GP32 Star Control 2 for GP32

[Esn]

If there's any game I'd like emulated on the GP32, it would definetly be Star Control 2, the best adventure game of all time.

If you've never heard of it, you're REALLY missing out:
http://www.star-control.com

My thoughts are that it shouldn't be that hard to do; it uses only MOD files for sound, it is VGA, and it doesn't really use the processor power that much. It's WELL over 100 hours of engrossing playing time, however.

Err... if there are any programmers reading this, do you think it would be hard to convert this game? What would you have to do to get a PC game to work on the GP32?

There are sources available for the 3DO version: http://sc2.sourceforge.net/
But none for the original PC version, though .
Is there a chance of this happening?

 

[timthepig]

As I said before - whats the point--

- You may as well emulate DOS emulation or a Sega genesis\megadrive(as star control 2 is available on it and is more suited to console-style controls)

-Its def a game I would probably play - but no point to one off conversions for old old games - Emulating other consoles would be more worthwhile unless a game like doom or quake-may need the extra processing power

 

[Vanguard]

Star Control 2 was never released for the Genesis as far as I know. Star Control 1 was, but it wasn't quite as good as the first (though I did miss the strategy mode in the second one).

The point is that it is an excellent game. Probably my all time favorite, and probably the game that's stolen the most of my life (in terms of hours played, though GTA3 is probably close)

 

[jlebrech]

You're being ambitious arent you if you plan to port that, cos im keeping my ambitions low and porting zork (20 years old game).

But i think u are giving us ideas which is good. but i dont think i could port something like that, i too noobish to make something like that.

 

[Esn]

Would DOS emulation really mean that it would be possible to play all of those old DOS games on the GP32? I mean, there's a DOS emulator in Win95, but it's not as good as the real thing, and some games (particularly Star Control 2) still screw up pretty badly in it...

However, apparently there's something better than what Microsoft's offered us: http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/f...aq/dosbox.shtml

I haven't tried it yet... but... *takes mental note to download DOSBOX as soon as he's finished writing this* ... perhaps this is a good beginning.

Star Control 2 works at 12-16 Mhz, so as far as I can see, if DOS-GP is possible then it's on the border of what the GP32 can and cannot do.

Probably harder than a GBA emulator (though that's pure speculation; any input from any programmers?), and since nobody has started one yet, I'm guessing that most people here would rather emulate consoles.

I'd happily put my time into doing this if I knew how to go about porting an emulator; unfortunatly, I don't.

I do know one thing, though; if the thousands of fans distributed along various DOS games like Jazz Jackrabbit, Star Control, and others, find out that DOS can be emulated on a handheld, there'll be a LOT more people on this board...

 

[jlebrech]

It's not an emulator its more like a bypass, it still needs intel chips.

 

[Esn]

OK...

So that wouldn't help things much.

IF somebody made a DOS emulator for the GP32, though, would that mean that all of those old computer games would be playable?

OR is DOS just an OS, and if emulated would just create an unwieldy start-up system for the GP32 and not the capability of playing 386PC games?
I think I heard that somewhere, though I'm not sure...

If that's true, is it possible in theory to emulate a 386 on a GP32?

 

[jlebrech]

What you need is a 386 emulator, that emulates the amibios and loads msdos from a smc.

Really it wouldnt be a dos emulator it would be a IBM compatible emulator that u install dos onto.

 

[Tobriand]

x86 actually (that way we're not limited to VERY early games...). There's been talk of porting Bochs to allow this... which would be nice.

Another area that needs to be looks ed is the porting of RiscOS - as this supports ARM processors straight out. I.e. If we can get RiscOS on it, we instantly get all the emus for Acorn computers (which include Lynx, GB, NES, Snes, and quite a few more, although many are quite slow). And they shouldn't be ludicrousy slow (as running emus withint emus usually is) as it would be an OS port and a compatible chip as opposed to an Acorn emu.

 

[Esn]

Actually, I checked the DOSbox site ( http://dosbox.zophar.net/ ) and this is what I found:

"What is DOSBox?
It is a PC emulator with builtin DOS for running DOS Games primarily."

The italics were my own addition.

