Hello...

[Wanax]

Hi, my name is Wanax (C64 coder) I'd like to porting some my project from C64 to Megadrive/Genesis console.
I like to much this console and the next step for me is to jump from 8bit to 16bit, I am currently working on conversion of Rocky Memphis & The Temple Of Ophuxoff for C64. http://rockyc64.altervista.org/blog/

There are many emulators ... one for development?

CU,
Wanax

[greatkreator]

Hello & Welcome!
Exodus is the most precise currently.
Kega Fusion and Gens were the most popular and precise before Exodus appearance.

Don't you like to use a real hardware for your development?

[dub]

Nice games on C64

You can use Gens kmod http://gendev.spritesmind.net/page-gensK.html with debug mode, vram ...
I prefer to use MESS (Multi Emulator Super System) part of mame. You can debug line by line and it's very useful.

I begin to learn assembler on Megadrive too and I debug a lot

[Wanax]

Thanks guys...
Rocky Memphis is a nice game, but the original version (PC) had a few colors I want improve the graphics
I have already purchased the Megadrive on Ebay...for transfer the code on console I need other hardware?

[greatkreator]

You need a flashcart to run your creatures on a real console.
I prefer krikzz's EverDrive.
He has flashcarts for (almost) all the popular video consoles.
I guess they are one of the best.

[dub]

Everdrive is the best choice.

Everdrive with usb. With usb you can transfer the code from the PC directly. Without you need to plug and unplug the sd card everytime, really annoying.
Unplug SD card from MD, plug on PC, copy rom , unplug from PC and plug SD on MegaDrive. If you test only one time a day, usb not necessary but if you test the usb, you can't live without.

[greatkreator]

dub is right.
you need EverDrive with USB. I cannot even imagine how would I test anything hundred times per day (if not more) If I would use just SD card.
it would be hell.
by they way I just noticed that Krikzz has discounts for all his devices just right now.

[Wanax]

I saw the product and I like, surely I will buy EverDrive with USB...for test my games on C64, plug and unplug the sd card everytime
For the assembler I think to use http://www.compilers.de/vasm.html
I have found many info in this forum...thanks!

[Natsumi]

as far as emulators are concerned, my suggestion is to use Exodus if your PC is powerful enough, and if not, then Regen. Never test with Fusion or Gens as they are horribly inaccurate. Flashcart however, even if not 100% accurate is easily the best place to test on. As far as assemblers, I suggest using ASM68K, because (personally) I find it the easiest to work with and has a ton of features. VASM is also a good alternative, though if lacks a little on the features department. SNASM68K is also a choice you can do, but its a little outdated and lacks on features alike to VASM, but generally has more than it.

[Wanax]

Now I understood what I need to start,I already did some tests and everything works as I thought
I have some ideas in mind, in this forum there are graphics artists/musicians?
This is my last work not finished at the moment, I think of convert this for Mega drive...

Thanks for the valuable advice.

[KanedaFr]

... Never test with Fusion or Gens as they are horribly inaccurate. ....

I'd just like to add that, while they're perhaps not "hardware-perfect", these emulators works great on almost any machine, not only with the last intel xxxCore.
So yes, it's a choice between accurate and usable but for basic tests, it's enought

GensKmod is known to slow down but it's because i update a lot of things on the background for easier "debugging"
Again, it's enought for a not so basic test and watch what's happening on VRAM for example.
+ support for 32X and MCD, which is the only emu i know to do it (for now)

Now, yes, Exodus is like a soft debug test bench , perhaps the best one for debugging but i think using the others could be useful too

it's not a tribute to KMod, it's just to give the full info to a newcomer so you know several tools with several useful features currently exist

[RetroGames]

... Never test with Fusion or Gens as they are horribly inaccurate. ....

I'd just like to add that, while they're perhaps not "hardware-perfect", these emulators works great on almost any machine, not only with the last intel xxxCore.
So yes, it's a choice between accurate and usable but for basic tests, it's enought

Kaneda makes a good point. I don't have access to a system that can handle Exodus, so I use any emulator or debugger I can get my hands on. That means I rely on Fusion, GensKmod, MAME/MESS, and others. I can't speak to how accurate any of these programs are, but they work well enough for me so far. I sure am glad to have them, and I'm grateful that their respective developers chose to offer their time and energy to make these contributions to the community.

[mikejmoffitt]

Those emulators aren't good for testing for hardware quirks, or even CPU timings, but for testing your game logic they are absolutely fine. If you test periodically on hardware or more accurate emulators, then it's okay to drop down to the simpler ones for testing parts of the game too.

[r57shell]

For the assembler I think to use http://www.compilers.de/vasm.html

Seems like good choice

Exodus is the most precise currently.

Nope. For example it glitching even for joypad. I really doubt in accuracy. Hard to tell, because u need to test it hardly. I wasn't able to do it on my side. You know, if author claiming that it is most accurate, it does not mean that it really is.
It has powerfull (in terms of cpu usage) debug features, even though I doubt that you need ALL of them. For me, I don't need most of that features.

Myself, I'm doing in following way:
1) making my game work under Gens r57shell mod.
2) making sure that it works under Retroarch. (it using core of genplus-gx which is most accurate in my opinion at this moment. In my opinion Exodus sux, sorry guys).
3) test on real hardware, because suddenly it's best way to check, does it work on hardware or not .

Also, look here viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2193

[Stef]

Exodus definitely goes much further that any other emulator on low level emulation and it's really have almost perfect emulation when it comes to VDP emulation but i have to admit that for me it still has 2 important issues :
- being too slow for my laptop :p (close to full speed depending the game)
- that low level emulation can bring some weird bugs you usually don't observe in other "classic emulator" : for instance with Z80 emulation and interaction with 68000, i wanted to debug my XGM driver with Exodus but it behaved really weirdly and in some ways worst then on others emulators.

Still it has very handy and powerful debug features and i use it a lot for that