Apple ][ Emulator For Pandora

[JerryBlade]

CFWhitman and I have put together a port of the excellent linapple for the Pandora. The original thread over at the OpenPandora Boards is here:

http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php?/topic/2490-apple-ii-emulator/

And the download link at the OpenPandora Repository is here:

http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=linapple-jerryblade-042011

Enjoy

 

[naples39]

Cool. Now I can way back into my youth.

 

[goldenegg]

Holy crap! Thank you for this!!!

Does this emulator need system ROM files placed in a specific directory?

EDIT:

Tried it an found the answer myself No system ROMs needed.

 

[goldenegg]

I need some help getting games to work with either the directional pad or stick. All the games I've tried will only go left/right with the pad, but not up or down. The sticks don't do anything and neither do the buttons. I don't see an option to reconfigure the controls, so any help is appreciated!

 

[JerryBlade]

I need some help getting games to work with either the directional pad or stick. All the games I've tried will only go left/right with the pad, but not up or down. The sticks don't do anything and neither do the buttons. I don't see an option to reconfigure the controls, so any help is appreciated!

Get the latest version I posted last night (v1.3.0.1). It should autoconfigure your nubs into Joystick mode when you launch the emulator and then return them to their previous settings on exit. What game(s) are you trying? That sounds like the emulator is using paddles not joysticks.

Here is the download location: http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=linapple-jerryblade-042011

 

[goldenegg]

I need some help getting games to work with either the directional pad or stick. All the games I've tried will only go left/right with the pad, but not up or down. The sticks don't do anything and neither do the buttons. I don't see an option to reconfigure the controls, so any help is appreciated!

Get the latest version I posted last night (v1.3.0.1). It should autoconfigure your nubs into Joystick mode when you launch the emulator and then return them to their previous settings on exit. What game(s) are you trying? That sounds like the emulator is using paddles not joysticks.

Here is the download location: http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=linapple-jerryblade-042011

I was trying Conan and Mr. Do.

Thanks for the link to the new version. I'll give it a try this afternoon.

 

[goldenegg]

Still doesn't work for me.

Conan only moves left and right with the directional pad and nothing with the nubs. For Mr. Do, the game is unplayable as the character runs to the right and will not respond to input.

 

[JerryBlade]

Still doesn't work for me.

Conan only moves left and right with the directional pad and nothing with the nubs. For Mr. Do, the game is unplayable as the character runs to the right and will not respond to input.

Hmmm... I just played both on mine with no problems. What Hotfix are you running? I doubt that is the issue, but it might be worth noting. Also, have you run the input tester to make sure your left nub is working properly? I know I am grabbing at straws, but I cannot reproduce the problem on my end.

 

[goldenegg]

I running HF 5. I have tested my nubs and they are working fine. Not really sure what's going on.

Do you want the ROMs I'm using?

EDIT:

Actually, the input tester isn't showing anything from the nubs. So something is odd. They work fine for mouse input though.

EDIT2:

Scratch that. If I put my nubs in joystick mode they work just fine in the input tester.

 

[JerryBlade]

Oh I just realized something. The directional pad is technically the keyboard. Try starting a Conan game with a shoulder button instead of the directional pad or space bar. That should enable joystick control in the game itself. I had this problem, and couldn't figure out how to enable joystick control once a game was started.

 

[goldenegg]

You're right about Conan. You need to press the joystick button to start the game in joystick mode. I just tried that, but I'm still not getting any control with either of the nubs.

I've also tried manually putting my nubs in to joystick mode, prior to starting the emulator. That didn't help either.

 

[JerryBlade]

You're right about Conan. You need to press the joystick button to start the game in joystick mode. I just tried that, but I'm still not getting any control with either of the nubs.

I've also tried manually putting my nubs in to joystick mode, prior to starting the emulator. That didn't help either.

Delete your linapple.conf file from /pandora/appdata/linapple

It probably has the old settings from an earlier build when the joystick was polled from the nub as a mouse. Deleting it will load in the default settings. Fingers crossed, but that should do the trick.

