GP32 -- Worlds Most Powerful Unheard-of Handheld Game Machine
The GP32 is a wicked little handheld gaming machine from an
independant little company in Korea. They're competing head to
head with the Gameboy Advance in their own little way. We always
support freedom of choice, freedom to innovate, and love to root
for the little guy. So heres our little page to wave the flag
for the GP32!
By request I've turned up a donation box in the webstore; I
build all of my free software to help support the communities I'm
a proud member of, but feel free to help pay the bills of a self
employed coder :)
We've ported our XCade application from Palm OS to the GP32, and
are giving it away free. We've always been big supporters of the
free software and open source movements where we can, and in that
spirit want to do our small part to support this marvelous little
machine.
The Atari ST has a special place in my heart, for its where I
really "cut my teeth" and did a lot of keen hacking around. Ran
a BBS for most of a decade, wrote a lot of assembly, GFA Basic and
C code, and really just got into the "scene". My tribute back to
the days of old is porting the keen Castaway Atari ST emulator
to the GP32. The port is actually of CastCE (for the Pocket PC :),
and has turned out *very* well if I do say so myself. Really
shows off what the GP32 can accomplish. -- Jeff
CaSTaway/GP Release 16.1 -- Slight savestate file naming improvement, double click with mouse works again; need to fix floppy formatting/etc (broken for 15.0 and later)
CaSTaway/GP Release 15.3 -- Better handling of sampled audio; Xenon 2 themesong and others are much better now!
CaSTaway/GP Release 15.2 -- Some compatability updates; should run a little smoother and run a few more games, or run some existing games a little better. More to come :)
CaSTaway/GP Release 14.0 -- Added BLU+ support; added 144MHz option; config file can handle these; updated manual to reflect.
CaSTaway/GP Release 13.3 -- Added Chatboard support! (Pull up Start Options, hit Adjust Configuration, hit Activate Chatboard)
Atari ST Games Database (for Castaway/GP and Others)
Rather than try and remember what disk A_097.ST has on it, we've
created a little database system that can figure out it is actually
Dungeon Master and OIDs on there, for example. With lots of work from
the public we've managed to catalog most every "packed" disk image
out there in both .ST and .MSA format so you can use it to find a
game your'e looking for, or to find out what games are on a given
disk image. Regardless of the filename in use! Castaway/GP natively
uses this database and we hope other Atari ST emulators will pick
up on it someday.
Release 14.0
------------
NEW: Added support for 144MHz option in Adjust Configuration screens
NEW: Added config variable for setting the clock speed from a config file
(ie: You can set it in default.cnf for kicking off the emu, or you can
set it in loaded .cnf files from button presses etc.)
key: clock-speed
values: as of version 14.0...
0 66MHz, 1 99MHz, 2 132MHz, 3 144MHz, 4 150MHz, 5 156MHz, 6 160MHz,
7 166MHz,
One of these days I'll alter it so you specify the clock rate itself :)
NEW: Added config variable to say "I'm a blue plus" to fix LCD
key: bluplus
value: 1 (blu+) or 0(blu/flu)
NEW: Added option to Adjust Configuration to toggle BLU+ setting on and off
o someone use this to tell me if it fixes the BLU+ LCD issue or not :)
(For CaSTaway/GP I understand its only a problem of beginning rendering on
the bottom pixel row instead of the top one)
NEW: Updated manual to reflect these changes (its still not a perfect manual,
but good enough ;)
Once, a long time ago, a brave warrior named Craig decided to
punish some poor poor GP32 machines; at first he thought about
installing Windows on them, but not being a heartless bastard,
he just overclocked them until their pants came off. The mighty
warrior was reduced to insanity when the poor machines refused
to melt or die or show any signs of misery! Due to the fine
experiments made by Craig, in which we learnt that the GP32 really
could handle high clock rates, I've added a new menu to Castaway/GP
so you could pick your preferred clock rate at runtime. The default
is still 132MHz, though you can now set as low as 66MHz to conserve
battery power, or as high as 166MHz if you happen to be doing some
CAD3d work in Castaway/GP, say :) If there is demand, I can add
some config file support for setting the clock, so that you could
make it configurable for each game or the like as you see fit.
