Develop Bugs

[game]Lineapolis for PDA 2.5 released

Here is my freeware game -ads free. Working probably at any resolution, especially tested on my HTC Touch Pro 2 480x800. No big graphics but I think good playability. So download from this thread or game website (search for version 2.5): www.lineapolis.dizzy.pl, play (in game is demonstration and help) and comment it - I wait for your opinion...
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2010-08-10: update to 2.5

mrdarek said:
Here is my freeware game -ads free. Working probably at any resolution, especially tested on my HTC Touch Pro 2 480x800. No big graphics but I think good playability. So download from this thread or game website (search for version 2.3): www.lineapolis.dizzy.pl, play (in game is demonstration and help) and comment it - I wait for your opinion...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What game is it? How do you play this?
Never heard about such thing

I try explain my game but I'm not native English speaker... Principal game rules are simple. You need draw line by 5 adjacent points. On start it not possible so game rules allow add 1 new point for create line. You have some default set points on start, their number increases with the progress of the game. There is also bonus mode in game - you can store points for future use if you draw line by 5 existing points.
Idea is not new. Before computer times I play this game on boring lessons in school using only paper and pen. But i was not happy - I could not restore my best games, so I create computer version of that game - now I can save games, undo moves, reviews games, found hidden moves e.t.c.
Unique value of that game is that you can play just for fun drawing lines or can play in ambitious style and try get best score.
Peoples don't know my game because is unique in Internet - so many sudokus sokobans and other games for single players but no one has coded my favourite game. So try my game and give me opinion here, might you like it.

Thanks for this, I used to play your java version, but for some reason it stopped working on my hd 2, this works great!
thanks for releasing this as a stand alone cab file

I'm so happy that xda promoting my freeware software At last in win-mo you have nice icon. j2me is not bad language - very strict rules so code are runing fast even on old phones. This is framework version - is fast on fast devices. In j2me I was have trouble programming auto-player, I think you will be like this feature. And in this version at last I got idea how coding bonus mode and doing this!

Whats funny is that I lost my Phone in November, last year, used t oplay your game all teh time. Switched to Android for a while, hated it, came back to WM, flashed an NRG ROM, but was missing your game. Took me a while to find the Java Version, actually found a copy last week, but couldn't get it to work with the Java version I have on this phone. Was quite upset, and just about gave up, until today, that is, when I saw a Tweet about it, on my phone, and imediatly installed it. Still haven't figured out what Bonus mode does, or how it differs from what I am used to. Keep up the good work, and again, I am glad I can play this game again on my HD2. Maybe you can do an animatted GIF to show how this works, I am not getting it from the explination on your web site
The only thing i will say, is that on the HD2, it is a little hard to get the dots sometimes, even after increasing the screen size a bit, so sometimes it takes two or three taps to hit the dot I want. No way around this though, as the HD2 has no stylis. It still works fine, however, and if I am really lazy, I can just cycle through the hints until I find the line I intended, or see another line of interest, that I may have missed.
I will add, you should throw up a donation link, in your sig, or add it to the first post, as some people may want to donate a little token of apreciation...
For those who need an understanding on how to play, I ripped this of your web site:

Maybe you need calibrate screen on HD 2 if you have trouble select point? After adding demonstration game and simple help I think that this gif is no big useful but still OK. Read help and you learn what is bonus mode. Or often use hint and in medium game you can see "can store!" - This is bonus feature. With bonus mode You can get much better score eg my is 135! Or just disable bonus in config and play classic mode like in 2.2 In bonus mode strategy has changed - less thinking how to effectively draw lines - more thinking how get and use precious stored points.
2010-08-08: New 2.4 version released - worth redownload!

Twoja gra podsunela mi pomysl, ze nie widzialem jeszcze gry w popularne KROPKI w ktore namietnie gralismy na kartce w kratke na lekcjach w podstawowce moze cos takiego stworzysz?

I translate it by google translator:
Your game gave me the idea that I have not seen the game in the popular DOT in which we played passionately on a piece of the lessons in class in elementary school: P Maybe this will create?
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Hm, what difference beetwen this game and your? Please explain me on mail
PL: A jaka jest różnica? wytłumacz mi na maila, i nie pisz PL na angielskim forum, użyj translatora... L

[Q] Windows Desktop Programs/Games to Windows Mobile?

