Post subject: VectrexHawk
Alyosha
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image uploader I'm finally starting to make decent progress on the vectrex core. Even though there are a couple other vectrex emulators to reference, it still took several hours of trace logs to figure out exactly what the system is trying to do to actually draw stuff. It doesn't help that the system uses the 6522 controller which has a lot of little tricks in it. Of course at the same time I also had to sort out the bugs of the new CPU core, so that slowed things down as well. Overall though it's getting there. I think the CPU core is pretty strong now, but the Vectrex doesn't seem to use the interrupt capabilities of the 6809 so that is untested. Incidentally the 6809 is also used in some arcade machines like Simpsons, so it's theoretically possible to have a native version of that built as well, but I doubt that would ever happen. Anyway there are still quite a few bugs to work out and a lot of cleanup to do. But, now that I can see things on the screen, I'm hoping things will move a bit quicker. The next main things are sorting out remaining graphics bugs and getting control stick input working. maybe after that I can do some stuff to improve the display, but I'm not sure how much I can do without slowing things way way down.
Alyosha
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Vectrex is coming along. I fixed up numerous cpu and display bugs. I also tried to add some brightness glow to make it look more authentic. Only major thing left is analog stick controls. Maybe I'll try to add in overlays but not sure yet.
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The game Spike has some voice clips. Do those work correctly in this new core? I remember the vecx libretro core didn't play those voice clips correctly, or not at all, at least on BizHawk anyways.
Here, my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/dekutony
Alyosha
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dekutony wrote:
The game Spike has some voice clips. Do those work correctly in this new core? I remember the vecx libretro core didn't play those voice clips correctly, or not at all, at least on BizHawk anyways.
Nope they don't play yet. That's one of the remaining bugs I'm aware of that needs to be sorted out. EDIT: So if you look at this schematic, you can clearly see there is an output line from the multiplexer directly into the sound output line: https://console5.com/techwiki/images/9/9a/Vectrex---Block-Diagram.png So when I implement that you get the voices in Spike, pretty simple. Fixed. The text in Spike still isn't centered properly. It seems like there is a delay to the ramp enable under certain conditions. One such condition at least is when PB7 control is turned off from the timer. My speculation is that this leaves the pin undriven and thus takes time to assume a value once written too. This centers the VECTREX text on the BIOS screen, but it's not the complete picture since there are some other scenarios, like the one in spike, where it should also occur. The vectrex developers seem to have known something was up, since in the BIOS there are places where the multiplexer is written to twice in succession for no other obvious reason.
Alyosha
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Alright I got controller reading implemented, so now games are playable. Things seem to be working pretty well for the most part, so if anyone wants to try out the dev build and start bug hunting please do so. There are a couple bugs I'm aware of but surely more testers will uncover more. Overall though things are progressing pretty nicely.
Alyosha
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I've made pretty good progress cleaning up the remaining Vectrex bugs. I've implemented interrupts now so Bedlam works, which is one of the only games that make extensive use of interrupts. This was a good exercise because it revealed several bugs in the MC6809 core. This core is heading towards a releasable state.
Alyosha
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Vectrex is more or less done at this point. Working on the MC6800 actually led me to discover another couple MC6809 bugs which I sorted out. Menus are now available, even though there are no real choices at the moment. Virtual Pad is up and running, but there is an error in virtual pad that i need to fix before it's useful. I probably won't do overlays just due to the tedium. If anyone else is interested feel free to take a stab at it.
GJTASer2018
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So will this core be in the next stable release of BizHawk? (2.3.3, 2.4, whatever number you guys decide on :P)
c-square wrote:
Yes, standard runs are needed and very appreciated here too
Dylon Stejakoski wrote:
Me and the boys starting over our games of choice for the infinityieth time in a row because of just-found optimizations
^ Why I don't have any submissions despite being on the forums for years now...
EZGames69
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GJTASer2018 wrote:
So will this core be in the next stable release of BizHawk? (2.3.3, 2.4, whatever number you guys decide on :P)
New cores in bizhawk get a 2.x version number, anything else gets a 2.3.x
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Alyosha
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GJTASer2018 wrote:
So will this core be in the next stable release of BizHawk? (2.3.3, 2.4, whatever number you guys decide on :P)
Yes, but it's available right now in the dev build if you want to try it out. I've only one more known issue that i need to check before I can set this to released, hopefully by the end of this week I can track down the problem.
Alyosha
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I have sorted out the remaining issues and set this core to released, so it should now be fully TASable. Unfortunately since the programmers had complete control of the screen drawing, many games run at highly variable frame rates. In order to account for this I had to set each frame for a constant time and just update the video whenever a frame was actually ended (which mercifully all games agree is at the expiration of timer 2.) This makes sure audio and video always play at the correct rate, but at the cost of having to put the video buffer in the state (actually two versions of it.) Luckily the screen is mostly empty most of the time so the state size compresses down to near nothing.
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This is awesome progress can't wait to play those Vectrex games! I actually have the system, bought almost 9 years ago as a gift to myself when I got 18. I still have a few games with it along with overlays and everything still work.
My new website, a blog about retro gaming! RetroGameUp Youtube channel featuring gameplay of old retro game! GlitchoMuseum
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Good job! Is there any way to change the internal Vectrex rendering resolution to 2x, 3x, 4x etc, so its more highres? Bizhawk outputs it as 260x388 - which looks very pixelated and un-vectrex like. Maybe its also possible to have some sort of fake HDR filter shader that makes lines glow more? Overlay support would be also nice :)
EZGames69
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Audio only comes out from the left audio channel. I get that this system is probably like that but is it any issue to just copy that audio into the right audio channel as well?
[14:15] <feos> WinDOES what DOSn't 12:33:44 PM <Mothrayas> "I got an oof with my game!" Mothrayas Today at 12:22: <Colin> thank you for supporting noble causes such as my feet MemoryTAS Today at 11:55 AM: you wouldn't know beauty if it slapped you in the face with a giant fish [Today at 4:51 PM] Mothrayas: although if you like your own tweets that's the online equivalent of sniffing your own farts and probably tells a lot about you as a person MemoryTAS Today at 7:01 PM: But I exert big staff energy honestly lol Samsara Today at 1:20 PM: wouldn't ACE in a real life TAS just stand for Actually Cease Existing
Alyosha
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^ fixed in master. @SchlAuChi: I have a line glow algorithm built in, but it's hard to tell since it's currently so pixelated it just looks blurry instead. I'm not interested in overlays since that's basically postprocessing, but maybe I can look into higher resolution.
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Alyosha wrote:
I'm not interested in overlays since that's basically postprocessing
It's a shame, it would really be an added value (plus-vlaue), I don't know if a Vectrex emulator does that, that would really be a plus.. I have a problem with the Hyperchase controls (Digital or Analog), it's not fluid, it's like there are only three "stages" of left or right rotation. BizHawk Link to video Real hardware Link to video
My Citra 3DS rerecording movie files test repositery: https://cutt.ly/vdM0jzl Youtube playlist "Citra Tests": https://cutt.ly/AdM0wg9 http://www.youtube.com/user/phoenix1291
Alyosha
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Hyperchase is fixed in master.
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Thanks Alyosha!
My Citra 3DS rerecording movie files test repositery: https://cutt.ly/vdM0jzl Youtube playlist "Citra Tests": https://cutt.ly/AdM0wg9 http://www.youtube.com/user/phoenix1291