ScummVM: “1.2.0 preview 1” for GPH devices (GP2X, Caanoo & GP2X Wiz).

News via http://blogs.distant-earth.com/wp/?p=128

This post is to announce the release of a testing preview of the upcoming 1.2.0 ScummVM release for the GPH (GamePark Holdings) devices I support.

This release supersedes recent ‘SVN’ builds as should provide a very good indication of what to expect in the final 1.2.0 release.

Note: Please don’t mirror or hotlink these preview/test/alpha etc. releases or put them on download services but rather, direct people to this site.

This helps me ensure that users always have the most recent versions.

Also note that these test releases are not officially (or unofficially) supported but I will help if I can.

I am hoping to get at least another preview release out for the GPH devices before the final 1.2.0 release as I carry on fixing bugs. This is why it is important to provide feedback, patches, fixes etc.

Please give these releases a go and provide feedback.

Noteworthy features:

Below are the main features and fixes added with this new release.

ALL:

Changes to the way the music drivers are loaded (should fix game loading issues).

Performance improvements.

Add support for TouchScreen ‘Tap Modes’, Left Click, Right Click and Hover.

GP2X:

Performance tweaks/code clean-up (quite noticeable in some areas, not giving up on the old GP2X any time soon).

Revised the button layout (please read http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=GP2X for more info), feedback on the button layouts is appreciated.

GP2X Wiz:

Fixes to 16 bit graphics support (still not sure this is 100% working well).

Revised the button layout (please read http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=GP2XWiz for more info), feedback on the button layouts is appreciated.

Caanoo:

Revised the button layout (please read http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?title=Caanoo for more info), feedback on the button layouts is appreciated.

TODO List:

ALL:

Add support for a ‘Left Handed Mode’ (swapping the Left and Right trigger behaviour).

Make the ‘Trigger Tap’ configurable by the user.

Anything on the TODO may not happen in time for the 1.2.0 release, it is all rather dependent on my free time and that is at a premium at the moment.

Supported engines:

These releases feature support for all the game engines enabled for the upcoming ScummVM 1.2.0 including support for the SCI engine (early SCI games) and adding Fascination support in the Gob engine (remember, it’s really not a children’s game).

Full details of what you can expect to see in 1.2.0 can be found in the testing news post.

Specific restrictions:

Each of the platforms has a small number of restrictions and quirks that have an affect on the games/engines you are able to use well with said platform.

GP2X: The biggest restriction with this platform is the overhead of the scaling when using 640*480 games on the 320*240 screen making such game perform relatively poorly.

GP2X Wiz: I have spotted a minor issue where the screen is not totally cleaned when some types of screen movement occur, that combined with the Wiz’s LCD tearing can lead to the odd graphics glitch.

Caanoo: This backend is new, it’s not as well tested as I would like, I think I have most of the ‘show stoppers’ fixed in this preview but expect minor bugs and kinks.

SCI Engine: This game engine is a big and complex beast. Performance is not yet as optimised as I would like for devices like the GPH handhelds.