Sophie

Sophie

distrib > Mandriva > 2010.2 > i586 > media > contrib-backports > by-pkgid > 8a7aa8b4eb044def48a55448a77937f9 > files > 6

meka-0.73-1mdv2010.2.i586.rpm


- colour screwed switching between fullscreen snd GUI
- audio

File Browser: Backspace key, select child directory

Add librairies (zlib, etc.?) in trunk?

.thm parsing crash (see forum)

Debugger: Many mails from Maxim!
Add support for F in SET command

Command line file not found = Win32 console crash

  /------------------\
/-|  MEKA TODO LIST  |-------------------------------------------------\
| \------------------/                                                 |
| Todo:                                                                |
| - Clean this list, add a bug-priority system.                        |
|   Maybe switch to an internet bug tracking software?                 |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Note:                                                                |
| - MEKA IS FULL OF INCORRECT EMULATION BEHAVIOURS.                    |
|   MEKA IS NOT THE BEST REFERENCE OF HOW THINGS ARE OR WORKS.         |
|   READ TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION INSTEAD.                              |
|   IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBT, PLEASE ASK TO BE SURE.                      |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Packager Note: Always make plenty of verifications before packaging. |
| - Check MEKA.INP                                                     |
| - Check MEKA.MSG content, WIP, merge updates                         |
| - Package a default generated .CFG file                              |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Some BIG axis of work:                                               |
| - fix sound engine (timing problem, ask me, I can explain why)       |
| - improved video (blitters, stretching, sync, triple buffering)      |
| - inputs system improvement (analog sources, map all features, etc)  |
| - full featured debugger/hacking tools                               |
| - fill new database entries (redump/sort)                            |
| - tape emulation                                                     |
| - better SF-7000 disk support (write & save)                         |
| - new savestate format + better manager (icons, etc)                 |
\----------------------------------------------------------------------/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE YET UNSORTED MESS (this is my notepad basically)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Define a string in the config file, eg:
 debug_breakpoint_label_prefix = "break_"
Then, when loading .sym files, automatically add breakpoints on
matching labels. This saves me typing "b <label>", and is designed for
"temporary" breakpoints on lines that normally would not otherwise
have a label.

> In the new 0.72 I'm getting an error with the tile view and tilemap viewer. 
> They are both blank showing the error in the message box "Tileviewer: 
> Unsupported Colour Depth" constantly scrolling in the message box.

http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9478
Now I have a question. In some Master System games (made at 1993 to be exact) such as 
Sonic Chaos, Deep Duck Trouble have problems. Sometimes they are fine, other times the 
games crash after they get to the title card(Level Name) as these problems have been 
in previous releases. 

- Revert to _SAFE video driver if startup driver cannot be used.

Proppy session debugger notes:
- 'breakpoint' window list
  - show list
  - with enable checkbox
  - edit/add fields
- breakpoint write: only when values changing, !=
- datadump sprite output is weird
- bind RELOAD rom on a key, or add 'reload' command

- debugger auto-start mode? (command-line, config?)
- want to set breakpoints on ROM addresses... b r $30000 
- 'M hl-1' doesn't work

3.
<cgfm2> can I increase the SMS display window size in GUI mode?
<cgfm2> at a high resolution, it's hard to keep the mouse cursor exactly within
the width of the scrollbar when scrolling up/down
<cgfm2> would it be possible to allow the mouse cursor to stray to the left or
right a little, and still move the bar?

4.
<cgfm2> add spaces between all commands in log (optional)

Jacko:
Well, I downloaded last copy 2005-11-20 yesterday and had a few problems!!
For some strange reason The message window shows:
 Current save game slot is 0
 Current save game slot is 1
 ...
 Current save game slot is 99
In this midtime, the debug command textbox freeze :(
It seems to occur when I press backspace key, which sometimes don't work the right way.
If I change window and then set focus again in meka (window-mode) I can use backspace again, but once again the current save message appears... (???)

Also I was playing Shanghai before with the FM Chip enabled and the music slowed down gradually 
(like a record slowly stopping) and then it slowly speed up again, MEKA has only done it once 
so it is hard to tell if it was my PC doing something or it was MEKA.

WIP 0.72:
 - Depth
   - Remove color conversion flag in main loop to avoid too many 
     behind-the-scene conversions.
 - Blitters (lots to do)
   - All blitters, redo, etc
   - Integer stretch
 - Themes:
   - Convert all themes.
   - Background pictures switch effect.
 - Sources:
   - Link warning regarding zlib?
   - Include Allegro install package somehow?
- Data
  - Update/remove Themes section from web page.
  - Tweak country flags for proper color now that there's no more palette.

Game Recording:
- Topic
  http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3726
- VBM Format
  http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/VBM.html
- Desired Features Wiki
  http://bisqwit.iki.fi/nesvideos/DesiredFeatures.html

- Compilation
  - AMD64:
    - gcc parameter: -mpentium
    - NASM output format may be different

- Allows MEKA updating/running without focus.

- Add PAL/SECAM/NTSC (Auto) mode to be more clear
  See http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6656 

"if you have the option fullscreen on load enabled it only fullscreens
 if you load a rom manualy form the filebrowser but if you startup meka
 from the command line with a rom name it loads the rom but doesnt go
 full screen."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRIORITY / FOR UPCOMING NEXT VERSIONS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alright, those things right here may not be always super important, it's
just that I noted them at the top of the file, thinking it would be worth
doing them now and some are quick work.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

- 3-D Glasses:
  - When hard-pausing a 3D game, Meka reports "this game seems not to support 3D glasses" 
    and disables 3D glasses emulation. 

