Regen 0.97 and 0.97D

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AamirM
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Regen 0.97 and 0.97D

Post by AamirM » Sun Oct 18, 2009 1:57 pm

aamirm.hacking-cult.org wrote:Finally, after many months, Regen 0.97 and 0.97D have finally been released. Regen 0.97 is the normal fast build while Regen 0.97D has the debuggers enabled (thus its slow). This release is a HUGE update on the previous 0.96 release. It includes lots of changes and new stuff (way too much stuff to mention here). So see the included “History.txt” in the download package to see all the new stuff and changes. And speaking of download packages, I’ve built two different normal builds. One has some video stuff optimized using SSE2 and other is not. So if you are using a processor newer than the Pentium 4 (except AthlonXP) you should download SSE2 one as it is much faster than the non-SSE2 build. The non-SSE2 optimized will run on anything. Also, if someone wants, I can make 64-bit builds of Regen as well. Just post a request at the forums or mail me.
Go to here for downloads.

Shadow
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Post by Shadow » Sun Oct 18, 2009 3:29 pm

Hi AamirM

After some testing i found new and old bugs
No matter, i really happy now sound work like on real thing, and Kega Fusion have no one chance to win!
Ha i downloaded and for SSE2 but no launch at all strange, maybe it only for SSE2 Processor's
currently my processor have all instruction set: SSE1 SSE2 SSE3

Phantasy Star 4 Sram still not work just show banks with 20 and 8
Lawnmotherman still have clicks in sound
Alternate timing work strangly! FPS jump 58-60 and sound with small distortions
Game Gear screen very wide! with Correct aspect 4:3, this is fresh bug!

I already noticed: PSG changed intonation, i can't remember how work on my last real thing?

I want 64 bit version Regen which work with AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+

Rank for Regen 0.97 emulator: 98%

The ultimate victory!

You work perfectly :D

But i continue to testing, maybe found some more bugs

Thanks

Rhapsody
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Re: Regen 0.97 and 0.97D

Post by Rhapsody » Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:13 pm

AamirM wrote:I can make 64-bit builds of Regen as well. Just post a request at the forums or mail me.
64-bit is always nice since I'm intent on making this a completely 64-bit system, but what I'm really looking for is a new build of Regen/GTK+. The old 0.95 build still works, but I'd like to be able to use my gamepad with Regen.

Shadow
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Post by Shadow » Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:33 pm

Hi AamirM

No no!

This is right thing:

boost PSG noise, work correctly just sometimes volumes high, but it no problem! I read new history file, this features must be enabled for people which need real thing emulation! and besides we all play games on TV set's with real console's right? and on PC it must be like on TV!

I already tested games:

Sonic 1/2/3
Sonic & Knuckles
Sonic 3D Blast
Golden Axe 2
Golden Axe 3
Ariel
Aladdin
Ballz 3D
Streets of Rage 1/2/3
Mortal Kombat 1/2/3/Ultimate
Gunstar Heroes
Thunder Force 3/4
High Seas Havoc
Ristar - The Shooting Star
BloodShot
Zero Tolerance
Escape from mars starring Taz
Simpsons the Barts Nightmares
Ooze
Comix Zone
Primal Rage
Socket/Time Dominator
Soleil/Crusade of centy
Sunset Riders
Taz Mania
Teenage Mutants Ninja Turtles
Warsong
Eswat
Gargoyles
Eternal Champions
Awesome Possum
Toy Story
And others

Now it work more close to real thing "THAN EVER"
I remember my first sega megadrive 2 with green box
this is "model 1" have very high Noise's and PSG, i was testing in past
my first three games: Jungle Book, Mortal Kombat 3 and Flintstones

Now this emulator very close to "model 1" and sometimes volumes high at 4%!

And "Game Gear" sound now work perfectly (this is first emulator which do this correctly! no one Kega Fusion's can't do this)

My dreams come true! :D

People! use Regen 0.97, it now very cool emu!
Last edited by Shadow on Sun Oct 18, 2009 7:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Shadow
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Post by Shadow » Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:40 pm

Hi AamirM

Serious bug:

I just play "Game Gear" Sonic Triple Trouble and after 15 minutes load another game for Genesis Golden Axe 3 and emulator crash with error message:

Crashed Application Regen.exe, version 0.9.7.0, time stamp 0x4adb06ba, crash module Regen.exe, version 0.9.7.0, time stamp 0x4adb06ba, code 0xc0000005, error 0x00117c05, Id Process 0x540, time launcher of application 0x01ca5018e483a3b0.

Surprisingly after Game Gear, Genesis games crashes

I just check once again old bug:

Run Regen 0.97 and launch in Vista applications with UAC, but it still cause to crash without error messages (this is no serious error, i just want sometimes launch another task's)

Almost all old bugs fixed, thanks :D

Shadow
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Post by Shadow » Sun Oct 18, 2009 7:00 pm

AamirM

Very interest situation!
then enable Alternate Timing, i have problems.
But in normal mode! it now work perfectly!

You say: PSG Boost feature has been removed, but it still in "INI" file
PSG Boost=000000000000F03F2F maybe it bug? :-)

This is really was problem in Regen!
Now FPS show in normal timing always 59~60 FPS!
Huge thanks now i can play games at full speed :-)

Now i can't stop, i keep my eyes open before 5:00AM!
I must find more bugs fast as possible ;-)

Shadow
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Post by Shadow » Sun Oct 18, 2009 9:03 pm

AamirM

Regen 0.97 still not create saves for "Evander Holyfield"
"Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament" now! not create Sram at all!
"Micro Machines - Military" still not create Sram

"Light Crusader" looks good!

