Archive for the ‘Utilities’ Category
Nintendo Emulation w/ Linux! – All you need to know! (and a little more)
I have received a few emails asking about emulation on the Linux platform. These questions were mostly by Windows users who enjoy running retro titles and don’t know much about Linux and its thriving emulation scene. From being active in many forums I think retro gaming is one of the most popular pastimes of the hobbyist computer user and I think that mainstream gaming of the latest modern titles is moving away from the PC and to the consoles, where patches and workarounds are a thing of the past with consoles really being “plug in and play”.
Many users without experience of Linux will not know how well catered for Nintendo, (or indeed most system) emulation is. The is one of a few articles I will be writing on the subject as I think a barrier that prevents people from running Linux will be area’s like this.
Of course FOSS/Linux does have its own gaming scene with many FOSS titles looking very modern and being a lot of fun. Example (which was featured here a while ago) was Alien Arena – an FPS which has a massive following. Other titles include Eternal Lands (RPG) and a plethora of those fun mini games that everyone has installed on their desktop from time to time.
That being said, this article is specifically about emulation of the Nintendo family of consoles and with that we will press on.
Before we go into this article, it is worth noting that there are copyright issues with running Nintendo Roms through an emulator. Make sure you have any permissions required. This article will not link to where you can get roms, its merely a showcase of some of the best software required to run them. Of course it goes without saying that if you are using these emulators to run homebrew software (or indeed develop your own) then thats slightly different.
Theres not many who haven't played Mario. Mario in colour on the NES was arguably where one of the most popular franchises began.
NINTENDO 8BIT (NES)
The NES was Nintendo’s offering from around 1983 (in Japan) to current day where via emulation there is still a dev scene for it! Running on a Ricoh 8bit processor at 1.79 mhz however the UK version ran off the Ricoh 2A07 which had a clock speed of 1.66 mhz.
One of the best NES/Linux packages I’ve found to date would be FCEUX. It is currently in version 2.1.1 and offers a plethora of features ontop of the most important one (NES emulation) FCEUX allows you to configure up to 4 controllers, openGL rendering and CPU/memory wise has very low requirements using less than 8% of a 1.8ghz AMD Sempron CPU and less than 10mb of ram (in OpenGL rendering).
Speed wise it has low requirements and I’ve had this running quite happily on low-spec machines at full speed. If you are a fan of 8bit consoles then the NES was one of the more popular choices of the time.
compatibility wise, I can find no issues with FCEUX, every title I have tried works flawlessly and at full speed. Sound emulation is complete and both full screen/windowed modes work effortlessly. I have tested the latest source on the following distro’s: Wolvix2(beta) , Mepis 8, Zenwalk 6 Gnome, Ubuntu 8.04, Fedora 11
You can visit the homepage of FCEUX at: http://fceux.com/web/htdocs/index.php where you can download the source or a .deb build.
Moving on now to Mario's 16bit incarnation further cemented Mario's status as a classic.
SUPER NINTENDO (16BIT) (SNES)
The SNES was released in 1990 and was a major upgrade to the NES. Certainly in the UK it was in direct competition with Sega Megadrive. In Japan it was called the Super Famicom. The SNES sported a Ricoh 5A22 processor (16 bit) running at 3.5mhz.
ZSnes is probably the best emulator available for the Linux (and others) platform. It supports full emulation of the CPU and even the SuperFX chip found in titles such as StarFox. I have yet to find a title that does not work within Zsnes, and the software also offers the feature to engage in online play (something which was not present for users at the time of the Super Nintendo) Emulation with Zsnes is, as far as I can tell, flawless. I have yet to find a title that doesn’t work, homebrew or not and even on a relatively low spec machine the original frame rate is more than matched.
Mario went into 3d when he hit the 64bit console the N64!
