[PMS] GPSP – Game Boy Advance emulation on PSP

My first contact with the original Game Boy Advance took place in 2002, when I bought it for my younger brother as a gift from my exchange semester in France. I remembered how much fun we used to have with the original Game Boy and I wanted to give him the best there was. Unfortunately, I didn’t have that much money, so I only bought two games to accompany the console, namely Castlevania and Doom.

To put things in proportion – in 2002 portable console with 16bits of power and color screen was really cutting edge. At that time Doom on a portable gaming console seemed something so technologically advanced that my non-gamer buddy who studied electronics at the time came to just watch me playing it and was in awe.

The gift met with a lot of cheering, as the recollections of both of us wasting long hours on playing the original gray Game Boy were still relatively fresh. And indeed, for the next year or so, before the charm finally wore off, Game Boy Advance has given us both a ton of fun. Castlevania, Doom, Golden Sun, Final Fantasy Tactics, Advance Wars, Fire Emblem – the gameplay of these titles was simply brilliant, sheer fun lasting for hours. It does say something about both games and the console that my best memories of summer 2002 were those spent tucked in the armchair in the corner of the room with Game Boy Advance and a copy of Advance Wars.

Fast forward to 2005, when PSP’s technological prowess seemed almost as if some impossible technological dream materialized on our eyes. Barely three years later after playing Doom on a handheld seemed like a triumph of science (okay, in service of entertainment, but still). It is a shame that this powerhouse did not have a software lineup to follow. But I digress.

Back on topic, you will be happy to hear that Game Boy Advance emulation on PSP is spot on. The only problem is that there is quite a bunch of GBA emulators, most of them abandoned in development, so it’s a bit hard to chose the right one. The best emulator I have found so far is Unofficial GPSP 3.2 Test 8.7 (that is a long name indeed), which I’ve found through comments below this post.

I’ve tried a couple of other emus just for fun, but the gentleman who recommended this version to me in comments was right – it is the best. There’s plenty of options, speed of emulation is excellent, no problems at all. Performance-wise, I have to admit that there are a few titles that slow down a bit at times or lose a couple of frames (this is most noticeable in Golden Sun’s quasi-3D fighting sequences). The vast majority of GBA games, however, runs flawlessly and even those that stutter a little in some sequences are very playable with minor frameskip.

Overall, PSP is giving Game Boy Advance game their well deserved second youth… or maybe third, not sure, Game Boy Advance SP might be considered their second youth… also, there’s Nintendo DS, so it would be fourth youth… and then DS Lite… okay, now this becomes Monty Python sketch, I think I’ll just scratch this line.

Thanks to wonderful PSP screen combined with aliasing effect provided by scaling up GBA games to fit it, these classics look better than ever. Playing Castlevania: Circle of the Moon on PSP made me realize how colourful this game really was the way its creators intended it to be – on original Game Boy Advance’s non-backlit screen it was so dark that player could barely see what was happening. I actually remember reading somewhere that development kits for Game Boy Advance were much brighter, which is why Castlevania turned out too dark on regular GBAs. Sure, it was building dark ambiance, but made this game virtually unplayable if perfect lightning conditions were not available. On PSP screen the colours are vibrant and vivid and game looks better then I remembered it from my first playthrough.

Same goes for other Game Boy Advance titles – they look great, their gameplay is as engrossing as ever plus there are all the perks of using the emulator, such as save states for example. Overall verdict is that emulation of Game Boy Advance on PSP is just great, allowing PSP users to effectively carry in their pockets two consoles in one. Two thumbs up for this incest relationship between Sony and Nintendo

[PMS] Game Boy Classic emulation on PSP.

What better way to celebrate the Game Boy twentienth birthday than write about how it can live on in the depths of our PSPs?

I think the fact that the third post on this blog was on Game Boy emulation goes to show how dear this platform was to me. In a sense, it still is, although I am not really playing it recently, except for rare attacks of retro-nostalgia. But at the time, it was really a coveted item, ever since I first saw it in the hands of redhead girl gaming at the lakeshore. Couple years later, when we could afford this kind of thing, my parents made the most cruel move by buying Game Boy to my younger brother. I am not sure you realise the deviousness of their plan – the control over the best toy in the house was in the hands of the youngest sibling, thus giving him incredible power over his older brother. My, was that a painful experience.

