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@github-actions github-actions released this 19 Jun 04:47
v0.2
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CHANGELOG

SuperGrafx graphics fixes, smoother CHD playback, audio-CD player, and other improvements.

General Info

Binaries for each configuration and PCB design are at the end of this page.

See setup section in readme how to install and wire up

Important

An RP2350 board is required. The original RP2040 (Pico 1) is not supported.

v0.2

New

  • You can now play audio CDs with the CD player built into the System Card BIOS. Put a .cue/.bin or .chd image of a music CD on the SD card and start it like a CD game: the track list appears and playback, track skip, pause and the level meters all work.

Fixes

  • Davis Cup Tennis no longer goes to a black screen after the match starts.
  • Battle Royale no longer crashes shortly after startup.
  • Cadash: in-game dialog boxes now render correctly. Some flicker on the dialog screen remains; see #9.
  • SuperGrafx graphics fixes in:
    • Ghouls 'n Ghosts
    • Aldynes
    • Darius Plus
    • Madou King Granzort
  • Fixed screen tearing in CHD-based CD games.
  • Reduced audio crackle in CD games on some board configurations. See #11.
  • Game speed now matches the real PC Engine refresh rate (59.826 Hz). Previously the emulator ran slightly too fast, which made some titles play noticeably quicker than on original hardware.
  • The FPS overlay now reports a one-second running average instead of a noisy per-frame value.

For developers

  • Added a Linux host test harness (hosttest/) that runs the emulator core on a PC for faster debugging — no Pico or flashing needed. See hosttest/README.md.
  • The host test harness now accepts arbitrary controller input via the new PCE_PRESS_KEYS=<frame>:<hexmask>[,…] env var, in addition to the existing PCE_PRESS_RUN and PCE_HOLD_FIRE.
  • The host test harness can now load CD games (CUE/BIN and CHD), not just HuCard ROMs.
  • New PCE_QUIRK env var on the host test harness lets you force per-game compatibility quirks on or off when reproducing issues.

v0.1

First public release. There will be bugs. Please register an issue when you encounter one.

Features

HuCard / TurboGrafx-16

  • Standard PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 cartridge ROMs (.pce) are loaded directly from the SD card.

SuperGrafx (.sgx)

  • SuperGrafx titles are recognised and dispatched to the second VDC.
  • Requires an RP2350 board with PSRAM.
  • VPC sprite-priority modes 1 and 2 are implemented, with VDC1/VDC2 sprite layering and VDC2 scroll synchronization. Per-scanline background scroll-Y follows Mesen2's IncScrollY model so vertical parallax tracks correctly through the frame.
  • Still under development: some titles exhibit residual graphical glitches (for example per-frame platform flicker in Ghouls 'n Ghosts).
  • On HSTX-based boards the CPU is overclocked to 378 MHz to sustain 60 fps. At this clock the TinyUSB host stack is disabled; USB controllers continue to work through Pico-PIO-USB.
  • On PicoDVI-based boards the CPU remains at 252 MHz; SuperGrafx titles fall back to frameskip and audio is does not work.

Most .sgx games still have graphical glitches. This game has severe graphical glitches:

  • Madou King Granzort (Japan)

CD-ROM² / Super CD-ROM²

  • CD-ROM² and Super CD-ROM² games are supported.
  • Two disc-image formats accepted:
    • CUE/BIN — uncompressed (recommended).
    • CHD — MAME's compressed disc-image format, decompressed sector-by-sector at run time. Generally slower than CUE/BIN; useful when SD card space is limited.
  • CD-DA audio playback and ADPCM streaming.
  • Requires an RP2350 board with PSRAM and a user-supplied System Card BIOS at /bios/ (or alongside the disc image).
  • BIOS files must use the .pce extension or be named cd_bios.rom. They are identified by CRC32, and when several are present the most capable variant is selected automatically. For broadest compatibility, Super CD-ROM System v3.0 (JP) or Arcade Card Pro (JP) is recommended.
  • CD playback (most notably CHD) is sensitive to SD card speed. Slow or aging cards can cause intermittent horizontal black-line flicker; a faster card resolves it.