"Crusade of Centy" still not load correctly, for example: i load game and no see save, but if i click Power Off
and select Crusade of Centy, game load save! (old bug in Regen 0.96 and still in 0.97!)

"Beyond Oasis" still not create Sram

Shadow
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Post by Shadow » Sun Oct 18, 2009 10:51 pm

Hi AamirM

I found new bug!

New crash of Emulator detected!

In Genesis: Sonic 3D Blast on first level: special stage cause to crash Regen 0.97!

Application crash Regen.exe, Version 0.9.7.0, time stamp 0x4adb06ba, crash module Regen.exe, version 0.9.7.0, time stamp 0x4adb06ba, code 0xc0000005, error 0x00117c05, Id proccess 0xf0c, time launch of application 0x01ca5048af9c9284.

This release contain more hidden bugs!

People! i test it for all you, which want sound like on real thing:

Boost PSG Noise's i recommend enable, it work good for most "best" games about 92%
And set "Volume Levels -> SN76489 (PSG)" at 1.60

It work best on 3~5W Speakers, and very close to my first console.
Yeah my custom setup's still have wrong minor high volumes sometimes, for example:

Sonic 3D Blast
Road Rash 3
Ball 3D

Another games work great! but if you noticed, sound very loud, just decrease it on 1.50 or 1.40

1.40 will be standard for all games without any problems, i test it along time, compatible at 100%
with all my big collection of games! ;-)

Please fix these bugs! ;-)

Thanks!

Shadow
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Post by Shadow » Mon Oct 19, 2009 1:06 am

AamirM

I tested more than ~100 games, end 1~2 levels in each game!
I complete impossible work! Hopefully this is just some missing parts of code for some games like a Sonic 3D Blast

I not found any new bugs, i noticed in most games sound more accurate and better! ;-)

King Of Chaos
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Post by King Of Chaos » Mon Oct 19, 2009 3:36 am

Well, in my honest opinion I don't really hear a difference between Kega and Regen (I've got really good ears as you know!), which is a really good thing now. :P But damn, with all the changes you could of bumped the version number to 1.0. :lol:

I'll be doing some testing in regards to cheats and stuff, and try to find ways to crash the emulator or mess it up.

GG/Hex/PAR cheat support for Game Gear and GG/PAR support for SMS plz. :lol:

Actually, here's my serious suggestions;

1) Lock-on option to lock on a ROM to another; Sonic and Knuckles (and the Sonic 2 UPMEM for Sonic 2 & Knuckles), Game Genie, Pro Action Replay. Eke has done this in his Genesis Plus GX emulator for the Wii.

2) Cartridge hot swapping (loading of a ROM on top of another while the Genesis is on). Eke added this to Genesis Plus GX too. It allows you to load a ROM like Sonic 3 while Sonic 2 is running, and all you have to do is soft reset. Very useful to enable the level select code in Sonic 3 without cheats or trying that hard level select code in S3.

3) TMSS BIOS support, like Kega and Genesis Plus GX has it.

4) Option within the emulator itself to edit font and size. It's too damn big right now!

5) Separate directories for cheats (./Cheats/Genesis and .Cheats/SMS and ./Cheats/Game Gear) to avoid games having similar names for any of the consoles, and thus we don't accidentally load Genesis codes into a SMS game or vice versa.

Also, if you ask Snake for it, he may give you the Vista/7 code so Regen can run without choppy framerates when Windows Aero is enabled.

EDIT: Found a possible bug. Regen locks up when trying to redefine keys via a gamepad.
Last edited by King Of Chaos on Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:56 am, edited 2 times in total.

King Of Chaos
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Post by King Of Chaos » Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:33 am

Also, I took the liberty of fixing some typos in the History. :P
Version 0.97
------------

* Preliminary Genesis/Megadrive VDP Mode 4 (SMS mode) support. Although there is no game that
uses it, I've been asked by many homebrew developers/hackers to add support for this.
Note that Mode 4 in MD is a bit different than in SMS. These little details are detailed
in Charles MacDonald's SMS/MD docs. Due to time constraints, this feature isn't very heavily
tested so expect some bugs :) . Also note that this DOES NOT put the hardware in Mark III
compatibility mode. The ports will still be unusable.

* Hopefully fixed Sonic And Knuckles and other SRAM issues. The main problem is that I
haven't been able to reproduce these problems at my end so thats why I can't be sure.

* Fixed Micro Machines 2 showing incorrect stage start screen when booth EEPROM and
J-Cart are enabled.

* Hooked up EEPROM to some more games.

* Fixed Plan A/Window initialization bug. Thanks to Eke for reporting the bug (and fix!).

* Improved PSG. It should sound more accurate now. Levels have also been changed a bit.
Thanks to Shadow for reporting very detailed bugs and information about it.

* Added support for RPI plugin scalers of 3x and 4x. Previously Regen only supported 2x
scaler, now it supports all of them. In short, all of Kega plugins will now work. :)

* Added the option to boost PSG noise to make some people happy :) .

* Added SMS border emulation.

* Improved SMS emulation. Should be more accurate now.

* Fixed "Output 4:3 aspect" not working in SMS games.

