Request For A More Modern MAME, or RAINE Port

[Epicenter]

Raine's developer 'Tux' had this to say on the RAINE forums ..
(http://www.rainemu.com/msgboard/yabbse/index.php?topic=1119.0)

Nice idea...
I don't plan to try to earn money from raine for now though, and I don't even own a gp2x !
For now my plan is to make a version of raine which will work solely with sdl (no more allegro at all), because it's required if I want to make it work on psp.
Then have a version which uses cz80 & c68k instead of the current asm cores, but allows to choose the cpu cores at compile time.
If I reach this step, you should be able to use your arm-optimized cores instead of these C versions, so it should be ok.

For now, I have quite other things to keep me busy. I have oblivion, the weather is improving too (so spending more time outside), and I am chating quite a lot with people from the other side of earth on internet ;-)

I have finally tested raine with my new linux64 install (on amd64), and it's quite amazing to see that all the asm code or almost is broken now. These 64 platforms are really interesting !

The time I spent on neocdpsp was usefull to get a few ideas on how to make a version of raine for this platform, so it should be possible, if only I get enough time/motivation for that....

Now if someone is motivated to start this project now, I am ready to give as much info as he needs to get started, but only info !

So, anyone working on this would certainly have a place for advice.

 

[geise69]

I know how you feel about having these games on your GP2X. To me it would be a dream come true. I'm such a Cave fanatic. Plus I'm just a shooter fanatic in general. I even OWN copies of Radiant Silvergun, Batsugun, Battle Garegga, all saturn Cave games, even the easy to find hard to pay for Ginga Fukai Densetsu Sapphire for the PC-Engine. I actually got that game when it was first released for 60 bucks. Anyways I was on Raine's forum about a month ago trying to get info from Tux to see if he would be willing to port over Raine to the GP2X since he had it already in Linux. However, after talking to him and hearing that he was all about the psp I kinda lost hope. It seems he doesn't care at all for the GP2X and really likes the psp. I have a PSP as well, but I already upgraded my firmware. There was no need for me to keep my psp v1.5 firmware when I now own a GP2X. Now he's thinking about porting Raine, which I've been waiting for ever since I had my psp. I think we are going to be out of luck on this one.

 

[parag0n]

I'm in the Air Force,

dirty money

Are you kidding?
He goes THROUGH the STARGATE

:lol:

great, you made me choke on my drink.

 

[Epicenter]

However, after talking to him and hearing that he was all about the psp I kinda lost hope. It seems he doesn't care at all for the GP2X and really likes the psp. I have a PSP as well, but I already upgraded my firmware. There was no need for me to keep my psp v1.5 firmware when I now own a GP2X. Now he's thinking about porting Raine, which I've been waiting for ever since I had my psp. I think we are going to be out of luck on this one.

Just means it has to be an independent port. It doesn't look like that much has to be done-- a new interface that would work on the '2x (most importantly without a mouse), some control code alterations, and plugging in the ARM9 ASM CPU Cores in the place of the X86 ASM ones. Maybe a GFX dumping feature like GnGeo2X uses to dodge RAM capacity issues for huge games. Probably not very much more than that.

 

[neogp]

I promise to make a (humble and honest) donation to whoever completes the task!

 

[zektor]

Ports of Raine and FBA would be awesome. Hopefully we'll see that someday!

 

[DaveC]

I know how you feel about having these games on your GP2X. To me it would be a dream come true. I'm such a Cave fanatic. Plus I'm just a shooter fanatic in general. I even OWN copies of Radiant Silvergun, Batsugun, Battle Garegga, all saturn Cave games, even the easy to find hard to pay for Ginga Fukai Densetsu Sapphire for the PC-Engine. I actually got that game when it was first released for 60 bucks. Anyways I was on Raine's forum about a month ago trying to get info from Tux to see if he would be willing to port over Raine to the GP2X since he had it already in Linux. However, after talking to him and hearing that he was all about the psp I kinda lost hope. It seems he doesn't care at all for the GP2X and really likes the psp. I have a PSP as well, but I already upgraded my firmware. There was no need for me to keep my psp v1.5 firmware when I now own a GP2X. Now he's thinking about porting Raine, which I've been waiting for ever since I had my psp. I think we are going to be out of luck on this one.

