Suicide Prevention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines
KMFD YouTube:) https://www.youtube.com/c/KMFDManic
Requiem's YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/RequiemHomebrew
Our Discord, Rockin' The Classics https://discord.gg/kt63tJq
Our Reddit, r/RockinTheClassics https://www.reddit.com/r/RockinTheClassics/
Alt Core Set Link 1 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1fLCP1-7ZQm1NxV67xY_Kts68ihM7Ub0w
Alt Core Set Link 2 https://hakchi.net/KMFDManic/
AutoBleem https://www.autobleem.tk/?page_id=398
DarkAkuma Sfrom Tool http://darkakuma.z-net.us/p/sfromtool.html
Genderbent RetroBoot https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WafO7d9th03PLPdxJnhOEHyxkwfHgYvZ
Hakchi2 CE https://github.com/TeamShinkansen/hakchi2/releases/
MADrigal's Simulators http://www.madrigaldesign.it/sim/index.php
Source Code https://github.com/KMFDManic?tab=repositories
Current Release "way" down below, contained within .7z archive from Assets
Anyone who uses PSC - Playstation Classic, you can ignore the mumbo jumbo about hakchi, Mod Hub, etc! Just use the Xtreme Injector, within PSC/AB, per normal, after installing AutoBleem Modification!
Thanks DanTheMan827, madmonkey, bslenul, grant2258, mahoneyt944, arcadez2003, AntiFly, BlackSunshine, Requiem, MadFranko008, Pon, MagnusRC, walknight, Libretro, and all else that I deal with on a regular basis, including ALL OF YOU who are now reading this:) And, thanks, "mysterious benefactor" who donated a computer to me that is now beyond helpful in getting the Updates done more efficiently!
RetroArch Updated to 1.9.10 for MD/SNES/NES. Still at 1.8.5 for PSC, for now, due to a few notable bugs! Sorry for the inconvenience!
TL;DR
If you don't want to sit back and read all of these Updated Notes, you can just go to my YouTube Channel, and look back through videos dating back to Sept '21, to see the gist of what made it into this Update, minus "Brutal Doom!"
https://www.youtube.com/c/KMFDManic
Happy New Year! What is your New Year's Resolution?
Personally, I have never had one. But, I have seen people go through the whole gamut of them, such as attempting to bid farewell to drinking, smoking, losing weight, and so on. All of the aforementioned are very challenging to endure and undertake! But, if any of you have decided on those, or anything else, for that matter...I wish you all the best in success! As for me, I guess I will just make my resolution to keep helping to "Rockin' The Classics" for another year!
Good Times, Bad Times
A kickass Led Zeppelin song! But, in the grand scheme of things, not always gonna be the best for "certain" Cores on the Mini Classics! The Graphics Libraries are pushing in a direction for quite a few Cores, with which they are simply not easily supported on the Mini Classics. MD/SNES/NES can only handle the 2.0 OpenGL range; PSC 3.0. As a result, certain Cores, such as Flycast/Mupen Xtreme, and so on...are becoming increasingly less compatible for us. In order to "make" them work, things would have to be potentially broken til the point of it being best just using the current posted versions! More on this, as the Release Notes unfold!
Before we get into the good stuff, I will briefly go over a few of the latest TV Shows/Movies I got to partake in:)
TV Shows/Movies, etc!
I used to be a fan of binge watching shows, as far back as even the earliest days of the internet! But, back then, it was much more difficult to be able to do this! I would typically trade with collectors. I would have some rare stuff recorded from VHS, and vice versa! I amassed quite a few things this way, that simply were simply not easily foreseen as any official future Releases! Not to mention, many times, when things do go through official channels...the licensed music "be gone"! I was actually surprised to find Metallica in episodes of Supernatural on Netflix! Whereas, all the original good music that aired in the Knight Rider show, were pretty much removed! Hell, even Captain N: Game Master had many songs edited out of the DVD Releases! And, ironically, none of the songs in the show were even originals. They were all cover tunes.
In any case, I was a massive fan of stuff like Tales from the Darkside, Monsters, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Get a Life, Sledge Hammer, Automan, Manimal, Mr. Merlin, Wizard, Misfits of Science, the Powers of Matthew Star, Voyagers. I tended to like a lot of shows that simply fell off the face of the earth in time! But, I was thoroughly pleased to find that some of these had huge cult followings in other countries, such as Sweden and Norway, and so on! What many of us took for granted, became hugely popular shows elsewhere! What cult classic status shows are you a fan of?:)
As far as current movies and TV, I have found the 9th season of Dexter to be quite fun! 2 more episodes to go! And, Cobra Kai is on season 4. I truly hope they go a few more seasons on the show. They have already stated they will keep trying to go as far as they can. I have always been a fan of the original films! I even went to the theater to see the Hillary Swank one, heh. She has really gone onto far better things, including winning academy awards for Boys Don't Cry and Million Dollar Baby!
