Emulation News 264: Updates for 1-15-12

Here are the news for today!

MESS SVN r14034

"r14030
[N64] Various changes: [MooglyGuy, Happy]
- Converted AI / VI / MI / RI / SI / PI into a modernized device
- PI DMA now takes place after an appropriate delay to simulate transfer time
- SP DMA no longer rejects transfers of 0 bytes (should transfer one 8-byte word)
r14031
MYCOM: fixed regression from r13996
r14032
X1TWIN: Patched out 2nd screen to stop crash.
r14033
isa_sblaster: modernized, added preliminary support for protection command 0xe2
r14034
sblaster: fixed e2 command length. needs DMA to work? (nw)"

Source

Stella SVN r2358

"r2355
Save console controllers and switches state in state files. This allows the debugger to work correctly when rewinding and interacting with these parts of the system.
r2356
Refactored the keycode handling through the GUI classes, making it more generic than SDL, but less generic than simply using int's for everything.
This will help once we start porting to SDL2, which has an updated keycode handling system. The plan is that the internal core keyboard stuff is now insulated from any further changes in SDL.
This also allows eventually adding support for CompuMate controller, which needs access to keycode names in a generic way.
r2357
Small performance improvement; only query Unicode values in GUI modes, otherwise turn it off (according to the SDL documentation, there's a small performance hit when it's turned on).
r2358
Updated OSX project files for StellaKeys class."

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GameEx v12.54

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WiiMC v1.2.2

"* Attractive libwiigui-based interface, designed with the Wii in mind
* Most essential difference from MPlayer CE and the like: completely GUI based, no fiddling .conf files should ever be necessary (except for on-line media)
* Picture viewer
* Music player
* On-line media support
* FAT32/NTFS from SD and USB 2.0 (FAT32 recommended)
* Network playback via SMB, HTTP, and FTP
* Multi-language support: Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Spanish

WiiMC v1.2.2 Changelog:
* Fixed YouTube search"

Source

NesterJ 1.12 RX

"Mr. takka brought NesterJ v1.12 formed into 3.xx close to v1.13.
And done the lightweight sign , it is an emulator also at official PSP.

The present state
- An emulation portion is the same as Nesterj v1.12.
- Can be read ZIP compressed ROM.
- Screenshots can be taken.
- Supported to the OFW PSP."

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DGEN 1.70 Lite RX

"- An emulation portion is the same as DGEN 1.70.
- Cannot be read ZIP compressed ROM.
- Supported to the OFW PSP."

Source

3DOplay v1.7.7

"unknow"

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DS2x86 v0.31 Beta

"This version has the following major changes:
- Improved the touchpad keyboard handling with upper/lower case and key flash.
- Improved SoundBlaster audio handling, still not completely correct.
- Fixed a problem in syncing screen blitting to VBlank.
- Faster EGA 0x0D mode blitting when the logical screen width is larger than 320 pixels.
- Fixed EGA LineCompare pixel panning reset, using NDS hardware features.
- Fixed AdLib audio buffering problem.
- Fixed Warcraft BSOD crash in SoundBlaster detection."

Source

MAME v0.144u6

"0.144u6
-------


MAMETesters Bugs Fixed
----------------------
- 03685: [Sound] reaktor: No sound (hap)
- 03568: [Crash/Freeze] lockload, gunhard: Access Violation after OK (hap)
- 04189: [Gameplay] fireshrk: Inputs aren't read consistently (hap)
- 04601: [Speed] vimana: game suffers major slowdowns (hap)
- 04602: [Documentation] pb_l5 and clones: The correct description is
"PIN-BOT..." and the exact year of production is 1986.
- 04600: [Documentation] pfevr_l2, pfevr_p3: The correct descriptions
are "Pennant Fever (L-2)" and "Pennant Fever (P-3)".
- 04599: [Documentation] pz_f4 and clones: The correct description is
"The Party Zone...".
- 02234: [DIP/Input] chboxing: Unable to navigate Test Mode menu (hap)


Source Changes
--------------
softlist: Fix entry count tracking issue [O. Galibert]

vamphalf.c: Added correct speedup for Toy Land Adventure. Demoted Mr.
Kicker to not working again. There is a serious bug with the nvram
handling (possibly due to a core bug) which causes the game to break
entirely if you get a high score and it rewrites nvram. [Dave Haywood]

i386: Made a start at Virtual 8086 Mode. Not fully working yet,
though. Fixed an issue where two address or operand size prefixes
would cancel each other out. [Barry Rodewald]

Optimized PGM video rendering for a speedup in some video heavy cases
[David Haywood]

Reinstated the old KOV protection simulation given that the ARM still
hasn't been dumped [David Haywood]

arm7: some code reorganization, used a jump table for a small speedup
[David Haywood]

i386: Fixed high bits in eflags register from being changed by POPF,
and VM and IF flags from changing depending on privilege level. Fixed
exception error codes in protected mode. Further work on virtual 8086
mode. EMM386 will now load, but will still die a few seconds later.
[Barry Rodewald]

Enabling load of multi part softlist items on all available device
[Fabio Priuli]

ARM7: Gave ARM mode its own file & cleaned up formatting/indenting
[David Haywood]
:
i386: Bit more progress towards getting 386 enhanced mode Windows
running. [Carl]

beaminv.c: added color overlay [MASH]

Added support for 2 drives on IDE controller [Miodrag Milanovic]

