DOSBox Pure – Out now for public testing

Article Written by Psyraven –

Hi all,

After 6 months of quite intense development, DOSBox Pure has been released for public testing. DOSBox Pure is a new fork built for RetroArch/Libretro, aiming for simplicity and ease of use.

The main features of this fork are:

  • As easy as a console game emulator by loading DOS games from ZIP files and saving into separate save files
  • Support for save states and even rewinding
  • Automatic game detection with custom gamepad to keyboard mapping for many DOS games
  • Mouse, keyboard and joystick emulation for gamepads and an on-screen keyboard

Other features are support for cheats, built-in MIDI software synthesizer (needs a SF2 soundfont file), disc swapping menu and a start menu that lists EXE files controllable by gamepad.

This initial release is feature complete as of now for what I wanted to accomplish, yet it is clearly marked as intended for public testing. So try to be constructive and as technical as possible if something doesn’t work as expected, I’ll be thankful.

I wanted to get this out before the holidays and to personally end 2020 with something cool. I hope you like it 🙂

Code and download: https://github.com/schellingb/dosbox-pure

Libretro Cores Progress Report – May 27, 2020

Yesterday marked RetroArch’s 10 Year Anniversary date. Today, we’re not only releasing a new RetroArch version, but we’re letting you know all the changes that have been made to the libretro cores since the last progress report.

Our last core progress report was on April 2, 2020. Below we detail the most significant changes to all the Libretro cores we and/or upstream partners maintain. We are listing changes that have happened since then.

How to update your cores in RetroArch

There are two ways to update your cores:

a – If you have already installed the core before, you can go to Online Updater and select ‘Update Installed Cores’.

b – If you haven’t installed the core yet, go to Online Updater, ‘Core Updater’, and select the core from the list that you want to install.

Final Burn Neo

Description: Multi-system arcade emulator

  • Add Neo Geo Pocket Color support
  • Latest updates from upstream

Flycast

Description: Sega Dreamcast/NAOMI emulator

  • Naomi/AW widescreen integrated cheats (KNIGHTS OF VALOUR THE 7 SPIRITS, Metal Slug 6, Toy Fighter, Dolphin Blue)
  • DSP: Proper MIXS input shift. Fixes Grandia 2 missing sound effects
  • DSP: fix output shift. Fix wrungp ear rape (NAOMI game)
  • Fix for: [Bug]Super Street Fighter II X for Matching Service (Japan) – Disable BIOS region patching
  • Fix for: Samurai Spirits – Frame-skipping issues before reset or changing the option – don’t reset frameskip to 0 at init
  • Haiku: Fix build
  • Rewrite nvidia jetson nano build
  • Make threaded rendering the default on all platforms. Synchronous mode enabled unless LOW_END is defined
  • Info and warning for xBRZ upscaling core option
  • ARM64: check CpuRunning at end of each timeslice. fix hang when exiting service menu in kofnw (NAOMI game)
  • NAOMI: wrungp inputs. support inverted axis for NAOMI
  • Libretro: Improve context request
  • Libretro: fix input descriptor L2/R2 mixup
  • NAOMI: Add Tokyo Bus Guide support
  • Log VMU files loading
  • CUSTOM TEXTURES: support JPEG format. Get rid of libpng and use stb_image log error if naomi eeprom save fails
  • Fix mouse state not being updated
  • PVR/NAOMI: update palette when PAL_RAM_CTRL is updated – fixes wrong palette in Gun Survivor 2 score screen
  • REND: Use original palette data to compute palette hash
  • PVR: textured background plane – fixes Who Wants To Be a Millionaire

DOSbox Core

Description: DOSbox core

  • Latest updates from upstream
  • Add option for using 2axis joystick even when only one port is connected – this fixes input problems in “Super Off Road”, but other games might also need this.
  • Add option for controlling log verbosity level – Since we can log to stdout now, it makes sense. Also, some frontends might not have configurable log verbosity levels.
  • Add option for printing log output to stdout/stderr –
    Useful if the frontend’s logging output is unreliable or too noisy (or
    both) and we only want to see log output from the core. RetroArch does
    have a configuration option for controlling frontend and core log output
    seperately, but it’s bugged.
  • Enable Voodoo on all platforms and regardless of fakesdl – Software-based Voodoo emulation doesn’t require SDL anymore so it should build fine everywhere.
  • Don’t claim there’s Voodoo2 emulation – Oops. 12MB doesn’t actually mean Voodoo2. The current code only emulates the original Voodoo. The 12MB setting is just a non-standard memory configuration for the Voodoo 1.
  • Add support for changing current core option values programmatically.
    This is a hack. The libretro API does not actually support this. We
    achieve this by replacing all current values with a bogus one to force
    the frontend to forget the currently selected value, since it doesn’t
    match the bogus one. We then submit the correct values again, but with
    the default value set to the value we want to switch to. This forces
    the frontend to switch to that value because the bogus value is now
    gone and thus not a valid value anymore. Finally, we submit the values
    again but with the initial default value (we only want to change the
    current value, not set a new default.) The frontend will not switch the
    current value, as the values themselves have not changed, just the
    default has.

    RetroArch seems to be well-behaved here and does the correct thing.
    Other frontends might not play ball though.

