Would it be possible to get DOS running on a GP32?

[Chip]

Does the soundchip on the GP come from the PC area? If so it may have soundblaster compatability built in.

I don't know this for a fact, but I remember seeing somewhere that the GP32 doesn't have ANY sound hardware. The ARM9 has to do all the sound processing.

 

[Esn]

You know, the best way to find out would probably be to ask at the DOSBox forums... but anyway...

All I know is that Win2k without DOSBox plays my DOS games about 10 times slower than it should, in completely screwed up colours, and with "sound" a bunch of clicks (sound is quite normal, actually, just 10 times slower, which is why I only hear individual clicks). DOSBox fixes all that.

If you look at it's sourceforge website, it says "DOSBox emulates a full x86 pc with sound and dos". Note the word "emulates". It's also "OS independent". It's environment is "Win32 (MS Windows), X11 Applications".
Here's the DOSBox Sourceforge website:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dosbox

P.S. I'm shooting in the dark here, I have really no idea how possible this is or what those characteristics really mean. It just that it seems to me that this might be possible. Stranger things than x86 emulators on GP32s have happened...

 

[Feeblez]

i'd rather have an Amiga emulator! :lol:

PC platform games were rather lame! (yes there was that Jackrabbit thing)

DOSbox compatability isn't that great, but it is a neat bit of software.
don't quote me on this but i think it does emulate the x86 cpu and soundblaster to some degree.

 

[Dozer]

At least ram shouldnt b a problem as it doesnt hav a gui

 

[pete_w]

Dosbox does emulate the cpu and soundcard etc. see here http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/information.php

 

[Esn]

Ah.

Well, then, that question is put to rest.

What would need to be done to port this thing to a GP32, then?

P.S. As for compatibility, it works for Star Control II and that's good enough for me B)
Protected mode games still don't work, I think... it IS being improved though; it's only version 0.58 after all. And it's still the least processor-intensive DOS emulator out there.

http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/s...es/sc2_back.jpg
(warning: BIG)



Feeblez: PC Platform games were NOT lame! h34r: Besides Jazz Jackrabbit, have you ever played Commander Keen (1-6), Bio Menace (1-3), Hocus Pocus (1-3), or Monster Bash (1-3)?
Apogee was King. B)

 

[NiN^_^NiN]

Well if a amiga 68k is emulated b4 the dos box u can use the dosbox software on the amiga emu hehe emulator on a emulator. :lol:

h34r:

 

[chortya]

So as I understand Mac emulation is more possible? (RISC-RISC) Are there any good games for old Macs ? (I'm only PC freak, never worked with that american funny hardware

 

[Chip]

The Mac classic used an 8MHz 68000 CPU, wich is exactly what the Atari ST used. CaSTaway has clearly proven that the 68000 can be emulated very well.

In theory, the Mac classic should be easier than the ST, because of it's complete lack of specialized video hardware. Hell, it wasn't even in color!

Yes, a Mac emulator is doable. Here's an open-source Macintosh 68000 emulator that could be ported if someone really wanted to put forth the effort. But the real question is: WHY BOTHER? The games that would run well on a classic were crap, and certainly nothing you couldn't get on another system.

It might be interesting for someone to make a Mac emu just to prove it can be done. But in the end, it probably wouldn't get much use.

 

[khephren]

Didn't the mac have some strange medium resolution display though? that would make porting akward 'cos you would have to scale every screen, every frame.

 

[Archibear]

Maybe this helps:

SoftwarePC-Emulator on ARM-CPU

Look at the end of the Text

 

[Mofokubik]

For one thing, how would you work out the buttons. Sound isnt a big deal on those old games cause they were just lame pc speaker sounds anyway, so I say forget sound. But I would use a dos emu cause there are so many old classics on pc that I would like to play again with my gp32.

 

[Fretzy]

There is one thing that would make a mac emu worth it.....

Bolo

Imagine if you could do wireless multiplayer bolo via gp32... *drool*

 

[Gurteltier]

Hi,

I already posted this somewhere else but I guess this topic is more appropriate. The way I see it, the GP32 is very similar in many ways to a Pocket PC, or at the very least one of the older ones which also ran on an Intel (Strong)ARM CPU. For these machines the emulator PocketDos does a very good job of emulating an old x86 PC -

www.pocketdos.com

Check out the screenshots! Unfortunately this product is not open source but maybe if enough people ask we could persuade the developers to do a GP32 conversion. If it worked as well on the GP32 I'd be prepared to pay something for it.

Cheers,

Neil

 

[Tidus]

Great idea Gurteltier ! honnestly I would also pay for a GP32-PocketDos (which can run quite well of course!)

 

[skeezix]

You know I always wondered what good stuff was out there for early 68k Macs, since 68k early mac emulators ar easy to write; hell, I had a Mac emu for the Atari ST back in the day

Porting DOSBox would be doable; DOSBox is sloppy in some areas and better in others; it is indeed an emulator for intel etc, not an interpreter... it was designed to be an emu so it could work on many platforms, etc. (ie: You can run DOSBox on a Solaris SPARC based machine, for instance). I've not gone through DOSBox in any detail, but I beleive it to be feasible and really not too hard to do, if you drop out a lot of features. Most tedious to port woudl be the filesystem support.. ie: DOS games assume they have a DOS filesystem, including directories.. a game will have directorties containing its artwork or audio or savegames, etc. So for porting DOSBox you'd have to handle all the "cd" and "dir" stuff sao it goes to the SMC card filesystem of the GP32, or make a in-memory filesystem based on .zip files or something. So it woudl not be too hard a port, but it would be a lot of tedium to do it, and hard to know if it would run well or crap at the end.. but then it woudl turn into an optimization job... fun fun

So its certainly possible, but someone needs to step up to the plate.

MY plates full though.. I've decided I can't take on more projects right now.. I've already got 6 or 7 on the go that I have to support and grow

jeff

 

[jot2b]

OK, to put the emulation topic on hold for a sec, does anyone use FREEDOS instead of DOSBOX? I love it, even have a "dos harddrive" dedicated to old games. My computer simply boots to Freedos instead of XP when I use the boot cd I made from the website.

http://www.freedos.org