- Check galaxy force (supposed bug, cannot reproduce)
  http://www.smspower.org/forum/messages/19568.html

- Add auto SK-1100 enable.

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

-----------------------------
 WINDOWS PORT PRIORITY/NOTES
-----------------------------
 - THE AUTO FRAME SKIPPER SUCKS
 - SOUND SUCKS
 - Screen flashing (see PatrickP e-mails) - screen/buffer data written 
   to by some other applet (apparently DirectX cannot prevent this), and
   screen is never cleared by MEKA.
   - Use set_display_switch_callback() ?
     I think I already did that, it doesn't work.
 - Windowed mode should fit the actual game screen size instead of having
   a screen-resolution based size (320x240)
   - This is a problem with how the blitter system works now.

-----------------------------
 CODE
-----------------------------
 - Check and clean variable size (switch to 'int' when worthful, etc...)
 - Start to renormalize code (write a MEKA coding style documentation).
 - Update file loader/parser with the newer functions.
   Most parsers are currently very very ugly. They could be a little less.
 - Start thinking about the big picture. Take over the world.

-----------------------------
 WEBSITE
-----------------------------
 - MEKA 0.59 is missing from all archives?

-----------------------------
 VGM
-----------------------------
 - Built-in VGM player (implement Maxim VGM stub)
 - GD3: 
   - Japanese GD3 (for systems at least)
   - Option to create VGM without GD3.
   - Store user name somewhere, now that MEKA.KEY file is obsolete.
 - Check http://isweb38.infoseek.co.jp/art/rophon/data/download.htm
 - Tool:
   - Automatic trimming.
   - PSG access addresses logger/hacker (see notes under DEBUGGER).
 - Add feature to only start logging "when sound start" (for WAV log)

-----------------------------
 ROM INFORMATION
-----------------------------
 - Add an applet showing ROM information (checksum, country, version, etc.)

-----------------------------
 NAMES / DATABASE
-----------------------------
 - Switch to UTF-8 !
 - Add Canada (CA) flag/country (what for?)
 - Add media type (cartridge, card, disk, etc...)
 - Add Pirate flag ?
 - Better syntax error verbosing (currently there's none).
 - Generally:
   - Check Maxim's old & new e-mails.
   - Check Kevin Chase e-mails.
   - Fixes missing "the". 
   - Pay attention to complicated licensed titles (eg: "Disney's Aladdin".

-----------------------------
 PERIPHERALS/INPUTS EMULATION
-----------------------------
 - Emulate port 3F properly.
   Currently, its implementation is a joke.
   This however introduce some "interface"/"user-side" problems:
   - In-game changing of country may be fatal to non-joypad games.
     Warn for them? What else could be done?
 - Test Handle Controller / Bike Controller for SG-1000/SC-3000.
   How does they actually works? Why do they mention only a few games
   on the box, it is actually different?
 - SDI might supports Sports Pad, figure out hardware detection if so
 - Proper/better Light Phaser emulation.
   - Again, implementation is a joke. / but, it works.
   - Check Charles' SmsGun test.

-----------------------------
 PERIPHERALS/INPUTS USER
-----------------------------
 - Support analog axis, damnit!
 - Add Message when changing Player 2 input (?)
 - Configuration of ALL inputs keys (functions keys, etc...)
 - Support mouse wheel for emulation.
 - Paddle Controller emulation:
   - Allows to setup sensitivity
   - It is possible to do something better ?
 - Support for MD direct pro driver (see unfunk's e-mail)
 - Inputs Recording
 - Interface mouse driver (who cares anymore).
 - Keyboard not qwerty
 - Player 2 default inputs on right side of the keyboard ?
 - Mouse_speed configurable under the interface
 - Added both buttons & combo inputs
 - Be able to configure Rapid Fire speed.
 - Cursor is repositionned when enabling light phaser within GUI
 - Support for more than 1 mouse
   - See optimouse for DOS
   - I'm sure it is possible under Windows (need to find out).
 - MEKA.INP joy_driver value for DOS is lost by mekaw.exe

-----------------------------
 SEGA KEYBOARD (SK-1100)
-----------------------------
 - Automatically enable (based on DB directive).
   - Keep a flag to know if was automatically or user activated.
     If automatically, then on ROM change it then can be disabled.
 - Clickable picture on the GUI (with sticky keys).
 - When SK-1100 is enabled, Monaco GP difficulty selection runs slower. 
   It is normal behavior?
 - Show sticky keys with PC keyboard leds.
 - SK-1100 is difficult to type with, and Mekaw's keyboard is strange:
     "]" is "["  "[" is "@"  "\" is "]"
     "yen",":","^"and"@" don't type.
   Maybe more. Please check it.
   I think this is solved.

