Dungeon Master for Pocket PC / Win CE

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 4:42 pm

Storage card. I don't understand storage cards

They are solid state flash memory chips, you can get compact flash (most common), Secure Digital, Memory stick (sony) etc...

I've got a 256MB secure digital, SD card. It goes in the slot on the top of my ppc. When you're browsing with file explorer, it appears as a new folder called storage card, under my device. It is a little slower than the RAM of the ppc, but not much, i store and run most of the apps/games from my storage card...

You can actually store films there too... i've recompressed some divx video down to anything from 128-256MB which will play on the ppc!!!

andyboy_uk · Post by **andyboy_uk** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 5:12 pm

Finally got it working and wow, this could be seriously awesome.

I couldnt run the utility to get my champs into the main dungeon but no problems wandering around the prison.

Spotted a glitch with graphics (credits screen on exit) but other than that, wicked work.

Just out of interest, would it be worth loosing the mouse pointer image from the game as it kinda gets in the way when using the stylus (will cut down on redraws too I imagine).

I cant wait to play the finished one

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Sun Mar 21, 2004 5:49 pm

worth loosing the mouse pointer image

Yes, we talked about this a few posts back.
Someday soon.

I posted CSBwinCE21MAr.rar.

The Hint Oracle and Utility work. The screens are too
big but the only problem is that the QUIT is hidden in Utility.
You have to use File/Exit menu.

Don't report graphics errors for now. I am working on
them. Report any problems like crashes or bugs that
affect gameplay or make playing difficult.

This screen is too small. I will have to get my magnifying
goggles that I use for fixing small mechanical devices.

andyboy_uk · Post by **andyboy_uk** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:25 am

Just popped a post about this great piece of work on a forum where I know there are lurnking DM fans who like gadgets

Link to the thread here

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/pos ... opic=31952

@Lazy Oldman: I hope you dont mind me posting the links to the pictures

@Paul: Hope you dont mind me pimping your work like this. If so let me know and I will have it deleted.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 2:54 pm

Looks good. Whoever this fellow 'Paul Stephens' is, he
appears to have done a bang-up job.

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 2:58 pm

@ andyboy_uk, No worries - spread the Gospel " DM is going mobile!!!! "

@Paul, Just a couple of minor things...

I can't drink straight from the fountains. On CSBwin and others you can click directly on a fountain and the active character drinks from it... But on ppc it doesn't

And is it possible to load a game without closing the prog and running it again? i was wondering if you can do it... and if we need the format floppy button which you could hijack for loading???

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 3:25 pm

CSBwin and others you can click directly on a fountain

Verrrrry interesting.

load a game without closing the prog

No, that is not possible. I have always resisted making
this possible for fear that I will miss some initialization,
thereby causing recordings to not play properly. But on the
PocketPC it seems reasonable to provide this capability.

You know, there are some special checks in the Atari code
to allow only saves from the current game to be loaded
after the party dies. When a game is started it receives
a random ID number. When the party dies only savegames
with that ID number can be loaded. I am not too sure why they
did this. But I think that you would like to be able
to restart the program from the beginning (at the 'DUNGEON',
'UTILITY', 'HINT' menu) and be able to load *ANY* game.

format floppy button

I guess that makes good sense. I should at least try to
figure out how to blank out the 'Format' option since it does
nothing.

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 3:26 pm

you can't drink straight from fountains in csbwin, as you couldn't in the atari version

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 5:10 pm

I need a savegame and recording of the end-of-game
at the FulYa Pit. Also a end-of-game recording when
fusing Chaos.

With a recent version of CSBwin or CSBwinCE.
Anyone have 30 minutes to spare to provide such
a recording?:)

I want to check that the graphics on the Pocket PC are
displayed properly at the end of the game. I am currently
fixing the cases where the party dies. I can die easily to test.

