Raspberry Pi Forums

Hi,

Quick update: Aces of the Deep causes rpix86 to crash on loading, and Aces over Europe crashes when the simulation attempts to load.

These problems don't appear to be sound setting related.

B17 works fine, as does star trek 25th anniversary, 4d boxing and Hero Quest.

Cheers,
Jim

Is it possible to redirect audio from rpix86 to a USB audio device? Perhaps it might be possible to see improved sound by this method?

Jeff

Thanks for the test reports jamesrimmer!

I tested Aces of the Deep and Aces Over Europe myself. Aces of the Deep uses Virtual Memory, so it won't be supported in rpix86 at the moment, sorry. Aces Over Europe uses many new VGA Mode-X graphics operations that I had not supported yet. I just got the emulation to load and run after coding support for half a dozen new operations. I got 4DOS to crash after exiting the game, though, so perhaps I introduced some bugs to the new opcodes. But the game itself seemed to work after my new changes.

@Oldbitcollector: I would probably still need to emulate the Sound Blaster features even if the actual audio would be sent to a USB device, so I doubt that would speed up the emulation. rpix86 has built-in USB MIDI dongle emulation, so if you have a general Midi -compatible synth connected via such a dongle, you can use Midi audio in games that support that. I myself have Roland MT-32 sound module, and I have managed to get nice music out from various Sierra games, fo example. That support is still somewhat experimental, so it may not work in all games.

I plan to release a new version of rpix86 tomorrow, if I don't run into unexpected problems.

Pate wrote: I plan to release a new version of rpix86 tomorrow, if I don't run into unexpected problems.

Watching this space as soon as I wake up tomorrow! A new rpix86 version is secure fun!

Indeed, looking forwards to it! Not sure if it's just me or if anyone else has noticed that pressing the windows menu button (equivalent of right mouse click) on a keyboard causes rpix86 to crashout.

I'm using a bog standard microsoft wired keyboard 400

Cheers,
Jim

Confirmed.. replicated the key crash on a Logitech 400 wireless keyboard.

Hadn't seen that, as it takes two keys to hit the keypress here.

Jeff

rpix86 version 0.15 released!

This version contains the following fixes and improvements:
- Fixed Crystal Caves hang on title screen (bug in opcode INT 03 handling).
- Removed unnecessary delay loop from default BIOS keyboard IRQ handler.
- Added experimental -f2 filtering option, for hardware dispmanx scaling.
- Implemented missing CD-ROM call INT2F AH=1501 (X-Wing INSTALL.EXE).
- Fixed DOS Get STDIN Status call to handle enhanced keyboard correctly.
- Implemented several missing Mode-X opcodes (Aces Over Europe).
- Fixed writing to non-mapped EMS page (bug in Aces Over Europe).

You can download the latest version directly from http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rdown.html (be sure to read my blog post about the changes in this version at http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rblog.html).

Thank you for your interest in rpix86, let me know of any bugs you encounter!

@jamesrimmer: Ah, looks like you found my "hidden" drop-to-debugger key. I am using that key to force an immediate drop to debugger (when the game has hung etc). It actually exits rpix86 completely unless you have started it with -h parameter that is less than half the actual screen height (because the debugger takes the bottom half of the screen while the rpix86 window takes the top half). This is why I usually run rpix86 with -w640 -h400.

Hi Pate,

Had some great success with rpix86 and your recent update - despite some significant ineptitude on my own part

AOE now works fine,although I had a little argument with the joypad emulation (is it really a pad of joy?) as it kept causing me to dive straight into the ground, so I went to simply using keyboard and mouse instead, which works OK in that game.

B17 still plays great, as do the other games.

-f2 seems to work very well, although I had an issue in X-Wing where it crashed during the intro cutscene, but that may have been unrelated as I have not tested it further.

If I was to be a bit whingey, could I ask that you change your 'drop to debugger' key? I've accidentally quit during vital bombing raids in B17, and would love to be able to avoid that.

Cheers and many thanks for all the hours of fun you're bringing me,
Jim.

Hi Pate!

Lemmings is still showing the hiccups. Just let some lemmings to come out of the door in the first level and watch their movemet: you will notice they stop for a moment once every few seconds.
That's with both -f0 and -f2 options, too. I also tried running in 640x400 mode as you do, and I can see it too. I believe there's a timing problem going on here

@jamesrimmer: There is something weird with the joystick and AOE, as I am sure I got the joystick to work fine ONCE in that game, but whatever I tried later on, the joystick never worked when flying, even though it works fine in the menus. I'll need to debug this problem further.

In the next version I will make the drop-to-debugger key not do anything unless you would actually end up in the debugger after pressing it.

@Vanfanel: Ok, looks like the -f2 parameter was not sufficient to fix the timing problems in Lemmings. I fear this may be difficult to solve, the slowdowns may be caused by some thread and timing interaction between the 60fps screen refresh, audio thread frequency, and whatever the game uses for it's timer. I will try to look into this further, though.

Thanks again for your test reports!

I'm still battling joystick use on rpix86.

I couldn't get the xbox360 wired controller to work. (Yes, it works in other places)
Today I'm attempting to get a USB to PC Joystick adapter to work. I can see it's discovered in place at /dev/input/js0

Has anyone else here managed to get any joystick to work with Rpix86? If so, can you recommend a good test program / game which I can test with?

