Dungeon Master for Pocket PC / Win CE

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 1:48 am

Oh, boy. Well, it is loading well enough to
produce a dialog box. So we should be able
to debug it. I'll look around and see what might
cause what you are seeing and get back to you,
perhaps tomorrow.

Right now I don'e even have the development
environment installed on my machine because
I had to reinstall Win2k from scratch the other day.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 4:17 am

I just peeked at the source code with a text editor. The
error you encountered is extremely general. Something
went wrong is about all it says. Probably something to do
with the 32-bit boundary constraints of the PocketPC.

Can you provide me with the 'graphics.dat' file which you
are using? If I can make it happen here we will save many,
many days of trial and error debugging.

daje · Post by **daje** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 10:47 am

Hi!

First of all, great work! DM was one of my favorite games of all time on the Amiga and its nice to see a version up and running on the PC and PocketPC.

I recently bought a PocketPC (Ipaq 4150) and downloaded both the DungeonMaster version in the root of http://www.dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/ and the one under the games folder.
The CSBwinCE04Apr.exe version seems to have a bug in it since I couldn't use keys on keyholes...? But this worked with the other version so no problem (just wanted to let you know).

Now to my problem:
The link to Chaos Strikes Back from the games url (under the link above) is missing. How do I get a working version of Chaos Strikes Back to the PocketPC, am I missing something or is the link just bugged?

Thanks again for recreating one of the best games of all time!

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 4:32 pm

am I missing something or is the link just bugged

The file was simply missing. I must have forgotten
to upload it. It is there now. Thanks for pointing
it out to me.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 5:00 pm

I couldn't use keys on keyholes

Hmmmmm. They are both version 1.0. They are slightly
different but I don't know what the difference might be.
They are exactly the same size so it may be simply that
they were compiled on different dates.

At any rate, I downloaded the CSBwinCE04Apr.exe from
the CSBwin directory and it works OK for me. So I have
no explanation for your problem.

daje · Post by **daje** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 7:24 pm

Thanks a lot for fixing the link! I'm going to try it out when I get home from work.

And regarding the keyhole bug, I'll try both versions again to verify the bug on my ipaq.

daje · Post by **daje** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 8:48 pm

Ok, CSB works fine! Sweeeeet.

I also tried to verify the bug but now (of course) I cannot reproduce it.

Anyways, is the source code for this excellent version available? The reason I ask is that I'm looking on the possibility to make a GBA port of the game. Since the pocketpc platform and the gba shares a lot of problems / issues this should be possible I'm guessing...?

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 1:47 am

The source code is the same as for the PC.
The version 9.6 source does not yet have the
PocketPC specific code installed. It will be in
version 9.7. The source is available at dmweb.free.fr.

99.9 percent of the code is the same. And, in fact,
the parts that are different are the very parts you would
have to rewrite anyway for another platform. We are trying
to get version 9.7 on the street but have been waiting
for the macintosh version to fly.

Depending on the use you want to make of it, it is more-
or-less a chore to get it packaged. Why don't you start with
the 9.6 code and then when you have your project off
the ground we can find a way to get the very latest
code in your hands.

JCG · Post by **JCG** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 6:10 am

Hi Paul,

As I followed closely the topic on the Pocket PC version of CSBWin, I couldn't resist anymore and I bought an Ipaq 4150 a few week ago ( I also bought my Atari ST in 87 because of Dungeon Master).
...and tonight I just finished Dungeon Master on the Ipaq with CSBWIN-CE !
I can confirm that Dungeon Master can be played entirely on a pocket PC, normal speed. Has anybody else finished it ?
Clock counter is at 363573 ( not very good, but I tried to do everything and go everywhere, not to break a record).