I finally found out about Yellowstone, yet still have to watch it! But, I decided to start with 1883 first, which is pretty fun so far. Westerns are far less prominent, nowadays, than they were when I was a kid. I couldn't wake up on a Sunday morning, back in the day, without my mom watching any of 4 different Western Shows! I personally enjoyed Wild Wild West, which had some of the same writers and style as Land of the Giants and Lost in Space and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea!
In any case, be sure to let me know some of your recent fun TV Shows and Movies!
Off to the Mod Races!
This is quite a substantial Update, as I set out with the intent to try to pull off something that simply wasn't easily possible in the earlier Mini Classic Days. But, here we are, with great success! Bullet Points, here we come! Enjoy the Update!:)
- Thank You!
- Homebrew!
- Game & Watch Simulator Update!
- Higher Quality Sound!
- PicoDrive 32X Better!
- Amped Flycast/LudicrousN64/Opera/PCSX HD!
- No More Crashing N64 Games with LudicrousN64 Xtreme!
- Xtreme Virtual Ram updated to 768 MB! (Mini MD/SNES/NES!)
- What Other Fun Stuff!?
- Speaking of Crashing!? How about a Compatibility Boost?
- Mod Formulas!
- Yes, Math does matter!
- Future of the Mini Classics!?
- Next Release?!
- Final Notes!
Thank You!
It is becoming trickier to be able thank the hundreds of people I communicate with before, during, after each and every Update! So, just want you all to know, you kick some major ass with your continued support! None of this would be possible without ANY of you!:) By Request, I brought back some Cores that people sorely missed, when they were removed Last Update, such as SNES9x Bright, SNES9x 2005 Plus! GBA Cores that were removed, still have no practical usage for us currently. So, unless someone is able to pinpoint a viable reason to readd any of them, we should be good on the current ones, for now!
Homebrew!
Homebrew games have generally escaped my interest, much of the time! But, I have become more fond of the amazing efforts and dedication and work that many have put forth into these ventures! There are some more games added to the Mod Hub, handpicked by Requiem, who has also been an asset in helping test stuff for Releases! His YouTube Channel is in the Hot Links above! He recently did a top 50 NES homebrew, which is now one of my favorite go-to videos to find more games to check out and play! And, if you are an anime fan, his One-Piece Bounty Video should prove to be a fun watch!
ROOMS, by Jonny Manjiro, is now in the Mod Hub. You know how you go down a rabbit hole, so to speak...google one thing, click another link, then another. Same holds true for YouTube. After watching a few "homebrew" videos, including Requiem's, ROOMS showed up in my suggested to watch feed. And, I instantly watched and felt it had potential for some true greatness. He was quite modest about the game, once I communicated with him. But, be sure to check it out! You can leave comments and thoughts on his YouTube Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6rXpCFG-Jg
After chatting with him, he provided me with an updated 1.2 version, with some of the following changes:
- New character sprite designed by my friend Damien@Famiconmaniac (he does animation for a living
- No longer graphical glitches when loading or reloading a room with lots of objects.
- Music no longer stutters upon death or a room clear
- Added more animation to ladder climbing
- Adjusted colors of some objects to unify the cool color theme
Ideally, it would be fun to see some "reasonable" suggestions be made, that Jonny could utilize in future updates to the game. I gave him a few already! But, I will leave to more right now:) 1. Counter. But, not a Death Counter, or such. Try to ground the game in such a way, where the counter is like (once you've beaten the game) it says, "You've fallen and gotten back up 47 times! Congratulations Padawan." And, maybe, each time you do "fall", use humorous anecdotal jabs, as inspiration. Just flash them on the screen for a split second, long enough to read. It shows "ROOMS" now. But, imagine if it had several different messages that could pop up, like cultural references to movies or tv shows...IE: "Did they fail in taking down Bruce in Jaws Part 1?" (BTW: Sharks in the Jaws series were named after real life lawyers!)