NINTENDO N64
1996 was the year of the N64, which promised much. The N64 was in direct competition with the massively popular PS1 and the fact that the N64 was still cartridge based and the PS1 was able to cater for the craving for cut scenes et al, IMO made the N64 on a looser from day one. That being said there were many great titles available for it and the N64 version of Mario saw his first steps in 3d. Running off a NEC VR4300i processor it was a far more powerful system than its PS1 counterpart at the time (IMO) and the first true 64bit console clocking in at 93.75mhz
Mupen64plus is the emulator of choice for the Linux platform (IMO) which full frame rate emulation on the rom files I have thrown at it.
Theres a large list of titles compatible with the software.
You can find Mupen here: http://code.google.com/p/mupen64plus/
Mario gets the Gamecube treatment...he's come a long way since his NES days.
GAMECUBE
The Gamecube saw Nintendo break away from its cartridge past to DVD (albeit mini) which enabled larger and more multimedia rich titles to be developed for Nintendo’s console. Unfortunately on the back of disappointing N64 performance (IMO) and the fact that the PS2 had continued with the legacy started by PS1, the Gamecube had much the same reception as it predecessor the N64. Released in 2001 and running off a 486 MHz IBM “Gekko” PowerPC CPU it unfortunately fell behind the Xbox and PS2 mainly I believe, because of the legacy created by the N64.
Gamecube emulation in Linux is surprisingly advanced. The title currently being developed is called Dolphin, which already is boasting an impressive list of titles working on it.
Unlike the N64 emulator (and below) the Gamecube emulator needs more powerful specs, full details of this can be found on the website.
You can visit the homepage of Dolphin here: http://www.dolphin-emu.com/news.php
NINTENDO WII
2006 saw the release of the Nintendo WII and despite the previous sales issues of the Gamecube/N64, it seems all had been forgotten, which massive sales of the WII console on its launch which (IMO) blew both Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s 360 out of the water. With its more interactive style of play (through its controllers and various addon’s) The WII introduced a new innovation into the gaming market for the masses.
It is alleged that the WII clocks in at 729mhz and unlike previous Nintendo consoles it seems that they are realized that their own “custom” media was not needed this time and have opted for DVD (like the other “players” in its class)
Surprisingly WII emulation has already begun and is coming along nicely. Dolphin (see above) not only offers support for the Gamecube, but sucess with WII emulation is also present in it.
Again requirements for running WII software will be higher than the older Nintendo consoles.
NINTENDO’S HANDHELD OFFERINGS
Since 1989 Nintendo has offered handheld consoles (although there were single game handheld devices before this). Emulation of these systems requires relatively low specs since two of the three are now rather old. There were some real classics available for these systems and even today theres more than one hobbyist who enjoys making homebrew titles for these systems.
GAMEBOY / GAMEBOY ADVANCE
Released in 1989 the 8bit Gameboy was a brick of a handheld console (although still quite comfortable to hold) running on a 8-bit Sharp LR35902 at approximately 4.5mhz it was a hugely popular handheld that outsold the Gamegear and had a plethora of titles available for it.
It then progressed onto Gameboy Colour and subsequently the Gameboy advance. VGA (Visual Gameboy Advance) caters for the entire range and is a very good, compact and fast emulator for Linux.
You can download Visual Gameboy Advance here: http://vba.ngemu.com/downloads.shtml
NINTENDO DS
At time of writing this is the current handheld offering from Nintendo. Its now just been revamped into a smaller (and to quote the MS faithful’s favorite words “Feature Rich” system) The DS runs off two processors, a ARM946ES and ARM7 co-processor. It has two screens with the lower one being used for the touch screen.
Released in 2004 it is still going strong with a massive software catalogue. I don’t think its unfair to say that in my opinion the Sony PSP never stood a chance. Emulation is obviously on-going with success on many titles to date. You will need a reasonable spec machine to get a decent emulation experience out of DeSmuME (imo the best DS emulator on Linux) but then “reasonable spec” in the world of Linux is far lower than that in a Windows world (IMO).
You can download DeSmuME here: http://desmume.org/
Some of the many backup/dev devices from days of old. The 3.5in floppy was enough to hold a single game....oh the memories!
