BlueMSXBox Xbox

BlueMSXBox
File:Bluemsxbox2.png/bluemsxbox3.png/bluemsxbox4.png/bluemsxbox.7z(nosrc)
General
Author	XPort, Madmab
Type	Console
Version	8b3
License	Mixed
Last Updated	2015/02/13
Links
Download
Website

BlueMSXBox is a MSX/MSX2/MSX2+ emulator for the Xbox. Original by XPort ported from BlueMSX and updated by Madmab.

Features

• Emulates MSX/MSX2/MSX2+.
• Excellent compatibility - ported from BlueMSX.
• ZIP support.
• Cheat system - Search/Create your own cheat codes (see notes).
• Favorites list.
• Save states.
• Resizable game screen.
• Graphics filters.
• Skin-able.
• Music Control Menu.
• Save Game management - Delete save game files.
• Text file viewer.
• Netplay.
• ISO9660 support.
• Samba/NetBIOS sharing support (read roms from your PC).
• Relax Network Sharing (read roms from your PC).
• Play MP3 or M3U playlists in the background (can also read MP3/M3U from across Samba/Relax shares).
• User definable save directory.
• Take in-game screenshots and display them on the game selection list.
• New UI feature - auto-screenshot capture mode.
• Hardware filtering options.
• Record/Playback feature.
• Every single in-game command is fully customizable on any of the four joypad controllers.
• Map any emulator or UI command to a single button or a combination of two buttons (e.g. R+L - Save State).
• Autofire capabilities for any emulator button on any controller.
• One-button combos (define a series of emulator commands to be played back when you press a user-definable XBox controller combination).
• Traverse any directory on any drive.
• All UI commands (save state, load state, screenshot, etc) can be invoked from the Options/Pause menu as well as in-game via your customized joypad mappings.
• Virtual Keyboard - go to Controller Configuration/UI Mappings to select the button combo that will bring up the Virtual Keyboard while in-game.
• Can be invoked from a command-line to directly run a game from a front-end or dashboard and bypass the user-selection screens (only if the frontend or dashboard supports this feature).
• Can return to the launching program if the launching program supports this feature.

User guide

Notes regarding The Xtras

Sometimes starting or getting a game going can be confusing. Here were some observations that might be helpful.

Alot of times pressing A will get a game going. If that dont work try Y. Some games prefer a function key be pressed to start. Just bring up the onscreen keyboard and select that function key.

The numbers 1-4 are mapped to the right analog stick.

• 1 = RA up.
• 2 = RA left.
• 3 = RA right.
• 4 = RA down.
• 0 is mapped to white.

F1-F4 are mapped to holding left trigger and the right analog stick.

• F1 = LT+RA Up.
• F2 = LT+RA Left.
• F3 = LT+RA Right.
• F4 = LT+RA down.
• F5 is mapped to black.

There are some games where you have to hold either CTRL or SHIFT to load them. Just hold down black for these games to work. These games are noted in the compatibility spreadsheet and the game's synopsis.

Lockdown Mode settings

The is a new feature in the Configuration screen with lots of changes in regards to the menu interface and a bunch of internal stuff.

• "Full Fledged Lock Down Mode?" (Yes/No)
• "Password Protect?" (No, Configuration Only, Skin Menu Only, Configuration & Skin Menu)
• "Change/Set Password"
• "Change/Set In Game mapping useage prevention"
• "Prevent user from adding/removing favorites?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent removal of save configuration files?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent user from pressing X to configure game?" (Yes/No)
• "Ask Before Moving to Garbage Dir?" (Yes/No/Never Move)
• "Keep user Within ROM Directory Tree?" (Yes/No)
• "Allow Skin Access" - (Full Access, Select Skin & Load Configuration Only, No Access PERIOD.)
• "Lockout In Game Menu (Hold Back To Exit Game)" (Yes/No)
• "Remove 'Shutdown Xbox' From Main Menu?" (Yes/No)

In game mapping prevention

This allows you to deactivate in game mapping settings that may be defined in a games controller settings. This will also disable any related "In Game Menu" options.

• "Prevent All On List?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Sfx Volume Adjustment?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Bgm Volume Adjustment?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Rewind and Rewind Toggling?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Fast Forward?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Slowdown?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Save/Load/Save State Slot Changing?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Screenshots?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Auto-Screenshot Capture Mode?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Filter Changing?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Music Control Menu Use?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Playback and Recording?" (Yes/No)
• "Prevent in game Media Browser Useage?" (Yes/No)

New SAMBA code

Old SAMBA library replaced. You should now have more luck connecting to your SAMBA shares (including a NAS). Especially shares with passwords which NEVER worked under the old code.

