29 January 2013

RetroArch Android 0.9.8 r5 (Jan 28, 2013) on a s5110

Hi!
   I´ve been testing this new multi emulator for the Android platform on the s5110 device. This emulator it´s in an early development stage and it´s not a valid one for the s5110:


    - Virtual on-screen controls must be disable after loading of any game It´s a bit annoying.
   - There are no configuration options available for any of the emulators
   - The GBA emulator is not as good as GameBoid. It lost frames and the sound is terrible.






   At least the RetroArch let´s you use the s5110 hardware keys out-of-the-box ;)


   BTW It´s good to have a new emulator in the Android scene!!!



UPDATE: The RetroArch developers are working on a faster GBA core. Great news!

25 January 2013

Android GameBoy Advance Emulation (using a s5110)

Hi!
   In this post I´ll test the available Android GameBoy Advance emulators. The test results may help you to decide which of them to use on your device.

   These are the emulators I´m testing:



  • GBA.emu v1.5.6



  
  • GameBoid v2.4.7 (not in the market anymore)

 
  •  My Boy! - GBA Emulator v1.1.16






  • VGBA - GameBoy Advance Emulator v3.9.36




    The entire tests are done in a JXD s5110 with Android 4.03 stock firmware.



  • Special characteristics
   Each of the emulators has different characteristics that may interest you. The most important are:
  • GBA.emu v1.5.6
      Additional controls: Wiimote, iCP, JS1 but NO sensor
      It has a "Benchmark Game" option but I really don´t know how it calculates the results.
      It has some display effects
  •  My Boy! - GBA Emulator v1.1.16
      Screenshot option menu.
      It lets you use the device sensor as a control device
      Cheats available
      Optionally you can use the GBA BIOS
  • GameBoid v2.4.7:
      Needs the GBA BIOS to run.You can put it (gba_bios.bin)  anywhere in your SD Card.
      No sound configuration
      No video filters available
      It lets you use the device sensor as a control device
      Cheats available
  • VGBA - GameBoy Advance Emulator v3.9.36
      Many screen filters
      May use 3D Hardware acceleration

   All the GBA games are being emulating at "maximum" quality (i.e. no frame skip, full screen with correct aspect ratio...) The test´s objective is to discover if the any of the four emulators can play GBA games in the s5110 at 100% full rate.

   And the tests results are
  1. GameBoid v2.4.7. Not perfect but very very close
  2. My Boy! - GBA Emulator v1.1.16. Lost frames and music isn´t perfect
  3. GBA.emu v1.5.6. Lost more frames and music is even worst than My Boy! emulator
  4. VGBA - GameBoy Advance Emulator v3.9.36. Not working! ¿Configuration problem? ¿Compatibility with s5110 ROM problem?

   PD: It´s annoying that a "dead" emulator as the GameBoid (it´s not on development anymore) wins hands down everyone!


   Let´s see the winner in action: GameBoid v2.4.7



21 January 2013

Xperia Play compatible emulators

These is a WIP list of Android emulators compatibles with the Xperia Play controls.


Arcade
   MAME4droid (0.37b5) v1.5.2
   MAME4droid Reloaded (0.139) v1.2.1 ( targeted to Dual-Core devices)
   Jrioni Arcade Full Version (paid) v3.2.0
   Tiger Arcade v4.0.0 Beta (with Ads, Final burn alpha romset)
   CPSEmu v1.4 (Capcom CPS2 emulator)   
   NEO.emu v1.5.6 (Neogeo arcade and home system emulator, romsets from MAME 0.144 or newer)
   Final Burn Alpha Android - aFBA v1.6 (support multiple systems, including Cave, Neo Geo, Sega System 16 (and similar), System 18, CPS-1, CPS-2, CPS-3, X-Board, Y-Board, Toaplan, Taito, Psikyo 68EC020 based hardware and misc boards)


Consoles
N64
   MupenPlus 64 AE v1.9


Handheld game Consoles
Game Boy Advance
   1.- GBAoid v2.4.7 (recomended) (¿Development sttoped?)
   2.- My Boy! GBA Emulator v1.1.16
   3.- GBA.emu v1.5.6
      - explusalpha.com


WIP

14 January 2013

Test: GigaTV Android HD620 T - No go :(

   I have the opportunity to test a nice Android 4.0 TDT device: the GigaTV Android HD620 T from tvtech.

   I wanted to play some emulators/Android games on it plugging an USB gamepad through any of its 3 USB connectors and watching it on a CRT Sony Trinitron 29".
   The idea was to connect the USB gamepad and with a "remapping" program use the gamepad to control emulators and Android games that aren´t programmed to recognize it. I had two programs to achieve this goal:

 


- Gamekeyboard 3.1.0







  - USB-BT JoyCenter 6.41





I connected my gamepad and the device recognized it automatically. It also let me use the gamepad sticks to move through system menus...cool.

Then I installed Gamekeyboard program and tried to run it. It didn´t detect my USB gamepad. After investigating the problem I realize that this program needs to change the active android input method to a new one added by the Gamekeyboard program.
This new method was unselectable :(...whatever I tried to activate it failed. So without activating this new method the program is useless.
The very same problem happened with  USB-BT JoyCenter :(.

So, why can´t I change the Android input method in this device? I still don´t know. This device is pre-rooted so no worries about that.
It´s a pity that I couldn´t get any far as this device seems quite impressive for its low prize.