Homebrew StyxDS - atari st emulator help plz

[paul3100]

Hi all

One of my all time favorite computers is the atari st and so would love to play the emulator on my DSlite, However i for the life of me can't get this thing to work Grrr!

Ok so in the past when trying iv, got the emulator StyxDS and for easy install placed in the Root of my sd

Iv also got the tos image and games named correctly (tried image and disk image) and placed in root/roms/st .

So boot up the DS/SCS1 and choose roms/st and all loads ok except when i try to load a game i either get no games in the directory or when i do (changing things around) i choose the game but it doesn't load up and the screen can go buggy/screwed up!

So please can anyone offer a "dummy's " guide to using this emulator on the ds & SCS1? , when i say dummy's guide i mean make it as plain as possible cause i must be doing something wrong when setting it up!!

Or if anyone could offer a download of the emulator and folders all ready set up (minus games & tos image of course ) but a read me of thewe the tos and games are that would be excellent

I know roms/st can be a little buddy but does it actually play st games properly or even playable?

cheers, paul

 

[Psyfira]

Don't know about the supercard but in general yes StyxDS works; it's unfinished so it runs slowly (at 80% most of the time) and the keyboard doesn't work (you can get away with pressing 1 key quickly to start games, but it gets confused if you hold a key down for more than a nanosecond) but it's playable, and the speed lapse makes some games easier

. Took me ages to get it running on an EZ-V but got there in the end

It sounds like you've got the folders in the right place, with all games and TOS image (tos.bin) in the roms/st/ folder. Disk images must be in .st format (Styx will not read .msa files)

Let's see if it's picking up the TOS file. Run StyxDS, press R to open the file menu then press B. This should load the TOS without any disks in, and pull up a little green desktop.

If this doesn't happen, then either you've messed something up with the TOS file, or the DLDI patch isn't working properly.

When was the last time you updated your Supercard's menu software? Styx requires a DLDI patch to pick up directories from the memory card. The Supercard applies this patch automatically when you run homebrew, but older versions of this patch (pre-november 2007, when the patch didn't support unaligned read) will have some trouble loading the data in the old .st ROM files correctly, causing crashes and all kinds of odd behaviour. (incidentally this was the problem I had on the EZ-V).

or when i do (changing things around) i choose the game but it doesn't load up and the screen can go buggy/screwed up!

Can you be a bit more specific here, what kind of ROM are you trying to run (single game or one of those 3-6 games packed on one disk ones) and what exactly does the screen look like? Or more to the point, if it's a multi-game packed disc do you get as far as the game select menu?

 

[TrolleyDave]

If it's a LSD/Was (Not Was)/Automation or Medway Boys menu system on the disk then Styx might have some problems with them as they use alot of system tricks on some of them. Even Steem took a while to get some of them up and running.

It's a shame Styx isn't being updated, it's first release was fantastic. I loved the ST, it even got alot more play than my Amiga at the time.

 

[paul3100]

Thank you for all the help guys

My SCS1 schc has the latest firmware, unofficial ndsinfo.dat files and so on , iv had the little green desktop screen up before but was un aware that keyboard support was 0% and explains a lot! , i will try the suggested ideas later and post back my results

It is a shame that the atari st emulator isn't being updated though cause as TrolleyDave said the atari st was a great machine and also one of my favorite computers off all time bar the A1200 amiga

, then again the st was only 16bit compared to the A1200 being 32 bit.

cheers, paul

 

[Dack]

If it's a LSD/Was (Not Was)/Automation or Medway Boys menu system on the disk then Styx might have some problems with them as they use alot of system tricks on some of them. Even Steem took a while to get some of them up and running.

It's a shame Styx isn't being updated, it's first release was fantastic. I loved the ST, it even got alot more play than my Amiga at the time.

I didn't think we did that many dodgy system tricks

At least not in the early menus.

Now the chunky pack and later sync decrypt routines (about 300 onwards IIRC) did cause issues in a few emul releases - some of the latest PC emuls are very good though.

 

[TrolleyDave]

If it's a LSD/Was (Not Was)/Automation or Medway Boys menu system on the disk then Styx might have some problems with them as they use alot of system tricks on some of them. Even Steem took a while to get some of them up and running.

It's a shame Styx isn't being updated, it's first release was fantastic. I loved the ST, it even got alot more play than my Amiga at the time.

I didn't think we did that many dodgy system tricks

At least not in the early menus.

Now the chunky pack and later sync decrypt routines (about 300 onwards IIRC) did cause issues in a few emul releases - some of the latest PC emuls are very good though.

Those are the ones I'm on about, specially the single filed stuff. Steem is great, runs everything pretty much flawlessly although I still have problems with Live and Let Die even with the autopatch - although I'm pretty sure it's something I'm doing wrong.

Which crew member were you? You didn't happen to work at a major Manc post sorting office did you?

