A7800 4.0 release

[RevEng]

Just a heads-up to programmers that Trebor and I are done breaking the a7800 emulator, and have released a new 4.0 version. You can check it out via the a7800 emulator wiki page or directly from the a7800 github release page.

 

Whats new in this release:

• Implementation of XM control registers updated.
• SALLY (CPU) and MARIA (Graphics chip) performance adjustments.
• Additional display options and enhancements.
• Audio indication of no ROM loaded silenced.
• corrected ST and Amiga mouse button behavior.
• 7800 bios files made optional. (with warning when absent)
• minor POKEY audio emulation improvements.
• framerate update to 50Hz/60Hz.

 

The XM registers were updated significantly to match real hardware. If you're planning on programming for the XM, you should use this a7800 release (or later), or the equally excellent JS7800 emulator.

 

Enjoy!

[Synthpopalooza]

oooh!

 

Time for me to start putting it through its paces. 

[+Karl G]

1 hour ago, RevEng said:

Audio indication of no ROM loaded silenced.

Worth the upgrade for this alone.   

[Synthpopalooza]

so ...

 

Good job on the SKCTLS implementation... it sounds alot better! My ears don't bleed anymore lol.

 

Noticed a bit of difference too in the 1.79 mhz modes too.  They sound a bit closer to real HW.

[TrekMD]

Awesome, thank you! 

[Synthpopalooza]

One note ... and I mentioned this in my POKEY demo thread ...

 

SKCTLS in standard 64 khz mode, plays an octave too low ... but it's in tune now.

 

SKCTLS in the 1.79 mhz mode, is VERY close to real HW.   Loving it ...

 

 

Edited June 11, 2020 by Synthpopalooza

[Jaden (JRH)]

Great work on the new update. I'm just wondering if there's a way to make the games not look blurry. I generally prefer my games to have the sharp pixel look, and there appear to be no options for that.

[SlidellMan]

I would like to thank you for fixing the noise issue, and am going to download now.

[Trebor]

1 hour ago, Jaden (JRH) said:

Great work on the new update. I'm just wondering if there's a way to make the games not look blurry. I generally prefer my games to have the sharp pixel look, and there appear to be no options for that.

Open the 7800.ini file with notepad and change the filter option from 1 to 0.

 

From this:

 

To this: 

 

[Jaden (JRH)]

Ah, thank you! Somehow, I didn't think to look in a7800.ini.

[+Pat Brady]

Thanks to everyone who worked on a7800.

 

Is there a way in a7800/mame to randomize initial RAM contents? If not, I can add temporary code to do so, but I figured I should ask before I undertake that.

Edited July 30, 2020 by bizarrostormy

[RevEng]

Nope, not at this time. For sure that would be a good feature, but honestly probably won't get back to the emulator in the near future, so have at it.

 

If you want to just do this for testing once or twice, you could always just use the debugger and load a block of random data where you want. A bit kludgey, but perhaps faster than modifying the source as you envision.