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  1. 1. Which xbox emu should I work on next?

    • Z26x (2600)
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    • WinstonX (Atari ST)
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Well Atarixlbox v7 has been officially released so now it is time to move on (a7800x is next).

 

Tired of messing with your next gen systems? Wanna excuse to hook up your xbox after removing it due to Microsoft's recent live update? Well time to hook that baby back up!! All that is needed is an Xbox capable of playing hombrew, a bit of 5200/atari 8-bit knowledge (although newbies are welcome), as well as some free time! :) Bear with me, this may take a little while for me to organize this thread.

 

Here is the changelog for the release (hopefully I got everything).

 

First off...

 

------------------

Special thanks....

------------------

 

X-port for porting a great collection of emu's over to the xbox, releasing the source code, and answering my stupid questions.

The beta testers - NE146, Jibbajaba, mimo, panamajoe, Pyjamarama, remowilliams, Stephen, telengard, paranoid. I know you all are busy but thanks for the support and input.

Atariage (Albert in particular) - For providing a place for my beta testing thread. For the 5200 overlays that I used as a template. For encouragement in general.

Kr0tki for the alternate NTSC palette and info to make Bounty Bob playable.

Foft for the pokey sound engine from the GP2x port of A800.

HiassofT for letting me use Picodos as a built in disk menu.

Piotr Fusik for his ASAP code.

Awinplus team for some borrowed ideas.

Brian Berlin (aka eegt97) for info regarding getting some 5200 games to work. Brian did the pc 5200 emu kat5200. Be sure to check it out!

Various people on the Atariage forums for providing information I needed (for example info regarding Trackball mode).

Comments of support from various interested parties.

If I missed anybody shoot me an email and I'll update this file.

 

-----------

what's new:

-----------

 

**** Atari core related changes ****

 

- Fixed new pokey sound issues. Using a modified new_pokey engine by foft, author of the GP2x port of atari800.

 

- Core updated to ver 2.03 with the exception of the pokey engine.

 

- New NTSC palette code using some routines created by Kr0tki.

 

- Autoconfiguration for select games. If you do not have a game configured and the emu finds a matching crc in the configs\game directory it will ask you if you wanna use it.

 

- 5200 Overlay support!! Now you can bring up the corresponding overlay for whatever 5200 title you are playing. Just use the same button used to bring up the onscreen keyboard (currently left trig+x for 5200). Use left analog or digital pad to select a keypad button. Right analog moves the overlay around. Black makes more transparent, white less transparent. The overlay location is saved for each title.

 

- Support for the 5200 analog stick. It is only read when in 5200 mode.

 

- Dual Analog support! Yeah Dual Robotron and Space Dungeon baby!! Just check out the configuration screen and enable dual analog.

 

- Trackball support! Use for games like Missile Command and Centipede. Plus a trackball/analog stick sensitivity mode to make certain games more playable. 100 is the default. 70-80 is a decent setting for titles like Missle Command and Super Breakout.

 

- Replaced generic keyboard with 130xe look alike (only used within game). Keyboard can be moved with right analog stick. Keyboards location and transparency are saved in each games configuration.

 

- Extra functionality for the virtual keyboard. Cursor can be moved with the analog stick. X button toggles shift key. Y toggles ctrl key. Start presses enter and back backspaces. White/Black change the keyboard transparency.

 

- Lightgun support. Barnyard Blaster, Bug Hunt, Crossbow, and Special Forces play pretty well.

 

- New default "Miner 2049'er skin" you can change it to the "old_atarixlbox" if it rakes on your nerves.

 

- Ability to pick a file from within a zip file. That way multi-disk games can be zipped now. Code stolen from the ViceX emulator. Keep in mind that if you play any game that "saves" to a floppy, that disk has to be a seperate UNZIPPED file.

 

- New option in the "Game Options" menu to display what files are "loaded" in drives 1 thru 4. Plus I added a rotate disks option. Press the A button when viewing the loaded disks.

 

- Added rotate_disks option to the controller setup.