In many ways the GP2X is better suited than the PSP except for maybe CPU speed. The screen res matches better and you could rotate the unit for a perfect fit. I wonder how a vertical shooter is going to look all stretched horizontally on a 16:9 screen, could be nasty.

 

[Epicenter]

Probably very bad. And the PSP doesn't even have any significant CPU advantage either, even at its full 333 MHz speed. Also, the reason it runs at 222 is because of the horrible battery life it gets at 333. MIPS processors draw enormous amounts of power. ARM9s could almost run off a lemon.

 

[lealoc]

I pledge $50 to this project if anyone wants to take it up. Not much I know, but I haven't even bought my GP2X yet!!

Regards,
Lealoc.

 

[Shikaku]

Probably very bad. And the PSP doesn't even have any significant CPU advantage either, even at its full 333 MHz speed. Also, the reason it runs at 222 is because of the horrible battery life it gets at 333. MIPS processors draw enormous amounts of power. ARM9s could almost run off a lemon.

How about water?

 

[Epicenter]

Wow, that's really neat. It might work .. maybe. But just the 920T! The rest of the machine uses a lot more power than it does ..

 

[DijiTao]

It's Raine written entirely in x86 assembly? I don’t think it’s exactly portable code...

 

[ste_167]

In many ways the GP2X is better suited than the PSP except for maybe CPU speed. The screen res matches better and you could rotate the unit for a perfect fit. I wonder how a vertical shooter is going to look all stretched horizontally on a 16:9 screen, could be nasty.

It's a pity the screen looks weird when rotated on the Mk2

 

[Epicenter]

It's Raine written entirely in x86 assembly? I don’t think it’s exactly portable code...

No, but its M68000 and Z80 cores are; also there's a 6502 and YM2610 core in ASM as well, IIRC. YM2610 might be C, not sure. At any rate, those could be swapped for ARM9-specific versions which are readily available.

In many ways the GP2X is better suited than the PSP except for maybe CPU speed. The screen res matches better and you could rotate the unit for a perfect fit. I wonder how a vertical shooter is going to look all stretched horizontally on a 16:9 screen, could be nasty.

It's a pity the screen looks weird when rotated on the Mk2

It looked pretty normal to me with MAME rotated .. that's 240x320 display, an exact match.

 

[tshroom]

I am surprised no one wants to pick this up for such a large bounty.. Squidge? Reesey? Voboo? Any0ne?? Where are you?

 

[gaterooze]

I am surprised no one wants to pick this up for such a large bounty.. Squidge? Reesey? Voboo? Any0ne?? Where are you?

Compared to the many hours of work it would take, it's not really a large bounty -- however it is a very nice sweetener for somebody who wants a challenge. On the other hand, I'm sure if it was done, many additional donations would roll in to top up Epicenter's offer.

Plus the adoration of the GP2X world is priceless

Epicenter, have you thought about offering to buy Tux a GP2X if he attempts to port RAINE to it?

 

[tshroom]

Nice idea.

 

[Draken]

Err, wasn't it already mentioned Vobbo would do this after his pc-engine emu is complete?

 

[sam fisher]

Yep, he is. Ha ha Vobbo FTW. You will all bowdown to your new tyrant overlord!

 

[Epicenter]

Paying someone AND paying them to maintain and CONTINUE development on the project doesn't seem like a skimpy 'bounty' to me. Yeah, Vobbo has done some work on a more modern MAME port; the latest version of MAME in fact. How well it runs in terms of speed and compatibility I do not yet know, but I do hope to find out soon.