no$gba

No$gba v2.2
Notes on New NDS Emulation
--------------------------

Hello to first no$gba version with NDS support. Parts are working fine, parts
are under construction. The most important (missing) things to be aware of
are:

Missing Feedback!
What's up? Feedback on no$gba v2.2a was great, that although it couldn't run
homebrew "libnds" programs. That's been fixed in v2.2b, and I've been hoping
that it'd allow a couple of people to use & test no$gba with their games, and
to get some useful feedback and bug reports from them. From that point of
view, v2.2b has been a total flop, and it seems to have caught even less
interest than my Atari 2600 emulator For v2.2c, if something doesn't
work, please let me know about it!

Major Missing Features
3D Video, Sound, and WLAN emulation are still missing. Sound should be
relative easy to implement, WLAN probably isn't that important yet, and
for the 3D Stuff: I've meanwhile figured out how it works, and hope it'll
be implemented in next updates.

Things that work only with real NDS-BIOS-image
The "decompression-with-callback" BIOS functions are currently working only
if you do have a copy of the real BIOSes as ROM-images (see Installation
and DS Xboo chapters).
Encrypted ROM-images (with encrypted first 2Kbytes of the secure area) can
be used only if the (full) NDS7 BIOS ROM-image is present (which contains
the 1048h-byte decryption seed data).

Minor Missing Features and Glitches
Game screen sizing doesn't work yet. VRAM viewer Tile/OBJ windows don't
work. Some of the new NDS-related 2D-video features (eg. Extended Palettes)
aren't yet working. In the DOS version, the NDS video emulation currently
appears totally distorted.

Help please!
Nintendo appears to use a new file-format (at least a new file-extension)
for debug information (.srl files, rather than .elf files). Any info about
the .srl files would be great!
Info about the Wlan/Wifi hardware would be great, too.

Notes
Use Ctrl+T in debug mode to toggle between the two CPUs.
Oh, and the monetary stuff, my bank account is just about to drop to zero,
so I'll probably need to charge some update fees for future no$gba/no$nds
versions, at least from users whom have registered more than 12 months ago.
Some suggestions on reasonable update fees would be great; what would you
pay, and what do you think other companies would pay?

Anyways, for now, the current no$nds beta version is a free update for all
registered no$gba users. As usually, I'd be glad about some feedback, bug
reports, and maybe a priority list for missing/incomplete features, ie.
what you'd prefer to be implemented in the next update.

Click to expand...

Remember, this emulator do not supported nds games at all and it is not playable right now so do not complaint about it. Anyway, it is only a beginning.

NOW LEAVE HIM ALONE. :evil:

- nds/metroid: metroid demo intro-movie is now working (bg bitmap & bitmap obj)

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18th May 2006 - version 2.2e


- no$fmw: detects post-header gap-size (typ. 0h,3E00h,4600h) (old: fixed 3E00h)
- dos: fixed v2.2d bug: init_gba_color_xlat_table (old: init_color_xlat_table)
- help: added note on possiblity to move nds7 ROM to (non-)secure area at 200h
- help: added note about blank secure areas (nintendo devkit, 800h zero-bytes)
- help: added cart.NEF/SRL/NLF-combo description in symbolic debug info chapter
- elf/cartloader: crash-fix (occured if newly loaded labels at code-window-addr)
- cartloader/cmdline: supports spaces in "quoted" path\filenames (thanks peter)
- screenshots: fixed palette size (set to zero for true color) (thanks jasper)
- help: changed DMA 4 to DMA 3 (probably makes more sense, thanks jasper vijn)
- nds/debug: accepts labels below 2000000h (ie. ITCM labels, at 1000000h and up)
- nds/help/no$fmw: added chinese as extra language (newer/chinese consoles only)
- vram viewer: OAM redbox works at negative y-coordinate (thanks peter schraut)
- bugfix: joypad_adjust uses "@@seg" instead "vals" for [local_if_adr] access
- nds/tcm: 80x86 intrwait [dtcm+3ff8h] works if DTCM is off, or covered by ITCM
- nds/freeware: stores [memaccess_addr] (required for tcm/interrupt emulation)
- elf: ignores "@1234" and "@456" style dummy labels (used in ldr rd,=txt_ptr)
- nds/cartloader: shows warning on 2K-encrypted-carts (if missing biosnds7.rom)
- nds/cartloader: shows warning on faulty secure area (rom-offset below 4000h)
- cartloader/cmdline: accepts all "unpacked_extensions" (new ones: nds srl elf)
- elf: reload/recent files: reinitializes dsk_path (used to load source-lines)
- nds/controls: joyp/penirq works for BOTH arm7+nds9 (@@skipinp, old: @@skipadj)
- elf: shows continous source lines from ONE section (hides .nef DUPE sections)
- elf: ignores strange "$a" and "$d" dummy labels (found in some elf/nef files)
- nds/cartloader: supports cart.NEF debug info (for cart.SRL binaries) (if any)
- nds/cartloader: supports (not existing) nds-elf's with zero-based phys.addr
- internal/cartloader: replaced @@target_rom flag by pre_size detection values
- internal/cartloader: removed ancient @@elf_method load-by-section-headers
- nds/cartloader: accepts ext .SRL (nintendo's alias for raw .NDS rom-images)

