Albion

[M-HT]

Hi,

I finished a new version of Albion for the GP2X.

List of changes:
* minor bug fixes (in recompilation)
* minor speed enhancements (in recompilation)
* more precise timer
+ virtual keyboard
+ ability to pause/unpause game
* interpolation bug fix
+ when TV-Out is detected (while initializing), native resolution (360x240) is used
* fixed possible deadlock when exiting via L+R+Start


Albion alpha 2 on the gp2x archive

 

[Khatoblepas]

Woo! I've been waiting for this

How did you get the TV-Out to display 360x240, though? I thought it outputted the same resolution as the GP2x's LCD. In any case, awesome!

What's next on the agenda? This release just gets better and better.

 

[M-HT]

Any resolution can be used (well not any, but that's not relevant now) and it's resized to the display resolution. (Edit: I mean when using HW accelerated SDL.)
The LCD resolution is 320x240, TV-Out resolution is 720x576 (PAL) or 720x480 (NTSC).
I could use 360x240 resolution also for LCD display, but it looks better with my resize algorithm.
The reason for using 360x240 with TV-Out is, that the text becomes really readeable.

The plan is to make the sound work and after that hopefully music.

 

[senquack]

The plan is to make the sound work and after that hopefully music.

Awesome. I've been enjoying this game thanks again for the port. A HUGE technical feat.

A suggestion::

Please make the left mouse button be A instead of B. Why? Because you click B a LOT in this game. It won't be long before it wears out on my GP2X and for no good reason, either. Make A & Y be left click/right click.

 

[Jaguarandine]

The plan is to make the sound work and after that hopefully music.

Awesome. I've been enjoying this game thanks again for the port. A HUGE technical feat.

A suggestion::

Please make the left mouse button be A instead of B. Why? Because you click B a LOT in this game. It won't be long before it wears out on my GP2X and for no good reason, either. Make A & Y be left click/right click.


Or configurable controls maybe?

 

[M-HT]

A suggestion::

Please make the left mouse button be A instead of B. Why? Because you click B a LOT in this game. It won't be long before it wears out on my GP2X and for no good reason, either. Make A & Y be left click/right click.

Or configurable controls maybe?

I will make some buttons configurable.

 

[ldaneels]

Greetings,
That sounds great. I still do not own a GP2x, but this project is most definitely making me wish I had one. Is it possible to finish the game with this release or are there still some issues in terms of gameplay ?
thanks & keep up the great work,

Loic

 

[M-HT]

It is possible to finish the game with this release.
At least theoretically, because no one did it yet.
I will probably make a new release before someone finishes it. It's a very long game.

 

[ldaneels]

It is possible to finish the game with this release.
At least theoretically, because no one did it yet.
I will probably make a new release before someone finishes it. It's a very long game.

Yeah, I know, I never got around finishing it the first time around. Same with Amberstar & Ambermoon. these games are absolutely huge ! That being said, I am extremely motivated to finish the game on a GP2X.
Thanks for your hard work,

Loic

 

[markiej]

I think for games with lots of keyboard shortcuts, the best method is using one of the trigger keys as a "shift" option, which makes it easer to have large amounts of configurable keys.

 

[bodhee]

I think for games with lots of keyboard shortcuts, the best method is using one of the trigger keys as a "shift" option, which makes it easer to have large amounts of configurable keys.

Hi

I really love the old Thalon games.. i was wondering if you have any plans to port amberstar or ambermoon. they are playable on the gp2s uae4all but without keymapping and save states, kind of difficult to play. it would be incredible to play them as a port.. thanks!

 

[Khatoblepas]

I think for games with lots of keyboard shortcuts, the best method is using one of the trigger keys as a "shift" option, which makes it easer to have large amounts of configurable keys.

Hi

I really love the old Thalon games.. i was wondering if you have any plans to port amberstar or ambermoon. they are playable on the gp2s uae4all but without keymapping and save states, kind of difficult to play. it would be incredible to play them as a port.. thanks!