-----------------------------
 BLITTERS
-----------------------------
 - Fallback to safe mode
 - GUI video modes should be in MEKA.BLT (just all any blitter, but with
   less features - no filtering, etc).
 - Replace video_clear() by a future clearing on blit
 - Be able to print on-screen infos outside of the blitter area (FPS, messages) 
   and clear them properly (especially for GG).
 - Completely revamp the blitter systems.
   - See my paper note for lots of things.
   - Be able to handle blitter per system (SMS, GG..) and mode.
   - Add x3, x4 blitters, separate X and Y (be able to do a 2x3 blit, etc..).
     All combinations should be working.
   - Add stretching blitters (especially for windows version)
   - Integer stretch
   - What would ALT-ENTER do?
   - Lots of info in mind or on paper. Need to sort out, and maybe write
     a short specification document.
 - Selection of GUI video mode in interaction configuration window.
 - Avoid to quit when video mode is invalid
   - Handle video mode priority list, etc..
 - For Game Gear:
    H*2/Y*3 in 320*480, H*4/Y*3 in 640x480..
 - Filters:
   - Probably a lot to do.
   - Implement 2xSai filter.
   - Implement Scale2x filter (scale2x.sourceforge.net)
   - HQ filters
     - 32 bits version
     - HQ2X, HQ4X
 - Resize window
   - Need Allegro support of that feature (I think it's in the work).
   - Easy to do for GUI.
   - Support for fullscreen blitter (hmm..?)
 - Old (don't remember what it is for, check e-mail archive))
   - Check video drivers stuff (9016/9021) : http://www.ati.com/support/products/pc/radeon/win98/radeonwin98drivers.html?cboOS=Windows+98&cboProducts=RADEON+64MB+DDR+VIVO&cmdNext=GO%21.
 - [Win32] Support OS resolution change.

-----------------------------
 AUTO FRAME SKIPPER / SYNC
-----------------------------
 - Rewrite autoframeskipper.
    - Remove asynchronous event. 
    - Poll timer (using uclock()/timestamp/whatever)
    - Synced 60 Hz should be the same as 1/1 60 Hz vsync
 THIS IS THE MAIN THING MEKA NEEDS NOW

-----------------------------
 VIDEO
-----------------------------
 - Add triple buffering (seems easy and very useful)
 - Support 16/24/32 bits.
    - Strip out 8-bit modes
    - Palette system hold value of color in current mode.
    - First introduce support in GUI
    - Need to rewrite video emulation drawers (use hacky #define/#include or template?)
    - Theme switching and fading will require full redraw.
    - Once done, do a pass on GUI theme to rename and reselect colors appropriately
 - Fix page flipping waiting for VSync.
 - Find a solution to the fact color raster effects in GUI sucks so much. [8bpp]
 - MS-DOS:
   - Colors broken on Permedia 2 ?
   - Colors 512x384 video mode, etc
   - Mode Q (check ZSnes)
 - 3D glasses:
   - red/green mode (blending)
   - http://www.edimensional.com/products/edglasses.htm

-----------------------------
 VDP/VIDEO EMULATION
-----------------------------
 - 224/240 lines mode should only be activated if both bits are set (see Charles's doc)
 - VDP Model differences
   - Add VDP Model selection somewhere in GUI (useful for programmers).
   - VDP Model 315-5124: Doubled sprites bug (see Earthworm Jim)
   - Write to CRAM on legacy VDP (which?) should not update palette (only CRAM).
 - Fix interrupt emulation and VDP control over the Z80 IRQ Line.
 - Other VDP Model differences (see Interactive Sprite Test, bug on SMS 1)
 - Palette
   - Support TMS9918 palette as on Japanese SMS (and Mark III)
     http://www.purose.net/befis/halloffame/msx_col/
   - Support TMS9918 palette from http://junior.apk.net/~drushel/pub/coleco/twwmca/wk961118.html
 - TMS9918
   - Render on a line basis to fix "Zoom Effect #1" demo (grr..)
 - Border emulation (this is a big miss)
 - Handle VRAM Accesses while refresh is ongoing (for programmers)
   See http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7849
 - Emulate sprite overflow (9th sprite) (VDP status bit 6 set). Should be fairly easy.

-----------------------------
 TECHINFO APPLET
-----------------------------
 - Standardize names, registers names, etc.
 - Redo from stratch? Separate applets for different system components? 

