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Updating firmware, hey! New Symbian OS I hope With better sound support

BTW, to take advantage of the better sound support in the new OS I would need to make a separate version of the emulator... Maybe when the 6600 is out I'll see if I have the energy to do it =) Meanwhile, I'll try to find something to optimize in the existing code to squeeze that extra few percent of speed in... *sigh*

Hope you keep seeing the funside of this project. Don't listen too much to annoying more-wanting MSX freaks

No problems yet

BTW, I managed to introduce a new bug in v0.95 along with the sound support. The emulator frequently locks up if it is switched to background (e.g. if you get a phone call). I'll try to fix this in the next release. Sorry for the inconvenience. But then again, who wants to be interrupted while playing games on MSX?

And again a new version of my ROMPackager
In this version, it's even easier building packages!
This one includes the compression feature, and everything is done automatically
(Ok I admit, the current method is a bit crappy... using external programs )

Changes since v1.01:
* added compression function
* added some error messages
* duplicate file checks
* filelists are sorted now

As usual, bugreports via mail or here
DOWNLOAD


Back to fMSX/S60..

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Meanwhile, I'll try to find something to optimize in the existing code to squeeze that extra few percent of speed in... *sigh*

It's not the best solution, but is it possible not to draw every frame.. for example all 1 of 2 frames?
Dunno whether that gives enough speed to emulate the sound and whether the refresh rate would be acceptable... just thinking out loud

Good thinking but too bad I'm already utilizing that idea - vsync is running at 64Hz but I'm really only drawing every second frame. This is because I thought that if I remember myself playing MSX in the eighties I used TV as a monitor and TV's don't do 64Hz anyways so it doesn't matter if the screen is updated only 32 times per second =) And obviously it doesn't matter since you haven't noticed it, hehe

BTW, I found a way to improve my display blitting performance a lot so I'll include that in the next release as well. Now at least on my 7650 the emulation is running fast enough for sound if you're using raw display mode. I know, this is still not good enough because in raw mode you can only see the top left corner of the MSX display. Too bad the performance is still not enough for the scaled blitting routine. But I'm trying to find more places to optimize

Indeed, optimizing other parts of the emulation, such as the display will help to get the sound working propely, but I think that investigating more about the sound managing... I will ask and search information about the dammed sound handling on Series60 (Symbian 6, of course)...

OK, I have done some asking in a spanish Symbian OS programming forum, and I found the URL of a very interesting site about development on Series 60, maybe that would be interesting asking there... http://www.newlc.com/forums/

For now I'll wait for an answer from the spanish guys ^^

I suppose that there is not much that could be done to optimize the actual sound handling with the OS because the API is pretty simple, you can submit audio data and you will get notified when the media server process has received that data. But sound generation and mixing in the first place is another story. I already changed the approach and algorithms a bit from what they were in fMSX to speed things up a bit.

I'll try to see to the possibility of resetting the emulator from pause mode like already suggested in this forum earlier so that you wouldn't have to exit & restart the emulator to switch game.

Any other wishes for the next release?

Well, a very interesting feature, but only when there is no more things to implement is multiplayer via bluetooth. I don't know if it is possible. The idea is get a seccond mobile that controls joystick 2 and have his screen synced with the screen of player one. This may be impossible... but wouldn't it be nice?

Oh, okay, it is only suggest for suggest... but maybe that without screen sync, just the joystick 2 it would be possible, but two players looking at the same mobile screen is so dificult.

It is just an idea, Jr, you are the one who evaluate and decide if it is worthy ^^

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Well, a very interesting feature, but only when there is no more things to implement is multiplayer via bluetooth.

Indeed a very very interesting feature...
(But I don't think that anyone in my town has got a 3650/7650 or knows what a MSX is ,
though a good idea )

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The idea is get a seccond mobile that controls joystick 2 and have his screen synced with the screen of player one. This may be impossible... but wouldn't it be nice?

Are multiplayer games handled that way? I always thought only the controller inputs from the other player would be transmitted via bluetooth. So each player would emulate his 'own' MSX.

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And obviously it doesn't matter since you haven't noticed it, hehe

What? I've been cheated all the time? Waaaaahhh!

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BTW, I found a way to improve my display blitting performance a lot so I'll include that in the next release as well. Now at least on my 7650 the emulation is running fast enough for sound if you're using raw display mode.

Cool! You're the greatest jr!

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Too bad the performance is still not enough for the scaled blitting routine. But I'm trying to find more places to optimize

Thanks (in advance) jr

ok, i only just signed up for this site to find out how to get the MSX emulator on my N-Gage. I tried to go to your website but it wasn't working, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

by the way, i think it's pretty cool how you can make emulators and stuff, i won't have a clue. have you done any of this sort of work before, i'm kinda interested in this stuff, old retro games and that sort of thing, but have never really got round to actually seeing how they work.

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Are multiplayer games handled that way? I always thought only the controller inputs from the other player would be transmitted via bluetooth. So each player would emulate his 'own' MSX.

Well, actually I don't know!! Games built in with the phone firmware like Snake, have 2 players mode via bluetooth, but I don't know how it works... I think that you saying is more correct since it would be faster.

Simon,

I don't own an N-Gage myself so I haven't tested it -- but I have been told that the emulator works well on N-Gage. The only surprising thing is that the emulator icon appears under "Media", not "Games" as it should and like it does on 7650 and 3650.

BTW, in theory you could install the emulator by using your phone's browser to download the SIS file but unfortunately it seems my ISP does not have the correct MIME type set up for SIS files so phone's browser does not recognize the file So you have to download the SIS to your PC first and then install it to your phone.

Did you read the small FAQ on my web page? Note that you have to install MSX system ROMs separately, they are not included in the delivery due to copyright reasons. Maybe the easiest way to install the additional stuff (system ROMs and games) is to use Sousuke's ROM Packager utility, the link can be found in this forum thread.

I haven't made an emulator before and I must once again underline that I did use fMSX sources as a reference and the emulator should be considered more like a port of fMSX to Series 60 rather than a separate product. Even if I have put a lot of time and effort to this project and I've changed a lot of things from what they were in fMSX I couldn't have done the emulator (at least not in such short time) without the fMSX sources.

If I would have to compare programming an emulator to some other type of software I would compare it to games, an emulator has similar requirements on the system. I have done professional game programming for some years in the past, but I'm not doing that nowadays. Also I've been working with Symbian OS for some years already so the "neighbourhood" is familiar to me

Actually, programming for Symbian OS is not THAT different to programming for some other platform. If you are thinking about doing something for Symbian OS I can gladly help but I don't think this would then be the right forum for that

OK, I have the emulator installed on my phone, aswell as the system roms, and Metal Gear 2 rom. Howver when I try playing it and press start it just seizes up, I don't know whether it just has a really really really long loading time, or I have done something wrong. I've tried the game using all the different system roms, and tied playing other roms, but still nothing seems to happen. I little help would be hugely appreciated. Cheers