Future DraStic Android port: help needed

[Exophase]

could you imagine what it would be if you released it as a .99c app?

This thought did cross my mind. It's kind of scary. Although I think at that price people would assume it's garbage, you'll get a worse opinion for such an under-priced emulator than you'd get for a free one. Might not really change anything though, given external reviews, app ratings, and word of mouth.

I did also get a few people who say something like "emulator is good but decided $8 is too much refund plz".. definitely going to revise the refund policy wording a bit once we have the BIOS-less update and a demo version up.

 

[WizardStan]

"emulator is good but decided $8 is too much refund plz"

:blink: ... I just don't even what?

 

[Exophase]

:blink:

... I just don't even what?

That's not even the worst of it. Really. I could give a pretty decent contribution to Not Always Right.

But it's kind of justified, since my refund statement is pretty generously worded and I've already gotten a reputation of giving them unconditionally. I'm more annoyed by the (fortunately few) people who are rude than the people who want refunds for reasons that wouldn't normally get you refunds.

 

[waldo]

I feel you man.Some developers are generous enough to offer a better refund option and support, but there are customers that start bitching for any reason (fortunately they are fewer in these cases).From the opposite side there are developers that dont even offer support nor have a better refund policy, you can spot them by the negative reviews and low ratings...

Be tolerant is a required skill for a professional developer

I'm off for 3 more "Drastic" hours playing on my play

 

[rohezal]

Hmmm maybe do sales weekends like gog do. The offer good games for 4.99$ or sometimes even 2.99$ (maybe 3.99$ since it is 50% off). But only for one weekend. Maybe do a half price weekend at a special date or a normal weekend. So a lot of people notice it. I think you can get a lot of sales, but do it after you released the custom bios.

Btw.  can you write a function which generates the encryption codes? This way you won't have copyrighted material, even if it's bullshit. Something like

code = (0x2A* 0x17<<4) |  (0xA* 0x2<<2);

 

[ZXDunny]

A couple of thoughts on how to deal with the 'How do I find the BIOS?' problem :

1) As a developer you can comment on customer reviews, a quick copy paste of something like 'sorry to hear you are having problems, please read the FAQ on the official support forums and if that doesn't help feel free to start a topic there. If nobody can help then we'll happily refund your purchase.'

2) Make a slight change to the FAQ

Change :

Q: How do I get the BIOS files? Can you give them to me?

A: The Nintendo DS BIOS files are copyrighted code and therefore can't be freely distributed. It's recommended that you obtain them from a real Nintendo DS using a flashcart and the utility that can be found at the following URL:

To

Q: How do I get the BIOS files? Can you give them to me?

A: In most countries the Nintendo DS BIOS files are copyrighted code and therefore can't be freely distributed. It's recommended that you obtain them from a real Nintendo DS using a flashcart and the utility that can be found at the following URL:

However if you reside in an area where the DS BIOS files are not protected by copyright then a Google search for 'NDS BIOS files' will help you.

__________________

Guess the fact is there are a lot of people who are just not very smart, and a lot of noobs out there, who don't really know how to use a search engine.

Make sure you mention that flashcarts themselves are actually illegal in many countries now.

D.

 

[mudlord]

Btw.  can you write a function which generates the encryption codes? This way you won't have copyrighted material, even if it's bullshit.

If you are suggesting serial numbers - those can be keygenned.

thus making it useless.

 

[Exophase]

He's asking if we can automatically generate the blowfish table in the ARM7 BIOS so we can include it for decryption support. He's not suggesting anything about adding serial numbers to the APK

I agree, if there's some algorithmic basis behind the table then we'd have legitimacy in generating it or even including it, but I'm not aware of any. I don't think the decryption support is a huge deal, but I guess we'll find out.

 

[LordBattleBeard]

Is there any performance difference between the included bios and the official? will games run any more smoothly using one over the other or any [SIZE=11pt]compatibility[/SIZE] differences? I understand that if you used the official bios before the update, then you must continue to use it for previously made savestates to work, but other than this, is one recommended over the other?

 

[rohezal]

May I ask what kind of stuff is encrypted in the NDS?

 

[Exophase]

All of the games are natively, but most of the dumps decrypt them.

