The web log of a meandering nobody…
RSS icon Email icon Home icon

  • ScummVM: “1.2.1 – Børk Børk Børk release”.

    It’s been a hectic few weeks but I finally had time to get the 1.2.1 builds uploaded for my all backends following the main Dec. 19th release. Sorry about the delay Winking smile.

    The 1.2.1 release is mainly a bugfix and cleanup release for 1.2.0 and also introduces some additional translations of the GUI.

    There are few changes to my backend code but all the core changes are rolled in.

    Oh, I also just noticed the date so “Happy New Year” everybody.
    Maybe I should try and find more hacking time in 2011 Open-mouthed smile.

    Providing feedback:

    If you would like me to consider a feature or fix a bug in my backends help me to help you by ensuring the reports end up recorded in official places.

    Downloads:

    All the 1.2.1 releases including my GP2X/GP2XWiz/Caanoo and OpenPandora backends can me found on the main ScummVM download site.

      • ScummVM’s Main Download Page: download

  • ScummVM: “1.2.0 – FaSCInating release”.

    This post is a few days late but as all my releases are now uploaded and available I thought it was work announcing the release.

    The entire ScummVM team is rather proud of this release and you can read the official announcement here. One of the major ‘headline features’ is that this is the first release to feature the fruits of the integration/refactoring of the FreeSCI codebase and it’s substantual enhancement and extension by our own SCI engine team.

    There are also enhancements for several engines and the addition of support for “Fascination” (An amusing risqué point and click adventure from Coktel) in the Gob engine.

    From my point of view the 1.2.0 release marks the 1st official release of 2 new device backends/ports I have put together (GPH Caanoo and OpenPandora) and also features quite a few enhancements and speedups to my existing GP2X and GP2XWiz backends.

    It also marks the official release of new backends for Android and Dingux and the unfortunate retirement of the venerable old PalmOS backend.

    The upshot is that this should be our best release yet and I would certainly recommend this release over any older versions of ScummVM for the devices I support.

    Read the rest of this entry »

  • ScummVM: “1.2.0 preview 1” for GPH devices (GP2X, Caanoo & GP2X Wiz).

    EDIT: This release has been superseded, please get the latest release.

    This post is to announce the release of a testing preview of the upcoming 1.2.0 ScummVM release for the GPH (GamePark Holdings) devices I support.

    This release supersedes recent ‘SVN’ builds as should provide a very good indication of what to expect in the final 1.2.0 release.

    Note: Please don’t mirror or hotlink these preview/test/alpha etc. releases or put them on download services but rather, direct people to this site.

    This helps me ensure that users always have the most recent versions.

    Also note that these test releases are not officially (or unofficially) supported Winking smilebut I will help if I can.

    I am hoping to get at least another preview release out for the GPH devices before the final 1.2.0 release as I carry on fixing bugs. This is why it is important to provide feedback, patches, fixes etc.

    Please give these releases a go and provide feedback.

    Noteworthy features:

    Below are the main features and fixes added with this new release.

    ALL:

    Changes to the way the music drivers are loaded (should fix game loading issues).

    Performance improvements.

    Add support for TouchScreen ‘Tap Modes’, Left Click, Right Click and Hover.

    GP2X:

    Performance tweaks/code clean-up (quite noticeable in some areas, not giving up on the old GP2X any time soon).

    Revised the button layout (please read http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=GP2X for more info), feedback on the button layouts is appreciated.

    GP2X Wiz:

    Fixes to 16 bit graphics support (still not sure this is 100% working well).

    Revised the button layout (please read http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=GP2XWiz for more info), feedback on the button layouts is appreciated.

    Caanoo:

    Revised the button layout (please read http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Caanoo for more info), feedback on the button layouts is appreciated.

    TODO List:

    ALL:

    Add support for a ‘Left Handed Mode’ (swapping the Left and Right trigger behaviour).

    Make the ‘Trigger Tap’ configurable by the user.

    Anything on the TODO may not happen in time for the 1.2.0 release, it is all rather dependent on my free time and that is at a premium at the moment.

    Read the rest of this entry »

  • ScummVM: “SVN r52440” builds for the Caanoo and GP2X Wiz.

