HU-GO! PCE Emulator port for XBox v3



http://xport.xb-power.com



Put roms in \PCEROMS dir



"I'm not dead!"

"What?"

"Nothing here's your ninepence."

"I'm not dead!"

"'Ere - he says he's not dead!"

"Yes he is."

"I'm not!"



Well, it's been a verrrrry long time since I've done any developing on the XBox, 

but I got in the mood again a couple days ago and here is the result - a new

version of HU-GO with.....are you ready for this?  CD/SCD image emulation!



What's New:



 - CD/SCD emulation via ISO/MP3/CUE or BIN/CUE

 - Internal MP3 player - play MP3s from the main menu

 - Improved sound - I'm *much* happier with it now

 - Improved compatibility ( e.g. Bonk's Revenge, GunHead )

 - Should play all games just like HU-GO for the PC (actually better!)

 - Force US encoding on games that need it

 - Holding D-Pad on game menu makes it scroll

 - Adjust SFX/MP3 volume in-game by using Right Analog Stick

 - "Normal" sized font by default

 - Press Left Thumbstick on main menu to bring up configuration screen

 - Fully adjustable screen size

 - Actually slightly better compatibility than HU-GO v2.10 for Windows

     (e.g. Bonk's Revenge and Dracula X work in XBox version)

     (Thanks to Zeograd for providing up to the minute bug-fixes!)



What's Still Included:

 - Save states ( saving states doesn't work on CD games though )

 - Cheat code searching/creating

 - Full speed, 60fps

 - Backup RAM saved to hard drive

 - ZIP support



Here are some important details - please read the following section thoroughly

if you want to play CD/SCD games



The ideal way to play CD/SCD games is in ISO/MP3/CUE format.  This is a multistep

process but it yields the best compatibility.  You might say "wouldn't BIN/CUE

be easier?  It's a one step process!"  Yes, the creation of the BIN/CUE would

be easy, but PCE cds don't image very nicely.  They are loaded with errors and

inconsistencies....and the PCE CD-format is completely whacked making strange

use of P and Q subcode information.  Bottom line : running off of a BIN image

of a PCE cd is rather haphazard.  I don't recommend it.  Anyway, transferring

500MB of data to your XBox for each game is no fun.



So, ISO/MP3/CUE is the way to go for best results.  



Note - you can select an ISO file from within HUGO and play that by itself

without CUE or MP3 files.  There won't be any music and it might fail, 

but on CDs with only one data track, it should work just fine.  Just rip

the first data track on the CD (usually track #2) to an ISO file, upload it

to the \PCEROMS directory and run it in HUGO.  





Here's what you need to do if you want the whole thing:



1. Create cue sheet

2. Rip tracks to ISO/MP3

3. Update cue sheet with the names of the files you created in step #2

4. Transfer all the CUE/ISO/MP3 files to the XBox

5. Load Hu-Go, select the CUE file and play it via 1 of 2 ways



Step 1 - Create CUE sheet



**********************

*                    *

* DO NOT USE CDRWIN! *

*                    *

**********************



I tried making a few CUE sheets in CDRWIN and they were all wrong.  

This is another reason why BIN/CUE is not really reliable.



Use CloneCD.  It's what I've been using and it's correct.  You can

use some other program if it creates the same data that CloneCD does.

Basically, you'll want to load up CloneCD, and select the option to

copy the CD to your hard drive.  Select the "multimedia cd" format.

On the next screen, make sure the "create cue sheet" box is checked.

Unfortunately, you have to wait for it to image the entire CD before

the entire cue sheet is written - so it's kind of a waste of time

since you won't be using the resulting image file - you'll just be

using the CUE file.



Step 2 - Rip tracks to ISO/MP3



You can use pretty much any program for this as long as is can

make an ISO file out of data tracks and MP3 files out of audio

tracks.  I use Nero.  There is an option under Recorder called

"Save tracks".  That presents all of the tracks and converts

to both ISO and MP3.  (If you use NERO make sure you change the 

file type to ISO instead of NRG for the data tracks.)



