Virtual Jaguar v3.10.0

Controller-friendly TV mode, a more responsive desktop app, multi-disc playlists, and optional AI players.

This is a feature release for the standalone app on macOS, Windows and Linux. It also includes MMULT and TOM register-readback corrections from AtariAge reports. Core options and v17 savestates carry over. Experimental emulation threading remains off by default.

Play from the couch

TV mode adds Home, Library and Game details screens and a paused in-game menu designed for a controller. Hold the configured TV-menu button to open it, or use Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+T to toggle TV mode. Initial setup still uses desktop mode. (#995, #999, #1024)
Desktop library controller navigation, with per-family and custom button profiles. (#1030)
Jaguar Pro Controller support exposes X, Y, Z, L and R as separate controls. (#1019)
Fullscreen menu auto-hide is optional. Detached tool windows use the native operating-system title bar, without duplicate in-app window controls. (#1034)

Desktop responsiveness

An optional emulation thread lets the UI keep responding while the core runs. RetroAchievements evaluation and link play run on the core owner thread; long operations show a busy indicator. Command ordering, achievements UI access and shutdown races are covered by regression tests, including ThreadSanitizer tests in CI. (#1000, #1031, #1033)

Presentation pacing and late input latching have more precise wake-ups, more deadline headroom and slower safety-pad decay. (#1018, #1023, #1035)

The setting is under Settings > Interface > Performance > Emulation thread and takes effect after restarting. Keep it off to use the Tools/debugger windows or GDB: those features still need to move across the thread boundary. Rare host scheduling stalls and display-rate pacing remain follow-up work; this release does not claim to eliminate every repeated frame.

Community cheat conversion

An optional offline source converter turns supported community-authored C memory freezes into .cht files, including grouped writes and bounded loops. Unsupported operations are reported for a manual port. Generated sets start disabled and the app checks the cartridge CRC32 before applying them. Pinned community sources are tested in CI; no community cheat pack, emulator binary, or SDK is bundled. (#1052, conversion guide)

Emulation corrections

GPU and DSP MMULT preserve the advanced matrix-address counter and wrap coefficient reads within local RAM. Consecutive multiplies now render the supplied polygon demo as a filled solid instead of a line. Row/column stepping, address wrap and matrix-address savestate round trips have regression coverage. (#1043)
TOM PIT reads expose live timer counters. Unreadable TOM I/O registers fall back to MEMCON1, following the original Atari netlists. Timer reads use the existing scheduler and have scheduler-slice resolution; independent prescaler phase during partial reprogramming remains future work. (#1044, #1045)
The fast blitter uses the A2 destination lanes for computed Z and Gouraud gradients when DSTA2 is selected. A bootable greater-than Z test reproduces the incorrect writes before the fix and passes afterward. Regression cases cover both engines, mixed pixel/phrase modes, signed increments and phrase boundaries. (#1046, #1051)

Jaguar CD and achievements

Open .m3u multi-disc playlists; every disc appears under File > Disc. (#1012)
Invalid playlists no longer hide otherwise playable discs. States from every playlist disc remain available in the library and TV mode, including identical slot numbers on different discs. Resuming mounts the state-owning disc while retaining the playlist's full disc list and save-RAM ownership. (#1042)
The disc menu works after loading a CD and while booted into the CD BIOS without a disc. Swaps update the running content identity while keeping save ownership on the disc that opened the session. (#1006, #1009, #1011)
The achievements browser omits games with no achievement set. (#1015)
Missing CD mirror artwork is remembered only for the current session, so later launches can retry. The website also offers the CD artwork collection as one ZIP. (#998, #1016)

AI players

Settings > Neuro connects to a server implementing the Neuro game API, allowing an AI backend to control Player 1. Tempest 2000 has a built-in profile; custom profiles can define other games' moves. This is opt-in and requires a separate server. Disconnects release held inputs, stopping is bounded, and hardcore achievements block AI input. See the Neuro guide for configuration and privacy details. (#1001, #1027)

Known limitations and the road to 4.0

Emulation threading is experimental, opt-in, and disables the Tools/debugger windows and GDB.
TV mode settings, overlays, achievements screens and automatic switching remain in progress.
Doom's attract-demo timing and the other emulation limitations documented for v3.9.1 remain.
Windows signing depends on the signing service's availability and approval; do not assume every Windows package is signed.

The 4.0 milestone now tracks a fully integrated app: debugging while threaded, validated 60/120 Hz display pacing, finished TV mode, and dependable installation/update flows. The hardware timing campaign and dual-Jaguar rollback remain separate future projects.

Downloads and upgrading

Install the app over your existing version; settings carry over. RetroArch and Provenance users can replace the core without changing options or v17 savestates.

Download the app, libretro cores and Jaguar CD tools from the v3.10.0 release. Use the release's SHA256SUMS.txt to verify downloads. macOS packages are universal; Windows has portable and installer packages; Linux has AppImage and Debian packages.

Validation

Combined candidate 344dc0bc passed the core build, C89 lint and full core suite on Mac Studio with the private corpus. Three checks skipped for missing optional Fountain live-abort, CHSE-capable chdman and one-session Red Book fixtures/tools. Host-sensitive network checks ran and passed. Explicit Skyhammer/Iron Soldier 2 clipping and Iron Soldier 1 presence checks also passed.

Fresh Studio matrices on final-core candidate b5e40090 cover 155 cartridge titles (HLE/BIOS) and 28 CD title/mode rows. Comparisons against both v3.9.1 and the previous release candidate 24ae1bdb show zero backward moves, zero added/removed rows and no new watchdog signatures. The three existing cartridge HLE/BIOS asymmetries are unchanged; no new asymmetries appeared. Matrix input identity: 67acceb9dc39. Existing known failures remain recorded. The acid suite ran all 151 cases: 148 pass, three known failures, zero regressions, zero missing tests. The original GT ROM also passes with the fast blitter.

The subsequent #1051 backport adds a second GT ROM that reproduces the DSTA2 computed-Z defect. Its source candidate passed all 93 blitter checks and all 152 acid cases with zero regressions or missing tests (three established known failures). RetroArch showed the reproducer failing before the fix and passing afterward; the supplied polygon demo compared 202,616 blits with zero pixel differences or skips.

The combined app passed all 159 CTest tests, including 53 emulation-thread tests, with zero failures or skips. Playlist tests cover invalid entries, per-disc state ownership with identical slots, warm-cache lookup, TV resume routing, and actual inline/threaded state-load events. Windows path expectations were corrected, and all three previously failing Windows app jobs passed on that fix.

Independent review of the incoming core changes found no defects. Source-session RetroArch checks confirmed the polygon demo's filled geometry, changing PIT counter and matching MEMCON1 values. Earlier focused Studio windowed checks covered inline/threaded operation, settings, fullscreen hover/F1/restore/persistence and native-only chrome. POSIX installer hermetic tests passed 208 checks. Clean-machine Windows qualification remains separate. Fresh GitHub CI and published-artifact checks remain release gates; current status is in release tracker #1036.

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