    “Edit 07/09/2010: These builds have been superseded. Please get the latest ones.”

    This is just a quick post is to announce a set of SVN builds of ScummVM mainline code for the GP2X Wiz and new Caanoo,.

    “Edit 05/09/2010: Thanks for the feedback on the control issues on the Caanoo release, a fix is in the works.”

    This release is mainly to support SCI testing and give users a chance to preview updates to some of my ScummVM backends.

    These releases are build straight from the mainline trunk ScummVM code for the given SVN revision number.

    An OpenPandora and original GP2X ScummVM SVN release should follow next week(ish). Been a little busy to track down some bugs in them.

    Note: Please don’t mirror or hotlink these preview/test/alpha etc. releases or put them on download services but rather, direct people to this page.

    This helps me ensure that users always have the most recent versions.

    Also note that these test releases are not officially (or unofficially) supported Winking smile.

    Please give these releases a go and provide feedback.

    Read the rest of this entry »

  • ScummVM: Very belated 1.1.1 release for the GP2X Wiz

    While this is a little late to say the least (better late than never and all that, I mean it’s only 3 months late Surprised smile) I have finally managed to get my hands on a working GP2X Wiz, some all important free time and motivation, and built up and tested the GP2X Wiz backend for the 1.1.1 release following on from the official announcement.

    This post is also an announcement of the GP2X backend release as I forgot to post about it at the time despite the fact it got uploaded and released only a few days late ;) .

    I have not had a great deal of time recently to work on these releases so the backends are largely the same as the previous releases with just the needed changes to support all the fancy new things in the ScummVM core. No reworking of the control system or the like has been done yet (it’s still on my TODO).

    Some of the highlights of the changes 1.1.1 bring, that benefit the GP2X and GP2X Wiz, include 2 completely new engines and games, Dragon History (available free from here) and TeenAgent (available free from GOG.com). Also new is 16bit graphics support, which allowed us to add support for a whole bunch of newer Humongous Entertainment games for kids and improved support for the Amiga versions of Monkey Island, Legend of Kyrandia and Future Wars.

    Please provide feedback in the usual places on these releases and enjoy using them.

    Platform specific restrictions:

    Each of the releases has a small number of restrictions that have an affect on the games/engines you are able to use with each platform.

    GP2X: The biggest restriction with this platform is the overhead (and crudeness) of the downscaling when using 640*480 high resolution games on the 320*240 screen making such games perform poorly and look, well, bad.

    GP2X Wiz:  The downscaling support is a relatively recently added feature to the Wiz backend and while it looks a lot better than the GP2X, some issues still remain with high resolution games exhibiting ‘tearing’ when updating the screen under some circumstances.

    Unfortunately this seems to be an exhibit of the Wiz screen tearing bug and while efforts have been taken to minimise it in this release it the problem has not totally gone away.

    Providing feedback:

    If you would like me to consider a feature or fix a bug help me to help you by ensuring the reports end up recorded in official places.

    Downloads:

    What’s Next:

    Now I have the outstanding official 1.1.1 releases out of the way my plan is to get test releases from the main ScummVM trunk codebase featuring the ‘new’ SCI engine out as soon as I get time for the GP2X and Wiz, hopefully I will also be including support for the new GPH Caanoo at the same time.

    I also plan to update the OpenPandora release at the same time.

    Regards,

    John Willis

  • ScummVM: 1.0.0 “Shiny Logo” released for the GP2X and GP2XWiz

    This is just a quick post is to announce the 1.0.0 releases of the ScummVM for both the GP2X and the GP2X Wiz following on from the official announcement.

    Please provide feedback on these releases and enjoy using them, this is a huge milestone for the ScummVM project and we are all very proud of this release.

    New features since the 1.0.0 RC1 for my backends:

    Below are the main features and fixes added with this new release from the earlier RC1 release.

    Both releases feature additional ARM assembly optimised routines and tweaks to the build system along with a myriad of small ‘nips and tucks’.

    There are also further tweaks to refine the use of the “Return to Launcher” and “Global Main Menu” features (remember that Left Trigger and Select/Home/Menu will bring up the Global Main Menu in any game).