 

[Psyfira]

I don't know much about the technical side of this stuff (give over, I was like 6!) but Styx has done pretty well handling all the packed ones I've thrown at it. Maybe I'm just lucky that my childhood games didn't fall into that category

I can't help but be amused at how over time, as consoles die out and hardware breaks down, piracy changes into a preservation history archive. A lot of these titles would've been lost completely by now if it wasn't for the efforts of those teams.

 

[TrolleyDave]

I don't know much about the technical side of this stuff (give over, I was like 6!) but Styx has done pretty well handling all the packed ones I've thrown at it. Maybe I'm just lucky that my childhood games didn't fall into that category

I can't help but be amused at how over time, as consoles die out and hardware breaks down, piracy changes into a preservation history archive. A lot of these titles would've been lost completely by now if it wasn't for the efforts of those teams.

What games were you playing? There was a few I couldn't get to load at all like Op Wolf and Outrun, mainly later single-filed and single-disked games that started out as multi-disk rather than just packs. They could have been bad images on my end but they appeared to work in Steem.

I agree about piracy preserving the older stuff. There was alot of great old games that none of the newer generation would ever have seen. Specially the real lesser known Japanese stuff, plus without it we wouldn't have had translations of some the SNES RPGs.

 

[Psyfira]

Ah I see your point, I didn't understand what you meant by single-filed. Now I've looked it up it never occured to me that some bright spark might've squished multi-disk games onto one so I hadn't looked for or tried those versions before. And you're right, trying it now I've got the same result you had. Ah well I won't complain, it's great that the guy got anything running on the DS at all

 

[TrolleyDave]

Ah I see your point, I didn't understand what you meant by single-filed. Now I've looked it up it never occured to me that some bright spark might've squished multi-disk games onto one so I hadn't looked for or tried those versions before. And you're right, trying it now I've got the same result you had. Ah well I won't complain, it's great that the guy got anything running on the DS at all

It was a storming emu, there was alooot of stuff that ran and ran pretty damned well. It's a shame it wasn't continued. Looking at how well the NeoDS emulator performs I reckon with some more development StyxDS would be spot on. Have you tried Arkanoid 1 or 2 on it? I still haven't but keep meaning and IMO the ST had the best conversion of all the machines at the time. The Amiga version had weirdly streched graphics and the SNES ones were just pooh, and don't even get me started on the DS version!

 

[Dack]

If it's a LSD/Was (Not Was)/Automation or Medway Boys menu system on the disk then Styx might have some problems with them as they use alot of system tricks on some of them. Even Steem took a while to get some of them up and running.

It's a shame Styx isn't being updated, it's first release was fantastic. I loved the ST, it even got alot more play than my Amiga at the time.

I didn't think we did that many dodgy system tricks

At least not in the early menus.

Now the chunky pack and later sync decrypt routines (about 300 onwards IIRC) did cause issues in a few emul releases - some of the latest PC emuls are very good though.

Those are the ones I'm on about, specially the single filed stuff. Steem is great, runs everything pretty much flawlessly although I still have problems with Live and Let Die even with the autopatch - although I'm pretty sure it's something I'm doing wrong.

Which crew member were you? You didn't happen to work at a major Manc post sorting office did you?

If you look over on http://www.dbug-automation.co.uk/ you might get a little info

Haven't been in touch with Rob for years - and Law/CJ did get a nice little letter from the post office wondering why he seemed to be using so many Royal Mail internal envelopes......

Actually tempted to get hold of a DS now and have a play instead of using Steem.

 

[TrolleyDave]

If you look over on http://www.dbug-automation.co.uk/ you might get a little info

Haven't been in touch with Rob for years - and Law/CJ did get a nice little letter from the post office wondering why he seemed to be using so many Royal Mail internal envelopes......

Actually tempted to get hold of a DS now and have a play instead of using Steem.

Sorry mate I totally didn't recognize the name, it's been a long time since reading the old scrollies! Respects to you. You guys were some of the most talented coders and crackers I've seen. The only other team I've ever rated as highly as you was The Humble Guys.

Cheers for the site link, I'd not seen it before. Looking at the dates does that mean you guys are still messing around with the old ST? I was so glad you guys didn't jump the shark over to the Amiga. I still remember reading something Rob said somewhere about how all the people who wanted easy coding went to the Amiga, real talent stayed and worked hard on the ST, or smething like that. Never met any of you but my mate Bryn Rogers knew Rob. He said he was an amazingly talented guy.

You should definitely give Styx a try, it's a great little emulator. If things get too technical it has a few problems but for a little worked on emulator it handles a surprising amount. Speeds pretty decent for most things as well. You do any coding on the DS?

 

[Psyfira]

Have you tried Arkanoid 1 or 2 on it? I still haven't but keep meaning and IMO the ST had the best conversion of all the machines at the time. The Amiga version had weirdly streched graphics and the SNES ones were just pooh, and don't even get me started on the DS version!

Yeah we had the first one, it loads, but I can't get the damn paddle to move!

The sound effects are good enough though for nostalgia purposes. Our Arkanoid disc didn't have a loader menu so it's not packed, but I've no clue what version it is or where it came from.

There was a GBA homebrew port of Arkanoid that was rather good, forget what it's called now.