Emulicious major update released - now with MSX emulation

Emulicious is an emulator that is well-known in the SEGA 8-bit scene.
Emulicious is a free to use multi-system emulator for Windows, Linux, Mac OS(X) and any other operating system supporting Java SE.
A major update of Emulicious has been released. With this update, MSX emulation has been added to Emulicious.
It supports most cartridge ROMs released for the MSX1. If a disk ROM and an alternative BIOS are provided it also supports program on floppy disks in the form of dsk images.
Emulicious consists of the following emulators:

A Nintendo Game Boy Emulator
A Nintendo Game Boy Color Emulator
A Sega Master System Emulator
A Sega Game Gear Emulator
An MSX Emulator

Features:

Automatic Updates
Adjustable Turbo
Adjustable Throttle
IPS Patching

Tools:

Debugger (including an interactive disassembler with automated code/data separation)
Profiler
Tracer
Coverage Analyzer
Memory Editor
Palette Viewer
Tile Viewer
Tilemap Viewer
Sprite Viewer
Data Plotter
RAM Search
RAM Watch
Memory Tracer

The debugger provides many features that can be useful for ROM hacking and Homebrew development. It provides customizable syntax highlighting, trace logging, breakpoints and watchpoints. It also allows to load source files to show instead of a disassembly of your ROM. A Reference Hierarchy helps in understanding a program flow, the profiler helps in identifying performance hotspots. A powerful expression syntax allows the definition of useful conditions for breakpoints/watchpoints. Breakpoints halting on accesses of uninitialized memory and inconsistent states after interrupts can help to avoid unnecessary programming mistakes.

New in this update:
This update comes with several additions and improvements. Most notably an additional system is now emulated, the MSX.
Emulicious’s debugger now also supports loading Sjasm lst files as source files. Sjasm is a Z80 assembler that is often used for MSX development but can also be used for other Z80 systems like the Mastersystem.
Furthermore, the profiler has been improved to better support the calling convention of C.

Relevant link:
Emulicous website

Comments (15)

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6480)

15-05-2020, 18:39

I think it's important to precise that only MSX1 is emulated:

" It supports most cartridge ROMs released for the MSX1. If a disk ROM and an alternative BIOS are provided it also supports program on floppy disks in the form of dsk images"

as mentioned here: https://emulicious.net/a-major-update-of-emulicious-is-avail...

By Calindro

Rookie (18)

15-05-2020, 19:38

That's true. Thanks for pointing out!
I would add a note about it to this news post but I don't seem to be able to edit it?

By hamlet

Scribe (4106)

15-05-2020, 21:21

Yes, we are a sworn bunch of aging administrators who trust nothing and no one. Not even the past. That's why editing posts is reserved for us. Nevertheless, I've corrected your mail.
Thanks for this new emulator, great stuff!

By Huey

Prophet (2694)

16-05-2020, 11:50

I really like the tools available in this emulator.
It is SO nice to be able to see the code source that wrote the VRAM.

By АIеks

Paladin (983)

16-05-2020, 11:58

Will the emulator sources be open? To change the MSX configuration for yourself.

By Manuel

Ascended (19462)

16-05-2020, 22:14

Huey, see also https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/openmsx/breakpoint-vram-a... for hints on how to do this in openMSX.

17-05-2020, 13:21

Hi Manuel,
I know how to do something like that in the openMSX debugger. I've been using it for years now
But I have also been doing some coding for the Sega Masters System in the recent years using Emulicious.

In Emulicious there is no need to pro-active set a watchpoint. I can just hover over a tile in the tile map viewer and see what part of code wrote this value without stopping the emulation.

It's hard to compare OpenMSX and Emulicious with each other. As it comes to debugging tools and usability I tend to use Emulicious more often now that it has MSX1 support.
Loading the sjasm LST file as a source is also thing I really like a lot. This way my debugger has commented code.

I think these tools are also very valuable for ROM hacking.

17-05-2020, 13:45

Before posting more on this I need to make something clear.
I have been in close contact with Calindro on adding MSX emulation.

In the last year there has been need for YM2413 (MSX-MUSIC) trackers in the Sega Master scene (SMSPower). The only trackers available are on MSX with Moonblaster being the obvious candidate.
The issue here is the emulation. People wanted to get started using emulation (openMSX) but it was difficult to set everything up. AFAIK only one person was persistent enough to get everything running and started using it (Sunny the Mermaid).

To make access to Moonblaster easier Calindro decided to add MSX support to his emulator so you could run Moonblaster using a simple setup.
But Wait! There is no MSX2 emulation you might think:
There is also SCREEN 0 support in Emulicious to be able to run Moonblaster (and TriloTracker).

I would also like to add to the initial news-post that emulation also includes:
- SCC
- MSX-MUSIC
- SN76489 (SMS PSG as found in Musical Memory Mapper on the same port)

17-05-2020, 14:11

If you don't know anything about MSX, I can imagine openMSX is a bit overwhelming... But all it really takes is getting the system ROMs and you're good to go. But then you have to choose which machine to emulate from a long list of options.

Can you detail a bit on which problems they actually ran into?

18-05-2020, 11:01

I think you described it yourself pretty well. It feels a bit overwhelming for people with little to none MSX knowlegde.

By Louthrax

Prophet (2465)

19-05-2020, 11:01

[Out of topic]
Hi Huey,
I did not know you were also coding for SMS. I might have some questions for you

19-05-2020, 11:14

Thanks a lot @hamlet for adjusting my news post accordingly.
Also I want to thank the one who made the pretty logo for this news post. I like it!
And at this point I also want to thank Huey for answering all my questions regarding the MSX!

@Louthrax feel free to also ask me your questions regarding the SMS

20-05-2020, 03:29

I have released a small update that fixes some issues the disassembler had with MSX roms. It should work much better now.

20-05-2020, 10:09

@Louthrax: You can contact me anytime.

21-05-2020, 21:00

Good to see that after MSX emulators started to emulate Sega systems, the other way around is now also happening

Emulicious major update released - now with MSX emulation

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