can only play through Metal Slug so many times...

[zealous nacelle]

I’d like it ported over to the official MiSTer framework too and its directory structure being consistent with the other cores.

[tardy warren]

what's not consistent about it now?

[delicate python]

It is in the arcade section for one...

[timid phoenix]

I haven’t used it, but isn’t it also a bit arcadey in how it works?

Maybe that changed, but I remember someone complaining about that once

[tardy warren]

it's not in arcade anymore, that was fixed

it works just like any other console core at this point. rbf in _Console and the games dir is NeoGeoPocket

[zealous nacelle]

AWESOME

NGPC

[coarse cape]

No, that’s the black and white version. NGPC is still in arcade, but that’s because it’s a beta core and his drm only works when the core is in arcade I think. Once it goes public, it will live in consoles I think

They released some fixes for it a couple of weeks ago. And then he just did a development update today, and said that it was going back into development starting next week.

I spent 8 months complaining he abandoned it, only fair to celebrate its resurrection

And I should probably stop shitting up the GBA thread :p

[zealous nacelle]

So there’s two cores? Do you know if the intention is to deprecate the black and white NGP in favor of the NGPC?

[coarse cape]

Noooo idea. But yes, right now, there are two RBFs

I would assume they will be combined since the ngpc is backwards compatible

[zealous nacelle]

[coarse cape]

It’s just weird that they did two cores. Maybe the og pocket was easier

[lean remnant]

NGPC could be the only one we could use in the end because b&w games will be b&w on NGPC core

[gilded schooner]

I already use the NGPC core for the B&W games.
Two cores exist, as one is public, the other is beta/private at the moment.

The NGPC core works in the consoles folder, at least for me, but I use a MGL file.

[unborn yew]

How complicated is adding a mapper?

If the GBA Video Movie mapper hasn’t been added after this long, then adding a mapper must be at least somewhat complicated, given that if it was easy, or at least appeared easy, then someone would have done it by now.

Or am I silly, and is adding a new mapper very easy, and it’s just that no one cares to support the GBA Video Movies for obvious reasons?

[flint notch]

My guestimation is that it shouldn't be too hard to add the mappers for those

[waxen verge]

probably hasn't been added since no one wants to watch cartoons with the worst compression imaginable

and it would take up space in the core that could be used for other things

[delicate python]

Are you talking about the elusive Shrek mapper?

[fathom lintel]

Most of the cartoon carts will work, it's just Shrek

[tepid moth]

Someone archived the 'The Entire Shrek Movie But Its a GIF' gif, so you can kinda have the same experience anywhere 🙂

[fierce eagle]

Shrek will come to mister, and when it does will have a big party and watch it together.

[zealous nacelle]

lol

[tepid moth]

we need a server with less boosts, for the lower stream quality

[zealous nacelle]

the only reason why people care about that mapper is because the analogue pocket core has it

that’s it

[tepid moth]

that and its a meme by now

[zealous nacelle]

Ain’t nobody wanting to watch Shrek on GBA

except for me, I own the cart

[fathom lintel]

I wanna watch shrek on gba

[zealous nacelle]

you don’t count!

[fierce eagle]

I do. 😦

[tepid moth]

lol, of course

when the kids are bad. 'that's it, shrek on gba'

[fierce eagle]

I want to watch the gba version on my 77" screen with my nephews and gaslight them into thinking that this is how all movies looked like.

Hell, I'd even try and convert the lord of the rings movies for gba.

[zealous nacelle]

I mean it was that or the video now player for handheld movie playback

[tepid moth]

if you set a the softest filter its almost kinda slightly less bad

[zealous nacelle]

Yeah, I have a custom setup for GBA video

[tepid moth]

i used to convert shows for ngage, think was only images on GBA

just try n sit that thing on its side to watch landscape content

[fierce eagle]

I have the mister go through an rt4k. I could try and make a custom profile. That would be fun as well.

[fierce eagle]

Did the same for psp. But that was pretty boring since it looked great on the screen.