  • Hook up 3dfx core options
  • Vita: Fix dynarec, fix build
  • Add build options to make bassmidi and fluidsynth optional
  • Fix ARM dynarec
  • Correct cdrom sector size field length according to docs.
  • Refactor input mapper –
    Code should be simpler to understand now. This also fixes a bug where
    inputs on the second port weren’t working before. Mouse emulation is now
    possible on both ports and the default emulated mouse buttons have been
    swapped with the speed modifier buttons (L/R are now mouse buttons,
    L2/R2 the speed modifiers.) This is a saner default since not all
    controllers have L2/R2 buttons.
  • GHA: Support macOS 10.13 by building with GCC instead of XCode Clang
  • Fix floppy image file size detection oopsie
  • Improve disk control related code and move it to its own source file
  • Make image file extension comparisons case-insensitive –
    This fixes the issue where loading an image that has an upper-case
    extension (like “.CUE” instead of “.cue”) results in dosbox mounting the
    image itself without going through the libretro disk control interface.

    We add new case conversion funtions for this (in the new util.h/util.cpp
    files) because the existing conversion functions provided either by
    dosbox or libretro-common are crap and we’re smarter than everybody
    else.

  • Add libretro disk control interface disk labels support –
    Only retro_get_image_label_t for now. Leave retro_set_initial_image_t
    and retro_get_image_path_t undefined as it’s not clear what the use
    would be in case of DOS games, especially since we don’t handle m3u
    files yet.
  • Fix disk_replace_image_index always reporting failure –
    This silly mistake caused the “Failed to append disc” error message in
    RetroArch.
  • Add core option for setting the free space when auto-mounting drive C
  • Ensure overlay mount path ends with a dir separator –
    Otherwise dosbox will write data in bogus directories in the overlay.
  • Add option for mounting the executable’s parent dir as drive C –
    Some pre-installed games expect to be installed in C:\GAMEDIR rather
    than directly in C:\. This option allows these games to run without
    having to modify their configuration files first.
  • Enable PC speaker by default
  • Fix direct content loading of DOS executables
  • Fix BASSMIDI crashing during startup on 32-bit Windows
  • Add BASS/BASSMIDI libs to core info file
  • Add BASSMIDI MIDI driver –
    The bass and bassmidi libraries are looked for in the frontend’s system
    directory and loaded at runtime. This allows the core to work and be
    distributed in a GPL-compliant way without those libraries.

DOSbox SVN

Description: DOSbox

  • Add SALC and XLAT to the dyn_x86 core. Improve LOCK handling a bit.
  • change new to new(std::nothrow) (vogons 73603) and some formatting
  • QNX: Adjust flags to msync based on libretro-common –
    I didn’t notice any bug before but this stuff is very difficult to trigger
  • QNX: Add support
  • Allow unaligned memory only on x86
  • Determine CPU based on actual running platform rather than build one –
    This allows to closs-compile on x86 linux into arm linux

    Endianness is determined in retro_endianness.h and dynarec is determined
    in dynarec.h

  • Correct cdrom sector size field length according to docs
  • memory: Add missing std::nothrow –
    Given subsequent check for NUL it was obviously intended for use with
    std::nothrow
  • Catch exceptions in dosbox –
    Right now an exceptions ends up killing cothread which is against libco
    recommendations and is more difficult to debug. Instead log and exit normally
  • Fix button mappings and wrong port assignment when using both ports –
    This maps B/A/Y/X to DOS buttons 1/2/3/4 by default. Also corrects the
    issue of input not working correctly when using two controllers.
  • Fix Windows x64 hang/crash by updating libretro-common
  • Don’t submit mouse emulation descriptors when no ports are connected
  • Fix new gamepad emulated mouse defaults being swapped
  • Map mouse buttons to L/R, modifiers to L2/R2, not vice-versa –
    Many gamepads don’t have L2/R2, which were needed to press mouse
    buttons with the gamepad using the default mapping. This change
    maps mouse buttons to L/R by default. The modifiers to speed up
    or slow down mouse motion are moved from L/R to L2/R2, since they
    are less essential. All of this can be remapped via quick menu
    using the input mapper.
  • Fix gamepad emulated mouse inputs not showing in mapper sometimes
  • Vita: Fix dynarec
  • Vita: Build fix
  • Switch to libco provided by libretro-common –
    libco embedded here crashes on vita. So let’s use the common one
  • Use RETRO_CALLCONV for disk control callbacks –
    It’s surprising that there were no crashes so far on x86 32-bit…
  • Fix disk_replace_image_index always reporting failure –
    This silly mistake caused the “Failed to append disc” error message in
    RetroArch.
  • Correct an oversight of r4186 when floppy disks are mounted.

Beetle PSX

Description: Sony PlayStation1 emulator

  • Load bios from path that was checked
  • sanitize gl context requests
  • Add more detailed error messages for mmap, unlink sooner
  • Allow Solaris 11 build
  • Cleanup warnings: snprintf truncation, strncpy->memcpy, memset
  • Lightrec: Cleanup/deduplicate mmap code
  • Lightrec: Improve homebrew support
  • Fix inverted check for dma-only invalidation
  • Fix OS X compile
  • Lightrec: fix more games –
    These games now work:
    – Need For Speed: V-Rally
    – Alone In The Dark – One-Eyed Jack’s Revenge
  • Lightrec: Fix SWL/LWL using wrong mask
  • When HAVE_SHM always use global memfd so it can be closed properly on exit –
    LGTM found this once the default was to compile in lightrec
  • Keep track of mmap failing –
    If mmap failed it should prevent crashing when closing and disables
    lightrec memory mirrors so as to not use an incorrect code path
  • Update to latest lightrec and extract PGXP from lightrec –
    PGXP functions are now called from within beetle
  • Compile in Lightrec support by default –
    Specify HAVE_LIGHTREC=0 if you don’t want it compiled
  • Improve DualShock calibration reference
  • Fix disk control interface when running single-disk PBP content

