Ok, so we don't quite have the video from Shinydude100 and the rest of the DaedalusX64 team just yet, however, we get more screens. From what we've seen yesterday, Mario 64 was already looking ace, and now we get to see GoldenEye 007 running on Alpha 1 too! Kreationz also elaborated more on GoldenEye's special kind of rendering and it looks like he's working well into Alpha 2 and 3 development now - he even got Legend of Zelda: OoT running back up to R13 speeds!

Woot for progress! For the past couple of days, all we've been hearing from the DaedalusX64 team were updates and partial changelogs. Time to change all that with some concrete evidence. Shinydude100 has announced that they've finally managed to compile their first alpha build for DaedalusX64! We've even got screens from Chilly Willy, plus a promise of a video demoing Ocarina of Time!

Holy smokes, can it be? A Daedalus R14 Beta? That's right folks! And it looks like it's got the beginnings of Media Engine support. This beta doesn't come from StrmnNrmn though, but from developer Wally. And this FW 3.xx release comes from creator StrmnNrmn, flavored by developer Wally, and was given to you and your PSPs. Check out the details, plus a new update, at the full article!

Download: Unofficial Daedalus R14 Beta (Wally)
Download: Unofficial Daedalus R14 Beta (Captain Morgan)

Without Clipping	With Clipping
The large triangles that make up the floor that Mario is standing on are rejected by the PSP, leaving a large hole where the floor should be. By breaking the triangles into smaller pieces before attempting to render them, it reduces the chance that the PSP will decide to discard them.	I started by ripping out all the exisiting polygon clipping and tesselation code and starting from scratch. After a couple of days of hacking I've finally got a replacement system that seems to be clipping everything I've thrown at it perfectly.

Optimizations was a word we can constantly find on previous articles regarding StrmnNrmn's Nintendo 64 emulator, Daedalus. Most especially on the most recent one with speculations that R8 will be released sooner than we expected due to the large amount of progress that StrmnNrmn's been making.

Now, he makes another one of the optimizations that he keeps on mentioning. Tesselate Large Triangles. Ring any bells? When R7 was released we were advised to set this option to "No" to boost the framerate aside from disabling "Texture Update Check." Of course, in doing so, you sacrifice graphics over speed. Well not anymore. When he started out ripping all the existing codes and starting from scratch, he has come up with an even better solution that the "quick fix" he initially intended. Optimization of his discovery is well on its way of course.

Thanks a whole bunch to Captain Morgan for letting us on the scoop.

N64 fans would really appreciate the pains Captain Morgan is going through. In case, if anyone is in doubts over a particular game's compatibility on Daedalus, they can simply refer to these tests which Captain Morgan does. We'd definitely refer to these guides before we decide about the games. In this guide alone, he has tested 50 odd games!

Anyways, here's some of the screenshots, with Captain Morgan's inputs.

007 The World Is Not Enough  /  Bust a Move 2

 

Mario Kart 64  /  Starfox 64

  

There are a lot more compatibility reports in the attached file like Bomberman Hero, Diddy Kong Racing, Dr. Mario 64, Mega Man 64, Super Smash Bros and a whole lotta more! 50 titles will make a big list, wouldn't it? Well, I'm sure you guys would love to go through it. Not a problem, the download link is below.

Download Link: [Captain Morgan's Compatibility Update]

We are all waiting for the latest on StrmnNrmn's N64 emulator for the PSP, Daedalus R7, which by the way has achieved a tremendous increase of 22-26% in overall speed as we've previously covered in detail here at QJ. To ease the wait, very persevering Captain Morgan has been a busy bee when it comes to compatibility updates on R6. Here's another batch that he has sent in. And, oh yeah, he wants to end the confusion on whether he's a gal or a guy. He is 100% alpha male.

UPDATE: Captain Morgan is one busy and persevering worker for he just updated his list today. He says that "two more games are covered since my release earlier-- Harvest Moon & Space Station Silicon Valley. Also "Advanced Shots" were added to the Super Mario 64 section. Details on those I can't tell you so go check them out!" He also wants to extend his thanks to Extrakrispy, Minotaur, and Mario Kart God.

