piuGBA

piuGBA
General
Author	[r]labs
Type	Music
Version	1.8.4
License	MIT License
Last Updated	2024/02/06
Links
Download
Website
Source

piuGBA is a PIU emulator for the GBA that uses StepMania SSC charts.

Features

• Full .ssc files support, including:
  • Normal, hold and fake notes.
  • BPM changes.
  • Scroll speed changes.
  • Stops/Delays and async-stops.
  • Warps and fast-BPM warps.
• Multiple game modes:
  • Campaign - Play, unlock songs and defeat bosses.
  • Arcade - Play songs in any numerical difficulty level.
    • Single - 1 player, either Single (5-panel) or Double (10-panel) charts.
    • Multi VS - VS battles via Link Cable.
    • Multi Coop - Double (10-panel) charts via Link Cable.
  • Impossible - Hardcore charts with insane mods.
• Speed multipliers can be changed in-game.
• Mods support:
  • Stage break.
  • Pixelate - Mosaic effect.
  • Jump/Reduce - Moves game area.
  • Decolorize - Inverts/removes colors.
  • Random speed.
  • Mirror and random steps.
  • Training mode - Rate and checkpoints.
• Hardware integrations:
  • Rumble.
  • I/O LED Sync.
  • SRAM LED Sync.
• BGA DARK background with blink effect.
• Song selector with names, backgrounds and sound previews.
• Optimized to support ~70 songs per ROM file.

User guide

How does it work

A node.js script (the importer) converts a list of SSC/MP3/PNG files into binary files which the GBA can understand. For audio, it uses GSM audio files which are very small in size.

Charts are converted into a format created for this project called PIUS. Then everything is bundled in a GBFS file (a filesystem created by the GBA scene) and appended to the final ROM.

Read the wiki for more details and guide of how to build a ROM.

You can also join the official Discord server to find pre-built ROMs and user-created content.

Screenshots

Media

piuGBA - Impossible Mode w/ Rumble (Rodrigo Alfonso)

Compatibility

Tested and works on mGBA, VBA-M, and NO$GBA.

Changelog

v1.8.*

• New features:
  • Added a new challenge mode when completing the campaign mode
  • Arcade modes now store Dance Grades by index instead of by level. This allows saving different scores for charts that have the same numeric level (e.g. s19-a, s19-b)
• Misc. changes:
  • Stage Break = DEATH will now display the life bar at minimum level and ignore BADs in the judgement phase
  • Now the game remembers the page/song when switching between campaign and the challenge (e.g. impossible) modes
  • Bubbles in the Home Screen will 'regenerate' when leaving a submenu
  • Removed pixel blinking effect from the Home Screen
• Optimizations:
  • Now charts use static EWRAM to prevent crashes due to allocation failures
  • Updated gba-link-connection to v6.0.3, which fixes potential autopairing issues (e.g. two couples trying to create two separate sessions via Wireless Adapter)
• Bugfixes:
  • Fixed a small memory leak after playing a song
  • Fixed a bug with the random number generator that was causing the last value of a range to be ignored
  • Fixed a glitch where the user could enter the "Audio lag" option and navigate to the previous/next option during the transition
  • (v1.8.1) Added small fixes and adjustments to the new challenge mode
  • (v1.8.2) The Wireless Adapter is now put in low consumption mode when not in use
  • (v1.8.3) General system stability improvements to enhance the user's experience
  • (v1.8.3) Fixed Rate = +1 mod in Impossible mode (v1.8.0 regression)
  • (v1.8.3) Fixed 'mark as defective' combo being enabled during challenge mode
  • (v1.8.3) The challenge mode now displays the current song
  • (v1.8.3) If the Arcade library matches the selected difficulty level of the Campaign mode (most common case), the game now remembers the selected song when switching between modes
  • (v1.8.3) The importer is now provided as a portable Windows executable
  • (v1.8.4) Huh... all this time prefetch was disabled. Well, free performance boost!
  • (v1.8.4) The sprite limit was increased from 50 to 90
  • (v1.8.4) The Bounce mod now uses a slightly less aggressive curve
  • (v1.8.4) Fixed an importer bug which could cause subindexes to appear in situations where they shouldn't (e.g. deleting level-99 charts via offsets.pofs)

