Atarixlbox v7 for the Xbox released

[Shannon]

Small update. The keyboard is for the most part almost functional. All the keys except the Help, Select, Option, Start, and Reset function as expected. It was a bear to do, though. Aside from trying to remember how some of the key combo's function in the first place. The atari800 code was pretty much designed to translate from a PC keyboard to ATASCII so squeezing in some of the mappings was tough because of conflicts between the onscreen keyboard mapping and an actual USB keyboard hooked up to the xbox.

 

I can see why people or even x-port never bothered with this type of thing!! Regardless it's almost there I just need to work on the leftover keys, fix it so the analog stick can move the cursor and do some thorough testing. The code is pretty scrappy not quite as modular as I would like, but oh well.

Edited April 11, 2008 by Shannon

[Shannon]

Although it is a little bit pre-emptive I figured I'd go ahead an add a poll. It basically consists of emu's I may have specific ideas for. Sorry Ne1, no Daphne yet. But I may give it a try. The big thing is no xbox source, but at least all the other sources are available.

 

The biggest thing is the updates to the x-port side of things. Which would include zip support (if needed), enhanced record/playback functionality, etc. Don't expect any miracles though.

 

Z26x (2600) - Rewind seems to freak out on certain games maybe I can fix it.

Atari7800x - Rewind doesnt even work. Fast forward is kinda funky.

Mednafen-Lynx - I can't stand the muffle sound (filter option?). Rewind not working (I think). All kinda crazy mappings related to the NES that need to be removed.

WinstonX (Atari ST) - Mostly just to add multi file in a zip support and probably gamebase support. I'll have to look at Winston docs to see if there is any other functionality that can be added.

OdysseyX - Mostly to add zip support. Dunno much more about this thing although I own/owned an O2.

BlissX (Intellivision) - Overlay support. The mappings on the intellivision are insane too so I'm hoping to come up with some type of functional defaults. Intellivoice? (Don't count on it, but who knows).

KegsX (Apple II) - Has issues with upper/lowercase that make alot of games just unplayable.

AdamX (Colecovision) - Mostly for overlay support, but not many games use an overlay anyways.

 

Feel free to comment.

[mimo]

Hmm, well after adding Stelladapter support I vote for 7800 (as it is the only other one that I use from your list)

[Shannon]

I've been looking a little into accessing USB devices and it almost sounds like one has to write their own drivers in order to use them. SDL may have some functionality as well but I've yet to try setting up an SDL environment in Visual Studio.

[Shannon]

ok. Well I got the console buttons and reset working correctly. It does not quite highlight those keys the way I like but I don't know a whole lot about direct3d to get the xbox to draw the highlight the same as the console keys. I turned off any sound playing when pressing the console keys. For some reason I found it distracting.

 

I modified the keyboard so it should be easier to see on a normal TV. Here is the picture. Keep in mind my intention was to make the keys identifiable. I'm no artist. Anyways there really isn't enough space on the keys to properly represent any control characters. I still need to test the USB attached keyboard to make sure nothing got foobared with the remappings and then I should be able to send out another beta.

 

 

I also finally got around to making it so the rotate disks function can be mapped to the controller.

 

I implemented new functionality to the cheat system although I'm not sure I wanna keep it in there. It did not quite function as I imagined so I cannot name any specific examples of useage. Basically it lets you assign a button to a cheat code so that when you "press" that button the cheat code will be active and when you release the button it will be off. I could modify it so it could be set as a toggle switch as well. But I have not decided whether to keep it or not. Your currently limited to attaching the buttons to the first 10 cheat codes, although I could increase that amount.

 

The only other thing I considered implementing (before the official release, that is) was a screen saver function that would load a recorded session and play it back. I always wished for a feature like that in frontends for mame, etc. But on thinking on it there are too many things that could go wrong or require user intervention.

Edited April 15, 2008 by Shannon

[Shannon]

Ne146... if yer reading this your inbox is full.

Edited April 16, 2008 by Shannon

[Shannon]

Well after a little head scratching I managed to add in the ability to play SAP to atarixlbox. I used the ASAP code made by Piotr Fusik.