Renamed "Enter Samba Share Name" to "Enter Root Samba Share Name" since it acts more as a shortcut now that you can "Browse" SMB shares. "Samba Server Name" doesn't really serve any purpose at the moment.

SMB shares can now be browsed. As a result how you use Samba shares has changed slightly, try these steps:

• Clear out your "Samba Share Name".
• Use either the ROM browser or the "Change default directories" to browse to your share (press "Y" until you see the drive list and select "SMB:\\").
• If it doesn't work, try it again a couple times. For some silly reason sometimes it times out.
• If the emu thinks your share needs a password a window will pop-up asking you if you want to enter in a username and password. Enter it as "username:password".
• As a result of this change you can set all your definable directories to any share with any password.

If for some reason browsing doesn't work, try entering your Samba server name in the "Enter Root Samba Share Name" under "Network/Netplay Options". Format is "smb://servername_or_ip/sharename" or "smb://username:password@servername_or_ip/sharename". If the share is password protected. Browsing once within a share is much more reliable.

If you enter anything into the "Root Samba Share Name", then you are stuck with that and can't use other servers for media streaming, unless they are on a Relax share.

If using "Enter Root Samba Share Name" works, you might want to consider deleting your emu_name.ini file in the SAVES directory.

Some suggestions if you decide to "stream" stuff over the network.

• Try splitting the workload. Setup a Relax and Samba share (or even seperate servers) and divy up the workload. They both have seperate caches so it's more efficient.
• Roms, Screenshots, Box/Cart art, Manuals, Commercials, preview movies and the like are great candidates for streaming.
• If you do stream Screenshots and Box/Cart art set the timers a little higher and not the same. For example 5 seconds on screenshots, 10 on Box/Cart art. Or just set them to 0 (manual advance).
• Streaming movies really depends on how good of a network you have For example streaming movies over a wireless network aint gonna be so hot. To me relax seems faster but that may have changed with the new SMB code. You might also wanna consider bumping up the movie delay a couple seconds. (only applies if "Movie Streaming Style" is set to "Copy Then Play (slower?)". Pseudo streaming does not have this limitation.

An example of how to set up:

• Screenshots and Box/Cart art on the xbox 5/10 sec delay respectivaly (or 0).
• ROMS, GameFaqs, VGMaps, etc on a Samba share to NAS, as well as all of the commercials and manuals.
• Movies on NAS using samba and pseudo streaming.

The possibilities are endless. Experimentation is worthwhile. Or you could just slap a super big hard drive in your Xbox.

Changelog

v8b3

• Updated to madmab edition interface CFv1b17. See "Interface Changelog.txt".

v8b2

• Updated to madmab edition interface CFv1b14. See "Interface Changelog.txt".

v8b1

• Updated to madmab edition interface CFv1b08. See "Interface Changelog.txt".

v8

Changes To Bluemsx Core:

• Nausicaa and Super Billiards DB configs have been fixed. Be sure to delete your save configuration for these so that the proper settings will be picked up from the config database.
• The following games no longer have screen flicker. Aquattack, Bosconian, Butamaru Pants, Daidassom, Dig Dug, Elevator Action, Front Line, Galaga, King & Balloon, Mappy, Nausicaa, Pac-Man, Rally-X, Super Snake, Tank Battalion, Warp & Warp
• Added new option to allow the mapper to be specified for those stubborn roms that autodetect does not work for.
• Spy vs Spy 2 now working.
• AshGuine II (ENG), AshGuine II (ENG+MA), AshGuine II (ENG+MM), Back To The Future, Borfes And The 5 Demons, Car Jamboree, Dragon Slayer Jr - Romancia, Dragon Slayer IV - Drasle Family (Translated), Price Of Magik and Super Pierrot working thanks to new mapper selection option. Be sure to delete your save configuration for these so that the proper settings will be picked up from the config database.
• Manbow 2 working thanks to a newly added mapper.

Interface Related Changes:

• Fixed issue where "Override Game Screen Size/Position (Global)" was not working on multi core emulators.
• Moved "Shutdown Xbox" option above "Return To Launcher" option.

v7

Changes To Bluemsx Core:

• Nothing really. Probably could use a core update at some point. This is just an update to the latest Madmab Edition interface and features.
• Added in game specific video modes.
• Added in game specific savestate autoload.

