I just learned about developing applications on Wii 3 days ago. I was wondering what application should I make, and I noticed that there was no Apple II emulator for Wii yet. Apple II/e was my first computer, so I thought it will be fun to be able to emulate it on my Wii. AppleWin is a good Apple emulator, but it is very windows specific, fortunately someone already ported it to Linux using SDL, and the name is LinApple.

Someone already made an early SDL port to Wii, but it is missing threading support (which is needed by the emulator). After reading things at wiibrew.org and devkitpro.org, I decided to complete the threading part. The next problem is the input. I want to be able to write BASIC applications, so I decided that the SDL port must support keyboard input, someone already made LibWiikeyboard, so I can just plug it in SDL (actually this is a hack, to correctly handle SDL requirements, there are some things that needs to be changed, in LibWiikeyboard and in the SDL gamecube implementation).

Next part is the porting process itself. The difficult part is making sure all the endiannes conversion of 6502 (Apple II CPU) to Wii’s PowerPC is done correctly, because I don’t have a USB gecko to debug it. Currently the port works, but don’t expect too much from this first release. I can already play some games, but I haven’t tested many other things.

version 0.0.2:

- Fixed text overlay
- Disable saving options (dangerous for now, because you might overwrite your files)

version 0.0.3:

- Sound support
- Fix joypad problem
- Invalid disk image will not freeze the emulator (in case of invalid disk, Master.dsk will be reloaded)

Just a tiny status update about the progress within the last few weeks to bring us into 2009.

I finally realized what was going wrong with a couple of games, we weren’t using 16Kbit EEPROM type saves for certain games that require it. A fix should make its way to the SVN in the next few days for this. Notable games that are now booting thanks to this fix are: Banjo Tooie, ExciteBike 64, Yoshi’s Story.

As for some news on the dynarec front, I coded up a few rough demos and a bug a two was revealed to us from these demos. Also, tehpola has been working hard at debugging the emulator on his PS3 to correct & find solutions to the bugs we’re finding (see article below to see why it’s done on PS3). Every little bit gets us one step closer to the finished recompiler.

Also, the soft graphics plugin has been updated to render the framebuffer through hardware to aid us in debugging (with a faster framerate).

Seasons Greetings.

Just a tiny status update about the progress within the last few weeks to bring us into 2009.

I finally realized what was going wrong with a couple of games, we weren’t using 16Kbit EEPROM type saves for certain games that require it. A fix should make its way to the SVN in the next few days for this. Notable games that are now booting thanks to this fix are: Banjo Tooie, ExciteBike 64, Yoshi’s Story.

As for some news on the dynarec front, I coded up a few rough demos and a bug a two was revealed to us from these demos. Also, tehpola has been working hard at debugging the emulator on his PS3 to correct & find solutions to the bugs we’re finding (see article below to see why it’s done on PS3). Every little bit gets us one step closer to the finished recompiler.

Also, the soft graphics plugin has been updated to render the framebuffer through hardware to aid us in debugging (with a faster framerate).

Seasons Greetings.

This new release is the product of hundreds of new code improvements: We now have an almost 100% reworked 3D core, which is shared amongst all ports for the first time, and have better save states. Compatibility has been improved across the board. The huge number of reworked systems and small fixes is noticeable on some games and homebrew games are running better–or even running at all for the first time. And this work has not stopped, so stay tuned for what’s coming in the future!

More news from the development team for the new year:

We have made a couple tweaks to the MK2 board design that was sent to all the devs, and we should have a MK3 prototype in a week or so. If everything is fine with that board, it will go into mass production very shortly thereafter. We could have just used the MK2 board and left the minor bugs in as "quirks", but with all the other delays, it was worth it to do one more revision and get it perfect.

The cases will be going into mass production on the 15th. That's our deadline for making any last minute tweaks, and it looks like we'll be in great shape for that. We already have the new LCD ribbon cable for these cases and it's working nicely.

The keypads will go into mass production in the next week or two at the latest. The keypad layout will be very similar to the one on the original renders. I am told there will only be "minor changes" between the render and the final layout. There may be separate layouts available for the middle east and Asian regions, but all other regions will have the same standard layout for now. It is very likely that alternate keymats (including blank mats) will be made available for a small price at some point in the near future.

We now have the SGX video drivers in their entirety. We're just waiting for a few documents to come back signed and then we can release both the binary part and the open source driver shim to the public. Expect OpenGL ES demos soon.

Reorders are happening now, slowly. We're sending out details and a reorder URL to customers one at a time, starting with US customers. Some have already been sent, and the rest are on the way. We're doing it slowly to avoid any potential problems with the CC processor and to avoid overwhelming the sales ladies. Do not worry, everybody will have the opportunity to reorder in time to get their Pandora.

We are meeting with the bank this week to fix the Amex situation. They cannot simply sit on the money forever, and we're not accepting any more of their stall tactics. If the bank simply refuses to rectify the situation, there is a backup plan. Anybody who paid for a Pandora will get one, no matter what the bank does. One way or another, this situation will be remedied this week.


We're coming down the final stretch.

More news from the development team for the new year:

We have made a couple tweaks to the MK2 board design that was sent to all the devs, and we should have a MK3 prototype in a week or so. If everything is fine with that board, it will go into mass production very shortly thereafter. We could have just used the MK2 board and left the minor bugs in as "quirks", but with all the other delays, it was worth it to do one more revision and get it perfect.

The cases will be going into mass production on the 15th. That's our deadline for making any last minute tweaks, and it looks like we'll be in great shape for that. We already have the new LCD ribbon cable for these cases and it's working nicely.

The keypads will go into mass production in the next week or two at the latest. The keypad layout will be very similar to the one on the original renders. I am told there will only be "minor changes" between the render and the final layout. There may be separate layouts available for the middle east and Asian regions, but all other regions will have the same standard layout for now. It is very likely that alternate keymats (including blank mats) will be made available for a small price at some point in the near future.

We now have the SGX video drivers in their entirety. We're just waiting for a few documents to come back signed and then we can release both the binary part and the open source driver shim to the public. Expect OpenGL ES demos soon.

Reorders are happening now, slowly. We're sending out details and a reorder URL to customers one at a time, starting with US customers. Some have already been sent, and the rest are on the way. We're doing it slowly to avoid any potential problems with the CC processor and to avoid overwhelming the sales ladies. Do not worry, everybody will have the opportunity to reorder in time to get their Pandora.

We are meeting with the bank this week to fix the Amex situation. They cannot simply sit on the money forever, and we're not accepting any more of their stall tactics. If the bank simply refuses to rectify the situation, there is a backup plan. Anybody who paid for a Pandora will get one, no matter what the bank does. One way or another, this situation will be remedied this week.


We're coming down the final stretch.