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Dreamcast News - The Latest in Emulation and Homebrew is a News and downloads site for Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn and Vintage Sega Consoles like the Megadrive, Master System and 32X, We have all the latest emulators, hack, homebrew, commercial games and all the downloads on this site, the latest homebrew and releases, Part of the
DCEmu Homebrew & Gaming Network.
THE LATEST NEWS BELOW
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July 3rd, 2008, 21:22 Posted By: wraggster
DKNute has posted more news of his impressive Dreamcast Emulator for Windows:
F355 Challenge works again. Turns out it was indeed SH4 recompiler bug - one that crept in with the introduction of MMU support. In short: right now all SH4 modules use common framework for interrupts and exceptions, and while converting TRAPA instruction to use that framework I've made a small mistake. Fixed.
The Skies of Arcadia bug is still there, unfortunately. Sometimes I can go in and out the game menu dozens of times (in rapid succession too) and it works. Then I restart the game, and it hangs on the very first try... You know, this might actually be a game bug, it just never manifests itself on Dreamcast due to much tighter corelation in timings on real hardware. Current PCs are faster but all operations exhibit a certain amount of lag (or should I rather call it "processing overhead") - well, only sometimes, but it happens every now and then and there's no control over it. It might take just a milisecond somewhere, when OS decides to switch threads at different time to balance CPU usage better for example, and there it goes. So... still looking into it.
I've came to belive that the same timing problem plagues GD code. It works for me (most of the time) but breaks horribly for other people. I've spent some time trying to determine the cause and I found out that SoA usually works, but will almost always crash at boot if I lower SH4 speed to some 150 MIPS. Curious, isn't it, especially if you consider GD-DMA speed is now tied to SH4 speed - so why does it even matter how fast it goes?
After a while I've noticed that in MT mode GD buffer becomes empty every now and then and this causes problems. Now, this is very unscientific explanation but my guess is BIOS booting procedure is kinda broken. Oversimplified. Maybe because it had to be short to fit all the code in cheaper and smaller ROM?
Anyway - a real GD drive isn't all that fast but once it starts reading, the data is being constantly streamed from disc to it's internal memory. And from there to Dreamcast main RAM via DMA. Think "hourglass" - constant stream of sand goes through. Now, on a PC it's more like a guy with shovel loading a truck. He can do way better in terms of quantity of sand moved but it's no longer a constant stream. If the truck is full it can supply us with all the sand we want but once it's empty it has to go back to the guy with shovel. If at this point we need more sand we either wait (that's blocking emulator for the read to complete) or go empty handed (DMA will finish later then usual and this might cause crash).
If you're smart you already see two ways to fix that. Either wait, as explained above, or... make the truck so big it will never become empty at the wrong time. In other words, make the GD data buffer at least the size of Dreamcast RAM, which is 16MB. And that's what I did yesterday and that really helped 
This method isn't 100% fool-proof, as a real GD starts streaming data the moment the first read sector lands in its buffer. In our case loading some few MB might take longer and still fail because of that. This however wasn't a problem so far (or else the whole "offloading to thread" thing would not be possible) and let's hope it stays that way.
Marionette Company boots now, though there seem to be some geometry missing because I don't get text in dialog boxes at all... It's a WinCE game so maybe it's the Sort-DMA thing again?
And c'mon people, new version of Makaron isn't always going to be better than the last one. This is why I call my releases "Test", you know. So that you could TEST things, like new code and such. And report your findings back, maybe? Some people do - and I thank them for that.
Just because I'm not all over your problems when you report doesn't mean I disregard them. Still, I've no intention of answering each and every comment that shows up - this is a place in which I brag about how great I am, not a help desk.
http://dknute.livejournal.com/
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July 3rd, 2008, 21:14 Posted By: wraggster
News via DCS
The German publishing company redspotgames, which also published Last Hope and will do the same thing to the upcoming game Wind&Water, has re-opened their website. They now have a shop and an overview of their games on their site.
http://www.redspotgames.com/
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July 2nd, 2008, 17:32 Posted By: wraggster
News via dreamcast.es
Since the banda sonora de DUX composed by Andre Neumann is already complete, can now hear a preview several minutes.
DUX Medley (5:32 min./MP3)
Here is a note by the composer himself:
"For me it was important to achieve a banda musical sound a bit like the shooters from 80 and 90 and that in turn combine it with some new electronics / orquestrales, to adapt to fresh style and atmosphere of the game. From a point Technically, I used the sequencer Fruity
7 Loops with some virtual instruments. I added sound effects in some of the additional tracks to improve the harmony of sound. In Level 2, a cave full of water, you can hear some effects of water bubbles. In Level 5, Radiax's Den, the Geiger counter adds to the atmosphere radiated by atoms.
I hope they like the result!
