This is a release of the 0.2.3 Beta version, has a requirement of the new Analogue Firmware 2.3 (2024-09-10) for all feactures to work.
No lower firmware will work with this core and functions added to it.
Ported from the core originally developed by Gregory Estrade and heavily modified by @srg320 and @greyrogue. Then this was ported over to the Pocket by Agg233 . Core icon based on TG-16 icon by spiritualized1997 and many fixes by @dshadoff. The port is based from the Mister system and the latest upstream available at https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/TurboGrafx16_MiSTer"
Please report any issues encountered to this repo. Most likely any problems are a result of my port, not the original core. Issues will be upstreamed as necessary.
There is still a lot to be done in this core as there is still a lot to do. It was always more of a display core on what the pocket can do.
PLEASE NOTE THAT CHD FILES WILL NOT BE SUPPORTED. Many times I have ben asked. But I have always said that the MPU is only a small processer with about 64K of RAM, which Im already using 90% of that for this core. CHD uses a lot of compression that would slow down the processor and will cause a lot of overhead.
Be able to swap CDROM on the menu. I have yet to deside if I need to do a reboot of the whole core, or find out the correct commands to send the core to say a new CDROM
is in the core. It is there in the menu and will be fixed soon.
(Maybe) CD-G CDROM to be enabled on this core.
A new video scalling system to help things look better on the screen. AKA Sherlock homes has a line on the top of the screen and a few other games.
New MPU Framework so this and the Amiga cores are more inline with each other for other devs to be able to use.
The LARGEST Feacture done is NO MORE JSONS!!! The MPU now requests to load CUE files from the APF Framework. Then it will autoload the bin files from the CUE listing. I have not tested WAV files yet.
Multi File games are no longer limited to just 26 files, now we can use 99 bin file tracks!!!
Timing of the CDROM data has been corrected so games like Sherlock homes videos work correctly
Many games fixes have been fixed due to a ram issue using SRAM (AGG Still needs to use SRAM in his cores thos hehe - Love ya mate)
Some Error checking is done in runtime for things like missing files, unable to read a file or over runs. These are coded with a number from 1 - 5 so making issues can be easier to find
mpu.bin has been changed to pce_mpu_bios.bin for the MPU operations.
Massive amount of work on getting the audio and data to the CORE from the MPU cpu in a reliable way.
Made the MPU get data from the APF bus without having two lots of BRAM. This currently Pauses the Instruction side of the MPU from 1 to 3 Clock cycles with duel ported BRAM modules. This process can be used with the Amiga core maybe???
Correction of the timing in the CD core so the correct Minutes, seconds and Frames are sent.
Fifo checking when sending data to the core which was causing audio skipping.
Removed the Processing delay as an interupt is now used on the MPU.
Started on the process of getting seperate BIN files to be loaded (Next release will have this done). Thus removing the 26 Track limit on Seperate BIN files.
Autoupdaters: Have removed the "bios_1_0_usa.pce" bios requirement due to there not being such a bios.
Have not tested WAV file access from the cue files yet
Some hacked BIN/CUE files do not work or boot up. I have made a info menu that comes up to advise that the core has had an issue
OSD menu for information of the SD activity and if an error on json loading happens
Audio Timer (Audio Delay) timer in the interaction for changing the timing of the CD access - mostly used for audio syncing.
Tested on both OS1.1 Beta 7 (Jan.11 2023) and OS1.1 Beta 8 (To be released) for delay in APF file access
Two timers for software interrupts. One for CD access delays and the other used for OSD updates.
Autoupdaters: Have added the extra function for adding more BIOS’s for users to be downloaded
Only Cue/BIN ISO's can be used. CHR Iso's cannot be used as the compression is too much for the MPU I have designed (74mhz and 64Kbytes of ram is not enough for this).
Auto Updaters are your friends. @mattpannella, @Monkeymad2 RetroDriven have worked on setting up the JSON's for the CUE/BIN files for you. So please send them the love needed for this. - No longer needed
The only missing part in this core is the SuperGrafx chip and the M128 memory due to chip size.
CD Debugging has the track, Minute and Second timers as well as a delay counter when a delay happens from the APF framework. This will most likely show that the APF or the SDcard is having an issue getting the data and then sending it.
