Posted: 4/28/2014 6:08 AM
Post subject: Genesis debugging
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TheAxeMan
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Location: The FLOATING CASTLE
I am trying to figure out how some things work in a Genesis game. Are there any emulators with a good debugger? The Exodus emulator (http://www.exodusemulator.com/) seemed promising. Its authors are clearly great programmers who know the Genesis hardware inside out. It needs some work on usability though. The disassembly cannot be exported to a text file or searched and you cannot set breakpoints based on reading or writing to a certain address. There isn't even a frame advance, the hotkeys are not mappable and nothing is documented. Maybe I am just spoiled by FCEUX. So what does everyone use for debugging Genesis? Edit: Ah, you need to use active disassembly and save as asm. Should be good enough but I am still interested to see if there are any other options.
Posted: 4/28/2014 2:29 PM
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feos
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU
NES TAS of 2011
http://tasvideos.org/ReverseEngineering.html#Emulators Use Gens-rr r57shell mod :)
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Posted: 5/1/2014 6:49 AM
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martandelus
Player (64)
Joined: 4/17/2014
Posts: 69
Interesting topic this one, because genesis debugging seems to be quite difficult to do. I found exodus a way back, it appears to be the only one with real time memory editing capabilities, only drawback is that its amazingly slow. The only other way to mess around with the RAM values is to use hex editors, but i've found that to be a bit random, i hope exodus becomes faster in the future.
Nothing to fear but fear itself - Franklin D. Roosevelt
Posted: 5/1/2014 7:14 AM
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feos
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
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NES TAS of 2011
It's easy in Gens-rr and its branches (including the above mod). File -> Game Genie -> CODE -> "FF1234:0040" will virtually patch word $FF1234 to be 0x40. Note: the address must be to word (not FF1233 or FF1235) and the value word (not 40). Activate patches by leftclick, remove (in the mod) by rightclick. The only problem is that GG dialog can't hang open while emulating, but it can be fixed internally, if critical.
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Posted: 5/1/2014 6:35 PM
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feos
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
Joined: 4/17/2010
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NES TAS of 2011
Here's the fixed version. Game Genie dialog floats around as long as you want, not pausing emulation. Also, sound gets cleared on breakpoints. http://feos-tas.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/Misc/Gens-Debug-GG.7z
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Posted: 5/4/2014 12:22 PM
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martandelus
Player (64)
Joined: 4/17/2014
Posts: 69
much appreciated for the link, i'll be checking this out at some point for sure
Nothing to fear but fear itself - Franklin D. Roosevelt
Posted: 5/9/2014 6:18 PM
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feos
Site Admin, Skilled player (1236)
Joined: 4/17/2010
Posts: 11274
Location: RU
NES TAS of 2011
That, and many other fixes were added to the mod: http://elektropage.ru/programs/Gens_r57shell_mod.7z
Warning: When making decisions, I try to collect as much data as possible before actually deciding. I try to abstract away and see the principles behind real world events and people's opinions. I try to generalize them and turn into something clear and reusable. I hate depending on unpredictable and having to make lottery guesses. Any problem can be solved by systems thinking and acting.
Posted: 7/19/2014 6:00 AM
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martandelus
Player (64)
Joined: 4/17/2014
Posts: 69
totally forgot to reply, much apology for late ones, which is kind of funny now i think of it, forgot about that branch of gens, feedback was much appreciated, its always fun to see how things tick. exodus seems to be and up and coming also
Nothing to fear but fear itself - Franklin D. Roosevelt