#61550 - frob - Mon Nov 21, 2005 2:49 pm
What would be the preferred emulator for GBA development? I'm mainly asking because my own investigations lead to No$gba but Martin won't answer any of my emails and I'm a bit wary about paying an individual software developer without any contact (for all I know he died last week in a car accident and the product is gone). So should I keep trying to get it somehow or is some other emu as good? Without a demo version I can't really check out No$gba at all.
#61553 - tepples - Mon Nov 21, 2005 3:20 pm
I just use vba, and use siprintf/agbtty_puts and PC-side prototyping for debugging.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.
#61622 - phantom-inker - Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:50 am
I use VBA for a very large amount of my testing, upwards of 90%.
However, I would not discount no$gba --- Martin may not be terribly good at communicating, but the registered version of no$gba does a few things the other emulators don't do: It can track power usage (or, more accurately, tell you when you're overloading a frame); it can tell you when you have bad reads and writes in your code; and its built-in debugger is pretty spiffy if you have no problems understanding raw assembly.
I also test on a real GBA, of course; there's no substitute for seeing whether your code runs on the real hardware, and in some cases it runs better than on an emulator, and in some cases it runs worse. If you're doing GBA development, make absolutely sure you buy a flash cart as your first purchase.
And that's my two cent$.
_________________
Do you suppose if I put a signature here, anyone would read it? No? I didn't think so either.
#61648 - kusma - Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:06 am
| phantom-inker wrote: |
I use VBA for a very large amount of my testing, upwards of 90%.
However, I would not discount no$gba --- Martin may not be terribly good at communicating, but the registered version of no$gba does a few things the other emulators don't do: It can track power usage (or, more accurately, tell you when you're overloading a frame); it can tell you when you have bad reads and writes in your code; and its built-in debugger is pretty spiffy if you have no problems understanding raw assembly.
|
yes, as long as you actually get the emulator after paying to the paypal-account, wich doesn't seem to be the case any more...
#61650 - gauauu - Tue Nov 22, 2005 9:13 am
You know, I guess I'm sorta preaching to the choir, but what would work best in a situation like's martin's, is if someone could convince him to have somebody else manage distribution for him.
If he gave some trusted person in this community (like tepples) the ability/rights to distribute no$gba, in exhange for 5% of profits, or something like that, everyone would win -- he'd get more sales, more people would get access to the program (as you aren't the first person who I've heard complain about trying to get ahold of him), and somebody could make a few bucks on the side.
#61819 - frob - Wed Nov 23, 2005 11:24 pm
Ah, it's curious how the webpage goes on at considerable length about people pirating his software, and then allegedly paying customers receive no product. Could someone perhaps set up a vigilante distribution channel of sorts, whereby some sort of proof of payment could be exchanged for an unofficial copy? It would be up to the developer to send an official key as purchased if he has a problem with this. That is, if the allegations turn out to be true.
#61835 - wintermute - Thu Nov 24, 2005 4:26 am
There's a freeware version linked at the top of the page -> http://nocash.emubase.de/gba.htm
All registered copies of no$gba are encrypted with the users details so no "unofficial" copies will be forthcoming.
#61843 - frob - Thu Nov 24, 2005 6:58 am
The freeware version isn't useful for development or even testing out its capabilities and Martin appears to have gone missing, so I'm grabbing at straws here. Guess VBA is the only remaining option, then.
#61851 - wintermute - Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:00 am
| frob wrote: |
| The freeware version isn't useful for development or even testing out its capabilities and Martin appears to have gone missing, so I'm grabbing at straws here. Guess VBA is the only remaining option, then. |
Your evidence for Martin having gone missing is what?
He doesn't tend to answer mails from people he doesn't really know. If you asked him for some sort of evaluation copy then I can pretty much guarantee you won't get a reply.
The debugger in no$gba is identical to the debugger in no$gmb except that obviously it does ARM instead of z80. It also handles elf files.
I mailed Martin earlier, it usually takes a few days to get a response.
As far as Kusma's comments go, they're probably best ignored. So far he's offered zero evidence of his situation nor given any indication of what he's done to remedy the situation.
