Genesis/Megadrive emulation update for PSP & PSP Slim

[Thunder Force]

Just a quick heads-up for the die-hard 16-bit shmup fans out there, that Picodrive v1.35 has been released this week for both PSP & PSP Slim models (w/custom firmware).

While these systems already enjoy full quality emulation of PS1, Neo Geo MVS/CDZ, CPS1 Arcade, CPS2 Arcade, PCE/Turbografx-16, Famicom/NES, Sega Master System, and some others -- a high performance Genesis/Megadrive emulator was lacking.

Yesterday I briefly tested Picodrive for PSP with both Thunderforce III & Thunderforce IV and they worked fine at 60fps with 0 frameskip and 22050Hz stereo sound on PSP Slim. Emulation quality seemed around 95-99% in general, not quite perfect but still plenty of fun.

This pretty much brings the overall state of PSP shmup compatibility to ridiculous highs, adding the entire Genesis library to the already stunning library mentioned above. With the greatly improved d-pad on the PSP slim for shmups (diagonals now work, what a concept), brighter screen and lighter more comfortable feel, the PSP Slim is a real juggernaut of pocket shmupping.

For shmuppers with busy lives, taking dozens of your all-time favorites from your shmup library with you anywhere you go, is a true killer app.

[yojo!]

could you recommend a good place to look at for PSP emulation newbie ?. I'm getting a slim PSP pretty soon and like to get started. can you output the emulator on TV with the slim PSP too ?

[Thunder Force]

could you recommend a good place to look at for PSP emulation newbie ?. I'm getting a slim PSP pretty soon and like to get started.

The first and most challenging thing you will need to do is replace the official firmware on the PSP with custom/unofficial firmware. The firmware you want is 3.71 M33 or better (the "M33" part on the end shows it is custom/unofficial firmware). To be honest, replacing the firmware is arduous and potentially confusing for anyone new to PSP emulation. And the best thing possible is to get someone else to do it for you. If someone knows what they are doing your PSP firmware can be permanently upgraded to be compatible with emulators in 5-10 minutes. Otherwise, several days of reading sites like DCEmu PSP News and their forums is probably a fair starting point. All the information is out there, but I don't know of any up-to-date comprehensive step-by-step FAQs on the subject.

can you output the emulator on TV with the slim PSP too ?

Sorry, I don't have a cable to test this with.

(Also a minor note, that a new version (v1.35a) of Picodrive was released today that includes some bugfixes.)

[PC Engine Fan X!]

could you recommend a good place to look at for PSP emulation newbie ?. I'm getting a slim PSP pretty soon and like to get started. can you output the emulator on TV with the slim PSP too ?

I'm pretty sure that you can output in 480p with the optional Component Video PSP cable set regardless if you just play with UMD-based media or otherwise -- can't say that with the ol' fat PSP though..... ^_~

After reading and hearing about how much better the PSP-2000 series is, perhaps it's about time to "bite the bullet" & get one. Only if SCEI had heeded the minor gripes about the fat PSP before it's intial release -- customer feedback along with current R&D breeds new innovation into future production PSP versions even better than the original version... ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Well, they haven't gotten around to fixing the refresh rate...

It's fine for most PSP games I've played, but emulators ghost so horribly badly. Oh god, wow.

Edit: Thanks for the heads up! This emu runs viewtifully.

[Arcatech]

What was wrong with DGen? I found it to be more than adequate for any genesis games I was playing.

[indstr]

dgen was a sack of sh1t and pretty much required frameskip 1 for everything.

picodrive = salvation! and the sega cd emulation is amazing as well! fullspeed misadventures of flink & popful mail. rules!!!

everything i've thrown at it genesis-wise has been fullspeed. it's great

[RiotGrrl]

Does anyone out there have any good recommendations for Gens shmups? I've been curious on the system as a whole when it comes to this niche genre.

[indstr]

i'm currently in the process of testing a bunch of genesis games, and marking all the games that are shmups so if you give me another week or so, I will have a complete list of every shmup on genesis and which ones I think are worth playing.

