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Best emulator for Alien Vs Predator (AvP)?


crash

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Hi,

 

I wanted to see if I could play AvP in an emulator, but have had problems with textures not appearing correctly in some that I have seen. A thread here recommended Phoenix as the best Jaguar emulator, but it doesn't display doors correctly in spite of performing very well, so I won't be using it. I am wondering if anyone can advise what is the best emulator for accurate rendering of AvP.


Thanks!

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30 minutes ago, crash said:

A thread here recommended Phoenix as the best Jaguar emulator, but it doesn't display doors correctly in spite of performing very well, so I won't be using it

The Phoenix team considers the AVP emulation as perfect (100%), do you have a screenshot about the door display?

Phoenix is still the best emulator at the moment, you can try with Virtual Jaguar or Virtual Jaguar Rx but accuracy is below Phoenix for my humble point of view.

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4 hours ago, dilinger said:

Iron Soldier is emulated at 10%, based on the Phoenix accuracy list.

That's the same with every Jaguar emulator I've tried. IS 1 & 2 seem to be unplayable through emulation right now.

 

As for AvP, I have definitely played it on Phoenix and even Project Tempest back in the day, and I don't recall having the doors displayed that way.

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2 hours ago, sirlynxalot said:

For jag emulators it's a pretty small world. There's virtual Jaguar, Phoenix and project tempest.  Am I missing anything else that can run commercial games? 

And Mame (Mess).   Its Jaguar emulator is far from perfect, but can play some games,  I believe it's separate from VJ and Project Tempest

 

 

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11 hours ago, zzip said:

And Mame (Mess).   Its Jaguar emulator is far from perfect, but can play some games,  I believe it's separate from VJ and Project Tempest

You are correct, their approach is pretty different. By example, the 68000 core. It can be supported on various systems but the same core is used.

The Jaguar DSP & GPU are considered as CPUs and have their own cores which must adhere to the mame "concept" like any another cores found in mame.

 

MAME includes also an interactive low-level debugger that targets the emulated system. This can be an useful tool for diagnosing emulation issues, developing software, creating cheats, ROM hacking, or just investigating how a software/rom works. but you have to get, or create, a build with the debugger. Their debugger looks a bit like gdb for those familiar with the GNU toolchain.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/11/2022 at 11:59 PM, crash said:

Hi,

Here is what I mean.

Thanks!

AvP.png

I've had the same issue with said doors on AVP and the frame rate appears way faster than actual hardware. 

 

Out of interest, I'm using Phoenix would anyone know if there is a way to reduce the speed of the games to make them run more like actual hardware? As when I played AVP and then Checkered Flag (vids on my YT) they seemed to run alot faster than original hardware.

 

 Thanks 

 

 

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The frame rate is definitely higher in Phoenix, which I wouldn't mind trying, but I don't like the corrupted textures. I don't see any way to throttle performance in Phoenix. I had tried AvP in a different emulator that was so fast it was unplayable since the aliens moved at warp speed. I think Virtual Jaguar is the best for me. VJ seems maybe a little faster than hardware, but it doesn't feel it will affect gameplay.

 

I wish I could contact someone working on Phoenix to let them know AvP is not 100%.

 

Cheers

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  • 1 month later...

I've found that the best emulator for AvP was releases just a few days ago. As far as I can tell, it can run AvP perfectly and even at higher frame rates if you want to set things that way; there are many such options. This may be the only release as the author is very ill. I think that he deserves high praise for his achievement in software development that has surpassed many others.

 

I learned of a new Jaguar emulator called BigPEmu by Rich Whitehouse. It was apparently the Jaguar emulator included in the Atari 50 compilation, but it is also available for free and is even better than what was offered with that software package.

 

BigPEmu seems to run most Jaguar games very well, even some of those that have been previously unemulated such as Iron Soldier 1 & 2, Hover Strike, and others. This emulator can even run some games at higher frame rates without breaking gameplay, and has customizable visuals, filters, controls, and many other features. I've tested many of the games

I own such as Battlesphere Gold, AvP, Iron Soldier, and Tempest 2000. You can look up some Youtube videos and his web site for more information but I'll add a few links I have seen below.

 

I am very saddened to learn that Mr. Whitehouse is dying of cancer, and if I understand correctly, is having a major surgery on 12/06/22, which is two days from now, maybe tomorrow for anyone who is reading this in the morning. I hope that everyone will send their best intentions for Mr. Whitehouse, in hopes that he will be able to survive the surgery and will be able to have a lot more life. I sincerely thank Rich Whitehouse for sharing his efforts with us, and hope that he will be well.