Release 13.0
------------
NEW: Added new menu item to Configuration submenu; Adjust Clock Speed. You can
now set the GP32 clock to 66, 99, 132, 150, 156, 160 or 166MHz. Everyone can
run up to 132MHz, and hopefully you can get to 156 or so; some can run at
166MHz (including me! :). Your battery performance goes down the crapper
though at that speed, but you can turn your framerate way down.
o NOTE: Everything is very carefully cycle counted here.. including sound
processing to the ST main CPU; so if you clock up and the emu is running
mega fast, then sound will be higher pitched; so you can decrease frameskip
until its just right. If setting frameskip to 0 and its still too fast, it
means you're clocking too high so you might as well clock down a little
to get it right and save some battery power.
o NOTE: Now I need to add throttling code so that even if you clock too high
it'll run the right speed; for now, you can fiddle with your clock and
frameskip to get it right :)
o NOTE: Most people probably do not need to run at 166.. Castaway/GP is
already pretty fast!
o NOTE: Don't blame us if you pop your unit, though evidence would suggest
the worst that can happen is your unit crashes; just turn it off and you're
good to go :)
o Thanks [SoD]Thor! (Thor got me through a brief brainlapse :)
Added audio to Pacman, Ms. Pacman, Hanglyman and Pengo; also
added wider more visible shots to Galaxian and Moon Cresta. Some
minor fixes.. see below:
GPXcade 004
-----------
NEW: First stabs at Pacman sound
o Sound for Pacman, Ms. Pacman, Hanglyman
o Sound for Pengo
CHG: Wider shots for Galaxian and Moon Cresta
CHG: WinRommer now spits out at the end of its log the location of where the
file was written to, in case it went to outer space and you need to find it
Spit and pollish release :) The games database cache is back full
frontal -- at first you'll notice that hitting SELECT remembers
the CRC so the next lookup is instantaneous. You'll then notice that
you can use right-shoulder to toggle the disk picker between two
views.. the normal view (with a new game summary I might add), and a
"Game List Mode" which shows one game to a line, alphabetically
sorted. Mind you, it only knows about games on disks that you've
pushed SELECT on to get them into the cache, so sit there for 10
minutes and go through all your disks, and then you'll never leave
this mode! (You can default to this mode with a quick addition to
your defaults.cnf!) I might also note that for Bonks I added
game dataabse lookup support for .zip files, so you can have all
the same bonuses as normal when using zip disk images (though
save disk to SMC when using .zip may still be odd).
Release 12.1
------------
CHG: Added game count to bottom right of gamelist menu
CHG: Some dialog internals to make them handle large numbers of options/games
Release 12.0 - killer!
------------
NEW: Game listing mode!
o In this mode, disks that you have previously SELECTed (put into the cache)
will now show their games all together in one big sorted list!
o Gamelist-menu now lists games known in your cache in alphabetical
order, as well as putting in uncached disks at the bottom so they're still
findable; hitting A or B on a game will select it for disk insertion as in
the disk menu; right shoulder will toggle back to disk picker. Leftshoulder
does not do deletion in this view. Select will look up a disk to show you
the other games on that disk, and Start will fire things up as normal.
o so the gamelist view works more or less the same as the normal disk view
but is prettier for your cached games :)
NEW: Games database can now look up .zip file contents, so hitting Select
works on .STx, .MSA, .RAW (savestates) and now .zip's (w00t!)
CHG: Removed wide-desc mode that was in 11.6
CHG: Right-shoulder in disk picker now toggles between disk-menu and
gamelist-menu (which is new)
Release 11.6
------------
CHG: Make floppy access indicators stay around onscreen a bit longer; sometimes
they just blinked too fast, and I like to "see" them ;)
CHG: Reducing status/mode-line render frequency to get performance boost
CHG: Brought cache back in; we can beat it up and see if its all fixed?!
