Nintendo GBA

[low carbon]

hmm, did you already made the change for accuracy?

because the fix is currently only merged for the main/old core, not for accuracy

[gilded schooner]

Yes, I took the PR from Paul and added it to the accuracy branch.

[low carbon]

in that case it would be great if you do a pull request or send me the file for checkin, so I can save the time 🙂

[gilded schooner]

Sorry, I was focused on the Saturn yesterday, I'm sending you the changes right now.

I had to change a file declaration on gba.qip, as there was a SyncFifoFallthrough.vhd file that doesn't exist inside the file hierarchy.
And on DDR3Mux.vhd, there was an error on line 246 where it should probably be mem.SyncFifo instead of mem.SyncFifoFallthrough.

[low carbon]

i will take a look, thank you

it seems the change was about the same, even with the larger DMA module change. Checked it in and added the missing file. Thank you!

[stark willow]

https://youtu.be/bgI58RrZbt8?si=N-kvdHxGVThtWjKV

If anyone tries to tell you the GBA couldnt have good music for what it's hardware was

You sent them this

[waxen verge]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOch470Om78 and this

[stark willow]

Every megaman

Especially z3

https://youtu.be/01O4prG3Kas?si=o_dvAtXPx9rfu51X

Zero 2 has one of my favorite tracks

[charred stone]

Zero 2's OST is one of my favorites

[stark willow]

I like it the most of the 4

[lone canyon]

Maximum experience is the GBA player on GC hooked up to a crap cheap small CRT with a built in VHS player and mono audio input with off colors and off geometry

[zealous nacelle]

Yeaaaaah right. You got a cube with a GB Player, you a rich kid.

[hollow leaf]

with only a small crt?

[zealous nacelle]

You wouldn’t have a small CRT

Actually no you could. Small kid CRT.

I actually rename this core the GB Player core because of its border support lol.

[lone canyon]

I don't lol. I have a Wii. My GB action is on MiSTer or on a 3DS if I want to be portable about it

[compact vessel]

I suppose it lets Pokémon Crystal get borders at last. Borders for everyone!

[fierce eagle]

Gen1 ftw

[honest viper]

Plus GameCube Gameboy player is 480i only🫨

[copper needle]

unless you run the modern/homebrew version of the gameboy player software

[fierce eagle]

Yeah GBI is completely superior. Though I don't use it much since MiSTer.

[jade wraith]

I had one but certainly wasn’t rich.

[copper needle]

i finally got the whole GBI/OSSC thing working and literally the same week rob dropped the first gba core out of nowhere

i never used it outside of tests

[waxen verge]

i sold my decked out gamecube and just use a wii for gamecube games now, and the mister for game boy games

much better setup imo

[simple ginkgo]

Yeah, I started with a decked out GC. Then I tried a Wii because I figured, why not, more games and easy to softmod. But then I started missing the Digital Out...

So now I've got a WiiU (with softmodded Wii mode) running at 480p to my Morph4k.

[zealous nacelle]

Can you do hdmi out on Wii easily

[waxen verge]

there's the cheap little wii>hdmi adapters you can get, i hear they're okay at least

the internal wii hdmi mod is better but costly and not the easiest install

gamecube and wii games via wii u is unfortunately really not great

[honest viper]

OSSC or Tinks are probably the best option without a hardware mod

[zealous nacelle]

Thanks for the answers! I like the Wii.c has some cool games on it.

[simple ginkgo]

Curious, why would that be/in what way?

Granted I only got the WiiU working yesterday with the softmod so I haven't really tested it thoroughly - but it produced a distinctly better image than my Wii via Component to Morph when testing Super Paper Mario and Metroid Prime Trilogy (both systems outputting 480p to my scaler).
It was almost immediately obvious when the camera zoomed in and out on the lines in the background in Flipside.

[simple ginkgo]

Ah, I read up on it. For anybody else who wants an education:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/fixing-vwii-mode.573265/

[zealous nacelle]

Thanks dude, I didn’t know either!

Seems like issues that wouldn’t bother me but I don’t know how to get GameCube running on my Wii U so I’m happy with my modded Cube.

[fathom lintel]

Nintendont

Using a modded cube is better than using vwii though anyways so not much point in knowing if you don't have to

[flint notch]

why are Wii games via Wii U not good? the Wii hardware is directly part of the Wii U

oh

I see someone linked

[waxen verge]

yeah, the games themselves run just as good as they would on a real wii, but the video output quality really suffers. shame too, as the wii u could be the ultimate solution for the three consoles if not for that

[delicate python]

Has nobody figured out a way to improve the Wii video on WiiU?

It is a real shame that the Wii didn't have an HDMI out

[ionic phoenix]

Baffling that the Wii U lacks an option to use the full color range.

[jade wraith]

Kinda sort of an overstatement- the average person won’t care that the video isn’t quite as good as it could have been considering the majority of people used composite cables for their Wii at best

For those who care, it is a massive downgrade 100%

The Wii’s native 240p for snes vc titles is pretty cool too

[waxen verge]

yeah, it's fine for casual gamers, but as a bit of a videophile, the muddy video and lack of 240p unfortunately makes the wii u a no-go. maybe in the future someone could figure out how to improve the video quality via softmods or something

[low carbon]

@warm galleon some research about the IIR filter by Paul:
https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GBA_MiSTer/issues/143#issuecomment-3184852600

[warm galleon]

It's not core dependent, it affects the entire system, just the ways that the issue affects the individual cores will vary depending on what kind of signals the core in question puts out, and their audio frequency bandwidths.

Example, the PSX and N64 cores have audio outputs ranging up to 24khz at most, so issues are not as noticeable (mostly it's a sense of extended or more prominent low and high frequency content as a result of aliasing distortion folding back into the human hearing range, as well as some minor issues with high frequency content sounds like beeps, clicks and interface or menu sounds such as in MGS, ending up to sound harsh or creating phantom notes in more extreme cases). With older consoles where there are channels such as square waves or other sounds which can theoretically produce an infinite series of overtones, it will result in what some people call a whistling effect. So the symptoms are different but the cause is the same.

I honestly don't even know if we need any kind of FIR filter, even IIR would be sufficient if it can be stable, especially if conserving processing resources is important.

I think the most important thing to get to the bottom of first is getting to understand how we can fix the issues with the audio resampling in the framework, specifically how we need to work with it to prevent high frequency content from turning into aliasing distortion in the human hearing range. If we can solve this issue, we create a situation where the audio output will be clean and any other persisting issues will hopefully be much easier to identify and solve. Even if aliasing still happens, but we are able to shift it outside of the human hearing range, it can also work, however it might be impossible when using the Mister at an internal sampling rate of 44.1khz, more doable with 96khz.

In my mind even trying to use a simple IIR filter as part of the resamlping stage could already fix the issues. At least I would love to test to see how the audio is being affected by placing an IIR filter at different positions within the resampling stage, or even trying to use a dedicated filter each time a signal gets resampled, so that we can gain more understanding for the best possible fix.

Maybe also this proposed solution is too simplistic, I don't know.

I will ask Paul for more information.

Besides that I also found out that there is an issue with the current IIR filter. 1st and 2nd order low pass filters are entirely stable, but 3rd order filters somehow come out with distorted filter shapes and lose their stability with a cutoff frequency below roughly 5khz.

It appears that the Python script is generating the filter coefficients correctly, so I am suspecting that there might be another issue with the framework and how it uses those coefficents maybe.

[fierce eagle]

Thanks for all the info bear 🙏 I understand about half of what you're talking about but I'm sure I'm not the only one who is glad to have such a knowledgeable and dedicated person work on improving the mister sound.

[warm galleon]

It feels like I only understand half about it myself, or else I would already have a solution available for it haha. Of course I will try and help as much as I can, in hopes of helping to facilitate a working solution.

[fierce eagle]

If I learned one thing from modding and tinkering over the years it's that full understanding is seldom necessary. Just try and get in the right direction and then brute force it by trial and error. Your heads harder than any wall if you just keep slamming it. 😅

[tardy warren]

the trial and error part is so painful when each trial is a 10+ minute verilog build

[fierce eagle]

Pain is an illusion. And there is all the sunken cost fallacy after a few tries anyway.

[hollow leaf]

I respect anyone who can keep on fpga'ing after enduring their first five builds

[warm galleon]

As long as I get to keep my sanity, I'm all good with such approach.

To keep it simple, the entire problem with the audio is that the Mister framework provides a solution to the cores, where the audio output is handled by the framework, so that core developers do not need to individually develop and implement a working core audio output to work with the Mister framework for each core.

And while this approach works and makes sense logically, as it will be unlikely for most devs to have sufficient understanding of digital audio, it doesn't work perfectly clean and introduces some issues in turn.

The difficulties are in understanding which issues are caused at which stages, and which solutions can be implemented without exceeding the available processing resources.

It also doesn't help that I'm not an FPGA developer, so at most I can just report back about my findings based on various methods of testing.

[timid phoenix]

Existence is pain

I’m Mr Meeseeks look at me

[warm galleon]

@low carbon paulb-nl has recorded some clips demonstrating that the noise channel works correctly when the IIR filter is disabled: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Template_MiSTer/issues/93

This is quite surprising to me as in theory the noise channel should be way off without using the IIR filter, but the opposite is true. This makes me believe that the audio issues that I encountered might not be just related to the aliasing issue at the resampling stage, but it's possible that the IIR filter itself might be unstable or somehow broken in addition, causing some issues with some specific cases as well.

I generated some 2nd order filters for paul to test with, which I know should be perfectly stable, however there was no difference with these.

[low carbon]

No idea to be honest. I would rather simulate that or redo in c to test instead of going through the large loop

[warm galleon]

Based on what paul provided the issue seems to be with the IIR filter, as the unfiltered output from the core with only the DC offset filter being active sounds correct.

[low carbon]

Yes, that is what i understand but the question is why the IIR would cause this. I mean, we use it for years already. Something weird must happen there

Maybe the frequency of the noise is too high

[warm galleon]

It actually makes no sense. Because if the noise channel is producing lots of high frequency content the IIR filter should actually help to make it sound more correct and not distort it. And with the IIR filter being turned off the results should be much worse.

But it highlights very clearly that in this specific case something is wrong with the filter. It's good that this comes up as the issues we have been dealing with might be more multifaceted than initially expected.

[low carbon]

maybe not at all, if the GBA output would only sample at 32Khz

while the IIR will catch way more samples

[warm galleon]

How does it operate now? It's possible that it all links back to the aliasing distortion issue as well, and it simply manifests as such specific issue.

[low carbon]

It currently captures all samples generated and smoothes them out. Maybe we should force a 32Khz sampling before sending it out of the core

[warm galleon]

If you can, please try and do this. I have said this before that I think limiting the frequency bandwidth from within the core could be a very simple solution, as this way at least there would be a hard cutoff for the highest possible frequency that can be put out by the core. In the case of 32khz it would be a max. frequency of 16khz, which I have a hard time believing would be able to cause any issues further down the line during the resampling process.

[low carbon]

Maybe this weekend, but i cannot promise that yet

[warm galleon]

There's no rush, I'm still in summer enjoyment mode and I promised to not bother you with audio related issues until later in September, but here we are again. 😅

[low carbon]

I put a note, maybe Paul wants to try before. The change itself is not much effort, but the testing is

[woeful ember]

this is kinda how the old genesis core worked to get around the nyquist sampling issue

the sn76489an could be "abused" as a sort of multiplexed multi channel instrument in itself as a sound chip, you could set a different effective sample rate to each instrument, and it was just outputting analog at very high khz, so it would get downsampled and you would hear lots of distortion and artifacts unless it did a kind of emulation-y workaround like emulators do to cap the output fromt he core side at a certain frequency

[fringe comet]

Ah is this the Afterburner issue?

