GP32 PC Abandonware on GP32

[Shirohagen]

Hi

I was wondering if in the same way that SCUMM plays old LucasArts adventures, a program for the GP32 might be able to support old PC Abandonware. I'm talking pretty old stuff here so it shouldn't be too technically ambitious, but it might have to go a long way into emulating DOS, so I guess that would be the problem...

I have a lot of old PC (& Mac) games which would be ideally suited to play on the GP32!

I'm not at all technically minded, but it would let me play a lot of old classics which didn't get a conversion to other formats which the GP32 supports...

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[Swiss_Cheeseman]

No. Use the search function on the forums before you post please.

 

[Shirohagen]

I am quite aware of how to use this forum thank you.

I'm not suggesting 'ports' of the games, just a structure to run existing files that's all. As I said I'm not technically minded, so I have no idea how difficult this would be to achieve or what the logistical problems might be - That's why I posted the thread you see...

...this community is about creativity and mutual support, so please don't criticise a guy for showing a bit of imagination.

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[shotaway]

Rico made me change my signature so it doesnt openly insult starwarsnerd. I am too smart for my own good.

what did it say?

 

[Q-Wi-Q]

I have to agree with Shiro on this one, I'm quite new to this forum, and I get quite confused about how you people name a part of the forum "cool ideas and other wishes" and yet there is a lot of fuss if some one actually expresses a wish, whether it is possible or not... I mean not to bitch, but that doesn't really seem correct, since I for one - even thought I know it can't be done - the idea alone of playing abandonware on my GP32 makes me drool meaning I'd really like to discuss it, and that after all is what a forum should be for... could help build the community ?

 

[Ernest]

I also agree it would cool to play old abandonware on gp32!!!!!!!

 

[jonxs]

It probably could be done if someone was to make a DOS emulator for GP32, sure this has been discussed at some point on this forum.

 

[moz]

use linux for gp32 then run bochs?

 

[washo]

linux is only loading kernet for now....maybe is some new release

see you

 

[Vimacs]

use linux for gp32 then run bochs?

you know what REALY slow man? You think gba is slow? THAT will be slower.

ps: it's really annoing to see the same questions every week...

 

[MegatronUK]

Way too slow.

You'd have to emulate....

The entire 32bit x86 architecture, timers, interrupts and disk emulation... plus an audio device (most likely an FM based adlib chip or original SoundBlaster).

Of course, existing software is out there that does most of this... there are several solutions:

Level 0: GP32 Linux port (say 600kb-1mb for kernel)
Level 1: Linux filesystem or ramdisk (few mb)
Level 2: Bochs (another 1-2mb) which is software emulation of x86 architecture
Level 3: Some kind of installation of MS-Dos
Level 4: Software or game to be run.

I'd hazard a guess at even just the memory requirements of the task as being way too much for our 8mb, without even trying to load the game itself, remember each level has its own cpu time requirements in addition to the memory.

There may be another way, however; on the Acorn, there were several PC-emulators that could even play a few pc-games (the first Dune rts game, etc.). As the architecture of the GP32 and the Acorn is pretty similar (the GP32 ARM9 cpu is still pretty much one of the high end Acorn processors [some still use the ARM7 deriviatives]) and they don't have complex video hardware either - again, similar to the GP32. Investigating those Acorn-based pc-emulators may be a way to go - they're already pretty much optimised for the hardware - of course, how hard it would be to port any RISC-OS dependant code to the GP32 SDK is something else.

 

[papapopalung]

sounds... sort of... hopefull...? wow!

 

[Julius]

There may be another way, however; on the Acorn, there were several PC-emulators that could even play a few pc-games (the first Dune rts game, etc.). As the architecture of the GP32 and the Acorn is pretty similar (the GP32 ARM9 cpu is still pretty much one of the high end Acorn processors [some still use the ARM7 deriviatives]) and they don't have complex video hardware either - again, similar to the GP32. Investigating those Acorn-based pc-emulators may be a way to go - they're already pretty much optimised for the hardware - of course, how hard it would be to port any RISC-OS dependant code to the GP32 SDK is something else.

Wow, that really sounds like a small possibility, someone should try it :unsure:

 

[god_at_hell]

hm....you could program a high level emulator which supports only a few games (does anybody recognize UltraHLE?). When you use HLE you don't have to emulate all the instructions the original Processor has and you have a little speed-up. But....this would be a biiiiig task, because to reach a good speed you have to program the emulator from scratch and in asm. You need gfx, sfx, mem and cpu emulation AND you could only play the older DOS-Titles, because later games make use of the fpu.

 

[Shirohagen]

ps: it's really annoing to see the same questions every week...

Hi guys, I knew that it was worth mentioning, but it does sound like it was a bit ambitious, there is obviously a lot more to it than a non-techie mind like mine originally realised! You've got to at least START out ambitous though haven't you? The Acorn thing sounds intriguing...

Anyway, all you people out there who aren't interested in this subject or know all about it already and don't feel like sharing the wealth, I have a suggestion: Just don't click on the thread and read some other ones instead...?

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