Author Topic: GeNspire  (Read 10048 times)

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Offline Dapianokid

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GeNspire
« on: April 14, 2013, 02:47:25 pm »
I have recently begun a port of the Gens II Genesis emulator to the Nspire, to be run natively as though it were another emulator (e.g. gpSP-Nspire, gbc4Nspire, NESpire, calcemu, MinivMac) to play your favorite (Sonic The Hedgehog) games on your Nspire. :) I will begin with a minimal Genesis, then move on to include the Mega Drive and CD. I'll include many features in the future, but for now I'm sticking to minimalist code.

Discussion environment initiated. Questions, suggestions, help, or ideas are invited. When I get a promising result, I'll post it in this topic header. :)

Unfortunately, recent developments require me to focus a significantly larger amount of my energy and time towards the piano and my academic studies, probably tripling of the amount of time I spend on work, and making it impossible for me to learn the C to do this properly.

I have gone through the source of what I posted down there, and the common directory would be 100% Nspire compatible! :D So, if anybody with free time and a little bit of C experience wants to actually just write a main loop and a GUI with the source already there, they could finish this project. I really got no work done, except for a test which had some promising yet undesired results.
« Last Edit: April 22, 2013, 06:27:37 pm by Dapianokid »
Keep trying.

Offline pimathbrainiac

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2013, 02:53:56 pm »
Out of curiosity, will this be a true emulator, or a simulator?

(for clarity: an emu emulates hardware, while a simulator simulates software)
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Offline Dapianokid

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2013, 02:55:45 pm »
Well, a simulator would require a LOT more maintenance because of the vast differences between many games. This will not emulate sound, but the rest of the hardware will be emulated. The CD will require a BIOS, so yeah. A simulator may be a better choice, though...
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Offline TIfanx1999

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2013, 02:56:27 pm »
Just fyi, Mega drive and Sega Genesis are the same thing. :)

Offline Dapianokid

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2013, 02:57:23 pm »
Just fyi, Mega drive and Sega Genesis are the same thing. :)
Good! Because I know more about the code than the hardware :P this is just a port, so I don't have to go learn m68k ASM.
Keep trying.

Offline pimathbrainiac

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2013, 02:59:01 pm »
Just fyi, Mega drive and Sega Genesis are the same thing. :)
Good! Because I know more about the code than the hardware :P this is just a port, so I don't have to go learn m68k ASM.

I thought nSpires were ARM?
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Offline Lionel Debroux

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2013, 03:01:17 pm »
Nspire (not "nSpire") calculators are ARM, but these consoles he's aiming at emulating are seemingly based on a 68k.
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Offline Dapianokid

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2013, 03:01:41 pm »
pimathbrainiac, indeed they are. That doesn't mean I can just emulate the screen and hope the CPU understands Genesis code.

Theoretically, a TI89 could emulate a Genesis that has been converted to greyscale. The Genesis uses the z80 for a little bit of real-time processing, but mostly when it boots. The z80 takes over and loads the ROM into memory and basically "does it's thang" for a moment, then the m68k takes control again and does most of the game itself.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2013, 03:03:29 pm by Dapianokid »
Keep trying.

Offline pimathbrainiac

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2013, 03:03:11 pm »
derp. my fault. I didn't realize that m68k was for the console itself :P
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Offline Dapianokid

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2013, 04:51:17 pm »
http://www.zophar.net/download_file/12014 <--- link to the original source I am writing a port for, very helpful.
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Offline egag101

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #10 on: May 29, 2013, 09:43:12 am »
Progress report? The Idea of genesis on my Nspire is exciting

Offline Dapianokid

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #11 on: May 31, 2013, 03:07:23 pm »
Look at the top. I only made enough progress to get it theoretically capable of running on the Nspire before life came in and took over. This project is scrapped, and I left a link with the source of what i started with. My old computer crashed and I just got this new one, I don't do those things much anymore. Anybody who wants to take it on is welcome and encouraged to.
Keep trying.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #12 on: June 01, 2013, 01:48:44 am »
This sucks that this died, but hopefully someone eventually takes over such project. I wonder what calc84maniac has been up to lately? Because he hasn't worked on anything in a long while it seems, and he would be one of the best person to take on such project (since he made the 3 Game Boy emulators)

Just one thing, though, regarding dying computers and data loss: Learn to backup! :P
« Last Edit: June 01, 2013, 01:49:22 am by DJ Omnimaga »

Offline Hayleia

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #13 on: June 01, 2013, 03:10:36 am »
This sucks that this died, but hopefully someone eventually takes over such project. I wonder what calc84maniac has been up to lately? Because he hasn't worked on anything in a long while it seems, and he would be one of the best person to take on such project (since he made the 3 Game Boy emulators)
Well maybe he bought a 84+CSE in secret and is already porting TI-Boy to it :P
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: GeNspire
« Reply #14 on: June 01, 2013, 03:13:42 am »
Yeah I know he is porting it, but in the last 2-3 months none of his projects showed signs of life. :P