Genesis / Megadrive core ported to MiST

[vebxenon]

Here's the official tutorial how to remap USB game controllers on MiST:

https://github.com/mist-devel/mist-boar ... ickMapping

I tried it earlier with a Thrustmaster T.Flight Stick X joy, and works great!

Well, I don't understand how to map my pad, and I haven't been successful . So I'm using again my old pad.

My new pad is just like this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/PC-MAC- ... 36648.html

On Mega Drive core, for example, X is start...

[DrOG]

I think the online manual is clear, just follow it step-by-step as described in the 'Tutorial - creating your own mappings' part.

The only problem may be that some devices are not 100% recognized, i.e. in case of my Genius MaxFighter F-16U joy some analogue directions are not working. But besides the Thrustmaster I own 2 cheap noname gamepads as well, and the remapping works with them also flawless.

[vebxenon]

I think the online manual is clear, just follow it step-by-step as described in the 'Tutorial - creating your own mappings' part.

The only problem may be that some devices are not 100% recognized, i.e. in case of my Genius MaxFighter F-16U joy some analogue directions are not working. But besides the Thrustmaster I own 2 cheap noname gamepads as well, and the remapping works with them also flawless.

Ok, I'm going go try it again

[vebxenon]

Finally

joystick_remap=0810,E501,1,2,4,8,800,20,10,400,0,40,0,0,0,80

Now I'm going to use this pad for all the cores

[Sheldon]

Just when I thought the MiST was dead, you came around with an update to the Genesis core. Thank you. This is a nice improvement.

Hello, yes good news Mist still alive !!!

[robinsonb5]

I've just uploaded another snapshot with further speed improvements in the video subsystem. I'm hopeful that this will be the end of the sprite problems:
http://retroramblings.net/?p=1201

[DanyPPC]

Good news for my MiST !

[DanyPPC]

Excellent work !
I remember someone had written that it was not possible to have these results on the MiST.

Now the audio emulation needs to be improved, and the color-change while playing with most games.

[DrOG]

Thanks for your effort!

Some games, i.e. Dune II are now completely free from graphic glitches, but others (i.e. Worms, on the bottom of the screen) did not improve at all, perhaps it's another (not sprite-related) issue, or a 'metastabilty problem' (see screenshots, first picture taken from the last core of Jotego, second one from the first fixed version (released on the 25th of March), and the third from the latest mod (20th of April).

[robinsonb5]

but others (i.e. Worms, on the bottom of the screen) did not improve at all, perhaps it's another (not sprite-related) issue, or a 'metastabilty problem'

Yeah, I don't know what's causing the Worms issue - but it's not the sprite channel running out of bandwidth, that's something else entirely.

[hyperterminal]

Thank you for the update. This is really very much appreciated. Thanks to you, the Genesis core is in a very playable state now.

Yesterday I tested your core with the game Streets of Rage II. I played from start to finish and apart from the background music I only noticed a small graphical glitch where parts of a sprite are missing. It happens in stage 2 after you have entered the Van. It only affects one of the yellow motorcycle guys in the background. The scene I am referring to can be seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R643sIpuGa8&t=2m16s

EDIT: Just noticed there are multiple sprites missing in the game Battletoads and Double Dragon (portraits in the character select screen and the text from the boss Abobo at the beginning of the first stage).

[vebxenon]

I've just uploaded another snapshot with further speed improvements in the video subsystem. I'm hopeful that this will be the end of the sprite problems:
http://retroramblings.net/?p=1201

Outstanding . I'll test it tomorrow . Thanks very much!!

[robinsonb5]

EDIT: Just noticed there are multiple sprites missing in the game Battletoads and Double Dragon (portraits in the character select screen and the text from the boss Abobo at the beginning of the first stage).

Thanks for that - I'm not good at Streets of Rage (never having had a Megadrive as a kid!) - so seeing the glitch there will take me some time! But thanks for naming the other two games - I will check those out soon.

There's not much scope left for further improvement, but I can try tweaking the point at which the sprite engine starts and stops to allow it a bit more total bus time.

