Beta Triplane Classic

[joseluisjazz]

A few days ago I successfully compiled Triplane Classic on the Pandora, which is a port from a game I enjoyed playing in the 90's. I made a PND of it and uploaded to the Pandora Apps (Here you have the game's manual). And I thought it would be a good idea to put a page here to recieve some feedbacks.

And I learnt some things during the process:

• Learnt how to make a PXML file.
• Learnt how to make the icon with MTPaint. (I didn't know that program before and now I love it)
• Learnt how to make a run script with zenity dialogs.
• Learnt how to build the PND start to end from the pandora. (since there was no tools for making the iso image I had to compile cdrkit, you can download it from my ports page)

The game uses SDL, and runs scaled 2x thanks of a command-line option (original resolution 320x200). And when invoked I made it first ask the user whether it should run windowed or fullscreen, since I noticed that the touchscreen mouse doesn't work too well on fullscreen, but it works well with the nub. It only have mouse in the menu though. Tell me if you find the dialog more helpful or annoying.

The run script checks also if there's a previous conf file, and if not it creates a default one which has the "multiplayer at 800x600" option disabled, since that doesn't work and the program crashes. If I were an experienced programmer it would be nice to modify the sourcecode to add some filters like ScummVM or Dosbox has, and also create a "multiplayer 800x480 mode". But I don't think I have the ability nor the time for that. <_<


So... TIME PASSES. And since I built it I have learnt new things and I'm making a second version, using more optimizations (not that it run slow before, but it doesn't hurt, doesn't it?). And what I still haven't learn how to do is how to put the config files in the appdata folder, because now it writes them to $HOME. In my case I don't cared about it so much because I'm running from the SD, but it would be nicer if it wouldn't write anything to NAND. Must be something very easy to do but I've not yet looked into it.

When I have the new build I'll put a link here for bestatesting before I update it on the appstore (which is something I don't know how to do yet, either). UPDATE: New version in post #3. In the meanwhile if you have any problems running the program, or any suggestion, or anything please be welcome.

 

[God Ginrai]

And what I still haven't learn how to do is how to put the config files in the appdata folder, because now it writes them to $HOME. In my case I don't cared about it so much because I'm running from the SD, but it would be nicer if it wouldn't write anything to NAND. Must be something very easy to do but I've not yet looked into it.

This is basically what you need to know:

I don't believe that's correct - the CWD is specified in the PXML, which in the case of Firefox is the root of the mounted pnd filesystem. Can you give a link to where you're getting that info from? Cheers.

The CWD (startdir) can be specified in the PXML, but it should be a relative path (= _not_ starting with '/', that is NAND root). And startdir is an optional attribute, default is ".". After you're sure it's starting in the right folder, you can set home to be there like this:
export HOME="$(pwd)"

So basically, make a bash script that sets HOME and then calls your application, and make that be what is run when you run the PND. (be sure to make the .sh file executable)

EDIT: If you follow the this quote back to its original topic and read from there on, you should see some more discussion on the issue.

-God Ginrai

 

[joseluisjazz]

Thanks GG, this is the part I didn't know about (from http://pandorawiki.org/Libpnd_hub):

The app doesn't know about appdata and its pnd file.. the OS and libpnd take care of all the magic.. the app sees one directory, but the reality is there is magic merging going on behind the scenes.

So here is the new PND with the following changes:

• It's been compiled with the followig optimizations, and stripped down:

  -O3 -mcpu=cortex-a8 -mfpu=neon -ftree-vectorize -mfloat-abi=softfp -ffast-math -fsingle-precision-constant

• It now uses a squash file system instead of iso, so the PND's size has been reduced more than half.
• It now writes the conf files in its appdata directory, and it also checks for previous conf files at $HOME for copying them back similarly as the hdonk's firefox port does.

Link to download: triplane-classic-1.04.02.pnd PND has been updated on Pandora Apps

 

[MonkeyChops]

Thanks for this joseluisjazz, I love classic dos games. It looks familiar but I'm not sure I've played it before. Looks fun.

a bit off topic but I noticed you had unrar on your ports page, any plans to pnd that up for us?

 

[joseluisjazz]

Hi MonkeyChops, I'm glad you like it. More will come.

About your question, I certainly could make a PND of unrar but I'm not sure that would be useful! I mean, it's only a binary to be run mainly (exclusively?) from command-line, and invoked from archive managers like squeeze. Go to [topic='55730']this topic[/topic] for more info in the subject, and how to install it from the tar.gz.

In relation with the unrelated topic: as I'm compiling 7zip in this very moment, I believe it'd be a good idea if I open a new thread to betatest (de)compressors...

 

[tmp]

Hi
I downloaded this for my new pandora today. However I can't get the controls to work. I've tried assigning them to different things (nubs, dpad, keypad) but my little plane just sits there. Pressing S makes it exit the hangar but other than that I can't get it to do anything.

Am I being really thick?

 

[tmp]

So I've found that the assigned controls work on the split screen multi-player mode, but not on the solo campaign. Maybe I'll send you a pm joseluisjazz.

 

[joseluisjazz]

As you know you set the controls for multiplayer in the "plane mechanics" menu. The thing is that for single player mode you have to enter the "roster" menu, create a new pilot and set the keys, pressing the button located at the right bottom corner.

Sorry for the late response. I don't visit the forum very often lately. Thank you for your interest in the game!

 

[tmp]

Thank you very much Those options were well hidden away.