NEW: If cache is enabled then try showing a gamelist beside disks that have
cached CRC32's; only half a screen is available, so not much can be done....
NEW: If you hit Right Shoulder in disk picker, it'll toggle between showing
description field full width (if present) and normal (half width description)
NEW: Variable 'widedesc' available for config; if 1, wide description used; if
0, normal thin desc used. Useful for DEFAULTS.CNF!
UPD: ST Games Database 2.0
The Mind-blower edition. This one tweaks the controls to be a little
more friendly, while also adding mega configurability. We've fleshed
out the keyboard a little, and added the ability to hold down buttons
(as opposed to just pressing and releasing them). Theres autofire
for the joystick now, so your thumb doesn't get tired. Theres a new
config menu where you can load and debug config files.. and you can
totally define your own input mode. Say you're playing a game that
needs mouse and a key (like shift, to fire), just bind shift to
left-shoulder and away you go!
Release 11.5 - May 31st
------------
NEW: Added floppy disk image for showing disk reads -- both Disk A and Disk B
are shown as little disk images on the right bottom corner; try using GEM to
copy from A: to B: and watch it :)
o if the Drive B: icon flashes away and wipes out part of the virtual
keyboard, it will try and redraw the virtual keyboard to compensate
CHG: Added "-" to the keyboard (plus is shift-equals)
CHG: "File open messages" aren't shown anymore, so you don't see filenames at
the screen bottom anymore :)
Release 11.4 - May 30th
------------
NEW: Added "gamma" variable to config; you can set gamma to 0 through 4
inclusive; anythign else is turned to gamma 0.
ex: "gamma 2"
NEW: Config bind value "hold-"; simialr to just binding a STKEY
except this binds the value as a "hold" key (like pushing "A" on the
virtual keyboard).
ex: "bind-fl hold-ST_A"
This would mean as long as you're holding left shoulder, you're
holding down ST_A on the ST keyboard.
UPD: Included some sample configs in the distribution
Release 11.3 - May 28th
------------
NEW: Added bind toggle-keyboard (Custom mode can mimic left-shoulder now)
CHG: "ST_" keys are now case insensitive
NEW: Added "goto-" bind operation so you can now create toggle or
cycle configs! (one set of keys can jump to another set, etc)
FIX: If savestate is 0b long (crash during write?) then report Broken on
file picker, instead of hanging forever :)
FIX: Try and keep Custom "" part on screen accurately during
sneaky goto- changes
FIX: If a bind-op is listed twice, it should still work. (ie: If you set
everythign to joy-fire, they shoudl all fire)
FIX: Load-config menu should always scroll to fit
Release 11.2
------------
NEW: You can bind the value "menu_configload" to a button (say, left shoulder)
This brings up the config -> load dialog, so that you can very quickly
jump between config selections!
Release 11.1
------------
NEW: The "print" config command now adds text after the "Custom" mode
indicator; so if you print "MyMode" you'll see "Custom MyMode". Handy
to know what mode you're in (what config was last loaded).
FIX: When you hit Config -> Load and there are no .CNF files, it now
gives an error instead of crashing :)
FIX: Somehow from 10.5 private to 11.0 test version I broke the d-pad
bindings.. fixed now.
FIX: Frameskip mode wasn't displayed properly in the indicator, due to
changes done in 10.5/11; fixed now, so like normal again.
Release 11
----------
NEW: Virtual keyboard now has "SS" -- thats actually left shift and right
shift. The two esses work separately even though theyr'e side by side.
NEW: Added equal sign to the virtual keyboard. (Flight sims throttle?)
NEW: Pushing "B" on virtual keyboard preses and releases the ST key as
normal; pushing "A" however will toggle the key state.. ie: first "A" will
push the key down, second "A" will release it, third will push it down again,
etc. In effect, this lets you hold a key down. Useful for Shift to get
caps (or capslock), but also in some game sif you need to hold a key down
for awhile, like "=" for throttle or something? perhaps autofire in games
that have it built in?
