The Game.com is Emulated!?

[jorpho]

It was my understanding that the Game.com hardware, having an abundance of "glob top" chips, was nigh-unemulatable, and that even though there was an emulator available to developers, it would probably never see the light of day.

But apparently not!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game.com

In October 2011, the official Game.com emulator for developers was released on the internet.

Has anyone tried this yet?

[Ike]

It's probably just a flash animation of a Game.com power switch that you can flip to "off." That's pretty close to the real experience.

[jorpho]

Well, with a decent screen and some kind of speed throttle, it might be considerably more playable, no?

[megatronbison]

I'd be curious to see this even if only to try out the stinky SotN and RE2 ports.

[ReyVGM]

The game.com has been emulated for years now, it's just that the guys that did the emu were going to release it only after the emu was perfect. Time passed and nothing. Then they started working on G.C emulation for MESS. Time passed and nothing.

Someone decided to leak a beta version. It works fine, but it has a convoluted way of loading the roms.

The original link is dead, so I'll rehost it here: depositfiles.com/files/rfk05p8nu


And the way to load the roms is this (I had to ask the owner of Super Fighter Team, Brandon Cobb, for this info):

-In "Game.com emulator" folder, open the exe (I don't know what all the other folders are for).
-Go to "Window" -> "Open Disasm Window"
-In the "Disassemble Window" click on "File" -> "Load BIN file" (and select a game ROM to load)
-In the "Address??", leave it at zero.
-In the "Disassemble Window" click on "File" -> "Load Kernal." -> "Full Kernel."
-In the "Disassemble Window" click on the "Run" button.

You'll then enter the G.C bios screen, select "catridge" and the game should load.

[jorpho]

Jan 24, 2012 19:08:35 GMT -5 ReyVGM said:

Someone decided to leak a beta version.

Really? I do distinctly remember seeing the emulator available (though not to the public, of course) long ago on a rather obscure developer's site. And really, it would be pretty bizarre to release a beta version with such convoluted loading.

Anyway, might I ask if someone could point me in the direction of Sonic Jam? That's the only one that I'm really interested in.

[ReyVGM]

If it's not available for the public then it's not really available

Several emulation related people had it yes, but they weren't spreading it. And believe me I tried. The dev site you mention is most likely Game dot Commies, which were the makers of that emulator.

As usual, you can find roms at:
www.emuparadise.me/Complete_ROM_Sets_%28Full_Sets_in_One_File%29_ROMs/Tiger_Game.com_%28GoodGCOM_v3.14%29/96335

[apachacha]

This makes me wonder if the Gizmondo will ever be emulatable ?

.....What ? Sticky Balls has a nice intro, don't judge me !

But I wonder, is there anything realy worth looking up for the Game.Com ? I can't imagine it's library is anything impressive.

[jorpho]

Jan 25, 2012 2:04:02 GMT -5 ReyVGM said:

The dev site you mention is most likely Game dot Commies, which were the makers of that emulator.

Found it: It was "Handheld Games", and they called it the "Game.com Development Environment". (Right at the bottom.)
web.archive.org/web/20030204024309/http://handheldgames.com/products_all.html

As usual, you can find roms at:
www.emuparadise.me/Complete_ROM_Sets_%28Full_Sets_in_One_File%29_ROMs/Tiger_Game.com_%28GoodGCOM_v3.14%29/96335

Ahh, thank you. Googling suggests they might have to be "fixed" in some ambiguous fashion before they work with the emu.

[ReyVGM]

With the method I described above, all G.C roms should work fine. They are all .bin as far as I know.

[darkmech]

all the gamecom roms i found are .tgc files. has anybody found a way to get them to work on the emulator?

[jorpho]

Apr 15, 2012 15:05:14 GMT -5 darkmech said:

all the gamecom roms i found are .tgc files. has anybody found a way to get them to work on the emulator?

passagemsecreta.com/game-com-emulador/ suggests it is a simple matter of renaming the .tgc to .bin.

[muteKi]

The hidden palace link has been down. Anybody got a mirror?

EDIT: nvm, there's a mediafire link at the bottom of that page

[Brand]

I remember in 2000 buying one of these out of the bargain bin at KB Toys and giving it to a friend for Christmas. It is kind of making me nostalgic. Though the only vaguely interesting game for is the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night that never game out for it.

[apachacha]

May 8, 2012 14:36:48 GMT -5 Brand said:

I remember in 2000 buying one of these out of the bargain bin at KB Toys and giving it to a friend for Christmas. It is kind of making me nostalgic. Though the only vaguely interesting game for is the Castlevania: Symphony of the Night that never game out for it.

.........Realy ? On.....the game.com ?