Took a look back for a few pages, and did a couple quick searches. Didn't quite find enough info.
I am wondering the best approach to take when converting a program to be compatible with and run on windows mobile.
I don't currently know any languages so, I would have to start learning from the beginning.
Thanks for any info

from the little I know about programming, the way an application (or games) works on windows is nothing similar to the way a program runs on windows mobile, so you would actually need to start from scratch... There are however some tools to make the job easier with older programs, like Dosbox... but I don't know if it's what you want.
The most amazing think for me is that, out os 61 views on this topic, the only person that bother to answer is NOT a developer (me)

Convert app? Impossible. With source code it is possible, if you adjust UI to fit the screen and get over some limitations and many other things.
Good is .NET on this, because if you install .NET CF on your PC, you can run apps built for winmo directly on your PC. Only issue is when it tries using other than normal libraries from GAC and tries using InterOp. That library would have to be recompiled for win32, rather wince-arm (back to 1st part). The same, the app has to be made that it is compatible with both file paths - remember that WinMo doesn't use C:\Windows but \Windows etc. And .NET CF is highly limited compared to desktop version.

Thanks for the replies.
I'm not looking for a simple way to convert programs as I'm sure it is impossible. I'm expecting to have to pretty much start from ground up.
I've seen some games such as Pocket Diablo(some others here http://www.jamesbeckingham.com.au/Default.aspx) as well as Starcraft that someone here was working on.
But I'm just wondering the best approach to do work like these guys. As there are some games I would like to bring to mobile.

These games work pretty much that people make the engine from scratch, with many hours in disassemblers, hexeditors etc they find out how does the engine load graphics from those huge files etc and they add it to their engine. Usually.

Its possible... but often more work than it is worth
OndraSter said:
These games work pretty much that people make the engine from scratch, with many hours in disassemblers, hexeditors etc they find out how does the engine load graphics from those huge files etc and they add it to their engine. Usually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. The hours put in to "porting" these apps to windows mobile is often close to the work it would take to make the game from scratch. So if you are not familiar with coding, disassembling code is far outside your scope. However, when finished, these games have more of an original feel, but often work less effective. This is due to the translation of using mouse clicks to touch input. Games such as diablo rely heavily on having two mice buttons to click. A total remake would be less like the original but might compensate for the new control scheme.
Both ways are possible, but they are both also complicated and involve a great deal of work. Not to mention how unhappy blizzard is with people using their artwork, even if the game is absolutely free.

Sorry but, none of you are really being helpful..
I do not expect this to be easy. I am expecting it to be a long process, and telling me something that I already know over and over doesn't help me get started. I've already said that I expect to probably have to rebuild these from ground up..
I know what is ahead of me and want to do this stuff, other wise I wouldn't be asking.
So if anyone knows the process or at least where I could get started. Please let me know. Otherwise I'll just start with Java then C# until I find my own way into doing this.

From personal experience of porting a game ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=717274 ), it will take awhile. Here is the process I used when making the game:
1) Collect image resources if any are possible to be used.
2) Research what kind of engines to use. I made the mistake of trying to use the basic image function in C#.net, which was a waste of time. Then I switched to GDI+ and haven't had any problems since.
3) Make a list of things you want to do on the program. From the required things to the extra fancy features. Sounds are extra features.
4) Prototype A LOT. Find what you want to accomplish, break its parts down into basic actions, then prototype of how to do that action.
As a language to start with, I personally recommend C#.net because its easy to use. It doesn't have the speed of C++, but it does have the #region/ #endregion functions which have helped me ENORMOUSLY with writing code. The region code can be minimized. With 2000+ lines of code per class and about 20 classes, minimizing code makes moving around easier.
Check the XDA boards or search online if your lost. If you need more help on porting code or making functions to do specific actions, message me and I'll gladly help.

