Homebrew WIP NES Emulator Port

Fadi5555 · May 21, 2018

waywardson07 said:
Hey everyone, this is my first time posting here. I recently started work on porting an NES emulator to the switch.

My progress at this point is:
- emulator runs on switch
- no audio support
- no save support
- frame rate is a bit slow but playable

This project is more of a just for fun project I wanted to try out but I intend to:
- get audio working
- get saving working
- optimize to help frame rate
- build a UI that resembles the NES classic

If anyone is interested in contributing to the project just let me know. I will release the emulator along with the source as soon as I am done or if demand for it is high I could just release in stages.

One question I have for any switch developers out there is..
is there a way on the switch to calculate delta time in milliseconds ? I've tried using time.h along with clock(), but clock() doesn't seem to work on the switch.

Here is a video of the current state of the emulator:

That’s really amazing.
Please can you make this emu running in fullscreen? Because all current emulators are running pretty good but with lack of fullscreen.

Leonidas87 · May 21, 2018

To think I have a Duckhunt gun still in the packaging. To bad I cant plug it in the switch lmfao

PatrickD85 · May 21, 2018

Quick question which NES emulator are you porting over?

waywardson07 · May 23, 2018

gdkchan said:
You can use svcGetSystemTick (or just read the CNTPCT_EL0 system register directly since thats the only thing the svc does anyway) to get the system tick count, it's frequency is 19200000 hz so you just need to divide the value you read from it by 19200 (remember to use floating point or fixed point integer, you can just multiply by 1 / 19200 since multiplications are usually faster than divisions) to get a milliseconds timestamp. You can then store this value on a variable and calculate the delta on the next iteration of your main loop.

Thank you so much! life saver!

PatrickD85 said:
Quick question which NES emulator are you porting over?

It is a port of fogleman's NES emulator written in go. I would link to it but I am unable to post links at this point. there is a link in the readme file in the OP.

Also, I have updated the original post with a download link to the emulator for people to test out. I will work on getting the GitHub up next for those people I have told about it.

angelhp · May 23, 2018

When i press icon , its return to homebrew launcher
Switch 4.1.0

Leonidas87 · May 23, 2018

Roms are correct but when it loads I'm stuck at a black screen.

Dont give up on this emulator @waywardson07 options are always good and the Other NES emulator is not running well and is buggy also

Leonidas87 · May 23, 2018

Want to say thanks to the developer there has been some great progression.

Some games not running with the alternative NES emulator seem to run with this.

Audio is not running yet but give it time.

Speed will increase.

Features will then be added.

All the best and here's a video showing NES ClassicSwitch NES Emulator:

waywardson07 · May 25, 2018

I have a question for any devs out there willing to answer. So I am having trouble with audio on the switch.
I am able to get audio playback to work, but it causes severe lag. I am not using sdl2, just plain c with libnx.
The emulator outputs samples in float format.
I've taken a look at the audio examples and it seems the pcm format is u8. So by converting the output samples and adding them in the buffer I am able to get playback to work following the audio examples but as I said above it causes major lag.

At this point I have the emulator running at full speed even when scaled full screen. If I could get a little guidance on this part that would be much appreciated.

EDIT: Also updated the OP with alpha v0.0.3

Leonidas87 · May 25, 2018

waywardson07 said:
I have a question for any devs out there willing to answer. So I am having trouble with audio on the switch.
I am able to get audio playback to work, but it causes severe lag. I am not using sdl2, just plain c with libnx.
The emulator outputs samples in float format.
I've taken a look at the audio examples and it seems the pcm format is u8. So by converting the output samples and adding them in the buffer I am able to get playback to work following the audio examples but as I said above it causes major lag.

At this point I have the emulator running at full speed even when scaled full screen. If I could get a little guidance on this part that would be much appreciated.

EDIT: Also updated the OP with alpha v0.0.3

@jakibaki would you be willing to assist or guide @waywardson07 in any way?

Even with just a link or some specifics that would be beneficial in regards to the audio.

Deletedmember448668 · May 25, 2018

waywardson07 said:
Hey everyone, this is my first time posting here. I recently started work on porting an NES emulator to the switch.

My progress at this point is:
- emulator runs on switch
- no audio support
- no save support
- frame rate is a bit slow but playable

This project is more of a just for fun project I wanted to try out but I intend to:
- get audio working
- get saving working
- optimize to help frame rate
- build a UI that resembles the NES classic

If anyone is interested in contributing to the project just let me know. I will release the emulator along with the source as soon as I am done or if demand for it is high I could just release in stages.

