ParaJVE : Parabellum's Java Vectrex Emulator

One more defect added !

2011-03-09T21:47:00.003+01:00

A new feature has just been added to ParaJVE : the emulation of the famous Vectrex buzz noise.The happy few having the chance to own a real system will know what I'm talking about. This buzz noise is a very typical sound pattern produced by the machine when it is operating. It is caused by a design flaw (the sound line lies too close from the board, and gets plagued by interferences due to its

Release 0.7.0 available

2010-12-29T23:50:00.008+01:00

As promised earlier, the latest release is now officialy available for download for the 3 supported platforms : Linux, MacOS-X, as well as Windows (XP, Vista or 7), be it 32 or 64 bits.Please note that the download site URL has changed, and is now http://www.vectrex.fr/ParaJVE.I hope you'll like the new features, and that you'll find the emulation gets a bit closer to the real thing since the old

2010 is nearly over

2010-12-28T14:21:00.008+01:00

Yup, 2011 is rearing its ugly head...Therefore, I hereby promise that the 0.7.0 version will be released by the end of 2010 -- no matter how and when I will manage to do this! :o)It got stuck for too long on my hard disk now, it's time to share. Of course, the user-guide, various documentations as well as some minor other stuff won't be completed as I wanted them to be ; but in the end, I guess

0.7.0 still not released? WTF !!!

2010-09-27T21:19:00.009+02:00

All right, it's been 8 months since the last post has been published, and still no release showing up... So what's up, you might wonder?Right, I haven't worked that much on the emulator these last months. Some kind of coding break. I even forgot about it at some point, to be honest ;-)Only lately did I come back again to ParaJVE development, so the release is now back on tracks.Bank-switching,

Beta 4 : some more coating...

2010-01-29T12:46:00.017+01:00

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

WIP : version 0.7.0 beta testing advancement

2009-12-15T12:21:00.015+01:00

First, please note that the application for beta testing is closed from now on, as there is a complete enough panel of users testing the beta at this time. Thanks a lot for the quality of the feedback received so far, it has been of invaluable help for getting things right on most systems.Since the start of the beta cycle, many things have changed in the graphics settings, and several old bugs

Beta-testing has started...

2009-10-22T11:22:00.006+02:00

A quick post to let you know that the beta version has been uploaded, and is now available for users that applied for beta-testing (download site).If you want to help with the testing, it's never too late : send me an email with your name & surname at vectrex@orange.fr, and I'll provide you with a beta key ASAP.

Beta-testers needed...

2009-10-16T13:50:00.007+02:00

As said earlier, the next release is nearly there ; but for once I would need some beta-testers in order to help me to tweak the new display settings.The new version comes with a so called "glow shader", whose purpose is to display a glow halo around the vectors. This shader is optional (because not all 3D cards support OpenGL 2.0 or more), and it is highly user-customisable.When modifying these

All coding done!

2009-10-16T12:44:00.010+02:00

This is it, the programming part for the next version is now completed...I still have to build and test the emulator both on Linux and Mac OS X. The documentations also need to be updated. And more importantly, the new display settings still need to be tweaked a bit (more on that in the next post).Following is a comparison of some screens taken on the old and the new versions. Hopefully, you'll

Funny Bug

2009-09-22T13:17:00.009+02:00

Just a quick post to show some odd ParaJVE rendering I've got last evening, due to combined bugs...I was coding a kind of generator for the emulator, so that its GLSL shaders get automatically generated/compiled whenever some significant parameter is dynamically changed (such as the window size, or the filter kernel size and/or values).The generated shaders obviously had a bug in the coordinates

WIP : Game Saves

2009-07-21T12:26:00.009+02:00

Also included in the next release will be save game support. With this feature, you will be able to save your current gaming session in a file, and load it back in the emulator whenever you want.Following are the notes dealing with this enhancement (issue #21 on ParaJVE's tracker).Emulator State PersistenceParaJVE can now save and reload its full state (including the vectors work buffer) in small

WIP : Overlays & Rendering

2009-07-16T13:49:00.036+02:00

With the arrival of the summer, I felt like it was time to provide you with some Work-In-Progress information, so here it is... First, let's start with a couple of snapshots, taken from the current development version :Well, as you have probably already noticed from the pictures above, I've been quite busy lately with improvements regarding the Overlays and the vectors rendering. This comprehends

Linux release uploaded

2008-11-06T11:24:00.008+01:00

ParaJVE 0.6.0 Linux packaging has been uploaded.I must say that I'm not that happy with the Linux version as it seems to be the OS where ParaJVE has the most problems (on my system at least). I've tested it with a standard Ubuntu 8.04.1 (freshly installed), and the problems I've noticed so far are :Chopped sound output. I had to turn sound emulation off.Major graphical problems when using the

Mac OS X release uploaded

2008-11-04T23:02:00.004+01:00

I have just built, tested, and uploaded the Mac OS X build for ParaJVE 0.6.0.It was the very first time I had the opportunity to test it on a Mac platform, and I've just noticed a small problem right out of the box : the emulator loose the keyboard focus whenever you use its menu. So, after using the menu, you'll have to click once in the emulation window to give back the focus (otherwise ParaJVE

Release 0.6.0 is available

2008-11-01T22:44:00.013+01:00

The announced release is finally ready, and can be downloaded on the official download site - try to clear your browser's cache if you cannot see this latest version... ;)Please note that I hadn't had the time to build the Linux, nor Mac OS X packages yet ; only the Windows package is available at the time being. I'll make my best to upload the builds for the missing platforms in the next few

Light at the end of the tunnel...

