mister-devel/sms_mister

Sega Master System for MiSTer

Sega Master System/Game Gear for MiSTer FPGA and MiST

This core is a port of Ben's Sega Master System implementation for the Papilio. See http://fpga-hacks.blogspot.de/.

Features

• Sega Master System, Game Gear and SG-1000 Support
• Sega System E arcade hardware Support
• NTSC & PAL Support
• Hide Borders Option - Allows you to fill the screen vertically without black borders.
• FM Audio Support
• Extra Sprites Option
• Cheats
• Extended Game Gear Resolution Option
• Z80 Turbo Option
• Lightgun, Paddle controls, and Multitap Support

Where to Download

• For MiSTer, go to releases.
• For MiST, go to mist-binaries.

Installation

• Copy the *.rbf file at the root of the SD card.
• Copy *.SMS ROMs into SMS folder.

Notes

• Some games come in .gg format but are in fact SMS games. Rename the .gg extention to .sms or .bin to fix them. These games are mostly listed in this page SMSpower-SMS-GG list.
• The "Aspect ratio" doesn't do much in PAL mode, that's normal.
• The "Region" parameter toggle some hardware features that are specific to the different console models. Some localized games need these modifications to work properly. If a game doesn't work right, try to toggle this setting and reset the game in order to troubleshoot.
• Each game cartridge comes with a specific mapper, which description is not included in the .gg ou .sms file. The core has a special logic to automatically determine which mapper needs to be used, but some games make a good effort to make this logic fail. The "Disable mappers" parameter permits to force the usage of the most used sega mapper.
• The "Masked left column" option controls behaviour of left column when hidden by system (usually during horizontal scrolling). "BG" sets it to the background/overscan colour, as on original hardware. "Black" makes it black, which may look better on non full-screen settings as the column will blend in with surrounding black area. "Cut" will remove the column from the active image, so the horizontal resolution becomes 248 instead of 256. This will distort the image when scaled, particularly on integer scaling settings, but will use more of the screen. When "Border" is set to "Yes" the left column is always shown as part of the border, so "Masked left column" is disabled.

sms_mister's Issues

Game Gear games that fail to get to gameplay

Today I went through the entire Game Gear library testing each and every game to see which didn't work. Out of the ones that didn't work, I tried about half in Kega Fusion and they all ran fine, so I don't believe any are bad rom dumps.

These games didn't boot at all and just display a black screen:
Gear Works
Kawasaki Super Bike Challenge
Lemmings
Micro Machines
Micro Machines II
Pac Attack
Puyo Puyo 2/ Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
Puzlow Kids
SS Lucifer
Super Space Invaders
World Series baseball games / Major Pro Baseball

The next list of games do boot but the title screen graphics display incorrectly and part of the screen is cut off on some, they also crash before gameplay unless otherwise stated:
Chase HQ
Micky Mouse Castle of Illusion
Olympic Gold Barcelona
Prince of Persia
Predator 2
RC Grand Prix (this one has similar issues as the others in this list but it does manage to get to gameplay)
Super Kick Off
WWF Steel Cage

These games also refuse to get to gameplay:
Ceasor's Palace (game crashes after registering your name)
GP Rider (crashes at title screen when you push start)
Joe Montana Football (crashes at coin toss)
Mortal Kombat 2 (screen goes black after Acclaim licensing info)
NFL 95 (crashes at Sega logo)
Pop Breaker (at title screen you can move up and down between game options but it wont register a button press, so you can't start the game)
Primal Rage (crashes at the title screen after the intro)
Stargate (hangs at Acclaim logo)
Tanto R (screen goes black after title screen, game doesn't boot)

Other glitches/ bugs I noticed:
X-Men games (X-Men logo on title screen is glitched)

Top row of pixels scrolls horizontally with the background, but it shouldn't

All SMS games with horizontal scrolling and a fixed status area along the top (such as Transbot or Wonder Boy III) exhibit a visual glitch: the top row of pixels (in the status bar area near the top) scrolls along with the background, rather than staying fixed in place. You can see this in the attached screenshot (taken from the 20190411 core release for MiSTer).

Wonder Boy III Glitch

Game Gear - Caesar's Palace crashes apon registering name

After entering a new name at the beginning of the game, it crashes.

