ParaJVE : Parabellum's Java Vectrex Emulator   

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

Friday, January 29, 2010  

Beta 4 : some more coating...

After a break of one month without any coding, the 4th beta build has just been uploaded to the Beta Download site. The registered testers can get it right now, using their private key file.

This beta comes with a new graphic feature that should push the immersion a step further : the Vectrex chassis can now be drawn around the emulated screen.

This great idea came from Heiko L., a friendly beta-tester, who already helped a lot when it came to fix the problem with 64 bits native library deployment under Linux. Not only did he had the idea, he also kindly provided me with all the graphics needed to implement it (hand-made, using the Gimp) !

Thanks a lot for your hard work on this, Heiko! :)

If you don't like this new feature, it can of course be turned off in the options: there's a dedicated settings panel that lets you zoom in/out, and specify which parts you want to see drawn (chassis, screen refraction, cartridge, joystick cables, ...).

Chassis Zoom Level
 
Screen Zoom Level

As you can see, the result is quite eye-pleasing ; it's even better when you see it live. Well, I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

There's still no official release data planned though, as I still need to integrate the darkening shader described in the previous post.
Let's hope it won't take too long! 

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23 Comments:

  • Hey, I really want to test this, can you send me a code please? dbelvede@gmail.com

    Thanks and keep up with this work!

    By Blogger Lord Alfajor, at 4/10/2010 9:53 PM  

  • Hiya! Just wondering if this was any closer to a public release? I can't wait... :)

    By Blogger Pedro Lambrini, at 4/23/2010 6:11 PM  

  • Hi Pedro,

    Closer? Yes for sure!
    ... but when? ;)

    I'm currently busy finishing an overlay for the YASI homebrew, fixing a couple of issues with bank-switching, and adding support for Richard Hutchinson's VecFlash card (so that the emulator can run the "Lineart" multi-banks demo).

    All in all, there won't be any release before end of May, at least.

    Sorry for the long wait... :)

    By Blogger Parabellum, at 4/24/2010 8:48 AM  

  • Thanks for the response. At least it's still alive! :P

    Can I ask if there has been any improvement in the sound emulation, at all (I am missing sound channels on both PC's that I use)? Or have you concentrated more on the CPU timing and GUI? Thanks for your indulgence! :)

    By Blogger Pedro Lambrini, at 4/24/2010 12:05 PM  

  • Yes don't worry, it's very well alive! :o)

    This release will be more targeted at a much better graphical experience, and also fixes several bugs to provide game timings that are now the same as the original ones.

    Regarding the sound evolution, a couple of bugs have been fixed on specific games (namely StarHawk and SolarQuest) ; and the sound rendering now runs in its own thread, so there might be improvements for dual core processors...

    But all in all, I wouldn't expect too much imrpovements on the sound side, as I haven't worked much on this part for this release.

    By the way, you can have an idea of some of the evolutions by looking at the ParaJVE & ParaJVD issues tracking site.

    By Blogger Parabellum, at 5/01/2010 9:15 PM  

  • Hi there, I am really interested in this emulator, please please please can I get a copy of the beta?, purely for my own use I can assure you, pretty please?

    By Blogger Michael Winn, at 5/03/2010 8:42 PM  

  • Thanks for replying (again!) and thanks for the link to the tracker. It's interesting to see what you've done and what you have planned.

    I'm glad Solar Quest is fixed as it's my favourite on the Vectrex. Can't wait! :)

    By Blogger Pedro Lambrini, at 5/03/2010 10:30 PM  

  • Parabellum, pray tell, can you port your emulator from Java in win32?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5/05/2010 10:54 AM  

  • Well, all in all it should be feasible, but I honestly don't have the time, nor the incentive to do so...

    Indeed, I do like programming in java much more than C/C++ ; and more importantly, this allows the emulator to run on Windows, Linux and Mac OS-X platforms.

