readme

NES game Emulator in Linux.c and asm codes.

The SNES emulator with the extra e's...

        SSSSS   NN    NN  EEEEEE           SSSSS
       SS   SS  NNN   NN  EE              SS   SS
        SS      NNNN  NN  EE       eeee    SS       eeee
         SSS    NN NN NN  EEEEE   ee  ee    SSS    ee  ee
           SS   NN  NNNN  EE      eeeeee      SS   eeeeee
       SS   SS  NN   NNN  EE      ee      SS   SS  ee
        SSSSS   NN    NN  EEEEEE   eeee    SSSSS    eeee

                                            v0.831 (Public BETA)
                                            12 August 2004

  Please read the license (LICENSE file) before using or distributing
   SNEeSe in any way!

  This release is dedicated to the memory of the departed Scape, a young
   Korat kitty with a sense of fairness, who showed love to all, and
   malice to none, even to cats who showed aggression towards him...
   you will be missed...


NOTE:
 This release has SPC emulation, it may get some ROMs to work that would
  not with APU skipper.
 This release also has sound, but the sound may be unstable.
  Send critical bug reports (this is, report only the ROMs that crash the
  emulator) to: esaelon* *at* *users.sf.net
 Please list the ROM, ROM filename, the settings you were using in the
  emulator, when it crashed, etc. Thanks for the help!

Credits
"""""""
(note - @ symbols have been replaced with "* *at* *" to deal with
e-mail address sniffers)
New development
Core & DOS/Win32 Port Developer/Maintainer
 Charles Bilyue'    (TRAC)      esaelon* *at* *users.sf.net
Unix/Linux/BeOS Port Developer/Maintainer
 Daniel Horchner                dbjh* *at* *gmx.net
Assistant Developer (Sound system emulation)
 Brad Martin                    bmartin* *at* *umr.edu
                                http://home.gvi.net/~martin
New logo
 Siloh (formerly stainless)

Old logo
 neptron                        http://ciot.pair.com/neptron/

Allegro library                 http://alleg.sf.net/

Former SNEeSe team
Project founder
 Lee Hammerton      (Savoury SnaX)
Original logo
 Windwalker
GUI improvements, testing
 Santeri Saarimaa   (Gridle)
Assistant developer
 Charles Bilyue'    (TRAC)
Sound system emulation
 Lee Hammerton      (Savoury Snax)
 Brad Martin
 archeide

 Shawn Hargreaves & Co. - Allegro library!


- Thanks, Greets, and News moved to end of file


Also try:
 FakeNES, a CVS open-source portable NES emulator in POSIX C with builds
  available for DOS, Win32-DirectX and Linux, by Siloh, RobotBebop,
  TRAC, and Lord_Nightmare.     http://fakenes.sf.net/


System Requirements
"""""""""""""""""""
Here is a rough guide to the things you need to run this emulator:

 - A 486 or better CPU.  Preferably better, as SNES emulation is
    computationally intensive, involving at least two CPUs, a
    complex audio DSP and complex video hardware.

 - Roughly 4-8 MB of memory free, dependant on ROM size.

 - Some SNES ROM images to try out. I will NOT give images due to ethics
    and copyright laws. Don't waste our time asking.

-- DOS --
 - A PC running MS-DOS or Win9x (95/98/ME).

 - VGA-compatible graphics card capable of mode 13h for the following
    8-bit display modes:
     320x200
     320x240 Mode-X - 256x239
 - SVGA graphics card (either with native VESA 2 support, or with a driver
    providing VESA 2 support, such as UniVBE or Scitech Display Doctor)
    for the following display modes:
     8-bit using linear framebuffer
      320x240
     16-bit using linear framebuffer
      320x200        - 320x240
      640x480
   Note that the 16-bit modes are slower and there is currently no
    advantage to using them!

 - A reasonable monitor (if you want to use the 256x239 or Mode-X modes!).

 - A sound card from the following list for sound output (compatible cards
    may work):
    Ensoniq Soundscape;
    ESS AudioDrive;
    Sound Blaster (SB1.0, SB1.5, SB2.0, SB Pro, SB Pro 2.0, SB16);
    Windows Sound System.


-- Win32 --
 - A PC running 32-bit Windows (Win9X/ME/NT/2K/XP, etc.), with
    DirectX 5 or above.
 - A video adapter with DirectX-compatible drivers.
 - A sound output device with DirectX-compatible drivers, for sound output.


-- Linux/Unix --
 - A PC running X (windowing system), with Allegro 4.0 or above.
 - A video adapter compatible with X; improved performance may be achieved
    by having DGA(2) support and the necessary privileges to access it.
 - A sound output device compatible with OSS, ESD, or ALSA, for sound
    output.


-- BeOS --
 - A PC running BeOS R5 PE, with Allegro 4.1 or above. Other versions of BeOS
    might also work.
 - A video adapter supported by BeOS.
 - A sound output device supported by BeOS.


The config file
"""""""""""""""
 A config file is used so SNEeSe remembers what state it was in when the
user quit. It can be edited with a text editor for those interested, but
most options can be changed inside the GUI, with less hassle...

 If you want to change the standard .SRM extension for Save RAM files
(perhaps to prevent corruption of saved files, in case of bugs) simply
edit the SNEeSe.CFG file with a text editor and change the line:

saveextension=SRM

to

saveextension=RAM

to use the .RAM extension, for example.

