Andrea Palmate's releases on os4depot

As some of you may aware Andrea do some good quality ports back in past, which wasn't on os4depot but on his own site, about which any newcomers, of course, didn't know. Today he gives me "yeah sure, ok" for uploading his stuff to os4depot.

I inform users about there, so no one will curious why there upload from me of ~10 Andrea's archives.

Thanks to him for allowing me to do so! The more quality stuff on os4depot the better!

Currently Aquaria in the upload query.




You need the latest OpenAL sobj from there: https://github.com/salass00/openal_lib/releases/tag/1.18.2r2

And, or latest libsdl1.2.so from there: http://os4depot.net/share/library/misc/sdl.lha

Or my few days ago build of _VERY_ latest SDL1 code (this include some fixes which not in os4depot release, so probabaly better to use my build):
http://kas1e.mikendezign.com/aos4/sdl ... SDL-1.2_so_01_01_2020.zip


And it also can be played and with original MiniGL, and with MiniGL4GL4ES (so on Polaris cards as well).

Game support all screenmodes, i use 1920x1080 with no probs for now.

Another upload is equilibrio. Developed originally by dk-games : http://www.dk-games.com/Equilibrio/game.html



Also works fine and with original MiniGL and with MiniGL4GL4ES. It has pretty tasty amigaos4 native reaction-based launcher. Also in upload query for now.

@kas1e

Both ports are excellent .. expecially Aquaria
.. and yes would be nice to try to recompile them using the latest recent libraries (SDL and so on)

@samo
There nothing that need to be recompiled because it uses libsdl.so. Be sure to have the latest one in the system as I point out, and all will be "recompiled".

@kas1e

Indeed, but you don't understand me :)
i meant to say, that even if everything already work, it would be nice to recompile all that old Andrea games using the latest library AND of course link them statically, aka without the need to check all that dependencies crap in sobjs folder ..

@samo79

Quote:
It would be awesome if we had a tool that could detect missing libraries/sobjs, and then download and install them for us.

I can think of two possible ways of doing this:
1. Intercept the library/sobj load failure, and then search AmiUpdate & os4depot for the libs, and install them
2. Define a dependencies file format that developers can stick in their archives. A tool would then go through and download & install the missing ones

Method 2 would be nicer for users (no need to run the app/game first), but would require developers to actually use it. AmiUpdate already has a feature to list dependencies, which might be an alternative source of dependency info. However, I'm not sure how widely it's used.

With ZitaFTP Server, I solved the dependency issue by keeping dependencies to a minimum and including them in the archive.

Hans

@all
Next one in upload query are D1X-Rebirth.



It is the port of the Descent and Descent 2 Engines over MiniGL. Games are pretty old (from 1995 times), but it always was a hiped enough :) You need original data files that you place to "data" directory.

Works with all MiniGL versions, and over old ones, and over MiniGL4Gl4ES.

Big resolutions can be used (i use 1920x0180)

Joystick also works, as a game use libSDL-1.2.so, so you can use the very latest one. Just in case you can download my few-days-ago build of SDL1 in .so, so it includes all fixes till now + some fixes for make joystick works:

http://kas1e.mikendezign.com/aos4/sdl ... SDL-1.2_so_01_01_2020.zip

@Hans

There used to be a sub site on OS4Depot for keeping track of sobjs. Unfortunately it didn't get traction and was severely underused so I decided to remove it.

It's still visible here:

http://sobjs.os4depot.net/

@kas1e

There is an also a port of Freespace2 by Andrea..I remember that it had some problems..I will try and see what was the problem ? Maybe that port can be re-compiled ?

Thanks.
I found with Aquaria that changing resolution or fullscreen causes the game screen to go black. It appears to be a crash, but if you wait ~25 seconds the screen returns and all is well.

@all
Another port in upload query are Descent Freespace 2



A game from 1999, but good enough even today. You need 3 original CD isos of game. Use "Install Data Files" script coming with aos4 archive to install all the stuff from those disks (and DiskImage to mount them).

Game may have some issues from time to time with timing in SDL, and while it works fully correctly with original MiniGL, with MiniGL4GL4ES it bring some visuall glitches which looks like memory trashing errors, so that one to be fixed inside new minigl or gl4es or ogles2 or whatever which is cullpit.

To avoid issues with OpenAL (as writen in the readme there was issues back in past), you may delete from game's SOBJ directory libopenal.so , and instead use latest libopenal.so from latest Salas00's build: https://github.com/salass00/openal_lib/releases/tag/1.18.2r2

@Sinan
Quote:

Maybe, at moment i only upload Andrea's current stuff, so it will not die somewhere in the net, and everyone may get it from os4depot.

@ddni
Quote:

It just a game re-init ourselves, i.e. not immediately changing of screen mode. Just a game is done like this. On my x5000 it take 10 secons, and screen is white/grey and not black. But it take a time to switch between modes for sure.

@kas1e

Thanks.
I get DSI crashes when clicking on mini map to bring up inventory? Best place to share the crash log?

@ddni
Quote:

Just to clarify : its old ports which is no mantained. I only upload them. Don't hope anything will be fixed in it.

Only issues which may be fixed are those caused by MiniGL4GL4ES. Are you on it, or on old MiniGL?

@ddni

On OS4depot, go to the file readme page and click the "View crashlogs" button followed by a click on the [Submit Crashlog] link.

Perfect, now we can find them on OS4Depot :D

Thanks both kas1e and Andrea

@kas1e

I was using old Minigl. Switched to MiniGL4GL4ES and crash fixed. I also noticed much faster loading of Aquaria.

@all
Another upload in process are UFO: Alien Invasion.



UFO: Alien Invasion is a strategy game in which the player fights aliens that are trying to take control of the Earth. The game is heavily influenced by the X-COM series (mostly by UFO: Enemy Unknown).

It is based on a modified id Tech 2 engine, and runs on Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD,[2] Microsoft Windows, AmigaOS 4,[3] and Mac OS X for both PPC and Intel Macs. There is also a version for Android, published on Android Market.[4]



Game is big enough, so go to os4depot as 2 separate archives. One are UFO-AI.lha are the main one (~350mb). And second one are UFO-AI_data.tar, which are necessary data files and size of them about 400mb packed.

The game works fine on x5000 with original MiniGL, but currently heavy crashes on running when run over minigl4gl4es. So, at moment Polaris owners out of luck, but that will be fixed sooner than later.

@kas1e

I would like to try UFO: Alien Invasion, as I loved to play the original on my A1200.

Sadly, I have never got it to run on either my A1XE or my X5000.

thanks Andrea & kas1e these are some great games