-----------------------------
 DEBUGGER
-----------------------------
 - A-class bugs:
   - inst_after > pc-temp appearing in several cases (eg: Super Basketball demo).
   - Savestate/reset/bios seems to mess with breakpoints. 
     Check coherency and switching between mainloops (emulation standard/debug, no emulation)
   - Backspace in memory editor widget reset machine
 - Debugger:
   - Console log: add full print history + a scrollbar.
   - Button to enable/disable exclusive focus.
   - Auto reload ROM option
     - Win32: possible to setup a notification
 - Disassembly
   - Option to display cycle count next to each instruction.
 - Breakpoint:
   - Add breakpoint from memory editor and/or disassembly window.
     - Simple version: click on disassembly window for breakpoint.
   - Conditionnal breakpoints:
     - Simple masking feature
     - Full expression evaluation/test?
     - At nop nop break (macro or helper).
     - Break at register write ?
   - Z80 read/execute are not perfectly differenciated (opcode 1st byte is X, then it is R)
   - Hooks:
     - VDP register/status
     - PSG/VRAM/dedicated break (per channel/address/tile/whatever).
     - Generally, much more possible things to add.
 - Datadump could be redirected to debugger console.
 - Small Bug (may not considered as one bug actually): Debugger ON, play, pause, debugger OFF -> machine gets unpaused.
 - Scroll thru disassembly
 - Completion
   - Better contextual completion, supporting per-command kind of parameter
     (eg: break cl[tab] -> clear)
     - Make the command line parser take additionnal flags, and be able to execute
       commands as well as just returning a list of words depending on the parsing
       context.
 - Profiling feature
   - Display line/cycles better
   - User settable timer, global cycle counter.
 - Print
   - Find a solution to the problem of not being able to print result that are not 16-bits
 - Symbols
   - Automatically select name/addr symbols find in "SYM" command
   - Different symbol file formats?
   - Keep track of source symbol, by keeping t_debugger_value all along the chain.
   - Figure out a way to keep symbol references and have them updated on ROM reload.
 - SET command
   - Access to non Z80 registers.
   - Indexing.
     eg: "set RAM[0] = 0"
 - MEMEDIT command
   - Specify address
   - Specify bus (standardize)
 - SEARCH command
   - Bytes/ascii search
   - Access to all kind of memory, once we have the proper abstract (see above)
 - VAR (?) command
    " As promised, here's my idea.
      v address var1 [var2 [var3...]]
      When execution reaches "address", the contents of var1, var2 etc are reported in the
      message window and execution is not stopped. var1 etc can be a register or an address
      in the Z80 memory map. In other words, it allows one to spy on parameters being passed
      to functions, as well as intermediate variable values inside functions, without having
      to set breakpoints and watch those values manually using memory dumps or the register
      display.
      Letter v is for "variable", since I can't think of a better letter to use. "
    - Could be this feature or something possibly more generic.
 - Tilemap viewer:
   - Support vertical lock (gauntlet, golvellius...).
   - Proper support for extended modes requires resizing window (tilemap becomes 256*256).
 - UNMAP command:
   - eg: Z80 $A123 -> ROM $18123
 - SOURCE command:
   Load commands from a text file. Useful for storing per-project breakpoints.
 - Expression evaluator:
   - Unary operators -, !, ~
   - Proper operator priority. Currently two level: +/- gets low priority and 
     all other higher priority. Requires building a proper evaluation tree.
   - Access to data table RAM[0] (this gets more complex...)
 - Memory Editor:
   - Memory editor page focus is lost on ROM change.
   - Button to enable/disable exclusive focus.
   - 2/3 byte display/editing
   - Highlight edited digits, add backspace support
   - Dump button (calling datadump)
   - Edit ASCII
   - Lock a writing value
   - Show modified/written values. 
     How do I do that? Modified since when? Could be useful when stepping in code.
   - Find feature
 - Access to machine data in a standardized way (code/library for programmer,
   standardized syntax for end-user functionnalities)
   - 8/16-bits differenciation:
     - WLA DX uses nnnn.b and nnnn.w for ambigous opcodes on other CPUs
       Use a similar system to remove ambiguity!
   - Extract generic code to access memory blocks from memory editor, stick
     them in a generic interface in t_machine. Usable by memory editor, data
     dumper, debugger M command.
   - eg: registers: HL,AF,A, etc. memory: mem[HL]
   - User shortcuts. HL would be in fact cpu.hl ?
   - Z80 access:
    - Register edit
    - CALL command
      - Execute a CALL on the Z80, allow easy quick hack
      - Or more generally, allow inline instruction execution
   - Abstract Marat's core to be able to switch later.
   - Access to the previous state (automatic save state on each user step)
     - Require changing savestate code to work on a memory buffer.
   - User constructed GUI panels showing you info you want.
     Could display registers, any part of memory, tiles, etc.
     Allowing to create panels for custom debugging.
 - Input locker
   - Set input bits manually using check boxes, being able to set inputs 
     at any point.
 - Meka scripting
    - Primitive function with accesses to standardized syntax.
      - A breakpoint can trigger a call.
    - Support for debug configuration file/script per ROM.
    - How can we work out a "project based" setup?
 - Call Stack
   - Keep a call stack updated (using a modified Z80 core)
   - "often I find myself having to manually dump the stack memory to find 
      the address of the calling code for a function"
 - Tools:
   - Callstack viewer
     - Requires Z80 emulator modification
   - Sprite viewer
     - Select individual sprites, shows infos
   - Sprite ripper
     " One of the first modified versions of Gens included a sprite ripper. It would 
       examine the coordinates of the sprites, and when sprites lined up exactly it 
       would export them to a separate image. So long as a regular grid of 8x8 hardw
       are sprites is used to build up arbitrarily-sized character sprites (the 
       majority of games), this should work well. "
   - Cycle counter.
   - SDSC Debug Console.
   - Warn incorrect (non standard) VRAM/port accesses.
   - Warn interrupt if VDP latch is set (98% of the time I guess it
     can lead to a bug).
   - Warn interrupt in/out if Z80 registers are differents (except shadow)
   - PSG access addresses logger/hacker
     Show checkbox for all location accessing to PSG, allows to disable some.
     Could be super useful for VGM hacking/logging.

-----------------------------
 PATCH
-----------------------------
 - Be able to reload MEKA.PAT in runtime (helpful for hackers), as a quick
   solution to the lack of features.
 - Add info about what's being patched (especially when using * as CRC).
 - Add IPS support.
 - Add ASM opcodes supports (-> embed an Assembler).
 - Start thinking about this feature in the bigger picture as a part of
   the debug/hack/cheat stuff. Avoid implementing 2 or 3 times to same 
   stuff in different components.

-----------------------------
 CHEATING
-----------------------------
 - Action Replay SMS/GG
 - Game Genie GG
 - Implement cheat engine
 - Introduce cheat database
 - Cheat masters:
   - MugUK
   - Sweater Fish Deluxe
   - rouken (rouken AT bol.com.br)
   - ...
 - Work in the global picture along with debug/patch (see above)

-----------------------------
 KEYBOARD MAPPING
-----------------------------
 - Generally, hotkeys with ALT/CTRL are not a good idea
   (what does the above statement suggest? I don't remember now.. argh)