    By Blogger Parabellum, at 5/07/2010 2:18 PM  

  • Sorry to bug you again but I've just got a new laptop with Windows 7 on it and I can't get ParaJVE to run. When I try to run it I get an error saying that "Windows cannot find Javaw" but I do have the latest Java Runtime installed. How can I fix this? Cheers, P :)

    By Blogger Pedro Lambrini, at 5/16/2010 9:34 PM  

  • Pedro,

    "Windows cannot find Javaw" is definitely a java runtime related problem.

    Please contact me by email so that we can sort that out (my email is at the end of the ParaJVE release notes document - on the download pages).

    By Blogger Parabellum, at 5/17/2010 7:04 PM  

  • I'm very excited for a public release. This looks so nice, you've done a great job

    By Blogger pukegreenuniform, at 7/06/2010 1:14 AM  

  • Great Emulator.
    It is possible to get a beta-test key
    please send to klaus@wolfsoft.de

    By Blogger Unknown, at 7/12/2010 10:56 AM  

  • Hey, I would be interested in testing the emulator on Mac OS X. Could you please send me a code. Thanks.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 7/22/2010 9:34 PM  

  • @ pukegreenuniform :
    Thanks! The release has been delayed due to heavy workload ATM, but it will come out soon...

    @ Todd :
    Sorry, but there is no beta version available for Mac OS X yet ; the beta is for Windows only.

    By Blogger Parabellum, at 7/23/2010 1:43 PM  

  • wooh ! sweet !
    working perfect and look like a real vectrex, with glow etc...
    Is it possible to have a beta key ^^ ?
    emmanuel.lelutin@gmail.com

    By Blogger emmanuel lelutin, at 7/27/2010 12:16 PM  

  • This looks extremely AWESOME
    Would love a beta key

    By Blogger Unknown, at 8/08/2010 8:23 AM  

  • Hi, is it possible to sent me a Beta key windows_95@live.ca Thanks.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/23/2010 1:11 PM  

  • I'm a huge video game enthusiast and I would love to try this emulator out. I run Windows 7 x64, and every time I load the batch file it says "Windows cannot find javaw." I run XP and linux in a virtual machine VirtualBox so maybe when I'm not feeling lazy I'll try running it through XP.

    By Anonymous Bighead, at 10/28/2010 8:46 AM  

  • @Bighead:

    The "Windows cannot find javaw" message means that windows could not find any valid java runtime (JVM)... Have you got Java installed on your PC?

    If not, you need to install a 32 bits JVM, as ParaJVE 0.6.0 does not support 64 bits JVMs.

    Version 0.7.0 will support both 32 and 64 bits, though.

    By Blogger Parabellum, at 10/28/2010 9:07 AM  

  • Yeah I have the latest version of Java installed. I know nothing of how this emulator finds the directory that java is installed to, but maybe that could be the source of the problem? By default 32-bit applications are installed to "Program Files (x86)" instead of "Program Files" in both Vista and Win7 x64. I may try to reinstall Java later into the normal folder and see how that goes, but I'll check back to see if you get this later before I do so.

    By Blogger Bighead, at 11/02/2010 10:34 PM  

  • @Bighead: you need to copy that "javaw" out of the Java folder. its under c:programs (x86)\Java\jr6\bin

    so copy that "javaw.exe" to the installation directory of your ParaJVE. then try to execute .bat file. it should work then. i did that, worked lika a charm. windows7 64bit ultimate ;-))

    i also would like to have a beta-tester key. it looks much better than the "old" 0.6 version. it comes near to a real one, which i also have ;-))

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/14/2010 11:27 PM  

  • Found this sweet program today and i am impressed :)
    Works perfect on my desktop emu-machine with Win XP but on my Win 7 x64-machine there isn't any sound. But i can live with that for now :)
    Keep up the great work, Long live Vectrex!

    By Anonymous Peter Forsthager aka MindraX, at 11/06/2011 10:41 PM  

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