ZSNES Team wants you! If...

[Nach]

One way or another, it's time for an official release. Current WIP is pretty stable. There's a feature or two that's a dummy at the moment so that needs to be documented.

Here's the scoop. Before we can release, we need updated docs.

Those of you capable and want to do this, please help.

I made a changes of v1.36 to a WIP a few months back available here: http://www.geocities.com/joecool22us/changes.txt

Granted some of the changes were planned but never done, and there have been a handful of meaningful changes since (and no, a blinking cursor ain't one of them).

Take current docs, and use my changes.txt for a base of the what's new.
So if you wonderful ZBoarders are able to, please pitch in.

[Noxious Ninja]

Give me a current list of Linux command-line options and I'll update the man page.

[badinsults]

Wasn't Richard C working on the html version of the documents.

[jdratlif]

Give me a current list of Linux command-line options and I'll update the man page.

A quick look at the source gives us the following linux command line options. I think this should be all of them.

-0
-1 arg
-2 arg
-7
-8
-9
-a arg
-c arg
-d arg
-e
-f arg
-g arg
-h
-i
-j
-k arg
-l
-m
-n
-o arg
-p arg
-r arg
-s arg
-t
-u
-v arg
-w
-y
-z
-?

I don't use command line args, and so I don't know what any of them are. I only made a cursory glance at the source and took those from the getopt arguments in src/linux/zloaderw.c

arg means they take an arg. I believe only one, but I haven't used getopt in a long time.

[jdratlif]

One way or another, it's time for an official release. Current WIP is pretty stable. There's a feature or two that's a dummy at the moment so that needs to be documented.

Here's the scoop. Before we can release, we need updated docs.

Those of you capable and want to do this, please help.

Take current docs, and use my changes.txt for a base of the what's new.
So if you wonderful ZBoarders are able to, please pitch in.

Based on my bad experiences trying to compile zsnes, I updated the install.txt file. It has updated websites, and more complete instructions on compiling on Windows and Linux. I don't have DOS, so I'll have to hope those are good for anyone who uses that.

(edit: I forgot all about FreeDOS. So I went and installed that and updated the DOS instructions.)

(edit: I modified the Linux instructions slightly)

http://games.technoplaza.net/zsnes/install.txt

[grinvader]

Code: Select all

$ zsnes -?
Usage : zsnes [-d,-f #, ... ] <filename.smc>
   Eg : zsnes -s -r 2 game.smc
 
  -0      Disable Color 0 modification in 8-bit modes
  -1 #/-2 #   Select Player 1/2 Input :
                0 = None       1 = Keyboard   2 = Joystick   3 = Gamepad
                4 = 4Button    5 = 6Button    6 = Sidewinder
  -7      Disable SPC700 speedhack
  -8      Force 8-bit sound
  -9      Off by 1 line fix
  -a      Enable automatic frame rate
  -cs     Enable full/wide screen (when available)
  -cb     Remove Background Color in 256 color video modes
  -cc     Enable small screen (when available)
  -dd     Disable sound DSP emulation
  -f #    Enable fixed frame rate [0...9]
  -h      Force HiROM
  -i      Uninterleave ROM Image
  -j      Disable Mouse (Automatically turns off right mouse click)
  -k #    Set Volume Level (0 .. 100)
  -l      Force LoROM
  -m      Disable GUI
  -n      Enable full scanlines (when available)
  -om     Enable MMX support (when available)
  -p #    Percentage of instructions to execute [50..120]
  -r #    Set Sampling Sound Blaster Sampling Rate & Bit :
             0 = 8000Hz  1 = 11025Hz 2 = 22050Hz 3 = 44100Hz
             4 = 16000Hz 5 = 32000Hz
  -se     Enable SPC700/DSP emulation (Sound)
  -sa     Show all extensions in GUI (*.*)
  -sn     Enable Snowy GUI Background
  -t      Force NTSC timing
  -u      Force PAL timing
  -w      Enable vsync (disables triple buffering)
  -y      Enable EAGLE (640x480x8B only) or Interpolation (640x480x16B only)
  -z      Enable Stereo Sound
  -zs #   Auto load specified save state slot on startup
 
  File Formats Supported by GUI : .SMC,.SFC,.SWC,.FIG,.MGD,.UFO,.BIN,
                                  .058,.078,.1,.USA,.EUR,.JAP

Current WIP output.

[pagefault]

I'm spending this weekend working on the linux port to fix the major issues in it then I will be doing the release.

[jdratlif]

I'm spending this weekend working on the linux port to fix the major issues in it then I will be doing the release.

It would be nice if future source versions had the configure file already generated. Most people don't have autoconf/automake on their systems by default, as it's only needed to generate configure files.

