Outcast (castaway Module) -- Release 007!

[skeezix]

This is a crazy release full of goodness

Get it here:
http://www.codejedi.com/outcast/

Or in the gp2x file archive:
http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,5,1140

The complete change list is.. (whew!):

CHG: Futtled with the balance between YM and sampled-playback and I think
I've gotten it much better (though still not perfect for samples.)
Xenon 2 loader, Starglider 1 loader, Turrican 2 intro, all sound not
too too bad and no crashing. Xenon 2 YM demo and such all sound great,
so things are much better.
o StarGlider sounds amazing
o Spherical.. love that game

FIX: If the filename would overlap into the database display column,
truncate the display of the filename so as not to cause too much trouble

NEW: Added fullscreen scaling (disabled by default); the runtime menu has
the option to toggle this on and off.
o Scaling is temporarily disabled while virtual keyboard is present

REM: Yes, I'll add config files soon, so that you can specify to default to
fullscreen <-- For non-DaveC I bet

NEW: Floppy access indicators; when a floppy drive (A or B) is read, an
indicator will show in the bottom right so you know what happened; this
can help .. some games might take forever to load, so if you see a disk
indicator up, you know its not crashed.. its just loading
o Fullscreen scaling is disabled while the indicators are showing, so if
you have scaling on, and disking is going on, the screen will jump up
to make room for the indicator

NEW: Floppy Drive menu; its in the runtime menu (not the Disk Management
menu), which you mind find confusing at first..

NEW: In floppy menu, you can now 'eject A:' or 'eject B:'; ie: Pull up
runtime menu, hit Floppy menu.
o Naturally, inserting a floppy while one is already in, implicitly
ejects it as it always has.
o This is really just in case you want to eject a disk and reboot, say..
normally you'd never use this option

NEW: In floppy menu, you can now save drive A: or drive B: to a disk
image file on your SD card; ie: pull up the runtime menu, hit the floppy
menu; if you save the current disk it'll get named FILENAME-save.ST --
if you had loaded GAU_11.MSA and then save it out, it'll be
GAU_11-save.ST when saved.
o if disk name already has "-save" in it, don't append that; so you
don't get GAU_11-save-save-save.st

NEW: Changed menu key-repeat handling; right/left on joystick still queue's
up a page up/down, and those work pretty quickly; normal up/down on
joystick will do key-repeat so that you can scroll up and down quickly,
but not as quick as the right/left paging (ie: so that you can still
pick disks accurately without sliding all around the one you want.)

NEW: In mouse-mode (or both-mode), the mouse-speed can be double by
holding down the left-trigger while using the gp2x joystick to maneuver
o perhaps this should be a toggle, so you don't have to hold it down?

NEW: Mouse speed menu; use it to set the default mouse-speed, that gets
doubled when you hold left-trigger down

*breath deep*

Hope you dig it

jeff

Award for most complex (or complete? ) set of menus on any gp2x program?

 

[icurafu]

This looks great jeff. I'll be sure to let you know if I find any bugs.

 

[DaveC]

Cool have you thought of adding the 16 way for mouse control or is that out? Many games would play better with the extra in-between control.

Gonna try this now. How do you save the options after you set them like joystick bias etc?

Thanks. Good work

 

[Watto]

A big round of applause for the magician that is jeff .

I'm stunned, it's going to take me a while to test all this lot out, but I'll post when I have.

Now where's my llamatron to start with .

Tony

 

[remowilliams]

NICE! Looks like I've got to try a bunch of things out now

 

[Radek]

Great!!

The samples are much better now albeit not perfect yet. The rasters are fixed!!

So it's starting to look and sound almost like a real ST.
(once I get the TV-out cable I will do direct comparison)

For controls add autofire option and map the sidebuttons to upper diagonals (and deny them from a stick - map to left and right best) please...

 

[DaveC]

Great!!

The samples are much better now albeit not perfect yet. The rasters are fixed!!

So it's starting to look and sound almost like a real ST.
(once I get the TV-out cable I will do direct comparison)

For controls add autofire option and map the sidebuttons to upper diagonals (and deny them from a stick - map to left and right best) please...

​

Autofire? Why? an ST didn't have that. Play the games the way they were designed to be played, no cheating don't be a wussy

Map diagonals to sidebuttons? That would be terrible. You would be playing a game and have to remember to hit a button when you want to move diagonally? That is so unintuitive. That would be the worst control scheme ever.

 

[PSyMastR]

Yes, thank you. A major thanks on the key repeat for up and down on rom selector list. I heart you skeezix. I shal donate soon, when I get some money together.

 

[Radek]

Great!!

The samples are much better now albeit not perfect yet. The rasters are fixed!!

So it's starting to look and sound almost like a real ST.
(once I get the TV-out cable I will do direct comparison)

For controls add autofire option and map the sidebuttons to upper diagonals (and deny them from a stick - map to left and right best) please...

​

Autofire? Why? an ST didn't have that. Play the games the way they were designed to be played, no cheating don't be a wussy

Oh yeah pushing buttons hundreds times per minute is the best fun I can dream of.

