Castaway/GP Beta 004 (Atari ST emu)

[skeezix]

Hi,
You are right about the basics first & the frills when everything is stable. My comments were more for the long term.
The real purpose of the injector is to consolidate all the roms & the emu into one file & set up the rom in whichever way you please (in my example, the key bindings - but that could include rendering, brightness, framerate & so on). The advantage is you don't have to have a thousand files (ok, I am exaggerating a bit) lying around on your SMC & every game is preconfigured so you can just load & play (well you might still have to pull the keyboard for specific actions, but at least the process is greatly simplified)
if you give me the specifics, I would be more than happy to help with a game description database. Actually I think this is an awesome idea (the ST roms are such a mess...). I have the single roms TOSEC set (atari ST - games [0.22]) & I have most (actually I probably have all of them & then some) of the Automation, cynix, FOF, Medway Boys, Pompey pirates, superGAU & vectronix compilations. My only concern is that it would probably be more relevant to base the database on the TOSEC sets (or does it recognise the file whatever the name ?) & I don't have them for the compilations.
Well, let me know how that would work & I will see what I can do.

Loic

I think the TOSEC sets are less "out there"; ie: I never heard of them until it was broght up in another thread here (See the 8.3 filename thread). The normal files have been out there for years and years, and I imagine most people have 'em.

Wheres a good place to just download the TOSEC sets? I'd like to see them. Maybe they got something going on..

IDeally, the solution will not care about filenames, since filenames are a silly affectation anyway. I'd like to do it all by md5 hash or the like, so that it works regardless of filename.

But wer need to build up the master database of magic-hash to filename and detail.. so if someone has many or all of the images (like you), I can give you a DOS tool that can make the md5 hashes. I'm imagining a process like this..

You run the tool; it gets all the files named .ST in the current directory and then spits out a file like this:

12345y242642846283423<Tab>filename<tab>blank

One line for each file. You ignore the md5 hash number, and see the filename. You look up the contents on one of the many websites, and make a one line very short dfescription and put it where "blank" is.

Then you give me the completed file, and I process it into a fast access datafile for the GP32, so that it can show descriptions. I can ioptimize thisso it only does speed hit when you add new disks to the GP32.. easy.

Woudkl work out nicely and wouldn't matter about filenames at all.. they'd just be there for you to add the descriptions the first time.

What do you think?

jeff

 

[MrT]

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(Still Speechless)

MrT

 

[sloth]

TOSEC db's can be found here
no idea what formats theyre in, but they seem to offer a few diff options

Has anyone else run into problems with controls after exiting to the disk selection menu with L+R ? Seems the controls are fine with the first game i run, but when i change disks i run into problems. Could be the Medway Boys disks im using.. gonna search out a few originals and see if the problem goes away, but was just wondering if i was alone ?

Thanks for a GREAT emu btw

 

[MrT]

Is there anyway of removing the crack loaders from the ST disk images? All the disks I have got and found of DM have these loaders which cause the GP32 to crash when I try and get through them.

This is the game that I would like to play 1st, for obvious reasons

Thanks

MrT

 

[ldaneels]

Sure Skeezix, send me the file by email (LDANEELS@SPEAKEASY.NET) & I will give it a spin.
Just ot make sure I understand:
- the filename is not important as the MD5 code is unique
- the filename I have can then be another format than Joliet (ie: long file name)
- in the blank space, do I need to input each name within the compilation separated by a space or should I use an undescore ?
- Any way you could then implement a search by game name in the emu ? Or could it split the database by name (so you have a alphabetically sorted list of games) & automatically load the corresponding compilation ?

As for TOSEC sets, I tend to really like them as they are a convenient way to have files organised. Kind of like the good tools from cowering but more organized & precise (although the goodtools are far more thorough).
There are a few sites where you can get them, but mostly you can find them on the newsgroups (ABEM & ABET) or IRC (I don't have access to IRC personnally but I could probably find some channels that would work).

Once again, feel free to contact me by email.

Loic

 

[bulwer]

I can only use 1 word - quality! Playable Emlyn Hughes is a good thing! Disk swapping would mean Championship Manager - a better thing!

One thing I have noticed is that whilst copying roms to my GP32 - I forgot to rename some of them from .st to .stt. And they work. Is it because I use an SMC writer rather than my GP32?

Keep up the good work and go for the Spanish money - it's as good as in the bag!

 

[Bonks]

Tried this for the first time last night, and it just floored me, what an amazing EMU this is, i wanna buy you one helluva pint Jeff, even without sound im truly in gaming paradise!!!!!!

Games i tried

Another World - PERFECT, watching that intro again on the wee screen is something else

Jimmy Whites whirlwind snooker - PERFECT, at first i couldnt line up a delicate shot but then i remember the 2 different mouse buttons had different rotating sensitivity when you use the game buttons to move the cue, played a number of shots and found nothing wrong

Magic Pockets - PERFECT

Space Crusade - TOTALLY PERFECT, the loading is annoying cause it does take a while, but other than that its amazing to play this, is there any way to make the frameskip auto go up high on loading?