 

I had a little issue with the music playing in double time and an octave or so too high but once I got that little issue taken care of it works great!! I just need now to integrate it a little more into the emu by allowing you to create playlists (out of .SAP files), or have the SAP file that matches the currently selected game play by pressing X (or whatever button it is). I'll probably add in an option somewhere where you can select the speed as well (PAL or NTSC). Most SAP files out there are in PAL format.

 

For those not in the know SAP is like the Atari equivalent of the SID collection for the C64. It's not quite as nice or complete as the SID collection but I wanted this to be customized towards the Atari series of computers. I'll probably attempt to do the same for Atari ST music files when I work on WinstonX.

 

So run out to the SAP music archive and help yourself to some SAP files!!! It will be in the next beta release.

 

Oh and I fixed a little bug in the playback/record system where it did not keep track of the status of the shift and ctrl key (although I still need to test it).

Edited April 20, 2008 by Shannon

[Shannon]

Well I integrated the SAP player in a little more. The next/prev song within a SAP file can be selected, or you can just skip to the next SAP you are in a playlist. SAP files can be selected in a playlist. Have not tried yet to see if mixing SAP's and MP3's works...

 

The music does slow down a bit, though, when the screen gets busy. Particularly on my Miner Skins where there are several baddies moving around. So I'll have to look into that one a little more.

 

Still need to make mappable keys for next/prev song within a SAP file...

[Shannon]

Got the slow down issues taken care of. Just had to bump up the buffer a little bit.

 

Here is my thank you list. I was gonna put it at the beginning of the release text..

 

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.

Edited April 21, 2008 by Shannon

[Shannon]

Still tinkering with the "Music Player"...

 

Changed order of entries in the "Music Control Menu"

 

Added an option to show (view) song name when the mp3 player changes songs.

 

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

 

The player can also play the following formats, although I have not tested CMC Rzog, MPT DoublePlay,Theta Music Composer 2.x. I'm having a little trouble finding music files of that format.

* 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)

 

I might touch up the "Music Control Menu" some more after I think on it a little bit. Alot of the options are kinda scattered around.

 

If anyone cares to have a version to play around with, just say so. I'm not sure how far I'll get the next few days, but it's pretty stable for the most part. Just missing a few features that I still have commented out, etc.

[Shannon]

This is a "Configuration Tips" thingie I typed up that I was thinking of including in the "Readme.txt" file on release. There is an item missing that I thought of, but then forgot and cannot seem to remember at the moment.

 

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

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 in 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. Actually there is the odd game that requires Basic to be enabled or it will kick you back to the game select menu "immediately".

I think I need a new motto... "Just release it already!!"

Edited April 24, 2008 by Shannon

[mimo]

"Stick a fork in it..........................it's done"

[Shannon]

"It's dead Jim.."

[NE146]

Yeah I think what you have now is good enough for a release. I'd just package it up with everything set up all nice and neat, put a good number on it and release it to the scene

 

And then after that who says you can't keep tweaking and fixing and putting feature creep in. That's what further revision numbers are for right? Heck you might just get more feedback from more people out there who are interested enough to try it but aren't on these forums.

 

But yeah man.. what it is now is way better than the last xport release already. Good enough to set loose

[Shannon]

Well while daydreaming waiting for a sponge bob episode to finish so I could take over the TV. I did the following. (Yeah, I know , slaps hand)..

 

I created cheat codes for Jr. Pacman and Ms. Pacman based on the speed hacks done by Nukey Shay. As a result I've modified the cheat code system AGAIN. Seems the a800 team has a strange definition of what they consider ram, rom, and hardware addresses. So now it uses the standard peek/poke system only when the address if greater than $CFFF. Everything else reads directly from the memory table. Here are the codes. For those interested, you can key them in now but they won't function properly until I upload the latest version.

 

I know that it is simpler to download Nukey's hack, but this is mostly for illustration..

