ColecoDS - Improved

[spielvan]

@wavemotion Wonderful project, I just have to thank you, a request, would it be possible to go back to the games menu to change it without needing the ds pen? by an IGR command and in the MSX game Keystone Kappers I can't start it. A hug and success always.

 

[wavemotion]

Hi @spielvan - thanks for the kind comments.

Re: Keystone Kapers - I'm not having any problems with that one. I'm using the one that shows a CRC of [7FF117F9] on the options menu. This is one of the games that won't run with the older/faster DrZ80 core - so in options you will have to switch to the CZ80 core (if you're on a DSi this should have been the default... but on older DS-LITE consoles you will have to choose it manually). The DrZ80 core is really fast - but it's not perfectly compatible with all games.

Right now the only way to go back to the main selection screen is via 'End Game'. I made the button large enough that you should be able to hit it with your finger (I lost my DS pen years ago!). I could try to add some key combo that would also bring you back... I'll look into that.

 

[spielvan]

Hi @spielvan - thanks for the kind comments.

Re: Keystone Kapers - I'm not having any problems with that one. I'm using the one that shows a CRC of [7FF117F9] on the options menu. This is one of the games that won't run with the older/faster DrZ80 core - so in options you will have to switch to the CZ80 core (if you're on a DSi this should have been the default... but on older DS-LITE consoles you will have to choose it manually). The DrZ80 core is really fast - but it's not perfectly compatible with all games.

Right now the only way to go back to the main selection screen is via 'End Game'. I made the button large enough that you should be able to hit it with your finger (I lost my DS pen years ago!). I could try to add some key combo that would also bring you back... I'll look into that.

I'll try to find this rom and try it bro, I'm using a ds lite + r4, here the keytone kappers game even loads but I couldn't start it, as for the pen I even have it on my ds but with the one I shake a lot these very technical and precise things are not for me anymore kkkk. One more thing came to my mind, I'm going to test the tes emulators on android through drastic, it would be very interesting if they were compatible.

 

[wavemotion]

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

V6.2: 29-Jan-2022 by wavemotion-dave

• Increased AY noise frequency dynamic range - improves MSX and CV-SGM sounds.
• Increased AY tone frequency dynamic range - improves MSX and CV-SGM sounds.
• Diagonal d-pad mapping now available on SG-1000.
• Other minor cleanups as time permitted.

A significant improvement on the AY sound chip emulation - two big differences between the Coleco sound (SN chip) and MSX sound (AY chip) is in dynamic range of both the tone (a real AY chip can go 2 octaves lower in frequency) and in noise (32 levels of noise vs 3).

I've extended both ranges on the SN sound core for AY emulation - this produces tones that are lower (games like Knightmare and Stray Cat have awesome base sounds that were previously not heard) without sacrificing any of the high tones. I've also doubled the number of noise frequencies to 7 which really helps the range of noises the system can produce. This improves anything using the AY chip which is pretty much all of the MSX games (not all games use the full dynamic range... Konami tended to use the full range while Sega ports tended to stick to the happy high notes) and about half of the Colecovision Super Game Module (SGM) games. The new ranges are not the full AY dynamic range - but it's now much closer and those low notes will no longer be washed away.

I did an A/B compare with MSXDS and although that emulator has the full AY dynamic range, the differences are minimal and honestly the Flubba sound core is cleaner so ColecoDS sounds better in many cases (less gritty).

 

[CrashMidnick]

This is great, thanks mate !

 

[Harry7228]

Hi, thanks for all the great updates. I was testing Boulder Dash for ColecoVision on my 3ds XL. On the bottom of the screens it duplicated a part of the screen. The DS-lite and DSi don't have this problem. On v6.0 of ColecoDS the screen was ok. The bug was introduced with version v6.1. From the games I have tested has Choplifter the same 'problem'.

 

[wavemotion]

Interesting Harry... I don't have a 3DS but do have a 2DS-XL with an R4 cart and I'm not seeing the problem.

I took a look at the change log from 6.0 to 6.1 and nothing stands out as being related to DS display output - it's almost all MSX keypad related. I'll keep looking! Are you launching via a flashcart or via TWL++ or other method?

 

[CrashMidnick]

Interesting Harry... I don't have a 3DS but do have a 2DS-XL with an R4 cart and I'm not seeing the problem.

