[Cinossu]

Very much looking forward to this. I'd thought this had disappeared for good, but it's wonderful to see an upcoming release. The potential and possibilities of this are limitless in essence, especially with the decision to make it open-source. Congratulations on getting it this far on to the point of an actual release.

[ICEknight]

Awesome, this is going to be big.

Nemesis, on 09 April 2013 - 12:41 AM, said:

Sonic & Knuckles actually isn't emulated correctly believe it or not. Nothing emulates the cart mapping hardware to properly handle lock-on support. Roms we have like "Sonic 3 & Knuckles" are really ROM hacks to make those games work in emulators. A lot of these extra hardware bits and pieces actually aren't going to be supported in Exodus on release either, there'll be an ongoing effort to support them over time.

Not sure if you've been following the latest developments in MESS, but besides allowing to directly load ROMs as usual, it can also make use of a simple, actively updated, XML-based game list that allows certain games to use as many slots as the original cartridge had, adding extra "Insert ROM" options where needed.

This also allows to load real (split) chip dumps, by the way. Any plans for supporting this?

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 09 April 2013 - 04:14 AM

[Nemesis]

ICEknight, on 09 April 2013 - 04:13 AM, said:

Not sure if you've been following the latest developments in MESS, but besides allowing to directly load ROMs as usual, it can also make use of a simple, actively updated, XML-based game list that allows certain games to use as many slots as the original cartridge had, adding extra "Insert ROM" options where needed.

Nope, haven't been following it at all. That sounds like a step in the right direction. It's still going to be limited though, in the sense that it's actually game-specific what having an extra cartridge connected actually means. For example, the Pro Action Replay can accept a cartridge on top too, but that doesn't mean that it uses it in even a similar way to what Sonic and Knuckles does. Where they'll have to specifically add support for each kind of cartridge like that within the MESS emulator itself, with Exodus, the cartridges themselves have a module that can extend the system in any way they want.

Quote

This also allows to load real (split) chip dumps, by the way. Any plans for supporting this?

Yes, it's quite high on my to-do list. This will be almost trivial to add, and I know exactly how I'm going to support it, but it's not essential for the first release, so it isn't in there as of yet. It will follow very soon though, since it's obviously essential for many systems that currently use split rom formats such as arcade systems.

[Infiniti]

Well your timing is scary as I was playing with the initial release (2007) the other week. (I found it on an old cd backup). It's interesting to hear that it may support more then just the Megadrive, in time. I'd be interested in seeing the Saturn and Dreamcast emulated too.

Shadow Hog, on 08 April 2013 - 11:59 PM, said:

Ones that come to mind are Virtua Racing (because SVP equals D:, to my understanding) or games with larger than 4MB ROM (wasn't Super Street Fighter 2 guilty of this?)

We did have some early results with Virtual Racing, back in 2007....Nothing 3D, but it booted....right Nem?

[MathUser]

Real hardware has been shown to be able to run the Ultimate Mortal Kombat Trilogy hack, which is 10 MB or over. Either a custom cart or the latest version of Everdrive work with it. So hopefully this emulator will support it. There are other Mortal Kombat hacks that go over the standard Genesis ROM size. Mortal Kombat II Unlimited, Mortal Kombat Revelations, Ultimate Mortal Kombat [SMD]. There's also Pier Solar MD.

[redhotsonic]

The way this is going, this might be my new standard emulator to use! I look forward to it. What I might do is compare my hack on this emulator to the real hardware (RH). Using my hack, there a fair few differences between Kega and RH, and only one or two between Regen and RH.

If I find 0 between Exodus and RH, you will receive a huge triple chocolate cookie.

[King]

Awesome, I've been waiting for this for a long time. But, I've got to ask... there's going to be Game Genie and Pro Action Replay cheat code support right? Perhaps I'll make the request of Exodus supporting Kega .pat files or the importing/conversion of .pat cheat files so I don't have to manually convert the countless files over to another emulator again. In terms of other requests mentioned, I'd have to say Sega CD/LD and 32X before any other systems because honestly they'd be more useful... and they're more closely tied in with the Genesis than Saturn and the Dreamcast.