Mupen64Plus Next

Description: Nintendo 64 emulator

  • Only set WITH_DYNAREC based on ARCH if not set
  • Update GLiden64
  • Add support for loading GL symbols using dlsym() instead of libretro API –
    * Required for platforms with EGL version < 1.5 * To enable, use new compile-time define: `-DGL_USE_DLSYM` Currently only enabled for Raspberry Pi platforms that use the legacy Broadcom driver.
  • Add nasm variable
  • Assign variable and reference nasm
  • Bump Version to 2.0.5
  • Update Mupen64Plus INI
  • Add fbInfoDisabled to Ini parsing
  • Update GLideN64 INI

Yabause

Description: Sega Saturn emulator

  • Enable Solaris build

Kronos

Description: Sega Saturn emulator

NOTE: This core requires you to use the ‘glcore’ video driver right now. There is no software renderer and it won’t work properly yet with the regular ‘gl’ driver.

  • Activate openGL program precompilation
  • Precompile some shaders directly at boot time to have a smoother BIOS animation
  • Emit a callback at each frame for synchronizing need on ports
  • Swap the buffers at each frame
  • (libretro) framerate pacing + CDROM support + m3u extension
  • Implement a database & rework cart auto-detect
  • Add support for BIOS language
  • Fix Assault Leynos 2 black screen
  • Fix mesh improved image unit usage
  • Fix blinking in Sega Rally, CS Mode
  • Add support to remove banding when using gouraud shading
  • Modify the handling of improved mesh handling to prepare improved banding support
  • fix pause in Daytona USA
  • fix Sega Rally USA boot – might introduce other improvements or regressions
  • Prepare the SH2 threading
  • ST-V I/O is reading words
  • (libretro) fix resolution mode change
  • Rebase the openGL on Yabause since compute CS has a better rendering and openGL rework created new issues
  • (libretro) improve rendering loop
  • Better horizontal upscaling
  • Depending of vertical flip, sprite reading is not the same – Improving Sega Rally
  • (libretro) use cpu_tesselation as default for polygon mode
  • Use CPU tesselation by default
  • (libretro) make the frame rendering more libretro-friendly
  • Reintroduce some required variable for color calculation – fix Cotton Club
  • Software renderer supports 4 threads at maximum
  • Consider that only old card compatible only with OpenGL 3.3 are limited in variables and need to reduce VDP2 blitting program
  • Reintroduce software renderer
  • Reduce the VDP2 register texture width
  • Do not initialise unsupported openGL functions. Fixing some openGL Core 3.3 errors
  • For openGL do not call to much the rendering loop – Better to maximize cache texture impact
  • Add ignition line to VDP1 commands
  • Do not flush the cache texture at each HBlank – only flush when needed
  • In case of draw every 2 frames, do not consider CMD that has already been displayed
  • We have to update the texture before the evaluated startupline, not at the end of the first line… Fixing Skeleton tearing
  • allow STV rom loading to be CRC based
  • Trigger the VDP1 rendering as soon as we consider the draw command list has executed
  • Take care of effective starting line of VDP1 command to evaluate if the core has to regenerate the textures
  • Remove NVidia related pragma – Might impact other GC
  • Calculate VDP1 cycles requested by draw commands
  • Fix some STV loading –
    Fix batmanfr, thuntk & thunt boot without breaking dnmtdeka gfx (and maybe other’s ?)
    Also got sanjeon to boot.
  • Load the BIOS file of the right entry – Fixing Die Hard boot
  • Setup EEPROM directory at the same location than STV ROM
  • Fix “heap-use-after-free” on exit –
    YglGenReset can’t be called after _Ygl is freed
  • fix some STV loading issues –
    suikoenb, thunt, thuntk, batmanfr & znpwfvt now boot, however only thuntk seems playable at the moment
  • Support EEPROM save & load for STV
  • Update the rotation window before the rotated layer are using the values
  • Preliminary support for STV’s Kick Harness
  • Fix horizontal RBG offset in Final Fight Revenge
  • Allow openGL 3.3 since openGL without tesselation should work on most of the games
  • Fix the RBG vertical misalignment when upscale is on – Still horizontal tearing
  • Some minor fixes for RBG CS
  • Fix VDP1 mapping on highest upscale ratio
  • Fixing coin setup on ST-V
  • Backup RAM can be accessed in word and Long – STV is doing this
  • Better handling of the upscale
  • PTRM = 0x3 corresponds to PTMR 0x2 – Fixing Skeleton Warriors startup
  • Fix the special color condition in case sprite is cc enabled, not active as first screen, but activable as second
  • For color mode other than 2, read coefficient table on the upper part of the color RAM
  • Do not handle prohibited setting on PTMR – Fix Skeleton
  • Writing lower part of Color RAM in mode 0 is overwriting upper part
  • When VDPRAM mode is 0, color from RBG is read on the upper part since lower part is for color offset
  • If the code is checking EDSR, just wait for VDP1 processing to finish – avoid changing VDP1 texture while it is changing
  • Do not try agressive optimization yet – Fixing Disc menu performance
  • Fix Quad upscale in Compute shader
  • Fix the regeneration of the VDP1 surfaces – Fix Guardian Heroes
  • Add a compilation flag to enable/disable VDP1RAM update – enabled by default
  • LDCSR is changing the SR mask, so interrupt shall be handled as soon as it is changed – Fixing Princess Maker 2 boot
  • Fix the deinit of YGLTM
  • Fix libretro fullscreen switch – Implement a destroy of all openGL objects when openGL context is reset
  • (libretro) fix upscaling weirdness
  • (libretro) try at fixing scaling weirdness
  • On Libretro, do not execute the last resizing. It is required that the libretro framebuffer always provide a FB of size _Ygl->widthx_Ygl->height
  • (libretro) updates
  • Issue on IST cleaning. Princess Maker 2 is now crashing on master SH2 issue. Might be due to SH2 interrupt handling – Fixing Skeleton boot
  • SH2 interrupt mechanism is not accurate – Do not try to make it precise – Fix Capcom Generations 5
  • Compute the VDP1 buffer in threads
  • Double the VDP1 structure to avoid stall between frames
  • Big rework of SCU Interrupt handling – Fix Princess Maker 2 boot while fixing Nanatsue Kaze after the start screen – might introduce regressions
  • Reenable the support of asynchronous preparation of RBG layers
  • Do not enable RBG async preparation
  • Fix BIOS HLE interrupt usage
  • Fix sysclip size for rotation
  • Check if we need to send a SSH2 interrupt each time we are sending a MSH2 interrupt from SCU
  • Purge all the SCU interrupt and do not stack them
  • Changing SCU HIRQMASK can generate an interrupt
  • NMI interrupt has a specific handling and does not exit using a standard RTE command
  • Handle in priotity interrupts on SH2 core
  • Rework a bit the SCU interrupt handling
  • Reintroduce interrupt removal – Fix Princess Maker 2 – might impact Sakura Wars
  • Fix Sakura Taisen video
  • Fix line color offset on RBG compute
  • Fix Highway 2000
  • In case of rotated FB, increase the system clipping by twice the offset – It looks like a workaround – It is fixing Hang On ’95 blue line on the right
  • Better to use VDP2Ram access function
  • Fix VDP1 rotation for Hang on and Power drift. It looks like a scale might be still needed for Capcom Generations 4