I don't think that it would work with this engine - it's a straight recompilation and the data files within Amberstar and Ambermoon are too different to be run with the Albion engine

But I have a question too. How did you know Albion used a flat memory space, ergo making it easier to statically recompile? How do you go about finding out how a game does have one?

 

[M-HT]

Hi

I really love the old Thalon games.. i was wondering if you have any plans to port amberstar or ambermoon. they are playable on the gp2s uae4all but without keymapping and save states, kind of difficult to play. it would be incredible to play them as a port.. thanks!

Short answer: no.
Longer answer: Ambermoon is Amiga only game, I did X86->ARM translation - it doesn't work for amiga games. PC version of Amberstar doesn't work with my recompilation approach.
Sidenote: To make a port you need source code. I didn't make a port - I statically recompiled the original executable. Just to make it clear.

But I have a question too. How did you know Albion used a flat memory space, ergo making it easier to statically recompile? How do you go about finding out how a game does have one?

I didn't know it. I suspected it and confirmed it later.
I think that if it uses dos extender (for example dos4gw.exe) then it uses flat memory space.
If it uses XMS or EMS memory (directly) then it doesn't use flat memory space.

 

[fusion_power]

I Don't know much about Albion or the Amber- Games but I think after Phantasy Star I could need a new RPG on the GP2X.
Do this port support other Languages, German for example? (Would be a big help for such a game)

 

[M-HT]

If you run it with a german version of the game (or other language), it should work. I didn't test it myself, because I don't have the german version.

 

[andys]

Cool, what did you use for the recompilation? Is it a custom thing for Albion, or would it work on other games?

 

[M-HT]

I use udis86 for disassembling x86 instructions, the rest was written by myself.
There are Albion specific things, also I only recompile the instructions which are present in the Albion executable, but with additional work it could work on some other games.

 

[Khatoblepas]

I use udis86 for disassembling x86 instructions, the rest was written by myself.
There are Albion specific things, also I only recompile the instructions which are present in the Albion executable, but with additional work it could work on some other games.



I think I found a bug in the 3D mapping, though I'm not sure if it's present in the original (I never noticed it before).

In Jirinaar, due south of the eastern entrance of the Dji-Fadh (Formers) guild, there's a wall missing - it still registers as a wall, it's just a visual bug. There is a small line at the top of the panel, however.

Edit: It appears to be every panel with translucency in it! This will play hell with the energy wall dungeons later on, and the latter part of the Toronto :\. I haven't yet found out if the transparent battle effects work yet.

Also, is the white mouse cursor intentional? I'm assuming it's just a debug thing.

<wishful thinking>
I wonder if the recompilation process'll work on Amulets and Armor. That game was severely stunted by it's lack of exposure (it sold less than a 100 copies) - it was fantastic, though, and the GP2x could benefit from it's transposition (though, I wouldn't port it until Albion is done. It's a FPS/RPG hybrid, though). It uses the DOS extender, and it ran perfectly fine on my 486 (before it exploded ) so it probably will run fine on the GP2x. Though, this one kinda requires both keyboard and mouse at the same time (for picking up that scroll while you frantically run by ) - so touchscreen is probably needed :\ Or creative controls .
</wishful thinking>

 

[senquack]

I use udis86 for disassembling x86 instructions, the rest was written by myself.
There are Albion specific things, also I only recompile the instructions which are present in the Albion executable, but with additional work it could work on some other games.




I just looked at XCOM and it actually does use a dos memory extender.

I'll go ahead and ask (last time, promise): source code could be instructive to other folks

 

[Megatog615]

Albion is abandonware now, and I downloaded a copy of 1.38 full off of abandonia.com to see if I could play this game on my GP2X.

What should I do? I don't have the CD and I run Linux so the instructions don't work with this kind of situation.

Edit: Oh wait, I got it.