Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-17
07:15:53
|  Site Updates
I thought this would be a better topic and leave the site errors one for...well...errors.
I've updated the version of Minus4j to the new one complete with sound.
I've also started to add demos to the this available online. Many work just fine and even when they aren't perfect, its nice to see them to know if you want to download them.
I hope to add SID sound soon, then disk emulation. After that, I'll be after a to-do list before I stop working on it full-time (as it were). I may even get round to releasing the source once all these major bits are done.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2008-11-17
09:49:20
| Re: Site Updates
Nice updates! I added proper handling for demos, utilities and educational programs. (One PHP handles all 3.  ) How about a reset function? Muffbusters Box II runs nicely for example, but you can't get to the upside-down part because it's after reset. There are a few other demos that require pressing reset to continue.
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Posted By
Chris
on 2008-11-17
15:28:47
| Re: Site Updates
The addition of sound is amazing, thank you :D
You might have to look at the sound, when you zoom the screen above 1x it becomes distorted and jumpy.
Excellent news.
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Posted By
Ulysses777
on 2008-11-17
17:19:59
| Re: Site Updates
Nice work on the TED sound so far, looking forward to the volume implementation 
Going back to the joysticks/fire button problem, could Tab be used as a fire button? The ZZ Spectrum emulator supposedly uses this, though I can't get it to work. It also uses numpad 0 (which does work for me), though that may be a problem with laptops.
There's also possibly using Delete or Insert keys?
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-20
17:29:26
| Re: Site Updates
New version of Minus4j has been uploaded.
Added VOLUME control register.
If joystick is enabled, CursorKeys and Space key is disabled.
"INSERT" now does a soft reset.
Emulator now shuts down better.
Fixed the bug with the auto start in the filename. Game_GAAAA is now detected while "testga" isn't. There must now be a space or underbar before the "SYS" or "G" to seperate it from the name. It must also be the last thing before the .PRG
To press SPACE or use the cursor keys you must now disable the joysticks. At some point I'll get around to do a redefine keys thing - or find a better set of keys, but this will do for now.
Enjoy!
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-20
17:30:59
| Re: Site Updates
Oh... and you can't use TAB as fire, as on some machines that will cycle between links/buttons etc.
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Posted By
Chris
on 2008-11-21
06:59:12
| Re: Site Updates
Mike,
Where abouts is your new version located on http://minus4.plus4.net/ as can only find the 8th November version?
Chris
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-21
08:19:29
| Re: Site Updates
Its not "publicly" released yet - I use plus4world to do mass testing
I hope to add SID emulation before I do a proper update, but if your desperate for it, I can do a proper release for you.
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Posted By
MMS
on 2008-11-21
14:55:46
 | Re: Site Updates
Great stuff! How I may test more games on that? Do no need testers and more detailed feedback? or via this forum is enough for you?
Do you think it is able to run a proper mobile phone? Or I mix the things up?
(actually i have a Philips mobile, but as I bought it in HK, it has weird GPRS settings, and till now I was too lazy to set them up. that's wh Java still not used. but it would be a great app! and the display is 4:3 landscape, perfect for such view )
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Posted By
MMS
on 2008-11-21
15:23:53
| Re: Site Updates
OFF:
Do you think Java MIDP 2.0 would be enough?
Just to show my mobile, I think you will not find a second one in the European continent, certainly not because of it's price
http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/c/ct9a9wblk_00/ct9a9wblk_00_pss_aen.pdf
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-21
15:57:50
| Re: Site Updates
I used to write mobile phone games a while back, and I did try this on a pretty fast device, but it only got 14fps back then (good 5 years back now). Unless the phone has a JIT, I don't think it'll work.
The only JAVA implementation that was ever any good was Nokia, but it still wasn't fast enough.
Not sure about the iPhone... that could me interesting - I'll need to get some guys at work to try that out.
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Posted By
MMS
on 2008-11-22
13:52:38
| Re: Site Updates
Someone told the first iPhone had no Java support, or not in the usual way.
To be sure, i "googled" the topic, and found this:
http://drawlogic.com/2007/06/30/no-flash-support-on-iphone-no-java-either/
seems that without major modifications it won't work on this platform, although it is a rather strong pieces of HW.
