Homebrew Emulation GameYob, a gameboy emulator for DS

[PROTOBOY]

Just a report, Castlevania games have bug with save and load state, after some time when I try to load from the load state the DS crash at the red screen with that kind of codes.

Its the same screen that another member got in this thread.

The emulator is great, its just a report to make the emulator better, thanks for the work.

 

[Drenn]

Should be fine, then. (BTW it was affecting fifoSendValue32() function only, and only when sending values with higher byte != 0 ... maybe you're not even using that.)

Actually I'm using fifoSendValue32() quite a bit. And it looks like this was part of the problem! There was no particular need to use the upper byte, so I shifted some data around. This, combined with setting a maximum number of fifo messages waiting to be processed, seems to have fixed the infamous crashing issue in Telefang / Pokemon Diamond. This should hopefully mean that the random crashes are also fixed. If so then 0.4 should be out soon. Thanks again!

Uh, simple question. I haven't found any option like that in menu, but perhaps it can be done - can I turn off my screen on ds classic and play the games? I can't quite do that from acekard menu, nor from gameyob menu too.

You mean, disable the backlight? In 0.3 it doesn't touch the backlight, so if you disable the backlight in the ds menu it will stay disabled. In 0.4 it will keep the top screen's backlight enabled and only enable the bottom screen's backlight if necessary. Though perhaps I could add an option to disable it altogether.

Just a report, Castlevania games have bug with save and load state, after some time when I try to load from the load state the DS crash at the red screen with that kind of codes.

Its the same screen that another member got in this thread.

The emulator is great, its just a report to make the emulator better, thanks for the work.

Which castlevania is that? Castlevania Legends seems to work with save states.

 

[reprep]

thanks a lot for this. it is really great as it is, but it would really be great if you could add custom super game boy palette selection (some games like super mario land really benefit from this by choosing another custom color code for every level) also ability to choose multiple custom super gameboy borders would be great too. goomba has enough documentation for the second but not for the first unfortunately.

it would be great if we could enter "xxxx-xxxx-xxxx" color codes like in super game boy "custom color window" menu. just for some info:

http://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Game_Boy

super mario land and metroid ii look great if i mess with these color codes on my super gameboy. nintendo has some custom color code suggestions on the official super gameboy catalog.

Edit: a few links:

http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Game_Boy_Player's_Guide
http://loveconquersallgam.es/post/2350461718/fuck-the-super-game-boy-introduction

 

[Arm73]

I tried what it appear to be the latest build (v0.3-184-g0097) and it finally works in DSi mode from the SD card !
I was also finally able to check the screen scaling and filtering.....good job !

Looks great even on the XL, even though I prefer the 1:1 pixel mapping myself, but some games do still look alright.
Also the SGB borders are a nice touch !

Unfortunately the sound is slightly out of sync, or maybe there is something else involved, because I can hear it cracking or some channels don't sound properly when shooting in Batman (J) for example, or in Blaster Master the music seem to be missing some channels as well.
I tried the sound sync fix but it only made the game slower, it really didn't fix anything.
There might be other issues, but I didn't have the time to check more games, I wanted to get back to you as soon as possible.
Last version that was working properly for me was v0.3-100-g694d by the way.

Again, thanks for the hard work and your time.
Hope it helps.
Cheers

 

[Lavos2013]

i have high hopes for this project, if you can get Gameshark cheats working itd be a godsend.

since there doesnt seem to be a GB/GBC emulator usable on flash carts that supports Cheats, and one game in particular i wish to play i need to cheat to get a couple things in it since it was a GBC game and required IR communication with another GBC that had the game, obviously cant do that with a Rom and dont have a pair of GBC or retail cartridges anyway :/

edit: was looking at an alternative in the RIN series emulators for PSP but go figure they need Custom Firmware, guess im using Visualboy Advance till a GB/GBC Emulator releases for NDS/Flash Cart that supports Gameshark Cheats

 

[Drenn]

thanks a lot for this. it is really great as it is, but it would really be great if you could add custom super game boy palette selection (some games like super mario land really benefit from this by choosing another custom color code for every level) also ability to choose multiple custom super gameboy borders would be great too. goomba has enough documentation for the second but not for the first unfortunately.

it would be great if we could enter "xxxx-xxxx-xxxx" color codes like in super game boy "custom color window" menu. just for some info:

http://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Game_Boy

super mario land and metroid ii look great if i mess with these color codes on my super gameboy. nintendo has some custom color code suggestions on the official super gameboy catalog.