And also:

"DOSBox emulates a full x86 pc with sound and dos. It's main use is to run old dosgames on platforms which don't have dos(win2K/XP/linux/FreeBSD)"

That quote is from http://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbox

So it IS a x86 PC emulator, and it's also open source...
What would one have to do to port this to GP32?

 

[Esn]

Apparently, there is a version of DOSbox that is platform-independent.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...lease_id=129394

Does this mean that it's possible to run it on the GP32?

This is probably a really stupid question, but I know nothing about coding, so... :unsure:

 

[ravuya]

The SDL port of SC2 (The Ur-Quan Masters) should definitely be able to run on the GP2X, and it's more or less already ported to a console resolution and control method. It's also open source.

 

[ingrin]

????
We already have it on the GP2x, have since late Nov/Early Dec timeframe. Go check the file archives under RPG (I think)

 

[icurafu]

????
We already have it on the GP2x, have since late Nov/Early Dec timeframe. Go check the file archives under RPG (I think)

​

It's called Ur-Quan masters. That may have thrown you off.

LOL, ported by loki666. I want to continue the development as loki is moving on to other things. If anyone has any sugestions. I'd be happy to implement them.

Right now, I want to move it to the minilib, or the new HH SDL lib.

I'm also going to make the controls easier to change, so that it can be set up for two players each holding one end of the console. As well as other controls that rotate the screen and allow the user to use the x for accelerate and A and B to turn left and right.

I'm thinking about other options, that dont come default with the game, that people might want to play with. Like under/overclocking, TV-OUT or motionblur.

 

[ingrin]

Cool! I made my GP2x purchase decision based on this game.
Those sound like fun, though daunting, additions...

 

[5465756e]

????
We already have it on the GP2x, have since late Nov/Early Dec timeframe.  Go check the file archives under RPG (I think)

​

It's called Ur-Quan masters. That may have thrown you off.

LOL, ported by loki666. I want to continue the development as loki is moving on to other things. If anyone has any sugestions. I'd be happy to implement them.

Right now, I want to move it to the minilib, or the new HH SDL lib.

I'm also going to make the controls easier to change, so that it can be set up for two players each holding one end of the console. As well as other controls that rotate the screen and allow the user to use the x for accelerate and A and B to turn left and right.

I'm thinking about other options, that dont come default with the game, that people might want to play with. Like under/overclocking, TV-OUT or motionblur.

​

Good that you are picking up development.
I made a modified key map a while ago. You can download it from http://home.hccnet.nl/vande.berg/keys.cfg. It also contains a list off all the key codes.
On thing that needs to be fixed is changing the Captain / Ship name. If you accidentally chose that there is no way to exit.

 

[icurafu]

Thanks 5465756e,

This will be useful. Feel free to inform me of any bugs you see. I think there are a lot of bugs out there because of the SDL libs. I might be able to fix a lot of the bugs just by recompiling with the HH SDL.

 

[Josquius]

You're being ambitious arent you if you plan to port that, cos im keeping my ambitions low and porting zork (20 years old game).

But i think u are giving us ideas which is good. but i dont think i could port something like that, i too noobish to make something like that.

​

How will that work without a keyboard?

Anyway, original topic-
Would this be possible on 32 as well as 2x...

 

[5465756e]

Thanks 5465756e,

This will be useful. Feel free to inform me of any bugs you see. I think there are a lot of bugs out there because of the SDL libs. I might be able to fix a lot of the bugs just by recompiling with the HH SDL.

​

Will do

Most of the problems I encountered so far are random crashes or freezes.
There is on other issue though. I use the patch with the clean boot scripts etc. Now UQM creates (and does not delete) a random directory (in the dir. where the executable is located) every time I run the game.
I'm looking forward to the version compiled with / for the HH SDL.

I personally prefer the SDL libs to be statically linked with the app instead of having to install them. The increased file size is not so bad and you avoid a lot of version problems this way.

 

[ravuya]

On thing that needs to be fixed is changing the Captain / Ship name. If you accidentally chose that there is no way to exit.

​

I can write a patch to just take out that functionality for now, if you think it's something that might be needed.