Hacking The Great Quest for Wiiflow Plugins™ - A call for adventurers!

[RunningSnakes]

Ill post some of the emulators i am using and recommend as backups. I have not finished the SNES or NES, since i need to do a little more testing of the GX/RX emulators. I want to make sure they work as plugins (newer versions of Genesis Plus GX do not work) and not post incomplete results. Looking through @fledge68 plugin pack, he has pretty much everything covered (Thank You Sir) plus a few newer/modified that i was not aware of. Some of these emulators have been updated recently, so my list reflects that.

Spoiler

Atari 2600
(1) Wii2600 2.7.2 (07-30-13)
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Atari 7800
(1) Wii7800 0.5.0 (03-24-20)
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Atari Lynx
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.2
-----
-----
Colecovision
(1) WiiColEm 0.3 (12.24-19)
-----
-----
GB / GBC
(1) RetroArch 1.8.1 Gambatte
(2) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(3) VisualBoyAdvanceGX 2.4.0 Official
-----
-----
Game Boy Advance
(1) Enhanced mGBA (01-29-20)
(2) mGBA Official 0.6.1 (USB)
-----
-----
Intellevision
(1) JzintvWii 1.0.2 (04-07-13)
-----
-----
Neo Geo Pocket
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.1
-----
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OpenBOR
(1) OpenBOR 3.0 Wiimpathy (09-06-18) --- (04-11-19 fledge update)
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Sega (SG-1000, Game Gear, Master System, Genesis, CD)
(1) RetroArch 1.8.3
(2) Genesis Plus GX Official 1.7.5-RC1 (07-09-15)
-----
-----
PC Engine / PC Engine CD
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.1 SGFX Core
-----
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Vextrex
(1) VextrexWii 0.3.? (04-06-13)
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Virtual Boy
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2.pre (07-02-12)
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-----
WonderSwan (Color)
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.1
===================================

Other Console / Computer I have not completely tested.
Amiga
Commodore64
MSX
Nintendo / Famicom Disc System
ScummVM
Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Super Nintendo

 

[davidkun]

Certainly, latest versions of Genesis Plus GX don't work. The most recent version that works is the build of 2019-01-26. From the 2019-03-23 build onwards, it crashes.
I've already opened an issue at https://github.com/ekeeke/Genesis-Plus-GX/issues

And, thanks to your list, I've found out that there's a new version of wii7800 and mGBA!

Edit: ekeeke has closed the issue. His answer: There was an issue with devkitPPC, which fortunately has been fixed in the release 36 (3 weeks ago).

So, theoretically, updating devkitPPC to the latest version and rebuilding the source, it will generate a working dol file. I still have a doubt if it's necessary any change to Makefile.wii, just because the last change to that file was made to "fix compilation errors/warnings with latest devkitPPC (r24)", on 23 Mar 2019 (when the builds started to stop working).

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

Ill post some of the emulators i am using and recommend as backups. I have not finished the SNES or NES, since i need to do a little more testing of the GX/RX emulators. I want to make sure they work as plugins (newer versions of Genesis Plus GX do not work) and not post incomplete results. Looking through @fledge68 plugin pack, he has pretty much everything covered (Thank You Sir) plus a few newer/modified that i was not aware of. Some of these emulators have been updated recently, so my list reflects that.

Spoiler

Atari 2600
(1) Wii2600 2.7.2 (07-30-13)
-----
-----
Atari 7800
(1) Wii7800 0.5.0 (03-24-20)
-----
-----
Atari Lynx
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.2
-----
-----
Colecovision
(1) WiiColEm 0.3 (12.24-19)
-----
-----
GB / GBC
(1) RetroArch 1.8.1 Gambatte
(2) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(3) VisualBoyAdvanceGX 2.4.0 Official
-----
-----
Game Boy Advance
(1) Enhanced mGBA (01-29-20)
(2) mGBA Official 0.6.1 (USB)
-----
-----
Intellevision
(1) JzintvWii 1.0.2 (04-07-13)
-----
-----
Neo Geo Pocket
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.1
-----
-----
OpenBOR
(1) OpenBOR 3.0 Wiimpathy (09-06-18) --- (04-11-19 fledge update)
-----
-----
Sega (SG-1000, Game Gear, Master System, Genesis, CD)
(1) RetroArch 1.8.3
(2) Genesis Plus GX Official 1.7.5-RC1 (07-09-15)
-----
-----
PC Engine / PC Engine CD
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.1 SGFX Core
-----
-----
Vextrex
(1) VextrexWii 0.3.? (04-06-13)
-----
-----
Virtual Boy
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2.pre (07-02-12)
-----
-----
WonderSwan (Color)
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.1
===================================

