Tricky-to-emulate games - Revision history

PinoBatch: beware explained it again in channel to where I think I can reword it without awkward brackets

2025-07-02T16:04:10Z

beware explained it again in channel to where I think I can reword it without awkward brackets

PinoBatch: Attribute quotation of Wario Land 3 explanation; use explicit brackets to denote an omitted repetition of the game title to avoid making the sentence incomplete for lacking the leading "in"

2025-07-02T15:22:21Z

Attribute quotation of Wario Land 3 explanation; use explicit brackets to denote an omitted repetition of the game title to avoid making the sentence incomplete for lacking the leading "in"

Nitro2k01 at 06:18, 16 April 2025

2025-04-16T06:18:42Z

Nitro2k01 at 06:17, 16 April 2025

2025-04-16T06:17:44Z

PinoBatch: Tetris puts up a stumbling block that I've seen numerous times on the Discord server in the past month: input

2025-04-13T14:13:49Z

Tetris puts up a stumbling block that I've seen numerous times on the Discord server in the past month: input

PinoBatch: Dr. Rin ni Kiitemite! - Koi no Rin Fuusui, suggested by calc84maniac

2024-05-11T15:50:39Z

Dr. Rin ni Kiitemite! - Koi no Rin Fuusui, suggested by calc84maniac

PinoBatch: Pinball Deluxe: first 3 cycles are the window to change IF&IE; the interrupt that lands is VBlank; upgrade mGBA references to HTTPS

2023-08-29T20:51:02Z

Pinball Deluxe: first 3 cycles are the window to change IF&IE; the interrupt that lands is VBlank; upgrade mGBA references to HTTPS

PinoBatch: Wario Land 3's error message on pre-GBC breaks in no$gmb because KEY1 isn't FF, per beware

2023-05-04T20:07:35Z

Wario Land 3's error message on pre-GBC breaks in no$gmb because KEY1 isn't FF, per beware

PinoBatch: Crouching sound in Shantae, reported by DevEd; R-Type uninit wave RAM

2023-02-09T16:49:43Z

Crouching sound in Shantae, reported by DevEd; R-Type uninit wave RAM

PinoBatch: /* External links */ a GBA tricky list

2022-12-30T15:21:16Z

‎External links: a GBA tricky list

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 : Draws status bar with mid-screen SCX/SCY changes. It also sets WX=0, which on GBC causes the window not to be drawn, and fills the window with garbage.
 ; ''Wario Land 3''
-: beware explained: "in [...] pool of rain, you have to go up a vine, and if you don't emulate VRAM inaccessibility during mode 3, you can't progress. to make it worse, it doesn't happen if it's the first level you play after a reset!"
+: Play a level other than Pool of Rain, exit to the overworld without resetting, play Pool of Rain, and climb a vine. If VRAM is accessible in mode 3, and Pool of Rain is not the first level played after a reset, you get stuck.
 : The error screen when run on pre-GBC systems depends on the speed register (KEY1, $FF4D) returning $FF. It is reported to misbehave on emulators where the speed bit reads 0.

@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 : Draws status bar with mid-screen SCX/SCY changes. It also sets WX=0, which on GBC causes the window not to be drawn, and fills the window with garbage.
 ; ''Wario Land 3''
-: pool of rain, you have to go up a vine, and if you don't emulate VRAM inaccessibility during mode 3, you can't progress. to make it worse, it doesn't happen if it's the first level you play after a reset!
+: beware explained: "in [...] pool of rain, you have to go up a vine, and if you don't emulate VRAM inaccessibility during mode 3, you can't progress. to make it worse, it doesn't happen if it's the first level you play after a reset!"
 : The error screen when run on pre-GBC systems depends on the speed register (KEY1, $FF4D) returning $FF. It is reported to misbehave on emulators where the speed bit reads 0.

@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 : These games use SRAM at $A000-$BFFF contiguously with WRAM at $C000-$DFFF to hold a decompressed level map, and they put most of the game's variables in SRAM. If an emulator automatically saves SRAM to disk a certain time interval in seconds after it was last written, it is believed that these games will practically never automatically save.
 ; ''Various'' (Tetris, Super Mario Land and others)
-: It's a common practice in many games to allow the player to restart the gaming by simultaneously pressing the A, B, Select, and Start Buttons. If the button combination is held during power-up, the game may "boot-loop" or wait for the button combination to be released. Emulators in the very early-stage emulators that read $FF00 as constant value $00 before button input is implemented will effectively tell the game that all buttons are pressed. This will accidentally trigger the restart button combination and cause the credit screen to never appear, which can be a confusing issue.
+: It's a common practice in many games to allow the player to restart the gaming by simultaneously pressing the A, B, Select, and Start Buttons. If the button combination is held during power-up, the game may "boot-loop" or wait for the button combination to be released. Emulators in the very early-stage emulators that read $FF00 as constant value $00 before button input is implemented will effectively tell the game that all buttons are pressed because a bit that's set to 0 indicates a button that is pressed. This will accidentally trigger the restart button combination and cause the credit screen to never appear, which can be a confusing issue.
 ; ''Warriors of Might and Magic''
 : Draws status bar with mid-screen SCX/SCY changes. It also sets WX=0, which on GBC causes the window not to be drawn, and fills the window with garbage.