 

Ms pacman speed hack (for player one)

E000D010 0000 - if trigger for stick 0 pressed execute next code

800065BB EAEA - NOP out delay code

E000D010 0001 - if trigger for stick 0 not pressed execute next code

800065BB F014 - Restore original code to call for movement delay

 

Jr. pacman speed hack (for player one)

E000D010 0000 - if trigger for stick 0 pressed execute next code

80006011 EAEA - NOP out delay code

E000D010 0001 - if trigger for stick 0 not pressed execute next code

80006011 F010 - Restore original code to call for movement delay

 

Player two can be done by repeating the above code but changing D010 to D011. All cheats need to be "ON" for this to work.

 

Also... I did the following.

 

Fixed (hopefully) issues with the 130xe keyboard code getting confused about which key is highlighted in certain cases.

When "adding a code" from the "edit code" screen the current code is copied as a template. To start with a "blank" code "add a code" from the "cheat code" menu.

 

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.

 

 

Pretty much now I just need to clean up the SAP playing code and then it should be pretty much ready for release. I did a little boo boo by copying old code over some of my changes.

Edited April 26, 2008 by Shannon

[Shannon]

Wow didn't realize this thing has been going on since January... (It's like Feb and March just flew on by) phew. Anyways I was able to compile the latest changes so after testing those, I guess this sucker will be ready for release.

[Shannon]

Well I checked over most of the recent changes I made and everything seems to be functional with the exception of recorded keycodes where the shift or ctrl key is held down. But that is not anything that will majorly affect anything so there wouldn't be any reason to defer release.

 

I also added something else but I aint gonna say what it is. Suffice it to say that so far preliminary testing indicates I should be able to get it working with no problem. So I'll announce it when I do my final beta release.

 

Ultimately the time it is taking to do all this stuff will be worth it because I was/am taking great extremes to make most of the features usable in other x-port emulators without too much deviation.

[Shannon]

Well I've been perusing the atari7800x source code which, if any of you did not know, is based on MESS. I can tell this one is gonna be interesting.

 

Not sure why fastforward looks the way it does. My initial guess is/was that it has something to do with dirty/rectangle drawing which seems to be what it does. Guess I might have to trace thru the code to get a better idea of what settings it is defaulting too. Looks like x-port doesn't really send any command line options.

 

Looking at the update list I do not see anything new since the version of MESS used in this build except for a pallette update which x-port sorta kinda addressed in his release anyways.

 

Also seems some samba/relax code was missing from init_console, as reported over at xbox-scene.

 

Don't worry. I'm doing this in my spare time when I cannot really work on atarixlbox. So it shouldn't interfere with it's release.

[mimo]

Well I've been perusing the atari7800x source code which, if any of you did not know, is based on MESS. I can tell this one is gonna be interesting.

 

Not sure why fastforward looks the way it does. My initial guess is/was that it has something to do with dirty/rectangle drawing which seems to be what it does. Guess I might have to trace thru the code to get a better idea of what settings it is defaulting too. Looks like x-port doesn't really send any command line options.

 

Looking at the update list I do not see anything new since the version of MESS used in this build except for a pallette update which x-port sorta kinda addressed in his release anyways.

 

Also seems some samba/relax code was missing from init_console, as reported over at xbox-scene.

 

Don't worry. I'm doing this in my spare time when I cannot really work on atarixlbox. So it shouldn't interfere with it's release.

Is there any chance of using prosystem as the starting point?

[Shannon]

Well once I get started I'm gonna try to port Prosystem in parallell. Of course I have to get the thing to compile in windows first before I can get started on that.

Edited May 2, 2008 by Shannon

[Shannon]

Was tinkering around with Atari7800x and the way x-port has it setup is fastforward kicks the frameskip up to 11 which for some reason causes the wacky display. When I changed it to 9 you get about double speed when fast forwarding which aint to bad. I never liked frame skip as a means of fast forwarding but it serves its purpose. Turning off throttling does not seem to do anything which is odd. I'm pretty sure that the emulator is running at the very least full speed but it never hits the "sleep" code so it certainly is not going faster.

 

The rewind code is actually functioning, but for some reason locks the machine on the startup of the 7800 so I'll have to look into that a little more.

 

Anyways here is the last thing I'm adding to atarixlbox.