NOTE: If you're being a smart guy and pushing "A" to hold it down, then
"B" to push it, then Castaway/GP is smart enough to just let the key up.
Punk.
NEW: On virtual keyboard, keys that are held down are shown in green. (ie:
blue normal, red is cursor, green is held down)
NEW: Joystick autofire; when turned on via the Configuration menu or
variable, will push the fire button pretty frequently on your behalf
NEW: "joy_autofirethresh" config variable to set the speed of autofire. Default
is 400. (Though in testing, havnig Xenon 2 with autofire of 300 is pretty
exciting! 200 messes upt he game.. it can't handle the human thumb that
fast ;)
NEW: "joy_autofireactive" config variable; default 0; if you set to "1",
autofire will commence.
NEW: Config variable "print"; the "value" word is just passed to the config
log. Potentially useful so you know what the heck config you just loaded :)
NEW: Changed "Calibration" in Option menu to "Adjust Configuration ...",
which contains menu with Mouse Calibrate, but also Autofire and others.
NEW: Created "Load Config" menu in Config menu; like the main disk picker, but
only knows how to find .CNF files. If an error is detected during config
load, the error log is shown
CHG: Picking a config file from normal disk picker will also show error log
if an error occurs during config load
NEW: "Show last config errors" option in config menu; this will show you
the error log from the last loaded config file (again). Could be useful
for debugging sake.
CHG: Delete file now defaults to NO! (doh!)
CHG: Moved Toggle Render Mode to configuration menu
NEW: Variables for binding..
o Notice you cannot rebind START, so you can't hang yourself :)
o bind-up, bind-down, bind-left, bind-right
o bind-a, bind-b, bind-fl, bind-fr, bind-select
NEW: Values for binding..
o mouse-up, mouse-down, moust-left, mouse-right, mouse-fl, mouse-fr
o joy-up, joy-down, joy-left, joy-right, joy-fire
o keyboard keys; giant list to be included later (see html docs)
o special: toggle-autofire, toggle-frameskip, frameskip+90, frameskip-90
NEW: "Custom Input" in options menu; (bind mode)
o default behaviour of SELECT is n/a for custom mode
o default behaviour of LEFT SHOULDER is n/a for custom mode
CHG: The mode hint ("Joystick", etc) at bottom of screen should now blink a
little less, and shoudl result in an ever so slight performance improvement
CHG: Warning dialog (when you go to Custom mode, but no config loaded) now
offers you the option of loading a config file right now
The kitchen sink edition ;) This version just solidifies things
made in prior versions. The savestates are super solid, toggling
between keyboard and other modes with left shoulder is all fixed
up, we've improved the splash screen a little (and made it look
very Atari ST circa 1987 if I do say so myself :) and in general
cleaned everything up. Yes, I do have a life.
Release 10.3
------------
NEW: Keyboard delay; when an ST keyboard key is pressed (from the
virtual keyboard, joystick mode's spacebar shoulder button, or cursor
mode's cursor keys) then it is now depressed for a moment, instead of
being pressed and released instantly. This fixes issues with a few super
sensitive games like Turrican, Xenon 1 (ship transofrmation), and a
few others.
Release 10.2
------------
CHG: New mouse calibration code (for the 6th or 7th time ;) -- seems to work
well in that it gives you full range of movement from the current mouse
position as if it was center of screen. (so ideally do the calibration from
center of screen!)
CHG: Automatic mouse-calibration at resolution changes
CHG: Automatic mouse-calibration when approaching perceived screen edge, so
that it'll let you run off the edge if you want to.. TOS won't let the
mouse fly off the screen anyway
CHG: The virtual keyboard starting position is in the middle now (near the
numbers) since most often the first time you pull up the keyboard you'll
be wanting to go somewhere else.. this should help minimize that first
bit of travel time
FIX: If you left-shoulder deleted the last file in the file listing, then
pressing down would let you scroll forever. Now fixed.. deleting an item
now selects the previous item so you can't scroll down into nothingness.
