base_readme.txt 17 KB

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  1. #
  2. PicoDrive 1.xx
  3. About
  4. -----
  5. #include "../README"
  6. How to make it run
  7. ------------------
  8. #ifdef GP2X
  9. Extract all files to some directory on your SD and run PicoDrive.gpe from your
  10. GP2X/Wiz/Caanoo menu. The same .gpe supports GP2X F100/F200, Wiz and Caanoo,
  11. there is no need to use separate versions.
  12. Then load a ROM and enjoy! ROMs can be in .smd or .bin format and can be zipped.
  13. Sega/Mega CD images can be in ISO/CSO+MP3/WAV or CUE+BIN formats (read below
  14. for more details).
  15. #endif
  16. #ifdef GIZ
  17. First make sure you have homebrew-enabled Service Pack installed. Then copy
  18. PicoDrive.exe and KGSDK.dll to any place in your filesystem (both files must
  19. be in the same directory) and run PicoDrive.exe using the launcher of your choice
  20. (some of them might require renaming PicoDrive.exe to Autorun.exe, placing it in
  21. the root of SD, etc). Then load a ROM and enjoy! ROMs can be placed anywhere, can
  22. be in .smd or .bin format and can be zipped (one ROM per zip).
  23. #endif
  24. #ifdef PSP
  25. If you are running a custom firmware, just copy the whole PicoDrive directory to
  26. /PSP/GAME or /PSP/GAMEXXX directory in your memory stick (it shouldn't matter
  27. which one GAME* directory to use).
  28. If you are on 1.5, there is a separate KXploited version for it.
  29. #endif
  30. #ifdef PANDORA
  31. Just copy the .pnd to <sd card>/pandora/menu or <sd card>/pandora/desktop.
  32. #endif
  33. This emulator has lots of options with various tweaks (for improved speed mostly),
  34. but it should have best compatibility in it's default config. If suddenly you
  35. start getting glitches or change something and forget what, use "Restore defaults"
  36. option.
  37. How to run Sega/Mega CD games
  38. -----------------------------
  39. To play any CD game, you need BIOS files. These files must be copied to
  40. #ifdef PANDORA
  41. <sd card>/pandora/appdata/picodrive/ directory
  42. (if you run PicoDrive once it will create that directory for you).
  43. #else
  44. the same directory as PicoDrive files.
  45. #endif
  46. Files can be named as follows:
  47. US: us_scd1_9210.bin us_scd2_9306.bin SegaCDBIOS9303.bin
  48. EU: eu_mcd1_9210.bin eu_mcd2_9303.bin eu_mcd2_9306.bin
  49. JP: jp_mcd1_9112.bin jp_mcd1_9111.bin
  50. these files can also be zipped.
  51. The game must be dumped to CUE+BIN or CUE+ISO format.
  52. ISO/CSO+MP3/WAV is also supported, but may cause problems.
  53. When using CUE/BIN, you must load .cue file from the menu, or else
  54. the emu will not find audio tracks.
  55. Other important stuff
  56. ---------------------
  57. * Sega/Mega CD: If the background music is missing, the CD image format may be
  58. wrong. Currently .cue/bin is recommended. Be aware that there are lots of bad
  59. dumps on the web, and some use mp3 format for audio, which often causes
  60. problems (see below).
  61. * While iso/mp3 format is supported, it's not recommended to use.
  62. Some of many problems with mp3 are listed below:
  63. * MP3s may be named incorrectly and will not play.
  64. * The game music may play too fast/too slow/out of sync, which means they
  65. are encoded incorrectly. PicoDrive is not a mp3 player, so all mp3s MUST
  66. be encoded at 44.1kHz stereo.
  67. * Sega/Mega CD: If your games hang at the BIOS screen (with planets shown),
  68. you may be using a bad BIOS dump. Try another from a different source,
  69. like dumping it from your own console.
