SuperDCision: supervision emu 1st test release

[elefas]

Hi to all,
I have uploaded the first test release of my attempt to port
potator (supervision emu) on DC. I named it after SuperDCision ;D

Sorry if something is not working correctly, I have spent all night trying to finish some things in order to upload it. it's now 5.00 am and got to hit the bed.

You can download the binaries (scrambled, unscrambled and elf) from http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~leuterat/superDCision.zip
just follow the readme.txt

hope it runs ok.

waiting for comments especially from other dc devvers.

[WHurricane16]

Cool name :) I need to start burning stuff again :)

[wraggster]

awesome news ill make a page asap

any chance of some screenshots of this baby :)

[elefas]

some pics taken through my cellphone:

http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~leuterat/Image.jpg

http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~leuterat/Image1.jpg


http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~leuterat/Image2.jpg


http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~leuterat/Image3.jpg


http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~leuterat/Image4.jpg

[wraggster]

wow great :)

ill them to the new page for SuperDCision http://www.dcemu.co.uk/superDCision.shtml

great release :)

[wraggster]

added and thanks :)

[Kron]

Its interesting to see Supervision games without masses of blur*;) Thanks elefas

[elefas]

Me thanks! Hope to have contributed a bit to the DC scene.

[DCDayDreamer]

Thanks for the first release elefas, hopefully I can try it out tonight, a quick question:
are there any PD roms for this system?

[elefas]

a quick question:
are there any PD roms for this system?

I have been searching for PD roms too because I wanted to release a version earlier (running the rom from the romdisk) but haven't found anything.

BUT take a look at this link: http://www.pdroms.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=191

Seems these guys know something.

[oggy]

Sorry to say that it doesn't work :(

I've tried almost everything ( scrambled binary , unscrambled binary with demomenu, convert the elf one ) ..

[Eric]

This sounds like a interesting emu but i will wait until someone has up a working image or a scrambled bin

[elefas]

Sorry to say that it doesn't work :(

I've tried almost everything ( scrambled binary , unscrambled binary with demomenu, convert the elf one ) ..



Really? have you tried to load the elf through dc-cable?
here is what I do:

-turn on DC with DC-LOAD
-replace the DC-LOAD cd with a cd in which I have burned some roms in the folder "watara"
-send the *.elf from pc to dc

That's tested, it works 100%. Please if anyone else has tried and it doesn't work inform me. Also note that using nero 6 to burn the emu may cause problems. Use nero 5.

[Eric]

Sorry i dont have a DC cable if i did have account on the net i would certainly buy one of those thats why i requested for a image most of the users on DCemu use that and i am not trying to be rude

Eric

[DCDayDreamer]

The ELF obviously works elefas but there's something going wrong with the conversion to binary, I've tried Elf2bin, scramble, unscramble, Nero5, DJ, and Alcohol, a total of 10 binary files and nothing boots via Selfboot, DCHakker or DemoMenu ???.

Sorry I can't help with testing any further than that, I think this calls for another coder to look at what's going wrong with the ELF to binary conversion.

[oggy]

OK it works through dc-cable :) here is a screenshot

http://dcreload.free.fr/gal001.jpg

but it still doesn't work with demomenu , really strange ???

[elefas]

so the elf works ok. Apparently something went wrong with the bins. I don't know what and that seems very strange. I have run out of cd-rs (to burn a selfboot) and I had the same problems running it with DC_Hakker (but I thought it was due to nero6).

Please anyone who tried the emu and didn't work (or did work) inform me so to take care. Also if a devver knows what's wrong please do a post.

Thanks all for trying and giving me feedback!

[Christuserloeser]

http://www.dcemu.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=portingideas;action=display;num=1107 288274;start=13#13



elf2bin & sh-elf-objcopy truncates the file so I can't run it in Chanka. *Wtf is up with that?

Yeah, that's annoying. It's not supposed to do that. I had the problem when I was about to beta test a SMSplusDC v2.1b that Heliophobe sent me as ELF but it wasn't running when converted to BIN. He said that he expierenced the same prob with a version of SMEG back then. I think it's some bit of the code that is causing that problem.
As I don't have any idea about coding I can't really say anymore about that, but maybe if you find the problem or document anything that could help finding it, it'd make coder's future's life so much easier...

[WHurricane16]

ah, I'm not alone in this wierd problem LOL

[BudFern]

I get it to boot to the Sega screen and that's all. :(

[WHurricane16]

'sh-elf-objcopy -O binary -R .stack emulator.elf emulator.bin '

Got that from GPF, it fixed the truncated binary problem for me.