-----------------------------
 FILE LOADER / BROWSER
-----------------------------
 - Multi roms in single ZIP file support
   - At least, pick the biggest one with correct extension (the 'rom')
   - Warn user ?
 - Sort should give low priority to .ext -> "test.sms" before "test (jp).sms"
 - Still a problem with FB directory name load? (Don't think so.)
 - Key should work based on focus, to function even with SK-1100 enabled
 - Can "read names" made faster?
 - Different color/icon per system
 - Loaded ROM history
 - Global computer file database (to run a game from its ID/CRC/whatever)
   Then you can even imagine SMS Power! producing URL/links/datafile read
   by MEKA to run a given game from its museum page entry.
 - Mouse wheel handling should not set selection, just scroll.
 - Add an option to make A & B drives appears.
 - Directory change notification:
   - [WIN] There's something, I know.
   - [LINUX] See SIGIO, linux/documentations/dnotify.txt

-----------------------------
 GUI
-----------------------------
 - Change resolution / video mode: need to interface in menus.
 - Fade: only 32-bits mode. supported
 - Font: Move the standalone tilde lower if possible (where does it apply? forgot)
 - Background filling is not correct is GUI resolution ratio is not 4:3
 - Switch fullscreen font to contains bold black+white
   (currently multiple draw pass are done, which is hell slow)
 - Leaks:
   - gui_box_delete() doesn't delete widgets
 - Optimize (dirty rectangles...) // doesn't require much optimization anymore
 - Documentation viewer
   - Add generic text viewer applet (that user can use to load his stuff).
   - Fix bouncing with pageup/pagedown
 - Move windows bug (press mouse 1, keep 2 pressed, release 1, etc..)
 - Online contextual help (using text viewer applet maybe?)
   - Eg: You would press F1 anywhere and it pop some info about the current 
     applet or widget focus.
 - Rewrite popup menu code
    - Menu moves instead of going off-screen (see non-english languages!)
      - Would be useful to use within windows (as a combo box)
    - Support for more than MAX_ENTRYS entrys
    - Support keyboard
    - Show Hotkeys
    - Multi part menus for like the big theme menu
 - Message box: load success/infos message order

-----------------------------
 GUI MENUS
-----------------------------
 - Consistant hotkey behavior.
 - Menu cleanup:
  - Add volume control.
  - Remove "screens"?
  - Messages:
    'Tiles Viewer' -> 'Tile Viewer'
    'Country' -> 'Region'
    'TV Type' -> 'TV Mode'
    'Fullscreen mode -> Game mode
    ?

-----------------------------
 TILE VIEWER
-----------------------------
 - Show everything in modes 0->3.
 - Zoom tile.

-----------------------------
 UNIX/LINUX PORT
-----------------------------
 - Sources fixes (may be obsolete):
   - in zip/unzip.h -> #define OF(P) P
   - if sound/{s_opl,...} -> #ifdef MEKA_OPL, ...
   - add %define in *.asm

-----------------------------
 SC-3000
-----------------------------
 - Printer emulation
 - Tape drive emulation
   - Find out if encoding used in Music/Lode Runner/C_So! is standard
   - Common, do it.
   - Common, do it. The world (and Aaron Wheeler) deserve it.

-----------------------------
 SF-7000
-----------------------------
 - Verify sprite collision on Gold Miner & Froggy ??
   - This crazy code seems to requires line-per-line collision detection on a TMS9918 mode!
 - Floppy disk
   - Correct way of handling disk swapping
   - Writeable disks (how good/bad does it works?), -> and, to file (need a policy or different extensions)
   - Write protection
   - Be able to create empty disk image
   - Disk viewer utility
 - Centronics port emulation
 - RS-232 port emulation
 - Sort out new SF-7000 disks
 - Find docs about the FDC

-----------------------------
 COLECOVISION
-----------------------------
 - May want to drop ColecoVision? Why adding more weight...
 - Includes MyColeco list. (Martin Caballero list as well ?)
   http://people.we.mediaone.net/jscarter2/coleco/emulate.htm
   Site is down... that's very unfortunate, he did a great job. Find him back!
   (last google search was a failure)
 - ROMs:
   - New Roms from MyColeco (gamepack + space invaders)
   - Sort out homebrewn coleco Roms
   - Just drop everything and import a GoodCOL set (or similar).
 - Check out Colecovision NMI fix from MESS
 - Check FLICKER for Colecovision roms: Antartic Adventure, Sewer Sam, Squish'em Sam
 - Problem with Dragon Fire savestate.
 - The Christmas demo is buggy because MEKA remove what it think is a footer (the ROM
   is not a 4k multiple and it's exactly +256 bytes, so my code think it is a footer)
 - Games:
    - Super Cobra display is off
    - Christmas needs to run in PAL/SECAM mode, without footer removing.
    - Donkey Kong: freeze after level 1
    - Fix Dragon Fire (see Dennis Stith, try Koleko 1.31)
    - Buck Rogers -> 5617
    - Fathom -> 7313
    - Space Panic -> sometimes freeze
 - Fix player 2 control
 - Add weird controllers emulation (make "Turbo" (coleco) works for Opi :)
 - Check cabellero bug reports

-----------------------------
 GAME GEAR
-----------------------------
 - Option to show entire effective screen
 - Option to stretch SMS size back to 160x144 screen. Figure out the pattern.
 - LCD persistance simulation
   (Super Monaco GP 2, Space Harrier, Ninja Gaiden)
   > Ninja Gaiden:
   > In 3rd act there are some flickering (windows on skyscraper).
   > In 2nd act, a strange "flying" & flickering sprite may appear (gunman).
   > Will there be more...? ;)
 - Gear-to-gear emulation (goes with network or at least being able to
   emulate different hosts on the same MEKA, which isn't a small change).