  70. #ifdef GP2X
  71. * What using mp3s, use lower bitrate for better performance (96 or 128kbps
  72. CBRs recommended).
  73. * GP2X F100/F200: When you use both GP2X CPUs, keep in mind that you can't
  74. overclock as high as when using ARM920 only. For example my GP2X when run
  75. singlecore can reach 280MHz, but with both cores it's about 250MHz. When
  76. overclocked too much, it may start hanging and producing random noise, or
  77. causing ARM940 crashes ("940 crashed" message displayed).
  78. * GP2X F100/F200: Due to internal implementation mp3s must not be larger that
  79. 12MB (12582912 bytes). Larger mp3s will not be fully loaded.
  80. #endif
  81. Configuration
  82. -------------
  83. @@0. "Save slot"
  84. This is a slot number to use for savestates, when done by a button press outside
  85. menu. This can also be configured to be changed with a button
  86. (see "key configuration").
  87. @@0. "Frameskip"
  88. How many frames to skip rendering before displaying another.
  89. "Auto" is recommended.
  90. @@0. "Region"
  91. This option lets you force the game to think it is running on machine from the
  92. specified region, or just to set autodetection order. Also affects Sega/Mega CD.
  93. @@0. "Show FPS"
  94. Self-explanatory. Format is XX/YY, where XX is the number of rendered frames and
  95. YY is the number of emulated frames per second.
  96. @@0. "Enable sound"
  97. Does what it says. You must enable at least YM2612 or SN76496 (in advanced options,
  98. see below) for this to make sense (already done by default).
  99. @@0. "Sound Quality"
  100. #ifdef PSP
  101. Sound sample rate, affects sound quality and emulation performance.
  102. 22050Hz setting is the recommended one.
  103. #else
  104. Sound sample rate and stereo mode. Mono is not available in Sega/Mega CD mode.
  105. #endif
  106. @@0. "Confirm savestate"
  107. Allows to enable confirmation on savestate saving (to prevent savestate overwrites),
  108. on loading (to prevent destroying current game progress), and on both or none, when
  109. using shortcut buttons (not menu) for saving/loading.
  110. @@0. "[Display options]"
  111. Enters Display options menu (see below).
  112. @@0. "[Sega/Mega CD options]"
  113. Enters Sega/Mega CD options menu (see below).
  114. @@0. "[32X options]"
  115. Enters 32X options menu (see below).
  116. @@0. "[Advanced options]"
  117. Enters advanced options menu (see below).
  118. @@0. "Save cfg as default"
  119. If you save your config here it will be loaded on next ROM load, but only if there
  120. is no game specific config saved (which will be loaded in that case).
  121. You can press left/right to switch to a different config profile.
  122. @@0. "Save cfg for current game only"
  123. Whenever you load current ROM again these settings will be loaded.
  124. @@0. "Restore defaults"
  125. Restores all options (except controls) to defaults.
  126. Display options
  127. ---------------
  128. #ifndef PANDORA
  129. @@1. "Renderer"
  130. #ifdef GP2X
  131. 8bit fast:
  132. This enables alternative heavily optimized tile-based renderer, which renders
  133. pixels not line-by-line (this is what accurate renderers do), but in 8x8 tiles,
  134. which is much faster. But because of the way it works it can't render any
  135. mid-frame image changes (raster effects), so it is useful only with some games.
  136. Other two are accurate line-based renderers. The 8bit is faster but does not
  137. run well with some games like Street Racer.
  138. #endif
  139. #ifdef GIZ
  140. This option allows to switch between 16bit and 8bit renderers. The 8bit one is
  141. a bit faster for some games, but not much, because colors still need to be
  142. converted to 16bit, as this is what Gizmondo requires. It also introduces
  143. graphics problems for some games, so it's best to use 16bit one.