* Modified the NTSC filter plugin. Now you can instantly see the changes you make
(like Hue, Contrast etc..) in the NTSC configuration dialog.

* Removed the old on screen text display engine and added new one. The new one has the
following advantages over the old one:

- Support for Unicode.
- Allows translation of the on-screen messages.
- Works when fullscreen is enabled.
- Hopefully doesn't have the problem of displaying garbage on some video cards.

* Added reconfigurable overdrive factor support. Previously, this was set to overdrive the final
sound output by 2. Now yo can control is from 1.0 to 5.0.

* Added feature to control the volume levels of FM and PSG separately. PSG Boost feature
has been removed. This setting is mainly for those who are very picky about the volume
levels between FM and PSG. But another factor in this is the game itself. Sound in
some games may get clipped if the respective volume amplification is too much. So
this needs a lot of tweaking before it can be used perfectly. My recommendation is
to keep the settings between 1 and 2.5 and then use the overdrive factor setting to
further amplify the sound.

* Scanlines effects added. Four predefined settings are given (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%).
There is also the option to set the intensity to whatever value you want (for example 12%).
Note however that the predefined scanlines setting are much faster than custom one.
So its foolish to set custom intensity at 50% for example.

* Added "Power Saving mode" to increase laptop/notebook/netbook battery life while playing.
In this mode, Regen won't use 100% CPU. But this can cause a little bit of jumpiness in FPS/video.

* Removed picture being a bit blurry even if nearest neighbor filter was selected (in non-stretch mode).
Stretching will still cause blurriness however.

* Fixed palette problem when brighten was enabled in Game Gear games. Note that brighten
may not have much of an effect on Game Gear games since the dynamic, extrapolated
color range of Game Gear is close to 16-bit 565 colors.

* Added support to take screenshots in PNG format. This setting can be controlled in
"Paths and Preferences" dialog. Support for taking screenshot in BMP is still present.

* Fixed support for 12-in-1 and 4-in-1 cartridges.

* Added support for following unlicensed games:

- Super Mario 2 1998
- Super Mario Bros.
- King of Fighter 98
- Super 19-in-1
- Super 15-in-1

* Changed the detection of unlicensed games. Now you need to disable "Autofix Checksum"
in order for unlicensed games to work.

* Fixed cheat editor bug in "Cheats" dialog. Previously, it would ask for more values
than required.

* Fixed BallZ 3D locking up by default.

* Fixed Regen crashing when editing cheats in the "Cheats" dialog by double-clicking
an empty place.

* SuperHQ option now works at whatever sound rate is selected. This means it is now
supported by both 44100 and 48000 output sampling rates.

* Fixed cheat searching. Newly searched and added cheats now work. After adding
a newly found cheat, they will appear in the "Cheats" dialog. After being added,
they are turned on by default.

* Removed support for reconfigurable shortcuts using the INI. But you can still
reconfigure shortcuts using another way. See the next change :) .

* Fixed bugs related to brighten. In some games, enabling disabling brighten would
cause some colors to turn black.

* Completely new localization support. Now, you not only translate the menus but
translate the dialogs, message box text and even the on screen text to your
language. Using this, you can also reconfigure the shortcuts. See "Localization.txt"
in "Languages" sub-directory to see how to translate.

* Added "Alternate Timing" mode. This will fix jumpy FPS/stuttering video/audio
for some people.

* Corrected mid-frame CRAM writes handling. Mega Turrican's background sky gradient
is now displayed properly.

* Added option to increase ROM space from 4 MB to 8 MB. This can only be changed by
modifying the INI file and setting "LargeROMSpace" setting to "1" (LargeROMSpace = 1).

* Heavily refined path configuration dialog. Also contains other preferences as well
so it has been renamed to "Paths and Preferences".

* Fixed up UPS patching support. Now it works (finally). If you click "System->Patch",
it will first search for a corresponding UPS patch in the configured Patch directory
and apply that patch. If not found, it will give UPS patch selection dialog to select
some patch. For automatic searching of patches, the UPS patches must be of the same name
as the ROM file but with a ".ups" extension.

* Option to automatically patch up a ROM if a corresponding UPS patch is found in the
configured patches directory. If it is not found, it does *NOT* pop up an error message
and will silently continue the game UNPATCHED. It was done because popping an error upon
loading of every game without a patch is rather annoying. For automatic searching of patches,
the UPS patches must be of the same name as the ROM file but with a ".ups" extension.

* Option to ignore the CRC errors that were encountered during the patching of ROM.

* Added feature to enable/disable the automatic loading of cheat files.

* Small refinement to the menus. The menu items which start a dialog box now end with "...".

* Improvements to the command line and drag-drop code. Now its case insensitive and now
you can load SMS/GG files by drag-dropping.

* Fixed the bug whereby loading a SMS game with fullscreen option given on the command line
didn't go into fullscreen.

* Added support for SMS cheats. Note that only hex cheats are supported.

* Added ROM browser. Now you select the file inside 7z/Zip archives.

* Fixed a bug whereby loading a game after another caused the new game to be ran at the
refresh rate of the previous game. This caused problems when, for example, one loaded
PAL game after NTSC or vice versa.

* Fixed a bug which would caused Sonic Crackers to crash Regen while it locked up the hardware.

* Fixed a bug which caused a system lock up by a previously loaded game to not clear up while
loading a new ROM.