 

- Option in configuration menu to allow swapping of joystick in port 1 and 2. I think like a total of two 8-bit and 1 5200 game use this.

 

- Rewind and slow down functionality. This was already in the last release by x-port but I just wanted to re-iterate. :P

 

- Ability to turn on/off player/missile/playfield collisions (for cheating). Try it on games like Pacman or Jumpman. The collision setting is not saved, but the sprite collision detection settings are saved on exit. So all it takes is a simple hop into the options menu to re-activate it.

 

- Added in to configuration menu "do not allow activating attract mode". Really only useful in demo's. This and above idea borrowed from AwinPlus.

 

- Paddles 0 & 1 are now mapped to sticks 1 &2, or 3&4 depending on what port you have the mouse set too.

 

- Added built in disk menu for using with megaimages. When you turn this option on the emulator will read the disk and display all games on it for your selection. It's under the "computer specific options" and it's called "Use built in disk menu". Thanks to HiassofT for letting me use Picodos as the built in disk menu.

 

- Add in the ability to play SAP music. I used the ASAP code made by Piotr Fusik. Playback speed (for SAP files) can be set to either NTSC or PAL. For those not in the know SAP is like the Atari equivalent of the SID collection for the C64. Check it out at "http://asma.atari.org". The player can also play the following formats, CMC (Chaos Music Composer), CMR (CMC Rzog), DMC (DoublePlay CMC), MPT (Music ProTracker), MPD (MPT DoublePlay), RMT (Raster Music Tracker), TMC, TM8 (Theta Music Composer 1.x), TM2 (Theta Music Composer 2.x).

 

- modified the cheat code system to read/write values the way an Atari would. That way you can check, for example, the player/missile collision registers to see if a collision happened. Or you could (in theory) disable certain sound channels, etc.

 

- Added ability to add in cheat codes from a Gameshark compatible database (see description below). This includes the ability to export the cheat codes in a game to "share" with your friends. Cheat/rumble codes are included for most 5200 games. When "adding" codes from the gameshark DB it will move you to the entries with a matching CRC. If not you'll have to manually find the game (sorry, only one CRC per game).

 

- Fixed artifact mode selection option, it can now be used for games like (drol, lode runner, etc).

 

- Fixed screenshot saves. The colors are now correct.

 

- Corrected screen not displaying properly when no filter is selected. (look at the ladders in games like donkey kong and jumpman). Filters still place garbage on the right and bottom of the screen though. Thanks to x-port for advice.

 

- Record/playback now work correctly. Thanks to x-port for advice. It now also records all keyboard presses and 5200 analog movement as well as Paddles 0 & 1.

 

- Added a record analog (yes/no) option so you can double the record time for those 5200 games that do not really need the analog stick (galaxian, pitfall, etc). Analog stick will be disabled.

 

- Changed so player/missile detection still occurs when fast forwarding.

 

- "autodetect" for media type. In most cases you can exit the options screen and be good to go (see tips on getting a game to run). Unfortunately cart types have to be selected, but I did make it easier (see "oddball cart types" below).

 

- Turned on code for upload/downloading configurations to website.

 

- Thanks to Brian Berlin (aka eegt97) 5200 Star Trek and Pitfall can be started now. Brian did the pc 5200 emu kat5200. Be sure to check it out!

 

- 5200 games like Missile Command, Centipede, Pole Position, Pengo, and Xari Arena are playable. Super Breakout is a little more playable.

 

- Thanks to Kr0tki Bounty Bob is now playable. There are only two working versions of Bounty Bob that I know of. The correct 5200 dump and the cassette version released in the UK. I highly suggest the 5200 version, UK version is a little slower. Set the UK version to PAL for it to work properly.

 

- Netplay should now work properly and it passes keypresses as well. No analog yet though.

 

----------------------------------------

**** Interface related changes ****

----------------------------------------

 

Upload configuration has been removed from the configuration screen and moved to the options screen where it makes more sense to use it.

