Snes conversion


joncom11

Still Fresh
Joined
Dec 17, 2002
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I was astonished when I found out that GP32 can play SNES roms. I was disappointed when I found out that it can't even play GBA roms. I have a GBA. I don't have a GP32. Is there any possible way to play SNES roms on GBA if you can do it on GP32? Both systems are superior to the SNES... I wouldn't wanna buy a GP32 imported from KOREA just to play SNES. That Electro guy... couldn't he code it!? ;)
 
About GBA emulation on GP32. On of the programmer has started coding GBA emu. At the moment the status is (quote) "I start on the cpu core and all the gfx routines needed / sprites/scaling/alpha e.t.c.. but it doesn't run anything yet". At he begining of new year he will probably continue his work.
The second thing. Snes emu. Actually it wont be any chance to emulate Snes on GBA. Its to weak to handle emulation of the games. Snes emulation even on Gp32 is not perfect but its possible to run most of the games at 100% speed. But you must remember that cpu clock of GP32 is up to 133 MHZ. GBA has only 16 MHZ. Snes has up to 3.58 MHZ. So As you can see there is a big difference. Emulation is actually based on cpu power. You can't use (or maybe you can but i dont think so) specific GBA gfx hardware to speed up emulation. You have to remember that you need more power than original machine has. So to emulate 3.58 mhz machine 133 mhz is enough, but 16 mhz is a little to small.
 
Thanks for the reply, I understand what you are saying.. is there anyway to then "port" certain games to the GBA (unprofessionally)? I would die to have FF3/5 and Chrono Trigger on GBA. :(
 
I don't think so. Without the sources it's near not possible. But there is always a chance that Squre will re-release those game for GBA.
 
joncom11 posted on Dec 17 2002 said:
I was astonished when I found out that GP32 can play SNES roms.
Just barely :rolleyes:

I wish there was more devleopment going on in the GP32 scene. I feel like I've wasted my money. I mean, I originally bought it because I thought a NES emulator would be out, (which there is, but I meant one that works with sound), and it'd be better to play full screen on my gp32 than squished on my GBA.

PocketNES hasn't been in development that long, so I can't see why the GP32, which is mor epowerful, isn't at that level of gaming goodness yet.

So right now I can play the sega master system version of Bubble Bobble, and Rainbow Islands, or Wolfenstien 3D. Yippe. <_<
 
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PEOPLE! Stop complain about what the GP32 doesn't have. It's already so coold that it has the potential. It pisses me off that you guys complain that people don't work hard enough on what is only a hobby anyway. I consider myself lucky that this thing came out!
 
Cazssiew, i understand your point of view and actually i agree with you, but from the other hand, you have to look at the other side. Actually so called hombrew development scene is the only thing which gives all gp32 owners new software, games, emulators etc. Actually gp32 is not in a GBA comfortable situation , with all those hundreds games and new games released near everyweek, with near one per day homebrew production. With dozens games in production, but not like gp32 "in production". In gp32 case, when something is in production, there is only 50% of chance that this would be released. With those all hmm 20 ? 30 ? released games, hombrew production is the only thing which keeps everyone (actually i am one of those people) from not to selling gp and buying gba :). I belive in GP32 (thats the reason i run this site) and i want the best software to be availiable for this console, but to be honest divix player and a few interesting games is not what should be expected from a console for 150$ with 133 mhz cpu and 8 mb of ram. I think that we have to understand all sides of it. And talking about posibilities. Actually i am not happy that my gp has posibility to browse internet, play macromedi flash files. So what that it could ? when i acant play flash files and browse internet. Actually those two reasons was main factors when i made a decision of buying GP. Think how i was disaapointed when i didn found those "built in" internet browser and posibility of playing flash. So people dont want to talk about posibilities.. yeah our console i called mini xbox, yeaah, we have posibilities of runnig some gba games yeah.. (when of cource someone will make gba emu), yess, we have Nes and Snes emulation , its slower than actually NES emu on GBA which has many many times slower cpu, but who cares , we have POSIBILIITES. I think its clear what i wrote. I dont want to be missundesstood. I am very proud of my console. I am happy that all those people who write programs for gp - do it. We have to remeber that there are always two sides of medal. And :)
 