    This is in addition to the hundreds (litterally) of bug fixes that have gone into the core and game engines for this release from the ScummVM development team.

    Supported engines:

    Both releases feature support for all the game engines that are due to be included with the 1.0.0 release.

    This includes support for high resolution games.

    Read the rest of this entry »

  • ScummVM: 1.0.0 “Preview 2” for the GP2X and GP2X Wiz.

    EDIT: This release has been superseded, please get the latest release.

    This is just a quick post is to announce the “preview 2” test releases of the upcoming ScummVM 1.0.0 for both the GP2X and the GP2X Wiz.

    Note: Please don’t mirror or hotlink preview/test/alpha etc. releases or put them on download services but rather, direct people to this page. This helps me ensure that users always have the most recent versions.

    Please test and provide feedback on these releases as they will form the basis of the official 1.0.0 release candidate release for these platforms.

    New features since preview 1:

    Below are the main features and fixes added with this new release.

    Both releases feature additional ARM assembly optimised routines that offer performance increases in a number of games including “Sam and Max” and “The Curse of Monkey Island”. Both releases also feature tweaks to the default volume levels to cut down on sample clipping.

    There are also tweaks to refine the use of the “Return to Launcher” and “Global Main Menu” features (remember that Left Trigger and Select/Home/Menu will bring up the Global Main Menu in any game).

    GP2X: Lots of code cleanup and a few tweaks to lower memory usage. Disabling “Aspect Ratio Correction” now also works as expected rather then stretching the screen.

    GP2X Wiz: The biggest new feature is the addition of downscaling support using an optimised ARM assembly routine. This means the Wiz release now features support for the 64*4xx games such as Discworld 2, The Curse of Monkey Island etc. – It should also be mentioned that this seems to work well (better then I expected as I am not a fan of downscaling). Lots of my testers reported that the high resolution games are often extremely playable and look very nice on the Wiz’s OLED screen.

    There has also been substantial code clean up and fixes since the preview 1 release.

    Read the rest of this entry »

  • ScummVM: 1.0.0 “Preview 1” for the GP2X and GP2X Wiz.

    NOTE: This post is now out of date, please see the most recent posts for more info.

    This is just a quick post is to announce the “preview 1” test releases of the upcoming ScummVM 1.0.0 for both the GP2X and the GP2X Wiz.

    Note: Please don’t mirror preview/test/alpha etc. releases or put them on download services but rather, direct people to this page. This helps me ensure that users always have the most recent versions.

    Please test and provide feedback on these releases as they will form the basis of the official 1.0.0 release for these platforms.

    New features:

    Both the GP2X and the GP2X Wiz backends benefit from some long overdue code cleanup and general TLC in this release. Where possible both backends are using common/similar code to aid in there long term maintenance.

    Both releases also now feature support for the ScummVM virtual keyboard. This can be accessed by holding the left trigger and pressing the right trigger (the old ‘0’ for Monkey Island 2 copy protection key combination).

    The ScummVM virtual keyboard works well but it’s feature set is still maturing. If you have virtual keyboard specific feedback I would welcome that. It should be noted that the virtual keyboard works independently of the game engine and the running game is paused when it is in use.

    GP2X Wiz: If you have used the early alpha releases for the GP2X Wiz then you will be pleasantly surprised, all the known issues with saving, OGG Vorbis playback and volume control have been resolved along with loads of other minor fixes.

    Supported engines:

    Both releases feature support for all the game engines that are due to be included with the 1.0.0 release.

    Specific restrictions:

    Each of the releases has a small number of restrictions that have an affect on the games/engines you are able to use with each platform.

    GP2X: The biggest restriction with this platform is pure performance (some audio can be choppy) and the overhead of the scaling code when using 640*480 games on the 320*240 screen.

    This renders high resolution games such as Discworld 2 totally unusable on the device and games such as Curse of Monkey Island, Touché and the Broken Sword games very slow (to the point of unplayable IMHO but others disagree).

    GP2X Wiz: Whilst the Wiz is a more powerful console then the GP2X on paper there are still a number of features lacking compared to it’s older sibling. The most noteworthy is the complete lack of any down-scaling support in this release.