[tepid moth]

yeah psp was awesome for video n emulators before decent smartphones

once they let you run full res videos from memstick

[fierce eagle]

I remember Sony sending out free spiderman2 umds for some reason.

[tepid moth]

lol i think i have that

[fierce eagle]

I think I still have mine.

[tepid moth]

poor UMDs didnt get a lot of use after the tiff exploit(s)

[fierce eagle]

I still appreciate Sony sending it to me for free. More companies should do that.

[tepid moth]

you gotto love that they called it universal media disc, and only the PSP supported it

[zealous nacelle]

It was the evolution of the minidisc

[fierce eagle]

Imagine Robby sending you the Borderlands movie on blue ray for free to get you into BL4 mood.

[tepid moth]

universal in the sense it had stuff other than games I suppose

id like to imagine that!

[fierce eagle]

It was universal since it worked anywhere in the universe.

[fathom lintel]

Do disc reader lasers work the same in outer space as on earth?

[tepid moth]

'once sony corp controls the universe, everything will use UMD and all barrel jacks will be centre negative'

[fierce eagle]

Yeah as long as you provide an atmosphere.

[fathom lintel]

What about differing gravitational pulls?

[fierce eagle]

I reckon the psp and umd will be less susceptible than the viewer.

The movie still runs when all your bones are crushed by gravity.

[low carbon]

Complexity you can guess from the mGBA implementation: https://github.com/mgba-emu/mgba/commit/38e3dbc0fcec4356fff4212dee2c905d494f6c69
Overall it seems relativly simple.
But as it's for shrek only, that makes it horrible complicated and just impossible to justify the enormous amount of time required.

[timid phoenix]

You’re a good uncle. Kids need to know how things were back in our day

[unborn yew]

Technically, Shark Tale exists, but same difference, two GBA Movie carts with no unique content.

[timid phoenix]

Shark Tale as well?! I’m sure that changes everything 😂

[unborn yew]

Why add support for the Landline Modem in Dolphin when there’s so many other things to worry about? (until there wasn’t many other things to worry about, and it was added to Dolphin)

[waxen verge]

because dolphin doesn't have to worry about how much space they have left on an fpga

[low carbon]

Developers are weird, they always add things they are interested in 😅

[tardy warren]

also for dolphin all it requires is one person to decide they care about it

[waxen verge]

i'd argue modem support for 8-player double dash is way cooler than implementing a mapper for some cartoons on a 240x160 screen that no one will watch

[unborn yew]

The landline modem is not the broadband adapter.

It took a long time after they added support for the broadband adapter for support for the landline modem to come.

https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2024/04/30/dolphin-progress-report-february-march-and-april-2024/

[tardy warren]

how is this relevant to watching shrek on a gba core?

[waxen verge]

"why implement x feature into y thing"

[unborn yew]

I was bringing it up as an example of priorities.

No reason to add the mapper until, like, Shrek becomes one of the only carts in the whole GBA library to have any issues.

[waxen verge]

it's still a bad example considering dolphin has been around for like 15+ years(?) and the new gba core isn't even a year old

[fierce eagle]

I dream of converting the entire lord of the rings extended trilogy from blu ray to one gba cartridge and watch it for 12 hours.

[unborn yew]

The point isn’t that Dolphin added a feature.

The point is that it took until the tenth anniversary of their (at the time) progress report to add it, because there were many other things to worry about.

Plus, Dolphin doesn’t have to worry about keeping within a set amount of space.

I understand why GBA Shrek isn’t in, because there are much better things to worry about, like actual fun games instead of highly compressed movies.

[timid phoenix]

Also people know where the source code is if they want to add it

[tardy warren]

I will be the shrek savior. society will remember me forever

[hollow leaf]

Adding it wozld be too easy, making robert do it is the challenge

[tardy warren]

he still has to merge the PR

maybe that's too much work too

"I need to thoroughly review this code first"

[low carbon]

I will let 5 people watch it completly and film themselves as proof it works before merging it

[tardy warren]

they also have to obviously enjoy it the entire time

[vagrant plover]

https://tenor.com/view/yuimetal-gif-2236335851178412850

[delicate python]

That Luigi guy said he implemented it in his own GBA core, and after he figured out what to do it was simple to add.

