New Versions Of All Emulators And Source Release, Major Announcement Options

[XPort]

The following emulators have been updated with the most recent feature set
(rewind, slowdown, rumble, better cheat code options, etc, etc)

Note that some of these do not have rewind support enabled for a variety of
reasons. Check the README.TXT files for information specific to each port.

I know that I said that I was going to try and resolve bugs and update cores
to more recent versions, but I don't have nearly as much free time as when
I first started doing ports. I made it through most of them, but the last
dozen or so were taking too long to finish and I really wanted to get these
out the door.

AdamX
ArnoldX
Atari7800X
AtariXLBox
BlissX
BlueMSXBox
Chip8X
Classic99X
DidntXSpectrum
DOSXBox
FCEUltraX
KegsX
MednafenX-Lynx
MednafenX-NES
MednafenX-PCE
MekaX
NeoGenesis
NeoPopX
OdysseyX
PCSXBox
PokemonMiniX
SoftVMUX
SuperVisionX
Vice20X
Vice64X
VicePETX
VirtualBoyX
WinstonX
WinUAEX
WonderswanX
X68000X
XBoyAdvance
Z26X

...and Snes9XBox

I know, I know...but it's not really a finished product. It's something that I threw
together about 3 years ago and have been updating with my current user interface along
the way. Purists will still want to use ZSnexBox. Compatibility is better in ZSnesBox
as well because it's based off of ZSNES and this is based off of Snes9X v1.43. There
is no lightgun support, no mouse support, and rewind support is flaky. All the other
features like save states, cheat code searching, etc, etc are working.


The sources to everything are now up on xbins under emulators/xport_src_new along with
a readme file for (brief) instructions on how to compile. I can't give instructions
on how to make XBox programs in general (that's left as an exercise for the reader)
but I can assure you that I've tested these packages to make sure they compile correctly
under MSVC with the XDK installed. It's all the source - every last bit.

My involvement in the XBox era is winding down. I guess it already has been winding down
for a while. There will probably be a handful of updates in the future and perhaps a new
project or two, but it's possible that this is it for me. I hope others will pick up these
projects and improve them. There's still a lot that can be tweaked/improved.

There's a very good chance that incorporating the new DOSBox core will result in a usable Dynamic
CPU which would give it a very nice speed boost.

Mednafen core might be worth updating, but note that as of v0.8 PCE CD emulation is supposed
to be much more taxing on the CPU. However, it might be worth it to strip out the Wonderswan
core into a separate project since that's supposed to be a better/tweaked version of oswan
(which is the core of WonderswanX). It might make more sense to find the changes in the oswan
portion of Mednafenx and implement them into WonderswanX though. There is also a PCFX core
(probably too taxing for the XBox) and a NGPC core (but the ngpc core is based on neopop
and I don't think much has changed in it - don't know if the emulation is improved at all.)

Atari7800 source is basically a stripped down MESS but all the MESS source files are included
in the package. One should be able to copy the atari7800x source package into another dir
and adjust the project settings to exclude A7800 files and include another machine's files
to make a new port of something else in MESS.

NeoGenesis could be patched to allow for >32MBit games - but this is surprisingly more
work than one might expect because of the memory constraints of the XBox. It
could be done more easily using virtual memory, but then general emulation performance
would suffer. It's doable without VM, but requires more time than I feel like giving -
especially because it's only useful for one or two games.

Many other projects could use core updates like BlissX, BlueMSXBox, etc to improve
compatibility.

Then of course there could be all sorts of new projects using my core as a base.
Potential projects include BBC, Bally Astrocade, Vectrex, Coco, Arcadia, and Sam Coupe
which all have decent open source emulators available for them. They've been on my todo
list for quite a while, but I just haven't found the time for them.


Oh...as an aside, if anyone knows of anyone who still does xbox tweaks who can construct a
completely silent (or nearly totally silent) XBox, please send me (XPort) a PM on
forums.xbox-scene.com. There's a lot of antiquated information on the 'net on this
subject and I just don't have the time to go the trial-and-error route.

And as always....enjoy!

[XPort]

what about the most important one???

Mameox!

I released my changes to MAMEoX back to the MAMEoX team when I finished. That was a long time ago and it was at that point that I washed my hands of that project.

