Rewriting N-Rage DirectInput8 Transfer Pak

[MadManMarkAu]

Hi. I'm MadManMarkAu, I added the (buggy) Transfer Pak support to the 1.81/1.82 version of DirectInput8. I'm going to be rewriting the transfer pak emulation, hoping to include support for non-standard savegame formats, as well as PROPERLY emulating the inner workings of the GB Cart. This includes *insert fanfare here* TIMER SUPPORT!

Please note, that I'm not pulling the old project from the "discontinued" pile, I'm just making an update to a few well-known problems.

However, I have a very simple understanding of the workings of the GB Cart. So, I need some *experienced* GB developers to give me some information on how the diferent systems are used. I've beengoogling for a few days now, and there's a hell of a lot of information about some types of GB cart missing.

Here's the information I need: (This stuff I can do without, so if you know, that's great. If not, don't sweat it )
MBC1: Maximum ROM & RAM bank numbers supported
MBC2: Maximum ROM bank number supported, and WHY it can have a battery (ie, does it have an inbuilt timer, or inbuilt RAM with possible backup -> if so, what size)
MBC3: Maximum ROM & RAM bank numbers supported
MBC5: Maximum ROM & RAM bank numbers supported

Now, for the HARD stuff: (This is info I *MUST* have)
All HUDSON HuC 1 and HUDSON HuC 3 info.
All BANDAI TAMA5 info
All MMMO1 info
Finally, any POCKET CAMERA information. This one is optional, but it might be nice to have...

If anyone can help me out on this, I'd greatly appreciate it, and I'd be happy to put some credits in the source code when it is released.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Doomulation]

Ummm darn, I just made some changes to the 1.82a source :icecream: Maybe I should try to re-implemt my changes in your new source when it gets out. You must have both enhancements, eh? :evil:

When you're done, gimme the source and I'll see to add my changes as well
Cheers for n-rage!

 

[MadManMarkAu]

That's no problem. I saw your thread when I was hunting down the source code (cause I'd lost it over the years)... so far, I've added support for ROM only and ROM+RAM, MBC1 with/without ram/battery, and I'm just going on to MBC2... I just have to fins a ROM that uses MBC2 and RAM, so I can test the maximum RAM paging value accepted.

 

[MasterPhW]

Fantastic, another great feature! Only one is still needing: Microphone Pack emulation. Who knows... probably in another update...

 

[Hacktarux]

The problem with microphone emulation is a double problem. First you have to figure out how the pif microphone commands are encoded.

And second problem, you have to write a customized voice recognition program. Fortunately, i think there are only a few words to recognize. I can probably write such a little recognition program, the only problem would be to built a learning database, we'd probably need to ask as much members as possible to record their voice when they say these words several times for each person.... Anyway we haven't reached this stage yet, somebody has to understand the commands.

 

[MadManMarkAu]

Heh, I wasn't aware there was a microphone thingy... let alone how it works

 

[gandalf]

Micrphone.....we need to know how the N64 (or the game?) recognize the speech and how many words can recognize :S

Anyway....

Care in your project xD

 

[MadManMarkAu]

it's possible to if you can get some speech recognition software... I had some a while back, that had an API so you could use it behind-the-scenes... Anyway, I don't think the Microphone pak will become a reality in this project... It may be just too hard at this stage. Besides, what N64 games are going to use it?

Anyway, just a status update, I've completed support for ROM-only, MBC1, MBC2, MBC3 and MBC5. I just need info on the HuC 1 + 3 and the MMMO1 chipsets. The web has NO information what so ever on these. The Timer is emulated, however, it doesn't tick over yet, and can't read timer dara from a file yet. First prioirty now is to get the timer to tick and to read/write timer files.

I'll post another update soon.

 

[euphoria]

The only one that uses the microphone is "Hey You, Pikachu!".
So is there some kind of voice recognition inside the microphone pak then? Otherwise you'd think that you could just plug a microphone and send the raw data to N64 emu and let it process the data.

 

[Hacktarux]

from what i understood, yea, the voice recognition is done inside the microphone pak... Again, the voice recognition software isn't the hard part (words can even be typed in a dialog box in a first version). The problem is to reverse the commands....

 

[MadManMarkAu]

...which is why it's probably not going to get done... Nobody has any information on the Microphone Pak and how it works.

 

[MadManMarkAu]

Update: Woot. I just downloaded the VisualBoy Advance source code, and I'm hoping that tonight the timer will be fully supported by the end of tonight or tomorow. Interesting thing is, the RTC info is tacked onto the end of the .SAV file, rather than putting it in a .TDF or .RTC file. So, that's one RTC save format out of the way, I'm hoping I can get support for the DBoy and NO$GMB .TDF files... It's not looking promising, tho. None of the authors return my E-Mails, and reverse engineering it is proving to be a nightmare.

Anyways, that's it from me for now, I'll update again when I've made more progress.

 

[gandalf]

Nice

 

[LazerTag]

I have always found emulation in and of itself to be pretty awesome.

I must say until this thread I was never all that impressed with "input plugins". Not that I know how to program myself, but I always just thought in my head "left, right, up, down, shoot, jump, etc... , How hard could that be?". Well now I see it's way more then that.

Props go out to all those who do there share to make sure these games are not only functional on a PC, but actually playable as well. Very amazing indeed.

 

[MadManMarkAu]

ok, update as of 6:30 this morning:

I've been going all night on this, (apart form watching a movie and some episodes *wink*) and I've got some sort of RTC thing happening... I'm not sure if it's working or not, but in theory it should. I can load and save RTC data saved by VisualBoy Advance, but I'll have to check if my update method is right. Dammit, does anyone have any coffee?

I've tested it with Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2, and it seems to work good, even better than before. Someone complained that Stadium 2 wouldn't recognise their Crystal ROM and save (which started this whole process), and now I can confidently say, it does.

Now, all it needs is support to read .RTC files (not looking good at this point), the RTC routines tested, and I may be ready to do some sort of release.

Ok, that's it from me for now, I'm off to bed before I fall asleep in my chair and get some sort of neck damage.

 

[ggab]

Nice improvements !
Keep up the good work :canadian:

 

[MadManMarkAu]

It lives, IT LIVES! The RTC LIVES!!!

The RTC is now, officialy, fully functional. YAY! THe plugin supports VisualBoy saves, RTC, every pokemon game out there (yet to be tested on that tho, but in theory...), umm, it's all good

I think I'm just about done. I'm going to make some adjustments to the settings page, get rid of some useless crap that was going ot be used, but won't be used now. And, change the version to 1.83a. Now, there was someone who wanted to make some changes to the plugin... Ah, Doomulation. If you can tell me what changes you did to the source, I can put them in for you. (I can't actualy hand over the source incase you put in a backdoor or something... not that you would, but for safety's sake...)

Anyway, it is so close to being finished, I can smell it in the air.

 

[MadManMarkAu]

Whoo~~~ Guess who is ready to release?

Ok, peeps. Get the files here:
Plugin:http://www.ozchurch.com/webmaster_space/NRage_DInput8_V2_Alpha.dll
Source: http://www.ozchurch.com/webmaster_space/NRage_DInput8_V2_Alpha_src.zip

Have fun, people

Please post bug reports here. I'm interested to see how well it runs on other machines/versions of windows.

Time for a well-earned beer, I think arty:

Only thin left is, when Doomulation gets back to me on the changes, I can release it as a beta/final release depending on how well this alpha release goes

Thanks for your support people

 

[retroK]

I can not download these files! Could you please upload them somewhere else?

 

[Knuckles]

Same here, just put them in a zip and attach them to your post, you files will be uploaded on emutalk.