[phoboz]

but others (i.e. Worms, on the bottom of the screen) did not improve at all, perhaps it's another (not sprite-related) issue, or a 'metastabilty problem'

Yeah, I don't know what's causing the Worms issue - but it's not the sprite channel running out of bandwidth, that's something else entirely.

Great, this was a very pleasant surprise that the Megadrive/Genesis core has evolved and improved so much. Thank you to all that have made this possible. Regarding the graphical issues with worms looks like the same issue you can see on the Sonic 2 split screen (2 player vs. mode)
That has to do with the fact that FPGAGEN does not implement the Interlace graphics mode (e.g. twice the vertical resolution, but alternate drawing every second scan-line each frame) Usually you see the picture jumping a bit up and down on a CRT TV in this mode.
So this definitely does not have anything to do with the memory bandwidth, rather the messed up graphics is there because that graphics mode has not been implemented at all (yet?) in FPGAGEN.

[jotego]

but others (i.e. Worms, on the bottom of the screen) did not improve at all, perhaps it's another (not sprite-related) issue, or a 'metastabilty problem'

Yeah, I don't know what's causing the Worms issue - but it's not the sprite channel running out of bandwidth, that's something else entirely.

I think I have seen a similar bug on Double Dragon II

[hyperterminal]

Does anyone know what the hardcoded core name for the FPGAGEN core is?

I want to use the per core settings override option in the mame.ini to specify a custom button mapping just for the FPGAGEN core. I tried [fpgagen] but it didn't work.

EDIT: Attached are some screenshots of the sprite bugs I have encountered so far. The images are taken from a 15 KHz CRT monitor.

• Streets of Rage 2 (stage 2)
• Michael Jackson's Moonwalker (stage 1)
• Battletoads and Double Dargon (missing text at the beginning of stage 1 and hidden portrait images at the character select screen)

[DanyPPC]

Does anyone know what the hardcoded core name for the FPGAGEN core is?

For me works in this mode:

[mist]
scandoubler_disable=0 ; set to 1 to run supported cores in 15khz
mouse_boot_mode=0 ; set to 1 if a mouse does not work well
joystick_disable_shortcuts=0 ; set to 1 to remove joystick -> keyboard commands
joystick_ignore_hat=0 ; set to 1 if having issues on gamepads with 'POV hat'
joystick_ignore_osd=0 ; set to 1 to prevent gamepad from controlling OSD
key_menu_as_rgui=0 ; set to 1 to bind Menu USB key to RGUI (=Right Amiga in Minimig)
joystick_remap=0810,E501,1,2,4,8,8,10,20,10,400,800,0,0,40,80
joy_key_map=1000,E2
joy_key_map=2000,E6
joy_key_map=4,51
joy_key_map=8,52

[fpgagen]
joystick_remap=0810,E501,1,2,4,8,20,40,20,10,400,800,0,0,40,80

[DanyPPC]

Excuse me, maybe it does not work as it should, I have to do other tests.

[arty]

but others (i.e. Worms, on the bottom of the screen) did not improve at all, perhaps it's another (not sprite-related) issue, or a 'metastabilty problem'

Yeah, I don't know what's causing the Worms issue - but it's not the sprite channel running out of bandwidth, that's something else entirely.

I think I have seen a similar bug on Double Dragon II

Hi Jotego!
Any news about progress with FM synthesis part of Sega Megadrive core?
Thank you for your efforts of reimplementation of its sound chip!
Thanks Phoboz and Robinsonb5 for rest of core's code too!

[jotego]

Yeah, I don't know what's causing the Worms issue - but it's not the sprite channel running out of bandwidth, that's something else entirely.

I think I have seen a similar bug on Double Dragon II

Hi Jotego!
Any news about progress with FM synthesis part of Sega Megadrive core?
Thank you for your efforts of reimplementation of its sound chip!
Thanks Phoboz and Robinsonb5 for rest of core's code too!

Yes, there are news:

Alexey, from MiSTer, found one issue and could correct it in MiSTer. Technical details:

JT12 works at the clock frequency of the YM2612 and needs synchronizers to operate with the rest of the system in FPGAgen. Apparently the signal synchronization of the Z80 to JT12 interface was not working well and some of the instruction data sent by the Z80 was not being captured correctly by JT12, hence funny sounds. This might be what happends on Ghosts'n Goblins arcade too.