Greetings
Andre Neumann "
If they like what they hear, they can also pre-order the CD from the OST (banda sonora original) HUCAST.net DUX at the store. The launch will take place in August / September.
Details --> http://www.hucast.net/blog/index.html
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July 2nd, 2008, 02:19 Posted By: wraggster
DKnute has released a new version of his Dreamcast Emulator for Windows. heres the release info
I think I've finally got the DMA code working. Well, for me at least It needs to be tested further on variety of hardware - and that's where you people come in. Expect T10 soon.
Some loose thoughts I feel like voicing:
1) T10 might be a bit slower than T9 series. It'll most likely affect only low-end systems as there isn't really much of a difference (if any) on my E6600.
2) WinCE games usually crash when emulation speed drops below certain treshold. In other words, if you got fast system you should get stable performance.
3) Due to changes in GD-DMA code loading times are back. It's considered normal behaviour since this is how Dreamcast works. Thanks to those changes compatibility has improved and following titles should now boot and work:
- all Dream Preview discs
- original MIL-CDs
- Street Fighter Zero 3
- SEGA Tetris Online
- Tetris 4D
4) CD-DA (audio tracks) will play, but still use the older method of fetching data. This might cause Makaron to crash but it's very unlikely as data reads and playing audio are mutualy exclusive tasks.
5) There are some minor changes in full-screen setup code (the debug window will be hidden and not forcibly refreshed). No 16:x aspect ratios yet.
6) Changes to sorting/drawing code broke shadows in Virtua Fighter 3tb. I'm not planning on fixing that anytime soon though, as it would break many other things. Late T9 versions have this problem too, by the way.
7) Makaron now disables screen saver when run. It's only going to be a problem if it crashes, as it might not re-enable it on exit. Just so you know.
8) If you manually enable MMU the recompiler will not switch to address translation mode until it's actually requested, so there's no speed penalty in BIOS and most games. Some however (like Ikaruga) use only partial translation and this can be emulated without full-blown MMU support. It'll work either way but will be a lot slower with MMU enabled. Some WinCE games are automatically recognized (this works only for GD images) and MMU will be turned on when necessary. In short: keep it off unless Makaron complains about it.
UPDATE: Few more notes:
There were some last-minute cleanups in the code, I hope I didn't break anything
MT version is the one I actively develp, the other is just dumbed down not to support threading. Not tested much so your mileage may vary.
As always, make sure you backup your own INI files if you want to keep them. For GDROM.ini though you should comment out the GDMT setting, or choose one of the following:
-1 is immediate mode. This will block emulator and allow the read to complete. In short: worst performance, but should always work. This is also the default mode for non-MT version.
0 is deffered mode. The read still blocks, just not right away but rather outside SH4 main loop. It might provide smoother emulation (if it works at all
1 is threaded mode. Disk reads are scheduled to separate thread for another core/CPU to take care of. Best speed, smooth emulation, should now work with every game. This is the default for MT version.
Threaded mode can't be selected for non-MT version of Makaron - deffered method will be used instead. This limitation was introduced on purpose, and might be lifted in future. Note that unless you have multiple cores/CPUs it will work just like deffered mode anyway.
I'd also like to remind you that there's a frontend to Makaron called mkfro. Highly recommended for people who can't work my INI files.
UPDATE2: If you experience random crashes while in-game movies play (or are about to start), or from time to time CD/GD image refuses to boot (but works most of the time) - report this. Give me the title and your PC specs.
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July 1st, 2008, 18:10 Posted By: RockinB
Finally, writing SEGA Saturn games in Lua becomes reality!
Lua is a powerful, fast, light-weight, embeddable scripting language. The Saturn Lua Player is a powerful runtime environment for homebrew Saturn games written in Lua. It provides access to hundreds of functions of popular Saturn programming libraries.
It's simple, it's fast, it's powerful and it makes fun! Making Saturn games is now as easy as opening up a text editor and writing:
slPrint("Hello World", 5, 5) while true do slSynch() end
The Saturn Lua Player has proved it's usefulness by running Police Officer Smith and various complex 3d demos. It successfully handles multiple 2D scrolls, rotational scrolls, complex 3D scenery, realtime gouraud shading, textures, save files, CD reading, PCM playback and a lot more!
Download the all-in-one Saturn Lua Player package as Zip (15 MB) or 7-Zip (8 MB) archive.
It includes 12 demos with prebuild ISOs, docs, tools and complete source code of the SLP runtime and all demos.
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July 1st, 2008, 02:47 Posted By: wraggster
Uguru let me know via PM tonight of a release of a new MSX Emulator for PSP, Windows, Linux and Dreamcast.
Heres the translated release details;
uMSX is an emulator-based MSX fMSX of Marat Fayzullin. The Gui and other changes have been implemented by Uguru.
Current Status
Emulation functional
Save and load states of game
Cheater
Scaling screen
To do
Enable sound. -- OK!
