* New design, new musics (2 musics from RICK II)
* efslib is used to avoid memory pbs
* 4 differents menus adapted for each level
* no more infinite dynamite/munition
* CHEAT mode available like in the AMIGA version( you must find it )
* comic book available (replace palette modification)
* new end screens from Lobo
* No more load/save state, too much buggy

The jar archive contains the compiled code of the JME C64 project. The jad file contains a decription of the contents of the jar file and is needed on some devices.

This release is only for usage on mobile devices supporting J2ME with MIDP 2.0. Use the latest JSwingC64 release for a version that can be used on a PC.

After uploading the jar file to your mobile device, you should be able to run the emulator. On some devices the jad file is also required to be transferrred to the mobile device.

You may optionally execute the following steps to include C64 programs into the archive, prior to transferring it to the mobile device:
- Rename the .jar file replacing the .jar by a .zip
- Add the C64 programs (.t64,.c64,.prg,p00) you want to be able to run to the programs folder and add these programs to the programs.txt file.
- Rename the archive replacing the .zip by a .jar
If your device supports the FileConnection API, then you may omit this step and instead transfer the programs to the file system of your mobile device and use the "Search Programs" menu entry to make these programs available to the emulator.
In case that you modify the jar archive as described above, you may not use the downloaded jad file as the file size information it contains is then incorrect!

The javadoc zip file is meant for those who are interested in the class structure of the application, i.e. rather developers than end users.

Changes:
1.8 (based on rev. 631)
- enable suspend and resume for the emulator (feature request ID 1665194)
- fixed the problem that the screen size might be calculated incorrectly (bug ID 1986383)

Sony has announced PlayStation-edu, a new initiative that will sell PS2 and PSP development kits to universities for students to learn engineering and programming skills on real-world console and handheld hardware.

The announcement came via Sony's official PlayStation.Blog, where senior developer support manager Mark Danks said the company wanted to ensure "students who are graduating from college are ready to program on PlayStation hardware."

Danks clarified the program was meant for "computer science and engineering students who want to understand how the hardware works in the PlayStation consoles," and not more general game design or art programs.

Paying university partners can get access to both PS2 and PSP development kits, as well as "development software... and the SDK to learn and experiment with."

"Participants will get demo code and samples, as well as documentation about how things work," Danks added, and noted that "students in PlayStation-edu will have access to our support web site where they can talk with other students in the program on our forums."

Sony has announced PlayStation-edu, a new initiative that will sell PS2 and PSP development kits to universities for students to learn engineering and programming skills on real-world console and handheld hardware.

The announcement came via Sony's official PlayStation.Blog, where senior developer support manager Mark Danks said the company wanted to ensure "students who are graduating from college are ready to program on PlayStation hardware."

Danks clarified the program was meant for "computer science and engineering students who want to understand how the hardware works in the PlayStation consoles," and not more general game design or art programs.

Paying university partners can get access to both PS2 and PSP development kits, as well as "development software... and the SDK to learn and experiment with."

"Participants will get demo code and samples, as well as documentation about how things work," Danks added, and noted that "students in PlayStation-edu will have access to our support web site where they can talk with other students in the program on our forums."

It hasn't even been 2 weeks yet, and I have managed to get some new stuff together for a new spu2ghz release!

This time the most notable changes are the addition of timestretching and support for winamp DSP plugins.

As a bonus, there's also an option to toggle the speed limiter using the [Numpad -] key (can be changed in the .ini file).

You can download it here. [below]

To use winamp DSP pugins I recommend getting Multiple-DSP Stacker, which will allow you to easily change DSP plugins and configure them. To enable it you will have to edit the .ini file and manually point it to the path of the DSP dll and the module number (normally it's 0, unless it has many choices in a single dll).

Hope you all like it!

A dump of an internal Sega diagnostic cartridge for the Saturn was recently made available, so I added ROM cartridge support to the MESS driver. The cart boots but you can’t control it yet for some reason. Hopefully once it’s controllable this cartridge will lead to improvements in the emulation for both Saturn and ST-V in MAME and MESS.

Sega has announced its UK lineup for the current financial year, revealing the official launch dates for two new Sonic titles.

Speaking to MCV, the firm confirmed Sonic Unleashed will launch in November for PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 and PS2, while also announcing the Bioware-developed DS exclusive Sonic Chronicles will be out in September.

Sega also confirmed that Aliens: Colonial Marines, one of its big hopes of 2008, has been delayed and will not now be released until early 2009. The PS3 and Xbox 360 title was originally scheduled for a winter 2008 launch.

The full Sega lineup:

* The Incredible Hulk (DS and 360 - June 13; PS3 and PS2 - June 20; PC - June 27)
* Beijing 2008 (360, PS3 and PC - June 27)
* Sambe De Amigo (Wii - August)
* Space Siege (PC - August 22)
* Picto Image (DS - September)
* Golden Axe Raiders (360 and PS3 - September)
* Sonic Chronicles (DS - September)
* Yakuzza 2 (PS2 - September)
* Valkyria Chronicles (PS3 - Autumn)
* Sonic Unleashed (Wii, 260, PS2 and PS3 - November)
* Empire Total War (PC - early 2009)
* Alpha Protocol (PC, 360 and PS3 - early 2009)
* Mad World (Wii - early 2009)
* Aliens: Colonial Marines (PS3 and 360 - early 2009)

Brash Entertainment, in partnership with Six Flags Inc., (NYSE: SIX), announced today the development of Six Flags Fun Park, a videogame releasing in North America that brings the thrills and chills of a Six Flags theme park to the family living room. Featuring uniquely themed areas and mini-games representative of a visit to Six Flags park, this new videogame ensures that summer fun continues all year round.