Upload configuration adds file CRC and media type to the name. Download configuration displays current file CRC for user comparison.

 

Modified the button definitions to include "5200 specific" options (no more crazy mapping!), as well as removing unneeded stuff like "F1-F10". Things less likely to be used (like mouse buttons) I pushed towards the end of the list.

 

Changed the "Game Configuration" menu so it only displays options specific to the machine type selected. This includes the Video type "NTSC/PAL" option since there is no such thing as a PAL 5200.

 

Autoselect media automatically brings up the cartridge select screen if the media type is a cartridge.

 

The cart select screen now only displays applicable cart entries. Those that are the same size as the file in question as well as filtering out computer/5200 depending on what system is currently selected. Unusual cart types are not displayed by default (see "oddball cart types" below).

 

Some menu changes. Specifically..

Split the computer specific options to a second screen. If you set the computer type to something other than Atari 5200 a menu option will appear allowing you to set them. All shared options are left on the main config screen.

If the computer type is set to Atari 5200 it will automatically (on exit) set the media type to cartridge and if the cart type is not 5200 specific it will bring up the cart select screen.

 

removed atari_ostype. If anyone can think of a reason to keep it, let me know.

removed pokey_type. We default to pokey_new. Is there any reason not to?

removed "Enable 0xC000 RAM in Atari 800."

removed "RTime Emulation" the emulator by default gets the current date/time anyways.

 

Basic Cartridge is set to on when autodetect detects a basic program.

 

Menu option in "computer configuration" called "Lock in Autoselect Media Type". The "lock in" feature is there to let the user to change the media type if for some odd reason they want to, but prevent the user from accidently changing it. Autoselect should get it right 99% of the time, but JIC.

 

Changed the default cntrlr preset to "Atari Joystick". It auto changes to when the user changes the machine type.

 

Added custom presets for the controllers. These are in the "Game Configuration" and "Game Options" menu. Controller settings can be saved under these defaults if you do not like the way I set them. ;) Only Emulator Definitions and Joypad Mappings are saved. There are three kinds.

 

Atari 5200 for 5200 games.

Atari Joystick for most stick based games. Common keys like space, enter, and esc are mapped to buttons.

Atari Keyboard for games like Ultima IV. Same as Joystick except the keypad is mapped to the arrow keys.

 

Controller preset filenames are "Atari 5200 Stick.ini", "Atari Joystick.ini", and "Atari Keyboard.ini" and are stored in the default saves directory. The emu copies these from your emu directory into the default saves directory so make sure they are in there. If not you can manually copy them over or just define them yourself!!

 

For Atari Joystick. Xbox d-pad is mapped to the joystick. A = "button 1". B = "stick up" (for games that require pressing up to jump). Start= "Start". Back = "Select". Black = "Option". White = "Esc". X = "space". Y = "enter". Right stick up=1, left=2, right=3, and down=4. Left trig+Right stick up=5, left=6, right=7, down=8. Left trigger+X=0 and Left trigger+Y=9. Start+Back=Cold_Start(reboot).

 

Atari Keyboard is the same as Atari Joystick except the stick is mapped to the keyboard arrow keys. (for you Ultima fans).

 

Atari 5200 Stick. Use the left analog stick or the Xbox d-pad for the joystick. A= " button 1". B= "button 2". Start= "Start". Back= "*". Black= "#". White= "Pause". Numpad is assigned the same as Atari Joystick except 0 is assigned to X and 9 is assigned to Y (no left trigger). Start+Back=Cold_Start(reboot). White+Black=Reset button.

 

Changed cartridge descriptions so the proper choice is a little more obvious.

 

Fixed a few interface "quirks" regarding playing game sounds while emu is paused.

 

Modified the select save state screen so it tells you whether your "loading" or "saving", can be a bit confusing when hot keying to that screen. Also now displays whether a save file has a record session ® associated with it.

 

When a new save state is created it deletes any recordings and if you press the "back" button while in the save state select screen it will allow you to delete that save state (as well as it's recording).