#61859 - frob - Thu Nov 24, 2005 8:51 am
I asked him whether the "shareware version" he's selling is actually registered, which I think is very badly worded on the page (still not 100% sure about this since to me it means the same as "demo version"), then offered to send a cart he's asking for to support the project in addition to buying it, and then just asked if he's on vacation. If these sort of messages go unanswered, I get a feeling he'd be as unresponsive to paypal. If you're right and he isn't missing but just chooses to ignore non-corporate customers, maybe I'll rather use some other emu anyway.
#61885 - kusma - Thu Nov 24, 2005 4:37 pm
okay, I'll explain a bit. when we made "newton never did this, BITCH", we tried purchasing no$gba, by paying to the paypal-account. when a couple of weeks passed without any receiving any software, we tried mailing him (from multiple email-accounts to make sure we werent just ignored in any spam filter or whatever). now, i don't have any "proof" i can show to verify this, but i swear i'm telling the truth. comments like the one wintermute just made are just arrogant and totally unnecessary.
#61886 - kusma - Thu Nov 24, 2005 4:56 pm
i would like to add that at least the freeware-version of no$gba is an excellent emulator, by far the best availible. i just wish there would be possible to buy it in a reliable way. i don't believe that the author deliberately tries to rip people off or anything, just that he doesn't handle the logistics in a satisfactory way. if this turns out to be resolved, i'd be glad to pay the 15$ once more. i personally don't really care about the money, it's the fact that we didn't get the debugger that was annoying.
#61894 - frob - Thu Nov 24, 2005 5:48 pm
Wintermute, why don't you try to email him if he knows you? I still claim he's missing since I don't want to believe he's enough of a jerk to force us to jump through hoops to get his email address and then refuses to answer offers of money and hardware. If he replies you, I'm assuming there'd be a 15 euro reward from both me and kusma, and I'll also mail him a Castlevania NES classics cart (real-life object) I don't need. Presumably that's what he means by:
- gba game cartridge of these new "classic" series ("") (unless meanwhile working in newer updates)
I don't know how much he makes an hour but I'd jump at a chance to earn 30 euro from writing a simple, short email.
Edit: and I'll paypal another 10 euro to whoever succeeds in persuading him to answer me if this results in me receiving the debugger.
#62042 - phantom-inker - Sat Nov 26, 2005 7:56 pm
I suppose I should modify my commentary on no$gba a little: Yes, it's a great product once you have it, but getting it is nightmarishly difficult. After I paid my money to Martin, it took a month and a half's worth of e-mails and forum complaints before I finally got the thing. Martin really needs to work on his customer service :(
_________________
Do you suppose if I put a signature here, anyone would read it? No? I didn't think so either.
#62310 - SittingDuck - Tue Nov 29, 2005 12:34 pm
I use VisualBoyAdvance for most testing and playing, but I use Mappy VM for in-depth debugging. Mappy VM is a bit inefficient, slow and can't do sound very well, though, hence I use VBA most of the time.
#62381 - SittingDuck - Wed Nov 30, 2005 12:35 pm
Could I just note here that many things in Mappy VM don't work properly - BIOS functions, mode 7 stuff, to name but a few.
#62481 - ZueriHB - Thu Dec 01, 2005 11:10 am
Yeah, Martin is really on the short side what communications means, maybe he was at his girlfriends again (I had to send him my SP to his girlfriend ^^)
It's a great Emulator, and I'm just getting in on the debuggin features.
@frob: I gonna ask him, with wich mail did you ask him?
And what he means with 'Shareware Version' is actually 'For non-commercial use only.'
It's not limited in functionality, only in money.
Edit:
On the bottom of his no$gba site, he searches help from a crazy programmer, maybe he is overloaded with work?
_________________
We got the Dinosaurs. You're next!
#62508 - expos1994 - Thu Dec 01, 2005 6:17 pm
I always use VBA to test my games.
The OAM viewer, Memory viewer, Tile viewer, Map viewer. These things are your best friends. Especially when you have a bug.
There's no step by step debugging, which would be great, but what are you gonna do?
I find that all the info I really need is accessible from those viewer tools. Not having that safety net of being able to step through the code forces me to write tighter, cleaner, more readable code. That way when I do have a bug I can step through it in my head.