  144. #endif
  145. #ifdef PSP
  146. This option allows to switch between fast and accurate renderers. The fast one
  147. is much faster, because it draws the whole frame at a time, instead of doing it
  148. line by line, like the accurate one does. But because of the way it works it
  149. can't render any mid-frame image changes (raster effects), so it is useful only
  150. for some games.
  151. #endif
  152. #endif
  153. #ifdef GP2X
  154. @@1. "Tearing Fix"
  155. Wiz only: works around the tearing problem by using portrait mode. Causes ~5-10%
  156. performance hit, but eliminates the tearing effect.
  157. @@1. "Gamma correction"
  158. F100/F200 only: Alters image gamma through GP2X hardware. Larger values make
  159. image to look brighter, lower - darker (default is 1.0).
  160. @@1. "Vsync"
  161. This one adjusts the LCD refresh rate to better match game's refresh rate and
  162. starts synchronizing rendering with it. Should make scrolling smoother and
  163. eliminate tearing on F100/F200.
  164. #endif
  165. #ifdef GIZ
  166. @@1. "Scanline mode"
  167. This option was designed to work around slow framebuffer access (the Gizmondo's
  168. main bottleneck) by drawing every other line (even numbered lines only).
  169. This improves performance greatly, but looses detail.
  170. @@1. "Scale low res mode"
  171. The Genesis/Megadrive had several graphics modes, some of which were only 256
  172. pixels wide. This option scales their width to 320 by using simple
  173. pixel averaging scaling. Works only when 16bit renderer is enabled.
  174. @@1. "Double buffering"
  175. Draws the display to offscreen buffer, and flips it with visible one when done.
  176. Unfortunately this causes serious tearing, unless v-sync is used (next option).
  177. @@1. "Wait for V-sync"
  178. Waits for vertical sync before drawing (or flipping buffers, if previous option
  179. is enabled). Emulation is stopped while waiting, so this causes large performance
  180. hit.
  181. #endif
  182. #ifdef PSP
  183. @@1. "Scale factor"
  184. This allows to resize the displayed image by using the PSP's hardware. The number is
  185. used to multiply width and height of the game image to get the size of image to be
  186. displayed. If you just want to make it fullscreen, just use "Set to fullscreen"
  187. setting below.
  188. @@1. "Hor. scale (for low res. games)"
  189. This one works similarly as the previous setting, but can be used to apply additional
  190. scaling horizontally, and is used for games which use lower (256 pixel wide) Gen/MD
  191. resolution.
  192. @@1. "Hor. scale (for hi res. games)"
  193. Same as above, only for higher (320 pixel wide) resolution using games.
  194. @@1. "Bilinear filtering"
  195. If this is enabled, PSP hardware will apply bilinear filtering on the resulting image,
  196. making it smoother, but blurry.
  197. @@1. "Gamma adjustment"
  198. Color gamma can be adjusted with this.
  199. @@1. "Black level"
  200. This can be used to reduce unwanted "ghosting" effect for dark games, by making
  201. black pixels brighter. Use in conjunction with "gamma adjustment" for more effect.
  202. @@1. "Wait for v-sync"
  203. Wait for the screen to finish updating before switching to next frame, to avoid tearing.
  204. There are 3 options:
  205. * never: don't wait for vsync.
  206. * sometimes: wait only if emulator is running fast enough.
  207. * always: always wait (causes emulation slowdown).
  208. @@1. "Set to unscaled centered"
  209. Adjust the resizing options to set game image to it's original size.
  210. @@1. "Set to 4:3 scaled"
  211. Scale the image up, but keep 4:3 aspect, by adding black borders.
  212. @@1. "Set to fullscreen"
  213. Adjust the resizing options to make the game image fullscreen.
  214. #endif
  215. #ifdef PANDORA
  216. Allows to set up scaling, filtering and vertical sync.
  217. #endif
  218. Sega/Mega CD options
  219. --------------------
  220. @@2. "CD LEDs"
  221. The Sega/Mega CD unit had two blinking LEDs (red and green) on it. This option
  222. will display them on top-left corner of the screen.