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 ; ''Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins'' and ''Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3''
 : These games use SRAM at $A000-$BFFF contiguously with WRAM at $C000-$DFFF to hold a decompressed level map, and they put most of the game's variables in SRAM. If an emulator automatically saves SRAM to disk a certain time interval in seconds after it was last written, it is believed that these games will practically never automatically save.
-; ''Tetris''
+; ''Various'' (Tetris, Super Mario Land and others)
-: Holding the A, B, Select, and Start Buttons during power-up causes the credit screen never to appear. This happens in very early-stage emulators that read $FF00 as constant value $00 before button input is implemented.
+: It's a common practice in many games to allow the player to restart the gaming by simultaneously pressing the A, B, Select, and Start Buttons. If the button combination is held during power-up, the game may "boot-loop" or wait for the button combination to be released. Emulators in the very early-stage emulators that read $FF00 as constant value $00 before button input is implemented will effectively tell the game that all buttons are pressed. This will accidentally trigger the restart button combination and cause the credit screen to never appear, which can be a confusing issue.
 ; ''Warriors of Might and Magic''
 : Draws status bar with mid-screen SCX/SCY changes. It also sets WX=0, which on GBC causes the window not to be drawn, and fills the window with garbage.

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 ; ''Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins'' and ''Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3''
 : These games use SRAM at $A000-$BFFF contiguously with WRAM at $C000-$DFFF to hold a decompressed level map, and they put most of the game's variables in SRAM. If an emulator automatically saves SRAM to disk a certain time interval in seconds after it was last written, it is believed that these games will practically never automatically save.
 ; ''Warriors of Might and Magic''
 : Draws status bar with mid-screen SCX/SCY changes. It also sets WX=0, which on GBC causes the window not to be drawn, and fills the window with garbage.

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 ; ''Daiku no Gen-san: Kachikachi no Tonkachi ga Kachi'' and ''Tokyo Disneyland: Fantasy Tour''
 : These rely on open bus in the SRAM area. ''Daiku no Gen-san'' hangs in stage 1-4 while transporting a block on an elevator to reach a switch. ([https://github.com/mgba-emu/mgba/issues/2032 mGBA issue #2032]; [https://github.com/TASEmulators/BizHawk/issues/2482 BizHawk issue #2482]) One minigame in ''Tokyo Disneyland'' accidentally reads a pointer from disabled SRAM and writes there. It relies on the value being $0A0A (or at least somewhere else where writes are harmless), not $FFFF (which is IE).
 ; ''Game de Hakken!! Tamagotchi - Osutchi to Mesutchi''
 : Complex multi-chip mapper.

@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 : Relies on LY=LYC bit not changing from 1 to 0 while the LCD is off. (Reported by VOXEL in the emudev Discord server.)
 ; ''Pinball Deluxe'' and ''Pinball Fantasies''
-: Depends on STAT IRQ blocking and dispatch to the correct handler if the least significant bit of <code>IF & IE</code> changes during interrupt processing. Otherwise, a cascading failure occurs within the engine that corrupts the playfield display. (See [http://mgba.io/2017/05/29/holy-grail-bugs/ "Holy Grail" Bugs in Emulation, Part 1] and [http://mgba.io/2018/03/09/holy-grail-bugs-revisited/ "Holy Grail" Bugs Revisited] by endrift and LIJI.)
+: Depends on STAT IRQ blocking and dispatch to the correct handler if the least significant bit of <code>IF & IE</code> changes during the first 3 cycles of interrupt processing. (A VBlank interrupt lands while the CPU is processing STAT.) Otherwise, a cascading failure occurs within the engine that corrupts the playfield display. (See [https://mgba.io/2017/05/29/holy-grail-bugs/ "Holy Grail" Bugs in Emulation, Part 1] and [https://mgba.io/2018/03/09/holy-grail-bugs-revisited/ "Holy Grail" Bugs Revisited] by endrift and LIJI.)
 ; ''Pocket Bomberman'' (J), ''Pokemon Card GB'' (J); ''Robopon''
 : Obscure "HuC" mappers.

@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 : Large scroll text in title screen depends on mid-scanline writes to background palette (BGP) and uses sprite evaluation delay to change the effective horizontal position of these writes. Also uses the envelopes' "zombie mode" to change channels' volume without needing to restart a note.
 ; ''Road Rash'' (original version) and ''Legend of Zerd''
-: These run only on a monochrome system (Game Boy, Super Game Boy, or Game Boy pocket), not a color system (Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Player), because they depend on writes to STAT briefly enabling IRQ for all modes.
+: These run only on a monochrome system (Game Boy, Super Game Boy, or Game Boy pocket), not a color system (Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Player), because they depend on writes to STAT briefly enabling all STAT IRQ sources.
 ; ''The Smurfs'' (SGB version)
 : Relies on double reading of opcodes when <code>halt</code> while IME=0 and interrupt is pending. At $0E3A, 76 f0 8c is <code>halt ldh a, [$ff8c]</code> without the <code>halt</code> bug. With the <code>halt</code> bug, it is executed as <code>halt ldh a, [$fff0] adc h</code>, and the game relies on the <code>adc h</code>.
@@ Line 46: / Line 48: @@
 ; ''Panel Action Bingo''
 : Sound effects on score counting screen stop early on CGB B.
 == See also ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:21, 30 December 2022
Line 55:		Line 55:
	* [http://kigb.emuunlim.com/compatibility.htm KiGB compatibility screenshots]: Comparing KiGB to outdated VisualBoyAdvance, outdated BGB, No$gmb, and TGB Dual might be helpful for figuring out what games need quirks to be emulated.		* [http://kigb.emuunlim.com/compatibility.htm KiGB compatibility screenshots]: Comparing KiGB to outdated VisualBoyAdvance, outdated BGB, No$gmb, and TGB Dual might be helpful for figuring out what games need quirks to be emulated.
	* [https://www.smspower.org/Development/Software-Index "Software Index"] on SMS Power		* [https://www.smspower.org/Development/Software-Index "Software Index"] on SMS Power
		+	* [https://github.com/nba-emu/NanoBoyAdvance/blob/master/docs/ACCURACY.md#game-compatibility ACCURACY.md] from NanoBoyAdvance docs