Homebrew A5200DS - Improved

[wavemotion]

As promised. https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS
Release 1.7 brought back to life from the ashes.
Corrected sound. Improved controller handling (so odd games like Frogger, QBert and Wizard of Wor now work). Improved analog controller handling so more games operate more smoothly (centipede isn't so jerky and Missile Command is smoother).
It should auto-pick the right controller but for now you can switch between digital simulation and analog simulation as normal (but that option will likely go away soon when I have compatibility fully worked out).
Incorporated the open-source Altirra-3.20 replacement ROM BIOS (so if you don't have 5200.rom around, this open source one will do the job automatically)
Speed was already fine on the DSi. Haven't even tried it on the DS-LITE.

Now comes the long process of tweaking all the visual settings to make each game look as good as possible. But lots of games are playable - please use "No Intro" NTSC roms for compatibility.

 

[Alexander1970]

As promised. https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS
Release 1.7 brought back to life from the ashes.
Corrected sound. Improved controller handling (so odd games like Frogger, QBert and Wizard of Wor now work). Improved analog controller handling so more games operate more smoothly (centipede isn't so jerky and Missile Command is smoother).
It should auto-pick the right controller but for now you can switch between digital simulation and analog simulation as normal (but that option will likely go away soon when I have compatibility fully worked out).
Incorporated the open-source Altirra-3.20 replacement ROM BIOS (so if you don't have 5200.rom around, this open source one will do the job automatically)
Speed was already fine on the DSi. Haven't even tried it on the DS-LITE.

Now comes the long process of tweaking all the visual settings to make each game look as good as possible. But lots of games are playable - please use "No Intro" NTSC roms for compatibility.

View attachment 239279

Thank you,a really very nice Christmas Present,awesome !!!!!

 

[wavemotion]

Version 1.7a: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS

I added command line support so games can be launched with arguments (in case Rob wants to add to TWL++)
Another 20 games added to the compatibility list - mostly conversions of great Atari 800 computer games (Caverns of Mars - yes please!). Also look for the "Arcade" ports of Popeye, DK and DK-JR which are excellent.

 

[wavemotion]

Version 1.8: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS

Merry Christmas everyone!

Major cleanup of old speedup attempts that weren't working correctly - this should allow collision detection to work properly now (no more bullets passing right through Space Invaders!). More games work properly - NTSC is the default console. Better screen handling across the board utilizing as many pixels as possible. Robotron 2084 is playable with A,X,Y,B buttons as the fire buttons (awesome!).

 

[ber71]

Just a question. Why not target PAL instead of NTSC? The fps requirements are a bit relaxed so it should be faster.

 

[wavemotion]

Just a question. Why not target PAL instead of NTSC? The fps requirements are a bit relaxed so it should be faster.

Great question - as it turns out, rendering frames is faster/easier than rendering scanlines within a frame. The frame is mainly video-to-video memory copy which is done via DMA - it doesn't require much CPU power. But rending the scanlines with all the collision detection and color switches is painful to emulate - and PAL has almost 20% more scanlines in a given frame. So NTSC is faster to render simply because it has less scanlines to process - even accounting for the fact that it's 20% more frames per second.

 

[wavemotion]

Version 1.8: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS

Corrected NTSC Palette - no more green ladders in Donkey Kong.
Fixed input for games like Montezuma's Revenge.
Added many more games to the compatibility table. More than 100 games are fully playable at full rendering speeds.
This includes a lot of Atari 800/XL/XE conversions which run great on the 5200.

 

[Alexander1970]

Version 1.8: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS

Corrected NTSC Palette - no more green ladders in Donkey Kong.
Fixed input for games like Montezuma's Revenge.
Added many more games to the compatibility table. More than 100 games are fully playable at full rendering speeds.
This includes a lot of Atari 800/XL/XE conversions which run great on the 5200.

Thank you very,very much.

