view CHANGELOG @ 1442:59e1dbb795a7

Update README in anticipation of 0.5.1 release
author Michael Pavone <pavone@retrodev.com>
date Fri, 25 Aug 2017 20:12:21 -0700
parents 92fdc2566b5e
children 1cc287ddb699
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0.5.0
-----
*New Features*

 - SMS emulation in the form of the Gensis/MD's backwards compatibility mode
 - Added support for SMS controllers
 - Support for the mapper used by Realtec games
 - Support for carts with fixed value registers
 - Support for enough of the XBAND cartridge hardware to allow the menu to boot
 - Basic XBAND keyboard emulation
 - Configurable display overscan
 - Fullscreen mode can now be toggled at runtime
 - Window can now be resized at runtime
 - Support for "semantic" controller button names in the gamepad mapping using SDL2's game controller API
 - Analog axes can now be mapped to emulated gamepad buttons or UI actions
 - System soft reset
 - Keyboard can now be captured when a Saturn or XBAND keyboard is connected to the emulated system
 - Internal screenshots that bypass all output filtering/overscan
 - Homebrew using the "SSF2 Mapper" is now supported via header detection like on the Mega Everdrive
 - Directory used for SRAM, EEPROM and savestates is now configurable
 - Path configuration values can now contain both BlastEm-specific and environment variable references
 - Open GL based rendering can be disabled in favor of the SDL2 render API fallback
 
 *Bugfixes*
 
 - Fixed a bug that would cause a crash in certain games that have SRAM and ROM at the same address
 - Fixed some issues with Z80 interrupts that caused issues with sound/music in Sonic 2 and Puyo Puyo 2
 - Z80 debugger no longer crashes when resuming execution
 - Undocumented Z80 instruction "out (c), 0" now decodes properly
 - GDB remote debugging should now work with more recent versions of GDB
 - GDB remote debugging should now work on more recent versions of Windows
 - Overlapping instructions in self-modifying code no longer causes incorrect behavior
 - Z80 instructions "in c" and "out c" now work correclty on 32-bit builds
 - Specifying an output audio frequency higher than the FM frequency no longer deadlocks the emulator
 - Fixed memory map generation for games with 3MB ROM and SRAM at the 3MB mark 
 
 *Accuracy/Completeness Improvements*
 - YM2612 SSG-EG and CSM modes are now implemented
 - VDP Mode 4 is now implemented in both Genesis and SMS mode
 - Basic emulation of refresh delays has been added
 - 68K interrupt latency has been made more accurate
 - CRAM contention artifacts (aka CRAM dots) are now emulated
 - DIVU/DIVS and MULU/MULS are now cycle accurate
 - MOVEM now performs the extra ignored read and has correct timing
 - The timing of serveral other 68K instructions has been fixed
 - Implemented 68K trace mode
 - SBCD flag calculation now matches hardware in 100% of cases
 - 68K -> VDP DMA now properly has a delay at DMA start rather than at the end of the transfer
 - A number of illegal effective address mode/operation combinations now properly decode as illegal instructions
 - Added emulation of the slow rise time of an IO pin that was changed to an input when it was previously outputting 0
 - Partial support for the VDP test register
 - Partial support for the 128KB VRAM mode bit
 - Improved accuracy of low level sprite rendering details
 - Fixed handling of active/passive display transitions so that border extension tricks work
 - Fixed handling of horizontal interrupts in extended display areas
 - More accurate correspondance between horizontal counter and raster beam
 - Partial emulation of serial IO registers
 
 *Other Changes*
 - Added Japanese version of Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers to ROM DB
 - Added the following EEPROM games to ROM DB:
       Ninja Burai Densetsu
       Rockman Mega World
 - Added ROM DB entries for the following games with incorrect region headers: 
       Another World (E)
       Alien Soldier (J)
       Light Crusader (J)
       Castle of Illusion - Fushigi no Oshiro Daibouken (J)
       Atomic Robo-Kid (J)
 - Added ROM DB entries for the following games which are incompatible with 6-button controllers:
       King of Monsters
       Combat Cars
       Second Samurai
       Dungeons & Dragons - Warriors of the Eternal Sun
 - Added ROM DB entries for the following games with fixed value registers:
       Ya Se Chuan Sho
       16 Zhang Ma Jiang
       Elf Wor
       Huan Le Tao Qi Shu: Smart Mouse
       Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Fighting Edition
       Super Bubble Bobble MD
       Thunderbolt II
 - Added ROM DB entries for the following games that have bad/missing SRAM headers:
       Hardball III
       Might and Magic - Gates to Another World
       Might and Magic III - Isles of Terra