-----------------------------
 ARCADE
-----------------------------
 - Emulate SMS arcade board (Opa Opa, Tri Formation, Solomon no Kagi)
   - The ports are figured out.
   - Need to figure out the dipswitches.
   - Add a proper interface.
 - Emulate SG-1000 arcade board (Champion Boxing, Champion Pro Wrestling)
   - Require encryption emulation.
   - Separare OPCODE read and DATA read in Z80 emulator (for encryption).
     That's useful anyway for debugger trapping.
 - Interface coin insertion.
 - Emulation SYSTEM-A (so many great games! but it's a different system)

-----------------------------
 BIOS
-----------------------------
 - Use external BIOS files.
   - Load from a given directory.
   - Implement hack (disablable) to remove cart checks within BIOS.
     This is not "accurate" emulation but much better for users.
     As long as it is disablable.
 - Implement port 3E properly.
 - Support for the different slots. How does the user work with that?
   I certainly don't want to make it "MesaDX complicated" for a gamer.
   Automatically select cartridge slot (or cart is ROM < 32 kb), and
   maybe allow a manual setup.
 - I have a scary thought:
   How would old savestate works once this is properly emulated?
   - Can we assert that games keep value stored in C000?
   - Should get in a special "autodetect" mode, retrieving first
     slot setting written to port 3E as being where the media is loaded.
 - Check Super Racing interesting boot code (hmm? it is an obsolete thought?).
 - Sort BIOS dumps.
 - Allow to boot up other machines (Colecovision/GG) without ROM.
   - Need to be able to select machine.

-----------------------------
 HARDWARE IO
-----------------------------
 - Port 3E
   - I/O (especially YM2413 could help Maxim's SMS VGM player)
 - Port F2
   - Bit 0 disable PSG/FM mixing?
 - Read from 0x7E on SG-1000/SC-3000 return a value based on R register.
 - I/O map differs between SMS1/SMS2/etc.
   - Wonder Boy in Monster World relies on that to distinguish them!
 - Check GG pirate cards menu dumps and emulate mapper
 - Implement horizontal counter latch.

-----------------------------
 MAPPER
-----------------------------
 - Move default MAPPER in driver structure (code)
 - Mappers emulation based on mask is incorrect if ROM is not power of 2
   and attempt to map a non existing page in a range MEKA think is ok.
 - Emulate 3-in-1 mapper (Master Games 1, etc..).
 - Emulate 0xFFFC bits to shift starting pages by a certain amount.
 - Check out Earthworm Jim / Arena cartridges for an EPROM?
 - SG-1000 RAM is only 2 kbyte
 - Check out Monaco GP 40k having Safari Hunting included - pirate cartridge?
   - Was figured out elsewhere. See dev forum post.
 - Check Flash / Desert Speedtrap cartridge -> the chip is 8kb!
   - Data should not be saved. DB directive?

-----------------------------
 SMS TESTS
-----------------------------
 - Write a program that print out at which line/cycle NMI trigger.
   Does that sentence goes to the opposite of what a NMI is meant to be? :)
   Can the bug I have in Fantastic Dizzy be reproduced on a real SMS with
   some bad luck, that is what I want to know. (Otherwise, seems like a Z80 bug.)
 - Write a program to be able to find out at which cycle/h-pos the h-scroll
   is latched. // Didn't Charles figured that out now?
 - Write a program that print R - can its 'period' be simulated better?
   - This is nonsense. Just implement a proper Z80 emulator and it'll do it.
 - Write a program to find original Rapid Fire speed/period.
 - Write a SMS program to figure out exactly which pixel are shown on GG 
   screen when is SMS mode (this has been discussed on SMS Power dev).

-----------------------------
 Z80 CPU
-----------------------------
 - Register R:
   - Investigate Rastan, register R (bit 7), use for bonus?
   - Differently emulated with different Z80 cores?
 - Implement a good Z80 emulator.
   - Common, do it.
 - Test with Zexall
   - http://www.mdfsnet.f9.co.uk/Software/Z80/Exerciser/
   - Proper SMS port. See forum.
 - Support Z80 overclocking -> increase iperiod for all lines, or only VBL
 - Try to implement Dayvee's Z80 emulator
 - Undocumented flags (ref: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~pak21/cssfaq/tech_z80.html#UNDOC)
 - Proper iperiod pal/secam + CPU speed pal/secam!! (3.54689)
 - OUT (C), 0 variant
   http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9412

-----------------------------
 SPEED
-----------------------------
 - Those should be calculated on frame rate:
   - Double-click speed
   - Message speed
   - Key repetition speed
 (currently using frame display counter, which is obviously bad)

-----------------------------
 MISC
-----------------------------
 - Detect empty overdump (00/FF). 
   It used to be ok with MekaCRC but not with CRC32.
 - Detect empty half (eg: 256 kb game with another 256 kb full of FF).
   This is often the case on some ROM chip. This would help ROM dumpers.
 - Display AUTHOR field from database (and others?).
 - Support for other compression format:
   - GZ
   - RAR
 - MEKA doesn't work from a directory with '#' because of datafile loading
   There is a patch on Allegro mailing list. See "Chris" post "[AD] file.c # patch" 2004/07/26
 - /_SYS_INFOS doesn't show correct OS version since Allegro is not yet installed
 - Remove SPACE problem in MEKA.CFG (and other files, maybe)
   - Can use new tools used by MEKA.NAM parser and add quotes to the sentences
 - Frame-per-frame (ALT-F12) done correctly (this is coder luxury...)
 - Be able to change pcx/, saves/ directories, etc.. with templates
 - Implement quizz. :)
   - Hardcode mode: need to answer a question to play.
 - Check Richard Bush' ASM Stuff (ooooold)
 - Static cartridge loaded (keep track of loaded cart when quitting).
 - Auto pause (pause when click on menu, etc..)
 - Command line parameter to start in fullscreen.

