Homebrew Emulation Introducing Nintellivision - an Emulator for the DS/DSi

[CrashMidnick]

On old DS, sound div = 16, average 46 fps

V0.8 is best. Here are the results when tested with Burger Time :

V0.8 : Sound is OK, not the best but really Ok for DS
V0.9 : BT crashes, shut down the console at boot. This version sometimes freeze at boot.
V1.0 : very very crackling sound, unplayable IMHO

Tested Astrosmash :

All versions are launchingg the game. Again V1.0 has got bad sound.

Just hacked the DSI, will try later on it.

 

[wavemotion]

You should try it with 1.0b which is not released but checked in (so you download it not from RELEASES but from the main list of files on the GitHub page). Version 1.0 was so 2 days ago (and about 10% slower). You'll find Astrosmash runs at 57FPS and Burgertime gets close to that when sound quality set to 24. There should be no crackling sound

20 is the new default sound div on 1.0b... and 24 sounds almost as good.

I only have a DS-LITE to try it on - but it plays pretty well on the old beast.

Still.. the DSi is where it's at.

 

[CrashMidnick]

Can you please test Burger time with your DS LITE using V0.8 (sound 16) and V1.0b (sound 16 and 20).

Please tell me what do you thing about the in game music. In V1.0b you've got some sort of crackling sound, even more at 16.

But v1.0b speed boost is amazing (57-58fps)..

 

[wavemotion]

On 1.0b with sound 16 it crackles. That's because the sound engine can't keep up. The sound engine was wrong for 0.8 - we were using 8-bit wide values instead of 16... which caused the sound to be bad even if we had the proper frame rate. With 1.0 (and 1.0b) the sound rate is now exact provided the system can run at 60FPS... which Burgertime can't... but if you change the sound div to 24 you will get close to full-speed (about 10% off) and the only sound degradation is the 10% slowdown.

I'm likely to only support 20, 24, 28 in the future.

 

[CrashMidnick]

Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense.

24 is almost perfect and sounds better. The work you've done is impressive ! Congrats

EDIT : why V1.0b is lighter by approx 300kb ?

 

[wavemotion]

Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense.
24 is almost perfect and sounds better. The work you've done is impressive ! Congrats
EDIT : why V1.0b is lighter by approx 300kb ?

I jettisoned the ECS support this week. It wasn't working and there is almost nothing worth playing on the computer add-on module. This also lets me support the older DS hardware for a good while longer

I just put up 1.0c... the sound frequencies have been reduced to just 3 options... 20, 24 and 28 (plus DISABLED).

Those numbers aren't useful ... although 20 is, in theory, better sound, it slows down the CPU such that if the frame rate drops below 60, it can start to sound bad again. It's a push-pull, yin-yang effect... but really there are only 3 clock divisors needed... 24 sounds pretty good, 20 is a little better IF you have the processing power to still render 60FPS an 28 is for those desperate to get a little more speed out at the expense of sound quality.

I also had to rework the config structure... so you will have to set your Config/Overlays again starting with the upcoming 1.1 release. Sorry.

 

[CrashMidnick]

About ECS I never tested it, so I will not miss it

 

[wavemotion]

Version 1.1 released! https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/NINTV-DS

V1.1 : 09-Sep-2021 by wavemotion-dave
* Big boost in speed. Just about everything full speed on DSi.
* Noticeable improvement on the older DS platform.
* A few more overlays added.

 

[CrashMidnick]

FYI V1.1 s slower by 8 fps compared to V1.0b on DS lite

 

[wavemotion]

Great catch, Crash! I screwed up the sound settings array.

Hot-fix 1.1a: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/NINTV-DS

You should get 56 with gusts up to 57 on Burgertime with default settings.

Also, if you change the sound quality, you have to hit RESET to restart the emulator engine and get it all synced back up sound-wise. In the next release I'll figure out how to restart the sound engine automatically.

 

[CrashMidnick]

That was fast ! Thanks.
I’ll try tomorrow and on the DSi, it’s ready to go.
Bed Time here

 

[wavemotion]

Good morning retro gamers! Going to try and get the last bit of speed needed to render Nintellivision at full speed on the older DS hardware. I don't think every game will run perfectly on the slower CPU but hopefully we can get a reasonable portion of the library playable. Then I'm going to turn my attention to better overlay support.