With Game Boy Classic, we have three choices of emulators on PSP: MasterBoy, Rin and aforementioned [e]mulator, each of them has some unique. Chronologically, Rin was the first one and even though it is not being developed anymore, it is a competent emulator. There is a choice of colour palettes, although none of them really floats my boat, there are different customization options – a good example of well-polished hombrew program. [e]mulator is much less configurable, but it offers Game Boy emulations as just one choice, the others being NES, Game Gear and other old 8bit machines of the era. My favourite GB emulator, however, is the one that was not out there yet when I was experimenting with emulating the gray box on the PSP for the first time: MasterBoy. It is actually so good that it deserves a separate paragraph.

The first distinguishing feature of MasterBoy is the ability to not only use general colour schemes (grey palette, green plette), but also have it colorize the games to make them look like their NES counterparts. This last sentence sounds a little strange, but the image above will serve as much better explanation.

The second great feature that I believe more emulators should include is the “rewind” option. Similar to Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time, player can rewind couple of last seconds of gameplay, thus avoiding death or just correcting the failed jump for a power-up. Taking into account how tricky and difficult some of these old games were, this is certainly a helpful feature for us, old gamers, with worsening eyesight and reflexes.

There is also an option to mirror levels, so even if you know Mario by heart, you can now rediscover it in reverse. The overall polish and attention to detail of this emulator is just plain incredible. It gets my wholehearted recommendation and even though its competitors are capable programs on their own, if I am to replay some Game Boy Classic classics (Mario II Golden Coins!), this is the way I want to do it.

Barts’ Short Bursts vol. 2 – from pr0n to chess

I do understand that some of you might puke due to excess of PSP emulation related notes recently, so for some distraction from PMS (PSP eMulation Series), here goes a burst of short news and not-so-news to keep those of you that don’t have a PSP yet out of misery.

First of all, new Saint’s Row 2 downloadable content pack, titled Ultor Exposed, will be starring porn star Tera Patrick. I have to admit having teenage crush on Tera Patrick – ever since seeing Forbidden Tales commercial in CD-Action magazine (don’t ask me how a porn ad got its way into a gaming magazine for teenagers, but it was there). Were it not for hardware requirements of Saint’s Row 2, this DLC would be my day one purchase. Don’t give me this funny look, I’ll rephrase it for you: Tera Patrick. In a game. Nerdgasm.

If you are a retro-freak (like me) and love point’n'click adventure games (unlike me), then this new will be your cup of tea: King’s Quest I, II and Hero Quest II remakes are available for free download from AGDInteractive webpage. I’ll pass, there are too many other things to play and do, but I believe some of you will be very happy to check this.

Before I gotten into computer games, I really enjoyed playing chess. Later on, in the busy times of my high school, studies and work, I only played it very occasionally, but I still prefer a game of chess to a game of cards. There is some elegance in this ancient game not found in poker or others based on chance, there is need to think, analyse, observe, plan and create tactics. There is also some psychology involved, but this part gets lost when playing against computer adversary, which is perhaps why I don’t play chess against computer – totally not knowing what it is thinking (also, I don’t like losing). And this is where Thinking Machine 4 comes into play.

This website allows player not only to play a round of chess online, but also to observe how the artificial inteligence is thinking, how it estimates the probabilty of possible variants and combination of moves. A fascinating spectacle unfold with every move, not only hinting the most probable scenarios, but also creating a pretty web of entangled lines visualising alternative futures. Read more about the project here, play your game here and you may also have a look at the post through which I believe I have found it.

[PMS] e[Mulator] & NesterJ – NES on PSP

Nintendo Entertainment System aka NES aka Famicon is probably the only retro-console that I have come in contact with as a kid, albeit unknowingly – a bit like Molière‘s Mr Jourdain, who didn’t know he was speaking prose all his life.

In early 90s in Poland there was a very popular console available called Pegasus, which I played at my buddies’ place and even almost bought on some occasion. Turns out, it was unauthorized hardware clone of NES (here you have a photo of it). Still, it was only long time later that I realised I have been playing NES games as a kid, just like my counterparts from more civilised countries, except I didn’t know about it. Seems like I was being covertly conditioned to be Nintendo fanboy – so covertly in fact that I didn’t realise, which is perhaps why it didn’t work.

