gpSP 0.9 - GBA Emulator for the PSP (full speed)

[Exophase]

A few words:

- As many of you know, I'm not terribly impressed with the unofficial builds of gpSP that exist without my consent. I have a nice rant about it in the readme, most of you have probably heard me here already anyway so I won't repeat it. Suffice it to say, I'm pretty serious about what I'm going to be doing at this point.

- This thing was way too much work. >_< I intended to release it at midnight, and I was basically about to, when my beta tester found fresh problems. So here I am, 6 hours later, now ready to release, I guess. I want to give a huge thanks to Veskgar, who stayed up all night with me to beta test.

- Obviously not every game is going to work, still. I'd love to give you an estimate of what the compatability is like, but until I've actually confirmed that many games of ALL GBA games I'll never feel confident in anything I say. But it's higher than 0.8.

- 0.9 still means beta. 1.0 won't be beta. If I ever release 1.0.

I actually worked really hard on this all day to add a bunch of stuff. This is, of course, in spite of all the crap from this scene. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of very appreciative and dedicated people around (my two beta testers, of course). But I have to deal with a lot of things. People swearing at me for refusing to give them the BIOS, for instance. One person even threatened to report me to Nintendo because I refused to send him one. People literally arguing with me about why it's not fair for me to refuse to send them ROMs. People impersonating me on other message boards. Someone recently pretended to be me and said that I was giving up because I can't compete with Takka's releases. Things like that.

But I'll still work on this emulator. I started it for a reason and I'm going to see it through, even if I get nothing but headaches from it. I don't really play it mayself, though; I doubt anyone's going to believe me when I say that I actually do code it for the benefit of other people. No matter what, I still remember what it was like when I was 13 and emulators were very important to me, where a new one could make a dramatic difference in my life. Sad as that sounds. If I can be helpful to anyone I want to be.

But that won't really stop me from being possessive of my emulator. I want it to be developed the way I prefer - fortunately, I happen to sincerely think that I know what's best for it too.

Anyway, I've rambled enough. No, I won't post what's new here, go read the readme. Have fun :P

The source. Don't take it for granted, because it might not be there next time.

Heres whats New for those interested

# Fixed stereo output being reversed.
# Fixed a bug causing misaligned errors on 8bit writes to the gbc
audio channel 3 wave data (fixes various Super Robot Wars games)
# Fixed DMA with garbage in their upper 4 bits (fixes a crash in
Zelda: Minish Cap)
# Added double buffering to the rendering, removes line artifacts.
Big thanks to Brunni for the idea.
# Fixed a bug preventing some SRAM based games from saving (fixes
MMBN4-6)
# Fixed a bug causing part of EWRAM to potentially get corrupted if
code segments loaded in EWRAM cross 32KB boundaries (fixes
Phantasy Star 2)
# Fixed a bug causing games using movs pc in user mode (very bad
behavior) to crash. Fixes Colin McRae Rally 2.0.
# Improved timing a bit more. Fixes GTA Advance.
# Fixed a sprite clipping bug (fixes crash in third boss of Zelda:
Minish cap)
# Increased translation buffer size significantly (fixes Donkey Kong:
King of Swing)
# Fixed a dynarec bug causing add pc, reg to not work in Thumb code
(fixes crash in DBZ:LoZ, seems to fix crashes in battle in Golden
Sun, probably fixes other games)
# Made sprites using tiles < 512 not display in modes 3-5 (fixes
a couple minor graphical bugs)
# Removed abort on instruction 0x00000000 hack, was breaking a
certain bugged up game (Scurge)
# Fixed bug in flags generating variable logical shifts (fixes
SD Gundam Force)
# Fixed unaligned 16bit reads (fixes DBZ:LoZ in game)
# Redid contiguous block flag modification checking AGAIN and
hopefully got it right this time (fixes Mario vs. Donkey Kong)
# Redid ldm/stm instructions, fixing some cases (along with the
timing improvements fixes Mario & Luigi)
# Fixed 14bit EEPROM addressing (hopefully fixes saving in a lot
of games)
# Completely redid memory handlers, accurately emulates open and
BIOS reads now. Fixes Zelda: Minish Cap (roll bug, last dungeon),
Rayman, MMBN 1 (last dungeon), probably others.
# Fixed a minor graphical glitch on the edges of the screen
(thanks Brunni and hlide for the help!)
# Fixed crash on loading savestates from files of games not currently
loaded, but be sure you have the exact file you loaded it from or
gpSP will exit.
@ New memory handlers should provide performance boost for games
that access VRAM significantly (ie 3D games)
@ Added dead flag elimination checking for logical shifts, probably
doesn't make a noticeable difference but should have been there
anyway.
+ Added rapidfire to the button mappings.
+ Added auto frameskip. Removed fractional frameskip (don't think
it's very useful with auto anyway). Select auto in the graphics/
sound menu to activate it; frameskip value will act as the
maximum (auto is by default on). Thanks again to Brunni for some
help with this. Frameskip options are game specific.
+ Added vsync to the rendering. Only occurs when frames aren't
skipped. Seems to reduce tearing at least some of the time.
+ Added non-filtered video option.
+ Cheat support (Gameshark/Pro Action Replay v1-v3 only), still
in early stages, doesn't support everything; codes may cause
the game to crash, haven't determined yet if the codes are bad
or the implementation is. See cheat section for more information.
+ Added ability to change audio buffer size. Does not take affect
until you restart the game.
+ Added analog config options.
+ Added ability to set analog sensitivity and turn off analog.
+ Added ability to change the clock speed. This is a game specific
option. Try lower speeds w/auto frameskip to save battery life.
+ Fixed savestate speed on crappy Sony sticks.