[woeful ember]

i don't know for sure if it's related, but the solution would be similar

cap the frequency output at the core, before it gets to the audio output portions of the mister framework

[fringe comet]

Is oversampling a possibility?

[woeful ember]

at least on megadrive the issue is because the frequencies that are outside human hearing when downsampled to 48khz/96khz get into the human hearing range

it's the gibbs phenomenon

[fringe comet]

(I say this with not much knowledge of how audio works on a super technical level - I've just watched some Dan Worral videos)

[woeful ember]

not sure if that's related to this, but just meaning that there is an example of limiting the frequency at the core already in the project

personally, if we had a lot more resources, would be nice to replace the iir filter module with a cic-fir filter that has some kind of detection mechanism for the frequency rate and can adjust, or at least parameters

but to do that the right way would require so many taps that a few of the cores on the edges of resources would run out of resources after a framework update

[warm galleon]

Yes, it's one of the related issue.

[warm galleon]

Even a simple filter before nquist would likely be enough to sufficently deal with the gibbs pehnomenon.

[woeful ember]

well what is your definition of simple 😛

if you mean a brickwall, how many taps

[warm galleon]

@woeful ember does that mean that Jotego can basically use such a filter implementation because his arcade cores are likely never going to require as many processing resources as say the PSX or N64 cores?

I have zero understanding of a CIC filter and reading into it I find a bit difficult. However based on the basics that I understand it seems to be a perfect or at least viable solution for when you need to work with resampling multiple different sample rates and avoid aliasing distortions.

[woeful ember]

sorgelig did this with the megadrive core, but it wasn't a brickwall so it muffled the high end frequencies

[warm galleon]

Yes, it would have to be a steep brickwall filter likely.

[woeful ember]

it would probably be fine in the GBA core

the issue is mostly BRAM space for the LUT for the taps

then make sure you use bit shifts, addition, subtraction for the filter design, keep the dsp (multiply) usage to a minimum probably (unless we have a lot in the GBA core, not sure)

if you do one with 50 taps, no biggie, easy but then it muffles some of the high range, it would look something like this

[warm galleon]

Where do you propose placing this filter? My understanding is that the core audio output first gets upsampled to 7.056 MHz, then downsampled to either 48hz or 96khz sample rates, depending on how the Mister.ini is set up.

Wouldn't we be able to fix all of these issues by filtering the audio at the upsampling stage with a steep brickwall filter, somewhere around 20khz to prevent any further high frequency content from becoming problematic further down the line? It would likely have to be steeper than the filter you are showing above so that it doesn't affect audio below 20khz much or at all in the best case, but reaches high attenuation of about -100db or more before 22050hz. This way we should be avoiding any potential aliasing foldback and gibbs phenomenon shouldn't be happening either. Am I missing something?

The filter could actually be a lot less steep for when the Mister uses an internal sample rate of 96khz, because it would give us more range to apply the filter, say starting from 22khz and reaching high attenuation as we get closer somewhere around 48khz.

Ideally we'd have a dedicated anti-aliasing brickwall filter before each stage of resampling, but I'm not sure if such approach is possible.

[woeful ember]

i think that sounds correct yeah

[acoustic arch]

Hi, i tried unbound on my mister that has a rtc but i keep getting the warning for no rtc i enabled the rtc with the script

[acoustic arch]

i seem to have bigger problem, game doesnt save

[coarse cape]

do you have autosave turned on anjd are opening the OSD?

(it's a common "gotcha")

[acoustic arch]

its greyed out

[fierce eagle]

By unbound do you mean the romhack pokemon unbound? I googled the game and that's all I find.

[acoustic arch]

yes its what i found

i enabled the romhack option and it looks fine now

[fierce eagle]

You could try and see if you have the same issues with saving in firered (since it's based on that game) and the rtc in emerald. If those work fine you know it's not you mister setup in general.

[acoustic arch]

the rtc works now that i enable the romhack option (GPID HACK)

but i cant auto save

[fierce eagle]

Try setting storage to sdram or ddr3 and see if any of those work.

[acoustic arch]

where are those options? it wasnt saving on a regular emerald either

[fierce eagle]

Miscellaneous

Very top

[acoustic arch]

i just change it and then itll make auto save possible? do i need to reset or something?

[fierce eagle]

My theory is that the romhack changed the save format so the core is confused by it. I'm not an expert on the core or how saving works, just try and mess around with it and see if it starts working.

I had a similar issue with pokemon ultra violet on everdrive.

[acoustic arch]

maybe i needed to have a save file before i can auto save, looks fine now

[fierce eagle]

...yes.

[long forge]

I have been out of the loop with mister for a few months. Is this core still seprate from the main GBA core? Or has it replaced the GBA core in the main branch?

[onyx lynx]

currently yes it is still separate

[woven moss]

Hello, is this the core that has border support? How do I download this, I’ve tried update all but I still don’t see this. Please can someone help me with a copy of this new core

[vagrant plover]

It's the new core linked in the pins #1347219390130688024 message

[zealous nacelle]

It’s an option in update_all, turn that on and it’ll download. Then you’ll need to load a border in the core.

[woven moss]

Thank you

[brave heath]

GCN/GBA was my real "era" as a kid, having GCN support would be incredible--there are so many games I love that would use it.

[onyx lynx]

I got a stupid question

Is gamecube rumble available in either the regular core or the accuracy one

[delicate python]

What do you mean by GameCube rumble? Is that a specific thing? There is rumble on some games that supported it, I think via motors on the cart

[timber silo]

I think he's talking about games that have rumble when played on a GameCube like Mario and Luigi

I think that works if you tick the option in settings at least with the games I've tried

[delicate python]

The Game Boy Player added a rumble feature to certain Game Boy Advance games when played with a GameCube controller. Those games included:

Drill Dozer (also has rumble built into cartridge for mobile use)
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire
Shikakui Atama wo Marukusuru Advance: Kokugo Sansu Rika Shakai
Shikakui Atama wo Marukusuru Advance: Kanji Keisan
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

[fathom lintel]

What an underwhelming amount of games to use that feature

[delicate python]

It is odd how few there are. I am remembering this was discussed years ago and weirdly no confirmation in this thread it actually worked

https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=1016

Someone seems to have got some patched ROMs working, so maybe it does?

https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=5824

Probably worth someone trying on both cores, not exactly a lot of games on the list to check

[fathom lintel]

There's a patch for warioland 4 that supports the gamecube rumble too, never tried it

https://github.com/djedditt/wl4-rumble

[brave heath]

I struggle to imagine a reality where I want rumble in Super Mario Bros. 3.

[olive tinsel]

There are a few spots where rumble would cool in SMB3 the first thing that comes to mind is Bowser when he breaks the floor blooks

[delicate python]

I am a bit surprised it hasn't been patched into games as standard practice for ones that have had patches applied, although maybe it is hard to do

[olive tinsel]

I think some are afraid of over using it.

[zealous nacelle]

@low carbon are you doing the updated core for ModRetro? If you can’t answer then no problem.

[coarse cape]

https://tenor.com/gFPVEClNwV8.gif

[low carbon]

Yes. I worked on the new core to provide a more accurate solution for a new Modretro product.
However, the special display takes longer than expected and so development priorities shifted.
Instead of letting the core collect dust in the meantime, we decided to already give it to the community.

[coarse cape]

https://tenor.com/Zzv4.gif

[timid phoenix]

Gee, I really really wish ModRetro released some kind of FPGA based Virtual Boy at some point 😉

[coarse cape]

all eyes on the PSX repo 👀

[timid phoenix]

That’s surely the obvious one

[zealous nacelle]

Thank you for your transparency. It is genuinely appreciated.

[tardy warren]

he'll never put a distinctive frame counter in a core again!

[low carbon]

At least it wasn't some E2 error 😅

[cloud plinth]

Out of the loop here

Is there a plan for gba link cable by snac?

[coarse cape]

yes

[cloud plinth]

Nice

[unborn yew]

“E2”?

Also, are the protocols for the GBA to GCN cable with no cartridge in the GBA unknown, or is it just that no FOSS GBA BIOS has implemented that due to its minimal usefulness with emulation?

Like, Dolphin does have support, but it’s a somewhat more recent thing, being within the last 5 years, and GBA-GCN link cable support is a fringe feature overall still in the context of GBA emulation.

[delicate python]

Did anyone wind up checking if these games rumble on MiSTer or not?

[coarse cape]

I did a cursory search and didn’t see anything (so apologies if I missed it) but has anyone reported sound weirdness with analog sound? I’ve finally gotten around to playing some games on this core and noticed one thing for sure, and one thing I’ll need to check against the old core:

• When I open the menu, I sometimes get a quick sound distortion (like it has to slow down). This seems to only happen over analog audio
• I think the sound is slightly distorted. I’m using a 9.2 board so I wonder if it’s a similar problem to what the old core could have. This is something I need to look into more

[sand saffron]

I've only ever tried Drill Dozer, and it does rumble with my PS4 controller on MiSTer.

Admittedly, that was a long time ago when I tried it. And with the old GBA core.

[delicate python]

Hmm, that could be an outlier that rumbles because it also has rumble on the cart.

The list of GameCube rumble games again is:

Drill Dozer (also has rumble built into cartridge for mobile use)
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire
Shikakui Atama wo Marukusuru Advance: Kokugo Sansu Rika Shakai
Shikakui Atama wo Marukusuru Advance: Kanji Keisan
Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3

[fathom lintel]

I played some super mario advance 4 awhile ago and I don't recall it rumbling

Same with Pokemon pinball

[dusty river]

from the games I tried no, they don't even give you the option

though someone made hacks to convert them into cartridge rumble games

[coarse cape]

Filed it as it doesn't seem to be a known thing. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GBA_MiSTer/issues/173

[delicate python]

I wouldn't expect there to be an option on the game menu, I imagine they just rumble when played on GameCube GBA player (although I could be wrong)

[timber silo]

Lol Kanji learning games have rumble?

[zealous nacelle]

The game needs to present the GB Player logo in order for it to enable rumble.

That means the GBA game recognizes it’s in a GB Player.

[flint notch]

in Wario Land 4, in one of the treasure rooms (the one in Mystic Lake), I have been unable to break a block in water by dropping the Professor character into water onto a rock

I can name the version of the GBA core I was using

let me go look

it was not the old version of the core

GBA_250516

that version

it's an older version of the new core

[low carbon]

is that just in the new core and with every build? Sounds more like a timing issue if it only happens on analog out.
Not to mention that sound is the least touched part in the new core

[coarse cape]

I can check some of the older builds tomorrow

[tardy warren]

build a core with that false path change in sys. part of me is still suspicious the 9.2 audio issues popped up around the same time

[flint notch]

fyi this may be considered a bug report

I don't know why it's not working

it might be from an ESD event or something

[coarse cape]

Does the accuracy core have save states? If so, can you share one?

[flint notch]

yes let me get on that after work

[coarse cape]

still getting it on a fresh build

I did some direct audio tests (in regard to the sound being "crackly" and it's the same over digital and hdmi, so it's just the blip when you open the menu that's new

[flint notch]

@coarse cape where are savestates stored for this core?

[coarse cape]

/media/fat/savestates/gba (assuming the core supports them)

[flint notch]

yes, it supports them

I can provide my save data and a video of the expected behavior. The video was how I figured out something was wrong. btw, it might be something wrong with my DE10-Nano physically.

[coarse cape]

yeah, if you just want to drop the save state here, I can take a look

[flint notch]

okay

not able to do it at this very moment, but will have it good and ready soon

[flint notch]

before I give a savestate, let me update to the latest version and test that

my version is quite old

where can I find latest unstable?

[coarse cape]

Should be pinned

[coarse cape]

Core's back to May have the OSD sound hiccup (I can't go further back than that because the april core doesn't display on my CRT for whatever reason)

[flint notch]

managed to grab a savestate

from the earlier core

will go ahead and upload

but have to wait for Discord to update first

[coarse cape]

and just to be clear, you're using the accuracy core? or are you using the old stable core?