Hang On UE ROM causes a reset to Title Screen when you crash the Bike

Whilst playing Hang On the UE ROM version (which I have tested and works normally on a Real SMS with a Master Everdrive), if you hit an opponent which normally explodes the bike and then puts you back into the middle of the Course to continue, the game just resets you straight back to the title screen.

Auto region switch

Hi,
Would it be possible to implement an Auto region switch instead of manually switching the region on the OSD? Apparently, the rom header has a region section (see following link): https://www.smspower.org/Development/ROMHeader#RegionCode0x7fff05Bytes

Penguim Adventure (SMS) doesn't work

MiSTer SMS core simply gets locked in the SEGA logo screen when loading this:

https://www.smspower.org/Games/PenguinAdventure-SMS

Ghouls N' Ghosts blades drawn behind wooden posts

In Ghouls N Ghosts on the first stage, the blades that drop down are drawn behind the two wood posts instead of in front of them.

Stating at 52 seconds you can see how it's supposed to look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=52&v=mdozrRd4AyM

Core doesn't show any picture on my 4K TV half of the time

Hey there,

So I have my MiSTer hooked via HDMI on my Samsung 4K/UHD TV (UN55KU6290). Most of the time, this core will not show me any picture when loading any game, I'll only see the MiSTer interface when I hit the menu button. I'll hear a game play with the sound going through the HDMI, but no picture. It will however display via VGA on an old monitor that I've hooked via the IO board.

So ya, I get a blank image on my TV while the sound passes through but I do get the picture on my monitor. Sometime, after playing around with a bunch of different cores that work every time (SNES, Genesis, PC-Engine), it will eventually display on my TV , but that's on rare occasion.

I get a similar with the NES core and more often with the GameBoy core. Any idea of what's going on and how to fix it?

Thank you

Ys Japan Glitch

On the Japanese FM enabled version of Ys, there is a graphical glitch visible as soon as you staty the game, this glitch does not occur on the US version of the game.

mra - Riddle of Pythagoras paddle doesn't work

The spinner conversion to paddle makes the game buggy.

Super Wonder Boy in Monster World (Japan) has corrupted graphics

Possibly a mapper issue as this game was pushing the hardware quite a bit.

Already tried with all combinations of the region/bios settings and went back multiple versions (back to 20210926), same result.

Homebrew game DONKEY.SMS is unplayable due to wrong behavior

A new homebrew game called DONKEY.SMS was released recently by Raphaël Assenat of Raphnet Technologies fame. It is a remake of Microsoft's infamous 1981 game DONKEY.BAS for IBM PC.
https://www.raphnet.net/programmation/donkey/index_en.php

This game is unplayable on the current (20210211) SMS core due to incorrect ingame behavior. The player is supposed to steer a rapidly moving car sideways to avoid collision with animals standing on the road, otherwise the car would explode in graphic fashion. Currently the game doesn't proceed further than the first obstacle, as the car always explodes regardless if the collision had taken place or not. The explosion appears to happen as soon the first donkey disappears from the screen behind the car.

This behavior appears to be unaffected by BIOS, region, mapper or FM sound settings.

Paddle Support for analog sticks like it's handled in 7800 core?

There are a handful of paddle games for the Master System: https://segaretro.org/Paddle_Control

I've tried playing these games with a joystick and enabling the paddle controller function in the OSD, and the results don't work afaik. The paddle controller drifts all the way to the left and makes these games unplayable. There are paddle to standard controller hacks for all the games that require the paddle controllers, but playing Woody Pop with a standard controller is a mediocre experience to say the least. I'd like to try the paddle controls with a paddle controller like a Mr. Spinner, but I unfortunately don't have any paddle controllers.

Anyways, my request is to have paddle support for these games mappable to the left analog stick, if possible and handled the same way as the Atari 7800 core handles paddle games, meaning having much more precision than a standard d-pad. Sure the analog stick isn't extremely precise, but it's much more accurate than a d-pad.

Is it possible to use the same paddle logic from the 7800 core and implement it with the paddle controls in the SMS core?

Feature Request: Improve FM implementation using Nukeykt's instrument dump.

