Ljz Released For Zodiac

[Angel]

Good times for the zodiac, Little John Z has been released for the Zodiac. I've read a couple of threads on it at zodiacgamer, but didn't really see anything on how compatible it is, or how good the speed is w/sound on all the system it emulates. But it seems incredible from what I have read.

 

[spray]

nuff said

 

[loz_the_guru]

nuff said

​

I care.......

 

[watoto]

nuff said

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well,we are in the "other consoles" section,aren't we?i know it's hard,they have and we don't..oh well,life goes on

 

[Jr2swiss]

LJZ was released for the Zodiac long ago. If you want to know more about it, buy one. In fact buy this one

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...5741083334&rd=1

 

[DaveC]

Good times for the zodiac, Little John Z has been released for the Zodiac. I've read a couple of threads on it at zodiacgamer, but didn't really see anything on how compatible it is, or how good the speed is w/sound on all the system it emulates. But it seems incredible from what I have read.

​

That was released MONTHS ago <_< Old news.

 

[watoto]

Good times for the zodiac,  Little John Z has been released for the Zodiac.  I've read a couple of threads on it at zodiacgamer, but didn't really see anything on how compatible it is, or how good the speed is w/sound on all the system it emulates.  But it seems incredible from what I have read.

​

That was released MONTHS ago <_< Old news.

​

oh,so it isn't some new version?yeah,it is old news

 

[Angelx]

this is the new version that has got all certifications from Tapwave. it is also opensource so maybe someone might want to try to port a version to the GP32.

Also, if this IS old news, the new version, then the people on the zodiac boards are really behind the times since a couple of boards i looked at about this topic are recent posts.

 

[Squidge]

It is old news and has not been updated for several months, but since it's practically one of the only emulators available for the Zodiac, it's also one of the most talked about.

Quite pointless to try and port it to the GP32 however, as we already have the same or better. The only part we are missing is the launcher.

yoyo's website even states that the latest version for the Zodiac is 2004/09/01 (September last year)

 

[Angelx]

i just looked at it again and your right, but its strange, there's a thread that i was looking at on zodiacgamer, its actually a sticky and there are post from just a few days ago that the people act like its not released or anything.

 

[Huxley]

Is the Zodiac scene slowing down? The speed at which SNES and NES emulators were appearing a while back I'd have thought they'd be far in advance of the GP32 by now...

 

[Squidge]

To be honest, I think there's only a few people/companies doing emulator dev work on the Zod: Skeezix, Yoyo and Kalemsoft. The other company isn't even worth mentioning.

I'm doing a C64 emu (Frodoz), but it's coming along slowly as I prefer devving for the PC and GP

Also, the graphic processor in the Zodiac isn't really much use for emulator development and can actually slow you down - rather than building your display buffer and pointing the framebuffer to it, you have to upload it to the graphic's chip first, which takes about 8ms in Frodoz (used to take 20ms until I rewrote my gfx routines). Thsi means that an emu running at a top speed of 60fps on the GP32 will normally run at 41fps on the Zod unless it get optimized to use the graphics chip more (if that's even possible).

 

[Angelx]

my personal opinion of the zod scene is that it never really got started like the GP32 did basically because developers can't just release anything they want, a program usually has to get certification from Tapwave before it can be released and i believe that is turning away developers. It seems even YoYo is starting to shy from the Zod now that he's developing emus for Palms.

 

[spray]

do you understand the process at all?

devs have repeatedly stated it is a very simple one and that apps are usually signed in a matter of hours.

according to your logic, why is it that yoyo has shyed away from gp32 devving?

 

[Reesy]

Does it cost anything to develop programs for the Zodiac?

 

[Huxley]

To be honest, I think there's only a few people/companies doing emulator dev work on the Zod: Skeezix, Yoyo and Kalemsoft. The other company isn't even worth mentioning.

I'm doing a C64 emu (Frodoz), but it's coming along slowly as I prefer devving for the PC and GP

Also, the graphic processor in the Zodiac isn't really much use for emulator development and can actually slow you down - rather than building your display buffer and pointing the framebuffer to it, you have to upload it to the graphic's chip first, which takes about 8ms in Frodoz (used to take 20ms until I rewrote my gfx routines). Thsi means that an emu running at a top speed of 60fps on the GP32 will normally run at 41fps on the Zod unless it get optimized to use the graphics chip more (if that's even possible).

​

Interesting...cheers for the info. A pity really, because otherwise the Zodiac looked like a real neat piece of hardware. Ahh well, I'm more than happy with the GP32! If the Zodiac's few flaws are turning developers like you towards the GP32 then I can't really complain

Does it cost anything to develop programs for the Zodiac?

I'm pretty sure it doesn't, although someone might want to correct me here...

 

[finty]

Does it cost anything to develop programs for the Zodiac?

​

No, you just have to pass Tapwaves checks to get the SDK, also last time I checked they had some hold on your source code, meaning you couldn't release it or share it.

Yoyo was working around the source code issue though.

 

[DaveC]

Does it cost anything to develop programs for the Zodiac?

​

No, you just have to pass Tapwaves checks to get the SDK, also last time I checked they had some hold on your source code, meaning you couldn't release it or share it.

Yoyo was working around the source code issue though.

​

If you use Codewarrior than yes you have to buy the dev kit which is kind of expensive. I think that is what everyone that codes for it uses. You then have to submit sources to them to review before you can release the program. Nothing that uses the specific hardware like adjusting the stick sensitivity can be released without it being signed. It is kind of a pain, as you are always at their mercy.

 

[Reesy]

oh wow, what a load of bollocks. I am sooo glad I bought a gp32 instead of a Zodiac now. Thanks for the info guys.

I love you Gamepark

 

[Squidge]

Whilst you can develope for the Zodiac using GCC, it's a lot more difficult than using CodeWarrior, which is the only supported platform.

As for signing, yes, you have to send your executable to Tapwave for any enhanced application, and normally without a few hours (sometimes days if they are away) you'll receive a signed executable back which you can distribute.

As for the source code... Well... Part of becoming a developer means that you need to agree to a non-disclosure agreement, which means that you will not disclose any information about any of the enhanced features to anyone not in the 'developer zone'. So any of your source code which includes calls to such enhanced features may not be disclosed either.

There are ways around the source problem now - you can ask Tapwave for a GPL license for any project you wish to disclose the source code to, and they will send you a form legal agreement that you must agree to, sign and date, and post back to them. Once they have received it, you can then disclose the source code for that project.

Now, I didn't want to sign the form and I assume yoyo didn't either, but Jeff (Skeezix) didn't mind, and so released both LJZ and Frodoz himself. Since the source code is now released for both, they are basically in the GPL and may be updated as needed without worries.

Yoyo has not abandoned the Zodiac though - he simply wants a bigger audience, so is going for PalmOs. You'll still be able to run his PalmOs emulator on the Zodiac, and it'll be bigger and better than the zodiac-only version.