Regen for Linux and Windows

[Gil_Hamilton]

This isn't a bug, but it'd be kind of cool if your emulator had this feature. When you reset a real genesis for X-men 2 Clone wars it will change the character that starts in the first level. You'll notice that kega fusion starts with night crawler and regen starts with gambit. Up until this point no genesis emulator has done this correctly probably because it causes random behavior. I'm guessing it'd have to be disabled for netplay if it was added.

Edit: Just to clarify when the system powers on you always start with Psylocke. Then if you reset the system with the button on the system it would change the character you started with. If I'm wrong it's just because it's been so long since I've played the game.

You also make an interesting point...
If neither emulator powers up to the same state as the system, there's a possibility of odd glitches remaining.

...

Of course, there's also the possibility that different Genesises... Geneses... AMERICAN MEGADRIVES! have different startups.

The addition of the boot ROM almost certainly alters at least some aspects of the process, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's different initialization patterns at other revisions too.
And since the XMen 2 character is (apparently) dependent on initialization status for first character...

If I had the game, I'd have to fire up my two American Megadrives and see if they both had the same boot character(I've got a pre-boot-ROM version and a flavor of Genesis 2).



Ah, never mind.... just looked at the linked threads.

[King Of Chaos]

Actually it is an emulation bug... somewhat. Kega Fusion randomly selects character upon hard and soft resets (although I do remember when people complained about always getting the same characters upon soft/hard resets, I guess Snake fixed that). Maybe it's using some random seed in the R register from the Z80? =P I do have the actual cart and I can remember completely random characters upon reset.

Eternal Champions is another game that has the same behavior. Gotta test that in both Kega and Regen in a few.

EDIT: Tested Eternal Champions in Kega and Regen, and found that Kega will have the different character Sega logos when soft resetting, not hard resetting. In Regen, it's always the same character regardless of soft/hard reset.

Apparently the normal random seed generators fail on hard reset... need to look into this more, but I do remember hard resetting X-Men 2 to change characters, so we'll see.

[King Of Chaos]

Also, if you run into SRAM issues with Mega Man - The Wily Wars (E) & Rockman Megaworld (J) [!] with getting to the Wily Tower minigame, it's a issue with the actual game cartridge itself. Using Rockman Megaworld (J) [a1][!] will fix this issue. So you guys know. =P

[powerspike]

Of course, there's also the possibility that different Genesises... Geneses... AMERICAN MEGADRIVES! have different startups.

Oh god, yeah I need to watch out of that. I should say Genesis/Mega Drive when referring to the system. It's pretty silly that they renamed the system in AMERIKKA like that. : )

Yea, here's some topics/information about it on the Sega Emulation forums when somebody asked why it's like this in Kega...

http://www.gens.ws/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ik ... =1875;st=0

http://www.gens.ws/cgi-bin/ikonboard/ik ... 9;hl=x-men

Maybe it would be silly to just support it for two games. I mean sure the real hardware does it, but Steve does make a good point. Ugh that sure dashed my hopes about it.

AamriM: What do you think about this? Could it be an option or would it be too much work?

[Gil_Hamilton]

Actually it is an emulation bug... somewhat. Kega Fusion randomly selects character upon hard and soft resets (although I do remember when people complained about always getting the same characters upon soft/hard resets, I guess Snake fixed that). Maybe it's using some random seed in the R register from the Z80? =P I do have the actual cart and I can remember completely random characters upon reset.

Eternal Champions is another game that has the same behavior. Gotta test that in both Kega and Regen in a few.

EDIT: Tested Eternal Champions in Kega and Regen, and found that Kega will have the different character Sega logos when soft resetting, not hard resetting. In Regen, it's always the same character regardless of soft/hard reset.

Apparently the normal random seed generators fail on hard reset... need to look into this more, but I do remember hard resetting X-Men 2 to change characters, so we'll see.

Hard reset is similar to power-up. It should be a consistent behavior pattern, excepting analog-side issues.

Of course, there's also the possibility that different Genesises... Geneses... AMERICAN MEGADRIVES! have different startups.

Oh god, yeah I need to watch out of that. I should say Genesis/Mega Drive when referring to the system. It's pretty silly that they renamed the system in AMERIKKA like that. : )

I gather there was a US trademark issue that prevented Sega from using a completely global name.
Pity, given how much easier MegaDrive is to pluralize.

[AamirM]

Hi,

AamirM: What do you think about this? Could it be an option or would it be too much work?

This is somewhat technical. Also, the word activate, in the following, means the logic is pulled high if it is logic high, or pulled low if it is logic low.