* Input recording and replaying feature. Now you can record movies in Regen record format.
Then you can exchange movies with other users. But most importantly, you can now record
the movie without lagging and then later replay it in Regen while re-recording it as an AVI,
to upload it on video sites like Youtube etc..

* Added option to slow down emulation speed. Various speed settings are also given.
From 3% to 100% settings. Useful for TASing.

* Added frame advance feature to the menu item. This feature was present in many previous
versions as well but people are too lazy to read the manuals and asked me to add it when it
is already there.

* Added links to docs and some important websites to the "Help" menu.

* Some other stuff as well which now I've forgotten >_> .

* Now with a serious Read Me. :D

Debugger Build:
***************
Most of these bugs reports and suggestions were made by Wiz and BigNailCow from
Shinning Force II (and Sonic) hacking scene. A few of the requested couldn't be
added because of my laziness. Sorry :) .

* Added spectrum analyzer. Useful for some music makers and it just looks damn cool :D .

* Fixed overclocking feature which got broken in 0.95.

* Fixed mismatch between displayed PC and the starting PC in disassembly window after pressing
any of the stepping buttons.

* Now the 68000 debugger shows the exact address of breaking when breaking using "Breakpoint Range" mode.

* Fixed YM2612 debugger bug where Sustain level was being displayed as Release rate (Thanks to Tiido for reporting).

* Added "Go to Address" feature in the ROM browser to go to a specific address.

* Added tracing feature to the 68k debugger. Its a bit unstable right now but traces are created
perfectly (but may cause Regen to crash sometimes). So its recommended to create a savestate before
using that feature. Tracing will make Regen very slow and if you don't know how to use it correctly, you will
find yourself running out of hard disk space :P.

* Made VDP layer selection dialog non-model.

King Of Chaos
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Post by King Of Chaos » Mon Oct 19, 2009 4:38 am

And now the Readme file... :P
================================================================================
Regen v0.97 and 0.97D
================================================================================

by AamirM, Copyright (C) 2007-2009

First of all, I would like to thank the following:

Charles MacDonald, Stéphane Dallongeville, Eke, notaz, TascoDeluxe, Steve Snake,
Karl Stenerud, Richard Mitton, Juergen Buchmueller, Tatsuyuki Satoh, Shadow,
Jarek Burczynski, Shay Green, King of Chaos, David Haywood, drx, Igor Pavlov,
Nemesis, Yakovlev Victor, Kaneda, Tiido, Mitsutaka Okazaki, ZLIB team, SDL team,
LibPNG team and all other people who gave suggestions, bug reports, feedback.


================================================================================
Legal Stuff
================================================================================

Regen is Copyright (C) 2007-2009, AamirM. All rights reserved.

You may use and/or redistribute Regen provided that you :

1) Do not modify and/or alter, in any way, the files included.
2) You distribute all the files you got originally with Regen.
3) You may not sell, lease, rent or otherwise seek to gain monetary profit from
Regen.
4) You may not distribute Regen with ROM images unless you have the legal right
to distribute them.
5) You may not use Regen for commercial purposes.

DISCLAIMER: The author of Regen doesn't guarantee its fitness for any purpose,
implied or otherwise, and do not except responsibility for any damages
whatsoever that might occur when using Regen. All games emulated by Regen,
including any images and sounds therein, are copyrighted by their respective
copyright holders. Regen DOES NOT INCLUDE any ROM images of emulated games.

SEGA, Master System, GameGear, Genesis, MegaDrive, SegaCD, MegaCD, and 32X are
trademarks of Sega Enterprises Ltd. Regen is not authorized by, endorsed by, or
affiliated with Sega Enterprises, Ltd. in any way.


================================================================================
Introduction
================================================================================

Regen is an emulator which can emulate the following systems with
very high accuracy:

* Sega Genesis/MegaDrive.

* Sega Master System, GameGear, SG-1000, SC-3000.

It also contains many other useful features and stuff including debuggers :) .

You can get the latest version of Regen from:

Website : http://aamirm.hacking-cult.org
Forums : http://aamirm.hacking-cult.org/forums/

Latest betas are only posted on the forum boards.

If you create language files, please send them to me so I can put them up on my
homepage for everyone to download. Thanks.


================================================================================
Requirements
================================================================================

To run Regen at a decent speed requires a Pentium III or up with at least 64MB
RAM and Windows9x or higher is needed. With a little tweaking, Regen has been
successfully ran on a 400 Mhz Pentium 2 fullspeed!

Regen requires DirectX 7 or higher. Regen only supports 16 and 32 bit color
depths so your desktop must be set to either one of these.

For sound, Regen requires DirectSound compatible hardware. Sound card is
required.

DirectInput compatible input hardware is needed. Keyboard, mouse and
gamepads/joypads are supported.


================================================================================
Default Keys
================================================================================

The default keys for Genesis/MegaDrive are:

For Player 1:
Start --- Enter
Mode --- Right Shift
A --- A
B --- S
C --- D
X --- Z
Y --- X
Z --- C
Up, Down, Left, Right --- Direction Keys

For Player 2:
Start --- U
Mode --- T
A --- K
B --- L
C --- M
X --- I
Y --- O
Z --- P
Up, Down, Left, Right --- Y, H, G, J

When using Mouse:
A --- Right Button
B --- Left Button
(all other buttons are mapped on keyboard)

For Master System/Game Gear:

PlayerX Button 1 = PlayerX Key A for Genesis
PlayerX Button 2 = PlayerX Key B for Genesis
Pause = Player1 Key C for Genesis
Reset = Player1 Key X for Genesis

Direction Keys are same as Genesis'.

