Monday, September 21, 2009

gpSpout GP32 v1.2


Distracted by the GP32.


Why another release? Did the GP32 really need an update of gpSpout?
I've played quite a lot of gpSpout on my trusty GP32. It's one of those instant on and play games that I love.
However, after playing it for many hours, i found that the scrolling wasn't quite up to scratch. Why wasn't it smooth? :-/






So i had a look at the code.
I wanted to add double buffering and flip screens with v-sync.
So i did exactly that.
Unfortunately this slowed the game down a fair bit and it no longer ran fullspeed.
I rewrote the video blit code, quick test and thankfully we've got a fullspeed game again.
Whilst i was at it, I improved the hiscore saving code to only save once on exit - help save those precious SMCs.
I also set the screen refresh to 100hz which is a good match for the game's native 50hz refresh.
The end result is significantly better display than version 1.1.
Try v1.1 first and then v1.2 so that you can appreciate the difference.

Big thanks to Florian Hufsky for the original GP32 port of Spout.




Sunday, September 13, 2009

MAME4ALL GP32 v1.0

Yes, it's for the Gamepark GP32.

It's been a long time coming, the finally version 1.0 of MAME4ALL GP32.


With all the development I've been doing for the A320 Dingoo, I wanted to step back for a moment at get this out the door.

Many people will consider the GP32 dead - and for all intents and purposes it probably it is. I would say that most users have ditched it in favour of a GP2X, A320 Dingoo or even a PSP. I still have my GP32 and I can't bear to relegate it to storage. For me, it's what really piqued my interest in the handheld emulation scene - though I arrived on the GP32 scene way after it started in 2001.

Anyway, here it is.

There's a few changes from the Beta - most notably are the controls:


- Joystick: Up, Down, Left, Right of 1P.
- Buttons A,B,L,R,SELECT,START: Buttons A,B,C,D,E,F.
- Button SELECT+R: Insert credits
- Button SELECT+L: 1P Start
- Button START+B: Pause
- Button START+R: FPS display
- Button START+L: Profiler display
- Buttons L+R+SELECT: Exit to selection menu to select another game.
- Buttons START+SELECT: MAME menu.


Overall it's faster, much more stable and supports a few more games.
Most things work - including the ability to take PNG snapshots of games (though they will need to be rotated/flipped due to the GP32's non-standard video memory arrangement).

Download from the GP32 file archive.

The above link is ready to go!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

FBA320: Finalburn Alpha for Dingoo A320 Linux

Final Burn Alpha is an emulator specializing in emulating arcade video game machines based on M68000 and Z80 CPUs.
The Dingoo's FBA320 port is a combination of the GP2X and PSP ports of Final Burn Alpha - think of it as part Linux (GP2X heritage) and part MIPS (PSP/Dingoo CPU).

Download FBA320


 FBA320 Splash Screen

Batsugun - Toaplan
DonPachi - Cave
 
Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom - Capcom
Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom - Capcom

Standard in-game FBA320 controls. For the sake of consistency, these are similar to that of MAME4ALL Dingoo (new version coming soon!).
Horizonal games:
UP                      UP
DOWN                    DOWN
LEFT                    LEFT
RIGHT                   RIGHT
A                       FIRE 1
B                       FIRE 2
Y                       FIRE 3
X                       FIRE 4
L                       FIRE 5
R                       FIRE 6
SELECT+START            COIN
START                   START
SELECT+L                Volume Down
SELECT+R                Volume Up
SELECT+Y                Show FPS
L+R+START               Exits from emulator
L+R+SELECT              Enter Service mode

Vertical games: (as for horizontal with the following changes)
UP                      LEFT
DOWN                    RIGHT
LEFT                    DOWN
RIGHT                   UP
L                       FIRE 1
R                       FIRE 2

Please be sure to read the "readme.txt" - it contains a lot of useful information about running FBA320 - including how to make FBA cache files which are necessary for many of the larger games.

Enjoy.