Homebrew [Release] PicoDrive for 3DS

Deleted User · Jan 31, 2018

Quick question: For the 32X games, do I need their respective bios files? Or is it only for Sega CD games?

RocketRobz · Jan 31, 2018

Leafgreen26 said:
Quick question: For the 32X games, do I need their respective bios files? Or is it only for Sega CD games?

It's only for Sega CD games.

Deleted User · Jan 31, 2018

Robz8 said:
It's only for Sega CD games.

Thanks!

zhuwz · Jan 31, 2018

bubble2k16 said:
Hmm... isn't it the same thing?

To me, I'll probably not add, but I will just change:
50 FPS to 50 FPS (Europe), and
60 FPS to 60 FPS (Japan/US)

Well, you know some games only have JE or World version. They don’t have separate EU, JP or US rom. The main purpose for region selection is for someone who wants to experience or test different version for these multi regional roms. I believe region selection is fundamental, since almost all MD emulators I have seen have this function. You can set JP for JE roms, and US for World roms as default region. Thanks.

Vague Rant · Jan 31, 2018

bubble2k16 said:
Hmm... isn't it the same thing?

To me, I'll probably not add, but I will just change:
50 FPS to 50 FPS (Europe), and
60 FPS to 60 FPS (Japan/US)

This doesn't seem quite correct. e.g., A good game to test is "Shadow Squadron ~ Stellar Assault (USA, Europe).32x". The game has two titles because it's called "Shadow Squadron" in USA and "Stellar Assault" in Europe. When running in PicoDrive 3DS, it defaults to 50 FPS and the title screen says "Stellar Assault". If you set the 60 FPS mode in PicoDrive 3DS, the game refuses to boot up at all, presumably because it isn't designed to run at PAL60. There doesn't seem to be any way in current PicoDrive to force the game to run as "Shadow Squadron" (the USA title) and at 60 FPS. If you switch the setting while the game is running, it technically "works" but the music is playing fast, etc. (PAL music sped up rather than correct speed NTSC music).

Another good test case are the Streets of Rage games. e.g. "Bare Knuckle - Ikari no Tetsuken ~ Streets of Rage (World)". This runs as "Streets of Rage" in USA or Europe and "Bare Knuckle - Ikari no Tetsuken" in Japan. I haven't actually tested this on PicoDrive myself, but with just a 50/60FPS toggle, there's currently not any way to select a region, so it's impossible to play "Bare Knuckle".

I'm not sure how the forced 50/60 FPS modes work on PicoDrive, but conventionally on modded Mega Drive hardware, you'd have two switches on the Mega Drive somewhere in order to play anything however you want: a Japan/Export switch and a 50/60Hz switch. Japan+60 = NTSC-Japan, Export+60 = NTSC-USA, Export+50 = PAL-Europe. As far as I know, Japan+50 is just nothing. Maybe some kind of east Asian regions might have used it or something, I'm not sure. But basically, the region and framerate are fairly divorced on Mega Drive and are managed independently. The 60 FPS mode in PicoDrive 3DS seems to be able to force PAL games to run at 60 FPS, but they're still running as PAL, seemingly causing issues for the games, which were never designed for this.

EDIT: For the reverse issue, try booting up "Bloodshot (Europe).md". This was a Europe-only game in the sense that it did not make it to retail shelves in the USA, but the ROM itself is multi-region and supports American Genesis...es just fine. In fact, when booted on a US Genesis, the game has a different title screen, where it's called "Battle Frenzy". Now, try booting it up with PicoDrive 3DS's 50 FPS mode: ... "Battle Frenzy" again. It's not possible to run the game in PAL mode at all, it's just NTSC-U at 60 FPS or NTSC-U at 50 FPS.

Ramzitv1 · Jan 31, 2018

the problems i tested on Sonic CD.most of the music are missing it plays US Tracks.

Deleted User · Jan 31, 2018

I tested Genesis/Megadrive games B list with PicoDrive for 3DS Version 0.93:

Back to the Future Part 3 (EUR): Black Screen. Unplayable.
Battle Mania - Dai Gin Jou (b1) (JAP): Black Screen. Unplayable.
Battletech (USA): I noticed some glitches on the Mech.
Blockbuster World Video Game Championship 2 (USA): Black Screen. Unplayable.
Blood Shot (M4) (EUR): Glitches on Screen.
Brett Hull Hockey 95 (USA): The Voiceover are missing.

Ramzitv1 · Jan 31, 2018

Dodain47 said:
I tested Genesis/Megadrive games B list with PicoDrive for 3DS Version 0.93:

Back to the Future Part 3 (EUR): Black Screen. Unplayable.

