Omnimaga
Calculator Community => Other Calc-Related Projects and Ideas => TI-Nspire => Topic started by: TheNlightenedOne on July 16, 2012, 11:55:54 am
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I feel this strange need to program some sort of game console emulator for the Nspire. But I can't decide which console to emulate. Ideas please?
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atari,snes,gba, xbox360 nethamconsole ITHEGAME
any of those look good to me!
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Atari: like the 2600? That's one I'm thinking about.
SNES: Thinking about this one too.
GBA: Calc84maniac is already porting gpsp...
XBox 360: That would be a nightmare lol
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Id like snes or atari
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I think SNES is the best choice since SNES has some of the best games in centuries.
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Agreed and I think super mario world on gba takes WAY TO MUCH SPACE
on the snes it is 1/2 of a megabite
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A Genesis/Megadrive emulator could easily run full-speed.
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Okay, we have it down to three: the Atari 2600, the SNES, and the Genesis/MegaDrive. I'll set up a poll. I'm personally leaning towards the Genesis since it has a smaller ROM size than the SNES, I think, and I don't have any experience with the Atari 2600.
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I think SNES is the best choice since SNES has some of the best games in centuries.
Same.
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MegaDrive emulator + get Keoni to do his thing with the controller with an Nspire = awesome.
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Oooh, I like both the Sega Genesis and SNES
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I really can't decide..... genesis or snes.....
If you have more experience with the genesis, then you should go with it.
I know there are games like Sonic on it .... would be fun to have that on the Nspire :P
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Isn't Atari 2600 incredibly hard to emulate due to strange programming, though? I guess maybe you could do SNES, but Super FX and other chip-enhanced games (such as Star Fox, Star Ocean, Stunt Race FX) might be an issue. Likewise with Sega Genesis/Megadrive (the Virtual Racing game comes to mind).
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How about the Commodore 64? I've been wanting a Commodore 64 emulator for Nspire for a while, and I think it might be possible.
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Hmm... I never considered a C64 emulator... but just like the 2600, I have no experience with it. I'll add it to the poll anyway
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SNES or C64 is cool both :3
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Bump
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Why Bumb ?
Anyway I'd love to see a c64 emulator :D
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i would love the C64 too, but i can't vote anymore because i already voted for the snes.. so C64++ :)
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The poll has been edited so that you may change your vote tif you wish. :)
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Thanks, Art_of_Camelot! (I didn't even know that was possible lol)
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I voted C64.
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Genesis or C64, that would be great.
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SNES would be very awesome! :D Then I could finally have the time to play its great RPGs: Final Fantasy, Secrets of Mana, Chrono Trigger
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All sound great! Good luck! :)
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SNES would be very awesome! :D Then I could finally have the time to play its great RPGs: Final Fantasy, Secrets of Mana, Chrono Trigger
/me imagines super mario world in math class... :D
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It would probably be easier to port an emulator when there's already a public-source emulator for that platform in ARM. Maybe you could see if that applies to some of these options, and take that into account.
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SNES would be very awesome! :D Then I could finally have the time to play its great RPGs: Final Fantasy, Secrets of Mana, Chrono Trigger
/me imagines super mario world in math class... :D
you can once gpsp is released to the public, there was a super mario world port to the gba
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It would probably be easier to port an emulator when there's already a public-source emulator for that platform in ARM. Maybe you could see if that applies to some of these options, and take that into account.
I'll look into it, but it's not my preferred method.
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SNES would be very awesome! :D Then I could finally have the time to play its great RPGs: Final Fantasy, Secrets of Mana, Chrono Trigger
/me imagines super mario world in math class... :D
you can once gpsp is released to the public, there was a super mario world port to the gba
Really? Another reason to wait for calc84's GBA emulator no pressure :D
TheNlightenedOne, in that case you should probably pick a platform you're really familiar with. Do you have any of those consoles yourself? (I wish I did <_<)
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Not yet, but I'm going to be doing a lot of research into the one I pick...