    This means that any games that have graphics higher then > 320*240 will fail to function on this release. Most/all 320*240 or lower resolution games run very well at full or near full speed on the device.

    Providing feedback:

    If you would like me to consider a feature or fix a bug help me to help you by ensuring the reports end up recorded in official places.

    Note: Feature Requests for 1.0.0 are closed but any requests will be looked at for future releases.

    Downloads:

    Please ensure you download the correct version for your device.

    Extract the contents of the zip to a suitable folder on your SD card and launch “scummvm.gpe” to run.

    Review the README-GP2X for more information.

    Extract the contents of the zip to the game folder on your SD card, ensuring that you have a “scummvm.ini” in your game folder and the rest of ScummVM in a “scummvm” subfolder. Launch “ScummVM” from the main SD launcher menu to run.

    Review the README-GP2XWIZ for more information.

  • Hacking around with the Leapfrog Didj

    In October of last year Leapfrog released a little gaming handheld called the Leapfrog Digi.

    On the surface this device is totally unremarkable (apart from the fact that Leapfrog have spent some serious money for software licenses including Pixar stuff and Star Wars) but once you start doing a little more research it becomes an all together more interesting little device.

    Some of the 1st things I discovered were that its ARM based (an ARM926) and that is it Linux based (with the board bring up done by Cozybit) with Leapfrogs bespoke ‘Brio’ software layer sitting on top. That was enough to get my attention and after a discussion with a fellow Didj hacker Claude Schwarz I decided that it was probably worth committing my findings so far to this blog so they don’t get lost.

    It is also fair to say that this device may be of interest to anyone hacking on the GP2X Wiz (more on that later) and with it’s very low cost (has been seen for $40) it may well appeal to a lot of the resourceful hardware hacking types I am so fond of ;-) .

    Read the rest of this entry »

  • Unpacking the GP2X Wiz

    I was recently fortunate enough to be sent a ‘near release’ prototype of the new GamePark Holdings (GPH) portable games console, the GP2X Wiz. Considering that, it only seems fitting to put together a quick post with some random observations and pictures.

    Remember that these observations are not based on a long period of testing so come with the caveat that my opinions may change!

    Now, obviously this is the successor to the GP2X (and spiritually the GP32).

    What is interesting from my point of view is the direction GPH have taken the Wiz.

    First thing you note is that it’s a tiny little console (only a little bigger then a GameBoy Micro). It’s small. Not really small but somehow much smaller then I was expecting.

    Secondly, GPH seem to be betting a lot of making the device accessible to Flash developers (this really does feel like it is the focus for the device as the front end ‘launcher’ is flash based). This is quite a marked departure from the GP2X and feels more like a step into the casual game market that is often dominated by mobile phones. I guess this change makes sense for their Korean markets.

    Time will tell what effect this has on the wider markets and the adoption of Flash on the device. I suspect very little to start with as a lot of GP2X devs will no doubt get a Wiz and treat it as a logical extension of what they have done there and start hacking the hardware and giving flash little more then a glance ;) . Given time however Flash could lower the entry level for apps and open the door to creative non-coders and that can only be a good thing for homebrew.

    Anyway, onto some hardware information.

    The GP2X Wiz is based on the MagicEyes Pollux SoC clocked at 533MHz and powered along by its ARMv5 ARM926EJ core. Paired with that you have the usual large page NAND, 64MB of RAM, touch screen and an SDHC slot for storage. Oh, and finally a decent fitted lithium-ion battery (that proudly tells you not to let Children and Pets chew or lick it as it may be a health risk).

    I was initially a little surprised that GPH did not opt for the MagicEyes MMSP2+ SoC in the Wiz (the GP2X used the older MMSP2 SoC) as moving to the VRender range means you loose some very handy features (The ARM94* 2nd core, the basic 2D engine, RGB scalar etc.) but on the flip side you do get an OpenGL ES 1.1 3D core. Unfortunately, as it stands, no one has got the said 3D core doing much yet (but I know Pickle was doing a little investigation work). As there are only a few dozen of these devices out and about in hackers hands that is no surprise. It is something I want to dabble with time permitting :) .