 

[xonn]

Thanks for your Christmas present @wavemotion
Just an idea, why not set a swapscreen feature using X button instead of show/hide FPS? This would be a great feature for GBMacro community users (a Nintendo DS with only the lower screen).
Think about it

 

[wavemotion]

https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS

V1.9 : 27-Dec-2020 by wavemotion-dave
* New virtual keypad layout - you can use your finger rather than the stylus!
* Improved Analog vs Digital auto-selection - no need to pick it anymore.
* Improved speed in ANTIC and CPU cores for 10% speed boost across the board.
* Corrected NTSC color palette.
* More games run properly - Montezuma's Revenge is playable.

The only game that won't run full speed right now on a DSi is Bounty Bob Strikes Back... it runs at 40FPS. Everything else is pretty much playable and looks good. On a DS-LITE, some of the more basic games will play fine - Centipede, Space Invaders, Missile Command (the best home version made!) will all run well enough. I'll try to optimize the core but it's tedious... and I'm burning out on looking at assembly-generated C-output. Time for a nap!

Sources are all updated online in GitHub for all the emulators I've helped improve. Hopefully someone will come along that understands sound emulation and fixes it so things sound perfect - that stuff isn't really in my wheelhouse.

That's a trifecta - all three Atari classic consoles from the 1970s and 80s are emulated. Enjoy!

 

[wavemotion]

Hey - if you grabbed 1.9 earlier I had left in some wrong debug code that I've removed. Rather than bump the release, I just removed it and re-uploaded 1.9. Please re-grab as of now

 

[wavemotion]

Version 1.9a: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS

Now supporting more than 150 games. That's about twice the original size of the Atari 5200 library - the bulk of the support beyond the first 69 official games is 8-bit Atari 400/800/XL conversions. Some of the very best games on the 8-bit computer line have been ported to the console. Here is a full list of games supported by the emulator:

c8e90376b7e1b00dcbd4042f50bffb75 Atari 5200 Calibration Cart
45f8841269313736489180c8ec3e9588 Activision Decathlon, The (USA).a52
4b1aecab0e2f9c90e514cb0a506e3a5f Adventure II-a.a52
e2f6085028eb8cf24ad7b50ca4ef640f Adventure II-b.a52
737717ff4f8402ed5b02e4bf866bbbe3 ANALOG Multicart (XL Conversion).a52
77c6b647746bb1413c5566378ef25eec Archon (XL Conversion).a52
bae7c1e5eb04e19ef8d0d0b5ce134332 Astro Chase (USA).a52
d31a3bbb4c99f539f0d2c4e02bec516e Atlantis (XL Conversion).a52
ec65389cc604b279d69a889725c723e7 Attack of the Mutant Camels (XL Conversion).a52
f5cd178cbea0ae7d8cf65b30cfd04225 Ballblazer (USA).a52
96b424d0bb0339f4edfe8095fe275d62 Batty Builders (XL Conversion).a52
8123393ae9635f6bc15ddc3380b04328 Blueprint (1982) (CBS).a52
17e5c03b4fcada48d4c2529afcfe3a70 BCs Quest For Tires (XL Conversion).a52
1913310b1e44ad7f3b90aeb16790a850 Beamrider (USA).a52
f8973db8dc272c2e5eb7b8dbb5c0cc3b BerZerk (USA).a52
139229eed18032fdea735fa5360bd551 Beef Drop Ultimate SD Edition.a52
81790daff7f7646a6c371c056622be9c Bounty Bob Strikes Back (Merged) (Big Five Software) (U).a52
a074a1ff0a16d1e034ee314b85fa41e9 Buck Rogers - Planet of Zoom (USA).a52
713feccd8f2722f2e9bdcab98e25a35f Buried Bucks (XL Conversion).a52
3147ad22f8d5f46b1ef40a39da3a3de1 Captain Beeble (XL Conversion).a52
01b978c3faf5d516f300f98c00377532 Carol Shaw's River Raid (USA).a52
4965b4c8acca64c4fac39a7c0763f611 Castle Blast (USA) (Unl).a52
8f4c07a9e0ef2ded720b403810220aaf Castle Crisis (USA) (Unl).a52
d64a175672b6dba0c0b244c949799e64 Caverns of Mars (Conv).a52
1db260d6769bed6bf4731744213097b8 Caverns Of Mars 2 (Conv).a52
261702e8d9acbf45d44bb61fd8fa3e17 Centipede (USA).a52
3ff7707e25359c9bcb2326a5d8539852 Choplifter! (USA).a52
701dd2903b55a5b6734afa120e141334 Chicken (XL Conversion).a52
e60a98edcc5cad98170772ea8d8c118d Claim Jumper (XL Conversion).a52
f21a0fb1653215bbeea87dd80249015e Claim Jumper (XL Converion Alternate)s.a52
4a754460e43bebd08b943c8dba31d581 Clowns & Balloons (XL Conversion).a52
5720423ebd7575941a1586466ba9beaf Congo Bongo (USA).a52
1a64edff521608f9f4fa9d7bdb355087 Countermeasure (USA).a52
195c23a894c7ac8631757eec661ab1e6 Crossfire (XL Conversion).a52
cd64cc0b348a634080078206e3111f9a Crystal Castles (Final Conversion).a52
7c27d225a13e178610babf331a0759c0 David Crane's Pitfall II - Lost Caverns (USA).a52
27d5f32b0d46d3d80773a2b505f95046 Defender (1982) (Atari).a52
b4af8b555278dec6e2c2329881dc0a15 Demon Attack (XL Conversion).a52
32b2bb28213dbb01b69e003c4b35bb57 Desmonds Dungeon (XL Conversion).a52
6049d5ef7eddb1bb3a643151ff506219 Diamond Mine (XL Conversion).a52
3abd0c057474bad46e45f3d4e96eecee Dig Dug (1983) (Atari).a52
1d1eab4067fc0aaf2b2b880fb8f72e40 Donkey Kong Arcade.a52
4dcca2e6a88d57e54bc7b2377cc2e5b5 Donkey Kong Jr Enhanded.a52
0c393d2b04afae8a8f8827d30794b29a Donkey Kong (XL Conversion).a52
ae5b9bbe91983ab111fd7cf3d29d6b11 Donkey Kong Jr (XL Conversion).a52
159ccaa564fc2472afd1f06665ec6d19 Dreadnaught Factor, The (USA).a52
4b6c878758f4d4de7f9650296db76d2e Fast Eddie (XL Conversion).a52
14bd9a0423eafc3090333af916cfbce6 Frisky Tom (USA) (Proto).a52
2c89c9444f99fd7ac83f88278e6772c6 Frogger (1983) (Parker Bros).a52