Nemesis, on 09 April 2013 - 12:41 AM, said:

Sonic & Knuckles actually isn't emulated correctly believe it or not. Nothing emulates the cart mapping hardware to properly handle lock-on support. Roms we have like "Sonic 3 & Knuckles" are really ROM hacks to make those games work in emulators. A lot of these extra hardware bits and pieces actually aren't going to be supported in Exodus on release either, there'll be an ongoing effort to support them over time.

As far as I know, Genesis Plus GX supports lock-on of cartridges (S&K, S&K + S2 Upmem ROM, Game Genie, Pro Action Replay, etc.). It even supports the cheat code searching features of the Pro Action Replay 2 ROM.

This post has been edited by King: 09 April 2013 - 09:42 AM

[ICEknight]

King, on 09 April 2013 - 09:25 AM, said:

Nemesis, on 09 April 2013 - 12:41 AM, said:

Sonic & Knuckles actually isn't emulated correctly believe it or not. Nothing emulates the cart mapping hardware to properly handle lock-on support. Roms we have like "Sonic 3 & Knuckles" are really ROM hacks to make those games work in emulators. A lot of these extra hardware bits and pieces actually aren't going to be supported in Exodus on release either, there'll be an ongoing effort to support them over time.

As far as I know, Genesis Plus GX supports lock-on of cartridges (S&K, S&K + S2 Upmem ROM, Game Genie, Pro Action Replay, etc.). It even supports the cheat code searching features of the Pro Action Replay 2 ROM.

The "bad" thing about the way GPGX implements those is that they're very specific selections in a "Lock-On" option, and it accesses specifically named ROMs placed inside the emulator's folder, so you can't change between versions on the fly or have S&K connected to a Game Genie, for example.

The way MESS does it when using a GUI like QMC2 is, you first select any kind of Lock-on cartridge and then another tab (or two in case of the Sufami Turbo) appears where you can select the game to insert, which is more flexible.

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 09 April 2013 - 11:03 AM

[Overlord]

Suddenly from out of nowhere, Nemesis. Good to see you again - and that Exodus is still going, to boot! I remember that post linked earlier in this thread on CulT - great to see you're at a point you can make a public release of this thing. =)

[Aesculapius Piranha]

All these years later and you still post the most amazing shit. Good to know you got the magic flowing still.

[Kiddo Cabbusses]

Sounds good!

Have you perhaps tried getting Sega Pico software on this? Quite a few of the games break the current emulators, so it's probably a good check for getting things "cycle accurate" on an emulator that doesn't strain modern CPUs.

As someone who follows BSNES and works to improve the state of Super Famicom/Satellaview emulation I'm curious to see how this will turn out. I hope it lives up to the hype this thread is generating.

[Cooljerk]

So am I to understand that this'll be to the Genesis what BSNES is to the SNES?

If so: FUCK. YES.

[Techokami]

Man, I have been waiting for this since, well... 2006!
Very excited to see it nearing completion :D

[Meat Miracle]

So basically, this will be Mame/Mess done right, on the (very) long run? That sounds awesome, since the only time MAME did not suck was when Aaron was handling it.

Also, the cores will still be fully commented for hardware documentation, right? That's something that will make an interesting read.

Nemesis, on 09 April 2013 - 12:41 AM, said:

There's a lot going on in that system, that's for sure. It does become a bit easier when you don't have to worry about the timing issues though. It's a big challenge, but I'm keen to give it a go sooner or later. It's definitely one of the most poorly emulated mainstream systems, it would be great to see it become one of the most accurately emulated ones.

Still offering testing if/when you decide to crack that thing! I now have 16 Saturns (I think), all with different motherboards. Shit, I really need to publish the info I have on that thing, but I first need to build a system for it, and the more modular I want that to be, the longer it takes to finish it.

[jbr]

Just wanted to chip in to say that I am also eagerly anticipating this, it sounds fantastic - great work! I do have a couple of questions: first, I see there is a nice-looking 68k disassembly view - how much is there in the way of debugging? I have found that a decent debugger seems to be lacking amongst Megadrive emulators. Second, any plans for Linux support? If not, I suspect I will have a go at porting it myself once the source it released