 

Those with lousy reflexes celebrate!! While working with the Nukey Shay hacks I took the gameshark database functionality that is in Psxbox and imported it into Atarixlbox. You can now search the included database for cheats!! Not only that but it will also include any rumble settings for those cheat codes. As well as adding the ability to "export" the cheats for a game into a "custom_codes.inf" file. I'm debating on whether it would make more sense to just have it add to the default gameshark DB file. What this means is you can..

 

1) Share your cheat and rumble code settings with friends.

2) Use the PEC cheat database editor to edit/combine/import and sort your database files.

(see http://www.aldostools.com/pecedit.html)

 

I've already added unlimited lives and rumble codes for various things like player death, low fuel, timer low (frogger), smart bomb use, stuff like that. At this point I only did codes for the 5200 games only. I have about 15 left to do and I'll be ready to unleash this sucker on the world!!! Muahahahaha.

 

As for the codes themselves the only oddity is multi-code "cheats" designed for rumble activation. When you add them make sure you add them both if they are designated as (1of2) (2/2), etc. Make sure when you activate the codes you only activate (1 of 2) and leave off the ones that say "(Keep Off)". Basically the second code has to be "off", or strange things will happen. This is designated in the description of the code for example "rumble on low fuel (2/2) (Keep Off)". All added codes default to "off" just to be safe.

 

For those interested in sharing codes, read this. For multi code cheats make sure all the cheat codes have the same EXACT description. That way when a user "imports" them it will automatically copy over all codes. The only exception (unfortunately) is multi-code rumble settings where the 2nd code has to be OFF. In this case designate them as (1ofx) (2ofx) and put some indication in the description for any code that needs to be OFF. For example "rumble on low fuel (2/2) (Keep Off)".

 

I would have had all this done sooner but creating unlimited live codes for 2 player games can be a bit of a hassle at times and in some cases (best I can tell) impossible due to the methods used by the programmers to store player lives (junk like swapping the lives between two addresses). A tendancy by programmers trying to scrap every little byte out of the system that they could.

 

 

I'll be creating a topic for a7800x pretty soon since for all intents and purposes I'm done with atarixlbox it's just a matter of putting the files together and releasing them.

Edited May 5, 2008 by Shannon

[Shannon]

Did some more tinkering around with a7800x and got it so rewind now functions on gameload instead of crashing the emu. Seems mess doesn't like to do savestates while it is still "initializing".

 

Well I'm done with the cheatcodes for 5200 games. It's a mishmash of unlimited lives and rumble codes. Detecting player death is a bit of a hit miss thing so as time goes by I'll probably add rumble codes for those. There might be a little inconsistency with the rumble codes but I'll just have to clean that up later. I noticed my black xbox controller rumbles "harder" than the green one. I just need to go over the gameshark DB and clean it up a little.

 

This pretty much covers everything I wanted to do with atarixlbox (outside of gamebase support and the ability to export controller configurations), oh and stella adapter support if I'm fortunate enough. But for all intents and purposes Atarixlbox is pretty much ready to go out the door. Maybe I'll release it as the "Mother's Day edition".

 

Actually I was concerned about a couple games that "drift to the right" on start like Galaxian and Pengo but I'm not sure if I'll have time to look into this a little more thoroughly.

Edited May 5, 2008 by Shannon

[rxd]

Where are these xbox emulators available? I'd like to give them a try myself...

[Shannon]

*cough* xbins

http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/xbins.php

 

Here ya go. A quote buried in this thread of a post made earlier by mimo. It should get you going in the right direction. Lotsa goodies to choose from so enjoy!!

 

On another note I've sent the final release to the test team and should be releasing atarixlbox ver 7 sometime towards the end of this week, if not sooner.

 

Work is going to begin on a7800x so anyone interested in helping out, just holler. I really dont expect many issues with it, though, unless people have something specific about it that they know needs fixin'. I am going to attempt porting the prosystem emulator over, although I do not know how well that is gonna go, I really am new to all of this. So depending on how that goes it may need some more serious testing then , say a7800x would need.

Edited May 6, 2008 by Shannon

[mimo]

Where are these xbox emulators available? I'd like to give them a try myself...

as long as you have a moded xbox and can ftp or copy the emulators and roms to the xbox your good to go.

it is well worth the time to learn to ftp imo