EOI: Freeware / Shareware Dosgame PNDs


Wally

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Since Hocus Pocus and Monster Bash were released on the repo at a cost I have sorta toyed with the idea of making individual dosgame PNDs given that it gives a nice intuitive way of delivering a game without all the fuss.

Some pros of individually wrapped game PNDs.

• Ease of use, single click launch (so very noob friendly)

• User content goes into it's own little folder. Therefore the package is fresh everytime you move it around

• Potentially C4A compatible (Depending on game)

• Each game can have it's own conf file and mappings (very important if you ask me)

I have built the wonderful freeware game Supaplex into a PND (Not ready for release yet as there's a few bugs that I need to seek advice about) ontop of a freshly compiled dosbox build via MH-T's specifications.

The PND consists of:

PND -

        |

        |- Game

        |- Libs required for dosbox (this surely will disappear eventually)

        |- scripts folder

                              |- Launch script

        |- Preview pic

        |- icon

        |- Mapper file for dosbox 

        |- dosbox.conf

While investigating the idea I noticed that notaz SDL supports mapping keys directly but discovered that it's not exactly practical and would cost me more time so I have decided to use the dosbox mapper files which allows easy mapping via dosbox (Ctrl FN F1).

So how does this work with Supaplex? Supaplex executes and gets to the menu but the cursor for some reason is stuck in a small square box unless you use the touchscreen and force it out of it's little square corner it's a bit fiddly though. The cursor is required so you can create your personalised game and fiddle with the other options. I am a perfectionist so the PND will have to wait.

Controls:
The controls are pretty nice too I think.. (Each to their own though)

Nub0 - Mapped to mouse (as that seems to be the weakest one on my Pandora and the mouse isn't really used either)

Nub1 - Mapped to joystick (Just in case you feel you can control the game that way)

Left Trigger - Mapped to sticky bombs.

Right Trigger - Mapped to 1 block suction. 

Dpad - Usual movement

Everything else works as it normally would in the game, I figured I'd leave the esc key and right mouse button in a hard to reach spot as I do recall they both will kill you very easily.

So I just need your thoughts. Do people like the idea?
 
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I think it is a decent idea.  I would probably use them since it would save me time.  Oh, and I am lazy sometimes.
 
So I just need your thoughts. Do people like the idea?
I liked that idea so much that I even created a program (and released it for the Rebirth Compo) to ease the process of doing so. Unfortunatly a kernel update broke it and I never found the motivation again to complete it
 
Ah i understand ;)

The Stunts PND  PND work in exactly that Way but with Qemu in Backround.

All Important Datas are in a Seperate Folder in the Appdata.

http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=stunts

Just start the PND and play :D

(but beware to have only the First Time an Internet Connection on your Pandora)

A C4A Support for Stunts would be nice too ^_^
 
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How would c4a support for stunts work?


With separate hiscores for each track?
 
Yes...or maybe someone can make a Special Pandora Map for it ;)


Dosgames in a PND is ever a Good Idea,just start the PND and enjoy the Game you wanted to play.


There are so much Dosgames possible,maybe the Repo owner make an own Category for it ;)
 
Wasn't that the intention behind the dbx packages for dosboxEX before commander beef left?


But surely this would be nice.
 
I am still waiting for some more Apogee games to buy ... I like the general idea of having old DOS games available as .PND, as it sure makes some things easier.

Personally I would still want an up-to-date port of DosBox besides that (no fancy GUI on top or anything, just plain DosBox where I can mount my directories and play whatever game I like by typing my way to the executable).
 
I think there was at least one game with some issues fixed, but I can't remember which one ... just checked the compatibility list and noticed another game I really like was reported to run slower ...  :p  

Actually another reason to offer DOS games as PND, because you could pick the version of DosBox that works best.

I wonder if it would make sense (and if it would be legal) to offer .PNDs for commercial games that would require you to put an .iso of the game's CD ROM somewhere? (I'm thinking of BLEIFUSS (Screamer) or Megarace for example ...)

Probably it wouldn't be legal, since you would still put parts of the copy-protected game into the .PND ... well it might work for Megarace, because I think it had an option to basically just copy a batch file and run the game from the CD, but still ...)
 
You could still make a pnd that automatically starts the setup of an iso in appdata on first run.
 
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