Integration of all options Gui.
Integrators emulator options in the Gui.
Implementing the virtual keyboard. -- OK!
Change drive for the games multiple discs.
Versions for other platforms.
Clean and climb to SVN source.
Documentation under construction
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July 1st, 2008, 01:51 Posted By: wraggster
News/release from Ron
Well has already passed the hangover of the Euro and we have also dismissed with very good humour celebration of the 25 anniversary of the MSX system.
The download is now ready to add that the only tengais ROM or DSK into folders created for this purpose and goals to bootdreams to make a CDI autoboot.
Most games are supported, practically all work with the pad of the Dreamcast. Even the games extended to MSX2 as abbot of the crime and many others.
Cruceta = Cursors
X = Menu
A = Select
And Button = Joy MSX
B = Esc / Back
Start = Enter
Y + B = Select Player 1
The emulator is still at very early stage of development as it is a fast port, operates at full screen with sound, supports the Dreamcast keyboard and what you can already begin to taste, all testing and help is welcome.
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June 30th, 2008, 18:49 Posted By: wraggster
News from Dreamcast.ES
It has already passed the MadriSX on Saturday the great Chui and who he writes estuvímos collaborating on the Special Edition MadriSX MSX 25 anniversary.
We miss the presence of several Dreamcasteros but in this case was not our white hero but the MSX system. We take Saturday morning to present in the society MadriSX DC 25 Years that could be tested by the original MSX coders who already impressed by the loyalty of the same. It will soon be published in hopes of giving some hints that address some bug that we have Chivas.
In the Treamcast of Chui put the original version of DreamMSX (fMSX DC) in KOS, dated 2001, which is also a very good emulator albeit with a GUI infumable.
Thanks to Manuel Sagra (The Blog Manu) and you can see a video that has subído to Youtube and will shortly publish on its website a more complete summary of the event.
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June 29th, 2008, 22:12 Posted By: BlueCrab
The Yabause team is happy to bring everyone a new release today. This release is mostly a bug fix and optimization release.
As for what has changed, here's the ChangeLog:0.9.5 -> 0.9.6
sdl joystick core:
- Fixed it...
software video core:
- Improvements and bug fixes.
carbon port:
- Added detection of sdk in the build process.
- Changed the cd core so that the first device found is used.
Users shouldn't have anything to set up when using cd device now.
gtk port:
- Tagged more strings to be translatable.
- Fixed bugs when setting a resolution in settings.
- Fixed controller settings so keys can now be configured even if
emulation is not started.
qt port:
- Removed libsjw core.
wii port:
- Updated to use the last devkitppc.
- Added support for classic controller and for wiimote, disabled
keyboard support.
windows port:
- Added command line support.
general:
- Updated copyright for some files where it was missing or
inaccurate.
- Fixes and improvements to the build process: fixed cross compilation
of Qt port, added Wii port support, found a better way to "trigger"
compilation of gen68k, fixed a bug when calling the sub-configure,
.inc files are now cleaned, added MINI18N variable support, forwarded
distclean rule to qt makefiles, configure now make sure the compiler
is a cross compiler when cross compiling
- Added a workaround for the "limits.h" problem... now distros should
fix their headers...
- Fixed the .desktop files for linux (gtk + qt ports)
- Added translation files for fr and pt in the repository.
Yabause 0.9.6 can be downloaded from http://yabause.org/download/ .
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June 29th, 2008, 22:11 Posted By: BlueCrab
The Yabause team is happy to bring everyone a new release today. This release is mostly a bug fix and optimization release, but sadly the Dreamcast port doesn't see much of a speed up in it.
As for what has changed, here's the ChangeLog:0.9.5 -> 0.9.6
sdl joystick core:
- Fixed it...
software video core:
- Improvements and bug fixes.
carbon port:
- Added detection of sdk in the build process.
- Changed the cd core so that the first device found is used.
Users shouldn't have anything to set up when using cd device now.
gtk port:
- Tagged more strings to be translatable.
- Fixed bugs when setting a resolution in settings.
- Fixed controller settings so keys can now be configured even if
emulation is not started.
qt port:
- Removed libsjw core.
wii port:
- Updated to use the last devkitppc.
- Added support for classic controller and for wiimote, disabled
keyboard support.
windows port:
- Added command line support.
general:
- Updated copyright for some files where it was missing or
inaccurate.
- Fixes and improvements to the build process: fixed cross compilation
of Qt port, added Wii port support, found a better way to "trigger"
compilation of gen68k, fixed a bug when calling the sub-configure,
.inc files are now cleaned, added MINI18N variable support, forwarded
distclean rule to qt makefiles, configure now make sure the compiler
is a cross compiler when cross compiling
- Added a workaround for the "limits.h" problem... now distros should
fix their headers...
