Homebrew Emulation GameYob, a gameboy emulator for DS

[Drenn]

Okay, status update: the assembly core is up-and-running again. I forgot that functions should be declared with "extern C" to interact with assembly, it took me a while to remember that. Currently it's much slower, since switching to the C++ core for unfinished instructions is costly. Maybe I should make another stable release before messing around too much with this, though. I just need to fix up something I broke while fixing that text in Resident Evil and I'll bump the version up to 0.2.

Ok, something that Lameboy CAN'T do that Gameyob can:
Play Faceball 2000. (An early FPS)
Just get the 16-player link-battles working over wifi, and that would be awesome.

16-player link?! Uh, we'll see...

It would be awesome to include a time clock like nesds does just to keep tabs on the time.

I could, but it would still be in the ugly old console. I still don't feel much like making a pretty interface right now.

 

[Foxhounder]

Okay, status update: the assembly core is up-and-running again. I forgot that functions should be declared with "extern C" to interact with assembly, it took me a while to remember that. Currently it's much slower, since switching to the C++ core for unfinished instructions is costly. Maybe I should make another stable release before messing around too much with this, though. I just need to fix up something I broke while fixing that text in Resident Evil and I'll bump the version up to 0.2.

16-player link?! Uh, we'll see...

I could, but it would still be in the ugly old console. I still don't feel much like making a pretty interface right now.

You don't have to make a neat interface, a clock on the bottom right seems well enough with the already present interface. That said, I hope scaling or stretching is done.

 

[Sizednochi]

This emulator is awesome. I've tried running Conker's Pocket Tales in GBC mode and it runs, something Lameboy can't do, although it has some sprite problems and runs at like 50fps. The GBC Bios support is awesome and it's something I always wanted: playing games like Mario Land 2 in the GBC color palettes is great, also B/Y support is a great thing to have.

Some things I'd like to see being added, not asking anything, just leaving it there:

- Super Gameboy support for borders and palettes pre-loaded into the ROM
- Alternate SGB palettes for selecting like Goomba has
- Custom borders? It would be great to play on a GBC border kinda like the one the 3DS virtual console has.
- Support for "Gameboy colors" instead of "Real Colors" like in the VisualBoy Advance options.
- Run Shantae in fullspeed. Is it possible? Lameboy can't run it faster than 50fps.

 

[Drenn]

Okay, version 0.2 is officially a thing now. In addition to all the updates I've been posting in this thread I threw in a little clock as requested. Full changelog is on github.

This emulator is awesome. I've tried running Conker's Pocket Tales in GBC mode and it runs, something Lameboy can't do, although it has some sprite problems and runs at like 50fps. The GBC Bios support is awesome and it's something I always wanted: playing games like Mario Land 2 in the GBC color palettes is great, also B/Y support is a great thing to have.

Some things I'd like to see being added, not asking anything, just leaving it there:

- Super Gameboy support for borders and palettes pre-loaded into the ROM
- Alternate SGB palettes for selecting like Goomba has
- Custom borders? It would be great to play on a GBC border kinda like the one the 3DS virtual console has.
- Support for "Gameboy colors" instead of "Real Colors" like in the VisualBoy Advance options.
- Run Shantae in fullspeed. Is it possible? Lameboy can't run it faster than 50fps.

I tried with the port of goomba for ds, and Shantae seems to run fullspeed - so it's possible. I'll be focusing on optimizing for speed now with the assembly core. Keeping my fingers crossed...
Super gameboy is definitely on my to-do list. The other things you mentioned can go on my list of little-things-I-might-do-when-emulation-is-better.

 

[TheLostSabre]

Little baby steps...

Takes time but it'll be worth it.

 

[Janthran]

Is there anyone else working on this, or is it just Drenn?

 

[Deleted member 319809]

Is there anyone else working on this, or is it just Drenn?

It is open source, but Drenn has stated that the emulation core is not done and that he should finish it before others jump in. I wish to try things, but that will be later.

 

[mikeyisdead]

it would be nice to have
1.full screen
2.fast forward
3.cheats if could be done
4.Screen shot
5.Bottom Screen turn off after load the rom the same as lameboy
6.etc
just saying you know

 

[Mikesahhh]

Dunno if its like this for anyone else but I just tried gameyob v0.2 and the little clock displays itself on the bottom right hand of the screen okay but then I get half of the same time display directly underneath it cut in half horizontally
also the time display just stays at whatever time I load up gameyob it doesnt change

And noticed The incredible crash dummies game for gameboy crashes after you complete the 1st stage

also noticed when I play star wars (original one on gameboy) it plays at a constant 60fps but when I play other gb roms and load back up star wars afterwards the can fps change to a constant 30 50 or 60fps

 

[Drenn]

Dunno if its like this for anyone else but I just tried gameyob v0.2 and the little clock displays itself on the bottom right hand of the screen okay but then I get half of the same time display directly underneath it cut in half horizontally
also the time display just stays at whatever time I load up gameyob it doesnt change

And noticed The incredible crash dummies game for gameboy crashes after you complete the 1st stage

also noticed when I play star wars (original one on gameboy) it plays at a constant 60fps but when I play other gb roms and load back up star wars afterwards the can fps change to a constant 30 50 or 60fps

Huh... I can confirm some kind of speed issue with Star Wars. I've had it running at 3 different "speed levels". Thanks for letting me know.
I don't see the issue with the time though. I tried on my dsi and my original ds, it works without issues on both.