[timid phoenix]

If the core is licensed under GPL, I demand to see his code

[fierce eagle]

The "mah source code" guy?

[fierce eagle]

And demand to see it right this second!

[delicate python]

Yeah that character

Although it seems he may have deleted all his messages in another Discord where I saw him talking about this

[zealous nacelle]

I wish he’d understand and reflect on his own behavior and reactions but that type of person never does.

[delicate python]

Maybe he is doing that after purging himself from Discord... Or maybe not.

Anyways, I do believe based on what he wrote that he did figure out and implement this mapper, but he isn't ever going to share what he did, so the only takeaway is that it is probably not actually that difficult if this guy figured it out and said it was actually simple.

[delicate python]

Is this an open source implementation of the mapper?

[coarse cape]

how can he not share, it is LICENSED UNDER THE GPL?!?!

[tardy warren]

if he never gives anyone a binary he can do what he wants!

[coarse cape]

i hate the law!!!!

[tepid moth]

Yeah mgba is oss and supports it, in software

https://mgba.io/2015/10/20/dumping-the-undumped/

[delicate python]

I can't remember the ins and outs of what he was all saying, as it seems to have been deleted now, but out of spite he was going to use some sort of liscence that meant in his eyes it couldn't be ported to the MiSTer cores. It was all a bit unhinged.

[delicate python]

Ah, for some reason thought this was FPGA, that makes sense if it is software

[tepid moth]

That article endrift wrote when she worked it out is maybe the most interesting thing about the cart 🙂

[fierce eagle]

I believe the L in Luigi stands for license. 😵‍💫

[bleak lagoon]

that's a fascinating read

[compact vessel]

Been a while since checking in. Any SNAC for GBA linking?
Surely this is more important than peeling onion layers 🧅

(The Shrek dream will never die. There's just no other way to watch it. Lost media it is!)

[delicate python]

No update on GBA link support as far as I am aware, although I think Robert is planning to support it in his new core

[zealous nacelle]

I just want everyone here to know that I get to enjoy this while you can’t HAW HAW

💪

[delicate python]

Robby is today's channel winner. Check back tomorrow to see if he retains his title.

[compact vessel]

I wonder would it rip to a donor cart.... But I need to emulate it! Shrek must be preserved for future generations!!!

[zealous nacelle]

I tried watching it once

On my GBA Micro for maximum experience

[olive tinsel]

Actually it works on the analogue pocket 😝

[zealous nacelle]

lol

[fierce eagle]

So analouge pocket is stronger than mister?

[olive tinsel]

Well it has mortal Kombat arcade..narc arcade and GBA video 🤷

[fierce eagle]

Soon it will have dc, ds and ps2 if this trend continues.

[flint notch]

It's not a good experience.

It's great!

[stark willow]

Does the Super Gameboy Core support the audio?

Like, the enhanced sound effects

[final prism]

Yup it does

[timber silo]

That's probably the main reason to use it over the Gameboy core

[zealous nacelle]

Play Animaniacs on the Super Game Boy core. Best example of how improved it can be.

[fierce eagle]

And that there is a bug in the game boy core when using the super game boy palette in Pokemon red/blue. The sprites flash green in combat.

[honest viper]

Donkey Kong on SGB is the best

There are some GB games that have better color on the GBC core like Metroid II. Just make sure GBC has a bios boot.rom

More info on black cart roms too:
https://www.retrorgb.com/graphics-modes-in-game-boy-black-cartridges-compared.html

[fierce eagle]

Not sure whether I agree on Metroid 2. The sgb palette also looks pretty good.

[honest viper]

Yeah it's pretty good, but I like the extra GBC colors

SGB

GBC

[zealous nacelle]

Damn, @fierce eagle Obliterated

[honest viper]

I think it's really cool how they added extra color data

[fierce eagle]

What do you mean extra? It's always 4. And also, pls don't obliterate me like that, Robby is laughing at me.