COPIERS/DUMPERS/DEVKITS
This section is more general and it will highlight equipment that Nintendo probably doesn’t/didn’t want you buying. Certainly in the UK, since the release of the SNES devices were sold (in some of the independent stores) that allowed the backup/running of Nintendo software.
For me these kits had another purpose, to enable the coding of homebrew titles (a little side hobby of mine) and I recently wrote a review on the R5 (for the Nintendo DS)
The Super Nintendo had a device which was commonly called a Super Magicom, this allowed the copying of a cartidge to HD floppy disk from which the game could run. Later, the N64 had the diskdoctor V64 which ran titles from CDROM in very much the same way. Of course these pieces of equipment were not approved nor condoned by Nintendo if used to copy material which you didn’t have permission for, however in the case of the SNES and N64 at the time the internet/filesharing was not an issue to be concerned about and certainly in the UK, market penetration of these items and their bootlegs were limited at best.
The many copying devices for the Nintendo family have many names and whilst (IMO) the Magicom and diskdoctor were generic names for their many clones.
HOMEBREW/DEMOSCENE
The following links may be useful if you are interested in development on any of the above mentioned system. This is not a comprehensive list but will prove a starting point for anyone wanting to get into the scene:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Super_NES_Programming
For those of you interested in the rather good DS Demoscene (and the Demoscene in general) , look no further than:
and for those who don’t want to download and run (or maybe don’t have the specs for) the demanding Demoscene, check out DTV which has streamed footage of demo’s on many platforms:
Goblin: bytes4free@wordpress.com
PAN 0.133 – Text/binaries newsgroup reader.
A very fast, multi purpose binaries/text newsgroup reader.
Readers will have seen the previous article on newsgroup binaries reader Klibido v0.2.5 which whilst a very good package appears to now be discontinued. With that in mind I set out to find a currently supported newsgroup reader that and my investigations led me to Pan 0.133.
Written by Charles Kerr, Christophe Lambin & Matt Eagleson in C, it aims to offer both text (posting/reading) and binaries support on UseNET. So lets have a look at some of the features:
NZB support, multi server support (again an almost essential feature), supports the decoding of uu, base64 and yEnc-encoded binaries.
For a full list of the many features take a look at the Pan FAQ page:http://pan.rebelbase.com/features/
Setup of the package is quick and simple. For the Ubuntu users especially its a simple case of geting the .DEB from http://www.getdeb.net/ (I mention that since it appears Ubuntu is fast becoming the distro of choice for many users new and experienced)
Theres even a flavor for the Windows user, so theres no excuse if you are looking for a multipurpose newsgroup reader/poster.
Firefox communicated perfectly with Pan, allowing for .NZB files to be imported directly in from websites.
Where Pan really comes into its own is performance. I expect many of you who have looked through a rather large newsgroup (or indeed wanted to scroll through the entire list of available newsgroups on your server, it can sometimes be a rather sluggish experience if you are doing many other things at the same time. Pan is different. It has a small footprint and is blisteringly fast. The simple list of subscribed newsgroups on the left of the screen allows you to effortlessly switch between those you post in and those you may grab files from.
So do I think Pan is the best newsgroup software Ive tested? Yes. Do I recommend it? Yes. Will it replace Klibido on my distro? No.
Why? Ill explain.
Ive recently moved from Evolution to Thunderbird to handle all of my emailing needs. Since Thunderbird also has RSS and text newsgroups covered, I really have no need for Pan when I have Klibido. But you said Pan was faster? Since my use of a binaries grabber is little more than a client to open and download .NZB, theres little need for me to go scrolling through lists of newsgroups or posts within Klibido. If I hadnt changed over to Thunderbird, then this probably would be my package of choice for newsgroup reading.
You can visit the homepage of Pan here:http://pan.rebelbase.com/
Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com
REVIEW: Pidgin 2.5.5 – The all in one messenger?
Pidgin, most welcome on my distro!
