jEnesisDS 0.5 - Genesis/Megadrive Emulator for the Nintendo DS

[Lordus]

i have an idéa. why not try to port a genesis emulator for the pc to a ds? thats what the guys that made snemulds did. just a tip, im not saying that your emu is bad, no no not at all. but the fact that there is no sound is...well...irritating, well well i hope you finish the emu soon so that we all can play (and hear) the sweet games for genesis.

Sigh..

Interesting how perspectives can differ. For you, having no sound is irritating, for me, your post is..
There is just too much to say about it, but i try to make it short.

First, what makes you think, a ported emulator from PC would have any advantages? Do you think just because it has sound on the PC, it will automagically have sound on the DS?
Sound and graphics are usually the 2 things that need to be rewritten when porting something to a different platform.
And of course, a software/emulator specifically designed for a platform will run better than one that is simply ported.

Also, jEnesisDS started as a port of my own Java emulator, which has sound and countless features, the DS version doesn't have. By now, almost nothing of the original code is left, because the only way to make it run as fast as it does, is to adapt every piece of it to take advantage of the DS hardware.

I am sure the same is true for SNemulDS and not much in it will remind of the PC version. It uses another ARM assembler cpu core, and gladius' pocketspc sound core. If it would still use the code from the PC version it would probably be a slideshow.

Anyway, if you're not satisfied, there is already a ported PC Genesis emu for the DS, so just use that:
http://nintendo-ds.dcemu.co.uk/genesisplusnds.shtml

[Presca1]

Well, I love the fact frankly that you're doing all this work without an active NDS - God bless you for that. I'm sort of new to the community in here - I'm from Canada, but it's exciting to see the things folks are doing, it's a lot of hard work - so cut him some slack guys. You don't like it - then do it yourself, I say.

Thanks so much for all the hard work, Lordus - keep going with it! I look forward to watching for updates.

I bought my brother an R4 for Christmas, just loading it up and sending him a little text file on the memory chip with the best links for NDS on the net - including this forum

Merry Christmas everyone!
Presca

*Girls like emu too*!

[Spidery_Yoda]

I think the emulator is absolutely amazing.

When i first got jEnesis i was expecting a slideshow like i get on Picodrive. The first time i loaded up Sonic & Knucles i was astounded by not only the framerate, but at how amazing the game looked on the DS screen.

All these people that are complaining about the lack of sound have obviously never tried coding something like that before. They expect it to just happen, and make it sound like you're deliberately not including it. Well those people are fools.

I eagerly await the next release if there is one, and if not, then i already have a brilliant Mega Drive emulator.

I wish there was a way to load up ROMs over 3Mb though (or rather, Sonic 3 & Knuckes ), but i know the DS just can't handle files that large and there's nothing that can be done about it (except using a slot 2 card, which i dont have).

Thanks for the brilliant emulator.

[Flygon]

I wish there was a way to load up ROMs over 3Mb though (or rather, Sonic 3 & Knuckes ), but i know the DS just can't handle files that large and there's nothing that can be done about it (except using a slot 2 card, which i dont have).

If I recall correctly it is possible, it is done on emulators like that Snes Emulator mentioned previously as long as it is not zipped.

Of course I'd have to guess it would be hard to implement as the ROM would not be on the RAM but I just stating my 2 cents.

I do find this emulator spectacular by the way, the only things that I does lack (Apart from the obvious sound issue but thats understandable) is proper support for games like Road Rash and F-117 Night Storm. (They both have severe graphical errors).

[Weed-4-me]

awsome emulator!
good work and i cant wait for the sound :P

[Eyedunno]

Holy crap. I just saw your email (Hotmail thought it was spam), and I've spent the last hour and a half or so playing various games. I must admit, I sent the first donation without ever having tried jEnesisDS. I just did it because I thought it was worthwhile. Boy was it.

The beta is amazing. Sure, plenty of games still don't have sound, but the games that do have blown me away. I wanted to play Phantasy Star IV with sound, and wow, now I can! In fact, of the four games I've tried, PSIV has the clearest sound.