Although we got a report to the contrary I don't expect there to really be performance differences between the two, most games barely even use the BIOSes.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Is there any performance difference between the included bios and the official? will games run any more smoothly using one over the other or any [SIZE=11pt]compatibility[/SIZE] differences? 

This has already been answered by Exophase on page 36.  To me the custom BIOS is for noobs 

Edit:  If you have the real BIOS, there's no need to use this custom BIOS.  According to Exophase, the update version of DraStic is smart to automatically look for the real BIOS first.  If the real BIOS is not there, then DraStic will use the custom BIOS he coded.

 

[rohezal]

Although we got a report to the contrary I don't expect there to really be performance differences between the two, most games barely even use the BIOSes.

Maybe a algorithm which can generate the Key for the top 10 game

if(strcmp(game,"pokemon") == 0)

{

code = (((0x5524 ^ (0x76982*0x23)) | game[2]<<7) * 1337<<2;

}

if(strcmp(game,"mario") == 0)

{

code = (((0x1224 ^ (0x25282*0x83)) | game[0]<<8) * 1337<<8;

}

etc. So just do 10 functions who gets a parameter and generate the key for the top 10 games. Would solve 90% or more of the trouble of customers with crypted roms. And no keys for nintendo to be found. This is completly retarded but if you want to avoid to use their tables, it is a way to do it.

 

[Exophase]

We don't need to generate keys on a per-game basis, we need to decrypt the entire secure region for ROMs that were encrypted. To do this a > 4KB table is used. Reference Blowfish implementations use their own values for this, I hear they used digits of Pi or something, but Nintendo uses something else.

I don't think it's a huge issue, there are third party tools that'll decrypt for you (using Nintendo's table, of course..) and I don't think encrypted dumps are that common.

 

[acid]

Hi Exophase. I got an annoying issue with my tablet (not sure if this happens to anyone else). I like to play turning the tablet sideways. Portrait mode screen orientation itself works fine, but the buttons are over a bit of the bottom ds screen. It would be fine if it worked flawlessly, but it doesn't. Some taps should be recognized as being on the bottom screen but the emulator thinks I'm tapping the on-screen overlay controls instead. It gets pretty annoying on some games. If I try moving the controls it expands the screens to go over the size limit for some reason.Not sure I made myself clear so I'll try to make a video when I get home from work. 

 

[Exophase]

I think Lordus is looking something for this. He handles all UI stuff for the Android version.

 

[Lordus]

Hi Exophase. I got an annoying issue with my tablet (not sure if this happens to anyone else). I like to play turning the tablet sideways. Portrait mode screen orientation itself works fine, but the buttons are over a bit of the bottom ds screen. It would be fine if it worked flawlessly, but it doesn't. Some taps should be recognized as being on the bottom screen but the emulator thinks I'm tapping the on-screen overlay controls instead. It gets pretty annoying on some games. If I try moving the controls it expands the screens to go over the size limit for some reason.Not sure I made myself clear so I'll try to make a video when I get home from work. 

This is on the list and should be fixed in an update soon.

 

[acid]

Hi Exophase. I got an annoying issue with my tablet (not sure if this happens to anyone else). I like to play turning the tablet sideways. Portrait mode screen orientation itself works fine, but the buttons are over a bit of the bottom ds screen. It would be fine if it worked flawlessly, but it doesn't. Some taps should be recognized as being on the bottom screen but the emulator thinks I'm tapping the on-screen overlay controls instead. It gets pretty annoying on some games. If I try moving the controls it expands the screens to go over the size limit for some reason.Not sure I made myself clear so I'll try to make a video when I get home from work. 

This is on the list and should be fixed in an update soon.

Good to know. Thanks Lordus.

Edit: Just wanted to add how much I appreciate the hard work you guys put into this. It's somewhat expensive and at first I was hesitating but I'm glad I bought it. Works great on my tablet. Hope you guys sell a ton of copies.

 

[SNESFAN]

Misread

 

[Ashen]

Just registered here to say that you guys have done a wonderful job with this. Totally worth the $8 every day of the week.

Any chances of adding stacked screen support in landscape mode? This would be great for devices like JXD or Nvidia Sheild.

I too hope you sell a ton of copies of this great emu, I've been promoting it on all the gaming forums I visit regularly. Cheers!