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Hello there. I have a question about Galactic Protector, and I wonder if someone who has experience of playing the game on real hardware can inform me.

The game can be played with the japanese paddle controller and is the only simultaneous two-player game that uses the peripheral afaik.

I have played several of the paddle-controlled games on my Raspberry Pi using RetroArch and the lr-Genesis-plus-GX emulator which emulates the paddle controller device type. Games such as Woody Pop and Megumi Rescue work perfectly well, but there is an inconsistency with Galactic Protector.

Player 1 is perfect, the sprite's movement around the globe is perfectly smooth with the the control of the paddle, but player 2 is really jerky and not at all smooth.

I am wondering if someone who physically has the game and two paddle controllers can confirm if it is a problem with the game itself, or if its likely to be a problem with the emulation. My thinking is that the emulator is unlikely to be using distinct code for the paddle device for each player, but then I also think it would be just as unlikely in the game's code.
I can confirm that it's not a problem with my control device as the problem still exists for player 2 after swapping the devices over, and I have tried a variety of devices and the problem remains and only exists for player 2 of Galactic Protector.

Thank you for your time.

Widge wrote

I have played several of the paddle-controlled games on my Raspberry Pi using RetroArch and the lr-Genesis-plus-GX emulator which emulates the paddle controller device type. Games such as Woody Pop and Megumi Rescue work perfectly well, but there is an inconsistency with Galactic Protector.

Player 1 is perfect, the sprite's movement around the globe is perfectly smooth with the the control of the paddle, but player 2 is really jerky and not at all smooth.

I guess it's an emulation problem, I had to submit a change to MAME back in 2016 to get player 2 working right with that game:

https://github.com/mamedev/mame/commit/0b467cef219881a59cf4486be22c1b2a185c4739

It's possible the lower 4 bits for player 2 are not set or incorrectly set, it would create this impression that things are not smooth.

Thank you for the replies. It was indeed an emulation problem to do with the low nibble switching not being handled correctly on port 2.
I posted the issue on libretro's genesis-plus-gx repository and ekeeke responded with a fix to the main repo (from which libretro's is forked). I tested the correction in my own fork and it works, so will hopefully filter down to the main libretro repo soon.

Author	Message
Widge Joined: 30 May 2023 Posts: 6	Galactic Protector 2nd player paddle Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2023 6:32 pm
Widge Joined: 30 May 2023 Posts: 6	Hello there. I have a question about Galactic Protector, and I wonder if someone who has experience of playing the game on real hardware can inform me. The game can be played with the japanese paddle controller and is the only simultaneous two-player game that uses the peripheral afaik. I have played several of the paddle-controlled games on my Raspberry Pi using RetroArch and the lr-Genesis-plus-GX emulator which emulates the paddle controller device type. Games such as Woody Pop and Megumi Rescue work perfectly well, but there is an inconsistency with Galactic Protector. Player 1 is perfect, the sprite's movement around the globe is perfectly smooth with the the control of the paddle, but player 2 is really jerky and not at all smooth. I am wondering if someone who physically has the game and two paddle controllers can confirm if it is a problem with the game itself, or if its likely to be a problem with the emulation. My thinking is that the emulator is unlikely to be using distinct code for the paddle device for each player, but then I also think it would be just as unlikely in the game's code. I can confirm that it's not a problem with my control device as the problem still exists for player 2 after swapping the devices over, and I have tried a variety of devices and the problem remains and only exists for player 2 of Galactic Protector. Thank you for your time.

enik2 Joined: 07 Nov 2016 Posts: 11	Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2023 10:25 pm
enik2 Joined: 07 Nov 2016 Posts: 11	Widge wrote I have played several of the paddle-controlled games on my Raspberry Pi using RetroArch and the lr-Genesis-plus-GX emulator which emulates the paddle controller device type. Games such as Woody Pop and Megumi Rescue work perfectly well, but there is an inconsistency with Galactic Protector. Player 1 is perfect, the sprite's movement around the globe is perfectly smooth with the the control of the paddle, but player 2 is really jerky and not at all smooth. I guess it's an emulation problem, I had to submit a change to MAME back in 2016 to get player 2 working right with that game: https://github.com/mamedev/mame/commit/0b467cef219881a59cf4486be22c1b2a185c4739

Bock Site Admin Joined: 08 Jul 2001 Posts: 8653 Location: Paris, France	Posted: Wed Nov 01, 2023 10:03 am
	It's possible the lower 4 bits for player 2 are not set or incorrectly set, it would create this impression that things are not smooth.

Widge Joined: 30 May 2023 Posts: 6	Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2023 5:20 pm
Widge Joined: 30 May 2023 Posts: 6	Thank you for the replies. It was indeed an emulation problem to do with the low nibble switching not being handled correctly on port 2. I posted the issue on libretro's genesis-plus-gx repository and ekeeke responded with a fix to the main repo (from which libretro's is forked). I tested the correction in my own fork and it works, so will hopefully filter down to the main libretro repo soon.

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