GBA Emulation in XNA

I read the requests/ideas thread, and saw an Idea for a GBA emulator. I looked around the internet and found a C#/DirectX GBA emulator. I downloaded the source and began to copy/paste the code to an XNA WP7.0 Game. Most of the Code ported(ARM System Emulation, Opcodes, etc), but Audio and Graphics are bothersome because of the managed API differences between XNA and MDX, If someone wants to look at the code, I've uploaded it. I am not that great with programming, so if anyone can figure out how to change the API from the MDX to XNA equivalent, I give great thanks.
http://www.forwardcoding.com/projects/gbaemu.html Here is the page for the original pc project.
P.S: i used VS2010

I wonder if looking at the xbox360 gba emulator may be of some help?
Wish I had more coding skills to help

Fullmetal99012 said:
I read the requests/ideas thread, and saw an Idea for a GBA emulator. I looked around the internet and found a C#/DirectX GBA emulator. I downloaded the source and began to copy/paste the code to an XNA WP7.0 Game. Most of the Code ported(ARM System Emulation, Opcodes, etc), but Audio and Graphics are bothersome because of the managed API differences between XNA and MDX, If someone wants to look at the code, I've uploaded it. I am not that great with programming, so if anyone can figure out how to change the API from the MDX to XNA equivalent, I give great thanks.
http://www.forwardcoding.com/projects/gbaemu.html Here is the page for the original pc project.
P.S: i used VS2010
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey dont worry There is already a gameboy emulator that is .XAP format its not out yet but I am on the team (It's just me and Samuel now XD) that is working on it. I cant post the .XAP yet but I can show you this http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1320/wj7ia.png it should be out in the next couple of days if all goes well . I will post it on here so be sure check back soon

You guys are awesome! I've been wanting to do a GBA emulator for WP7, but I have practically NIL XNA background. I've also been preparing to hack together some managed code from the android emus and port to a suitable WP7 build.

sweet..... I guess I don't have to worry.....
P.S: how do you add roms?
P.P.S: does it do GBA or just GB???

thank you for this great work

Just a friendly reminder: This is not legal in most countries, incl. the US.

Well emulators themselves are not illegal, if you own the game yourself, why shouldn't you be able to use an emulator to play them?
On the other hand making a full speed GBA emulator on WP7 would be quite the feat considering everything has to be done in managed code.

WithinRafael said:
Just a friendly reminder: This is not legal in most countries, incl. the US.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Emulators themselves are not illegal. If you own the games then you are alright.
and Rafael. we already got an emulator that will be out very very soon Follow us on twitter or facebook to stay updated http://twitter.com/#!/wariojewels7 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Warios-Jewels-for-WP7/225788057444688

Badcam3 said:
Emulators themselves are not illegal. If you own the games then you are alright.
and Rafael. we already got an emulator that will be out very very soon Follow us on twitter or facebook to stay updated http://twitter.com/#!/wariojewels7 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Warios-Jewels-for-WP7/225788057444688
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, but that's for the original Game Boy right?

Nudua said:
Well emulators themselves are not illegal, if you own the game yourself, why shouldn't you be able to use an emulator to play them?
On the other hand making a full speed GBA emulator on WP7 would be quite the feat considering everything has to be done in managed code.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, yes it would.... On the same note, I would love to know how they buffered the video inwarios jewels so I could rewrite the video subsystem on the emulator that Im trying to port. and also how they load the games..., because trying to load from internal isn't working atm.

Fullmetal99012 said:
yes, yes it would.... On the same note, I would love to know how they buffered the video inwarios jewels so I could rewrite the video subsystem on the emulator that Im trying to port. and also how they load the games..., because trying to load from internal isn't working atm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing they're just using the Texture2D.SetData function to update a texture from a video buffer. Haven't really found something like WritableBitmap that silverlight has and SetData is said to be pretty slow.
As for loading roms, you either have to load it from the project itself using the TitleContainer class or you have to download the rom from a service or url.

):
The facebook page for WJ7 shows that he was testing GBA functionality, but that the framerate was horrible because of the sandboxing. Without hardware level access, it seems for now GBA isn't playable.

[Q] Emulated game rom catalogue UI - does one exist?

Hi all,
I was wondering if any android app existed that aggregated information on game roms.
I had in mind something like the XBMC library experience whereby you can scroll through a catalogue of films which each have their poster/dvd cover, a snippet of information and their IMDB ratings (etc). There is even a plugin for XBMC that does this for games.
The reason I am interested is because I find the current method through snesoid/n64oid disappointing. My current workaround has been to use the shortcut functionality of the aforementioned and link directly to a ROM and replace its icon with that of the game box art.
On a related note - is there any way to manually add shortcuts to games into the Xperia Play app? This would go quite far to providing what I was after.
Many thanks in advance for any information.
EDIT: I should say for clarity that I am looking for something that will then launch the applications, not just list them.