Other Console / Computer I have not completely tested.
Amiga
Commodore64
MSX
Nintendo / Famicom Disc System
ScummVM
Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Super Nintendo

This is wonderful (as always with your contributions)

As for ScummVM I'm using version 2.1.1 from here
It adds support and fixes for new games. Not perfect yet (I still have freezings in certain parts of Blade Runner, however I already reported the bug to the devs). It seems the best one to me, but I'm sying this with the benefit of the doubt, as I seem to be the only one to have those issues (this, or people never reported issues because they just tested if the games were launching without actually playing them).

For Commodore 64 I think that we have no alternatives to c64-network.org (frodo-wii) and that the last version is still the one found in the old Abz's MP (frodo-mod.dol). It can boot .sav files from wiiflow for instant loading. However, compatibility is far from perfect... it's frustrating playing for 1h one game, only to discover that it fails to load the last level (when the same roms are running perfectly on VICE). It's a shame the project is long abandoned, as many useful features like cartridge support or proper 50Hz handling are really missing here.

I'm also using uae-mod.dol for the Amiga (always from Abz's MP) and while it can be good enough for some games, it does have similar issues. But I don't think it was ever updated since all this time.

 

[RunningSnakes]

Thanks @Tetsuo Shima , I am currently on ScummVM 2.1.0 so thank you for the link. I'm using same C64, Amiga, ZX (I think) from Abz pack. The MSX newer stand alone is top notch but as with all these (computer) emulators, I have them all working through WFL plugins, but my testing is minimal.

For SNES, I love @niuus RX, @Tanooki16 also has a great looking/working mod of GX also. Not to mention the Official GX is great too!
(1) SNES9xRX - 4.8.0
(1) SNES9xGX - Tanookie Mushroom 1.0.3
(1) SNES9xGX - Official 4.4.7

For NES-FDS there are so many to choose from. In the end of my testing, I just have to rule out anything RA has to offer because of instability or missing features that break the deal (FCEUmm is the best RA has to offer).

RX, GX 1-Up, GX Official are all outstanding & full of bells & whistles. As with the SNES, it is all preference since I really believe there is no Clear winner of the three. The emu I put on a back burner years ago, I have revisited & it holds up to any/all Wii Nintendo / Famicom Disc emus. It is what I am using as #1 plugin!!!

(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre

(What is missing)
Color Palatte changing (Ouch!)
Fine tune turbo fire
FPS diagnostic screen
Mapper support for hacks/translations/saving
3rd party controller support

(What is has)
Clean & simple interface
Rewind & Cheat Support
Double Strike Video (240p)
Zapper/Crosshair works great
Save function is top notch
FDS Disc Swapping works great

I'm sure it is technically inferior to the newer GX/RX emus but it is simple but robust and it Just works. I really hope someone with the know-how coding capabilities would give WiiMednafen an update. It clearly stands above RA imo, but I am not sure if it is open source. Anyhow, wishes do become reality sometimes

 

[nickbadge2]

Hey I just found out about this and I am VERY interested in this project. I would like to contribute to it. Unfortunately I am a new member and I can't send you a pm @Tetsuo Shima please message me so I can reply back about a private matter, thanks.

I haven't been able to read all the details, but I will during the next hours.

 

[Wiimpathy]

Amiga (UAE Wii) received a last update : https://github.com/Oibaf66/uae-wii/releases

WiiMednafen had a lot of updates too. But I can't find a dol right now. @niuus since you've test this, could you share a build?

 

[RunningSnakes]

Thank you for the link Wiimpathy.

Edit:
I stand corrected about the NES/FDS color palette support. I have found this pack of custom palettes & very happy to say they do work. Just rename your preferred palette to nes.pal and place into root/wiimednafen/palettes folder.

I've found many Game Boy palettes & have also tried to create my own with no luck. The Pea Green pallet does work but I really wanted the Super Game Boy pallet. Oh well, maybe I'll try again if I can't dig anything up.

