Homebrew DS2x86 (SCDS2 Entry)

[Buleste]

Many thanks again for the update. Time to do some testing. I'll send you a debug soon.

 

[spinal_cord]

I assume I can't play toonstruck yet?

 

[Master_Thief]

Newly playable games in 0.09.

Alien Incident - Playable - Works, though no sound.
Cannon Fodder - Playable - Works, no sound though.
Daemons Gate - Playable - Works, no sound though.
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands - Playable - Works, no sound though.
Dungeon Hack - Playable - Works, no sound though.
Falcon 3 - Playable - Works, though no sound.
Fantastic Adventures Of Dizzy - Partially Working - Game now runs but has some graphical corruption at bottom of screen and the background.
Gunship 2000 - Playable - Works, though no sound.
Hexen - Playable - Works, though is a little slow.
Legends - Playable - Works, though no sound.
Microsoft Flight Sim 5.0 - Partially Working - Now gets ingame, but no controls seem to work (including mouse buttons).
Realms Of Arkania: Shadows Over Riva - Partially Working - Freezes after exiting first temple
Rise Of The Triad - Partially Working - Freezes after a second of entering first level.
Sensible Golf - Playable - Works, though no sound.

Complete list of games tested

 

[Net_Bastard]

I can't get DS2x86 to work. It just shows a bunch of random letters with a

 

[Pate]

Version 0.10 released!

This version has the following improvements:
- Fixed a BSOD crash in EMS handling (Colonization etc.)
- Implemented several previously unsupported INT calls.

Sorry I did not have time to add any significant updates for this version. I worked on improved audio support, but did not manage to get it working properly yet.

http://dsx86.patrickaalto.com/

@Net_Bastard: Sorry for the late reply, I somehow missed that this thread had a reply. I don't know what could cause that problem. You do have 4DOS.COM in one of the supported directories? Does the normal DSx86 work properly?

The random letters you describe sound like a drop into a debugger, but then it should say something like "Unsupported opcode!" or similar at the top of the bottom screen. This means the emulator encountered something I have not implemented yet.

Pate

 

[Buleste]

Thanks again for the update and good luck with the Homebrew competition for both entries.

 

[Pate]

Version 0.11 released!

This version has the improved audio code, including AdLib music support. However, I have had big problems with the DSTwo I/O layer hanging when playing audio, so this version is not very robust. Feel free to test and report games that now have audio, and I am also interested in games that play stuttering audio or hang completely in this new version, but which did not hang in the previous version (which is also still available for download on my pages).

http://dsx86.patrickaalto.com

Thanks again for your interest in DS2x86!

Pate

 

[Buleste]

Thanks I'll get on it. It'll be nice to see if Simon The Sorcerer 2 will play in this version.

EDIT:Sound now works in most games.

Frontier - Sound plays although it's either trying to play stereo music through mono or has some channels missing as only plays a couple of channels (game still unplayable due to problems in the menu's).
Gunship 2000 - Soundblaster doesn't work but again with Adlib works to a degree (no chopper sounds but there are some missile and gun sounds as well as explosions and warnings.
Elite Plus - Adlib works but not 100%

 

[slenkar]

Does the DSTWO team listen to your problems with the card or are you on your own?

 

[Master_Thief]

Syndicate, Superhero League of Hoboken and Master of Magic are now all working (complete with sound).

Sensible World Of Soccer now gives an "unsupported opcode" whenever you start a match.

Alone in the Dark 2+3 both freeze at startup if SB sound is enabled (both work fine, if a little slow in places, when sound is disabled).

Logfile

 

[amaro999]

that´s true, maybe you should warn DSTWO team about the SDK problems. If I am not mistaken they released more than one SDK version in the past. With the DS scene slowing down (not many emulators updated these months...) they might be interested in getting these bugs fixed. After all, they are going to sell more DSTWO cards if DS2x86 works well! Moreover, other developers might come across with these same bugs as well.

 

[slenkar]

that´s true, maybe you should warn DSTWO team about the SDK problems. If I am not mistaken they released more than one SDK version in the past. With the DS scene slowing down (not many emulators updated these months...) they might be interested in getting these bugs fixed. After all, they are going to sell more DSTWO cards if DS2x86 works well! Moreover, other developers might come across with these same bugs as well.

aye, I am waiting to see if these issues are resolved before I make my purchase and maybe others are too.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

more DS2 stuff?....is the original DSx86 being supported?

 

[Rydian]

more DS2 stuff?....is the original DSx86 being supported?

Yes.

 

[Pate]

@Buleste, Master_Thief: Thanks for testing the latest version! Sorry I did not have time to do any other improvements besides the audio stuff. I wanted to get the AdLib audio included, so that I can take at least one big issue out of my TODO list. It still needs some work and optimization, but the basic emulation is up and running.

@slenkar, amaro999: I have discussed with the SuperCard team about my problems with the I/O layer in the past. I even created a small test program that has the error, but after testing it they did not find any problems with it. They are only willing to look into the problems in DS2x86 if I send them the full source code, but I am not willing to do that. Based on the SuperCard SDK subforum, I am not the only one having trouble with the SDK, but I suspect my problems are mainly caused by the nonstandard way I use the I/O layer. I'll keep fighting with it, I again have a few new ideas I could test.