[zealous nacelle]

lol I’m kidding I do think they both look good

[honest viper]

Its a special color palette built into the GBC hardware just for Metroid II

[fierce eagle]

Yeah the palette is special but still just 4 colors.

[honest viper]

It's geat we all of the options

[fierce eagle]

The option to get obliterated.

[zealous nacelle]

He means that they made extra data defining the colors to use, not that there is more colors

[timber silo]

Metroid's armor colors are better on the gbc

[fierce eagle]

That's princess metroid to you

Boom! Obliterated!

[waxen verge]

metroid is a guy

[honest viper]

Metroid has bad knees

[olive tinsel]

Come on now you wouldn't need morph ball if you could just crawl 😱

[coarse cape]

checkmate atheists

[crude marten]

this section blew my mind as a kid

felt like a return to the fear factory that was Fusion

[coarse cape]

zero mission is excellent

hot take

[crude marten]

use to be so cheap in Game stores

felt like every gameboy 2nd hand section was 20% copies of Fusion & Zero Mission

[zealous nacelle]

Second best 2D Metroid up until that point imo

[fringe comet]

I'm shocked that some people didn't like it

Only thing I didn't care for was the comic book art style for the backgrounds

[fierce eagle]

I actually don't really like it. NES Metroid for me. 😎

[copper needle]

i really like zero mission

[coarse cape]

yeah. I might even say it’s better than super metroid. I think super metroid is great, but the qol of stuff they did with zero mission was so good

it may be my favorite 2d metroid

[simple ginkgo]

Same, it's a great game. I actually just convinced my brothers to try it out since they both ignored it on GBA when we were younger.

I played plenty of Super Metroid at friends houses growing up, but never owned it. So my first playthrough was just like 8 weeks ago. I thought it was a great game, but not to the level of Zero Mission.

[zealous nacelle]

omg

[coarse cape]

Super Metroid is a lot like Mario 64. Amazing game, one of the games when talking about video games.

But also Mario Odyssey is just a better game. We certainly don’t get a Mario odyssey without Mario 64 - but that doesn’t mean we cannot admit that it’s a better video game

[zealous nacelle]

If you were born after Mario 64 then you can’t even play it.

[tardy warren]

no one was born after mario 64 anyways

[crude marten]

https://tenor.com/view/walter-white-truth-nuke-walter-white-true-breaking-bad-truth-nuke-breaking-bad-true-gif-2370094217877194192

[blissful garden]

Speaking of Mario 64... I'm gonna get to meet somebody very special, very soon. 👀

[flint notch]

there's a Metroid 2 GBC hack

[sand saffron]

As the resident Metroid freak, some of these comments hurt my soul!

[coarse cape]

NAME YOUR DEVILS

[sand saffron]

https://tenor.com/view/angry-gary-oldman-everyone-gif-14317847

[fathom lintel]

I wasn't even born yet when super metroid released

Guess I can't ever play super metroid

[olive tinsel]

ok who is talking shit about metroid??!!

I really really like zero mission..it takes the original game and improves on it a lot. BUT...it also takes away a lot of the charm with all the hand holding it does. its not better than SM

Super Metroid improves on the formula of the original adds more areas and bosses but doesnt hold your hand so it keeps the exploration factor

then fusion doubles down on the handholding. 😡

[fathom lintel]

I like a little hand holding so I'm not going in between the light and dark world looking for what I changed by doing something like Metroid Prime Echoes

[olive tinsel]

well i dont hate handholding altogether..i do feel it has its place...it makes more sense in the prime games than 2d games

[fathom lintel]

But even the 2D games treat exploration like throwing holy water on the floor in castlevania 😛

[olive tinsel]

I also feel it was more appropriate in fusion that zero mission..the game was built around having the computer tell you where to go..but i still wasnt fond of it

[fathom lintel]

I still haven't finished fusion, I got a good way through it but something glitched on the core at the time when opening the OSD and I lost a bunch of progress so I'm still sour to go back and finish it but I finished zero mission

For what i played, it was alot more hand holdy than zero mission

At least they built it into the story

[olive tinsel]

isnt Adam malkovich the guy the computer is named after in some of the prime games?

or maybe other M?