(legend: # bug fix, + feature addition, @ optimization)

ON behalf of PSP News and DCEmu we would like to thank exophase for his excellent work on this emulator - wraggster

GPSP Compatability List Here (help update it)

Download and Give Feedback & THANKS Via Comments

[Baboon]

Coolio, another official update on an already (almost) perfecto emulator!

Don’t listen to all the muppets out there who are given you grief, they are not worth stressing over! All I can say is thanks very much for your hard work on this, it is much appreciated by everyone in the scene! ..this is without a doubt one of best emulators on the PSP, a truly amazing piece of coding!

I’ll test this after work... lovely jubley!

I bet this thread will become huge by the end of today! lol

[Baboon]

Coolio, another official update on an already (almost) perfecto emulator!

Don’t listen to all the muppets out there who are given you grief, they are not worth stressing over! All I can say is thanks very much for your hard work on this, it is much appreciated by everyone in the scene! ..this is without a doubt one of best emulators on the PSP, a truly amazing piece of coding!

I’ll test this after work... lovely jubley!

I bet this thread will become huge by the end of today! lol

[scarph]

yay glad this is out

and we beat qj here

GOOOO DCEMU



and a couple new games work that didnt before
ninja 5-0

this is great

[tuta]

WOW official update I will download now
keep up good work exophase and dont bother bout takka's release we know yours is still the best

[Vega]

Awesome.... finally an OFFICIAL release from the man himself. Thanks for the hard work Exophase... it sure is appreciatied!!

Cant wait to try this little beaut out

Nice one man.

EDIT : Also man.. f*ck those assholes who have been giving you grief. I think I speak for everyone here at DCEMU when I say that this emulator is very appreciated through this whole community and we thank you for it.

[MikeDX]

Only download the official releases folks. you heard it here.

Cant wait to try this later.. I really need to brush up on my gba link knowledge....

[djakku]

thanks you for your great work exophase, I surely appreciate your contribution to the scene. I'm also sorry to hear all that ruckus about how annoying some people could be after reading your post..*sending a mail to nintendo*

some people are just too stupid



Oh and super puzzle fighter 2 (the best game ever) almost run perfectly! this is the only game I'm playing with GBA and on each release it gest better and better. The sound still stutter sometimes but its finally enjoyable and playable

[Oops]

Thanks Exophase, your contribution to PSP homebrew is very appreciated and be sure it will be appreciated long after kids got another toys to play with and forgot the PSP. Think about the Atari_ST community still alive and rocking even after 20 years.
Cheer up Exophase, you're a highly respectable coder.

[Veskgar]

I've tried this emulator to a good degree and I am very impressed once again with Exophase. This is no small update and I can pretty much confirm that Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga works 100%.

This is no small update. Everything from sound, graphics/display, compatibility, stability, SPEED, & more is improved.

I hope this once and for all encourages people to avoid "unofficial" releases while this is still a W.I.P. If it was not before, it is now obvious that Exophase can improve this emulator best.

Thank you for all of the time (loss of sleep) & hard work you put into this Exophase.

Originally Posted by ExcruciationX

P.S, Why are you up so early in the morning?

Because he's been up all night coding his brains out for this release....

[gregnoid]

Great, Exophase, thank you very much for the work you did in this fantastic emulator.