 

Here are a few links I've visited:

 

https://www.richwhitehouse.com/jaguar/index.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg563-sR5ik&t=64s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIcAdJ0mf40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur3pONKXKO4

 

Aloha,

 

John

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Playing Alien vs. Predator in BigPEmu is like playing an entirely new game!   I can finally map the strafe buttons to the L and R buttons on my controller, I'm getting higher framerates, and I have save states.  The controller mapping is a big deal for me as I really can't play 90s FPS games without proper strafe buttons.

 

I've a Patron of Rich Whitehouse, the creator of BigPEmu, and I recommend all do the same.  This is a historic product for us Jaguar fans developed by a true lover of our console as his life's work.  He is very sick with cancer which makes this effort even more extraordinary.  I will forever be thankful to this man for helping me rediscover my childhood with this beautiful emulator.

 

Maybe I can finally finish AvP game after 28 years!  Save states are cheating in some people's eyes, but I'm ok with it on really old games that I could never finish.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I finished AvP twice on the original hardware, but I just finished it for a third time in BigPEmu with either an Xbox controller or mouse and keyboard controls (using a program called reWASD). It's not analog mouse turning but I got it adjusted and became much better with the mouse than with the joypad or Xbox.

 

The emulator designer thinks it may be possible to enhance AvP with analog mouselook style turning and 60fps rendering. 

 

I'm also a Patreon supporter of his. He's working on Jaguar CD support right now, and already got the VLM working. He may even try to get Missile Command VR playable on modern VR headsets.

 

AvP plays great in BigPEmu and the save states make it much easier and faster to play though since the enemies don't all respawn every time you restore a save game.

 

Highly recommended,

 

Cheers

 

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On 1/4/2023 at 9:56 PM, crash said:

I finished AvP twice on the original hardware, but I just finished it for a third time in BigPEmu with either an Xbox controller or mouse and keyboard controls (using a program called reWASD). It's not analog mouse turning but I got it adjusted and became much better with the mouse than with the joypad or Xbox.

 

The emulator designer thinks it may be possible to enhance AvP with analog mouselook style turning and 60fps rendering. 

 

I'm also a Patreon supporter of his. He's working on Jaguar CD support right now, and already got the VLM working. He may even try to get Missile Command VR playable on modern VR headsets.

 

AvP plays great in BigPEmu and the save states make it much easier and faster to play though since the enemies don't all respawn every time you restore a save game.

 

Highly recommended,

 

Cheers

 

Such a great emulator. Made me fall in love with the Jag all over again. It's amazing to have a near perfect emu with a sleek UI menu come out of nowhere. Genius programmer.

 

I coincidently just again played through AvP with Phoenix in October then found out about BigPEmu about a week ago.  Playing through AVP again, and this time with no hiccups. It still thrills me just as much now as it did when I was a young teenager in 1995.

 

I did run into a problem of the in game HUD not loading when restoring a save file, just the gameplay screen. Never had this problem, and I'm sure if that was a game bug or emulator issue.

 

Looking forward to replaying through Cybermorph, Doom, Kasumi Ninja and Towers 2. The other games I had in 1995, plus many others.

Edited by sloth-machine
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On 1/7/2023 at 10:47 AM, crash said:

I'll have to test that. I was using save states so I didn't restore any save games yet. Next I'll probably play Iron Soldier and Cybermorph. Definitely a genius program, and he's working on Jaguar CD presently.

 

Cheers

Started up a new game and had the same issue. As soon as I get the Pulse Cannon with the Predator and reload his save, the Hud disappears. Also in Cybermorph, the game crashes when I select the second planet, after I beat the first. Still an amazing emulator.

 

I'll submit the issues to Rich, maybe he can look at it when he get's a chance.

 

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On 1/13/2023 at 6:45 AM, crash said:

By the way, are you using roms that have hashes that match those on the emulator compatibility page?

 

I think you can press ctrl-c on the rom loading page to copy the info to paste and compare outside of the emulator.

 

https://www.richwhitehouse.com/jaguar/index.php?content=compat

 

 

Thanks for the tip, didn't realize that.  Yes the hashes match.  However I found out the Cybermorph issue is with revision B. Revision A works fine, so that's good.

 

For AvP, the Predator keeps his HUD screen until you do a hard reset or close the emulator (again, the plasma cannon seems to trigger the bug). This is near the end of his campaign anyway, so you can just save state it. If you want to save and quit your game like an actual cartridge with the dangers/perks of enemy respawns; Save in-game, soft reset the game back to the opening main menu and save state then.

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