I've posted a test release of ZSNES Portable. ZSNES is the best SNES/Super Famicom emulator out there and the portable version is configured to automatically support ROMs, game saves, etc within its own directory. Settings, game saves, etc are kept in the Data directory (for easy backup) and ROMs and graphics are kept in the App directory. You can just take your existing SNES ROMs and drop them into ZSNESPortable\App\roms and they'll work. The launcher sets up the proper paths for ZSNES on each launch. It'll even double-check that the PC you're running on has the proper DirectX install (it requires 8.1 and up).
Please give it a try and post feedback.
Download ZSNES Portable 1.51 Pre-Release 1
(may take a few minutes to hit the download servers)
Thanks,
John
ROMS Note: There are demo and homebrew game ROMs floating around various places on the net that are completely legal to download and play. Use of ROMs of commercial games is illegal (except in a couple countries). If you own the game it may be legal or illegal depending on where you are. But hosting and downloading of them is usually illegal. We're not getting into a discussion of it here, though. If you post a note asking where to get ROMs, you will be banned. Do *NOT* ask where to get ROMs.
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Looks really well done no errors so far
Loads Roms very well in the Rom folder located in App\Roms and the save states in the proper save folder. All I can say is well done
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"I don't fear Computers. I fear the lack of them" Isaac Asimov
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
where do you get the roms?
If you're looking for illegal ROMs, do not ask here or at the ZSNES site. If this is what you are looking for, you'll be banned.
There are a few legal homebrew ROMs and other things you can find:
http://www.gameasylum.com/demoscene.html
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
i did not know that they where illegal. i was only looking for a legit response so that i could test the emulator. Again, i am not looking for illegal roms.
Don't worry dude noone is going to come and sue your pants off just because you asked for roms, lol.
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Complex launcher eh. :|
Umm, only text error I found was the second line of text in the launcher for the website directs to PokerTHPortable
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It's kinda scary when my desktop is messier than my room...
The only problem I have is you can't modify the ROM path. ZSNESPortable keeps resetting it. This is very annoying, as I already had several emulators on my drive and I liked to keep all my ROMs grouped together in subfolders of a root folder.
My solution to make ZSNES portable was to use relative paths in the config file. That worked fine for me if I recall... although the file browser keeps resetting the ROMPath to an absolute path, the rest work fine as relative ones.
Ex:
ROMPath="F:\\ROM Images\\Super Nintendo\\"
; Save states & SRAMs, snapshots, SPCs
SRAMPath="SAVES\\"
SnapPath="SNAPSHOTS\\"
SPCPath="..\\..\\..\\ROM IMAGES\\SUPER NINTENDO\\"
; BIOS/base carts (BS-X, Sufami Turbo, Same Game & SD Gundam G-Next)
BSXPath=""
STPath=""
SGPath=""
GNextPath=""
; SPC7110 graphic packs
FEOEZPath=""
SJNSPath=""
MDHPath=""
SPL4Path=""
I'll be using your solution since it's got a pretty splash screen
but it would be great if ZSNESPortable would let you change the path. Maybe you could build an alternate launcher EXE that allows that path to change. I tried to make my own but it's been awhile since I did NSIS and I didn't feel like figuring out how to break down $EXEDIR into a drive letter.
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Guess I can drop that one...
But shouldn't the rom folder be in the data folder? The app folder should contain all files of the application, everything that is need to run it. Roms itself are data.
At least that's what I was thinking when doing the VisualBoyAdvance Portable...
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I thought about it a lot... but ROMs are more akin to plugins than data. Remember, data will be backed up when the user selects to backup their data directories. Would you want MBs or GBs worth of ROMs as a part of that backup?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
But I've answered the question with yes and therefore moved the rom folder to /data
Maybe it's a good idea, to have an ApplicationData Folder for all those roms/saves/office documents/etc. under Documents? I mean, Windows has one like this and it's not the worst part of it...
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A program is less portable if you have to move more than one folder around. The current setup is fine IMO.
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- downloaded
- installed
- copied roms to roms folder
- start app
- load rom
- played game -> everything ok
ZSNES is working fairly well, but there's just a few issues that I'd like to note.
* SNES games with the FX Chip do not properly run in 1.51 -- This is a KNOWN ISSUE (including the non-portable version)
* Some games have minor graphical bugs, which is mostly cosmetic -- It occurs in the non-portable version
* No online gaming support -- This is a KNOWN ISSUE (as it was removed in the newer version)
I'd suggest making ZSNES v1.337 portable over 1.51 myself since such issues don't exist, but it doesn't support USB controllers.
The only suggestion is to move the ROM folder into the "Data" folder, just to make it easier to locate where to place the ROMs you want.
Other than that, it's pretty much ready for an official release!
~TStodden
~TStodden
Game Monkey Likes You!
I didn't realize the netplay issue existed. [Edit: Ah, the netplay is still there, just always grayed out. That's probably why.]
Online gaming sucks anyways, since the only way it's really been done is to send control presses, but then the games get out of sync almost immediately. There needs to be some netcode that syncs memory states of two roms somehow. Depending on the specific game used this could be feasible.
However, your FX chip comment is mistaken. I just tested both Starfox and Starfox 2 Beta and neither have any noticeable problems. I would recommend using GoodSNES to verify your ROMs are good. Any specific games you have problems with? I can test them myself and see.
