Homebrew [Release] NeoPop SDL - Neogeo Pocket emulator

[nop90]

It's about a year since I worked on an emulator port, mostly because the 3ds is not the best oprion to run emulators, but in one of my PC folders there where the sources of NeoPop SDL waiting to be tested with my SDL lib.

So yesterday I decided to compile it making only minor changes to the code (only set default dirs and key bindings) and with my great surprise it worked at the first try.

Since I'm working on a lot of other projects, don't expect I will put too much time in enhacing this emulator (forget a nice menu gui or custom backgrounds to replace black borders), but at least I'll add the basic functionalities he needs.

Notes to the alpha release (v0.1)
- The emulator is fully working, but lacks of a gui for changing the options and loading roms.
- To test the emulator put a rom image in the 3ds SD in the folder roms/neogeopocket, and rename the rom in rom.ngc.
- Frameskip can be increased with R button and decreased with L. On a n3ds select a value betwen 1 and 2.

Source code is available on my Github (https://github.com/nop90/Neopop-SDL)

The emulator is available in 3DSX and CIA format (https://github.com/nop90/Neopop-SDL/releases)

Changelog

Ver. 0.4 (14 June 2017)

• Completed the menu
• fixed the grayscale rendering
• removed frameskip change with L/R buttons and fullscreen toggling with Y

Ver. 0.3 (12 June 2017)

• Added a basic menu

Ver. 0.2 (09 June 2017)

• Added a basic rom loading interface on startup (changing rom needs exiting and restarting the emulator)
  
• Added fullscreen toggling

Ver. 0.1 (30 May 2017)

• Preview version

Controls

Keypad - directions
A - A button
B - B button
X - Option button
START - Pause emulator
SELECT - Exit
L and R - Chage frameskip
Y - Toggle fullscreen

Known Bugs

-

To Do List

- Extend the Menu with other options

Screenshots

 

[duwen]

Looking forward to checking this out!
I'm still a fan of your Handy And Pokemini ports

 

[ATofix]

Awesome! Good job!

 

[Billy Acuña]

I don't know what happens, I'm trying to run Metal Slug without luck.
Did you mean "rom.ngc" or "rom.ngp"?
Also is the path "/roms/neogeopocket/" on the 3DS's SD card root or the root of your homebrew ("/3ds/neopop/roms/neogeopocket/")?

 

[nop90]

I don't know what happens, I'm trying to run Metal Slug without luck.
Did you mean "rom.ngc" or "rom.ngp"?
Also is the path "/roms/neogeopocket/" on the 3DS's SD card root or the root of your homebrew ("/3ds/neopop/roms/neogeopocket/")?

The path for the rom is /roms/neogeopocket/rom.ngc, starting from the root of the SD.

If the emulator can't find the rom, the bios shows a white screen and and on the bottom screen there is an error message.

If happens something different, probably there is a problem on real HW (not tested yet on a 3ds).

Probably it's better if you try it on Citra.

 

[CPunch]

Cool! Can't wait to check it out!

 

[mazingetter]

Nice one nop90!

 

[nop90]

Fixed the code to run on real Hardware, added a CIA buils and uploaded everything on github.

Links on the OP.

Happy retrogaming.

 

[BL4Z3D247]

You released an emulator?! Awesome! Thanks for this @nop90 and I hope to see more sweet emulators from you.

 

[Deleted User]

Good job! I was wondering if your SDL 1.2 port was viable for emulator creation on the 3DS. This opens up possibilities for other SDL-based emulators!

 

[Tenshi_Okami]

Yay! More good stuff for the 3DS Homebrew Community! Thank you @nop90 !!!!

 

[Billy Acuña]

Now it runs on the real hardware, sadly it doesn't run on a decent framerate on o3ds (I wanted to dream). I'll better stick on the Vita for NGP emulation atm [emoji14]
Hope better luck for n3ds's users.

 

[nop90]

Now it runs on the real hardware, sadly it doesn't run on a decent framerate on o3ds (I wanted to dream). I'll better stick on the Vita for NGP emulation atm [emoji14]
Hope better luck for n3ds's users.

I compiled this to test the SDL lib with an emulator: the result is good in terms of maturity of the libs, but as expected the speed isn't enough.

Can't run full speed on a n3ds without framwskip. To have full speed, or at least almost full spedd, the emulator should be rewritten using higky optimized code with the ctrulib API.

I'ts too much effort, this is why I'm no more working on emulators for the 3ds.

 

[nop90]

Released a small update: now there is a basic interface to select the rom to load when starting the emulator and is possible to toggle fullscreen with X.

The ROM loaded can't be changed: exit the emulator and start it again.

I'll add rom changing next time

 

[Ramzitv1]

i just hope you get official release.

 

[nop90]

i just hope you get official release.

What do you mean with "official"?

 

[Ramzitv1]

What do you mean with "official"?

i meant with latest release.

 

[nop90]

i meant with latest release.

Sorry still can't understand.

Maybe are you saying that I'm not using the latest version available of neopop sdl as base for my port?

 

[Ramzitv1]

Sorry still can't understand.

Maybe are you saying that I'm not using the latest version available of neopop sdl as base for my port?

i'm only saying you will get stable release soon.

 

[nop90]

i'm only saying you will get stable release soon.

Ah, ok

Anyway from emulation poit it's already stable, I only have to add a menu for option configuration and to load/save states.