Stella For Gp2x

[Iorgy77]

Unplayable my arse... I have been playing it all afternoon. While the directional detection could do with some improvement saying it is unplayable is a gross overstatement.

By the way Stella also works with TV out.

 

[DaveC]

Unplayable my arse... I have been playing it all afternoon. While the directional detection could do with some improvement saying it is unplayable is a gross overstatement.

By the way Stella also works with TV out.

​

Try berzerk or cosmic ark, unplayable. In berzerk it will just stop dead when changing directions. In cosmic ark when you are trying to blast rocks it will sometimes ignore input causing instant death. Other games do the same thing. It must be treating an intermediate diagonal as a dead zone.


It is like it is doing this where grey areas are no-input dead zones:

 

[remowilliams]

Unplayable my arse... I have been playing it all afternoon. While the directional detection could do with some improvement saying it is unplayable is a gross overstatement.

​

Trust me when I say I'm not prone to overstatement. It IS unplayable at the moment.

I had no problem with the previous beta, and have no problem with any of the many other apps on my GP2X.

 

[Iorgy77]

Funny thing is I was playing Cosmic arc sure it could be better but it is still playable... also Hero, Dragster, Kung fu master, pitfall, frogger etc... I could play all those games... so it is not unplayable... If you want to say certain games are unplayable fair enough but to trash the whole emulator because you are not precise with your joystick well that is just an overstatement... Have you ever used a normal 2600 joystick?? they werent the most accurate joysticks either but was the system unplayable? NO!

All that said controls could use some improvement.

 

[ingrin]

Funny thing is I was playing Cosmic arc sure it could be better but it is still playable... also Hero, Dragster, Kung fu master, pitfall, frogger etc... I could play all those games... so it is not unplayable... If you want to say certain games are unplayable fair enough but to trash the whole emulator because you are not precise with your joystick well that is just an overstatement... Have you ever used a normal 2600 joystick?? they werent the most accurate joysticks either but was the system unplayable? NO!

All that said controls could use some improvement.

​

Its unplayable. I'm the last person to resort to hyperbole on these forums, I even think that the OEM joystick is tolerable and that the screen is perfect.
Its hardly a condemnation on the emu, by the way. I think everyone has stated how great this update is in terms of features. Its almost perfect, but the controls need to have a heap of TLC done on them in order to be able to enjoy the games.

And the Atari 2600 joysticks, when working properly, must not have that bad because I used to own on Yar's Revenge. Now I can't get past the first level. I refuse to accept my skills have atrophied that much

 

[zansatsu]

Funny thing is I was playing Cosmic arc sure it could be better but it is still playable... also Hero, Dragster, Kung fu master, pitfall, frogger etc... I could play all those games... so it is not unplayable... If you want to say certain games are unplayable fair enough but to trash the whole emulator because you are not precise with your joystick well that is just an overstatement... Have you ever used a normal 2600 joystick?? they werent the most accurate joysticks either but was the system unplayable? NO!

All that said controls could use some improvement.

​

Well... I wouldn't discount what they are saying. Although in my testing, I didn't encounter the 'unplayable' issues, they could still be having legitimate problems based on the fact that they could have different firmware or any other number of things could cause it. That's why I take feedback. If everyone having problems could tell me exactly how it's behaving with no embellishments, I'll look into it.

Before you get back to me, I would make sure that you have a non-corrupt zip archive and reinstall to a fresh directory (no 2.0.1 files should be present). Once you've done that get back to me with your firmware version and any other utilities you have installed (Like the NAND read-only patch and the like), if you are still having problems.

BTW: DaveC: The author and I have surmised that the GP2X's complicating factor is it's joystick, and implementing case 2 for the GP2X took many core changes. A joystick that sends button events is far from ideal, as most joysticks send axis events. Given these circumstances, we are doing our best to accomodate the GP2X. If you would like to take a look at the source and tell me how you would implement the joystick differently, I'd be very interested to see the changes.

 

[ingrin]

I put the new stella in its own folder, the only thing it shared with the old (which I deleted) is the roms.
I have no utilities other than Oldplay currently installed.
I am using FW 1.2.1
If you were to play a game like, say, Yar's Revenge, Can you make a full circular rotation without your ship freezing in place or otherwise not move fluidly? If you can, there must be something different about your system than mine, but I have no idea what it might be. My machine behaves like DaveC describes, where it seems to need to center again.