Fixed that -on MiSTer's version of FPGAgen- there are still a few games with funny sounds.

It is very difficult to debug this hardware because of all the pipelining -which follows original design. So I am currently working on a different approach. I am making a small 16-bit RISC CPU that can do the FM synthesis on software so it will be easier to debug problems and it will take less FPGA space. The second part is important because I am trying to make it fix on the ZX-UNO project too. I am rather advanced on this effort, which the assembler code of the synthesizer core ready and the Verilog implementation of the main units of the CPU done. But I still need more time to finish it.

[arty]

I think I have seen a similar bug on Double Dragon II

Hi Jotego!
Any news about progress with FM synthesis part of Sega Megadrive core?
Thank you for your efforts of reimplementation of its sound chip!
Thanks Phoboz and Robinsonb5 for rest of core's code too!

Yes, there are news:

Alexey, from MiSTer, found one issue and could correct it in MiSTer. Technical details:

JT12 works at the clock frequency of the YM2612 and needs synchronizers to operate with the rest of the system in FPGAgen. Apparently the signal synchronization of the Z80 to JT12 interface was not working well and some of the instruction data sent by the Z80 was not being captured correctly by JT12, hence funny sounds. This might be what happends on Ghosts'n Goblins arcade too.

Fixed that -on MiSTer's version of FPGAgen- there are still a few games with funny sounds.

It is very difficult to debug this hardware because of all the pipelining -which follows original design. So I am currently working on a different approach. I am making a small 16-bit RISC CPU that can do the FM synthesis on software so it will be easier to debug problems and it will take less FPGA space. The second part is important because I am trying to make it fix on the ZX-UNO project too. I am rather advanced on this effort, which the assembler code of the synthesizer core ready and the Verilog implementation of the main units of the CPU done. But I still need more time to finish it.

Jotego, thank you for detailed description of current state.
Good luck with your approach for debug and other milestones for sound subsystem of Megadrive!

[Kujako]

Having the same problem with this core as I do with the PC Engine... lots of my ROM images simply do not show up.

[arty]

Having the same problem with this core as I do with the PC Engine... lots of my ROM images simply do not show up.

This core uses *.bin-files only as format for rom images. Plus try PageUp & PageDown to navigate faster through list.
SBWin converts between popular formats of Megadrive rom images.

[Kujako]

Having the same problem with this core as I do with the PC Engine... lots of my ROM images simply do not show up.

This core uses *.bin-files only as format for rom images. Plus try PageUp & PageDown to navigate faster through list.
SBWin converts between popular formats of Megadrive rom images.

The problem is that for many of my ROMs, a blank line is shown instead of the name and everything after the first dozen or so are missing. As I said, same issue I see with the PCE core, looks like it uses the same or similar file manager. Not found a cause or solution as of yet...

So for example, while I have all the Sonics, I can only see and load the compilation ROM, which in this case is fine since that covers 1-3 and it runs quite well. But it loads slow, since its so large. I would rather just be able to load Sonic 1 if that's what I want to play.

[arty]

Having the same problem with this core as I do with the PC Engine... lots of my ROM images simply do not show up.

This core uses *.bin-files only as format for rom images. Plus try PageUp & PageDown to navigate faster through list.
SBWin converts between popular formats of Megadrive rom images.

The problem is that for many of my ROMs, a blank line is shown instead of the name and everything after the first dozen or so are missing. As I said, same issue I see with the PCE core, looks like it uses the same or similar file manager. Not found a cause or solution as of yet...

So for example, while I have all the Sonics, I can only see and load the compilation ROM, which in this case is fine since that covers 1-3 and it runs quite well. But it loads slow, since its so large. I would rather just be able to load Sonic 1 if that's what I want to play.

Maybe it's time to sort out your roms Anyway check again if all of them are *.bin and *.pce only types of roms. Update to latest firmware, check|reformat file system of your memory card (fat16<->fat32 variants). In both cases with latest versions of PCE or Megadrive core, I didn't deal with problem of blanks spaces in file manager. I have own collection of best & selected games for both platfroms about 300+ something games and everything is going fine in terms of file manager of both cores.