problemkaputt.github.io/snsnew.htm

no$sns release notes - <A HREF="sns.htm">back to no$sns page</A><P>
<PRE>
<B>21 Mar 2016 - no$sns v1.6</B>
* snes-cd: emulates snes-cd (requires SFX-100.BIN bios rom-image in BIOS folder)
  (supports .iso 920h bytes/sector or single track .cue/.bin 800h bytes/sector)
  (supports .iso with xa-adpcm and cd-da, .iso is without toc/track info though)
* snes-cd: magic floor snes-cd version - first ever snes-cd game released ever
* snes-cd: logs mechacon commands in debug message window
* help: added complete sfx-100 snes-cd specs (io, memory, bios, discs, etc.)
* help: added nintendo power flashcart details (many thanks to skaman and sanni)
* snapshots: added snapshot (savestate) feature, should work with most mappers
* nss/help: added workaround for DSP1 issues (thanks DogP) and CIC notes
* nss/help: added several details and CN4/CN5 pinouts (thanks DogP)
* help: added note on 3D glasses for Jim Power (pulfrich; dark/clear glasses)
* help: added more X-Band details (sega-source-based io map, bios functions)
* st018/speedup: switches ARM to pseudo-halt-state when arm-mainloop has no data
* st018/cartloader: allocates ST018 memory and loads 160K ST018.BIN (128K+32K)
* st018/emu: emulates st018 memory/io, imported ARM cpu engine (from no$gba)
* st018/help: added ARM cpu specs, and more details on ST018 memory/io/cmd's
* st018/disass: added ARM disassembler, getpc/setpc, 32bit valatcur, etc.
* sound: fixed max_mixer_buf_siz for PAL games (needs bigger buffer than NTSC)
* debug: updates data window during run (eventually allows to view RAM changes)
* debug: added Alt+A animate to all no$xxx emus (repeated trace; as gmb/gba/psx)
* debug: tracelog (for main cpu and apu cpu) (enabled in debug message window)
* debug: tty window scrollbar thumb tweaked to support more than 32767 lines
* debug: tty window optional buffer limit (1/10/100MB, with/without wrapping)
* msu1: added msu1 emulation, and removed it after getting accused of nitpicking
* sa1: implemented pixel-buffer-reading (used by Super Mario RPG upon level-up)
* sa1: bugfixed 2bpp-bitmap-to-bitplane-conversion and 4bpp-pixel-buffer-write
* help: added nss cartridge pinouts (thanx to martfrizb and hyarion and dogp)
* help: DSPn/ST010/S-DD1 clock sources (thanx markfrizb/overload/byuu/s.central)
* help: fixed timings in memory map (exchanged 2.68 and 3.58MHz) (thanks doppel)
* help: added notes on using ntsc-controllers on pal-consoles (pinouts chapter)
* gui: setup uses asia-compatible TabControl instead of unreliable PropertySheet

<B>30 Jul 2013 - no$sns v1.5</B>
* help: added note on starting multiple hdma's midframe in different scanlines
* bugfix: mirror SRAM from 700000h to F00000h, but NOT to F08000h (thanks byuu)
* midframe hdma: init "snes_hdma_not_pause_flgs" during vblank (super ghouls)
* help: cleaned up memory/dma chapters, added basic LoROM/HiROM mapping chapters
* emu: added support for rare LoROM games with more than 32K SRAM (eg. Dezaemon)
* help: added cx4 pinouts (thanks qwertymodo) and cx4 memory map (thanks byuu)
* commandline: looks in current directory before 'slot' directory (for lidnariq)
* video/zoom: fullscreen option (toggle via context menu; by right mouse button)
* video/zoom: software: supports odd ratios, mmx-based horizontal blur/resample
* video/zoom: opengl: SwapBuffers, SubImage2d, DblBuffer, PixFmtScoring, Speedup
* gui: created own help engine (instead of microcrap's suicidal windows .hlp)
* game window: displays current zoom factor in caption (during sizing)
* game window: optionally square pixels, or real PAL/NTSC pixel aspect ratios
* game window: allows free sizing (with snapping near N*100% zoom factors)
* sfcbox: removed dummy OSD font (real SFC-Box character set is dumped now)
* controls: divides snes-mouse resolution by game-window-zoom-factor
* icon: simplified snes button/logo icon, at 12x12,16x16,32x32,48x48 pix sizes
* help/emu: sfcbox: added io-port-mirrors and values for unknown/unused io-bits
* help/emu: sfcbox: osd character zoom, osd background/outline styles
* help/emu: sfcbox: cpu hd64180 traps (most) invalid hd64180 opcodes
* help/emu: gsu mirrors/openbus, gsu multiply speed, r15+irq on stop opcode
* a22i: added argonaut gsu assembler (via .argonaut and .native/.nocash syntax)
* emu: avoids break on nested event-handling within hdma (for buggy kof2000)
* cartloader: clips corrupt sram/xram/flash header values to reasonable sizes
* cartloader: fixed crash upon missing cx4 bios (thanks epguy35 for bugreport)
* help: added GSU-1 and GSU-2 pinouts (based on GSU schematics drawn by magno)
* help: added pinouts for SA-1 chip, BSX-FLASH connector, partial BSX-EXT port
* help: added MAD-R logic table+more MAD-1 details (thanks SkinnyV for dumping)
* help/emu: added some new nss details (vsync, mirrored/unused bits)
* help: added some new xband keyboard details (thanks to Benjamin Eriksson)
* help/emu: added copy-protected bootlegs (bitswap, constant, and alu/flipflop)
* help/emu: added super20hab (korean multicart with 20 small nes-port games)