 

[BLsquared]

Okay, status update: the assembly core is up-and-running again. I forgot that functions should be declared with "extern C" to interact with assembly, it took me a while to remember that. Currently it's much slower, since switching to the C++ core for unfinished instructions is costly. Maybe I should make another stable release before messing around too much with this, though. I just need to fix up something I broke while fixing that text in Resident Evil and I'll bump the version up to 0.2.

16-player link?! Uh, we'll see...

Yeah, work on the other stuff such as Save States and Auto SRAM Saving first.
Also, what if you made the GameShark BIOS run on Gameyob for cheat codes? Just a suggestion.

 

[Foxhounder]

Yeah, work on the other stuff such as Save States and Auto SRAM Saving first.
Also, what if you made the GameShark BIOS run on Gameyob for cheat codes? Just a suggestion.

That sounds like an order.


Drenn, thanks for keeping our requests in mind man.

 

[Mikesahhh]

Huh... I can confirm some kind of speed issue with Star Wars. I've had it running at 3 different "speed levels". Thanks for letting me know.
I don't see the issue with the time though. I tried on my dsi and my original ds, it works without issues on both.

Hmm weird dunno why im getting time issues then im using a 3DS XL with a supercard DSTWO dunno if that makes a difference oh wells

 

[BassAceGold]

Hmm weird dunno why im getting time issues then im using a 3DS XL with a supercard DSTWO dunno if that makes a difference oh wells

The default Supercard loader doesn't clear all the vram banks before booting homebrew, so you will get screen corruption using it on the 3DS. Try running the emulator through homebrew menu and see if that helps.

 

[Drenn]

Assembly core is nearly done now. Speed has increased by a whopping... 1/2 FPS. Nuts. Anyway it has its own branch on github now. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve, Nebuleon?

 

[shinyquagsire23]

Excellent work, will try this out once my flashcart arrives. I can personally say that making an emulator is not an easy feat (depending on which processor it runs on). One feature I'd absolutely love is Super GameBoy palette support, particularly for Kirby's Dreamland 2, since I always played it on a GBC/GBA. If not that, at least custom palette support, maybe in the format of <gamename>.pal in the same directory as the game.

Another thing, but not a huge must, but filters would be awesome. I'm not sure if the really high-up filters like HQ2X are too difficult to process on the NDS, so that might be something to add once performance is bumped up a bit. Either way, I'll be following this project on GitHub, and I might get into NDS Development once I get the chance. From what I've heard, NDS is very similar to the GBA code-wise, and I have plenty of GBA C/ASM experience.

 

[windwakr]

Have you tried profiling your code to see where you could focus your optimization efforts?

http://lectem.fr/category/nds/?lang=en_us

 

[Drenn]

Excellent work, will try this out once my flashcart arrives. I can personally say that making an emulator is not an easy feat (depending on which processor it runs on). One feature I'd absolutely love is Super GameBoy palette support, particularly for Kirby's Dreamland 2, since I always played it on a GBC/GBA. If not that, at least custom palette support, maybe in the format of <gamename>.pal in the same directory as the game.

Another thing, but not a huge must, but filters would be awesome. I'm not sure if the really high-up filters like HQ2X are too difficult to process on the NDS, so that might be something to add once performance is bumped up a bit. Either way, I'll be following this project on GitHub, and I might get into NDS Development once I get the chance. From what I've heard, NDS is very similar to the GBA code-wise, and I have plenty of GBA C/ASM experience.

The gameboy color bios is already supported, which is what colorizes games on a gameboy color/advance. Custom palettes will probably come eventually. And filters are currently pointless since scaling isn't even a feature yet... it may not be for some time, I'm afraid.

Have you tried profiling your code to see where you could focus your optimization efforts?

http://lectem.fr/category/nds/?lang=en_us

Profiling on a ds? I didn't know I could do that... I'll check it out, thanks!

Edit: Just tried profiling and after enabling it it prints "perf exit looks like an error" and freezes...

 

[Mikesahhh]

The default Supercard loader doesn't clear all the vram banks before booting homebrew, so you will get screen corruption using it on the 3DS. Try running the emulator through homebrew menu and see if that helps.

Im using BAGPlug with it and have been arg loading the gb and gbc roms where I got those time display issues, I tried loading gameyob with eos 1.11 then playing a game and that fixed the double time display I was getting but the time still gets stuck at whatever time I loaded the emulator on lol

 

[BassAceGold]

Im using BAGPlug with it and have been arg loading the gb and gbc roms where I got those time display issues, I tried loading gameyob with eos 1.11 then playing a game and that fixed the double time display I was getting but the time still gets stuck at whatever time I loaded the emulator on lol

Then you'll need to use the newest DSTwo.nds released for BAGPlug to fix the display issues.