Revisiting ye goode olde classics, I have now understood why NES was so immensely popular in its time and how it was possible for its clone to be popular in Poland even ten years later (and to hold up until now, actually): while simple, the games were very and I mean very playable. I have just finished playing Castlevania, Contra and Super Mario Bros and after all this time they still are fun to play. Somehow, graphical-wise they have not aged too badly either – I find their looks pleasent even today. However, take into account that I generally like pixel art, so perhaps I am not objective on this one.

If you are reading this, you must know this game…

As for emulating NES on PSP, nothing has changed during last two years. There are two emulators, NesterJ and e[mulator], that can be used and they will both do their job just fine. True, their last releases are from 2007 and 2006 respectively, but as it is sometimes the case, good software does not necessarily need to be incessantly updated.

NesterJ is user-friendly, runs smoothly and is feature-rich. Display can be customized not only with respect to size and ratio, but also colour palette, including a lovely retro sepia colour scheme. There is also great option of rewinding last couple of seconds of gameplay in Sands of Time manner – very useful in these oldschool games with killer difficulty. And if player knows their games by heart, there is also an option of mirroring game levels.

Compared to NesterJ, e[mulator] seems basic in its functions to the point of being primitive – there are only simple display and configuration options, nothing fancy. However, e[mulator] can be also used for emulating other systems, such as Gameboy, PCEngine, Sega Master System and more, good for those who don’t like having too many programs on their Memory Stick.

My personal choice and recommendation would be NesterJ, which is full of cool features and more customizable than e[mulator], but each of these homebrew programs will send you back in time to Famicon era in a comfortable seat. Whichever you chose, it will be a pleasant ride.

Also, while on the topic of the sweet 8bit console, remember that there’s a website with hundreds of NES games playable in browser window.

[PMS] PSPMO5 -Thomson MO5 on PSP

I never ever have come across Thomson computer, but it is one of the computers I wanted to have as a child. Not only was this French device totally unavailable in Poland, but also completely unknown, so how come?

The reason behind it was my parents had some old computer magazines from France and when I started showing interest in computers, they dug them out from the basement. In one of the magazines there was a commercial of the game for that machine, screenshots included – I literally spent hours staring at it and imagining how coll it would be to play this game. I am unable to find the exact version or scan of that commercial, but I have managed to find a similar one featuring same graphics. Voila:

The game in question was L’Aigle d’Or (Golden Eagle) and the computer was Thomson (even though above you can read Oric/Atmos). Now, for the sake of the PMS, I gave it a try twenty-something years later. Or at least I tried.

I used PSPMO5, Thomson MO5 emulator made by, can you guess it, our well-known buddy ZX-81. Unfortunately, this I was disappointed – the game did not load. I used different variants of autocompletion available, but I would always get some error. Since I have never used the machine and am too lazy to struggle with loading 8bit oldies too much, I wrote to ZX-81 with this question. Still waiting for the response, but it seems like there is something wrong with loading casette images (k7 files), as rom images load properly in the emulator, as other images would not load either.

All in all, I haven’t fallen in love with either emulator, game or Thomson itself, but at least I ventured into an unknown territory and brought you some amusement on my way back. Maybe you’ll have more luck with Thomson emulation.

[PMS] PSPVice – Commodore 64 on PSP

I am going to share one of my dirty little retro secrets here: I managed to live through 80s and 90s without coming into contact with Commodore 64 even once. Not sure how it is possible, seeing how widespread they were in Poland at the time, but it’s true. I have read about them in Bajtek, the most popular computer magazine of the era, but to me they were mystical creatures who existed in some other plane of reality.

I have actually learnt a lot about the machine when I started working as software developer in 2006, because one of my coworkers turned out to be ex-C64 coder. His stories on programming tricks possible on the small machine were incredible – coding assembler programs that would work in phase with TV screen’s moving electron beam in order to achieve more colours or higher resolution, or hacking graphics chip by sending carefully malformed commands in order to be able to access frame, a part of the screen unavailable through regular commands. No wonder that guy is tenfold better programmer than me – at the time, I was struggling with Basic on my Speccy.