Some feedback:
CSB is extremely playable on a Pocket PC (except when on the bus. I tried and it's awful.... not your fault).
I was a bit afraid of "Time is of the essence" on level 2 and of the double teleporter with a door in between on level 5 for which we use the mouse and the keyboard at the same time, but I had not much trouble to pass them at "Normal speed"
Compared to the Atari or the PC, Some keys are even worse to see on the floor ( fortunately we all know where they are )
A few requests:
I realize that the usual portrait orientation of the Pocket PC screen gave much trouble, but is it possible to have CSBWIN-CE fullscreen with landscape orientation ?
Is it much work to program the switch from "portrait with menu and clock counter" to the more DM natural "landscape, full screen, without menu or clock counter", for example with one of the hardware buttons ?
That would solve also the problem of the mangled graphics (start screen, the skulls for killed champions, the end image with the scroll ). I have seen that others games emulators like Scummvm and CastCE switch between the two modes.
-is it possible to hide the clock counter ( option in a menu ? ), or at least less prominent ( like a light grey with a black background )

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Thu Jul 08, 2004 6:43 pm

Keep those requests in mind. Ask again someday. I am not going to
make a note of them now. There were plans to accomdate a user-defined
placement of the graphics. Cowsmanaut supplied some new graphics to
avoid the mangled skulls, for example. And quite a bit of it already exists
in the code but is not turned on.

Anyway, I consider these things 'nice' things but not 'needed' things. And
I am having a lot more fun implementing overlays right now. Then someday
I am going to have to enlarge all the Actuator database entries to accomdate
the 64-level capability. And I will undoubtedly receive suggestions from
Zyx, to whom I listen carefully because he actually puts forth the effort
to utilize new features. A LOT of effort.

P.S. Yes, I finished DM on the PocketPC. Just about went blind doing it.

Lubor Kolar · Post by **Lubor Kolar** » Tue Jul 27, 2004 9:28 am

I finished DM on PocketPC too, now I am playing CSB. Few years ago I couldn't imagine playing my most favourite game on full speed, coloured, with original sounds on a small box carried in my pocket. Fantastic work!

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 3:39 pm

I posted a new OverlayDemo.rar at
http://dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin

It contains an up-to-date PocketPC executable with the overaly capability
(and a demonstration), the disable saves, (and a demonstration), and the
graphics signature capability.

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Sun Dec 05, 2004 6:04 am

just bringing this back up top for those looking for palm based DM

Moesha · Post by **Moesha** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 6:07 pm

Hey Guys
I have a T-Mobile Pocket PC from HP. It is an IPAQ and was curious if there is anyhting specia lI have to do to get this running. It keeps telling me it could not find config.txt regardless of where I run it from.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 6:42 pm

I put

config.txt
dungeon.dat
graphics.dat
CSBwinCE.exe

all in the same folder on my PocketPC and it works OK.
If you proceed does it work otherwise?

I don't think that config.txt is necessary in any case. It
has keyboard command definitions and you probably
don't even have a keyboard.

naokii · Post by **naokii** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 2:30 pm

Moesha wrote:Hey Guys
I have a T-Mobile Pocket PC from HP. It is an IPAQ and was curious if there is anyhting specia lI have to do to get this running. It keeps telling me it could not find config.txt regardless of where I run it from.

I got the same msgs and could not execute it on external memory/device. Please copy them to your My Documents or main memory. It will work fine.
-naoki

geniusaction · Post by **geniusaction** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 10:19 am

I've bought a PPC Yakumo DELTA 300 with Windows 2003 Mobile only for Dungeon Master, Chaos Strikes Back (CSB).
A week ago I saw CSB for PPC on forum so now I've your wonderful code on my PPC. It's great thank u again!

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:39 am

Just wondering.. did you ever get those interface images working? any desire for them to be worked on or adjusted for the main PC one if more to your liking? I know you get a lot on your plate with ZYX

just curious as I've contemplating the interface again.. just nice to see the possiblity of a custom "skin" for say Conflux II or just an updated visual of some kind for any and all new dunegons.

ok.. random babeling.. off.

moo

geniusaction · Post by **geniusaction** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 9:16 pm

It's seems that Rockpiles do not produce sounds when they moves.. I'm right?

P.S.
I'm using CSBwinCE30Nov04.exe version.

Post by **Gambit37** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 10:24 pm

CSBWin (all platforms) is based on the Atari code which did not have movement sounds for monsters. That was only in the Amiga and PC versions.