Edit: a few links:

http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Game_Boy_Player's_Guide
http://loveconquersallgam.es/post/2350461718/fuck-the-super-game-boy-introduction

Well, the super gameboy is just plain worse than the gameboy color, because it can't color sprites distinctly from the background. Still, some kind of system to colorize pre-color games has been on the todo-list for a while (though the gbc bios can do this to a limited extent). The game's colors would be specified in a text file. But I definitely wouldn't use the super gameboy's "password" system. Not only is it limited to those palettes, but the passwords are unnecessarily long.

i have high hopes for this project, if you can get Gameshark cheats working itd be a godsend.

since there doesnt seem to be a GB/GBC emulator usable on flash carts that supports Cheats, and one game in particular i wish to play i need to cheat to get a couple things in it since it was a GBC game and required IR communication with another GBC that had the game, obviously cant do that with a Rom and dont have a pair of GBC or retail cartridges anyway :/

edit: was looking at an alternative in the RIN series emulators for PSP but go figure they need Custom Firmware, guess im using Visualboy Advance till a GB/GBC Emulator releases for NDS/Flash Cart that supports Gameshark Cheats

0.4 will support cheats. Stay tuned.

 

[reprep]

Well, the super gameboy is just plain worse than the gameboy color, because it can't color sprites distinctly from the background. Still, some kind of system to colorize pre-color games has been on the todo-list for a while (though the gbc bios can do this to a limited extent). The game's colors would be specified in a text file. But I definitely wouldn't use the super gameboy's "password" system. Not only is it limited to those palettes, but the passwords are unnecessarily long.

yup, super gameboy can't distinguish sprites and backgrounds though its colorization is better than gbc colorization for some games. (i am looking at you pokemon red and blue).

a better colorization code system would be great. RGB codes can be stored in a text file for a total of 10 colors for gbc colorization (3 for sprite 1, 3 for sprite 2 and 4 for background)

also sound really differs from real stuff. i am playing ff adventures both on my 3ds xl (emulation) and gba sp (real stuff). the sound really differs a lot. it is a lot more screechy in 3ds xl. though i guess you are aware of this problem.

 

[Drenn]

yup, super gameboy can't distinguish sprites and backgrounds though its colorization is better than gbc colorization for some games. (i am looking at you pokemon red and blue).

a better colorization code system would be great. RGB codes can be stored in a text file for a total of 10 colors for gbc colorization (3 for sprite 1, 3 for sprite 2 and 4 for background)

also sound really differs from real stuff. i am playing ff adventures both on my 3ds xl (emulation) and gba sp (real stuff). the sound really differs a lot. it is a lot more screechy in 3ds xl. though i guess you are aware of this problem.

Red & Blue is a different story. They are programmed to use Super Gameboy colors, but they are not programmed to use Gameboy Color colors. Which is why they look better on a SGB. (In fact, this is emulated in gameyob's newer builds.)

As for Final Fantasy Adventure, I did notice some screechiness when swinging the sword. I wasn't sure if it was always like that or if it was an emulation problem.

 

[reprep]

Red & Blue is a different story. They are programmed to use Super Gameboy colors, but they are not programmed to use Gameboy Color colors. Which is why they look better on a SGB. (In fact, this is emulated in gameyob's newer builds.)

As for Final Fantasy Adventure, I did notice some screechiness when swinging the sword. I wasn't sure if it was always like that or if it was an emulation problem.

wow i didn't know gameyob supports super gameboy colors for pokemon red and blue. thanks.

for ff adventure, it is not just swinging the sword, background audio suffers too, though i am lacking the hardware to record audio to show the difference unfortunately. it is like gameyob's sound has more emphasis on trebles. i will be sure to attach recorded audio if i get the equipment ready.