PCSX ReARMed

Description: Sony PlayStation1 emulator

  • Android: Support for new lightrec API
  • Update lightrec to latest upstream
  • Minimize logs when loading a cheevos-compatible content
  • Cleanup retro_run() –
    – move input query into separate functions
    – move internal fps display to separate function
  • Hide other inputs from core options –
    – This adds a core option to hide some input options like multitaps, player ports 3-8 and analog-related fine-tuning options.
    – also combine dynarec-only options in one #define directive
  • More core option fixes –
    – This PR fixes core options and moves them to the related dynarec modes where they are implemented.

    LIGHTREC = relates to platforms that supports the new Lightrec mode
    NEW_DYNAREC = relates to previous dynarec implementation that is still used for some 32bit devices

    – Dynarec Recompiler core option, both dynarec implementation can be enabled or disabled

  • Move guncon options to update_variables –
    – This should stop unnecessary RETRO_ENVIRONMENT_GET_VARIABLE callback and log spamming
  • Fix some edge case where core can freeze upon loading content
  • Automatically disable Lightrec when no BIOS is present, take 2
  • cdriso: fix a disk switching deadlock when closing a CD image
  • ARM NEON: Fixed bug where MSB of a 15-bit BGR color could corrupt green value.
  • cdriso: fix a disk switching deadlock
  • unai: Add ARM-optimized lighting / blending functions

Addendum on UNAI ARM-optimized lighting/blending improvements –

“Looking at the generated ASM on 3DS, I thought I could squeeze out some extra performance by moving the inner lighting and blending functions to handwritten A32 assembly. This gives a medium improvement generally (3-5fps faster on the beach in Crash 1) and a large improvement when doing lots of blending (46-48fps before, 57-60fps after, behind the waterfall in Water Dragon Isle in Chrono Cross).

Some other notes:

  • I used the ARM11 MPCore (3DS CPU) timings for pipelining.
  • I had a few stall cycles during lighting, so I used them to preserve the MSB for lighting and blending, which saved a store, load, and orr later on. ~3-6 cycles saved overall by doing that.
  • I switched from u16 to uint_fast16_t, which is 32-bit on this platform. This saved a few useless uxth instructions for another few cycles. This shouldn’t affect other platforms, but I don’t know for sure. Could typedef if necessary.
  • A lot of the speed improvement in blending comes from not using two instructions per and. For example, & 0x8000 — the compiler preferred to mask out bytes using bic 0x7F00 and bic 0x00FF. Both slower and seemed less correct for what we’re trying to do.”

LRMAME 2003

Description: 0.72 version of LRMAME

  • Fix cheat input dip switch option

LRMAME 2003 Plus

Description: 0.72 version of LRMAME with updates/enhancements

See CHANGELOG for all updates/enhancements on top of LRMAME 2003

  • New working game Gulun.Pa! CPS1 prototype
  • sample pause support for journey –
    uses pause instead of the mute hack implemented.
  • TANK III Joystick bootleg
  • Update samples.c
  • fix big samples dynamic loading when not an OST item
  • Update mcr2.c –
    Sepways.wav sample support for journey
  • Update inptport.c
  • Update foodf.c –
    Allows the player to face in the direction last applied.
  • A fix for Midway MCR3 game saving

LRMAME 2010

Description: 0.139 version of LRMAME

  • Fix Selecting “Inputs (this game)” crashes Retroarch on Android (should also affect other ARM builds)
  • backport 12-bit wrapping fix

