Pandora Rpg Gaming Diablo 2 On Pandora.


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I realize this may be a tad premature but I think one could get Diablo 2 on this machine, it has the resources.
Tell me how far fetched it sounds. -CB
 
C B Felterbush said:
I realize this may be a tad premature but I think one could get Diablo 2 on this machine, it has the resources.
Tell me how far fetched it sounds. -CB
I think that baldurs gate (or bioware games running on the same engine) will be more likely, as there is already a project (still not playable) to get it running in linux:
gemrb.sf.net
which is open source, hence portable to pandora.

As far as I'm aware there is no similar project for diablo 2.
 
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To port a game, you need the source code. The source code of Diablo 2 is, as far as I know, not available.

The other option is to run it in a windows running in a PC/i386 emulator. But this does not sound very realistic. Don't think about Wine, it runs only on i386 (it only emulates system calls).

This is not going to happen, not for Diablo or any other Windows 95 games. Except the ones whose source has been released, of course, like Quake 1/2/3?

Or is there a port of Diablo 2 for a console?

EDIT: OK you can rewrite the engine. That's always an option.
 
Well it seems very easy to run Diablo 2 in linux, using wine. We are running linux on this machine. Is it possible to go that route, obviously wine runs on x86 is there perhaps something similar we could use or create? -CB

Does anyone know what linux we will be running?

For clarification what does Wine Emulate? I was under the impression that it wasn't an emulator at all.
 
Wine is only for x86 CPUs and Pandora will have an ARM CPU, so it wouldn't work. But we might use QEmu + Wine... I think that using QEmu you could run an x86 Linux (with Wine) on Pandora, so if someone can make a QEmu port, it may be an option. Would it be playable? I don`t know.

Edit:
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WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) is a work in progress Win32 API and DirectX API implementation over Linux, but I think that this implementation only works on x86 CPUs. It is said it's not an emulator because it doesn't have to emulate registers, buses, etc., it only have to implement high level (or not so high) Win32 system calls using Linux system calls. (sorry, I can't explain better in English).
 
Goity said:
Wine is an emulator however, just not one of a processor.
Well, I'm agree with you. It's an "OS emulator" instead a "device emulator" but it's an emulator. But you know... WINE means "Wine Is Not an Emulator", that is what it's said in its website.

But I think that aren't important. The most important thing is that it only works on a x86 CPU and we will need something more (QEmu or another x86 emulator). I think QEmu is a good option because it's can emulate a x86 Linux distribution with Wine almost at native speed... and Wine can run Windows programs almost at native speed, so there would be little perfomance lost.

I don't know if QEmu would be a very difficult port, I think it use ASM a lot.
 
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Goity said:
Wine is an emulator however, just not one of a processor.
Wine is a wrapper. It would really be stretching the definition of 'emulator' if you wanted to call WINE that.
 
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Using Bochs x86 emulator you can emulate Intel x86 CPU. This is what they use to have windows on the PSP, of course the idea of Wine is to get away from the hit your hardware takes by not emulating virtual hardware. Rather it tricks the software into thinking it is running in a native environment.

The idea is to emulate the processor alone, then selecting Wine and running it from Linux over the x86 With that done diablo2 is possible, albeit perhaps not at full capacity. But I'll take two steps forward and one step back instead of standing still. -CB
 
QUOTE
Yay, 4 layers of emulation, that will work.

P.S. I doubt it. biggrin.gif


How do you figure? It is at best one emulator, then Wine. Wine is not an emulator. It is like nickspoon said a wrapper. Wine allows you to convince the software you need to run that it is running in the environment it was meant to run in. That is why there is little or no slowdown on any apps ran with Wine. The only thing that needs to be emulated is the x86 since Wine only runs on it, if that can be done with little resources absorbed then it will be easy to get good speeds out of the apps we use with Wine.
Including Diablo 2 and any other games we choose to run. -CB
 
Well, QEMU + Wine or DOSEMU isn't a bad idea. It's been discussed in some detail before. I've been waiting for someone to try this ever since I bought my GP2X. No one seems interested though :(
 
@Felterbush: So you want to emulate an x86 system, install an x86 linux on it and use that to run Diablo2 in WINE. I doubt that´ll work too well.

And why not just install Win98 if you´re going to emulate an x86 system anyway? Then you wouldn´t need WINE.

Anyway, the discussion is inane. I doubt that even a port of Diablo2 would run well on the Pandora. It had quite beefy system requirements for a low-res 2D game.
 
Fishbong said:
@Felterbush: So you want to emulate an x86 system, install an x86 linux on it and use that to run Diablo2 in WINE. I doubt that´ll work too well.

And why not just install Win98 if you´re going to emulate an x86 system anyway? Then you wouldn´t need WINE.

Anyway, the discussion is inane. I doubt that even a port of Diablo2 would run well on the Pandora. It had quite beefy system requirements for a low-res 2D game.
I've run it on 166mhz pentium MMX's at school.
 
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hackgrid said:
Well that's far more powerful than our gp2x ;)

Oh, and your school pc ran windows nativly.


We are not talking about the GP2X are we?
 
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C B Felterbush said:
How do you figure? It is at best one emulator, then Wine. Wine is not an emulator. It is like nickspoon said a wrapper. Wine allows you to convince the software you need to run that it is running in the environment it was meant to run in. That is why there is little or no slowdown on any apps ran with Wine. The only thing that needs to be emulated is the x86 since Wine only runs on it, if that can be done with little resources absorbed then it will be easy to get good speeds out of the apps we use with Wine.
Including Diablo 2 and any other games we choose to run. -CB
Getting one of those things to work properly would be a challenge, getting all of them to work properly in unison, that would be a miracle.

Although I've seen a couple miracles in my time.
 
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