Thanks for bringing my attention to this. Well I straight away consider this to be a bug. Soft resetting is the only way to change the character in this game so if Regen cannot do it, its an emulation bug, and I consider the game to be unplayable because I can't select my favourite character (which is Gambit btw). Having said that, I have already found the solution to this bug. On a real Megadrive 68k will start execution after being soft resetted and will execute a random numer of cycles (must be in some range, still have to find that) before the IO registers are resetted. The number of cycles executed in this time selects the character. I can't tell if this is the right solution or not and I am not going to go and look at the schematics of the Megadrive and 68k but I think the soft reset button will activate the RESET pin of the 68k and I *think* it is edge triggered so usually (read: in most processors) after it has been activated for some cycles it will start executing but I think the IO registers are resetted when the user releases the button (again, can't test it since I don't have a working Genesis anymore) thus the cycles executed are random. Here is how the cycles relate to the character (sorry, I don't know names of many characters ):

On Power-up : Big blue hairy guy

On Soft reset:
no cycles exected : Gambit
100 cycles: Hot chick with a stick
200 cycles: Wolverine
488 cycles: Nightcrawler
very high number of cycles : Cyclopes

Although the reasoning may be completely wrong but this sure changes the characters. I don't know if there are any more characters in this game. So you see, the character selected depends on for how long user pressed the reset button (and indirectly on the 68k state) which is very random. If it does not break any other game I'll this feature in the next version.

stay safe,

AamirM

[King Of Chaos]

I consider the game to be unplayable because I can't select my favourite character (which is Gambit btw).

Hell yeah, he's my favorite too (I love his music on the first level!). =P

The characters are in the game...

Cyclops
Gambit
Beast (Blue hairy guy)
Psylocke (Chick with sword)
Nightcrawler
Wolverine

Now, there is one extra character only playable after the 3rd level, Magneto. He's not available for the first level (even though I have a PAR code that allows him to be =P).

How does Eternal Champions' random Sega logos with the various characters work? The same way?

[AamirM]

Didn't check with the Eternal Champions....will do it shortly.

[King Of Chaos]

Those are the only 2 games I can think of right now that act like that. If I think of anymore, I'll be sure to tell you. =)

[AamirM]

Hi,

Yes, Eternal Champions does behave that way too. I hope this won't break any other game.

stay safe,

AamirM

[King Of Chaos]

If there's a test version or WIP, I'd be happy to go on a bender testing games to make sure no games are broken for you.

[AamirM]

I'll be posting the latest beta right after my exams are finished (which is next tuesday) it will also have many other features too. Hopefully I can finish the Shots Factory feature (like in Kawaks) which I have been working on.

[King Of Chaos]

Oh, should be quite interesting. Thanks a lot!

[grinvader]

Hard reset is similar to power-up.

I disagree, but there might be misunderstandings, so here's what I usually go by:

- Power-on: decently obvious.
- Cold reset: effectively the same as above, power on the console after it's been cut off from power from a long enough time (usually mere seconds).
- Warm reset: power-off-then-on, fast enough to keep some capacitors undepleted, which can have major impact (SRAM wiped lol).
- Hard reset: press 'reset' on the console - leaves a whole slew of stuff initialised differently.
- Soft reset: use a software feature to reset the machine.

And yes, I'm the kind of silly guy who'd like the accuracy of being able to choose.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Hard reset is similar to power-up.

I disagree, but there might be misunderstandings, so here's what I usually go by:

- Power-on: decently obvious.
- Cold reset: effectively the same as above, power on the console after it's been cut off from power from a long enough time (usually mere seconds).
- Warm reset: power-off-then-on, fast enough to keep some capacitors undepleted, which can have major impact (SRAM wiped lol).
- Hard reset: press 'reset' on the console - leaves a whole slew of stuff initialised differently.
- Soft reset: use a software feature to reset the machine.

And yes, I'm the kind of silly guy who'd like the accuracy of being able to choose.

I was under the impression that an emulator "hard reset" and "soft reset" would be power cycle and reset button, since a software reset would be triggered by mashing the key sequence on the emulated controller
.

[AamirM]

Hi,

I am trying to gather some performance data of Regen. Anybody using Regen please post the max framerate you are getting with 0.77 (that is, the turbo mode on) using 'None' video plugin along with you PC specs (processor, RAM and video card only).

stay safe,

AamirM

[King Of Chaos]

356~fps

Core 2 Duo 6320
2GB RAM
ATI Radeon X1300 Series

[tetsuo55]

does it matter which game is used? in snes emulation comparing chrono trigger to taz-mania makes a huge difference FPS wise

[AamirM]

Ooops....forgot to mention that. Sonic 3D selection screen (where you select Game Start, Options etc..). It is very intesive on the VDP.

EDIT: SuperHQ turned on and no Stretch.

EDIT2: I get ~376 fps and my specs are Pentium M 1.7 GHz, 512 MB, onboard Intel 915 GM GFX card.

[King Of Chaos]

~360fps on the Sonic 3D Blast selection screen.

[mz]

~150fps. My specs are Intel Celeron 1.70Ghz, 256MB, onboard Intel 82845GE.

[neo_bahamut1985]

With turbo mode, I get 550-560 fps max (no filter) on a Pentium IV 3.20GHz (64-bit) CPU, 1024MB RAM, GeForce 7800GT (256MB GDDR-3 RAM) (First level on Sonic the Hedgehog 2).

[I.S.T.]

380-371 FPS.

Intel Pentium Dual-Core 2160 overclocked to 3 GHZ, 2 gigs of DDR2 800 RAM and a GeForce 8500 GT slightly overclocked.

[AamirM]

With turbo mode, I get 550-560 fps max (no filter) on a Pentium IV 3.20GHz (64-bit) CPU, 1024MB RAM, GeForce 7800GT (256MB GDDR-3 RAM) (First level on Sonic the Hedgehog 2).

And with sonic 3d?

[I.S.T.]

I seem to have noticed a bug. When the FPS display is on, the third digit is cut off by the side of the window.

I can upload a screen shot if you need it, AamirM.