Some Homebrews that made the Mod Hub, this Release, include: Black Castle (User0x7f) and Die And Retry (KABCORP MGS) for GB; L'Abbaye Des Morts (Locomalito|Gryzor87) for MD; Alwa's Awakening: Demo (Elden Pixels), Blade Buster (High Level Challenge), Blob Quest (Tom Livak), Flea: Demo (Lowtek Games|Alastair Low), Ghoul Grind: Night of the Necromancer: Demo (Woog Worx), ROOMS (Jonny Manjiro) for NES; Cho Ren Sha 68K (Koichi "Famibe No Yosshin" Yoshida) for Sharp X68000; Flight of Pigarus (Kagesan) for SMS. Thanks again, Requiem, for handpicking these masterpieces, that include Castlevania like Platformers, SHMUPS, and more! You will all have to try them all out to see for yourself how fun they are! And, you can also go to Requiem's YouTube Channel to see many of these in action, within his videos! And, special thanks to the original developers who made all of these!
Game & Watch Simulator Update!
In collaboration with Luca from MADrigal's Simulator's Website, which is linked to in the hotlinks above, I have put together a special set of "simulators" of 59 different handheld games that run with the Libretro Game & Watch Core. Many of you have owned or STILL own these! I, myself, owned quite a few! And, they are just as fun now as they were then! I did a Video Tutorial on the overall setup of these for MD/SNES/NES Classics. PSC Users, simply grab the PC versions, and run directly after installing AutoBleem and the Xtreme Injector! Thanks Luca Antignano and Andre Leiradella!
Higher Quality Sound!
For MD/SNES/NES/PSC, you will find, with this Release...sound quality is way better than in any previous Release! This is especially true if you go the Xtreme SC route with 184 or 198! And, 185 on PSC! Typically, attempting to strive for higher sound quality would cause tremendous strain on RetroArch/Cores/Memory. So, we truly never got to enjoy some of these games as they were originally intended to sound on the Mini Classics! No problem on the real hardware/PCs, etc. Just no cigar for the Minis!
In any case, try out Akumajo Densetsu AKA Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse on the updated Fceumm Xtreme, and your mind will be blown, as far as the sound differential of now versus earlier releases! Make sure it is the Japan version you try, as it has a special sound chip! And, you can then proceed to check out sound quality on many other Cores, including N64, PS1, SNES, MD, and so on! It is a beautiful thing, indeed! And, MAME 2003 Xtreme now supports the Higher Quality "Flac" Samples! If you scroll down in the RetroArch ReadMes, while viewed in Hakchi, you can see how to run "samples" on your USB! For PSC Users, this is already a given:) Also, for NES, check out Moryou Senki Madara, Esper Dream 2: A New Battle, and Lagrange Point...all unequivocally astounding sounding games!
PicoDrive 32X Better!
32X games are much better now! And, quite a few other optimizations went into updated PicoDrive. Thanks to all devs involved!
Amped Flycast/LudicrousN64/Opera/PCSX HD!
Personal thanks walknight, for his amazing collaboration with Flycast/Opera Fix Ups:)
Note: on PSC, with Updated Flycast Xtreme and Mupen Xtreme, if you find you have no controller selected, simply go into RetroArch Settings, Controls, "choose" controller, save it as a mapper core/game/content directory override. And, if it doesn't immediately take, simply restart the Core/Game! You can also utilize the N64 Xtreme Mappers in the Add-Ons! Section, that myself, BlackSunshine, and MadFranko008 worked on, so you can run "nearly" all N64 Games with just an SNES equivalent controller (D-Pad, hell yeah!)
Flycast gets a nifty update for all of the Minis. On MD/SNES/NES, compatibility is much higher. Many Homebrew/Fan Made Games, etc, now work, including Gunlord (all other NG:Dev.Team games, too!), Intrepid Izzy (MetroidVania style!) On PSC, things are even more Amped! Dolphin Blue and other games that previously crashed, no longer do! You can "fully" play Dolphin Blue from beginning to end! PCSX HD Xtreme is now even better, with support for "many more" games in HD! Try out Die Hard Trilogy! 3DO Games are "actually" reasonably playable now, depending on the game, with the Updated Opera Xtreme Core. You can "reverse overclock", if need be, via Core Option, to boost your performance and speed! Note, this may cause instabilities, which can lead to games freezing or crashing! But, try out Demolition Man and Wolfenstein! You can reverse overclock Wolfenstein til around 35-40 or so, and it runs super nice:)
Many other Cores have this newfound benefit, including MAME 2003 Xtreme, which has a 14-28 percent increased performance/speed boost over the last Update! And, LudicrousN64 Xtreme is now Amped to a much higher degree!