<B>24 Oct 2012 - no$sns v1.4</B>
* freeware: currently all no$sns versions are free with and without donations
  still donations would be very welcome - http://nocash.emubase.de/donate.htm
  (expenses for software development are near zero, but there are some other
  small expenses; like buying bread and coffee and getting the rent paid)
* controls: emulates exertainment bicycle (analog gamepad for rpm/calories/etc.)
* nss: ignores PROM clk-egdes are PROM reset-release time (required for 5 games)
* nss: improved osd emulation (zoom/scroll/etc based on specs from datasheet)
* nss: added 5 new keys to nss-keys.zip (now contains keys for all 12 games)
* nss: fine-tuned osd charset resizing (charset is now dumped; thanks to DogP)
* magicnss/bsx/flr: cosmetic fixes for shading/dithering of the floor cells
* magicnss: added more OSD colors & lowercase text, removed unsupp. "$" symbol
* bugfix: don't mirror SRAM from 700000h to F00000h (especially for 4MB LoROM)
* debug: vram viewer shows vram tiles (with scrollbar for seeing all memory)
* debug: debug message window (allows character output via port 21FCh)
* debug: general-purpose 32bit 21MHz clock cycle counter (read via port 21FCh)
* a22i/help: fixed some nss-osd punctuation marks in both specs and assembler
* help: nss: added caution on ignored PROM clk-edges at PROM reset-relase time
* help: nss: osd specs from M50458 datasheet (thanks to DogP for datasheet)
* help: nss: added note on INST-ROM pins A13/A14 just wired to VCC (thanks DogP)
* help: exertainment: data packet transfer specs (rpm,miles,calories,etc.)
* help: exertainment: rs232 controller specs (thanks to byuu for chipset photo)
* gui: cursor+shift checks VK_LSHIFT/VK_RSHIFT (win XP doesn't support VK_SHIFT)

<B>14 Aug 2012 - no$sns v1.3</B>
* controls: auto-disables any joypads that use same port as newly enabled one
* controls: emulates four twin taps (with multitap; keyboard keys 1..8)
* controls: emulates barcode battler (paste from clipboard, or manual key-in)
* controls: emulates miracle piano (keyb only, not the undumped synthesizer)
* video: added support for directdraw4 and directdraw7 structures
* emu: emulates NSS (z80, osd, rtc, prom, eeprom, inst-rom, controls, etc)
* emu: added pachinko controller (via analog joypad y-axis forward)
* a22i: added directives for generating NSS inst-roms (see magicflr.zip)
* help: added full nintendo super system (arcade cabinet) (NSS) specs
* help: added specs on sunsoft pachinko controller, fixed barcode battler specs

