SNES Emulation


Duddyroar

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Now we've had chance to get our hands on the latest version of Snes9xGP, I was wondering just how much we can expect from the emulator.

I know that many people are looking forward to this emu - the SNES was a very popular machine with some brilliant titles. The latest version of Snes9xGP is really impressive. All of the games I've downloaded work on it (with different speeds) and some are even semi playable (without sound, obviously). But can it get any better? Is the current version pushing the GP32 as far as it will go? I don't want to get myself worked up about SNES emulation only to discover that we'll never have it 'perfect'. After all, this version has been a long time coming (not getting on at the person who has created it of course, after all, they're doing this as a hobby and it's a great service to those of us who can't program). Will we be waiting long for the next update?

One thing I'd like to see added to future versions is gamma correction. Castlevania IV is far too dark on the GP32 screen. Other than that, the emu is very well produced. If the creator can get it up to the standard of the GPEngine emu, then I will be very, very happy. To be honest, if he can get it near full speed without sound, I'll be satisfied.
 
Yeah I agree with all the above, production of this EMU isn't as open as, say Castaway for example- so how much can still be done is anybody's guys. Maybe the betatesters know more on that front. If it's all still mainly in C, then I guess incorporating some ASM will speed it up.
 
I agree congrats are in order for getting such improvements on the SNES emu from the last version to the current one. I was using the other SNES emu (no sound, no saves) and found some games ok but others too slow to be playable (Alien 3 & Super Ghouls n Ghosts) but by testing different frame skips these games are now playable. Gamma correction is deffinitly needed as some games appear v dark. I have been wondering what has happened to the Megadrive/Genesis emu?? There was a news piece a while back saying how great it is looking and nothing since?? Is work still being done on it? Will it ever be released? If so when???!!!! I want to play Micky Mouse Castle Of Illusion on my GP32!!!
 
Castle Of Illusion was/is available on the Sega Master System, and works perfectly on the SMS emu.
 
I wish the author of this emulator would make it possible to read the roms from the snes folder. That would be a great help becuase it sucks having the games in the gpmm folder. As far as speed goes this one is pretty impressive I must say but it is still slower than snesemu. try out fzero or final fight or mario kart andyou will see what I mean. If this emulater could get up to snesemu speed whic its close you could bump up the frame skip and have something really playable. SO i do think it can get faster than it is, full speed with sound? Now thats a diffrent story. I dunno if we will ever see this thing runing totaly smooth with sound so I guess you just gotta take what you can get. There are a few games that play at a decent speed with sounds like magic night rayearth, wonder project j, earthbound. True you have to crank up the frame skip but these are games that don't suffer from that too much and ae still a good time.
 
Drewus - The Master System version of Castle of Illusion is a totally different game to the one found on the Megadrive. Still, the MS version is excellent and worth checking out.

Angrypants - You're saying there's another SNES emu that's faster than Snes9xGP? I'm assuming it's the one that's downloadable from this very site. Is it better than Snes9XGP in every respect, or are there downsides?

Agreed, having to put the ROMs in the GPMM folder is really messy. When you look at the list of ROMs in Snes9XGP, you have to sift through all the other files in GPMM. Annoying.

If the front end of the emulator was cleaned up (like the one for GPEngine) then it would help matters. Not wanting to get on at the wonderful guys who create these emulators, but the front ends suck most of the time! Just a basic background would be nice... :)
 
I have castle of illusion game gear rom on my GP32 but its not a patch on the Megadrive version...but it will do for now I suppose.
As for speed issue between SNES9X and SNESEMU, I have had some interesting results as mentioned previously.
Try Super Ghouls and Ghosts on SNESEMU and it runs pretty slowly...just slow enough to be unplayable. On the new SNES9X at default frame skip 3 it is faster thans on SNESEMU...but not ideal speed. Change to frame skip 4 and it is at good enjoyable playable speed (its still rock hard but thats just the evil granite dificulty of the game and not the emu!). Alien 3 is a very similar case in point...faster on SNES9X at 3 fs but only really playable at 4 or 5 fs. Conversely Super R-Type is slower on SNES9X than SNESEMU!
I have not tried any mode 7 intensive games since I loaded pilotwings and tried it with SNESEMU. It was horrible, 3 frames per seccond max! How do Mario Kart and such like run on either EMU? I cant be bothered locating the ROM and loading it if its going to be treacle running speed. By the way I want to recommend one of my fav SNES games as it runs very nicely on either emu (slightly better on 9X) which is Cybernator. This is total quality...giant robot platform shooter extrodinaire!!
 
I really wonder if decent speed SNES with sound would only be possible if the entire emu was done in optimized assembly.

I recently downloaded It Might Be Nes.. a full-speed with sound no frame-skip nintendo emulator for the original PLAYSTATION. Blew my mind.. I didn't think it would have close to the power. Turns out (I think) that it was almost entirely coded in assembler.

Which is kind of funny.. that the PSX (oops.. can't call it PSX anymore now that Sony is coming out with an ACTUAL PSX)... the PS1 can emulate NES so well, but it's been tough getting a 133Mhz machine to emulate it 100% :) :) :)

(We need the coder of It Might Be Nes on our side!)
 
1. Some games are really playable; no sound, 3 or 4 frameskip. For example on a 3-hour coach journey me and some friends took turns playing levels of Super Mario World, and while the fps is maybe 15 or so, it was really playable and fun.

2. From what I hear parts of it have been replaced with asm but not really much of it. 99% of the speed lies in 1% of the code; replacing some of the core with asm should have remarkable results :D
 
i am excited with how far snes emulation has come on this thing, it's looking impressive so far. further along than I would have thought.
but this frameskipping jerkiness just isn't for me, after years of enjoying these types of games smoothly. I think I'll just wait to see how much smoother they can get it before I start investing serious time into it.

meanwhile, i am hopeful that the Genesis, as it is a weaker system, is more capable of being emulated without such heavy frameskipping. Time will tell I guess, right..?
 
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