XPort, as so many times before, just let me say you again thank you very much for all the hard work you have done for the scene. As an old school gamer hardly a week passes by, where I don't play at least a short time a game with one of your projects and I am sure I will continue to do so for many years to come

All these great emulators were the main reason for me to buy an Xbox in the first place, otherwise there were never so many games that interested me (Halo is great but I am not such a big fan of FPS games).

However I must say that this is a little sudden when I read this today After CavestoryX and DidntXSpectrum I didn't feel, that you are planning to leave the scene and I hope that the discussion with the author of FUSE about the GPL problems didn't make you feel less motivated.

Wish you will have a good retirement and best wishes for your future life!

Although I did say it was *possible* that this could be the last thing I do on the XBox, it's probably more likely that I'll do some updates and maybe a new project or two. I'll still be hanging around the forums. I read this and the "Emulators" forums almost every day. I don't have the time to answer every question, but I do try to stay connected to what's happening.

As for the question about the FUSE author, his reaction did make me want to get things finished quicker. Again, I'm not really leaving.

Hey Xport just want to say thank you for all your hard work. I've read through all your emulators and feel like your a good friend. On a side note, should(when) the 360 gets hacked any chance for a return?

I don't know. If the speed increase is really significant it might be interesting to see how well XBoyAdvance, PCSXBox, and other newer emulators run on it. I'm interested, but free time seems to be ever decreasing.

Thanks for the new versions ...But i have just a problem with Snes9XBox...when i launch Snes9XBox i have the option menus but when i load my roms i have just the sound and i have Black screen?..Strange because on my znesbox and xsnes9x 1.42 my roms work fine???...any idea for this problem?.

Thanks for your help^^

You answered your own question a little later and yeah it's related to the graphics filters. Odd that it starts off like that for you. If you start with that filter disabled and then change to the filter while in-game, does it work then?

Hello again XPort, I have one tiny little request, if it is not too much too ask: I played a little bit around with Snes9xBox and find it useful to have on my Xbox as it can play Star Fox 2 without any problems.
I wanted it to have a skin and modified the MednafenX-NES one a little with another MP3 (from Super Mario All Stars the same theme) and some Snes9x logos instead of the MednafenX ones.

I uploaded it in this thread: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=629548

However I noticed now, that it never stops playing the MP3 when starting a game, even if I change the setting "Stop playing BGM before playing game" to "Yes". Are there any chances for you fixing that without keeping you too much busy? Would be great, if it would not be too much work Until then I know, that I can stop it in the music menu that opens by pressing the left analog stick.

Yeah I'm not surprised there are lots of little bugs in Snes9XBox. Perhaps I'll do a touchup on it. Anyone's welcome to fix it themselves, though.

[althena]

Although I did say it was *possible* that this could be the last thing I do on the XBox, it's probably more likely that I'll do some updates and maybe a new project or two. I'll still be hanging around the forums. I read this and the "Emulators" forums almost every day. I don't have the time to answer every question, but I do try to stay connected to what's happening.

As for the question about the FUSE author, his reaction did make me want to get things finished quicker. Again, I'm not really leaving.

It makes me feel so much better now to know, that you are not planning to go forever If it is just about patience, that was never a big issue for me, I have my Xbox now almost 5 years and it feels like I did buy it just yesterday
So take your time and come back when you feel like it, of course it should also be fun for you working on your projects and not just for us the users

Yeah I'm not surprised there are lots of little bugs in Snes9XBox. Perhaps I'll do a touchup on it. Anyone's welcome to fix it themselves, though.

Well, I can't do it myself as I never learned programming but as I said above, I have patience and also just wanted to give some feedback or a bug report

Thanks again for the Snes9xBox again by the way. Even though I will use primarily ZsnexBox for now it feels somehow strange and nice the same time to have a Super Nintendo emulator with your XPort GUI now. Very often I was thinking how nice it would be to have next to a GB/GBA, Mega Drive, Master System and NES emulator a Super Nintendo with the GUI from you just to have a standardized design for all the old classic systems from Nintendo and Sega

About the problem with the graphic filters: I just tried what you suggested, I started a few games with filters disabled and tried a few while in game and the screen becomes just black too. Well, not such a big problem for me, I seldom use them and love pixels