Jonnyapps said:
Hi all,
I was wondering if any android app existed that aggregated information on game roms.
I had in mind something like the XBMC library experience whereby you can scroll through a catalogue of films which each have their poster/dvd cover, a snippet of information and their IMDB ratings (etc). There is even a plugin for XBMC that does this for games.
The reason I am interested is because I find the current method through snesoid/n64oid disappointing. My current workaround has been to use the shortcut functionality of the aforementioned and link directly to a ROM and replace its icon with that of the game box art.
On a related note - is there any way to manually add shortcuts to games into the Xperia Play app? This would go quite far to providing what I was after.
Many thanks in advance for any information.
EDIT: I should say for clarity that I am looking for something that will then launch the applications, not just list them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are looking for something that doeasn't exist. It would need advance development. From my understanding you want to implement a feature into the PS stock app that loads games to load games that are meant to load via emulators. Wouldn't that mean the Playstation app would ahve to be an emulator? lol Try describing what you really mean maybe some dev can do something for you
Hope this helps

arian009 said:
I think you are looking for something that doeasn't exist. It would need advance development. From my understanding you want to implement a feature into the PS stock app that loads games to load games that are meant to load via emulators. Wouldn't that mean the Playstation app would ahve to be an emulator? lol Try describing what you really mean maybe some dev can do something for you
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's not what he is saying. he wants a app which can list the roms he has and then get data for them from various online databases and scrapers and then launch it with the installed emulator
so his emulator roms and possibly games are in a sort of catalogue.
atleast that's what I think he meant.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk 2

fma965 said:
that's not what he is saying. he wants a app which can list the roms he has and then get data for them from various online databases and scrapers and then launch it with the installed emulator
so his emulator roms and possibly games are in a sort of catalogue.
atleast that's what I think he meant.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. This is what I am after. I have just found something called 'Launch Me' on the Play Store which, whilst having terrible reviews, says it does at least some of what I am after.
The problem I've had in hunting these things out is that 'Android ROM launcher' tends to turn up google results for Android roms and launchers
I shall cough up the £2 and try this app.

[Q] Windows surface RT.

How's everyone doing?
I bought a Surface RT during last Black Friday and i have been using it mainly for school. I just found out there was a jailbreak and i guess this whole world of mods. Just wondering what kind of things can a normal computer gamer and medical student gain by jailbreaking? What additional features do you get?

Windows RT cannot run desktop applications normally for 2 reasons.
Firstly it uses an ARM architecture processor commonly used in phones and tablets whereas your normal laptop or desktop uses an x86 architecture processor. The 2 are not compatible, same way my A+ blood is not suitable for a B- recipient (as far as my limited medical knowledge is concerned anyway).
Secondly, unlike windows 8, windows RT features digital signature enforcement. In order to confirm whether a piece of software is legitimate or malware it requires microsoft to add a digital signature to the executable. If the signature is missing or invalid then it won't run it. Apps you download from the windows store will come with this signature so its not a problem there. Unfortunately there is no way to obtain a certificate for desktop applications available to us at this time so only microsoft office, internet explorer and the other built in desktop programs that came preinstalled have the required certificate.
The jailbreak removes the signature checking on windows RT 8.0 only, it does not function on RT 8.1. Black friday is not a thing here so I have no idea when you got the tablet, it could have come with 8.1 rather than 8.0 in which case you can get an 8.0 recovery image and "downgrade" the device again. That solves the second issue and allows us to run software not authorised by microsoft.
The first issue. I don't know how much you know about software development but normally you take a human readable file(s), run it through a compiler and that spits out the executable binary. Of course existing software that you can just hop online and download or pull from a CD will have a binary for x86 processors not ARM. Microsofts C/C++ compiler with support for windows RT is available though so we can at least get binaries which will run on the Surface RT (and other RT devices). Downside, in order for us to port this software to RT it has to have the human readable source code available and that source code needs to work in microsofts compiler, if either of those requirements is not met then there is nothing we can do for a port.
If you are running the 8.0 version of RT rather than RT 8.1 then you can obtain the jailbreak tool from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2092158
A list of applications which have been ported to RT can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2092348
So what do you gain as a medical student/gamer by jailbreaking? The ability to run the software in the list above, that is it (and if I was to pick up an RT device that would be highly important to me, but thats me, not everyone)

