PDA Question
- Thread starter Mokon
- Start date
The Person
Deity +2
Probably not. (What is it with people and porting games to PDAs?)
BlackAdder60
Very naughty boy!
The Person said:
I would guess that the PDA is an inviting platform for Civ as it doesnt require massive graphics power. Actually I have been thinking of buying a PDA but checking in first what games and if Civ2 is available for it. It isnt... so I havent bought a PDA ...yet.
BlackAdder60
Very naughty boy!
Hmmm. I know there are a couple of DOS-emulators out there. Dont know if there is any for PDA but most of these emulators are open source, some even are for Linux environment.
Specifically check out "DOSBOX" at sourceforge.net. It exists both with Windows, MacOS and several different Linux distro versions (and its copyrighted by The Free Software Foundation with unlimited permission to copy and modify as you like).
My idea is that using a DOS emulator you should be able to run at least CivOne under the dos emulation. But I dont know how much performance the emulator requires.
Of course it wont help much those PDAs that run under the MSWin system since those PDAs dont use the x86 CPU, however I know some PDAs use a Linux OS *maybe* it would work with those.
If you are skilled enough (in programming) you might be able to recompile some of these version to also run under PDA-Windows.
Specifically check out "DOSBOX" at sourceforge.net. It exists both with Windows, MacOS and several different Linux distro versions (and its copyrighted by The Free Software Foundation with unlimited permission to copy and modify as you like).
My idea is that using a DOS emulator you should be able to run at least CivOne under the dos emulation. But I dont know how much performance the emulator requires.
Of course it wont help much those PDAs that run under the MSWin system since those PDAs dont use the x86 CPU, however I know some PDAs use a Linux OS *maybe* it would work with those.
If you are skilled enough (in programming) you might be able to recompile some of these version to also run under PDA-Windows.
BlackAdder60
Very naughty boy!
This just in: there alread *are* PDA ports of DOSBox, I've found one here: http://mamaich.kasone.com/ which is for the PocketPC system runing WinCE.
Of course it also is free (DOSBox *not* WinCE )
Of course it also is free (DOSBox *not* WinCE
)BlackAdder60
Very naughty boy!
But DOSBox also requires *LOTS* of mips out of your machine because:
At present, DOSBox run on a high-end machine will roughly be the equivalent of a 486 PC. The 0.60 release has added support for "protected mode" allowing for more complex and recent programs, but note that this support is early in development and nowhere near as complete as the support for 386 real-mode games (or earlier). Also note that "protected mode" games need substantially more resources and may require a much faster processor for you to run it properly in DOSBox. [from "DOSBox-0.63 README-file"]
Of course an 486 PC is more than enough to run CivONE. Question is how powerfull is a modern PDA?
At present, DOSBox run on a high-end machine will roughly be the equivalent of a 486 PC. The 0.60 release has added support for "protected mode" allowing for more complex and recent programs, but note that this support is early in development and nowhere near as complete as the support for 386 real-mode games (or earlier). Also note that "protected mode" games need substantially more resources and may require a much faster processor for you to run it properly in DOSBox. [from "DOSBox-0.63 README-file"]
Of course an 486 PC is more than enough to run CivONE. Question is how powerfull is a modern PDA?
The Person
Deity +2
I only wonder how much of the playing field you'll be able to see. PDA screens aren't that big. I don't think the menu bar would fit in either, so there might be a problem giving units orders, as PDAs don't have keyboards (if you can't one separately). Moving units around shouldn't be a problem though, because Civ2 supports moving with the mouse.
And to point out one big drawback: How can the City Screen fit in on such a little screen? You could make it smaller, so you see everything, but then you probably don't see much, since everything would be so small.
It's a great idea, but Civ2 was made for screens with a resolution 640x480 and above, so I don't think a PDA port would be practical, at least not without the source-code.
And again: What is it with people and porting everything to PDAs? From most threads I've read on this subject I get the impression that people don't really think over small a PDA screen really is. You'll be able to see everything within a city's city radius, but not much more.
And to point out one big drawback: How can the City Screen fit in on such a little screen? You could make it smaller, so you see everything, but then you probably don't see much, since everything would be so small.
It's a great idea, but Civ2 was made for screens with a resolution 640x480 and above, so I don't think a PDA port would be practical, at least not without the source-code.
And again: What is it with people and porting everything to PDAs? From most threads I've read on this subject I get the impression that people don't really think over small a PDA screen really is. You'll be able to see everything within a city's city radius, but not much more.
BlackAdder60
Very naughty boy!
Mokon said:
I *did* say (write) that it would run Civ *ONE* .
Anyway I think, given the low resolution of PDA:s, that CivONE is good enough for PDA:s