It appears Nukeykt dumped the instruments for the YM2413 used in the FM module for SMS. Hopefully one of the developers can use this to improve the accuracy.

https://siliconpr0n.org/archive/doku.php?id=vendor:yamaha:opl2#ym2413_instrument_rom

msx mapper / vdp mode 2

@gyurco @sorgelig I need an advice from you guys, or I'd better say an editor's choice

Someone caught my attention on the MSX/SMS dual compatible roms, and I made a branch to support it. The mapper is ok, but for the mode2 I made a debatable choice consisting to imbed tightly the mode2 within the existing mode4's logic instead of writing a separate TMS9918 module.

Finally I am pretty pleased with the result (not finished yet), but I wish to know if you guys want to merge these changes in the main branch, or if we keep this branch aside. Beware that the changes in vdp are quite significant, although I feel secure about them.

If you choose to merge these, I need to remove my debug garbage and rollback the palette and bios changes I made to do so.

Rgds

Can't pause on MiST with 2-button DB9 controllers

I couldn't find any way to pause the game with 2-button DB9 pads, eg. with the SMS pad.
Older SMS cores for MiST had a pause option in the menu. Some games require it to be fully playable (like Alex Kidd in Miracle World). Other than that it works great, good work!

_Chack'n Pop_ (SG-1000) won't boot properly with BIOS enabled

With the SMS BIOS enabled, Chack'n Pop boots with garbled graphics. This appears to be the only SG-1000 game affected.

PAL speed not matching original hardware

Noticed small speed difference in music at first, but experimented to observe the whole core appears to run faster than my SMS.

SMS: Master System II Power Base PAL-I. Model No: 3006-05 (Purchased in UK)
MiSTer: Not sure if any INI settings might effect this? I've kept a backup copy if any setting values are needed, eg. "vsync_adjust=0". SMS core settings: "TV System: PAL"

Attempt to quantify the difference using "Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Europe, Brazil) (Rev 1)".
(EDIT: Confirmed behaviour is on Ver1.00 ROM in viewing ROM in Hex. Same ROM used on console, dumped my cartridge using a Retrode)
Starting new game from main menu button press, quickly starting stop watch, recording the time on MiSTer and SMS console when Sonic ran out of all lives. Error propagation presented assuming I was way worse at timing than I should have reasonably been.

• SMS console: 2183.9±1 seconds

• MiSTer: 2200.7±1 seconds

• MiSTer speed factor compared to console: 1.0077±0.007

I appreciate you'd need solid data to compare, I'm happy to provide anything else than I can.
I'd also acknowledge the difference could of course be my old hardware. I've reached out looking for other PAL SMS console players to similarly test, but no takers yet.
I did try an emulator, and found it ran the game slower than MiSTer, but still faster than my SMS console.

Thanks very much. Giving info in hopes of helping to achieving accuracy, but incredibly grateful for the core.

GG wrong aspect ratio

The aspect ratio for GG is totally incorrect and should be 4:3 as it used to be.
https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&p=14914&sid=6a5f1b719aaf2224e8ceeaf8afc25625#p14914

Game Gear - Chase HQ Glitched title screen

The title screen graphics are messed up and the game wont start.

When Border = No Scale Wider/Narrower HV-Integer doesn't work

Setting Border to No (256x192 on SMS/SG games) makes the image larger but the new integer Scale feature doesn't work forcing the image smaller since you have to set Border to Yes (282x240).

When Border is set to No I believe the largest integer image on 1920x1440 could be 1792x1344 (SMS/SG games) - and I think it could be achieved if Scale worked even when Border is set to No making it larger than the current HV-Integer possibilities.

GG games (160x144) work nicely, though, edge-to-edge - full width - as large as can be.

Letterbox Game Gear before scaling

Given there's (currently) no way to apply "vscale_border" to the Game Gear and not the Master System, would it be possible to add a toggle to letterbox the Game Gear's 144p video to 240p before it's scaled?

SMS Core Fails "X-Scroll Latchtime" Test

The SMS core fails the "X-Scroll Latchtime" test in the attached VDPTEST rom. You can compare to the same test run on a PAL SMS2, also attached.

I have attached the full test results for the MiSTer and PAL SMS2, and also the Mega SG which may be of interest.