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Hum, I wanted to put both Snes and MD, but I can't
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I guess nothing will happen :(
Though SNES can be done through the GBA emulator
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Explain how the snes can be done through the gba please? :)
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SNESAdvance, PocketSNES
The emus are really slow though, and quite buggy.
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I'll try em out then 7:^)
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Emulators are great ways of reliving your childhood memories. I always look back on the frustration when playing difficult yet addicting games such as battle toads. I would love if you did a super Nintendo entertainment system emulator for it would be awesome to relive the bizarre gameplay of my favorite SNES game, Earthbound. Keep in mind that I am a loyal Nintendo fanboy, but if I were you, I would go with the emulator YOU want. I do not have much experience with the Genesis/MD but I am sure that there are many games that are just as good as the SNES. Keep in mind that many people like to have the convenience of save states so that will be important. You should have a team to help you with it for I know many other snes emulators (zsnes, etc.) required many people for programming. There are probably many people on this forum or others that would love to help you with programming. Although the programming would be hard, I would prefer the SNES super FX games and any other versus the blast processing of the Genesis/
MD. Anyway have fun programming this emu! :)
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Emulators are great ways of reliving your childhood memories.
This only applies for people who actually have childhood memories to revive. When I was younger, I didn't have any gaming console. Not any Gameboy nor PS nor Snes. I was the frustrated one who was looking at others playing.
Now you understand why my first reaction when I was given a 83+ was to code Pokemon on it :P
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Emulators are great ways of reliving your childhood memories.
This only applies for people who actually have childhood memories to revive. When I was younger, I didn't have any gaming console. Not any Gameboy nor PS nor Snes. I was the frustrated one who was looking at others playing.
Now you understand why my first reaction when I was given a 83+ was to code Pokemon on it :P
Exactly the same ... :P
(However I played pokemon on PC on emus)
Then, later, a friend of mine gave me his GBC and a bunch of games /P
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Lol Suks for you guys :p XD
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I fondly remember MS-DOS. Now I hate it, but back then it was simple enough to use, since it was just a way to run my games.
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Are you still thinking about making a Genesis emulator that would be super cool I think it would be the best bet because of all the cross-overs from nes to gameboy. (also I want Sonic and SHINING FORCE) btw if you aren't familiar with that game it's an awesome rpg
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Whoa, necro.
I was on the fence between a Genesis and SNES emu. I then chose to do SNES, but didn't get far and dropped the project.
However, someone is working on a Genesis emu for Nspire. (I believe dapianokid?)
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Eyup, that's Dapianokid.
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thanks guys can anyone link the forum? I can't search :P
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To search : megapowers.net/v/search.htm Forum search is disabled due to lag.
Too lazy to do it myself. :P I think the name of his project was GenSpire.
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Thanks!
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to search any particular site in google just use
site:url.com stuff
and it will restrict results to that website.
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My topic has a link to an unbelievably well written Genesis emulator project source download. Porting that to the Nspire would be a cinch.
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I wonder if anyone will actually do it, since it has been 3 years since Ndless came out and there are still no SNES/Genesis emu x.x. Maybe there is just no more interest in Nspire coding anymore like 68K calcs or something.
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Somebody needs to spark that interest. Wii hacking never seemed to fully die. I wouldn't know how to revive Nspire development though.
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Somebody needs to spark that interest. Wii hacking never seemed to fully die. I wouldn't know how to revive Nspire development though.
Get people to make games!
If everyone is making games then people will want to "join in".
And with loads of games being made then some of them will get "famous".
And people will want to have some "fame" too so they will start programing.
And...
Well...
A man can dream, can't he?
A man can dream...
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Somebody needs to spark that interest. Wii hacking never seemed to fully die. I wouldn't know how to revive Nspire development though.
Well the Wii was far more popular than TI calcs combined, so that might be why. The TI-Nspire is more of a niche interest, plus with everything that TI did to us from 2010 to 2011 this was enough to discourage most people from coding for it. At least the TI-84+CSE can be coded freely without hacks, but it's weaker so we can forget about a SNES/Sega emu on it.