But even though Commodore 64 was not the machine I would be very familiar with, it is one of the pillars of the 8-bit era, so of course I couldn’t let it slip when covering emulation on PSP. At first, I have given a try to PSPYape by ZX-81 (my default behaviour when trying to emulate anything 8bit), but for the first time in my life his creation failed me. I believe it is because this particular emulator has not been updated since 2007 and was trying to run it on custom firmware 5.00 M-33 5. If you can hear this, ZX-81, please update the program, s’il vous plait.

After some googling, I have found a working emulator: called PSPVice, it is a neat piece of homebrew that works on every firmware. There are different builds available on program’s website, so just chose the one for your particular PSP.

One of the most famous C64 titles of it era were Last Ninja and Giana Sisters, which I remember from stories of the old times. I gave these games a try and they were running great – plus they are still enjoyable to play. I haven’t seen any problems with emulation, but I admit my testing was not extensive. The only little annoyance was that saving screenshots didn’t work, which is why I am using the image from PSPVice website. There is an onscreen keyboard available and handy autcompletion mechanism that automates loading games for those of us who have no clue which command to use.

Out of curiosity, I tried running the superb Edge of Disgrace demo that I have written about recently, but apparently it is using Commodore 64′s hardware so extensively that PSPVice crashes. This often happens with demos pushing hardware to its limits, so it is not something that I would consider a drawback of the emulator.

All in all, PSPVice is a great emulator and does its job very well, so whether you want to go back to your childhood programming days or are curious why C-64 was almost a cult object for some, thanks to PSPVice your PSP is a good place to do it.

Update: It seems like PSPVice got updated recently, which makes it even better!

[PMS] Caprice – Amstrad CPC on PSP

I already wrote two posts on Amstrad CPC and how it all begin. Quote:

Long time before I actually got my first personal computer (we would call them microcomputers back then), which would be ZX Spectrum+, my sole contact with the emerging computer science would be to implore my Dad to take me to his work, where his friend, Mariusz Smoczyński, worked on Amstrad Schneider CPC 6128. Thus begins the tale of my digital fascination, born in the green light of the monochrome screen in the 8-bit times.

Not that much has changed since I wrote the above note. PSPCap32 by ZX-81, after some minor updates, is still the great Amstrad emulator on the PSP, bearing the mark of ZX-81 development skills – very easy to use (autocompletion of RUN command is a great feature), very fast and accurate and with the option that almost made me fall in love with this guy – enabling green monochrome display.

Side note: I simply LOVE monochrome displays. First of all, I am somewhat colour blind anyways, secondly, the colours in 8bit games were often atrocious, thirdly these monitors did hurt my eyes significantly less, especially green and my favourite amber ones (click here to see how it looked). I still am not 100% convinced we have made a good choice with this whole LCD thingy. End of side note.

Colours have some advantages, too…

Coming back to the topic of Amstrad emulation, there also exists another port of Caprice32 available for the PSP made by Akop, but this time PSPCap is my choice, mainly because I am more used to it (using for some two years now), but also because of facilitated loading of games.

By the way, what’s with these guys, do they compete in the emulation domain or what? Whatever the reason, the competition is always good for consumer and whichever flavour of Caprice you chose, you will have your gateway to Amstrad past opened wide.

[PMS] Fuse – ZX Spectrum on PSP

Being able to emulate ZX Spectrum on my PSP was one of its main selling points when I bought it in 2005, right in line with Amiga emulation. If you follow this blog then you know that ZX Spectrum was my first computer, that it influenced my life significantly and that I still love it. Hence it seems fitting to begin the series of posts on PSP emulation with Speccy, in symmetry with the course of events of my life.

Last time I mentioned ZX Spectrum emulation on PSP, the best emulator around was PSPectrum. When I write “the best“, I must add “in the absence of any competition“. Since it was written for 1.50 firmware, it had compatibility problems, meaning every time I felt like playing some Speccy game on the go I had to first run IR Shell and then run the emulator from there. The usability wasn’t perfect either, but I was willing to overlook it all since being able to carry the essence of my childhood in my pocket was a blast.