One question I have for any switch developers out there is..
is there a way on the switch to calculate delta time in milliseconds ? I've tried using time.h along with clock(), but clock() doesn't seem to work on the switch. (answered)

Here is a video of the current state of the emulator(Thank you@Leonidas87)

UPDATE_1: NES ClasSwitch Alpha v0.0.1 Release

Hey guys, sorry for the delay. I was able to build a semi user friendly interface to use with testing the emulator. I have attached a zip containing the emulator. Please Please Please read the README.txt for more information. Everything you need to know is in there.

UPDATE_2: NES ClasSwitch Alpha v0.0.2 Release

This second update is to fix some bugs that where a result of two problems: 1) a piece of old code accidentally left in. 2) a problem with reading file names.
Both have been solved in this update and the emulator should fine now. File names can be whatever you want now.

UPDATE_3: NES ClasSwitch Alpha v0.0.3 Release

This update adds full speed gameplay and full screen scaling.

Thank you! Great work so far! Keep it up!

Edit: Did some quick testing, 1 out 5 games seemed to load, few of them crashed, Super Mario Bro 3 seems solid though, the rom list selection seems to be missing 2/3 of my roms and is laggy to select. Def cool though when it did work!

waywardson07 · May 25, 2018

Seathasky said:
Thank you! Great work so far! Keep it up!

Edit: Did some quick testing, 1 out 5 games seemed to load, few of them crashed, Super Mario Bro 3 seems solid though, the rom list selection seems to be missing 2/3 of my roms and is laggy to select. Def cool though when it did work!

Thanks for testing. Currently the only games expected to work are games that use mapper 1 and 4. If you google "nes bis ass mapper list" you will get a list of which games use which mappers. I would link you directly but I can't post links yet.

Deletedmember448668 · May 25, 2018

waywardson07 said:
Thanks for testing. Currently the only games expected to work are games that use mapper 1 and 4. If you google "nes bis ass mapper list" you will get a list of which games use which mappers. I would link you directly but I can't post links yet.

No worries! Will keep an eye on updates, thanks for your hard work

waywardson07 · May 26, 2018

Seathasky said:
No worries! Will keep an eye on updates, thanks for your hard work

Thanks, btw I just updated the OP with a new build. This one should add support for a lot more games.

Leonidas87 · May 26, 2018

waywardson07 said:
Thanks, btw I just updated the OP with a new build. This one should add support for a lot more games.

Continued testing first thing in the morning

Leonidas87 · May 26, 2018

Latest version is AMAZING I must admit.

Full screen looks great.

Once we have audio and custom game covers and of course joystick support this will be the BEST NES EMULATOR for now.

Keep up this great work.

All the best.

Leonidas87 · May 27, 2018

Figured it would be easier to find in the Homebrew Menue

Dillw33d · May 27, 2018

Hey, I just tried out your latest build, v0.0.5, and the menu appears to be completely unresponsive for me. Any clue as to why it's not working?

Proto-Propski · May 27, 2018

Leonidas87 said:
Figured it would be easier to find in the Homebrew Menue View attachment 125266

You know you can seperate your Homebrew into categories if you place each of your .nro's into their own individual folders, and then place those folders into a parent folder named whatever category you choose...

Example(s)
sdmc:/Switch/Emulators/NES/NES.nro
sdmc:/Switch/Emulators/GBA/GBA.nro

you do have to have multiple Homebrew folders in the category folder for this to work however, and you can't place just one .nro outside of a folder (basically don't do "sdmc:/Switch/Emulators/GBA.nro"), or it'll only read just that single .nro, and ignore everything else... hope this helps.
______________________________________________
My Switch Homebrew Category System

Leonidas87 · May 27, 2018

Proto-Propski said:
You know you can seperate your Homebrew into categories if you place each of your .nro's into their own individual folders, and then place those folders into a parent folder named whatever category you choose...

Example(s)
sdmc:/Switch/Emulators/NES/NES.nro
sdmc:/Switch/Emulators/GBA/GBA.nro

you do have to have multiple Homebrew folders in the category folder for this to work however, and you can't place just one .nro outside of a folder (basically don't do "sdmc:/Switch/Emulators/GBA.nro"), or it'll only read just that single .nro, and ignore everything else... hope this helps.
______________________________________________
My Switch Homebrew Category System

View attachment 125269 View attachment 125270

Doing that right now

waywardson07 · May 27, 2018

Dillw33d said:
Hey, I just tried out your latest build, v0.0.5, and the menu appears to be completely unresponsive for me. Any clue as to why it's not working?

Was the menu working for you on earlier versions? Just downloaded the zip file and it seems to be working fine. What firmware are you on? I am on 5.0.0 so I am unable to test lower firmware to confirm it is working.

Homebrew WIP NES Emulator Port

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