"Let's make GD ROM emulation happen" Facebook group.

Can another gd-emu makers use such menu, or it's protocol is closed only for Duenan's GD-EMU?

 

I would love to see the GDEmu overcome completely the limitations with the folders names and amount in the future... If this could be possible...

 

I don't see it as a limitation - 9,999 folders are surely enough and most importantly if folders are not numbered then you will lose the disc swap and GDEmu is the only device at the moment that has it. So no AR, Gameshark, Codebreaker, Bootdisk or even D 2! Thanks to Madsheep and Neuroacid - preparing the SD card and menu are effortless too

 

so, each game(image) have to be stored in separate folder in sequential order of numbering? 1,2,3,4,...9999 ?
not supported sub-folders?, like each folder stores new amount of images?

 

01,02.....9999 no sub folders, each folder holds 1 game and you can't skip the folder numbers

 

ok, thanx. so if i miss order it will see only folders before missed one : 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9 -> 1,2,3,4

looks like it uses simple way of change current image/ disc in drive. no complex data exchange)))
unlike dreamshell reads fatfs(or raw sectors) to show dir/folders in path.

 

Just to make clear, I don't think this limitation makes the GDEmu worse, but I think could be super cool if the firmware could overcome this limitation, working as it is now with the folders using any name or amount... But it's just me saying it. I can't say if this could be possible. Anyway, I think the loader is pretty cool too... Like you said, that's thanx to Madsheep and Neuroacid's efforts. ^_^

 

New Update

* Added the new menu (Thanks to neuroacid)
* Game limit set to 999 by default but you can change it in the GDEMU_SD.ini file
* Some small corrections

Download: http://xxx.biskoto.gr/GDEMU_SD.rar

 

Way to go, madsheep!!

 

Something useful would be a way to display the firmware version somewhere, either in GDEMU SD Card Maker, or in GDmenu.
Is it something possible ?

 

maybe in the future this need to be a coop for deunan and neuroacid

@neuroacid
I am happy to see you back, can you tell us what are you cooking for the next release?
next time leave a note that you are alive

 

Probably not, I don't own a Saturn so I'm not very familiar with the system.
But taking a quick glance at the hardware documentation it seems possible
although maybe problematic to pass custom commands from the SH-2 to cd-rom block, with the way it seems to work.

I think that a possible implementation would be to use the cart port, as it seems it has direct access to the cd-rom subsystem.
Something that could work, would be flashing the firmware of an action replay cart with the menu itself, and running it from there.

I guess that for now, a very basic menu like the first version of the GDmenu, should be fairly easy to implement
you'd still need to use the switch to change disc but at least you would know which disc image is currently selected.

Anyway, maybe I'll get a Saturn down the road and tinker with it.

Mostly changes to the way it interacts with the gdemu, should make it faster to scroll through disc images and restore the wrap-around
which makes a big difference if you have 100+ disc images on your sd card.
If possible, some changes to the reset_goto function to work with the in-game soft reset when you return to the system menu.
Currently it only triggers on return to bios, so it's only useful if you have a reset switch.

Also I'm thinking about adding the ability to load custom cover art and play the audio tracks
but I haven't decided yet if those features are really necessary and worth it.

 

You should make a program where I can load up all the GDI images. Basicly the program seached 1 folder and sub folders for all the GDI images. Then allows you to pick the ones you want.
Once you select the ones you want, you press XFER and it takes all the GDI's you selected and puts them in folders 01-XXX in alphbetical order.

 

Isn't that basically MadSheep's program?

Anyhow, that shouldn't be too hard to implement in about any modern scripting language. I'd do it if only I had the time...

@MadSheep, I just tried your linux tool for making GDMENU list, works quite well thanks! Just add to replace the 1st_read.bin with the updated one and edit the ip.bin.

 

DONE!

@neuroacid
Background image change, fonts, font color, list position and UI customization in general is a nice idea

@Comp1demon
if the problem is the alphbetical order then i will try to add this to my app

 

Well, so it's not a real NO I hope you'll find time (and money) to get a Saturn and play with its codes. You've done a so good job on Dreamcast .

 

There is a Chinese group working on a flash interface to Saturn using the cart port. A member here (jhl) is working on one that plugs into the video card port. Deunan's Rhea of course replaces the disc drive.

While neuroacid and madsheep have been fanastic with their menu work on GDEMU, the current system isn't great. Having to rename all CDIs to disc.cdi is a pain, and forces you to eat up HDD space in case you wanted to adjust them afterwards. MNEMO's usage of USB flash drives (2TB capacity) I think is a better solution.

 

Thanks, that's VERY helpful!

I like what the author did, much easier to read now.

They even incorporated SWAT's clarifications for the G1-ATA that he posted in this thread!


This table will be very useful for those folks new to the thread who say "...could someone summarize all of this for me...I don't have time to read it all...!"

www.googledrive.com/host/0Byj31HzC9NxHVWxiTV90eWxOTTQ/

Thanks, anonymous author!

 

This list have some errors
Ex. Gdemu now have 9999 games limit
Also multy disc support is a problem for USB-GDROM even for the few games that haven't save support also true region free console can only be achieved by a BIOS mod

 

You can use madsheep's soft GDEMU SD CArd Maker to do this, it can set up your whole SD card in a few clic, and without having to rename anything.

EDIT : obviously, all the special features like Region Free or VGA should not be used.