AS1600 Bugfix Release: jzintv-20180509 now released

[intvnut]

I just uploaded jzintv-20180509 to the webserver.

This is primarily a bugfix release, motivated by a semi-serious bug that crept into AS1600 back in December.

In this release:

• BUGFIX: AS1600: Fix right shifts of negative values. This was a pants-on-head stupid bug.
• BUGFIX: jzintv, dasm1600: Display JR R5 instead of MOVR R5, R7 in disassembly. It was always intended to. Bug caught by upgrade to GCC 8.1.
• Compile fix: Change 'macosx' to 'PLAT_MACOS' to allow building on MacOS X 10.13 and later.
• Typo in as1600 docs: __FEATURE.LISTCOL, not __FEATURE.ROTATE
• Minor improvement: Improve dis1600's handling of an opcode that may, or may not be, an SDBD.
• Misc: Upgraded to GCC 8.1 on Linux and MacOS X.

Get it at the usual spot: http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/intv/

[The Master]

Wasn't sure where I could report bugs with jzintv. But I think have a found a couple that at least effect linux builds (not sure about windows as I don't have a windows machine). The PI release is worse then the plain linux release. But that may be because the version I'm using on the PI, I'm assuming it is an older build then one I'm using on my main linux machine which is this exact build you posted above. Haven't been able to check the version on the PI as wifi doesn't work at my house so that I can ssh into it, so that will have to wait until I give it to my dad which will hopefully be in the next couple of weeks near his birthday (Byte Night would know which PI version since it's whatever version he uses for all his Ultimate Flashback Builds).

So far I have found issues with Thin Ice and Stampede (I was checking those ones out as I know those are two of my Mom's favoriate games so much so that the last time we owned a intellivision system she played those two games for so many hours straight that she cause the smoke to go out on two intellivision machines).

 

Both Thin Ice and Stampede on the PI wont playback any of the sound correctly, it comes out like a bad cell phone connection.
However on the Linux build Thin Ice and Stampede sound wise seem ok most of the time though on a occasion during startup of Thin Ice the Sound will stutter which you can miss it if you aren't paying attention. It glitches so quickly that it seems like the linux build has no issue at all compared to the PI build.

 

Also both the PI and Linux build causes Stampede to freezes and lock up that requires a hard quit of jzintv to get control back. Even tried starting it with the debug flag to see what instructions where causing the freeze but because of the freeze none of the debug commands work. It appears the PI build requires you gaining 500+ points before freezing where the linux build freezes after 200+ points. This is reproducible every-time you select game 1 (aka slow mode).

The ROMs I'm using come from the Intellivision Lives v1.1/Rocks v1.0 3 CD Camikaze Edition. From reading up recently I see that you have stated that the dump of World Series Baseball on that set is not a complete dump as it is missing the intellivoice code. So I suppose it could also be that these two ROMs could also be bad dumps? Speaking of which do you know if any of the other ROMs found on this set are also bad Dumps? I certainly haven't tried playing all of them yet but will now that I have an Ultimate Flashback.

--The Master

Edited September 18, 2018 by The Master

[The Master]

Something I just remembered, if I'm remembering correctly. This might be a recent regression. As it seems like I was able to play Thin Ice with the jzintv build that was available for the WII HomeBrew I installed when I hacked my WII a few years ago (version of jzintv for wii can be found here http://wiibrew.org/wiki/JzintvWii).Unfortunately I can't confirm as I can't find the WII controller that came with the WII. As all the additional WII controllers I purchased causes jzIntv to crash if I try to start it with anything other then the WII controller that came packaged in the WII I purchased.

Edited September 18, 2018 by The Master

[intvnut]

Fair warning: I don't have a working RPi setup for testing at the moment. (I still need to get my Ultimate Flashback rehabbed, and my time is stretched pretty thin across many things.) I only have a headless R-Pi that I use as my webserver and build host. If someone with command-line savvy wants to volunteer as R-Pi tester, let me know.

 

Audio dropouts are a sign that jzIntv isn't delivering audio buffers to SDL fast enough. jzIntv uses a short audio buffer to try to limit audio latency. Making the audio buffer deeper insulates jzIntv from scheduling artifacts, but it also delays sound effects, which is undesirable.

 

There are two main possibilities:

• jzIntv is simply running too slow.
• jzIntv is running fast enough on average, but scheduling artifacts are screwing it up.

I don't think I've changed anything recently in the build flow or the code that would hurt performance on the R-Pi. That said, the most common source of slowdown is the code that pushes video to the display. The layers under jzIntv sometimes perform very poorly with certain resolution/color depth settings. I may have made a tweak that causes jzIntv to pick different display parameters than before, so I would try experimenting with different display resolutions and color depths to see if that helps.

