Homebrew Stella-DS Improved

[raxadian]

You will need a DSi running at the 2X CPU rate for these ARM-assisted games to run anywhere near full speed.

I do have a New HD 2DS but Twilight menu can't get past DSi speed I think?

 

[wavemotion]

I do have a New HD 2DS but Twilight menu can't get past DSi speed I think?

I run most of my DSi units with TWL++ and they all run at 2X the CPU and have access to the extra memory.

The limitation is not on Twilight Menu++ but with specific setups. For example, running with an R4 or similar card tends to run in DS compatibility mode.

Anyway, the easiest way to tell what mode you are in is to try loading any Atari game within the StellaDS ROM selection by pressing and holding X and tap A (while holding X). It will bring up a mini-debugger. It will tell you what mode you are in:

Here is my DSi (original non XL/LL) that launched StellaDS via Twilight Menu++ and you can see it detected 134MHz and 16MB of memory for the enhanced DSi mode.

Well... I guess there is an even easier way... run 2600 Space Rocks and it will either run full speed (meaning you are running at the faster enhanced CPU speed) or run so sluggishly as to be unplayable (DS compatibility mode).

 

[wavemotion]

V7.6 : 25-Aug-2024 by wavemotion-dave

• Fixed config setting of RAM randomized vs clear.
• Fixed AR (Starpath/Supercharger) games to prevent memory overwrite.
• Big improvement to Starpath Supercharger (AR) cart rendering for 4-7 frames of improvement.
• Numerous comment cleanups and other minor refactors to improve the codebase.

Finally got the time to read through the AR Starpath/Supercharger banking logic to really understand what's going on and what games do to write the large chunk of RAM on the expansion module. With that knowledge, I was able to refactor my AR cart driver and get almost 10% speed across the board for AR games! This should render everything full speed on the DSi for the Starpath/Supercharger games with the exception of Escape from the Mindmaster which runs mostly at full-speed with occasional frame drops when it has to render a long 3D hallway (won't affect gameplay any).

Not sure on the DS-Lite... never thought AR games would be playable but I suspect Communist Mutants From Space and Rabbit Transit might both be playable (and both are awesome).