What ports will be the easiest to accomplish...?

CD-i Emulator is the first fully evolving windows compatible emulator project of the Philips CD-i system. Discuss the emulator, compatibility issues, seek help and support to get the program operating and post what you'd like to see in future revisions of the program. CD-i players ROM (BIOS) requests, begging and links will not be tolerated. Otherwise feel free to post your thoughts on this amazing new piece of software.
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Nitrosoxide
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What ports will be the easiest to accomplish...?

Post by Nitrosoxide » Fri Sep 14, 2007 2:48 am

Personally I'm very glad this cd-i project is going so well and I'm very glad to see it at the point of emulatable games.

But, I was wondering what potential ports could be in the works.

Personally I'd like to see a port for Dreamcast, being a huge DC fan.

But, I'd really like to know if there was a good chance of the emulator heading to any Cd based consoles?

Will it ever get to the point where we can simply turn another CD based machine into a CD-i?

E.g. So that we can buy Cd-i games and load them on Dreamcast.

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Bas
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Post by Bas » Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:12 am

That would be cool, but how many actually have a Dreamcast and want to play CD-i on it? I think the interest is not very high ;) We'd better first develop a fully functional CD-i Emulator, once it's robust enough, and CD-i Fan still hasn't lost his CD-i interest, who will tell!

I think the recent Front End Loader is a start in making different versions of the CD-i Emulator!

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Post by Nitrosoxide » Fri Sep 14, 2007 6:37 am

I hope Cd-i fan doesn't lose interest :shock:
Don't even say that :p.

And as for DC's owner population...

Well Dreamcast owners definitely are part of one might call a cult-following. So owners tend to be among the more hardcore.

Believe it or not the Dreamcast is still churning out a few titles. Some are commercially released

Why DC?

The tools for homebrew are there, and homebrew development on dreamcast has been ongoing for some time.

Also, Dreamcast has a VGA adapter accessory to hook up to a HDTV meaning it can display in 480p.

Plus, DC is already able to read what other consoles consider "foreign". So all DC owners will be readily available to make use of unofficial software like a cd-i emulator.

Over time believe me DC has accumulated a good amount of owners

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Post by cdifan » Fri Sep 14, 2007 10:09 pm

Porting CD-i Emulator to non-Windows platforms is certainly possible, but I agree with Bas that it needs to be more fully-functional first.

CD-i Emulator is written to be very platform-independent; of the more then 75000 lines of C++ only about 5000 are in Windows-dependent files. All of the Windows GUI code is in these files.

When the time is right I would like to try a Linux port first, probably using using SVGAlib or SDL. For this new GUI code would also need to be written; I'll solicit ideas about it then.

Don't worry about me losing interest in CD-i :-)

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Post by Nitrosoxide » Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:19 am

I certainly agree. Get the thing working on windows before anything else.

I'm glad to hear that non-windows ports will be easy.

Can I ask why linux as the first port and not a console?

Or a even better question is what consoles would you ever have the skill to port it to? (please say dreamcast :P )

But, also do you think the emulator will reach the stage of being able to play CDs from a CD-ROM drive directly. E.g. I could just go out and buy Zelda's adventure and throw it in my drive and wah la!

Could this ability be transferred to a home console, in the way of making other consoles run Cd-i CDs? Sort of like a boot disc program..



PS: Also let me say Cd-i fan you truly are a gaming savior! I'm glad to hear that your still going strong with this project and that you won't lose interest. I know there might be few cd-i fans now. But you wait, because of you the cd-i will definitely become a lot more prominent and loved. Just the way it should be.

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Post by cdifan » Sat Sep 15, 2007 10:32 pm

Nitrosoxide wrote:Can I ask why linux as the first port and not a console?
Because it would run on my PC and I have no experience with console development (except CD-i, but that would be circular...).
Nitrosoxide wrote:Or a even better question is what consoles would you ever have the skill to port it to?
That depends on my time investment, no? Porting to a console I don't have would not be very rewarding... That said, SDL seems to support the Dreamcast, so it might benefit from the Linux port. Ports could also be done by other people when the project is ripe enough.
Nitrosoxide wrote:But, also do you think the emulator will reach the stage of being able to play CDs from a CD-ROM drive directly. E.g. I could just go out and buy Zelda's adventure and throw it in my drive and wah la!
That is really more of a system interface issue then anything else, but Windows makes it quite hard to get directly at the CD-ROM drive.
Nitrosoxide wrote:Could this ability be transferred to a home console, in the way of making other consoles run Cd-i CDs? Sort of like a boot disc program...
I guess that depends on the capabilities of the console, no?
Nitrosoxide wrote:I know there might be few cd-i fans now. But you wait, because of you the cd-i will definitely become a lot more prominent and loved. Just the way it should be.
I'm not as optimistic as you are, but one can always hope!

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Post by tgn_rogue » Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:19 am

cdifan wrote:
Nitrosoxide wrote:I know there might be few cd-i fans now. But you wait, because of you the cd-i will definitely become a lot more prominent and loved. Just the way it should be.
I'm not as optimistic as you are, but one can always hope!
Well maybe with the advertising ive seen around recently for that amBX unit it might bring up the matter of the CDi in the opening sectors of reviews in magazines possibly creating a little bit more of a spark interest wise, again sort of wishfull thinking but you never know.
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Post by Nitrosoxide » Fri Sep 21, 2007 2:25 am

Perhaps, not the PC version alone.

But, lets say it gets a Xbox and a DC port, believe me the thing will make the rounds in the blog and news circuit. Because remeber there are alot of videogame news sites and blogs out there.

the addition of backwards compatibility of 100+ titles is a a huge huge deal for gamers.

And whether or not gamers want to admit it, the fact that this system is home to the Zelda Cd-i titles is a big deal. I mean even if they are bad games in comparison to the rest of the series, the fact of the matter is, is that it is still part of the series. And hardcore Zelda fans like me want to be able to say that I've beaten all the Zelda games.

Plus, your talking about many hidden gems. Blogging and the internet spreads news fast. Don't forget that. And with little to no DC homebrew in the last while, all those DC enthusiasts would also have something to gush about.

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Post by cdifan » Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:51 am

So, are you volunteering to do the DreamCast port? Seeing as I don't have one...

When cdiemu is ready for it, of course!

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Post by Nitrosoxide » Fri Sep 21, 2007 7:27 am

I wish I had the skill. But, unfortunately while I'm a huge video game enthusiast I couldn't code if my life depended on it. :oops:

But, I'm sure it will get done... Or at least I hope it will. I'll try my best to persuade any and all the communities I know to attempt to do something.
As I do know a couple CD-i enthusiasts who in turn may know DC Development enthusiasts.

Just a shout out to everyone. Anyone here able to code for DC and also a Cd-i fan?

Also Cd-i fan you mention that your a cd-i only man. Why not pick up a DC to expand you horizons? Let me say that its one hell of a system. Plus, most have the ability to run burned Cds, so you get a system that can run all sorts of great homebrew.

Believe me most under appreciated system of last gen. Just play trough Shenmue or Rez or Fur Fighters or Ikaruga.

Heck check ebay and you can get a system with 2 controllers for around $35

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Post by Vincent XIII » Wed Sep 26, 2007 2:47 am

omg... yes! that would be frigging awasome! if u did make a port would u sell it or would it be free? and if so how much are u thinking?
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