2008-10-18T00:53:00.022+02:00

Some new devices emulation made their way into the current version :The Lightpen (applicable in both gameports), as well as the VecVoice (only available for the second gameport).VecVoiceThe VecVoice emulation code has been ready for more than a year ; I simply did not want to include it before because I did not like its sound output.The problem does not lie within the code, but it's rather

Hey, is it 2008 already ???

2008-03-13T15:35:00.007+01:00

Ok, it's been almost one year since the last release. Although it's been a busy year for me (all for the good), it was rather quiet on ParaJVE's side.Whatever ... So what has been done ?I've added several parameters to the command line, so that ParaJVE can be more easily tweaked when invoked through a thrid-party front end, for instance. There are new parameters to specify a path to an external

Version 0.5.0 is out!

2007-04-13T03:53:00.000+02:00

As promised, the latest release is now available for download. Since its content and changes have already been described in the previous posts, I won't bother writing some release notes here...Just grab the build of your choice, and have fun with your preferred gamepad! :o)If you're a Linux or MacOS-X user, please feel free to report any problem, it will help me to make better builds for these

See you next week...

2007-04-07T15:21:00.000+02:00

Just a quick post to let you know that the coding for the next version (0.5.0) is now completed ; all that's left to do is update the docs and build the windows/linux/MacOSX packages.As I'm off for a few days I cannot do that right now, however the release will be uploaded and made public somewhere near the end of next week... Stay tuned!

Joysticks & Gamepads calibration

2007-03-28T19:56:00.000+02:00

The panel dealing with the controller tests and calibration settings is now nearly completed, so here is a brief description... This dialog is made of 3 main parts :The Tests component (the joystick picture at the top).It lets you check your settings in real-time. Pressing a button on your physical controller will highlight the associated button in the picture. Also, the joystick axis marker will

W.I.P.

2007-03-19T19:12:00.000+01:00

All right, it's been nearly two months without any update to this development log, so it's time to keep you informed...I've worked on three major axes in the last few months : the startup code, the Mac-OS X packaging, and the integration of the controllers physically connected to the computer.Startup CodeI've had several reports of people experiencing an emulator freezing upon startup. Although I

Error in the Linux packaging

2007-01-23T00:21:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note to inform you that there's an error in the Linux packaging, that prevents ParaJVE from working (it terminates silently as soon as you click "Run Game"). Thanks to Jörg for reporting this bug!If this happens to you, all you have to do to fix the error is to edit the launch script (called "ParaJVE") and add the following string as the first argument on the command line :-

Version 0.4.0 released

2007-01-11T19:24:00.000+01:00

I've just finished uploading the latest release, so you can now jump to the download site, and grab your version! :)Most of the additions were already listed in the previous posts, so let's just review them quickly...First come the major changes and additions:Updated the JOGL library embedded within ParaJVE, in order to make the emulator work with the latest 1.5 java runtime (update 10).Alex of

Broken with Java 5.0 update 10

2007-01-04T16:33:00.000+01:00

Right, the holidays are now over, and it's time get back to vectrex emulation coding (a task I completely put on hold during the past 3 weeks - hence no progress).Well, 2007 starts with a bug report from Samuel - thanks for the report, dude! :)The emulator window would not open once the game has been chose and the selector dialog has been validated by clicking the "Run Game" button. For the

Eek Help Spike !

2006-12-01T11:42:00.000+01:00

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

Version 0.3.2

2006-11-08T13:57:00.000+01:00

As promised, here is the latest version.It includes all the stuff described in the previous post, as well as a slight change made to the dots removal heuristic (you can learn more about this in this old post).Now that nearly every remaining dot is likely to be demanded by the programmer, their size has been increased a bit, so that they get more in evidence. This is rather useful in games like

Ah ah !!! I lied again...