VDPTEST.sms.zip
SMS Test Mega SG (15-Oct-2021).zip
SMS Test PAL MS2 (15-Oct-2021).zip
SMS Test MiSTer (29-Sep-2021).zip

SMS Savestates

I know its not easy, but can you add Savestates?

Maybe you can talk to Robert Peip (dev of GBA and may other core or Features)
He is really good at these features.

Game Gear: Madou Monogatari II and III do not play voice samples correctly

In these games, voices play at a nearly inaudible level. Voice samples in the other two games in the series, Madou Monogatari I and A, do have voice samples at the correct volume.

Aladdin GameGear button issue

When playing the game with the USA ROM for GameGear after the first jump from one building to the next in the second section of the game the jump button no longer registers. Duplicated across multiple GameGear ROMs but the SMS ROM is fine.

FM Sound option gone

Since the latest framework update the FM Sound Option is gone.

SMS Core Fails "VCounter chg time" Test

The SMS core fails the "VCounter chg time" test in the attached VDPTEST rom. You can compare to the same test run on a PAL SMS2, also attached.

I have attached the full test results for the MiSTer and PAL SMS2, and also the Mega SG which may be of interest.

t
SMS Test Mega SG (15-Oct-2021).zip
SMS Test PAL MS2 (15-Oct-2021).zip
SMS Test MiSTer (29-Sep-2021).zip

VDPTEST.sms.zip
.

No difference between Narrower and Wider HV-Integer

I use 1920x1440 (there's no difference between Narrower and Wider HV-Integer in this mode - not sure why.

mra - Riddle of Pyhatoras can't be rotated

The game runs sideways / rotated with no way to rotate it "correctly".

Games not working reported by albconde

These have been reported by Atari-forum user albconde, and these failures are confirmed.

Some games with problems in gamegear:
Bram stokers Dracula : problems when you start to play,
Hook : Blackscreen when you start to play
Lion King : Blackscreen when you start to play

In some games in gamegear ,like baku baku , Some sprites seem displaced 1 pixel to the right ,to see this problem start playing, when an ítem reaches the bottom ,moves a pixel to the left

Game Gear - Primal Rage refuses to load past title screen

Primal Rage begins to load just fine then gets the title screen and crashes.

Master System Walter Payton Football doesn't start

Walter Payton Football doesn't boot, gets stuck on a red screen after boot.

PAL SMS border is incorrect over analog video when direct_video=0

https://misterfpga.org/viewtopic.php?p=48093#p48093

I confirmed this result as well. For some odd reason direct video being enabled fixes the otherwise broken border. the border for PAL is also incorrect over HDMI which leads to the screen being filled with an incorrect aspect ratio.

2022-04-04.21-27-52.mp4

Here's a video of me switching back and forth between two alternate ini's. Both the same, but one has direct_video=1 and shows the correct border. This is using the analog IO board with vga to YPbPr going to a retrotink 5x pro scaler.

Game Gear - GP Rider stalls at titlescreen.

While the Master System version runs fine, if you load up the Game Gear version of GP Rider, the titlescreen and music load just fine, but when you push the button to start, the game hangs and refuses to load.

Crop option doesn't do anything on the SMS/GG core

I have vscale_mode, vscale_border, scandoubler set to 0, I have scanlines enabled and when I toggle the crop option in the menu of the core, nothing happens, it's completely ignored.

On all the other cores where the crop option has been added, when I toggle it, the screen flashes and I get the 5X height on the image.

Image shifted to the right

On SMS games, image is shifted to the right

Outrun - Master System FM Sound version glitch

This only happens when the sound is set to FM sound.

When you begin the opening stage, there is noticeable audio distortion that can be heard until you crash into another car, after which the game sounds fine.

How to turn off 3D function?

3D cannot be turn off when playing Space Harrier 3D.

the Clouds in wonderboy are wrong see image.

https://imgur.com/a/NybPasy

mra - Hang On Jr has no accellerator or break

When you map the buttons there's no accellerator/gas pedal and no break.

Great hockey. menu's move on it's own.

control just moves on it's own. hard to pick the things you want. needs fix. seems like a glitch.

