[ongoing] DosBox AGA (v0.74)

NovaCoder · 19 November 2012, 06:12

Another way to bring loads of games to 68k (after ScummVM) is of course DosBox

Just got it running (under WinUAE) and got it to load DOOM

Needs lots of work to get it running well on AGA but at least it's a start.

Not sure how fast I can make it yet, I'm thinking of getting a talented assembler coder to knock up a 68k core which should help.

Don't expect a playable BETA anytime soon, I'm time poor with lots of interesting AGA projects to work on

Lord Riton · 19 November 2012, 11:52

Why making Dosbox work on the Amiga, if you need a PC and run WinUAE for it to be fast enough is beyond me

Most plateforms that can run WinUAE already have a DOSBox too.

Now if it would work well on real classic Amigas, and be able to run some games like Ultima Underworld fast enough, it could be great.
But such games do not exist on classic Amigas, because it's already hard enough to make them smooth coding them in 68xxx assembler. I have bought "Legends of valor" for my real A1200 when it came out, i liked it, but it was way below the PC version, and still to slow..
Dosbox is emulating a PC, and emulation takes much more time than nativ code.

..sure you could run games like Pacman (

) or maybe a little bit better games, but most of these games already exist on the Amiga and are way better than their PC version...

Yes, i know, today i'm in the mood to make me a lot of ennemies

NovaCoder · 19 November 2012, 12:32

I don't code for winuae but I do like to push classic hardware to the limits

AmigaFriend · 19 November 2012, 12:49

I think anything below a 060 (and a fast one) will be very very slow for VGA games, but it's a great project for the Amiga. Go for it Novacoder!

mfilos · 19 November 2012, 13:13

That would be awesome Novacoder my friend!!!

Keep surprising us

NovaCoder · 19 November 2012, 21:41

Hiya

Yep it will be 060 only of course, sorry to the 030/040 guys.

If I can get it to run as fast as my old 25Mhz 386 I'll be happy. That would allow me to play great CDROM games like [ Show youtube player ] on my Miggy

Peter · 19 November 2012, 22:39

Amazing, looking forward to following your progress!

amigoun · 20 November 2012, 00:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

If I can get it to run as fast as my old 25Mhz 386 I'll be happy. That would allow me to play great CDROM games like [ Show youtube player ] on my Miggy

Thats impossible, though the cpu-intensive vga emulation, but nevertheless looking forward for this project!
But with optimized 060 asm routines - who knows

NovaCoder · 20 November 2012, 01:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by amigoun

Thats impossible, though the cpu-intensive vga emulation, but nevertheless looking forward for this project!

I remember that lots of Amiga users said that [ Show youtube player ] with digital SFX and music wasn't possible on an 030 AGA 1200

NovaCoder · 14 December 2012, 06:16

Ok, got a little bit further with this port today, managed to figure out why the sound and MIDI emulation wasn't working (basically I'd somehow missed out some code).

So which game did I happen to have on my hard drive to give it a go....Day of the Tentacle of course

So it is now basically 'working' for RTG Amiga's, this isn't the plan though of course....I want it for my AGA 1200

TODO:

Remove SDL back-end and port to native AGA
Fix up memory bugs
Make it fast enough to be of some use.
Have a beer (or two)

frikilokooo · 14 December 2012, 10:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

I remember that lots of Amiga users said that [ Show youtube player ] with digital SFX and music wasn't possible on an 030 AGA 1200

I thought it ran with sound very slow on 030. Is it available for download anywhere?

amigoun · 14 December 2012, 12:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

So it is now basically 'working' for RTG Amiga's, this isn't the plan though of course....I want it for my AGA 1200

The RTG version is also great especially for Amithlon/WinUAE users.

NovaCoder · 24 December 2012, 05:30

Good news, I'm now working with the talented Matt Hey who is kindly working to develop a dynamic 68k core for this puppy

spajdr · 17 January 2013, 10:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Good news, I'm now working with the talented Matt Hey who is kindly working to develop a dynamic 68k core for this puppy

Any news matey?

AmigaFriend · 17 January 2013, 13:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Good news, I'm now working with the talented Matt Hey who is kindly working to develop a dynamic 68k core for this puppy

I missed this post somehow, but this is really great news.

NovaCoder · 17 January 2013, 22:12

Matt is currently debugging the dynamic 68k core on his real Amiga, once he gets it working properly he can make it faster.

Update: He just got the dynamic core to execute a couple of 68k instructions on his Amiga, loads more work to do of course but at least it's a start

NovaCoder · 17 January 2013, 22:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by frikilokooo

I thought it ran with sound very slow on 030. Is it available for download anywhere?

That video is of it running just fine on an 030, my old 030 in fact

Yep my old version of DOTT is available on EAB's sever but you'd be better off using Scummvm AGA because my old DOTT port was based on a very old and buggy version of ScummVM.

Reynolds · 18 January 2013, 12:55

will this mean that for example Need For Speed 1 will be available too?

amigoun · 18 January 2013, 14:47

If the source code of PCTask was also released for free, we would have the optimized 68k-x86 JIT core already. But the source code was probably lost?

NovaCoder · 23 January 2013, 06:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by amigoun

If the source code of PCTask was also released for free, we would have the optimized 68k-x86 JIT core already. But the source code was probably lost?

I'm not sure if that would even help very much, it needs to be coded in a DosBox format for it to work.

Matt is getting closer with the core, this is what the 68k code is now generating on startup (means nothing to me but looks pretty).

