Regen for Linux and Windows

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:57 pm

Ah, when the new release is out I'll find out why it doesn't work.

Thanks for adding it.

I'll probably upload a bunch of .dats I made for some games and hacked games.

tetsuo55 · Post by **tetsuo55** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:16 pm

i sure hope xml based roms in zips gains momentum, would be great to be able to add cheat.dat for each game into its own zip file

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:17 am

I'm going to keep track of bugs and issues people have noticed in this post. If you find anything, please post it here and I'll edit this post.

Emulator issues & bugs noticed (updated for the current Regen v0.77):

Windows Version:

-Turning a cheat "Off" doesn't disable the effect. Confirmed
-Loading Save States may sometimes lead to corruption. Confirmed
-Savestates don't work with Virtua Racing (technical limitation) Confirmed
-Regen can't read and use SRM files created and used in Gens and Kega. Confirmed
-Loading a ROM from the Load ROM dialog then loading a cheat for the game, causes the Load ROM window to open at the Cheats folder, not the ROMs folder. Possible Vista-only issue. Needs To Be Confirmed By Others On Vista

Sound Issues:

-In Sonic 3 (And Sonic 3 & Knuckles) when the aircraft appears to drop bombs on you at the end of zone 1 act 2 there are some clipping artifacts in the audio. This occurs using both the 44100 and 48000 sampling rates and the SuperHQ setting has no effect on it either. Confirmed

Non-working games:

-Ya-Se Chuan Shuo (Ch) Requires Extra Hardware

Linux Version:

-No GUI yet.
-Slowdowns *can* happen.
-Using key direction combinations like up+left/up+right/down+left/down+right causes the main directions to not respond until a couple presses, nor are those combos supported.

Also, I'm going to keep track of feature requests in this topic...

----------------
GENERAL
----------------

-ROM Browser. Based off Gens32's ROM Explorer.
-TAS features: movie recording with re-recording support, frame advance, etc.
-Various development and hacking features (VRAM, palette, sprite list, and VDP registers view, YM2612 and PSG registers view (and YM2612 registers dump), enable/disable VDP planes, etc.)
-Full 68k debugger with breakpoints, traces, etc (Gens KMod or Gens Tracer for example).
-Cheat code finder. Like the one Kega as, but enhanced to use the debugger as well (if needed).
-Automatically save and load Cheats for games (based upon the naming scheme of the ROMs, like Kega).
-Editable cheat window interface. Meaning the ability to add/delete selected cheats (New Cheat & Delete Cheat buttons), and edit (Edit Cheat).
-Cheat window remembers it's position when opening it.
-An option to to control how much the screen is brightened with a sub-menu and adjustable by certain percents.
-IPS patch support (with a customizable directory for this via the config)
-Separate configuration settings for sound related things, like directories and adjustments to games that have issues.
-Kega's netplay with the ability to play with Kega.
-Support for the Sega VR via disassembling the VR tester ROM.
-Support for the Sega Pico tablet and pen.
-Ability to load a new game over an existing running game.
-Ability to "remove" the game cart while the game is running.
-Ability to use up+down and left+right key combinations.
-7zip ROM explorer (ability to pick which ROM to open from inside a 7zip archive.
-Custom message font with size and color.
-The ability to dump music as GYM (with a directory set up to do this).
-Support for custom windowed/fullscreen sizes (like Gens32).
-The ability (via a Tools sub-menu called "Sprites") to selectively disable sprite layers and backgrounds, and to put sprites on top).
-Add Kega's Preferred Order country function to the Country selection (may need to split off the Country menu as a main menu for itself, again like Kega). This will help some users whom want to change the auto detection order.
-Ability to set certain functions (like Turbo Mode) to gamepads, with the ability to toggle turbo mode on/off with a gamepad.

----------------
GENESIS
----------------

-Support for the Genesis BIOS (with some toggle to enable/disable it in the config).
-Unique directory for the Genesis BIOS file (BIOS/Genesis?)
-Game lock-on support via a "Load Lock-On" menu item to choose up to 4 ROMs to "lock together" as one game. Examples of 2 are Game Genie + a game, or Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 3. An Example of 3 locked together games are Game Genie + Sonic & Knuckes + Sonic 3, or Sonic & Knuckles + Sonic 2K UPMEM + Sonic 2. An Example of 4 locked together games are Game Genie + Sonic & Knuckes + Sonic 2K UPMEM + Sonic 2.

zack · Post by **zack** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:54 am

Tte video and sound of "hybrid front"' opening demo didn't sync well in regen.