- Fixed the .desktop files for linux (gtk + qt ports)
- Added translation files for fr and pt in the repository.
Yabause 0.9.6 can be downloaded from http://yabause.org/download/ .
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June 28th, 2008, 14:00 Posted By: argor
Over at freedo forum admin posted this
Well -- it's decided then -- the project will bereleased as open source. We'll host the SVN repository. Open as read only to everybody and as read/write to those who will decide to contribute.
The only question left -- what license should we be released under.
Please comment your choice.
The projects being released are :
* FreeDO
* IDE Adapter
* FPGA FreeDO
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June 23rd, 2008, 21:46 Posted By: JKKDARK
New beta build of the Sega Dreamcast emulator for Windows.
The english website wasn't updated, so MasterPhW translated the information with an online translator:
It is time to submit yet another version of the suffering Russian-Soviet emulator Drimkasta Demul.
I hope you have waited this just as we are. The same would have liked that the new version lives up your hopes, as well as ours. After a year and a half develop again became quite active phase, so this is not the latest version for this year. I do not want to disappoint you, but it is still far from final and ideal solution. Much work, but because now emulators Drima already quite a lot, including actively developing, is where to draw ideas and what to strive.
It was agreed to build this audience for its comprehensive testing, as the bug is still left quite a lot, you should at least know where they occur. So the main page emulator is not updated, release spread here in the form of bare without soprovodilovki and additional. The main functions and operating principles remain unchanged from previous versions, all features described in the Old readme.txt. Of innovations can be identified only:
In most notably: BIOS files are now directly from romseta MAME and must lie in a folder in the files ROMS DC.ZIP, as in most mothers.
The kernel has been rewritten several times, that was some advance work (especially at Core2Duo).
In connection with the above earned games for WinCE. True, not all and not completely.
Sound transformed anew, for the time being tested at the games, he sounds almost perfect.
Without any changes managed to combine the strengths in one emulator two systems at once: in fact, by itself автомат Drimkast and Naomiarcade based on it.
Now it is possible to change the region stations directly from the menu emulator, respectively, the need for change biosa and flash-file with him entirely disappears.
A small korektirovka processing peaks triangles gave correction nektoryh problems on maps Nvidia c driver OpenGL (see Sonic 2).
By trifles corrected some old bugs (but not all).
Slightly more details on the above:
WinCE works only in the mode Intepreter, so quite slow and not always bezglyuchno. As soon as the realization of MMU will be combined with dynamic rekompilyatorom, it will be possible to talk about a certain playability, but not earlier.
BORG speed the withdrawal of personnel, as before, working through plug-GPU option, although not quite perfect, if you need it. GPU little rewriting, so much emulation disperse it still will not give.
The sound is so perfect in its mass, how bad in some places. Because we tested at this time, some games not to reproduce the sounds of strikes, and additional rounds. I hope with your help we can find more such problems, locate them and correct. This requires simply tell us about possible mistakes to make the sound, and the work of emulation in general. I recall that GPU remained the same, so that part bOlshaya graphic bugs remained on the ground, so do not be quick to shout about the fact that you have something does not work, perhaps we already know what´s wrong and are working on the problem.
Of the currently available at the time available for Roma Naomi, supported only options in the form of ROMov, and only those who have a standard controller. Mahjong and fishing has not worked because neemuliruemosti management. Viruta strayker also showed lack of willingness to work, so not much radio. To start the game, must be standardized romsety naomi of MAME, together with packaging biosov ROMS in a folder in the main directory emulator. I would like to note that available in the files romsete naomi, few are working. The vast majority indicated as NO_DUMP and instead file contains garbage-filler. So do not be quick to complain that you can not run. Dopodlinno know that the work Cosmic Smash and Toy Fighter.
Even I could have forgotten something. As the repository moved a couple of times, a complete list of changes could be traced vryadli. When will reach their hands to upgrade ofsayta, will be updated documentation, a list of changes and compatibility lists. You need support as always, patience and willingness to test the current version, reporting on all the gaps, you have found.
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June 21st, 2008, 01:48 Posted By: JKKDARK
Progress on the Sega Dreamcast emulator for PC.
Mostly just finishing/unbreaking things I’d broken in recent changes, so there’s nothing terribly exciting to report at the moment.
Changes
* Fix launching from the Finder (odd command line arguments and all)
* Move the background into the main scene structure, so it’s actually included in the min/max z (the lack of which was causing missing backgrounds in some situations). Massively simplifies things at the cost of needing colour unclamping support for correct output in all situations.
* Change internal colour format to float from unsigned char - surprisingly doesn’t have much impact on performance, but makes a few things much simpler to implement
* Finish integrating the run-time limiting properly so that it’s no longer a big wart on main.c (and works properly on OS X as well)
* Refactor the GD-Rom selection menu to be a bit more generic and add a cocoa view for it
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