Amstrad CPC on the DS

[Nige Rideout]

A new Amstrad CPC emulator has arrived on the ds and it's real good. 

https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/SugarDS

[Mark_wllms]

Fantastic news!

How does it compare to AmeDS?

[Nige Rideout]

So much better. You won't regret downloading it

[Mark_wllms]

Exciting. I was just playing Head Over Heels on my DS yesterday!

[Nige Rideout]

A new update is being today 0.8

[genesis8]

Hi,

Nice to see another emulator for the DS/DSi, I will have to take time to try it.

One question, your save/load state feature is something different than the snapshot format which is already supported ?

I wrote about it on my Amstrad web site.

[genesis8]

V0.9 is available

[Mark_wllms]

And now v1.0

[wavemotion-dave]

Greetings Programs!

I'm actually the developer of SugarDS. Nigel is a friend of mine.

I've worked hard on SugarDS - having slept with the CRTC Compendium [v1.8] under my virtual pillow at night. Most games run quite well on the old DS/DSi handhelds - but there are still a few that I haven't got running yet. My emulation is accurate to about half-a-scanline... good enough for most games, but not for some of the really hard-hitting games that really rely on cycle-accurate emulation. But games like Prehistorik II and Super Cauldron work fine as do most of the original commercial releases and a large number of homebrews.  I have a section in the readme file with the half-dozen games that I have yet to get working.  Hardest thing to get right was the horizontal scrolling (of which I was only able to get 2-pixel accuracy ... so it's not quite as smooth as a real CPC machine but close enough for handheld use).

I've just released version 1.2 with some cleanup and minor timing improvements.  I hope people get some enjoyment from this... I've really enjoyed learning about the Amstrad CPC hardware!

https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/SugarDS

[McArti0]

Can you show what MODE 2 and MODE 1 look like?

[wavemotion-dave]

The DS/DSi only has 256 pixels horizontally so Mode 1 has to be compressed slightly (though if it's not using the full resolution it can be stretched back out somewhat). Still... Mode 1 fares pretty well on the little handheld. I also have two buffers and shift one by a half-pixel (yes, this is actually possible on DS hardware!) and blend them so to the eye, it fakes a reasonable looking screen.



Mode 2 is where things start to get very dicey for me. 640+ pixels compressed down to 256 looks pretty unreadable... so I have a 'Pan-and-Scan' mode which renders the pixels 1:1 but you must use the shoulder-buttons and/or the top of the touch-screen area (up by the Amstrad Logo) to pan-and-scan left/right to see the full screen. I use this while playing Orion Prime.



If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

[wavemotion-dave]

Hmmm... my pics didn't post that time. Let's try this again.

Mode 1:

You cannot view this attachment.

Mode 2:

You cannot view this attachment.

[dthrone]

I've got a 2DS (New) with Homebrew Launcher.  Is it possible to run this through there?  Explain to me like I'm five please  

[wavemotion-dave]

I've got a 2DS (New) with Homebrew Launcher.  Is it possible to run this through there?  Explain to me like I'm five please 

As I don't have a 2DS/3DS, nor have I ever used Homebrew Launcher... I'd also have to have it explained to me like I'm five

My understanding is that people have run all of my emulators (I have 11 of them now covering all manner of 8-bit systems) on the 2DS/3DS. But there are so many ways and means of doing so that it's beyond me. I specifically target the DS/DSi/XL/LL handhelds via an R4 card (flash card) or via Twilight Menu++ launcher (via SD card). I leave other possibilities up to the reader.

[iXien]

Kudos @wavemotion-dave . Your new CPC emulator rocks. 

I exclusively use CPC game patches on my GX4000 in CPR format, and it works perfectly.

Are you planning any other developments for Sugar CPC, such as Amstrad Plus support or vertical resizing to be able to play overscanned games like Arkanoid or Tempest  ?

[wavemotion-dave]

Are you planning any other developments for Sugar CPC, such as Amstrad Plus support or vertical resizing to be able to play overscanned games like Arkanoid or Tempest ?

Amstrad Plus support is on my list... but not immediately.

You can play overscanned games by scaling the screen. Use the L/R shoulder buttons with the d-pad to position (offset) or scale the screen. And make use of the PAN UP/DOWN feature by mapping those to some otherwise unused DS buttons... this will let you instantly pan the screen up/down briefly while you hold the button and it will smooth-scroll back into place. This works really well for games that have status/score at the very top/bottom where you can safely place it just off screen while you concentrate on the main playing area on the DS screen and then tap the PAN UP/DOWN button to get a glimpse of it.

And thanks for the kind words!!

[Shaun M. Neary]

Hey folks.
Only seeing this thread after @iXien informed me about this on another thread.

I'm really looking forward to checking this out on my 3DS XL with the bigger screen. I'm not a big plus guy so to be able to play Er*Bert and Bruce Lee on my 3DS XL should be fun. 

Will post up some photos when I get it up and running.

[iXien]

I can confirm that on the big screen of my DSi XL, it's already fabulous 

[iXien]

Are you planning any other developments for Sugar CPC, such as Amstrad Plus support or vertical resizing to be able to play overscanned games like Arkanoid or Tempest ?

Amstrad Plus support is on my list... but not immediately.
You can play overscanned games by scaling the screen. Use the L/R shoulder buttons with the d-pad to position (offset) or scale the screen. And make use of the PAN UP/DOWN feature by mapping those to some otherwise unused DS buttons... this will let you instantly pan the screen up/down briefly while you hold the button and it will smooth-scroll back into place. This works really well for games that have status/score at the very top/bottom where you can safely place it just off screen while you concentrate on the main playing area on the DS screen and then tap the PAN UP/DOWN button to get a glimpse of it.
And thanks for the kind words!!

A "bit" stretch, of course  But it's nice to be able to play it too

[Shaun M. Neary]

Well I guess I don't need to post anything. Thanks @iXien for saving me the trouble.

[iXien]

Well I guess I don't need to post anything. Thanks @iXien for saving me the trouble.

On the contrary, don't hesitate. It's always nice to see a CPC game working on a different system

[Shaun M. Neary]

Yeah it finally dawned on me that you're on a DSi XL. So I gots me a job to do!

[iXien]

I'm stuck on this thing  I really love the fact you play in full screen with no more border, thanks to the native 256x192 display  Look at Golden Axe, I can tell you it make a complete difference.

[Shaun M. Neary]

I'm done trying to post photos on this forum guys. It's not 2004 anymore, surely drag and drop should work without a crap load of errors?

Anyway. I have it working on my 3DS XL and loving it

[eto]

drag and drop should work without a crap load of errors

usually works for me