Roadmap - October 2026 - and an announcement

Hello, everyone! I'd like to share a progress update on all projects and make an important announcement.

Older members may remember that I used to make "here what is coming in the next 2-3 months" posts (like this one from July 2021) sharing the status update of all projects and what I was planning to do. I think this format worked well and I'm going back to them, more frequently, focusing on what can be done in the current month and the next one.

Since August I have released two SimCity SA-1 betas, Super R-Type SA-1 for Europe and Japan (SA-1 Root v1.9), Speed Pack v1.6 (for Hyper and Platinum Supporters) and Project FastROM 1.1 with an updated Axelay, plus a new comparison video every week on YouTube.

Available for testing now

• SimCity with SA-1 - status: beta. Beta 1 (August 18) and beta 2 (September 7) both came out as early access and are now available for everyone. Beta 1 brought a 4x to 6x faster simulation and faster map generation, and beta 2 added SNES Mouse support on every screen and drag to build features. More details about Beta 3 and release plan in the next section.

• Contra Spirits (Japan) with SA-1 - status: beta, available for all paid members since October 9. No more slowdown and faster loading, on the Japanese version of Contra III.

• Super Metroid with SA-1 - status: in early testing. In 2021 I wrote that Super Metroid SA-1 would be focused in improving gameplay and introducing quality of life changes on its pacing speed. Today the test builds are with the beta testers (if you are still interested in becoming one, let me know!), and one of them already played through to the credits on a real console, via SD2SNES. The issues they found are being fixed as they come, and once I understand that it's safe to try (specially without risk of losing saves), a beta will open for all paid members!

Coming in the next weeks

Super Probotector (Europe) with SA-1

Status: ready, coming in the next days.

I didn't just adjust the patch for compatibility... the European version runs at PAL (50 Hz) so some things had to be re-synced to not feel odd, such as the bombs and the game introduction (which is now, in my opinion, superior to the original version). After this release, the three Contra III versions (USA, Japan and Europe) will get their official release on SA-1 Root. More about why the regional versions needed their own patches in the SA-1 Regional announcement.

SimCity with SA-1

Status: the scope is finished, in other words I've added all planned features and I'm mostly doing improvements and fixes now.

The next beta will be the last one, after it it's gonna be released for everyone via SA-1 Root, just like Race Drivin'. Here is everything the SA-1 version includes (compare with what I planned in 2024):

• Simulation on the SA-1 chip. On a large city, the "Fastest" speed runs more than 10x faster than the original. "Slow" and "Normal" now have a minimum time per step, so a new city doesn't race ahead and a big city keeps the same pace: Slow plays at the original's best pace, regardless of the size of the city.

• Mouse support: point and click, drag to build lines and rectangles of zones, the price shown with the cursor, and the right button to scroll and to open or hide the menu, as well as support for all menu screens. So it's not just "this works with mouse", I made sure the game feels like it was designed to be used with a mouse (when available).

• Map select: the terrain is animated while it is generated, instead of waiting about 10 seconds for it. Y or a click zooms it to full screen, L and R step the map number, and map numbers now have four digits (up to 10,000 maps!). This is only possible thanks to the SA-1 Character Conversion DMA.

• In the city, the overview maps and the graph go full screen, and the SA-1 draws them in about a tenth of the original time, once again thanks to Character Conversion DMA.

• Multiple languages support: English, French, German and Japanese, each one taken from each regional version, available under the new OPTIONS menu.

• New controls: L and R now allows to cycle map numbers when building a new city, while on a city you can cycle through building tools. Y zooms the map in and you can use both mouse and joypad together for a better experience.

• Tested on MiSTer, FXPak Pro and the main emulators.

Top Gear 2 with SA-1 (NEW)

Status: in progress.

This game promises to be fun! It was originally an experiment back in 2021. I found out that while the game has 60 FPS HUD, the road and the sprites all run at 15-18 FPS, depending on the stage.

But it's a FastROM game and SA-1 wouldn't work here unless if I did something very creative here. Putting back to SlowROM wouldn't work, because the V-Blank routine would get impacted - I don't want a SA-1 mod with regressed gameplay. After I found out on hardware what happens when you enable FastROM and SA-1 at the same time and pulled the timing information, I started working again and while in theory the SA-1 would be able to pull around 45-54 FPS on full screen mode (from 15-18), with some optimizations I'm now getting 50-60 FPS on full screen, and 2-player mode already holds a stable 30 FPS (from 12-14).

Once full screen reaches 60 FPS, I'll tackle the 2-player mode. Along with the enhanced speed, the game internal state is now saved to the SRAM and I'll be working to the objects to have more intermediate zoom frames for a more envolving experience (hence FastROM is important on NMI).

No release date for the final version yet, but the first early-access beta comes out at the end of this month, however far I get until then.

Being researched

Project FastROM

The long-run goal for Vitor's Laboratory has always been improving the games using everything available: code optimization, FastROM, SA-1, Super FX, whatever fits each game better. I'm researching how to make the FastROM patches go further with more code optimizations, so games that stay on FastROM also get more of their slowdown removed.

In addition, I'm looking if the regional builds can be applied to the FastROM games as well. Super Castlevania IV is probably a nice example of a game that could benefit from a regional FastROM mod (here is how the American FastROM version compares to the original).

An announcement

And a personal update: I'm going to be a dad! My wife and I are expecting our first child in the coming weeks.

I'm very happy for that. I always wanted to have a daughter :) ... It's a little difficult to express my feelings here, but it's a mix of both lovely happiness and a need to push myself to my best Vitor Vilela ever so I can bring the best future for her.

That's also why this roadmap only goes as far as the next few weeks. Until then, I'm finishing as much as I can: scheduling the next YouTube videos and getting the pre-releases ready, so you will have plenty of games to test and have fun with while I'm away. After the birth I will be less active for a few weeks, but this time it's not a hiatus like the other times. The projects keep going, just slower for a bit.

Next steps

Which project are you the most excited about? Make sure to comment below, I always accept ideas and feedback about my work!

If you would like to try these builds first, consider supporting me on Patreon: paid members get early access to every beta above, including SimCity, Super Metroid, Contra Spirits and Super Probotector.

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend.

Vitor Vilela