CD32Launch

[amigoun]

Tested bubble and squeak whd and, ticked start with 2-button joystick and it works good. Second button works a a jump.
So I will patiently wait for the FORCE2BUTTON option in JST

[jotd]

thanks for the good news the implementation is slightly different in whdload slaves. The joystick/joypad is tested at startup. Not sure about JST, but CD32load tests that dynamically, so it's different, and maybe it can fail randomly, resulting in an horrible bug.

Really gives good ideas about how it should be implemented in CD32Launch...

[jotd]

Update: Watchtower CD32 version in the zone.

Forgot to give the instructions how to run it

cd32launch launchslave=watchtower.lslave

it performs assigns, loads & patches executable (reusing whdload slave patchlist) so protection is skipped & joypad buttons allow to launch grenades/pause.

Note that CUSTOMx options are also available. Trainer should work on that one with CUSTOM1 or something

infinite lives custom 1
infinite grenades custom 2
infinite time custom 3


enjoy. Will work on new AGA non-CD32 games. Anyone knows a good list of AGA games which don't have a CD32 counterpart (not that easy with hol request probably) ? and which would require CD32 joypad redirection?

ATM I collected this list of AGA (using operating system, not custom trackloader) but non-CD32 games which could be candidates:

- Mutant League Hockey AGA (unreleased, who can share the image)
- AB tower assault http://hol.abime.net/3240 useful?
- All new world of lemmings http://hol.abime.net/3249 useful?
- Minskies http://hol.abime.net/2492
- Slamtilt: http://hol.abime.net/1972 could do with some joypad2keys

Besides, CD32launch could also be used on a CDTV (or CD32!) for 1meg games which need button redirect/patches (using a CD32 joypad), and also CD music play:

- Marble Madness with arcade music is probably doable like it was done for CD32 since operating system is available.
- Test Drive II (joypad2keys)
- Panza Kick Boxing (crack, joypad2keys)


Suggestions welcome.

[earok]

Ah, I should have been following this thread!

I'll try Watchtower on the next update to CD32 and Beer. Which is.. already a bit overdue, whoops. Thanks for that!

Anyway.

- All New World of Lemmings.. may not be that useful, mouse support is the most important feature there and that can be provided by using the LEMMINGS_PLANETSIDE hack. Although, maybe if there's some keyboard shortcuts for pause/quit etc, that could be useful.

- AB Tower Assault.. not useful. It already has a true, native CD32 version and (I could be wrong) I don't think there's anything that isn't mapped to pad.

- Minskies.. Piko Interactive are (or were) looking at releasing that commercially for CD32, so I'm not sure it's "safe" to do a release of. For that reason I didn't include it on CD32 and Beer. Incidentally it will run on a real CD32 if you use Galahad's CLOSEDELAY20 utility (this patches the OS to introduce a delay between a file closing and the next one being opened. I could chuck it in the zone if anyone wants it).

- Mutant League Hockey AGA - this actually WOULD be a really good one to enhance. There's several features such as calling timeouts that are on the keyboard. This is the link on IRN for the download (it was cracked and released via Galahad and Scoopex): https://mega.nz/#!vosEDI5R!6A2yz_xWP...Z3z_eIonWZwqqA

- SlamTilt - MAYBE not useful, Psygore's slave for this is already pretty comprehensive with control mapping and it works on a real CD32 through WHDLoad. However, you've got OS flashes and such, and (I think) the slave doesn't work with CD32Load.

[earok]

Three further suggestions for tests of the CD32Launch system:

Virocop. Notes from CD32 and Beer:

Keyboard is required for options, including multiplayer.

Press F1 to cycle through modes at title screen:
- 1P
- 2P Alternating
- 2P Team (players share body)

The Strangers, AGA beat-em-up. IIRC most of the F-keys are used for the menu, so maybe still not practical.

Final Odyssey. To be honest, maybe most of Vulcan's games could be considered.

[earok]

This is going to sound a bit.. naive.

With various games on my compilations, sometimes I've had to implement a system that requires the user to hold down a joypad button on boot to load the game. These are universally games that are native AGA HDD or CD32, and it seems that even using a little bit of memory for something (such as opening a command line window) before opening the game is.

An example is Super Street Fighter 2 NC, which is notoriously tricky to get to run from a CD32 ISO.

What would be cool (if this is even possible), would be a lightweight launcher app that simply kills whatever is in the background and then continues as usual.

[jotd]

I supposed you're calling "freeanim" each time right?

Killing whatever is in the background you mean exiting the current shell for instance, or use some "addxxk" trickery that can be called from startup sequence. I don't have a lot of ideas about that.

[earok]

I'm building with the CDTV trademark, but even with CD32 trademark and freeanim, SSF2 will only work depending on the number of files on the disk (eg, if I take my entire "GAMES" folder out, which has 99% of the games on the disc in that folder, SSF2 will boot. But with Games in there, it'll refuse to boot. There's a similar situation with using the native CD32 version of Shadow Fighter, but thankfully it works fine via CD32Load)

For CD32 and Beer, I could just mark the game as "FastRAM required", and then have a non-FastRAM required version on an update to Ultimate Fighters (which has only ~40 games as opposed to over 200, so it seems to work there).


I don't know, I guess.. this may not make sense. But I had something in mind that - like CD32Load - will just work no matter how much else you've had opened in the background. I'm assuming CD32Load obliterates whatever was in memory, because there's no expectation of returning to the CLI afterwards. But I assume it's also not that simple to apply that to a native HD loading game, because of needing the OS to load files.

[jotd]

yes, CD32load doesn't care about the OS. I understand your point now. Yup, we can't do much about that...

BTW earok told me he found a EBOLA VIRUS! in the Watchtower CD32launch distro I zoned a few weeks ago.

I'll check my system (very strange!). In the meanwhile I have deleted the archive. earok has cleaned the executable anyway, so he'll distribute the game in his beer compilation.