ProSystem Source Code Now Available!

[Trebor]

It appears Greg has generously provided the source code to his fantastic emulator!

 

See the ProSystem Homepage here:

 

https://home.comcast.net/~gscottstanton/

 

Source code here:

 

https://home.comcast.net/~gscottstanton/source/ProSystem.zip

 

Any takers? It would be great to see:

1. Nabuko78's Palette as the default (Also if anyone can fix the bug of the palette not saving when exiting the emulator or changing ROMS).

 

2. JoyPad/Stick support via any available controllers listed under Game Controllers in XP/Direct X.

 

3. Anything else?

 

-Trebor

Edited December 25, 2006 by Trebor

[Urchlay]

3. Anything else?

 

3. Linux/Mac/UNIX support. Even though ProSystem works tolerably well for me on Linux with Wine (except fullscreen!), I'd love to see a native port.

 

4. Debugger (like Stella has). As far as I know, the only 7800 emulator with a debugger is MESS, which isn't a very good emulator. Good emulator + good debugger = more homebrews, which can only be a good thing.

 

I may actually take a crack at these myself, if I ever have the time... currently I've got too many half-finished projects (including the Stella debugger itself)

[carmel_andrews]

prosystem Doesn't have joypad/gamepad support like Emu 7800 has ...it only uses keyboard (bummer)

[Clint Thompson]

Oh, well look at that. That's pretty awesome!

[jbanes]

prosystem Doesn't have joypad/gamepad support like Emu 7800 has ...it only uses keyboard (bummer)

Now you can help fix it!

 

This is a great day for Atari 7800 emulation! Now we have an OSS source base from which ports to various systems can be done. Not to mention the learning potential available and the newfound ability to improve the emulator! Thanks Greg!

[Gregory DG]

Cool. I hope someone makes some improvements to it. It's the best 7800 IMO, much better than MESS. Just add the joystick control and fix the default color pallette and it'll be perfect.

[carmel_andrews]

jbanes...there's one slight problem...I don't have a 'Programming brain', i.e. i have never done the c/c++/x86/68k/or 650x lark

 

Perhaps you know someone that does

[jbanes]

jbanes...there's one slight problem...I don't have a 'Programming brain', i.e. i have never done the c/c++/x86/68k/or 650x lark

No time like the present to start learning.

 

Actually, the source code being out helps you anyway. While you yourself may not know how to program, there are plenty of programmers out there who may have the same "itch" that they want to scratch. So it's only a matter of time and project promotion. If it gets ported to Linux, I guarantee there will be every feature under the sun added in short order.

 

Perhaps you know someone that does

Uh oh. Ummmm.... Exit! Stage left, eeeeevan.

[Schmutzpuppe]

Great news!

[Tom]

Makes me want to give it a try to get an SDL-only version working. I was doing the same with emu7800 and sort of got it working (didn't do sound emulation yet, though, and never released binaries), but I always liked ProSystem better. The question is, did anybody already pick up work on something in that direction?

[eegt97]

Well, I got the *itch* after I got back from Christmas vacation and saw this on Saturday. I got the palette stuff worked out and almost have PC joystick support completed (just one weird compile issue). I expect to have that completed tonight or tommorrow.

 

I certainly don't intend to maintain it since I already have my own project. So if anybody wants to take what I did and run with it, feel free. I'll post source and everything when I finish. Maybe it would be a good idea to move this project over to Sourceforge or something?

 

Tom, I think SDL is definitely the way to go to get it cross-platform. I will say this after looking at the code though. Everything is done in DirectX so it will be some work to get there. I don't think it would be hard, just a lot of work.

 

-Brian

[Hackmann]

I gave the code a very brief pass-through, and it looks like it's in OK shape for porting. The emulation core is in a separate Core directory from the Windows-specific code, so that helps things a lot. There's a few Visual C++isms in that core code (like using the old-style for loop scoping rules), but it should be fairly easy to tweak the code to work on VC++ and gcc.

 

That's not to say that an SDL port would be trivial. But if you want to take a crack at it, all the Windows-specific stuff is helpfully separated out.

Edited January 3, 2007 by Hackmann

[eegt97]

Try this out, it attempts the following:

 

* Fixed Palette file not being used on reset

* Changed default palette to Nabuko78's palette

* Added joystick support

 

-Brian

ProSystem_1.1.zip

ProSystem_1.1_Src.zip

[PacManPlus]

This is awesome!

 

I have one point, though.

 

I have loaded this on two computers (replaced version 1.0 of ProSystem). WHen you first go into it, there is no throttle (it is waaay too fast). For some reason, once you hit 'F1' (which beings up the help), and then close the help window, it then runs at normal speed.