There are some other things to explain as well but its just too much pain in the
ass to write :) . Just press each keys on the keyboard and/or mouse until some
action happens :D . If your still having problems, just ask me.


================================================================================
Usage Instructions
================================================================================

Here is a half-hearted attempt at documenting the stuff in Regen and how to use
it. First, the menus will be explained and then the different dialog windows.
After that, some other small details and stuff will be explained. In Regen, a
menu item which shows a dialog windows ends with "...". For example,
"Paths and Preferences...".


================================================================================
Menus and Menu Items
================================================================================

---------
File Menu
---------

Load SMS/GG ROM - Load a Master System/Game Gear/SG-1000/SC-3000 ROM.

Load Genesis ROM - Load Genesis/Megadrive ROM.

Pause/Resume emulation - Toggles pausing of emulation.

Soft Reset - Soft resets the machine. In soft reset, some of the
machine state isn't cleared (like RAM). It is like the
reset button on the console.

Hard Reset - Hard resets the machine. In hard reset, all of the
things are cleared to a known state (usually zeros).

Power off - Powers off the virtual console.

Save State As - Save state to user specified file in some location.

Load State As - Load state from the user specified file.

Save Slot - This is a sub-menu and contain menu items to select
one of the ten available slots ten slots. These slots
can then be used to quickly save/load a state. These
avoid the hassle of having to specify the file name
each time you save/load a state.

Quick Save State - Quickly save a state to the currently active slot.

Quick Load State - Quickly load a state from the currently active slot.

Record Input - This feature allows you to record input during the
gameplay. This can then be used to recreate the
gameplay again. So in effect, its like recording a
movie. You will need to select the location where you
want to save the recording.

Replay Input - Replays the previously recorded input recording file.
It will ask you to select the recoding file.

Start AVI Recording - Record the movie in AVI format. This feature only
works in "Superfast" rendering mode. It requires that
you have a VERY FAST computer if you want to record
the AVI lag free. It will ask you to select a codec.
Currently, the recommended codec is the ZMBV (Zipped
Motion Block Video) codec from DosBox project. Its
loseless and provides good speed and compression.
A ZMBV based codec is currently being developed by
myself to provide enough speed for lag-free recording.
After you start the recording, pressing this same menu
item again will stop the recording.

File History - This sub-menu contains list of five most recently
loaded ROMs. Useful to quickly load a game if you
usually have some favorite game that you play all the
time.

Clear History - Clears the file history.

Exit - Quit from the warm world of Regen and return to the
cold world of Windows.

----------
VIDEO Menu
----------

Window Size - This sub menu contains three window sizes to select
(multiples of 320x240).

Fullscreen Resolution - This sub-menu lists all the fullscreen resolutions
that are supported by the system.

Enter Fullscreen - Toggles fullscreen mode.

VSync - Toggles vsync mode. This removes tearing in the video.

Video Plugins - This sub menu lists all the plugins that were found.
Regen supports the Kega RPI. Plugins should be placed
in a folder called "Plugins" where Regen is installed.
Upto 32 render plugins are supported.

Turbo Mode - Toggles turbo mode. In this mode, Regen will run as
fast as it can.

Frame Advance - Advance the emulation by one frame only. This is only
meaningful while emulation is paused.

Slow Mode - This menu is used to slow down the emulation speed.
This is useful for TASing (Tool Assisted Speedruns).

Scanlines settings - Enable scanlines with the corresponding intensity.

Custom Intensity - This allows you to set a custom scanline intensity
(for example 12%). Predefined scanline settings are
much faster. So its foolish to set custom intensity at
25, 50, 75 and 100 percents.

Stretch - Stretch the visible region to the window area
(borders are cut off).

Brighten - Brighten the output image. On Genesis, games which use
Shadow/Highlight colors, will look correct with this.

Monitor Properties - Select the monitor aspect ratio from here. This value
is used in aspect ratio correction calculations.

Correct Aspect Ratio - Toggles correction of aspect ration.

Output 4:3 Aspect - Outputs the image with 4:3 aspect (like real
hardware).

Superfast Rendering - Enables a fast rendering mode with fast critical
emulation path. IT REQUIRES THAT YOU RESTART THE
EMULATOR AFTER ENABLING IT. This is meant to be used
on slower computers. Enabling this will increase
performance quite a bit although other video option
will not be available (like video plugins). Turn it on
only if you are having speed issues. Leave it off
otherwise.

Disable Sprite Limits - Disable the Genesis/Megadrive VDP sprite limitations.
It does not work for SMS/GG. To disable SMS/GG sprite
limitations, see the Master System/Game Gear menu.

Realistic Interlacing - Enables realistic interlacing mode. In this mode,
Regen will draw odd lines on odd frames and even lines
on even frames. But this can cause lots of flickering
and some people don't want this so disabling this will
remove the flickering.

----------
SOUND Menu
----------

Rate - Select the output sampling rate of sound.

Disable Sound - Disable sound emulation.

SuperHQ - This will enable high quality emulation of the FM and
PSG. Enabling this will result in very accurate sound
which is very close to the real hardware. The sound
chips will be ran at their original rates and then
re-sampled to the selected output rate. Enabling this
can cause a little bit of slow down in speed however.