[flint notch]

the accuracy core, but not the most recent version

[coarse cape]

ok

[flint notch]

this one

[coarse cape]

I can test on the most recent - not a big deal

[flint notch]

did the savestate format change though?

[coarse cape]

shouldn't have

[flint notch]

okay cool

[coarse cape]

US version, yeah?

[flint notch]

yes

[coarse cape]

so do I need to throw this man on the white rock?

hold on, lemme find a video

[flint notch]

yes

I take it the savestate loaded.

[coarse cape]

yup, worked just fine

that man went right through that block

[flint notch]

then let me try something else

[coarse cape]

that's just straight from loading the save state

[flint notch]

hmmmmm

[coarse cape]

the core I'm using I built today, let me try the latest one from robert

[flint notch]

the core I was using was from May

[coarse cape]

try this one

I just tested on it and it was ok

(that's the latest from Robert)

[flint notch]

wait a minute I forgot to change my apparently-faulty SDRAM out

let's try that

that plus the most recent core seem to have fixed it

[low carbon]

You have some sdram that is able to run until this point(executing tens of millions of SDRAM reads) and the only issue is that the rock doesn't break?
You should play some lottery 🙂

[native schooner]

I didn't know this was a thing. Or how it even is. Woah

[delicate python]

The GBA player or the rumble?

[native schooner]

That kind of blows my mind how forward thinking the pin-out was on the GBA cartridge slot then

I had no idea it could interface with something like that

Rumble

[delicate python]

I have no idea how it works, all magic to me

Would be good to check if these games rumble in the core(s) or not though

[wet vale]

The magic of memory mapped I/O 😉

[low carbon]

Game Boy Player games will not rumble unless you mod them

[crude marten]

Pokémon pinball rumble works without modification?

[zealous nacelle]

It has a built in rumble I think or is that just the GBC game

Yeah I was, only Drill Dozer and that GBA rumble cart for the DS features built-in rumble

[crude marten]

I don’t play it while holding the GameCube Robbie

[zealous nacelle]

Damn, I’m the only one? Loool

[hollow leaf]

as always

[delicate python]

Thanks for confirming, I suspected that was probably the case as the core emulated an actual GBA and the rumble obviously wasn't supported on actual GBAs which didn't have rumble built in.

I wonder what the GBA player is doing to enable it and send that data to the controller. I am guessing software emulators have a way of doing this?

[onyx lynx]

The following is a shitpost I am not being serious: It be super fucking stupid (complimentary) if we ended up investigating this from a hardware standpoint and figured out gameboy rumble resulting in rumble romhacks but it also unlocked the ability to use a gamecube controller via snac LOL

[thorn osprey]

The game check if up+down+left+right are being pressed at the same time when the Game Boy Player screen comes up, the game boy player briefly presses them to let the game know it is running on a game boy player.
https://problemkaputt.de/gbatek.htm#gbagameboyplayer

[low carbon]

We could emulate that handling of the gamecube inside the core:

• detect the logo
• send the button combo
• detect rumble message send via serial connection and apply it to the existing rumble
  But best to wait until serial connection is stable before tackling that

[zealous nacelle]

Oh that’s so funny. So there’s no recognition of hardware, just checks for an input combination that’s impossible for a player to do and the hardware itself performs at boot.

[timid phoenix]

MiSTer emulating GameCube emulating GB?

[charred stone]

That honestly doesn't surprise me; there's PS1 controllers that identify themselves by keeping a button held the entire time the controller is in operation, Konami did it with a number of their rhythm games

[zealous nacelle]

lol that’s crazy

[charred stone]

Honestly though, it makes sense. You have a controller you want cost-reduced and you just want it to identify as a basic PS1 controller otherwise

[fossil ridge]

What happened in the end with the new/accurate GBA core? Was it released officially? Is the accurate one the official GBA core now? The old core seems to appear as GBA+ now so I don't quite understand the situation

[coarse cape]

hasn’t been officially released. the old core is still the GBA core

names.txt is renaming it for you

[dapper marsh]

I believe Robert still has a fair amount of work to do on the core before it sees a release

[sand saffron]

I'm sure he's dedicating most of his time to the M64 core at the moment. He'll get back to GBA soon enough.

[coarse cape]

Or he is just busy with work

[low carbon]

Sorry, I don't have the time currently, priorities shifted. It's not abandoned and will work fine for 99% of all games, so feel free to use it.
For some official release it's too early, as it still has some critical bugs in games that work fine in the old core.

[cinder prairie]

Do we have a compatibility list? That 1% might not be games that I'm interested in playing

[low carbon]

There is a testing sheet linked in the pins

[fringe comet]

The Barbie Horse Riding game works just in case you were concerned

[cinder prairie]

WTF? Eww! But um, thanks for making sure it works :D

Damn it, now I'm curious if the game is any good.

[zealous nacelle]

that’s how they get ya

[fringe comet]

It's good as an art experiment

[radiant sable]

If link cable compat is in development, I’ll relish the day where someone with 4 MiSTER setups uses them as controllers for TLoZ: Four Swords Adventures on GCN

[flint notch]

I've been playing Wario Land 4

[fossil ridge]

Best GBA game ever, for me 🙂 My first GBA game and I have very sweet memories of it, it was surreal and sounded Amiga-like. 10/10 game.

[sand saffron]

My favorite GBA game is Metroid Zero Mission.

[flint notch]

That's one of my favorites too

[zealous nacelle]

My favorite GBA game is Dragon Ball GT - Volume 1

[north jay]

Both the Metroids on GBA are solid.

[flint notch]

I agree with this

In recent times, I prefer Fusion because you can just get upgrades like in Super

[waxen verge]

i still don't know whether to suffer through the original metroid or play zero mission for my first dive into the series

[flint notch]

but in Zero Mission, ||some upgrades are oddly constrained to the Fully Powered Suit||

I would really prefer the openness of Super

but the controls of ZM and Fusion

Super has awkward weapon switching

like I think it could be done way better

also I have no clue why the GBA didn't have X and Y buttons

Nintendo took a very long time to really get portable system controllers right IMO

but even the Switch and Switch 2 have awkward dpads

meh

I also think the Switch and Switch 2 should come with a grip (my brother has one that didn't come with his Switch)

They both hurt my hands after playing portably after a while

[zealous nacelle]

Yeah, for me it’s mandatory for handheld play. I use a Mumba grip.

[timid phoenix]

I haven’t followed the accuracy core developments too closely, but is it all buttoned up now and released?

(Not that there’s anything wrong with the original core - I’m just curious)

[coarse cape]

No, robert had to focus on other things. There are still some things he wants to circle back to

#1347219390130688024 message

[timid phoenix]

No problem at all. Thank you

Usually I’m pretty good at searching, but discord search is particularly bad if you have no idea what’s been happening 😄

It turns out I didn’t even have to scroll far to find that message

[dapper marsh]

Ending up getting a request to play a Classic NES title (Castlevania) on stream earlier today and ran into the dreaded copy protection issue. I saw that Robert fixed the issue at least for the newer core, but what’s the best way to fix it for the current public core?

The patches I found wouldn’t work on my roms…guess I could try and find the right roms or I might have them patched on my old NDS flashcart

[dapper marsh]

Oops silly me, the problem was that I DID have the patched versions on there...needed the unpatched ones, d'oh!

[dapper forge]

MiSTer wins again!

[flint notch]

I dumped my GBA BIOS from a DS Lite. That's how I got mine.

[hexed delta]

is this GBA_20250810.rbf the latest version of the core?

[zealous nacelle]

according to the pins, yes

[hexed delta]

thanks

[spiral rain]

Hi! I'm experimenting with the possibility of making the GBA core work with real cartridges and I'm currently trying to learn about how the cartridge part of the core works

So a short bit of background - I work at Heber (creators of the Multisystem 2) and I've already successfully modified the Gameboy core to work with a hardware addon I've made but this was fairly straightforward because the Gameboy core replicated the original system's bus very accurately

The GBA core is a bit different and has a 32-bit cartridge bus instead of the original system's 16-bit

The main question is, are there any timings requirements I need to be aware of if I replace the cache module with an interface which I'm going to write?

It seems that if a word is already cached, the cache module provides it on the next clock cycle (at 100MHz) which will be impossible to do on a cart, but if not cached then it takes about 16 clock cycles which should be OK. Any potential flies in the ointment to be aware of?

In the case of the word not being cached, why is there no read_done pulse?

[carmine tiger]

Have you tried here, most MiSTer Devs discuss here..
https://discord.com/channels/834264850230018058/855519994287489034

[coarse cape]

they do?

[carmine tiger]

As well as here lol

[delicate python]

Most "MiSTer devs" definitely don't discuss development in that channel in another Discord, you can see that just from skimming it.

[carmine tiger]

Either way, someone might be able to offer advice.

[coarse cape]

I’ve seen Robert answering questions over there from time to time, but this is the channel for the new GBA core, so this is probably your best bet for getting questions answered

[carmine tiger]

I understand that, I take it he means the new core.

[coarse cape]

Could be. But I don’t know enough about the buses for either to be sure. In any event, this is the place where that question is most likely to be answered, I think

[spiral rain]

Just to make sure I'm looking at the right core, I'm aware of the following GBA cores:

1. https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GBA_MiSTer master branch
2. Accuracy branch of the above

And so far I've been under the impression that the "new core" which everyone talks about a lot is number 2 above? If it is then it looks like the memory mux part is the same.

[coarse cape]

Yup! The accuracy core is the WIP core.

[zealous nacelle]

WIP means “Wankers In Parliament” if you weren’t familiar with the term

[waxen verge]

me if i became a politician

[fringe comet]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61284686.amp

When you literally can't make it up

[flint notch]

hey that's very very cool!

[low carbon]

accuracy branch will make it much more easy to attach the cartridge bus as it already implements the interface from core side.

[spiral rain]

Thanks, do you have any recommendation for where I should attach the cartridge? I originally thought the cache might be the best place but I'm not so sure now.

[low carbon]

yes, here: https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GBA_MiSTer/blob/accuracy/rtl/gba_wrap.vhd#L322-L333

or modify the memorymux_extern module

[spiral rain]

Thanks, will give this a go tomorrow

[somber rain]

Love the collaboration!!!

[spiral rain]

Cart_readdata is still 32 bits at that point.
Still not sure about the best place to do it in that case. I'm thinking I might have to modify the memorymux_extern module unless there's any other suggestions?

What is the purpose of the cart_32 signal?

[low carbon]

GBA can read 32bit in a single clock cycles from the "cartridge interface handler" as long as it was prefetched.
While the cart itself is 16 bit only, when the CPU is busy doing other things, e.g. waiting for some multiply, the cartridge will continue to read sequential data and buffer it in case it's needed.
You will need to implement this yourself. The current memorymux_extern does quite some tricks to make it possible to do this prefetching with sdram, while still preserving required latency in case a random new address (non seqeuntial) is required.

Nand2Mario has a port/rewrite of the core that was working with carts at some point: https://github.com/nand2mario/gbatang

I don't know how far it was implemented in terms of cart interface.

[spiral rain]

Where was that working with real carts demonstrated? I didn't see any mention of it in the commit history or nand2mario's blog.

[low carbon]

Only seen it on twitter: https://x.com/nand2mario/status/1885572127056974123
I have one of the boards but not the cartridge slot attached to it, so I never tried it.

[lean remnant]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1AxSdSKzt0

[spiral rain]

Thanks. Nand2mario posts all the time on Twitter so my assumption would be that the project never got any further than reading the title of the cart on the basis that nothing else has been posted about it. There's certainly nothing related to it in the GitHub commits from around the same date as far as I can tell.

