byuu says:
This release adds the phoenix/Cocoa port, and rewrites a lot of the
higan user interface to work with all of the new changes (like blocking
in the main run loop and in modal windows.)
It doesn't yet modify the compilation flags to actually build on OS
X yet, and even then, we don't really have ruby drivers, so there'd be
no video, audio or input.
Two months between a single WIP point release ... for the first six
years, I never went more than a month without a full official release.
I guess I should be happy that it's become so refined, but I sure do
miss those halcyon days of exciting progress.
byuu says:
This release refines HSU1 support as a bidirectional protocol, nests SFC
manifests as "release/cartridge" and "release/information" (but release/
is not guaranteed to be finalized just yet), removes the database
integration, and adds support for ananke.
ananke represents inevitability. It's a library that, when installed,
higan can use to load files from the command-line, and also from a new
File -> Load Game menu option.
I need to change the build rules a bit for it to work on Windows (need
to make phoenix a DLL, basically), but it works now on Linux.
Right now, it only takes *.sfc file names, looks them up in the included
database, converts them to game folders, and returns the game folder
path for higan to load.
The idea is to continue expanding it to support everything we can that
I don't want in the higan core:
- load *.sfc, *.smc, *.swc, *.fig files
- remove SNES copier headers
- split apart merged firmware files
- pull in external firmware files (eg dsp1b.rom - these are staying
merged, just as SPC7110 prg+dat are merged)
- load *.zip and *.7z archives
- prompt for selection on multi-file archives
- generate manifest files based on heuristics
- apply BPS patches
The "Load" menu option has been renamed to "Library", to represent games
in your library. I'm going to add some sort of suffix to indicate
unverified games, and use a different folder icon for those (eg
manifests built on heuristics rather than from the database.)
So basically, to future end users:
File -> Load Game will be how they play games.
Library -> (specific system) can be thought of as an infinitely-sized
recent games list.
purify will likely become a simple stub that invokes ananke's functions.
No reason to duplicate all that code.
[No prior releases were posted to the WIP thread. -Ed.]
byuu says:
Super Famicom mapping system has been reworked as discussed with the
mask= changes. offset becomes base, mode is gone. Also added support for
comma-separated fields in the address fields, to reduce the number of
map lines needed.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cartridge region="NTSC">
<superfx revision="2">
<rom name="program.rom" size="0x200000"/>
<ram name="save.rwm" size="0x8000"/>
<map id="io" address="00-3f,80-bf:3000-32ff"/>
<map id="rom" address="00-3f:8000-ffff" mask="0x8000"/>
<map id="rom" address="40-5f:0000-ffff"/>
<map id="ram" address="00-3f,80-bf:6000-7fff" size="0x2000"/>
<map id="ram" address="70-71:0000-ffff"/>
</superfx>
</cartridge>
Or in BML:
cartridge region=NTSC
superfx revision=2
rom name=program.rom size=0x200000
ram name=save.rwm size=0x8000
map id=io address=00-3f,80-bf:3000-32ff
map id=rom address=00-3f:8000-ffff mask=0x8000
map id=rom address=40-5f:0000-ffff
map id=ram address=00-3f,80-bf:6000-7fff size=0x2000
map id=ram address=70-71:0000-ffff
As a result of the changes, old mappings will no longer work. The above
XML example will run Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Otherwise,
you'll have to write your own.
All that's left now is to work some sort of database mapping system in,
so I can start dumping carts en masse.
The NES changes that FitzRoy asked for are mostly in as well.
Also, part of the reason I haven't released a WIP ... but fuck it, I'm
not going to wait forever to post a new WIP.
I've added a skeleton driver to emulate Campus Challenge '92 and
Powerfest '94. There's no actual emulation, except for the stuff I can
glean from looking at the pictures of the board. It has a DSP-1 (so
SR/DR registers), four ROMs that map in and out, RAM, etc.
I've also added preliminary mapping to upload high scores to a website,
but obviously I need the ROMs first.
byuu says:
Basically just a project rename, with s/bsnes/higan and the new icon
from lowkee added in.
It won't compile on Windows because I forgot to update the resource.rc
file, and a path transform command isn't working on Windows.
It was really just meant as a starting point, so that v091 WIPs can flow
starting from .00 with the new name (it overshadows bsnes v091, so
publicly speaking this "shouldn't exist" and will probably be deleted
from Google Code when v092 is ready.)
Tim Allen