RetroCopy v0.700 has been released. The biggest additions in this version are downloadable covers,screenshots,reviews,cheats and trivia from within RetroCopy. And finally something I don't think that has been done before in an emulator, Game Gear network link emulation.

Also included is a complete Sega Master System database that Tommy has worked on for hundreds of hours.



Here is what's new :-

-[EMU] Upgraded the YM2413 FM core to stereo, fixes bad sound in SMS FM games
-[EMU] Added GameGear Gear-To-Gear network link emulation.
-[EMU] Fixed bug in GameGear VDP that made it act like a V1 SMS VDP
-[EMU] Fixed bug in SMS VDP that was clearing lower bits in status register (PGA Golf)

-[CORE] Now support .ZIP files for conversion, including zip files with mulitple ROMs inside
-[CORE] Singular official .game files are now saved if a complete set isn't found
-[CORE] Added screenshot saving with two modes. The "Full screenshot" mode saves the borders so it's like a real TV and the other mode is "content only" which is purely the content.
-[CORE] Added option to change fast forward speed
-[CORE] Upgraded SDL version
-[CORE] Now warn there may be issues when display isn't at least 1280x720
-[CORE] Usage stats for games played are now saved on the RetroCopy server, allowing you to view the most played games
-[CORE] Changed the way covers are loaded. Now all media relating to a game is stored in a .ZIP file in a media subdirectory, reducing clutter
-[CORE] Finalized Sega Master System .GAME headers . All Sega Master System games have been added
-[CORE] Updated arcade.dat and removed GameGear, Megadrive, Nintendo NES dat files until we have properly covered the games in them.
-[CORE] Fixed over 60 memory leaks and other small resource issues
-[CORE] Added rewind buffer size option instead of a default time limit, defaults to 256MB. Allows you to use up to 1GB of memory which would would allow you to rewind for a few minutes on some systems. This allows users with low RAM to use the MegaDrive emulation, which in last version using over 500MB for rewind.
-[CORE] Added feature to .GAME which allow us to specify whether a game is a hack, official release, etc
-[CORE] Added country information to .GAME header

-[SOUND] Fixed issue with audio latency that sometimes would not autofix itself like it should have

-[3D] VSYNC option now doesn't need a restart to take effect
-[3D] Added mipmaps and anisotropic filtering to emulator output for increased quality in virtual game room (optional, NVIDIA users can't use this as all drivers are broken and it's too slow)
-[3D] Increased performance of mipmap generation, now there is little delay even when loading 10 megapixel images
-[3D] Added Anisotropic Filtering option, will use maximum amount when enabled
-[3D] Changed viewpoint calculation to better suit some displays
-[3D] Changed and cleaned up the way game covers are loaded for better resource usage and lower loading times
-[3D] Multiple 3D game box models can now be used for each game
-[3D] Added GameGear 3D box model (export)
-[3D] Changed the way 3D game boxes are viewed, now no manual rotation is necessary, simply left and right click on the boxes to get them to rotate or zoom.
-[3D] Fixed issue of game boxes not always being centered in the game cover area.

-[GUI] Implemented new font caching mechanism to speed up font operations, greatly increasing GUI performance
-[GUI] Fixed issue with fonts sometimes not loading language specific unicode characters (Portugese, French, Norwegian, etc)
-[GUI] Added new textbox control with scrollable areas
-[GUI] Changed game browser layout
-[GUI] Added country flags and other icons to game browser
-[GUI] Added Reviews/cheats/trivia sections, they are automatically filled in with data from the server allowing dynamic content and user participation
-[GUI] Increased size of 3D game box area and added screenshot section above it
-[GUI] Can now download game covers for any game with a single click within RetroCopy
-[GUI] .GAME conversion and Directory Browsing now happen in another thread
-[GUI] Added more information to the .GAME conversion window
-[GUI] Changed the way windows are removed to cleanup code dealing with window management
-[GUI] Added .GAME filtering, filter by country, name, year released, cooperative, single player, etc
-[GUI] Added .GAME grouping options. Now can group similar games (ie Sonic USA / JAP / EUR / v1 / v2) so you can more easily select the game you want without clutter
-[GUI] Some buttons now change to reflect custom button mappings assigned to them
-[GUI] Can now select the system you want to use without scrolling through all of them

-[WEB] http://www.retrocopy.com/games.aspx - Online database added

-[INPUT] Added "reset to default" button
-[INPUT] Keyboard mapping now is relevant to your specific mapping (QWERTY, DVORAK, etc)
-[INPUT] Now reset global input state before testing user input on config page. Fixes broken input drivers that send fake/incorrect commands on startup (DKT70)
-[INPUT] Now use directinput instead of MMapi.
-[INPUT] Upgraded joystick config to allow upto 32 axis, 8 hats and 64 buttons
-[INPUT] Added joystick info page that shows in real time the status of all controllers connected, including their current axis values, button values and hat directions.
-[INPUT] Added more configurable commands such as 3D movement, use, turn off, etc

RetroCopy v0.666B has been released. The biggest addition in this version is accurate Sega Genesis / Megadrive emulation.