 

Utilities menu display modifed to state "stop or start recording/playback" depending on whether they are turned on or off. It also displays total minutes remaining or played so far.

 

Record/Playback turn off when exiting a game. Boy that sure caused some confusion. :lol:

 

Switched positioning control of sprites in the skin menu to the left analog stick, that way you don't have to worry about unintentionally lowering the volume.

 

Savestate load screen is a little more informational when sent to it from the save/record option.

 

When you save a picture it removes the screenshot save path making it easier to see long names.

 

Changed order of some of the entries in the "Music Control Menu". Added options to skip to next/prev song within a SAP/tracker file. Pressing "start" while in the game select menu will play any SAP files in the "sap" directory with a matching filename.

 

Added an option to show (view) song name when the mp3 player changes songs. It also shows the song number within a SAP file for multisong SAP's.

 

Playlist repeat mode, and View Name setting is saved in INI file.

 

When "adding a code" from the "edit code" screen the current code is copied as a template. You can activate/deactivate a code from the "cheat code list" menu by pressing start.

 

Deleting a code now asks you if you are sure (I got tired of accidently deleting my codes :lol: ).

 

Changed the cart select screen so it does not show the "oddball" cartridge configurations. This can be toggled by selecting the "Show Odd Cart Types" line. This is my solution to the one thing that bothered me about automediadetect, and that is the rather large cartridge type list with mostly useless entries.

 

----------------------------------------

**** Internal changes (the boring stuff) ****

----------------------------------------

 

Disk mounts from savestates are now automated. The only exception is Samba/Relax drives. I have not decided (if even possible) what to do about them. Although it is smart enough to ask you for them if it can't find 'em. Old savestates, most likely, are incompatible.

 

If you set the mouse type to anything other than "none", load a game, and then load a game where the mouse type is "none" it doesn't reset. So for example 5200 games will lose their analog control. Fixed..

 

Fixed up the problem created from using multiple files in a .zip. This error also occured when "changing disks". Removed all the configure game code that does not need to execute when changing disks and changed it so the emulator keeps all of the save/config/key stuff underneath the originating (read boot) disks name. Keep in mind that if you play any game that "saves" to a floppy, that disk has to be a seperate UNZIPPED file.

 

Seems the capslock key was not mapped properly. Fixed it, now we can type in lower case! Keep in mind on the Atari caps works in reverse. Pressing capslock will put you in lower case, unlocking capslock puts you back in upper case. 8:

 

Apparently the emu does not "unload" a cartridge, disks, executable, or cassette when switching games thus creating weird behavior. (like atari basic being unusable). Fixed that.

 

Fixed problem when a filename inside a zip contains too many characters. While I was at it I fixed the space as the last character when trimming to 42 characters behavior. Zip files where the path was saved now unzip correctly.

 

Artifact mode didn't turn off when using it and switching games.. fixed

 

Rewind and Fastforward are de-activated during record/playback and netplay mode. It even tells you so when you try!! Keyboard is de-activated during playback.

 

Rewind is deactivated when in 130Xe or higher mode (crashes).

 

Modified YesNoMenu so it doesn't clear m_menuText.

 

Put in some code that hopefully will prevent any conflicts when cold_restart is mapped to a combo where one of the buttons is mapped to something else (like START for example).

 

---------------------

**** Know Issues ****

---------------------

 

save state restores from samba/relax games where multiple disks are involved wont work automatically.

 

H: device issues. Atari dos 2.5 cannot delete files on the H: drive. Not much I can do about this one.

 

5200 analog calibration seems to get out of wack when using fast forward. Only happens during the in game calibration (usually at start of game, or after dying) so just try not to FF at that point.

 

Disabling attract mode in games can cause weird problems (see Miner 2049'er) so use it only demo's. K??

 

Super Breakout (8-bit version) does not have any sound.

 

leftover Record/playback time is incorrect when recording/playing paddle games. (I'll fix it l8r)

 

----------------------------------------

**** To do (the feature creep list) ****

----------------------------------------

 

Unfortunately, some games don't use the full paddle range (e.g. optimal range for "Arkanoid" game is 0-88). The AWinplus allows setting the min-max paddle range.

