Emulation News 144: Updates for 8-22-11

Yet more updates! Check them out!

Test7 v20110821

"Test7 is a multi emulator frontend.
Instead of a list of game names, it displays a tiled view of thumbnails (one for each game).

It's based on the library "Slick" (http://slick.cokeandcode.com)
and use the Apache Batik SVG Toolkit (http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/batik/).

The font is in the AngelCode font file format (http://www.angelcode.com/products/bmfont/) :
Texture in 512x512x32 png file format and font descriptor in text file format.

The config file is in JSON format (http://www.json.org)

To start the front-end (requires Java version 6 at least):
java -jar test7.jar

At launch, Test7 unzips the necessary natives libraries in the current directory.

If it doesn't exist, Test7 creates a template config file test7.json

The config files is divided in three parts:
- display
- emulators
- games

Summary of the display configuration:
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Required:
- screenWidth and screenHeight : sizes in pixels of the screen.
- fullscreen : true/false.
- nbColumns and nbRows : number of thumbnails displayed on a page.

Optionnal: (value by default)
- rotate (0): rotate the display.
-1 = -90°; 1 = +90°; 0 = no rotation.
- percentRowSpacing and percentColumnSpacing (0%):
blank space between thumbnail's rows and columns
in percent of the screen size.
- keyDelay (500ms): time in ms for key repetition.
- pageScrollTime (300ms): time in ms of the
page-scrolling effect.
- cursorMoveTime (100ms): time in ms for the cursor
to move from one thumbnail to another.
- zoomTime (100ms): time in ms of the zoom
effect.
- svgMaskFilename (test7/mask.svg) : filename of the
svg file used as a mask on each thumbnail.
- svgDecorationFilename (test7/decoration.svg) :
filename of the svg file used as a translucent
decoration over each thumbnail.
- svgCursorFilename (test7/cursor.svg) :
filename of the svg file used as a cursor.
If the svg contains an animation then the cursor
will be animated.
- percentCursorScale (150%) : scale of
the cursor compare to a cell.
A cell is the available screen surface divided by
the number of columns and rows.
- fontFilename (test7/font21.fnt) : filename of the
AngelCode font file (the texture file with the
same name but a .png extension is loaded
too).
- backgroundFilename (test7/background.png) : filename of the image
pattern used to fill the background.
- stretchBackgroundImage (false) : true/false;
Strech the background image to fill the screen
without the need to repeat the image.
- multiThread (true): true/false; By default Test7
loads the thumbnails in a separate thread. So you
can start your navigation through the games while
the thumbnails are loaded. But it seems there's a
bug which sometimes freezes the application
(occures in fullscreen with
Vista).

Emulators:
""""""""""
- id : reference used in the game part.
- command : command used to start the emulator (with options if needed).
Exemple: "c:/temp/znes/zsnesw.exe -m" to start the
ZNES emulator in command line mode.
- romsDirectory : directory containing the roms of this emulator.
- picturesDirectory : directory containing the pictures used to create
the thumbnails.

Games:
""""""
- file : name of the file. Exemple : "superGame.zip"
The directory is the one associated with the
emulator (see above).
- name : displayed name of the game.
- picture (optional): By default Test7 uses the filename of the game with
one these suffixes : "bmp,jpg,jpeg,png,gif" to
construct the filename of the game.
Exemple: "superGame.zip" becomes "superGame.png"
This parameter permit to use a totally different
filename for the picture. The directory is the
one associated with the emulator (see above).
- emulatorOption (optional): add some options to the command line of the
emulator.
- emulatorId : Identifiant of the emulator used to launch this game.

Exemple of a configuration:
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
{
"screenWidth":1680,
"screenHeight":1050,
"fullScreen":true,
"nbColumns":6,
"nbRows":4,
"emulators": [
{"id":"znes", "command":"c:/temp/znes/zsnesw.exe -m",
"romsDirectory":"c:/temp/znes",
"picturesDirectory":"c:/temp/znes"
},

{"id":"mame", "command":"c:/temp/mame/mame.exe",
"romsDirectory":"c:/temp/mame/roms",
"picturesDirectory":"c:/temp/mame/snap"
}
],
"games": [
{"name":"Super Ghost'n Trolls ",
"file":"Super Ghost'n Trolls (Europe).zip",
"emulatorId":"znes"
},

{"name":"Super Subway",
"file":"Super Subway (Europe) (En,Fr,De).zip",
"emulatorId":"znes"
},

{"name":"Year of Kung-Fu",
"file":"yearkf.zip",
"emulatorId":"mame"
}
]
}

Usage:
""""""
Use arrow keys or joystick to move the cursor.
Use space or a joystick button to select a game. A full-size picture of the selected game is displayed.
Confirm your choice with space or a button again or use arrow key or joystick to cancel.
Type 'Q' to quit Test7."

