[UPDATE]

Well, it seems that some brilliant member of our comments section (Visigotico) took it upon himself to re-compile the emulator with this one-line fix. He has also taken the liberty as to compile a separate version with frame skip set at 1. StrmnNrmn has stated that adding frame skip will not show a drastic increase, but Visigotico compiled it anyways (maybe to hush those complainers of frame skip). According to StrmnNrmn, frame skipping will only add about 0.5 fps to the overall rate - nothing noticeable.

 

You can view the original article below the line to find out what you can expect from StrmnNrmn in a few days; the speed increases for a few games due to this fix can be found below as well. The download  is not of StrmnNrmn's next version but rather a small user update to R7 with the speed fix.

Download: [Daedauls Pre-R8 Release - Compiled by Visigotico]

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StrmnNrmn never ceases to amaze us with his optimizations and constant updates to his Daedalus N64 emulator. StrmnNrmn originally ported the Daedalus N64 emulator over the PSP earlier on this year, and since then has been improving the emulator's speed and compatibility non-stop. We've seen several new builds come before us, each one better than the previous with mainly speed increases - something of which everyone loves to hear.

It seems that the man behind the fastest N64 emulator on the PSP has done it again - he has improved the overall speed of Daedalus. After reading a single post by Soatome over at PS2Dev, he realized a crucial part in his code that could be easily improved/modified. This single line was change from sceCtrlReadBufferPositive to sceCtrlPeekBufferPositive. Strmn states that this single adjustment has improved the speed of many games by a few frames due to the stalling for a frame every time the ROM read the status of the pad (controller/buttons). StrmnNrmn has listed a few of the speed increases (very impressive from R7) -

Mario now runs at at steady 15fps in most places, and around 20fps indoors etc (it reaches over 35fps in the main menu, and close to 30 in some scenes.) Zelda now runs at around 8fps in game, and up to 20fps in certain places. The 'nintendo' logo at the start runs at over 90fps :D The MarioKart Nintendo logo now runs at 30fps, and the main menu (with the flag) runs at a solid 15fps. In game it's a comfortable 12fps. Starfox runs at around 15fps - the intro runs at 25-30fps. Quest64 runs at 20fps.

Due to this unexpected speed increase, StrmnNrmn has stated that we may see a release of R8 sooner than later! Although no specific time table was given, we should definetly see a release by the end of the week or early next week.

Japanese coding powerhouse, NJ, has just released the newest version of his CPS2 test Emulator for the PSP, updating it to version 5. If you would recall, NJ has sent word a few days ago that version 5 is in the works. Well, now it's here and it's ready for you to download!

We've been told that the cache files (system) that had to be written prior to running the games had to be overhauled. As such, those who will download the the CPS2 Test Version 5 (and that's a lot of readers!) would have to make a new cache file for their game, otherwise the games will load up an error.

Also, the sprite management and processing were re-written anew to improve speed and stability with shooting and side scroll action. Sprite drawing and processing were substantially modified. NJ managed to correct the problems encountered with sprite masking process. He used a method that does not decrease the speed of the system.

NJ has posted some screenshots that show the problems he encountered when running several games (CS Club, Super Street Fighter II: Tournament, Dimahoo, Giga Wing, Progear, Dungeons & Dragons, and Shadow Over Mystara). If you encounter problems, just let NJ know through the comments section.

Thanks Rom Chau for the heads up!

Download: [CAPCOM CPS2 Emulator Test Version 5]

This Arguru homebrew - SpiceBoy GB/GNC Emulator - offers full speed emulation of GameBoy and GameBoy Color on a PSP (much like Homer's RIN or GeMP). That's full-speed fps for all GB and GBC ROMs. Not bad for a day's work; it was tweaked from InfoBOY (a Win32 GB/GBC emulator) in less than one day.

Impressive as that might sound, there are a few limitations to the current version, Release 0:

• There's no browser. You have to manually replace the rom.gb file.
• Sound is not synchronized with the emulation.
• Some users report color changes.
• No savestates.
  

Download: [Spiceboy GB/GBC Emulator R0]

Dedicated workers Ric and Fol have updated their Amiga Emulator PSPUAE once again, bringing the application to 0.53. PSPUAE is one of the oldest emulators still alive and kickin' on the PSP; and it's getting more mature with every version. 0.53 comes with only one, albeit very important addition:

- Drive Speed option added (This helps alot with long loading games, it wont help with all)

This should provide a significant speedup with certain games. PSPUAE hasn't been tested (and isn't likely to work) on FW 2.0+, so be careful. Also, note that you will need a valid Kickstart ROM in order to use the emulator.

Download: [PSPUAE 0.53]

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*)]

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]

For many of us PSPVBA is synonymous to Zx-81. but it's very nice to know that there are new blood that get inspired by the work that other people do (perhaps a result of homebrew going mainstream?). Tommydanger's PSPVBA is based on Zx-81's creation. It may be based on his work, but Tommy made sure that his version will not be engulfed in the shadow of Zx-81's work. He decided to add more features in his release instead of making it run faster.