 

Add a startup sound to be played when emu starts up?

 

 

------------------

Configuration tips

------------------

 

Well I never was 100% happy with the config screen but I never got a whole lot of input regarding it. So here are a few hints on getting games going...

 

If the emu finds a config file, use it. I have pretty much every 5200 game covered and several A800 games from Atarimania and fandal's site.

 

Most everything else you can just hit the B key to exit the config screen and you will be set. Thanks to the autodetect and auto config search feature for the most part 90% plus of the games will be playable off the bat.

 

Any A800 game not from the US is a PAL game. Don't worry about Japan the a800 didn't exactly go big over there. ;)

 

If the game is a disk and it stops on the DOS menu with the message "please type 1 letter" that means it is a basic program. Go back into config and turn Basic "On".

 

If the game fails to load, for whatever reason. Try switching machine type to "Atari 800".

 

If that doesn't work set machine type back to "Atari 800xl" and set "Patch SIO Routine in OS" to no.

 

If that doesn't work, I don't know what to say. :P Actually there is the odd game that requires Basic to be enabled or it will kick you back to the game select menu "immediately".

Edited by Shannon
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**** control mappings ****

 

Joystick mapping. Here are the mappable buttons..

 

A, B, X, Y.

Start, Back

White, Black

Left Trigger, Right Trigger

Left Stick, Right Stick (4 compass directions each)

Left/Right stick buttons.

Dpad (4 compass directions)

 

Currently default mapped emulator features. I'm listing these so everyone has an idea of where conflicts can occur. There are also combo mapping where two keys have to be pressed in order to activate that mapping. Off the top of my head for now.

 

Popup virtual keyboard - mapped to left stick button. Cursor can be moved with the left analog stick, keyboard with right. X button toggles shift key. Y toggles ctrl key. Start presses enter and back backspaces. White/Black change the keyboard transparency.

 

5200 overlays - mapped to left trig + x. Curor moved with left analog, overlay with right. White/Black change the transparency.

Game Options Screen - mapped to the right stick button.

 

Background music audio volume control - I unmapped this (Right stick left/right). You can adjust this from the MP3 player menu and do it from there.

Emulator sound audio volume control - I unmapped this (Right stick up/down). Adjust in the MP3 player menu.

Software Filter - I unmapped this (Left trig plus Left stick).

Load State - Left trig plus white.

Save State - Left trig plus black.

Fastforward - speeds the game up. Right trigger.

Rewind - Left trig plus Right trig. Rewinds the game x many seconds. POP Sands of time anyone? :lol:

Slo mo - slows the game down for ease of use. Left trigger + B.

 

For Atari Joystick.

Xbox d-pad is mapped to the joystick.

A = "button 1" . B = "stick up" (for games that require pressing up to jump).

Start= "Start". Back = "Select". Black = "Option".

White = "Esc" X = "space". Y = "enter".

Right stick up=1, left=2, right=3, and down=4. I do this so you do not have to take your hand off the d-pad to select those.

Left trig + Left stick up=5, left=6, right=7, down=8. Left trigger+X= 0 and Left trigger+Y = 9.

 

Atari Keyboard is the same as Atari Joystick except the stick is mapped to the keyboard arrow keys. (for you Ultima fans).

 

Atari 5200 Stick. Xbox d-pad is mapped to the left analog stick.

A= " button 1". B= "button 2".

Start= "Start". Back= "*". Black= "#". White= "Pause". White+Back = "Reset". Left Trig+Y = "Soft Reset"

Numpad is assigned the same as Atari Joystick except X = "0" and Y = "9" (no left trigger).

 

start+back = coldstart, used on all configurations.