[fathom lintel]

I don't know enough about Metroid lore to tell you whether or not that is true. It's been long enough since I played a prime game

and I wouldn't have a clue what the story was to other m because it was something I played for a couple hours then never came back lol

Metroid to me is girl in advanced suit goes and hunts down aliens john wick style. Does the story really matter?

[olive tinsel]

what annoyed me also about zero mission..a lot of those places you get routed to had alternate ways to get to them in the original game and they purposefully gated them off so you had to go the way they tell you to go.

it like i wanna go this way it shorter!! f**k you..you cant go that way we blocked it

[fathom lintel]

Ahh I can see how that would be annoying but I never finished the original so it didn't bother me

[olive tinsel]

I agree you dont need the lore to enjoy the games..but the lore can make it more interresting

[fathom lintel]

It 100% does but it's hard not to treat it like a Zelda game where it's connected but nothing is when you lose all your powerups in the first 5 mins

[olive tinsel]

and the ironiy is thats the only thing the lore doesnt explain..lol

Ive finished the original game many times metroid II on gameboy many times super metroid many times zero mission many times and fusion many times

[fathom lintel]

I'll get around to finishing fusion one of these days

[olive tinsel]

did you get past the nightmare boss?

that boss is the hardest boss in the game..even over the final boss

[fathom lintel]

I can't remember, I was at least 3 hours into the game so probably not?

Looked up a video, no I hadn't got there yet

[olive tinsel]

yeah once you beat him you got it licked..the final boss may give you trouble til you figure out the pattern once you learn it you cant not beat it

[fathom lintel]

I have faith

[olive tinsel]

I dont recall any place in any of those metroid games that felt like throwing holy water on the ground in castlevania..lol...Ilike castlevania 2 but i use a hack that unhides the holes in floors

[fathom lintel]

I'm just referring to it as shooting everything with the comparison

Shoot everything to look for a secret and then you still possibly have to shoot them with something else

Or put a bomb down or whatever

[olive tinsel]

I still think shooting at walls to find something is infinitely more fun than throwing holy water at the floor to avoid a hole

[fathom lintel]

Oh it is but it's a funny comparison

Like zelda tears of the kingdom is just banjo kazooie nuts and bolts

[fringe comet]

I wouldn't necessarily say it's hand holding in the GBA Metroid games; more just a way to prevent you wasting time.

Even though the game tells you where to go, you can still ignore it and look around.

[olive tinsel]

Well if I'm playing a game I got time to waste..lol

[fierce eagle]

Tbh I feel more like wasting my time when the game treats me like an idiot and shows me the solution.

That being said I don't like zero mission anyway.

[waxen verge]

i feel that you need some amount of guidance in a game like metroid

part of the reason i dislike zelda 1 so much is because it tells you basically nothing

[fierce eagle]

Tbf the map in metroid 1 is smaller than it seems. In metroid 2 the map is basically separated into levels and in super metroid you have suble clues on where to go.

[fierce eagle]

We had a similar discussion yesterday in the psx thread. Basically it boiled down to most people being daunted by open world jrpgs like dragon quest on nes and not wanting to explore the world but just being told where to go.

[waxen verge]

i mean, i think finding a middleground is the best. don't hold my hand the entire way through, but also don't drop me into a huge world with no clues/hints on what to do either

[fierce eagle]

But there are clues. I finished all of these games and while they can make you work it's not like they're completely cryptic.

[fringe comet]

Metroid 1 has clues?

The only thing Metroid 1 taught me is that I'm a fake gamer

[honest viper]

Gotta read that instruction booklet

[fierce eagle]

The map is really small. Not that many places to go.

