GP32 Dragon BASIC


jma

Still Fresh
Joined
Apr 28, 2003
Messages
10
Age
47
Location
Salt Lake City, Utah
Website
www.simforth.com
Hello, all.

Evidently, someone posted here about Dragon BASIC (my compiler) for the GBA here, hoping to gain support for me to port it to the GP32.

Well, you got it ;)

The GP32 (while ARM based) is probably still very much different enough from the GBA that it may take a lot of work to do this.

I was curious as to how many people really would be interested in this? Please, though, I'd ask for you to not post a reply or email me unless you are serious about this. While I love doing this, I would really hate to put forth a few months of effort just to have no one use it...

Anyways, feel free to let me know your feelings, comments, ideas, etc.

Lastly, I'm having one hell of a time trying to find documentation, etc. on how the GP32 works, graphics, sprites, sound, etc. And the only emulator I can find is "GeePee32" -- which doesn't seem to support many important aspects of the handheld (DMA, sound, timers, etc.) Are there any other (even official) emulators that I could use while testing out code?

Any info. helps! :D

Jeff
 
Ditto, I would love to see this too.

AFAIK GeePee is the only alternative to actually owning a unit, unless someone know different.

MrT
 
Ditto for me, I'd love it! And, unfortunately I do not know of any other emulators either.
 
Jeff, I'm one of the people who emailed you about this. I am a hobby games programmer and have made some PC games uisng Blitz Basic, and had a dabble with GBC development.

I stopped with the GB route when i refused to buy another flash linker. With the Gp32 the Smart Media USB connection opens up the development door straight away!

My PC games:
http://www.ewtoo.org/~matt/soccer/
http://www.ewtoo.org/~matt/bendertron/
http://www.ewtoo.org/~matt/roy/
http://www.ewtoo.org/~matt/yaking/

I will certainly create some games if you make DragonBASIC for the GP32. I am 100% certain of that. :D

Whilst the user base for GP32 is smaller, I think it is growing at a very fast rate. The large emulator base is really pulling in the crowds. I expect there will be a lot of willing users of DragonBASIC.

thanks,
matt
 
Actually there is another way, jma. The Microsoft Visual C++ devkit for the GP32 allows you to compile for either the GP32 or Win32, in one package. The Win32 version comes with wrapper code and basically displays a GP32 console on your screen, with the Win32 equivalent of your code running instead.

I don't know where to get this kit, try #gp32 on EFnet ... unless anyone else knows?
 
Jeff ! Nice to see you made it to our boards, and may be able to help us !
Hope you didn't mind me trying to drum up support for you and getting some of the others to e-mail you and show their support too ! Looks like it wasn't a waste of time, which is great news, as I wasn't even sure you'd reply to my original email the other day. Imagine my surprise when not only did you answer it, but you answered it almost straight away and rather positively ! I hope you manage to find all the development tools and info you need. I'm sure some of the seasoned coders like skeezix etc will help you :)
Roll on the first release of dragon basic for the gp32, and rest assured there'll be plenty of beta testers for you if required !! :D
Hope to hear from you soon !
Steve

Ps Stickofjoy, which Matt are you, as I know of a few Matts from the Blitz forums and the old blitz irc ?
 
Ahh, Matt Sephton :D
I remember Bendertron ! Didn't I send you some music for that once upon a time ?
LOL
 
Fash_FD posted on Apr 28 2003 said:
Ahh, Matt Sephton :D
I remember Bendertron ! Didn't I send you some music for that once upon a time ?
LOL
That's me! I stopped work on Bendertron due to possibilities with copyright infringement. I was contacted by SCi with respects to putting the game into the upcoming Futurama game as some sort of minigame/unlockable bonus, but that didn't go anywhere. :( We'll see if they did it anyway!

You did send me some music for one of my games, not sure which though as I never used it (not sure why)!

I'd love to convert my Simple Soccer game to GP32, with RF support. B)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I am one of the people that emailed you as well. Sorry to bother you, then again, since you're showing intentions of porting Dragonbasic to the GP32, not so sorry. I am very interested in this as well.
 
Glad to see some support :D

The problem I am having is finding decent documentation on how the entire system works. I can find great docs on using C to program the GP32, but that's not what I need (or want)...

Is there sample ASM (commented) code for setting up a graphics display and plotting a pixel on the screen?

The GBA has wonderful documentation on the RAM registers, DMAs, timers, etc. I can find none of this for the GP32, and without it, the whole endeavour would be a futile effort...

Jeff
 
jma posted on Apr 27 2003 said:
I was curious as to how many people really would be interested in this? Please, though, I'd ask for you to not post a reply or email me unless you are serious about this. While I love doing this, I would really hate to put forth a few months of effort just to have no one use it...
I would love it! I have been test driving DBC for GBA the last week or so and like it so far. DBC for GP32 would be great!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
i've also been doing some R&D and graphics for my first DragonBASIC game. :)
 
cool, just looked at a few websites for it, seems easy enough to program on! Who knows first pong, then snake, then maybe even Doom 3!
 
Back
Top