If someone can provide a complete game recording I can
include it with the PocketPC release.

andyboy_uk · Post by **andyboy_uk** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 5:31 pm

I will edit the spelling mistake. Doh! Sorry mate.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:12 pm

Beowuuf sent me CSB and DM endings. Just so nobody
else spends their day duplicating the effort.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:12 pm

I posted CSBwinCE24Mar.rar at
dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin

I think it is pretty much complete except for some
missing menu selections. You can complain about anything
other thatn that.

I also have a couple enhancements queued":
1) restart button
2) Icon
3) cowsmanaut's graphics

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:38 pm

what kind of Icon do you want.. is the button a graphic? my question is are all of these image based..?

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:09 pm

what kind of Icon do you want

Actually, I don't want it. Someone else wants it.

But......if you rephrase the question as "What do you
need"......then my answer is I don't know.

You have seen the little icon that comes with CSBwin.
A little white daggerish thing. I was hoping that we could
come up with something better and that someone like you
would volunteer to help (I draw nice straight lines with a
ruler but that is the limit of my artistic skills).

I think I will need two sizes and as soon as I find out what
those sizes are, I will let you know.

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:29 pm

But...but...the white daggerish thing IS the CSBwin logo!

Otherwise I dunno...a tiny Chaos mask head?

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 12:19 am

well, I dunno what the icon for the Atari was but for Amiga it was the DMgates for DM and the CSB logo for CSB. I was thinking the DM gates or a head shot of Chaos.. or it could be one of the hero icons (the top view for the characters positions.. only more detailed) Got so many things that could be used..

adodd · Post by **adodd** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 5:26 pm

Hi,
I'm new so bear with me. I have no idea what do do with the csbwinCE exe file, when i click on it in XP, it just gives the good old "not a valid win32 application". Does it have to be on the PPC first. Sorry if this is a dumb question. I just want it for pocket pc, but have no clue as to the technological difficulties in doing it.
Sorry if this isn't a tech solution or anything. It will probably be regarded as a pain in the ass post. Oh well
Thanks

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 5:34 pm

We don't tolerate "pains in the ..." here. Therefore, you
cannot be such a thing.

There is a CSBwin.exe. It will run on Win95, Win98, WinXP,
Win2000. It will not run on PocketPC.

There is a CSBwinCE2002.exe. It will run on the Pocket PC
with Windows CE. I think it works with Windows CE 2002
and with Windows CE 2003. I think it will only work on
PocketPC with the XScale CPU. Trying to run it on WinXP will
fail, as you have discovered.

So, is that helpful? You will undoubtedly have more questions
but I think that should answer your first question.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 6:38 pm

Thanks for the reply. I have an IPAQ 3760 with a StrongARM processor, which is similar to the XSCALE. They are both INTEL processors. So I transfer the exe to the PDA first, and then it runs?

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 7:02 pm

Yes. Put them on the PPC.

You need the following files in the same directory:

for Dungeon Master.
CSBwinCE2002.exe
dungeon.dat
graphics.dat
config.txt (if you wnat to use the virtual keyboard...not necessary)

for Chaos Strikes Back
CSBwinCE2002.exe
dungeon.dat
mini.dat
graphics.dat
config.txt (to use the keyboard)
hcsb.dat (for hint)
hcsb.hct (for hint)

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:21 am

Just a couple of points;

'Freeze Game' - this option isn't there is it? it would be useful! Could it be linked to the ppc X that minimises the applications? so that when minimised, dm ppc freezes?

Game Speed? I've just played through to the start of level 4 (worms), and almost got my arse whupped on a couple of occasions... It looks like the monsters are on steroids... anyway, i checked the time (one elephant, two elephant etc...) for weapons to 'reload' between the windows & ppc versions of the prog and apparently the ppc is running at Normal speed. I guess it's just because it is me thats slower, having to use the stylus instead of mouse and keyboard... Any plans to re-implement the speed menu? I personally might slow the game back a notch...

