drk||Raziel sheds some light on the development of his nullDC PSP port… First and foremost, due to the obvious PSP Fat hardware limitations, nullDC-PSP will only be usable on Slim [and future?] models.

As demonstrated previously the current speed/FPS is very slow. drk||Raziel’s notes: there is no dynarec, no optimizations, and no single MIPS assembly line in the present source. The majority of code is based on the PC version of nullDC. So with that in mind, it will definitely take time to optimize and establish a playable state for nullDC on the PSP’s hardware.

While drk||Raziel believes it is possible to achieve full speed on the PSP, it could very well be a long ass time before we see it. Or maybe drk||Raziel and the other believers will be proven wrong. Are you a believer or a nullDC infidel? Talk amongst yourselves.

- source: emudev

Prepare yourself for nullDC — the SEGA Dreamcast emulator for the PlayStation Portable. drkIIRaziel, who’s responsible for the nullDC PSP port, has shared several videos confirming its authenticity.

Still under active development with no release just yet, the videos show nullDC to be rather sluggish. But hey, it renders nicely — sort of… Release imminent? We can only hope.

Search YouTube for more nullDC videos.

Quite the update from developer notaz. Reintroducing PicoDrive — the all-retro, all-sega emulator for your PSP.

Notaz’ PSP port originates from Dave’s PicoDrive 0.30 code for the Pocket PC. The Mega / CD emulation is roughly based on tephane Dallongeville’s Gens.

PicoDrive v1.50/1.51 changes:

• Added some basic support for Sega Pico, a MegaDrive-based toy.
• Added proper support for cue/bin images, including cdda playback.
• .cue sheets with iso/cso/mp3/wav files listed in them are now supported too (but 44kHz restriction still applies).
• Added bin_to_cso_mp3 tool, based on Exophase’s bin_to_iso_ogg. The tool can convert .cue/.bin Sega CD images to .cso/.mp3.
• Greatly improved Sega CD load times.
• Changed how scheduling between 68k and z80 is handled. Improves performance for some games. Credits to Lordus for the idea.
• YM2612 state was not 100% saved, this should be better now.
• Improved renderer performance for shadow/highlight mode.
• Added a hack for YM2612 frequency overflow issue (bleep noises in Shaq Fu, Spider-Man - The Animated Series (intro music), etc.). Credits to Nemesis @ spritesmind forum. Works only if sound rate is set to 44kHz.
• Implemented some sprite rendering improvements, as suggested by Exophase. Games with lots of sprites now perform better.
• Added better idle loop detection, based on Lordus’ idea again.
• “accurate timing” option removed, as disabling it no longer improves performance.
• “accurate sprites” was removed too, the new sprite code can properly handle sprite priorities in all cases.
• Timers adjusted again.
• Improved .smd detection code.
• Minor general optimizations and menu improvements.
• Fixed a bug in Sega CD savestate loader, where the game would sometimes crash after load.
• Fixed a crash of games using eeprom (introduced in 1.40b).
• fixed suspend/resume (hopefully for real).
• Improved bin_to_cso_mp3 tool, it should no longer complain about missing lame.exe even if it’s in working dir.
• Fixed a regression from 1.50, which caused slowdowns in Final Fight.
• Fixed some regressions from 1.50 related to sprite limit and palette handling (caused graphical glitches in some games).
• Added ABC turbo actions to key config.
• Some other minor adjustments.

Download: PicoDrive v1.51

- source: dcemu

Brunni’s MasterBoy, which emulates practically everything but your kitchen sink, has received another update which improves on SGB (Super GameBoy) emulation, fixes the SRAM bug that some most likely experienced, and there are other additions/tweaks making it worthy of an upgrade.

2.02 changes:

• EBOOT now has icon, wallpaper and sound (thanks to Ass-Itch from playeradvance for his nice BG/ICON)
• Corrected the bug of SRAM not saving properly for some people
• Added the last save date next to the save state slot number
• Enhanced SGB emulation (runs a lot faster)
• Corrected the garbage showing in the border of the render.
• Reworked the default palettes to be closer to the GBC ones.
• Augmented the maximum number of files per folder to 1024.
• Note: The bug that some people has, save states not working after saving/loading a few, is still not fixed (I could contact nobody who has this problem for debugging). In between, if you have this problem, use the RAM state and save manually before exiting (or save less often).

To quickly recap, MasterBoy emulates four classic consoles & hand-helds: the SEGA Master System and Game Gear, Nintendo Gameboy, Gameboy Colour, and Super Gameboy.

Download: MasterBoy 2.02

- source: brunni

Brunni has updated MasterBoy to version 2.01. Appropriately titled, MasterBoy emulates the Nintendo Game Boy, Super Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and the SEGA Master System & Game Gear handheld. Not only that, there are many configurable options to further aid in your emulation enjoyment — retrofitting the retro, if you will. See MasterBoy.pdf for complete documentation.

v2.01 changes:

• Finished the english documentation on how to colorize your games!
• This version fixes a bug with sound volume when loading RIN states.
• The file list can now display up to 1024 roms.
• Added a small debug mode for the kernel version (copy the EBOOT from the Kernel mode directory to your MasterBoy directory on the PSP - this version runs significantly slower, so use it only for debugging and colorization). For people who reported me strange problems, press L+R+Triangle in the menu. It will show the available RAM. If you have the problem of save states not working after a while, please tell me how this value evolutes. Also, if this mode is enabled when going to Save states, SRAM, Save now, a message box with some information will appear, if you have the SRAM problem (not saving) please report to me the displayed text.
• Bugfixes

Download: MasterBoy v2.01

- source: brunni.dev-fr.org

Update: MasterBoy 2.0a is now available. Not sure what the changes consist of. Just download it, and have fun!

Brunni has released MasterBoy — an emulator consolidating Nintendo Game Boy, Super Game Boy, Game Boy Color, SEGA Master System, *takes a breath* and Game Gear emulation — all in one EBOOT!

MasterBoy incorporates a nifty feature allowing you to colorize old GBC games; see examples in the “Colorpak” directory. There are plenty more options which distinguish this emulator from the rest. It definitely deserves a spot on your memory stick.

Download: MasterBoy v2.0a

- source: brunni.dev-fr.org