Lowpass Filter - Apply lowpass filtering to the sound.

Overdrive - Enable/Disable overdriving (amplification) of the
final sound output before its fed into the sound card.
Enabling this can cause the sound to get clipped.

Start WAV Dump - Starts logging the output sound in WAV format.

Boost PSG Noise - If enabled, boosts the PSG noise channel output. Regen
emulates the noise levels accurately by default but in
real thing, the filtering by TV or other things can
cause the noise to be loud. This option simulates
that. It is recommended to turn this setting off.

Volume Levels - Change the output volume levels of PSG and FM.

Overdrive Factor - Select the final amplification level from here.

-----------
SYSTEM Menu
-----------

Region - Change the region of the virtual console to USA,
Europe or Japan or let Regen autodetect it according
to the ROM header (recommended). You will need to
reload the game after changing the region. It is
recommended to leave this setting to "Autodetect".

Autofix Checksum - Fix checksum of games with wrong checksum in the
headers. This is required for some games to work
correctly. This should be disabled for unlicensed
games with special handlings.

Use SRAM and EEPROM - Enable the loading/saving of SRAM or EEPROM.

Cheats - Depending on some other settings, this will either
bring up the cheat dialog box or will ask you specify
the cheat file for the game and then bring up the
cheat dialog. It will bring up the cheat window
automatically if a cheat file was found in the
configured cheats directory and cheats auto-loading is
enabled. Otherwise it will ask you for a cheat file.
For automatic loading of cheats, put the cheat files
in the configured cheats directory with the same name
as the ROM but with a ".dat" extension.

Search Cheats - Bring up the cheat searching window.

Patch - Depending on some other settings, this will either
patch up the ROM with a UPS patch and reset the game
or it will ask you for a patch file. It will
automatically patch up a ROM if a patch is found in
the configured patches directory and auto-patching is
enabled. Otherwise it will ask you for a patch file.
For automatic patching, the patches should be kept in
the configured patches directory with same name as the
ROM name but with a ".ups" extension.

Redefine Keys - Brings up the controller configuration window.

Reset to default keys - Resets the controller configurations to default values.

Capture Mouse - Captures/Releases the mouse in lightgun/paddle games.

Master System/Game Gear - This menu contains settings for Master System and
GameGear. This menu is explained in detail later.

---------
MISC Menu
---------

Paths and Preferences - Brings up the configuration window where you can
configure the various paths and other settings.

Always on top - Makes the Regen window top most.

Autopause - Automatically pause the emulation when Regen loses
focus.

Disable Menu hotkeys - Disables the menu shortcuts. Useful if you don't use
the shortcuts and they conflict with key settings.

High Priority - Sets the Regen's process priority to high. If you are
experiencing jerkiness/stuttering in video/sound try
enabling this.

Disable Screensaver - Disable screensaver while running games.

Show FPS - Show the FPS (Frame Per Seconds) indicator.

Show Messages - Show the emulator messages.

Alternate Timing - Normally Regen uses sound card for timing but some
sound cards have problems with this. This causes FPS
being jumpy and video/sound being skippy. Enabling
this will cause Regen to use other timers for timing
to fix that problem. So if you are experiencing those
problems try enabling this.

Power Saving Mode - Normally Regen will use almost 99-100% CPU to provide
smooth audio and video. This is all good when on a
desktop PC. But when using Regen on
laptop/notebook/netbook, this eats battery life.
Enabling this will cause Regen not to use 100% CPU.
But this can cause occasional jumpiness/skips in sound
and video.

Select Language - Brings up language selection window. See the section
on "Localization" for more information.

----------
TOOLS Menu
----------

Screenshot (unfiltered) - Take the raw screenshot without any filters and
effects applied.

Screenshot (filtered) - Take the screenshot of the output image with all the
effects and video filters applied. This is the image
that you see on the output.

The following features are only enabled in the debugger build of Regen. I don't
explain these features here in much detail since their users already know what
they are and how to use them :) .

68000 Debugger - Bring up the M68000 debugger window.

Z80 Debugger - Bring up the Z80 debugger window.

ROM Viewer/Editor - Bring up the ROM viewer and editor.

RAM Viewer/Editor - Bring up the RAM viewer and editor.

Overclock M68000 - Overclock or underclock the virtual 68k.

FM Scope - Shows the oscilloscope display of sound.

YM2612 Debugger - Bring up YM2612 (FM) debugger.

Z80 RAM Viewer/Editor - Bring up the Z80 RAM viewer and editor.

VDP Layer Select - Bring a window to select the different VDP layers.

VDP Debugger - Bring up the VDP debugger window.

Spectrum Analyzer - Shows the frequency spectrum on the sound output.

---------
HELP Menu
---------


Documentation - View this file.

View history - Show the history of Regen and its releases.

Regen Homepage - Go to the Regen's homepage on the internet.

Regen Forum Borads - Go to Regen forum boards for troubleshooting and for
talking about all Regen related stuff (like requests).

AamirM's Homepage - Go to AamirM's (Regen's author) homepage to see his
other emulators and latest developments from him.

About Regen - Show the credits and version of Regen.

------------------------------
MASTER SYSTEM / GAME GEAR Menu
------------------------------

Input Port 1,2 - Select the device to connect to the virtual controller
port. Regen automatically detects some of the games
with special controllers and selects these controllers
automatically.

