Post subject: A few questions regarding emulators, n64 games, and soft RST
Joined: 6/20/2006
Posts: 12
Savewarping is allowed. It is not that uncommon for the optimal route to contain several "SAVE + RESET", while there isn't really an option to reset the game (OoT, anyone?). On console, you'd hit the magical key combination for soft reset, after each save, problem solved. On emulator, you try the same, but nothing happens! -_-; This leads to the belief that the magical key combination isn't programmed into the game, but into the hardware. This makes sense, otherwise some rogue games might have tried to use a different key combination. How is it possible, then, that most games handle the soft reset different? Different ending animations, maybe a sound during the reset sequence that other games don't have, etc. My current proposal is that the hardware catches the magical sequence, and instead of sending the regular "key pressed" events to the game, it sends a "reset" event. I hope you're still with me? I'm probably talking a lot of crap right here. I have no idea how the emulators work, how N64 hardware works, what the basic game framework looks like, etc. It's just a hypothesis. I would like to ask the people that do know what's going on the following questions: * Do N64 games work with a message queue, and periodically receive input messages, system messages, and the like from the N64 hardware (to which they respond, and then work on the next message, if there is none, wait for the next)? * Do we know the above? If not, how do we find out? Are there debuggers and blabla available to go hunting for information? * Is it likely that the reset sequence is caught by the N64 hardware, and processed by sending the game a "RESET" message? * How do we locate the message loop, if such a thing exists, and more importantly, how do we send messages to it? If it does have one, the emulator should already be sending the game messages in one way or another, otherwise the game wouldn't be able to respond to input. * How is input information transferred to the game? * How do we find out what message is the "RESET" message? Do we already know? This is mainly guesswork and if someone could fill me in on the details I'd appreciate it very much. I don't know if anyone is working on a soft reset feature for emulators, if there are people working on it, who are you? Leave a message ^.- If there aren't, let's start working on it together right away.
Post subject: Re: A few questions regarding emulators, n64 games, and soft RST
Emulator Coder, Skilled player (1310)
Joined: 12/21/2004
Posts: 2687
KroNa wrote:
On emulator, you try the same, but nothing happens! -_-; This leads to the belief that the magical key combination isn't programmed into the game, but into the hardware.
Could you give some examples? I've never heard of the N64 having a magical reset combination, or any N64 game that can be reset with any combination of buttons (besides through a menu). The N64 has a combination to reset the analog position, but that's generally not emulated. The N64 game requests input from the hardware at (usually) regular intervals, which in the emulator translates to some function in a CPU loop calling a function in the input plugin which returns 32 bits that represent which buttons are being held down and where the analog stick is.
Player (206)
Joined: 5/29/2004
Posts: 5712
I don't know of any magical combination, but there is a Reset BUTTON on the console that should be emulated...
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Joined: 6/20/2006
Posts: 12
Sorry I confused GCN's soft reset and N64's soft reset. Is there an input flag for the reset button? What happens internally when you hit the reset button?
Joined: 1/21/2006
Posts: 117
Talking about the reset button on the consoles? Since the NES, they've all had a soft-reset the game can detect and even save values between (eg, Top Score in Super Mario Bros.)
Joined: 10/24/2005
Posts: 1080
Location: San Jose
MikeRS wrote:
Talking about the reset button on the consoles? Since the NES, they've all had a soft-reset the game can detect and even save values between (eg, Top Score in Super Mario Bros.)
Does the GBA's reset code count as a "soft reset"?
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