d8636222c993ca71ca0904c8d89c4411 Frogger II - Threeedeep! (USA).a52
3ace7c591a88af22bac0c559bbb08f03 Galaxian (1982) (Atari).a52
4012282da62c0d72300294447ef6b9a2 Gateway to Apshai (XL Conversion).a52
0fdce0dd4014f3188d0ca289f53387d0 Gebelli (XL Conversion).a52
85fe2492e2945015000272a9fefc06e3 Gorf (1982) (CBS).a52
a21c545a52d488bfdaf078d786bf4916 Gorf Converted (1982) (CBS).a52
dc271e475b4766e80151f1da5b764e52 Gremlins (USA).a52
dacc0a82e8ee0c086971f9d9bac14127 Gyruss (USA).a52
f8f0e0a6dc2ffee41b2a2dd736cba4cd H.E.R.O. (USA).a52
d824f6ee24f8bc412468268395a76159 Ixion (XL Conversion).a52
936db7c08e6b4b902c585a529cb15fc5 James Bond 007 (USA).a52
082846d3a43aab4672fe98252eb1b6f9 Jawbreaker (XL Conversion).a52
25cfdef5bf9b126166d5394ae74a32e7 Joust (USA).a52
bc748804f35728e98847da6cdaf241a7 Jr. Pac-Man (USA) (Proto).a52
40f3fca978058da46cd3e63ea8d2412f Jr Pac-Man (1984) (Atari) (U).a52
a0d407ab5f0c63e1e17604682894d1a9 Jumpman Jr (Conv).a52
27140302a715694401319568a83971a1 Jumpman Jr (XL Conversion).a52
834067fdce5d09b86741e41e7e491d6c Jungle Hunt (USA).a52
92fd2f43bc0adf2f704666b5244fadf1 Kaboom! (USA).a52
796d2c22f8205fb0ce8f1ee67c8eb2ca Kangaroo (USA).a52
f25a084754ea4d37c2fb1dc8ca6dc51b Keystone Kapers (USA).a52
3b03e3cda8e8aa3beed4c9617010b010 Koffi - Yellow Kopter (USA) (Unl).a52
03d0d59c5382b0a34a158e74e9bfce58 Kid Grid.a52
b99f405de8e7700619bcd18524ba0e0e K-Razy Shoot-Out (USA).a52
66977296ff8c095b8cb755de3472b821 K-Razy Shoot-Out (1982) (CBS) [h1] (Two Port).a52
5154dc468c00e5a343f5a8843a14f8ce K-Star Patrol (XL Conversion).a52
c4931be078e2b16dc45e9537ebce836b Laser Gates (Conversion).a52
46264c86edf30666e28553bd08369b83 Last Starfighter, The (USA) (Proto).a52
ff785ce12ad6f4ca67f662598025c367 Megamania (1983) (Activision).a52
d00dff571bfa57c7ff7880c3ce03b178 Mario Brothers (1983) (Atari).a52
1cd67468d123219201702eadaffd0275 Meteorites (USA).a52
bc33c07415b42646cc813845b979d85a Meebzork (1983) (Atari).a52
84d88bcdeffee1ab880a5575c6aca45e Millipede (USA) (Proto).a52
d859bff796625e980db1840f15dec4b5 Miner 2049er Starring Bounty Bob (USA).a52
69d472a79f404e49ad2278df3c8a266e Miniature Golf (1983) (Atari).a52
972b6c0dbf5501cacfdc6665e86a796c Missile Command (USA).a52
694897cc0d98fcf2f59eef788881f67d Montezuma's Revenge featuring Panama Joe (USA).a52
296e5a3a9efd4f89531e9cf0259c903d Moon Patrol (USA).a52
2d8e6aa095bf2aee75406ade8b035a50 Moon Patrol Sprite Hack (USA).a52
618e3eb7ae2810768e1aefed1bfdcec4 Mountain King (USA).a52
23296829e0e1316541aa6b5540b9ba2e Mountain King (1984) (Sunrise Software) [h1] (Two Port).a52
fc3ab610323cc34e7984f4bd599b871f Mr Cool (XL Conversion).a52
d1873645fee21e84b25dc5e939d93e9b Mr. Do!'s Castle (USA).a52
ef9a920ffdf592546499738ee911fc1e Ms. Pac-Man (USA).a52
6c661ed6f14d635482f1d35c5249c788 Oils Well (XL Conversion).a52
5781071d4e3760dd7cd46e1061a32046 O'Riley's Mine (XL Conversion).a52
f1a4d62d9ba965335fa13354a6264623 Pac-Man (USA).a52
43e9af8d8c648515de46b9f4bcd024d7 Pacific Coast Hwy (XL Conversion).a52
57c5b010ec9b5f6313e691bdda94e185 Pastfinder (XL Conversion).a52
a301a449fc20ad345b04932d3ca3ef54 Pengo (USA).a52
