Update: Nintendo DS (PomDS) Apple // emulator
BLuRry
The good:
+ 80-col and double-hires support in addition to hires and 40 column
modes
+ Scaling option to fit to screen, or full-size with manual display
panning also available
+ 2-drive disk support
+ Apple ][, ][+, //e, //c support
+ Speaker sound
+ Appears to have basic floating bus support
The bad:
+ Not full speed (about 75% or so)
+ Because of speed, sound is not exactly great
+ Contains slot 7 rom for larger volumes, but no way to configure a
drive image for slot 7 yet
+ Occasionally freezes if "Fast mode" is enabled.
And, much to my surprise, the title of money munchers displays
correctly only with flicker -- however the text window shows correctly
in the middle of the lores field. I haven't tried Drol because it's a
bit too slow to play a game without a lot of patience.
All in all, for a first release it's not too shabby. I personally
think the colors are a bit off, but it might be because the author is
french and used the PAL palette. Still, blue is blue, green is
green. It's a usable emulator in spite of its imperfections. I was
surprised that the double-hires support works (and supports both pages
as well as all the necessary soft switches)
-B
Michael J. Mahon
Sounds pretty good!
If it's at 75% of real time, perhaps a little profile-directed
optimization could get it all the way there pretty easily...
-michael
NadaPong: Network game demo for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."
BLuRry
One would hope. Of course, my knowledge of ARM code optimization is
about as great as my knowledge of how to repair aircraft engines.
(e.g. non-existent). Until any other news pops up, I wish the author
success in his endeavors. Something tells me that he's more likely to
improve the speed of his "MarcaDS" arcade emulator since there's
probably a higher demand of folks who want to play 1942 and/or Galaga
at full speed on a nintendo DS. :-D
aiia...@gmail.com
> Ok, finally got the time to boot it up.
Neat!
what speed is the CPU in the DS?
BLuRry
The DS has two processors, an ARM9 running at 66.6mhz and an ARM7
running at 33.3mhz. In "DS" mode, both screens are active as are both
processors. However, in "GBA" mode, only the ARM7 and one screen are
active for backwards compatibility with gameboy advance.
Gory details:
http://www.mobiletechreview.com/nintendo_DS.htm
Actually, the PomDS emulator seems to be faster than 75% speed. It
just "sounds" slower because of bad speaker emulation. I was able to
play PoP for a little bit without getting too bothered by it, except
the keyboard handler treats the apple keys as keys and not modifiers
(so jumping while running doesn't work for example)
On a side note, the author is a really nice guy and is very receptive
to constructive criticism and shameless praise. :-)
-B