[copper needle]

thats amazing

[low carbon]

You could ask him, but yes, seems like the chances are slim then. I guess you have to do it on yourself then. I can support if there are questions, but I don't have more time for it.

[hardy olive]

The development of the accuracy core is done?

[coarse cape]

no

but robert is busy with other things atm

[low carbon]

Might continue next year. Recently there was just no time.

[lyric gust]

Whoah is this something you might sell and code you might share etc.?

[spiral rain]

Yeah we'll share the code if we ever get as far as something that works at least partially.
The code for the Gameboy core is already shared here:
https://github.com/Heber-co-uk/Gameboy_MiSTer_Cart

We also plan to open source the adapter itself (as well as selling it) as a bit of a showcase of what can be done on Multisystem2. We've freed up some IO from things like the LEDs on the DE10 so that they can be used for things like this on Multisystem2.

[lyric gust]

Awesome!

[zealous nacelle]

ohhhh a 60fps patch for Mario Kart - https://romhack.ing/database/content/entry/xlruT_gHReWVM1HtQL3Lmg/mario-kart-super-circuit-60-fps-patch

[cinder prairie]

Holy crap what a difference this makes!

But I just can't understand how they allowed such an oversight in the original game.

[fierce eagle]

Lazy devs.

[hollow leaf]

The original screen cannot update faster than 10fps /s

[timid phoenix]

Funny how you guys claim to like retro games but can’t wait to change them into something they’re not

[copper needle]

do they mean the map in the bottom right?

i cant really see what difference its making

[fierce eagle]

It's called romhacking and it's the pinnacle of human evolution.

[fringe comet]

I'm just thankful that the HTGDB game pack contains a nude Samus hack for Metroid II

[zealous nacelle]

omg

[copper needle]

are they planning on releasing that? it looks awesome

not just "wow cool tech demo" but "i actually want to play that" 😄

[lean remnant]

better than PSX 🙂

[zealous nacelle]

you have started a war! ||both systems are 32-bit lol||

[lean remnant]

play Ridge Racer on the train will be cool !

[magic knoll]

in the hack, the "mode 7" scaled track updates at 60 FPS instead of 30 FPS (as in the retail release). it's a pretty major change if you look at how the game originally runs. harder to tell just looking at the new footage. here's a quote from digital foundry that hopefully elucidates what the game was originally doing:

[copper needle]

oh wow that is a big difference then

[dull thorn]

curious if this change from 30/60 fps affects the battery drain at all

[final prism]

I can’t say for 100% sure but I would guess not, because the game actually is running all the calculations for the game at 60fps, just choosing to draw it every other frame

[zealous nacelle]

The difference on actual launch hardware isn’t as noticeable as you’d think because the game and all the sprites do run at 60fps.

[dapper forge]

Is the new GBA core the default? If not, what’s preventing it to be?

[lean remnant]

it is still in developpement

[dapper forge]

Release wen

[fierce eagle]

Before Christmas. Just not necessarily this or next. 🙃

[fringe comet]

Use the Megaman dating system: Christmas 20XX

[sand saffron]

The Mega Man dating system hasn't worked for me. I'm still single!

🥁

[waxen verge]

i accidentally walked in on roll in the shower

[fringe comet]

https://tenor.com/view/msnbc-nbc-dateline-tcap-to-catch-a-predator-gif-6268004529211151612

[coarse cape]

Nintendo GBA

[native fog]

I'm trying to enable Diniertos borders on the GBA core. Is it normal to not see a "borders" option under "Audio and Video" options I've ran update all and cant see enable borders as an option.

[fathom lintel]

That's only an option for the accurate core

Update all doesn't pull the accurate core down as far as I know, you gotta get the core from this channel

#1347219390130688024 message

[native fog]

@fathom lintel Ok thanks

[lyric gust]

Let me know if you get it working and what you think!

[native fog]

@lyric gust It worked. Having borders solves the issue I had with the GBA core on my CRT. For some reason I get this blue tint on the left of my screen and a yellow tint on the right. Thanks.

[lyric gust]

No problem!

[zealous nacelle]

Wow, I hate it!

[spring sequoia]

i threw my mister out of the window after witnessing that monstrosity

[lyric gust]

Sweet

https://tenor.com/view/mission-accomplished-gif-9140868

[blissful garden]

Have there been any newer builds?

[low carbon]

not in the last months, sorry

If you see any issues, feel free to raise them here so I have a chance to look at it when I come back to it.

[still rune]

"anime ot4ku borderpack"

why is this on my SD card while the default core has no borders

[fathom lintel]

Did you enable the dinerto border pack with update all?

[still rune]

neither way it's on here lol

[fathom lintel]

Borders are only for accurate core

[still rune]

yeah, I wanted them and didn't even know they were downloaded

where's the fake gameboy advance player one

it's probably avaliable online if I look up more .BOR sets

oh the "super" gameboy advanced ones look cool

Oh i see a bunch of them made for emulators

Should work if it's using the same .bor format for the borders, yes?

[still rune]

That's correct, i needed to download it from here

[fringe comet]

I think they might be the ones I made

[still rune]

well good job man

[fringe comet]

It's been a while since I've played GBA!

[still rune]

warioland 4 awaits !

[fringe comet]

Is it the black and purple one?

[still rune]

yup their yours

your user name is on the folder

[fringe comet]

Oh well that solves that lol

Well thank you and enjoy!

[still rune]

I like the one labeled SuperGBANeon2.bor

[fringe comet]

The name rolls off the tongue

[still rune]

well, it's your fault!

[fringe comet]

I had a lot of variations going on and forgot about making good names

[still rune]

I'm looking for one that looks closer to the gba player

oh damn, seems like the ones avaliable are just the ones provided by the community

[fringe comet]

Hmm I'm sure I made one similar to the GBA player...

[still rune]

curious if I could just make it with a tool or something

[fringe comet]

It's been quite a while since I messed with the borders

If I didn't make it, someone else definitely did!

[still rune]

there are other ones using the og gameboy borders

[fringe comet]

https://github.com/Dinierto/MiSTer-GBA-Borders there's a preview of them all here

[still rune]

yeah none of those look 1:1 to it

oh maybe indigo 2

[fringe comet]

There won't be a 1:1 because the resolution is so low so a lot had to be converted

[still rune]

yeah, I think the gbc player didn't even output 240p

none of these look like the defaults on the gc gamecube player

neither way, the options look good!

oh lol

I lose out on fastforwarding on this accuracy focused on

[lyric gust]

I'm not sure what you mean, I endeavored to add all of the GBA player borders, which ones are you missing?

[lyric gust]

They're pretty well documented if you can find one I missed please let me know so I can add them

[still rune]

these?

[still rune]

huh, these seem to the originals

I guess not having the "z for options" message on the top right messed me up

[fringe comet]

You wouldn't be able to fit that on nicely due to the lower resolution of the GBA core

The original GC was something like 708x480

[lyric gust]

Yeah the original files were like double resolution

[lyric gust]

Yep!

[austere marsh]

Is the lattice ecp5-45f suitable fpga for a gba core? How much work is it to port mister fpga core to it?

[coarse cape]

You may have better luck asking in #dev-talk - but most folks around here are going to be super familiar with the de10 nano (and clones)

[low carbon]

maybe barely able to fit it.
Probably not enough internal memory for EWRAM, so it would need external SRAM(256Kbyte)

[austere marsh]

Yeah I was considering external memory either way. But maybe the 85k LUT version is more reasonable?

[low carbon]

85k will fit the logic for sure, but not sure about the 256kbyte ram. But if you have external, it's fine.
Just make sure it's SRAM. SDRAM will not work, it needs really low latency.

[austere marsh]

Great, thank you! How much work do you think porting the core is? What would the biggest work packages be?

[austere marsh]

Just to clarify, I am looking for an fpga that can fit GBA core with smallest possible power draw

For a custom gba console

[lyric gust]

https://github.com/nand2mario/gbatang

This is a Game Boy Advance FPGA core for Sipeed Tang Mega 60K, Tang Mega 138K, Mega 138K Pro and the upcoming Tang Console 60K.

Do any of those work?

[austere marsh]

Perhaps, I think those use GW5AT-60 FPGA that could work, but heard they were more proprietary and less open source/ documented than the lattice

But the bram seems to be enough

[low carbon]

Porting effort depends on the one doing it...It took me some days to port from Cyclone 5 to Artix 7.
For someone else it took a very long time to port from one Cyclone 5 to another.(Analogue pocket).
So there is no universal answer.

Of course it's easier if you know the core and worked with the target platform and FPGA manufactorer before.

[lyric gust]

One reason I brought up the options above is that there is already a core available so that would be a time saver

[low carbon]

Last I knew was that it's only partly finished. E.g. Github lists Pokemon games as not booting.
But yes, it's another option for sure.

[lyric gust]

Ohh okay

Well they could help finish 😆

[zealous nacelle]

I name the accurate GBA core as “GameCube Player” because of the border support

[warm galleon]

Since we're talking about borders, I just finished revising and finishing the borders that I worked on last year. I learned more about working with color profiles and maintaining color accuracy, as well as averaging colors across a selection of samples. Therefore I was able to improve the colors of my borders quite a bit.

@lyric gust can you please add these to the gba border repository?

I wonder how well these colors translate when using an LCD screen. On my PVM they look a bit different, but still very good.

[lyric gust]

Hell yeah I can!

[lyric gust]

I can check it out

@warm galleon you haven't added any before is that right?

[warm galleon]

Nope, these are my first ones.

[lyric gust]

and should I credit you as BearOnGuitar?

[warm galleon]

Yes please

[lyric gust]

Got it!

Hmm when I rename these to BMP they don't load

oh yeah there's a python script

do you have like BMP or PNG versions?

[warm galleon]

I attached a zip file of the .bor files above.

[lyric gust]

for the thumbnails

yeah do you have regular images for the thumbnails

[warm galleon]

Let me check.

[lyric gust]

Sweet

If not no big deal but the thumbnails are nice for a preview

[warm galleon]

This one should be correct now.

I just tested the .bor files, they all work.

[lyric gust]

wait what did you change

[warm galleon]

I created a new zip archive with .bor files.

[lyric gust]

is it different from the first one?

[warm galleon]

It should be the same, but just to be sure I zipped the files into a new archive.

[lyric gust]

Ahh okay, well the files are added! Do you have any regular BMP or PNG versions I can use for thumbnails?

[warm galleon]

Do you require them in their original size or can they be upscaled? I have 4x resolution .png files available right away.

[lyric gust]

depends on if they're like, nearest neighbor upscaled or if there are artifacts

They're probably fine though

[warm galleon]

They're nearest neighbour upscaled.

Do they need to have identical file names?

[lyric gust]

Yeah the file names should match the border names

[warm galleon]

Let me know if they work, or if you need anything else.

[lyric gust]

Everything is added, readme updated, let's see if they pull now

[warm galleon]

I just realized I left the Zelda game screen in the thumbnails. If you want I can also send you a version without the game screen.

[lyric gust]

It's fine lol

Looks great @warm galleon

Everything works!

https://tenor.com/view/hot-day-damn-gif-21840770

[still rune]

Looks simple and clean

Good job

[zealous nacelle]

the hell is this!!!!!!

[lyric gust]

One of my GBA Micro borders for the gba core lol

[zealous nacelle]

You’re making GBA hardware repros now!!!!

[lyric gust]

yeah that's definitely what happened

[still rune]

why does the anniversary one only have a select and start option without the nintendo logo

oh yeah none of them had it printed like that

[lyric gust]

Yeah only that one model had it

[still rune]

that's the one I have

with it's box

bought it rather cheaply too because the store was closing down

[lyric gust]

Should I add gradiant lighting like in this picture?

like, to all of them

[still rune]

it isn't as shiny as the box

the plates are glossy but not that glossy

[lyric gust]

ahh

I like not doing more work

[still rune]

I'm also attempting to make one but realized the screen isn't 3:2 on this one

damn shame too

[still rune]

it's a solid colored plate that has a slight gradiant shift but not as aggressive as the box art

like it changes color more due to reflections

[lyric gust]

Yeah

[crude marten]

i always want a “4 swords” GBM collection. i found it too expensive to get some of those color tho

[fringe comet]

Are widescreen borders out of the question?

