Wiki ideas

Topics on software tools like TileStudio, comments on documentation and tutorials (or the lack of) should go here.
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nicksen782
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Re: Wiki ideas

Post by nicksen782 »

Artcfox wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2018 2:01 pm As far as I know, the only database that has been maintained is the online Cuzebox emulator's Git repository, but it doesn't collect all games in a single directory unless you download the repo as a .zip and then extract it ignoring directories. The easiest way might be to have a script that will build a .img file from that repo.
Yes, as is the nature of the app it does have every Uzebox game in it's database. Each game gets its own folder and when a game is requested then all files in that folder become part of the Emscripten filesystem that CUzeBox sees. I put the games into separated folders in anticipation of problems such as more than one SPIRAMDATA.DAT files or something to that effect.

So, in a way, I technically maintain the most centrally available Uzebox library. This would probably be better if I would do individual links to each game's wiki article too.

So, how about this? I could create a quick script that could pull the files out of each directory. The script could be set to detect files that have the same filenames. I could create a sort of hyperlink that generates a .zip download of all the Uzebox games on the Online Player.

Does either bootloader support folders BTW?
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Jubatian
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Re: Wiki ideas

Post by Jubatian »

nicksen782 wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:19 pmSo, how about this? I could create a quick script that could pull the files out of each directory. The script could be set to detect files that have the same filenames. I could create a sort of hyperlink that generates a .zip download of all the Uzebox games on the Online Player.

Does either bootloader support folders BTW?
This would be quite nice! There is no support for folders in either bootloader though, games need to anticipate that there is other stuff on the card. Creating new files is not really possible anyway (it could be done, but it isn't really feasible). The general guideline is that for every game, resource files should share the name part (SD Data File Best Practices).

Adding subfolder support to bootloaders is not possible and will not be ever possible. There is just no room for it, and it demands complex code to build a game selector capable to handle it.

Games however may implement subfolder support on their own (having folders on the card does no harm to either bootloader), so you could design a game in such a manner that it accesses its data in a subfolder (then it can have anything in there).
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nicksen782
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Re: Wiki ideas

Post by nicksen782 »

There is now a link to a downloadable .zip file on the main wiki page.

http://uzebox.org/wiki/Latest_Rom_List
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Jubatian
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Re: Wiki ideas

Post by Jubatian »

nicksen782 wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 5:59 am There is now a link to a downloadable .zip file on the main wiki page.

http://uzebox.org/wiki/Latest_Rom_List
Maybe it is obvious, just asking. Is this file cached? (If not, I imagine that server would soon be sitting in a puddle of sweat struggling to take off by its fans! :D )
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nicksen782
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Re: Wiki ideas

Post by nicksen782 »

It is just a file download. That is it. I put a date in the filename. When new games are released I will create a new file and update the wiki. I will likely create a system for myself to easily build up a new .zip file when new games are added to the library. With the exception of Tornado 2000, the library is a little over 10 megabytes. This isn't a big download.

Tornado is 45 megabytes zipped. Right now for Tornado you have to download the .uze file and the .zip that contains the .lvl file separately. I put them both in one zip but I was hoping to ask Cunningfellow about it before I put my own repack of his game up.

Anyway, I'll update the file whenever I update the game library of the Online Player.
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Jubatian
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Re: Wiki ideas

Post by Jubatian »

Great! :) How difficult would it be by the way to (also) create an SD ready archive without the folders? I imagine a shell script could do it. It would be nice for real hardware owners so they could just unpack it onto an SD card and play.
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nicksen782
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Re: Wiki ideas

Post by nicksen782 »

I did look into this. Many games do not follow the filename best practices. However, none share filenames with other games. Assuming this remains true, I could create a shell script that would create a .zip without the folders. I would suggest that at least the .uze and .hex be uppercase. What do you think?
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Re: Wiki ideas

Post by CunningFellow »

Jubatian wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2018 6:56 pm Adding subfolder support to bootloaders is not possible and will not be ever possible. There is just no room for it, and it demands complex code to build a game selector capable to handle it.
How many bytes would you estimate sub folders in the game loader would take?
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Re: Wiki ideas

Post by Jubatian »

CunningFellow wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:12 pmHow many bytes would you estimate sub folders in the game loader would take?
A lot :P I dunno, but it is sure way beyond what a bootloader could ever have while supporting all the rest! Even if you wanted only one folder deep, that needs a primitive tree, you have to keep remembering the position in the root directory (which includes a sector which has 16 file / folder descriptors on it) while searching in another file (the subdirectory, you have to scan sectors of file descriptors again to find the file you need). I would imagine at least about 400 bytes of code without considering any potential pitfalls.

I think this should be reserved for games. If a game needs a bunch of files for any reason (such as user created content), it could place it in a subdir. But that also needs emulator support. Neither Uzem, nor CUzeBox can do it as of now.
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