@stanleyopar2000: Yes, I plan to keep working on the original DSx86 as well. It is just that DS2x86 is still so far behind DSx86 that I need to spend more time working on it. Also, it takes much longer getting anything done for DS2x86, so it might occasionally look like I am only working on it.

Thanks for your comments!

Pate

 

[Boozie]

In the configurator that you can download off the site, there is a checkbox for "tap for left click". Is this implying a tap with the stylus can act as a mouse click? Does it work? I haven't had any luck in Master of Orion with it but I haven't tried other games.

What are other common settings people like to use with this? I know it varies vastly with the game.

 

[Sausage Head]

Support these games below:

Aces over Europe
Aladdin
Alien Breed
Arkanoid
Ascendancy
Assault Trooper

Beetlejuice
Battle Chess 2: Chinese Chess
Call Of Cthulhu: Shadow Of The Comet
Cannon Fodder
Cannon Fodder 2
Carmegeddon
Civilization
Command and Conquer (Abandonia build)

Commander Keen 1

Commander Keen

2

Commander Keen

3

Commander Keen

4

Commander Keen

5
Commander Keen 6
Cool Spot
Desert Strike (copy protection inbuilt)
Doom (Tech Preview/0.2)
Doom 0.4
Doom 0.5
Doom (Commercial)

Doom

(Shareware)
Doom 2
Duke Nukem 2

Duke Nukum

(A.K.A Duke Nukem 1's original name)
Dune 2
Elder Scrolls: Arena
Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall
Epic Pinball
Fire & Forget 2
Fire & Ice
Frontier
Gunship 2000

Hannibal

In Search if Dr. Riptide

(Registered)
Leisure Suit Larry 1 (L.O.T.L.L)
Leisure Suit Larry 1 VGA (L.O.T.L.L Remake)
Leisure Suit Larry 2 (L.F.L.I.A.T.W.P)

Leisure Suit Larry 3

(P.P.I.P.O.T.P.P)
Leisure Suit Larry 5
Leisure Suit Larry 6
Master Of Orion
MegaZeux 1.02
Monkey Island 2
Moraff's World
Oscar
Paku Paku
Prehistorik
Prehistorik 2
Raptor
Rick Dangerous 2
Settlers, The
Sim City
Skyroad
Steg
Street Rod
Supaplex
Syndicate
System Shock
Telengard
The Chaos Engine
The First Samurai
The Lion King
Turrican 2
UFO: Enemy Unknown
Wacky Wheels
Warcraft I
Warcraft II
Wing Commander 1
Wolfenstein 3D
Worms United
Worms (Demo)
X-Com: Terror From The Deep (No CD)
X-Wing

How about a "thank you", or a "please"

 

[StarWolf3000]

What is the I/O Address for the "Ad Lib® Gold Music Synthesizer Card" or which of the following Drivers suits the Audio Layer used with DS2x86? I need it to set up Sound for "The Settlers" (FM Synth and SFX).

The Install defaults to "388" but thats not the correct value.

The Install provides the following Drivers:

For FM Music:
Ad Lib(R) Gold Music Synthesizer Card (Parameters: "I/O Address: 388; Enable: ON/OFF")
Ad Lib(R) Music Synthesizer Card (Parameters: "I/O Address: 388; Enable: ON/OFF")
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Pro(TM) - FM Sound (Parameters: "I/O Address: 220; Enable: ON/OFF")
IBM PC or compatible internal speaker (Parameters: "Enable: ON/OFF")
Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum(TM) 8 FM Sound (Parameters: "Enable: ON/OFF")
Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum(TM) Plus/16 FM Sound (Parameters: "Enable: ON/OFF")
Roland MT-32 or compatible with Roland MPU MIDI Interface (Parameters: "I/O Address: 330; Enable: ON/OFF")
Tandy 3-voice internal sound (Parameters: "Enable: ON/OFF")

For SFX:
Ad Lib(R) Gold Music Synthesizer Card (Parameters: "I/O Address: 388; Enable: ON/OFF")
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Pro(TM) Digital Sound (Parameters: "I/O Address: 220; IRQ: 7; DMA Channel: 1; Enable: ON/OFF")
Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum(TM) Digital Sound (Parameters: "Enable: ON/OFF")

 

[Pate]

@Boozie: Sorry, I haven't tested the "Tap for left click" feature for a while in DSx86, and I'm not sure if I have tested it ever in DS2x86. Due to the differences in the I/O handling in DS2x86, it is quite possible that it does not work at all. I'll try to remember to test that and improve it if possible for the next version.

@StarWolf3000: The AdLib port 0x388 is correct, but DS2x86 emulates a plain AdLib card, not AdLib Gold card. Also, the digital SFX support is only available for plain SoundBlaster, not SoundBlaster Pro.

Pate

 

[PaullyG]

Pate, appreciate all the work you're doing on this, even now it's allowing me to play some games that I never thought I'd see on DS but always wanted in a portable. I enjoy reading your blog entries as well and check back regularly.

Have a few games I adore giving me issues (Ranging from pretty minor stuff to unplayable), so I'll probably drop you an email in the next day or two. Sadly, Syndicate has been the only one to dump anything into the debug log. I do my best to keep updating the compatibility wiki with what I'm testing anyway. But it's mostly updates for the same games, the ones which really got me hooked back in the day.

Thanks again for all your hard work.