    Fix 12-bit wrapping behavior in YM2608/2610 ADPCM_A decoding, fixes some glitches in certain samples in the metal slug series, and likely other games. [Lord Nightmare, madbr]

Dolphin

Description: Gamecube/Wii emulator

  • Fix build for Windows x64
  • Request glcore context when video driver is gl

ParaLLEl N64

Description: Nintendo 64 emulator

  • Sanitize GL context requests
  • Update ParaLLEl RDP – about a ~10fps speed increase on Nvidia over previous version
  • Should fix Mega Man 64 graphics glitch (electric fence not visible)
  • Add ParaLLEl RDP
  • Add SI DMA Duration hack for Tetris 64
  • Use separate cache for DRAM and hidden DRAM.
  • Add DRAM flush and fix VI_REGISTER_OUTPUT.
  • Dump the hidden RDRAM as well.
  • Fix Seg Fault on Game Unload –
    When commit 11c1ae3 split r4300_execute into r4300_execute and r4300_init, it continued to check the “stop” variable, but this is undefined. Removing these checks resolves the seg fault and does not affect functionality.

O2EM

Description: Magnavox Odyssey 2 emulator

  • Fix YES/NO keys and set 0 as default key
  • Change Action button to B to be more consistent with other cores, and remove the shortcuts to 1/2/3/4 keys (useless with the new virtual keyboard)
  • Add option for virtual keyboard transparency
  • Add graphical virtual keyboard

Opera

Description: 3DO emulator

  • Fix Haiku build
  • Remove NVRAM file and try rename again on initial failure –
    Windows doesn’t like renaming over files? This logic accomidates for both
    without needing platform specific behavior.

VirtualJaguar

Description: Atari Jaguar emulator

  • Add Haiku build

XRick

Description: Game engine implementation for Rick Dangerous

  • Add Haiku build

vitaQuake 2

Description: Quake 2 game engine core

  • Add GLES Support and initial Rockchip platform
  • Fix intermission screen being unskippable.
  • Put on par with Vita build (Bump to v.2.3).
  • WiiU: Add build
  • PSL1GHT: Add build

vitaQuake 3

Description: Game engine implementation for Quake 3: Arena

  • Add Haiku build

mGBA

Description: Game Boy Advance emulator

  • Libretro: Add cheevos support for GB/GBC
  • PS2: Update to newest toolchain

QuickNES

Description: 8bit Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom emulator

  • PS2: Update to newest toolchain
  • Fix potential free(NULL); problems

FCEUmm

Description: 8bit Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom emulator

  • PS2: Update to newest toolchain
  • user-adjustable Zapper tolerance
  • reduce max Zapper tolerance to 20
  • MMC1 overrides are treated as ines 2.0, so its needs at least default values for prgRam and chrRam columns.

    Fixes FF1 pink screen due to unmapped CHRRAM.

  • Use proper geometry when switching NTSC filter on or off –
    – Width changes previously was not respected when using NTSC filter. With full use of overscan, NES width
    is 602 px when NTSC filter is used and 256 px on normal
  • Fix build when compiling without NTSC filter support
  • fixed 3DS build
  • Adjust Zapper tolerance; make Zapper input tolerance circular rather than rectangular by default
  • Fix timing when changing from PAL/Dendy to NTSC –
    – Happens when starting with PAL/Dendy region and changing to NTSC can cause frame to get stuck in 50 Hz
    – using RETRO_ENVIRONMENT_SET_SYSTEM_AV_INFO should remedy this.
  • NTSC: Remove height doubling/scanline effect –
    – We just use shaders for scanline if needed. NTSC + height doubling causes performance hit
    for some slow devices. Any decent platform should be able to handle scanline effect shaders at least.
  • ines.c: Simplify rom info logs and cleanup
  • Fk23c: Fix chr issues for some games –
    – Affects mostly waixing using mixed chr rom/ram modes (bit 2 of ram config register $A001)
  • Update ines-correct.h –
    – Add overrides for FK23C
    – Move MMC1 overrides
    – Move MMC5 overrides
  • Move overrides out of some mappers –
    Move mapper-based overrides out and use ines-correct.h if possible. Affects the following mappers below:
    – Move Cnrom database to ines-correct.h
    – Mapper 201 update
    – Mapper 91: Add Street Fighter III (Submapper 1) to ines-correct.h
    – Add dipswitch notes to m237
    – Update mapper9 (PC10 version of Mike Tyson’s Punch-out)
  • Move battery-backed prg ram override to ines-correct.h
  • Start expanding internal override database (ines-correct.h)

2048

Description: 2048 game implementation

  • PS2: Update to newest toolchain
  • PS2: Apply color correction
  • DOS: Add platform support

