Outcast (castaway) Lives! (screenshot Only)

[halo9]

(ie: For locating TOS file anyway. The disk images will, once I get menus working right, be picked from a list. Its only a problem when I hardcode a pathname )

BTW.. right now I'm assuming /roms/atari-st/ for TOS.ROM and the disk images (.st and .msa and .zip of those two); might as well strike at using an emerging path standard.

(This way someone else could use /roms/atari-2600 say, perhaps, or another ST emu could re-use /roms/atari-st)

jeff

​

I don't know much about coding but it really seems to me that this is the best approach to the emulators looking for ROM locations. As skeezix says, a number of emulators can then access the same folder of ROMs in a tidy manner. I've just written a script for Selector and Phamicom to point to the /roms/ directory used by NK's NES emu (/mnt/sd/emulators/nes2x/roms/) to allow me to play around with both emus without having to duplicate my ROM set. This would be much tidier if they could both look to a common folder.

The Atari ST was my childhood so I'm really looking forward to testing this emu skeezix, thanks very much!

edit: to make the smiley more smiley

 

[skeezix]

I was actually planning on some rom-seek methods as well..

ie:

Look in /roms/atari-st (or more to point, /roms/MACHINE-NAME); if good, use it, otherwise look in say "roms" subdirectory of 'current' (where the emu lives), or failing that, the same directory as the emulator itself. Or perhaps also a config file / chosen location.

Could also use symlinks to point to various places in a pinch, but that would need a nice little file manager so folks could make symlinks, since they're a pain to make from a non-Unix OS.

jeff

 

[ThorC]

The Atari ST was my childhood so I'm really looking forward to testing this emu skeezix, thanks very much! biggrin.gif

Hehe, same here

I've been following the thread all day and enjoying the progress that's coming - great to see how great it's coming along, and glad it's running better now - Can't wait to try it out

I think I've still got a good load of my old STAC (ST Adventure Creator) games that I made years ago. Plus, if I can play deuteros, I will be more than happy - one of my favourite games.

Looking great, skeezix, and highly appreciated

 

[skeezix]

ThorC -- to make yourself sweat, jump over to my 'mega screenshots gallery' for my Palm OS build, so you can remember a few things

http://www.codejedi.com/shadowplan/castscreens.html

jeff

 

[ThorC]

ThorC -- to make yourself sweat, jump over to my 'mega screenshots gallery' for my Palm OS build, so you can remember a few things

http://www.codejedi.com/shadowplan/castscreens.html

jeff

​

Wow - thanks! Now there was a great trip down memory lane, and now I'm looking forward to it even more. Kind of funny when you look through the page and realise you owned nearly every single one! Still have all my originals and my ST too, but I daren't turn it on (After a year of having my ST, the floppy drive died for no apparent reason, I managed to get it repaired at the time, but now I fear for it...)

I have an old pocket PC (HP Jornada 545 - one of the first pocket PC's) and I remember when CastawayCE came out, and by then people had stopped supporting it, and there was no SH3 file, so no way I could use it. I begged the developers to release it - and got an email back saying they had an SH3 version, but it was too slow with sound, and they refised to release it. (I would have been happy with a 25% speed no sound version! ).

Since then, I've always been wanting portable ST of some kind, and when I found out about the gp32/gp2x a few months ago and I discoved this, it was amazing, and I can admit this has been my most anticipated thing so far - after nearly 3 (or 4) years, my dream of a portable ST is coming closer.

Plus, it looks superb at that resolution. STing just doesn't look the same on a high resolution PC monitor.

Now if it works on TV out...

EDIT: Quick question - just wondering how mouse and keyboard emulation will work, and the switching between them, if you're willing to explain...

 

[skeezix]

The way I usually do it works pretty well.. I offer 'input modes'; GP32 and Palm are similar (though Palm OS uses stylus to change modes and GP32 uses a menu key) though PSP is a little different since it features both d-pad and analog stick at once.

Anyway, hit START to pull up the main runtime menu, which lets you set frameskip and throttling and insert/eject floppies, set device MHz etc etc.. one option being set control mode. Pick a mode which is for the controller .. ie: mouse, joystick, or other templates.

So you can tell the joystick to be mouse, or joystick. In mouse-mode, the A/B buttons will be left/right click for instance, while in joystick mode X is fire and Y is 'up' (for a jump button if you don't want to use joystick-up in a game, say.)

I imagine I'll offer a config file (like the gp32 version) so you can specify a custom layout, with all custom defined buttons, so you coudl have 'A' do a 'control' or something.. ands modes that load each other, so you can swap between custom configs with button presses (handy for flight sims with lots of keys.)

We'll see. Its not even alpha yet

jeff

 

[DaveC]

The way I usually do it works pretty well.. I offer 'input modes'; GP32 and Palm are similar (though Palm OS uses stylus to change modes and GP32 uses a menu key) though PSP is a little different since it features both d-pad and analog stick at once.

Anyway, hit START to pull up the main runtime menu, which lets you set frameskip and throttling and insert/eject floppies, set device MHz etc etc.. one option being set control mode. Pick a mode which is for the controller .. ie: mouse, joystick, or other templates.

So you can tell the joystick to be mouse, or joystick. In mouse-mode, the A/B buttons will be left/right click for instance, while in joystick mode X is fire and Y is 'up' (for a jump button if you don't want to use joystick-up in a game, say.)

I imagine I'll offer a config file (like the gp32 version) so you can specify a custom layout, with all custom defined buttons, so you coudl have 'A' do a 'control' or something.. ands modes that load each other, so you can swap between custom configs with button presses (handy for flight sims with lots of keys.)

