This intermediate release fixes the critical issues that appeared with SNEmulDS 0.5 alpha. It also includes a better GFX engine, and the new SNES mouse emulation mode.
Here is the complete list of changes:
Fixed the critical sound bug (should go back to SNEmulDS 0.4f sound)
Better GFX engine (use dynamic memory allocation)
SNES emulation mode (see below)
Fixed a bug in decimal ADC instruction (FZERO chronometer is now ok)
The number of cyles used by DMA is counted correctly (more games boot)
I removed the ARM7 entry addresses, it seems to break ninjads, and is not necessary for others (i hope!).
You can get it here (don’t forget to patch it as always):
With the upcoming 0.5 alpha 2, a few games will be playable through the sylus. For the moment, this is limited to games supporting SNES mouse.
*Really* Playable games for the moment:
Civilization
Populous II
Eye of the beholder
Mario Paint
Look at those videos, i made them myself! Sorry about the bad quality, my camera didn’t focus well and i’m a bit nervous.
Also, games are not fun to play with only one hand, but with two hands that’s really fun
This time, after sound and CPU, the big update is on graphics side! The graphics engine has been entirely rewritten and should offer a much better look for most games (especially RPG like Chrono Trigger)!
Look at those screenshots (sorry for the bad quality):
This alpha version also integrate a new configuration file, that allow you to choose the best options for each game.
New GFX engine that support tile address alteration (For RPG games and others)
Faster HDMA (Makes games like Chrono Trigger faster)
Much better line by line engine, which is now the default (Old tile mode is nearly broken in this alpha)
Better transparency support
Other GFX updates: Moved sprites 1 pixel down, Background color alteration by scanlines, fixed 16px tiles flip, better mode 5, better scrolling, new squish method…
Added configuration file support snemul.cfg (no saving support yet in this alpha) that allow specific configuration for each game.
And Thanks to Lestat for making the nice SNEmulDS Icon!
Please take a look in the configuration file, you can change the ROMs directory and other interesting stuff.
Another important information, the site has moved to “http://www.snemul.com/ds/”. Please update your bookmark!
On a side note, welcome to a new developper in the SNEmulDS team : oothkoo!
First, for people asking me the meaning of “final”, don’t be afraid! “Final” only mean that it is the last “0.4″ release. I consider that this version is enough stable to be useable and that i should better work on new features and graphics fixes (which will the main goal of upcoming 0.5).
Second, for people who can’t or doesn’t want to patch (because of their religious belief or whatever), I added a new page containing pre-patched binaries for all known DLDI-supported devices : DLDI.
You just have to put the binary in the root directory of your card, and create a SNES directory with ROMs inside, and that’s (should be) all.
Feel free to add comments if you have found a new way to make SNEmulDS works on your device.
Third, take a look at the Pocketheaven compatibility list : http://wiki.pocketheaven.com/SNEmulDS_Compatibility_List. If you are testing new games, everyone would be grateful that you add an entry in this list, whether it works or not. Thanks to all contributors for this list. It’s quite easy to fill informations and there is a dedicated tool for SNEmulDS.
This release contains various bug fixes, which should improve games compatibility and stability. Some minor features have also been added like options saved in save states, background Layer selector, and hinge support.
Here is a list of changes:
Fixed ROM paging, this should improve stability of large ROMs (especillay DKC2)
Some CPU instructions were bugged because of the way SNEmulDS write in I/O ports, this should also improve stability (ie Crash before first boss in Zelda)
Fixed a bug that made Chrono Trigger freeze during battles
Changed the way emulator detect blank screen (Street Fighter Turbo, RTYPE3, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest now works)
Fixed some bugs with SRAM memory, which unlock most ROM protections (Uniracer, Bust-a-move, … now boot)
Now sound core doesn’t randomly crash when using line by line engine
Better reset of sound core, some games now run correctly when they are launched after another game (ie Super Bomberman >2)
Save states also save options
Added background layer selector. You can again enable/disable backgrounds.
Added hinge support. If you close you DS, emulation is stopped and SRAM is saved.
SRAM is now automatically saved before loading another ROM
It seems that some people have found a solution to make SNEmulDS and other homebrews (like picodriveds) work on their Supercard rumble.
Thanks to juliobbv and sallaboy from the pocketheaven forum…
Quote from sallaboy: Anyway, this were my actions:
-Downloaded DSOrganize 2.5: http://www.dragonminded.com/ndsdev/DSOrganize_2_5.zip
-Copy all the files with the directory to the DS card (I didn’t patch
DSorganize!!!)
-Start *.NDS or *sc.NDS file.
-go to “BROWSE” and start the SNEmuDS version 0.4 (patched with
sclt.dldi file)
-it takes time to start it.
By the way, the same way I succeded to run PICODRIVEDS (emulator
for genesis) the latest version. The games are a little bit slow but it worth
it.
Accordind from juliobbv, you can use Moonsheel instead:
P.S. Forget DSOrganize to boot SNEmulDS, use Moonshell 1.6 instead. It boots homebrew instantly and it seems to work with other homebrew that didn’t work before.
To install it, run the setup, select the letter that corresponds to the SD card, select Supercard lite and after that click setup. Wait while it copies the files to the card and run moonshell on the DS.
SNEmulDS 0.4 alpha contained a lot of stupid bugs that i fixed in this beta release. There are still bugs, but i think it worth a try for most users, because a lot of games were broken. I also added a manual background layers selector.
Here is the complete list of changes:
Fixed the broken BREAK and COP instructions
Fixed the ROM write protection by using the protection unit of the ARM9 (thanks to bubble2k for pointing me that)
Fixed the Emulation flag at startup (problem with DKC3)
Stupid again, SNES’s RAM was not in the cached memory, speed up games (10-20%)
Reduced memory consumption, now ROM memory is static (no more malloced), should remove ROM overflow and RAM overwriten problems
Added an experimental “line by line” engine (buggy, slow, unstable, uncomplete… maybe useful for a few games)
Added a manual background priority selector (can be choosen in options or with START+LEFT+RIGHT+UP or START+LEFT+RIGHT+DOWN for automatic)
Added another speed hack option : “Interrupt speed hacks” that should be better than “Full speed hacks” for some games. “Middle speed hacks” is now “Cycles speed hacks”