If you are an emulator related site could you please link to the individual emulator pages for RetroCopy if you put it in any categories :-

http://www.retrocopy.com/sega-genesis.aspx - Sega Genesis / Megadrive Emulator
http://www.retrocopy.com/nes.aspx - Nintendo Emulator
http://www.retrocopy.com/sms.aspx - Sega Master System Emulator
http://www.retrocopy.com/gamegear.aspx - GameGear Emulator
http://www.retrocopy.com/arcade.aspx - Arcade Emulator




Here is what's new :-

-[EMU] Added accurate Sega Genesis / Megadrive emulation. It should be the most accurate Genesis emulator available as it is nearly completely cycle accurate. Features include crisp stereo sound emulation, gameplay rewind, Sega Virtua Processor (SVP used in Virtua Racing), EEPROM, SRAM, accurate interlace emulation (Sonic 2 - 2 player mode). Takes advantage of 64bit (x64) CPUs. More details here :- http://www.retrocopy.com/sega-genesis.aspx

-[EMU] Added cycle accurate stereo sound to gamegear. Used by Outrun, Aleste, Galaga, Woody Pop, Xmen etc
-[GUI] Mouse cursor now disappears after 3 seconds of inactivity so it's not obscuring gameplay
-[CORE] Added option that lets RetroCopy manage how CPU cores are used. Useful for some AMD systems running on Windows XP if they have timing problems
-[CORE] Fixed memory leak in game loading
-[SOUND] Changed the ingame "fullscreen" to Stereo sound. The 3D world still uses mono as the TV's don't have two separate virtual speakers for the sound to come from yet.
-[SOUND] Fixed bug which could cause glitches in the sound on some systems

RetroCopy v0.500B has been released. Lots of new things in this release.

If you are an emulator related site could you please link to the individual emulator pages for RetroCopy if you put it in any categories :-


http://www.retrocopy.com/nes.aspx - Nintendo Emulator
http://www.retrocopy.com/sms.aspx - Sega Master System Emulator
http://www.retrocopy.com/gamegear.aspx - GameGear Emulator
http://www.retrocopy.com/arcade.aspx - Arcade Emulator



Here is what's new :-


-[EMU] Added cycle accurate Game Gear emulation
-[EMU] Added multiplayer support (same machine) to NES, SEGA-E arcade and SMS drivers.
-[EMU] Fixed bug in NES PPU that was causing crashes for certain games upon loadup
-[EMU] Fixed a fews bug in NES APU that were causing slight issues with sound generation when DMC was used
-[EMU] Added korean mapper to SMS and corrected a few CodeMaster mapper games
-[EMU] Cleaned up the SMSVDP core (used by SMS, Gamegear and SEGA-E arcade cores) and made it more accurate using the new information found about the TMS9918 graphics processor.

-[CORE] Can now select whether to start playing on the emulated 3D television or in "fullscreen mode"
-[CORE] Added configurable input, you can now change every input to whatever you want including using key modifiers like SHIFT, ALT, etc.
-[CORE] Added joystick/joypad support. Up to 4 joysticks/joypads plugged in at once are supported.
-[CORE] Fixed issue with ENTER or SPACE causing the menu buttons to be pushed if you had focused a button while playing a game
-[CORE] Replaced most of boost::filesystem with own disk layer functions to reduce exception handling
-[CORE] Changed file functions to morph any "indirect" paths to a full path name to resolve any issues with working directory being set to something other than the RetroCopy directory
-[CORE] Added texture cache
-[CORE] Moved all system specific dat files to a dat subfolder to reduce main directory clutter
-[CORE] Added the emulator benchmark ROM internally into RetroCopy to avoid issues with not having the file
-[CORE] Can now run RetroCopy in a window on your desktop or fullscreen (default).
-[CORE] Every option is now saved in a config file
-[CORE] Now convert "unknown games" in the directory to a default GAME file so that they can possibly be played if valid
-[CORE] Fixed a few issues with GAME conversion, made it more reliable