Grind stormer seems to have a lot of potential, as does thunderforce 4. most of the others that i've tried though have been pretty crusty as far as gameplay experience, but i'll post a full list in a week or two

[Arcatech]

Some off the top of my head

Gleylancer

steel empire

eliminate down

slap fight

gynoug

[Fenrir]

Well, not to be a prick but many 16-b consoles are emulated like shit on PSP, expecially SNES. I've got a 1.5 firm PSP I use just for emulations and there's just a handful of games that work full speed (I'm thinking about Zelda 3 among the few). The other ones are sluggish to say the least, painfully slowed down to death whenever there's something going on. The MD on the countrary... it's really good. Played Alien 3 for MD a few days ago on PSP and it ran just sleek and nice, with no slowdown whatsoever.

[indstr]

Well, not to be a prick but many 16-b consoles are emulated like shit on PSP, expecially SNES. I've got a 1.5 firm PSP I use just for emulations and there's just a handful of games that work full speed (I'm thinking about Zelda 3 among the few). The other ones are sluggish to say the least, painfully slowed down to death whenever there's something going on.

you're probably using the wrong snes emulator then. Snes9x TYL 0.4.2 ME has been fullspeed with frameskip 0 for a good majority of the SNES library for quite a while. make sure you use Ruka's unofficial releases though as they have added improvements, most importantly fixing the savestate sound bug which was present in the TYL release... go to his site here and get the newest version (0032) and tell me it's not awesome

http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en ... n%26sa%3DG

I've played many, many snes games in that emulator and I would say fullspeed with frameskip 0 compatibility is at 75% of the games or greater. The main things that are not full speed are: games that use mode 7, any carts with extra processing chips (starfox, etc of course), some of the newer games like yoshi's island, etc. half the mode 7 stuff though was ported to gameboy advance, and gpsp DOES run them fullspeed

btw, just make sure you enable the speed hacks, as they really help boost most games up to fullspeed. also, occasionally you will get transparency errors and stuff, (donkey kong country games particularly), just disable the speedhacks one by one and that will usually fix this problem

enjoy

[Fenrir]

Thank you for the tip, will try for sure. I have an emulator that was part of a big package and it runs a lot of stuff but it isn't surely up to date.

The main things that are not full speed are: games that use mode 7

Well....... this doesn't please me much I hope that games that use partial Mode7 are at least enjoyable (thinking of Contra 3 or Castlevania IV). I can live without F-Zero or, what the hell, Pilotwings or Axelay... but Mode7 is a big part of the SNES and I'd say it's kinda flunked if Mode7 games are unplayable :s

[professor ganson]

With the greatly improved d-pad on the PSP slim for shmups (diagonals now work, what a concept), brighter screen and lighter more comfortable feel, the PSP Slim is a real juggernaut of pocket shmupping.

Yeah, I ditched all my shmups for the PSP because of the terrible dpad, and now that I've upgraded to the slim version I wonder whether I ought to have held on to them.

[indstr]

Thank you for the tip, will try for sure. I have an emulator that was part of a big package and it runs a lot of stuff but it isn't surely up to date.

The main things that are not full speed are: games that use mode 7

Well....... this doesn't please me much I hope that games that use partial Mode7 are at least enjoyable (thinking of Contra 3 or Castlevania IV). I can live without F-Zero or, what the hell, Pilotwings or Axelay... but Mode7 is a big part of the SNES and I'd say it's kinda flunked if Mode7 games are unplayable :s

contra 3 is unfortunately too slow but castlevania runs fine. it's hit or miss really, you'll just have to try stuff and see. definitely no pilotwings, mario kart, or f-zero though, unless you don't mind frameskip 3

[indstr]

With the greatly improved d-pad on the PSP slim for shmups (diagonals now work, what a concept), brighter screen and lighter more comfortable feel, the PSP Slim is a real juggernaut of pocket shmupping.

Yeah, I ditched all my shmups for the PSP because of the terrible dpad, and now that I've upgraded to the slim version I wonder whether I ought to have held on to them.

i modified the d-pad on mine the week or two after i got it with this guy's mod

http://www.ufighterx.com/guides/videoga ... padfix.htm

which raises it so the diagonals are better. it's pretty much the perfect d-pad now

[indstr]

i'm currently in the process of testing a bunch of genesis games, and marking all the games that are shmups so if you give me another week or so, I will have a complete list of every shmup on genesis and which ones I think are worth playing.