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The only game that I play a lot that uses the FX chip is Yoshi's Island: Super Mario World 2, which uses the FX chip for special effects that go beyond the SNES's normal restrictions.
As I said before, it's a known issue for the program.
~TStodden
~TStodden
Game Monkey Likes You!
Ok, I'll put this up for the interested folks. Do you want ROMs in the Data subdirectory or App? With Data, it'll get backed up when you use PortableApps.com Backup and select Application Data... which may or may not be a good thing... especially if you have tons of ROMs.
I may add a custom path before the final release, too, for folks who don't mind editing an INI.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Personally, I would prefer to see the roms stay in the app folder. Since roms are usually larger then the save states and such it would make for smaller backups.
This is just a thought, but how difficult would it be to give the choice during install to have the roms stored in the data or app folder?
That would increase the complexity of the installer... and I'm trying to simplify and standardize that.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That's fair enough. Simplicity and standardization are usually the better route to go anyways. It's something I wanted to throw out there, see what you thought of the idea
is to put roms in the App side, and put the saved games in with the Data. Apps and Roms are easily downloadable from the website one gets them from originally. Or if I thought that PortableApps.com's versions of programs were going to lost because of a server crash, I would have backed them up in the "Complete Backup" in the first place. But no where else is the saved games.
"... respect, all good works are not done by only good folk. For here, at the end of all things, we shall do what needs to be done."
Don't be an uberPr∅. They are stinky.
How about let the user decide? Like I said in another comment, I already keep my roms in X:\ROM Images\Super Nintendo.
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Because I *am* new, maybe this is a dumb suggestion, but can the ROMs go in the "Other" directory?
The possiblity to include one good open-source rom as default, it one exists, so people are not searching for roms when they first get the thing. Because the emulator is no good without the rom really. People would wanna download and be good to go.
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It's kinda scary when my desktop is messier than my room...
I looked around a bit and couldn't find anything of value. If you can, please let me know.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I'll spend a bit of time looking around.
Edit: And it certainly is hard...
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It's kinda scary when my desktop is messier than my room...
Look for a port of some released-source game like Wolf3D or Doom or something or Linux or something, and package it with the shareware/demo data files. Something like that would probably be the best homebrew rom examples.
Except that those things would run better natively, heh.
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I know I'm late to the game here, but the are some public domain ROMs available @ Zophar's (a pretty big emu site that I remembered from my old-school days).
see here: http://www.zophar.net/roms.phtml?op=show&type=snes
also, google: "public domain" "super nintendo"
these should all be legal, contributed roms. many have their src included with them, as well. certainly some of the feature demos (colors, mode 7, etc) would be reasonable drop-ins.
ps - nice work! you should post a note over @ the zsnes forums, if you're looking for more testers.
They all look clean at first glance. And there's Tic Tac Toe that's open source their, might not be a bad one to include.
John:
Can you do something abaout the reg key:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\DirectInput\ZSNESW.EXE45B7F83600091200
???
Win XP SP2 admin account.
“Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts” - Richard P. Feynman
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That appears to be DirectX internal record keeping stuff. It has no impact on portability.
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The only problem found is to save the paths.... Oo'
But is amazing, I love it!!!! XD
Thanks John!!!
[]'s
Alex Sampaio
If you don't understand what I wrote, don't worry, I'm brazilian
[]'s
Alex Sampaio
everybody knows that everybody only plays *legal* roms ... right? LOLOLOL!!
If u wanna a ROM, try google it ^_^ (I belive it will work right XD)...
[]'s
Alex Sampaio
If you don't understand what I wrote, don't worry, I'm brazilian
[]'s
Alex Sampaio
somebody turn off the snow effect before its released stable please. that really eats up memory if you are trying to start it on an older PC. i mean, the snow effect should be turned off by default, and people can turn if on if they want it.
and i want netplay to work!
It's probably a good idea.
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It's kinda scary when my desktop is messier than my room...
for some strangle reason when i loaded Super Mario the emulator freezes...
Questions:
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
There is a bad Super Mario rom out there that has that issue with a majority of emulators. i would recommend getting a different rom.
That was my other question- does it work with a second, non portable (or portable) emulator. I didn't know about a bad rom.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
I've been going through some of the beta's I've used in the past to see if they work with my Vista Ultimate install, and this one works without problem.
This emulator works absolutely fine. Every rom Ive used on it runs fine. Why is it listed as an outdated Beta when it should be on the finalized applications page?
PortableApps.com Advocate
It's not up to current PAF specifications.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Without being rude (Im a pc caveman) how hard is it to update the program or is it more a matter of time?
PortableApps.com Advocate
it's been a while for this post, i think, but it runs perfectly fine.
Hey! Where'd it go?
...anything more to say?
I have a new version of the launcher updated to the latest specs. If you would like I can send this to you or if you don't mind, I can take over development and release an update.
actually I've taken over development of ZSNESPortable I just haven't released an update due to time, however I should have some time sometime this week.
your friendly neighbourhood moderator Zach Thibeau
Well... I've been running the first version posted by John for quite a few months now and had absolutely no problems at all. All settings are saved as supposed and everything is working properly!
I had a lot of fun this summer with it!