Enable Keyboard - Enable the keyboard emulation for the SC-3000.
Enabling this with anything other than SC-3000 can
cause controllers to not behave correctly.

Enable YM2413 - Enable the YM2413 FM sound chip that came on some
Master System models and some games use it if present
to generate different music. Recommended setting is to
leave this on unless you want to hear the PSG music in
some game.

3D Glass simulation - Simulates the 3D glasses. Leave this off unless a game
uses these as it can cause incorrect video output for
other games.

Enable BIOS - Enable BIOS. Its not really needed. But some games
rely on the state brought up by BIOS to work correct
(but Regen can do this without it anyway). You can
configure the BIOS path using the "Paths and
Preferences" window.

Sprite Limitations - Enables/disables the SMS VDP sprite limitations.


================================================================================
Dialog Windows
================================================================================

Here, only some of the windows are explained.

-----------
ROM Browser
-----------

ROM browser opens up automatically when you load a ROM and select an archive
(Zip/7zip) file which contain many other files (and maybe more ROMs). It will
list all the files in that archive. Now, you can select your ROM from it by
either double-clicking the file from the list or selecting and pressing "OK".

-------------
Volume Levels
-------------

This dialog allows you to adjust the volume levels of the FM and PSG sound
outputs. Regen will emulate the levels correctly and accurately by default but
some people are picky about the levels between the PSG and FM so they can change
the levels from here. Note however that some games have loud FM levels so
setting this value very high can cause clipped sound. Recommended setting is to
leave it at 1.0 for both. Or keep it between 1.0 and 2.5 and then use the
overdriving feature to amplify.

------
Cheats
------

This dialog list the cheats which have been loaded from the cheat file of the
loaded game. This dialog will appear automatically if a cheat file is found in
the configured "Cheats" directory and automatic loading of cheats is enabled.
Otherwise you will have to specify the cheat file to use.

This dialog has two list boxes, main (on the left) and options (on the right).
The main list box lists the cheat name. The options list box lists the different
options in the selected cheat. For example, a main cheat could be "Unlimited
Life" and its options can be "On" or "Off". Another example is where the main
cheat can be "Weapon" and its option can be "Hand gun", "Machine gun", Rocket
Launcher" etc...

This window also includes a small cheat editor. It can be brought up by double-
clicking any of the cheat options. This will then allow you to modify the address
and data pairs of that cheat.

See the section on "Cheat Files" for information on how to create cheat files.

-------------
Search Cheats
-------------

This window is used for searching cheats. To start searching, you will have to
press "Reset" at least one time so that Regen will start to log the changes.

You can add a cheat by selecting an address from the list box and clicking
"Add Cheat". After a cheat has been added, it will now appear in the "Cheats"
dialog window as well. Added cheats are created using two options "On" and
"Off". Newly added cheats are turned on by default.

Other things should be pretty self explanatory.

---------------------
Paths and Preferences
---------------------

This window is used for configuration of front-end related things. From here you
can configure various paths and other related settings. Each different setting
are explained here.

* SRAM:
This allows you to configure the path where the game's Static RAM and/or
EEPROM files will be save and loaded from. Click "Browse" to select the
path. By default, Regen creates a "SRAM" directory where it is installed
and sets this path to point to there.

* Save States:
This allows you to select where the quick states will be saved to/loaded
from. Click "Browse" to select the path. By default, Regen creates a
"Saves" directory where it is installed and sets this path to point to
there. The "Compressed" feature is currently not implemented.

* UPS Patches:
This allows you to configure the directory where the UPS patch files will
be searched for. By default, Regen creates a "Patches" directory and sets
this path to point to there. It has two further options, "Auto patch" and
"Ignore CRC errors". "Auto patch" will automatically patch the ROM if a
UPS patch with same name as ROM but with a ".ups" extension is found in
the "Patches" directory. "Ignore CRC errors" will ignore any CRC errors
that occur during the patch.

* Multimedia:
This allows you to configure the path where the game's sound and/or
AVI recording files will be save. Click "Browse" to select the path. By
default, Regen creates a "Sound" directory where it is installed
and sets this path to point to there.

* Cheats:
This allows you to configure the directory where the cheat files will
be searched for. By default, Regen creates a "Cheats" directory and sets
this path to point to there. It has one further option, "Auto load".
"Auto load" will automatically load up the cheats if a cheat file is found
in the configured "Cheats" directory. For automatic loading, the cheat
file should be of same name as the ROM but with a ".dat" extension.

* Screenshots:
This allows you to configure the path where the screenshots will be saved.
Click "Browse" to select that path. By default, Regen creates a
"Screenshot" directory where it is installed and sets this path to point
to there. You can further select whether to save the screenshots in BMP
format or in PNG format.

* SMS BIOS:
This allows you to configure the SMS BIOS. It is empty by default.

--------------
68000 Debugger
--------------

This is only available in debugger build of Regen. It should be pretty self
explanatory but there are a few small details.

* Double clicking a line in disassembly window will add it as a PC break point.

* Traces are created at the same location as the ROM file.

* This window automatically opens up if there is an illegal read/write by the
main processor.


================================================================================
Cheat Files
================================================================================

The format of the Regen cheat file is like this:

[Cheat Number]
Name=Cheat Name
0=Option 1,address:data
1=Option 2,address:data,address:data
2=Option 3,address:data
3=Option 4,address:data,address:data,address:data
.....

