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What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 9:47 pm
by amhndu
We have a list of "tricky to emulate" games in the wiki, and I've been looking for some test roms for my emulator, so what are some games/demos to try out in the initial stages of an emulator ?
Preferrably NROM.

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 10:28 pm
by lidnariq
The earliest titles. e.g. Donkey Kong, the original Mario Bros, Popeye, Nuts & Milk, Lode Runner. As far as I know, all of these games can be rendered a screen at a time, not needing any cycle accuracy at all.

But do also look in cpow's collection of test roms.

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 11:38 pm
by amhndu
Thanks, I'll test them.

Though, I'm actually rendering a pixel a cycle with no visible performance loss so far.

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 4:40 am
by Zepper
Rockman 1 is another title. ^_^;;

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:37 am
by James
I used the Zelda Title Screen Simulator during the initial development of my emulator. The first game I got to run was Arkanoid.

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:54 pm
by Dwedit
Also suggesting Mega Man and Mega Man II. No raster effects anywhere in those games. It's also a good opportunity to quickly implement a couple of common mappers.

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 6:58 pm
by koitsu
First game we got running in VeNES was Mario Bros (the original, not SMB). Bunches of the original first-gen NROM games are good starters.

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 7:21 pm
by thefox
If you have any skills in NES programming (which is a good skill to have anyways if you're developing an emulator), you could write your own "easy to emulate" ROM or ROMs (with a limited set of CPU instructions and CPU/PPU interaction).

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Thu Jul 21, 2016 9:47 pm
by Myask
thefox wrote:If you have any skills in NES programming (which is a good skill to have anyways if you're developing an emulator), you could write your own "easy to emulate" ROM or ROMs (with a limited set of CPU instructions and CPU/PPU interaction).
"if", because if not, then one will be testing against bad code, and fix things in the emulator to make the bad code run properly.

So don't do that.

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 12:38 am
by thefox
Well, it's not that hard to get very basic things running, and of course you should test your ROM in other emulators/hardware first.

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 5:51 am
by Sik
I would rule out anything that does any sort of split screen effect because of their need for relatively tight timings. This includes any game that scrolls horizontally but has a HUD that doesn't (a split is used between the HUD and the scenery). I know somebody who tried started with Pinball, and it did seem to start... except because the ball then would move erratically on the plunger. No idea how much of the CPU was emulated at the time, but truth is that most games just plain won't run until nearly all of the system is emulated.
thefox wrote:If you have any skills in NES programming (which is a good skill to have anyways if you're developing an emulator), you could write your own "easy to emulate" ROM or ROMs (with a limited set of CPU instructions and CPU/PPU interaction).
This is useful to start, but eventually you want to try games once you got enough =P

Also I'd say, if you want to make an emulator for any system, first you should have gotten accustomed to programming it, this way then you'll get a rough idea of how the hardware most likely works internally, otherwise you'll end up with a horrible mess that's 110% hacks that you'll need to rewrite away from scratch later because you made all the wrong assumptions =D

Re: What are some "easy to emulate" games ?

Posted: Fri Jul 22, 2016 8:44 am
by rainwarrior
thefox wrote:If you have any skills in NES programming (which is a good skill to have anyways if you're developing an emulator), you could write your own "easy to emulate" ROM or ROMs (with a limited set of CPU instructions and CPU/PPU interaction).
It seems to me that a lot of appropriate things of this nature have already been written. For example:
http://wiki.nesdev.com/w/index.php/Emulator_tests