[fringe comet]

It doesn't help that a lot of rooms feel copy pasted

[olive tinsel]

Some were and it happens a lot on the nes. Some games hide it better than others tho

You play the snes port with the added in game map and it becomes even more obvious.

[waxen verge]

i've not ever beaten a metroid game but i've been told by a friend to just play zero mission and am2r in place of metroid 1 and 2, respectively

[coarse cape]

Yes

[fierce eagle]

I am a friend and tell you the opposite.

[coarse cape]

https://tenor.com/d6iBLooXRT9.gif

[fierce eagle]

NES games keep getting shit on by people who never played them. I wish they got shit on by people who tried them for 3 minutes. Or by people who actually engaged with them as they were designed instead of expecting them to be as passively consumed as modern games.

[sand saffron]

My stance has always been to play the Metroid games in release order. NES Metroid is good and holds up better than most of Nintendo's early NES games. Zero Mission absolutely stomps it of course, but it doesn't replace it either, since it's a different game. And playing NES Metroid and Metroid 2 before playing Super Metroid really makes Super Metroid something special.

Also, the references to the original Metroid that are in Super Metroid are very specifically designed and modeled after the NES game. If, for example, you were to play Zero Mission before playing Super Metroid, the references would be almost completely missed since Zero Mission's take on those areas are so different looking that you'd never recognize them.

[waxen verge]

i'll consider giving metroid 1 another honest attempt but i can't promise that i'll stick with it or not

nothing could ever be as bad as zelda 1 though

frankly i'm a bit turned off by metroid 2 being a game boy game. not sure why they decided to put a sequel to a game as open as metroid on a console that's significantly less capable

[fierce eagle]

Metroid 2 is also more guided in return, since it's really a series of still big but linear areas.

And I recommend drawing a map for metroid 1.

There are also some romhacks that can help, like full health after game over.

Or a map screen in the pause menu, if you're planning to play with a map anyway.

[blissful garden]

I played Gilligan's Island on the NES as long as I could, but none of the buttons seemed to do a damn thing... so I gave up on it. It's literally the worst game I've ever played, on any platform.

[fierce eagle]

But at least you played it. 🥳 I remember thinking the final fantasy and dragon warrior games seeming to be really daunting on nes until I've actually tried playing them years later and they turned out to be some of the best games of all time.

[blissful garden]

The GBC ports are quite good too.

[fierce eagle]

Don't fancy the bright combat backgrounds. I like to stare into the darkness.

[blissful garden]

Fair, I played it on a stock screen with a wormlight.

[fierce eagle]

I get why they did it but I either play on mister or on chromatic these days, so it's just too much white.

[blissful garden]

Oh man, I am LOVING my Chromatic... Especially now that I have new buttons and D-pad in it. It's so good for development by skipping the bios screen too.

[fierce eagle]

Yeah right?? The screen is immaculate and it just feels great in your hand. Battery life is pretty good too and I like the fact that it can take normal batteries so it won't be a pain in 10 years to replace it.

I have dragonyhm and wicked plague on the way, really excited to get those games.

[sand saffron]

The reason why Metroid 2 (and Kid Icarus 2) were on Game Boy is because the teams that were responsible for those games worked on the Game Boy hardware and moved a lot of their development to Game Boy at the time.

[coarse cape]

I love Metroid and Metroid 2. But I think if someone asks “hey, where should I start?”, it’s better to give them the games that are more approachable like zero mission or fusion. Then they can go back and experience the others.

I would never shit talk Metroid or Samus Returns. Both games are phenomenal- but I dunno how good they are as baby’s first Metroid.

[fierce eagle]

I think the issue is more that modern games treat people like idiots and people get used to that sort of mindlessness. Same way dark souls really hit people square in the face when it released since they just weren't used to a game actually making them think in combat and in exploration.

[fringe comet]

I definitely engaged with Metroid 1 and I've beaten Samus is Back, but I just really couldn't get away with Metroid 1.

I think both games were probably a bit too ambitious for the hardware limitations.