I would like to add to that topic:
I am soon to be the owner of a GP32. I have already paid for it and am just waiting to receive it.
When I heard of it the first time, I was entranced. The main reason for me to buy the gp32 is emulation: there are no good games in English yet, and I am mainly a rpg fan. I was especially fascinated by the SNES and WSC emulation possibilities -yes, I am a fan of the FF serie- and... Well, got carried away. I sent the money and started downloading everything I would need to run my snes games on my futur gp32, and in doing so, realised a few things which were not so obvious from the start:
None of the emulators for WSC or SNES is complete. Deffects vary, ranging from no sound, no save, poor fps... So in short, NOTHING of what I really wanted when I purchased the machine works. Don't get me wrong: I am not mad in any way at the people devellopping all this software during their freetime and for free. But I spent 150 dollars on POTENTIAL. That's a bit steep.
And until such time that decent emulators are released, my gp32 will remain in its box.
I would also like to point out that it is VERY frustrating that none of these projects post news of their current status. While I would not expect a date of release, it would be nice to know, like it is done in the Linux dev community, if projects are being worked on, what to expect from the next version, if dead projects will see their source code released...
So yes, while I am still amazed by the possibilities offered by this machine, I do not share the optmism I have noticed on many boards that has made me purchase it in the first place.
 
Well, in that case try to set get the people who run Sourceforge to set up a GP32 section, and shift all the homebrew development to there...

No, I think it won't quite happen like that, somehow, considering we've already got a similar thing in Empee's project page. I agree that we should expect a lot more than what we have for the GP32, but to be honest, I'm fine to wait for the various things to come out.

Zardoz Jones' emu for snes looks very very nice - and its an old version. I'm told by Don Miguel that the newer version does have sound and save functions, and runs very very well indeed, but isn't quiote ready for release. But almost. So I have high hopes that reasonably shortly a SNES emu will come out, which is the main reason I bought the GP32, along with the one that my previous alternative didn't work any more because it got too cold and the flash memory got corrupted (for those that know, it was an e-merger). Since I bought the GP32 to replace that (for which I paid roughly the same ammount only about a year and a bit earlier) I've quite satisfied with the ability to run GB roms and GG roms at full speed and well emulated. And that storage is cheaper. And that there are prospects of further development in other emus.

There's an awful lot that is very very good for a GP32 - OK, it might not run everything perfectly, but if to get a system that wrote gb games to cartridge, and a gbc (ok, old analogy, but its the one I'm using), it costs around ?30 for the gbc, ?90 for the writer - and an 8MB flash cart. Which breaks at high altitude. To get 128MB, multiply 16 by ?70, and you get the price to get an equivalent on GBC. Now, for GP32, take the price as ?150 (including delivery and customs tax), and add ?41 for a 128MB SMC... we're talking about a GP32 costing ?191, whilst the equivalent for GBC (not GBA, but similar prices there) is ?1150... that's a saving by buying a GP32 of nearly ?1000... then look at the cost of gamegear and games - gamegears are ?30 or so second hand, and the games I usually see for around ?10 each. So say you get a gamegear - that works out at around ?30 these days, and you also save on battery life comared with GG - at least 3x less expensive to run than the original, is the GP32 - and a wonderswan too, at ?50... that's another saving of ?80 at least. And this is **all without breaking any laws by downloading roms** - just to get it so you can run everything together.

So in conclusion, by buying a gp32, you save yourself, in total, something in the region of ?1000 simply as a result of getting all the other systems emulated on it. That's a helluvalot of money. And that's excluding the price of games, because of course, anyone who's running emulators on GP32 owns the original :)

And SNES emu, and GBA emu are coming... guess what? That will put the savings to EVEN HIGHER. Now who's going to really say that having considered this, the better alternative is to go for the combinations I've talked about? With the GP32, you save on running costs (for GG games at least) - although this might be balanced by the high CPU speed needed gor GBC ones, you save on space - just one system to carry around, not 3 - and you save a huge huge huge ammount of money. And in due course, you also get some amazingly good games from the original people.

Now - having read this - HOW CAN ANYONE say that its better to get a GBA. Yes, at present, its graphically superior. Key words - **at present** - but its also got far fewer extensible abilities, and isn't likely to be able to run GP32 games in the near future. If ever. Whereas GP32 will at some stage be able to run its stuff.