 

I made some tweaks around a year ago to how jzIntv selects a strategy for rate-limiting, so it's possible I introduced a regression there. For R-Pi, it should just be calling SDL_Delay(). I think that's the best choice, but it may not be. jzIntv can also use nanosleep() or just busy-wait. On a dedicated unit such as an Ultimate Flashback setup, busy-waiting may be the best choice, as it avoids exiting to the OS's scheduler. It's possible to tweak the waiting strategy by recompiling. It's not selectable on the command line.

As for Stampede freezing: I haven't played it recently, so this is new to me. I unfortunately cannot test it at the moment. (I'm on my lunch break at work.) I'll have to try that later when I get home.

[intvnut]

Oh, on the jzIntvWii port: I was not directly involved with that. Daniele Moglia wrote the Wii-specific joystick code, and that's the most likely place there's an issue.

[The Master]

Oh, on the jzIntvWii port: I was not directly involved with that. Daniele Moglia wrote the Wii-specific joystick code, and that's the most likely place there's an issue.

 

Sorry for the confusion I wasn't looking for the controllers to be fixed. I only mentioned it because I wasn't able to confirm my memory that Thin Ice worked sound wise on the WII, because I can't find the controller that works with that port. In other words I only mentioned the memory as I figured it might help jog your memory of Changes that happened when the port took place and today that might be the culprit for Audio Drop outs. Ideally I would like to see if stampede works on there as well.

 

I can compile for you, if it helps trouble shoot the issue quicker. I do have another PI 3 that I use for primarily watching movies and tv shots I've ripped to my NAS. That I Can ssh into and compile jzintv for it.

 

--The Master

[+intvsteve]

FWIW, when I get home today I'll try Thin Ice and Stampede on my R-Pi. I have a pretty recent jzintv build.

 

WARNING: It's an old B+ so it's older hardware -- which actually may be a good thing in this case.

 

EDIT:​ I've noticed sound lags a little behind on my setup, regardless of HDMI or composite output -- but it's a consistent lag, and I haven't noticed choppiness. That said, recently it's mostly been Astrosmash and SNAFU being played.

[+intvsteve]

Just tried out Stampede and Thin Ice on my R-Pi B+ (not a 2 or 3) and did not notice audio or gameplay issues with either game. (Other than I generally suck at them. )

 

At first, I thought Stampede had frozen, but then I remembered how crappily that game behaves... That is, when it's over, it just ... freezes. Not even a "Game Over". Pressing CLEAR on the controller restarts the game as expected.

 

Interestingly, I'm not sure if it's game-specific or what, but I didn't notice audio lag with these two. Maybe it's there, but just harder to notice vs. Astrosmash.

 

Also -- I'm not running a full-on Byte Knight Ultimate Flashback.... In my setup, no special config is done w.r.t. resolutions, etc. and it's just bare bones jzintv launch -- just the ROM name and enough to get BK's Ultimate Flashback controller board set up for playing games. Also no special config on the system generally (aside from what I needed to put it on the home network and getting en-US wireless keyboard working). Haven't gotten around to setting up the theme or getting proper ROM info on it, either.

 

I'm running Emulation Station 4.4, but that shouldn't matter.

 

I didn't check the specific version of jzintv, but it's a pretty recent build done right on the unit itself.

[The Master]

Ok so I must have completely forgotten about the clear button on Stampede having not played it for 20 years or so, as the clear button trick does work when the game appears to freeze (which is always when you miss 3 sheep in a row, which would explain why I got a higher score on the PI but not my desktop machine as I was just able to get over a 1000 on my desktop machine just now).

As for the audio drop out it could be the way you compiled it that it fixes the audio drop outs.

So the audio drop outs could be

1. an older version of jzintv.
2. customizations byte night makes to the ultimate flashback
3. version of emulation station (the version byte night currently uses is 3.x)

that means I should probably finish trying to upgrade Byte Nights image to 4.4 to see if the issue audio drop outs go away.

With that said I my desktop machine still shows signs of audio drop outs when starting thin ice. But it is rare as mentioned above.

--The Master

 

Just tried out Stampede and Thin Ice on my R-Pi B+ (not a 2 or 3) and did not notice audio or gameplay issues with either game. (Other than I generally suck at them. )

 

At first, I thought Stampede had frozen, but then I remembered how crappily that game behaves... That is, when it's over, it just ... freezes. Not even a "Game Over". Pressing CLEAR on the controller restarts the game as expected.

 

Interestingly, I'm not sure if it's game-specific or what, but I didn't notice audio lag with these two. Maybe it's there, but just harder to notice vs. Astrosmash.

 

Also -- I'm not running a full-on Byte Knight Ultimate Flashback.... In my setup, no special config is done w.r.t. resolutions, etc. and it's just bare bones jzintv launch -- just the ROM name and enough to get BK's Ultimate Flashback controller board set up for playing games. Also no special config on the system generally (aside from what I needed to put it on the home network and getting en-US wireless keyboard working). Haven't gotten around to setting up the theme or getting proper ROM info on it, either.