Fortunately, a new challenger has entered the ring and I am very pleased to say that it is a flawless emulator, about as perfect as it gets. Called Fuse, this homebrew program is a pleasure to use, featuring on-screen virtual keyboard, loading all types of Spectrum files, such as z80, tap and dsk files (contrary to aforementioned PSPectrum), allowing screenshots capture, as well as saving and loading of states. Additionally, it can emulate different models of Spectrum family, including its bastard children, such as Pentagon. This allows user to play enhanced versions of games for ZX Spectrum 128k such as Amaurote or even try Wolfenstein port I wrote about recently.

As a cherry on the cake, there is an option for monochrome display, which I immediately switched on – my first monitors were black and white monstrosities made in USSR, so I prefer playing Speccy games the same way I did twenty years ago.

My first game, presented in delightful shades of gray

To wrap this note up – this emulator sets a standard which all other emulators should try to aspire to. Fuse is the best way to experience ZX Spectrum on your PSP, period.

EDIT: Akop has just updated Fuse. I didn’t think there was anything that could be added, but apparently there’s a number of things that enhanced the emulator even further. Impressive.

Barts’ Short Bursts vol. 1 – a bit of everything

I really do need to find some more suitable title for this (such as Gnome’s Decker’s Delight Links or Bytejacker’s Indie Rapid Fire): there are so many things worth bringing to your attention and so little time to write about them. Therefore, I have decided to make posts with a compilation of interesting links and tidbits that don’t quite qulify for a full post, either due to my chronic lack of time or because they are just a small curiosity. Here goes the first bunch:

No country for old pigeons.

Owl Country is a little indie title that I have found on TIGSource, but can’t recall how. It’s just pure magic of teh internets, I guess. While the game itself is a bit of a one trick pony, it has a great intro, amusing gameplay mechanics and big game makers could learn a lot from its authors when it comes to creating atmosphere. Be sure to watch the awesome trailer !

A true classic

Other not-so-indie game that caught my attention is in making is a remake of a retro hit we all know and love: R-Type. Check the trailer here – notice how the player can switch between 2D and semi-3D view, really neat. Another game these guys are making is Lode Runner remake, which makes me instantly like them, even if their website looks like prepared by a ten year old with an outdated HTML book (their Facebook page is a bit better). Sadly, this game is going to be available only for Xbox 360.

Penny Arcade noticed the existence of Poland in their comic strip. I love PA and this one is quite funny, but I need to point out that syfy would rather mean spots (as in nasty case of acne) and syphilis would be commonly called syf, which also means something of low quality or not nice. Always a nitpicker, Barts is.

There are also two quite interesting flash games that I would like to recommend for your gaming pleasure – Virus 3 and Bloody Day Out. They are both about logical thinking and planning a couple of steps ahead. The first one involves infecting a system of geometrical shapes as a virus and requires carefulk planning to infect the whole level within designated moves limit. The second one is starrring a cute little Death cutting through fields of equally cute critters. The trouble is, Death is bleeding out while doing that, so player needs to plan their moves carefully. Bloody Day Out is an excellent time-waster ad I heartily recommand it.

Did you know you can play hundreds of NES games online? I didn’t, so when I first learnt about Virtual NES website, it cost me a good hour or so spent with Belmont, Mario and others. Also, contrary to abandonware sites (mostly illegal), the owners of the site have gone to great lengths to prove their website is legal. Definitely worth a look, especially for other retro freaks out there.

A portion of 8bit love

I somehow can’t quite quit the vicious 8bit circle I’ve fallen into recently, so bear with me for a little while, dear reader. Today I bring you a portion of lovely movies from 8-bit demoscene, some for my beloved ZX Spectrum, some for Commodore 64 and others, including a simple microcontroller (sic!).

It is just incredible what effects can be squeezed from these ancient and very limited machines. Forget about colour clash, forget about hardware limitations, just sit down and enjoy your ride. It’s actually hard to say which one I like most – of course I have a soft spot for anything running on Sir Clive‘s invention, but each and every of them is impressive. For this post I have finally chosen the one that was visually most impressive (sorry, I am a very shallow man and visual beauty gets me every time):

See the rest of the demos here.

[via GameSetWatch]