Code:

$0bdc4000:                MOVE.L     #$0b5c1c34,$0a419b54.L
$0bdc400a:                MOVE.L     _CPU_Cycles,D0
$0bdc4010:                TST.L      D0
$0bdc4012:                BLE.L      $0bdc406c
$0bdc4018:                MOVE.W     $08c49f8a.L,D0
$0bdc401e:                MOVE.W     #$e7ce,D1
$0bdc4022:                JSR        $08a3c95c.L
$0bdc4028:                SUBI.L     #$00000002,_CPU_Cycles
$0bdc4032:                JSR        $08a3fa04.L
$0bdc4038:                TST.L      D0
$0bdc403a:                BNE.S      $0bdc4054
$0bdc403c:                ADDI.L     #$00000006,$08c49f98.L
$0bdc4046:                MOVE.L     $0b5c1c58.L,A0
$0bdc404c:                ADDA.L     #$00000008,A0
$0bdc4052:                JMP        (A0)
$0bdc4054:                ADDI.L     #$00000008,$08c49f98.L
$0bdc405e:                MOVE.L     $0b5c1c64.L,A0
$0bdc4064:                ADDA.L     #$00000008,A0
$0bdc406a:                JMP        (A0)
$0bdc406c:                MOVE.L     #$00000001,D0
$0bdc4072:                RTS

So the current plan is for Matt to get DosBox running using this dynamic core on his real RTG Amiga, when it seems to be running properly he will concentrate on improving performance.

Hopefully by the time I've pulled my finger out and ported my RTG version of DosBox to AGA, his 68k core should be fast and stable

19 November 2012, 06:12	#1
NovaCoder Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Melbourne/Australia Posts: 4,400	[ongoing] DosBox AGA (v0.74) Another way to bring loads of games to 68k (after ScummVM) is of course DosBox Just got it running (under WinUAE) and got it to load DOOM Needs lots of work to get it running well on AGA but at least it's a start. Not sure how fast I can make it yet, I'm thinking of getting a talented assembler coder to knock up a 68k core which should help. Don't expect a playable BETA anytime soon, I'm time poor with lots of interesting AGA projects to work on Last edited by NovaCoder; 12 July 2013 at 13:18.

19 November 2012, 11:52	#2
Lord Riton Registered User Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: France Age: 52 Posts: 507	Why making Dosbox work on the Amiga, if you need a PC and run WinUAE for it to be fast enough is beyond me Most plateforms that can run WinUAE already have a DOSBox too. Now if it would work well on real classic Amigas, and be able to run some games like Ultima Underworld fast enough, it could be great. But such games do not exist on classic Amigas, because it's already hard enough to make them smooth coding them in 68xxx assembler. I have bought "Legends of valor" for my real A1200 when it came out, i liked it, but it was way below the PC version, and still to slow.. Dosbox is emulating a PC, and emulation takes much more time than nativ code. ..sure you could run games like Pacman () or maybe a little bit better games, but most of these games already exist on the Amiga and are way better than their PC version... Yes, i know, today i'm in the mood to make me a lot of ennemies

19 November 2012, 21:41	#6
NovaCoder Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Melbourne/Australia Posts: 4,400	Hiya Yep it will be 060 only of course, sorry to the 030/040 guys. If I can get it to run as fast as my old 25Mhz 386 I'll be happy. That would allow me to play great CDROM games like [ Show youtube player ] on my Miggy Last edited by NovaCoder; 19 November 2012 at 23:27.

19 November 2012, 22:39	#7
Peter Still an Amiga user Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Kent Age: 55 Posts: 2,715	Amazing, looking forward to following your progress! Last edited by Peter; 20 November 2012 at 01:10.

14 December 2012, 06:16	#10
NovaCoder Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Melbourne/Australia Posts: 4,400	Ok, got a little bit further with this port today, managed to figure out why the sound and MIDI emulation wasn't working (basically I'd somehow missed out some code). So which game did I happen to have on my hard drive to give it a go....Day of the Tentacle of course So it is now basically 'working' for RTG Amiga's, this isn't the plan though of course....I want it for my AGA 1200 TODO: Remove SDL back-end and port to native AGA Fix up memory bugs Make it fast enough to be of some use. Have a beer (or two) Last edited by NovaCoder; 12 July 2013 at 13:18.

19 November 2012, 12:32	#3
NovaCoder Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Melbourne/Australia Posts: 4,400	I don't code for winuae but I do like to push classic hardware to the limits

19 November 2012, 12:49	#4
AmigaFriend Registered User Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: CLI Posts: 1,462	I think anything below a 060 (and a fast one) will be very very slow for VGA games, but it's a great project for the Amiga. Go for it Novacoder!

19 November 2012, 13:13	#5
mfilos Paranoid Amigoid Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Athens/Greece Age: 45 Posts: 1,978	That would be awesome Novacoder my friend!!! Keep surprising us

24 December 2012, 05:30	#13
NovaCoder Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Melbourne/Australia Posts: 4,400	Good news, I'm now working with the talented Matt Hey who is kindly working to develop a dynamic 68k core for this puppy

17 January 2013, 22:12	#16
NovaCoder Registered User Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Melbourne/Australia Posts: 4,400	Matt is currently debugging the dynamic 68k core on his real Amiga, once he gets it working properly he can make it faster. Update: He just got the dynamic core to execute a couple of 68k instructions on his Amiga, loads more work to do of course but at least it's a start Last edited by NovaCoder; 18 January 2013 at 05:04.

18 January 2013, 12:55	#18
Reynolds Alien Breeder Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Szigetszentmiklos / Hungary Age: 46 Posts: 1,096	will this mean that for example Need For Speed 1 will be available too?

18 January 2013, 14:47	#19
amigoun Registered User Join Date: May 2010 Location: Czech Rep Posts: 599	If the source code of PCTask was also released for free, we would have the optimized 68k-x86 JIT core already. But the source code was probably lost?

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