BigPEmu
The World's Prefurred Large Pussycat Emulator™
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Patrons are my only source of support for ongoing improvements to BigPEmu. Please consider adding your support! As a patron, you'll be treated to regular behind-the-scenes updates, screenshots of works in progress, and special pre-release builds.
FAQ
Fathomless Appendage Questions
Q: Is this emulator really free? There's no installer which quietly asks to put garbage on my machine, and it's completely self-contained?
A: Yes. I'm a broken old man with no savings, but I'll die refusing to give in to this garbage culture of user/consumer exploitation. However, if you'd like to delay my ultimate demise, you can help me out.
Q: Where's the source code?
A: Due to private contractual obligations, I can't release BigPEmu's source code at this time. It's only by the legal miracle working of the fine people at Digital Eclipse that I'm able to release this emulator publicly, and to continue working on it in my own time.
Q: Can you release the private materials and documentation that you used to write this emulator?
A: Those materials don't exist, or at least I don't have access to them if they do. I wrote BigPEmu's core over the course of 3 months using only publicly available documentation and, of course, the hardware itself.
Q: Does BigPEmu make use of source code or data from any existing Atari Jaguar emulator?
A: No, BigPEmu was written from scratch. If you'd like a full list of the third party software currently employed by BigPEmu, please consult the distribution's Data/ThirdParty/Licenses directory.
Q: My favorite game keeps crashing and it's filling me with great sadness. Will you please fix it?
A: Please file a bug report.
Q: Sometimes my game runs too fast or too slow, is there any way to address this problem?
A: You can try adjusting the clock scale and Blitter speed settings in the emulator. You'll probably want to start with adjusting the Blitter speed, as it's less likely to introduce stability issues. Timing imperfections here are inherent in BigPEmu's default approach of emulating the Jaguar without lockstepped emulation of each bus access. The heuristic estimates for determining cycle usage during bus contention will often be incorrect, and the default settings generally err on the side of running too fast rather than too slow. Future releases may offer more expensive bus emulation options to help solve issues of this nature.
Q: I'm using BigPEmu on a platform with the touch overlay enabled by default, and it's not hiding when I connect my external controller!
A: You can customize every aspect of the touch overlay, but you're specifically looking for the "Overlay Idle Time" option. This option is located in the "Touch Settings" menu under the "Input" menu category. Please review the user manual.
Q: I'm running a mobile port of BigPEmu and it's draining my device's battery too quickly and/or making my device hot enough to scald my delicate hands! Why are you doing this to me?!
A: Please consult the user manual's troubleshooting section, and review the documentation on low power mode. As suggested by the user manual, take care to fully terminate and restart the application after changing any of the relevant settings. As of this writing, scattered user complaints indicate that an enormous number of the games/applications on iOS are suffering from the scheduling/priority issues outlined in the user manual. (to varying extents, dependent on CPU/threading usage) I decided I'd rather get complaints about heat/battery than about poor performance, but in many of the cases where other applications are enduring user complaints about stuttering/hitching, it's entirely Apple's fault. If anyone at Apple is reading this from their bureaucratic prison, I'll happily take your money to fix your threading model for you; call me, babe.
Q: I'm using BigPEmu on a platform that doesn't support my disc image format of choice, what can I do?! God help me!
A: You should probably generate a BigPImage file from your disc image in order to achieve the best performance and compatibility. For details, see the user manual.
Q: Will you please implement this particular feature that I think is really important?
A: If it's something I haven't already thought of, I can put it somewhere on the todo list, but that list is already massive! I'll be relying on my patrons, however few they may be, to help determine the direction and priority of feature development. If this feature is important to you, you'll have the opportunity to vote on it in my patron polls.
Q: You're a hypocrite! You claim to be a Marxist who stands against consumer exploitation, but YOU HAVEN'T RELEASED SOURCE CODE! DIE! Also, this isn't really a question.
A: As addressed previously, I have legal reasons for not releasing BigPEmu's source code at this time. However, Open Source as an ideology within this culture of capitalist exploitation is also a big problem. We're effectively devaluing our own labor, and in failing to recognize so many of our critical weaknesses, we've created an extremely toxic culture which is fueled in large part by egotism and narcissism. In taking such an aggressive stance against free software authors who choose not to release their source code, you're part of the problem.
Q: Why are you using your own framework with your own UI and presentation? I can't stand these indications of human personality. Emulators are meant to be faceless black boxes which sit behind vapid frontends, why don't you get with the times?
A: I look back fondly on the magical days of Bloodlust emulators, and I'm a big fan of functional software with personality. As such, I invite you to go and suck it.
Q: Why do you have this stupid intro in here? I hate it, and I hate you! I still want to use your emulator, though.
A: You can disable the intro. You can also fast forward through it by holding Enter or any button/key bound to B on the Jaguar controller.
Q: Haha, I found a mistake you made! Your timings are all wrong! I'm smarter than you are! I don't care if it's something you knew about already, you'll never take this away from me!
A: Please file a bug report. Unless it's something obvious pertaining to hardware timing differences, in which case, I already know.
Q: Why are you using FNV-1a everywhere? What about hash collisions?! WHAT ABOUT MY BABY?!
A: FNV-1a is very fast and convenient, and we're far less likely to run into a hash collision with 64-bit FNV-1a. With a software library as small as the Jaguar's, even accounting for homebrew, you'd have to be actively trying to produce a collision.
Q: Will you tell me about the terrible secrets which you have hidden in the depths of BigPEmu?
A: No, it is only through righteous acts of devotion that the worthy will bring light to the darkness.
BigPEmu Copyright © 2022 Rich Whitehouse