zx spectrum umulator test

[Seleuco]

I'm working in a port of the iphone iXpectrum emulator, A.K.A GP2Xpectrum to the Android Platform...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POJ4eq6tGVE


Since i haven't an android phone yet (i plan to gift one to my wife

), i m developing with the SDK emulator and with the XDAdroid platform (android running over windows mobile).

I have uploaded a WIP version to:

http://code.google.com/p/xpectrum/downloads/list

I would need some feedback about the emulation core.... real performance,
if the sound or the image stutters, etc

if someone is kind enough to try i would be very grateful...

By now, the emulator works with the d-pad and menu hooked keys, it has some touch controls enabled but not support multitouch, so the touch control works only to test the emulator (you cant walk and jump at the same time)... it should work later...

To play games you have to put files in

/sdcard/ROMs/xpectrum-oid

(a /ROMs/xpectrum-oid) directory in the sdcard

some nice games:

Downloads

thanks in advance...

 

[chaz_uk]

I'm going to test this now on my N1. I'll let you know how it goes.

If anyone wants plenty more roms, go to World of Spectrum

EDIT: I just tried Cat Walk on the emulator and it was running at a constant 50FPS and no sound problems at all on my N1.

Once I got my head around the menu system, it worked perfectly. Controls were running through the Kempston interface.

Great work so far in my opinion!

 

[Seleuco]

Thanks a lot... i'll keep working on it... but i think that i cant fine tune the on screen controls till i have my wife htc desire...

If somebody else can try with a more modest porcessor ill be very grateful...

I'm going to test this now on my N1. I'll let you know how it goes.

If anyone wants plenty more roms, go to World of Spectrum

EDIT: I just tried Cat Walk on the emulator and it was running at a constant 50FPS and no sound problems at all on my N1.

Once I got my head around the menu system, it worked perfectly. Controls were running through the Kempston interface.

Great work so far in my opinion!

 

[-Jester-]

Hello,

Well i just tryed Atic Atac on my cyanogen rooted magic.

I was getting about 33-48fps, a little glitchy on the sound, but I could not work out how to pick up stuff

Alien 8 on the other hand. crashed!

Stll I know that this is work in progress so I'm impressed thus far. Thank you.

 

[Seleuco]

Very helpful information...

Magic has a Qualcomm 528 like my HTC hd... Im getting this issues too (i didnt know if it was because my XDA droid) so i hope i can deal with it...

I would like to emulate at contant 50hz in a 500mhz processor... it is the only way to get not glitchy sound...

I suppose that you dont have switched on the 50fps option in the main configuration menu... isn't it?

The 25 fps option draws 25 fps (PAL) but emulate at 50hz

The 50fps (hz) option is not necesary for normal use... and it is a great performance killer.

If you disable sound... or change it to lower rate... how good is the emulation?

when you talk about alien 8 to crash... which is crashing... the game or the emulator?

Hello,

Well i just tryed Atic Atac on my cyanogen rooted magic.

I was getting about 33-48fps, a little glitchy on the sound, but I could not work out how to pick up stuff

Alien 8 on the other hand. crashed!

Stll I know that this is work in progress so I'm impressed thus far. Thank you.

 

[-Jester-]

Very helpful information...

Magic has a Qualcomm 528 like my HTC hd... Im getting this issues too (i didnt know if it was because my XDA droid) so i hope i can deal with it...

I would like to emulate at contant 50hz in a 500mhz processor... it is the only way to get not glitchy sound...

I suppose that you dont have switched on the 50fps option in the main configuration menu... isn't it?
- tryed that, ran like a dog!

The 25 fps option draws 25 fps (PAL) but emulate at 50hz
- already had it set to that

The 50fps (hz) option is not necesary for normal use... and it is a great performance killer.

If you disable sound... or change it to lower rate... how good is the emulation?
- lowered the rate to 22k and mono, still a little glitchy, but better

when you talk about alien 8 to crash... which is crashing... the game or the emulator?
- the game. it would start up, i could select joystick, start the game and then it would either just freeze or revert back to the loader screen

also, Manic Miner does not appear to load at all. is that becuase it's a TZX file, as the other 2 are SNA files.

 

[bluenova]

There is something ironic about people reporting ZX Spectrum games crashing on load. Brings back some fond memories of waiting 10 mins for the tape to run only to find out it crashed .

HTC Hero with MoDaCo 3.2
FPS: 40-50
Image looked fine, sound just crackled all the time.

 

[Seleuco]

also, Manic Miner does not appear to load at all. is that becuase it's a TZX file, as the other 2 are SNA files.

The default emulation is 128k model. Try to reset to 48k model (in the virtual keyboard there is an option). Some games are not designed to work with the 128k machines.