Vroom - Plays great but flickers like mad

Hunter - didnt work, got to the title screen and couldnt get past it
Thunder Hawk - same as above
Wizkid - got past the crack and it comes up the usual game language select, but as soon as you move the 'joystick' it resets back to the crack, i might just need to get the original

Thats all i got a chance to try, got much more time tonight so gonna get and try tons, ill keep notes of em all and post on there playability

thanks for this Jeff!!!

 

[Bonks]

oh, i meant to add, all of the above games were from cracked compilation disks and even then worked perfect most of the time, the ones that didnt load all did get into the game, just got no firther than the title/first screen, so im guessing the cracked disk wasnt the problem, maybe, maybe not, im gonna try and track down an original Hunter to see

 

[Shrike]

Heh, playing xenon 2 on the bus was fun , just want to get dungeon master working and fiddle with the new controls

 

[Vanamonde]

I would add:

Blood Money - Works but your ship flickers badly, there is a ghost version of your ship that stays in front of you and your bullets, explosions and coins are visually corrupted.
It also plays slowly and upping the frameskip makes everything flicker badly.

This was from the GAU_244 disk.

 

[Vanamonde]

Rainbow Islands - whole screen flickers badly even when frameskip set to 0, increasing the frameskip makes the flickering worse. Plays slowly when frameskip set to 0.

That was from disk No.26 from the Pompey Pirates series.

The other game on the disk (Bubble Bobble) appears to work fine, no flickering, but a bit slow when frameskip set to 0, increasing to 1 makes it very playable.

 

[daffyduck]

anyone looking for st disks or carnt get on an ftp site
then i have uploaded afew here:
http://daffyduck.250free.com/
mainly medway boys comps
and cynix
theres also txt docs
of what st disks i have

im totally subdued with this emu
just waiting for sound now
nice one skeezix
anyone wanting a specific compilaton
from the txt docs then pm and ill up it to here
always glad to help out.

 

[stickofjoy]

there are all these and more at JOE'S FTP site. why repost them elsewhere?

 

[tapsel]

I think reposting them is basically a good thing.
The download sites tend to go down, when they have to face the rush of leechers
coming from this board.

 

[daffyduck]

A FEW PLACES TO GRAB STUFF IS BETTER THAN JUST ONE
IM HELPING OUT FOR THOSE THAT EITHER CARNT GET ON THE FTP
I DIDNT GET MINE FROM JOES FTP IVE HAD THEM ALONG TIME
I KNOW WHERE THE OTHER FTPS ARE THE GAMES ARE STILL THERE
BUT IVE GOT THE FULL LOT TO SAVE PEPS FROM GOING FROM FTP TO FTP
LOOKING FOR STUFF AND NOT BEING ABLE TO GET ON
REMEMBER WHEN U EVER GET ON A SERVER AND YOUR WAITING FOR A REPOST OF SOMETHING ,LIFES A BITCH WAITING ,
I CAN UP ANY FILE ALMOST IMMEDAITELY TO MY FREE SPACE,
IM HELPING OUT .
MY FREE SPACE IS THERE 24/7
IM UPING MORE SHORTLY,ILL BE REMOVING WHATS THERE IN A DAY OR SO
SO I CAN PUT REST UP.
AT LEAST IM HELPING AND NOT JUST LEECHING.

 

[Shrike]

rightous!

 

[stickofjoy]

I think reposting them is basically a good thing.
The download sites tend to go down, when they have to face the rush of leechers coming from this board.

i have been into ST emulation since 1996-ish, when PaCifiSt first came out. Since then I have collected numerous CDs full of Atari disc images, and my Pompey Pirates menu info site http://www.ewtoo.org/~matt/pp/ has been up since just after then. I have shared and uploaded to Joe's FTP for a while. So there's no question of me being a leecher.

I think multiple sources are a good thing, but when it is just straight duplication I have to wonder why. JOE'S is multiple gigabytes of games, everything you could ever want and it has been around a long time. There are also the German University sites that have been around for eons without ever going down.

All I ask is for people to spread knowledge and so many files. Imagine JOE'S as the Kazaa or Napster for ST stuff. Just log on and grab what you can and upload what they don't have.

This is a great emulator, but it is just another Atari emulator on the scene and will not be the cause of servers closing down i can assure you! The GP32 community isn;t that big just yet!

 

[sloth]

Thats nice to know... I was feeling kinda guilty about leeching so many ST games

 

[thebluenewt]

I can only use 1 word - quality! Playable Emlyn Hughes is a good thing! Disk swapping would mean Championship Manager - a better thing!

Does it work up until the disk swap?

That would almost be as good as Sensi, I could take Newcastle back up to the old First Division!