New CV Emulator: GearColeco

[NIAD]

Just came across this newer CV emulator in the Emulation Forum that looks very interesting especially for programmers…

 

https://github.com/drhelius/Gearcoleco

 

 

[Kamshaft]

I’ve added to cvaddict.com. Looks promising !


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[youki]

Seems very interesting.

 

Thanks! NIAD.

[Flojomojo]

Oooh, it looks like you can get right into the graphics resources from there. Winky Venture avatars here I come. Or swap them out and make a ROM hack!

[zyzzle]

Does it have support for the SGM and games > 32kb? 

 

Also, I wonder if it is portable enough that it could be compiled for MS-DOS? Probably not.

[NIAD]

32 minutes ago, zyzzle said:

Does it have support for the SGM and games > 32kb? 

 

Also, I wonder if it is portable enough that it could be compiled for MS-DOS? Probably not.

Follow the link.

[Tony Cruise]

This is very impressive, I just tried it on my last build of Berzerk and it does the sound properly for a start and the default mode it displays it in looks very nice indeed.

I will do some more playing, and maybe upload a video.

[NIAD]

9 hours ago, Milli Vee said:

Didn't work right out of the box on Linux. Usually when something doesn't work for me from the start I give up but I'll try again later when I get time. If I missed a step - ie an installation sequence it should have been included in  the minimal read me.

 

Didn’t work for me right out of the box on Windows. I had a newer version of the MS Visual C++ Redistributable and was missing a DLL. Glad it was an easy fix to download the DLL and place in the GearColeco directory.

[Ikrananka]

Looks good, although in the Windows version I'm not a fan of the unique file explorer which sucks for long paths.  I may submit a feature request as it really doesn't work well.

 

One question on my mind is the PAL emulation.  Interestingly you can set the refresh rate to "PAL (50Hz)" but I wonder how useful that is unless the TMS9928A is also emulated - which it isn't.  For instance, the "fixed" Defender ROM that makes the radar work on PAL ColecoVisions' relies on detecting the presence of the TMS9928A VDP.  So this "fixed" ROM fails to correct the faulty radar when the refresh rate is set to 50Hz.  I'll probably add this as an issue to the GitHub.

 

Other than that I really like it.  I particularly like the control over pixel aspect ratios and the ability to add custom palettes.  Very nice.

 

 

[Ikrananka]

On 11/8/2021 at 11:05 PM, Tony Cruise said:

I just tried it on my last build of Berzerk and it does the sound properly for a start and the default mode it displays it in looks very nice indeed.

This got me wondering if there are any good SN76489 test ROMs out there.  I've got a few for the Commodore 64 SID that are great and really put it through it's paces.

[phattyboombatty]

On 11/9/2021 at 5:37 PM, NIAD said:

Didn’t work for me right out of the box on Windows. I had a newer version of the MS Visual C++ Redistributable and was missing a DLL. Glad it was an easy fix to download the DLL and place in the GearColeco directory.

After loading a known-good CV Bios ROM, all I'm getting with Gearcoleco is a black screen.

 

Hey Jim... which DLL file did you put directly into the GearColeco directory? I have Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redist (x64) and (x86) version 14.15.26706 (slightly newer build than what drhelius suggests), as well as Redists 2013, 2012, 2010, and 2008.

 

EDIT: Never mind. I was expecting a BIOS splash screen, which evidently it doesn't do. I loaded a good ol' Donkey Kong ROM, and now I'm getting a splash screen. 

 

Also, if you're not clicked into GearColeco's active window, the emulator will pause, so there's a "good to know".

Edited November 13, 2021 by phattyboombatty
Figured it out.

[NIAD]

Since I'm on an emulator kick, another promising CV emulator that has flown under the radar is Emul T.wo by Alek Maul. It was released in 2018 and has SGM, F18a and MegaCart support as well as a Debugger. The CV programming library will probably prove interesting as well.

 

https://github.com/alekmaul/pvcollib

[digress]

this has nice debugging features. the f18a support is a placeholder though and not yet functional.

 

12 hours ago, NIAD said:

Since I'm on an emulator kick, another promising CV emulator that has flown under the radar is Emul T.wo by Alek Maul. It was released in 2018 and has SGM, F18a and MegaCart support as well as a Debugger. The CV programming library will probably prove interesting as well.

 

https://github.com/alekmaul/pvcollib

 

 

 

[cdoty]

I couldn't figure out how to add a breakpoint. The rest of it looks pretty clean.