in the softlist. The official syntax to launch disk games is now
mess famicom -cart disksys -flop gamename
which corresponds to inserting the RAM expansion cart with
connected the disk drive into the cartslot and the desired disk
in the disk drive (exactly like you would have done with the
real thing). In this way, you cannot mount anymore both a cart and
a disk in the Family Computer (as in a real unit).
Users that cannot cope with this limitation and/or with the new
syntax can still use the famitwin driver (which offers both cart and
disk options) or the newly added driver fds which emulates a
famicom with the expansion always inserted: in both latter cases
the old syntax
mess famitwin -flop gamename
will launch the game, as previously. [Fabio Priuli]
(MESS) famicom: fixed disk system IRQ latch clear in Kaettekita
Mario Bros. based on investigations by FHorse. [Fabio Priuli]
Out of whatsnew: For the moment I gave up the original plan to
also modernize the floppy drive and the disk format. If anyone
wants to look into these, be my guest :-)
pass-through cart. Correct syntax to launch e.g. Dizzy The Adventurer
is now "mess nes -cart ade -cart2 dizzyadv". Moved Aladdin minicart
dumps to a separate softlist (but you can load in -cart2 iNES files from
fullpath, if you like) [Fabio Priuli]
nes_camerica: simplified emulation of the BF9096 board and fixed
emulation of GoldenFive board (used by the Polish Pegasus 5 in 1
cart). [Fabio Priuli]
out of whatsnew: this commit completes the recent work about emulating properly the
different pass-through NES/Famicom devices and their corresponding mini-carts...
there should be no more games requiring non-standard syntax to be launched.
now select songs and see the animation, even if I would not call playable the
games this way. [Fabio Priuli]
out of whatsnew: the expansion slot is currently hacked around at loading time.
I will soon implement it as a subslot, but I still need to check a few details first.
Datach games have now to be loaded with the following commands
"mess nes -cart datach -cart2 gamename" where gamename can be
either a shortname from the datach softlist, or a fullpath to the iNES files
(or to headerless 256k dump of the Datach minicarts). This is accurate
to the hardware, because Datach carts could not be mounted in the main
Famicom cartridge slot. [Fabio Priuli]
to be enabled in Controller Port 2 through the Driver Configuration
submenu, and mapped by default on TY,FGHJ,BN keys for side A
layout and RTYU,FGHJ,VBNM keys for side B. [Fabio Priuli]
as detected by games (i.e. it only detects voice/no voice, while the actual
transmission of your voice to the speakers is not emulated). To use it in
games expecting you to blow or shout in the mic, select the "Gamepad
(Older Version)" as "P2 Controller" in the Driver Configuration submenu,
and press "6" when the game requires it. [Fabio Priuli]
input is recognized both by BASIC (peeking at $4016) and by Raid on Bungeling Bay 2P mode, so I think it's correct...
* simplified input reading
* moved most Famicom controllers to the expansion port
(still configurable in the Driver Config menu) because it is
more accurate and because it allows to use both the FC
keyboard and the controllers in BASIC games
* fixed NES paddle emulation which broke some years ago
* added FC paddle emulation, see Arkanoid and Chase HQ
* added Hori Twin Adapter with correct P3 & P4 Famicom
protocol, see e.g. four players games by Technos Japan
just a cleanup and the whatsnew entry for previous changes...
emulation, fixed P3 & P4 inputs in Jpn games using them). nw.
paddle now works in Chase HQ too (the NES one don't because of the different protocol),
3rd & 4th players can enter inputs in Technos games, and it turned out that Lightgun was
actually working (I had probably tested with a non-clean compile), so that at last all selectable
input devices are finally working :-)
cassette. wav files supported only. [Fabio Priuli]
(MESS) Added software list for BASIC programs saved to tape [Anna Wu, UglyJoe, Fabio Priuli]
If anyone has more Family BASIC tapes or other cassettes for Famicom games or add-ons (e.g. Bandai Karaoke or Fukutake Study Box)
or for some chinese clones (ABM, or Bridge, or any other), please contact us.
they were attached there. This temporarily breaks Lightgun and Multitap in Famicom, but in
reality they were never working in Japanese-exclusive games, only in worldwide games who
supported NES protocol, so just use the NES driver to have previous functionality until I add
support for the FC protocol. Standard pads, keyboards and mj panel work as before). nw.
improved FFE mappers (I'd be more interested into actually emulating the copier but this is
all we got at the moment...) . nw.