Release 10.1
------------
FIX: Updated version; doh :)
NEW: Save state menu now shows filename of disk-A: thats in existing save
states, or "Empty". This way you can tell which slots do not exist at all,
and if they do exist, what disk was in it
NEW: Gamma/Brightness adjust added -- this is done in such a way so that
colours will never become another colour (red will not become green). So
if a colour is at max green (rgb(0,255,0) then it will not change. But if
it is at half green (0,127,0) then it will let you step it up and still be
green. At max gamma, everything will be essentially white. So the gamma
settings let you bring everything up to the point where they would go to
white if we went another step. You get 4 steps. (Making higher granularity
doesn't seem to have much point)
CHG: Retouched the mouse calibration in hopes that it works :/
CHG: Brightness of plasma increased a touch to make it visible but without
ruining the bouncey text effect
Release 10
----------
CHG: Merge splash demo and splash text into one screen, and tone down
the plasma. Make the Castaway text go on top. Nice!
CHG: When in frameskip mode, left shoulder only does frameskip.. doesn't
toggle keyboard. Woops!
FIX: Properly checks for TOS's existance before firing up the emulation ..
this ought to help out people who didn't install one or put it into the
wrong place
CHG: Updated games database to 1.9
Release 9.2.1
-------------
NEW: Pushing SELECT on a .RAW (savestate) will look up game details for the
disk that was in drive A: at the time of savestating (cool!)
NEW: 1/4 of a splash screen :)
CHG: Left-button toggle of keyboard also sets the delay timer for normal keys
so that it doesn't immediately re-register for frameskip-minus in that mode
CHG: Will remember disk selection when you reset Castaway/GP and return to the
disk picker menu
FIX: Will try to sort disk listing properly :)
This update revamps the file picker and improves the save state
system, among other things. Let me know how it goes.. hopefully I've
not made anything unstable, but if I have, let me know ASAP ;)
Lots more to do, but we're really shaping this up nicely! Also
some nice UI tuning :)
Release 9.2
-----------
NEW: Left-shoulder will toggle into keyboard mode, or back to the last mode.
(Much like select toggles frameskip, or right shoulder toggles cursor/mouse
in those modes). Bear in mind if you use left-shoulder to toggle to
keyboard, and then hti select to go to frameskip, you will have confused
the "last mode", and will probably end back up at "mouse" sooner or later ;)
CHG: Caching of CRC's is temporarily removed, since its acting up on some
units.. I'd rather have it not crash for everyone, than work for 90% :/
I'll catch it when I can see it.. so far doesn't occur to me :(
CHG: File picker tries to keep the same scroll area when submenus pop up, so
so you don't lose your spot (selection stays on same item, but in 9.1 the
selection would scroll to center on return to file picker focus)
Release 009.1
-------------
CHG: Savestates are incompatable with them from 009! I'd open them up and
do an in-game disk-save if you can before going to 009.1!
NEW: You now get 8 savestate slots
NEW: In the file picker, it now shows the filename of Disk A beside the
saved state, so you have some idea where it came from
FIX: Handle bad savestates better
CHG: Bumped to cache version 2 .. cache will rebuild as used
NEW: Disk selection is sorted alphabetically ("asciiliciously!")
NEW: Appears people were inserting disks without ejecting first; this would
cause a reboot/crash for drive B: (ST too smart for us), so we now implicitly
eject the disk for you when you insert a new one :)
NEW: Changed disk menu to use our pretty dialog system
NEW: Disk picker now shows "A:", "B:", "ROM" beside the currently selected
disks, when you pick new ones
A great update to Castaway/GP! This time the main attraction is
save-states (as opposed to storing A: and B: to SMC, which it
can also do); you can now ask to have the live-emulated-ST dumped
to SMC anytime you want, and then later fire up from that state
file almost instantly. This will really speed up those long load
times and multi-disk games. But don't forget to save A: out to
SMC once in awhile for a more permanent save file...