-----------------------------
 NETWORK
-----------------------------
 - Standard 2 player gaae.
 - Gear-to-gear with 1 GG on each side.
 - Sharing games, multi-games, SMS party project:
   - A machine emulation should fit into a clearly delimited object,
     to be able emulate several instances on the same time.
   - a lot more...

-----------------------------
 SAVESTATES
-----------------------------
 - Savestates slots showing ala bloodlust with filled/empty boxes.
 - Press Fx and select slot. Much easier. Reuse that for blitter!
   - Generally, allow some kind of GUI widgets in fullscreen mode.
 - Format: add MEKA version field (text?)
 - Separate savestates in directory per system.
 - Message save + snail game/BIOS
 - Importer:
   - Frozen format (http://www.smspower.org/forum/messages/18383.html)
   - BrSMS format ?
 - Savestates manager
   - Scan/move everything. Avoid the plagging "renaming" problem.
 - Design a whole new, documented, shared, chunked savestates file format
   - This is the way to go.

-----------------------------
 MESSAGES / LOCALIZATION
-----------------------------
 - meka.msg
   - Remove Msg_Debug_Brk_Need_Param (little annoying to remove something 
     from the define list now)
   - Switch all accents from old DOS codepage to Windows one
 - Add code to verify sync/order of message definitions & tables.
 - Switching to full multi languages:
   1. Switch to UTF-8 (accents, etc...). That include updating existing 
      DB but also verifying the part where strings are hand manipulated.
   2. Cleanup fontsize dependant things / GUI code
   3. Implement non european language support (Japanese!)
      - Require proper fonts.

-----------------------------
 GAMES NOTES
 Some may be obsolete.
-----------------------------
 - Safari Hunting: original cartridge has $4000-$BFFF unconnected,
   (allowing to use this area as a pseudo-random number generator ?)
   Check out if the game use this area and how.
 - Excellent Dizzy: Go-Dizzy-Go! attract mode screws up in MEKA.
 - Out Run: PSG noise leftover in FM mode.
 - Daffy Duck in Hollywood menus (verify on a real PAL/SECAM system)
 - Sangokushi 3: try to finds why demonstration is not the same as on a real system (R?)
 - Bubble Bobble lockups?!! (on level 3/4/5 ?) ARGH
 - Championship Hockey: reset, glitches ? See on real system.
 - Fix formula 1 !! ? (any moer problem?)
 - 20-em-1 timing problem (currently patched)
 - F-16 Fighting Falcon: keyboard two players mode? See MK3 Page
 - Rise of the Robots - raster ok? This game is too ugly for my eyes
 - Shining Force 2 bug :( try to play the game from scratch again
 - Sonic Blast in European mode
 - Why does Psycho Fox run in Japanese when keyboard is enabled ?
   - Well, it's safe to say that my country/D? ports emulation is a joke.
 - Hang On / Safari Hunt (cartridge, NOT bios) raster glitches are
   not located at the same place between SMS and Meka (timing?).
 - Cosmic Spacehead: verify scroll glitch during demo when switching scenes
 
 - (
    "European Prince of Persia has occasional minor graphical glitches 
     in 60Hz mode, but is still playable.
     Jungle Book has (from memory) more serious glitches in 60Hz mode."

     buggy Super Monaco Gp 1&2 are buggy when you turn right as far as you can
     go. some times nba jam will lock up and i dont think it is a jp game.
   )
 
-----------------------------
 SCREEN CAPTURE
-----------------------------
 - Advanced capture:
   - Set transparency png_set_tRNS().
   - Separate layers
   - Preserve palette (complicated...)
 - Be able to map Screenshot to the pad, for opi and others.
 - Keep a way to use windows printscreen
 - Document printscreen weirdness in docs
 - Add applet to configure everything (template/counter/automatic capture..)

-----------------------------
 CONFIGURATION FILE
-----------------------------
 - Document some things better:
   - Eg: "start_in_gui" is not mentionned anywhere!
 - Do a big cleaning/renaming/sorting of configuration variables.
   Some includes:
   - Current soundcard should be stored in meka.cfg as an ID string
   -  Current theme should be stored in meka.cfg as its ID string
   - "color_theme" -> "theme"
   - Current blitter should be stored in meka.cfg as its ID string

-----------------------------
 NICE STUFF
-----------------------------
 - TV snow noise
 - Black & white TV mode
 - Screensaver
 - Easters eggs
   - More
   - BreakOut seems broken (ball doesn't always bounce)
 - Blood layer have priorities over menus

-----------------------------
 DESKTOP
-----------------------------
 - Maintains Z order of windows in MEKA.DSK.
 - Save theme by name (not by id).
 - Add a warning when backgronud pictures use unauthorized colors. [8bpp]
 - Update the ALEX KIDD theme (see Myau of Algo e-mail & alex3.pcx)
 - Background filename should be case sensitive (especially for Mekanix)
 - As a link to smspower.org/meka/themes when unable to load pictures.
 - Add ratio background stretch.
 - Unable to load pictures error only on start or theme switch (not when
   switching back to the GUI, everytime).
 //- i didn't test it that much, but changing values of coordinates of windows to
 //  big negative numbers (eg >1000), meka will crash right away. (really??)

-----------------------------
 VIRTUAL MACHINE
-----------------------------
 - Clean up virtual machine handling.
 - Power light should be on on Sega Keyboard picture.
 - Find someone to draw nice looking systems.
 - [16/24/32bpp] Allows to show machine even with theme picture.

