A new test version of the N64 emulator Mupen64Plus has been released.

Mupen64Plus v1.4 - June 14, 2008

 

* New feature: graphical debugger for R4300 core

* New feature: On Screen Display

* New feature: KDE4 GUI (experimental)

* New feature: cheat system with Gameshark codes

* New feature: search/filter box in GTK GUI

* New feature: single frame advance

* New feature: adjust emulator playback speed up or down in 5% increments

* New feature: Rumble Pak support with force feedback

* New feature: Map emulator functions (fullscreen, stop emulation, etc) to joystick buttons or axis movements.

* New feature: Volume up/down

* Blight Input: Individually configure each direction of X and Y axis, which allows inverting the axis

* JTTL_Audio: libsamplerate support for high quality audio resampling

* GTK GUI: Removed second status bar which was not used

* GTK GUI: Implemented accelerator keys

* GTK GUI: Replaced custom directory browser with GTK file chooser

* GTK GUI: numerous small changes and fixes

* Added Mupen64Plus ´man´ (manual) page

* Removed mupen64_audio plugin, as it was unnecessary and mostly broken

* Added NoMemoryExpansion parameter to emulate 4MB console; fixes some games

* Overhaul of rom handling functions; numerous small fixes

* Bugfix: Removed NoAudioDelay core option to resolve issue #48

* Bugfix: check for stopped state in dynarec jump function, to fix unresponsive emulator when game gets stuck in loop

* Bugfix: GTK GUI: #6 - if a ROM is selected in the ROM browser and ´play´ is pressed, emulation will start

* Bugfix: GTK GUI: #62 - ROM browser column sorting works

* Bugfix: Rice Video: Support hi-res textures with different scale factors for X and Y

* Bugfix: Blight Input: don´t use 100% CPU in configuration dialog

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Thanks to our affiliate, AEP-Emulation, for the news!

News (6/14)

 

Racin' Force I've been running some tests on Racin' Force, a Konami System GX game that uses voxels to generate a 3D playfield. It's an interesting combination of new and old hardware, the PSAC2 chip from earlier games generates a 2D ROZ layer which selects data from a color map and height map. This is used by the PSAC4 chip to render voxels to a framebuffer. An additional list of per-scanline camera data is provided as the PSAC4 knows nothing about the rotation parameters the PSAC2 applied to the color map and height map. Priority is specified for each voxel drawn so sprites can move in front of and behind specific parts of the landscape.

 

A limitation of this setup is that dropped pixels in the PSAC2 output result in missing voxel columns which makes landscape structures look flickery. However at 60 frames per second the results are extremely impressive. Consider how few custom ICs were needed to do this compared to the 3D hardware some arcade games used in 1993. For games with simple terrain such as Racin' Force and Konami's Open Golf Championship, the decision to use voxel graphics was well suited to their graphical needs and a cost-effective choice.

 

I made a low-quality video of the game in action. No controls are wired up, so the car is out of control after the attract sequence.

• Racin' Force footage
  

Of particular interest are the sloped curves on the racetrack, and the tunnel which has both a floor and ceiling made out of voxels. The PSAC4 chip has a lot of different drawing settings which have to get figured out. I've documented the PSAC2 registers and will tackle the PSAC4 next.

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R. Belmont has updated his MAME WIP page with some stuff on Nestopia.

NEStopia 1.40 status report A few screenshots to show some new features. NEStopia's always had great video filters, what happens when I raid ZiNc for audio filters?

 

 

 

And what's that "Extras" tab? 1.37 didn't have that?

 

 

A word about "preferred system": if a ROM matches more than one region, it hints to NEStopia how to play it. And just like in Windows, the Russian Dendy Famiclone is now supported including it's unique quirks.

 

Also, automatic soft-patching is now available. Put a .ips or .ups patch in the same directory as the ROM and NEStopia on Linux will pick it up and apply it automatically. If you have multiple games in an archive, put the patch outside the archive and name it after the game rather than the archive itself, then it works.

 

Here's proof: I've loaded up Akumajou Special - Boku Dracula-kun (basically "Castlevania Special: I'm Kid Dracula!") and put Kitsune Sniper's translation .ips patch in the same directory. Here's what happens with no further action on my part:

 

 

 

Nice, huh? A few more things to come and then you can play with this too.

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"Phoinix is the name of a Nintendo GameboyTM emulator for the Palm Computing® Platform"

I think this is the changelog:

2008-06-14

 

The new version v.1.4.2 is available: triggered by a user request the direction control via the pen was enhanced.

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