  223. @@2. "CDDA audio"
  224. This option enables CD audio playback.
  225. @@2. "PCM audio"
  226. This enables 8 channel PCM sound source. It is required for some games to run,
  227. because they monitor state of this audio chip.
  228. @@2. "Save RAM cart"
  229. Here you can enable 64K RAM cart. Format it in BIOS if you do.
  230. @@2. "Scale/Rot. fx"
  231. The Sega/Mega CD had scaling/rotation chip, which allows effects similar to
  232. "Mode 7" effects in SNES. On slow systems like GP2X, disabling may improve
  233. performance but cause graphical glitches.
  234. 32X options
  235. -----------
  236. @@3. "32X enabled"
  237. Enables emulation of addon. Option only takes effect when ROM is reloaded.
  238. #ifdef GP2X
  239. @@3. "32X renderer"
  240. This currently only affects how the Genesis/MD layers are rendered, which is
  241. same as "Renderer" in display options.
  242. #endif
  243. @@3. "PWM sound"
  244. Emulates PWM sound portion of 32X hardware. Disabling this may greatly improve
  245. performance for games that dedicate one of SD2s for sound, but will cause
  246. missing sound effects and instruments.
  247. @@3. "Master SH2 cycles" / "Slave SH2 cycles"
  248. This allows underclocking the 32X CPUs for better emulation performance. The
  249. number has the same meaning as cycles in DOSBox, which is cycles per millisecond.
  250. Underclocking too much may cause various in-game glitches.
  251. Advanced configuration
  252. ----------------------
  253. @@4. "Use SRAM/BRAM savestates"
  254. This will automatically read/write SRAM (or BRAM for Sega/Mega CD) savestates for
  255. games which are using them. SRAM is saved whenever you enter the menu or exit the
  256. emulator.
  257. @@4. "Disable sprite limit"
  258. The MegaDrive/Genesis had a limit on how many sprites (usually smaller moving
  259. objects) can be displayed on single line. This option allows to disable that
  260. limit. Note that some games used this to hide unwanted things, so it is not
  261. always good to enable this option.
  262. @@4. "Emulate Z80"
  263. Enables emulation of Z80 chip, which was mostly used to drive the other sound chips.
  264. Some games do complex sync with it, so you must enable it even if you don't use
  265. sound to be able to play them.
  266. @@4. "Emulate YM2612 (FM)"
  267. This enables emulation of six-channel FM sound synthesizer chip, which was used to
  268. produce sound effects and music.
  269. @@4. "Emulate SN76496 (PSG)"
  270. This enables emulation of PSG (programmable sound generation) sound chip for
  271. additional effects.
  272. Note: if you change sound settings AFTER loading a ROM, you may need to reset
  273. game to get sound. This is because most games initialize sound chips on
  274. startup, and this data is lost when sound chips are being enabled/disabled.
  275. @@4. "gzip savestates"
  276. This will always apply gzip compression on your savestates, allowing you to
  277. save some space and load/save time.
  278. @@4. "Don't save last used ROM"
  279. This will disable writing last used ROM to config on exit (what might cause SD
  280. card corruption according to DaveC).
  281. @@4. "Disable idle loop patching"
  282. Idle loop patching is used to improve performance, but may cause compatibility
  283. problems in some rare cases. Try disabling this if your game has problems.
  284. @@4. "Disable frame limiter"
  285. This allows games to run faster then 50/60fps, useful for benchmarking.
  286. #ifdef GP2X
  287. @@4. "Use ARM940 core for sound"
  288. F100/F200: This option causes PicoDrive to use ARM940T core (GP2X's second CPU)
  289. for sound (i.e. to generate YM2612 samples) to improve performance noticeably.