Also, backing up some wip code for other pcbs that still does not produce any useful result.
- converted carts, mappers and pcbs to use slot devices
- fixed starting of Famicom, Famicom Twin and Dr. PCJr
- fixed handling of "no disk" in FDS so that the system displays Mario and Luigi
jumping around as expected
- added AY8910 sound to Sunsoft-5B (Gimmick JPN sfx)
- added YM2413 to VRC-7 (Lagrange Point OST)
- added support for recorded samples to Jaleco sport titles and to Bandai Family Trainer
Aerobics Studio, thanks to notes by hap and egoh, and recordings by Pongbashi
(samples are needed because these games use a currently undumpable speech chip)
- added support for NES-EVENT pcb used by Nintendo World Championship 1990,
including dipswitches
- added support for Galoob Game Genie real usage (in addition to the codes which
Puggsy added to his cheat collections): when you load ggenie, a second cartslot
becomes available to load another game attached to the cheat device (e.g. with
"mess.exe nes -cart ggenie -cart2 smb") and you can enter the cheat codes as in a
real NES
- added support for Nantettatte!! Baseball lock-on mechanism, based on the tests
performed by naruko on his carts: when you load nantbb, a second cartslot
becomes available to load one of the two update minicarts (91 Hen or OB Hen)
- improved emulation of Namcot 163, 175 and 340 boards, based on the tests
performed by naruko, lidnariq and bootgod on the real hardware
- moved Nantettatte!! Baseball minicarts to a separate list (nes_ntbrom.xml) because
they cannot be loaded in the NES directly, but only through the nantbb subslot
- emulated bus conflict (CPU/PRG) in PCBs documented as having it
- partial emulation of open bus, enough to make working the games using it as a sort
of protection
- fixed crash when loading files using FFE mappers
- fixed mirroring in some boards (Sunsoft DCS and UNL-CC-21) and in some games
(e.g. Paris Dakar Rally Special and Escape from Atlantis)
- fixed a few bugs in Tengen 800032 emulation (mapper 64), promoting Klax, Xybots
and Road Runner to work state
- fixed Tengen 800037 emulation (mapper 158), promoting US Alien Syndrome to work
state
- added working emulation of many bootleg pcbs used for pirate conversions from FDS
(Ai Senshi Nicol, Doki Doki Panic, Fuuun Shaolin Kyo, Green Beret, Monty no Doki
Doki Daidassou, Tobidase Daisakusen, Super Mario Bros Malee 2 / Genius Merio Bros...)
- improved emulation of many pirate pcb (BMC-GOLDENCARD-6IN1, KS7013B,
KS7012, BMC-GHOSTBUSTERS63IN1, UNL-MALISB, MAXI15 and more...)
- improved RacerMate Challenge II emulation, but the game is still not working due to
unemulated bicycle controller
- added CPU-based IRQ mode in Tengen 800032 emulation (mapper 64), fixing
Skulls & Crossbones gfx (but the game is still not working)
- fixed many small inaccuracies in the old code, spot during the conversion
- added support for most other known pcbs, even if in most cases emulation is only
sketchy
- reduced the need of fake alt pbcs for boards which only differed by mirroring handling
(these are now recognized through the "mirroring" feature)
- removed fake wram which was added to a lot of partially documented pcbs and
re-added it only where actually present, so to more accurately document what was
really in the carts
Out of whatsnew: There's still a lot to do (e.g. to clean up the implementation of the pirate pcbs)
but I hope that submitting this now I can get some wider testing help so to catch and fix regressions
before next release :)
and I know that setting up ports in machine_start is not the approved way, but in this way the changes do not interfere
with my other local changes. I will move them later in the proper place, but this should be enough to kill tagmap lookups.
among other things, this allowed to remove around a thousand of machine() parameters
passed to re-get the state class at each bankswitch operation. readability says thanks.
eventually, nes_mmc and its pieces (nes_pcb, nes_ines & nes_unif) will contain a cart slot device and allow for
things like on-cart sound chips and eeprom devices to be properly emulated
