What emulators do you know that enhance or modify the NES?

What emulators do you know that enhance or modify the NES?
by Petruza on 2009-12-13 (#53985)

I've seen an emulator that runs Super Mario Bros and controls mario with AI so it always chooses the best paths and never loses.

Or one emulator that allows network gaming (or is it kaillera?), not really a modification, because the NES core still works as a regular two player game, but still, it kind of enhances the original game experience.

Do you know any more?

by MottZilla on 2009-12-13 (#53986)

Mine lets you change the CPU's speed allowing you to reduce or in all cases I've tried removed slow down. For example Kirby doesn't have slowdown when the CPU runs faster and neither does TMNT1.

by Zepper on 2009-12-13 (#53987)

MottZilla wrote:
Mine lets you change the CPU's speed allowing you to reduce or in all cases I've tried removed slow down. For example Kirby doesn't have slowdown when the CPU runs faster and neither does TMNT1.

- I never got the idea, since my NTSC CPU emulator does 3 PPU clocks per cycle. So, if I increase the "speed", I would be changing everything too, as audio and video rates.

- Answering the topic owner, we have FCEU with a Lua script (plus its debug/hacking tool) and Nestopia with blargg's NTSC video filtering.

Re: What emulators do you know that enhance or modify the NE
by Bregalad on 2009-12-13 (#53988)

Petruza wrote:
I've seen an emulator that runs Super Mario Bros and controls mario with AI so it always chooses the best paths and never loses.

Cool can you say more about it ? I've always wondered if that existed, kind of automated speed run.

by Dwedit on 2009-12-13 (#53989)

Not just NTSC filtering, don't forget the HQ series of filters, 2xsai, scale2x, eagle, etc.

Re: What emulators do you know that enhance or modify the NE
by tepples on 2009-12-13 (#53995)

Bregalad wrote:
Petruza wrote:
I've seen an emulator that runs Super Mario Bros and controls mario with AI so it always chooses the best paths and never loses.

Cool can you say more about it ?

Something similar: http://julian.togelius.com/mariocompetition2009/

Re: What emulators do you know that enhance or modify the NE
by Petruza on 2009-12-13 (#53997)

Bregalad wrote:
Petruza wrote:
I've seen an emulator that runs Super Mario Bros and controls mario with AI so it always chooses the best paths and never loses.

Cool can you say more about it ? I've always wondered if that existed, kind of automated speed run.

I saw it some days ago, it's in Java, you can play it online.
It draws the possible paths mario can take before it does, and it uses AI to try and avoid getting hit or falling in holes.
I don't remember its name, it was a WIP for some guy's thesis.

by Petruza on 2009-12-13 (#53998)

MottZilla wrote:
Mine lets you change the CPU's speed allowing you to reduce or in all cases I've tried removed slow down. For example Kirby doesn't have slowdown when the CPU runs faster and neither does TMNT1.

Great, is it open source? what's its name / website?

PS: Does anyone know a NES emu that uses SDL other than FCEUX?

by tepples on 2009-12-13 (#54000)

Petruza wrote:
PS: Does anyone know a NES emu that uses SDL other than FCEUX?

Other FCE Ultra derivatives, like the one in Ubuntu's repository. Also, PocketNES uses SDL when you run it through VisualBoyAdvance (SDL version).

by qeed on 2009-12-13 (#54006)

mednafen also uses it, and nestopia linux port i think (for some parts).

by tokumaru on 2009-12-13 (#54007)

MottZilla wrote:
Mine lets you change the CPU's speed

It might prevent slow down in some games, but will break others that rely on accurate timing.

by Dwedit on 2009-12-13 (#54011)

I always thought "emulating at a higher speed" meant emulating a 60FPS Dendy?

by MottZilla on 2009-12-13 (#54024)

Petruza wrote:
MottZilla wrote:
Mine lets you change the CPU's speed allowing you to reduce or in all cases I've tried removed slow down. For example Kirby doesn't have slowdown when the CPU runs faster and neither does TMNT1.

Great, is it open source? what's its name / website?

It is not open source. The name is NESSIM. http://ninjagaiden4.thegaminguniverse.c ... essim.html

To change the CPU speed you press F9, F10, or F11 during play. You can change the speed any time.

tokumaru, you are correct that timing critical games might break. But it is irrelevant when you can change the CPU speed at will. The vast majority of games either see a benefit in reduced slowdown or no effect at all. Ofcourse some games end up with glitches. The easiest example would be like Battletoads. But you just simply can't use the boost on those games and just have to deal with it. Other games it's a nice little perk like Kirby or TMNT1.

Re: What emulators do you know that enhance or modify the NE
by Bregalad on 2009-12-14 (#54030)

tepples wrote:
Something similar: http://julian.togelius.com/mariocompetition2009/

I wonder how well the AI works with that ultra-insane mario hack.

by Luke on 2009-12-14 (#54042)

My emulator (UberNES) will record users' high scores and speed runs when playing certain games and do online leaderboards. It will also set the "high score" value that some games display in-game, and for Tetris it will even set the in-game leaderboard (name/score/level) to match the UberNES leaderboard.