Apple Game Server 3.1

[BLuRry]

It's been a while so I'll reintroduce this program. Apple Game Server allows you to connect your PC/Mac/Linux machine to an Apple // computer (2, e, c, gs) and send a game over to it for your personal amusement. It can also serve as a serial host for Dos 3.3 titles without much coaxing (just tweak the games.xml file, look at Chipwits and Fishies for examples)

This is a different approach than ADTPro, and is one that lets you jump straight in to playing games.

Home:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/a2gameserver

Download:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/a2gameserver/files/latest/download

+ Better and more reliable startup bootstrap method. Rock solid now, and super-fast!
+ Abandoned Java 5 support to cut download size in half. You must have Java 6 or OpenJDK 6 or better to use this program now, sorry.
+ Added more screenshots for games.
+ Better graphics dithering using Floyd-Steinberg dithering, now screenshots look a little better.
+ Readme file has been updated with more relevant instructions and troubleshooting tips.
+ Example test programs included to demonstrate how to roll your own image conversion. They're example programs, not full-out applications so bear that in mind. A better conversion program will be made later on, just not today.

There is more work I want to do for AGS, but I wanted to get this incremental release out there as I feel it does a major step up in reliability. This is truly how the 3.0 release should have been years ago. There will be more to come, but I need to switch gears to work on more Jace features. :-) Don't complain too much about the download size -- a lot of that is the graphic and game content. :-)

Future planned features, in no particular order:
+ Actual UI for converting image files into various apple formats.
+ ZIP file support to cut down footprint further.
+ Online help feature to provide keyboard hints.
+ About Box, brag page, credits, greets, whatever. Maybe a hidden "FU" page dedicated to Sculley. Haven't really given it much thought yet.
+ Improved HGR dithering logic for more accurate conversions.
+ Prodos support, and better RWTS support for cracked games. (Hey, ]HR I could use some help on that! ;-)
+ Online-based software library that is auto-updated and supports a local data set as well (so you could have user-defined disks and also an online catalog). This might be a long while though...

-B

[Kevin]

thanks much, its a big ball-o-fun

now, the real test, can it run for 10 seconds on my rom 255 C without puking on its shoes

I admit I never got around to trying the modded version you sent me, got stupid busy with the holidays ... then sort of forgot about it

[BLuRry]

If it bootstraps ok, but fails while you're in the menu then you have a problem with the serial cable. You can try typing ! to refresh the display but I can't promise you that it will be totally reliable. The only real solution for a faulty cable is to replace it, preferably with one that has better shielding. I've had excellent luck with the one I just made using CAT-5 cabling. Tie the three unused wires into the ground pin and it should be rock-solid. As for file transfers, if you transfer single-load games, AGS can recover from minor transfer errors. Disk games, on the other hand, have zero fault tolerance built in.

-B

[Kevin]

The cable I have is a shielded stage grade midi cable assembled by machine on one end and a DE9 I put on the other, I run adt and all sorts of other garbage though it constantly with no faults. Still havent tried the new AGS, but the previous release would loose sync during menu operations and game transfers

[Michael J. Mahon]

Except in a very hostile EMC environment, a reasonable length RS-232 cable
should not require shielding--just good connections and at least one
ground.

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon

[BLuRry]

Fair enough, but there is a significant improvement in my setup with this cable. I suppose my old cable was faulty, but this cable is totally ready to take on maximum hostility. :)

I am unable to reproduce any abnormal communications related errors in the 3.1 build. I hope others are as fortunate considering all the tine I put in it.

-B

[Kevin]

I have never been clear on how to run this, sometimes I get it to work sometimes not

I have java 6, it can be execd from the command line but when i do it gives a bunch of errors. if I click on the jar file in windows it starts up but it cant find the games folder or the xml

little help?

[BLuRry]

The readme tells all. If you want to run it from a GUI, you have to set the working folder one level up. Otherwise, drop to a commandline and CD to the parent directory (where you extracted it) and use this:

java -jar dist/ags.jar

If you have any other trouble with it, make sure you installed the RXTX bits correctly -- you might have to move the rxtxserial.dll to the ags folder or in to your java/bin folder, whichever seems more appropriate. If you want to run this by double-clicking on the jar, create a shortcut and modify the working folder one level up from the dist folder.