By the other side, for tzx try to reset to 48 k model, and also disable loading speed hacks. Some games are incompatible with this hacks.

 

[-Jester-]

Thank you, that worked. Reseting the emulator to 48k mode, diasbling the loading hack and changing the sound to 11k in mono, Manic Miner loads fine.

Still appear to have issues with Alien 8. Which is a shame.

Do you have plans to have allow landscape mode, increase the size of the game screen and add controls?

 

[Seleuco]

Alien8 problem could be a snapshot issue incompability...

Try this one... it works for me:

File View: `Alien 8 (1985)(Ultimate)[a].z80' for `Sinclair ZX Spectrum'

I plan to add landscape, and touch controls & full speccy keyboard (touch and phisical)... and support for small screens like tattoo, and scaling & filtering to the speccy screen...

I'm waiting to receive my htc desire to test multitouch control.

now im profiling the emulator and i dont see any obvious speed issue... in the java side...

thats worry me... the c side it is very high optimized....

only one more experiment... if you disable the contention mode (it skips all speccy emulation temporizations done in the c side) what about the sound gliches and fps achieved?

 

[-Jester-]

Alien8 problem could be a snapshot issue incompability...

Try this one... it works for me:

File View: `Alien 8 (1985)(Ultimate)[a].z80' for `Sinclair ZX Spectrum'
-Thank you. a copy that works....

I plan to add landscape, and touch controls & full speccy keyboard (touch and phisical)... and support for small screens like tattoo, and scaling & filtering to the speccy screen...

I'm waiting to receive my htc desire to test multitouch control.
-my Cyanogen rom supports multitouch, so that will be interesting

now im profiling the emulator and i dont see any obvious speed issue... in the java side...

thats worry me... the c side it is very high optimized....

only one more experiment... if you disable the contention mode (it skips all speccy emulation temporizations done in the c side) what about the sound gliches and fps achieved?

-for Atic Atac, pretty much all glitchs gone, even at 44k, stereo sound!

 

[chaz_uk]

plan to add landscape, and touch controls & full speccy keyboard (touch and phisical)... and support for small screens like tattoo, and scaling & filtering to the speccy screen...

That sounds wonderful. I really am looking forward to seeing how this develops!

So many childhood memories in my pocket, on my memory card.

 

[Seleuco]

-for Atic Atac, pretty much all glitchs gone, even at 44k, stereo sound!

Can you try test2:

Downloads - xpectrum - Project Hosting on Google Code

(it is only a experiment to see if the screen update is causing the glitches or not)

Test 1 emulates at 25 or 50fps.... (good for n1)
Test 2 emulates at harcoded 17fps...

 

[singalen]

Just tried test2 on Samsung Spica. Works well on Dizzy 2/128K, though, sound is clunky after returning from menus.
Thank you so much. Can't wait for keyboard, more joysticks, landscape and tape support %)))

 

[Seleuco]

Just tried test2 on Samsung Spica. Works well on Dizzy 2/128K, though, sound is clunky after returning from menus.
Thank you so much. Can't wait for keyboard, more joysticks, landscape and tape support %)))

Thanks for your feedback.... but which means clunky sound returning from menus?... is it clunky only one moment after retuurning or keeps clunky all time?

also can you try test1? and tell me about it... test2 is limited to 17fps and spica has a 800mhz processor, so it could be better for your hardware....

 

[singalen]

Thanks for your feedback.... but which means clunky sound returning from menus?... is it clunky only one moment after retuurning or keeps clunky all time?

also can you try test1? and tell me about it... test2 is limited to 17fps and spica has a 800mhz processor, so it could be better for your hardware....

Test1 was nearly the same.

The sound (note, from 128k version) falters the same way on test1 and test2 for a couple of seconds after returning from menu - that's very minor thing, I believe due to garbage collection, so maybe there's no point hunting it.

25 fps version was a little smoother, but the difference is actually hard to notice.

When I set fps limit to 50 in menu, game somewhat slowed down, and sound slowed down significantly.

 

[Seleuco]

Test1 was nearly the same.

The sound (note, from 128k version) falters the same way on test1 and test2 for a couple of seconds after returning from menu - that's very minor thing, I believe due to garbage collection, so maybe there's no point hunting it.

25 fps version was a little smoother, but the difference is actually hard to notice.

When I set fps limit to 50 in menu, game somewhat slowed down, and sound slowed down significantly.

Thanks for your info.

The sound issue you describe is normal. The emulator is temporized by the sound rate, when you go to the menu, the sound buffers are empy and need to be filled in the return, when they are filled the sound plays fine.