[jj_frap]

I'm spending this weekend working on the linux port to fix the major issues in it then I will be doing the release.

Will the release fix FF6j?

[LDAWG]

pagefault said he was adding-in support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 Firewall Feature,
so that the Windows Firewall Pop-up would Pop-up correctly.
Did this ever happen or will it happen?
If so, that would need to be added to the updated docs.

Aslo, what is Seta 10?
Special Hardware?
Because you guys also added Support for that as well, and it's not in Nach's updated docs above.

and... don't forget to add SamB to the "thank you"

and... is the new "path setup window" for the Windows Port, only ?
My Linux box died maybe i'll try it in the DOS Port later.

[Agozer]

The paths setup window is in all ports, AFAIK.

SETA 10 is a special chip.

[LDAWG]

Actually, now that I read it... maybe "ST010 Emulation" is Seta 10 ?

Another question.
What exactly is pagefault talking about when he says
"Make ZSNES more HTPC friendly [pagefault]"

HTPC could mean a lot of things.
Is it Hyper Threading PC ?
Is it Home Theatre Personal Computer ?
What is it ? (I think he ment Hyper Threading... which wouldn't be for the DOS Port)

Also, when Nach says,
"Cleaned up Base+Add on code. [Nach]"
Does he mean,
"Cleaned up Base+Add in code. [Nach]"
?

Also, doesn't the Coder kentaro-k.21 need to be added
to the DSP-2 Emulation Section under Special Hardware?

Also,
HERE is a list of things I believe are being added, next release... am I right ?
- Adding -lm to acinclude.m4 so AC_TRY_RUN doesn't return negative on some systems looking for libpng. [theoddone33]
- Adding Scale2X function to GUI under Video Config. [pagefault]
- Adding minor EHi number of banks hack, Dai Kaiju Monogatari 2 now loads and plays great without the Dejap patch. [Nach]
- Adding 3 and/or 4 Player Netplay. [pagefault]
- Adding Windows XP SP2 Firewall support. [pagefault]

Be back later, let me find more stuff...

[LDAWG]

o yeah... what exactly did SamB do?

Nach has a line in the whatsnew.txt, in WIP 09/20/04, that states:
"- Using SamB's idea. [Nach]"

EDIT:
OK, I found out that SamB did a compiler fix.
Did he do anything else?

[Nach]

Actually, now that I read it... maybe "ST010 Emulation" is Seta 10 ?

Same thing.

Also, when Nach says,
"Cleaned up Base+Add on code. [Nach]"
Does he mean,
"Cleaned up Base+Add in code. [Nach]"

That's "Base" + "Add on" support code being cleaned up. Besides, this is already covered in the what's new I put together.

Also, doesn't the Coder kentaro-k.21 need to be added
to the DSP-2 Emulation Section under Special Hardware?

Yes.

HERE is a list of things I believe are being added, next release... am I right ?
1. Adding -lm to acinclude.m4 so AC_TRY_RUN doesn't return negative on some systems looking for libpng. [theoddone33]
2. - Adding Scale2X function to GUI under Video Config. [pagefault]
3. - Adding minor EHi number of banks hack, Dai Kaiju Monogatari 2 now loads and plays great without the Dejap patch. [Nach]
4. - Adding 3 and/or 4 Player Netplay. [pagefault]
5. - Adding Windows XP SP2 Firewall support. [pagefault]

1. Done, and I believe already covered in my what's new.
2. It's a dummy option for now and may have a real option some day.
3. Same as 1.
4. Will be in a future release hopefully.
5. No idea.


SamB once submitted me a diff to get ZSNES to compile on one weird version of NASM, and he once gave me an idea how to make some code a bit neater which I then went ahead and cleaned up.

[LDAWG]

Alright, I am about 95% done with compilling every changelog I can find from 1.36 to today.

It is a daunting taks, which I have spent between 5 to 6 hours on.
You ZSNES guys suck with grammar and detail (hehe J/K)

Anyway,
I have tried my best to make every line of text start with a past-tense verb.
Using word like "Added" "Fixed" "Changed" "Removed" "Cleaned up" "Improved" and so on...
I have also added much punctuation such as periods.

I also added more detail to some lines, for example:
I changed
"Added support for new SFA2 gfx packs. [pagefault]"
to
"Added support for new Street Fighter Alpha 2 gfx packs. [pagefault]"

Also, I added the words "after initial implementation" when a feature was added after 1.36 but then improved upon within the WIPs.
Here is an example of some Linux change updates (hope these are right):
"Added HQ2X, HQ3X, and HQ4X filters! [MaxSt]"
"Fixed HQ2X, after initial implementation. [zinx]"
"Added HQ3X filter updates, after initial implementation. [pagefault]"
"Added much much faster HQ3X filter code, after initial implementation. [MaxSt]"
This way, eveyone is getting credit (instead of just having MaxST at the top, on 1 line).