Any Questions?
 
First, thanks a lot for sounding optimistic, it makes me feel better about my spent bucks :p
Two things bother me tough.

First, I don't mind waiting either. Except that in this case, I don't know how long I'm gonna have to wait for, for I am not expecting much from Gamepark. Worst, it would be awfully rude to go to freelance developpers and ask them: 'come on, tell me now, HOW LONG!?!?!?'. I've tried a more polite and subtle approach by emailing a few of these people, proposing them to set up a thread on gamefaqs.com recording all the replies concerning current stages of development. I thought, with all that in one place, they will save themselves a lot of unwanted mail and I will get my answer. Replies? 0. Altough I really wanted this thread to exist, I guess they saw right through my plot to satisfy my own curiosity... :unsure:

Second, well, I have known quite a few technologically bright -in their times- systems which have died a quiet and silent death due to too much 'potential' and not enough 'delivery'. Aquarius, Oric, and yes, I'd even put the Lynx in that category. This IS the fate that awaits the gp32, however cool the specs are, if nothing comes out, homemade or not.

But hey, I am a pessimist at heart, so you should problably not be reading all this anyway. :)
 
Hmm... I agree with you to some extent - yes it'd be nice to know how long we'll have to wait.

Don Miguel seems to have good contact with the developers of quite a lot of things (there's a linkg to his message board on empee.daug.net/gp32 quite a long way down the news page) and he says that, basically, everything is coming along nicely. And for the moment I trust him, so I can wait and assume he means "something in the next 6 months at the latest".

The problem with emailing developers is that an awful lot of the time, no matter how original you may have thought your question was, a thousand others have already asked it - with the answer no. If you were a coder, you might be able to ask for the source and see how far along it was, but I doubt you'd be given it. Much better just to dive head-first into the scene, spend a lot of time in #gp32dev on efnet, and hope that eventually people will trust you enough to give you private betas (most prominently intellecto and zardoz-jones).

The GP32 isn't destined for the pit, I feel, because it doesn't only have potential. It might only have potential so far as commercial games are concerned, but so far as fan-stuff is concerned its got a large enough following developing for it that even if the developers discontinue the product, I suspect that they will continue.

Bear in mind that when someone says 20 games released the instant reaction is "why would I want this then" - the answer is simple - not because "we're expecting to publish many more games for it", but because "there are people developing software to let you run games for just about every system manufactures before 1995 on this thing".

That is what will keep GP32 alive, even if Gamepark themselves manage to go bust. Which I doubt will happen too soon.
 
Oh and Alfy? Have you been running the emus on GeePee32? Because they ARE slow on that. You need to run them on the real hardware. The master system/gamegear emu runs very very slowly on the emu - really worried me when I ran it after buying the machine but before it had arrived - but on the ACTUAL HARDWARE it runs at FULL SPEED, as does snes, wonderswan, and pretty much everything else

Take it out of the box, for god's sake! Or if not for his, for your own - you'll be less disappointed in an instant

Well, at least, after you've got your freeloader, changed the firmware to PACrom, and got the PC-Linker to work (which in my case took a lot of work). And for that you also need to have an SMC bought and plugged in, btw. For whatever reason it doesn't work without one. Doesn't matter what size as long as its between 8MB and 128MB.
 
I can't see why people are feeling dissatisfied with GP32.

I can sit on the bog and play Head over Heels on ZX Spectrum or California Games on Master System!!
What more can you want from life?

And the C16+4 emu is just too good to be true
And Heretic? And Spear of Destiny?

There's a lot of gameplay in that lot already, I wonder if maybe some people don't really remember these old systems.
There are some good games out there for all the systems emulated if you know what you're looking for.
The ZX Spectrum emu alone offers almost ten years of published software, thousand of titles.

making a search for "world of spectrum" in google is a good place to start.

And there's a lesson you can learn from these old 8 bit systems - it took years for programmers to learn how to get the best from them. Lets just all be patient and I think we'll look back and agree it was worth the wait.

Anyway, I only bought my GP32 cos it looked like a swanky Mp3 player.
Everything else has been a staggering bonus.
 
well... snes emulators arent perfect yet...

so im waiting...

while im waiting,

im reading j. r. r. tolkin's the lord of the ring on my gp32

so im okay :D :D :D
 
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