Battle Mania - Dai Gin Jou (b1) (JAP): Black Screen. Unplayable.

Battletech (USA): I noticed some glitches on the Mech.

Blockbuster World Video Game Championship 2 (USA): Black Screen. Unplayable.

Blood Shot (M4) (EUR): Glitches on Screen.

Brett Hull Hockey 95 (USA): The Voiceover are missing.

you're right.

Vague Rant · Jan 31, 2018

Dodain47 said:
Battle Mania - Dai Gin Jou (b1) (JAP): Black Screen. Unplayable.

Pretty sure (b#) in a ROM's file name means "bad dump", not really a good test case. If you really want to keep using GoodSets, try to find ones with a [!], which are "verified good dumps" ... except that GoodGen is broadly unreliable for clean dumps. You may want to seek out No-Intro ROMs instead, which don't include all the hacks, bad dumps, overdumps, etc. in GoodGen.

None of that is a guarantee that the ROMs will work in a given emulator, but it's no emulator's job to run broken and hacked dumps.

bubble2k16 · Jan 31, 2018

ArugulaZ said:
Yes, it's 0.93. No, it doesn't recognize 32x as an extension. I'm not sure why.

As for frame rates, it varies wildly. I don't think any of the games run at full speed on my New 3DS XL, but Afterburner II, Pitfall, Knuckles Chaotix, WWF Arcade, and Space Harrier run best. They claim to skip anywhere from five to eleven frames, but the gameplay seems smoother than that. Mortal Kombat II has the problems described earlier. Cosmic Carnage crashes about fifteen seconds into a fight. Star Wars chugs (not surprisingly) but hasn't crashed yet. Blackthorne crashes right away.

I could try re-downloading the emulator and maybe the 32X BIOS files. You'd think that the games wouldn't run at all if the BIOS files were the problem, but eh, you never know.

EDIT: Downloaded the emulator again using a QR code in FBI. Seems to work better than it had... characters are showing up in MKII the way they're supposed to!

Can I ask which was the first link you downloaded from that could have been the wrong version?

Vague Rant said:
This doesn't seem quite correct. e.g., A good game to test is "Shadow Squadron ~ Stellar Assault (USA, Europe).32x". The game has two titles because it's called "Shadow Squadron" in USA and "Stellar Assault" in Europe. When running in PicoDrive 3DS, it defaults to 50 FPS and the title screen says "Stellar Assault". If you set the 60 FPS mode in PicoDrive 3DS, the game refuses to boot up at all, presumably because it isn't designed to run at PAL60. There doesn't seem to be any way in current PicoDrive to force the game to run as "Shadow Squadron" (the USA title) and at 60 FPS. If you switch the setting while the game is running, it technically "works" but the music is playing fast, etc. (PAL music sped up rather than correct speed NTSC music).

Another good test case are the Streets of Rage games. e.g. "Bare Knuckle - Ikari no Tetsuken ~ Streets of Rage (World)". This runs as "Streets of Rage" in USA or Europe and "Bare Knuckle - Ikari no Tetsuken" in Japan. I haven't actually tested this on PicoDrive myself, but with just a 50/60FPS toggle, there's currently not any way to select a region, so it's impossible to play "Bare Knuckle".

I'm not sure how the forced 50/60 FPS modes work on PicoDrive, but conventionally on modded Mega Drive hardware, you'd have two switches on the Mega Drive somewhere in order to play anything however you want: a Japan/Export switch and a 50/60Hz switch. Japan+60 = NTSC-Japan, Export+60 = NTSC-USA, Export+50 = PAL-Europe. As far as I know, Japan+50 is just nothing. Maybe some kind of east Asian regions might have used it or something, I'm not sure. But basically, the region and framerate are fairly divorced on Mega Drive and are managed independently. The 60 FPS mode in PicoDrive 3DS seems to be able to force PAL games to run at 60 FPS, but they're still running as PAL, seemingly causing issues for the games, which were never designed for this.

EDIT: For the reverse issue, try booting up "Bloodshot (Europe).md". This was a Europe-only game in the sense that it did not make it to retail shelves in the USA, but the ROM itself is multi-region and supports American Genesis...es just fine. In fact, when booted on a US Genesis, the game has a different title screen, where it's called "Battle Frenzy". Now, try booting it up with PicoDrive 3DS's 50 FPS mode: ... "Battle Frenzy" again. It's not possible to run the game in PAL mode at all, it's just NTSC-U at 60 FPS or NTSC-U at 50 FPS.