v1.7.*

• New features:
  • Menu controls
  • Menus can now be navigated using two key layouts: GBA style (new), and PIU style
  • GBA style feels more natural, as it's how most GBA games work (navigate with arrows and confirm with A)
  • The default layout was changed to GBA style, but it can be changed using the Admin menu
  • Single-player Arcade mode
  • Double charts can now be selected directly using the level change buttons
  • Added AutoVelocity, under the Speed hacks mod (replaces Random speeds). AutoVelocity ignores the multiplier and sets a regular scroll BPM for all songs
  • Added Color filter mod (replaces Decolorize), with 16 different filters to alter game's background and sprites
  • Added Bounce mod, which makes the arrows (and/or its receptors) bounce
  • Added AutoMod mod, which randomly combines all mods every 1~4 beats
  • Modified LINEAR and MICRO variants of Jump/Reduce mods to move the game area rhythmically
  • Consecutive charts with the same numeric level now have a subindex to differentiate them
  • Enabled mods are now highlighted to easily identify which ones are in use
  • Added a warning to let users know when the current mods won't let them save their Dance Grades
  • Multiplayer Arcade mode
  • VS mode now makes the winner's life bar bounce during gameplay to enhance competitiveness
  • Now players don't have to set the difficulty level after each song; the game remembers
  • Impossible mode
  • It now uses the AutoMod/INSANE, +1 rate, and mirror steps mods
  • Admin menu
  • offsets
  • Added a menu to set up custom offsets for each song/level. This feature is useful if you're playing a non-tested song pack and encounter an out-of-sync song. Now, you can add +/- 8ms offsets, which will be recorded in the save file and applied when playing.
• Engine fixes:
  • This build fixes ~32768 corner cases related to chart reading, increasing overall compatibility (specially with gimmick charts)
  • Added mid-note BPM changes support. This fixes a lot of out-of-sync charts
  • Important ASYNC_STOP (aka setting #SCROLLS to 0) rewrite. This fixes multiple bugs where ASYNC_STOPs caused the chart to end up completely out of sync, with a broken metronome, or with infinite holds
  • BPM changes and arrow predictions are now executed even if the chart has stopped
  • The importer now ensures that every HOLD_START will have a subsequent HOLD_END. Now most of the start events have their duration pre-assigned, so no chart should show broken holds again
  • Events inside WARP sections are no longer ignored by the importer, as they are important for gimmick charts. Instead, these are ignored during the judgement phase, to avoid unfair MISSes
  • Unsupported #SCROLLS segments are now emulated as regular speed changes. It doesn't have the same effect, but it works better than ignoring them. This fixes songs with a broken multiplier
  • MISSes are now judged by timing instead of by their Y coordinate. This is important when using low multiplier / speed values.
  • Using a lower FAST_BPM_WARP constant also fixed some songs
  • Fixed a corner case with fake segments events which caused some fake notes to appear as regular notes
  • Removed frame skip in chart reading code, which fixes some glitches in gimmick charts
  • Fixed a corner case where a Scroll BPM change could be ignored until the player manually adjusts the multiplier
  • Equivalent keys (like RIGHT and B for CENTER) now trigger new keypress events even when the other key is already pressed. This makes single-note trills easier
  • Precision of hold arrow judging was adjusted
  • The default scroll BPM change speed was adjusted (100 => 150) and a lower arrow speed limit was set (1px/frame)
• Engine improvements:
  • Added co-op chart support: pump-couple and pump-routine
  • SSC parsing is now more robust, ignoring comments and finding charts using #NOTEDATA:; tags
  • Unsupported S, V and H events are now individually ignored instead of ignoring the whole chart
  • Unsupported negative #SPEEDS are now individually ignored instead of ignoring the whole chart
• Optimizations:
  • Optimized IWRAM code, making everything faster and preventing slowdowns in complex charts
  • Reduced memory access and CPU usage during gameplay
  • Updated gba-link-connection to v6
  • Significantly reduced latency in multiplayer sessions (both wired and wireless)
  • Significantly reduced CPU consumption in multiplayer sessions
  • Reduced base ROM size by removing dead gba-sprite-engine code
  • Reduced final ROM size by optimizing space in the PIUS format
• Misc. changes:
  • Pressing L and R in menus now lets the player change the option in any direction
  • You can now exit any menu using either START or SELECT
  • Finishing the game now takes user to the updated Home screen
  • Rumble is now disabled during fast-forward (Training Mode)
  • SUDDEN_DEATH was renamed to DEATH
  • The FAST Background blink mode was removed
  • The keys tutorial was moved from song 1 to song 0
  • Holding START before entering a multiplayer mode will now set the communication mode to Wireless Host
  • Wireless multiplayer will now use a slightly higher timeout value
  • Library autoscroll can now be used in multiplayer
  • Added save file validation code
• Build process updates:
  • Support for double/multiplayer chart offsets, subindex, and delete keyword in offset.pofs files
  • The importer can now automatically add BOSS levels when creating Campaign builds
  • Fixed some errors with the parsing of chart vs global properties
  • Fixed an error that caused complexity to be zero if the charts didn't have a #LASTSECONDHINT
  • Using a Campaign build with an Arcade library will now show a proper error when running the ROM (instead of crashing)
  • Reusing romid.u32 while changing the song count will now throw a proper error instead of building an incorrect ROM file
  • Fixed make package silently failing when the output ROM file was in use
  • All errors thrown by the importer now have more details
• Graphical improvements:
  • Song screen
    • Fake HOLD_FILL notes now look fake (dedicated sprite)
  • Home screen
    • Increased demo chart complexity when some of the campaign modes are completed
  • Multiplayer/Connecting screen
    • Added a 'transmitting' animated icon
  • Selection screen
    • DOUBLE mode now has its own color palette, to easily identify what type of charts we're seeing
    • Added 'transmitting' animated icons. On the host side, it will show two 'sending' icons over the lights. On the client side, a 'receiving' icon at the corner
  • Dance Grade screen
    • Updated winner message in VS multiplayer mode for clarity
• Bugfixes:
  • Fixed a random DMA lockup on hardware
  • Fixed a glitch where changing the multiplier before the first SET_TEMPO event would cause the Scroll BPM to be set to 0, making initial arrows appear from nowhere
  • Fixed a glitch where correctly judged arrows would pass through receptors when using the Reduce mod
  • Fixed a glitch during transitions where the Selection screen could show garbage for one frame
  • Fixed a bug where I/O SD blink time was tied to the value of the -now deprecated- Background blink speed setting
  • Fixed a bug related to numeric level synchronization (again) in multiplayer sessions
  • Fixed a bug where SRAM LED blink/ON HIT was also blinking with other player's arrows
  • Fixed a bug where other player's WARPs were causing the local screen to blink using the pixel effect
  • Fixed a bug where multiplier changes were not synchronized correctly in multiplayer sessions
  • Fixed a bug where pixel blinks in level selection were not synchronized correctly during multiplayer sessions
  • Fixed a bug where using fast-forward in training mode would cause a subsequent multiplier change to be ignored
  • (v1.7.1) Fixed a bug in the importer which caused a few songs (with redundant #WARPS and #BPMS:...=1000000) to warp twice
  • (v1.7.1) Fixed a glitch where the life bar could blink at max level when returning from negative to positive value
  • (v1.7.1) Fixed a glitch where the controls screen was animating one of the center buttons at double speed
  • (v1.7.1) Adjusted the orientation of the R button sprite, which previously had its corner pointing to the left
  • (v1.7.1) Adjusted the contrast of the center idle sprite, which appeared too bright on some consoles compared to other sprites

