Testing 11.6 with game list in file picker

[skeezix]

This isn't newsyet, not until its proven solid..

I want a lot of peopel to try this one out, but it coudl be screwy

ie: I brought back the CRC32 "cache", which means once you hit Select to get details on a disk, the CRC32 is pushed off to a cache on the SMC card. Next time yo hit Select (even after restarting the gp32), the gamelist pops up instantly. Furthermore, it shows the game listing in the file picker on the right side, and if you hit right-shoulder it makes the listing full width so you can see most of it without even hitting select.

Pretty sweet.

But last time I had the cache in there (and it wasn't this involved, either), some weird stuff started happening..

I think this one is fixed, but I can't know until everyone beets it up.

1) Install it all
2) Use Select on all your disk images, to get the cache nice and beefed up
3) Restart.. is the game listing still there?
4) Right shoulder should show it pretty well... what do you think? (still working on it)
5) Any weird crashes in the disk picker now?

http://www.codejedi.com/castaway/binaries/gpcst116.zip

jeff

 

[tdp]

Pure Genius!!!!!!

Have downloaded this, as will check it out tonight.

BTW, is it me or are samples "slowly" starting to sound more clear as newer versions of Castaway appear?

 

[stickofjoy]

BTW, is it me or are samples "slowly" starting to sound more clear as newer versions of Castaway appear?

i think it's just you! :rolleyes:

 

[tdp]

Ooooh dear!!!!! :unsure:

To the chemist - I need some cotton buds!!!!!

Seriously, there is an improvement. Try using a pre-11 version. There is a difference. Or is it the ear-wax talking?

 

[Bonks]

Problem with these new functions for me is i solely use zipped images, so its useless to me till you fix that

Saying that i tried 11.6 for an hour there (going through most of my games) and nothing went wrong.... so thats a good thing i guess

 

[DarkWolfNine]

v11.6 has been added to the Compatibility website.

I have considered adding a spot for you to put a CRC when you report. I am not sure if that will be helpful? Jeff? you think?

 

[skeezix]

v11.6 has been added to the Compatibility website.

I have considered adding a spot for you to put a CRC when you report. I am not sure if that will be helpful? Jeff? you think?

I don't think a CRC would be useful; they're all in the games database anywhere, when we need them.

What would be really useful (ie: I've been thinking of building it, but you've already got 3/4 of the architecture needed would be a game ranking system.

ie: Login (you've got it), search for a game (you've got it), rate it (all that you need), and a new sort or view to show the games by rating and genre.

I envision it would work with either a "fatty rating" (1 to 5 stars, period), or a rating breakdown (overall 1-5, artowkr 1-5, addictiveness 1-5, sound 1-5, etc).

The ratings woudl be "on a real ST" (no reflection based on emulation quality or lack thereof).

Genre.. shooter, fighter, platform, adventure, rpg, top down race, 3d race, etc)

Then you coudl see a list of top games (by score or screo average), or top games by genre.

This wouldn't have anythign to do with emulation per se, but woudl be "what game do I want to play today?" and "I've not used thius platform much, but I'd love to see the best games for it!".

I'll build this this week if you don't

jeff

 

[skeezix]

Problem with these new functions for me is i solely use zipped images, so its useless to me till you fix that

Saying that i tried 11.6 for an hour there (going through most of my games) and nothing went wrong.... so thats a good thing i guess

I will likely add .zip CRC32 support; a little slower to generate, but ought to make you happy

jeff

 

[deathterrapin]

ZIP files already have CRCs in them don't they? It would probably be much quicker just to read those, although you'd have to check they were the same kind of CRC, there are slight variations on it about IIRC.

 

[deathterrapin]

I just did a quick check, the CRC listed in winzip for one zipped disk was the same as was listed in stgames.txt, so you should just be able to read it right out of the ZIP file, should be pretty easy to implement shouldn't it?

Edit: just checked a few more disks, they're definatly the same CRCs.

 

[Bonks]

I will likely add .zip CRC32 support; a little slower to generate, but ought to make you happy

jeff

it would indeed

dont know why anyone would NOT want to use there zipped images, almost halfs the size :blink:

 

[Tobriand]

On acount of not being arsed, pretty much lol.