 

[niuus]

Amiga (UAE Wii) received a last update : https://github.com/Oibaf66/uae-wii/releases

WiiMednafen had a lot of updates too. But I can't find a dol right now. @niuus since you've test this, could you share a build?

Sure thing. I'll update this post.

 

[nickbadge2]

- Snes9x cannot run Yoshi 's Island at decent speed. And I can't accept that in 2020!! I think we can discard it totally and use SNES9x RX (not yet added to the pack).

I did some testing, using both the USA and EU verified dumps of SMW2 - Yoshi's Island (actually the US version was 1.1) and there was no slowdown or glitches whatsoever. There are several hacked versions of that ROM, which leads to the suspicion of probably a bad dump/faulty copy.

 

[niuus]

I did some testing, using both the USA and EU verified dumps of SMW2 - Yoshi's Island (actually the US version was 1.1) and there was no slowdown or glitches whatsoever. There are several hacked versions of that ROM, which leads to the suspicion of probably a bad dump/faulty copy.

A bad ROM won't drop frames and thus affect speed (he is not talking about glitches). There is no relation.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

I did some testing, using both the USA and EU verified dumps of SMW2 - Yoshi's Island (actually the US version was 1.1) and there was no slowdown or glitches whatsoever. There are several hacked versions of that ROM, which leads to the suspicion of probably a bad dump/faulty copy.

Sorry, you did some tests on... what? I was taking about the latest Retroarch builds, so please report exactly what version and build you used. And my "probably faulty rom" is running perfectly on RA 1.0.0.2. or every other standalone emulators, so read carefully before posting nonsense! Do you really think I'm such a noob?

 

[nickbadge2]

Okay, terribly sorry about that. My tests were done on the following roms.

*Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island (E) (M3) (V1.0) [!].sfc MD5 cef1055e9b4a2be56ea7810c07976c17
*Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island (U) (V1.0) [!].sfc MD5 cb472164c5a71ccd3739963390ec6a50
Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island (U) (V1.1) [!].sfc MD5 cb472164c5a71ccd3739963390ec6a50

I run those together with the plugins.zip I downloaded from the initial post.

Can I please have the MD5 sum of your copy or copies? Would you like me to send those over in a pm? Again sorry

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

In genplus-gx_cd.ini, you might want to add .CHD as an acceptable filetype. It is a much better format for Sega CD games, single file, and has been supported by the emulator since 2017.

 

[Wiimpathy]

@nickbadge2
That's nice to test but be more precise. Which specific Snes emulator? There are a lot (Retroarch snes9x2010, Snes9x-GX etc...). If it's retroarch we also want to know which revision it is(1.7.5 etc).

The point here is to know which emulator runs the best or the most 'usable'.

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

Can I please have the MD5 sum of your copy or copies?

I was using the v.1.0 U rom on Retroarch 1.8.2 (2020/01/04-nightly)

No-Intro Name: Super Mario World 2 - Yoshi's Island (USA)
(No-Intro version 20130701-030720)
File MD5 3815313483E125CD52193489B120A3C4
File SHA-1 D73BA761E2D9C7FB93ADAF3F5AEBC0D5522CBEA6
File CRC32 3F098E29
ROM MD5 CB472164C5A71CCD3739963390EC6A50
ROM SHA-1 C807F2856F44FB84326FAC5B462340DCDD0471F8
ROM CRC32 D138F224

In genplus-gx_cd.ini, you might want to add .CHD as an acceptable filetype. It is a much better format for Sega CD games, single file, and has been supported by the emulator since 2017.

I didn't know, thanks for that! I will add the .chd filetype for the Sega CD

 

[RunningSnakes]

OK. So i hex edited around 50 palettes for WiiMednafen Game Boy. I have not tested all of the palettes but around 10 of them & believe they all work. I think ill be using WiiMednafen for GB/GBC as well now these palettes are working. Let me know if any do not work.

After testing, I have found many are not correct. I'll fix and repost soon.


Edit:

Ok, So I have spent some time learning palette hex. I hex these from lospec.com & included image if available. I also did a few of my own, plus a couple of interpretations of images. I am happy with it.