 

[goldenegg]

BINGO!!! That worked perfectly! Thanks for your help!

Any plans to provide the ability to use the directional pad as the joystick and face buttons for the action buttons? Using the nub and shoulder buttons is a little awkward.

 

[JerryBlade]

BINGO!!! That worked perfectly! Thanks for your help!

Any plans to provide the ability to use the directional pad as the joystick and face buttons for the action buttons? Using the nub and shoulder buttons is a little awkward.

No and yes. The Apple ][ uses analog joysticks and the dir-pad is implemented as the arrow keys (which are needed). Technically it is possible, but i don't see that working better than the nubs which IMO work perfectly. I have far better control with them than I ever did on my original Apple. For the buttons, I plan to move the speed up/down off of ABXY and replicate the joystick buttons there. Personally, I love the shoulder buttons for the joystick, but I understand that it might not be for everyone

 

[goldenegg]

I can understand the preference for an analog stick. I have used a digital pad with Apple II emus in the past and they work well too, but I don't mind using the nub in this case. Reconfiguring the buttons would make a huge playability improvement for me. Would it be too much work to allow the buttons to be configured by the user? That way people like me can configure the face buttons as desired and those who prefer using the shoulder buttons can continue doing so.

 

[JerryBlade]

I can understand the preference for an analog stick. I have used a digital pad with Apple II emus in the past and they work well too, but I don't mind using the nub in this case. Reconfiguring the buttons would make a huge playability improvement for me. Would it be too much work to allow the buttons to be configured by the user? That way people like me can configure the face buttons as desired and those who prefer using the shoulder buttons can continue doing so.

That is how I plan to implement it. I would rather allow control from the conf file wherever possible.

 

[JerryBlade]

I can understand the preference for an analog stick. I have used a digital pad with Apple II emus in the past and they work well too, but I don't mind using the nub in this case. Reconfiguring the buttons would make a huge playability improvement for me. Would it be too much work to allow the buttons to be configured by the user? That way people like me can configure the face buttons as desired and those who prefer using the shoulder buttons can continue doing so.

In addition to a slew of small changes, buttons are now mappable to ABXYRL via linapple.conf. Also, I moved speed up/down to GBP & JPY. Let me know what you all think of this control scheme.

You can download it here: http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=linapple-jerryblade-042011

*** As I have added new settings, please delete your linapple.conf file to take advantage of the joystick button mapping. ***

 

[MWeston]

I've been so excited to try this and I finally got it to do something but I'm not having the luck I had hoped for. I loaded a pile of games onto a card stored a few sub-directories down. I pressed F3 and I move through the file manager until I get to the directory with the games. As soon as I hit enter the whole thing freezes. Do I have too many files in one folder? They are each compressed into separate archives (zip). Any idea why this is happening? I can't wait to make this work! The Apple IIc/e/gs was my hardware of choice through grade school and high school!

EDIT: The number of files in a directory does seem to have something to do with it, but still haven't figured out how to execute the games.

 

[JerryBlade]

I've been so excited to try this and I finally got it to do something but I'm not having the luck I had hoped for. I loaded a pile of games onto a card stored a few sub-directories down. I pressed F3 and I move through the file manager until I get to the directory with the games. As soon as I hit enter the whole thing freezes. Do I have too many files in one folder? They are each compressed into separate archives (zip). Any idea why this is happening? I can't wait to make this work! The Apple IIc/e/gs was my hardware of choice through grade school and high school!

EDIT: The number of files in a directory does seem to have something to do with it, but still haven't figured out how to execute the games.

The emulator does not support zipped files at this time. Try just putting a few unzipped disk images in a directory and running them. I have 285 in mine without a problem, but I need to check if there is a cap on the number of files in a directory. Since it loads them all into memory, that might be a limiting factor. Let me know if any of that works so we can troubleshoot this.

 

[MWeston]

I have it working now. I had to unzip everything and I split the collection into multiple directories with fewer files. Nice work!