[waxen verge]

i don't even play modern games, i just don't like to be left clueless and wondering where to go

hence why i hated zelda 1

if i ever play metroid 1 i'm at the very least going to use a patch of some kind

[fringe comet]

I even tried to make a map when I played it

[waxen verge]

i think alttp is a great example of a game that does a good job of guiding the player whilst not completely holding their hand

even if you wander aimlessly, you'll eventually gain at least some inkling of where to go/what to do next

[fierce eagle]

I would be genuinely interested what you think of the zelda1 redux romhack.

[waxen verge]

i played that one ages ago. it was good, and probably the definitive zelda 1 experience. it was essentially the base game with a bunch of qol though, so it still didn't do much for me

i suppose i just didn't find the combat and exploration in zelda 1 all that interesting

[fringe comet]

I prefer the swinginess of lttp link's sword as opposed to the pokiness of the first 2 games

[onyx lynx]

Is the new core on update all yet?

[tepid moth]

Not yet, unless you add the unstable db to your downloader.ini

[timber silo]

What's it's unstable name?

[smoky loom]

GBA_NEW_250629.rbf

[timber silo]

So in general it'll have the NEW part?

[dusty river]

Found some glitching on Super Mario Advance in the new core

(doesn't happen on hardware)

[gilded schooner]

Can confirm.

[low carbon]

Luigi is back for more licencing questions: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GBA_MiSTer/issues/161
To everyones surprise, he found that the core is using the mister framework 🙈
Anyone interested in answering? I will not, it's just stupid.

[coarse cape]

https://tenor.com/pMLlCvt33FY.gif

[low carbon]

It seems he solved himself. Some problems just disappear if you ignore them 🙂

[fierce eagle]

This guy has got to have some mental health problems, right? Doesn't even matter if he's trolling or serious at this point, something is clearly wrong.

[tardy warren]

lmao screenshotted

[copper needle]

either that or they're trying to take the code and commercialize it in some way and need all the ducks in a row

would explain why they were desperate for early sourcecode too

[fierce eagle]

So Lucky Palmer in disguise?

[coarse cape]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN2bK81Dxzs&t=130s

[low carbon]

doubt it, he already claims he is active FPGA dev:

FPGA development

    I'm working to integrate GBA EXT port hardware with the MiSTer-FPGA to connect the FPGA to a real console via link cable
    I've backported a number of fixes from the GBA 1P core to the GBA 2P core
    I have dreams of an NDS core but I think the DE-10 Nano FPGA may be at its limit for NDS

second point sounds like it is done, but there was no pull request or fork from him

[coarse cape]

he needs to get the licensing in order I'm sure

[copper needle]

could be an active fpga dev or could just be using chatgpt you never know these days

[low carbon]

I just hope he doesn't submit some weird pull request that traps us into something and Sorg accepts it due to not knowing the background

[copper needle]

could just ask sorg not to take any MRs from that guy without you also approving

[coarse cape]

we can also just wave sorg off if he does a PR

Give him a rundown

[fierce eagle]

We could also ask Luigi politely to keep his code to himself and not do a PR since he is terribly annoying and weird.

[gilded schooner]

Better inform Sorg.

Just to be sure.

[coarse cape]

I think you just did

[fierce eagle]

Oh is he reading this? Hi Luigi! 🤗 Hope you're doing well! Pls seek help, the licenses can't hurt you I promise!

[coarse cape]

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GBA_MiSTer/issues/161#issuecomment-3168684170

[tardy warren]

ya'll should just let this die silently

[low carbon]

I don't see a reason to accept this kind of stupid nonsense, it's not helping anyone. Closed the github issue finally

[coarse cape]

luigi will remember that

[low carbon]

I cannot remember a single case where a developer would even complain about license issues of their work, let alone that this was ignored.
It makes no sense to fight for things you didn't made in the name of developers you don't know.

[tardy warren]

I mean, stenzek exists 😅

[low carbon]

Sorry, I meant inside the Mister Project, not for open source overall.

[fierce eagle]

Gotta ask my parents under which license I was made.

