blueMSX live 0.2.0

Prophet (2200)

27-01-2019, 23:35

Hey all, I've done some usability fixes recently (configurable window size, fullscreen, and audio buffer configuration) as well as some other minor fixes.

I wanted to ask you all what you consider is required for a minimum viable emulator nowadays? E.g. features that is required by any emulator. Appreciate your feedback and thoughts. Like to cover the core emulator features before bumping version to 1.0.

Link to emulator: live.bluemsx.com

By hit9918

Prophet (2932)

28-01-2019, 03:01

does it still have the same palette as years ago?
then copy the palette from openmsx phillips 8020.
openmsx did get a method to calculate a msx palette from two parameters.
and the 8020 config looks like the bluemsx palette. but it is more perfect.
I dont mean the palette parameters are a must-have feature, I mean just cut n paste the palette.

By santiontanon

Paragon (1832)

28-01-2019, 05:06

Hmm, not sure about "core" features, but the ability to control the emulator from a script and also the ability to see debugging data (memory, CPU registers, etc.) are the features that I most use of OpenMSX and RetroVirtualMachine, which are the two emulators I use the most.

Also, for some reason live.bluemsx.com does not work on my computer (I use Safari, maybe it's just not supported ). I see a vertical column of buttons (power, disk drives, etc.) and when I click on the cartridge and click "insert", nothing happens.

By santiontanon

Paragon (1832)

28-01-2019, 05:07

Btw, very excited to see development on blueMSX!!! I love OpenMSX, but having two options (hopefully feeding from each other) is very cool! So, thanks a lot for working on this!

By saccopharynx

Master (175)

28-01-2019, 05:51

Hey, this is great!!! I have nothing against any of these great emulators. It's fantastic to have two options. I think that BlueMSX is 'still' (at least) a minimum viable emulator (I use it still very much because I love the debugger). To make it more suitable and compatible with nowadays technologies, I think that you should consider emulating, at some point, MegaFlashROM and Carnivore2 interfaces, as well as fixing the issues with BEER. Just to mention the few ones that come to my mind right now!!!

All the best!!!!

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

28-01-2019, 06:15

@santiontanon: You're right. Currently it only supports Firefox and Chrome browsers. Would be nice to make it work on Safari and Edge (and possibly IE) browsers as well (not too much work I think, but need to find an alternative to video and audio rendering).
@hit9918: It would (I think be quite easy to change the palette, I'll take a look.
@saccopharynx: This is actually a new emulator for web browsers ported from blueMSX (so kindof like webmsx but with the blueMSX accuracy). MegaFlashROM is already supported (perhaps not for your use case), but I'll take a look at HD support. I know at the time I added BEER support I didn't have a ton of test cases, so not too surprised that there may be some bugs. In the web version I haven't added HD support yet, but should be quite straight forward as well.

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

29-01-2019, 08:40

@ hit9918 I used the TMS colors from openMSX and it turned out great. I also fixed a quite embarrassing regression bug on MSX1 sprites (been mostly focused on MSX2 lately and totally missed that sprites were corrupt on MSX1) I pushed the new version (0.2.2)

By santiontanon

Paragon (1832)

29-01-2019, 09:48

I tried with Chrome and indeed it works

But I am having one issue: if I try to load a Konami cartridge on MSX1 everything works fine, but if I try to load one of my own games (e.g. XSpelunker, this ROM: https://github.com/santiontanon/xspelunker/releases/tag/1.4.3), it does not seem to recognize the cartridge and jumps to BASIC. I through it could be because it's not recognizing the ROM type, so, I tried different ROM types, but none of them worked. Is there maybe a table of known ROMs and only those are recognized maybe? the ROM works fine with OpenMSX, WebMSX and with real hardware

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

29-01-2019, 10:39

I think I know what the problem is. My guess is that if it doesn't find a valid rom type it doesn't load the rom. I kindof added it early on before I added support to changing rom types. I'll fix it as soon as possible.

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

29-01-2019, 10:47

Actually it does work (I must have removed that check some time ago). But it doesn't auto detect the rom type (like openMSX, bluemsx, webmsx, fmsx and other emulators do). If you first load the rom and then select rom type "Mirrored" it should play the game. I'll add support for auto detection soon to make it easier.

By santiontanon

Paragon (1832)

29-01-2019, 19:04

awesome! it indeed works!!!! I tried a bunch of ROM types, but didn't try "mirrored", my bad!

Would you like us to give you feedback/find issues in this thread? or would you rather finish the tasks you have on your to-do list before we start giving you feedback?

Again thanks a lot, very nice see these updates!