Oh, just as a comparison, incase the counter is running too fast... it took me 21,442 ticks to get to the start of L4 (worms) (with 4 characters, elija, gothmog, wuuf & gando) is that about right? i did do some running about on L2, and had to run away from some blue meanies on L3... but mostly i played straight through...

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 5:15 pm

Yes, indeed. The "Freeze Game". Forgot about that and it is
quite necessary. Hmmmm. I'll think on that one. On the
left side under the scrolling text there is room for a couple
of 'shortcut' buttons. Maybe I could put a 'freeze' button
there. Freezing while minimized would also be good if
I can figure out how.

The Speed menu is coming. (I already have it on mine, hehe).
And the Volume....don't remember when I built that.

21000 ticks? Good grief man are you slow! Other people have
finished the game is less time than that. That is almost an
hour.

LazyOldman · Post by **LazyOldman** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 6:28 pm

ok, so now i've taken another 5000 ticks to get past the lone rock pile on L4, the screamers & the 3 rock piles... So 14 minutes, erm... i suppose that's not far off what it took, but it doesn't help that i reincarnated, so i was trying to ease the back two in on the screamers... and gothmog doesn't sleep too well - got a low vitality, so takes ages to recover health, but i love him!!

Ok, just done a test - Gando had a health of 17/67, so i went to sleep and let the bar rise (rose at a typical rate), and when i woke up, he'd gained 48points in almost 1000ticks... is that right? I'm guessing you've been playing on your ppc Paul, what kind of ticks are you getting?

Oh, just to check the ticks are the numbers in the bottom left hand corner right?

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 6:48 pm

Yes. Those are clock ticks in the lower left.

But I never pay any attention to them while playing so I
cannot tell you if what you see is reasonable.

I timed my PPC in 'Normal' speed and got only 4.3
ticks per second while just standing around doing nothing.
That seems a little slow but I don't know why it should
be slow.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 8:00 pm

A long time ago everyone complained that CSBwin ran too
fast. There were probably several reasons for this:

1) They were used to running on an emulator.....SLOW
2) They were used to running on an Atari.....SLOW
3) They were used to running in Europe with 50 Hertz power. SLOW.

The Atari code tried to run at 5.45 tics per second but failed
if any action was taking place.

At any rate, I slowed CSBwin's 'Normal' speed to 4.2 ticks per
second and the 4.3 I just measured is within the range of
measurement error. I just tried the CSBwin Windows version
and it runs at about the same speed as the PocketPC.

Therefore: All Is Well!

The only strange thing is that all the competitions assume
six ticks per second. But so what? The only question is
relative performance, not absolute performance. And six is
our standard.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:31 pm

I just posted CSBwinCE02Apr04.exe.

I have not been keeping track of changes.
The speed menu is new, I think.
This version can be paused in three ways:
1) Save/Cancel.
2) Minimize the window.
3) Click on the clock counter.

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 1:07 am

just as a side note.. I have that imagry more or less done. Let me know when you would like to play with it.

moo

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 2:06 am

Thanks for the reminder. I will start working on that
right away. I have to rearrange the way things work
in my 'video driver'. It will be a while yet but it looks like
fun and if there are no catastrophies I can stick with it.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:18 am

I just played an entire game of DM on my Pocket PC.
Chaos very conveniently came to the entry and I
fused him right there without seeing a single demon.
Has anyone else played a complete game on the PocketPC?
I may be the only person in the universe to have
accomplished this???

Now to rest my eyes and see if I can regain my sight.

Gopher · Post by **Gopher** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 11:31 pm

Hithere,

i have a iPAQ 2210 PDA and I put
CSBWinCE04Apr.Exe
Graphic.Dat
Dungeon.Dat

in one Folder and after clicking the .EXE File I
got a Window that tells me:

Window Title: Debug Graphics
Window Text: exeption 0

Am I not compatible with it or whats my mistake please?

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