Latest Version
This version of the emulator runs about 3.5 times too slowly on an ARM 710 40MHz processor,
and at the correct speed on a StrongARM. The emulator won't run properly on any pre-Risc PC machine, I'm afraid (but it would be too
slow anyway, so this doesn't matter, and colour mapping would need to be sorted out which
would slow it down even more).
The underlying emulator itself does provide some sound emulation, and a version of this
is implemented in this release. Please note that it is not finished,
and it sounds pretty awful! You can pick out the main melody over the whittering noise
usually, however.
Download the current (beta) release version of the emulator - 84680 bytes (this is a Sparkive format file)
Current Version
The current version is 0.71. This is officially a 'beta' release but is merely so labelled
to indicate it is not yet complete. There are no known bugs other than those listed below.
History
Major version history follows. Some beta-test releases are omitted, but
incorporated into major version change details.
- New to version 0.71
- Fixed bug which meant that if you double-clicked a game before first
running !Sega the sound didn't work
- New to version 0.70
- Full desktop SRAM support added
- Warning before trying to play files with unknown filetypes or an unknown
or absent file extension
- New to version 0.60
- Implemented key redefinition, with a nice desktop front-end. Mouse-buttons
can also be used
- Double-clicking a game without !Sega loaded now allows game to be paused
correctly (bug fix)
- Sound system settings are now restored when returning to desktop (not just
when 'killing' game)
- Master System full-screen mode now works, but I've doubled the vertical
size because I had it wrong before - which was why it didn't work previously
- Now flushes keyboard buffer on return to desktop
- New to version 0.50
- Different sound support, using logarithms and other nice stuff that
generate rounding errors in C (so it's not quite right, even though I
use a look-up table to try and make it more accurate). It's hard to tell
how well it works without a StrongARM (since sounds will be cut off
completely differently if the emulator were to run faster). Thanks to
Dave Walker at Acorn for finding out the frequency conversion information.
- New to version 0.40
- Sound support, albeit incorrect and with no noise
- Full MS joypad 2 support
- New to version 0.30
- Full-screen operation
- Pause game and return to desktop
- Integrated emulator/front-end
- Minor front-end redesign
- New to version 0.20
- Redesigned front-end with configuration windows (inactive, however!)
- Verion 0.10
- Initial release
Known problems with the current version
- Sound is not perfect yet - the sound-chip emulation is only partial (understatement!)
- Dragging non-cartridge files to the emulator leaves you at a blank screen
(press 'f12' and then 'Return' to reset the desktop back to normal)
- If the emulator can't change mode due to the mode it wants not being
defined you might get a funny flash before the desktop continues (this is
because it actually has to run through the emulator loop once to get back
to the point where it returns to the desktop). I can fix this by doing the
mode check before continuing, rather than from the core emulator code
itself.
- Sometimes when you load a new game you get an error and the emulator
crashes. I think this is a symptom of 'kill emulator' not being automatic
yet.
- If a game supports saves then they will be written out as the cartridge name
with '/sav' appended to the end. This may overwrite the original game if the filing
system chops the end off the name!
32-bit Acorn Gaming is sponsored by
Gareth Moore
Last updated 7/9/97