Major bitmap-related changes throughout the system: [Aaron Giles]
There are almost certainly some regressions lurking. Let me know if
something seems busted.
Bitmaps are now strongly typed based on format. bitmap_t still exists
as an abstract base class, but it is almost never used. Instead,
format-specific bitmap classes are provided:
bitmap_ind8 == 8bpp indexed bitmap_ind16 == 16bpp indexed bitmap_ind32
== 32bpp indexed bitmap_ind64 == 64bpp indexed bitmap_rgb32 == 32bpp
RGB bitmap_argb32 == 32bpp ARGB bitmap_yuy16 == 16bpp YUY
For each format, a generic pix() method is provided which references
pixels of the correct type. The old pix8/pix16/pix32/ pix64 methods
still exist in the short term, but the only one available is the one
that matches the bitmap's pixel size. Note also that the old RGB15
format bitmaps are no longer supported at all.
Converted model1, megadriv, and stv drivers away from the RGB15 format
bitmaps.
New auto_bitmap__alloc() macros are provided for allocating the
appropriate type of bitmap.
Screen update functions now must specify the correct bitmap type as
their input parameters. For static update functions the SCREEN_UPDATE
macro is now replaced with SCREEN_UPDATE_RGB32 and SCREEN_UPDATE_IND16
macros. All existing drivers have been updated to use the correct
macros.
Screen update functions are now required for all screens; there is no
longer any default behavior of copying a "default" bitmap to the
screen (in fact the default bitmap has been deprecated). Use one of
the following to specify your screen_update callback:
MCFG_SCREEN_UPDATE_STATIC(name) - static functions
MCFG_SCREEN_UPDATE_DRIVER(class, func) - driver members
MCFG_SCREEN_UPDATE_DEVICE(tag, class, func) - device members
Because the target bitmap format can now be deduced from the screen
update function itself, the MCFG_SCREEN_FORMAT macro is no longer
necessary, and has been removed. If you specify a screen update
callback that takes a bitmap_ind16, then the screen will be configured
to use a 16bpp indexed bitmap, and if you specify a callback that
takes a bitmap_rgb32, then a 32bpp RGB bitmap will be provided.
Extended the bitmap classes to support wrapping a subregion of another
bitmap, and cleaner allocation/resetting. The preferred use of bitmaps
now is to define them directly in drivers/devices and use allocate()
or wrap() to set them up, rather than allocating them via
auto_bitmap_*_alloc().
Several common devices needed overhauls or changes as a result of the
above changes:
* Reorganized the laserdisc base driver and all the laserdisc drivers
as modern C++ devices, cleaning the code up considerably. Merged
ldsound device into the laserdsc device since modern devices are
flexible enough to handle it.
* Reorganized the v9938 device as a modern C++ device. Removed
v9938mod.c in favor of template functions in v9938.c directly.
* Added independent ind16 and rgb32 callbacks for TMS340x0 devices.
* All video devices are now hard-coded to either ind16 or rgb32
bitmaps. The most notable is the mc6845 which is rgb32, and
required changes to a number of consumers.
* Added screen_update methods to most video devices so they can be
directly called via MCFG_SCREEN_UPDATE_DEVICE instead of creating
tons of stub functions.
Added new template device_delegate which wraps a regular delegate and
includes a string pointer to a device tag, which can be simply
resolved later. Converted the screen_update delegates to to be based
on this. Changed the mechanism by which screen formats are auto-
deduced. Converted SCREEN_EOF to use these delegates as well, so now
there is MCFG_SCREEN_EOF_STATIC/ DRIVER/DEVICE just like
MCFG_SCREEN_UPDATE.

Death to SCREEN_EOF, which was ambiguously called either at the start
or end of VBLANK depending on the video flag
VIDEO_UPDATE_AFTER_VBLANK. Replaced with SCREEN_VBLANK callbacks which
are called both at the start and end of VBLANK, so you can operate
either way, and be explicit about it. Updated all callers. Also
updated screen_device to use device timers and some other minor
cleanups.

Beginning to implement page faults [Carl]

Created new testcpu driver that shows how to develop an empty test
driver that (ab)uses the core to single step a CPU executing arbitrary
instructions and capturing before/after state and tracking memory.
Currently this driver is always compiled, but is not referenced in
mame.lst. [Aaron Giles]

Cleanup of bitmap classes now that formats and bpp are dictated
strictly by the type. Also added code to more aggressively align the
bitmap base and rowbytes, and create a resize method which attempts to
re-use existing memory rather than always reallocating. [Aaron Giles]

i386: Added I/O permissions. [Carl]

Added new method screen_device::register_screen_bitmap which allocates
a given bitmap to match the screen size and resizes it as appropriate
when the screen size changes. Updated all the obvious spots in the
code where this could be leveraged. [Aaron Giles]
Move allocate/resize methods in the bitmap classes down into bitmap_t
because they no longer have any dependency on the bitmap format or
type.
Ensured that the bitmap's palette remains set across a resize call (it
is lost doing an allocate).

[N64] Various changes: [MooglyGuy, Happy]
* Converted AI / VI / MI / RI / SI / PI into a modernized device
* PI DMA now takes place after an appropriate delay to simulate
transfer time
- SP DMA no longer rejects transfers of 0 bytes (should transfer one
8-byte word)

x87: fix for single-precision operations [Peter Farrie]

Capcom ZN-1 update [Team CPS-1]:
* Redumped and fixed MASK ROMs in ts2, ts2j to match real pcb
(Smitdogg, The Dumping Union)
* Minor fixes



New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Toy Land Adventure [f205v, The Dumping Union]


New clones added
----------------
Gals Panic S - Extra Edition (Europe) [Hartenberger, arcadiabay.de]
Western Gun Part II [Andrew Welburn]


New games marked as GAME_NOT_WORKING
------------------------------------
Shin Nihon Pro Wrestling Toukon Retsuden 4 Arcade Edition
[f205v, The Dumping Union]
Touch de Uno! 2 [f205v, The Dumping Union]"

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