We'll see. Its not even alpha yet

jeff

​

Have you thought of assigning a key like a shoulder button for example to toggle mouse/joystick mode? This way in some games where you may need both you could just hit a shoulder button to switch which is quicker than pulling up a menu and selecting around in that. We have plenty of buttons now for stuff like that.

Also for mouse mode you would be better off using the stick as a 16-way for imput (case 1).

When you switch to joystick mode it should go to a case 2 to be playable. The diagonal bias of the GP2X stick almost requires that to make games playable.

 

[ThorC]

Thanks for the reply and taking the time to let me know how it works - I appreciate it

As for controls, customizable would be a nice addition when/if you are able to add it - I must admit, I've got a bit used to L1 and R1 as left and right mouse from OpenTTD and ScummVM.

Still, sounds absoloutely great. I'll just have to sit here refreshing this page for a few days


Edit:

Have you thought of assigning a key like a shoulder button for example to toggle mouse/joystick mode? This way in some games where you may need both you could just hit a shoulder button to switch which is quicker than pulling up a menu and selecting around in that. We have plenty of buttons now for stuff like that.

If I remember correctly, I can't think of too many games where you needed to switch, because on the real atari, switching was a bit of a pain. Although an easier way to switch would be nice.

Something like STEEM's hotkey configuration would be wonderful. EG assign various spare buttons to functions (Press ST key (Very useful in xenon - assign a spare button to space for switching to/from vehicle types), pause emulation, save state, load state, fast forward, toggle mouse/joystick mode, mute sound etc.) although I doubt that'd be easily possible.

 

[remowilliams]

Xenon 2 is fast or 100% (frameskip0) at 200Mhz (it helps when I don't set the FCLK to 66MHz you see..) so speed should be good. (and this is audio and graphics being rendered on main CPU with everything else.) (yes, I've got audio going too.. Xenon in full glory, almost by accident as I hack up all the code from my other builds.)

Xenon 2, yeah now you're talking!

BTW.. right now I'm assuming /roms/atari-st/ for TOS.ROM and the disk images (.st and .msa and .zip of those two); might as well strike at using an emerging path standard.

(This way someone else could use /roms/atari-2600 say, perhaps, or another ST emu could re-use /roms/atari-st)

jeff

​

I'm all onboard for a /roms dir, it still fits it with my idea of keeping neat. But this is one of those things that will cause ten pages of debate by itself :lol:

 

[skeezix]

*g*

As to shoulders .. I do toggling of some modes in some builds, like on the GP32. ie: Pseudo-modes..

One shoulder to toggle virtual keyboard on and off is common, since you frequently need to enter a key or two to pass a demo or select an option.

But dont' sweat it. I'll burn those bridges when I get to them, and then we can argue about it

jeff

 

[Watto]

Jeff, you have made my day. Finally playing Starglider II is just on the horizon. Just a quick query, is the sound comparable to your GP32 port, or is it improved ? I only ask because Llamatron's (one of the finest shooters ever) sound was a bit hit and miss on the GP32.

 

[xrti]

Nice,Llamatron.WooHoo

 

[skeezix]

The sound is slightly better than the GP32 one, but theres more to be done; I hope to spend a lot of time rebuilding the emu, so should improve sound quite a bit.. thats one area theres some room to fix, without killing performance much
Sound for YM isn't too bad, but its the interaction between YM and samples that I don't have down really well.

jeff

 

[Watto]

Cheers Jeff.

Just think if you hadn't been given the runaround waiting for your unit, we may have got our greedy little mits on an alpha or maybe beta release by now. Nevermind, c’est la vie.

 

[skeezix]

If RL doesn't get in the way too much, you cna have a shitty-but-maybe-amusing alpha tonight, or tomorrow But dont' expect much beyond Xenon 2

jeff

 

[Watto]

Jeff, do you have a paypal or nochex account. As I for one, would like to show my appreciation with a donation .

 

[skeezix]

I don't trust paypal much, so I usually suggest folks head over to my store..

The CaSTaway site (will be the same page for OutcaST I think, at least for awhile) is here: http://www.codejedi.com/castaway/

It has a mention to the store, as a way to find it:
http://store.esellerate.net/store/catalog....?s=STR866524809

One of the options should be 'donation'; the store guys charge tax on it (*sigh*), but maybe thats the 'right' thing; I'm trying to stay level with accounting, so that if someone comes a knocking, I don't get killed (I make a living on my shareware, so I'm sure I'll be auditted soon

Theres also a main shipping address to a POBox, in case you don't want to pay tax and just want to fire over a check or postcard or pizza coupon or something

Thanks for caring

jeff

 

[Watto]

Just used your donate link to show I care .

Tony

 

[fade]

oooh i cant wait for this...

 

[Tobriand]

I don't suppose at some point in development, you could add support for overclocking the emu, could you? By which, I don't mean changing GP2x clockspeeds (that either goes without saying, or goes with the LCD tweaker proggy that's so cool), but rather running the virtual ST at, say, 16MHz instead of 8MHz. Obviously, you'd need a lot more frameskip for it to be sensible (or, of course, cyclone - which I presume is still too incompatible to be usable...?) but it might make some of the rather slow 3D games - there were several driving games, Frontier Elite 2, and of course, Midwinter 1/2 - a lot nicer in terms of how smoothly they appeared to run - considering they ran jutterily on original hardware.

Unrealistic request, I suspect, but it'd be an interesting experiment once you're onto the tinkering stage