I took a look at the change log from 6.0 to 6.1 and nothing stands out as being related to DS display output - it's almost all MSX keypad related. I'll keep looking! Are you launching via a flashcart or via TWL++ or other method?

The problem is with TWL++/NDS bootstrap. I can confirm this on my side.

 

[wavemotion]

I just did a line-by-line compare of changes from 6.0 to 6.1 and the changes are quite small and completely contained in the MSX world (beeper sounds added and full keyboard added). Obviously with each build timing changes a little - things get shifted around... but I'm not seeing anything obvious.

If you're not needing the full MSX keyboard support - you can happily continue to use v6.0.

@CrashMidnick - can you elaborate? I run TWL++ / NDSBootstrap on my DSi and those seem to be playing fine (I'm running TWL++ latest release from 1-Jan-2022).

 

[CrashMidnick]

Sorry : using a N3DS, no problem on regular DSi.

 

[wavemotion]

Sorry : using a N3DS, no problem on regular DSi.

Okay, thanks for the clarification. Yeah, I'm not having any problems on my DS-LITE or DSi with TWL++ (v23.4.0). I don't have TWL++ on my 2DS-XL ... only via flashcart (where everything seems to run fine).

I can't explain the screen glitch - but I'll loop in @RocketRobz in case he has any thoughts on TWL++/NDSBootstrap and the 3DS-XL. If there is something I'm not doing right, I can adjust... but honestly there really isn't anything I can see different between ColecoDS 6.0 and 6.1 in terms of screen rendering.

 

[Pk11]

That's not a bug in this or even TWiLight Menu++, it's a bug in TWL_FIRM itself (it can even happen on real carts without CFW). It's just random when it happens but it can usually be fixed by simply closing and opening the lid so if you're still getting it try that.

If you're messing the with DS's framerate in the emulator somehow then that'll make the bug more frequent and worse (that's why it's really bad in GBARunner2), but if you're not messing with the framerate then that's not anything on your end.

 

[CrashMidnick]

I need to check but I Think this problem was already there with versions prior to 6.x. I did not report back because there is a difference between real DSi and 3DS DSi mode (i.e. dsx86 not working).

Edit : closing the lid did fix this, thanks Pk11

 

[Harry7228]

Interesting Harry... I don't have a 3DS but do have a 2DS-XL with an R4 cart and I'm not seeing the problem.

I took a look at the change log from 6.0 to 6.1 and nothing stands out as being related to DS display output - it's almost all MSX keypad related. I'll keep looking! Are you launching via a flashcart or via TWL++ or other method?

I am launching via TWL++ on my 3DS-XL. It is also not a 'big' problem, as you said I have copied v6.0 back and everything Coleco related is working fine. I don't use the MSX keyboard function.

@Pk11 I can also confirm with v6.2 closing the lid, fixes the problem, thanks.

 

[RocketRobz]

That's not a bug in this or even TWiLight Menu++, it's a bug in TWL_FIRM itself (it can even happen on real carts without CFW). It's just random when it happens but it can usually be fixed by simply closing and opening the lid so if you're still getting it try that.

If you're messing the with DS's framerate in the emulator somehow then that'll make the bug more frequent and worse (that's why it's really bad in GBARunner2), but if you're not messing with the framerate then that's not anything on your end.

Messing with the frame rate isn't the issue, as the upcoming video player does so as well, and doesn't cause issues.
The issue is triggering it on a specific vCount line. Changing that to something else should fix the issue.

 

[wavemotion]

@RocketRobz is this why many home brews set the Y trigger to 190? I had wondered about that.

 

[RocketRobz]

@RocketRobz is this why many home brews set the Y trigger to 190? I had wondered about that.

Could be? idk.

 

[wavemotion]

Coming very soon… Coleco ADAM support!

 

[telengard]

Coming very soon… Coleco ADAM support!

Wow, this is great news. I like playing Dragon's Lair on the Adam, and there are some fun homebrews as well.

 

[wavemotion]

Wow, this is great news. I like playing Dragon's Lair on the Adam, and there are some fun homebrews as well.

For sure - Dragon's Lair is great on the Adam! Quite different than the Arcade version but a super fun game in it's own style.

My favorite Adam game is the Donkey Kong Jr - Super Game with 4 (or 5 if you find the right rom!) screens. It's just so polished.

I checked in a v6.2b with preliminary support that will play those games and more... you will need EOS.ROM and WRITER.ROM to support ADAM mode... they go in the same folder as COLECO.ROM

Dave