Source


Dolphin new-rev-string 3.0-55

"* remove hash from rev description
* minor cleanup of make_scmrev.h.js
* make sure the jscript is actually executed at build time
* make_scmrev.h.js needs to compare the full file instead of just the HEAD hash.
remove refs to deleted files from Common project
* Make the jscript for writing out scmrev.h work on windows.
Add scmrev.h to .gitignore
Remove some SubWCRev.exe and it's template"

Source

MESS SVN r12693

"r12683
Fix for Panzer Dragoon
r12684
Added MVOL to SCSP core, mostly noticeable with a sound fade out effect when you skip the Saturn logo
r12685
WSWAN - modernised.
r12686
Sync with MAME r13563 (no whatsnew)
r12687
a800.xml: added some more dumps and done some cleanup [K1W1]
r12688
added misc new dumps. no whatsnew.
r12689
srcclean'ed hash/ and added some missing file properties. no whatsnew.
r12690
added some more missing file properties. no whatsnew.
OG could you setup your svn client so that it adds correct properties to new files? ;-)
r12691
VTA2000 - added the status line. Added support of video attributes.
r12692
WSWAN - fixed some mistakes from earlier.
r12693
msx software list wip update (nw)"

Source

1964mod v1.4.4 Final

"Implement new menu option & hotkey for "Savestate Fastload" (enh)
- find the latest savestate and load it (F8)
Fix wrong savestate / loadstate slot being selected using hotkey (random) (bugfix)
- use LOWORD for wParam
- enhance set state slot codes
Enable menu pause feature for opengl plugin (disabled in 1964) (enh)
- tested on 1964mod & MyGlide64 with reset and screen mode switch (working)
Fix the emu Reset (F2) gfx bug (bugfix)
- tested on Glide64 & MyGlide64 - windowed & fullscreen mode (working)
- replace old reset bypass codes
- remove old bugfix code for Jet Force Gemini (clear 1 area and working well)
Implement datetime for savestate & loadstate slot (enh)
Improve message handling codes (enh/bugfix)
- refactor TimerProc msg loop into main msg loop codes
- enhance filtering / processing of valid message in the queue
- minor speedup"

Source

Emu Loader v6.1.8

"Changes in the frontend´s core to support MAME v0.143u3 new device sets ("mie", "namco50" and others)... from "-listxml" output
- new file, listing all games that use ROMs from device sets ("arcademame_devicesets.ini")
- new "IsDeviceSet" field in games list files ("arcadesystem.el"). Also a new "devices" section is added, listing all device sets
- new "IsDeviceROM" field in ROMs list files ("arcadesystem_roms.el")
- separate .zip sets support for these new devices when scanning/auditing games ("mie.zip", "namco50.zip" and others)
New main filter: "Device Sets" that show only device sets (main filters button, right next to the Bios filter)
New "Devices" filter (extra filters tool bar button):
- "Show Games With Device ROMs" -> show all games that use device ROMs
- "Show Games With No Device ROMs" -> show all games that do not use device ROMs
- "Hide Device Sets" -> hide all device sets (same as "Hide Bios Sets")
Feature "Game Details" (Ctrl+I hotkey / mouse right-click) have the following new information:
- "Device Set / Yes" -> so you know it´s a device set, not a game
- "Device ROMs / Yes", "Device Set #" -> if a game use device ROMs and the set names of the devices
- "Device Zip" (in "Game Files" section) -> show if the .zip file for each device set is found or not
- Text tag "Device ROM" on each ROM that´s from a device set (ROMs list panel). This is only shown on games, not device sets
Feature "View Missing ROMs/CHDs" (F8 hot-key) updated to list device names and "device_name.zip" found or missing
NOTE: this feature support a max of 10 device sets per game... for now (will be increased if needed for future MAME builds)"

Source

GameEx v12.04

"- Fixes certain GameBase systems not loading.
- New GameBase setting, show desktop, whether GameEx should not try to hide the operating system displaying when launching GameBase. Defaults to true, not hide.
- Fixes TaskBar not showing in themes when the mouse pointer is at y position 0.
- Fixes album and visualizations showing in wrong position with version 4 themes."

Source