Need Some Good Testers For Castaway Soon :)


skeezix

Internal Development
Joined
Mar 11, 2003
Messages
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Website
www.codejedi.com
Shoudl have some big internal changes coming very shortly; visible changes may not be too many, but some compatibility fixes for sure.

(I'm syncing up with some other CaSTaway developers .. ie: The Pocket PC version.)

Hopefully add support for .STT files, and some better diusk timing and such.

Not sure how much I can pull in, or how many change sI can locate, but expect some updates over the next few days..

So need peopel to beat it up and find out what gets fixed or broken :)

jeff
 
Shoudl have some big internal changes coming very shortly; visible changes may not be too many, but some compatibility fixes for sure.

(I'm syncing up with some other CaSTaway developers .. ie: The Pocket PC version.)

Hopefully add support for .STT files, and some better diusk timing and such.

Not sure how much I can pull in, or how many change sI can locate, but expect some updates over the next few days..

So need peopel to beat it up and find out what gets fixed or broken :)

jeff

Cool! We really appreciate all of your hard work on CaSTaway!!!! While you are making changes, is there any chance the gama function could be tweaked a bit? If not, that's cool I was just wondering.
 
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i could be a great tester.

So, send your beta to me please?

Good work man, i love your emu too.
 
Shoudl have some big internal changes coming very shortly; visible changes may not be too many, but some compatibility fixes for sure.

(I'm syncing up with some other CaSTaway developers .. ie: The Pocket PC version.)

Hopefully add support for .STT files, and some better diusk timing and such.

Not sure how much I can pull in, or how many change sI can locate, but expect some updates over the next few days..

So need peopel to beat it up and find out what gets fixed or broken :)

jeff

Cool! We really appreciate all of your hard work on CaSTaway!!!! While you are making changes, is there any chance the gama function could be tweaked a bit? If not, that's cool I was just wondering.

Gamma change would be ok as long as the current one was left in as an option. It looks fine on the BLU now, if you go brightening it the blacks will look too washed out.

Also HD type support for loading files not on .STT images would make things TONS easier for running single parted games, no need to re-compile them back on to .STT images.
 
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As always all my stuff will be posted in the group publicly here; I don't like private betas.. waste of time really.. more eyes is better :)

One problem is that theres such a thing as a file format called .STT that came around of late; normal images are .MSA or .ST though for GP32's goofy 8.3 limit people have been renaming to ... .STx (where x is anything), and I was originally pushing .STT .. unfortunate.

So a real .STT file should keep its name, but if its a .ST file it should be called something else.. .ST, .ST1, .STA, whatever.

jeff

I'll post something when I get some merging done.
 
Off topic slighty and I Hate to be a bit of a pleb, but would the new changes affect the way Tower Of Babel refuses to load, it's my favourite game of all time and every dump I've tried fails after the press any key screen. Feel free to beat me for asking stupid questions. Also I generally play the really obscure releases so if you want me to run some of them through any new revisions of castaway I'd be happy to fill in any gaps on the compatibility list.
 
I've tested Tower Of Babel on the latest release of castaway and it doesnt work.

I'm going to add a castaway section to my compatibility tracker so people can report games that dont work correctly.

That way there is a record of stuff that needs fixing should fixing time come around.
 
Do you think Kick off 2 will ever work at full speed with sound on castaway on the gp32?


Maybe if the cyclone core was added. If it was added and it worked you could probably run CaSTaway at 133Mhz full speed w/full sound, judging how nice DrMD runs at 144. The MD has more to emulate such as Z80, DAC, sprite hardware etc.

Maybe now that a few of the Cyclone bugs have been squashed by Reesy Cyclone would work in CaSTaway.
 
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I'll have a bit of time over the next few days (and then none for 7 months - or at least, none with a GP32 to hand), so I reckon I might dig out a few games and give them another try on it and see what I can get not to work if it arrives soonish.

Got a feeling Cyclone's bugs at last check were rendering it inoperable with CaSTaway, but as you say, maybe Reesy's managed to fix a couple of them. So far as I can tell, there's basically 3-6 bugs that show up in different ways in different situations. Probably find that one of these ways is depressingly crucial to, say, the loading of TOS...
 
I'll see if I can do some hacking soon (today/tomorrow/etc?)

Just got the code form some other ports now.

I'm not sure what will be fixed; ie: They didnt' keep lists of what their changes wwere made "because of" like I do, so all I can do is see somethign thats different in one code base than mine and apply the change and release it, and we see if anything noticable changes for anyone :) ie: I don't know which games are impacted.

I do know the disk emulation (timing) will be improved, so games that are very picking about how long it takes for the data to get back to it will likely work, and theres numerous little changes here or there from various folks (so keyboard driver changes, some minor CPU changes, etc.) Its hard to get ahold of folks so merging things in will be nice.. my CaSTaway builds are about 2 years or more split from the others, though most ports are based on mine nowadays, not all are. (ie: Dreamcast is half mine and half another, and a Symbian build is part mine and mostly another, etc. We're all diverging like mad ;)

jeff

There have been various compatability tracks; its complex since most peopel will never use them and they can mislead since one person judges things differently, or it could vary by TOS version they have selected, or by version of the emu at a .x level etc.
 
I have used castCE (PocketPC) on quite a few occations and feel it is totally inferior to castaway on the GP32. I find it crashes extensively (too often to be playable) and eats batteries like there is no tomorrow.

Just out of curiosity, Is it really possible to improve castaway (GP32) by using bits, Parts, Code from the other ports of castaway, Going by what i have experienced and said above.

Castaway (GP32) is way more stable/usable and a much more pleasurable experience than the pocketPC port at least.


Just my observations. :)

Trooper
 
I have used castCE (PocketPC) on quite a few occations and feel it is totally inferior to castaway on the GP32. I find it crashes extensively (too often to be playable) and eats batteries like there is no tomorrow.

Just out of curiosity, Is it really possible to improve castaway (GP32) by using bits, Parts, Code from the other ports of castaway, Going by what i have experienced and said above.

Castaway (GP32) is way more stable/usable and a much more pleasurable experience than the pocketPC port at least.


Just my observations. :)

Trooper


Yeah, it may be better to just add features to the current one like maybe Cyclone and HDD or single game loading capability. Only Skeezix know for sure. The current one runs pretty well.
 
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love to help with the testing, but have no internet connection atm - I'll pop in periodically to see if anythings going on though
 
I'll be testing the new version... anyone got any ideas as to what games I should test it with?
 
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