ParaJVE : Parabellum's Java Vectrex Emulator   

Official Home of ParaJVE ... A travel through the programming of a freeware Vectrex emulator in java!

Friday, December 01, 2006  

Eek Help Spike !

Right, it's been nearly a whole month without any WIP update, so I thought I'd give you some fresh news... Yep, ParaJVE is still in active development!

Well, active may not be the appropriate word at the moment, as other things strongly diverted me from coding as much as I'd like, but still, some work has been done ; here is a short list :

  • Fixed a regression introduced in 0.3.2, where the command line argument "-GAME=xxx" was not handled correctly anymore (the game's cartridge ROM would not be loaded).
    Thanks to Damian for reporting this bug!

  • Added an option to remember the user choice when it comes to resetting the emulator after reloading/rebuilding the rom. End of the annoying yes/no dialog poping around again and again! :)

  • Implemented VIA6522 SR Mode 101 (Shift Out Under T2 control). It was not handled yet, as I thought this ACR mode was never set ... until I saw it used in the Test Cartridge (rev.4), in the "Adjust DAC offset" part.

  • Finally implemented what I'd call "Direct DAC Sound output", ie. the MC1408-P8 writing directly to the sound output line through the MUX (when PB1 and PB2 are high).

    By constantly writing to the sound line, a program can actually generate a waveform using the CPU alone (without the help of the PSG hardware). This is what makes the game "Spike" speak ... Here's the result within ParaJVE : Eek help Spike ... Oh no, Molly!

  • I've also had fun -- go figure ;) -- while starting to emulate several hardware peripherals. More about that later, when I'm sure it will make it to the final release...

  • In the background, I've started to test several Java Docking Libraries, as I will need one for a related side project (A developer's oriented version of ParaJVE, name-coded "ParaJVD" at the moment). So far, it looks like VLDocking by VLSolutions is going to get my vote.

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