Just a heads up on a project I'm working on, which I will release as open source soon. Following on from my MiWi2 dumps, which couldn't run in EmuVT because of a bizarre scrambling scheme, I decided it was time to write a new emulator for the later, less NES-based, VT devices starting with the VT168.
At the moment the CPU and memory stuff seems to be working, along with the opcode descrambling, it will load the MiWi2 ROMs without crashing. The next step is to deal with some bugs in the PPU implementation (at the moment all I have on screen is a few coloured squares).
Hopefully I'll have something publicly available this week.
The next step after the VT168 is working would be to start adding support for even newer devices, particularly the VT368/VT369. I'm curious whether there are any ROMs suspected to be for these systems floating around, post here or PM me if you have any so I can start looking at reverse engineering those.[/quote]can you make also a vt168 emulator for game boy advance please, so that my dream can come true
I don't think there's ever going to be one for the GBA, buy a GPD Win
- davidstech
- Dec 18 2017, 10:57:12 AM
I don't think there's ever going to be one for the GBA, buy a GPD Win[/quote]ok, i give up, i thougt it is 16 bit and it will work, but it doesn't, well i cant do anything to make my dream true, nothing , is there just one way to make my dream true :O , i cant buy a GPD win, first, it is extremly expensive and this thing just runs FRICKING WINDOWS 10 >_> , it cannot run windows 7, neither windows xp <_< , all that is more unnecessary, first, i actually own a overmax ov gamer 2:https://www.ceneo.pl/33605860, so it is ok /:) , but i needed one for gba, simply because, it would be fun to play it on a actual gba
Yeah sorry kelvin, I understand and also love the GBA but apparently the homebrew scene is dead. Sorry to say.
And thank you so much davidstech. Lots of progress on VT emulation has been happening, which is a perfect Christmas present.
Also, I suppose he could get a GPD XD if these VT emulators have their APK counterparts eventually?
Yeah maybe once it's done I could turn it into a libretro core then it could be used with RetroArch on Android - then you could use a GPD XD or any Android phone with a gamepad
- Y2K05
- Dec 18 2017, 12:34:00 PM
Yeah sorry kelvin, I understand and also love the GBA but apparently the homebrew scene is dead. Sorry to say.
And thank you so much davidstech. Lots of progress on VT emulation has been happening, which is a perfect Christmas present.
Also, I suppose he could get a GPD XD if these VT emulators have their APK counterparts eventually?[/quote]ok, i now understand, my biggest dream, WILL, NEVER, COME, TRUE :P
just a joke
If anyone is curious I've attached some screenshots of the current state of development - at the moment the MiWi2/InterAct input is not emulated so can't get past the title screen.
Attachments:
- wip_interact_8in1.png (19.4 KB) (http://b3.ifrm.com/30023/163/0/p3006019/wip_interact_8in1.png)
- wip_miwi2_sports.png (22.46 KB) (http://b3.ifrm.com/30023/163/0/p3006020/wip_miwi2_sports.png)
- wip_miwi2_games.png (15.43 KB) (http://b3.ifrm.com/30023/163/0/p3006021/wip_miwi2_games.png)
Oohhh, nice!
Just curious but how did you dump those carts? Did you solder them or something? I know some months back I wished I could desolder plug'n'plays to dump but sadly cannot (especially dump and then put back together). Also, I'm not a programmer but I have been kinda obsessed with plug'n'play technology for a while now.
Additionally, is this VT168? The last screenshot with the drums or something reminds me of this, although someone told me it's Sunplus? I forget--maybe VT168 was made to compete with Sunplus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt5Wl69uRZ4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt5Wl69uRZ4)
- davidstech
- Dec 18 2017, 01:17:29 PM
If anyone is curious I've attached some screenshots of the current state of development - at the moment the MiWi2/InterAct input is not emulated so can't get past the title screen.[/quote]OH MY GOODNESS,JUST LOOK AT THE MIWI2GAMES PICTURE, THE BOY LOOKS LIKE HE IS THREATENING YOU SAYING "I WILL CRUSH YOU" =O
The carts were dumped using an incredibly bodged adapter for my universal programmer, I've actually got a PCB ordered that will function as a proper dumper for various systems including the VT168. I'm also planning on building a jig using "pogo pins" for dumping the chip-on-board style ROMs common on plug and play handhelds.