Chat networks, we all love em, we all use different ones, and they all use different clients/sites! Let me introduce you to Pidgin, not one of those criters who cover London pavements in their special grey paint, but a Pidgin that will be most welcome in your house.
Pidgin aims to be an all in one chat client for numerous chat networks (see end of post for supported ones) and bring them all together under one package.
Account setup is easy, just choose the chat network and enter your details, you can have many networks as you want running at one, so you wont have to switch between them again.
Pidgin is very well supported and has numerous plugins available. There is a one for Twitter (not currently tested) and these can all be found linked on the Pidgin Homepage. Currently at 2.5.5 this is a mature product (and it shows) if you are a user of numerous networks or just one and simply want a compact and tight little chat client, look no further than Pidgin!
Having only ICQ and IRC “interests” this leads me to one of the limitations of the package (for me anyway). Natively Pidgins IRC support is limited. Using file servers on a IRC network is not going to happen (from my testing) since Pidgin doesnt not seem to know what to do with the request. That being said, the client is very clean and clear, it is a great choice if you only intend to chat on IRC.
With a small memory footprint, smooth and quick operation, Pidgin is a permanent fixture on my distro. Chat networks supported are: AIM , Bonjour , Gadu-Gadu , Google Talk , Groupwise ,ICQ , IRC ,MSN , MySpaceIM ,QQ , SILC , SIMPLE , Sametime , XMPP, Yahoo!, Zephyr.
You can get Pidgin from the homepage: http://pidgin.im/
REVIEW: iDeaS v1.0.2.7 – Another option for DS emulation on Linux
iDeaS is another DS emulator for the Linux platform that I discovered recently. Supporting the dual screen of the Nintendo DS and allowing
Playing NDS titles on your Linux distro is a possibility! and there is currently no better software to do it than iDeaS v1.0.2.7!input through mouse/keyboard/gamepad.
I am sure I dont have to explain what a Nintendo DS is and if I do, then you probably would not have use for this software anyway.
This particular Linux version was released on 13th November 2008. Testing the package through Ubuntu 8.10, provides very good compatibility and speed, however like other alternatives out there, sound emulation appears to be buggy and incomplete and will infact hamper the performance of the emulation if switched on (that was certainly the case on my system)
On a few random tests of rom files. I was able to keep a decent frame rate, scrolling was smooth and emulation of opcodes (seems) pretty comprehensive. The memory footprint for this package is low, but where I can really see this package coming into its own is for the testing of your own software, without the need for a dev kit.
The current beta is 1.0.2.8, which was released on the Windows platform on 21.12.08, so I am sure that the Linux version will be along shortly. The good news with this emulator appears to be the commitment to it (keeping in mind the most recent release date) I hope anyone who is wanting to get involved in DS emulation will support the author, and the nice thing about the work is that its catering for Windows and Linux users alike.
Once the archive is downloaded, its simply a case of unpacking it to a directory and running it from there. No complex terminal instructions, and no installation issues that would make it unfriendly for the newer user. The GUI is comprehensive, and its not hard to get the emulator runing a rom within a few seconds , without the need to read the instruction manual! The package is about 350k in size, so even the slowest connections will have it in seconds. No execuses! Download now!
It is my opinion that iDeaS currently offers the best in DS emulation on Linux at the present time.
Here is a list of features/fixes for the latest stable version:
- Fixed bugs in Console Window.
- Fixed bugs in Palette Viewer.
- Fixed bugs in VRAMCNT_F,VRAMCNT_G.
- Fixed bugs in Textures Management.
- Fixed bugs in BGxCNT registers.
Click here to visit the official website! and remember to show your support to the author!
FEATURE: WINE 1.0.1 – WORLD OF WINECRAFT (Wrath of the Lich King)
Wrath of the Lich King, is the game to be playing if you are a fan of RPG's! you can with Linux! No excuses!
Do you like the title? World of Winecraft?!
There are many reports on Wine, with compatibility charts and performance comparisons, I intend to take a look at it slightly differently.