In the meantime, here is a portion of my INTV collection. The boxes are a bit "well loved" - but that's cool.

 

[wavemotion]

Okay... found the frames I need! I'm not ready for a new build as I need to integrate the two core settings (one for DSi and one for DS-LITE/PHAT) but if you want to try the optimized DS-LITE/PHAT version you can find it here:

https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/NINTV-DS

Look for NINTV-DS-LITE.NDS

For 1.2, I should have a single unified build that will be optimized properly for both DSi and DS-LITE/PHAT.

Not every game will run full-speed on the older DS hardware... but Astrosmash, AD&D Treasure of Tarmin, Burger Time, Beauty and the Beast will hold very close to 60FPS now. Intellivoice games will not run full speed on that older hardware - and that's not a priority for me (on Intellivision Lives DS they cheated and used .WAV files and screwed up some of them such that the games don't play right... for example, you can't get an alien count nor energy count in Space Spartans... whereas NINTV-DS actually emulates the SP0256 sound chip).

 

[CrashMidnick]

Nice collection ! I really love those old boxes, this is what I miss with new hardware.

I can't believe my eyes, even beamrider is full speed on DS

I tested a couple of games on DSi, everything works as it should... That's perfect

 

[wavemotion]

Version 1.2 is released: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/NINTV-DS

V1.2 : 10-Sep-2021 by wavemotion-dave

• More speed - many games now playable full speed on the DS-LITE/PHAT!
• On the DSi, even the Intellivoice games should be running full speed now.

At this point, we might be able to turn off FRAMESKIP as a default since most of the games on the DSi don't need it anymore to get the full 60FPS. Just the Intellivoice games and a handful of more complex games require it to get that extra speed. Many games are now playable on the DS-LITE/PHAT at full speed - or close enough (Thunder Castle is 59 or so... sometimes 58... good enough that you won't notice). The Intellivoice games and some of the really complex games won't run full speed on a DS - but we're getting closer!

 

[wavemotion]

Version 1.3 is released: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/NINTV-DS

V1.3 : 12-Sep-2021 by wavemotion-dave
* Basic JLP support for Accelerated functions and extra 16-bit RAM (hello Grail of the Gods!)
* Major internal cleanup for better memory management.
* Squeezed out a couple more frames of speed improvement.


With this new release there has been a lot of cleanup under the hood. Memory is better organized and the emulator is much less likely to crash after loading a ton of games. I've also optimized the CP-1610 branch emulation to squeeze out another couple of frames of performance - the mighty Thunder Castle is now holding 60FPS fairly consistently on the older DS hardware.

Most notable feature is the new JLP (Jean-Luc-PIC-cart) support which is new hardware for the Intellivision that brings more memory and some accelerated math functions - along with flash cart saving/restoring. I don't have the flash stuff working but the other functions exist and there are a couple of new homebrew games that take advantage of it. Grail of the Gods is worth getting - it's an open community project over at Atariage. When you load a game, instead of hitting A to load the game, hit X to load with JLP support (instructions at bottom of screen remind you of this option when picking games).

 

[ColinA]

Hi WM Dave, this is fantastic, absolute top-drawer! Thanks very much. This is the first or second console my bro and I had (think the first was a Pong machine). We played 'Skiing' not-stop. Is there any chance a future update could have d-pad L/R swap option in config menu (if this hasn't been added recently)? I keep turning my skier the wrong way! Thanks again

 

[wavemotion]

Ask and ye shall receive!

Sometimes

I just checked in a daily build with d-pad controller options. You can reverse Left/Right, Up/Down or switch to "Diagonal" mode so you can actually play games like Q-Bert.

https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/NINTV-DS

Edit: just checked in a "strict 4-way" option as well which will make 4-way games like Beauty and the Beast and DK Arcade a bit more precise. In strict mode it won't register the diagonals on the D-Pad.

 

[CrashMidnick]

This is great, I tested the game and it was difficult to play because of this. Thanks.

I played a lot Q*Bert on my CPC6128, My sister and me were up all night

 

[MarioKartFan]

Dave,

Is there a way to hide grom.bin and exec.bin from the file select screen? Not a real big deal, but they're just sitting there.