FAZE (Z80 emu in SH4) Needs Beta-Testers!

[Christuserloeser]

Juan posted a partially translation of a post by Chui at DCIberia (http://www.dciberia.net/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=535) at the DCEmulation.com Forums (http://www.dcemulation.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=85547) :

Fox and I have been working hard on FAZE for the past few days and we have it in a pretty advanced state.

But we need beta-testers to find problems testing .Z80 snapshots that work on other emulators but not on ZX4ALL/FAZE.

You can download ZX4ALL/FAZE HERE (http://chui.dcemu.co.uk/releases/zx4all_faze_betatesters.rar), and you can let us know the problems at my mail: sdl_gp32 AT yahoo.es

There's also a couple of videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKTCbgnxQV0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYaJYaykZiI

[vbt]

Nice work, I can't really test but would FAZE work on a saturn with a little changes ?

[Christuserloeser]

Given SH2 and SH4 is similar it should be possible and likely also worth it. :)

[fox68k]

Nice work, I can't really test but would FAZE work on a saturn with a little changes ?

Endianness is more than probably the big issue. FAZE is designed to run in little endian only (Dreamcast SH-4). Fortunately, memory access is fairly isolated so we can switch between them with a "minor" work.

[vbt]

Endianness is more than probably the big issue. FAZE is designed to run in little endian only (Dreamcast SH-4). Fortunately, memory access is fairly isolated so we can switch between them with a "minor" work.
Last question (don't want to bother you:)) don't you use specific opcodes of the SH4 (don't remember which one maybe shld) ?

[fox68k]

Last question (don't want to bother you:)) don't you use specific opcodes of the SH4 (don't remember which one maybe shld) ?

I have not looked to SH2 ISA so i do not know. Anyway, it should be straight forward to switch to SH2 code.

If you are interested, i can send you a working copy of FAZE to look forward about SH2 compatibility.

[vbt]

Would be nice :) but I may only be able to do simple chames(byteswap for instance), for sure if you use specific SH4 opcodes I won't be able to replace them. I can check this at least :)

[vbt]

FAZE is a really cool and soo fast core, would there be a way to modify it to support Gameboy Z80 & 8085 emulation ?

[Christuserloeser]

Could FAZE be used to emulate the Mega Drive / Genesis on Saturn ?

I know for sure that SEGA of Japan did program a Mega Drive emulator for Saturn. If you check the Sega Ages Disney Collection feat. Quack Shot and Castle of Illusion, you will notice that Castle of Illusion is a regular Mega Drive ROM that can be run in any emulator like Gens or Kega. They apparently used variants of this emulator in the Thunder Force Gold Packs, the Phantasy Star Collection, and Sonic Jam.


- If you were to use FAZE to emulate the Z80 at a very, very low underclocked rate, and use the Saturn's M68000 to emulate the Mega Drive's CPU, I think you could get it up to a playable speed.

Sound and video emulation would still be a problem...

[Eviltaco64]

A Genesis emulator on Saturn would be an interesting project. :)

I myself always thought all the games in Sonic Jam were straight ports, and that Saturn lacked enough ram to emulate the Genesis, but of course I could be wrong. I'm no programmer.

[fox68k]

FAZE is a really cool and soo fast core, would there be a way to modify it to support Gameboy Z80 & 8085 emulation ?

vbt,

of course there is. Both projects should be developed as a branch, though.

Just wondering if it might be possible to have a chat about FAZE sometime soon. I really think this is the right time to get back to it cause Gens is having some issues with it and we have to merge your changes with my current source.

Regards.

[vbt]

Could FAZE be used to emulate the Mega Drive / Genesis on Saturn ?

It would need FAME and FAZE, not sure it would be enough to run a MD emu at full speed on Saturn.


I know for sure that SEGA of Japan did program a Mega Drive emulator for Saturn. If you check the Sega Ages Disney Collection feat. Quack Shot and Castle of Illusion, you will notice that Castle of Illusion is a regular Mega Drive ROM that can be run in any emulator like Gens or Kega. They apparently used variants of this emulator in the Thunder Force Gold Packs, the Phantasy Star Collection, and Sonic Jam.

I'm not sure it was emulators.


- If you were to use FAZE to emulate the Z80 at a very, very low underclocked rate, and use the Saturn's M68000 to emulate the Mega Drive's CPU, I think you could get it up to a playable speed.
Sound and video emulation would still be a problem...
I would be worth to try with FAZE & FAME, I don't really see how to use the Saturn 68k to run the 68k MD opcodes.

[Christuserloeser]

I'm not sure it was emulators.

Well, most if not all of the existing Mega Drive emulator variants that Sega of Japan used, do use streamed ADPCM, or even CDDA (Thunder Force Gold Pack 1), instead of FM sound emulation. But there seem to be Mega Drive ROM dumps on all the released CDs. Some are split into two or three parts though, while Castle of Illusion is just a plain Mega Drive ROM that works in Gens or Kega.


http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/249/disneycollectionsaturnzq6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/disneycollectionsaturnzq6.jpg/1/w953.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img355/disneycollectionsaturnzq6.jpg/1/)

The .BIN file is the actual ROM, the .ADP files is the ADPCM encoded soundtrack.




I would be worth to try with FAZE & FAME, I don't really see how to use the Saturn 68k to run the 68k MD opcodes.

I have no idea, really, but apparently that's what they did at Sega of Japan. That would also explain why there is no FM emulation / simulation: They needed the 68k to emulate the Mega Drive's CPU.



It would need FAME and FAZE, not sure it would be enough to run a MD emu at full speed on Saturn.

Me neither. - Could you estimate how much of the Saturn's hardware capacity is used by SMSplus ? Is there room to gain speed by using the second VDP or second SH2 ?