  290. It also decodes MP3s in Sega/Mega CD mode.
  291. #endif
  292. @@4. "Enable dynarecs"
  293. This enables dynamic recompilation for SH2 and SVP CPU code,
  294. what improves emulation performance greatly.
  295. Key configuration
  296. -----------------
  297. Select "Configure controls" from the main menu. Then select "Player 1" and you will
  298. see two columns. The left column lists names of Genesis/MD controller buttons, and
  299. the right column your handheld ones, which are assigned.
  300. There is also option to enable 6 button pad (will allow you to configure XYZ
  301. buttons), and an option to set turbo rate (in Hz) for turbo buttons.
  302. Cheat support
  303. -------------
  304. To use GG/patch codes, you must type them into your favorite text editor, one
  305. per line. Comments may follow code after a whitespace. Only GameGenie and
  306. Genecyst patch formats are supported.
  307. Examples:
  308. Genecyst patch (this example is for Sonic):
  309. 00334A:0005 Start with five lives
  310. 012D24:0001 Keep invincibility until end of stage
  311. 009C76:5478 each ring worth 2
  312. 009C76:5678 each ring worth 3
  313. ...
  314. Game Genie patch (for Sonic 2):
  315. ACLA-ATD4 Hidden palace instead of death egg in level select
  316. ...
  317. Both GG and patch codes can be mixed in one file.
  318. When the file is ready, name it just like your ROM file, but with additional
  319. .pat extension, making sure that case matches.
  320. Examples:
  321. ROM: Sonic.zip
  322. PATCH FILE: Sonic.zip.pat
  323. ROM: Sonic 2.bin
  324. PATCH FILE: Sonic 2.bin.pat
  325. Put the file into your ROMs directory. Then load the .pat file as you would
  326. a ROM. Then Cheat Menu Option should appear in main menu.
  327. What is emulated?
  328. -----------------
  329. Genesis/MegaDrive:
  330. #ifdef PSP
  331. main 68k @ 7.6MHz: yes, FAME/C core
  332. z80 @ 3.6MHz: yes, CZ80 core
  333. #else
  334. main 68k @ 7.6MHz: yes, Cyclone core
  335. z80 @ 3.6MHz: yes, DrZ80 core
  336. #endif
  337. VDP: yes, except some quirks and modes not used by games
  338. YM2612 FM: yes, optimized MAME core
  339. SN76489 PSG: yes, MAME core
  340. SVP chip: yes! This is first emu to ever do this.
  341. Some in-cart mappers are also supported.
  342. Sega/Mega CD:
  343. #ifdef PSP
  344. another 68k @ 12.5MHz: yes, FAME/C too
  345. #else
  346. another 68k @ 12.5MHz: yes, Cyclone too
  347. #endif
  348. gfx scaling/rotation chip (custom ASIC): yes
  349. PCM sound source: yes
  350. CD-ROM controller: yes (mostly)
  351. bram (internal backup RAM): yes
  352. 32X:
  353. 2x SH2 @ 23MHz: yes, custom recompiler
  354. Super VDP: yes
  355. PWM: yes
  356. Problems / limitations
  357. ----------------------
  358. #ifdef PSP
  359. * SVP emulation is terribly slow.
  360. #endif
  361. * Various VDP modes and quirks (window bug, scroll size 2, etc.) are not
  362. emulated, as very few games use this (if any at all).
  363. * The emulator is not 100% accurate, so some things may not work as expected.
  364. * The FM sound core doesn't support all features and has some accuracy issues.
  365. Changelog
  366. -------
  367. #include "../ChangeLog"
  368. Credits
  369. -------
  370. This emulator is made of the code from following people/projects:
  371. #include "../AUTHORS"
  372. License
  373. -------
  374. This program and it's code is released under the terms of MAME license:
  375. #include "../COPYING"
  376. SEGA/Genesis/MegaDrive/SEGA-CD/Mega-CD/32X are trademarks of
  377. Sega Enterprises Ltd.