[elefas]

That's the weirdest problem I have ever envountered! last night I burned 5 cd-rs trying to make a selfboot image. none of them worked! wtf?? ??? ?? I used 'sh-elf-objcopy -O binary -R .stack emulator.elf emulator.bin ' and elf2bin, scrambled and unscrambled bins, DC-Hakker but nothing worked! It either restarts or hangs. Storminator16 you said it worked for you. Could you email me the bin or upload it somewhere so other people also have access to it?

The elf and the bin is supposed to have the same size (in bytes)? cause when I use sh-eld-objcopy the bin is always smaller and when I use elf2bin they are the same!

Really weird problem guys. Sorry for any inconviniency I caused. the elf though works fine.



Btw I used the DCFreeDev1.2 environment. Maybe something is wrong with it?

[smiles]

Anybody have any further luck creating a successful (working)binary from the ELF file?

[MetaFox]

The elf and the bin is supposed to have the same size (in bytes)? cause when I use sh-eld-objcopy the bin is always smaller and when I use elf2bin they are the same!the sh-elf-objopy command is doing it properly - the elf is supposed to be larger than the bin.

[wraggster]

Lets hope we can get this fixed :)

[BudFern]

Yes, I'd really love to give it a try.

[curt_grymala]

Well damn. I just made an SBI for this, too. I guess it probably won't work.

[elefas]

I gave it a try last night again without results. just wasted some more cd-rs. It is really strange. I can't understand why this happens. the sh-elf-objcopy command in verbose mode shows no errors.

P L E A S E I advice newbies not to download the files. Burning 1st_read.bin on a cd won't make the emu work! What is working is the elf file which can only be tested with coder's cable. If you do not have it you waste time and money (cds), the emu won't work.

A L S O Anyone who knows something about this strange problem please make a post! Maybe I'll upload the source code tonight so other coders give it a try.

[elefas]

*********!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**********
*********GOOD NEWS**********
*********!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**********

Finally did it!!! I dug out an old post at DCemulation where Scherzo had a solution for this problem. All credits go to him! Dev-Cpp environment has a problem with linking the startup.o . This results in making bins which cannot be booted.

Anyway for compensation I have uploaded the new binaries (with intro screen) at:

http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~leuterat/watara.zip

1st_read.bin is the scrambled bin (works with selfboot and DC_Hakker -tested-)
watara.bin is the unscrambled bin

Thank you all and sorry for the inconvinience I caused

Have fun

P.S. @wraggster: please if you can update the superdcision page with the new updated binaries

[obelisk]

thank you elefas. i will try this out a bit later.

[smiles]

I just made a selfboot image and it worked great. Thanks Elefas.

[DARKGATE]

::) ehm excuse me boys, but this emu, no notice on SOUND SUPPORT, SPEED, COMPATIBILITY?
The emu run a 100% speed?
Where put the roms, in the root?
Work sound?
Answered thanks ;D

[elefas]

@smiles: thank GOD! I was really frustrated for not being able to run the emu from cd.

@DARKGATE: in the readme.txt(superdcision.zip) you will find most answers. Please note that I have not written the emulator. It is ported. The windows emu is called potator. I have ported version 0.6, there exists a 0.7 version also for which I asked the author to provide me the source code ... but he replied that he lost it :(

in the new archive (watara.zip) I have reduced the frameskip (as far as I have understood from the source code, frameskip should be now set to 0 or 1) and some people (who also tested the elf of my previous release) might notice a bit slow down.

As far as the compatibility is concerned, there exist no more than 40 roms for supervision. any of them that I have checked run along with the emu (at least none of them crushed the emu).

sound is another task I have not implemented yet. It needs to devote a lot of time I suppose (other coders should understand) and I am a bit pressed at the time.
believe me if you have ever heard the sound supervision outputed you would thank me for not implementing it ! ;D Although it is stated that supervision had better sound circuit than gameboy, that leads to crappy programming I suppose

Please remember: this is a *test* release (as the topic states) and this is also my first attempt into porting an emulator. so please be gentle with me!!! ;D

thanks a lot

[wraggster]

updated the superdcision page with new release (fixed)

Great to see it working ;)

[DARKGATE]

:D ELEFAS, i would answers, and thaks for answered me, i have download the file zip with emu but in the file read me, don't speak of emu if had sound or a good speed, i have made this questions for this.
Thanks and help the dreamcast to live ;D.

[elefas]

@DARKGATE: no problem mate. hope to have answered to all your questions.

[obelisk]

Bump for DC.
Any News?