Xmess Wip (pics)

[telengard]

Hi everyone,

Here are some (bad) pics of the current state of running xmess on the gp2x. The code isn't very pretty and I'll be cleaning it up. Both vid and sound are working. Sound isn't 100% from what I can tell of the few drivers I've tried so far. I do not have input working yet although it doesn't seem like it will be too difficult.

I had planned on porting a TI 99/4a emulator and possibly a Coco emulator but porting xmess seems like it would provide more "bang for the buck" considering it can do Colecovision, Atari 7800, and many other systems.

Just thought I'd share the fruits of my last day of vacation.

The pics are awful because my cheap digital camera has no option to turn the flash off. So sorry about that. Hopefully you can make out what is going on. It's amazing how these cameras pick up every spec of dust.

Atari 7800 w/ Ninja Golf

Colecovision starting up Pepper II

I'm still on the hunt for src code to have an on-screen keyboard. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to handle selecting carts/floppies/etc. I have a frontend I wrote in pygame that would be good for this but it seems a little too bulky on top of the untrimmed 15M xmess binary.

more to come... feedback, ideas, etc very welcome

~telengard

 

[Rayek]

You deserve the greatest praise!

But a LOT of stuff to cover! Probably even more of a pain than MAME is. Kudos, kudos, kudos.

What systems besides Coleco and 7800 are you working on? Anything completed yet?

 

[remowilliams]

Awesome, looking great! I'm definitely looking forward to this.

Can you use a Frodo type onscreen keyboard?

 

[Hooka]

COCO!!!!

awesome stuff, MESS brings alot of home consoles to a system all at once (and a i286 pc along with it among others)

 

[vic20-ian]

Wow - Excellent news. I am impressed.

You might want to think about dedicated builds for different families of machines based on emulated processors. e.g. 6502 based, z80 based to keep the size down.

I am currently play testing VICE2x extensively but if you need any help or feedback bug testing wise just pm me and I'll be happy to help.

Don't forget to set up a link to your website for donations when the first alpha or beta comes out.

There is an on screen keyboard in Vice2x by Snaff and the source is available, you could probably use that if you drop Mike a line.

Vice2x

 

[Quiest]

...
The pics are awful because my cheap digital camera has no option to turn the flash off. So sorry about that.
...

How about covering the flash with your hand?

Nice work anyway!

 

[TelcoLou]

MESS?!?

Holy crap on a cracker! Does it also run Intellevision?

TI-99/4A was my first computer ... got it for Christmas when I was 10 ... spent many, many hours of programming my own games for the little thing

 

[Eolair]

Colecovision!! I think I've died and gone to heaven

 

[reaper79]

Amazing news! Can't wait to try this.

 

[telengard]

You deserve the greatest praise!

But a LOT of stuff to cover! Probably even more of a pain than MAME is. Kudos, kudos, kudos.

What systems besides Coleco and 7800 are you working on? Anything completed yet?

​

Hiya Rayek,

Those are the only 2 so far. Nothing is finished yet unfortunately. Making progress though.

~telengard

 

[dreamwarbird]

guru status for this lad!!!!!!!

 

[telengard]

Wow - Excellent news. I am impressed.

You might want to think about dedicated builds for different families of machines based on emulated processors. e.g. 6502 based, z80 based to keep the size down.

Hi vic20! Thanks for the complement.

That's a great idea. I will definitely keep that in mind. Today I was able to trim the size down to around 10 megs from 15 megs by removing the effects that I think come from the advance[mess/mame] projects. Great stuff BTW if no one has tried them. I run AdvanceMenu and AdvanceMame on my arcade cabinet...

I think there is still a lot of "low hanging fruit" for cutting down the binary size. Once I run out of options your idea will come in real handy.

I am currently play testing VICE2x extensively but if you need any help or feedback bug testing wise just pm me and I'll be happy to help.

I will also do that, thanks very much for the offer.

Don't forget to set up a link to your website for donations when the first alpha or beta comes out.

Ditto

There is an on screen keyboard in Vice2x by Snaff and the source is available, you could probably use that if you drop Mike a line.

Vice2x

​

I'll look into this also, thanks. I'm toying with some ideas of my own too. I'd like to support custom keyboards for each system (probably more work than it's worth though given the number of systems).

Today I was able to get input working as far as the joystick and buttons. Playing Atari 7800 games is now possible, although I have a LOT of optimizing to do from what I can tell. Sound lags, and joystick input also seems laggy.

EDIT: Spelling

~telengard

 

[telengard]

...
The pics are awful because my cheap digital camera has no option to turn the flash off. So sorry about that.
...

How about covering the flash with your hand?

Nice work anyway!

​

Hehe, that's a good suggestion. Why is it that the simplest things escape me sometimes?

/me blames being hung over from too much wine new year's eve.

I'll snap some new pics tonight using this "technique".

~telengard

 

[telengard]

MESS?!?

Holy crap on a cracker! Does it also run Intellevision?

TI-99/4A was my first computer ... got it for Christmas when I was 10 ... spent many, many hours of programming my own games for the little thing

​

Hi TelcoLou,

Yes mess does emulate the intellivision, but I don't believe it's complete yet. TI 99/4a emulation however is very, very good.

For those that are curious, these are all the machines mess supports. I can't make any guaruntees about them working with what I'm calling "gp2x-mess" but it gives a rough idea of what *could* be possible.

What can run will depend on a lot of factors. I highly doubt that the amiga emulation will be useful, but I think some of the others will work great w/ some work. Mess's charter is much like mame. They go for accuraccy and portability over performance so I have my work cut out for me.

http://www.mess.org/sysinfo.html

Lots of cool systems in there, amstrad, spectrum, vectrex, coco, apple ][, etc and lots I've never heard of.

~telengard

 

[Alpha2]

Vectrex!?

*salivates*

Heck I didn't even know there was a viable vectrex emulator for PC, and now I might have one for a hand held soon? SWEET.

 

[Rayek]

For some of those systems it's impossible to find roms for them. Unless I want to dust off and install that huge floppy drive into my brand spakin new computer and load the roms with that, I doubt I can find any good apple II games.

But wow, good work indeed!

 

[vic20-ian]

Vectrex!?

*salivates*

Heck I didn't even know there was a viable vectrex emulator for PC, and now I might have one for a hand held soon? SWEET.

​

There are 2 for the GP32 but a bit slow.

Vectrec on PC is good - PM me if you need help setting it up sometime

 

[vic20-ian]

For some of those systems it's impossible to find roms for them. Unless I want to dust off and install that huge floppy drive into my brand spakin new computer and load the roms with that, I doubt I can find any good apple II games.

But wow, good work indeed!

​

Google a fan site and you will be surprised. e.g. Lemon for C64 is awesome

 

[Eolair]

Vectrex too?? YES!!
I love Vectrex. I even own two
(check my sig for a Vectrex gp2x )

 

[whiskthecat]

In that list of console it says sega saturn. Does this mean that the gp2x might play sega saturn games?