Hacking TempGBA: NDSGBA revival

[LolGuyX]

That would be Super Mario Bros. 3, but I believe that the game should work.
Are you using the latest version of TempGBA with the latest game_config.txt?

Im using the latest version of tempgba yes, dont know about the game config.txt.
emulator settings: sound on/off (doesnt matter) and cpu level 5. frameskip doesnt matter too.

 

[masterz87]

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Im using the latest version of tempgba yes, dont know about the game config.txt.
emulator settings: sound on/off (doesnt matter) and cpu level 5. frameskip doesnt matter too.

I'm getting ready to run it on my ds2, I'll tell you if it's the same thing for me. It'll be a few seconds, I'm eating at the moment. But if I'm able to make it work, I'll tell you how I was able to do it.
Edit: It works just fine, if you're using the latest tempgba it includes the latest game_config.txt that file essentially helps tempgba to emulate the game better. So do the following, get the latest tempgba, and try the game again. I just played through teh first level of the game and it worked just fine. it's just the controls are older mario games which are reversed of what I was used to, but it works just fine. It does it at 60fps at 336mhz(default) and w/o audio. So it's your tempgba or you got a bad rom. I tried both v1.0 and v1.1 USA I don't know what you're using. But the USA one works just fine.

 

[Kikirini]

I recall reading that someone else was able to run the Fire Emblem games. Even with the latest version I'm still getting a lot of freezing... Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

After some more testing, I've found that it's my save files that are at fault... so I guess we can close that issue.
I wish I could just start a new save... but too much work has been put into this one...

 

[Hanafuda]

FWIW, I'm experiencing freezing with Mario Kart with 1.42. Turning up the CPU to 396MHz helps, but it can still happen. Game just hangs randomly mid-race. Sometimes I make it through a full 4 track circuit, sometimes it happens as soon as the first race.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

FWIW, I'm experiencing freezing with Mario Kart with 1.42. Turning up the CPU to 396MHz helps, but it can still happen. Game just hangs randomly mid-race. Sometimes I make it through a full 4 track circuit, sometimes it happens as soon as the first race.

Frame skip 0?

 

[Hanafuda]

Frame skip 0?

Frame skip [-] Keep up with game.


I'll try for a while on Frame skip 0, 396MHz, and report back.

Edit: could not duplicate on frame skip 0. However, it did 'hang' once for perhaps .5 seconds, but then resumed. Previously, on frame skip [-], the game would just freeze and require rebooting the DSTwo. But, on frame skip 0, there is some audio clipping and game feels slightly less smooth, w/ very, very minor occasional slowdowns.

2nd edit: Nevermind, I think. I did the same as Kikirini above - deleted my save for this game, which goes back quite a few versions I guess. I've been playing awhile now on frame skip [-] ... long enough to get sick of it for tonight ... and it hasn't happened again. Go figure.

 

[Metoroid0]

I still play Castlevania: aria of sorrow and the sound all of a sudden cracks up and after a while or after i change a room it fix it self or not... everything happens at random.

EDIT: haha i have finaly beaten the Dracula muahaha! [game finished 93.9%, 6.1% more for 100%]

Spoiler

 

[Metoroid0]

Will emulators like CATSFC (expecialy CATSFC because GBA doesnt need to be emulated with EZflash, but CATSFC does) and TempGBA run better/smoother if i use EZflash 3in1 expansion in my DS lite?
i mean it's memory expansion, should that help emulation in achieving solid or at least stabe 60FPS and other things like smooth scrolling and V-Sync things... ?

 

[nitendo]

Will emulators like CATSFC (expecialy CATSFC because GBA doesnt need to be emulated with EZflash, but CATSFC does) and TempGBA run better/smoother if i use EZflash 3in1 expansion in my DS lite?
i mean it's memory expansion, should that help emulation in achieving solid or at least stabe 60FPS and other things like smooth scrolling and V-Sync things... ?

YES - as a matter of fact, anything you can jam into the GBA port of a DS will boost the performance of the DS2.

Seriously though - without any other knowledge about DS2 and tempGBA than whats available in this very thread - why even ask such a question?

 

[Metoroid0]

Because i plan on buying EZflash so i ask, because i don't know.
And even if i rad about EZflash, i don't really understand what it really is and how it can be used...

 

[Rydian]

The DSTwo can't use anything in Slot-2 for better emulation, seeing as the emulated stuff runs on the DSTwo itself (not the DS), and memory is not the limit.

 

[Metoroid0]

The DSTwo can't use anything in Slot-2 for better emulation, seeing as the emulated stuff runs on the DSTwo itself (not the DS), and memory is not the limit.

mhm so if i understood correctly what you are saying is that DS itself has an internal memory (by the way, how much?) and when i load a game from dstwo it puts it onto DS?? and EZflash helps it by adding the hardware extra ram?

 

[Rydian]

mhm so if i understood correctly what you are saying is that DS itself has an internal memory (by the way, how much?) and when i load a game from dstwo it puts it onto DS?? and EZflash helps it by adding the hardware extra ram?

No. The DS only has 4MB of memory, so the DSTwo itself (which has 32MB of memory AND a better processor) runs the GBA game on it.

That's right, the DSTwo actually has it's own tiny CPU and RAM inside the DSTwo itself.

And this is why, unlike other things, you can't use a Slot-2 (GBA-slot) expansion with DSTwo-specific emulators.

 

[gamefan5]

No. The DS only has 4MB of memory, so the DSTwo itself (which has 32MB of memory AND a better processor) runs the GBA game on it.

That's right, the DSTwo actually has it's own tiny CPU and RAM inside the DSTwo itself.

And this is why, unlike other things, you can't use a Slot-2 (GBA-slot) expansion with DSTwo-specific emulators.