Edited by Shannon

ok! Well thanks for volunteering. If anyone is interested after listening to the numen demo I went ahead and compiled an alternate version with the new_pokey sound core replaced by the one created by the guy who made the GP2x version. Read my notes above for more details. Basically it's like new_pokey with old_pokey volume emulation. Anyways this one seems to sound ok in Numen, and actually doesn't even crash in Ghost busters. :lol:

 

So if someone is willing to experiment with different sound engines, just say so. What I do is I copy it into my emulator directory under a different name and then execute it from a filemanager. My emu files kinda go like this. "Default_v5.xbe" - the last x-port release. "Default.xbe" - whichever core I happen to be using the most, "Atarixlbox-Gp2x.xbe" the emulator compiled with the alternative GP2x new_pokey.

 

Just so everyone knows. I'm looking for input in regards on how to map the xbox buttons to the computer/interface. Obviously there are not enough button combos for everything and adding 5200 analog kinda soured some of my settings already. :(

 

Thanks!

Edited by Shannon

OK guys well here goes.. Remember DO NOT use the upload/download configuration option yet. There are two or three config options that may be added as well as one removed. So it will just mess things up for people in the future.

 

Cleaned up some of the menu structures so they work like they are "supposed" to. It's funny how easy it is to overlook small stuff like that when your excited about a feature added. :D

 

Fixed a few interface "quirks" regarding playing game sounds while emu is paused.

 

Added in the ability to turn on/off player/missile/playfield collisions (for cheating). Try it on games like Pacman or Jumpman. The collision settings are saved on exit (since x-port saves cheats on exit as well). Personally I don't like this because it is easy to forget to turn them off and then later start a game and wonder what is going on.

 

Having rewind on takes ALOT of memory so depending on how much memory your skin is using it can cause the emu to hang on some games (Ultima, Numen) (beats me as to why... Memory leak?) So just be warned.

 

I'm not 100% sure but games (or demos) that use 130xe banking may lock up when rewind is enabled. This needs to be checked but I didn't wanna delay releasing this to you guys.

 

Feel free to make suggestions if you think maybe some menu items should be re-arranged. Also I feel that some of the wording used may be confusing. So if you find it confusing and have an alternative suggestion just say so!

 

Unfortunately 5200 Pengo is still screwy (may be possible to correct), Gorf works ok if you like that kind of thing but I prefer the Gorf modified for a digital stick. (have not tested it since I mapped the analog stick).

 

Just copy the file as well as the default controller configs (.INI) I give ya into your emulator directory. If you wanna overwrite you current version just rename it to default.xbe and overwrite your old one.

 

I'm going with the fotf modified pokey_new for now. I honestly cannot hear any differences between it and regular new_pokey. So if it is up to snuff we can keep it and just dump old_pokey. I have an alternative plan in the works but I have no clue if it will really work so I'll stick with this for now.

 

If you use "AutoDetect Media Type". Be sure to set the computer mode first. It's really only important if it is a cartridge. A 5200 cartridge will not show up in the list unless the computer type is right. Unfortunately raw cartridge images do not have that info. If you take a cartridge in Atari800winplus and convert "ROM" to "CART" then it will store the needed information in the file.

 

I changed some of the default controller mappings around a little.

 

I just realize the 5200 analog mapping is just a bit off (try Kaboom). Didn't notice it because most of the auto calibrating in other games must have been dealing with it. The code was ripped from the code used for paddle mapping so it's probably just a matter of tweaking it a little.

 

Silly me overwrote all the changes I made when I went to add dual analog. I redid them all but I forgot something when you change the media selected (it always brings up the cart select screen). So I'll reupload, again, a fixed version in the am.

Edited by Shannon

I'd like to know how you guys feel about rumble. I've been going in and adding rumble to games when I can (usually when a player dies). Which I personally do not mind.

 

But I decided to try adding a little rumble to when you fire (asteroids in this case) and was kinda mixed about it. One of the cool things is if you press the fire button rapidly the controller starts rumbling pretty hard (almost like overload).

 

Anyways do me a favor. Go into your controller setup for Asteroids and set the rumble config for button 1 to the following values. Left & right motor intensity - 32. Left & right motor duration - 25. Tell me what you think.