I have also deleted duplicate line items and made them 1 line of text, for example:
"Added multiple timing tweaks and other updates. More things work. [pagefault]"
(this alone, was like 5 different line items, said 5 different ways)
and
"Updated and fixed SPC7110 and SDD-1 timings and SDD-1 memory map, after initial implementation. We now do this properly. [pagefault]"
(I added the "SDD-1 memory map" from another line, with the same author)
(since SDD-1 is new after 1.36, but then improved upon in the WIPS, I added the words "after initial implementation")
and
"Added Tales of Phantasia interleaved hacks for information, and fixed interleaved loading. [Nach]"
(same author, smashed into 1 line for the same game of ToP, instead of the original 2 lines)
(I also changed ToP to Tales of Phantasia)

Anytime I saw the word "interleave" I changed it to "interleaved"
I hope this is right ???

O yeah, and what does theoddone33 mean by:
"- Fixed jumps. [theoddone33]"
Is this a Linux thing?

I'll try to put up my final whatsnew.txt by the end of the day.

[Agozer]

You could have just grabbed the full changelog from my site and retype things to make it a bit clearer...

[LDAWG]

You could have just grabbed the full changelog from my site and retype things to make it a bit clearer...

Hehe, yeah I printed yours out, Agozer.
Just to have it in front of me to write on it, as I go.
Trust me, I know about your badass changelog

Also,
I changed all instances of Pagefault (Cap P) to pagefault.

...and,
what does Nach mean by this?,
"Thrown in some casts (thanks MKendora). [Nach]"

...and 1 more thing...
Do you guys like the phrase:
"Add-on"
or
"Add on"
These change logs do it both ways... just trying for consistency.
??? Let me know!

[Agozer]

You could have just grabbed the full changelog from my site and retype things to make it a bit clearer...

Hehe, yeah I printed yours out, Agozer.
Just to have it in front of me to write on it, as I go.
Trust me, I know about your badass changelog

Excellent. I was under the impression that you had to go through painstaking research to get the info somewhere else.

Good job.

btw, I'd go with Add-on.

[LDAWG]

pagefault has a line:
"Improved sound quality. [pagefault]"

Does he mean just the cmd line sound quality, when using Linux ?
I believe he does, but let me know!
I also know that 48khz sound support was added, and also 32khz is now the default.
I also know that StatMat added the use of DirectSound primary buffer.

I believe pagefault was talking about cmd line sound quality in Linux... once again, let me know!

Just trying to make this thing as accurate and detailed as possible.

I also added this:
"Added Scale2X to GUI. Not functional yet. [pagefault]"
Is this cool, with you guys?

Also, can I add a line that says:
"Fixed various interpolation issues, both sound and video. [pagefault]"
pagefault has a line that says:
"Fixed interpolation. [pagefault]"
but it's not very detailed.

Also, I combined this line from a bunch of latch behavior lines:
"Overhauled IO latch behavior, added proper latching behavior and other latch fixes, and added proper behavior of RDIO regs. [pagefault]"
Did I make it too redundant?
How can we make it better, if so?
(RDIO regs where also mentioned twice, once by itself, and once included with a latch fix)

Also, when Nach says,
"New loading code. [Nach]"
Does he mean ROM loading code or application (ZSNES) loading code?
I know that some new ROM loading code was added, but was there anything else?

Hehe,
do you guys want me to make the following more professional ?
"Initalization code for racing game that sucks because it doesn't have a gun on the roof. [pagefault]"

Let me know!

[Nach]

...

Sorta speechless.
I believe I mentioned this already http://www.geocities.com/joecool22us/changes.txt

If you're going to mention every last change, your giving out a lot of useless information. Things have to be grouped. Mentioning casts is something pertaining to code cleanup. Instead of mentioning every last bit of code cleanup, just mention so and so and so did code cleanup.

Also making 20 mentions of how I worked on base+add on support is a bit rediculous, as it's one item that I slowly worked on.
Instead do as I did in my changelog:

Code: Select all

Sufami Turbo Support (preliminary)
Nach

SD Gundam G-Next and Same Game expansion pack Support
Nach

Short and to the point.

[LDAWG]

This is hardcore.

Found another couple of crazy lines:
"SPC RAM hopefully should now be initilized correctly (thanks Overload). [Nach]"
and
"SPC RAM now initilizes correctly. [Overload, Nach, pagefault]"

I will of course be keeping the bottom one, and deleting the top one.

I'm trying my best Nach...
Got most eveything grouped.