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-22
14:18:35
| Re: Site Updates
Ah yeah... I heard that Apple won't allow virtual machines to be installed/run. Means you also can't sell emulators... pain.
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Posted By
MMS
on 2008-11-22
15:04:41
| Re: Site Updates
Although the iphone display and platform would be a perfect match.
But eg. Sony W8xx or 9xx series has a 320x240 display (even C7xx), almost perfectly fits for Plus/4 emulation (os, sideborders to be forget). I saw Java game running on that one (880i) , it was FAST. (by Philips has only 220x176 reso, so not a perfect combination).
Nokias I dislike, sorry, I had 3 of them (2 of them came as company phone, even not the worst ones), but none of them really satisfied me. I know they do good phones, but the UI and the price...
Anyhow, I suggest to try it on a modern phone, i suppose you will be shocked, how strong are the today devices (pls do not forget, they should play a record MPEG4 videos! and play MP3 music in the background. My Celeron 300Mhz could not do the second, and My Duron 900 could not do the first some years back.)
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Posted By
Ulysses777
on 2008-11-22
16:57:28
| Re: Site Updates
Just to point out that because a phone can do those things, it doesn't mean it's good for running Java-based emulators. A phone would have dedicated ICs for handling MP3 playback/MPEG4 encoding, wheras a PC would normally be totally dependant on the CPU for those tasks. And Java apps are noted for being slow on phones when they're doing more than simple games.
I have a Nokia N93i, on which I've tried two C64 emulators, JME C64 (Java) and Frodo S60 (Symbian app). Frodo S60 can run fairly close to full speed with no frameskip, whereas JME C64 runs at about 30% speed without sound, 10% with sound.
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-22
18:20:42
| Re: Site Updates
yeah, any native app should be fine... but since on phones JAVA is interpreted, it'll be dog slow.
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-27
17:21:18
| Re: Site Updates
I've made a minor update to Minus4j again. The sound in the last version was a bit on the ropey side, and samples had real issues. These have now been ironed out and TED sound should be fine. some games samples still don't play, but those that do work fine.
Heres a couple of programs that benifit
drum mix 3
Bloody Good
Monty on the Run (THS)
Commando Plus4
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Posted By
Luca
on 2008-11-29
04:01:55
 | Re: Site Updates
Wow sounds very cool! 8580 of course, am I right?
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-29
07:24:08
| Re: Site Updates
To be honest, I'm not sure. I think I took the samples from the 8580 - but I can't remember! To be honest it's really missing the filters, only a few SID tunes sound okay and most modern ones sound pooh.
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-29
08:36:47
| Re: Site Updates
To be honest, without the filters it sounds guff! 
The basic waves sound the same I think, but its hard to tell.
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Posted By
Ozymandias
on 2008-11-29
14:56:47
| Re: Site Updates
I know sometimes it's about doing something on your own even if it has been down before. If that's true then don't read on
Have you seen or better said heard the Java Sid on Lemon64? I think it works very good. I don't have a SID-card for my C16 so I only know games and demos with sid musics from emulators. I read here that there are some differences between SID in C64 and SID-cards but maybe this Java Sid engine has already implemented some things that you still want to add? Maybe you already know about this.
http://www.jac64.com/
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-29
16:16:19
| Re: Site Updates
Yep, I know about that. It is in fact how I got sound working to begin with. However just pinching the SID library isn't that easy, they usually require a certain infrastructure and Minus4j was never designed to have anything else plug into it. Attila has very kindly send me his SID implementation, and I'm going to see if I can wedge that in, but even that may not work - but hell, its worth a try!
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-11-29
18:34:39
| Re: Site Updates
Added a TURBO mode (F6) to Minus4j, this makes games like Driller actually playable! Having played this on a SuperCPU on the C64, it's almost the same the experience.
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Posted By
indi
on 2008-12-11
18:37:52
| Re: Site Updates
I've been adding some basic ZIP support which lets me load D64 images. It's still uncomplete, but you can start to see it getting useful on things like adventures or picture shows like Botticelli Bilderdisk 01.
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