Map diagonals to sidebuttons? That would be terrible. You would be playing a game and have to remember to hit a button when you want to move diagonally? That is so unintuitive. That would be the worst control scheme ever.

​

No problem for me. I could adapt even to using buttons on the right side of gp2x as pad. In a fact I had to learn to use my left thumb to control directions when I got my first pad controller. It was so strange at first... I'm right handed and it was much more comfortable to use the right hand for that. Now I don't mind.

Once the configuration file will be functional I hope any kind of buttons/stick arrangements will be possible.

BTW. There is also the "vertical reverse issue" for 3d games. I had been playing many filight simulators for some time and I prefer to have a reversed vertically mouse or joystick.

 

[Iorgy77]

Another release, great stuff Skeezix.

A couple of suggestions if I may:

1) Configurable controls: I would love to have the up key mapped to a button for racers and platform games as well as keeping the Space button on Y.

2) Gp32 style mouse/joy toggle with a shoulder button perhaps, Carrier Command would become a lot more playable with this and having both on at the same time really doesnt help with some games.

3) Once a disk is selected an option to place disk in drive reset emulator and go to emulator in one hit as well as the current options.

4) Louder sound. not nessasarily the quality which I am sure you are working on but the volume it needs to be taken up a notch BAM!

I'm sure the rest of the obvious stuff you are working on compatibility, better sound etc, so I won't hassle you about those.

Thanks for all your hard work on this again... SNES?? PFFT!!!!

edit: Diagonals on shoulder buttons would be terrible.

 

[DARKGATE]

:lol: GREAT !!!!!
GREAT WORK!!!!!
Ah i want tell a thing, remember a my post, where i said wich ISHAR 3 don't work?
I had the same problem with DUNGEON MASTER, but i have found, the french versions, and work perfectly, :huh: the only problem and wich i don't understand the french language. :rolleyes:

 

[CeNTauR2]

Great work, thanks a lot!

 

[Watto]

The sound is a much better improvement over previous versions, even in llamatron, it's still not quite there yet (samples) but it's getting there .

One last thing, Archer Mcleans Pool crashes the Gp2x after the title screen. It did it with 006 as well, any ideas jeff ?

Tony

 

[Radek]

Another release, great stuff Skeezix.

A couple of suggestions if I may:

1) Configurable controls: I would love to have the up key mapped to a button for racers and platform games as well as keeping the Space button on Y.

2) Gp32 style mouse/joy toggle with a shoulder button perhaps, Carrier Command would become a lot more playable with this and having both on at the same time really doesnt help with some games.

3) Once a disk is selected an option to place disk in drive reset emulator and go to emulator in one hit as well as the current options.

4) Louder sound. not nessasarily the quality which I am sure you are working on but the volume it needs to be taken up a notch BAM!

I'm sure the rest of the obvious stuff you are working on compatibility, better sound etc, so I won't hassle you about those.

Thanks for all your hard work on this again... SNES?? PFFT!!!!

edit: Diagonals on shoulder buttons would be terrible.

​

Not to impose anything (there should be just conf file so anyone would be happy) but I can defend it.

In a game like Turrican upper diagonals function to jumping left and right. The sidebuttons are at top left and right so it's not mysterious why I would want mapping like that. It would make jumping much more reliable than it could ever be with current stick. Jumping in Turrican is passable (and for most games too) but try PrinceOfPersia - playing it's extremely frustrating. This is so because any accidental diagonal results usually in death of character. And there are lots of them using the gp2x's stick. It's almost impossible to not register a diagonal when moving stick from left to up for an example.

My "solution" isn't great but it'd allow to play PrinceOfPersia in not futile way. But again it's a matter of configuration file and personal customization.

 

[skeezix]

*g* Glad everyones liking

Some notes..

Dungeon Master works fine if you have a good rip; try the one on my site.. a rip of the original disks. Many of the cracked ones are a little goofy..

Sometimes you need to switch the control mode to get it working right..ie: Time Bandits will have a blurry main character until you switch to joystick-onmly mode; when it receivesd mouse+joy at the same time, it freaks it out a little

A "save current options to default config" will go in one of these days; or maybe "save these optiosn to config for this disk only". Save would include mouse speed, control bias mode, throttle mode, etc. But maybe I won't bother with a 'save these options' menu, and instead just have you guys edit config files like in the gp32 version..

jeff

 

[Belgarath]

Having an option to save a global config and an option to save a specific config a game (like drmd) would be the best in my opinion.

And Watto, Archer's only seems to crash if the intro is left to play for too long. Start the game quickly enough and it plays fine.

 

[carlgeorge]

Very nice indeed. Donation when I get paid.

For the next version could you stop the sound when you go into the menu? Seems like a simple request.

 

[Watto]

And Watto, Archer's only seems to crash if the intro is left to play for too long. Start the game quickly enough and it plays fine.

​

Cheers for spotting that. Makes you wonder what Archer's doing on the intro though, to make it crash :blink: .

Tony

 

[chaos engineer]

Nice one, but I have got a problem. I am not able to load my savestates from version 004.

 

[moz]

savestates from previous version doest work? i get a black locked screen from version 5