PicodriveN

March 11th, 2006, 01:20 Posted By: wraggster

PicodriveN is another port of PicoDrive, Dave's Megadrive / Genesis emulator for Pocket PC. This version is based on PicoDrive 0.030 and is made for Symbian UIQ2 devices. It also has full sound support added (starting from version 0.70). It is alternative version to another port by AnotherGuest / Someone and is not based on it (so it has a little different name).

Features
Modified Cyclone 68000 core with better compatibility.
SRAM support.
Save state support.
Zipped ROM support.
Ability to auto-pause game on phone call (and resume it later).
Selectable frameskip.
Configurable keys and touchpad.
Flip-closed mode for SE phones.
Full sound support.
Problems / limitations
Some games don't run or have various glitches due to inaccurate emulation
Configuration
Check readme for detailed description. If you have trouble configuring keys, see this tutorial.

Quick notes
Enabling Z80 in sound settings will improve compatibility (you don't have to enable anything else, only Z80), because some games need it to run. But it slows emulation down, so turn it off if the game doesn't need it and you don't want sound.
Sound related:
You must use auto frameskip or you will get stuttering sound.
Sound needs a lot of CPU power, so it is best to use "fit 0" or "fit 180" display modes and to exit all other apps.
If you change sound settings AFTER loading a ROM, you may need to reset game to get sound (this depends on a ROM itself).
Changelog
0.70

Started using tools from "Symbian GCC Improvement Project", which give considerable speed increase (~4fps in "center 90" mode).
Rewrote some drawing routines in ARM assembly (gives ~6 more fps in "center 90" mode).
Minor improvement to 0 and 180 "fit" modes. Now they look slightly better and are faster.
Added some background for OSD text for better readability.
Added Pal/NTSC detection. This is needed for proper sound.
Implemented Reesy's DrZ80 Z80 emu. Made some changes to it with hope to make it faster.
Implemented ym2612 emu from the MAME project. Runs well but sometimes sounds a bit weird. Could be a little faster, so made some changes too.
Implemented SN76489 emu from the MAME project.
Added two separate sound output methods (mediaserver and cmaudiofb) with autodetection (needs testing).
Fixed VDP DMA fill emulation (as described in Charles MacDonald's docs), fixes Contra and some other games.
0.301
Launcher:
Launcher now starts emulation process from current directory, not from hardcoded paths.
Improved 'pause on call' feature, should hopefully work with Motorola phones.
0.30
Initial release.

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