Saving Disk Space And Customizing Homebrew Games

[pipa]

Hi all,

I just got my GP2X Sunday and am going to post a bunch of thoughts/ramblings about it on my blog at http://myvogonpoetry.com soon but I thought I'd post this here. (oh - and please forgive me if these have already been covered)

Currently I only have a 128 MB SD Card so I was looking to free up some space and figured this out (for homebrew games/ports):

1) Make sure you delete any directories call src and any files/zips/tar.gz that have src in them. These are the source files for the game and are used to compile them but they are not needed to run them. I went though mine and found src in about half of them.

2) Some games have large music files that you can replace with smaller files. Look for mp3, ogg, mod, or wav files and replace them with smaller files. For example, in the game Tailtale, there are 2 LARGE WAV files:
bgm002.wav (2.3 MB)
bgm004.wav (4.3 MB)
and there is a smaller one called bgm001.wav (457 KB). I simply deleted the two large files and replaced them with COPIES of bgm001.wav. So now all three are 457KB. This one trick saved me 5.7 MB! (10.9 MB before, 5.2 MB after)

Tilematch is similar - it has
music-game.ogg (1.77 MB)
I replaced it with its own music-highscore.ogg (309 KB) to save about 1.4 MB.

Remember too, you can replace them with your own files if you want. If you want to play Tilematch while listening to Rakim, you can. Just rename a Rakim ogg to music-game.ogg and replace the old.

Some other games to change:
--noiz - in data/sounds there is a 1MB .mod file (stg1.mod) - I replaced all of teh .mod files in there with stg5.mod (291 KB) - saved 1.6 MB
--BubTrain - has a 3.7MB ogg for the main menu - replace it!

I hope this helps someone. Lord know you guys have helped me immensely already.

 

[yaustar]

To retain the same music, just re-encode at a lower quality bitrate which would have been a better option rather then have the same music all the time inthe background.

Or if you can live without sound, just replace them with empty dummy files.

 

[willy]

I'm also conscience of making best use of card space....so heres some more tips

Quite a lot of games/ports come with text files...ditch em

or alternative menus/backgrounds.....eg. Mame...delete the ones not needed

make sure you use compressed zip files where supported and they are zipped to their smallest possible size

it might sound a bit anal but if it means extra roms on your card

 

[iignotus]

Or you could just buy a bigger card They're very, very cheap in the U.S.; I can get a 1gb card shipped for $35 (20 quid).

 

[Hanz™]

Quite a lot of games/ports come with text files...ditch em

OMG. haha.

 

[pipa]

To retain the same music, just re-encode at a lower quality bitrate which would have been a better option rather then have the same music all the time inthe background.

Ah - I forgot to mention that. Yes, you could do that too. personally I don't care about the music so I don't mind the same music on each level.

Or if you can live without sound, just replace them with empty dummy files.

There are a few problems with that though:
1) there is no guarantee the game/program could handle an empty/dummy file - it could cause it to lock up/crash - many software MP3 players will choke on dummy MP3s
2) Even if it can handle an empty file, it will have to be looped over and over many more times than usual and this could (maybe/maybe not) cause problems in the game if it wsn't coded very well - replaying the file many times could cause stutttering/slowdown in the game.

I personally think it's safer to replace the files with small but not empty files. Just my opinion though.

Brian

 

[pipa]

Or you could just buy a bigger card They're very, very cheap in the U.S.; I can get a 1gb card shipped for $35 (20 quid).

​

Of course I could buy a bigger card (and I have one on the way), but these tricks work no matter the size of your card. Saving MB of space leaves more room for ROMs, regardless of your card size. It's a well-known fact that your data/files will increase to meet your storage space.

Brian

 

[TelcoLou]

I have a 1GB card ... it now has ~40MB left. We all could use more space :lol:

 

[Shikaku]

I have a 1 gb and a 2 gb card....

ALWAYS NEAR OR IS FULL!!!!

... and I'm planning to buy a 4 GB once/if PSX emulation starts working pretty good...

 

[FluffyPanda]

2) Some games have large music files that you can replace with smaller files. Look for mp3, ogg, mod, or wav files and replace them with smaller files.

​

This tip works great for Beat2X!

I replaced the music with a tiny ogg file of a continuous tone.

Disclaimer: Not actually true

 

[WrongEyedJesus]

I have a 1GB card ... it now has ~40MB left. We all could use more space :lol:

​

Yeah I have maxed my 1Gb card. Waiting for payday to get second one and get Gnuboy up and running!

Things like Exult have lots of music files you can lose to free up a lot of room

 

[Gruntfuggly]

OR rather than buy a bigger card, but more smaller cards - 128MB cards are about 5 quid each now!

Amazing - I used to think 100k bbc disks were massive amounts of storage...

 

[WrongEyedJesus]

OR rather than buy a bigger card, but more smaller cards - 128MB cards are about 5 quid each now!

Amazing - I used to think 100k bbc disks were massive amounts of storage...

​

I know crazy to think of the old BBC with it's 32k! Jesus! :blink:

 

[miq01]

2) Some games have large music files that you can replace with smaller files. Look for mp3, ogg, mod, or wav files and replace them with smaller files.

​

This tip works great for Beat2X!

I replaced the music with a tiny ogg file of a continuous tone.

Disclaimer: Not actually true

​

 

[thelamer]

I think that you are offically the cheapest bastard I have ever heard of .

 

[aapje89]

I think that you are offically the cheapest bastard I have ever heard of .

​

lol, yeah, just buy a 2gb card and you'll have plenty of space!

 

[Aninhumer]

2) Some games have large music files that you can replace with smaller files. Look for mp3, ogg, mod, or wav files and replace them with smaller files.

​

This tip works great for Beat2X!

I replaced the music with a tiny ogg file of a continuous tone.

Disclaimer: Not actually true

​

Doesn't that defeat the point of a dancing game?

EDIT: Whoops... I even quoted the disclaimer.

 

[pipa]

2) Some games have large music files that you can replace with smaller files. Look for mp3, ogg, mod, or wav files and replace them with smaller files.

​

This tip works great for Beat2X!

I replaced the music with a tiny ogg file of a continuous tone.

Disclaimer: Not actually true

​

Doesn't that defeat the point of a dancing game?

​

Yes. It was a joke

Brian