FRONTIER 1337 - A port of FRONTIER Elite II for PSP

[Atien]

Hi! I started to learn C language three months ago to try to port Frontier Elite II for PSP.
I used Tom Morton's sourcecode of his GLFrontier PC port that can be found here (http://soul-less.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/glfrontier/).
The whole merit goes to him.

So today is the first beta release! (v0.1)

The game is slow when there is a lot of stuff drawn in the 3Dview, but is almost playable when you are in space.
You can save/load your commander, but don't try to rename your save file in the game: there is no OSK implemented yet so it will freeze your PSP.
If you want to change your commander name, just rename the save file in FRONTIER/SAVS directory using your computer.

You can download FRONTIER 1337 on my dedicated website (http://atien.free.fr/jeux/1337/).

The game is for 1.5 firmware users only: just unpack/copy FRONTIER and FRONTIER% folders to ms:/PSP/GAME
I didn't make EBOOT for 1.0 and didn't try it on 2.X

Now, I'm taking a little break for my exams and then I'll start to speed the game up...

Download and Give Much Needed Feedback Via Comments

[NiGame]

Great been Really Really hoping someone would port this

[wraggster]

thanks for the news and release, im moving this to the PSP News forum and you can post directly any new versions now :)

[Atien]

Yes, I finally became a "PSP Coder".
Thank you :D

[Cloud_35]

Heh, great one :D!

[jordilt]

Hey, this works with my 2.01 and fanjita´s eloader 0.97! I converted the eboot to 1.0 with pspbrew and it works (you can see the icon in the emenu), although it seems very slow. Well, i´ll give it a try ....
:)thanks for this port!!

[Hungry Horace]

hey jordilt - any chance you could uplaod that?

i'd love to see if it works on fw2.5 - Frontier rocks!

i wanted to play the amiga version on pspUAE - but it was too damn slow.... i'd love to get back to sorting out my nerve-gas trade route!!

[hetster]

lol was only thinking today about elite and here it is

[Elsid]

nice.

[StealthCP]

omg my da is gonna love this... many thanks for your port, Atien.

[jordilt]

hey jordilt - any chance you could uplaod that?

i'd love to see if it works on fw2.5 - Frontier rocks!

i wanted to play the amiga version on pspUAE - but it was too damn slow.... i'd love to get back to sorting out my nerve-gas trade route!!

:( I am tryng to attach the file, but I can´t!!!. can someone tell me how to do it?. Anyway ....I supose the 1.5 version should work as well, the only difference is that you will not see the icon in the eloader menu.

:D Oooops! I get it , here it is!
5988

[Hungry Horace]

cheers dude - the 1.5 version didnt work on 2.5 - i'll give this a whirl.


possibilities for this port are amazing.... GTA style custom tracks, wifi internet play (hahah - ok, i'm dreaming! but wouldnt that just rock?)


-- edit --

sweeet - tried it out and it runs! in need of some work, but great to see!

[Joe88]

Very awsome port. 1337 in the title

n07 70 m3n710n 1 5p34k 7h3 |337
1 4m 50 1337 |0|

try to read adavnced leet also

`/0|_| (@|\| @(+|_|@||`/ |23@[) +|-|1$ |0|
$+1|| (@|\|+ |}3|1\/3 `/0|_||2 \X/@$+1|\|6 @|| +|-|1$ +1|\/|3 +|2`/1|\|6 +0 |23@[) +|-|1$

[ukkevinl]

....Download and Give Much Needed Feedback Via Comments

Brilliant, works well when you can get into space! Thanks so much for this. I look forward to seeing an optimised version but its almost there already!

Great work

cheers

Kevin

[RedKing14CA]

Looks ok, is it finished or in alpha, or beta... or... what?

[firestorm]

The 1.5 version works fine on 2.5 just use the file without the icon...

also in the game i got to a dialogue with the police at one of the spaceports (forget the exact reason), anywayz said press p to bribe the officer... or any other key to do whatever the other thing was... nothing worked....


Also... any chance of an FFE port in future?

[Atien]

Back from my exams. Thanks for your cheers :)


also in the game i got to a dialogue with the police at one of the spaceports (forget the exact reason), anywayz said press p to bribe the officer... or any other key to do whatever the other thing was... nothing worked....
I've made a quick update to the game so you can continue playing after the police arrest you. The exact reason is because at the beginning, the police was asking you a verification code to continue playing each time you landed on a spaceport. This was annoying so the game has been patched.
Now you only have to press the select button to get rid of the police. This fake police arrest doesn't influence the game.

The 1.00 firmware version is also included in the package.


Now I'm trying to optimize the game speed.

[Atien]

Thanks to Danzel (Danzeff OSK) and his great computer, the game compilation was optimized (that needed +/-2Go of RAM).