Picodrive

Description: Sega Megadrive/Genesis/32X/CD emulator

  • PS2: Update to newest toolchain

Snes9x 2010

Description: 16bit Super Nintendo/Famicom emulator

  • libretro: added granularity in SuperFX overclock –
    There doesn’t seem to be any benefit of overclocking above 15 MHz
    (150%). The user should be allowed to be more precise with their
    overclock setting now.
  • Fix MMC reg for 64bit builds –
    Fixes a segmentation fault when playing large ROM games.
  • Fix MMC bank register bit 7 (FuSoYa) –
    Fixes the 64Mbit ExLoRom map.
  • ROM: fail if ROM is invalid –
    Fixes an issue whereby a non-SNES file would cause a segmentation fault.
    This may occur if the selected ROM is corrupt, or a file has an
    incorrect extension.
  • APU: remove unused SoundSync –
    Additionally modified the resampler to use buffer size as a parameter
    instead of the number of samples within the buffer. Previously, the
    buffer size was being changed to the number of samples, and then changed
    back within the resampler.
  • snes9x: add defines for unused multi-cart support –
    The compiler was already optimising these unused functions out. The
    libretro core can define SNES_SUPPORT_MULTI_CART 1 to re-enable support
    for multi-cart in the future.
  • snes9x: refactor defines and remove overscan –
    Out of bounds memory fix from
  • snes9x: APU: Fix buffer overrun –
    Additionally:
    This fixes linking with LTO.
    Disable audio if an error occurs in init instead of continuing and
    segfaulting.
  • snes9x: reduce APU buffer to 64ms –
    I believe this to be a more sane setting than a 1000ms buffer.
  • snes9x: backport config from upstream –
    Most options were not available in English, despite it being the default
    language. All the options that were available in Turkish are now
    available in English.
  • snes9x: fix headercount increment
  • libretro: fix pitch measurement

Prboom

Description: Game engine core for Doom 1/2, Ultimate Doom, Final Doom

  • Switch from ad-hoc endianness handling to retro_endianness.h

Vecx

Description: Vectrex emulator

  • Fixed colour conversion (7 bit mono to RGB1555).
  • support analog controllers
  • Make line drawing code more efficient by doing RGB conversion once per line only
  • Nicer point shape
  • Allow scaling of vector display
  • more flexibility in adjusting display – allow for scaling and shifting to fit overlays

NeoCD

Description: SNK Neo Geo CD emulator

  • CD-ROM controller logic split into a separate file
  • Y Zooming don’t need a ROM file anymore
  • New system to identify and patch BIOS, should allow unknown BIOS to run.
  • BIOS files don’t need to have a specific name anymore they are identified by contents
  • Support for Universe BIOS 3.3
  • BIOS name in the menu now includes filename
  • Add synchronous CD operation mode
  • Vita: Use synchronous CD operation mode
  • Vita: Add build
  • 3DS: Add build
  • WiiU: Add build
  • PSL1GHT: Add build
  • Emscripten: Add build
  • Implemented horizontal interrupt masking (not verified on real hardware)
  • Fix CDROM music endianness
  • Fix big-endian support

PocketCDG

Description: MP3 Karaoke audio player

  • Properly send logging to proper place –
    use logging interface as much as possible with stderr as fallback
    rather than being inconsistent
  • Swap frame before passing it to audio_batch_cb on bigendian –
    audio_batch_cb expects native-endian frames and libmad gives little-endian
    frames. Hence on big-endian we need to swap
  • libmad: Fix big-endian support

FreeChaF

Description: Fairchild Channel F emulator

  • Switch from ad-hoc endianness to retro_endianness.h
  • separated CHANNELF HLE code

ECWolf

Description: Wolfenstein 3D game engine core

  • Latest updates from upstream
  • iOS/TVOS: Add build
  • WiiU: Add build

UAE4Arm

Description: Commodore Amiga emulator

  • Libretro improvements
  • Two joystick support with automatic switching
  • Define controls close to PUAE default. Use right analog stick as mouse and L2-R2 as mouse button.
  • Add working virtual keyboard support
  • Emulation resolution handing is better (especially change). 2nd mouse button working.
  • Solve right mouse button non working
  • Solve different video resolution
  • Solve audio glitches

P-UAE

Description: Commodore Amiga emulator

  • Disable waiting blits by default
  • Remapping fixes + clarifications
  • Zoom mode horizontal croppings + cleanups
  • Prefixes for hidden core options
  • Better sorting in M3U generation
  • Geometry fixes, Keymap update, Cleanups
  • WHDLoad fixes –
    – Custom parameter not working on many cases
    – Error messages and copy skips if Kickstart filesizes are not correct
  • Model preset overrides, Optional region search
  • Core option for D-Pad joystick/mouse switching
  • Model config overhaul
  • NTSC fixes
  • Optional region forcing with No-Intro tag support
  • WHDLoad update
  • Sort generated M3Us, Statusbar + glue updates
  • Fix android build
  • New defaults for CPU and Drive Sound Emulation, Sound cleanups
  • User-friendly warning messages for Kickstarts and CAPSImg
  • Attempt to fix crash when reloading core on static builds
  • Fix ZIP Browse Archive
  • M3U ZIP fix
  • Hor+Ver positioning fixes
  • Add “Remove Interlace Artifacts” core option
  • Backport interlaced double line field mode to replace old frame mode
  • Fix sound filter from effectively being always Automatic at startup
  • Fix filter type update, Improve zoom
  • Add core option for CD startup delayed insert, Remove previous disc change detect trickery
  • Change model force hierarchy, Option label updates
  • Android unzippings yet again
  • Core option for muting floppy sound when drive is empty
  • Automatic horizontal centering improvement
  • ANDROID X86: Fix build
  • Fix amd64 compilation –
    m68kops for amd64 is empty, use generic exactly how it was before the rewrite
  • Rewrite libretro m68k.h and m68kops.h to use non-libretro variants –
    They encapsulate per-cpu optimizations. There is no reason to
    have a version for libretro
  • Rewrite maccess.h using new retro_endianness
  • Automatic zoom improvements
  • Control improvements:
    – Enabled D-Pad as mouse in analog joystick mode to help out menu traversing, otherwise D-Pad does nothing unless toggled to mouse mode
    – Added core option for inserting RetroPads to joystick ports in different order (for Arcadia, Dyna Blaster etc.)
  • Fix vertical touch alignment on keyboard while zoomed
  • Global conf file, MultiDrive via Disk Insert
  • CDTV core option
  • Statusbar finetuning
  • Disk Control additions:
    – Transparent ZIP support in M3U parsing
    – Insert Disk support for M3U/ZIP/etc