-[3D] Added new 3D furniture into the Virtual Game Room
-[3D] Added a new 3D TV, it is more modern and has a widescreen aspect ratio to give more options for playing games accurately
-[3D] Added game gear 3D model upon which you can play games on. Even has a semi accurate LCD flicker effect.
-[3D] Changed shader code to only allow 5 active lights to improve performance.
-[3D] Fixed issue with camera tilting on Y axis after entering game room
-[3D] Added antialiasing and VSYNC options
-[3D] Fixed possible bug that may have detected shader capable cards when they didn't support all features needed

-[AUDIO] Can now change sample rate up to 192000Hz for those seeking insane audio quality. Minimum allowed is 22050Hz which gives a tiny speed boost over the default of 44100Hz.

-[GUI] Tweaked the 3D game browser to make it easier to use
-[GUI] Fixed a very random crash bug that was caused by scrollbars not being properly initialized in some instances
-[GUI] Now show a 3D arcade machine in the area gameboxes go when viewing the arcade games since they don't have gameboxes
-[GUI] Changed the theme of some buttons/windows to make a more cohesive looking interface
-[GUI] Added an animation effect when switching areas within RetroCopy
-[GUI] Added a random message generator on the main part of the interface that shows "witty" slogans.
-[GUI] Added login panel

RetroCopy v0.400B has been released. This one has a lot of major additions.

If you are an emulator related site please link to the individual emulator pages for RetroCopy :-

http://www.retrocopy.com/sms.aspx for the Sega Master System emulation
http://www.retrocopy.com/nes.aspx for Nintendo emulation
http://www.retrocopy.com/arcade.aspx for Arcade emulation



-[EMU] Added Sega System E arcade emulation. The first cycle accurate Sega System E arcade emulator. It's more accurate than MAME and sounds better!
-[EMU] Added new YM2413 (SMS sound chip) emulator which sounds a lot better than old one
-[EMU] Improved SMS/SEGAE VDP performance by 40%
-[EMU] Improved Z80 emulator performance by 20%
-[EMU] Changed the way the YM2413 and SMS-SN79489 were emulated in comparison to other components. They are now accurate to the cycle in line with the Z80/VDP rather than being slave devices, this comes at a small cost in performance but is less cluttered
-[EMU] Fixed SN79489 bug where data byte wasn't correctly setting noise channel low bits and a bug with noise channel using incorrect period when set to TONE2 mode
-[EMU] Fixed various bugs relating to border emulation in the SMS VDP
-[EMU] Added TMS9918 chaining to the SMSVDP
-[EMU] Switched default NES buttons around to match real control pad (NIKOLA)
-[EMU] Fixed a few bugs in the Z80 core relating to undocumented instructions that the SEGA E games used
-[EMU] Refactored every emulator core and implemented versionized save states in preparation for disk loading/saving

-[CORE] Added an emulator benchmark. Allows you to see how many millions of emulated cycles your system can push. The latest CPUs are getting close to 150 million emulated cycles in RetroCopy now!
-[CORE] Implemented new GAME ROM format based on suggestions from users. Now each GAME file can have multiple ROMs inside it, each with their own settings. Works for every system whether console or arcade and achieves compression ratios 20:1 and over in some cases over plain ROM data. There are too many new GAME features added to list here so check my blog for more details.
-[CORE] RetroCopy now automatically converts SMS/NES/ARCADE ROMs it detects to new GAME format on first load, no more trouble with conversion as it's seamless
-[CORE] Added graphics filters SCALE2x / SCALE4x / SCALE4x with scanlines, they run in a separate thread to maximize performance on multicore CPUs.
-[CORE] Added pixel filter and made it the default when fullscreen. Can switch between this and linear filtering with all the filters
-[CORE] Added ability for cores to specify video rotations if necessary for arcade games, like those in the sit down cocktail format
-[CORE] Fixed bug that stopped fast forward working
-[CORE] Fixed crash bug for people with old or non existant OpenGL based hardware. RetroCopy now works in the Microsoft "Software" renderer though hardware accelleration is a lot better.
-[CORE] Stopped SDL from dynamically creating some text files (stderr.txt and stdout.txt)

-[3D] Tweaked the pixel shaders a little bit to give a better lighting effect
-[3D] Fixed an issue with mouse view movement giving variable results depending upon the framerate