Cheat Number must start from 0. Address/data pairs can be either Pro Action
Replay (PAR), Game Genie or simple hex codes. They can also be intermixed. For
example a cheat option can have a PAR pair, a Game Genie pair and hex pair.
An example is as follows:

[0]
Name=Invincibility
0=Off
1=On,FFC262:0002

[1]
Name=Chaos Emerald Modifier
0=Off
1=None,FF06A3:0000
2=One,FF06A3:0001
3=Two,FF06A3:0002
4=Three,FF06A3:0003
5=Four,FF06A3:0004
6=Five,FF06A3:0005
7=Six,FF06A3:0006
8=Seven,FF06A3:0007

There is a special keyword called "Default" that enables a cheat option
automatically when it is loaded. For example using the above example,

[0]
Name=Invincibility
0=Off
1=On,FFC262:0002
Default=1

This will automatically enable the option number 1 ("On") upon being loaded.

That's pretty much all there is to it. There is a converter available from my
homepage that can convert from existing PAT files to Regen cheat dats. If you
need a converter from something else, just ask me.


================================================================================
Advanced/Other Settings
================================================================================

These setting can only be set by modifying the "Regen.ini" file. Here are these
settings:

* "SoundBufferSize"
This setting changes the sound buffer size. If you noticing sound/video
lags/skips, try playing with this value. By default it is 7.

* "ShortHistoryNames"
Setting this to one will not display the full path to the ROM file but
instead will only display the ROM name. It is disabled by default.

* "TextColor_R", "TextColor_G", "TextColor_B"
This allows you to modify the color of the on screen text messages. All
are set to 255 by default for white color.

* "EmulateLockups"
Setting this to one will lock up the virtual console if something is
done by the game that causes the real hardware to lock up as well.
Disabled by default.

* "LargeROMSpace"
Setting this to one will allow 8 MB rom space. Disabled by default.


================================================================================
Start up screen
================================================================================

Regen can show up an image on start up in the main screen. By default, this
image is Regen's logo type thing created by me in my "Photoshop" (aka MS Paint).
But you can replace this image by any other image. Just rename the image to
"Logo.png" and put it in the folder where Regen is installed.


================================================================================
Translating Regen
================================================================================

Here are the steps you need to follow to translate Regen:

1) You need to edit Regen.rc. You can either use Visual Studio's resource
editor or any other editor and translate all the strings, menus, dialogs
etc.. in it. Please do not change the order of the menu items.

2) After editing, you need to compile it. A Visual Studio .NET 2003 project
is provided in the folder "Template". A makefile to build using gcc/mingw is
also provided. You can also use the provided Visual Studio project
file with Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 (they will convert
it automatically). You can also use any other compiler (for example
gcc/mingw). After, compiling, it will produce "Satellite.dll".

3) Create a folder with the name of language ID, to which you are translating,
in the "Languages" folder where Regen is installed. Place "Satellite.dll"
in that folder. You can use the link given below to find out the language ID
for your language. For example, if I am translating to Japanese, I will
create a folder like this:

[Regen Folder]\Languages\1041\Satellite.dll
/\
||
Language ID

4) Start up Regen and go to "Misc->Select Language". If everything went right,
your language should now appear in the list. Select the language and press
"OK".

Important Note
--------------

* Do not change the order of the menus/menu items.

* Do not remove "\n" and things like "%s" and %d" etc.. from a string etc..

* Make sure the version of the DLL matches with the version of Regen.
To check this, FILEVERSION, FileVersion, PRODUCTVERSION and ProductVersion
in Regen.rc and Regen should match. If the versions do not match,
Regen will not load it.

Language IDs
------------

To find out the language ID for your language, go to:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964664.aspx


================================================================================
Command Line
================================================================================

You can also load games from the command line. The syntax is:

regen [--fullscreen] game_name


================================================================================
Contact
================================================================================

Bugs, feature request, and any thing emulation related is welcomed.
But ROM requests will be ignored.
Please do read this Readme completely (yes, including the history file)
before mailing question(s) as many of the answers (and limitations, bugs)
are mentioned here.

You can report bugs, request features at any of the following:

Website : http://aamirm.hacking-cult.org
Forums : http://aamirm.hacking-cult.org/forums/

You can also contact me at "aamir dot m at live dot com"

where dot = .
at = @

Thanks for trying my emulator and stay safe,

AamirM

edc2008
Newbie
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Dec 17, 2008 9:49 pm

Post by edc2008 » Mon Oct 19, 2009 1:28 pm

Shadow,

I sent you a message last week but I have had no reply. I am curious to know how Fusion's sound is incorrect. Can you explain this to me please and give me examples so I can hear it myself?

Thank you

King Of Chaos
Very interested
Posts: 273
Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:12 pm
Location: United States

Post by King Of Chaos » Mon Oct 19, 2009 1:53 pm

edc2008 wrote:I am curious to know how Fusion's sound is incorrect.
I'd like to know this myself.

Also, 64-bit version please. :P

P.S. You're not using the "Boost PSG Noise" feature when testing for sound issues, right? I'd advise using only the SuperHQ feature when testing for sound issues or else the tests *may* be invalidated (since using that feature is a step away from accurate sound).

King Of Chaos
Very interested
Posts: 273
Joined: Fri Feb 29, 2008 8:12 pm
Location: United States

Post by King Of Chaos » Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:36 pm

Regen silently crashes when selecting Save state as, and crashes when selecting Load state as.

Post Reply