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 1:28 pm

A friend of mine wrote:

"I tried out that DM clone for Pocket PC a little while ago. I'm not sure whether it's because it was written for an older version of Windows Mobile, because of issues dealing with the different screen sizes (240x320 vs. 480x640), or something else, but it didn't exactly work. Besides being extremely (read: unplayably) slow, the left-most edge of the screen was cut off. Still, the idea is promising, and if the fellow who wrote it ever makes a version for "Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition", I'd definitely be interested in giving it a shot; DM is an ideal sort game for this platform."

any ideas of what his issue might be related to? I seem to have the impression it was quite fast for others with less updated hardware than he is currently using..

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 4:14 pm

No idea. It works very fast on my 400MHz ARM machine. If they
are trying to emulate the ARM hardware or something like that then
there is little hope without recompling for different hardware.
If it is just the operating system that has chaged then I have
no idea. In any case, I cannot see myself buying another Pocket PC.
We would need someone who has the machine and the inclination
to do some development/debugging.

lectricpharaoh · Post by **lectricpharaoh** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:34 am

That was me, actually. The first time I ran it, I tried landscape mode, and (I'm assuming because of the rotation that the OS had to do to accomplish this, as I've since seen you didn't intend for it to run in landscape, so wouldn't have written your own such code), it was _very_ slow. If your version of WinCE lets you change the orientation, you can try it in landscape to see what I mean. Another factor is the fact my PPC is VGA, rather than QVGA like most, and the WinCE OS basically scales screen writes with direct pixel quadrupling (pretty much anything except fonts, which it instead draws sharper) unless the app is flagged as 'high-res enabled'. I described this in another post somewhere on these forums, so I'm not going to go into detail here.

Running it in portrait yields much better performance. It's a little sluggish at times, probably because of the aforementioned pixel scaling, but it's generally quite playable. I'm fairly confident it isn't my machine, since it's a) faster than yours (mine uses an Intel PX270 XScale processor at 524 MHz), and b) I've tested by running other apps concurrently. For example, Windows Media Player, which is something of a resource hog on the PPC, can be playing MP3s in the background without impacting the performance of CSBWinCE2002 in any noticable manner (the music didn't disturb the in-game sounds at all, either). To my knowledge, the current versions of WinCE (starting with either Windows Mobile 2000 or WM2002; I'm not sure which) support only ARM processors, so this shouldn't be an issue. Even though the XScale isn't labelled as ARM, it's compatible, according to Intel, and as evidenced by the fact I can run the game.

That said, I have the machine and inclination, but my knowledge of Windows coding is somewhat lacking (I'm trying to learn). I can well understand your reluctance to cough up for a new machine for every target platform, or semi-platform, so if I can help, I'm willing to give it a shot. However, before I pop my brain trying to decode your source, maybe you could give me some background information on how you do the Windows interface portion.

I am assuming your ported Atari code just draws all the screen elements to a buffer, much the same as how the original code would have drawn to the screen. You then take this, and BitBlt() to the display context of the app. Is this about the size of it?

If this is how it goes, then an approach that might help significantly would be to build the app with the high-res flag set (I believe this is done through an embedded resource, so can even be done without the source in many cases), and then do any scaling as you draw to the original buffer. If you're constructing the source buffer in a pixel-by-pixel manner, this won't impact performance measurably at this stage. Basically, what might be

Code: Select all

*ptrBuffer++ = pixelColor;

could instead become

Code: Select all

*ptrBuffer =  pixelColor;
*ptrBuffer+1 = pixelColor;
ptrBuffer += 2;

This change should greatly enhance the speed of the BitBlt() call as GDI won't need to stretch it. I suspect the horizontal scaling is the killer, as the vertical can be done by just replicating scan lines; this fact is exploited in my code snippet, as I don't double the pixels vertically. Of course, if the GDI blitter isn't smart enough to recognize there's no need for horizontal scaling, this approach will fail.

This is where GAPI comes in. Grab a pointer to the frame buffer, and blit your constructed buffer with memcpy() or some such. As long as the source buffer is constructed with the right pixel format (most PocketPCs I've seen lately are 16-bit color, so this is an issue), this will be as fast as it gets.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Sat Mar 19, 2005 4:34 pm

Indeed, things work exactly as you describe.