Save states

  • Manual save and load slots through the in-game menu.
  • Optional auto-save mode stores a state when the game exits and offers to resume it the next time the same ROM is launched.
  • State files are stored on the SD card under /savestates/PCE/<CRC32>/.
  • SuperGrafx state is preserved: VDC2 registers, VRAM2, SPRAM2, VPC, and extended WRAM are appended to the state file alongside the VDC1 block.

Backup RAM (BRAM)

  • CD-ROM² games that use the System Card's BRAM (for in-game save data) have it persisted automatically alongside the save states.

Audio

  • PSG emulation reworked against the Mesen2 reference model; addresses previously missing sound effects.
  • Per-scanline audio generation.
  • Optional I²S external audio output (PCM5000A / TLV320DAC3100).
  • Audio recording on PSRAM boards.

Display

  • HDMI output via HSTX (RP2350) and PicoDVI drivers.
  • 8:7 and 1:1 screen modes, scanline effects, FPS overlay, VU meter.

Controllers

  • USB controllers including Sony DualShock 4 / DualSense, 8BitDo, XInput (Xbox 360 / One), Sega Genesis Mini 1 and 2, Retro-bit 8-button Genesis-USB, PlayStation Classic, and USB keyboards.
  • Directly wired NES / SNES gamepads.
  • Wii Classic Controller over I²C.

Metadata

  • Box art and short text descriptions are displayed in the file browser when a metadata pack is installed under /metadata/PCE/. The screensaver shows random box art.

Use of AI

The PSG rewrite, ADPCM decoder port, CHD integration, SuperGrafx work, and general bug fixes were developed with the help of Anthropic Claude (Opus 4.6 and 4.7).

Downloads by configuration

Binaries for each configuration are listed below. Only RP2350-based boards are supported; no RP2040 / Pico 1 binaries are provided.

For board-by-board wiring, supported display modes, and which UF2 file to flash, refer to the pico-infonesPlus documentation. The set of supported boards and their pinouts is identical between the two projects.

Standalone boards

Board Binary
Adafruit Metro RP2350 picopcePlus_AdafruitMetroRP2350_arm.uf2
Adafruit Fruit Jam picopcePlus_AdafruitFruitJam_arm_piousb.uf2
Adafruit Feather RP2350 with TLV320DAC3100 picopcePlus_AdafruitFeatherRP2350_TLV320DAC3100_arm_piousb.uf2
Waveshare RP2350-PiZero picopcePlus_WaveShareRP2350PiZero_arm_piousb.uf2

Breadboard

Board Binary
Pico 2 picopcePlus_AdafruitDVISD_pico2_arm.uf2
Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 picopcePlus_AdafruitDVISD_pico2_arm.uf2

PCB Pico 2

Board Binary
Pico 2 picopcePlus_AdafruitDVISD_pico2_arm.uf2

PCB WS2350-Zero (PCB required)

Board Binary
Waveshare RP2350-Zero picopcePlus_WaveShareRP2350ZeroWithPCB_arm.uf2

PCB Waveshare RP2350-USBA (PCB required)

Binary

Pimoroni Pico DV

Board Binary
Pico 2 / Pico 2 W picopcePlus_PimoroniDVI_pico2_arm.uf2
Pimoroni Pico Plus 2 picopcePlus_PimoroniDVI_pico2_arm.uf2

SpotPear HDMI

For more info about the SpotPear HDMI see https://spotpear.com/index/product/detail/id/1207.html and https://spotpear.com/index/study/detail/id/971.html.

Board Binary
Pico 2 / Pico 2 W picopcePlus_SpotpearHDMI_pico2_arm.uf2

Murmulator M1

For more info about the Murmulator see https://murmulator.ru/.

Board Binary
Pico 2 / Pico 2 W picopcePlus_MurmulatorM1_pico2_arm.uf2

Murmulator M2

For more info about the Murmulator see https://murmulator.ru/.

Board Binary
Pico 2 / Pico 2 W picopcePlus_MurmulatorM2_arm.uf2

Other downloads

Extract the zip file to the root folder of the SD card. Select a game in the menu and press START to show more information and box art. Works for most official released games. The screensaver shows floating random cover art.

Assets 14
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