ecbd6dd2ab105dd43f98476966bbf26c Pitfall! (USA).a52 (use classics fix instead)
2be3529c33fdf6b76fa7528ba43cdd7f Pitfall (classics fix).a52
fd0cbea6ad18194be0538844e3d7fdc9 Pole Position (USA).a52
c3fc21b6fa55c0473b8347d0e2d2bee0 Pooyan.a52
dd4ae6add63452aafe7d4fa752cd78ca Popeye (USA).a52
66057fd4b37be2a45bd8c8e6aa12498d Popeye Arcade Final (Hack).a52
894959d9c5a88c8e1744f7fcbb930065 Preppie (XL Conversion).a52
ce44d14341fcc5e7e4fb7a04f77ffec9 Q-bert (USA).a52
9b7d9d874a93332582f34d1420e0f574 QIX (USA).a52
099706cedd068aced7313ffa371d7ec3 Quest for Quintana Roo (USA).a52
80e0ad043da9a7564fec75c1346dbc6e RainbowWalker.a52
88fa71fc34e81e616bdffc30e013330b Ratcatcher.a52
2bb928d7516e451c6b0159ac413407de RealSports Baseball (USA).a52
e056001d304db597bdd21b2968fcc3e6 RealSports Basketball (USA).a52
022c47b525b058796841134bb5c75a18 RealSports Football (USA).a52
3074fad290298d56c67f82e8588c5a8b RealSports Soccer (USA).a52
7e683e571cbe7c77f76a1648f906b932 RealSports Tennis (USA).a52
0dc44c5bf0829649b7fec37cb0a8186b Rescue on Fractalus! (USA).a52
ddf7834a420f1eaae20a7a6255f80a99 Road Runner (USA) (Proto).a52
5dba5b478b7da9fd2c617e41fb5ccd31 Robotron 2084 (USA).a52
950aa1075eaf4ee2b2c2cfcf8f6c25b4 Satans Hollow (Conv).a52
b610a576cbf26a259da4ec5e38c33f09 Savage Pond (XL Conversion).a52
467e72c97db63eb59011dd062c965ec9 Scramble.a52
54aa9130fa0a50ab8a74ed5b9076ff81 Shamus (XL Conversion).a52
37ec5b9d35ae681934698fea36e99aba Shamus Case II (XL Conversion).a52
be75afc33f5da12974900317d824f9b9 Sinistar.a52
6e24e3519458c5cb95a7fd7711131f8d Space Dungeon (USA).a52
58430368d2c9190083f95ce923f4c996 Space Invaders (USA).a52
802a11dfcba6229cc2f93f0f3aaeb3aa Space Shuttle - A Journey Into Space (USA).a52
cd1c3f732c3432c4a642732182b1ea30 Spitfire (1984) (Atari) (Prototype).a52
6208110dc3c0bf7b15b33246f2971b6e Spy Hunter (XL Conversion).a52
e2d3a3e52bb4e3f7e489acd9974d68e2 Star Raiders (USA).a52
c959b65be720a03b5479650a3af5a511 Star Trek - Strategic Operations Simulator (USA).a52
00beaa8405c7fb90d86be5bb1b01ea66 Star Wars - The Arcade Game (USA).a52
a2831487ab0b0b647aa590fb2b834dd9 Star Wars - ROTJ - Death Star Battle (1983) (Parker Bros).a52
865570ff9052c1704f673e6222192336 Super Breakout (USA).a52
dfcd77aec94b532728c3d1fef1da9d85 Super Cobra (USA).a52
d89669f026c34de7f0da2bcb75356e27 Super Pac Man Final (5200).a52
c098a0ce6c7e059264511e650ce47b35 Tapper (XL Conversion).a52
496b6a002bc7d749c02014f7ec6c303c Tempest (1983) (Atari) (Prototype) [!].a52
6836a07ea7b2a4c071e9e86c5695b4a1 Timeslip_5200 (XL Conversion).a52
bf4f25d64b364dd53fbd63562ea1bcda Turmoil (XL Conversion).a52
3649bfd2008161b9825f386dbaff88da Up'n Down (XL Conversion).a52
556a66d6737f0f793821e702547bc051 Vanguard (USA).a52
560b68b7f83077444a57ebe9f932905a Wizard of Wor (USA).a52
8e2ac7b944c30af9fae5f10c3a40f7a4 Worm War I (XL Conversion).a52
4f6c58c28c41f31e3a1515fe1e5d15af Xari Arena (USA) (Proto).a52
f35f9e5699079e2634c4bfed0c5ef2f0 Yars Strike (XL Conversion).a52
9fee054e7d4ba2392f4ba0cb73fc99a5 Zaxxon (USA).a52
433d3a2fc9896aa8294271a0204dc7e3 Zaxxon 32k_final.a52
77beee345b4647563e20fd896231bd47 Zenji (USA).a52
dc45af8b0996cb6a94188b0be3be2e17 Zone Ranger (USA).a52

