RockNES X a nintendo entertainment system (8-bit) emulator First release (version 1.0): March 9th, 2000 This release (version 2.0): April 14th, 2002 developed by Alexandre da Veiga original DOS version (RockNES) developed by Fx3 (fx3rnes@hotmail.com) www.rocknes.kinox.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INDEX 1. Disclaimer 2. Warning about bad dumps 3. Minimum Requirements 4. RockNES X description/features 5. Playing with RockNES X: the basics 6. Netplay 7. Optimizing the RockNES X performance 8. About the RockNES X development 9. The RockNES X History (development progress) 10. Special thanks ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. DISCLAIMER I am not affiliated with Nintendo or any other company, nor advocate the piracy of Nintendo games. This software is freeware, for absolutely non-commercial use. It may be distribute freely *as is* (non-modified). Commercial games cannot be packaged with this emulator. When you use this software you do so at your own risk. The author cannot be responsible for any loss or damage resulting from the use or misuse of this software. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. WARNING ABOUT BAD DUMPS (BAD ROMS) There are tons of bad dumps, most of them with incorrect information in its header. Use a tool that is able to recognize the rom content and fix its header. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS - Pentium MMX or greater processor - a 3D (Direct3D-compatible) videocard for 3D support - A DirectSound-compatible soundcard - Microsoft DIRECTX 8.1 (get it from www.microsoft.com/directx if you don't have it) - Windows 98/ME/2000/XP supported Netplay recommended requirements: - xDSL, cable or LAN connection ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. ROCKNES X DESCRIPTION/FEATURES This software is a Nintendo Entertainment System 8-bit (NES) emulator. This is the Windows version for the original RockNES developed for DOS (by fx3). What is emulated: - NES 2A03 CPU (by Metthey Conte); - NES 2C02 PPU emulation with scanline gfx engine; - NES I/O; - Sound emulation of all 5 channels: pulses, triangle, noise and PCM; - Video Palette, very close to real NES; - Color emphasis and monochrome mode; - WorkRAM (battery); - Accurate emulation of sprite #0 hits; - Accurate emulation of PPU I/O (pass ok in the test program). The following extra hardware is also emulated: - Konami's jap. VRCVI sound hardware emulation (used by Akumajou Densetsu/Madara); - VS Unisystem arcade machines (missing linked-system) in iNES format; - Famicom DiskSystem, emulated as mapper #20 (BIOS 'disksys.rom' required, must to be in the same directory of the RockNESX executable); - Mappers: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,13,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26, 32,33,34,40,41,42,43,44,57,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,75,76,78,79,83,85, 88,90,91,92,94,97,99,100,101,110,113,117,118,119,151,160,180,184,187,189,225, 226,227,228,229,230,231,232,233,234,235,240,243,246 and 255. Most of these 85 mappers have full support. These extra features are also provided: - NES Movies (record/play); - Save states; - NESticle saved state loading (partially supported); - Game Genie codes The X features: - Video at any resolution/color depth supported by the videocard - Full Screen and Windowed modes - Stretched video mode; - 256x224 alternate video mode; - Scanlines support; - Full 3D Hardware support (faster) - Joystick support; - Netplay support (TCP/IP, IPX, serial, modem), including remote savestate loading; - Screenshot support (video buffer and NES buffer modes); - SuperEAGLE, Super2xSai, 2xSai video filtering; - Command line support - ZIP file support About command line support: You can use ROCKNESX <romfile> to start a game from the prompt, or to create game shortcuts. About Zip support: The RockNES X loads the first NES file found in a .zip file. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. PLAYING WITH ROCKNES X: THE BASICS a) Configuring your ROMs path To load a ROM, you can simply use the menu option File->Open and Play ROM, choose a file and begin playing. Although, the preferred way is to tell RockNES X where your ROMs are located, so they you show up in the GUI every time you start the emulator. To do this, use the menu option Options->Folders and add the folders where your ROMs are located. You can also tell RockNES X to look for ROMs in the subfolders. Since the ROM names and locations are stored in a file (to allow the fast startup), use the menu option View->Refresh Game List when you change the location of a ROM file. b) Default Controls Player 1: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT - keyboard arrow keys A - 'X' key B - 'Z' key SELECT - Right Shift START - Enter During the emulation, the following keys are also available: ESC - Stop the emulation F1 - Show this list of keys F2 - Save a state in the current slot F3 - Increase the slot number Shift + F3 - Decrease the slot number F4 - Load a state from the current slot F5 - Reset (Soft Reset) F6 - FDS Disk Side Change F7 - FDS Disk Insert/Eject F9 - Start/Stop movie recording (using the current slot) F10 - Start/Stop movie playing (using the current slot) F11 - Toggle between full screen and windowed mode F12 - Take screenshot These commands are also available on the GUI (when using windowed mode). c) Configuration Use the options in the 'Options' menu to configure the video, audio and controllers. For performance tips, check out the 'Optimizing the RockNES X performance' section. note: the config file (rockconfig.dat) is created when you run RockNES X the first time or when it is in an older/invalid format. This file contains machine-specific information. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. NETPLAY a) To play a game using the netplay, both players must have the ROM file with the exact same name. The ZIP format is fully supported, so the following scenarios are allowed: [Player 1] - romname.nes [Player 2] - romname.nes [Player 1] - romname.nes [Player 2] - romname.zip [Player 1] - romname.zip [Player 2] - romname.nes [Player 1] - romname.zip [Player 2] - romname.zip b) To start a netplay game, use the option menu Netplay->Start. If you select to play as player 1, a netplay session will be started. The player 2 then have to connect to the player 2 machine to start a game: Playing as player 1: - Select 'play as player 1' and click 'Start'. The connection window will show up. Wait until the player 2 connects. Playing as player 2: - Select 'play as player 2' and click 'Start'. Enter the player 1's machine address when prompted. The connection window will show up. From this point, any player can invite the other player to start a game. The players can play many different games without having to repeat the process above. The netplay mode ends only when the menu option Netplay->Stop is selected. note: the emulation will run at the slowest machine's pace. c) About the netplay buffer This buffer may be usually set to a value a little bit higher than the ping value. The higher this value is the slower is the control response. Both players can change this value. d) Remote Loading The remote save state loading is supported by RockNES X. So, when you load a save state, it will be remotely sent to the remote player. This may take a while depending on the connection speed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. OPTIMIZING THE ROCKNES X PERFORMANCE a) Emulation Speed The RockNES X must run at 60 'emulation frames per second' at all times, so the games are emulated at the correct speed. The emulation is ONLY cpu-dependant, so any machine with a Pentium 200 or better processor should run the emulation at full speed. If this is not happening, try the following procedures: 1) If you are running Windows 2000/XP or above, go to Options->Advanced and set Emulation to 'Time Critical'. This setting will tell the emulator to run the emulation with the maximum precision. No relevant processing time is consumed doing this. This is not true for Windows ME or older systems, so try settings above the recommended value, but not too high. 2) The video rendering is so slow that it's requiring too many CPU processing. In this case, select a slower resolution, disable any video filtering or scanline support. Usually the video is faster using the 3D video hardware, so try it. As a last alternative, go to Options->Advanced and set the video setting to a lower value. b) Video The RockNES X video speed relies basically in the video driver/hardware. It will render as many frames as possible (at a maximum rate of 60 fps). Try different video modes to find out which ones are better handled by your videocard. For slower videocards, try 320x240x8 resolution. For faster (newer) videocards, the video should never be an issue, except when using video filtering, because this mode also uses a lot of cpu processing. c) Sound The default value for the sound buffer is 66 ms. This value is very conservative and should work with most sound cards. A...
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