ColecoDS - Improved

[Bodhi-Baum]

Well, I´m sorry but if I try to start the ColecoDS within melonDS I only get a 'shutdown' messsage in the upper left corner of my monitor.

eos.rom and coleco.rom are installed into the directory where ColecoDS is placed.

Did I do something wrong?

 

[BigGangster]

I played Mario Bros. Colecovision Homebrew port on ColecoDS on actual hardware, and it runs pretty well kind of. It includes some slowdown.

 

[wavemotion]

I played Mario Bros. Colecovision Homebrew port on ColecoDS on actual hardware, and it runs pretty well kind of. It includes some slowdown.

Interesting... Even on the oldest DS I have with a clone R4 card, this seems to run fairly well. Unthrottled it will run about 75fps. Admittedly, ColecoDS isn't cycle accurate but it's pretty darn close - I did side-by-sides on my real CV hardware for games I owned (Donkey Kong, War Games, Slither, etc.) and didn't notice any speed differences. But I don't have a way to play Mario Bros. with real hardware so I'll trust that there is something in the emulation that isn't cycle-perfect!

 

[BigGangster]

Interesting... Even on the oldest DS I have with a clone R4 card, this seems to run fairly well. Unthrottled it will run about 75fps. Admittedly, ColecoDS isn't cycle accurate but it's pretty darn close - I did side-by-sides on my real CV hardware for games I owned (Donkey Kong, War Games, Slither, etc.) and didn't notice any speed differences. But I don't have a way to play Mario Bros. with real hardware so I'll trust that there is something in the emulation that isn't cycle-perfect!

I take it back. I tried out the new version of ColecoDS, and playing Mario Bros. runs with no problem. It had a slowdown when there were more than 3 sprites in old previous versions.

 

[wavemotion]

https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/ColecoDS

V8.9: 20-Sep-2023 by wavemotion-dave

• Further cleanup of the ADAM driver to eliminate title-screen glitches and provide support for 320K disks.
• Slight optmization across the board resulting in another frame or two of performance.
• Memory optmization to reduce the footprint of the program - providing about 300K of free resources total.
• Improved speed of blend mode (it only uses about 10% CPU resources now)

This should bring parity to the ADAM emulation. Almost all of the glitches and gremlins have been worked out of the ADAM driver! Most of the ADAM disks you find are 160K but we do support the 320K format. I almost added 720K format but it was going to be a little tricky and almost nothing comes on that format (without also coming on lower density disks).

This emulator is pretty polished right now - not much left to add. I'll probably move back to one of my other emulators for a while.

Lastly, I do ask that you read the readme.md file which I've put a lot of effort into. I get a number of questions here, there and everywhere that would be perfectly answered from reading the included documentation. I know I'm guilty of trying to jump right in too... but there is a lot of knowledge bound up into the documentation.

 

[wavemotion]

https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/ColecoDS

V9.0: 21-Oct-2023 by wavemotion-dave

• Fixed loading of SC-3000 Survivors Multi/Megacart roms.
• Slight optimization to I/O read driver.
• Minor cleanup as time permitted.

A very minor release just to clean up a couple of bugs and slight improvements to the I/O driver. I always like putting out a build that doesn't have radical changes - very little chance I've broken something that was previous working

 

[esv_83]

Thank you for this multi-system emulator, especially MSX1.

 

[wavemotion]

ColecoDS 9.1 is released: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/ColecoDS

V9.1: 03-Feb-2024 by wavemotion-dave

• Ported the SCC Konami sound driver from FluBBa to make the MSX1 games using that chip sound great.
• New overlays for Colecovision Space Shuttle and Utopia.
• Lots of small tweaks and minor cleanups since the last release.

Thanks to some help from @FluBBa, I managed to get his incredible Konami SCC driver integrated into ColecoDS so the Konami SCC sound chip games sound so much nicer. And as a bonus, the driver is faster than my hacked 'fake' SCC driver so most of the SCC games now play full speed on the DS-Lite/Phat.

 

[wavemotion]

Not ready for the 9.2 release yet but a fairly major update to the sound core has been checked in for the daily 9.1a build on github.