 

[MarioKartFan]

Thanks for plugging away at this. I notice in Montezumas Revenge that the game stutters every 20 seconds or so. Any idea why that might happen?

 

[wavemotion]

Thanks for plugging away at this. I notice in Montezumas Revenge that the game stutters every 20 seconds or so. Any idea why that might happen?

Yeah, you're right! It's related to the input of the keys on the D-Pad. When I sit idle, it never stutters. When I first press a button, it stutters (and the FPS drops down to like 40) and then it's fine until it's idle again and another key is pressed.

Strange indeed. I'll try to root out the cause today!

Update: no root cause yet... it's really odd. I tried 5 other games with lots of on-screen action (Robotron, Vanguard, Atlantis, etc) and no amount of button pressing nor staring at the screen saw any noticeable stuttering. For Montezuma's Revenge, whenever the little guy starts his motion (especially at tops and bottoms of ladders) there is a very slight hesitation. I'm starting to think it's the game itself - though I don't have an emulator that will run it properly (MESS isn't loading that one for some reason). There is some odd input handling in that game - I had to emulate the 3rd and 4th player joystick buttons just to get the jumping to work.

 

[wavemotion]

Version 2.0: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS

Finally fixed sound glitch so games like Wizard of Wor and Blueprint don't screech with background noise problems! This was a major source of problems for me - and a long hunt to find the problem code in the Pokey Emulation. I had resorted to killing some sounds on some games to stop the ear-splitting background noise. This has been finally fixed - and all sounds are in all games now (they don't sound GREAT but they are all present again).

Lots of small tweaks and screen improvements. Bounty Bob Strikes Back is now playable at 47FPS.

The performance on a DS-LITE/DS-PHAT is passable... many of the games play up in the mid 50s FPS and are enjoyable. The emulator really wants the DSi or above, however, to get that performance needed to get 98% of games running full speed.

 

[wavemotion]

Version 2.1: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/A5200DS

Version 2.1 has a newly re-written Pokey sound buffer scheme which renders the sound much improved! You can hear the voices in Berzerk clearly - 'nuff said!

This represents a quantum leap forward in sound which has plagued this emulator for some time. It's not perfect - there are still very slight artifacts from time-to-time but it's now in the realm of enjoyable sound-wise. It comes at the cost of a bit of CPU processing power - but the DSi can handle it. Unfortunately, the DS-LITE will be hampered by this very slightly - but it was already marginal in terms of performance anyway. I'm trying to find some speed improvements in the core but this one is fairly well optimized already.

Many Bothans died to bring us this release - so enjoy!

PS: This also fixes the very slight stutter/hesitations on games like Montezuma's Revenge. Turns out it was all linked to the crappy way the sound was being processed in the past. I should be able to take what I've learned here and apply it back to the A7800DS emulator to improve that sound significantly.

 

[djleviticus]

great, thanks so much, would love to have an atari 2600 running better on a DS.

Just found in your Github, the updates you have done on the StellaDS, thanks so much!!!!!

 

[MarioKartFan]

Wow, wow, wow!!!

 

[wavemotion]

great, thanks so much, would love to have an atari 2600 running better on a DS.

You and me both

I've got more than 100% speed improvement in StellaDS and it still only runs a handful of games at 60FPS on an original DS-PHAT or DS-LITE. I got really burnt out trying to squeeze another CPU instruction cycle out. On a DSi, it will run all games at full speed with the exception of Pitfall II (which, strangely enough, will run at 100% speed on the Atari 5200 emulator here... different code and different core - they code isn't relying on the DPC cart anymore on the 5200 and so we gain back some speed).

Emulation is tricky business... it's funny how sometimes the oldest systems are the hardest to get working with full speed.

 

[djleviticus]

You and me both

I've got more than 100% speed improvement in StellaDS and it still only runs a handful of games at 60FPS on an original DS-PHAT or DS-LITE. I got really burnt out trying to squeeze another CPU instruction cycle out. On a DSi, it will run all games at full speed with the exception of Pitfall II (which, strangely enough, will run at 100% speed on the Atari 5200 emulator here... different code and different core - they code isn't relying on the DPC cart anymore on the 5200 and so we gain back some speed).

Emulation is tricky business... it's funny how sometimes the oldest systems are the hardest to get working with full speed.

i do really appreciate what all you guys do, i have no knowledge on how to even make a start on this sort of thing, but i love the old systems, like Atari 2600, ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64