GPRoar - Dragon emulator

[sixxie]

Hiya - just a quick note that I'm hacking on a Dragon 32/64 emulator (will do Tandy Coco too) for the GP32. It's all incredibly pre-anything at the moment, but you *can* play games on it (albeit a little under full speed, and with no sound at the moment, and only if you *also* use the SDL version under Linux or similar to create a snapshot). It's available here: http://www.6809.org.uk/dragon/#emulate - I'll post updates when they happen (if you like that sort of thing here? )

 

[Arutha]

Please do keep the updates coming as they happen!

 

[Esn]

Umm... Sorry what exactly is a Dragon 32/64? h34r:

 

[sixxie]

The Dragon was a machine built in Wales by Dragon Data from about 1982. It had a 6809E CPU, a 6847 video display generator and sound came from a CPU controlled 6-bit DAC. It was largely compatible with the US made Tandy Colour (sorry, 'Color' ) Computer, the main differences being the (much higher) build quality and more standard peripheral connectors (ie parallel printer instead of serial and composite video out).

Although it was quite limited in capabilities even for the time it was released (the better-than-most 6809 CPU was sadly only run at 0.89MHz so no real advantage could be had from it), there were some fantastic ports - the ones that stick out are Buzzard Bait (Joust), The King (Donkey Kong) and Rommel's Revenge (Battlezone). There were even a couple of Dragon-original games that went on to be ported to the Amiga and Atari ST, such as Airball.

Check out http://www.dragon-archive.co.uk/ but *do* heed the warnings about archive abuse!

 

[sixxie]

Alpha 2 is now available featuring a virtual keyboard and some slight speedups. You can toggle between virtual keyboard and the previous cursor key emulation using the left shoulder button. Now I can play Chuckie Egg on the move (because you can now select the redefine keys option from the virtual keyboard and set them to be cursor keys and space). Woo!

http://www.6809.org.uk/dragon/#emulate

 

[tfc]

Cool Keep up the good work Sixxie!

TFC

 

[sixxie]

Whee, another release. This time with joystick support, a file requester, and sound. Sound is pretty *bad* though, needs attention. Emulator runs at full speed. Oh, and I uploaded a (composited, because I can't create a virtual SMC) screenshot here: http://www.6809.org.uk/dragon/gproar.png

Have fun!

 

[Flack]

Sixxie, it's people like you that are keeping the scene moving. Good job, and thanks for adding one more piece of software for the GP32! I wasn't a big Coco fan myself, but I will have to try out those games you suggested.

Flack

 

[A600]

@Sixxie: Are you going to release the source code?

 

[sixxie]

@sixxie: Are you going to release the source code?

Absolutely! Just as soon as it's not embarrassing to read

It will be under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence.

 

[beebul]

Keep up the good work mate

Never played on a Dragon although I remember them from my Speccy days... all the best with development...

 

[sixxie]

Ok, at the risk of being considered an attention seeker...

There is a new release of GPRoar, and this time you can get the source code! Basically, the source trees for the GP32 version and the SDL version are (fairly) neatly bundled together now. Check it out: http://www.6809.org.uk/dragon/#emulate

It's Free Software - you can redistribute under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Of course, if you fix any of the bugs, I'd love to see patches

Have fun!