v2.3.1

Virtual Jaguar libretro v2.3.1

Polish release — 17 commits since v2.3.0. No new emulation features;
this is an infrastructure / triage / safety pass that was on develop
between v2.3.0 (April 2026) and now. None of the long-standing audio
or game-compatibility issues changed; the difference is that future
bug reports about them have a real chance of being actionable.

Highlights

• Runtime crash watchdog — a new opt-out core option,
  Crash Detect, logs gpu_pc_escape / dsp_pc_escape / gpu_wedge
  / dsp_wedge / video_stall events to the RetroArch log when a
  game hangs or goes black. Bug reports about freezes can now be
  triaged from the log alone, without save states or replays.
• DSP wedge fix — when the DSP PC escapes into unmapped memory,
  the inner exec loop now drains the timeslice instead of busy-looping
  for minutes. This was a v2.3.0 regression that made the headless
  test harness hang on Wolfenstein 3D for 12+ minutes per session.
• Audio presence test (test/test_audio_presence.c) — counterpart
  to the existing clipping check. Catches the silencing-regression
  class where a "fix" drops a game's RMS to zero (clipping check
  passes silence as PASS). Iron Soldier 1 is the in-tree baseline
  (RMS ~1175 on develop). Both audio tests now run in make test
  and CLAUDE.md documents that audio / DSP changes must clear both
  before being declared done.
• Bug-report template clarified — the BIOS-mode dropdown
  previously implied users needed to supply jagboot.rom in
  system/, which has never been the case for this libretro core
  (the BIOS is bundled in the dylib). The template now distinguishes
  the boot path users had selected, which is what bug triage
  actually cares about.

What's new

Bug fixes

• DSP: bail out of the exec loop when the DSP PC is in unmapped
  memory. Avoids a busy-loop that burned the entire timeslice
  emulating opcodes fetched from bus-default 0xFFFF. Wolf3D headless
  test now completes in <30 seconds, matching v2.2.0 wall-clock.

Tooling

• src/core/crash_detect.c — opt-out runtime watchdog. Once-per-
  frame hook with cheap PC-range checks and a 256-pixel rolling
  framebuffer hash; off-mode short-circuits at the first instruction.
  Modes: enabled (default) / disabled / verbose (heartbeat
  every 600 frames).
• test/test_audio_presence.c — asserts the audio onset is
  reached and the window RMS lies in [floor, ceiling], with no
  long zero runs. Per-ROM thresholds via CLI args. Wired into
  make test against Iron Soldier 1.
• test/tools/test_video_dim_log.c — diagnostic harness that
  prints every video resolution change and black-frame streak.
  Useful for correlating "crash after N seconds" reports against
  actual hardware events.

CI / infrastructure

• Dependabot bumps for GitHub Actions (codecov-action 5→6,
  actions/cache 4→5, actions/labeler 5→6, actions/upload-artifact
  4→7, cirrus-actions/rebase 1.4→1.8).
• test/tools/test_frame_timing added to .gitignore.

Documentation

• CLAUDE.md — new "Runtime crash watchdog" and "Audio / DSP work
  — required tests" sections. Pins the rule that DSP/audio PRs must
  clear both test_audio_clipping AND test_audio_presence, with
  PR #170 cited as the precedent (clipping passed on a "fix" that
  silenced Iron Soldier 2).
• Bug-report template — clarified HLE vs Real BIOS distinction.

Known issues (unchanged from v2.3.0)

• Doom: runs at ~2x speed, music silent. Bus arbitration / cycle
  accuracy modeling not implemented; PR #169 (draft) is in design
  limbo.
• Wolfenstein 3D: no audio. The dsp-diag tool shows the DSP
  PC drifting to $0006EE in main RAM around frame 48 (Bank1
  registers never finish initializing); the runtime watchdog
  subsequently logs dsp_pc_escape pc=$00FFF004E8 once the
  drift hits unmapped register space, and the new wedge bail-out
  (this release) prevents the headless harness from hanging on it.
  Long-standing — present in v2.2.0 too, not a v2.3.x regression.
• Skyhammer / Iron Soldier 2: saturated square-wave audio in HLE
  (DSP engine state not fully replicated). Both tests deliberately
  flag these as EXPECTED-FAIL in the suite manifest until a real
  fix lands.
• Battle Sphere: menu navigation issues.
• Jaguar CD: PR #120 is rebased and builds, but multi-track CD
  games still break mid-game; not in this release.

Compared to v2.3.0

18 files changed, +1,004 / -17 lines across 17 commits.

Downloads

Pre-built libretro cores for 16 platforms:

• Linux: x86_64, aarch64, i686
• macOS: arm64, x86_64
• Windows: x86_64, i686 (MSYS2/MinGW)
• iOS: arm64; tvOS: arm64
• Android: arm64-v8a, armeabi-v7a, x86_64, x86
• Web: Emscripten WASM
• Consoles: PS Vita, Nintendo Switch

Each binary has a matching *-debug.tar.gz with split debug symbols.
SHA256 checksums in SHA256SUMS.txt.

Maintainers

libretro/Provenance fork: Joseph Mattiello (@JoeMatt, Provenance-Emu).

Thanks to @checktext00 for the bug-report template fix (#179).

---

Artifacts in this release

SHA256SUMS.txt
virtualjaguar_libretro-android-arm64-v8a-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-android-arm64-v8a.so
virtualjaguar_libretro-android-armeabi-v7a-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-android-armeabi-v7a.so
virtualjaguar_libretro-android-x86-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-android-x86.so
virtualjaguar_libretro-android-x86_64-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-android-x86_64.so
virtualjaguar_libretro-emscripten-wasm-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-emscripten-wasm.bc
virtualjaguar_libretro-ios-arm64-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-ios-arm64.dylib
virtualjaguar_libretro-linux-aarch64-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-linux-aarch64.so
virtualjaguar_libretro-linux-i686-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-linux-i686.so
virtualjaguar_libretro-linux-x86_64-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-linux-x86_64.so
virtualjaguar_libretro-macos-arm64-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-macos-arm64.dylib
virtualjaguar_libretro-macos-x86_64-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-macos-x86_64.dylib
virtualjaguar_libretro-switch-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-switch.a
virtualjaguar_libretro-tvos-arm64-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-tvos-arm64.dylib
virtualjaguar_libretro-vita-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-vita.a
virtualjaguar_libretro-windows-i686-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-windows-i686.dll
virtualjaguar_libretro-windows-x86_64-debug.tar.gz
virtualjaguar_libretro-windows-x86_64.dll
virtualjaguar_libretro.info

SHA-256 checksums

Verify with sha256sum --check SHA256SUMS.txt (Linux) or
shasum -a 256 --check SHA256SUMS.txt (macOS).
See SECURITY.md
for full verification instructions and antivirus false-positive guidance.

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