Mickey's Speedway USA

Can only get past here if you have Dynarec OFF	I ended back up here, you cant see what you clicking through so I ended back where I started, ran good, 8-12 FPS

Kirby 64	Earthworm Jim
Ran good, lots of graphical problems, around 7-11 FPS	Runs great because its a small rom, minor graphical problems, 12-17 FPS

Pilot Wings 64	Quake 64
Ran decent, some graphics errors because it just looks like this when your playing, 5-8 FPS	Runs slow, crashes after about 10 min. of use, 2-5 FPS

Road Rash 64	S.C.A.R.S
Sort of fast but with graphics problems, slows down in the actual game, 5-8 FPS in menu, 3-5 FPS in game	Runs almost full speed, obvious graphical errors, runs for a while and great speed, 18-30 FPS

South Park Rally	Yoshi's Story
Runs almost full speed, obvious graphical errors, runs for a while and great speed, 18-30 FPS	Cant get past this, says 22 FPS

Download: [Captain Morgan's Daedalus R6 Update (*UPDATED*)]

StrmnNrmn's Nintendo 64 emulator for Windows and PSP is just what we need to turn our attention away from ZoMbi146's fake full speed N64 emulator. We've had our first helping of Captain Morgan's Daedalus R6 ROM Test Results, and guess what? He's back with the second serving, and fast too! He's updated the compatibility results list, adding eight more titles that'll surely take you on a trip down N64 memory lane: The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, Paper Mario, Nascar 2000, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Mario Golf 64, Madden 64, and Banjo-Kazooie.

All testing was done by Morgan using a 1.5 PSP. He runs the Daedalus R6 1.5 version with FPS settings ON and Triangle settings OFF. He added, All my roms are run with the Dynarec ON (except for certain roms that won't load or have problems with this setting on, games ran with Dynarec OFF will have it noted in one of the pictures). Some roms might have worked better in older versions of Daedalus, so you know my tests are done on R6 only. If you have screenshots you would like to add to the Compatability List then make sure they are good shots shoot a email over to Captain_Morgan_Daedalus@yahoo.com!

Morgan is trying to see if he can team up with StrmnNrmn on more testing. Whether it pushes through or not, expect a lot of your favorite N64 games to be added in the list. If you have specific requests, you can tell Morgan and he'd be more than happy to oblige. Thanks, Captain!

Here are some of the screenshots with Morgan's comments.

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

Screen 1: Very slow moving rom but it's because it's big size,  runs at about 1-6 FPS, slow but durable, you can go further
Screen 2: You need to have Dynarec OFF to get past this point

Mario 64

 

Screen 1: You get GREAT speed and FPS in this room up to like 15-17 FPS
Screen 2: As you can see with the great savestate you can get multiple stars, I have 4!

Mortal Kombat Trilogy

 

Screen 1: Characters image flickers from normal to these shadows
Screen 2: Runs good, small graphics problems, average 9 FPS
Screen 3: As you can see some characters graphics are still a little buggy
Screen 4: Just another example

You can download the results of Morgan's test by clicking on link below.

Download: [Captain Morgan's Daedalus R6 Compatability List]

Daedalus, which means "cunning worker" in Greek, was first used to refer to a labyrinth for King Minos to imprison his wife's son, Asterius, the Minotaur. The labyrinth he built had numberless winding passages and turnings opening into one another, seeming to have neither beginning nor end.

Fortunately for us, Daedalus can only be StrmnNrmn's Nintendo 64 emulator for Windows and PSP. The only thing that StrmnNrmn's Daedalus has in common with the labyrinth, is that its developments seem to have neither beginning nor end. Just recently, work on optimising the emulator's dynamic recompiler has ensued.

Giving us a taste of what we can expect from Daedalus, Captain Morgan has send in his ROM test results. In his own words:

This is Daedalus R6 Rom Test Results, all work done by me. I'm actually hoping to team up with StrmnNrmn but for now here are some of the test results on some of the n64 games that we love. I didn't include Mario 64 since I think we've all tested that one. There are more to come but that's for a later release. note I'm the first person ever to play the first mission of starfox 64 on a psp!

Mario Kart 64

actually still in first	still in first, about as far as I can go until it freezes

Super Smash Bros

can only get past this with Dynarec turned OFF	can't get past here, great speed through out look 14.99 FPS!

Mario Party	Mario Tennis
crashes after you go in to play the actual game, good FPS	this screen flickers once in a while but after last pic it blacks out, good FPS though

Diddy Kong Racing	Nascar 99
good speed, but blacks out after this	can't get past this, great speed but it says FPS is like 5-7

You can download the entire results of his test by clicking on the download link at the bottom of this article.

Download: [Captain Morgan's Daedalus R6 ROM Test Results]