New features:

• improved rom browser
• displays rom size
• marks roms red that are incompatible
• ability to delete roms in the rom browser
• multiple rom settings
• autoload last played rom at startup

However, even if he says that he didn't focus on making it faster a lot of those that have downloaded and tried the program found that games run smoother and the sound is better. A lot of them attribute it to its 1.2.1 engine.

Those that are already familiar to ZX-81's work on the PSPVBA will not find it hard to use Tommy's work, but those that are going to use it the first time, a complete How-to is included in the Read Me file.

To give credit where credit is due, Tommy would like to thank Zx-81 for being both a nice guy and coder. Also Shadow, for his beautiful icons and backgrounds.

Download: [Tommy's PSPVBA v0.1]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]

Zx-81, who's been hailed as QJ's resident emulator porting machine (a much deserved title, we might add), is back with the latest update of his PSPVBA GBA emulator - PSPVBA v1.2.0 (Media Engine). In this newest version of PSPVBA, Zx-81 gives us these new features to expect:

• All the sound part has been rewritten to use the media engine so it's faster
  
• Graphical Unit access was improved
  
• Added new beautiful icons and background (designed by Win-Win)
  
• Added option to enable/disable GBA battery/flash save to avoid disk save every 10 seconds in several games

If you haven't tried PSPVBA, here's how you install it:

• Unzip the zip file, and copy the content of the directory FW1.5 on the PSP/Game directory.
• Put the ROM image files on "ROM" sub-directory.
  

See that doesn't sound too hard. The complete instruction is listed in the readme file in case you have some issues. And now for the bad news: PSPVBA v1.2.0 doesn't work for +2.0 FW. Sorry 'bout that. But Zx-81 has included one binary version for 1.5 FW and the source codes in the download file. You can post your comments, suggestions and praises for Zx-81 at the comments or in our forum's release thread.

Update 1: zx-81, showcasing his Barry Allen-like skills, just updated this emulator to fix the analog/digital swap bug minutes after the other one was released earlier. The link below has the updated file.

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Update 2: Third time's the charm! zx-81 has wasted no time in releasing the next version of this emulator with the following fixes and changes:

• New feature to save and load a distinct setting file for each games
• Add option to enable/disable the cache with the Graphical Unit
• Emulator menus reorganisation (new menu for settings)
• Bug fix: Emulator menu is now launched on startup
• Bug fix: no more freeze when exiting the emulator (but HOME button still doesn't work !)
• Bug fix: bad refresh of the emulator menu/screen

Download:[PSPVBA v1.2.1 Media Engine]
Discuss: [Forum Release Thread]

Remember PSPUAE? In case you don't, PSPUAE is short for PSP Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator. It's a program created by our man Fcorbier that emulates (you guessed it!) the Amiga 500 video game machine. PSPUAE debuted in June 2005 much to the delight of retrogamers who also love their PSPs. Since then, it has been updated several times. And just when we thought we've heard the last of it, Hungry Horace from pspuae.com announced the PSPUAE 0.51b. It's good to know that Ric and FOL have kept the emulator alive!

The new version features:

• 4 channel sound mode
• Savestates re-introduced
• Kickstart Rom Selector
• Firmware 1.5 compatibility
  

PSP Key Controls

Top Left Trigger= Left Mouse Button
Top Right Trigger = Right Mouse Button
D-PAD = Joystick
Analog Pad = Mouse
Square = Activate Keyboard
Cross = Left Mouse Button
Circle = Right Mouse Button
Triangle = Hi-Res Mouse Movement (Lets you move mouse more precise)
Home = Exit (As normal)
Select = Options Menu (Tweak Settings)
Start = Screenshot (Takes a screenshot)

Download: [PSPUAE 0.51b]

Aren't you lucky! Emulator god Zx-81 has offered us a second helping of PSP emulation perfection today with the release of PSPAtari: Atari 800/130/5200 Emulator for PSP v1.0.3. This updated version includes many changes to the last version including better sound support, bug fixes and updated features. Here's the changelog:

- Improved the sound, it's now much better
- The percent of battery left is now displayed in the emulator window
- Add a watchdog to automatically return to the emulator menu when the battery is very low (< 5%)
- Enter directly in the emulator menu on startup (instead of the ATARI screen)
- Bug fix in smooth image algorithm (resulting in wrong color display)
- Added keyboard change skin option (you can add your own virtual keyboard images in the graphics directory).
- Modified the file requester to memorize separately the last locations/directory of rom image and keyboard

As always, make sure you read the readme for instructions on how to use this emulator. Both 1.5 KXploited and 2.0+ EBOOTs are included in the download, as well as the source code for both versions for coders to take a look at.

Download: [PSPAtari v1.0.3]