Also on the Nspire, people seems less interested to make games than on Z80 calcs. This is probably because we already have 1000+ great games available for this calculator, thanks to Game Boy and NES emulation. We also have Doom and some ports of Z80 games, so most people probably don't feel like making anything new. Plus Ndless dev seems harder to start up with, because there are people who had troubles setting up the Ndless dev environment and stuff. Or it could just be that the Nspire lacks the old school/retro feel that the Z80 and 68K models have.
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Plus Ndless dev seems harder to start up with, because there are people who had troubles setting up the Ndless dev environment and stuff.
Could someone link me to a guide or even make a guide.
I tried it once but Msys and all that didn't seem to work.
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Plus Ndless dev seems harder to start up with, because there are people who had troubles setting up the Ndless dev environment and stuff.
Could someone link me to a guide or even make a guide.
I tried it once but Msys and all that didn't seem to work.
The new SDK has pretty much everything included and is easy to install. Check https://ndlessly.wordpress.com/ndless-for-developers/ :).
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By new do you mean it was released within the last two or three months? Maybe people having troubles with it were just using a different one?
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Guys, don't ramble too far off topic.
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Right, but it was you who started the off-topic ;)
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Touché.
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If the TI-nspire can emulate the Genesis Console, then I will bet the possibility of emulation of Neo-Geo Arcade, since it uses the same dual Z80/68k processores of Genesis. (Metal Slug and King of Fighters on Nspire is awesome!)
However I didn't expected the Mini vMac come ported to nSpire, so I could add the Amiga Classic emulation as well ;D
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I think we should stick with the big consoles THEN go to the more obscure things such as Amiga Classic.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think it's in high demand.
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You are correct, but it's still another idea. :) I think the vmac emu was easy because it was an sdl port and didn't require much to be done in order for it to work.
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I know that the Genesis has some kick ass titles that I would love to have on my calc!
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The only one I can think of is sonic.
I kind of want the SNES more...
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If you want an emulator, make it yourself.
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Well he doesn't have to do it himself but he could maybe try (although that requires several years of experience in programming). Else we will have to wait until one of the big time programmer finds free time and motivation to do it, which I doubt will happen soon.
If you want an emulator, make it yourself.
By the way I think saying things like that was against the forum rules before, because this topic is located in the "Other Calc-Related Projects And Ideas" section. Unlike on MaxCoderz way back in 2004, people here are free to post emulator ideas for other people in the ideas section as they see fit, without necessarily making it themselves.
I agree that SNES, Sega Genesis and such console should be done first, though, because I doubt many people will care about a PC88 emulator, for example, since only like 8 people here probably even know what was a PC88. But of course, if the latter is the easiest and someone wants to make it first, then go ahead. :)
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I'm going to say: the source for the basis for my porting project is fully compatible with the Nspire. Seriously, the files for the actual emulation are all common to all hardware. just take a look
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Look up the game Shining Force. great RPG
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Indeed. I wanted to buy an original copy and it's like $79-99 at stores here O.O
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DAMN
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Yeah, some SNES and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games are really expensive nowadays. The ones who are rare or in very high demand from collectors can go up in the $200-300 sometimes. They usually go down for a while when they get released on the Wii Virtual Console before slowly going up again.
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Perfect examples of that happening on more recent games include Harvest Moon 64 (cheapest is $55, cartridge only) and the Zelda Master Quest Gamecube Disc. ($35) Where other games on their consoles go as low as $10
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Yep. Also the Starcraft Collector Edition bundles, although that's to be expected with games that has limited editions. I bet Star Ocean 4 for the 360 will go up soon, too, because it is discontinued already only after 1 year or so of sales.
As for the Zelda GC disc we got it for $49.99 back in the days, which was $35 in US dollars approximately, so it isn't too bad yet, but still high considering many PS3 games are $4.99-$12.99 at EB Games (even RPGs). The only thing that keeps PS games from going very high is the PSN store.