2006-11-06T15:59:00.000+01:00

... when I said there would not be any update before long : I'm about to release a new minor version soon, that will include two new features :Vectrex analog joystick support (through mouse mapping). HyperChase will be playable at last, as well as PatriotsIII in analog mode, for instance... :)Screenshot of the left analog joystick working in the Test Cartridge.Automatic building of ROM binaries

Version 0.3.1 - Sound fix release

2006-10-24T18:26:00.000+02:00

Although the sound emulation is still broken on Linux, the annoying sound bug that emitted High-Frequency garbage on the channels in some games has just been corrected, thus a new minor release has been built.John Dondzila allowed me to include his games in the packaging, so I've added a whole bunch of new excellent entries to the list of available roms.This version also comes with two additional

Version 0.3.0 released

2006-10-18T14:37:00.000+02:00

Finally, the third public release of ParaJVE is now available for download.This release comes with additional homebrew game roms, and now embeds an HTML documentation for each game ; but it does not include any new (brighter) overlay yet, since I did not have the time to work on that.Anyway, as said previously, the big feature of this version is the sound emulation. Although I've just noticed a

Dolby Surround Pro Logic ... -not-

2006-10-11T14:36:00.000+02:00

Better late than never, ParaJVE now comes with a proper sound emulation!Since I finally managed to get rid of the off-putting bug in the PSG code, the sound now seems to work quite accurately in the emulator. If there are any residual bugs they're not that obvious to spot (at least, nothing that can be heard easily).Sound routines debugging proves to be especially tedious (IMO), and as I rapidly

Here and there

2006-09-27T10:36:00.000+02:00

What have I been up to recently, concerning ParaJVE?Well, lots of small things have been done, that may not necessarily shows right now, but that will come in handy in the future. Most notably:Fixed a couple of bugs in the emulator's memory mapping : Before, if the emulated program accessed an area of memory that does not exist on the real Vectrex, the emulator's VM would terminate execution -

Version 0.2.0 released

2006-09-10T19:33:00.000+02:00

It was about time! :)The new release is ready for download here.The good news is that the packaging embeds the roms and overlays, so no extra download is needed to install the emulator. It should be also easier to install since no manual edition of the launch scripts is needed anymore (well, in most situations).I also added a few goodies that were not planned initially : a screenshot

Nearly there...

2006-09-05T15:12:00.000+02:00

Well, it has been quite hard for me to find some time to work on ParaJVE these days, but the next release is almost ready in the end.The loading and saving of the configuration in an XML file is done. This new file includes the games definitions (roms and overlay file paths, display settings, ...), as well as the emulator key bindings.The GUI has also been partly rewritten (the debug controls of

Back to work

2006-08-24T12:13:00.000+02:00

oh joy! ;)Nothing changed much during these last weeks. The only fact of interest is that I finally installed Ubuntu (English / French homepages) in order to ensure that ParaJVE runs correctly under a linux system. After a few tests, the emulator seems to behave as expected with this OS, so far so good...With the experimental overlays system working down the line, it would be a good idea to

On holiday

2006-07-30T13:56:00.000+02:00

So no WIP posts, nor email replies until 23th of august.Till then, have fun! :)

Shades of gray...

2006-07-25T23:42:00.001+02:00

And how annoying they are... I needed to get rid of this B&W screen, it had become a question of sanity :)So I decided to go for a break with the AY-3-8192 (sound) emulation, and get back to the graphics code for a while.After playing a bit with OpenGL (switching to the JSR-231 version of JOGL in the process) and overlay pictures, some basic overlay implementation brought colors to the screen. Of

Now also available for Linux, MacOS X and Solaris

2006-07-21T12:27:00.000+02:00

Well, hopefully, that is... :)Here are the native libraries for these platforms ; with that you should be able to run the emulator on these targets too. As I have none of these systems available for testing, I can't check that it works properly. If you have a chance to try it, please tell me if it's ok or not.To install the native libraries, download the right archive, unzip it directly into the

Huh... No Name yet ???

2006-07-20T12:01:00.000+02:00

Doh, it looks like I totally forgot to choose a name for the emulator before it being released!As I'm completely out of inspiration -- who would blame me with 36°C around ;) -- I thought something like ParaJVE (for Parabellum's Java Vectrex Emulator) would do the trick.Or maybe JaVectrex would sounds better?Whatever, I need help! I you've got any fun/nice ideas, please email me or post a comment

First public release

2006-07-19T16:17:00.000+02:00

As I wanted to gather different feedback from potential users, I've decided to build and release a quick and dirty packaging for the emulator. Hopefully, everybody having a very minimal java knowledge should be able to run it without too much hassle! :) You can download the emulator here : ParaJVE 0.1.0.060718All that it needs to work properly is an installed Java Runtime Environment 5.0 (yes, a

Talking about history...

2006-07-18T00:30:00.000+02:00

Here is a short description of the emulator's developement history so far :16/07/2006Fixed the never ending loop bug in Spike at $0721. It turned out to be a bug in the 6522 emulation code :the bit 7 of PortB was not always controlled by the CIA Timer1 when the Timer was running in "One shot mode" (as specified in the ACR register). The only game that doesn't work as expected now is clean-sweep :

Vectrex Emulation - Let the trip begin...

2006-07-17T16:49:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, as I was trying to gather memories to write an history file for my current programming project (ParaJVE, a Vectrex emulator), I thought it would have been much more convenient to handle all this with a blog.So, here it is!