There is a OSD for errors that happen, It will adivse if it is having a issue loading files and advise which file it is too.
There is a problem with reading a file and will show the eror code from the APF
If it trys to load a image that has a weird setup (Game hacks) and crashes it will advise the user there was a problem with the MPU.
I highly recommend the updater tools with JSON Generations are done by @mattpannella and @Monkeymad2. Im sure that RetroDriven will be updated soon.
Download the core by clicking Releases on the right side of this page, then
download the mazamars312.*.zip file from the latest release.
To install the core, copy the Assets, Cores, and Platform folders over to
the root of your SD card. Please note that Finder on macOS automatically
replaces folders, rather than merging them like Windows does, so you have to
manually merge the folders.
Make sure you have the HuCard bios for the CDRomII in the \Assets\pcecd\common folder
The CUE/BIN Files are also stored in the \Assets\pcecd\common folders and it is recommended to have them in their own folders
Then you need to setup the JSON files for the pocket to know which CUE/BIN files are to be used
in the assets\pcecd\Mazamars312.PC Engine CD folder there a image_template.json file. depending on how many BIN files files is how many dataslots you use and folder location.
"data_path": "image/", is the folder location in the \Assets\pcecd\common folder that you are pointing too
DataSlot 100 is always the CUE file
DataSlot 101-127 is for each BIN file. If you only have a single BIN (with MultiTracks in it) then you only put this bin file in Dataslot 101 and delete the rest of the assending slots)
If you do have any issues loading images, you can in the Analouge menu turn on the file debugging (Tools\Developer\Debug Logging) then try to load the JSON.
Once the error happens, you can then go into the SDCARD then to the folders \system\logs\Mazamars312.pcecddate_time to see what happened in the loading process. this can help to see if you have the file names incorrect.
Make sure you then turn off the debugging once fixed as it will slow down access and fill up your SDCARD with logs.
An Error code will come up advising which Data slot is causing the issue.
Core supports four players/controllers via the Analogue Dock. To enable four
player mode, turn on Use Turbo Tap setting.
Some games support a 6 button controller. For those games, enable the Use 6 Button Ctrl option in Core Settings. Please note that this option can break
games that don't support the 6 button controller, so turn it off if you're not
using it.
Like the original PC Engine controllers, this core supports multiple turbo
modes. Adjust the I and II button turbo modes, and use the X and Y
buttons (by default) as your turbo buttons. Note that the original PCE
controllers had the turbo on the I and II buttons directly, rather than
having separate buttons, but since the Pocket has more than just two, we use
them for the turbo.
The PC Engine is unique in that it can arbitrarily decide what resolution to display at. The Pocket is more limited, requiring fixed resolutions at all times. I've tried to compromise and cover the most common resolutions output by the PCE, but some are better supported than others. You should see the video centered on the screen with surrounding black bars on some resolutions, but the aspect ratios should be correct.
Extra Sprites - Allows extra sprites to be displayed on each line. Will
decrease flickering in some games
Raw RGB Color - Use the raw RGB color palette output by the HUC6260. If
disabled, will use the composite color palette
The core can be quiet in some games, so there are options to boost the master
audio (Master Audio Boost) and ADPCM channels (PCM Audio Boost) And CDROM
Channels ("CD Audio Boots").
Instead of sharing a memory card (as you would in real life), each game gets its own save file and therefore memory card. Some games don't have the ability to initialize a memory card, so each newly created save file is pre-initialized for use.
The SFX Duel VDP’s - This is a size of the FPGA causing this and a re-write of the VDP would need to be done and memory access to one of the PSRAM’s
Able to change the H and V sync locations for some games that use other screen locations
If able to, add the M128 Memory option to the core.
All source included in this project from me or the MiSTer project is licensed as GPLv2, unless otherwise noted. The original source for FPGAPCE, the project this core is based off of, is public domain. The contents of the public domain tweet are reproduced here:
Indeed. The main reason why I haven't provided a license is that I didn't know how to deal with the different licenses attached to parts of the cores. Anyway, consider my own source code as public domain, i.e do what you want with it, for any use you want. (1/2)
If stated otherwise in the comments at the beginning of a given source file, the license attached prevails. That applies to my FPGAPCE project (https://github.com/Torlus/FPGAPCE).