maemo.org - Talk - Emulators for the N900

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- - Emulators for the N900 (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=34526)

Re: Emulators for the N900

Thanks for the update, Flandry!!!!

Seeing Venture brought tears too my eyes. Any way of allowing all MAME files to be on the SD card? The less us noobs have to full with Xterminal, the better for everyone ;)

A few games to see how well the port is going are:

1. Galaga
2. DIg Dug
3. Gorf
4. Vulgus
5. Xevious
6. Metal Slug (Neo Geo)
7. Ghosts n Goblins
8. Varth
9. Three Wonders
10. Snow Brothers
11. Star Castle

All of these games have their own qwirks as far as emulation, but cover a good scope of mame platforms to emulate for a portable device. If these play smooth with sound, the N900 has struck gold :)

Re: Emulators for the N900

Try it:
xmame.SDL -fullscreen -scale 2 ./ROMNAME.zip

Re: Emulators for the N900

is it me or do most mame games not work? I`m getting an error saying. one or more rom file is missing...

I got some games to run but most dont

Re: Emulators for the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pablo Diablo (Post 465049)

is it me or do most mame games not work? I`m getting an error saying. one or more rom file is missing...

I got some games to run but most dont

Thats probably an issue with your roms not the program, I would test them with MAME on your computer first to verify. As MAME is special compared to most other emulators it has a master rom that is consider the parent to several smaller children roms. The Parent is usually the main version or first one and the children the several updates or variations.

Chances are you have one of the children roms and are missing the needed parent rom for it to work.

Re: Emulators for the N900

I'll make a few follow-up comments for context and expectation management. I will probably wax philosophical. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rushmore (Post 464857)

Seeing Venture brought tears too my eyes.

When i played the console version, those hall monsters used to completely freak me out when they came into the room after too much delay. I don't get adrenaline like that these days even from Doom3 and its ilk. :D

Quote:

Any way of allowing all MAME files to be on the SD card? The less us noobs have to full with Xterminal, the better for everyone ;)

The current settings look for the data files in three locations. Two of them can be seen by the built-in file manager (the media card and MyDocs). The app itself will stay where it's at. :P

Quote:

A few games to see how well the port is going are:

1. Galaga
2. DIg Dug
3. Gorf
4. Vulgus
5. Xevious
6. Metal Slug (Neo Geo)
7. Ghosts n Goblins
...

All of these games have their own qwirks as far as emulation, but cover a good scope of mame platforms to emulate for a portable device. If these play smooth with sound, the N900 has struck gold :)

My main testing ROM is Ghosts 'n Goblins. In the brief trial run, Dig Dug seems to be emulated perfectly.

Philosophy of the SDLMAME Maemo port

The advantage of using the latest release of SDLMAME instead of an old MAME branch project like most mobile device port maintainers do is that all the improvements of the main upstream source go directly into the port for "free". In this case, there's an added bonus in that the SDLMAME maintainer has an interest in arm support for his own devices (which is why this port is possible right now). My intent is to just be a maintainer of the port, not a MAME developer. I don't have time to get fully into the MAME codebase, so this is a way to contribute to MAME and Maemo and possibly my own uses without a huge investment.

Similar to my reasons for using a modern MAME upstream source are my reasons for picking MAME itself. The good thing and bad thing about MAME is that it's a very thorough emulator. It's good because it means that if it emulates on any system it runs on, it should work on all of them. It's bad because it means there is more overhead than there would be if it had all kinds of speed hacks.

It's basically the stability and versatility vs. performance tradeoff common in the tech world. The N900 is a powerful enough system to run the ROM drivers i'm interested in seeing emulated without resorting to cheap hacks and custom projects, and future Maemo devices will only get better. Making a port that tracks the improvements in MAME and doesn't introduce hard-to-maintain device-specific changes will be a more useful contribution in the long run.

Expectations for SDLMAME on Maemo

All of that was basically an elaborate excuse to justify the minimal amount of changes to the upstream source i plan on making for this port. Besides the initial optified packaging that is done, getting the UI, config and keymaps into useful condition and any optimizations necessary to get reasonable performance on the old ROMs are the only other changes i plan on making.

And as for compatbility, if it is a pre-1990 ROM and works well in MAME on the PC, it should work well in this port when completed. That's my target.