SixSixSevenSeven said:
A list of applications which have been ported to RT can be found here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2092348
So what do you gain as a medical student/gamer by jailbreaking? The ability to run the software in the list above, that is it (and if I was to pick up an RT device that would be highly important to me, but thats me, not everyone)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't consider myself a serious gamer, but the jailbreak gives me three game-related things that I use occasionally. First is Quake. I never actually played through the whole game back in the day, so I'm finally doing that on my Surface, which I think is really cool. Mouse not required so I can pretty much play it wherever (unlike Quake 3, which I've also played on it occasionally). Second is DOSbox, as I occasionally pull out some old games like Duke Nukem when I'm bored. Last is the super Nintendo emulator snes9x. Yes I know there is also a store app version, but it got pulled for while, so I like the knowledge that the desktop version is mine to keep.
Past that there are some very helpful desktop utilities that I use, KeepPass2 (password safe) I use for both personal and work passwords, so to have it on my Surface is awesome, and since there is also a subversion client, I can even check out the work safe directly using my Surface. And of course Putty.
Basically I would not have bought my Surface RT if it weren't for the jailbreak. And I will also not upgrade to 8.1 if a jailbreak isn't available. There are too many things I would rather do on the desktop, even on RT.

domboy said:
I wouldn't consider myself a serious gamer, but the jailbreak gives me three game-related things that I use occasionally. First is Quake. I never actually played through the whole game back in the day, so I'm finally doing that on my Surface, which I think is really cool. Mouse not required so I can pretty much play it wherever (unlike Quake 3, which I've also played on it occasionally). Second is DOSbox, as I occasionally pull out some old games like Duke Nukem when I'm bored. Last is the super Nintendo emulator snes9x. Yes I know there is also a store app version, but it got pulled for while, so I like the knowledge that the desktop version is mine to keep.
Past that there are some very helpful desktop utilities that I use, KeepPass2 (password safe) I use for both personal and work passwords, so to have it on my Surface is awesome, and since there is also a subversion client, I can even check out the work safe directly using my Surface. And of course Putty.
Basically I would not have bought my Surface RT if it weren't for the jailbreak. And I will also not upgrade to 8.1 if a jailbreak isn't available. There are too many things I would rather do on the desktop, even on RT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you that sounds amazing. Yea I use it mainly doing work at a clinic, but there is always downtime throughout the day. Playing some Old school quake/snes would be tight. for SNEs are the roms all on there or can you just download everysingle one you want? also do you need a controller?

Redistributing ROMs is generally considered at least technically illegal, and thus against XDA rules. That said, I'm guessing you have them or can find them. No idea if it works with a controller (in general, Windows RT supports controllers, but no guarantee on app compatibility through something like DOSbox or an emulator).
There's one other advantage of Jailbreak that 6677 didn't mention: you can run an x86 emulation layer that (very slowly) allows running (a small number of) normal x86 programs. A few old games, like Heroes of Might and Magic 3, are known to work with it. It won't run anything very new or fancy - for example, even really old versions of Firefox don't work, although their installer will run - but sometimes something that hasn't been tested before is tried, and works out.
Something to consider about DOSBox: a lot of the games on GOG.com are 16-bit games that run in DOSBox. If you extract the DOSBox disk image and configuration and bring them over to the tablet, you can run them using the RT port of DOSBox as well.

egyptionsr2buff said:
Thank you that sounds amazing. Yea I use it mainly doing work at a clinic, but there is always downtime throughout the day. Playing some Old school quake/snes would be tight. for SNEs are the roms all on there or can you just download everysingle one you want? also do you need a controller?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything I mentioned I do with the Surface keyboard, and I've got the type keyboard. The Surface itself can make use of an Xbox360 controller, but I've never tried to configure it in snes9x. A quick search on Google looks like people have used the X360 controller with snes9x on regular Windows, so it may work. I know the store version (snes8x) can use, as I tried it briefly once. I just don't usually have my controller with me, so using the keyboard is much more convenient. The store version has touch controls, but that is really tricky to use when you need precise movement in a game.
ROMs are not bundled with the snes emulator, but that's typical in the emulation world. I don't want to go into too much detail since it's against forum policy, but again, Google it a bit as it's pretty easy to find info on the subject.