Homebrew Stella-DS Improved

wavemotion · Sep 29, 2022

Version 5.1 released: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/StellaDS

V5.1 : 29-Sep-2022 by wavemotion-dave

Improved all bank switching for more speed and greater compatibility.
New F6 driver for DS-LITE to support 16K games - many at full speed!
Cleanups across the board.

Another one for the DS-Lite/Phat users. The new F6 driver supports a load of 16K games including the incredible homebrews Conquest of Mars, Lady Bug, Stay Frosty and Man Goes Down. These are some of the greatest games on the system... and they will run at or near full speed even on the older hardware now. It's a minor miracle

Better F8 driver for the DS-LITE that brings in another half-dozen playable games on the older hardware... and there are now 8 games that support 'Flicker Free' mode on the DS-Lite with the new found speed.

Rejoice - for the ancient handheld can play even more ancient games!

wavemotion · Sep 30, 2022

Version 5.2 released: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/StellaDS

V5.2 : 30-Sep-2022 by wavemotion-dave

Fixed goof in F6, F4 and related F6SC and F4SC drivers!
Another frame of increased performance
More accurate AR cart handling for Supercharger games

Sorry about that - in my haste to get more games running on the DS-Lite... I screwed up the DSi handling of F6 and F4 (16K and 32K) bankswitching games! Derp. I think the universe does this to remind me that I'm not all that and a bag of chips

Please upgrade to 5.2 with the fixes... I was also able to squeeze another frame out for even better performance. I'm also getting closer to having perfect AR/Supercharger support... those are some tricky-ass games.

Peace!

Cris1997XX · Oct 2, 2022

wavemotion said:
Version 5.2 released: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/StellaDS

V5.2 : 30-Sep-2022 by wavemotion-dave

Fixed goof in F6, F4 and related F6SC and F4SC drivers!

Another frame of increased performance

More accurate AR cart handling for Supercharger games

Sorry about that - in my haste to get more games running on the DS-Lite... I screwed up the DSi handling of F6 and F4 (16K and 32K) bankswitching games! Derp. I think the universe does this to remind me that I'm not all that and a bag of chips

Please upgrade to 5.2 with the fixes... I was also able to squeeze another frame out for even better performance. I'm also getting closer to having perfect AR/Supercharger support... those are some tricky-ass games.

Peace!

You resumed working on this emulator! We can never thank you enough for your homebrew work. Just a curiosity, will you ever add complete DPC support? It's only used in Pitfall 2 (And I think a Tetris clone called Chetiry?), but it would be amazing to play such games on a handheld. The former runs, albeit audio is incomplete

wavemotion · Oct 2, 2022

Cris1997XX said:
You resumed working on this emulator! We can never thank you enough for your homebrew work. Just a curiosity, will you ever add complete DPC support? It's only used in Pitfall 2 (And I think a Tetris clone called Chetiry?), but it would be amazing to play such games on a handheld. The former runs, albeit audio is incomplete

Actually Chetiry uses a special bankswitching called CTY (related to DPC) that provides extra RAM and EE for music and such... but there is a version of Cherity that is supported - but you need to get the F4SC "No Eeprom" version. This version will have game sounds but not music nor EE saving. Still very playable.

Pitfall 2 has been the bane of existence for me... the music fetchers are not trivial to emulate with speed and so everything I've tried has come out sounding really badly. Other than proper background music - it should run pretty close to 60FPS on the DSi. I've tried on and off to add the full DPC support but it always ends in frustration - and Pitfall II can be played on both ColecoDS and the the Atari 8-bit XEGS-DS at full speed so it remains low on my list of things to do.

raxadian · Oct 3, 2022

Anyone got a list of the best Atari games? I know there is a very good fanmade port of Mappy for example.

wavemotion · Oct 3, 2022

raxadian said:
Anyone got a list of the best Atari games? I know there is a very good fanmade port of Mappy for example.

Unfortunately Mappy is one of the ARM-Assisted games. A handful of new homebrews use an ARM co-processor that runs at 70MHz - more than the speed of the original DS! StellaDS can't emulate those DPC+ games.