I have an adiction, a guilty pleasure if you will for World Of Warcraft (Wrath of the Lich King). A Windows online RPG that really I cannot say enough good things about it. With this in mind, I decided that the best test/report would be to compare WOW running under a Linux flag with its native Windows Environment. I will also list what problems exist on running it through Wine (and how to avoid them)
Ok, first up I need to say for the purposes of this feature, I am using Ubuntu 8.10 (Gnome) and Wine (stable) 1.0.1 The installation I am using of WOW is NOT installed via Wine, but installed some time ago on a XP partition. XP SP3 is being used for the “experiment”
Loading times:
For both systems, the load time of the WOW client, and the accessing of the server were (as best I could tell) identical. Running WOW in Linux did encounter (on my rig anyway) an issue immediately, so if you check to the bottom of this feature, you may discover you have the same issue and you can find out how to get around it. Check out the section Problems/Issues.
GFX:
As far as I can tell, Wine handled WOW in exactly the same way as XP. There are a few “gliches” I noticed, which again if you check the Problems /Issues section, you can see what they were for me. (edit, these have now been fixed, see below!)
Sound:
Flawless, Wine ran WOW in this area exactly the same as XP did. I have not encountered any sound/music errors/glitches whatsoever.
Framerate/Performance:
Being able to fairly compare the two platforms would be difficult. WOW is full of online users doing their own thing, so the conditions of a completely fair test would be difficult. Having said that framerate wise I would say there is no difference between the two, HOWEVER. Wine/Ubuntu appears to handle the memory allocation of the game alot better. On XP it appears the swap file is facilitated alot, occassionally causing short (or sometimes quite long) pauses in the game whilst data is shifted about. Ubuntu/Wine did not have this issue for me. This to me is a major advantage of running WOW in Linux, and make (even with the minor glitches listed below) in my opinion the better platform to run WOW on.
Problems/Issues – And how to get around them!
This is not a list of “global” issues and their fixes. These are the issues that I have come across on my rig, and how Ive got around them. You may have a perfect experience, or you may have a worse one. Without testing every distro on a variety of rigs I cannot say what you will/will not come across when playing this game on your system. That being said WOW on Wine has generally had a great response on the Net, so I think its a safe bet that you will be in for a treat!
*EDIT* I have now removed all the issues as they have been fixed.
1. Simply go into the WTF folder contained within the Lich King directory, edit the file “config.wtf” by putting the following command into the script. That solved all my issues, however you can visit this excellent link here for more fixes.
SET gxApi "opengl"
So as you can see, there is very little grief in getting a popular Windows game working in Ubuntu. I hope wouldbe Linux users take note that dispite what Windows “experts” may say, you do not need to drop into the commandline all the time, and Linux is not some complex system used only by techno wizards!
Why not try out WOW for free? At the moment they are offering 10 days free trial (no obligation)
and to visit the home of Wine for the latest stable release, click here!
REVIEW: UBUNTU TWEAK v0.4.3
Article by Goblin[RFD]
The prospect of using many different utils and/or dropping into the CLI can be daunting for any Linux user. This is especially true for the new to Linux. Ubuntu Tweak aims to be an all in one package that allows simple customization of your desktop without the worry of typing the wrong command or messing things up!
First off, its a very small download (890k)ish and once installed is a simple affair allowing you to scroll down your various options of startup, desktop etc, in order to customize.
One of the features that I think will appeal to newer (or even lazy) users is the option to delete the .deb package cache. Another useful feature is to be able to select what software is loaded at startup.
There is all sorts of other simplicities with Tweak v0.4.3 and certainly for my family members it is a far more approachable (and collected) way of doing those “tweaks” that make all the difference.
The package I tested was run on 8.10 and worked flawlessly.
85% – Great for new users and the lazy alike! Simplifies alot of those tweaks, and its only a tiny file!
REVIEW: TRANSMISSION v1.40 – The uTorrent of Linux?