Speaking of walknight. He did what many do, were more modest about things, as far as what they believed they were helping out with. ANY efforts, that benefit us Mini Classic Users, or other platforms, makes a tremendous difference, no matter how small or big! In his case, what was initially, "I don't think I have helped much", led to many days and weeks of chatting, pinpointing various bugs, sorting them out, testing them. And, now, here we are, better Opera, Flycast, LudicrousN64 Xtreme, and more! So, thanks again, walknight! It was an honor and privilege to brainstorm ideas and concepts with you. And, after your thoughts about new dynarec having a bug, my further analysis of the coding was able to lead to a bit of exploiting for us on the Minis, to stop N64 Games from Crashing on LudicrousN64Xtreme!
Also, special thanks to DemiGodX and Magnus RC on the PSC front, who have also been awesome with feedback, testing, critical information, that helps me in regard to some paths I take with these Cores! They also both have YouTube Channels well worth checking out! Just search for their names, exactly as named above, and you will quickly find their channels.
- DemiGodX
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy7fFZ_fWBis8yx65_z7EAw
- Magnus RC
https://www.youtube.com/user/magnus7482
No More Crashing N64 Games with LudicrousN64 Xtreme!
In the past, it was mandatory to have Xtreme Virtual Ram installed, in order to be able to have a shot at playing games like Paper Mario, Killer Instinct, Super Smash Bros., and so on! But, now, whether or not you have Virtual Ram installed...MOST N64 Games will no longer crash! I was able to do a from scratch set-up, install Killer Instinct, StarFox 64, and other crash prone games...And, I successfully beat them from beginning to end, without a single crash! If you have a USB Drive, however, Virtual Ram still very much has its merits, including the help with loading larger "sound samples" for MAME 2003 Xtreme and Doom Sigil! And, it can push you a little further in many Dreamcast Games! Speaking of Virtual Ram!...
Xtreme Virtual Ram updated to 768 MB! (Mini MD/SNES/NES!)
Personal thanks to MadFranko008 for his extensive testing, which helped hone in on this perfect number, as far as most optimal Virtual Ram limits! And, also thanks for him helping test LudicrousN64 Xtreme Amped Update, and helping resolve a memory/save bug!
What Other Fun Stuff!?
Well, Vice X64 Xtreme has Ram Memory Expansion, making it possible to now run the Commodore 64 Port of Sonic the Hedgehog, which is quite fun as hell! Thanks sonninnos for the incredible work with Commodore Code! Me, being into oldschool stuff, I am a fan of Intellivision. I remember going over to a friend's house, and they had one. It was literally my one and only time I ever got to see the system in action! Intellivoice was an awesome module you could get, that allowed "real speech" to play with several games. Many who were on consoles, wouldn't really notice "speech" of this kind, til later on...with games, such as Adventures of Bayou Billy on NES, or even Joe Montana Sports Talk Football on MD! But, here it was, years previous to these games, on a rival to Atari 2600! Be sure to check out the games that have Intellivoice Support, including Space Spartans, Bomb Squad, B-17 Bomber, Tron: Solar Sailer, Intellivision World Series Baseball, and a few other "protos". Thanks nanochess for the Intellivoice Support!
Speaking of Crashing!? How about a Compatibility Boost?
I may not always be able to respond to all messages or comments or feedback I get. But, I assure you, I do make sure to read all of it! And, I try to get back to everyone, when I am able to. I really am not a fan of trying to do it on my phone, when I can type soooo much faster on a computer keyboard! Some feedback consists of X game having Y behavior, or simply not working. Anytime someone brings up a game that has an issue, I try to look into things...to better understand if there is a solution. Sometimes, I utilize creative workarounds and/or exploits to pull these off.
There are several PS1 Games that had terrible problems running, such as the NBA Live Games, Parasite Eve, Dragon Valor, Star Wars Jedi Power Battles, Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider, and so on. These are just some of the ones that I have had to look into. And, luckily, with collaboration and communication, we were able to get these resolved with the PCSX, etc Cores. BUT, there are deeper, more inherent issues when it comes to the Mini Classics, as well as some other lower spec platforms. They need to use Dynamic Recompiler, with is essentially "recalculating data" on the fly! This can be a double edged sword, as when it recalculates, depending on whichever game...it can slow things down to a standstill, freeze, crawl, or even crash! If you were to turn Dynamic Recompiler off, however, games would generally be far too slow to work. But, they would usually no longer crash or have the other issues they did while Dynarec was enabled!