<B>28 Apr 2012 - no$sns v1.2</B>
* emu: fixed APU-BIOS-clone (jump to FFC9) (thanks mic_)
* emu: fixed World Cup Striker APU wrap RAM:FFBF to ROM:FFC0 (thanks mic_)
* emu: fixed crash on loading US version of Exhaust Heat2 (thanks Karl-Heinz)
* emu: fixed spc700 flags upon rcl/rcr opcodes (axelay volume) (creaothceann)
* emu: fixed NMI (accidently triggered NMI twice in snestest) (creaothceann)
* emu: draws mode7/bg2 only if extbg=1 (Secret of Mana intro) (creaothceann)
* emu: emulates voice-kun, plus remote control (but CD player isn't emulated)
* emu: emulates sfcbox (with complete HD64180/DSP/GSU/OSD/RTC chipset)
* debug: prevents further apu-code execution (upon events) after breakpoints
* debug: added hd64180 disassembler (for sfcbox ATROM with BIOS\KROM1.BIN)
* loader: add support for now-reversed little-endian dsp/seta roms
* video: matched window-size to PAL/NTSC resolution (239 or 224 lines)
* video: rendering supports 8bpp,16bpp,24bpp,32bpp (instead 15bpp only)
* video: faster master-brighness changes (eg. cworld demo, donkey kong country)
* video: softzoom (instead StretchDIBits) (faster on hires-to-normal view)
* video: optional draw/stretching via opengl/directdraw (experimental/unstable)
* controls: emulates 5/8 player modes (multiplay5 aka multitap)
* controls: supports PC-joystick/gamepads, keyb/button redef for 8 players
* controls: removed automatic-mouse emulation (was more annoying than useful)
* controls: Backspace BS-key=Whoosh on notebooks (except XBAND and NTTDATA)
* controls: F10-key re-enables all sound/video layers (thanks road for idea)
* xboo: added "TEST" mode (requires jmp 7Exxxxh) (maps CART after short delay)
* cartlist: added progress-bar and cancel-button to the allcarts.log function
* help: fixed typo (changed "2130h.Bit6-7" to "Bit4-5") (thanks mic_)
* help: added note on ST018 being dumped and being ARM cpu
* help: added note on APU jump to FFC9 and RAM-to-ROM opcode wrap
* help: added notes on different sgb icd2 chip versions (thanks d4s)
* help: added some note on EXTBG in Mode7 (and EXTBG garbage in Mode0-6)
* help: added more or less complete sfcbox specs
* help: added controller mods chapter (snespad, shift-regs, 1mm pins)
* help: updated list of hires/interlace and offset-per-tile games (creaothceann)
* help: updated multitap & superscope game lists (thanks KungFuFurby)
* tested: donkey kong country PAL on 200MHz pentium: 230% speed at 5 fps
* tested: donkey kong country PAL on 200MHz pentium: 100% speed at 20 fps

<B>24 Feb 2012 - no$sns v1.1</B>
* same as no$sns v1.0, but with additional GSU and SA-1 coprocessor emulation

<B>24 Feb 2012 - no$sns v1.0</B>
* first release
</PRE><P>

<B>Before release</B><BR>
My first experience with the SNES has been in 1999, when I received a SNES
and a SGB, donated from Boris "bs" Schneider for researching SGB-related
things for my Gameboy emulator.
Some years later, in November 2006, I digged out that old SNES,
and actually started working on SNES emulation. The sequential access feature
of the WRAM chip made it extremly easy to upload test programs to the SNES
via simple parallel port cable.
And, at first glance, the 65C816 CPU looked simple: just some subtle
differences between real 6502, 65C816 in 6502 mode, 65C816 in 8bit mode, and
65C816 in 16bit modes, so I could just customize my 6502 emulation code...
Well, that subtle differences summed up, so after soon, I abandoned that idea,
and decided to write a new 65C816 core (almost) from scratch up.
The other problem back then has been a frustating lack of PPU/APU documention,
the existing docs have been extremely incomplete and many sentences sounded
like incorrect japanese-to-english translations (although, I think they were
typed-up from Nintendo's official english specs - which makes me wondering
how western companies ever managed to produce SNES games).
Anyways, after a handful of months, I gave up, and dropped the no$sns project.
Finally, in October 2010, I discovered Anomie's great docs, explaining
everthing including glitches about the PPU/APU in "real" english. This time,
nothing could stop me, and I continued working full-time until finally
releasing no$sns - I got a bit trapped by the add-ons, so, after all it took
until February 2012.
<BR>
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