Article by Goblin[RFD]
Mention Bittorrent to people and you will get one of these responses, a look of childlike bewilderment, a look of distrust (after all you MUST be a pirate if you use Bittorrent), or you may get an open source view which is that bittorrent is great for Linux distros and open source in general.
Fact is bittorrent is mainly used by people who download copyrighted material. Thats a shame as the protocol is excellent for enabling quicker distribution of data without having to worry about hosting and bandwidth issues.
For an open source user like myself, I use it to download obscure distros of Linux (Ubuntu Satanic Edition for example) and also the many licience free clip art available on it. So you want to use Bittorrent? I wont ask any questions about what your intent is! On 09/11/08 Transmission v1.40 was released, and due to being a happy user of 1.34 that came bundled with Ibex, its only right that I keep ontop of the releases!
Before I go any further, for any users that dont know what Bittorrent is, please read the next few paragraphs. Everyone else can skip onto the section So whats so great about Transmission?
Ok, you have heard about piracy, you know it goes on and youve heard about Bittorrent, here is a simple explanation of what it is, what to use and what you should know. The bittorrent protocol is very simply a good way of sharing files. You first of all need a bittorrent client to connect to what is called a swarm (which is a group of users all downloading/uploading the same file) This review is about Transmission, its very good! There are others though, and the nice thing about our community is that you are free to choose and change as much as you like.
So lets presume that you have installed Transmission. Bittorrent works by all users downloading different pieces of a file and sharing them with each other. There are two types of user, Seeders and peers. The seeders are the ones who have the whole file and are kindly still sharing it, and the peers are the ones downloading the file. Where bittorent is different, is that everyone is sharing with everyone else, so for example the piece of the file I may download from a seeder, I will be sharing it with other peers. This removes the need for the file to be hosted on a server, removes any bandwidth issues and enables everyone to help share the file.
Now this system is very good. A bittorrent tracker is simply a site that keeps logs of files that are being shared. To start downloading, it is no more difficult than clicking on the link, waiting for Transmission to load and then waiting for it to download. There are plenty of trackers about. Some legal, some not (depending on your country of origin and/or your viewpoint)
I will not be using this guide to either tell you about or direct you to copyrighted material. Bittorrent is excellent, if used for opensource, and you will find many mainstream distros have a bittorrent link for their iso. I also encourage people to help seed their favourite Linux distros, and its a way that everyone can help their Linux flavour of choice!
So whats so great about Transmission?
Transmission has been my bittorrent software of choice, since as long as Ive used bittorrent. Its a great package, that if required allows the user to forget about “fiddling” with all the little options. However should you be a “fiddler” it gives you alot to “fiddle” with, and thats no bad thing.
When Im forced to use the Binary Slug called Windows (at work) I will use uTorrent, and to be honest in terms of functionality I find the results of both packages exactly the same. Transmission is great because its a small program that only opens a small window on your desktop and is very unobtrusive.
All the features of a bittorrent client that you would expect are here. Setting max upload limit/download limit, set max amount of peers etc. All these features are very familiar to any bittorrent user and should come as no supprise.
Transmission comes as standard with Intrepid Ibex, however you will find a version of it in most (if not all) repositories.
So is 1.40 better? and how? Like I say I was using 1.34, and had no issues with it whatsoever. 1.40 seems more of the same, but since Im a sucker for the latest version I have installed it. It is very difficult in my opinion to write reviews on Linux software, as in most cases it performs exactly how you would expect it to and a review of a Linux package is usually an exercise in stating the obvious. Transmission is no exception, and Id expect the majority of bittorrent users already have this excellent piece of software.
The features of the new version (as stated on the official site) are:
- Tracker communication uses fewer resources
- More accurate bandwidth limits
- Reduce disk fragmentation by preallocating files
- Better stability, security, and performance in the Web UI and RPC server
- Support compression when serving Web UI and RPC responses
- Simplify the RPC whitelist
- Fix bug that prevented handshakes with encrypted BitComet peers
- Fix 1.3x bug that could re-download some data unnecessarily
- Lazy bitfields
Visit the official site by clicking here!