So... DSTwo is moar powerful than DS?
Hahahaha

 

[Metoroid0]

No. The DS only has 4MB of memory, so the DSTwo itself (which has 32MB of memory AND a better processor) runs the GBA game on it.

That's right, the DSTwo actually has it's own tiny CPU and RAM inside the DSTwo itself.

And this is why, unlike other things, you can't use a Slot-2 (GBA-slot) expansion with DSTwo-specific emulators.

Aha i think iget it now.. Can i ask for a favor? um..if it's not bothersom for you, could you tell me exactly what's happening step by step when i want to load GBA games with EZflash V, starting from "first you insert DSTwo into slot 1" hehe yeah, i can be annoying i know, sorry for that, just asking if you can i really love to understand things deeply )
not too deep for starters
You can PM me if you like


I knew about CPU in DSTwo, but that much in compare to DS..wow
but i didn't know it has RAM

And also, you mean something like this ?

So... DSTwo is moar powerful than DS?
Hahahaha

That's why it's called DS 2 haha lol (Source: my imagination)

 

[Rydian]

So... DSTwo is moar powerful than DS?
Hahahaha

Yup. The DS was budget hardware back when it was introduced in 2004.

Aha i think iget it now.. Can i ask for a favor? um..if it's not bothersom for you, could you tell me exactly what's happening step by step when i want to load GBA games with EZflash V, starting from "first you insert DSTwo into slot 1" hehe yeah, i can be annoying i know, sorry for that, just asking if you can i really love to understand things deeply )
not too deep for starters

When you go to run a GBA game with the EZ-Flash or another Slot-2 expansion, you run a SLot-2 management program on the DSTwo or whatever you choose. This program sends the game data to the Slot-2, then when the DS is reset and told to run the Slot-2, it thinks it's a normal GBA cart and runs the game that was sent to it.

 

[Deleted member 319809]

mhm so if i understood correctly what you are saying is that DS itself has an internal memory (by the way, how much?) and when i load a game from dstwo it puts it onto DS?? and EZflash helps it by adding the hardware extra ram?

Almost correct.

There's a very important technical distinction.

The DS itself has 4 MB of RAM, which you can add onto with a GBA memory expansion. The two memories merge and become mapped into a larger address space. But that's for .nds programs. They use the DS's memory lines.

When you run the DSTwo-specific emulators (.plg), the DS simply awaits images and sound from the DSTwo; everything done in the emulator is loaded on the DSTwo's chips themselves. It has its own memory lines (32 MB) and its own processor clocked 6 times faster than the DS. And its memory does not merge with the DS. Images and sound are sent through the DSTwo's lower golden pins, those that make contact with the DS when you insert the DSTwo in it.

Here's a view of the inside of a DSTwo: http://gbatemp.net/news/09_supercardds2_review_pcb_front.jpg

 

[masterz87]

Almost correct.

There's a very important technical distinction.

The DS itself has 4 MB of RAM, which you can add onto with a GBA memory expansion. The two memories merge and become mapped into a larger address space. But that's for .nds programs. They use the DS's memory lines.

When you run the DSTwo-specific emulators (.plg), the DS simply awaits images and sound from the DSTwo; everything done in the emulator is loaded on the DSTwo's chips themselves. It has its own memory lines (32 MB) and its own processor clocked 6 times faster than the DS. And its memory does not merge with the DS. Images and sound are sent through the DSTwo's lower golden pins, those that make contact with the DS when you insert the DSTwo in it.

Here's a view of the inside of a DSTwo: http://gbatemp.net/news/09_supercardds2_review_pcb_front.jpg

OK then, I figured it only had 32mb on board, so then how does your code cache work? Do you page in sections of the rom(if it's a 32mb one)? Especially if they're zipped, since I know you have to decompress them, I'd imagine that if you're loading them all into it,that's impossible, and even the 16MB ones, I dno't know how much space you have left for the code cache...

 

[Deleted member 319809]

OK then, I figured it only had 32mb on board, so then how does your code cache work? Do you page in sections of the rom(if it's a 32mb one)? Especially if they're zipped, since I know you have to decompress them, I'd imagine that if you're loading them all into it,that's impossible, and even the 16MB ones, I dno't know how much space you have left for the code cache...

8 megs of code cache, 8 megs of ROM paged in on demand, 5 megs of rewind data. (And more to keep track of the GBA RAM areas, code cache, graphics and the TempGBA program itself)

 

[masterz87]

8 megs of code cache, 8 megs of ROM paged in on demand, 5 megs of rewind data. (And more to keep track of the GBA RAM areas, code cache, graphics and the TempGBA program itself)

Ah ok that's good to hear, I was worried that you weren't paging(is why the only 32mb rom didn't work). I'm going to work on trying other ones, I haven't noticed any issues with it(load times) except the initial loading(it's the same whether or not the rom is zipped or not), anyway that's good to hear that you added support for paging to it. When the gcw comes out, I hope the guy who ported gpsp originally to it, can work with you to up the rom cache to ~33-35mb since it has a ton of memory and also might as well. Also with 1.42 or whatever it is now, the game runs at ~60fps consistently even at 240mhz w/ sound(i don't play with sound on but I tested it) so it's definitely gotten a lot lot better.

I may try out your snse emulator sometime soon too. One question about that one, is it only snes or is it like other snes emulators in the fact that it can support nes games to? I also imagine that it supports zipped roms too?

P.S. the reason why I have zipped ones is that I use advzip -4, then deflopt, then huffmix, for all of my roms(except my nds ones I dumped ) they're lzma2 since the nds doesn't support zipped ones. But anyway yeah, keep up the amazing work, I've used that rewind thing a _ton_... I hate to admit it but I use it to cheat when I press the wrong button, or when I don't press the buttons just right in mario&luigi...