Release DraStic Nintendo DS emulator


The CPU stress test just went up to 1200MHz with no problems, so I'm thinking that's not the issue here. (I didn't mention this, but I am running on a 1GHz model)


Edit: I'll still try to reproduce at 975MHz.


Edit2: Can't seem to reproduce. This makes me a sad panda since apparently I can't overclock safely :(

Not necessarily... how long did you run the stress tester for? remember it goes quickly up until it detects a glitch, then starts slowly stepping down to find a stable speed. It's the stable speed you wan not the peak speed.


It's also possible there is still a random crash issue in Ghost trick. I'm still playing it, and still recording - maybe I can find something I can isolate.

Edit3: I tried saving my game in Ghost Trick, and the game said that it failed to save and told me to restart the game...

The game database has the wrong save size recorded. If you edit the entry in the game_database.xml file to reflect a save size of 0x2000 instead of 0x200 the save game will work.


- Neelix
 
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The CPU stress test just went up to 1200MHz with no problems, so I'm thinking that's not the issue here. (I didn't mention this, but I am running on a 1GHz model)


Edit: I'll still try to reproduce at 975MHz.


Edit2: Can't seem to reproduce. This makes me a sad panda since apparently I can't overclock safely :(

Not necessarily... how long did you run the stress tester for? remember it goes quickly up until it detects a glitch, then starts slowly stepping down to find a stable speed. It's the stable speed you wan not the peak speed.


It's also possible there is still a random crash issue in Ghost trick. I'm still playing it, and still recording - maybe I can find something I can isolate.
I ran the stress test for a long time last night, it stabilized at 1194MHz (stayed there for 3-4 hours with no errors). I guess it still could be an overclocking issue, I'll just have to keep testing I suppose. I was able to replicate the Ghost Trick crash (crashed in a slightly earlier place than the last time) with 1100MHz, after all.
 
Stupid question time, I still can't get any games to save in game, apart from saving states as I go along? Also, I must try find another copy of More Brain Training, as mine still crashes after the initial language selection screen. Space Invaders Extreme 2 seems to work quite well, some glitches though, will have to give it a decent workthrough before giving more concrete findings
 
Stupid question time, I still can't get any games to save in game, apart from saving states as I go along? Also, I must try find another copy of More Brain Training, as mine still crashes after the initial language selection screen. Space Invaders Extreme 2 seems to work quite well, some glitches though, will have to give it a decent workthrough before giving more concrete findings
Are you using patched roms? As I understand it,  in order for saved games to work correctly the game has to be matched to the database, and the database info has to be correct.  In order to get a database match the crc32 has to be correct, and if its a patched rom its probably not matching.

Just a thought...

- Neelix 
 
indeed,i tried jump ultimate stasr patched and tehre's no way to save other than with save states..unfortunately this game won't progress if there's a save error,so you should stuck with unpatched games..unless your'e willing to keep swithicng back and forth with a pc ds emu
 
Another solution is to add the entry to game_database.xml.

Trimmed ROMs will also give problems.. I'm wondering if I can "untrim" them while calculating CRC..

It'd be good if I can add some other metadata in the database that can be used for secondary match. For instance, game header title and ID.
 
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Another solution is to add the entry to game_database.xml.

Trimmed ROMs will also give problems.. I'm wondering if I can "untrim" them while calculating CRC..

It'd be good if I can add some other metadata in the database that can be used for secondary match. For instance, game header title and ID.
Aaah I'm glad you are looking into workarounds for this as trimming may help with certain larger ROMs not taking up so much RAM?
 
Improved frame sync. Auto frameskip should be better too, as well as audio latency. Thanks to noaz for help.
Typo in notaz in the readme. Thx for your release I will grab now one of the cc pandoras when I got money for it :) .
 
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Granted I will admit I've "acquired" some of these roms for testing from the internet (but as ever I do own physical copies of the games!), how can I tell if they've been patched? Will that be in the file name?
 
The easiest way is to check the crc32 or md5sum against a ROM database.
 
 
If you check the /tmp/pndrun_DraStic.out file after playing a game look for something like this:


Got game CRC32 27883409
Found game in database: titled Final Fantasy III. EEPROM backup: 10000 bytes

 
If you don't see a 'Found game in database' line it means there is no entry for it in game_database.xml and you probably won't be able to save.

If that line is there, but you still can't save it probably means the database entry is incorrect.

Either way, if you search the CRC32 on a ROM database site like this one[*]you may be able to find more information.

- Neelix



*   There are no ROMs available for download from this site.
 
Black and White 2 are both 512MB I think, which aren't really expected to work. Swap may help but I'm not so sure yet.
 
Warioware D.I.Y. Still refuses to boot. I tried the patched version as well. Interestingly, the patched version will not boot in any version of desmume after 0.9.6 as well.
 
Unzipped ROMs aren't loaded into memory so they should work regardless of how large they are (if it'll work with the emulator at all, of course).
 
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Ah, the way the readme is worded (both in features and the FAQ) it makes it seem like it'll only work if the unzipped rom can fit into memory, regardless of whether it's zipped or not.
 
I'm amazed by the amount of games that work, thanks again Exophase!

I wanted to share an idea : Could it be possible to make the second screen appear with the push of a button when on "single screen" mode? For Super Mario for example, you just need the touchscreen to choose a mushroom or flower... Or Zelda, for the map... It could be a way to make the most out of the single screen and making the second one appear only when needed without having to go through the options...
 
Yeah I'm definitely doing something to switch screen orientation with a button, I've felt the strong need for that too.. Not sure how I'll want to do that though. Usually you just want to switch back and forth between two settings, so I could have primary and secondary settings.. (in the future there'll be more orientation options)

I need to get together a comprehensive consensus on what controls people want. Interestingly I haven't heard anyone ask for control customization at all, meaning it won't be much of a priority for now.
 
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