RETROBJECTS
(C) 2008-2009 Gabriel Honoré

Welcome! This is the ESUG 2009 website of Retrobjects.

NEWS

I'm proud to announce that Retrobjects was awarded with the 1st prize of the ESUG Innovation Technology Awards 2009! Check the results here! This wouldn't be possible without the help of many people.

OVERVIEW

Retrobjects is a framework for the creation of object-oriented virtual simulations of old home computers and video game systems. The main goal of this framework is to simplify the process of creating emulators, by providing developers with a library of common objects ready to be used (i.e. power supplies, displays, speakers, sound generators & samplers, video filters, etc.).

There are currently two systems that are modeled using Retrobjects: a Commodore 64 system, and a Nintendo Entertainment System.

THE COMMODORE 64 SYSTEM

It includes its main unit, a datassette, and a pair of joysticks. It also contains some games and applications for you to try.

Here is a list of some of its features:

• Cycle-exact CPU emulation, almost cycle-exact CIA timing, and raster-line emulation of the VIC chip.
• Support for single-file programs stored in PRG & T64 file formats, and tapes stored in TAP files.
• Sound generation through a native implementation, ReSID (one of the best 6581 chip implementations), a HardSID, and a real Commodore 64 through a PC64 cable.
• Video filters: normal, with scanlines, and with scanlines & horizontal blurring.
• User interfaces and inspectors that allow you to control every object in the system.
• You can use your joystick to play if you have one.

Here is an incomplete list of what it lacks, but is planned to have:

• Support for cartridges and diskettes.
• Emulation of the serial and user ports.
• Support for more than one joystick, if you have more than one installed (currently, you only can use one of them).

In general, it has a great level of compatibility. It can run the majority of the games that it can load. The emulation speed is slow compared to the other emulators that are written in C++ / Assembler, but it's pretty acceptable, modern computers will do just fine (I have a Core2 Duo 2GHz, and it runs at full speed without dropping frames at all).

THE NES SYSTEM

It includes its main unit, two joysticks, and some games for you to try.

Here is a list of some of its features:

• Cycle-exact CPU emulation (it uses the same core than the CPU of the C64), and raster-line PPU emulation.
• Support for iNES file format (.NES extension).
• Support for memory mappers 0, 2, 3 & 4 (partially).
• Video filters: normal, scanlines, and an excellent TV filter: Blargg's NTSC (check http://www.fly.net/~ant/)

And it lacks (among other things):

• Sound chip emulation.
• Lots of memory mappers (at least I'd like to add support for all the common ones).
• Support for more types of controllers, and auto-fire for joystick buttons.
  

This system is still in a very early stage of development. It's *very* buggy, only a few games work well, and it's painfully slow. But with some simple games, it does its job.

LINKS

To see some screenshots, click here.

To download Retrobjects for ESUG 2009, click here.

If you have any questions, please read the FAQ, or send me an e-mail.