-B

[Kevin]

it could use some polish, there really should not be a reason the user needs to set paths and be mindful of what directroy level they are in, and the games folder is still not in the path it defaults to. And ... using the command line by default it pukes on rxtx cause its looking in the java folder for it, not the program folder

nevermind at one point your readme hits column 588, so its easy to miss stuff, and the fact I hate java with a passion cause every homebrew project ever made goes through this crap.

honestly I would focus on a click n go biuld before adding more features

also bug, if it cant find the games folder, and you try to set preferences it locks =)

[BLuRry]

If you want commit access let me know. I have four kids, a full time job and two additional contacts that zap fee time. Consider yourself fortunate that I do anything for free.

-B

[Kevin]

On Thursday, January 10, 2013 11:42:46 PM UTC-6, BLuRry wrote:
> If you want commit access let me know. I have four kids, a full time job and two additional contacts that zap fee time. Consider yourself fortunate that I do anything for free.
>
>
>
> -B

nevermind, you choose to do this, and thats your deal, I am not bathing myself in free time either, add 100 features and not a batch file, I dont really care.

I have only gotten this to run one game and it barfed in like 3 months and god knows how many hours guessing at your dev environment, setting paths, guessing directory levels and locking machines.

and no I dont want commit acces, even if I had time, the first thing I would do is port it.

[BLuRry]

Don't bother starting a new port -- someone already did that, though I know very little about it.

http://apple2.x10.mx/#GameInjector

-B

[Kevin]

actually I am already half way done porting it to avr for my project, it consumes 8k of rom, and run in less than 700 byes of ram

and I spent almost 2 hours fussing with the java version and still get nothing but errors

I do appreciate your work, its just irritating a crap... if I find time I will write a batch file to patch it together

[Michael J. Mahon]

I suspect that your old cable had a cold solder joint or some similar
source of intermittency.

RS-232 signaling is quite high level--several volts--and bipolar to make it
relatively immune to noise.

Glad to hear that your new one is solid.

[L@K]

Hi,

On my WIN XP Netbook (Java 6) connected to my Apple 2e
For some reason, I can only reach see:
Edit settings -> ADVANCED
RUNTIME Save Cancel
COM

I can't set any path or Com1. There's no drop down list for the 3 items.
Everything shows up ok in Win 7. Did I miss anything on WIN XP?

[David Schmidt]

On 1/11/2013 12:31 AM, Kevin wrote:
> [mumble] cause every homebrew project ever made goes through this crap.

Indeed it does. I bolted ADTPro's rxtx system on the back of AGS and a
tweaked batch script to invoke it worked fine. Blurry, want to give me
commit access? I can contribute that.

[BLuRry]

It's not a dropdown -- you should have a text field for Port, just type in COM1 or whatever. A long while back, I ported the AGS config panel to Jace and then improved it in Jace to support drop-down selects, but I didn't port that back to AGS. That's why I only made this a point release though -- if I added everything I wanted to do it would have been a jump to 3.5. But if I spent all my time on AGS, there were a lot of other more important things I would be neglecting (not to mention a promise I have to keep for another nice fellow in our community.)

-B

[BLuRry]

Yes, please!!

I will add commit access post-haste for you. Thanks very much in advance!

-B

[BLuRry]

On Friday, January 11, 2013 8:31:23 AM UTC-6, schmidtd wrote:

Also, if you like the changes to the serial bootstrap process you are welcome to borrow them at will. It's a lot faster than the ADT Pro (though I will admit that ADT Pro has a more solid reputation for reliability!)

-B

[David Schmidt]

Don't worry, I feel free to borrow EVERYTHING. ADTPro is the Scumbag
Steve (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/scumbag-steve) of open source software.

[BLuRry]

Uh... the //gs on my desk says you're never going to be a scumbag in my book. And that //gs says that AGS 3.1 works like a boss. :-D

-B

[Steve Nickolas]

On Fri, 11 Jan 2013, David Schmidt wrote:

> Don't worry, I feel free to borrow EVERYTHING. ADTPro is the Scumbag Steve
> (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/scumbag-steve) of open source software.

Add all the features! <allthethings.png>

-uso.

[BLuRry]

Hey Steve, my Alcazar binary is borked -- is there a Lord Rama crackscreen version that actually works?

-B

[Steve Nickolas]

I dunno. I think I yanked Alcazar from my newer collections.

-uso.

[BLuRry]

David,

Make sure to grab the latest source. I've worked with Riccardo Grecco to troubleshoot some bugs (the infamous "can't find Games.xml" and the freeze bug when opening the settings panel). The latest source in the trunk has fixes for these issues, but the remaining RXTX issues you spotted are likely still rampant. Let me know if you need help making sense of the stuff.

-Brendan