 

Actually I just tried it, and it seems that choosing any option of the top menu will slow it back to normal speed as well.

 

Otherwise, great job!

Bob

[Gregory DG]

^^ 1,000 thank you's for adding joystick support and the improved palette!

 

Now, if I could make one request, it would be practically perfect IMO. Could you fix the resize so that it doesn't look blurry when you resize the image larger than 2x? I think it's a DirectX thing, but it really detracts from how the image SHOULD look. See attached.

Edited January 4, 2007 by Gregory DG

[eegt97]

I have loaded this on two computers (replaced version 1.0 of ProSystem). WHen you first go into it, there is no throttle (it is waaay too fast). For some reason, once you hit 'F1' (which beings up the help), and then close the help window, it then runs at normal speed.

Damn it! I must have missed it because I was loading roms from the menu. I think what broke it was some re-ordering I had to do in 'console_Initialize'. I'll look at it tonight.

Now, if I could make one request, it would be practically perfect IMO. Could you fix the resize so that it doesn't look blurry when you resize the image larger than 2x? I think it's a DirectX thing, but it really detracts from how the image SHOULD look.

It looked like a DirectX thing to me. All that happens is a blit so maybe there is a configuration parameter that controls how things are scaled. Although, I wonder if there are people who prefer it this way? I'll at least take a quick look at it though.

 

-Brian

[Shawn]

With the source avalible now someone please port this to the gamecube!!

[NightSprinter]

I'm not having the throttling problem at all on my desktop. Though some games do seem to lock up inadverdently when I try to play them. Like the fixed NTSC version of "Impossible Mission" for example.

[eegt97]

I'm not having the throttling problem at all on my desktop. Though some games do seem to lock up inadverdently when I try to play them. Like the fixed NTSC version of "Impossible Mission" for example.

I'm assuming this doesn't happen with 1.0?

 

Also, here's an executable to try for the throttle issue.

 

Thanks,

Brian

Prosystem.zip

[NightSprinter]

Still running at normal speeds for me on both of my systems. My computers are as follows:

 

Home Desktop:

AthlonXP 2000+ (1.67GHz)

768MB PC2100 RAM

DFI LanParty KT400A motherboard

SB Audigy Gamer

ATI Radeon 9800Pro 128MB

WinXP Home OEM

 

Laptop:

AMD Turion64-X2 TL-50 (dual-1.66GHz)

1GB PC2-5300 RAM

GeForce-6100 Integrated Graphics

Windows XP MCE

 

The only problem I have so far was one that existed for a while: the sound for something being smashed in Donkey Kong only plays the last "blip".

[PacManPlus]

Yep!

 

You squashed that bug

 

Thanks

[eegt97]

Thanks for checking that out PMP.

 

Gregory, I did take a look at the blurring, but I'm no DirectX expect and I'm not seeing anything obvious.

 

NightSprinter, I wasn't very clear in my reply to you. I meant do the roms you talked about lock up in the old version as well? Sorry for the confusion.

 

Now I need to figure out somewhere to host this and walk..., I mean run away .

 

-Brian

[Gregory DG]

Gregory, I did take a look at the blurring, but I'm no DirectX expect and I'm not seeing anything obvious.

Thanks for looking. I had hoped there'd be something quick 'n' easy to alleviate it.

 

I just looked at VisualBoy Advance (GBA emulator) and it does the same thing. But you can turn off the blurring by clicking the "Render Method" from D3D Bilinear to D3D Nearest. Maybe that helps?

 

Oh well...

[+stephena]

Gregory, I did take a look at the blurring, but I'm no DirectX expect and I'm not seeing anything obvious.

Thanks for looking. I had hoped there'd be something quick 'n' easy to alleviate it.

 

I just looked at VisualBoy Advance (GBA emulator) and it does the same thing. But you can turn off the blurring by clicking the "Render Method" from D3D Bilinear to D3D Nearest. Maybe that helps?

 

Oh well...

Yes, that's the issue. There's a similar bit of code in the Stella OpenGL class for bilinear or nearest rendering. It's probably either a parameter when creating the DirectX context, or another function to toggle between them.

[NightSprinter]

Well, so far I can't get the following games to work still on the new version (Impossible Mission's fixed, but the listed games won't start up unless otherwise stated):

 

Realsports Baseball (NTSC)

Tank Command (NTSC)

Tower Toppler (NTSC)

Water Ski (NTSC)

BallBlazer (PAL), has severe screen flickering issues with PAL BIOS.

Commando (PAL), resets back to copyright screen when starting game

Karateka (PAL)

Tower Toppler (PAL)