 

I'm running Emulation Station 4.4, but that shouldn't matter.

 

I didn't check the specific version of jzintv, but it's a pretty recent build done right on the unit itself.

[intvnut]

Yeah, quite possibly there's a slight hitch at the start. I remember that happening from time to time on Linux. jzIntv displays a status bar in the terminal that has graphics and sound drop rates that updates as the emulation runs:

.

Rate: [108.79% 100.99%]  Drop Gfx:[  0.00%      0] Snd:[  0.00%  0   0.00]

.

The 'Rate' is the long term and short term emulation rate. It should hover around 100%.

 

Drop has two components:

• Gfx reports the %age of graphics frames dropped an total number of graphics frames dropped.
• Snd reports the %age of sound frames dropped, the total number sound frames dropped, and the average depth of the audio queue (a measure of audio latency).

Note that I've tweaked the buffer depths and buffer counts over the years for Linux, Windows, and Mac, and the defaults tend to be different across the three platforms due to their differing behavior. Quite often, though, I'll see 2 or 3 dropped audio buffers on startup, and then it stabilizes.

 

If you run 'jzintv --help' you will see there are a number of flags for controlling the number and size of audio buffers, if you want to experiment with that. Max audio latency is determined by (size * count) / rate.

[Vindex]

Delete me

Edited November 28, 2018 by Vindex

[mr_me]

How can I use dpad of xbox360 for play with jzIntv?

You should have created a new topic/thread for this.

 

Are you asking to use the dpad to control eight of the intellivision 16 disc directions? You can do it with a "keyboard hackfile" mapping. If your controller dpad is recognized as a pov hat by a computer than the mapping would look like the example below. It will need eight mappings.

 

JS0_HAT0_E PD0L_J_E

JS0_HAT0_NE PD0L_J_NE

...

[Vindex]

Can you submit all?

I've tried this but it does not work:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/265726-world-championship-baseball-controller-help/

[mr_me]

In that example they are mapping the pov hat to intellivision keypad buttons. If your dpad is controlling intellivision keypad functions than we know your dpad is seen by the computer as a pov hat. All your mapping file needs is a top line that says "map 0" and then eight lines for the eight dpad directions.

Edited November 28, 2018 by mr_me

[Vindex]

I give up, I do not understand anything.

[mr_me]

The following example depends on your dpad being seen as a pov hat by your computer. You'll still need a keyboard to enter keypad input.

 

Add the keyboard hackfile switch to your jzintv command, like this example.

 

jzintv -z3 -f1 -v1 "--kbdhackfile=path\to\kbdhackfile.kbd" gamefilename.bin

 

Create a text file called kbdhackfile.kbd with the following content.

 

MAP 0

JS0_HAT0_E PD0L_J_E

JS0_HAT0_NE PD0L_J_NE

JS0_HAT0_N PD0L_J_N

JS0_HAT0_NW PD0L_J_NW

JS0_HAT0_W PD0L_J_W

JS0_HAT0_SW PD0L_J_SW

JS0_HAT0_S PD0L_J_S

JS0_HAT0_SE PD0L_J_SE

[Vindex]

Now works! Thanks!

Edited November 28, 2018 by Vindex

[hardcorehubz]

Hi, love the emulator! Just wanted to report an issue I have with the latest stable version. If my resolution is set at 3840 x 2160 jzintv seems to lock up upon launching a game. Sometimes I"ll get an all green screen or black screen and no sounds or response. If I keep hitting F1 over and over it will eventually quit. Switching to 1920x1080 and the issue goes away. Another question, is there any option to show scanlines? I haven't found anything so I'm guessing not but thought I would double check. Thanks!

[intvnut]

Howdy! I'm slowly catching up on AtariAge. I haven't spent a lot of time here recently as I've been fairly busy. I have some time off for the holiday though.

 

 

Hi, love the emulator! Just wanted to report an issue I have with the latest stable version. If my resolution is set at 3840 x 2160 jzintv seems to lock up upon launching a game. Sometimes I"ll get an all green screen or black screen and no sounds or response. If I keep hitting F1 over and over it will eventually quit. Switching to 1920x1080 and the issue goes away.

 

I'm not sure what's happening with 3840x2160 mode. I rely on SDL to set the graphics mode, and so if that fails, it's largely out of my control. You might try forcing 32bpp with -z3840,2160,32 and see if that helps. I've run jzIntv on 4K monitors in 4K mode full-screen, and it did work, so I don't think I have a specific issue within jzIntv itself. SDL is getting a bit long in the tooth, though, and there may be an issue at that layer.

 

If you can grab the console output from jzIntv, that may help diagnose.

 

 

Another question, is there any option to show scanlines? I haven't found anything so I'm guessing not but thought I would double check. Thanks!

 

I currently don't have a scanlines option, or an NTSC artifacts mode, sadly.