Calling gamers of all ages - Six Flags Fun Park, welcomes the whole family into a virtual theme park filled with everyone's favorite games, all re-imagined within a colossal park environment that is sure to keep gamers challenged. Upon entrance to the game, players are tasked with quests that encourage them to explore the park's zany universe. After creating a unique custom character, Six Flags Fun Park patrons can test their skills, win prizes, and play against friends and family with 40 mini-games.
"Everyone has memories of visiting theme parks with their families, and having a great time with games like the Ring Toss and Bumper Cars," said Mitch Davis, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Brash Entertainment. "With Six Flags Fun Park, we are re-imagining these time-honored tests of luck and skill, and launching the first virtual park in the Six Flags family, while taking advantage of today's most popular gaming systems."

"Six Flags is synonymous with great family fun, and Brash Entertainment is committed to bringing fantastic family entertainment to the gaming world" said David McKillips, Vice President of Corporate Alliances for Six Flags. "Six Flags Fun Park is the next best thing to actually being inside the park. Now families can keep their favorite theme park gaming skills fresh year round."

The creation of Six Flags Fun Park demonstrates the way that Brash Entertainment continues to redefine licensed games for the gaming and entertainment industry. Explained Davis, "Brash has already announced partnerships with leading film companies such as Lionsgate Films, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, Vanguard Animation, and Warner Bros. Six Flags is the world's largest regional theme park company; by teaming up with them, we continue to prove our strength in collaborating with the top brands in entertainment and bring the gaming experience to new fans."

Six Flags Fun Park will be available for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, and the Wii and Nintendo DS videogame systems from Nintendo. This game has not yet been rated, and will be available at North American retailers this fall 2008.

I've finally completed the new GD-ROM module, though ultimately it turned out to be very similar in design to the last one. With the new code I can freely choose what ATA/ATAPI commands are to be executed immediately and what can be offloaded to helper thread.
Unfortunately a thread is not a very good substitute for a real-time device. In typical multitasking OS there's a sheduler that decides when things will happen, there's no guarantee that the helper will start processing given request right away. Simply put, it can start immediately or only after some tens of miliseconds has passed. I could run the code in a tight loop to reduce this lag but that would waste too much CPU power, always needed elsewhere. Not to mention OS can (and eventually will at some point) interrupt any running process if it's required, so this approach would not solve the problem completly, just reduce the odds of ecountering it. Same thing goes for messing with thread priorities - that's not exactly foolproof and is also very inelegant.

Now, why would mere miliseconds ever pose a problem? In a well-designed system the consumer would just wait a bit for the producer to come up with data and occasional lag wouldn't even be noticable. Some Dreamcast software however (BIOS including) doesn't really check if the data has arrived, rather assume it must be so after a certain amount of time has passed.
This isn't that much of a problem for GD-ROM commands that return small amounts of redily available data - those can be simply executed at the moment they arrive, so there is no lag. Disk reads are another story though, those take time to complete and the whole idea was to run them concurrently so that virtual CPU would not be stalled waiting in the first place.

It gets more interesting at this point. A real Dreamcast GD is not anywhere near as fast as modern hard drives, so why doesn't it work in emulator if it works on an inferior system? The answer, again, is timing. It's simply very crucial to get it right - and you can have accurate emulator, or fast emulator, but not both. And you've guessed it right, I'm aiming for fast at this point. It has to be noted that should the original GD/CD media become too scratched or the laser detoriates beyond certain point, the problems I'm having will manifest themselves on Dreamcast as well - so I still say it's simply bad coding on games part.
What are the options... For starters, I will continue to play with the DMA code and try to mimic Dreamcast behaviour as closely as possible. And if all else fails, there's still the "ideal" DMA mode, that is to make transfers always block to be sure the virtual CPU always gets all the data it asks for. This of course causes jerkiness and audio stuttering, mostly to be felt in games using sequenced music or sound effects very closely timed to video.

This whole re-write took quite some time and didn't really help as much I hoped, but thanks to all that work I'm now much more aware of what has to be done yet. I've a few ideas, it's just that every attempt at fixing one thing breaks other stuff. Sometimes very badly I still need to figure out what upsets so much the MPEG library used on demo GDs and some MIL-CDs.

PS. Why didn't anyone tell me Giana's Return got broken with the addition of MMU-capable recompiler?!
PPS. I'm SOOO behing with testing Yuki's stuff now... I'm going to capture & post few screenshots later today. If I get the games to work with the new GD code that is

UPDATE:
No screens yet. I had a bug that prevented most of the images from booting properly, that's fixed now. But there's a bigger problem - the new module is actually even less compatible, timing-wise, than the old one. I'll have to run more tests but now I'm beginning to suspect that some games require GD DMA processing to be done way more often. Which is bad because it seriously affects emulation speed.
At this point one begins to wonder what exactly is good about this new code Well, it is more reliable now. I was hoping that alone would be enough but apparently I was too optimistic...

UPDATE 2:
A bit closer, still not there.

http://pics.livejournal.com/dknute/pic/000c4ef9

http://pics.livejournal.com/dknute/pic/000c5bed

This is starting to seriously annoy me. DMA changes helped with some tiles but not all of them. Then I inserted a few debug statements into the code and even though it reduced emulation speed, it actually made things more stable. And this is the only lead I have so far...