Got game fixes grouped.
Got compiler stuff grouped.
Got special chips and hardware group together (like 10 SPC lines together)
Got sprite issues grouped.
Got sound issues grouped.
Got interleaved stuff grouped.
Got GUI additions grouped.
Got IPS stuff grouped.
Got zip and unzip and gzip stuff grouped.

... and I'm still not done

and I know aout the ROM loading code, like I said...
I'll just delete the thing pagefault wrote when he said:
"New loading code. [Nach]"

[LDAWG]

Another question:
Is Unicode fully supported yet, or will it be, come release?

[LDAWG]

OK, here's my 1st attempt at a 1.40 changelog:

http://www.geocities.com/ldawgzsnes/wha ... _rev01.txt

There's still a bit more to do.
Change what you guys want and just repost, or just let me know and I can make changes!

[Nach]

- Added use of DirectSound primary buffer. [StatMat]
- Using secondary sound buffer - again. [Nach, ipher]

The second cancled out the first one.

- Added HQ2X, HQ3X, and HQ4X filters! [MaxSt]
- Added HQ3X filter updates, after initial implementation. [pagefault]
- Added much much faster HQ3X filter code, after initial implementation.
[MaxSt]

pagefault only commited code for MaxSt. THere's also no reason for 3 of those.

- Fixed Snapshot filenames. [StatMat]

PNG filenames.

- Updated Input support. [Nach]

I didn't do any Linux specific input support.

- Effects obj files now deleted with "make clean". [ipher]

No idea what the heck that is, but only Win32 has obj files.

- Fixed cmd line sound quality. [pagefault]

What the heck is that supposed to mean?

- Fixed unzipping ROMs that are 6MB with a header. [Nach]
No reason for this, as it only fixed code that I broke while removing temporary zip directories.

- Fixed extra information lines. [pagefault]
No reason for this, as they didn't exist or were broken in any way in v1.36

- Cleaned up Base+Add on code. [Nach]
- Fixed checksum and CRC32 when using add-on ROMs. [Nach]
Ditto.

- Fixed syntax bug. [Nach]
This is rediculous, should be under general code cleanup.

- Fixed SRAM issue. [Nach]
- Fixed ZSNES crash/bad exit, if ROM fails to load. [Nach]
- Fixed loading another ROM after previous ROM didn't load. [Nach]
Recent fixes, no need to mention them.

- Made handling of base cart paths more logical codewise. [Nach]
This is part of paths, don't need path support and fixes mentioned more than once.

- Enabled stereo sound by default. [pagefault]
You already mentioned default changes.

- Added work-around for a 1.36 ZST bug. [pagefault]
- Fixed savestates with older versions. [pagefault]
Again, these are WIP fixes that don't need to be mentioned.

- Fixed path input crashing bug. [Nach]
There were no paths in v1.36, remember?

- Added a blinking cursor to input boxes. [Nach]
I mentioned not to mention this in the first post.

- Made Soft IPS patching follow old patch offsetting method [Nach]
- Implemented IPS patching from ZIP files. [Nach]
- IPS files now buffered. [Nach]
- Updated IPS code. It now supports RLE. This should fix problems if the ROM is expanded, and automatically view the ROM with a header. [Nach]
- Fixed ROM enlargement by IPS when IPS is out of order. [Nach]
- Fixed loading a second IPS file in one ZSNES session. [Nach]
All IPS stuff, and a lot of it is fixes for the work in progress. Just mention we now have real IPS in zip file support, with buffering, and RLE support.

- Fixed some lines of the screen with HQ filters. [MaxSt]
Part of HQ stuff mentioned earlier.

- Added and improved interleaved rom detection. [Nach, pagefault]
- Fixed interleaved detection with overflowing titles. [pagefault]
- Fixed interleaved rom loading code. [pagefault]
- Updated interleaved detection code and added detection for ST018 chip. [pagefault]
- Added the function to not check Hi/LoROM after deinterleaving. [pagefault]
All that code is mine, pagefault only commited it before I had CVS access. The various interleave stuff should also be combined. ST018 also has nothing to do with interleaving, and is part of my general chip detection update.

- Fixed some issues in C4 code (DOWN LOAD, MALU, Op 13, and more). [Nach]
- Added C4 Op25. [anomie, TRAC, Nach]
You only have to mention C4 updated like I did in my changes.txt, not mention every opcode updated individually.

Probably more, but I got tired of skimming

[darkbenny]

OK, here's my 1st attempt at a 1.40 changelog:

http://www.geocities.com/ldawgzsnes/wha ... _rev01.txt

There's still a bit more to do.
Change what you guys want and just repost, or just let me know and I can make changes!

very nice!