Mednafen

Debugger Documentation

Last updated November 25, 2023
Valid as of Mednafen 1.32.0-UNSTABLE

Notes and Cautions:

The following emulation modules have at least basic debugger functionality implemented

Save States, Power/Reset: Utilizing save states and power toggling/resetting in step mode may lead to significant malfunctions or glitches in the following emulation modules:

Additionally, these aforementioned acts may cause minor non-fatal glitches in the sound output with all modules with debugger functionality.

Video Updates: The last valid(non-skipped) video frame is drawn while in step mode. Older versions of Mednafen would attempt to draw the current, incomplete frame as emulation progressed, but this was rather buggy because the emulation code was not designed with it in mind.

Read Breakpoints: Opcode, operand, and prefix(in WonderSwan case) fetches will trigger read breakpoints in the NES, PC Engine, and WonderSwan debuggers.

PC Breakpoints: PC breakpoints are evaluated only for the state of PC at the start of the instruction(or start of prefixes for an instruction in the case of V30MZ); IE, a PC breakpoint set on the address of an operand byte(6502, HuC6280, V30MZ) or the second 16-bits of a 32-bit instruction(V810) will not be triggered when the instruction is executed.

Branch History: When the CPU debugger view is not active, the branch history will only be updated reliably when at least one breakpoint is active/installed.


Quick Key Reference

KeyAction
ALT+DMaster debugger view toggle.

ALT+1CPU debugger view.
ALT+2Graphics viewer.
ALT+3Memory editor.
ALT+4Log viewer.
CTRL+DownDecrease debugger background opacity.
-
CTRL+UpIncrease debugger background opacity.
=
CPU Debugger
RRun
SStep
TToggle disassembly mode. Currently only used for selecting between Intel and AT&T syntaxes for the WonderSwan debugger.
ReturnEdit disassembly address, or edit selected register.
SHIFT+ReturnEdit watch address.
SpaceToggle PC breakpoint on selected disassembly address.
SHIFT+REdit read breakpoints.
SHIFT+WEdit write breakpoints.
CTRL+SHIFT+REdit I/O read breakpoints(for PC-FX and WonderSwan; I/O instructions on VB go through regular read/write breakpoints).
CTRL+SHIFT+WEdit I/O write breakpoints(for PC-FX and WonderSwan; I/O instructions on VB go through regular read/write breakpoints).
CTRL+REdit Aux read breakpoints.
CTRL+WEdit Aux write breakpoints.
SHIFT+OEdit opcode breakpoints(PC Engine only for now).
TabSwitch cursor focus between disassembly and registers.
Up, Left, Right, Down, PageUp, PageDownSelect disassembly address or select register.
SHIFT + (Up, Left, Right, Down, PageUp, PageDown)Select watch address.
MToggle watch window between logical and physical(if available) addressing.
PPoke a value to memory.
SHIFT + PHigh-level poke a value to the underlying ROM or RAM.
Graphics Viewer
CTRL+LeftDecrease palette bank number.
,
CTRL+RightIncrease palette bank number.
.
Up, DownScroll up or down.
Left, RightSelect graphics layer.
CTRL + (Down, Up)Select line number(not necessarily visible line number...) to decode graphics on.
-/=
Memory Editor
DDump memory from the selected address space to a file. Two specification string are recognized:
start_address end_address(inclusive) filename

Example: 0 1fff dump.bin
and
start_address +count filename

Example: 0 +2000 dump.bin
LLoad memory from file into selected address space. Uses the same format of specification string as the "dump memory" function.
SByte(hex)-string search.
R8-bit relative byte-string search.
TText search.
CTRL+LeftSelect address space left.
,
CTRL+RightSelect address space right.
.
Up, Down, Left, RightMove the cursor around and possibly scroll.
PageUp, PageDownScroll up, or scroll down, one page(256 bytes).
HomeMove cursor to address 0.
EndMove cursor to the end of the address space minus 16.
InsertEnter edit mode.
Log Viewer(PC Engine CD and PC-FX only for now)
TToggle logging on/off.


Memory Poking

High-level poking will attempt to write the desired value to the underlying storage(ROM or RAM). Normal(low-level) poking will go through the same write handlers as the virtual CPU operates through. Note that high-level poking is not implemented for all systems.

The format for the string to enter when poking memory(highlevel or lowlevel), is "[*]address value [size]", with values in brackets being optional. Prefixing the address with a "*" will cause the address to be treated as a physical address, which is currently only meaningful on systems that have paging registers internal to the CPU, such as the PC Engine/TurboGrafx 16.

Read and Write Breakpoints

You may enter either a single address to break on, or a range. Read and write breakpoints operate on logical addresses, unless you prefix the address with a "*", or the first address in the case of a range.
Exception: WonderSwan read/write breakpoints only operate on 20-bit physical addresses for the time being. Furthermore, only the lower 8 bits of WonderSwan I/O breakpoints are considered.

Multiple entries should be separated by one space character. Examples:

   2000-2007 4014 4015
   0000 1800 2300-23ff
   *1fe000
  
You may also use "segment:offset" form with absolute addresses with PC Engine emulation, such as:
   *ff:0000-ff:03ff
  
...which will cause a break on any writes to the VDC, including the ST0, ST1, ST2 instructions. Note that the offset is internally ANDed with 0x1FFF, so 0x2000 and 0x0000 would be equivalent offsets.

WonderSwan notes:
Segment(16-bit):offset(16-bit) form can also be used with the WonderSwan debugger, but you still need to prefix it with a "*", even though logical address breakpoints aren't supported with WonderSwan emulation currently. Also, the segment:offset pair is internally translated to a 20-bit address, and because segments overlap, you can get breakpoints to occur on writes with other segments than the one you specified.

Aux Read and Write Breakpoints

Aux r/w breakpoints operate on secondary storage reads and writes.

PC Engine
0000-7FFFVDC VRAM
10000-17FFFVDC-B VRAM(SuperGrafx only)
20000-2001FVDC Indexed Register
30000-3001FVDC-B Indexed Register(SuperGrafx only)

PC-FX
00000-3FFFFKING KRAM Page 0
40000-7FFFFKING KRAM Page 1
80000-8FFFFVDC-A VRAM
90000-9FFFFVDC-B VRAM
A0000-A001FVDC-A Indexed Register
B0000-B001FVDC-B Indexed Register