DS emulator for the PC: No$gba 2.5

It’s been a very long time since we’ve heard from Martin, the German dev you guys may remember for creating the No$gba v2.3 programming tool for professional developers. In case you’re wondering what martin’s been up to, we’re happy to report that he’s recently finished work on No$gba v2.5.

As a point of clarification, this particular freeware release is for the gamer’s version of the emulator. It will allow PC owners to run DS games on their computer. Take note, we strongly advise would-be users to view the included file readme for installation and usage instructions.

On a last note, if you happen to be a programmer, you may want to read up on the No$gba debug version that Martin’s working on. That particular build – and No$gBA’s full changelog –  can be read up on at the dev’s main site, via the source link we provided for below.

Download: No$gba v2.5 freeware release

Check out the full changelog behind the Full Article link!

It’s been a very long time since we’ve heard from Martin, the German dev you guys may remember for creating the No$gba v2.3 programming tool for professional developers. In case you’re wondering what martin’s been up to, we’re happy to report that he’s recently finished work on No$gba v2.5.

As a point of clarification, this particular freeware release is for the gamer’s version of the emulator. It will allow PC owners to run DS games on their computer. Here’s a sample of the emulator’s latest changelog:

• help: updated gbatek standalone version 2.5 (about one hundred news since 2.3)
• vram viewer: supports extended palettes in bg map windows (eg. magnetica demo)
• nds/help: added ds 3d overview chapter (basics on geometry/rendering engines)
• nds/help: added ds technical data chapter (containing some basic overview)
• nds/help: replaced ds various chapter by new ds memory control/timing chapter
• nds/sound: fixed major unreported bug in 80×86 code sound_bias SWI function
• nds/3d/help: corrected shininess formula (ie. fixed that max cos 2 angle mess)
• nds/3d/help: added caution: specular reflection WON’T WORK on camera rotation
• nds/3d/help: maths basics of vector-by-vector multiply (and purposes thereof)
• nds/3d/softlight: allows light+color nonsense double def (eg castlevania clip)
• nds/3d/softlight: much better light-accuracy, and now supports shininess_table
• nds/3d/softlight: lighting fully calculated by software (without opengl light)
• nds/timing: split timings for nds7 (fast access) and trashy nds9 (slow access)
• nds/timing: split addr_clks_table to CODE/DATA addr_clkc_table/addr_clkd_table
• nds/timing: emulates “half” cycles on 66MHz/nds9 (tcm/cache and n32/2 thumb)
• nds/timing: emulates nds7 exmemstat gba-slot timing bits (like nds9 exmemcnt)
• nds/timing/help: added detailed/tested nds7/nds9 code/data memory-timing chart
• nds/timing/cache: allows more CPU load on bios/mainram when cache is enabled
• nds/timing: emulates shared N32 access time for two NDS9 thumb 16bit opcodes
• cpu/speedup: precalculates opcode-timings on interseg-jumps (usually faster)
• cpu/speedup: faster conditional opcode handling (maybe yet another 3% faster)
• cpu/speedup: thumb: uses 16bit reads (3% faster on non-32bit-aligned addr’s)
• cpu/speedup: replaced dumb jmp exec_opcode by exec_opcode_mac (ca. 10% faster)
• cpu/speedup: added more code alignments in cpu-core (not significantly faster)
• nds/help: added note that 66MHz-nds9 actually runs MUCH SLOWER than 33MHz-nds7
• nds/cpu: emulates superslow nds9 memory access time (bios,wram,vram,oam,etc)
• nds/cpu: emulates operand-independend ARM9 multiply time (eg. slow thumb time)
• nds/wram: emulates wramcnt mapping (no idea if it’s used by any games though)
• nds/3d: adjusted z-rounding (avoid opengl-clip-plane in club house games demo)
• cpu: emulates cp15-trace-id, debug: disass auto-comments on trace-id and bist
• nds/help: fixed key1 [scratch] writeback lsw/msw are exchanged (thanks simon)
• nds/help: cp15 info on trace-id, bist, cache debug/test, supported cache cmds
• cheat: fixed occassional crash on delete cheat (push/pop) (thanks Hiei Youkai)
• thanks: rockmanrotties for submarine (timing) and clubhouse (clip) bugreports

We strongly advise would-be users to view the included file readme for installation and usage instructions. On a last note, if you happen to be a programmer, you may want to read up on the No$gba debug version that Martin’s working on. That particular build – and No$gBA’s full changelog –  can be read up on at the dev’s main site, via the source link we provided for below.

Download: No$gba v2.5 freeware release

Via Martin