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Gialan said:

This emulator only play demo or hombrew...no NDS games working...

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WhiteX said:

Dude, be more polite.

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18th June 2006 - version 2.2f
- cpu/help: added CPU Memory Alignments chapter (and info on mis-alignments)
- research: discovered wglCreateContext (despite no info in worst opengl specs)
- gba/video: hides invalid tiles in NDS-in-GBA-mode (invisible, unlike real gba)
- gba/video: shows invalid tiles in GBA/SP-mode (vertically striped) (jasper)
- gba/help: unprectiable things: described invalid tiles (thanks jasper vijn)
- gba/emu/help: corrected Prefetch Disable (1N+1I instead 1S+3I) (jasper vijn)
- gui: re-fixed game_template for multiple machines (@@total for dual-screen)
- nds/vram: nds7 emulated vram mirrors every 256K, disabled palette/oam access
- nds/vram: nds9 ignores 8bit-writes to vram/palette/oam (thanks gary linscott)
- nds/vram: nds7 allows 8bit-writes to vram (thanks gary linscott)
- cpu: ignores mis-alignment on NDS9 LDRH/LDRSH (unlike rotated GBA/NDS7 data)
- nds/debug: filesystem viewer rejects invalid nds headers (eg. passme files)
- nds: emulates reading 8bit/16bit-fractions from 32bit ipc_fifo_recv register
- cpu: emulates "ldr pc,[mem]" with misaligned jump-dest (with optional warning)
- nds/video: avoids divide-by-zero crashes in 3D perspective divisions
- gba/nds/video: speedup: color special effects by 1x32bit mul (instead 3x5bit)
- nds/help: fixed extended palette enable bits (dispcnt bit31,30 exchanged)
- a22i: supports macros (still without params) (.macro / ... / .endm)
- a22i: supports repeat macros (.rept / ..code or data.. / .endm)
- nds/video: emulates new nds master brightness up/down effect (port 400X06ch)
- vram viewer: supports NDS rot/scal mode with text-style 16bit bgmap entries
- gba/vram/emu/help: strb to vram: write-nothing reduced to 16K in bitmap mode
- gba/vram/emu/help: strb to vram: write-twice expanded to 80K in bitmap mode
- nds/video: new rotscal mode with 16bit map entries (400h tiles ext_pal xyflip)
- nds/video: extended palettes (256-color TEXT, 256-color OBJs, 16bit rotscal)
- nds/video: emulates large screen bitmap mode (not tested, but should work)
- nds/reset: also zero-fills 2D Engine B ports (bg0ofs scroll registers, etc.)
- cartloader: loads .NEF debug-info also for .NDS files (instead only for .SRL)
- cpu: allows mis-aligned thumb BX R15, auto-aligned to "($+4) AND NOT 2"
- gba/video: emulates obj-wrap; 64x64 scaled to 128x128 only in UPPER portion
- nds/help: described obj-wrap; 64x64 scaled to 128x128 in BOTH screen portions
- nds/video: screen-width for NDS rot/scal-obj (256 pix on NDS, instead 240 pix)

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