Re: Emulators for the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flandry (Post 465180)

I'll make a few follow-up comments for context and expectation management. I will probably wax philosophical. :)

When i played the console version, those hall monsters used to completely freak me out when they came into the room after too much delay. I don't get adrenaline like that these days even from Doom3 and its ilk. :D

The current settings look for the data files in three locations. Two of them can be seen by the built-in file manager (the media card and MyDocs). The app itself will stay where it's at. :P

My main testing ROM is Ghosts 'n Goblins. In the brief trial run, Dig Dug seems to be emulated perfectly.

Philosophy of the SDLMAME Maemo port

The advantage of using the latest release of SDLMAME instead of an old MAME branch project like most mobile device port maintainers do is that all the improvements of the main upstream source go directly into the port for "free". In this case, there's an added bonus in that the SDLMAME maintainer has an interest in arm support for his own devices (which is why this port is possible right now). My intent is to just be a maintainer of the port, not a MAME developer. I don't have time to get fully into the MAME codebase, so this is a way to contribute to MAME and Maemo and possibly my own uses without a huge investment.

Similar to my reasons for using a modern MAME upstream source are my reasons for picking MAME itself. The good thing and bad thing about MAME is that it's a very thorough emulator. It's good because it means that if it emulates on any system it runs on, it should work on all of them. It's bad because it means there is more overhead than there would be if it had all kinds of speed hacks.

It's basically the stability and versatility vs. performance tradeoff common in the tech world. The N900 is a powerful enough system to run the ROM drivers i'm interested in seeing emulated without resorting to cheap hacks and custom projects, and future Maemo devices will only get better. Making a port that tracks the improvements in MAME and doesn't introduce hard-to-maintain device-specific changes will be a more useful contribution in the long run.

Expectations for SDLMAME on Maemo

All of that was basically an elaborate excuse to justify the minimal amount of changes to the upstream source i plan on making for this port. Besides the initial optified packaging that is done, getting the UI, config and keymaps into useful condition and any optimizations necessary to get reasonable performance on the old ROMs are the only other changes i plan on making.

And as for compatbility, if it is a pre-1990 ROM and works well in MAME on the PC, it should work well in this port when completed. That's my target.

Major Kudos!

Every game I have tried has worked (MAME 135 set)! Some better than others, but games I would expect to work well- do.

For just getting started, you have done a great job!

One nice update down the road would be the ability to rotate the screen for shooters and other games with a long screen. Games like Vulgus are an example. BTW, that game works great!

Please let me know if you would like me to do a test list of some games and how they perform. If not, no problem. I look forward to your updates!!!!

You did a good job with scaling already and sound is pretty good. When this is optimized for the N900 it will kick some serious butt!

Between you and fms, N900 has a great outlook for old school gaming :)

And also kudos to the other game devs as well :)

Re: Emulators for the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rushmore (Post 464857)

Hi. i have to know where i must put the rom files. and wich rom version are compatible.

thank you very much.

ENFDO.

Re: Emulators for the N900

Create a directory called "roms" in either the internal media memory or microsd card and put the roms there.

Flandry,

One point of caution is that some bigger roms appear to lock the N900 up while they are loading. I tried King of Fighters 2003 and it locked up at 64 percent. Pulled the battery out to restart. Small price for progress :)

Re: Emulators for the N900

There are some free legal roms available from the MAME website which could possibly be part of the final installation ? Or an optional add-on pack?

I'd love to see Shinobi working, as well as Ghouls and Ghosts (I imagine both will be tough to play on the N900 keyboard though). Great games like Pipe Dreams and Puzzle Bobble would be perfect for the N900 though. The likes of 1943 would be perfect in portrait mode, and Gauntlet would be old school fun. Double Dragon will be difficult to control with the keyboard!

Re: Emulators for the N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thor (Post 465677)

There are some free legal roms available from the MAME website which could possibly be part of the final installation ? Or an optional add-on pack?

Last i looked those are released only through the MAME website; they can't be distributed.

I hope to disable and remove the drivers for most unsupported ROMs. Ideally it would be an automated script that works by release date. If this can be done cleanly, as i think it can, it will also reduce the size of the binary and build time a lot.