Just wondering, for Bloodshot, does other versions of PicoDrive (Retroarch / Windows) run it properly in both US and EU modes?

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

Dodain47 said:
I tested Genesis/Megadrive games B list with PicoDrive for 3DS Version 0.93:

Back to the Future Part 3 (EUR): Black Screen. Unplayable.

Battle Mania - Dai Gin Jou (b1) (JAP): Black Screen. Unplayable.

Battletech (USA): I noticed some glitches on the Mech.

Blockbuster World Video Game Championship 2 (USA): Black Screen. Unplayable.

Blood Shot (M4) (EUR): Glitches on Screen.

Brett Hull Hockey 95 (USA): The Voiceover are missing.

Thanks as usual. My gut feel that the Retroarch version of PicoDrive. will probably exhibit the same issues. Might be some inaccuracies or bugs in the emulator core.

zhuwz · Jan 31, 2018

bubble2k16 said:
Can I ask which was the first link you downloaded from that could have been the wrong version?

Just wondering, for Bloodshot, does other versions of PicoDrive (Retroarch / Windows) run it properly in both US and EU modes?

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

Thanks as usual. My gut feel that the Retroarch version of PicoDrive. will probably exhibit the same issues. Might be some inaccuracies or bugs in the emulator core.

Tested Bloodshot on Picodrive 1.51b PSP version. The game can run correctly in both US and EU modes after I specify the console region. PSP Picodrive has very comprehensive region setting.

bubble2k16 · Jan 31, 2018

zhuwz said:
Tested Bloodshot on Picodrive 1.51b PSP version. The game can run correctly in both US and EU modes after I specify the console region. PSP Picodrive has very comprehensive region setting.

Thanks for sharing. Does it also have the US / JP / EU and 50 / 60 FPS?

I was thinking that maybe only the following was necessary:
1. PAL (50FPS)
2. NTSC-US (60FPS)
3. NTSC-JP (60FPS)

Vague Rant · Jan 31, 2018

bubble2k16 said:
Just wondering, for Bloodshot, does other versions of PicoDrive (Retroarch / Windows) run it properly in both US and EU modes?

I can confirm that the libretro version of PicoDrive runs Bloodshot/Battle Frenzy with the correct region settings as selected by the user. In lr-picodrive, there are two settings:
Region:

Auto
Japan NTSC
Japan PAL
US
Europe

Region FPS:

Auto
NTSC
PAL

The latter seems to correspond to the FPS setting in your port (yours is much better-named, describing framerates as "NTSC" and "PAL" is a bit nonsensical when there's NTSC60, NTSC50, PAL60 and PAL50, even if NTSC60 and PAL50 are the ones most commonly encountered). Like the current setting in your port, this adjusts the framerate without changing the emulated system region.

EDIT:

bubble2k16 said:
Thanks for sharing. Does it also have the US / JP / EU and 50 / 60 FPS?

I was thinking that maybe only the following was necessary:
1. PAL (50FPS)
2. NTSC-US (60FPS)
3. NTSC-JP (60FPS)

I agree with this, I think. I don't know what regions, if any, ever used the NTSC-50, "Japan PAL", etc. region or why anybody would want to play games like that.

Maybe an option worth considering would be those three region options (four including Auto), and then a checkbox setting like you use for many other options like the lowpass filter: "Force 60 FPS", which would replace the current Auto/50/60 setting. When off, behavior would be as "Auto" currently, and on would be like setting "60 FPS" currently.

Personally, I can't imagine a good reason to force 50 FPS, as can be done in current versions. The 3DS has a ~60Hz screen though, so running PAL games at 60 FPS seems pretty reasonable. The reason why the forcing setting is still necessary is that some games do use regional lockout, so you can't just run all PAL games as NTSC to get 60 FPS. To defeat regional lockout, though, you could run a PAL game as Auto (PAL) and then set "Force 60 FPS".

zhuwz · Jan 31, 2018

bubble2k16 said:
Thanks for sharing. Does it also have the US / JP / EU and 50 / 60 FPS?

I was thinking that maybe only the following was necessary:
1. PAL (50FPS)
2. NTSC-US (60FPS)
3. NTSC-JP (60FPS)

PSP Picodrive's region setting includes JP NTSC, JP PAL, US, EU and several auto modes with different region priority. It doesn't have fps setting. For me, I think PAL (50FPS), NTSC-US (60FPS) and NTSC-JP (60FPS) are quite enough since they include almost all situations of a game running in an actual console. You can also add an auto mode with your favorite region priority.

Dexo · Jan 31, 2018

Hey bubble2k16 I just wanted to say thanks I was looking for something like since my PSP died a few months ago, so again thanks.

