Symbian emulator? | MSX Resource Center (Página 11/73)

Rookie (20)

03-09-2003, 09:02

Good release! Unfortunately kpi ball my favourite game which is a 720kb disk image is still slow as hell to load, too bad the Nokia 7650 has a so small cache size... Just a thought, could you add in fMSX a snapshot feature like the one of Frodo (the C64 emulator) for Series 60 ?

Not sure if this is possible but Frodo has a nice feature to avoid loading times where you can create a snapshot file of your rom image and load that in the emulator to start the game from the point where you saved (also when you got the .snap file the actual rom image is not even required to play the game, it's all included in the .snap). That would be a *very* useful feature for games like kpi ball which have slow loading times and many intros which you could skip to go directly to the actual gameplay. I could just create a kpiball.snap image and start playing directly everytime skipping all the intros.

Por jr

Champion (379)

03-09-2003, 10:12

Yes, this snapshot feature is the same as what Sousuke suggested a few posts earlier as state saving. I am investigating this, it is supported in fMSX/Unix so the source code is available, I just need to port it to my version. And like I replied before, this will need some space on the device because it requires that the whole MSX memory is saved to the snapshot/state file.

If you have space in your phone you can try using your KPI Ball disk image uncompressed, don't gzip the .dsk file. This will make it run a lot faster.

Por snout

Ascended (15187)

03-09-2003, 13:00

About caching .DSK files - maybe it's interesting not to look at the size of the DSK but at the size of its contents? So, if DSK files aren't sector-based, but have like 300kB of files on them, you should still be able to cache those files somehow. Otherwise a read-ahead cache should give some improvement as well.

Por Sousuke

Master (177)

03-09-2003, 17:18

And like I replied before, this will need some space on the device because it requires that the whole MSX memory is saved to the snapshot/state file.
The state file could also be compressed to save space at the cost of time.
I don't think that it would matter that much, if it takes a bit longer

But AFAIK, fMSX normally runs w/ 128kb RAM and 128kb VRAM, so the (quicksaved) state could also be stored in the cache (Of course when no disk is inserted)

Por karloch

Prophet (2159)

04-09-2003, 02:13

Another suggestion looking for better gameplaying. Since it is difficult to play from the fone keyboard (particullary the 3650 one...), it would be nice if the emulator could feature a Turbo Fire and Auto Fire function to the joystick, so in shot'em ups we have not to be pressing one button everytime and the response from other phone buttons would be better, as well as the gameplay. The autofire or turbofire function could be enabled or disabled from gameplay with a special key on the phone.

Ah, and another thing. There should be a way to close the game that we are playing and get back to the emulator main menu, so we wouldn't have to be clossing the whole emulator and loading again when cahnging the game, etc...

These are just some suggestion, of course the most-wanted feature is the sound of course (most wanted because all other features of the emulator works like a charm!!). And congratulations for the performace improvement of the keyboard response, almost everygame is playable now.

Thank you so much for the great work with the emulator!

Por Sousuke

Master (177)

04-09-2003, 02:48

And congratulations for the performace improvement of the keyboard response, almost everygame is playable now.I can only agree with karloch! And the screen-rotation is great, frameskipping is also very useful. The new release is awesome!

Thought of some features/changes for the to-do list:
* Individually specified buttons, which enters a special key-sequence. E.g. useful for cheat-codes. Typing that 'word' in the emu (during pause-mode) which will put that string into the keyboard-buffer would also be cool
* After redefining one keyboard-mapping the program jumps back to the control-config-menu. Better if it stays in that menu like the joystick-config.

Oh yes, and thanks again for the great work!!

Por jr

Champion (379)

04-09-2003, 08:46

I'm beginning to feel embarrassed :O

Por Latok

msx guru (3928)

04-09-2003, 08:51

Cheers from my side as well! I love it!

The sound though.....The sound........

Por jr

Champion (379)

04-09-2003, 08:54

Another suggestion looking for better gameplaying. Since it is difficult to play from the fone keyboard (particullary the 3650 one...), it would be nice if the emulator could feature a Turbo Fire and Auto Fire function to the joystick, so in shot'em ups we have not to be pressing one button everytime and the response from other phone buttons would be better, as well as the gameplay. The autofire or turbofire function could be enabled or disabled from gameplay with a special key on the phone.

Sorry for being stupid but what's the difference between Auto and Turbo fire?

Por Sousuke

Master (177)

04-09-2003, 16:14

Sorry for being stupid but what's the difference between Auto and Turbo fire?Guess Karloch meant a firing-function which constantly repeats pressing the fire-button *automatically* (after it has been turned on via special button) -> auto-fire.
Turbo-fire is almost the same, but you have to hold the fire-button, so that it'll fire rapidly.

Hope my english is understandable