 If you want to use a fixed save directory for your Save RAM files instead
of the same directory of the ROM (to keep all your ROM directories from
getting cluttered, and to be able to use Save RAM with ROMs on read-only
media such as CD-ROM), edit the SNEeSe.CFG file and add the line:

savedirectory=D:\SRAMDIR\

replacing 'D:\SRAMDIR\' with the save directory you wish to use.
The directory specified MUST exist - if not, it will not be created,
and SRAM loads and saves will simply fail without warning.
(note: the trailing slash is not required and may be omitted)

The GUI
"""""""
 The GUI can be opened by pressing ESC during emulation. From here you
can RESUME emulation, RESET the emulation, LOAD a new SNES ROM into
the emulator, setup some CONFIGURATION options (see below), get various
infos about the loaded ROM and current emulated hardware state, and EXIT
the emulator. Pressing ESC while in the GUI closes the current window,
if the last window is closed, emulation resumes. To move the bar use the
cursor UP/DOWN controls, to choose an option press ENTER (either one
will do).

In the file loading window:
 PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN allow you to travel through the listing a window
  at a time;
 HOME will go to the top of the list;
 and END to the bottom of the files/directories (first press),
 then to the bottom of the drives (second press).

There is no exclusion by extension, and no jump-to-pressed-letter in
the file loader yet, and LFNs are truncated... sorry, but will fix
all of these soon!


 The CONFIGURATION menu allows you to change some features of the
emulation as follows:

  ???x???x???              - The first option in the list will
                             show the current emulation resolution.
                             When you press ENTER a window will open
                             allowing you to choose a new resolution.
                             If the resolution cannot be set, it will
                             revert to standard 320x200x256 mode.

  Configure Controllers    - Brings up the CONTROLLER CONFIGURATION menu.

  Configure Sound          - Brings up the SOUND CONFIGURATION menu.

  Min Frameskip: ?         - You can modify the amount of frames to
  Max Frameskip: ?           skip by pressing left or right arrow.
                             Default is 4 for maxframeskip (show at least
                             every 4th frame), 0 for minframeskip.

   Max Frameskip sets the maximum number of frames that will be skipped
    before a frame is drawn.
   Min Frameskip sets the number of frames that will always be skipped before
    a frame is drawn. a min skip of 0 tells SNEeSe to wait for at least one
    timer tick (50/60Hz) to have passed before emulating a frame (to slow
    down machines that are running too fast)
   Min Frameskip will never be above Max Frameskip. In the config file,
    'maxframeskip' has precedence over 'minframeskip'.
   Setting Min Frameskip and Max Frameskip to the same number effectively
    disables all speed-throttling.

  Emulate SPC              - Toggle SPC emulation/skipper. SPC emulation
  Skip SPC                   must be enabled with below option for sound.

  FPS counter: on or off   - Toggles the on-screen FPS counter in the
                             top-right corner of the screen (note:
                             this counter is sometimes difficult
                             or impossible to see).


 The CONTROLLER CONFIGURATION menu allows you to change some features of
the controller emulation as follows:

  Joypad on player 1       - This option toggles emulation of joypad
  Joypad on player 2       - or mouse for the respective controller
                             port.

  Define keys for player 1 - These option lets you redefine the keys
  Define keys for player 2 - for the joypad on the respective controller
                             port.  It shows a nice picture of the SNES
                             joypad and asks the keys. You can press
                             ESC anytime to stop redefining.
                             If you have a joystick/joypad connected to
                             your computer, and it is currently
                             supported by Allegro and SNEeSe under
                             your platform, you can press directions or
                             buttons on the controller to map to it
                             instead of the keyboard.

                             Key mappings are shown as a name for the
                             key.  Joystick mappings are a bit more
                             complicated, few examples follow.

                             'J1S1A2-' would eb the negative direction
                             of axis 2 on joystick 1, stick 1; typically,
                             the vertical axis of the main stick.

                             'J2B4' would be button 4 on joystick 2.


 The SOUND CONFIGURATION menu allows you to change some features of
the sound emulation as follows:

  Sound Enabled            - Enable/disable sound output when
                             emulating the SPC.  Also used to select
                             mono or stereo emulation.

  Sample Size              - Select sample size of samples output by
                             audio emulation (8- or 16-bit).

  Echo/FIR filter          - Toggles emulation of the SNES audio echo
                             and its corresponding FIR filter.

  Gaussian filter          - Toggles emulation of the 4-point pitch-
                             regulated gaussian interpolation of
                             sample data.

  ENVX reading             - Toggles reporting of current ADSR/GAIN
                             volume envelope heights to sound CPU,
                             in case some ROM has a problem with it.


Readme or don't bother e-mailing me
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
When you attempt to use a ROM you should take note of any information
displayed on the screen. For instance, if a ROM just bombs back to DOS,
and all the information displayed looked like rubbish, the ROM image
format may not be supported by the emulator (split ROMs, certain
interleaved ROMs, certain memory maps), the ROM may be corrupted,
or the ROM may have hit a bug in the emulator.

To start the emulation, type SNEESE and then the file name of the ROM to
load, or with no filename to go straight into GUI (you can load a ROM from
the GUI, but it's painful!)

SNEESE thisrom.smc

You may also try any combination of the following switches:
Memory map:
 -fl  Force LoROM memory map
 -fh  Force HiROM memory map