Besides, al the images on Joe's FTP (or most of them) are .st or .msa; more work to zip them first than to simply use the thing you just downloaded and do a spring cleaning job on the games you don't play.

 

[Bonks]

On acount of not being arsed, pretty much lol.

Besides, al the images on Joe's FTP (or most of them) are .st or .msa; more work to zip them first than to simply use the thing you just downloaded and do a spring cleaning job on the games you don't play.

a single right click and click zip is all it takes.

each to there own i guess, personally the 128mb i have to play with just aint enough

oh and the best set at Joes (Atari ST Pirate Gold), there all zipped, far more work to unzip than it is to zip (also MBoys and Supremacy Games )

 

[Tobriand]

Yeah, I don't use Atari Pirates Gold on the basis that when I started off with them an awful lot of their released were in French or German. Which is not all that much use to me, especially in adventures; so I shifted to Autmoation and D-bug (especially the latter) on the basis that they tended to be in English more...

 

[skeezix]

I will likely add .zip CRC32 support; a little slower to generate, but ought to make you happy

jeff

it would indeed

dont know why anyone would NOT want to use there zipped images, almost halfs the size :blink:

I've not checked statistically, but from eyeballing a few .zip images, I found they didnt' compress very well at all.. perhaps I was looking at MSA files.. but I know of the disks I wanted, it was maybe 5 or 10% saving, which didn't warrant the zippage.

I'll be adding .zip CRC32 support ASAP to shut you up

jeff

 

[skeezix]

I just did a quick check, the CRC listed in winzip for one zipped disk was the same as was listed in stgames.txt, so you should just be able to read it right out of the ZIP file, should be pretty easy to implement shouldn't it?

Edit: just checked a few more disks, they're definatly the same CRCs.

*killer* idea!

I'll see if I can just suck out the zip crc32 without reading the whole zip file.. that would save some time for sure.

I'll have to check to make sure its the same crc32 all the time, but if you checked a dozen games, thats a pretty sure indicator. Nice one.

jeff

 

[DarkWolfNine]

Okay.. that makes sense.. Although its slightly unrelated to the Compatiblity chart. But what I can do is add a Sister Site (that uses the same database and user database) And add that to it. Shouldn't be too difficult.. except how do I give all those games genres? will the users choose the genre from a drop down? or is there an easy way to automate this? (too bad we don't have a catver.ini type file like mame uses.) oh well. But it shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[skeezix]

Okay.. that makes sense.. Although its slightly unrelated to the Compatiblity chart. But what I can do is add a Sister Site (that uses the same database and user database) And add that to it. Shouldn't be too difficult.. except how do I give all those games genres? will the users choose the genre from a drop down? or is there an easy way to automate this? (too bad we don't have a catver.ini type file like mame uses.) oh well. But it shouldn't be too difficult.

Yeah, the genre could be rough.. I'd make the user pick it, but then you run the risk of peopel chosing two different genres for the same game, and even worse.. multiple genres could truly apply. (Adventure + RPG would be easy to mess up, since people may not know that Infocom is adventure, and Lucas games are adventure, but DM is RPG and not adventure...)

Maybe we should leave genre out, and then let some specific people add genre?

This would definately be a sister site .. not compatabiltiy but game rankings. With luck, it coudl grow and people coudl end up using your site to find games to buy for various platforms. That'd be sweet.

Why doesn't this already exist?!?!

ie: I'd check it for PS2 and Gamecube and such for sure, just as well as checking it for the ST

I coudl write something up quick myself, too, let me know if you can't be bothered. I'll make an ST-centric one, but this sort of thing I envision coudl be a big thing across all platforms

jeff

 

[DarkWolfNine]

if you would like, you can do it. This week might be pretty busy for me, I was thinking of trying to get one night this week to do it and then finish it up this w/e.

 

[skeezix]

if you would like, you can do it. This week might be pretty busy for me, I was thinking of trying to get one night this week to do it and then finish it up this w/e.

OKay, I'll think about it. Shoudl make a new domain.. shoudl look around though.. there *must* be somethign like this already. ie: A "www.gameranks.com" can't go without being thought of already

jeff