Alex The Allegator 4 Launcher

[JyCet]

I wanted to play with this very good game:
Alex the Allegator 4
Unfortunately allegro always gave me black screen, so I've coded a very very small launcher with SDL HW initialisation to launch alex4_gp2x.gpe file.

It work for me, if you have black screen (like me) test with this launcher otherwise it's not needed

[attachmentid=331]
(source included)

JYCET

 

[Oncer]

Nice, though I don't need it.
With slight modifications it would work as a launcher for every game. You just need some parameters, or take the name of the executable into account.

 

[euro48k]

a new "ini" files provided by the author is available on his site
http://simonparzer.kilu.de/alex4.ini

just replace the old one ..or wait for a fixed 0.91 version of this great jump-and-run game

ps.
tried your launcher JyCet and got a blank screen with 4 bars ..

 

[spoyser]

I wanted to play with this very good game:
Alex the Allegator 4
Unfortunately allegro always gave me black screen, so I've coded a very very small launcher with SDL HW initialisation to launch alex4_gp2x.gpe file.

It work for me, if you have black screen (like me) test with this launcher otherwise it's not needed

[attachmentid=331]
(source included)

JYCET



The allegro black screen of death is caused due to a bug in the allegro blitter code, basically a while loops gets stuck waiting for the blitter to flag it is inactive.

It never flags as inactive if the allegro call is the first time the blitter has been used by the gp32x, which is why running from a launcher such as yours, or g2xmenu or even just running another application usually fixes the problem.

A simple dummy blit in the code before the allegro stuff kicks in will fix the problem.

This has been covered in a number of threads, including this one:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showt...6738&st=43#

The necessary code to do the blit can alos be found in that thread.

This issue really ought to be fixed or at least documented with the allegro library as it crops up time and time again!! I can't build the allegro libraries in my environment so I can't fix it, but I'm sure someone could.

I think there would be many more ports of allegro dependent stuff if this was sorted out properly.

 

[JyCet]

The allegro black screen of death is caused due to a bug in the allegro blitter code, basically a while loops gets stuck waiting for the blitter to flag it is inactive.

It never flags as inactive if the allegro call is the first time the blitter has been used by the gp32x, which is why running from a launcher such as yours, or g2xmenu or even just running another application usually fixes the problem.

A simple dummy blit in the code before the allegro stuff kicks in will fix the problem.

This has been covered in a number of threads, including this one:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showt...6738&st=43#

The necessary code to do the blit can alos be found in that thread.

This issue really ought to be fixed or at least documented with the allegro library as it crops up time and time again!! I can't build the allegro libraries in my environment so I can't fix it, but I'm sure someone could.

I think there would be many more ports of allegro dependent stuff if this was sorted out properly.



I just share what I use to play with this very good game.
I'm not the author of the port, it's Simon Parzer !

The best solution is not tell to everybody "this is a already know bug and we already know how to solve it" but the solution is simply fix the library directly! (this is not a personnal attack )

Otherwise I hope your link will help Simon Parzer !

Bye

 

[Oncer]

Forget the .ini patch. Just redownload (0.91 out since yesterday, should work for everyone).

The problem with the Allegro problem is that I don't have the problem. Even if I try to fix it, I can't try if my fix works or not because on my GP2X it works either way.
Even if I disable gmenu2x and everything and start an unfixed Allegro application directly from the GPH menu.. it just works. That's why I can't fix the problem. And that's probably also why George Foot couldn't fix it. Because it's a problem that's not happening on all GP2Xes.

 

[KingCheese]

Aah, thank you!!
I always got a black screen and I wanted to play this game so badly ......
Hope it works now!

stay
cheesey

 

[kevcal]

When I get back from my hols I will look at my fixed allegro lib and propose it as a replacement to the current one - need someone to try it for me; just because it works for me, doesn't mean it'll work for everyone.
I've fixed the black screen problem and also the vsync code [parallax.gpe flickered badly before, now it doesn't].
Also plan to add other stuff, but this would delay it too much.