R.C. Grand Prix freezes in shop

This game (R.C. Grand Prix) freezes in the shop.

Win the first 2 races, then you can go to the shop - but it always freezes for me?

Aspect ratio is incorrect when border is disabled

While playing Master of Darkness on the SMS core today, I realized that the only way to get an accurate aspect ratio (accurate to what is displayed on CRT), is to keep the border turned on. This makes the viewable area much smaller when integer scaling, but it is currently the only way to have an accurate aspect ratio for this core.

Example in Master of Darkness: Slightly rectangular boxes in the UI at the top are perfectly square when border is disabled. After enabling the border, you can clearly see they are a bit rectangular, as they appear on CRT.

Champion Baseball and Champion Golf (SG-1000) shows graphical glitches.

Both these games run fine using the Colecovision core to run SG-1000 games, but have issues on SMS core.

Game Gear - Outrun and Outrun Europa refuse to boot

As above, both games refuse to boot. After loading them, a very faint image of the Sega logo can be seen, but nothing happens after that.

Issues found by atari-forum user "hyperterminal"

(I haven't verified any of these yet)
From: atari-forum user "hyperterminal"

1. SG-1000 games with embedded RAM mapped at the end of the ROM area starting at 0x8000
   a) Castle, The (Japan) (8 KB embedded RAM) freezes after the SEGA logo
   b) Othello (Japan) (2 KB embedded RAM) doesn't boot

2. Mapper 4 (Game Gear)
   Pro Yakyuu GG League (JP) doesn't boot

3. Mapper 10
   FA Tetris (Korea) (Pirate) doesn't boot

4. Mapper 12
   Nemesis (Korea) doesn't boot (the other known mapper 12 games do, albeit some like Nemesis 2 or Penguin Adventure have to be hex edited so that the rom begins with 41 42)

5. Mapper 13
   Janggun-ui Adeul (Korea) doesn't boot

6. Mapper 14
   4 PAK All Action (Australia) (Unl) cannot select game from the menu; game resets

7. Mapper 16
   a) Hi-Com 3-in-1 The Best Game Collection A (Korea) cannot select a game from the menu; nothing happens on button press
   b) Hi-Com 8-in-1 The Best Game Collection A (Korea): menu only shows the first 4 games instead of all 8 games; cannot select a game from the menu; nothing happens on button press

8. PAL games
   a) Incredible Hulk, The (Europe) doesn't boot
   b) Back to the Future Part III (Europe) doesn't boot
   c) Shadow Dancer (Europe) doesn't boot

9. SC-3000 games
   a) Home Basic (Japan) (SC-3000) doesn't boot
   b) Music (Japan) (SC-3000) doesn't boot

Mappers are numbered according to the MEKA source:
https://github.com/ocornut/meka/blob/ma ... a/meka.nam

The 3-in-1 and 8-in-1 games can be downloaded from http://www.smspower.org/forums/15157-Hi ... ctionDumps

I'm not sure if it is worth the effort but the SMS (Japanese Mark III) also had a keyboard addon, which is supported by a few SMS titles:
http://www.smspower.org/forums/13007-Ma ... 00Keyboard

keyboard mapping:
https://github.com/dafyddcrosby/meka/bl ... keyboard.c

Feature Request: Load and use BIOS files

Most Master System models included games built-in in their BIOS files. Though most of these games were released in cartridges, there are exceptions like the Snail Maze game and Alex Kidd in Miracle World, in which the BIOS version is different from the cartridge one: buttons are swapped (jump is on the right, punch is on the left, which is more natural), and hamburgers replaced the rice bow sprites (for "Americanization" I guess).

Mega Everdrive and Mega Sg have options to load and use BIOS files. We can use them together with a blank ROM to play the built-in games. We can also use them with game ROMs in order to see the SEGA logos and/or SEGA tunes which are presented before the ROM loads, for nostalgic reasons.

My suggestion is that this feature is included in the Master System core. It would be a nice addition and make it more complete.

No Controls in Hang On Jr.

After manually mapping inputs, the core has no controls.

5x Vertical Crop

Vertical Crop: 216p (5x) seems to have no noticeable effect. Would the setting even work with this particular core when the system's native resolution is 256x192?