VICE

Description: Commodore 64 home computer emulator

  • Keymap core option + rework
  • Autoloadwarp enhancement, Core option label tweaking
  • Remapping fixes + clarifications
  • Fix Plus4 cartridge launching, Statusbar fixes
  • Autoloadwarp fix for D81s, Statusbar cleanups
  • Freeze cartridge to reset types
  • More robust floppy autoloadwarping
  • VIC-20 updates:
    – RAM block set tidying
    – Fixed starting carts in M3Us
  • Achievements environment
  • Core option for 2nd SID, Warp mode rework
  • Automatic Load Warp core option
  • NBZ support
  • Dump available and not yet core optionized resources for easier ‘vicerc’ usage
  • Disk Control finetuning –
    – Fallback to drive 8
    – Remove “.” from image type detection extensions to also match cases like “.hidden-d64”
  • Fixed and enabled printer
  • Better sorting in M3U generation
  • Disk Control updates –
    – Allow CRTs & PRGs in M3Us
    – Removed redundant short pathname label fallback in widget
  • Automatic region fixes
  • Zoom mode honing –
    – Changed manual mode operation from automatic to optional
    – Corrected non-wide calculations
    – Added VIC-II/VIC/TED border info to sublabels
  • Core option reorganizing –
    – Separated VICE option variables from core option variables
    – Prevented updating VICE variables to the same variable
    – Simplified palette options
    – Fixed CBM2 embedded palettes & added missing PLUS4 embedded files
    – Removed & disabled non-working CBM2 models (510 not selectable in standalone, therefore no point fixing embedded files)
    – Fixed Super VIC memory expansion
    – Fixed CBM2 crash on higher resolution models
  • Work disk improvements –
    – No need to reset
    – Fixed start content
  • Automatic model core options for x64 & x64sc –
    – Scans for “NTSC|(USA)” and “PAL|(Europe)” tags
    – Both PAL/NTSC and C64/C64C can be preferred
    – Default is “C64 PAL Automatic”
  • Sync finetunings –
    – GetTicks returns a ticker from get_time_usec instead of fake microSecCounter
    – Bypassed internal frameskips and delays
    – Warp mode speed improved
    – Statusbar updates FPS in 1 second intervals instead of 2 & shows real FPS from both warp and fastforward
  • Work disk core option with device selection
  • Fix for autostart detection of D71
  • Work disk core option with device selection
  • Fix QNX build
  • Zoom improvements –
    – Presets for usual suspects (16:9, 16:10, 4:3, 5:4)
    – Hardcode exceptions minimized, math maximized with science
  • Fix Emscripten build
  • Switch from adhoc endianness handling to retro_endianness.h
  • Sort generated M3Us
  • Better retro_get_region, Embedded additions
  • Include NIBTOOLS for automatic NIB->G64 conversion
  • Manual cropping core options
  • Remove border stuff
  • Zoom overhaul, Reorganizing, Cleanups
  • JiffyDOS & GO64 for C128
  • Direct hotkey for joyport switching, TDE + DSE enabled by default
  • Disable JiffyDOS with tapes also on static platforms
  • Rename mouse_x to retro_mouse_x in retrostubs.c to avoid confusion with mousedrv.c
  • Fix compilation on Vita
  • PET fixes (embedded data, keyboard layout) + Cleanups
  • Extended ZIP+M3U Disk Control
  • Fix model change not triggering geometry change with borders disabled
  • PSL1GHT: Add build

Frodo

Description: Commodore 64 emulator

  • Disable compilation of CmdPipe.cpp on libretro
  • Add safeguard in case of thead allocation failure
  • Resync libco
  • Add logging
  • 3DS: Add build
  • PSP: Add build
  • Vita: Add build
  • QNX: Add build
  • QNX: Fix cmdpipe
  • Exclude cmdpipe on PSP1 and Vita
  • Don’t use sigaction on PSP1 and Vita
  • Don’t use chdir and getcwd on PSP1 and Vita
  • Change pulsehandler not to use signals on libretro

Quasi88

  • Fix declaration of INLINE on Android
  • Support for big-endian Linux
  • Switch from ad-hoc endianness to retro_endianness

Nestopia

Description: 8bit Nintendo Famicom/NES emulator

  • Fix scratchy audio in Super Mario Bros. 3 and others

Uzem

  • 3DS: Render at half-width
  • PSP: Render at half-width
  • Android: Fix build
  • Gamecube: Add build
  • PSL1GHT: Add build
  • WiiU: Add build
  • Big-endian support
  • avr8: Fix initial memory cleaning –
    Current code zeores-out only part of intended array
  • Disable av8::idle on libretro –
    It’s not used by libretro
  • Disable recording code on libretro –
    It’s not used by retroarch but it links with popen that is not
    available on many of retroarch platforms
  • Support compilation with g++ 4.6

GME

Description: Game Music Emulator core

  • Gamecube: Add build
  • Wii: Add build
  • WiiU: Add build
  • PSP1: Add build
  • Vita: Add build
  • Use retro_endianness.h instead of ad-hoc endianness defines

Cap32 / Caprice

Description:

  • Fix video glitch on big-endian
  • Replace ad-hoc MSB_FIRST with retro_endianness.h
  • QNX: Fix build
  • PSL1GHT: Add build

