PicoDriveDS - Genesis Emulator for Nintendo DS

***wraggster*** · June 7th, 2006, 06:33

Ryan FB has released a Genesis Emulator for the Nintendo DS:

Ported this over the weekend, I think it's in a state now where some people will be able to use it. Initial reports are that it has issues running on CF-based carts, I only have a SuperCard SD to test with so I haven't been able to debug it on CF to see what's going on.

Copy it to your media, then copy over the Genesis ROMs you want to play (it should be able to play ROMs with .BIN, .GEN, and .SMD extensions). There's no sound, but since it uses the Cyclone 68k core which is optimized for ARM it runs well for the most part. Scaling is done in-software right now so the downscale isn't as fast or good as it could be. There's no double buffering yet so you might see tearing on some games. Y/B/A are A/B/C.

Compatibility is good for the most part, with some games it's hard to tell due to copy protection code. Pirates! Gold for example, has the same issue under my emulator and a few others I've tried where it just reboots every time you press a button, and I'm thinking it's due to copy protection stuff.

The emulator I'm porting has some YM2612/sound emulation code but I'm not sure how well it works (if at all), because it's not enabled in the original version either.

Download and Give Feedback Via Comments

**gronne** · June 7th, 2006, 10:48

Haven't tried it, and I reckon it sucks. However any attempt on a gensis emu is very welcome, I just hope he develops it "fully", as nothing is more irritating when people just leave projects that seem promising. So, all best of wishes, so we all can play some mutant hockey(a.k.a the funniest game ever made(the 10 minutes it lasts :-) )).

Please don't abandon this one, the DS should be sufficient for "full" genesis emulation(I think).

**scrabbus** · June 7th, 2006, 11:00

I can see your point gronne, but what you have to remember is that most of the people who make these emu's have jobs, kids etc so time is precious, as well as the cash. I suggest that whatever emu everyone wants to see they could pay a little to the programmers, that and knowing a few guys in here such as Troy and chui, I can tell you that they do work incredibly hard to get us these emu's. So come on people a few donations to help keep the emu's rolling!!!

**jojotjuh** · June 7th, 2006, 11:01

so, i tried it on my supercard sd

and all version i load super hangon from romreactor(searc, firstin list (bin file)) itkeeps restarting!
i tried all version including the nds file converted by ndsconverter by sata.

but still, great work

**Junixx** · June 7th, 2006, 11:57

ive been waiting for someone to work on a decent genesis emu, this works great for me, ive tried it with sonic, columns, and zombies ate my niegbors, and they all work,

keep up the good work!

~EDIT~

BTW im using GBAMP CF, runs slow, but still playable

**gronne** · June 7th, 2006, 12:28

Originally Posted by scrabbus

I can see your point gronne, but what you have to remember is that most of the people who make these emu's have jobs, kids etc so time is precious, as well as the cash. I suggest that whatever emu everyone wants to see they could pay a little to the programmers, that and knowing a few guys in here such as Troy and chui, I can tell you that they do work incredibly hard to get us these emu's. So come on people a few donations to help keep the emu's rolling!!!

Yes, absolutely. I was following an xbox project for two or three years instensively, but a week ago or two, he just said it's dead. Sure the time I spent checking up on it was rediculous, but it tends to get that way, and I REALLY felt annoyed that he gave up just like that. May sound stupid as I'm not the programmer, but I feel there is a certain responsibility to atleast keep people updated. At least he gave out the code, but I doubt anyone will use it.

But yes, money is actually a good idea, just see all these competitions. Generally what's produced is pretty bad, but once in a while there's something good. But who's gonna pay? I know they did that to an N64 emu on xbox and it worked out well, but it was something there was a huge demand for, so what's the biggest demand in the DS-scene? I'd say SNES, but genesis isn't very far after. BTW, it feels like if someone picks up a project and slow down on it, other coders seem reluctant to pick up their own project because one is "on the way". If noone would've made the snesemu SnesDS(hasn't been updated since december, feels abandoned) I'm sure someone would've tried their own porting, and could've been far more successful, but since one is "being made", noone seems interested.

**deedark** · June 7th, 2006, 13:18

I don't know what I'm doing wrong... I' m placing Picodrive in my M3 Mini-SD with M3loadee,and it runs, but every rom I try to load makes it stop right after being loaded. It shows the ROM Size, the ROM header info, and then displays "PicoDriveDS 0.1" and freezes

**Knuxman** · June 7th, 2006, 14:43

Originally Posted by deedark

I don't know what I'm doing wrong... I' m placing Picodrive in my M3 Mini-SD with M3loadee,and it runs, but every rom I try to load makes it stop right after being loaded. It shows the ROM Size, the ROM header info, and then displays "PicoDriveDS 0.1" and freezes

The same happens to me, and I have a SuperCard SD

**jojotjuh** · June 7th, 2006, 15:19

happen to me too.

**DimensionT** · June 7th, 2006, 17:09

YEEESSSS!!! Finaly a DS Genesis emulator that actualy plays some games!

@Gronne: If you haven't tested this yet you seriously should. It actually works really good.
No sound support (the emulator he ported doesn't support sound yet so that's not DS's problem) and games run about half speed, but it played every game I threw at it. Alot of games are very playable (even Sonic, though the slower pace saddens me a little