I'm still a huge fan of the classics... Missile Command, Adventure, Pitfall!, Yar's Revenge, Chopper Command, Megamania, Cosmic Ark, Demon Attack, etc. The most common games on Atari were generally the best.

For homebrews, my favorite is Space Treat Deluxe followed by the unfinished but great Man Goes Down.

Unrelated to that... I did manage to add the CTY Cherity bankswitching scheme but without the music fetchers. All 3 released homebrew Cherity ROMs will play with the EEPROM and save score backing for all 4 game types working. Music fetchers are another story

I'm not ready for a new release, but the daily check in is up on my github page.

wavemotion · Oct 3, 2022

Version 5.3 released: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/StellaDS

V5.3 : 03-Oct-2022 by wavemotion-dave

Added Chetiry (CTY) bank switching scheme with EEPROM support (but no music fetchers).
Improved memory handling across the board for another frame of performance.
Fixed SP+ so it runs properly again.
Improved driver for Midnight Magic and Real Sports Tennis so both now run at 60FPS!

Reduced overhead in memory management bought another frame of performance... Games like Yars Revenge on the older DS-Lite hardware will run sustained 60FPS with flicker-free (now the default) mode enabled so it looks damn near perfect. More games have moved up into the playable realm... Stampeed is now mid 50s and is enjoyable and Keystone Kapers is close at 55-57 fps but does have some slowdown on the escalator screens. I'll keep working on it!

On the DSi front: I finally got Midnight Magic and RS Tennis up to 60 frames-per-second... these were notable holdouts as some of the later Atari games that just couldn't get much above mid-50s previously. I think there are only 2 games now that won't run full speed in DSi mode: Escape from the Mind Master is 47-60 depending on how much hallway is being drawn but all the minigames are about 60 and the game plays just great. The other is Four Play which only runs about 45 fps but given the style of game (connect-four) the frame rate is not really noticeable.

The CTY bank switching scheme is in with support for EEPROM high score saves... the music fetchers aren't hooked in so there is no background music but the game and in-game sounds are fine. It will hold 60 fps on the DSi but will struggle on the older hardware.

As always thanks for the encouragement on StellaDS. I'll keep chipping away - the speed has gotten good enough on the DSi that I may add some higher quality sound options.

wavemotion · Oct 5, 2022

I know this won't mean much to most of you... but there was a time where all of these frame rates (with the exception of Adventure - upper left) were struggling to hit 60FPS. Version 5.4 is coming in a day or two and will bring in even more speed, higher compatibility and a new optimized F4 (32K) driver for the DS-Lite that will render some of the really big homebrews at full speed on the older hardware (Juno First and SpaceGame are gonna rock!!)

wavemotion · Oct 7, 2022

Version 5.4 released: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/StellaDS

V5.4 : 07-Oct-2022 by wavemotion-dave

Added DF bank switching scheme (missed when DFSC was added).
New core execution loop that gives us another 2 frames of performance.
Optimized F4 driver to make some of the 32K games playable on DS-Lite.
Cleanup across the board.

Got the core execution loop optimized which brings a solid 2 frame of performance across the board. Escape from the Mind Master is the only holdout on the DSi that doesn't run at full frame rate. More 4K/8K games are playable on the DS-Lite and DS-Phat... and now there is a new F4 (32K) driver for the DS-Lite/Phat that will render some of those monster games at full speed. Be sure to check out Juno First and SpaceGame-Final roms which are both stunning examples of new-big-homebrews!

Blauhasenpopo · Oct 7, 2022

Wonderful Work :wub:

raxadian · Oct 8, 2022

This is amazing, a bummer some Atari fan games won't work but whatever at least Snoopy vs the Red Baron works.

RocketRobz · Oct 8, 2022

wavemotion said:
@RocketRobz - not sure if/when you pick up new versions of the pack-in emulators for TWL++... but this one has undergone some real testing and is quite clean. Feel free to include at your leisure.