Edit:Scratch that, blame my 3ds xl speakers.

 

[Drenn]

wow i didn't know gameyob supports super gameboy colors for pokemon red and blue. thanks.

for ff adventure, it is not just swinging the sword, background audio suffers too, though i am lacking the hardware to record audio to show the difference unfortunately. it is like gameyob's sound has more emphasis on trebles. i will be sure to attach recorded audio if i get the equipment ready.

I hope you're using v0.3 or one of my more recent builds? I remember there being much worse screechiness before 0.3.

 

[reprep]

i am using the latest unstable build.

 

[Lavos2013]

thanks for the reply Drenn, looking forward to playing some older GBC games that cheats can come in handy for to get content you otherwise cant nowadays without retail GBC/cartridge

but just knowing 0.4 will support cheats is a huge releif, so i dont want you to rush it and release it super-buggy, im aware asking for a bug-free cheat-compatible version is impossible as thats just the nature of Coding, but take your time and elliminate as many bugs with it as you can manage to find

im willing to wait if it means more quality

 

[Kurt91]

Hey, while sound is being brought up, the ending tune to Super Mario Land has a few "instruments" that you can't hear. I remember that being my favorite song in the game, but it seems to be missing half the notes.

 

[Drenn]

Hey, while sound is being brought up, the ending tune to Super Mario Land has a few "instruments" that you can't hear. I remember that being my favorite song in the game, but it seems to be missing half the notes.

Could you give me a save state just before the ending?

 

[reprep]

wow i didn't know gameyob supports super gameboy colors for pokemon red and blue. thanks.

for ff adventure, it is not just swinging the sword, background audio suffers too, though i am lacking the hardware to record audio to show the difference unfortunately. it is like gameyob's sound has more emphasis on trebles. i will be sure to attach recorded audio if i get the equipment ready.

i retried gameyob on my 3ds xl this time with an earphone and the difference is night and day. the reason of all screechiness and emphasis on trebles were 3ds xl's shitty speakers. it is sad that they are much worse than the mono speakers of gba sp.

it is still not 1:1 but very close. i haven't heard any lost notes etc.

also i have the chance to do some experimenting as i have a flashcard for gb/gbc and i can try different games if they behave different on original hardware or not.

 

[Drenn]

I've just uploaded version 0.4. It was back in March when I uploaded version 0.3, so there's tons of new stuff to play around with. The releases are fairly spaced out since the most enthusiastic people are using my regularly updated builds, but still - it took much longer than expected. Enjoy...

i retried gameyob on my 3ds xl this time with an earphone and the difference is night and day. the reason of all screechiness and emphasis on trebles were 3ds xl's shitty speakers. it is said that they are much worse than the mono speakers of gba sp.

it is still not 1:1 but very close. i haven't heard any lost notes etc.

also i have the chance to do some experimenting as i have a flashcard for gb/gbc and i can try different games if they behave different on original hardware or not.

I wonder if there's a problem with your 3ds's speakers? Or is it only homebrew that has such serious sound problems?

 

[reprep]

in general, 3ds xl's audio quality isn't great to begin with. it is quiet even on max volume and bass is really non existent.

 

[LolGuyX]

I would like to request something to see the time and maybe the FPS too when full screen is enabled.
is it possible?

Another question: What does Vblank do? Is it better to turn if off or on?

 

[Drenn]

I would like to request something to see the time and maybe the FPS too when full screen is enabled.
is it possible?

Another question: What does Vblank do? Is it better to turn if off or on?

Better to leave vblank off. When on it forces the ds to synchronize with the vblank period, even when running a bit slow. It tends to slow things down when the "sound fix" is on. If you want to muck with the debug settings, put them back to their defaults when you're done.

My implementation of scaling is a big hack, and it requires using the rendering engines for both screens. For this reason the other screen can't display the time or fps output. I'm pretty sure I can still make it display a bitmap image, but it doesn't work with libnds's console.

 

[RupeeClock]

Congrats on reaching 0.4 Drenn, this is the most impressive Gameboy emulator effort for the DS by far.