Seriously, though, avoid Play 'N' Trade (formerly called Dimension) for retro gaming: Almost all their games are overpriced! I saw Mega Man X Collection for GameCube there for $69.99 and Tecmo Secret of the Stars (a SNES RPG that actually looks more like a NES game) for $89.99. Yet, other stores where I saw these games had them for $49.99 and $39.99 respectively. I only got like three decent deals there before, and that was after they went bankrupt then got renamed.
Back on-topic, I wonder if an Atari 2600 emulator would run at full speed on a TI-Nspire? I heard it was a major pain to emulate. Also, what console emulators will run on the Nspire via Linucx?
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The atari may be painful, but it is still quite weak. I wouldn't be surprised to see a decent 2600 emulator for the nspire.
The painful parts have to do with the other chips, like the graphics chip and the sound generation hardware. The CPU is a 6507 running at just over 1 MHz, with 128 Bytes of RAM, so it's not exactly powerful. IIRC it's the same CPU architecture as the NES but with some features trimmed.
If you can find the source, this would be a good emu to start with.
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Wait. How could you do anything with 128 bytes of ram ?
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Wait, is it a typo? Earlier, I misread 128 bytes as 128K bytes. If it's 128 bytes, then now I see why Atari 2600 graphics often looked like this O.O
(http://atariage.com/2600/hacks/screenshots/s_LegendOfZelda2600_Hack_1.png)
That's a Zelda hack, btw
http://atariage.com/hack_page.html?SystemID=5200&SoftwareHackID=139
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128 BYTES. Not KB. Not MB. Bytes.
Those 128 bytes of RAM were used for two things: Self-modifying code, and data storage. For example, Pitfall uses 2 bytes for the score, 2 bytes for the time, 2 bytes for the lives (2 lives, but it's faster than using an AND) ONE byte for the current area, etc.
However, they had a far more manageable 4 KB of ROM, so there was plenty of room for routines.
They had no framebuffer. The screen was drawn by hardcoded routines, with specific hardware support for certain registers.
There were 5 special display registers.
2 "Player" registers which were 8 bit, and would be automatically displayed at a certain portion of the scanline. (You chose location, color and graphics before the line drew)
2 "Missile" registers which were 1 bit. (Think 1-pixel bullets) also with configurable colors per-line.
1 "Ball" register. Effectively a missile register, but with more features. Player and Ball registers could be reflected or repeated in certain locations. Missiles could not. Balls could also be stretched in two directions so as to be on more scanlines without the effort of drawing them there.
Other than those, there were 40 playfield blocks, at 1/4 the resolution of the rest of the screen. These all had the same color, unless you changed it between each scanline, and when redrawing one, you had to redraw all of them. The purple and grey blocks on that image are playfield blocks.
If you want more info on this stuff watch this video. Very informative.
So, a quick explanation of EVERY graphic on that screenshot.
The background color is being changed every few scanlines, thus the shift from lighter to darker browns.
The Purple and grey blocks are Playfield blocks, with the playfield color changing occasionally.
The player, key, and little box thing are all drawn using the player registers. Between each scanline, the graphics are changed, and between each sprite, so are the colors. You will never see more than 2 unique 8*x sprites on any line, but space invaders for the atari shows how you can get multiple duplicated sprites.
The black lines at the edge are actually a bad thing. It means their routines took too long, and they missed part of the scanline.
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Darn that is crazy O.o
I did skim through an explanation of how graphics are done on AtariAge, but didn't have time to study it all.
One thing for sure, if a game like "Legand of Zelda: Sord of Atari" was ever made for the actual Atari 2600 console, there would most likely be little or no text. Not to mention I bet the game wouldn't be as long (although since dungeons are re-used over and over, but with different colors, maybe it could be possible).
Thanks for the explanation by the way.
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No problem.
My favorite part about the pitfall video I linked: 256 bytes of level data stored in a 50 byte algorithm. He calls it a reversible polynomial counter. Basically, he can increment or decrement it and it becomes an apparently nonrelated number.