Interesting to see that handheld, it's definitely Sunplus though.
Wait, so you're able to disassemble and dump plug'n'plays and cartridges for them?
I haven't done any plug'n'plays yet, I should be able to by the new year though. I can dump OneBus cartridges already though. Curious if there are any systems for sale at the moment that people would like to see dumped.
If anyone is curious, would like to help (help reverse engineering the MiWi2 input system would be much appreciated!) or just track progress I've put the source code so far on GitHub
https://github.com/daveshah1/openvtx (https://github.com/daveshah1/openvtx)
Binaries will be published once it's working well enough to release.
Hmm the source code seems to be based on MAME's. Do you plan to merge this into MAME?
No it's not MAME based at the moment. Would be a possibility for the future though
Some good news. Most of the critical PPU bugs have been fixed, and I've made an initial attempt at implementing the MiWi 2 input (it works but it's quite hacky and the button order isn't correct ATM).
It does now seem to run all of the games I tried without crashing and with some degree of graphics visible, most of the games do still have some PPU issues - mostly due to a bad scrolling implementation.
Hopefully it won't be too long to fix these remaining issues.
Now approximately 90% of the graphical issues are solved. The only games with major issues are the "3D" racing games, I suspect it's due to whatever they use for perspective. Still a bit of work before it's ready to be released, in particular some kind of initial UI and a Windows build.
Public release of version 0.10 posted at the top.
- davidstech
- Dec 18 2017, 10:57:12 AM
I don't think there's ever going to be one for the GBA, buy a GPD Win[/quote]ok, if it doesn,t work on gba, can the vt168 emulation maybe work on a nokia n gage, or a nintendo ds :|
From a technical point of view it might work, anything that can emulate a SNES could emulate a VT168, the problem is it would be an awful amount of work which I don't think anyone is going to do given the small number of people interested in such a thing. At the moment I haven't spent any time optimising it so it only just manages 50-60fps on a high-end desktop.
Do you think emulation on a handheld like Android or Nintendo 3DS is more likely? Just wondering. It would be cool if it were on 3DS or Android since people still use those handhelds. Not just VTxxx but the VT03 and VT09 stuff too. I've been enjoying VT02 games on VirtuaNES on 3DS, and NESemu on my GPD XD.
Just wondering is all.
- davidstech
- Dec 20 2017, 04:04:27 PM
From a technical point of view it might work, anything that can emulate a SNES could emulate a VT168, the problem is it would be an awful amount of work which I don't think anyone is going to do given the small number of people interested in such a thing. At the moment I haven't spent any time optimising it so it only just manages 50-60fps on a high-end desktop.[/quote]oh come on, do the work, you can do it,
I'll keep my fingers for you and your work crossed
- Y2K05
- Dec 20 2017, 04:08:10 PM
Do you think emulation on a handheld like Android or Nintendo 3DS is more likely? Just wondering. It would be cool if it were on 3DS or Android since people still use those handhelds. Not just VTxxx but the VT03 and VT09 stuff too. I've been enjoying VT02 games on VirtuaNES on 3DS, and NESemu on my GPD XD.
Just wondering is all.[/quote]Android is the most likely, if I add this to MAME or make it into a retroarch core. Not sure about the VT03 or VT09 stuff, that would be best done by modifying an existing NES emulator for Android.
It turns out the reason that the racing games had graphical problems is that they were changing the PPU setup and tile map mid frame, which I hadn't anticipated in my code as I underestimated Waixing...
A new binary release with this fixed will come soon, just need to sort out a couple of other issues too.
Screenshots of some of the games are on the VTxxx page on BGW.
- davidstech
- Dec 18 2017, 10:57:12 AM
I don't think there's ever going to be one for the GBA, buy a GPD Win[/quote]no vt goodnes on GBA but only on GPD win?
no, there has to be a possibility to emulate it on the PAP k3 plus