-----------------------------
 PALETTE HANDLING
-----------------------------
 - Keep color 0 as black, cause some cards/mode won't change border color.
 - Update whole palette at once (set_palette)
 - Check out RAINE palette tricks under Windows.
 - '**Palette Overflow**' message is still in Sonic 1 (GG), fourth level
 - Palette viewer:
   - Should maintain its own dirty list, since the Refs_Dirty flags are
     only useful for the palette viewer & tile viewer ?
 - Following games have Error 5617 (commented out)
  --- Moldorian, Bram's Stoker Dracula, Fifa, Sonic & Tails 2, Devilish,
  --- Putt & putter, Bugs Bunny GG, Shaq Fu, Poker Gin, Desert Strike GG,
  --- NFL 95 GG, sspace invaders GG, terminator GG, cutthroat island GG
  --- Earthworm Jim GG, Sonic Blast GG, Sonic 1 GG
 - Check out palette change in F16 Fighter / Fighting Falcon
 - Check out snow (still ?)

-----------------------------
 CONSOLE
-----------------------------
 - Error on first video init (init -> GUI|Fullscreen) should show in console.
   Currently, in WIN32, because Meka_State is not MEKA_STATE_INIT anymore,
   they show as a popup. The console was already killed anyway

-----------------------------
 ICONS
-----------------------------
 - Sort and add new icons to the executable.
   - All media icons from MEKA (SMS/GG/SG/SC games, etc)
   - Maxim's icon
   - Casiopea's icon
   - Golden Axe Warrior (amibe.ico) from the french guy

-----------------------------
 SOURCES
-----------------------------
 - Sort machine_reset stuff, too many are done ?
 - Add pointer to reset for each drivers.
 - Improve the whole driver system.
 - Playing NES after SMS should not be causing problems, and vice versa.
   (it is still happening ?)

-----------------------------
 SOUND
-----------------------------
 - Screwed sound.
   That is the WORSE problem ever. 
   The problem is that buffer is filled asynchneously, called by an Allegro
   timer. The buffer-filler looks for the current cycle to know where to stop
   filling, but this is running in emulation which is not in sync with the
   timer. As a result, depending on luck/computer, sometimes the buffer gets
   overflowed, and sometimes it doesn't fill up to the end! That's the cause
   of sound scratches.
   Can be fixed by 'merging' sound/video sync timers but that would require
   removing unthrotled emulation. MAME supports sonud while unthrottled but
   it requires lots of work.
   It's actually not a lot of work to do the standard thing... Must do it...
 - Volume Control
 - Disabling sound:
   - Be able to disable sound within the program.
   - Support runtime /nosound switch (does not alter configuration).
   - With sound disabled, is emulation all the same ? 
     What about PSG/FM registers, saved into a savestate ?
 - WAV logging does not saves FM.
   - Require mixing on our side, or retrieval of mixed buffer.
 - Game Gear Stereo Emulation
 PSG:
 - Different PSG feedback/noise for SG-1000/SC-3000/etc.. (SN76489AN variant)
 - Higher PSG Volume
 - Enhanced PSG via samples (using Dave's idea) / or generating sinuses / other ways.
 FM:
 - Static sound in FM. -> kind of crackle. See sound/y's hiss.wav.
 - Add YM-2413 channel muting - and others things.
 - Be able to disable YM2413HD from compilation
 - Add ROMEO card support (yeah).
 - Instrument editor is obsolete.
 - Maxim tells me:
   > 3. Also, I updated to EMU2413 v0.60 and noticed that it sounds very
   > different, in particular the Phantasy Star title screen music where
   > the drums sound badly "clipped" as if played at too high volume.
   > Maybe you can check it out (EMU2413 is inside the MSXPLUG archive on
   > the author's website) and compare to a real system? I'm sure you're
   > interested in having the latest version for Meka :) Otherwise I can
   > send some in_vgm.dlls with the 0.55 and 0.60 cores.
 OPL:
 //- Should let the user force OPL enabling, because of potential OPL
 //  emulators for recent Windows platforms. // WIP
 - Support CPU speed change.
 DOS:
 - See why SEAL DOS build crash under Win2k/XP (not a priority, but I wonder..)
 Notes:
 - Panning: possibility to support Game Gear stereo easily ?
   (without major performance hit)
 - AUpdateAudio() in starting init: it is necessary ?

 - Some (old) unsorted feedback:
 
   - "I have detected a error in PSG sound emulation in the game Sonic the
      Hedgehog (Sonic 1). The "ring" sound in the scene is 'consecutive' in
      real Master System, but in the MEKA is not."
   - Little Mermaid -> missing notes (MIGHT)
   - Games that have fast music: (verify)
     - Cool Spot (title screen, two different tempos)
     - Out Run
     - Sonic 1
     - Sonic Chaos
     - Strider
     - World Grand Prix, Engine noise has extra pitch also
     (maybe the guy was just a PAL freak, but better check)

   - "> Also, in Dynamite Dux, a soft beep sound can be heared when the music
      > of the first stage begins.
      I think I hear what you mean. Disable channel 2 and the noise channel
      and you can hear it alone, before any proper notes come in. I also hear
      a lot of crackling because of the vibrato-type effect it uses by changing
      the volume really quickly. If you listen to channel 1 or 3 alone then you
      don't hear it, so it's a Meka problem."
      - see Maxim e-mail
      - This is just the standard effect of the main sound bug described above.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 NAMING CONVENTION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 - Export/Japan
 - Everything in MEKA.CFG
 - Everything in MEKA.MSG
 - ...

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