It could very well be that DaveC's suggestions just won't work with the GP2X; but I think Skeezix's ST emulator implemented a Case 2 Joystick somewhat successfully, perhaps you could ask him to take a look?

 

[DaveC]

It could very well be that DaveC's suggestions just won't work with the GP2X; but I think Skeezix's ST emulator implemented a Case 2 Joystick somewhat successfully, perhaps you could ask him to take a look?

​

The suggestions definetly work. They have been used in many emus with no problems.

 

[DaveC]

Well... I wouldn't discount what they are saying. Although in my testing, I didn't encounter the 'unplayable' issues, they could still be having legitimate problems based on the fact that they could have different firmware or any other number of things could cause it. That's why I take feedback. If everyone having problems could tell me exactly how it's behaving with no embellishments, I'll look into it.

BTW: DaveC: The author and I have surmised that the GP2X's complicating factor is it's joystick, and implementing case 2 for the GP2X took many core changes. A joystick that sends button events is far from ideal, as most joysticks send axis events. Given these circumstances, we are doing our best to accomodate the GP2X. If you would like to take a look at the source and tell me how you would implement the joystick differently, I'd be very interested to see the changes.

​

I have no patches installed (although people shouldn't be writing to the nand, this will cause the machine to be eventually unuseable) and no imbellishements.

Try this: go into the game Berzerk and kill all of the bots. Then slowly move the stick in a circular manner. It will just plain stop. This happens in other games as well. In Cosmic Ark when the rocks come in from the sides sometimes it won't fire when you move the stick in a direction, probably because I may move the stick slightly off center and hit sw1 and sw2 at the same time. If it was using case 2 it would still register as UP but instead it registers nothing.

I still think you are using the case 4 or something like it above. It is like when the two joystick switches are pressed at the same time it gets confused or ignores input completely at that point.

The controls are definetly broken. I have not had the same thing happen on any other game or emu. It isn't the stick itself, it isn't my imagination, there is something screwey in the joystick handling somewhere.

 

[zansatsu]

It could very well be that DaveC's suggestions just won't work with the GP2X; but I think Skeezix's ST emulator implemented a Case 2 Joystick somewhat successfully, perhaps you could ask him to take a look?

​

The suggestions definetly work. They have been used in many emus with no problems.

​

As I know they do. I was wondering if you could take a look at the source code and tell me how you would do it.

 

[DaveC]

It could very well be that DaveC's suggestions just won't work with the GP2X; but I think Skeezix's ST emulator implemented a Case 2 Joystick somewhat successfully, perhaps you could ask him to take a look?

​

The suggestions definetly work. They have been used in many emus with no problems.

​

As I know they do. I was wondering if you could take a look at the source code and tell me how you would do it.

​

Well if I knew anything about coding I would look at it and I would be able to fix it. Unfortunately I know absolutely nothing about linux or coding. I just know about playing and bitching I know how logically the stick's inputs should be handled (look at the case 2 pic above) but not in actual code. Maybe one of the other gurus could look at the code such as Skeezix, Squidge etc.

 

[zansatsu]

It could very well be that DaveC's suggestions just won't work with the GP2X; but I think Skeezix's ST emulator implemented a Case 2 Joystick somewhat successfully, perhaps you could ask him to take a look?

​

The suggestions definetly work. They have been used in many emus with no problems.

​

As I know they do. I was wondering if you could take a look at the source code and tell me how you would do it.

​

Well if I knew anything about coding I would look at it and I would be able to fix it. Unfortunately I know absolutely nothing about linux or coding. I just know about playing Maybe one of the other gurus could look at the code such as Skeezix, Squidge etc.

​

No prob. As programmers like to say, "programming is a series of compromises." Sometimes what you intend isn't always the end result and the result is far from ideal. As with any ideal 'case', knowing what should be and making it work are very far from each other. Sometimes you break one thing to fix another, sometimes you fix one thing and it breaks everything. Sometimes knowing what you should do doesn't mean knowing exactly how to do it. But I ramble.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Keep the input coming.

 

[DaveC]

No prob. As programmers like to say, "programming is a series of compromises." Sometimes what you intend isn't always the end result and the result is far from ideal. As with any ideal 'case', knowing what should be and making it work are very far from each other. Sometimes you break one thing to fix another, sometimes you fix one thing and it breaks everything. Sometimes knowing what you should do doesn't mean knowing exactly how to do it. But I ramble. 