So, I decided to become very creative with this. What if I worked things out, where we could boot performance and speed, and NOT use Dynamic Recompiler!? Yes, a silly and almost impossible challenge, at first thought! BUT, I was able to make it work, which helped more games function, such as WWE In Your House, Expendable, Johnny Bazookatone, Night Raid, and several more! All of these aforementioned games have hideous graphics glitches while Dynamic Recompiler is on, or simply crash! So, I did special builds for PCSX HD and Mednafen PSX, wherein Dynamic Recompiler takes a backseat, so the recalculations aren't as big a problem. I affected this in the previous Release with a few other Cores. And, it worked out, such as with the PC-98! This leads into:
Mod Formulas
Now then, this "methodology" which I enacted will work with what I am now deeming "mod formulas". These will be loosely discussed in these Notes. But, I will do video tutorials, soon, showing how they work! With these formulas, which befit certain criteria, you will have boundless opportunities to do things never thought possible on the Mini Classics, as well as other low spec platforms, before...including finally running The above 4 games! Now only can you run Johnny Bazookatone with the 2 PS1 Cores I outlined above. But, you can even now run the 3DO version! Again, I will better clarify how these formulas work, in on hands video tutorials! These Tutorials will show you all how to run games, such as Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, "Cel Shaded" Game Shader, Jet Force Gemini, and countless other...previously thought to be "not possible" games! Now that I have finally adapted to a better video capture/microphone system, tutorials will be more resounding in their lasting effect in helping you all personally pull these feats of mod awesomeness off!
Yes, Math does matter!
You may have all heard the, "You will never need Math in real life", bit from school:) But, many of the things I exploit directly cater to math factoring. I set a base point, and using math, I am quickly able to determine the optimal low and high points to these. This helps some games/cores run bigger, badder, better, faster, as well as helps with compatibility. BUT, I tend to go against the grain, which also makes some of these additions quite unstable! It would be like the equivalent of cooking a hot dog with a blow torch, or even a flame thrower, rather than just nuking it in the microwave! But, it gets results for us on the Minis! And, that is what counts! And, with all of you giving tremendous support over the last 6 years of the Mini Classics, thus far...you have directly helped make this Scene what it is! Moving forward, here is what to expect!
Future of the Mini Classics!?
"Dating" Cores, etc, is becoming more of an obsolete thing, since several Cores, moving forward...will, unfortunately, be less capable of being updated for us. A majority of the changes tend to be more favorable towards PC Platforms. On the grand scheme of things, in a relationship sense, it isn't exactly easy to maintain Windows XP forever! Sometimes, in order to progress to future points, some Cores simply have to take a road towards newer, more stable graphics libraries! BUT, that being said, myself and others will still work with the Cores that can be Updated! MAME 2003 Plus/Xtreme, Genesis Plus GX, gpSP, FCEUmm, and many others will STILL get nice updates. But, select others, simply will be less able to. I will notate these with Future Releases!
In order to even get N64 Cores Updated for this Release, I had to painstakingly study and analyze thousands of lines of code, to best decide what would or would NOT work for us, on our ends! I feel I have at least succeeded in getting us deeper into fun territory N64 Wise, this time around, as N64 Games can finally be played without crashes! BUT, there are still a few other issues and conflicts, inherent to our platforms, that are causal to "frame buffering" and "tlb exception" and "dynamic recompiler", and so on...issues!
People keep asking about future AutoBleem, RetroBoot, Hakchi, etc Updates. Or, support for other Mini Classics. Newer RetroArch for PSC (Wayland Issues, and a few other bugs!). The only thing I can say regarding this is "surprises may happen at anytime". But, we are also at a point where "limitations" of the Mini Classics can only take us so far! So, take that as you will!
Next Release?!
Brutal Doom will be one of the things taken into account, Next Update. I will do more with Amiga, check into better Famicom Disk Switching for those on Famicom Minis, that have "tethered" controllers, and do not use USB-HOST! I will follow-up with Feedback, Comments, etc, from all of you, and see what I can get, in that respect, too!
Final Notes!
Two of my jobs relocated due to aftershock effects from Covid on the Economy. What used to be 14 minute drive for me between both, and home, in addition to my IT Tech work, now becomes an hour one way, a half hour the other. So, with that being said, I will likely only do Updating of Release Stuff 1-3 times per week, with the additional many hours of drive time. I will keep up on communication from all of you, of course. And, whatever falls into place, as far as what I feel or you all want, I will try to work in! For now, however, enjoy this Update!
Sincerely, KM:)
P.S.: I will do some more Video Tutorials, showcases, etc, on how to pull off some of the stuff that you may still have questions about, such as running WWE In Your House, Johnny Bazookatone, MAME stuff, etc! Just feel free to ask, and I will prioritize those demonstrations/tutorials!
To see prior Release change logs for 2017-2021, go into Xtras/Releases!