3Oct/0924
Z2 quickie video followup – (debian) Bomberclone running (with sound, SDL ,etc) on the Z2
Just a quick followup to the debian image video.
Bomberclone is in the debian repository. It loads, but at 640x480. You can change this in the source code and re-compile if you wish, however it's still (mostly) playable at 640 Just edit .bomberclone.cfg and change the xres to 320 and yres to 240!! Works perfect and netplay! Wormux installs but fails to fully load at 640x480 as well. Haven't looked into the source yet, probably have to replace the sdl-render options like with dosbox last year.
Note*
If you are having trouble with the mouse/keyboard in flux, download aliosa27's z2mouse-option and keymap.map files and add them to the /bin/startfluxbox script as mentioned in the comments thread for the debian image tutorial.
October 3rd, 2009 - 13:51
Looks good Hunter, even though it doesn’t fit to the screen it appears to run smoothly enough. Compiling it to run at 320×240 means it’ll run even better
I gave freeDoom a try last night and it runs better than expected, it’s actually pretty playable. It too expects 640×480 or higher resolution, and while you can shrink the view box to fit the screen, you can’t see the ammo/health info so it makes things more…. interesting
Once installed, it shows up as prBoom in the games/action menu.
Enemylines3 runs, but at about half a frame per second, so not exactly playable.
Noiz2sa also expects a video mode of 640×480 or better and fails through the menu, but running it in a window shows it runs quite smoothly. I know the gp2x had this game running at 320×240, so it might be another case where the SDL options could be changed to make it fit the screen.
Opencity runs, but not very well.
Unfortunately it appears that most of the apt-get-able packages expect 640×480 resolution, and would need to be recompiled anyways.
When I get home I’ll be trying out a few more games and see how they go.
October 3rd, 2009 - 18:20
Snagged the last zipit at target today. They don’t carry miniSD cards though :/
Is there an irc channel for OpenZipit? I wouldn’t mind idling in it to see new developments and to get support from fellow linux zipit users.
Could you set one up?
October 3rd, 2009 - 18:30
Sorry I didn’t see the other thread.
#zipit on freenode.
You should idle there hunter!
October 3rd, 2009 - 21:44
I was able to use the Debian WiFi How To Use (http://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse) to configure the /etc/network/interfaces for the multiple networks to which I attach. thanks Hunter this has been a great resource so far
October 3rd, 2009 - 23:37
Armagetron is actually pretty playable. If you set the rendering to be 320×240 the next time you start it all the menus are the right size, netplay works vs my linux box, etc. If you turn off all the options you can get about 8fps so far. Up from the 1fps I was getting and really impressive demo to show your friends.
October 5th, 2009 - 13:37
Guys, thanks for all the tips and tricks so far with this whole process. My love for linux and open-source has been renewed after a several year hiatus.
Quick question regarding the game configurations. Is there anywhere to scale the screen by default to the 320×240 for these games?
I keep getting stuck with crazy graphics everytime I thought I had adjusted the settings properly.
Also, is there a default location where most of the game config files tend to get installed?
Thanks in advance!
October 5th, 2009 - 13:50
Hey Drewid,
Unfortunately no, there is no one location to set the screen scaling for these disparate applications. Each app tends to have a configuration file under the home directory ala .armagetron .wormux .bomberclone etc. If you figure out a generic solution, please post as many of us see the “garbled graphics” screen often when trying out new software. Glad you’re back into the FOSS side of things,
Good Luck!
/H
October 9th, 2009 - 09:25
Where is the .cfg file for bomberclone? Do I need to create it manually?
I found one site that said it goes in your home dir, but I don’t find it there.
October 9th, 2009 - 09:29
Hey Matt,
It should be under the .bomberclone directory (or just in the home directory) in /root or whatever your home directory is. You may need to play a game in oversized graphics then change some setting and exit before it will write one out for you, then you can manually edit the graphics option.
October 9th, 2009 - 20:03
I have installed pidgin, but when I run it it takes up the whole screen and I can’t see the dialog boxes. I am having the same problem with Dillo. Is there a way to configure them for the resolution of the screen.
October 10th, 2009 - 07:47
Hi Matt,
Are you running them in fluxbox? I believe in you fluxbox config there is an option called ‘alwaysmaximize’. That may help. I have been tright-clicking on the taskbar and selecting maximize, and previously set up ctrl-m in the fluxbox config to be maximize. Good Luck,
/H
October 10th, 2009 - 08:30
Where is the fluxbox config located?
October 10th, 2009 - 08:37
Where is the fluxbox config located? Also how do you right click?
October 10th, 2009 - 08:44
Should be in your home directory under .fluxbox or .fluxboxrc
October 12th, 2009 - 19:15
I took your suggestion and tried maximizing the apps. When you do this are you able to see everything on the screen at once? For instance, I have tried maximizing Dillo and Netsurf, but I can’t see everything on the screen as most of the content and the scroll bar are out of the field of view. Is there any way to configure fluxbox to force an application to fit within the z2′s screen?
October 13th, 2009 - 07:34
Hey Matt,
Yeah, I can see most everything at once, even with dillo. There should be an automaximize command. I know there is in matchbox, which is what others have been using lately. What I did for dillo was edit the .dillorc file and tell it not to display the stop, back, or home buttons, this clears the address bar. Good Luck!
October 13th, 2009 - 13:31
I edited .dillorc and set it up for the resolution of the z2 and I also disabled the buttons that you recommended. That works nicely. How were you able to get pidgin to display on the screen? When I go to add accounts it goes to another dialog box and it doesn’t fit on the screen. I’m still not sure if I have the automaximize working with matchbox.
October 13th, 2009 - 13:37
Hey Matt,
I never used pidgin myself, but If it’s just the adding of new accounts that is too large for screen, I think you can set those up in the .pidginrc file. Glad dillo is working for you!
October 22nd, 2009 - 19:40
When trying to run bomberclone, it seems to crash on some highly distorted graphics – random color streaks down the screen. Actually, I’m not sure if it’s crashing, just isn’t displaying correctly. How would I go about getting this to run correctly?
Another question I have is, is there an easy way to change the OpenZipIt main graphic during boot to something custom?
Thanks in advance,
Elliott
October 22nd, 2009 - 22:57
Hey Elliott,
That happens when a program attempts to render to the FB at a resolution above 320×240. Just create the .bomberclone.cfg and add the x and y res lines and you should be good. Not sure about the OZ logo..
October 23rd, 2009 - 04:31
Hunter,
Thanks for the response – I was able to get it running in X, but the config file was never saved so nothing to edit. I’ll just generate it on my main linux box and copy it over from there with appropriate edits.
Has anyone attempted to get pyGame running on the Z2? Going to be trying some stuff out with that over the weekend with hopeful success…
– E
October 23rd, 2009 - 07:14
Hey E,
Yeah, I just added those 2 lines myself and it worked ok. I had python interpreter installed, so I don’t see why pygame wouldn’t work. I’m curious to see how pygame games run on the Z2
Good Luck!
/H
March 13th, 2010 - 07:57
is their any thing similar to pidgin but more light weight beacuse i went to run pidgin and it froze completly
March 13th, 2010 - 08:53
Naim?