Step 3 - Update CUE sheet with the names of the files from step #2



Here are the first 4 tracks of the cue sheet CloneCD created for

Gate of Thunder/Bonk 3-in-1 :



FILE "thunder.img" BINARY

   TRACK 1 AUDIO

   INDEX 1 00:00:00

   TRACK 2 MODE1/2352

   INDEX 0 00:44:66

   INDEX 1 00:47:65

   TRACK 3 AUDIO

   INDEX 1 01:09:29

   TRACK 4 MODE1/2352

   INDEX 0 01:54:20

   INDEX 1 01:57:19



Here is what it should become for the XBox:



FILE "thunder01.mp3" BINARY

   TRACK 1 AUDIO

   INDEX 1 00:00:00

FILE "thunder02.iso" BINARY

   TRACK 2 MODE1/2352

   INDEX 0 00:44:66

   INDEX 1 00:47:65

FILE "thunder03.mp3" BINARY

   TRACK 3 AUDIO

   INDEX 1 01:09:29

FILE "thunder04.iso" BINARY

   TRACK 4 MODE1/2352

   INDEX 0 01:54:20

   INDEX 1 01:57:19



All I did was change the first FILE line and add three more file lines 

(one for each track.)



Do not use tabs in the CUE file.  Please follow the format above,

e.g. "FILE, TRACK, INDEX(s), FILE, TRACK, INDEX(s)..." etc

I've included two full CUE sheet examples in the package.

One is for Dynastic Hero and the other is for Gate of Thunder 3-in-1.



Step 4 - Upload to XBox



Upload all the ISO/MP3/CUE files into the \PCEROMS directory.



Step 5 - Playing the game



Load up HuGo and highlight the CUE file you created.  There are two

ways to start the game:



1 : Press A button to start game using System Card version 3

2 : Press BLACK button to start game using System Card version 1



There are actually a few games that can only run on System Card version 1.

This is why I've included the option.  99% of the time, you can run

the game using System Card version 3.







Here are some other important details:



Press and hold Y at the main menu to show the list of button-commands

available to you in and out of the game.



Save state files are incompatible with previous versions of HUGO for XBox.



If you try to play a game and you get a black screen, then go back to the

main menu ( Press Y, then START+BACK ) and try starting the game using

the B button instead of the A button.  When you press the B button, 

you are telling the emulator that the game in question is bit-flipped

(usually indicating a US-encoded game).  That should make it work.





Big, big thanks go out to Zeograd for this fantastic open-source

emulator!



So, will I be making more updates or new emulator ports?  Tough to say.

Real work and a family keep me pretty busy.  I'm not nearly as burnt

out as I was when I stopped, but I'm certainly not at the same level

of enthusiasm as when I first started.  I probably will do more....it's 

mostly a matter of "when", I guess....





Stella, Gnuboy, SMSPlus, FCEUltra, HUGO, NeoPop, DGen, Bochs, HUGO-CD....what's next?





------------------------------------------





HU-GO! PCE Emulator port for XBox v2



Put roms in \PCEROMS dir





What's New:



 - Save state

 - Can selectively turn off each of the 6 sound channels

   This will make certain games with that "rumbly" noise sound much better.

 - Correctly sized screen for all games

 - Full screen ( well, as big as can be while maintaining aspect ratio )

 - Toggle bkg-write flipping 

   Useful on certain games like AirZonk where the background flashes like a strobelight

 - Menu bar (whoop-de-doo)

 - Game lists sorted alphabetically



IMHO, this update makes almost all the games very enjoyable now.  I personally

couldn't stand that noise.  I'll look into actually correcting the problem

instead of this crude workaround.



Enjoy!





------------------------------------------





HU-GO! PCE Emulator port for XBox v1





You can make a file called "HUGO.INI" and put it in the same directory as the XBE file.

The contents of the HUGO.INI file should look like the following:



20 12



20 is the number of pixels you want all menu text to be shifted to the right

12 is the height in pixels of the font you wish to use.



If you want to use a different font for the game listing, just overwrite the 

Font12.xpr file with the font of your choice.  Then, set the pixel height of

the font in the HUGO.INI file.



Different menu coloring - possibly easier on the eyes

Savegame support

ZIP support

Cheat code searching

NTSC/PAL should work equally well



Lots of thanks to Zeograd for this great PCE emulator.



Stella, Gnuboy, SMSPlus, FCEUltra, and now HU-GO!....what's next?