0.4.1
-----
*New Features*

 - Basic support for the Saturn Keyboard adapter peripheral
 - You can now navigate up to a drive selection on Windows
 - Added support for binding more "special" keys
 
*Bugfixes*

 - It's now possible to navigate to the root directory on Unix-like systems
 - Fixed a bug in movep.l
 - Fixed a crash bug in the memory management code
 - Fixed a bug in the header parsing code, that caused a crash when the "International Name" field was empty
 - Fixed some minor graphical corruption in Sonic 2 split-screen caused by a bug in vflip combined with interlace mode
 - Corrected the PC value pushed onto the stack for line A emulator and line F emulator traps
 - Fixed a bug in ensure_dir_exists that would cause it to fail to create directories in some cases when mixed path separators were used
 - Fixed a bug that would result in a buffer overflow when starting a game with a long title from the menu
 
*Accuracy/Completeness Improvements*

 - All Z80 instructions are now implemented
 - Z80 Half-carry flag is now fully implemented
 - Implemented undocumented Z80 flag bits
 - R register is now incremented appropriately
 - Redundant opcode prefixes are now handled properly
 - Z80 core now passes ZEXALL!

*Other Changes*

 - Added Buck Rogers to the ROM DB
 - Added Wonder Boy in Monster World to the ROM DB (for real this time)
 - Added Evander 'Real Deal' Holyfield's Boxing to the ROM DB
 - Slightly better handling of directory read errors
 - Added "Special Thanks" to About menu
 - Use local app data folder for saves and config files on Windows rather than Unix-style locations

0.4.0
-----
*New Features*


 - Genesis ROM based Graphical User Interface - command line is no longer required for basic functionality
 - Added support for the Mega/Sega Mouse
 - Configurable low pass filter
 - 68000 overclock and underclock
 - Scanlines can now be controlled via the config file and defaults to off (previously was always on)
 - VSync can now be specified via the config file and defaults to off (previously just used the OS/driver default)
 - Fullscreen mode can now be specified via the config file in addition to the command line flag
 - New 68K debugger command 'co' allows a list of commands to be run each time a breakpoint is hit
 - 68K debugger now supports the 'di' command like the Z80 debugger
 - New debugger command 'yt' displays YM-2612 timer info
 - Added support for controller hotplug (game controllers don't need to be plugged in before starting BlastEm)
 - IO devices can now be automatically configured by ROM DB entries

*Bugfixes*

 - Fixed calculation of window start column - removes graphical glitches in Afterburner 2, Fireshark, Dungeons and Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun and probably others
 - Fixed the implementation of LDD and LDDR
 - Fixed ABCD/SBCD - eliminates the score counter problem in Bubsy
 - Fixed btst when used with immediate destination - Fixes a crash in NHL 95
 - Fixed YM-2612 attack phase and sustain level
 - Fixed mapping of YM-2612 key on/off bits to operators
 - Fixed YM-2612 LFO AMS shift values
 - Fixed YM-2612 LFO phase modulation
 - Fixed mapping of registers to operators in Channel 3 special mode (for real this time)
 - Fixed a small bug in YM-2612 timer reloads
 - Fixed peripheral ID for 3-button pad
 - Accesses by the 68K to the low 4MB of the address space, but outside of the defined ROM will no longer cause a crash
 - Config files and shaders saved with Windows-style line endings will no longer fail to load
 - Fixed a crash bug on Windows by properly detecting invalid destination modes for immediate variant opcodes