CrocoDS

Description:

  • PSL1GHT: Add build
  • WiiU: Add build
  • Wii: Add build
  • Gamecube: Add build
  • Filter-out identical calls to SET_GEOMETRY
  • Fix disk-reading routines on big-endian –
    Current approach of swapping after reading/before writing is sound
    in theory but in current codebase it’s difficult to track and leads easily
    to double-swaps. Just swap the values right before use and at assignment
  • Optimize byteswap
  • Fix big-endian video rendering
  • Disk endianness fix
  • Fix arguments to ReadPort/WritePort –
    Passing 32-bit value instead of 16-bit has undefined results. It works
    on some platforms and fails on other. Fix it properly
  • Support big-endian systems
  • Use retro_endianness instead of SDL_BYTEORDER
  • PSP: Add build
  • Vita: Add build

blueMSX

Description: Home computer MSX emulator

  • Remove leftover endiannness defines
  • Fix arguments for coinDeviceCreate –
    Argument mismatch is fatal on emscripten
  • PSL1GHT: Add build
  • Fix non-smooth scrolling in PAL 50Hz

meowPC98

Description:

  • Move from adhoc endianness to retro_endianness
  • PSP and Vita fixes
  • QNX: Add build
  • PSL1GHT: Add build

NP2Kai

Description:

  • Latest updates from upstream

Bk Emulator

Description: BK-0010/0011/Terak 8510a emulator

  • Wii: Add build
  • Gamecube: Add build
  • Use unsigned int instead of uint –
    For mingw compatibility
  • PSL1GHT: Add build

FUSE

Description:

  • Emscripten fixes

Lutro

Description:

  • Vita: Fix build
  • QNX: Add build

PX68k

Description: Sharp X68000 Emulator

  • Vita: Add build
  • QNX: Add build

Craft

Description:

  • Emscripten: Fix build
  • Fix path to auth database.
    Current path ends up in current working dir which might be anywhere,
    unwritable or not even exist as a concept.
  • Don’t attempt to run main loop after failure.
    It only clouds what errors have occurred
  • Android: Now goes ingame and no longer crashes at startup, doesn’t render blocks yet though

Mr. Boom

Description:

  • QNX: Add build
  • Emscripten: Fix build
  • support big-endian linux
  • PSL1GHT: Add build

Xmil

Description: X Millennium Sharp X1 emulator

  • Android: Fix compilation
  • Wii: Add build
  • Gamecube: Add build
  • Add big-endian support
  • PSL1GHT: Add build
  • Add iOS arm64 build support
  • PSP1 scaling messes when source is larger than psp horizontal resolution,
    hence render at quarter resolution
  • PSP: Add build
  • Fix QVGA support: Code for rendering at quarter of resolution is broken for libretro files
    altogether as it was never really implemented.

    Highres QVGA rendering forgot horizontal offset resulting in single-color lines,
    fix it as well

  • Vita: Add build
  • QNX: Add build

Atari800

Description: Atari 800 emulator

  • Support big-endian linux
  • PSP: Fixes
  • config: don’t use unaligned access on RISC –
    configure.ac enables it only on x86 and m68k. Mirror it in our manual config
  • Use frame counter instead of real clock

SMS Plus GX

Description:

  • Allow enabling or disabling FM sound (YM2413)
  • Prevent potential crash and cleanup –
    – set max geometry height to 240
    – remove some unnecessary functions and variables
    – move some callbacks from retro_init to retro_load_game
  • Add core option (Remove Border) –
    – removes left border (overscan). Works on SMS only.
    – General video renderer cleanups
  • Add core options for region and hardware type overrides
  • Add proper support for PAL content –
    – timing/region is detected using internal database
    – fix to rom names on rom info log
  • Improve performance when using NTSC filters –
    – Removes Sony decoder core options
    – Removes doubling of height when using NTSC filters
    – Use standard integers where applicable
  • Allow core to safely close when a required bios is not found –
    – For coleco rom content, it requires the colero bios to exists. So if none is found,
    just allow core to safely exit. SMS roms does not require bios to be playable, so no check is necessary for it.
  • Add support for colecovision roms (Experimental)

RACE

Description: Neo Geo Pocket (Color) emulator

  • Fix input mapping typo

TGB Dual

Description: Game Boy (Color) emulator with splitscreen link cable support

  • 3DS: Update target

FreeIntv

Description:

  • Fixes graphics issues – Intellivania not working on emulator
  • Correctly detect MTE Test Cart
  • Fixes #40 – Intellicart roms w/o A8 –
    Detects Intellicart roms using a different method for files that don’t begin with 0xA8
  • Expose RAM for Retroachievements
  • OSD, Keyboard keypad controls –
    keys 0-9 as expected. [ and ] replace C and E
    OSD updated, real messages replace cryptic “colored pixel” loading error feedback

TyrQuake

Description:

  • 3DS: Fix build
  • PSL1GHT: Add build

LRMAME

Description:

  • Update to 0.220
  • add 4-way joystick simulation option
  • Correct 4way support

Theodore

Description:

  • PS2: Add build
  • Auto load BASIC 1 cartridge instead of BASIC 128 cartridge on TO7/70
  • Add virtual keyboard transparency option
  • Add TO8/9 keyboard
  • Update TO8 keyboard image and add TO7&TO7/70 virtual keyboards
  • Add virtual keyboards for all models
  • First version of on-screen virtual keyboard

gpSP

Description: Game Boy Advance emulator

  • Fix cheevos support