The SN sound chip has been updated and the AY sound chip is newly borrowed from @FluBBa - this brings a new level of sound quality to ColecoDS!

I'm using the AY sound chip in a slightly different manner than it was intended - but thanks to help from Fredrik, I've managed to get most of the issues worked out. The AY sound chip is used in all MSX1 games, all Einstein games, all SVI Spectravideo games and for many of the Super-Game-Module games for the Colecovision. I'm still testing to make sure that this new chip driver is working across-the-board, but so far, so good. If anyone plays MSX1 games (or Einstein or SVI) on ColecoDS, please do let me know how this new version stacks up.

 

[Indy13]

If anyone plays MSX1 games (or Einstein or SVI) on ColecoDS, please do let me know how this new version stacks up.

I tested einstein and svi games and it works well then maybe it was me who imagined it but it seems that the sound volume seems slightly louder, in any case the sound is good

 

[wavemotion]

I tested einstein and svi games and it works well then maybe it was me who imagined it but it seems that the sound volume seems slightly louder, in any case the sound is good

Yeah, for sure. My old handling was a "Fake AY" which turned every AY sound chip (MSX, Einstein, SVI) write into a semi-equivalent SN sound chip write (that's the chip used for the Colecovision). The problem with my Fake AY driver is that the AY chip is actually a bit more capable than the SN (Colecovision, SG-1000, etc.) chip. It has a wider dynamic range with more bass, plus more advanced noise generation... but more importantly it has sound Envelopes. These envelopes allow for funky sounds - I was approximating them (probably not very well) but with Flubba's driver we get all the awesome envelope goodness. Not every game uses envelopes but those that do can produce sounds that the Colecovision is not (easily) capable of.

 

[wavemotion]

https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/ColecoDS

V9.2: 12-Feb-2024 by wavemotion-dave

• Ported the AY sound chip driver from FluBBa to improve MSX1, Einstein and Coleco SGM games.
• Ported most recent SN sound chip driver from FluBBa.
• Allow more than one keyboard press at a time for the MSX1 so keyboard-mapped keys work properly (i.e. UP and SPACE at the same time)
• Cleanup across the board - save states optimized.

 

[esv_83]

I see that the sound has been improved a lot, I have tried pt3 player for MSX1, and the music sounds very good

 

[wavemotion]

I see that the sound has been improved a lot, I have tried pt3 player for MSX1, and the music sounds very good

Yep! That's mainly thanks to @FluBBa who was, as usual, gracious enough to help me get his sound drivers integrated into ColecoDS.

 

[wavemotion]

https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/ColecoDS

V9.3: 10-Mar-2024 by wavemotion-dave

• Fixed TMS9918 VDP 5th Sprite Flag handling and slight optmization to the VDP driver.
• Updated to latest SN76496 sound driver from FluBBa.
• Other minor tweaks and cleanup as time permitted.

 

[wavemotion]

ColecoDS 9.4 is available: https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/ColecoDS

Mainly improvements for the SVI Cassette loading and improved overall Tatung Einstein emulation. Thanks to @Indy13 for pointing out some problems that have now been addressed!

 

[anotherthing]

You the man, wavemotion! I don't think I've put together a flash card that didn't include your work on it.

 

[wavemotion]

I've been cranking hours into the next release of ColecoDS. I'm up to 9.4m for daily-check-in releases which is as high a letter as I've ever used

Next release is going to be MASSIVE improvements for the ADAM and Einstein...

 

[anotherthing]

That's a nice, tight interface you have there! Keep up the good work. The Adam is one of the craziest things considering the rise of the home computer market at the time, how successful the ColecoVision was, and it only sold around 100,000 units.

 

[wavemotion]

Yeah, the ADAM was my first home computer. My friend had the TI-99/4a and I loved both. I had just the standard digital data tape drive that was included with the system (256K - tape based but MUCH faster than normal cassette technology). With my first part-time job in 1985, I earned enough money to go to the local Toys-Backwards-R-Us and buy and Adam disk drive and a nice skateboard. I blew my entire summer earned money on those! My dad told me I couldn't spend everything I made that summer... so I had to return one of them. I returned the skateboard and kept the disk drive.

Hence I'm here talking to you all and didn't become Tony Hawk.