Can't remember if this ever got asked

[lyric gust]

Seems like it was asked before but I don't remember

[zealous nacelle]

I don’t remember, hope that helps

[fringe comet]

I'll remember this!

[zealous nacelle]

I felt bad so i searched lol - #1347219390130688024 message

[fringe comet]

Ah pitfalls, we don't want those

Especially the Mayan Adventure

[lyric gust]

I thought I remembered it being rejected but didn't remember why

DAMN YOU PITFALLS

[still rune]

Speaking of wide screen, who's the one that collected the wallpaper selection

Such a good choice of mah nostalgia picks

[lyric gust]

I think there are a couple, I should add mine some day lol

[still rune]

Who ever added the ECW images is the man

[lyric gust]

Maybe @zealous nacelle or @cold jewel ?

[zealous nacelle]

not me

[cold jewel]

I'm sorry for being ignorant but what is ECW?

How are you doing Robby? Looking great brother!!💪🏻

[zealous nacelle]

I’m doing great but not as great as your badass backgrounds! Thanks for keeping that going, brother! 💪

[cold jewel]

Thank you! I'm trying. I've been burned out for a while but I think I'm finally past it. I'm putting a large focus on physical prints to sell at conventions.

Is ECW the wrestling company?

[zealous nacelle]

Yeah! Sorry didn’t answer your question lol

[cold jewel]

No it's okay. I didn't design any ECW wallpapers either.

[cold jewel]

Lol!

[lyric gust]

Just a reminder if anybody wants to contribute borders we have lots of resources for how to do it and if you submit them to me I can get them added to the official repository!

[boreal flame]

I see there are conflicts that may arise if using both the WIP core and the prod core. Has anyone been having a rough time with this?

I didn't see any notes about needing to run unstable MiSTer so I'm assuming the WIP core will work with the latest prod version, is that right?

[coarse cape]

yes, that's correct. And I run both cores without issue. What issues are you anticipating?

[zealous nacelle]

I do the whole MGL setname googly do to set different names for each so I can have different configs

[hybrid turret]

Is there a Robby Flexing border yet? Asking for a friend...

[lyric gust]

There literally is lol

Unofficially

[snow galleon]

dang it, robby!

[timid phoenix]

Best border ever

[hybrid turret]

Wish we had animated GIF boarders and it was just Robby Flexing like that Shia LaBeuf thing

[pearl lava]

https://tenor.com/view/just-do-it-shia-la-beouf-do-it-gif-4531935

[zealous nacelle]

I unironically feel motivated by that lol

[nocturne sable]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcadeboy/arcadeboy-the-ultimate-game-boy-arcade-cabinet-diy-kit/

For GameBoy nerds, this guy added more early bird options.

Love this thing. Hope it succeeds.

[fringe comet]

Huh that's made me realise I've never played GB games with my arcade stick

[crude marten]

works really well with Donkey Kong ‘94

[zealous nacelle]

I hope he succeeds too but asking $800 and it doesn’t even come with the Gameboy is absolutely nuts.

Plus who is this guy anyways? First Kickstarter too? I’m sorry, that’s a gigantic red flag.

[nocturne sable]

You are reading that wrong. It's $499

Ya it's expensive still

[zealous nacelle]

I am not, the early bird is $700 but a fully built unit is $800.

[nocturne sable]

He has a video showing off his custom FPGA board to drive some special features

[zealous nacelle]

yeah so do a lot of other charlatans

Not saying he is

[nocturne sable]

I just backed the project for $499 in the US

[zealous nacelle]

But I am saying more people promise than deliver wihen it comes to FPGA, like waaaaay more

[zealous nacelle]

Brother I want you have it and I want it to be happy. It genuinely seems awesome.

[nocturne sable]

Idk why you are seeing a different price

[zealous nacelle]

No one wants these things to do poorly. It reflects poorly on everyone in the FPGA hobby. Look at SuperSega who became a laughing stock of retro gaming.

Good news is it’s an All or Nothing campaign.

So if it doesn’t get funded you’ll get your money back.

[nocturne sable]

Yep

He has a new video showing off the completed project fully working already.

So if It's successful it works at least

[copper needle]

that seems weirdly expensive

[nocturne sable]

https://youtu.be/hznptn42Tq4?si=T1CCHnqGtgF8ZukG

The project involves more than appears on the surface

[zealous nacelle]

It reminds me of the in-store displays

[boreal flame]

I'm not sure what to expect; I've never run two cores which have the samse "internal" name before 🙂

[boreal flame]

Slightly off topic, but I've been wanting to build something similar for a while now, but using MiSTer and the 9.7" iPad screen.

[nocturne sable]

ya I'm not sure he needed to go as custom as he did but it does make it unique.

[boreal flame]

For myself, not for anyone else. I mean if I drafted plans I'd be happy to share those measurements, etc. A small bartop using the iPad display + some Seimitsu parts + some ports routed for USB, etc., would be fantastic.

I would want to have a relatively easy HDMI out option too, to utilize a larger display when desired, but that seems complicated without building an HDMI switch into it. Anyways!

[waxen verge]

why did this thread randomly show up when no one said anything

[cedar marsh]

Sorry, I posted a message containing only a . so that the thread would be permanently visible for me without having to go through the Mister Cores list every time. Deleted the message immediately after.

[waxen verge]

i thought the thread had become sentient and was beckoning me

[fierce eagle]

Because we all long for the accurate core and willed it into being.

[cedar marsh]

Nah but that new GBA core was callin' me tho 👀

[waxen verge]

for real. such a great core

[cedar marsh]

Border support alone makes it a necessity for CRT, imo.

[waxen verge]

for sure. the borders really bring the picture together, and reminds me of the game boy player

[cedar marsh]

I still have my gameboy player (and the disc to run it!)

But I don't have gamecube hooked up, just Wii.

[fierce eagle]

Any Golden sun fans here per chance?

[waxen verge]

i'd like to play it someday. looks really good

[waxen verge]

wii is best for playing gamecube games tbh. i actually sold my gamecube since the GBA mister core is so good

[cedar marsh]

I still need to find and purchase the right type of harddrive so I can run gamecube games off my wii.

[fierce eagle]

I loved it as a kid and love it even more as an adult. Such a great slice of nostalgia.

[dull thorn]

love Golden Sun, both gba games and the even the ds game

sad that Nintendo has the team working on nothing but Mario tennis/golf right now

though I'm not sure what a modern Golden Sun could even look like

[compact vessel]

Just wondering if the serial connection implementation has been improved to support GameCube links since I lasted tested a few months ago?

[dapper marsh]

I don’t think there have been any updates to the new GBA core recently

[zealous nacelle]

@low carbon Interesting, found my first GBA game that doesn't work on the current official core but it does on the new GBA Accuracy core - https://emmatothemax.itch.io/nonogram-advance

[fathom lintel]

Can we make it not work on both?

[unborn yew]

Is there an emulation accuracy test ROM for GBA?

[gilded schooner]

Some test suites exist, like from Alyosha.

I tested the accuracy core some months ago and shared my findings with Robert back then.

[zealous nacelle]

I have a GBA flash cart and it works fine on it so it at least passes the hardware accuracy tests. Not sure if my EZ Flash IV mucks with timings or shit,

[dapper marsh]

Nonogram Advance isn’t good

[tepid moth]

......

[dapper marsh]

it’s Nonogreat!

[tepid moth]

🙂

balance is restored to the universe

[zealous nacelle]

It’s pretty impossible to see on my GB Micro though lol

The puzzle sizes, color choices, and microscopic screen all combine to be one hell if an eye test.

[tepid moth]

lol yeah, they're a cool novelty but sold my GB Micros
eyes arent getting any better with age

[low carbon]

I mostly used this: https://github.com/mgba-emu/suite
Last compare from about 1 year ago when I stopped working on.

Like Zet-sensei wrote there are more test roms, checking for more edge case behavior. I didn't dig that deep yet.

Next step would probably be serial connection(SIO -> multiplayer). Lets see when there is time for that...

[hushed narwhal]

Link cable support would be AMAZING! I think it’s the only thing that’s holding me back playing Pokémon. As I’d like to do event distribution/trade evolutions. I guess I could always just extract my save on the Mister, and do the above on emulators.

[low carbon]

you can use the GBA2P core, but it's still kind of annoying to handle the save files correctly.

[hushed narwhal]

I always keep forgetting that core

Is it possible to load 2 different games at the same time? So for example Pokemon Emerald and the 2nd one is Auora Ticket Distribution Rom?

[low carbon]

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/GBA_MiSTer/tree/GBA2P?tab=readme-ov-file#loading-different-games

Yes, but the saves will be merged into one.
ideally there would be some mister main support code to just allow loading two games and their saves and split them automatically, but so far no one was interested

(kind of what N64 transfer pak support code does)

[hushed narwhal]

Oh wow that’s amazing! Thanks for the write up

[unborn yew]

Do you have a Gamecube and a RVL-001 Wii lying around?

[low carbon]

no

First step would be link cable between multiple GBAs. Connection to gamecube is the same cable, but different protocol

[unborn yew]

Someone at some point needs to make a FOSS GBA bios that supports the whole game loading via link cable thing, whatever it's actually called, I need to get to sleep.

[hushed narwhal]

If any link cable stuff needs testing in the future. I do have multiple GBA’s aswell as a gameboy player (Plus GameCube of course with an ode)

[zealous nacelle]

Look at Penny aura farming over us plebs!

[fierce eagle]

I also have a few gba and a modded gc. Thought that's normal? ||I don't have a snac adapter though. ||

[hushed narwhal]

I’m just trying to be helpful

I reckon you could be helpful too when you release your Gamecom core

[zealous nacelle]

Ok Discord is selling my data to Twitter because now I see that Walfie’s Nonograms person on my feed lol

[warm galleon]

It gets even more weird when you get suggestions about things you only ever thought about.

[inner torrent]

I also have basically every relevant piece of hardware and am very willing to help test things. My dream is to host a remote Pokemon XD tournament using a real GameCube connected to MiSTers for clean video out and easily getting a signal from a computer.

[hexed delta]

i made this python script to separate and recombine the save files, if using windows you can't drag and drop to .py files so i also made this .bat you can drag and drop to if you drag a combined filed it will automatically split and if you drag and drop 2 individual files it will combine them

[native schooner]

Doesn't MiSTer have python? I wonder if you can run this on there natively...

[native schooner]

Yep! https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?t=6439

Python3 already included. This could technically be repurposed into some form of GUI that could run from the Script list... Either way, really glad you shared these!

Thanks for these though. I've been trying to figure out how to do this properly.

[charred stone]

Just taking a look at the Python used in here, I'd have to check and see what "standard" Linux tools exist but I believe this could be packaged as just a shell script

[still rune]

why is the accurate core having audio skip on warioland 4

weird

[ashen heath]

Are you sure that isn't just the game's dynamic audio speed? The tempo is dependent on what you are doing eg crouching or rolling. Everything sounds as it should to me.

[still rune]

It might be that

[gaunt yoke]

Is the original core still the better of the two currently? I can see the dates on the cores but IDK how far along the new core is

[fringe comet]

In my experience so far, the new core is far better

I've yet to personally find something that's broken

Britney's Dance Beat works

[waxen verge]

what more do you really need in life

[gaunt yoke]

How is it better? GFX?

[fringe comet]

Much better accuracy

[low carbon]

There are some known errors, but the only real drawback so far is the missing features like Fastforward, Turbo or highres rendering.
If you don't want them, you can use the accuracy one.