[tardy warren]

as someone who had their own GPLv2 code "stolen" by "ex-apple engineers" I find license discussions exhausting. it's not worth my time

[delicate python]

FYI he randomly messaged me early this morning saying he had heard people we trash talking him here (was when I mentioned him doing the Shrek mapper a few days back), and some more weird stuff about GPL2 in a core. I just ignored it. However someone here is screencapping things and sending them to him (we know who it is as well) so keep that in mind.

[coarse cape]

I need names

[tepid moth]

The core deserves a better mole mania sequel than this

[timid phoenix]

https://tenor.com/view/angry-mob-mad-angry-get-hi-him-gif-15559264817013259719

Out the screenshotter!

[hollow leaf]

Is it Robby? I think he is holding a grudge that there is a gba v2 before virtual boy.
||\s d'uh||

[jade wraith]

It’s obviously igiuL

[fierce eagle]

His evil brother, Waluigi.

[charred stone]

I bet it's Iolui

the fourth brother

[fierce eagle]

Woah

That's some deep stuff

What else did Nintendo hide from us?

[timid phoenix]

TIL. Thank you

[charred stone]

I just really love supper mario broth and this seemed appropriate

[fierce eagle]

I actually think this is how all modern Pokemon are being made.

[zealous nacelle]

Ignore him and let’s stop talking about him. Moderation is taking the appropriate steps.

[coarse cape]

But I have more material

[fierce eagle]

I love shit talking as much as the next guy, probably even more. But that guy is clearly unwell so if Robby says he has it covered I'll leave it at that and hope Luigi recieves the help he needs. 🙏

[zealous nacelle]

I’d also ask to please be kind in speaking about others. MiSTer is a community filled with great people who are collaborative and supportive. Our actions reflect back on the community as a whole, whether we like it or not so let’s please be respectful.

My statement means that my actions also reflects on this community. Too bad for you I’m an unhinged weirdo who likes trains.

[jade wraith]

YOU are the mischievous fourth brother, Iolui, obsessed with trains and fpgas

[timber silo]

Really you like trains? Name five

[jade wraith]

Name every train! Go!

[zealous nacelle]

Nozomi, Hikari, Kodama, Hayabusa, Komachi

[fierce eagle]

Gesundheit.

[timber silo]

Oh dear. A train nerd and a weeb

(I have a Japanese copy of A-train 5 that I still need to play)

[tardy warren]

5 trains?

Choo, ChooChoo, Amtrak, Roscoe P. Coletrain, Thomas the Tank Engine

[fierce eagle]

Thomas is a tank engine and not a full train.

[timid phoenix]

I’ve met Thomas in…person?

[coarse cape]

my children went to see him a few weekends ago

its was like 100 degrees and they had to keep checking on the fat controller Mr Toppem Hat because the costume was bascially a thick cloth body suit

[fierce eagle]

Should we all pitch in and get Robby a Thomas the tank engine body pillow for Christmas?

[timid phoenix]

They don’t call him the fat controller anymore?

Has Thomas gone woke?

[honest viper]

Doom train from FF6 so he can suplex it

[coarse cape]

not in THE LAND OF THE FREE

[fierce eagle]

These people claim to be woke but then still sleep at night. Smh.

[copper needle]

maybe he lost weight? good for him

[jade wraith]

Yes

Sleeping time is over

[fossil ridge]

This is probably what is happening

[sand saffron]

Sounds like we need to train you better!

[zealous nacelle]

Can’t wait to hit the MiSTussy so I can play some Game Boy Advancussy

[honest viper]

Is ussy the new izzle?

[zealous nacelle]

Hell yeah

[timid phoenix]

[dapper forge]

Is @zealous nacelle Mario’s 5th invalid brother? 🤔

[lean remnant]

PR for the master branch maybe usable for the accuracy one
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GBA_MiSTer/pull/172

[low carbon]

yes, the accuracy branch will need the same change, will do it tomorrow hopefully

[lean remnant]

thank you 🙂

[gilded schooner]

I was available for compiling the core.