 

Thanks.

Couple minor additions.

 

Changed Two Chip 16 KB 5200 cartridge to be more descriptive (Atari Proto's use this).

Mapped the 5200 reset button for games that use it (Countermeasure). Currently mapped to black+white combo. Just use R or O key until you get the updated version.

 

Modified swap joystick ports 1 & 2 so it works in 5200 mode (for the ONE game that supports it)

Edited by Shannon

Finally got around to trying this last night and focused on 5200 games. Let me just say, finally playing 5200 Robotron & Space Dungeon with 2 analog sticks on the xbox controller is friggin awesome!! :D

 

I have some more observations but will post them as I gather them :)

Anyone know of a free site that can do .php? I just need something for the upload/download configuration junk. The files are not very large at 112 byte each. I tried http://www.t35.com but the ad junk they add causes the xbox to lock-up when uploading configurations. Although download seems to work fine (once I put in a little fix).

Edited by Shannon

I'd be willing to do some testing too. Glad x-port finally released the sources (not that I have a way to build them yet). I haven't used atarixlbox in quite a while but the xbox is still setup so I can test this out. If only I could get SAMBA working (never could before) that would be great as all my disk images are on my Linux server.

 

~telengard

Edited by telengard

I've gotten samba to work before (at least to a winblows machine). But it's been a while so maybe I'll see if I can get that going and let you know what to try. I think also at one point x-port may have had a few samba issues that he corrected somewhere along the ways.

Edited by Shannon

I'm thinking of splitting off the "Computer Specific Options" in a seperate menu. See a few posts above where I list the configuration options. One new option not on that list will be to disable the Analog mapping for those few games it aint so great for (mostly a personal preference thing). And I'll probably do the "Disable Attract Mode" feature as well.

 

Plus, although I'm not a big fan of "autochangin" fields. I was thinking of maybe, for example, if you change the computer to 5200 that it automatically sets the media type to Cartridge, video mode to NTSC. Setting up the autodetect so it does not ask yes/no. Removing the Enable 0xC0000 RAM and Rtime option (Time seems to return the correct date-time even with it off).

 

Just trying to think of a way to reduce clutter and simplify things a little.

 

While messing with the up/down configuration I was considering the possibility of having an up/down cheats and up/down controller configuration (for those more complicated games that could use custom mapping). Not sure if x-port would be too thrilled about the extra info on his server though.

Edited by Shannon
I'd like to know how you guys feel about rumble. I've been going in and adding rumble to games when I can (usually when a player dies). Which I personally do not mind.

 

But I decided to try adding a little rumble to when you fire (asteroids in this case) and was kinda mixed about it. One of the cool things is if you press the fire button rapidly the controller starts rumbling pretty hard (almost like overload).

 

Anyways do me a favor. Go into your controller setup for Asteroids and set the rumble config for button 1 to the following values. Left & right motor intensity - 32. Left & right motor duration - 25. Tell me what you think.

 

Thanks.

Is the rumble in all emulation, or just 5200?

If it can be turned on/off at will then I think that will be a great addition

The rumble is tied into the game cheat (game genie) functionality already in x-port's emu's.

 

Basically you tie it to a memory address and when the addey changes it tells the controller to rumble. It can be turned on/off just like cheats. There is also a section in the controller config where you can link the rumble to button presses on the xbox controller.

 

Button assigned rumbles are a few more steps to turn off.

 

All settings are specific to the game loaded so when you load a different game it will have a different set-up. It's pretty much all userconfigurable. I was asking my question mostly because I've been kinda running thru the games and adding "real quicK" cheats and simplistic rumbling. For example I set up H.E.R.O. so it rumbles when your dynamite explodes.

 

I actually had donkey kong tied in so it rumbled everytime kong stomped. It was basically tied into the character changes on the screen. Pretty cool. Dummy me accidently erased the configuration though.

 

It can be kinda limited though cause alot of games (for example) decrement the player counter well after the player dies. I've been trying to link it with the player/missile/playfied collision detection (in RAM) but I have a feeling the emulator does all that stuff internally cause the typical addresses always read as 0.