[waxen verge]

will any of these features be coming to the accuracy core? or are they not feasible due to how differently it was written

[low carbon]

Fastforward isn't possible, as we don't have memory fast enough to fulfill the requirements
Turbo would be possible, but I have no plans for it. Most GBA don't need it
Highres would be possible as well, maybe some day. I don't feel it's really used that much.

[waxen verge]

i see, very cool. fastforward probably isn't super useful outside of pokemon and other RPGs, i assume. hi-res scaling is neat but arguably detracts from the intended look of some effects

turbo would be great though as i've definitely seen some games chug here and there

that said, i gladly take accuracy over additional features. this is the best way to play GBA games now imo 🙂

[lean dune]

Combining all the features of the old core into a new core will likely have to wait for a next gen FPGA imo

[delicate python]

Is link support still on the cards for the new core?

[lyric gust]

The old one has save states and the new one doesn't, right?

[lean dune]

They both have save states I believe

[lyric gust]

ooh well that would be nice

[low carbon]

both have and they are even compatible (at least I haven't seen a case where they are not)

Yes link support will be added when there is time

[zealous nacelle]

Highres was only applicable on Mode-7 style rendering, right?

[waxen verge]

it was. looked cool, but kinda clashes with all of the other low-res assets imo

[low carbon]

for background, yes mode7. But for sprites it would help in any game that rotates or scales sprites

Due to the integer only transformation, sprites would get blurry. Highres allows to keep the original quality better in this case.
In contrast to backgrounds, it's not like assets are higher resolution, just don't degrade to lower resolution that much, so they shouldn't stick out as odd

you can see the difference with the cars and the rotating 2.
Keep in mind that the cars are always as sharp as they are on the right picture, when they are exactly 0°,90°,180° or 270° rotated in the lowres(default)

[lyric gust]

Well now I miss taht

[waxen verge]

i think it looks kinda funky more often than not, but it does do a good job at smoothing out some games. the f-zero trilogy definitely looked nice with it enabled

[cinder prairie]

I used to keep it on. Didnt see a reason not to. Even if it clashes I didn't care too much.

[elfin palm]

is the latency better on the GBA cores than a software emulator? Thinking of playing Mega Man Zero on my mister with a low latency controller

[waxen verge]

it's probably the lowest latency option for GBA games outside of a real console. i played through the normal and hard modes in all 4 zero games on the core and had no issues

[elfin palm]

Great to hear

[fringe comet]

Latency on GBA is an interesting thing. Apparently the DS has something like 2-3 frames of latency when playing GBA. Can't remember where I read that so pinch of salt etc

[ionic phoenix]

GBA via DS backwards compatibility is technically slower than the original GBA, but it's a very marginal difference that you wouldn't notice unless you played a game for hours.

Naturally this complicates speedruns, since you need to compensate for the time difference.

[lyric gust]

The latency on all cores should be better than a software emulator

[fringe comet]

I've beaten both Metroid games on it and lived to tell the tale

[zealous nacelle]

Anything FPGA is better than a software emulator.

[lyric gust]

https://tenor.com/view/thats-what-i-said-wil-dasovich-wil-dasovich-superhuman-thats-what-i-told-thats-what-im-talking-about-gif-10502346389653612392

[snow galleon]

I thought it was the GB Player for the GameCube that added latency, though there's a way around it.

[waxen verge]

the hardware itself is just a normal GBA. it's the player disc that adds lag

[snow galleon]

yeah, I thought it was on the software side.

[waxen verge]

indeed. best to use game boy interface these days if you want to use the player

[snow galleon]

Lots of other options these days too.

For playing on the big screen, I mean

[waxen verge]

robert's core is definitely my favorite now. it allowed me to ditch my gamecube and just get a wii 🙃

[long flower]

Around 1 extra frame on NDS according to this. Still, much better than GBA modded with IPS kits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM0w4USono0

[zealous nacelle]

I use the GB Player with original disc because I like to flex on dem nerds

[cedar marsh]

I have a GB Player with original disc too

[fierce eagle]

My cube doesn't even support discs anymore but I prefer GBI anyway.

[cedar marsh]

I play with (probably) double digits of latency on an Anbernic for convenience, lol

[fierce eagle]

I play with cycle accuracy on MiSTer FPGA!

[cedar marsh]

I just don’t like to play handheld games on TV much, but the MiSTer core is absolutely the best way to play.

I don’t actually like any original GBA hardware options.

GBA original is super comfy but no backlit screen, first SP is still way too dark and also uncomfortable, second SP is blurry and also uncomfortable, DS is too dark, DS Lite/DSi is uncomfortable, 3DS has a horrible screen and is also uncomfortable.

[jade wraith]

The more latency the better! I use a gc with the gbp disc on a mid 2010s discount tv with all picture processing turned on, because I paid for it so I’m gonna use it.

The games are extremely smooth and the added delay finally adds the challenge I’ve been yearning for in Nintendo games

[cedar marsh]

I play gba with a cracked Amazon Firestick connected to a HAM radio.

[elfin palm]

HAM radio...

That takes me back

[trim quest]

Where do i get the latest gba accuracy core? Is it in any Github?

[coarse cape]

It should be pinned in the channel

[trim quest]

Ok, i see it, and currently it is not downloaded with the update_all script right?

[coarse cape]

No not yet. If you add the wip database, it will come down with that #help message

[fringe comet]

It's funny, I love the GBA but looking back there were a lot of shite games on the console

If you rule out ports of games, there's not a massive amount of great titles outside of the core big lads

[coarse cape]

I think that is true of all handhelds tbh

maybe not the DS, but that’s because games needed to be designed for it

(and not the switch obv but I don’t see that as a handheld)

[zealous nacelle]

It was mostly garbage if you look at the totality of its library

[hollow leaf]

Just like N64!

[fierce eagle]

Golden Sun alone makes all the difference!

[compact vessel]

Don't forget Shrek!

[ionic phoenix]

Oh boy I like playing stock platformer game on my GBA with characters from the movie of the month

[fringe comet]

The DS had a massive amount of shovel ware too

[zealous nacelle]

Yeah but DS has two screens so your argument has been debunked!

[fathom lintel]

The virtual boy has almost no shovelware

[spring sequoia]

game com had resident evil and sotn

barely any shovelware at all!

[fringe comet]

That's why I'm not disparaging either of those practically perfect consoles

[cedar marsh]

Yeah, Golden Sun is what tips it over into garbage territory 😉

[elfin palm]

Leave Golden Sun-san out of this! does angry Camelot sprite twitch

[cedar marsh]

laughs at you with hand-drawn frames of animation

[fringe comet]

They did love those twitches

[elfin palm]

I love how ugly GS1 and 2 and Shining Force 3 are. I said it before but I really like the claymation look, I wish more games went for that kind of look. Not absolutely identical to the later Camelot games but just claymation in general

[zealous nacelle]

I think it’s got a charming style

[cedar marsh]

Moon Remix is beautiful. Golden Sun and Shining Force 3 are ungainly and uggo. Just imo.

[fierce eagle]

I think golden sun is beautiful and a cherished childhood memory. 😭

[cedar marsh]

Boo, I hate your childhood!

dies of a rotten heart

I probably will give Golden Sun another chance once my replacement RG35XX-H arrives.

Playing it on desktop and laptop was far from the ideal experience back in the day.

[jade wraith]

I think GS ages better than most contemporary RPGs but would definitely benefit from some gameplay tweaks

The non-landscape graphics especially are a little bit crusty at their original resolution, I would kill for a rerelease on modern systems that either fakes the claymation look in 3d or has double-resolution re-renders

[fierce eagle]

I think 3d claymation looks hideous and I have no trust in any modern developer to get the art style right. But I'd love for Camelot to make a brand new rpg. Golden sun is great and always will be, but best leave it alone.

[jade wraith]

A remake à la super Mario rpg remake could be decent. I didn’t hate dark dawn visually, just the lack of satisfying story continuation…

And the points of no return… and the constant introduction of new inconsequential party members to pad out the party….

[cedar marsh]

I think the worst aged RPGs are the ones with timed inputs.

If it’s super simple like Super Mario RPG or Final Fantasy 8, it’s no problem.

But games like Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi are super tedious, especially the former because the inputs are dead-simple and serve barely any purpose.

Dragon Quest has the best turn based battles (imo) because it treats it like a slot machine. You just plonk-plonk-plonk your inputs in and watch what happens. You might get crits, you might get killed, you can’t do anything else until the machine is done rolling.

[fathom lintel]

I don't mind the timed inputs even if they're simple, not as mund numbing as just mashing the a button to attack and watching the animations play out over and over

[fierce eagle]

I vastly prefer nes ff over nes dq. Or in general tbh.

[cedar marsh]

NES FF is basically dragon quest but more punishing.

I don’t think ATB is a particularly good RPG battle system, but I’m so used to it that it doesn’t bother me. But I’ve watched everyone I know bounce of the PS1 games because of it.

[cedar marsh]

Which is exactly what Paper Mario is. Either hold left for four seconds with the hammer just to do a basic attack, or mash the button to lift the hammer for a special strike

It’s not hard or fun to do, especially after the thousandth time, so why include it at all? Only the jump attack inputs make any sensez

[fathom lintel]

Yea but at least you can't just turn on autofire and wrap and elastic around the controller and walk away

[cedar marsh]

XD

With the frequency of random battles in RPGs, I absolutely want the ability to mash A when I need to.

Unless you are making a game with a set amount of encounters, not every battle should be input intensive.

ATB in a fight with random low level enemies slows down the pace of the game for no reason.

[boreal barn]

I need your help creating "symlinks". The plan was to create a symlink between GBA2P and GBA. Specifically, I wanted to link both the ROM directory and the save directory to the GBA2P core. Somehow, something went wrong. I can’t find any clear instructions about this online. When I run the command ls -s /media/fat/Games, there is no indication of a symlink next to the "GBA2P" entry, although one should be present (linking to /GBA/Official). And how can I set it up so that a symlink to the GBA save directory is created?

[zealous nacelle]

I use WinSCP to make symbolic links

Instead of symbolic linking the whole folder I manually did it for every link cable game

[hallow grove]

ln -s SOURCE TARGET so if I understand correctly you're trying to just symlink the GBA folder that has your roms as GBA2P? then ln -s /media/fat/games/GBA /media/fat/games/GBA2P is what you're trying to do.

[boreal barn]

Exactly, I first created the following symlink: ln -s /media/fat/games/GBA /media/fat/games/GBA2P. Don’t ask me why, but in the next step I created another symlink: ln -s /media/fat/games/GBA/Official /media/fat/games/GBA2P. I have already removed the first symlink, but I cannot remove the second one.

How can I tell if I have any additional symlinks set up?

[boreal barn]

Is WinSCP similar to FileZilla?

[zealous nacelle]

Yeah, I don’t know if it’s better or worse. They’re probably both great in different ways, I use FileZilla on my Pi.

But I know how to do symbolic links on WinSCP!

[boreal barn]

Where can I find the symlinks in the root of the MiSTer?

[hallow grove]

If you ran update_all after doing all of this, it would recreate any directories for you.
If there's no indication of a symlink on your GBA2P folder it shouldn't have one, is it just an empty directory? does it actually contain the contents of your /media/fat/games/GBA/Official folder?

[boreal barn]

There is definitely still a link to the /GBA/Official/ folder in the GBA2P core. I can see that when I start the core.

[hallow grove]

symlinks in this manner are represented as files, sorg hacked together something to make them work on exfat since normally that doesn't support them.

If there is a GBA2P folder/file, you should just be able to delete it to remove the symlink.
Does it show up in an FTP client? when you run ls -l /media/fat/games | grep GBA2P what's the output?

[boreal barn]

With Robby’s help, I was able to delete the second symlink. I thank both of you for the support. The FPGA MiSTer community is the best.