New TWiLight Menu++ versions automatically bundle the latest versions of some emulators (yours included).

wavemotion · Oct 9, 2022

Not quite ready for a new build but did put in an optimized F8SC (8K + RAM) and F6SC (16K + RAM) driver for the DS-Lite which now brings in Defender II/Stargate as playable as well as Jr. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Secret Quest, Millipede (flicker free!) and more.

Really firing on all thrusters now on the older hardware.. I also put in a new Flicker Free "half" mode that looks pretty much as good as the original Flicker Free but at half the CPU - more DS-Lite games will be able to utilize this to get beautiful looking screens at full-speed.

The daily build is checked in on my GitHub page.

I am starting to run out of RAM on the DS-Lite/Phat. Of the 4MB, I'm down to about 700K free. That's still quite a bit... but it's not infinite.

I'm pretty sure I've got (space) rocks in my head but I decided to try DPC+ arm support again... With all the speed gains, I thought maybe we're in the ballpark. The last time I tried this, I was able to run Space Rocks at about 3 frames per second on the DSi with the 2X faster CPU.

As you can see there is progress... but it's still a LONG way from playable on the venerable DS handheld.

raxadian · Oct 10, 2022

Any chance for a DSi version that can run some fan made games?

wavemotion · Oct 10, 2022

raxadian said:
Any chance for a DSi version that can run some fan made games?

The DSi when run under TWL++ or Unlaunch should run all known homebrew Atari games except ARM assisted games (which I’m working on now).

What other games did you have in mind?

CrashMidnick · Oct 10, 2022

Space Rocks... rocks ^^

Is the FPS counter only in your debug version ?

raxadian · Oct 10, 2022

wavemotion said:
The DSi when run under TWL++ or Unlaunch should run all known homebrew Atari games except ARM assisted games (which I’m working on now).

What other games did you have in mind?

Well I was talking about the ARM assisted games but almost all of those are port of Nes games that is already possible to run on a DS so there is no hurry. I guess there is a few original ARM assisted games? I have no clue, I have barely played Atari games as what I had as a kid was a Master System and most of my friends had a Nes. One had a dad with a Comodore 64 but he didn't let him touch it. And some were stuck using their parents 286 computers to play games.

wavemotion · Oct 10, 2022

CrashMidnick said:
Space Rocks... rocks ^^

Is the FPS counter only in your debug version ?

The FPS can be turned on if you click the little 3x3 pixels in the extreme upper left touch-screen window. It's hard to do with your finger but easy with a stylus. If you click the upper right corner, you will turn on 'FS' full-speed.

I have Space Rocks now running in the mid-30s FPS.... still too slow. But some of the other ARM assisted games are starting to get closer... some are 45+ but still have a way to go!

Cris1997XX · Oct 10, 2022

wavemotion said:
The DSi when run under TWL++ or Unlaunch should run all known homebrew Atari games except ARM assisted games (which I’m working on now).

What other games did you have in mind?

I think he was referring to the DPC+ games (Aarghh, I missed his message). It might be somewhat feasible on DSi with extreme optimization, but full speed would probably only be achieved on the 3DS...of course, you said multiple times you aren't interested in more modern handhelds :rofl2:

wavemotion · Oct 11, 2022

Not ready for a new official build - but I have just uploaded the daily build 5.4c with support for DPC+ and the first batch of ARM-assisted games.

I like to think there is a special place in heaven for those that dare to try stupid things. I don't even know how it's operating this fast... but it still needs a lot of work.

Some games are playable... Evil Magician Returns II is playable as is Epic Adventure - both in the upper 50s. The End and Tyre Trax are both playable in the mid 50s. Chaotic Grill is an unusual DPC+ game that uses the fast fetchers but no actual ARM assisted code... so that one will run full speed. Unfortunately, Space Rocks and Stay Frosty II are both only able to run in the low 30s...

I've pulled every trick I know of to get the new ARM Thumbulator core running super fast... but DPC+ is more than about the ARM core - there are fast fetchers and music fetchers and it's really just too much for the poor DSi to handle.

Post automatically merged: Oct 12, 2022

Mwhahahahahah!

Homebrew Stella-DS Improved

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