For the record, Dungeon Master, Civilization, Xenon 2: Megablast,
Sidewinder, Bubble Bobble, and several thousand other games are
all fully playable. I've been beating up the Aztecs half the night
:)
Release 009
-----------
NEW: Added loader support for zipped disks, since I'm sick of unzipping them ;)
o .msa and .st inside the .zip is supported
o game database doesn't know how to deal with .zip's yet
o saving to smc when it was a .zip doesn't work yet (?)
CHG: Options menu now has a submenu for restart options -- needed space and
keeps it cleaner I think
NEW: Options menu now has a "Save State" submenu where you can save out a
savestate, or erase an existing savestate
NEW: Disk picker (when emulation is not running) lets you pick a savestate to
open *instead*. If you're using it for disk insertion while in emulation,
the savestates are not visible!
o Savestates are SAVE_#.RAW files, for this release. Picking a SAVE_1.RAW
file with A or B will pop up a dialog if you wish to open it. If you hit yes,
it will load and uncompress and you'll immediately be where you were when you
saved it. No need to push "start"
FIX: It will try to detect a bad STCACHE1.TXT file and delete it
Some enhancements to the interface mostly; in the disk selection
menu you can now push left-shoulder to delete a disk image. (Yes,
there is a confirmation dialog :) You can also push SELECT to
query a little database and find out what games are on the disk
image in question, if a match is found. I've also got some simple
tools so that people can help grow the database, which right now
has all the Automation disks, but not much else. Once we've added
all the ST games to it, it'll be heaven :)
Version 008.1 fixes a bug in the delete routine added for 008. It
would delete the wrong file! Fixed for 008.1; also we updated the
games database for more games.
Version 008.2 fixes database game display bug that would occur for
some disks, and includes the latest 1.7 version of the database!
Version 008.3 adds an nicer icon to Free Launcher, and includes a
"accurate renderer" mode for Medium Res; this adds compatability
for The Pawn, Guild of Theieves and other Magnetic Scrolls games,
as well as a few others that combine medium and low resolutions at
once.
A minor tweak only. It now defaults to accurate rendering mode
when you start up Castaway/GP. You can toggle to "FAST" mode from
the options menu as normal.
Are you reading this? Just go download for gods sake! 007 improves
upon the mighty 006 by adding a more accurate rendering mode. This
mode might be a little slower but is certainly more accurate. No
more of this flickering colour bidniz, no sir. OKay, you have to turn
it on in the menu, and it does cost your batteries a little bit more.
Theres always a price you pay ...
Release 007
-----------
NEW: Per-scanline-palette management; or in reality, went to 16bpp render
mode, to make life much easier.
CHG: Render the virtual keyboard less often; shouldn't hit performance
anymore to have it showing
FIX: Can drop from frameskip 90 to 0 in one hit now; (used to work only
with 91+)
This is it!. This is what we've all been waiting for.
This is the same as 005.. but with crystal clear sound. I figured
out a workaround for the hardware issue in sound. I just can't
wait.. you gotta have it.
Beta 006
--------
CHG: Button timer upped a bit; try and minimize mistakes people make (500->600)
CHG: In frameskip mode, the shoulders now inc/dec by 90, not set to 90 and 0.
This means if you're at frameskip 3, and hit right-shoulder it goes to 93,
and then left shoulder is back to 3, where you had it.
CHG: Tune the Select button for better frameskip mode toggling
FIX: Found the source of the popping issue. Very weird and subtle, and a result
of oddities in the design of the GP32 hardware :/ Worked around the oddity
and now we have nice sound. Thats worth a 006 release isn't it?! :)
CHG: Whew, no more of this fast buidl versus slow build crap. Al speed, all the
time, damnit!
This is very good release! Mouse, keyboard, joystick and all the
fixins (including sound) are implemented. Savegames, live
changing of floppies, fancy GUI... its all good!
Enjoy! You'll want to see the README for all the updates!
Beta 005
--------
Check README for the new button assignments, since they almost all changed :)
CHG: Now going to release as two binaries.. a fast with okay sound one, and
a pitifully slow one with good sound. Sucks.
NEW: Built a simple dialog system, so can present cute little menus.