-[GUI] When clicking on PLAY GAMES the default is now looking at a game list with a 3D TV already selected, rather than having to first select a 3D TV to play on
-[GUI] Changed around the "in game" menu buttons and mode a more distinct difference between the 3D world and playing games
-[GUI] Added a different way to roam the virtual 3D game room using the mouse scroll buttons (Tommy)
-[GUI} Added UNICODE (UTF-8 externally, UTF-16/32 internally) support to the GUI, though none of the current fonts support the more exotic languages.
-[GUI] Changed GUI to accept resource image/cursor data as a per project setting
-[GUI] Added more cursor modes to give some feedback to the user
-[GUI] Added features to listview such as in place editing, indenting, etc
-[GUI] Fixed some small bugs in the software renderer
-[GUI] Added YEAR RELEASED and NUMBER OF PLAYERS to the game display list, taken from the GAME file.
-[GUI] Now up to six 3D game covers can be loaded when you click on a game
-[GUI] Increased size of 3D gamebox window to fit in more 3D boxes at once
-[GUI] Added new Sega Master System 3D gamebox which is a lot more accurate and based on real world dimensions
-[GUI] Added shader based lighting to the 3D Gameboxes (if capable) which makes them near photo-realistic now.
-[GUI] Changed the way you select to play SMS games. Now you select the console you want (SMS2 PAL, JAPANESE SMS, MARK III, SMS1 NTSC, etc) instead of selecting the video/region settings manually. There are slight differences in each console and RetroCopy emulates them for accuracy
-[GUI] Implemented keyboard navigation and searching within listview contents
-[GUI] Improved the game select screen and added some icons

-[GAMEDB] Wrote a completely new GAME database editor in the RetroCopy GUI code. If you want to help with becoming a GAME ROM database maintainer for the NES/SMS/etc please contact me.

RetroCopy v0.300B has been released. This one has quite a few major additions.



Here is what's new
[quote]
-Added cycle accurate NES emulation. Not perfect yet but most USA mappers have been added and most USA games work. Import your NES games to the .GAME format the same way you do for the SMS games.
-Added 3D virtual game room with dynamic pixel lighting and 3D sound. Select a TV to play on and load a game. Automatic detection of modern cards should still allow old 3D cards to run RetroCopy
-Allowed multiple systems to be run at same time which required reworking the main emulator thread
-Reduced EXE size by removing some unused visual assets from RetroCopy like the old 2D TV
-Added new camera class that has a lot more functionality and improved view of the 3D world
-Fixed bug in sound core which forced all cores to use same output buffer resulting in distortion with multiple games
-Moved sound to its own thread to offload 3D sound and general audio processing from the emulator thread
-Fixed bug in SMSVDP v1 where SMSVDP2 video modes were allowed
-Fixed bug in SMSVDP v1 with the last 4 sprites only being zoomed vertically
-Added .3DS loader and got rid of the milkshape 3d loader because the model format breaks often. Now specular lighting and other effects are better
-Improved movement in 3D world by increasing speed and ensuring framerate has no effect on precision. Also simulated popular FPS games like CounterStrike with left shift allowing slower movement in the 3D world
-Fixed bug which allowed you to zoom into the middle of the 3D game boxes
-Fixed bug in audio not being completed reversed when rewinding, Sound quality is now much improved when rewinding
-Added mipmaps to 3D modes which generally increases quality. If you have a card capable of Anisotropic filtering it will be enabled by default which further increases quality
-Reworked ROM browsing/loading interface. Now you have to select a TV before the ROM browser appears. It is now also shown transparently over the virtual gameroom[/quote]

v0.200b of RetroCopy has been released! Here is what is new :-

-Added 3D TV to replace old 2D TV, with phosphor glow emulation and curved screen for real 80s gaming.
-Added 3D world which can be moved around in when viewing the games in windowed mode. Press F3 to switch between 3D movement and GUI movement
-Added cycle accurate TMS9918 MODE2 emulation to the SMS VDP. Games like F-16 Fighter use it
-Added version label inside program so it's obvious what version you are running
-Fixed issue with background image not filling up entire display if resolution was over 1680 x 1050
-Fixed emulation thread appearing to "hang" that happened when CPU usage was high
-Scrollbar buttons now work
-Removed the .GAME extension in rom browser
-Forgot to call glFinish before swapping buffers, leading to a one frame delay which was noticable when VSYNC was enabled


And here is a video showing some off some of the new features.

Finally the first build of RetroCopy has gone public. You can grab it off the download page. Unfortunately NES isn't included in this build, but it will be back soon.

The RetroCopy website is operational. There are still a few tweaks to be made here and there, so if you spot anything please post it on the forum.