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fade

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I'm not sure if this has been asked before, i've had a search around and can't find much on it so apologies if it has already.

I'm wondering why neither the gp32, nor the gp2x, are merged with the official scummvm download binaries available at scummvm.org? They seem to support some quite obscure systems on the official site, as well as the more well known systems, so why not our favourite handhelds? I know that we have our own versions, im just thinking that surely it would be in the gp2x's best interests to be on there? I don't mean to step on anyone's toes with this question btw, i am just genuinely curious. :mellow:
 
Yeah, I wondered this many times myself.
Maybe it`s because of the many different versions?

There should be the latest DjWillis ports for the 32 and 2X on there, cause they are the best :D
 
Yeah i agree. Theres loads of different versions listed on there, even the psp. It'd be nice to see either the 32 or 2X officially recognised and listed, it could only do good things for their image :)
 
fade posted on Aug 21 2006 at 12:43 PM said:
Yeah I agree. There’s loads of different versions listed on there, even the psp. It'd be nice to see either the 32 or 2X officially recognised and listed, it could only do good things for their image :)

Ok guys,

Guess I should spill the beans on this.

ScummVM has ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ ports (and distributions).

The main difference is the official ports have people who commit (as much as is reasonable) to maintain there ports and keep the port inline with the design goals, coding styles, engine and ethos of ScummVM, these ports get linked off ScummVM.Org and official releases.

Unofficial ports are just that, unsupported changes to the codebase that may or may not work so the ScummVM team as a rule do not link to or support them.

Both my ports (backends) are well known by the ScummVM team and in various states towards becoming official releases.

GP32 backend.

The GP32 port is now officially maintained by WonStar (a Korean GP32 dev whom I handed over stewardship of the port to some time ago). I still hack about on it and the basis of the port is my old code but I don’t really want to look after 2 full backends and my other projects. He has been doing a great job trying to get it up together over the last 6 months or so, as and when.

The GP32 port is an official ScummVM port (and has been for a long while). This means you can get the latest cutting edge code from SVN but it has never had an official binary released. Why? Because it’s damm slow and struggles to cope with only 8MB is the long and short of it. The backend has just never been in good enough shape come release time to release it.

Recently however the whole memory allocation (malloc and friends) code was redone to use much quicker bespoke routines (WonStar did a great job there). Some various other patches have gone in and the port is starting to look quite nice again with the smaller less demanding engines (Big changes to ScummVM’s core also help with this a lot).

This is a very good thing and with some work it may even get to see a 0.9.1 or 0.10.0 release. I could do up some GP32 builds if there was still interest I guess. Things like the optimised OGG Vorbis core I did for ScummVM should still carry over and work in the newer versions (and even the GP2X).

GP2X backend.

The GP2X port is still maintained by me actively :) (check the beta thread, latest feature test release was put there yesterday).
The main reason for the lack of releases over the last few months was due to being without a GP2X (and the cash to get mine fixed up etc.). During that lull a few people requested my current WIP code (I did not stop hacking about with it totally) and did compiles and the odd release based on it.

Now I have a working GP2X again I am back hacking about on my projects and I am working with the ScummVM team to make the GP2X port official as quickly as possible. That will mean the code goes into SVN and the port gets official supported point releases (in addition to the SVN releases I currently do).

From a developers perspective getting the port accepted into SVN is a very good thing, it makes maintenance a lot easier for one, no need to remake all your core patches every time you update your checkout etc. It also means the other developers tend to chip in, try to avoid breaking your backend and core patches and help out. All in all it makes it much more ‘community’ and developer friendly.

I don’t know how long it will take to get the GP2X port ‘official’ but I am committed (hardware permitting ;)) to maintain it for the foreseeable future.

The last new backends to go in where AgentQ's awesome Nintendo DS backend and Sev's Maemo (Nokia Linux tablet) backend.

Anyway, time for bed….
 
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Thanks DJWillis for explaining an clearing that up. Its good to know that its steadily working towards becoming officially listed. It'll be great for GP2X users to be able to download their latest Scummvm version from the same site as everyone else. Thanks for all your hard work, and also to WonStar for maintaining the GP32 port! :)
 
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