Interface Related Changes:

• Fixed an issue where changing the "Samba Nameserver" would also ask you for the "Relax Share Name" when you were done.
• Improved game preview network streaming. I like to call it "pseudo-streaming" so streaming game previews off a network should be ALOT smoother now.
• "Pseudo Streaming" defaults to off. So if you want to turn it on go into "Screenshot/Movie Preview Settings" and turn it on. I'm doing this until I get more feedback concerning the performance of it.
• Removed pop-up that says "Select The Cheatcode File You Wish To Use." per Dominater01's request.
• The two Preset Controller menu options have been moved to the "controller configuration" menu. I did this cause several emu's use this feature now and to help reduce clutter in the in-game menu.
• Fixed blank pop-up message when trying to display the cheat codes when there are none.
• Fixed issues where media would not display when a directory with a period in it was highlighted.
• Added option to "Refresh DVD Drive". It is currently in the "Utilities Menu"
• Finally added option to "Shutdown Xbox". It is currently in the "Main Menu" however I have my reservations about it's location. I'd prefer to have it in the "Utilities Menu". You can disable this menu in the "Dummy/Lockdown Mode Settings" menu.
• Partial >4096 file support put in. If you have more than 4096 title or action shots put them in a directory named "action01" and "titles01".
• Checks put into the cheatcode database checker to let you know if the file is to big or has too many game entries and needs to be split up.
• Gilou9999's HD Colour skins should work properly now (no weird hacks). Be sure to at least copy over the "settings.ini" files in the skin directory and the skin "configurations" directories and "reload the skin".
• Added new skin transition option "none". Real handy for skins like Gilou9999's that uses the HD sprite trick.
• Windows 7 users should have no more weird issues on samba shares! Woohoo!
• Fixed issue where emulator menu video mode was reverting to last played games video mode in emu's that support game specific video modes.
• Added in a feature "Sprites Used As Background? Yes/No" to allow the use of "sprites" as the background. Setting this to "Yes" allows the game screenshot to be seen in the IGM as well as the savestate screenshots in the select state menu. However skin designers keep in mind the more memory your skin uses the less room that leaves for me to add new features. Things are tight enough as it is.
• Fixed an issue where the synopsis was not always displaying for an unzipped file.
• Fixed a weird issue where if you are missing the "Title" or "Action" directory/picture for a game it would not be displayed correctly in the gameselect or favorites screen.
• Synopsis screen transition now works like it is supposed to.
• Fixed an issue where the preset controller settings were not saved properly (sorry guys). This only effects certain emus with preset controller definitions.
• Synopsis code completely rewritten to support the new synopsis format. Old synopsis.txt file is now officially defunct!
• Another new option "Use Default Emu Filter?". This will apply a preset filter custom designed for each emu core. It is also used internally by the synopsis code so user interaction is not required in some cases (like when a .zip file contains NFO or text file).
• modified L/R file scrolling so it doesnt kick off the movie so quickly. Hopefully this will fix interference from movies being accessed from a samba or relax share.
• Fixed long standing issue with "Autoload last savestate" where it could potentially pick the wrong savestate. Of course it also helps to make sure your xbox date is set correctly.
• Now have the ability to display long names for games. This currently relies on having Xtras ROM files. In the future I will be providing other options.
• Fixed issue where emu would lock up if the media directory path was longer that 36 characters. (Thanks to those who reported it and AMOC for testing for me)
• Fixed issue where emulator would lock up in favorites menu if you start removing games from the bottom up.
• Fixed issue with wacky numbers when trying to adjust the volumes while in the IGM.

Credits

Special thanks:

• X-port for porting a great collection of emu's over to the xbox, releasing the source code, and answering my questions.
• Surreal CE team - Just because they are cool!
• +T+, iq_132, NeoBomb, and XtecuterX73 for helping keep the xbox-scene alive.
• Atariage (Albert in particular) - For providing a place for me to ramble on. For encouragement in general.
• Wimpy and Perr - For also providing a place for me to ramble and to make my goods available.
• Gilou9999 for new COLOUR SD and HDTV skins, synopsis, suggestions, rumble codes, etc.
• Bombbloke for converting the BlueMSX cheat codes to a format my code uses.
• Bigby for working thru the tortuous process of doing Xtras for the MSX and noticing alot of longstanding issues with BlueMSXxbox. May your legacy live.
• Cbagy for providing 3d boxart templates for the MSX Xtras.
• Cospefogo for the onscreen keyboard used by BlueMSXBox. Frank Morris for fixing the minor spelling error in the onscreen keyboard.
• Shout out to Hyper_Eye, SPPV, hcf, A600, Destronger, +T+, Neobomb, incrediclint, Surreal CE team and all those who are honourable and keep the xbox-scene alive.
• Comments of support from various interested parties.

External links

• EmuXtras - http://www.emuxtras.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=2191