CHG: SELECT toggles into/out of Frameskip mode (so you can get into
frameskip from any mode, and back to that mode when you're done!)
CHG: START brings up a new Options Dialog, where 99% of everything is done
CHG: Firing-up screen shows sound status and a tiny bit of help
CHG: START used to pause in 004; Options menu pauses emulation, so START will
in effect still pause.. and START again to dismiss the dialog and resume
CHG: Moved Mouse Calibrate to the options menu
CHG: "Left shoulder" is nolonger used to cycle between input modes; instead
the options menu has all the modes on it, to make them easier to pick
NEW: "Toggle sound" is available on the options menu
CHG: Disks menu on the option menu, where youcan save the floppies to
SMC, and will soon have Eject/Insert, etc.
CHG: Right-shoulder in mouse-mode now toggles over to Cursor mode; Cursor
mode right-shoulder toggles over to mouse-mode. Now you can toggle between
the two modes with no work!
CHG: Keyboard mode.. going off one side wraps the key-selection to the other
NEW: When in frameskip mode, left shoulder sets to 0 frameskip, while
right shoulder sets to 90 frameskip. Bam!
CHG: Bottom part of screen shoudl always be black, to keep visibility high
NEW: Disk submenu now sports Eject operations
NEW: Disk submenu now supports inserting new disks; first eject current
ones, then insert the new ones!
This is very good release! Mouse, keyboard, joystick and all the
fixins (except sound) are implemented. Savegames to SMC are now
supported, the joystick stickyness problemis gone, etc etc!
Enjoy!
Beta 004
--------
CHG: Increase button-threshold-timer so double-clicks and such happen less
FIX: Joystick shoudln't "stick" anymore -- works *really* well
CHG: Mouse buttons are redone, so they too don't "stick"; drags work better,
and double clicks work better
NEW: If a TOS image file is not selected or available, won't proceed
NEW: Cursor-mode
o d-pad pushes ST cursor keys
o B/A act as Insert/Home (should turn in many games)
NEW: Mouse-mode: Right-shoulder recalibrates mouse
NEW: Start now pauses (will be options menu sometime?)
CHG: Input-mode is rendered ever frame (regardless of frameskip), so its
easier to adjust finely
CHG: Slightly brightened palette.. a little more authentic now
NEW: Faster rendering; might experience tear-lines, but should render faster
and smoother.. every framepersecond is a less frameskip needed :) 10%!
NEW: Joystick-mode.. "A" is "up" (for jump in platformers) and
right-shoulder will now hit the spacebar (to skip intro screens maybe)
CHG: Added keys to virtual keyboard; Return, Backspace, Escape, functon keys
NEW: Disk saving is hacked in; not elegant, but works well :)
NEW: Disk picking menu now supports more than one screen of games.. scrolls
with the selection so you can go up and down
NEW: Disk picking menu pages up and down right left/right, in addition to
going one at a time with up/down
This is very usable! Mouse, keyboard, joystick and all the
fixins (except sound) are implemented. A few oddities remain,
but this is a very usable release! Enjoy, and please let me know
what cool games you're playing!
April 27th 2003 -- Alpha Castaway/GP -- Zo Kath Ra!
Still not very usable, but this time we're talking *fast*.
You can watch the ST boot and run to desktop in just a couple
seconds. Heck, faster than a normal ST! The mouse is still broken,
and a few other oddities.. but it looks good, and it runs good.
So we're getting there!
See screenshots here. Thanks to Wub for the DM disk image :)
This release is still totally unusable, but it does look pretty
(see the screenshot). Mouse can only go right/down, its very slow to
load and run and render. But it *works*, and thats something. I
imagine it coudl be sped up quite a lot, but I'm not sure if it would
ever be usable on the GP32. But I'll try :)
April 8th 2003 -- Public Release 003
We're up to abotu 15 or 20 games supported in the GP32 version
now :) From the WhatsNew..