[hallow grove]

robby you did something!

[boreal barn]

You were also a great help to me.

I have another question. Have I understood correctly that if I start two different ROMs via the GBA2P core (e.g. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen) and select LeafGreen as the last game, then only one save file (namely LeafGreen) is stored? What happens with FireRed—will no save file be created for it?

[hallow grove]

Save files for both games are combined into a single file, there's a script here to seperate and combine them: #1347219390130688024 message

[boreal barn]

Is this save file only compatible with the GBA2P core?

[hallow grove]

Not sure, I'd assume that single file version is yes. I believe when you split them each one would be compatible with the standard core.

[boreal barn]

I had planned to trade Pokémon between the two versions. But if a shared save file is created afterwards, I won’t be able to use the trading function. Or maybe I’m too confused to understand how it works properly.

If necessary, I would have also used cheats—although I’m not really a fan of them. But if I’ve understood correctly, there are cheats that are not compatible with the MiSTer’s cheat system. In particular, Pokémon cheats seem not to work due to their complexity.

[hallow grove]

I have no experience trading in the GBA pokemon games, but I believe they interface over a link cable which the 2P core intrinsically has built into it? I don't understand the save file exception to this process

The GBA2P core saves are the saves of each individual game slapped together one after the other to form a single file. It cannot read the standard GBA core saves, and the GBA core can't read these saves (maybe they can, but for all intents and purposes I'd probably treat them separately).
If you plan to use the saves interchangably between the GBA and GBA2P cores, you would have to use the script I linked inbetween sessions to split and combine the save files.

[low carbon]

You can use the GBA saves in GBA2P. But without handcrafting the second player will either use the same save or none.
GBA2P saves can be used for GBA, but the second player save is lost.

If anyone is interested in this and has some experience with c .... the n64 core has solved this on the linux side.
Same would be possible for GBA2P: autocombine the saves of the two games loaded and split them again when saving.

[fierce eagle]

@wheat gull you did the n64 ->gb savefile conversion right? Might be interested in gba -> gba2p?

[wheat gull]

Aye, that's me.

[zealous nacelle]

Yxkalle is cool

[fierce eagle]

Yeah he's the man!

[wheat gull]

Wow thanks. Are you trying to butter me up? 🤗

What needs to be done? Is this a new core?

[zealous nacelle]

Virtual Boy please

[fierce eagle]

Yes it's a new core made from the ground up, made by Robert. The request is to make a similar thing to the n64/gb core but with gba/gba2p cores.

See #1347219390130688024 message and Roberts comment right beneath.

[wheat gull]

Ah, the 2p core needs 2 save files concataneted? You want me to automatically copy the files from the original "1p" core save folder, but duplicated, so to say? Sorry if I'm daft.

[fierce eagle]

I take it for pokemon it would be desirable to load different games/saves. Let's say you want to trade your mr. Mime from your ruby version to your emerald version.

[wheat gull]

Ah. I will have to look into this a bit.
Oh I see, you can mount two different games and link them up? Like p1=pkm🟦 and p2=pkm🟥? Didn't think of that possibility. I was thinking it's always the same ROM loaded for both. Makes sense. I'll look into it, if no one else feels like it.

[fierce eagle]

I think so? The same would probably the desirable for the normal gb and gb2p core come to think of it.

Don't feel pressured to do it though, you're just the smartest and coolest guy around here.

[wheat gull]

I don't feel pressured at all mate. Thanks for the concern. And please don't lie about me being the smartest. I'm surrounded by GIANTS like @low carbon, @frosty ginkgo, paulb... It's always more inspiring to implement something that I know will be used and appreciated. That's my drive. I have a few unsubmitted pull requests to MiSTer main that I haven't dared to submit because I'm not sure if it makes any difference for the rest of You. An improved analog stick gate "emulator" for the N64 core, for example. It could be used in any core to set the coordinates of the "gate grooves", cardinals and diagonals. For the N64 those are set to [0, 85] and [69, 69] respectively. Perhaps useful in other cores where the controller input needs to be clamped like that... 😅 I did this code in december or something...

So I just appreciate when people "see me" and ask for things like this. I will do it on my own time, though, but that's understandable. You guys have never nagged me about stuff like this. ♥️

[fierce eagle]

I see all you cool guys. All I can do is eat my own boogers and point the smart kids to stuff that is in their wheelhouse.

So I'm basically a manager.

[low carbon]

if you ever want to work on it, maybe take a look at the GB2P core. It works basically the same, so i guess you could hit 2 flys with 1 hit?
Maybe making the work spend even more useful.
(it will allow for gen1 pkmn trades to be used in n64 stadium without touching any file by hand...this already sounds more exciting to me than it should be)

[boreal barn]

That definitely makes sense—that the save files are split again at the end of the emulation. Without this feature, the GBA2P core is currently unusable for me. To be able to complete the Pokédex without using cheats, a core is needed that allows me to trade Pokémon between different ROMs. I prefer not to use cheats for personal reasons. However, the topic of cheats is certainly open to discussion. According to some guides, more complex codes cannot be implemented with the MiSTer’s cheat system.

[boreal barn]

Now we just need to get Gen 2 working with the virtual Transfer Pak in Stadium 2. That would be a dream!

[ionic phoenix]

Big day for those that want to break the game with Alakazam.

[low carbon]

to be honest, if my nostalgia would cover gen2 as well, it would probably already work.
Currently it's on the level of "I didn't even check what is broken to judge how much work it would be"...
Wouldn't be surprised if it's only some small MBC difference.

[fierce eagle]

You can play it on the gb core and use the save file in stadium2. Only thing that doesn't work is the gb tower, but that's pretty meaningless as you got the gb core.

[compact vessel]

GB tower works over SNAC too

[fierce eagle]

True. I think only the mapper and rtc are the reason why it doesn't work otherwise.

[low carbon]

RTC is a big pain to add, especially with saving the time to sdcard

[fierce eagle]

Realistically though, what's the benefit of gb tower when you got the core? Unlike the tower the core also plays romhacks which are especially neat for pokemon.

[jade wraith]

Cohesive pokemon experience in one stop, that’s the long skinny of it

Fun to be able to go from “story mode” to “battle mode” without needing to do anything but save and swap to a different in-game function

[wheat gull]

And it has fast forward! But it's an unlockable, I think.

[fierce eagle]

Fast forward is for people with adhd! ||which is basically everyone! ||

[jade wraith]

Even worse. For the gen 2 games in stadium 2, you can only use ff after beating the elite 4

[compact vessel]

Soon as GBA to GC is added to the core I'll play the best side game, Pokémon Channel () in order to get a shiny Jirachi on a MiSTer with HDMI clarity!

[wheat gull]

I'm not that hyper, but I'll try to ADD that to my list.

[wheat gull]

Yikes

[fierce eagle]

That's why you're the coolest guy around. 😎

[boreal barn]

We’ve already discussed this topic in detail. This option is currently only available in the US version of Gen 2. In the German version, the trick still doesn’t work.

[boreal barn]

Then the community will have to convince you together of how much better Gen 2 is—and just like that, we’ll have an updated N64 core.

If I were as talented a programmer as you, I would have taken on the task.

[fierce eagle]

While gen2 is still pretty great it's not as strong as gen1 imo.

[low carbon]

That is strange, why would US work and german not work? they use the same MBC and have the same size?

[delicate python]

They use different chips/mappers, I remember documenting this awhile back

On a tab here for Transfer Pak

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H4KYg0gsOWGayioXKSETtlM7d7g3Tk4w0QXqtXvugG8/edit?usp=drivesdk

I remember the German versions were a different MMC variant from other regions

Does the Summercart code for RTCs potentially make them easier to implement, or is still a pain for all the bespoke work to get them ported to MiSTer ?

[low carbon]

it's different because that is not for transfer pak. We could port over the GB implementation. It's just a big pain to do the save to sdcard and it costs ressources(~0.5%).

Gold US and Goldene(german) both use MBC3 and have same size according to gekkio: https://gbhwdb.gekkio.fi/cartridges/mbc3.html
So i don't see the possible difference.

[wheat gull]

i could do it but i need more clarification really. the procedure to load two different roms is a bit confusing too. i feel like i (we) should add another menu option for loading P2 roms, with an option to turn it on or off, so it could load the same for P1 and P2 by default. thoughts?

[fierce eagle]

I think a system like with the n64 transfer pack would work best tbh. Would also streamline it between cores.

[wheat gull]

sure, but the N64 core only let you load a single GB ROM, so it can't be done exactly like that.

[fierce eagle]

I meant in the way that you load 2 different roms in the menu.

GB and N64 rom in the case of the transfer pack.

[compact vessel]

That sounds like a good idea.
I suppose you might want some split logic so both saves (if you load a separate P2 ROM), can get put back to the original save files too, so both see the changes made.
Would be lovely to see it automated

If you don't load a second ROM... Could the second player portion of the save occupy another save "P1_B.sav" or something?
That way you could return to playing two players (but on a single ROM game like Kirby), and progress would be maintained for P1 + P2.
Or thinking about it... Not let a game boot without specifying a second ROM, even if it's the same one?
(Sorry, been a while since I last played Kirby)

[wheat gull]

I would need @low carbon to add those options to the menu, but I could write the supporting code first.

If you don't load a second ROM... Could the second player portion of the save occupy another save "P1_B.sav" or something?
This is a good question. We could save the P2 as a separate filename, or discard the P2 save all together.

discarding it doesn't seem like a good solution, it breaks the current functionality.

The second save file won't be accessable from the "single player" GB(A) core, though.

hm...

[compact vessel]

At least it would be there if you played multiplayer again? And accessible for single player if you get the SD card out manually. Unless there would be a better way around that.....

[wheat gull]

but I can't think of any other solution, so I will probably go with that one.

it will ofcourse be accessible if you swap the filenames of "Kirby.sav" and "Kirby_B.sav"

or whatever

[fierce eagle]

Sorry if I'm stupid: if you load a.gba and b.gba in the 2p core and it saves both files as ab.sav and you script splits that into a.sav and b.sav you can access both saves from the 1p core by loading each rom respectively, no?

[wheat gull]

you mean save all three?

[fierce eagle]

The core automatically generates ab.sav afaik. So the splitting is what needs to be implemented.

[wheat gull]

Ah, yes.. I get what you are saying now. We were talking about the case where both P1 and P2 has the same ROM loaded. There will be a clash because the constructed save file name would be the same and overwrite eachother without some kind of postfix.

[wheat gull]

Yeah, I know, but wouldn't it be best to get rid of that? otherwise it won't be synced both ways.

[fierce eagle]

I'm probably think too much about pokemon where you want to connect different roms. Golden sun and lost age would be another example where you want to connect 2 different roms.

[fierce eagle]

I don't know how it would be handled in the back end. If you can generate a.sav and b.sav without the middle step that would of course also work.

[wheat gull]

but don't you think it would be better to split the file without saving it to a combined file?

exactly

[fierce eagle]

I assumed the n64 core just attached the gb save to the n64 save. I know that's how Robert had it implemented originally so I assumed 2p works the same.

[wheat gull]

no, the GB save is actually put into saves/GAMEBOY

or do I misremember what I've done a bit here? haha

[fierce eagle]

Yeah, after you made the auto thingy. I meant originally when the transfer pak was added to the n64 core. I'm reasonably certain Robert had the gb save just attached to the n64 save.

[wheat gull]

That's correct. I'm reading my own comment:
The N64 core handles all its save types by sending all of them concatenated together to/from the FPGA. e.g. (EEPROM/SRAM/FLASH) (+ TPAK) (+ CPAK 1) (+ CPAK 2) (+ CPAK 3) (+ CPAK 4) We need to split up the continuous data stream into files if we want to save. We need to merge the files into a single continuous data stream if we want to load.

Before the save file was saved as-is.