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Keep the input coming.

​

Other feedback would be the scroll wrap feature. So if you are at the top of the ROM list and want to get to the bottom you could just press up and it would wrap to the bottom and continue up.

I still think though the controls are the most important thing though and should be taken care of first. As they are now I can't play most of the games so anything else is moot at this point.

Have you tried the Berzerk example that I gave? If so what is your observation?

 

[zansatsu]

No prob. As programmers like to say, "programming is a series of compromises." Sometimes what you intend isn't always the end result and the result is far from ideal. As with any ideal 'case', knowing what should be and making it work are very far from each other. Sometimes you break one thing to fix another, sometimes you fix one thing and it breaks everything. Sometimes knowing what you should do doesn't mean knowing exactly how to do it. But I ramble.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Keep the input coming.

​

Other feedback would be the scroll wrap feature. So if you are at the top of the ROM list and want to get to the bottom you could just press up and it would wrap to the bottom and continue up.

I still think though the controls are the most important thing though and should be taken care of first. As they are now I can't play most of the games so anything else is moot at this point.

Have you tried the Berzerk example that I gave? If so what is your observation?

​

I hold fire, I move the stick, and the sprite fires in every direction I point. What firmware version are you using?

 

[CoinOp]

The stick control is screwy on my 2x as well. I'm using firmware 1.2.1. Can't really roll the stick you have to release then tap when it stops taking input. Other then the control issue, I can tell this is going to be one of my favorite emus. Great work!

CoinOp

 

[remowilliams]

If you want to say certain games are unplayable fair enough but to trash the whole emulator because you are not precise with your joystick well that is just an overstatement... Have you ever used a normal 2600 joystick?? they werent the most accurate joysticks either but was the system unplayable? NO!

​

I'm not slamming the emulator, I think it is nearly perfect and a HUGE improvement since the last version. It's just that that something in the control code/FW? is rendering it unplayable on my GP2X. And yes, I have about 10 different 2600 consoles and god knows how many sticks.

Funny thing is, I'm one of the people who finds the stick pretty usable. The stock cap is a POS though.

No prob. As programmers like to say, "programming is a series of compromises." Sometimes what you intend isn't always the end result and the result is far from ideal. As with any ideal 'case', knowing what should be and making it work are very far from each other. Sometimes you break one thing to fix another, sometimes you fix one thing and it breaks everything. Sometimes knowing what you should do doesn't mean knowing exactly how to do it. But I ramble.

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Keep the input coming.

​

Definitely so - I know that I've broken things by trying to fix other things on more than one occasion

Anyhow - great work on bringing the port so far forward!

As for details - I have no 3rd party fixes/patches installed. FW is 1.2.1 The problems I'm having with control are exactly as described by DaveC. And Berzerk is a good game to test with, I knew in two seconds there was something wrong.

 

[TelcoLou]

I too did a clean install, running on FW 1.2.0, no odd patches installed and am still getting the same results; the stick intermittantly stops responding ... doesn't matter what game or direction I'm pressing. It seems very random ...

 

[vic20-ian]

Same here intermittent loss of input on 1.2.1 Firmware. Will try more games and new batteries as this was just before they died.

Great work on Stella - many thanks.

 

[zansatsu]

I too did a clean install, running on FW 1.2.0, no odd patches installed and am still getting the same results; the stick intermittantly stops responding ... doesn't matter what game or direction I'm pressing. It seems very random ...

​

Ok. Since there are a few complaints, I'll talk to the author and I'll get the ball rolling on this. So the general concensus is that the joystick stops movement, if changing direction and needs to be recentered (released) in order to pick up movement again, correct?

 

[TelcoLou]

I too did a clean install, running on FW 1.2.0, no odd patches installed and am still getting the same results; the stick intermittantly stops responding ... doesn't matter what game or direction I'm pressing. It seems very random ...

​

Ok. Since there are a few complaints, I'll talk to the author and I'll get the ball rolling on this. So the general concensus is that the joystick stops movement, if changing direction and needs to be recentered (released) in order to pick up movement again, correct?

​

That's it. It's also very random ... sometimes it will continue to detect a direction for a legth of time, then after a change in direction, stop completely.

Many thanks for a great job on this emu! I'm having loads of fun