I also wanted to report that the game Decap Attack(UE) has a problem, the start button does not work and the jump button (C) causes the character to jump and pause the game at the same time.

I already tried to configure the controls in both the emulator and the game but still does not work properly.

ArugulaZ · Jan 31, 2018

Bubble: I thought it was 0.93. Then again, it says 0.93 now that I re-downloaded it, so either I was mistaken or the version I downloaded earlier was corrupted in some way. It is functioning properly now, so I guess that's all that matters.

I should run Decapattack again and see if the controls are fixed in that one. Before it would press two buttons at once, which was kind of annoying.

Deleted User · Jan 31, 2018

I got my Hands on a complete No-Intro Genesis/Megadrive Rom set.

I will test PicoDrive with this set.

kenseiden · Jan 31, 2018

Dexo said:
I also wanted to report that the game Decap Attack(UE) has a problem, the start button does not work and the jump button (C) causes the character to jump and pause the game at the same time.

I already tried to configure the controls in both the emulator and the game but still does not work properly.

If I remember correctly, DecapAttack is one of the games that won't function correctly when a six-button controller is detected because of buggy stuff in how the game itself handles gamepad coding.

bubble2k16 · Jan 31, 2018

ArugulaZ said:
Bubble: I thought it was 0.93. Then again, it says 0.93 now that I re-downloaded it, so either I was mistaken or the version I downloaded earlier was corrupted in some way. It is functioning properly now, so I guess that's all that matters.

I should run Decapattack again and see if the controls are fixed in that one. Before it would press two buttons at once, which was kind of annoying.

I see. Well, actually, I just wanted to fix the link that maybe I put up incorrectly.

Dexo said:
Hey bubble2k16 I just wanted to say thanks I was looking for something like since my PSP died a few months ago, so again thanks.

I also wanted to report that the game Decap Attack(UE) has a problem, the start button does not work and the jump button (C) causes the character to jump and pause the game at the same time.

I already tried to configure the controls in both the emulator and the game but still does not work properly.

Does switching between the 3 / 6 button controller work? Do remember to reset the ROM after changing the controller just in case.

Vague Rant said:
Personally, I can't imagine a good reason to force 50 FPS, as can be done in current versions. The 3DS has a ~60Hz screen though, so running PAL games at 60 FPS seems pretty reasonable. The reason why the forcing setting is still necessary is that some games do use regional lockout, so you can't just run all PAL games as NTSC to get 60 FPS. To defeat regional lockout, though, you could run a PAL game as Auto (PAL) and then set "Force 60 FPS".

Sounds like it might still be better off adding a new region setting the way Retroarch works. I'll have a look at that.

Vague Rant · Feb 1, 2018

bubble2k16 said:
Sounds like it might still be better off adding a new region setting the way Retroarch works. I'll have a look at that.

Right, sorry, I should have been clearer. I meant that the ideal solution would be the region settings like you suggested, as in PAL (50FPS), NTSC-US (60FPS), and NTSC-JP (60FPS), then an additional, second option to "Force 60 FPS".

Basically, the way I'm suggesting it could work in PicoDrive 3DS is as follows:

GAME-SPECIFIC SETTINGS
Frameskip

Disabled

Enabled (max 1 frame)

Enabled (max 2 frames)

Enabled (max 3 frames)

Enabled (max 4 frames)

Region

Auto

NTSC-US (60FPS)

NTSC-JP (60FPS)

PAL (50FPS)

Force 60 FPS PAL

•

✓

This skips over the "unnecessary" settings in other PicoDrive versions, like the Japan-50FPS setting, and strips back the FPS setting from a three-way menu (Auto/60 FPS/50 FPS) to a simple checkbox toggle (off: Auto/on: 60FPS). This allows running games the way they were intended in all regions, as as a bonus, if you're playing a PAL (50FPS) game, you can optionally force it to run at 60 FPS. Removed is the ability to force an NTSC, 60 FPS game to run at 50 FPS, which is a useless option nobody needs.

An alternative way you could set it up is to combine the two options into one Region setting, like this:

Region

Auto

NTSC-US (60FPS)

NTSC-JP (60FPS)

PAL (50FPS)

PAL (Force 60FPS)

But this seems less clear to me, as PAL with forced 60 FPS isn't a "region", it's just a region plus an emulator setting. Also, PAL with forced 60 FPS has no place in "Auto", whereas enabling it as a separate checkbox toggle would allow it to work when selecting either "Auto" or "PAL (50FPS)".

Homebrew [Release] PicoDrive for 3DS

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