[fierce eagle]

If you want to connect 2 games that have the same rom like mario kart and still want different saves I guess you could copy the rom under 2 different names. But I still think having the option to load 2 different roms with 2 different saves is the way to go.

[wheat gull]

If you load 2 different roms I would want them to save as "Pokemon Blue.sav" and "Pokemon Red.sav", ofcourse. We will only use the "_B" postfix if there is a clash.

[fierce eagle]

👍

[low carbon]

i would think having two different load options is the way to go.
Then for each game loaded, a save can be created.
If slot 2 loads the game, it's the same save but "_b"
If you want to use two times the same game, load it twice.

Any thoughts?
hmm, maybe slot 2 shouldn't always use _b only when first slot is using the same game

[boreal barn]

Without having known the core beforehand, I assumed that a separate save file would be created for each loaded ROM. Any other approach doesn’t really make much sense from my point of view. Therefore, I consider FPGAzumSpass’s approach to be the only sensible option. Additionally, I would define a central directory for save files within the core (e.g. /saves/GBA/). Why would you decentralize the save location in the first place?

I hope we are talking about the GBA2P core???

[wheat gull]

hmm, maybe slot 2 shouldn't always use _b only when first slot is using the same game?
yes exactly, but the rest of it sounds like it would work.

[wheat gull]

we all reached the same conclusion.

[gaunt yoke]

Can someone enlighten me on something?
So, when running mister on a 240p/480i CRT, every core I’ve used, mainly 8bit to 32bit consoles, do not display properly when using scan doubler options.
The GBA accuracy core however does and the options work… why is that?

[slim dust]

Every core works with scandoubler. Only console ones that don't are the PSX, saturn, N64.

[gaunt yoke]

On a CRT?
Then what would make all the other cores not work for me?

[slim dust]

Oh, I thought you meant a CRT monitor. Why would you want scandoubler on a crt tv?

[gaunt yoke]

consumer CRT TV

[waxen verge]

the scandoubler does exactly what it sounds like; it doubles all the lines in a picture. if your game is running at 240p, enabling the scandoubler will convert it to 480p. 480p won't work on a 15khz CRT television

as for why the GBA core works for you when doing this, i have no idea. it shouldn't

[gaunt yoke]

Exactly what I thought which is why my 240p/480i tv couldn’t display them
And then for some reason I tried it in the gba accuracy core and it worked, nicely too

@low carbon do you know why the accuracy core’s scandoubler options work on a consumer 240p/480i CRT TV? They work nicely

[jade wraith]

Doesn’t the accuracy core bypass scaler for analog out or am I hallucinating

[gaunt yoke]

Not sure. I’m on a digital IO > HDMI to Reflex Prism > component or svideo > 240p CRT
I’ve only seen that the secondary video filters (processing?) page in all the cores, most options have no effect
I get that’s the point of going to a CRT and letting it work its magic but I still need to further tweak things :/ wish the other cores could do what this one has

[low carbon]

the accuracy core is outputting 240p with the image centered and borders, if enabled?

[gaunt yoke]

I’ll double check that in 5 hours and let you know 👍

[gaunt yoke]

I started my MiSTer
Main menu shows 640x240@60.1Hz

loaded gba accuracy
Shows 320x240 and below shows 640x240@59.7Hz

with or without borders enabled:
Scandoubler-
HQ2X does nothing (don’t use it either way)
CRT 25-50-75 all work nicely
Zero distortion

With borders the menu looks normal however without borders enabled, it appears like a 16:9 image squished to 4:3… perhaps.
With borders on or off, the resolution nor the KHZ does not change.

I don’t know why it works but I’m very glad it does and I wish all the other 8bit and 16bit cores could do this too

[slim dust]

I fail to understand why you would want scandoubler to work on the other cores or in this one. Mister sends native 240p to a 15khz consumer tv. That's the same output original consoles did. Unless I am missing something I see no upsides.

[ionic phoenix]

Maybe it's a computer monitor? Those typically support 31hz for 480p

[copper needle]

i dont get how the scanlines could possibly be working if the output isn't actually 480p

[slim dust]

@gaunt yoke is using a regular consumer 15khz tv. So that doesn't apply to him.

[gaunt yoke]

Um, my CRT gets so sharp it looks like a digital panel
I’m trying to find a way to make some or any adjustments to the picture without resorting to lowering from component to svideo
I thought since the gba accuracy core can do this, maybe there’s a solution somehow (even though I don’t know how this is the only core that can and 100% this is not a 480p tube)

[slim dust]

It can't really be sending 480p as scandoubler intended as your tv wouldn't be able to display. So it is most probably a bug. As to why it would help sharpen the image I have no idea. Best to let Robert have a look.

[gaunt yoke]

Nor I. If you’ve seen the unfiltered raw pixels of a Super NT on an HDTV that’s almost how sharp it can get
I’ve found some hidden-ish settings on the crt to lessen the effect but I’m still looking for ways to make it look a bit more like a CRT rather than a digital panel

[gaunt yoke]

If it’s a bug, it’s kind of a nice option to have at least

[tardy warren]

the scandoubler isn't actually scandoubling the gba accuracy core, but somehow scanlines are working?

[gaunt yoke]

This is what’s happening 😅👍🤷‍♂️

Cuz if it was scan doubling like all the other cores, my screen would get garbled like the others do

[copper needle]

is it doubling horizontally instead of vertically maybe? i still dont get how the scanlines could work though

maybe the crt is some previously undiscovered unicorn with secret 480p support

[tardy warren]

well it wouldn't be outputting 480p, it doesn't actually change the output timing

[gaunt yoke]

definitely not, it's listed as a D1 d-terminal which by spec is 240p / 480i

but it has been a great CRT for me for many years and looks great on composite, svideo, and component. Which is why I'm still tripping on how the prism makes mister razor sharp on this set for me :/

just trying to figure out stuff that seems to be somewhat uncommon

[lone solstice]

I noticed that using borders prevents discoloration/the doming effect to happen on my crt when playing on the GBA core

[jade wraith]

Blooming! A recap and adjustment of brightness/contrast (on the tv side) can help with that too

[wheat gull]

A bit late but... https://youtu.be/jtq5meIO92I

[fathom lintel]

Finally a use for the e reader

[dapper marsh]

I was pretty sure they did, but do game saves work on the newer GBA accuracy core

haven’t used it yet, but I’m starting a new game on stream tomorrow and figured I’d give the new core a try

[slim dust]

Saves are working, save states are not.

[dapper marsh]

sweet! Yeah I knew save states weren’t there yet

gonna be playing through Dragonball Advanced Adventure for the first time

[slim dust]

That's a great game! Quite short though. But was perfect to introduce my kid to Dragonball.

[dapper marsh]

I’m pretty glad to hear it’s short since I have to stream the whole game 😅

As someone who can generally only stream games I’m trying to beat once per week at most, super long games can be really brutal (looking at you Shining Force II )

[slim dust]

You'll be fine, I think it was a 2-3 hour game at most. Enjoy!

[dapper marsh]

oh dang! That’s technically finishable in a single stream if I git gud

[olive tinsel]

I don't know how I missed this..never knew there was a GBA version of puzzle fighter 😱😱

To be fair I haven't explored the GBA library as much as other systems

[waxen verge]

that version is basically just a watered-down port of the console game. there's not much reason to play it if you have access to the saturn or dreamcast versions

some ports to GBA turned out quite well, but others are very quick and dirty conversions. see mega man & bass and r-type III

[olive tinsel]

I guess the arcade version would be better to which is my other option on the analogue pocket

[waxen verge]

most likely

[blissful garden]

Sorry for the necro bump, but I wonder if soldering directly to the GB Player's PCB pads would bypass any added latency while using GBI via Swiss. It's technically the shortest path to the AGB CPU, wiring up a SNES pad directly to the board.

I know there's a huge difference between the GB Player disc and GBI's SR build, but I have a hunch that my method could possibly shave off some lateency as well, despite being slightly destructive to the GB Player hardware. (I don't ever plan on selling it)

[waxen verge]

no idea, might be worth looking into. personally though, i'd like to see an adapter that plays GB, GBC and GBA on super nintendo. kind of like the super game boy, but beefed up

i believe there was actually a GBA>SNES adapter released many years ago from retro-bit, but it was pretty bad. it at least shows the concept is possible, though

[blissful garden]

Yeah, there's no reason the Super Game Boy 2 couldn't have supported Game Boy Color games back in the day. Releasing it with just a clock fix and link port without adding color support was just dumb.

[jade wraith]

Clock fix was a one-piece swap, and the link port was just drop-in once the clock fix was in.

In contrast, sgb2 supporting gbc would have required swapping out the cpu, figuring out how to handle the massive increase in bandwidth requirement for video, and an enormous amount of additional qa

[heady karma]

As a random side note, this is a thing that exists and I own one and they are actually pretty great with the slight limitation of composite out vs the GameCube adaptor but using a snws controller and no fan noise a pretty good advantages

[waxen verge]

yes, this is what i was referring to. it's possible to modify it for better audio and to output the signals over the cartridge connector instead of the dedicated A/V out, but even then, it's not as good as something like the game boy player

a device like this but with proper 240p output and real GBA hardware would be a dream come true

[copper needle]

its pretty straightforward to get a snes controller working on gamecube fwiw

[heady karma]

I mean, i'm sat here with a MiSTer Multisystem 2 with the new GB(C)/GBA cartridge slot so that's kinda my dream when the GBA core is fully working. (It's already amazing for GBC stuff!)
Gamecube + homebew launcher + snes->GC adapter + digitalout to HDMI adapter is generally a pretty great way to play games, it's just a bit of effort and the fan noise bugs me more then it probebly bugs most people

[copper needle]

i'm sure gamecube wasn't so noisy back in the day, but the fans didn't age well

people swap them out for noctuas these days though i've never found a 3d printed bracket for it i was happy with myself

[waxen verge]

i'd like to see such an adapter for SNES mostly because it would probably be easier and cheaper than getting a decked-out gamecube. easy RGB 240p output, native SNES controller support, etc.

[heady karma]

Yeah, going the gamecube route is a lot of parts together

[copper needle]

you can just use a pal gamecube if you want rgb

they all do rgb scart out the regular av port, no expensive cables needed

[heady karma]

The HDMI adapters are cheep enough and just easier at this point unless you speficially wanting to play on a CRT

[copper needle]

yeah that too

still it'd be cool if someone made a snes version of GBP

there is also those GBA consolizer mods, though i'm not sure you can still get them

[waxen verge]

yeah, the consolizer kits are expensive and complex, assuming you can even get one. video output usually limited to minimum 480p over HDMI as well

[heady karma]

I think the thing that was great with the SGB is they made an effort to make it do more.
Like GBA games are already pretty great colour and sound so no issues there.
But the SGB also added the boarders on cartridges which were really nice on some games
A bunch of games let you play 2 player using the 2nd snes controller
The GBA player for the gamecube was just a bit lazy by comparison and no mater how great a device you make now you can't make up for the devs not having those tools back in the day

[waxen verge]

yeah, they really went the extra mile with the SGB/2

[lyric gust]

Wait what games have 2 player?

[zealous nacelle]

Killer Instinct is one

[lyric gust]

Cool!

[heady karma]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Game_Boy_games Handy page for SGB enjoyers

A fun bonus fact too, because Pokemon Crystal was based on the code for Gold, it is the one GBC Only game that gives you an error to tell you it will not run on a SGB but yet also has an SGB boarder (just the same as Golds)

[sleek pivot]

Saw an interesting party demo today utilizing sub-pixel display techniques:

https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=105960

Odd question, but would it be possible to replicate segment-level output like this?

I’ve been testing with shadow masks, and our implementation does not accurately replicate this behavior, even at integer scaling.

[blissful garden]

Oh, what's sick! Where can I get one? And goes it only play GBA, or does GB/GBC play as well?