With the level of shape detail set to 'low' in the setup screen (start button), the new framerate makes the game playable when you are on a spaceport.
You can also disable the 'Space dust, clouds etc' and 'Background stars' if you want.

That's not really an improvement, but if there is not too much police spaceships flying around, you can enjoy this great game from the beginning to your very end :D

[StealthCP]

This is a great improvement in Performance, Atien, well done!

[steven1980cad]

Great game, glad to see a port to the psp.

Will there be any updates to make the game faster?

Cheers.

[brainbeat]

hi been playing your port v0.1c, can get it to work sweet on eloader, after figuring out hoiw to get to diffrent galaxys (been a while) i docked and the officer said tailight were illegal press p to pander or any key to give him the finger it became totally unpassable from that screen (could you possibly add a keyboard to the game so in could give him the finger) excellent port by the way it runs better that on my amiga 500+. that allways crashed.

[Atien]

Hi everybody, I've just finished my exams once and for all.


Originally Posted by steven1980cad
Will there be any updates to make the game faster?

Yes. I now have the time to try improving the game speed. I already enabled the ogg musics. But as the game is still slow, the music crackles a bit...
The only way to get a huge speed increase would be to write a a68k->MIPS asm converter. The original GLfrontier code uses a a68k->i386 asm or a68k->C file (the one I used for the PSP port). But generating a C file from a68k makes a huge file (8Mo of code that isn't optimized at all). But writing an as68k converter to MIPS ASM is too difficult for me as I know almost nothing in ASM...
So I'm playing a little more with the code and I will release it soon so anyone can take a look at it (and maybe improve it too :D).

brainbeat, thanks for your cheers. You only have to press the 'select' button to get rid of the police.

[gbgunner]

This port is great, but can you change the fire button to something a bit more easier to use???

[gbgunner]

Any chance of some instructions, as me for one hasnt played this game for about 20 odd yrs..lol

[steven1980cad]

Hi atien,
Glad to see your still working on the port,

Is it possible to get the save game, and load game working as well :-)
This could be a pain because of the keyboard?

just some results from my psp,
im using a FW2.5 with the Bock eloader i noticed i had to convert the 1.5 eboot to 1.0 eboot with psp brew to get it working. Works fine now.

[firestorm]

Very Nice port... i always been a big fan of the Elite/Frontier Series... Its great to now have a portable version :p


Im gonna ask what everyone else is secretly thinking...
any chance of an FFE port? Although this would take alot more work to get to a usable framerate... heh... maybe ill have a crack at it in a few years

[D0N]

Great work Atien! Keep up the great work!

[bwlfp]

Wow wow wow
Braben's labour of love on a portable, I can hardly believe it. Fantastic, Sony should be thanking people like you Atien:rolleyes: . Manual available on
http://www.mdibb.net/lotf/index.shtml
and (better)
http://www.hooplah.com/encounters/files.htm
Recently downgraded from 2.6 to 1.5 to play this game. Useful tutorial:
http://jfturner.free.fr/pages/tutorial.html

[Atien]

Thanks :D
I would be so happy to play frontier at fullspeed, but I'm not at ease with all this assembly things, so I must pass the torch...
After some cleanup, I released the sourcecode of the game so anyone who have the time and the skills to speed it up can take a look at it.
If anyone is interested, please tell me!

[JazzMX5]

Very Nice port... i always been a big fan of the Elite/Frontier Series... Its great to now have a portable version :p

Im gonna ask what everyone else is secretly thinking...
any chance of an FFE port? Although this would take alot more work to get to a usable framerate... heh... maybe ill have a crack at it in a few years

Blimey. If I had FFE on my PSP, at a decent framerate, I don't think I'd need any more games for at least a couple of years! Well, if it had all the JJFFE fixes, let's be brutally honest here.

Still, Atien, you rock for even attempting something as ambitious as this. :)

I guess nothing ever came of the source release, though... it's at times like this I wish I could code anything past 10 PRINT "Bollocks"; 20 GOTO 10.

PSP versions of FFE and MidWinter II: Flames of Freedom... yeah, I think my life would be more or less complete at that point! :thumbup:

[carlitx]

ok sweet looks like a good homebrew to keep updating:D! i like the look but before i dl it i want to know what frontier is?

[Buddy4point0]

nice port, clearly needs work, but nevertheless, still good job

[JazzMX5]

ok sweet looks like a good homebrew to keep updating:D! i like the look but before i dl it i want to know what frontier is?

Open-ended space trading/combat game from 1993, the sequel to the early '80s classic Elite.

Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier:_Elite_II)

Elite Club (http://www.eliteclub.co.uk/), home of the official shareware PC/Amiga releases

Atien's newest release of the PSP version, dated 5/5/07, on this very forum (http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=62163) (read thread before DL-ing)

[Selezen]

Atien, thanks for porting one of my favourite games to the PSP. I've just downloaded it and gonna give it a try.

Other links that you might find of interest are:

http://www.alioth.net - One of the first Frontier/Elite sites, including the original Elite BBS.

http://wiki.alioth.net - the Elite Universe Wiki. Detailed information on everything to do with Elite, Frontier and FFE.

http://oolite.aegidian.net - web site of a new clone of Elite called OOLite - fantastic cross-platform version with user OXPs.

http://elite.hughesd.co.uk - My Elite site. Some nerdy stuff and piccies...

[bwlfp]

Atien
So glad you are continuing work on this great game. I have started playing again, I had forgotten how crazy the real physics are sling-shotting all over the galaxy. I had a small problem switching between the star view and the solar system view, seemed to be a key sensitivity problem.

[microchipe]

hy, atien, i've renamed the savefile, but under F3, commander's name remains 'jameson' all the time, how do i change this name, u know that? thanks.

[microchipe]

i was trying to rename my commander's name on the game, and testing things on the WinUAE emulator running Frontier, and i've discovered some interesting things:

The WinUAE is an AMIGA emulator for windows, and the frontier running on it, is the 'same' game code of this port;

We CAN LOAD/PLAY/SAVE the game of PSP on Desktop emulator, using a resource of the emulator where a folder is 'mapped' like a HD, inside emulator, and this savegame file still compatible on PSP.

On WinUAE, is possible to SAVE an AVI/Xvid file from game, with sounds!!!

And... i renamed my commander's name of my savegame in the WinUAE, and worked fine on PSP.

IT'S AWESOME!!!
:thumbup:

[bmanic]

Any news on this port of Frontier Elite 2? It's awesome and it would be nice to see it updated!

Cheers!
bManic

[gusgus]

good stuff, keep up the good work!

[Klaus_Bockbier]

Thank you very much for your work. Frontier Elite II is one of my favourite games :thumbup:

The game is great (even today) and the possibility to play it on my PSP makes it even better :)
The Controls are nearly pearfect. Just some little improvements to the Framerate (to enable max details) and this port is perfect.

I´ve made some additonal Icons and Backrounds. If you´re interested just PM me.

Thanks !!

[Razer82]

One of my favourite games of all time!

Only problem is that I don't have a clue how what I'd need to do to get it onto my PSP.

Would somebody please be able to post an idiot's guide so that I can play this amazing game again.

[Jonah71]

New to all this stuff - and I know it's an old post but here goes.

I would realy like to play this game but unfortunatley can't get the game to work. My PSP is 5.00 m33 for what it's worth.

I've read through the thread and tried everything suggested but still no luck.
Any help would be appreciated.
p.s the frontier folder comes up as corrupted but the Frontier% folder starts to load then fails giving the error code 8002014c

[Korvin]

EDIT:
Sry for the long answer to an old question. It might still be usefull for people who try to get Frontier1337 working on a M33 5.xx cfw.

To Jonah71
First of all:
-If the rar is corrupt download it again.
-Read the README and follow the steps exactly. There are 2 Folders. Do not rename the folders.

Second of all:
You can simply google the error code. There are several sites that contain every single psp error code.
"8002014C - Ran kxploited homebrew without Homebrew enabled firmware."
Taken from http://forums.exophase.com/showthread.php?t=1499

I am not quite sure what kind of PSP you have (slim or phat). I don´t know about the Slim or PSP 3000 but if you own a PSP Fat I would try one of the following things.

Frontier1337 on 5.xx M33 Firmwares (PSP FAT only)

Download Dark Alex 1.5 kernel addon.
http://www.dark-alex.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=1612
Install it like the description given in the forum but read exactly what it is about. Read about the Backup and that some files will be deleted in the Flash of your PSP.

After the installation:

Go into the recovery menue
-Turn your PSP off (not standby)
-Start your PSP and hold the right shoulder button

Configuration -> Change "Game folder hombrew" to "currently:1.50 Kernel"

Do not change anything else for now. Exit the menue and after your psp is restarted try to start the game.
If it doesn´t work enter the recovery menue again. Go to plugins and disable all of them (if you have plugins installed). If it still doesn´t work you can also try changing the UMD Mode.
It´s possible that actual games wont run until you change the 1.50 kernel back to 5.xx by entering the recovery menue again.

I hope this works for you. The game runs on my PSP Phat 5.00 M33-6 with the kernel 1.50 addon and everything just works perfect.

I have to say this port rocks! It´s somewhat sad that there aren´t any updates to a almost perfect port. Still it´s great to play such a game on a PSP.