    One interesting thing I want to test sometime is to discover if the Pollux used in the Wiz suffers the same issues with strangled RAM bandwidth that the MMSP2+ suffers with. When I get time I will try the apps I built to test RAM bandwidth on the MMSP2+. If the Pollux is as bad as the MMSP2+ when it comes to RAM bandwidth that could be a bit of a snag.

    The form factor.

    It’s really shiny. To say the plastic used smudges easily is a massive understatement :D . That said it feels well made and fairly solid to hold with no flex (a pleasant continuation of the GP2X F200 level of build quality rather than a slide back to the dire quality of the 1st GP2X’s). It even has a slot for the stylus now, something the F200 GP2X did not manage.

    The control layout is not quite to my tastes (big hands so it can tend to feel a little cramped). Buttons seem responsive and have a fairly positive feeling. The dPad is not as bad as all that but I have not really tried it in games yet. Not sure I am a convert to the ‘split dPad’ button layout for the right hand side mind you. This also raises the point that the L and R triggers are inset from the edges of the unit. That feels a little odd but you get used to it I guess. All in all, the controls are not great but not bad. They do the job.

    The screen (when it is not suffering something like a vsync tear) is very nice. Its OLED technology and is nice and bright. Assuming the screen setup issues are software its a classy screen despite the low (comparatively) resolution of 320*240.

    Something else that jumped out at me was the interesting choice GPH has made by deciding to move everything other than the headphones to the EXT port on the bottom. This includes things like the USB (device and host), TV out and charging. You won’t be connecting your Wiz to a PC directly without some additional fly leads due to the lack of a USB device port on the unit.

    I suspect GPH plans to ship (as an extra or included, not sure) a dock or clip-on unit that provides at least USB and TV out and maybe WiFi if the picture below is accurate.

    The software platform.

    The 1st thing that greats you is the Flash menu GPH have developed for the unit.

    Not a lot to say about it really. It feels like a sloppier version of the menu used on the GP2X. I hope this is down to the unit being pre-release but the menu crashes regularly and does a generally poor job of being a menu. Another aspect of the pre-release software is the lack of a lot else on the unit (that reliably works) so there is not a lot of software to talk about.

    It is Linux 2.6 based but I have yet to get hold of the source to have a look at how clean the MagicEyes/GPH changes are. Looking at the file system and kernel it seems safe to assume that AESOP Embedded did the kernel porting work like they have done for other MagicEyes chips.

    It seems to ship with a decent set of libraries and SDL. It is not clear if the stock SDL features some basic hardware acceleration.

    I’ll update this and add more pictures when there is final software available as it is more then a little unfair to draw real conclusions from early code such as this

    So what do I plan to do with it?

    Not a lot right now (for at least the next few days) as I have some other projects to clear off my plate but once they are out of the way the 1st thing I want to do is clean up my basic ScummVM port then look at what is needed to add the Wiz as a supported machine to OpenEmbedded and look at what funky stuff can be done towards supporting stuff like kexecboot and a full Ångström distribution ;) .

    What about the Pandora?

    Well it’s no secret that I look after the Ångström based operating system for the Pandora (among other things) and I guess that could represent a conflict of interests (yeah, right) but I would draw your attention to one little fact. I am a geek who likes to mess around with electronics :) . The more the merrier. I could not give a stuff about ‘community politics’. I just simply look at something and ask myself ‘does that look interesting’ and ‘will I mess about with it’.

    Having now had a little time to mess about with the Wiz it is obvious to me that I will be doing some hacking about with it and I can’t really see how it and the Pandora are in any way directly ‘competing’. Different design goals, different software goals, different platforms and different price points ;) . Both look like decent hacking platforms in there own way. When they are out, and if you can afford it, get both or just ask yourself what you want to do with it and ignore anyone who sounds rather too devout about one platform or the other.

    The Wiz with some other consoles to get an idea of size.

  • « Older Entries

 

June 2013
M T W T F S S
« Apr    
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930

Categories

Archives

Gaming Tags


Powered by WordPress
Designed by My Mobiles