95% – Yet another difficult review to write, as Transmission works exactly how its supposed to! When will opensource developers make buggy software like Microsoft? At least it makes reviewing them easier!
REVIEW: LIFEREA v1.4.22b – RSS readers have never been so easy!
Article by Goblin[RFD]
We all like to keep up to date with the news, however, believe it or not I had never used a RSS reader package before. I installed LIFEREA on Ubuntu 8.10 and whilst the repositories had an older version, I was able to get v.1.4.22b from here! It should be noted however that the latest stable version is now v1.4.22c and you can get that from the official site.
How can I start? Well its an RSS reader, and a very simple to use one at that! The package is tiny (1.1mb) and within seconds I was subscribing to all my sites of choice, including the Pro-open source Microsoft Watch!
Its layout is very similar to any email package you have used before and as I say Id be supprised if anyone has difficulties using this package.
It works seemlessly with Ubuntu, but I am presuming this is the case for all other distros aswell. Liferea supports Atom, RSS and OPML as well as offline reading.
The official site says “Liferea tries to fill this gap by creating a fast, easy to use, easy to install news aggregator for Gtk/Gnome.” and in my opinion suceeds in this excellently.
95% A compact, fast piece of software that does exactly what it says it does.
SDLBASIC – The high-level interpreter for all?
AMOS. That name may ring a few bells with anyone who owned an Amiga computer all those years ago. It was a high-level language, similar to BASIC yet powerful to allow all sorts of fancy programs. What made AMOS great was that it allowed some quite advanced software to be made by people who were not in a possition to learn Assembly or C.
One of my gripes about Linux was the lack of accessable highlevel languages for the new user, and whilst I will never deviate from my beloved C++, I understand the need for others packages to bring development within the reach of anyone.
That does not mean though that SDLbasic is a walk in the park! Its not, its a structured, intrepretted language based on BASIC with (as the creator admits) an influence of AMOS. Its not a language that you can create a masterpiece in a few clicks. Its a serious program that as the creator says “combines the simplicity of Basic language with the power of SDL libraries”
Ive seen a few impressive demo’s with it, and of course being an Amiga fan was very impressed at the parallax scrolling Shadow of the Beast intro!
If you are looking for an accesssable highlevel language to create some impressive works, then consider checking out SDLbasic. I think you will be impressed. It is also cross platform and supports PSP development.
I am amazed (again) that this package has slipped my net before, and thanks go to Mohiex99 for bringing my attention to it.
REVIEW: BOINC v6.2.15 – Its far more than just ET!
Article by Goblin[RFD]
Anyone who has heard of Boinc will probably associate it with the SETI at home project. For those that havent, you are going to learn something.
Imagine the problem, you have data that would take even the fastest machine millions of years to analyise. What do you do? Simple, you get users around the world to help you. Data is spread around hundreds/thousands of volunteers, and together we have the computing power of a system way in advance of anything on the market today (although still probably not high enough specs to run Vista properly!)
Boinc is a package that allows you to participate in these world wide projects. One of the most well known is the Seti@home. What happens is this. Signals from a radio telescope are recorded and sent to thousands of users around the world, where Boinc analyises them for extra-terrestrial signs of life. This allows the telescope to scan much more of space and thus increase the chance of finding ET trying to order an intergalatic pizza. Im being flippant of course, I am part of the Seti@home project and I believe it to be a very valuable one.
There are other projects available, from the Hadron Collider experiments to various medical ones.
The client is quite easy to use (although Ive been with the SETI project before the client was Boinc) but once youve logged in and or created an account it will download workunits to you for your computer to analyise.
In the case of SETI@home, you can see a graphical representation of the signals you are scanning, and the program can be used as a screen saver if you wish.
You can download the software from the repository in your distro, or direct from the site by clicking here
A great package, donate some of your computer time to a worthy cause today!