Here are my results so far:
Sonic 1 - Sound is not perfect, but it's good enough that people who aren't so picky will find it adequate.
Decap Attack - Sound is somewhat distorted, but again, it's playable.
Phantasy Star IV - Wow. Just awesome. I've only played through the first boss so far, but everything was just about perfect.
Zero Wing - No sound. Good emulation otherwise though.
Edit: Lost Vikings - Doesn't seem to even start. Oh well, I have the GBA version.

Anyway, I sent another small donation your way, just because of how excellent this already is. I can't wait until you redo the sound core.

Edit: Oh, I would like to make one small suggestion. I'd like to skip the config screen and go right to file select. Also, being able to set a starting roms folder would be nice. How about either a cfg file or the ability to save options within the emulator?

[Lordus]

Holy crap. I just saw your email (Hotmail thought it was spam), and I've spent the last hour and a half or so playing various games. I must admit, I sent the first donation without ever having tried jEnesisDS. I just did it because I thought it was worthwhile. Boy was it.

The beta is amazing. Sure, plenty of games still don't have sound, but the games that do have blown me away. I wanted to play Phantasy Star IV with sound, and wow, now I can! In fact, of the four games I've tried, PSIV has the clearest sound.

Here are my results so far:
Sonic 1 - Sound is not perfect, but it's good enough that people who aren't so picky will find it adequate.
Decap Attack - Sound is somewhat distorted, but again, it's playable.
Phantasy Star IV - Wow. Just awesome. I've only played through the first boss so far, but everything was just about perfect.
Zero Wing - No sound. Good emulation otherwise though.
Edit: Lost Vikings - Doesn't seem to even start. Oh well, I have the GBA version.

Anyway, I sent another small donation your way, just because of how excellent this already is. I can't wait until you redo the sound core.

Edit: Oh, I would like to make one small suggestion. I'd like to skip the config screen and go right to file select. Also, being able to set a starting roms folder would be nice. How about either a cfg file or the ability to save options within the emulator?

First, thanks for your donations, i really appreciate it.
Hm, mistaken for spam, maybe that's why i didn't get any feedback on the beta yet
Anyway, i am glad you like it. It will be a lot of work to improve the sound and even more, to make it work for other games, too. But i am at it.

If a game doesn't start, try changing "fake z80", "HInt-emulation" or "Idle loop detection" options.
This particular game should work, if you turn fake z80 on.
This will not be necessary anymore, once i have a proper Z80 core implemented.

About the options, i was thinking of that before the last release, but i didn't like the idea to place a .cfg file in the root of the card, as there is no elegant way to determine the directory of a file.
Also, many games require different options, so a single saved configuration might not help that much.
I hope you understand, that those things are not that high on my priority list, but i will try to figure out something shortly before i am ready for the next release.

[AndrewLeon]

Forgive me Lordus if I attempt to put words in your mouth here.

Give it a rest. Lordus doesn't even have a DS at the moment, so it's not exactly easy for him to test any work he may do, right? He's already given you a Genesis emulator that's faster than PicoDriveDS and plays most games at 60 fps, with various options available to increase compatibility. Be thankful for what you already have rather than complaining about one feature that's missing.

Programming isn't easy, and implementing the chips that handle audio isn't as easy as pressing the "lol maek it have teh soundzorz" button.

Rather than complaining about the lack of sound, you could donate to him to help him get actual hardware for testing. Failing that, you could simply be patient and wait for him to finish on his own time.

Owned..

+1 bonus points for the
"lol maek it have teh soundzorz".
Comment

[Eyedunno]

About the options, i was thinking of that before the last release, but i didn't like the idea to place a .cfg file in the root of the card, as there is no elegant way to determine the directory of a file.

Well, SNEmulDS supports it through a cfg file. Not sure how though.

Oh, and turning Fake Z80 on worked, but is there no "mode" button? I can't play past the second level of Lost Vikings without it.

[Lordus]

Well, SNEmulDS supports it through a cfg file. Not sure how though.

Oh, and turning Fake Z80 on worked, but is there no "mode" button? I can't play past the second level of Lost Vikings without it.

Yes, that's what i meant. It puts the cfg file in the root of your flashcard, doesn't it? I guess that is not so bad, i will probably do that for the next release.

I was not aware that a game actually requires the mode button. I guess i will place it somewhere on the touch screen.