GEST v0.85 Readme file ----------------------------------------------- GEST is a Gameboy/Gameboy Color/SGB emulator for Windows. GEST is written in C/C++ and it's my first emulator. ----------------------------------------------- License ----------------------------------------------- GEST - Gameboy emulator Copyright (C) 2003 TM This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. ------- Any trademarks belong to their rightful owners. ----------------------------------------------- Requirements ----------------------------------------------- I've tested GEST with some computers: Pentium 150Mhz : without sound some games are playable at full speed(?) K6-2 500Mhz : works fine Athlon XP 2000+: guess :) Windows 9x or better DirectX 7 or better ----------------------------------------------- Using it ----------------------------------------------- 1. File->Load Rom... 2. Select a rom file 3. Play the game CPU: ->Soft reset This is the same as if you pressed A+B+START+SELECT. On most games this will reset the game (or shows a save screen - Zelda), however some games do nothing. Useful for at least those who cannot press these buttons at the same time :) ->Hard Reset On a real GB you would turn the power off and on. ->State Load state or Save state or choose save slot. ->System Type Automatic = Chooses GBC mode if rom has GBC features, otherwise SGB or normal GB. GB original = Force GB mode even if rom has GBC features. GB Pocket = Identical to GB original except for register A value at start. (I don't know any games that would have GBP only features) GB Color = With GB games a palette can be selected with number keys. GBA = Same as GBC. Unlock GBA only features in some games (e.g. new Zelda games) Super GB = Uses SGB mode even if rom has GBC features. NOTE: Automatically resets when changed to different system!!! GBC with SGB border = Works only if game has both SGB and GBC features (or system type is set to GBC). Emulates both SGB and GBC at the same time. Doesn't work with all games. (Use GBC with initial SGB border option in that case) GBC with initial SGB border = Emulation is started in SGB mode. When the border is uploaded it resets to GBC mode. To show border in games that have "SGB feature: no" in ROM info, but can show a border (Pokemon Diamond, Pokemon Crystal,Wetrix GB) set system type to SGB and this option on. Will affect when resetted (or rom is loaded) ->Halt on undefined opcode When the emulator encounters an undefined opcode it will show an error message and stop emulation. (Real GB stops operation) Otherwise it will continue emulation. ->Game Genie You can enter up to 10 Game Genie codes. Options: ->Video: ->GB Color You can select colors to be used in GB mode. ->Enable Enable or disable drawing of video layers. ->Mix Frames Mix current frame with previous one. Blinking objects will look like transparent (more like on the real GB; very useful in the game 'Angel Marlowe'). ->Sprite Limit Limit sprites to 10 on scanline (as does the real GB). Turning this option off can cause graphics thrash in some games.(Action Man, Ken Griffey Jr's Slugfest) ->LCD off empty screen When this option is on the emulator will draw an empty (white) screen when the program turns the LCD off. When the option is off the screen gets drawn anyway (what it was before LCD was turned off). Turning this option off prevents blinking in Megaman Xtreme 1 and 2. ->Sound: ->Enable Enable or disable sound channels. ->Controls: Change controls. Controllers 3-4 are for SGB multiplayer only. Controller 2 is for the 2nd GB and for SGB multiplayer. ->Sensor: Change keys that control the motion sensor (MBC7/Kirby Tilt'n'Tumble,Command Master). ----------------------------------------------- Default Controls ----------------------------------------------- Gameboy Controls: Up - Up Down - Down Left - Left Right - Right Z - A X - B A - L, GBA stretch in GBA mode S - R, GBA unstretch in GBA mode Enter - Start Backspace - Select autofire A - Q autofire B - W numpad keys control the motion sensor (MBC7/Kirby Tilt'n'Tumble) Emulator Controls: Esc - Exit Ctrl + P - Pause Ctrl + R - Hard Reset Ctrl + S - Soft Reset Spacebar - Speedup, removes the frame limit F2 - save state F3 - increase state slot F4 - load state F5 - enable/disable BG F6 - enable/disable WIN F7 - enable/disable sprites Number keys 1-0 and keys (left to 1) and (right to 0) change the Gameboy Color Palette when playing non GBC games in GBC mode. 1 - Left + B (gray) 2 - Right + A (green,red) default 3 - Up (brown) 4 - Up + A (red,blue,green) 5 - Up + B (light brown) 6 - Left (blue,green,red) 7 - Left + A (light green, red) 8 - Down (blue,red) 9 - Down + A (yellow,red) 0 - Down + B (brown,green,blue) [key left of 1] - Right (green,red) [key right of 0] - Right + B (reversed) ----------------------------------------------- What's NOT emulated (at least not yet) ----------------------------------------------- -Infrared functions -four player adapter -SGB2 link port (used by any games?) -some SGB features -GBC built-in palettes for some GB games e.g. Tennis, Zelda -external devices: *Gameboy printer *Furu Changer (Zok Zok Heroes (J)) *Barcode Reader (Bardigun (J)) *Mobile Adapter GB required in: Mobile Trainer (J)) used in: Gameboy Wars 3 and others ----------------------------------------------- About the config file ----------------------------------------------- The config file saves the ROM, save ram, save state paths and other options. It's located in the emulator directory, called "gest.cfg" -the ROM directory is automatically saved when you load a rom in the emulator from a directory -if you totally mess up the file then delete it and the emulator will create a new one using defaults -the window size and other options are saved in binary format at the end of the file ----------------------------------------------- About save states ----------------------------------------------- -save states are located in save state directory ([emu path]/state by default) -file names are [rom file name].st0 -> .st9 depending on the slot -the files are NOT compatible with any other emulators save states ----------------------------------------------- Contact ----------------------------------------------- Homepage - http://koti.mbnet.fi/gest_emu/ E-mail - gest_emu@mbnet.fi ----------------------------------------------- Credits & Thanks ----------------------------------------------- -Pan, GABY, Marat Fayzullin, Pascal Felber, Paul Robson, Martin Korth, kOOPa, Bowser for the Game Boy tech docs. -GeeBee for GB DEV FAQs -zilmar for EMUBook -Marat Fayzullin for Emulator writing HOWTO -Forgotten for the awesome emulator VBA and releasing its source -Laguna/gnuboy team for gnuboy source -Dox for releasing Hash source -Hii for releasing TGB Dual source -Charles Petzold for the book "Code"