 

[Hakaisha]

This is a great idea, @Tetsuo Shima! WiiFlow is long overdue for an updated plugin pack.

Many of us are still using heavily-modified Masterpiece packs, which can vary greatly depending on the changes made by each individual's preference. This type of situation grants us little solidarity in moving forward, and creates a difficult time for new users. I very much like the folder structure in the pack posted by @fledge68 , and I personally think this pack should be the template to build upon.

I'm currently downloading the latest WFL 5.4.4 update and will probably spend the rest of the day getting my setup working with Fledge's plugin pack, then move forward from there to make my own contributions to this project. Very exciting! Thanks for this!

 

[Bwangster12]

Ill post some of the emulators i am using and recommend as backups. I have not finished the SNES or NES, since i need to do a little more testing of the GX/RX emulators. I want to make sure they work as plugins (newer versions of Genesis Plus GX do not work) and not post incomplete results. Looking through @fledge68 plugin pack, he has pretty much everything covered (Thank You Sir) plus a few newer/modified that i was not aware of. Some of these emulators have been updated recently, so my list reflects that.

Spoiler

Atari 2600
(1) Wii2600 2.7.2 (07-30-13)
-----
-----
Atari 7800
(1) Wii7800 0.5.0 (03-24-20)
-----
-----
Atari Lynx
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.2
-----
-----
Colecovision
(1) WiiColEm 0.3 (12.24-19)
-----
-----
GB / GBC
(1) RetroArch 1.8.1 Gambatte
(2) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(3) VisualBoyAdvanceGX 2.4.0 Official
-----
-----
Game Boy Advance
(1) Enhanced mGBA (01-29-20)
(2) mGBA Official 0.6.1 (USB)
-----
-----
Intellevision
(1) JzintvWii 1.0.2 (04-07-13)
-----
-----
Neo Geo Pocket
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.1
-----
-----
OpenBOR
(1) OpenBOR 3.0 Wiimpathy (09-06-18) --- (04-11-19 fledge update)
-----
-----
Sega (SG-1000, Game Gear, Master System, Genesis, CD)
(1) RetroArch 1.8.3
(2) Genesis Plus GX Official 1.7.5-RC1 (07-09-15)
-----
-----
PC Engine / PC Engine CD
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.1 SGFX Core
-----
-----
Vextrex
(1) VextrexWii 0.3.? (04-06-13)
-----
-----
Virtual Boy
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2.pre (07-02-12)
-----
-----
WonderSwan (Color)
(1) WiiMednafen 0.2pre (07-02-12)
(2) RetroArch 1.8.1
===================================

Other Console / Computer I have not completely tested.
Amiga
Commodore64
MSX
Nintendo / Famicom Disc System
ScummVM
Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Super Nintendo

Would you be able to share the link to Fledge's plugin pack?

 

[RunningSnakes]

Would you be able to share the link to Fledge's plugin pack?

Here you go...

https://www.mediafire.com/file/4ol455mlovv2fal/fledge68_plugins_pack.zip/file

 

[Tetsuo Shima]

i'm (slowly) starting to work on @fledge68 's pack, adding or updating plugins where necessary.
Not feeling so good lately, I get tired very easily.
I think I'd like a common folder structure for roms, for example all nes plugins point to the same folders for roms.
It would be nice to have them all organized in a 'roms' folder, with subfolders for each system.
Switching to different plugins would only be a matter of changing the magic numbers in the source_menu .ini's. What do you think?
Or maybe some emulators requires the roms to be in a specific folder?

 

[fledge68]

i'm (slowly) starting to work on @fledge68 's pack, adding or updating plugins where necessary.
Not feeling so good lately, I get tired very easily.
I think I'd like a common folder structure for roms, for example all nes plugins point to the same folders for roms.
It would be nice to have them all organized in a 'roms' folder, with subfolders for each system.
Switching to different plugins would only be a matter of changing the magic numbers in the source_menu .ini's. What do you think?
Or maybe some emulators requires the roms to be in a specific folder?

I like your idea but most of the computer emus want the games in specific folder structure.

Also i kept the roms separated by emu was in case some roms worked better with one emu1 while the other roms worked better with emu2. For example wii64 and not64. This way you can combine the two in one source button without doubling the rom covers.

But your idea is good too. Most people prefer one emulator over all the others emus of the same console.