*Accuracy/Completeness Improvements*

 - All 68000 instructions are now implemented
 - Implemented 68000 privilege, address error and illegal instruction exceptions
 - Z80 half carry flag is now implemented for the trivial cases
 - Fixed timing of the Z80 IM and certain LD variants
 - Implemented interrupt latency - Fixes Sesame Street: Counting Cafe
 - Interrupts are know acknowleged based on what the VDP thinks its asserting rather than what the 68K actually is acking - Fixes Fatal Rewind
 - Improved timing of 68000 interrupt processing
 - Improved timing of Z80 busack response - Fixes a crash in Barkley: Shut Up and Jam
 - Adjusted the amount of time the 68000 is blocked during DMA - gets rid of remaining part of "YOUR EMULATOR SUX" text in overdrive
 - Corrected order individual words of a longword are written when the predecrement addressing mode is used as the destination of a move instruction
 - Adjusted relationship between Horizontal counter and render events to better match tests/measurements
 - Adjusted vertical interrupt timing to better match measurements
 - Improved timing of 68K/Z80 interactions based on tests

*Other Changes*

 - Z80 disassembler now supports a start offset parameter: -s
 - Windows build now uses link time optimization like the others
 - Optimized the VDP code
 - Improved audio resampling
 - Added Mega Man - The Wily Wars to ROM database
 - Added Wonder Boy in Monster World to ROM database

0.3.1
-----
*New Features*

 - BlastEm will now open a new terminal window when starting the debugger if it's not attached to one
 - Errors are displayed in a message box if no terminal is attached
 - Pure SDL render path for when OpenGL 2 is unavailable (thanks Higor Eurípedes)
 
*Bugfixes*

 - GDB remote debugging works again
 - Fixed a name conflict that prevented vgmplay from being built on OS X
 
*Other Changes*

 - Windows build now includes the disassemblers, VGM player and save state viewer

0.3.0
-----
*New Features*

 - 32-bit x86 CPUs are now supported
 - BlastEm is now available for OS X and Windows
 - Finished support for the Sega mapper used by Super Street Fighter 2
 - Added support for EEPROM saves
 - Added support for large flat-mapped ROMs (used by some homebrew ROMS)
 - New 68K debugger command bt (backtrace)
 - I/O devices (gamepads and other peripherals) can now be configured in blastem.cfg
 - VDP Debugger views from before 0.1.0 have been restored
 
*Bugfixes*

 - Partial emulation of floating bus bits for certain I/O regs (fixes Super Offroad 2)
 - Fixed shadow/highlight mode
 - Implemented AM and fixed LFO update speed
 - Fixed negative detune values
 - Corrected register to operator mapping for channel 3 special mode
 - Initial stab at emulating cycles being stolen from the 68K when the Z80 accesses its bus
 - Better handling of creating a savestate in "uncooperative" games/demos
 - Implemented VSCROLL latching
 - Fixed a bug that would corrupt the Z80's SP register in some situations
 - Fixed PAL flag in VDP status register
 - Fixed HV counter
 - Fixed flag calculation for RRA, RRCA, RLA and RLCA
 - Fixed instruction timing for RR, RRC, RL and RLC when using the IX or IY registers
 - Fixed access to the I and R registers

*Other Changes*

 - Upgraded to SDL2
 - Dropped suport for the non-OpenGL render path
 - Linux builds should now work on something other than the specific version of Ubuntu I happen to be using at build time
 - BlastEm now syncs at least once per line by default. You can change this behavior with the max_clocks config value

0.2.0
-----
*New Features*

- Added Turbo and Slow modes that overclock and underclock the system respectively
- Added FPS counter
- New OpenGL render backend that allows filters to be written in GLSL
- Support 'UI' bindings on gamepad buttons and dpads
- GDB remote debugging support
- New debugger 68K debugger commands o, s and zp (see README for details)

*Bugfixes*

- Fixed argument handling so that the ROM filename does not need to be specified first
- Don't allow register writes to Mode 5 only regs when in Mode 4
- Fixed a bunch of VDP edge case behavior checked by Nemesis's test ROM
- Fixed operator 1 self-feedback
- Fixed handling of envelope overflow in attack phase
- Fixed handling of channel output overflow
- Adjusted FM and PSG volume to better match real hardware
- Improved YM-2612 busy flag emulation
- Properly sync hardware at end of frame when the 68K is blocked by DMA
- Approximate wait state behavior when the Z80 accesses the 68K's bus
- Implemented HV counter latch
- Implemented sprite overflow and collision flags

0.1.0
-----
Initial Release