Windows Simulator

[Erno]

Hi,

I am implementing a Game Frame Windows Simulator that can also run as a screensaver.

This way I can use the tablet I use as an (audio) Media Player to show the 8-bit pixel art

I have got 2 questions:
1. What is the default Hold value?
2. Wouldn’t it be more practical to play the animations in alpha numerical order instead of order that they were added? That way it is much easier to change the order or insert an animation in between.

Thanks!

[Nick]

Wouldn’t it be more practical to play the animations in alpha numerical order instead of order that they were added?

If I remember hearing Jeremy correctly, this was a limitation on the library used when reading from the SD card, as space on the ROM was super tight (why we didn’t have both clock and game on the original GF).

[Jeremy Williams]

Yeah, the SdFat library doesn’t support any concept of alpha numeric sorting but I’d certainly do it on PC since it comes for free.

The default hold value is 200.

[Erno]

Thanks! As soon as I have a working app I will make it available.

[Erno]

Standard sorting of the file names gives a new problem: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 sorts like: 0, 1, 10, 11, 12, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Should I assume that bmp files only have a numerical name (before the .bmp)?

If so, I could parse the numbers and sort them by number.
If not, if e.g., pac1.bmp, pac2.bmp, pac3.bmp etc. is also allowed, I might need to implement some magic sorting.

[Jeremy Williams]

Yes, with the exception of files in /00system, BMP files must have numerical names, starting with 0.bmp. Feel free to peruse the source code.

https://github.com/Jerware

Things get a little more complicated once you start supporting CONFIG.INI though, and the methods of controlling the sequence of folders. You may not want to go that deep.

[Erno]

Ah, that is very useful, thank you.

(I already implemented the config file mechanism, that was fairly easy to do)

[Patrick]

Not sure since I don’t know all the details but you should be able to append extras zeros to the front so “1” would be “001” and “10” would be “010”. I think the sorting would then work.

[Erno]

Yes, prefixing with zeros might be a solution after determining the maximum length of the file names. However in C# it is trivial to sort based on the file names parsed to integers:

var sortedByValue = fileNames.OrderedBy(fileName => int.Parse(fileName).Select(fileName => fileName);

[boris]

Grüße aus Deutschland!

Any progress on the Windows Simulator? I have two pretty useless Windows 8 inch tablets lying around that I would love to convert to emulated Game Frames…

Boris

[Erno]

Hi Boris,

Yes, sorry about that. I have a working version. It still requires some cleaning up and then I will make it available.

[boris]

Please, don’t feel sorry! I am thankful that you have not abandoned this project.

All the best, Boris

[boris]

Hello Erno,

I hope you are doing fine and will find the time to get the emulator for Win10 in a releasable state soon.

All the best from Germany, Boris

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