Best part: Since the counter only needs to store a byte in RAM at a time, the whole routine is in the 4 KB of ROM.
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I do like that algorithm. Crazy math geniuses.
The Atari was practically a joke played on developers. They could've done so much better back then.
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I guess maybe they just didn't know how to do it right, but somehow knew it would work in that state and coders would just deal with it. I'M glad better stuff came out afterward, though.
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The Atari 2600 hardware was mainly made to be cheap, and yet just good enough to run a few simple games. Compared to the NES, it was quite pathetic, but it was also much cheaper to manufacture.
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So, TheNlightenedOne, have you started to make something or are you planning to start?
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Augs, I started but I now have MUCH larger projects, so I dropped it
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What are your projects? Are they calc-related too?
Btw we might have to live with the possibility that there will never ever be any other emulator released for the Nspire. Such project takes so much work. That's why since 1990 there have been only like 10 completed calculator RPGs that are not written in TI-BASIC or Axe and why there are only two people who ever released console emulators on the Nspire. To even stand a chance at having a SNES/Sega Genesis emu for the Nspire in the next decade, Omnimaga would need at least 1000 registered users logged in at once on a regular basis and 20K posts a day, then we could hopefully find one person in the member list who is interested and dedicated enough.
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Well, now that Ndless officially supports C++ I think it is more likely. That gives a broader range of pre-existing emulators that can be ported as well. ;)
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True, but it seems that even then very few people seem to want to take on such task. D: The few who do usually cancel the project before a single line of code is written.
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I'll have you know, DJ_O, I wrote 7 lines of code when porting Genesis. That's 7 more than 0! That's infinitely more code than you give me credit for :P
The projects are overwhelming to tackle is the problem. Perhaps somebody could set up a "developer team" of Omnimagicians. :)
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Oh lol ok then, 7 lines of code. :P But yeah people get the idea. And a developer team would still require good management. Most team projects tend to die more often than solo projects unless incredibly massive (by massive I mean commercial Playstation 3 games, for example).
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Is this topic only for game system emulators? I voted for SNES, but it would be cool to have a TI-84 Plus SE emulator for the nspire grayscale and nspire CX, and maybe even a TI-84 CSE Emulator for the CX. But, since the CSE just came out a little while ago, I doubt any emulators have been made yet (Except the TI one that comes with most TI-calcs).
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There already is a z80 emulator for the nspire, calcemu by jacobly. It is based on bootfree though so things like Axe won't work IIRC.
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Yeah a 84+CSE emu would be nice, although so far, there are supposedly no accurate emulator for the computer yet, so to run ASM games it might be useless. jsTIfied totally messes up my games and AssemblyBandit's. Not sure about TilEm but 84+CSE support came out before the 160x240 screen mode was discovered and I wouldn't be surprised if it was based on jsTIfied.
A TI-89 emu would be nice as well. Calc84maniac started working on one in 2010, but then lost his entire progress in a laptop failure. Not sure what ever happened to Jacobly's Z80 emulator. IIRC it wasn't too bad, but I'm unsure if he fixed For loops yet.
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There already is a z80 emulator for the nspire, calcemu by jacobly. It is based on bootfree though so things like Axe won't work IIRC.
Does this mean that MirageOS won't work either?
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No idea, I've only
rwarws rhw noemL oa AND HAVE NO FURTHER EXPERIENCE WITH Z80 CALCS. tested the normal OS and have no experience with z80 calcs in general.
[Edit: ] No idea how that happended but ok...
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No idea, I've only rwarws rhw noemL oa AND HAVE NO FURTHER EXPERIENCE WITH Z80 CALCS. tested the normal OS and have no experience with z80 calcs in general.
[Edit: ] No idea how that happended but ok...
I was using Tapatalk and at first I thought that Blue Bear 94 posted this :P (remember that one private matters thread?)
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/me begins scrutinizingly searching the forums for information relative to the inside joke that is going on above him