How I Added a New Libretro Core to RetroArch

I want to document the process of adding my Mega Drive emulator to RetroArch whilst it is still fresh in my mind. The official documentation misses some details, and there are also some gotchas that can prove difficult to address, so I believe that recording all of this will be useful for future libretro coreContinue reading "How I Added a New Libretro Core to RetroArch"

ClownMDEmu Has Been Added to RetroArch

From the beginning, my Mega Drive emulator has been designed to not shackle itself to a particular frontend. In early 2023, this was showcased by the addition of a second frontend, one which exposes the emulator as a libretro core. After years of refinement, this libretro core is now officially provided by RetroArch! Previously, usersContinue reading "ClownMDEmu Has Been Added to RetroArch"

ClownMDEmu v1.4.0.1

Downloads: Standalone, libretro Just a small update today, to fix some bugs that people have pointed out since the last update. In particular, this fixes the Z80's parity flag often being incorrectly set, and VRAM being byte-swapped. Fixing the Z80 parity flag had the notable effect of making Titan Overdrive 2 briefly output FM audio,Continue reading "ClownMDEmu v1.4.0.1"

ClownMapEd v1.3

Since its release, my Sonic the Hedgehog sprite editor has supported assembly-formatted mappings and dynamic-pattern-load-cues (DPLCs) by first assembling them to binary and then parsing said binary. This mostly works, but does not account for quirks like how the offset table sometimes lacks its leading label (as in the 2005 Hivebrain disassembly), or how someContinue reading "ClownMapEd v1.3"

ClownAssembler v1.0

My Motorola 68000 assembler is finally getting serious! Since the quiet releases of v0.2, v0.3, and v0.4, countless issues have been found and fixed, and dozens of new features have been added, all coming together to bring ClownAssembler far closer to its goal of providing a drop-in replacement for asm68k (SN 68k)! This progress allowsContinue reading "ClownAssembler v1.0"

MSVC Is a Shit Compiler and CMake Is an Even Shitter Meta-Build System

C and C++ were standardised for a reason; so that code which is written for one compiler will compile correctly with another compiler. Interoperability is the whole point of standardisation. Unfortunately, this was too much for the chucklefucks at Microsoft to understand, so their notoriously dysfunctional compiler, MSVC, refuses to define the '__cplusplus' preprocessor constantContinue reading "MSVC Is a Shit Compiler and CMake Is an Even Shitter Meta-Build System"

ClownMDEmu v1.4

Try it in your web browser: clownmdemu.clownacy.comDownload: Standalone, libretro This is another update which has been sitting on my computer for a while now, and is being released so that people do not have to wait for it any longer. This update brings some accuracy improvements, along with adding a few unimplemented features, benefiting a veryContinue reading "ClownMDEmu v1.4"

Sonic ROM-Hacker’s Guide to Common Assembler Errors

One of the biggest obstacles to newbie Sonic ROM-hackers is the plethora of cryptic assembler errors that will inevitably be encountered, grinding all progress to a halt by preventing their ROM-hacks from being built. Meanwhile, to experienced ROM-hackers, these errors are mundane and easily understood, making it somewhat annoying to see the Basic Q&A threadsContinue reading "Sonic ROM-Hacker’s Guide to Common Assembler Errors"

The Original LZEXE (A.K.A. Kosinski) Compressor Source Code Has Been Released

Last year, I discovered that the Kosinski compression format is actually LZEXE, which was used for compressing DOS executables back in the 90s and the late 80s. Its developer catalogues three versions on his website: v0.90, v0.91, and v0.91e. While only binaries of v0.91 and v0.91e can be found on the website, v0.90 can beContinue reading "The Original LZEXE (A.K.A. Kosinski) Compressor Source Code Has Been Released"

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