Grind stormer seems to have a lot of potential, as does thunderforce 4. most of the others that i've tried though have been pretty crusty as far as gameplay experience, but i'll post a full list in a week or two

ok so i'm a little slow, but here is a list of all the shmups i've found on genesis & whether they are hori or vert. there might be a few missing. not sure

arrow flash - hori
battle mania - hori
battle mania 2 - hori
battle squadron - hori
biohazard battle - hori
bioship paladin - hori
empire of steel - hori
fire shark - hori
forgotten worlds - hori
gaires - hori
grind stormer - vert
gynoug - hori
hellfire - hori
insector x - hori
phelios - vert
raiden trad - vert
sagaiai (darius 2) - hori
sol deace - hori
steel empire - hori
task force harrier - vert
thunder force 2 - free roaming/not continuously scrolling
thunder force 4 - hori
trouble shooter - hori
truxton - vert
twin cobra - vert
vapor trail - vert
whip rush - hori
wings of wor - hori

[moozooh]

fire shark - hori

Not really.

[mainpatr1]

He's probably thinking of Fire Mustang, not Fire Shark.

[indstr]

must have written that down wrong. i was slamming through a lot of games real quick

[beam]

Aero Blaster - hori
Atomic Robo-Kid - hori
Crossfire/Super Airwolf - vert
Curse - hori
Daisenpuu/Twin Hawk - vert
Dangerous Seed - vert
Darwin 4081 - vert
Divine Sealing - vert
Elemental Master - vert
Eliminate Down - hori
Fire Mustang - hori
Gadget Twins - hori
Gleylancer - hori
Heavy Unit - hori
Magic Girl - vert
Master of Weapon - vert
Mega SWIV - vert
Musha Aleste - vert
Slap Fight - vert
Space Invaders 91 - vert
Space Turtle Battleship/Keo-Buk-Son översatt - vert
Super Fantasy Zone - hori
Twinkle Tale - vert
Undead Line - vert
Verytex - vert
Viewpoint - isometric
XDR - hori
Xenon 2 - vert
Zero Wing - hori

borderliner :
Granada

Shmups Extravaganza!

[Blue Peace]

Dude you made my day now I have both Alien Soldier and Gunstar Heroes on my psp!
Thank for the news!

[iatneH]

Maybe this is the wrong thread for this, but rather than create a new thread in the Hardware forum, I will ask here.

Can anyone say for certain what the output capabilities of the slim PSP are?

I know the first cable to be released is the component cable, and this outputs only 480p and will work with photos, movies, and games.

I thought that was the only output option until I saw a composite cable for sale and just discovered that a S-video cable is also available from Japan, but this can only be used for photos and movies? So is there basically no (easy) way to play games on a SDTV?

[Etrian]

As far as I know, the older PSP can be displayed on a tv with the use of custom firmware and a program. The Slim PSP has a commercial method of playing PSP games on a HDTV, with 480p and with component cables.

[iatneH]

As far as I know, the older PSP can be displayed on a tv with the use of custom firmware and a program.

I can find no such information. All I have encountered is modifying some settings file to include the TV-out icon in the PSP menu, but the icon does nothing when selected. The PSP-1000 lacks the additional output port which the PSP-2000 uses for TV-out. Does this TV-out on the old model PSP of which you speak use the USB for output or something?

[Etrian]

As far as I know, the older PSP can be displayed on a tv with the use of custom firmware and a program.

I can find no such information. All I have encountered is modifying some settings file to include the TV-out icon in the PSP menu, but the icon does nothing when selected. The PSP-1000 lacks the additional output port which the PSP-2000 uses for TV-out. Does this TV-out on the old model PSP of which you speak use the USB for output or something?

If you use RemoteJoy with the older PSP it will work with USB, but not for televisions. If you have a slim PSP, you can buy a PSP tv-out cable.