New cores suggestion

These are the cores i’d like to suggest:

  • higan bgba (most accurate GBA emu out there?)
  • MESS GBA, N64, other MESSy Systems
  • Virtual Jaguar
  • openMSX
  • Neko Project 2 (NEC PC-9801) (various forks exist of this)

Maybe this thread could be made sticky to collect more user suggestions…

Easier said than done. Motivation is the main issue here. If you want something done really bad, look in the mirror - that is most likely the guy that is going to do it.

  • higan bgba (most accurate GBA emu out there?)

I highly doubt that BTW. Certainly not in terms of compatibility. Correct me if I’m wrong - even if it were, it’s useless for my aims if it’s even slower than VBA (and that is already bad enough as is - very bad in fact).

What we need is an emulator way faster than VBA (because we need it BADLY on Android) and more compatible/accurate than gpSP. It’s a shame that gpSP was abandoned so prematurely just out of spite for certain PSP sceners - I actually think active development on gpSP by the main coder would be of more importance today than it was back then - especially if it would be multiplatform like a libretro port would be.

Unfortunately, as things stand, there are some big roadblocks (having looked at the gpsp code myself thinking of doing a port - in particular looking at notaz’ fork) -

1 - No way to do a non-dynarec version right now - it seems to insist on ‘translate’ macro blocks being there so I take it the interpreter still relies on some recompiler parts unless I’m simply not understanding it right or Notaz did some changes in his fork.

2 - Heavy reliance on SDL - and since I don’t really feel like baking in SDL (I did it once for Cave Story and honestly - I don’t trust the implementation of SDL on every one of the systems we support to be fast - not to mention that I think the SDL API makes for some pretty terrible implementation code in general), it would require a substantial rewrite.

3 - The dynarecs (even in the cases where we would be able to use them, like x86/MIPS/ARM) are 32bit only. This means that a 32bit x86 gpsp libretro library could only be played on a 32bit RetroArch frontend. Doesn’t really jive with the multiplatform portability we are trying to go for. That most of my development platforms are x86_64 as well doesn’t really help with doing the port in the first place.

bGBA is the only cycle-accurate GBA emu, which is a side effect of the libco paradigm, but it has way lower compatibility than VBA and has sound errors on a lot of games. It’s an example of how cycle-accuracy doesn’t really imply any sort of completeness.

I don’t think there would be much point in porting another multi-system emulator (or parts of it) that doesn’t strike a particularly good balance between performance and compatibility. RetroArch and MESS are like chalk and cheese in that respect.

Yeah, but when I look in the mirror all I see is a guy who can’t code. I am a Unix guy but I don’t know the first thing about developing C, C++, and such. If I went on a mission to port the ColecoVision system from blueMSX to libretro (probably very simple for an accomplished developer), expect a release date of somewhere around the 5th of Never :o

You are right about that, i just don’t feel very competent for this task atm, but i may give it a try in the future…

I’ve tried a few games on the latest release and compatibility didn’t look that bad to me (even VBA has sound errors in a few games).

Why not? Mednafen is a multi-system emulator just like MESS. Also MESS currently is lacking rewind, custom shaders and many other things libretro have to offer. I think a MESS port would make much sense since many systems are at a good usability state.

I think one difference here could be that mednafen emulates several systems better than any other emulator. Even in the case of mednafen, we didn’t get a full mednafen core, we just got some individual cores for specific systems. Are there any systems that MESS emulates better than other emulators?

It’s a shame that no$gba isn’t open source. It would be an awesome substitute for vba. It has great compatibility, is very small and is really fast. Probably the fastest gba emulator out there. Shame. :confused:

@Omegasis Martin writes all of the No$ emulators in x86 assembly, which makes them impossible to port to other platforms, even if they were open source. They are pretty amazing, though.

I think one difference here could be that mednafen emulates several systems better than any other emulator. Even in the case of mednafen, we didn’t get a full mednafen core, we just got some individual cores for specific systems. Are there any systems that MESS emulates better than other emulators?[/quote]

Some of the drivers are certainly on par with the alternatives, and in some cases play stuff other’s can’t (e.g. the Apple II GS driver). There is a port based on an old version (0.102 I think) for the GP2X, featuring drivers of half a dozen systems or so. Apparently it runs ok with some frameskip and optimizations. I’d certainly be curious how a port of an older version like that would perform on the current-low end systems of retroarch like the Xbox1. That being said, I don’t think it make much sense to suggest new cores (meaning work) here yet, as long as there are some where some basic work has already been done, but it’s unclear when (or if) they will be included. I hope that something can be done with the recent Hatari appearance, and maybe that Mame 078 will make it into the next major release.

What about FreeDo is it technically feasible - the 3DO emulator? I am not asking for it to be implemented right away I am just curious about it.

I would personally like to see cores for Vice and UAE :slight_smile:

In the immediate future Tyrquake is going to be in.

Hatari I’m interested in yes - and I see that 7rtype has been making some good progress there.

ScummVM and MAME 0.78 ports should be ‘working’ and should only need porting to the console libretro targets (and Android).

Right now I’m also preoccupied with the Blackberry RetroArch port.

Thanks for the update Square :slight_smile:

Another candidate to add: TwoMbit

I suggest to open a pool to see what users are more interested in…

There is already a thread like this in the ‘Implementations’ section - and that is a more fitting place for it anyway as that is where prospective developers come to when they announce a new libretro port.

you mean this?

Let’s move/merge the thread then, i think it’s better to have all the requests in one place…