CHG: Toggle frame-message (FPS) with left shoulder
FIX: Fixed Pengo colours
NEW: Black background around border (instead of letterbox :)
CHG: Shifted Pacman (and friends) up 8 more pixels; cut off a little of the
maze wall, but make playfield (inside bottom wall) visible
CHG: Moon Cresta will try mooncrst.pdb, but now also mooncres.pdb
NEW: Added support for RipOff! and Star Castle (yum, cinematronics vectors!)
CHG: Palette fixed on return to game selector
NEW: Added more-or-less support for Tail Gunner
CHG: In game selector, A or B will start game (was just A)
NEW: Better handling for Pacman (4 way sticks on an 8-way controller :)
CHG: In Free Launcher, now show up as "XCade" instead of xcade.gxb
Wicked update; correct colours on all games, and a simple
menu to select the game to play. Now supports a pile of games:
Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Pacman, Ms. Pacman,
Pengo, Puckman, Hanglyman, Galaxian, Moon Cresta and Phoenix.
This version is running very well; it runs Space Invaders,
Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Pacman, Ms. Pacman, Pengo,
Puckman and Hanglyman. Colours are broken, but otherwise runs
nice. Some screen clipping is performed to fit nicely on the
GP32 display without speed hit.
Heres a screenshot of first XCade internal version running in
the GP32 emulator (GeePee). When we've got some more features into
it, we'll release it for everyone. Stay tuned!
March 20th 2003 -- My crappy little review
Remember, I really love my GP32. But when you write any review,
you must do so with the audience in mind. If I'd written for a
geek programmer crowd it would've been very different than when
I'd write it for a total newbie. This review is targetted towards
people who are more newbie and non-gamer and who thus should buy
what machine is best for screwing around with games. So this is a
very pro-GP32 for hardware and coolness, but against the GP32 in
the end due to the library.. the audience in question woudl want to
go to the local shop to buy games, and not want to have to read
Korean or deal with importing/duty/delay issues. So no flames please!
Review
Notes and Observations About GP32
These are just some things you should know about the GP32 if
you own one:
You *must* setup your SMC card by installing the PC-Link
1.2 software on your PC, and using the "Format" command to prepare
the directory structure, or else you need to know how to do it
yourself. You cannot just use any old directory structure!
".fpk" files are Package Bundles; you need to "File -> Install"
them using PC-Link to get them unpacked onto your GP32. Most
apps just come as .fxe or .gxb files to put into \GPMM yourself,
but some come as packages and you cannot just copy them over!
When the battery gets low, games/apps that run in high
processor clock speeds (like 130MHz, ScummVM, Frodo, etc) will
crash/reset in weird ways. Just swap batteries. Don't worry
that your device is broken.. just swap batteries :)
ScummVM datafiles are all .000, .001, etc. For Sam-and-Max
you need to rename them since they use .s01 instead!
GPengine (TG16 emulator) is easy to set up, abd *very* good
(full sound, fast framerate.. a joy to behold!)
Current port of Doom doesn't have save game support
Wolfenstein 3D does have full save support.. woowoo!
Overclocking too high can damage some GP32s video systems; it
is wise not to clock past 135MHz. Mine runs up to 150MHz without
a problem, but you may not be so lucky!
Some apps put their datafiles in \GAME, others in \GPMM. All
apps go into \GPMM for the free launcher.
You need the GP Free Launcher to run all these nifty apps.
Register in the English http://www.gp32.com site to get the
Free Launcher and PC-Link software. English link is in the top
right in small letters.. I had to look hard to find it!
Doom needs its data files in \GAME\DOOM
Wolfenstein needs \GAME\SW_WOLF and \GAME\WOLF3D
Put your ScummVM games into \GAME\whatevers (like \GAME\DOTT)
Put Frodo .d64 disk images in \GPMM\C64
Put GPengine TG16 roms in \GPMM\GPENGINE
Put MODplay MODs into \GPMM\MOD
Put SMS32 Game Gear/SMS ROMs into \GPMM\SMS32
Put SNESemu SMC ROMs into \GPMM\SNES
Put Snes9xGP SMC ROMs into \GPMM proper (annoying!)