v1.6.*

• Graphical improvements:
  • Added black outline to sprites
  • Added bounce animation on note hit
  • Added a SLOW background blink mode
• Bugfixes:
  • Decolorize mod now also mutates life bars
  • Fixed arrow holders blinking one frame late
  • (v1.6.1) Fixed small glitch where fake taps were displaying the wrong tile

v1.5.*

• (v1.5.1) Fixed random crash in wireless multiplayer sessions due to audio DMA conflicts with serial IRQs
• (v1.5.1) Fixed wireless multiplayer slowdowns by moving time-critical code to IWRAM
• (v1.5.2) Fixed graphical glitch when the initial multiplier is set to 6x
• (v1.5.3) Fixed invalid memory read that affects SRAM LED Blink, but might cause other crashes
• (v1.5.3) Fixed vsync method (changed in v1.5.0) for better battery life

v1.5

• New features:
  • Wireless Adapter support
  • Wireless adapter support.
• Bugfixes:
  • Now multiplayer scores will always be in sync after a game (fixed Link Connection's packet loss).
  • Fixed errors where individual difficulty levels could get out of sync in multiplayer sessions.
  • Fixed glitch when confirming a song selection while crossing a page.
  • Fixed admin menu key combo handling

v1.4
New features:

• Hardware integrations
  • Rumble.
  • I/O SD Blink.

SRAM LED Blink.

• Arcade improvements:
  • Added Double charts support inside Single player mode.
  • Added mark as deffective option for broken charts.
  • Added Reduce Mod variant: MICRO.
  • Added save file reset options.

Impossible mode changes:

• Removed decolorize.
• Added reduce=micro.

Engine improvements:

• Added fake notes support through the {1|v|1|0} SSC syntax.

Graphical improvements:

• Improved screen transitions.
• Now the selection screen background looks cleaner (less dithering below the lights)

Bugfixes:

• Fixed random crash due to invalid read after winning a song
• Fixed random crash due to a memory leak during screen transitions
• Fixed metronome. It was sometimes blinking on weak beats
• Now the random is more random
• Now "random steps" is more humanly usable, since it tries to avoid repeated notes

Release notes.

Credits

Open-source projects involved:

• wgroeneveld/gba-sprite-engine Dec 18, 2019.
  • Forked at: rodri042/gba-sprite-engine.
• pinobatch/gsmplayer-gba Feb 9, 2020.
• rodri042/gba-link-connection.

External links

• GitHub - https://github.com/rodri042/piugba
• DIscord - https://discord.com/invite/JE33cc2