Moreover, the graphics roiutines are table-driven. Just change
the table entries and you can double the size, rotate, translate, and
change the color coding to anything you please. (I am lying just
a little bit....but the framework is there to accomplish these things.
I will fill it out for you if you find it too frightning.)

Getting the result to the hardware is also coded in a very small function
that can be re-written however necessary. It is only a dozen lines of
code. I'll leave that to you.

If you want to do this work, we should do it off-line, In My Humble Opinion.
My email address is in the Help/About menu.

toby · Post by **toby** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 3:24 pm

Hi,

I also have Windows 2003 SE for PPC and my PPC runs in QVGA resolution. When I ran the CSBPocketPC2002.exe or whatever it was called is also displayed incorrectly as lectricpharaoh explained. If you guys haven't got this sorted I would be willing to lend a hand, just need to be pointed to where to begin. I already have MS Visual Studio 2003 with the .NET compact edition installed so have all the necissary things to develop it. My version seemed to render very fast btw. I have a 624Mhz processor in it tho! I have heard that the VGA models can quite often have graphics accelerators which add latency to the graphics pipeline of framebuffered games, so that might have caused lectricpharaoh's pda to run it slower...

one thing to point out with MS VS 2003 Paul is that it supplies you with a pocketpc emulator. Therfore you do not need a pocketpc with win2003se to compile and test for it.. if that makes sense. However maybe you do not possess visual studio?

let me know if you need some help anyway..

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:45 pm

I posted the very latest source at
http://dianneandpaul.net/CSBwin/CSBwinSource98v43.rar

MS VS 2003 Paul is that it supplies you with a pocketpc emulator.

It ain't quite that easy, unfortunately. Good Luck. Write me privately
and I will try to answer any questions short of "How do I make this
work better?".

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 3:46 pm

This post may be in the wrong place, but how on earth do you use a chest in the pocketpc version of DM? You can view the contents by dropping the chest over the "eye" in the inventory screen, but I don't know how to "get" the contents or store items in the chest

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Mon Aug 15, 2005 4:09 pm

Put the chest in your action hand

ian_scho · Post by **ian_scho** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 9:44 pm

Just a quick question / note:

I've downloaded the PPC version off Paul Steven's website for my PPC Win2002 of Dungeon Master (not CSB) and it seems to work fine buuut the direction pad doesn't work. I Looked at the config file and realised that these buttons are not keyboard keys are they.
Then with a stroke of luck I was sniffing around the DMEncyclopedia for a solution and it suggested the following in the CSB version:

If you want to use the direction pad on your Pocket PC, you need to add the following lines to the config.txt file:

mscan 1 000026 113 87 L ; up = move forward
mscan 1 000027 130 9e L ; right = turn right
mscan 1 000025 f8 9e L ; left = turn left
mscan 1 000028 113 9e L; down = move backward
mscan 1 00000d 113 9e R; enter = show inventory/show dungeon view

After cutting and pasteing the above into my config.txt file the up/right/left buttons work great. The down and enter though both show the inventory, and not step back (down) as I had hoped. Have I not edited the file correctly, do you think. There were two semicolons at the end of the file, should they be moved at the bottom?

Thanks - And great work!

P.S. Is it worth including the above fix in a readme with your files? I downloaded this of the handy PPC dungeon list.

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:00 am

Thanks much.....I tried to get this to
work a couple years ago and failed.

I put all five lines in my PPC
and they work OK.

But they don't turn! They 'slide' left and
right.

The x and y coordinates are
x = f8, 113, 130 (columns 1 through 3)
y = 87 (top row) and 9e (bottom row)

So it is easy to change the slide motions
to turning motions by changing the y
coordinates.

Dungeon Master Forum

Dungeon Master for Pocket PC / Win CE

Folder should be in main memory

I WANT TO TELL Paul Stevens "THANK U VERY VERY MUCH&quo

Maybe a bug?

How do you use a chest with the ppc version of DM?