 

I was thinking of asking the guys over in the 8-bit forum if that kind of thing could be done, as well as possibly turning on/off the different pokey sound channels by pokeing in certain memory addresses (under an EMU).

Edited by Shannon

I went ahead and split off the "Computer Specific Options" in a seperate menu. See a few posts above where I list the configuration options. I just don't like having so much clutter on one screen. Went ahead and removed the 0C0000 RAM and Rtime junk. Removed the upload configuration from the configuration menu (does not make sense to have it there). Placed both upload and download configuration on the "options" screen. It will only let you dl cheats and keys, configs have to be done from the config screen). Have not got to any of the "autochangin" stuff yet though.

 

Well I may be crazy cause based on what I said a couple messages above I got to thinking. What if I CRC'ed the file and included the CRC as part of the filename and then included a bunch of those files with Atarixlbox in directories (configs, presets, cheats). Then if the program finds a match it can ask the user if he wants to use them. Well assuming I can get the CRC calculation code working. I would also add and leave in this ability for the upload/save section.

 

I've already got the save/load to local directories stuff in place, just got to test it, as well as the usual upload/download config (only configs at the moment). I finally got some .php stuff going so I just need to modify the script.

 

It's a pretty big change menu wise. Plus the preset controller stuff would pretty much get dumped into the new Configs/Ctrlr directory. I'm kinda skitzofrenic on this one. Anybody think the save/load idea is a good one or overkill? I personally think it will make it easier if someone wants to maintain and share some type of cheat/configuration/keys database with people. The keys thing is important for those few multi-key games that need alot of remapping (Star Raiders, Behind The Jaggilines, etc).

 

Sugggestions? Everyone has been kinda quiet lately. Busy with the snow?

no no no.. I'm still playing it man :D Just been super busy to type up comments. Do you have a more recent version I can test?

 

My version, the one thing I've noticed is on a 5200 game if you have your options set wrong (which will happen since it's basically trial and error to get the right cart type, etc. on any new game you play) then the whole xbox will crash, at least in my case. The only option is to reboot.

 

Other thing's I've noticed is you've seemed to fix the "new pokey" vs. "old pokey".. that rocks. :) All games sound as they should now on both settings more or less.

 

Other than that.. this is totally great. I love the dual analog option.

 

The one drawback to this emu.. but it was true with xport's version as well is the confusing-to-the-noobie multiple menu options you need to do to get a game to even run. But that's a minor thing so far. I've still got to do a lot more testing on a lot more games. Cheers to you for doing this awesome upgrade :)

I'll give you a tip since the emu more or less cannot determine the cart types (unless they are CART saves). Yes I know the locking up is annoying it used to not do that, I traced thru the code and I'm not sure where it is hanging at. At first I thought it was trying to go into monitor mode or something.

 

Anyways... Read the cart comments in (parenthesis). If it is an ATARI title then most likely it is a one chipper, if it is an ATARI prototype or a third party game then it will be a two chipper. Prototypes would include games like asteroids, millipede, Jr. Pacman, Super Pacman. Pretty much anything that was never officially released.

 

I'm slowly re-working the menu's because I think they are cluttered as well. I removed a couple unecessary items and I'm thinking of removing old pokey since new pokey pretty much seems to do the trick. I should have something in a day or so. I'm tyring to add these things a little at a time so it is easier to test. It took me a little while to figure out the CRC thing which should make things easier for people in the long run.

 

Mimo... sorry to hear about the girls. What a mess, and I bet they are miserable. :( I'm a little under the weather myself. No big hurry though. I just tend to have these ideas swirling in my head and prefer some feedback less I get carried away. :lol:

 

Oh, and again... Thanks..

Edited by Shannon

Thanks, all is well in the mimo house, girls a better and the eldest is back at school. Problem now is my wife went shopping and the car broke down, looks like a £200+ repair bill :x and no way if getting to work until we get it back :roll:

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