You can check this movie for how it should be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7iM_XfN ... re=related

AamirM · Post by **AamirM** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:41 pm

Hi,

@ zack

I will look into the problem. Thanks for reporting.

@ King Of Chaos

Thanks once again. Shame on me not thinking of it first

.

stay safe,

AamirM

bobthebuilder · Post by **bobthebuilder** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 5:13 pm

http://www.spritesmind.net/_GenDev/foru ... ight=#4323

I read your post on the forum above and it occurred to me that by making your program open source it allows your program to have a longer life span if/when you stop developing it (When Steve Snake left Kgen was considered outdated and could not be updated). It is 100% your choice and either way good job on the emulator, but there are some possible benefits to going open source.

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 5:57 pm

AamirM wrote:@ King Of Chaos

Thanks once again. Shame on me not thinking of it first .

No problem. Trial and error and playing around helps. I'll be doing more of that today to try to get those pesky ones to work FINALLY.

AamirM · Post by **AamirM** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:05 pm

bobthebuilder wrote:http://www.spritesmind.net/_GenDev/foru ... ight=#4323

I read your post on the forum above and it occurred to me that by making your program open source it allows your program to have a longer life span if/when you stop developing it (When Steve Snake left Kgen was considered outdated and could not be updated). It is 100% your choice and either way good job on the emulator, but there are some possible benefits to going open source.

That is why I said I may open source when I am done(stop developing) with it.

etabeta · Post by **etabeta** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:27 pm

would you mind to explain what the problem with Sesame Street was, and how you did fix it?

thx

AamirM · Post by **AamirM** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 6:37 pm

etabeta wrote:would you mind to explain what the problem with Sesame Street was, and how you did fix it?

thx

It required to execute an extra instuction when VINT(Mode Set Register 2 bit 6) are enabled/disabled.

etabeta · Post by **etabeta** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 7:40 pm

thanks a lot

bobthebuilder · Post by **bobthebuilder** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:00 am

AamirM wrote:
bobthebuilder wrote:http://www.spritesmind.net/_GenDev/foru ... ight=#4323

I read your post on the forum above and it occurred to me that by making your program open source it allows your program to have a longer life span if/when you stop developing it (When Steve Snake left Kgen was considered outdated and could not be updated). It is 100% your choice and either way good job on the emulator, but there are some possible benefits to going open source.
That is why I said I may open source when I am done(stop developing) with it.

Thanks for the reply. I enjoy the fruits of the work you, the authors of emulators, put into your programs and just hate to see all that work disappear. Keep up the good work!

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Sat Mar 01, 2008 4:43 pm

Oh, I'm sure his work won't disappear.

Who knows, when (if) it goes open source, maybe somebody can properly update Gens and people can stop hating it for compatibility and accuracy reasons.

AamirM · Post by **AamirM** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 9:25 am

Hi,

Version 0.5 has just been uploaded. Download link in the first post as always.

stay safe,

AamirM

zack · Post by **zack** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 3:52 pm

Another bug I forgot to mention before.
You will get corrupted graphic in some games if u load new game after playing VR ricing without close Regen.

for instance: rockman megaworld

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 4:10 pm

Ah yes, and there's the new icons and an option to disable the sprite limitation!

Also, with some PAR codes, you might need to change the address back by one or two to make sure it works.

P.S. AamirM, the chaos emerald codes finally work!

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 4:33 pm

Hey, great work on another cool release. But, there's a slight thing I need to mention. It's only a very minor thing on Sonic the Hedghog 2, when I use the sound test, the emulator says "game locked up" when I try soundtracks 1-5. Other than that, this emulator has gotten waay better![/i]

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 4:35 pm

I edited the bug list above, and I'll check out the Sonic 2 lockup in a moment.

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 4:48 pm

Ok, just tested and it indeed does crash the emulator for me (no popup) in the level select sound test.

Sound 6 in the normal Options sound test give it a lockup.

neo_bahamut1985 · Post by **neo_bahamut1985** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 4:56 pm

Oh, the 6th soundtrack. Okay. Another bug to add (sorry) chnaging the sound rate (44KHz to 48KHz) kills some of the sound channels but can be resolved by resetting the game.