Thanks
Jeff

Hi Pate
I'm having a similar problem. I cannot get my USB gamepad to work. It works fine. I am pretty sure it is my lack of understanding of how Linux /dev/input works. I only have one gamepad, but it looks like it is registered to event2 and js0:

code]lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Dec 31 1969 usb-Logitech_Gamepad_F310_A51FA425-event-joystick -> ../event2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 Dec 31 1969 usb-Logitech_Gamepad_F310_A51FA425-joystick -> ../js0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Dec 31 1969 usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-kbd -> ../event0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Dec 31 1969 usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-mouse -> ../event1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Dec 31 1969 usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-if01-event-mouse -> ../event1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Dec 31 1969 usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-if01-mouse -> ../mouse0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Dec 31 1969 usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-mouse -> ../mouse0
[/code]

This is the command I run: The help file says -jNUM where NUM is the event number. Does this mean -j0 -jjs0 -j2 -jevent2. I'm still learning the system but the emu is great! Really great work. I recommend you add controller setup in FAQ for us special noobs.

darkesco wrote:The help file says -jNUM where NUM is the event number. Does this mean -j0 -jjs0 -j2 -jevent2. I'm still learning the system but the emu is great! Really great work. I recommend you add controller setup in FAQ for us special noobs.

Hi darkesco, and welcome to the forum!

In your case the NUM seems to be 2, so you should give -j2 parameter to rpix86.

Thanks for your interest in rpix86!

Pate

Pate,

Thank you for the instructions. I tested this with wolfenstien 3d. The joystick option is now lit up, but it won't take any input. I noticed it worked in DosBox, but it was so slow that it was unplayable. Thank you so much not only for this emu, but for taking the time to help your fans. I will test with some other games. I am on business travel and left my xbox controller at home (because this logitech worked so much better with retropie). Do you recommend a certain type of controller that works best with rpix86? There is a walmart not far from here and I can pick up whatever works best.

This is not only a great emulator, but also an excellent way for people to relive the past. Wonderful Job! I will eventually start making apps (probably OpenGL) and you have inspired me to focus a large effort on customer support. For a free app, you are providing one hell of a product/service!

Pate,

Any chance you could allow uinput module data to enter Rpix86? This would open the door to all kinds of keyboard substitutes to be used.

Thanks
Jeff

@Oldbitcollector: I am not exactly sure what you mean by uinput support.. Can you clarify? Or give a link to a reference?

@darkesco: Thanks for your compliments!

I am using CH Combatstick 568 USB as my joystick, and it seems to work fine in several games in rpix86. It could be that my joystick is somehow nonstandard, but since it is the only one I have used for testing I'm not sure how I should change the joystick support to be more compatible.

It looks like I will be busy with my other projects again from now on, but I will get back to working on rpix86 when I again have more time for it.

Pate

uinput is a linux kernel module that allows to handle the input subsystem from user land. It can be used to create and to handle input devices from an application. It creates a character device in /dev/input directory.

uinput allows one to insert keystrokes from python, c (and probably other languages) facilitating the ability to translate input from other devices to something simple. (Keystrokes).

I've used uinput (example here) to translate GPIO switch input from an Atari joystick to cursor keys and left control.

Jeff

I just did the full source compile of RetroPie (petrockblog script). I noticed prix86 is one of the emulators. Also the script mentioned uninput many times during the build process, if that means anything. When I get a chance I am going to see if the global gamepad config file (es_input.cfg or something like that) will configure the controller for all programs. I think my biggest problem may have been installing rpix86 from the piStore.

Would it be possible to run Grim Fandango on this emulator? ScummVM does not run it.

KitchUK
Unfortunately not, it was a Windows release, not DOS.

KitchUK wrote:Would it be possible to run Grim Fandango on this emulator? ScummVM does not run it.

Residual does: http://residualvm.org

rpix86 version 0.16 released!

This version contains the following fixes and improvements:
- Implemented experimental support for CD-ROM emulation (D: drive).
- Fixed the rpix86 screen copy feature (using the PrintScreen key).
- Ignore the "drop-to-debugger" key press if debugger is not available.
- Improved previous fix for writing to unmapped EMS page.
- Improved mouse initialization (fixes crash in Fragile Alliance).
- Added support for HLT opcode in protected mode (Fragile Allegiance).
- Implemented a missing EGA opcode (Spacewrecked).

You can download the latest version directly from http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rdown.html (be sure to read my blog post about the changes in this version at http://rpix86.patrickaalto.com/rblog.html).

Thank you for your interest in rpix86, let me know of any bugs you encounter!

@pate first I like to give you my compliments for making the only usable dos emulator for the pi! Its a very important component for my retro home computer I am building. There is only one thing I miss or can't make happening. This is te use of a second controller/joystick. I really want to us two controllers for games like wacky wheels. Is this possible? Or will it be possible in a future version? And fantastic you have a new version out already!

Thanks for the update, Pate!!

I take no sound or scrolling fixes have made it into this release?
-Prince Of Persia & Prince of Persia 2 intros seem to be VERY slow as they were on the last version
-Keen 1 is still showing the strange scrolling, as does The Lost Vikings
-Lemmings still shows the slowdowns when multiple Lemmings are on screen
-Another World is still complaining about memory manager and is VERY slow
-Ishar and Dungeon Master both have music but it's badly broken

just as reminders, of course. RpiX86 is awesome anyway and we had a very good Rpi party last month playing Alone In the Dark to the end

@VincentB: Thanks for your compliments, and welcome to the forum! I think it should be possible to support two joysticks in rpix86 in the future, I just have trouble testing that since I only have one joystick myself. Can you let me know how your two controllers show up in your /dev/input and /dev/input/by-id directories? That might give me an idea as to how to code support for such.

@Vanfanel: Yeah, sorry about that again.. I only had a couple of hours to work in rpix86, and debugging those problem games will probably take days per each game. It looks like I won't have proper time to work on them until my summer vacation in July. I have not forgotten, but just have not had time...