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:04 pm

Ah, I wonder if that's just the effect from changing the sound rate?

Ok guys I've been creating and modifying cheat .dat files for some games. Keep in mind I had to modify a lot of the codes to work, so here you go. Just copy and paste into Notepad and save it as Sonic 2.dat

[0]
Name=MASTER CODE (MUST BE ENTERED)
0=Off
1=On,000344:6004

[1]
Name=Level Select
0=Off
1=Enable,FFFFD0:0001
2=Disable,FFFFD0:0000

[2]
Name=Debug Mode
0=Off
1=Enable,FFFFD2:0001
2=Disable,FFFFD2:0000

[3]
Name=Chaos Emerald Modifier
0=Off
1=None,FFFFB1:0000
2=One,FFFFB1:0001
3=Two,FFFFB1:0002
4=Three,FFFFB1:0003
5=Four,FFFFB1:0004
6=Five,FFFFB1:0005
7=Six,FFFFB1:0006
8=Seven,FFFFB1:0007

[4]
Name=Invincibility
0=Off
1=On,FFB02B:0003

[5]
Name=Infinite Lives
0=Off
1=On,FFFE12:0009

[6]
Name=Infinite Time
0=Off
1=On,FFFE24:0000

[7]
Name=Character Modifier
0=Off
1=Sonic And Tails,FFFF70:0000
2=Sonic,FFFF70:0001
3=Tails,FFFF70:0002
4="Weird" Tails,FFFF70:0003

[8]
Name=Rings Modifier
0=Off
1=1 Ring,FFFE20:0001
2=50 Rings,FFFE20:0032
3=100 Rings,FFFE20:0064

[9]
Name=Doesn't Lose Rings When Hit
0=Off
1=Sonic,01217E:6004
2=Tails,012192:6004

[10]
Name=Super Sonic Doesn't Lose Rings With Time
0=Off
1=On,01ABEC:604E

[11]
Name=Sonic Looks Like Super Sonic (Disables Super Sonic)
0=Off
1=On,FFFE19:0001

[12]
Name=The Regular Level Music Plays When Super Sonic
0=Off
1=On,0FCBBC:0000

[13]
Name=Never Drown
0=Off
1=Sonic,FFB028:00FA
2=Tails,FFB068:00FA

[14]
Name=Disable Water On Levels
0=Off
1=On,FFF64A:FFFF

[15]
Name=Start Most Levels With Some Rings
0=Off
1=On,0041C0:31C4

tetsuo55 · Post by **tetsuo55** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:35 pm

is there actually a default format for cheatfiles? that would(reas should) work with all emulators support cheats?

If not maybe we should startup a discussion and design such a standard(outside of the thread ofcouse)

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:41 pm

Well, all Genesis emulators more or less support Game Genie and Pro Action Replay. BUT, some PAR codes that work in Gens for example, don't work in Kega and vice versa. Also applies to Regen, some codes created in Kega don't work in Regen unless you modify the address or offset. I'm working on porting all of my Kega cheats over and fixing them for Regen.

Game Genie works universal between all the emulators, but it only modifies ROM as far as I know (although, I heard somebody found a way to modify RAM with it). PAR modifies the Genesis RAM.

So the record is straight, Gens does PAR incorrectly, and Kega does PAR like actual hardware.

If a cheat doesn't work for somebody, tell me and I'll look at it and see if I can force it to work.

tetsuo55 · Post by **tetsuo55** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:44 pm

Do you know why PAR works on one and doesn't on another? incompatibility does post a problem from a cheat.dat-in-zip solution

King Of Chaos · Post by **King Of Chaos** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:48 pm

Kega is the only emulator doing PAR correctly. Gens is off on some codes, and does the horrible function of using byteswapped offsets. If codes are created in Gens, you literally have to modify the code by changing address by one or two in either direction and switching the byteswapped offset to allow the code to work in Kega.

Regen does PAR closely to what Kega is, but you still need to change some addresses/offsets on some codes to ensure they work.

Personally, I like the idea of having Regen automatically load cheats for games, the only prerequisite being the cheats have to have the exact name as the game. If you have your names sorted via GoodGen, GoodGen names for all cheats.