Gnu Robbo 0.62 Zaurus Sharp Rom Ipk Released

[TheGreenKnight]

Hi

Back in 2005 I released a port of GNU Robbo for the Zaurus. Since then I have become a GNU Robbo Sourceforge project developer and have considerably updated the game. The problem for me at the moment is that the project uses SDL_ttf and I have an SL-5500 which I've never been able to find the dev packages for. I can fix this by creating some pixmap fonts but the project is now internationalised, it'll be a lot of work and I have other things to do for the immediate future. So for the moment I am announcing this project as Zaurus ready (it has a Zaurus (Sharp ROM) Makefile and packaging script) and hopefully people with the capability to package it across the various ROMs will bring this to the Zaurus masses

The project is in SVN until tonight when the other developer is going to package the source and place it for download on http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnurobbo .

GNU Robbo 0.61 Changelog:

* Added graphical skin support
* Added a newly created graphical skin: Tronic
* 15 additional levels converted from RobboVII
* 32 additional levels converted from RobboVIII
* 32 additional levels converted from RobboIX
* Added in-game help
* Added reconfigurable options
* Added reconfigurable controls
* Added analogue and digital joystick support
* Added centering of game within any resolution
* Added support for different locales
* Added a Polish translation
* Many bug fixes

Requirements:

libSDL
libSDL_ttf

Regards,
Thunor aka TheGreenKnight

[TheGreenKnight]

Hi again

GNU Robbo Zaurus Sharp ROM ipk now available for download -> http://gnurobbo.sourceforge.net/

0.62 Changes:

* Created Sharp Zaurus Sharp ROM ipk
* Added option to save rcfile on change for battery powered devices
* Modified the exploding bomb to be more similar to Atari Robbo
* Added pixmap fonts and the option to use them over SDL_ttf
* Swedish translation added by Niklas 'Nille' Åkerström
* Slovak translation added by Viliam Búr
* German translation added by Chris Zeiler rabyte_at_gmail.dot.com

Because the README gets buried into /opt/QtPalmtop/share/gnurobbo/ I will paste it here :-

Code: [Select]

Game help and default keys for this device are explained in-game.

Save rcfile < { on exit | on change } >
=======================================

In Options you can now choose to save the rcfile (.gnurobborc) whenever
important settings are changed. You may experience a slight delay whilst
the data is being saved and synced (depending on platform, backup media
type, CPU underclocking etc.) but if you are running GNU Robbo on a
battery powered or generally unstable device then you won't lose your
level progress or your modified settings.


Video Mode Selection
====================

Depending on platform, video mode initialisation works thus :-

* A user requested video mode via the commandline is attempted
* If that fails then the default hi-res 640x480 mode is attempted
* If that fails then the default lo-res 320x240 mode is attempted
* If that fails then the program quits

If you are using a device with a portrait orientated screen or you
prefer this orientation then you should pass it via the commandline :-

e.g. ./gnurobbo -600x800
e.g. ./gnurobbo -480x640
e.g. ./gnurobbo -240x320

Additionally you can pass the -vpx option to expand the viewport to fill
the screen vertically by 40%. See Command Line Options below.


Following is the desktop Linux README which you may find interesting.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

+-------+
| About |
+-------+

GNU Robbo is a free open source reimplementation of Janusz Pelc's Robbo
for the Atari XE/XL which was distributed by LK Avalon in 1989.

+---------+
| History |
+---------+

The first version of Robbo was released in 1989 by LK Avalon, and in a
short time became very popular in "little" Atari's world. Their main
developer Janusz Pelc did a very good job. There are rumours that he
wrote the game just three months before his graduation exam;) In 1990
Janusz Pelc and LK Avalon released their next product -- Robbo
Konstructor -- which enabled people to create their own levels.

In 1991, Maciej Miasik (http://www.linkedin.com/in/tosiabunio) developed
The Adventures of Robbo for XLanD Games -- an updated PC-DOS port
of the Atari version -- and published by Epic Games. In 2006 Maciej
Miasik declared that the idea and code of the PC-DOS version to be
licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic
licence (http://www.miasik.net/archive/2006/06/moje-gry-dla-kazdego/).

I (Alus) just ported it to Linux trying to set Robbo's behaviour as
similar as it is possible. You can still buy Windows version of Robbo
in "LK Avalon", with better graphics and new objects and levels.
Thunor joined the project in 2007 and completely rebuilt first version.
Version 0.60 and above was mostly his job;)

+------------------------------------------+
| A More Complicated History, Allegedly :p |
+------------------------------------------+

Janusz Pelc's company XLanD Games created the Atari Robbo game and it
was distributed by LK Avalon, a promoter of independent developers. In
1991 whilst working for XLanD Games, Maciej Miasik created the PC version.
In 1994 XLanD Games agreed to sell the rights to the PC version to LK
Avalon and then XLanD Games went out of business. Later in 1996, Maciej
Miasik joined LK Avalon and worked on several projects until 2001. In
2006 with the permission of past and present LK Avalon employees he
released the PC version under a Creative Commons licence.

As far as licencing goes, any agreements between Janusz Pelc/XLanD and
LK Avalon regarding the Atari version disappeared with the demise of
XLanD Games, but the GNU Robbo team have been told that the Atari Robbo
game was the property of Janusz Pelc/XLanD Games and Janusz Pelc has no
problems with the existence of the GNU Robbo project.

+--------------+
| Requirements |
+--------------+

libSDL (plus libSDL-devel for source compilation)
Optional: libSDL_ttf (plus libSDL_ttf-devel for source compilation)

Most Linux distributions come pre-installed with libSDL and libSDL_ttf
but you will likely have to install the development versions yourself.

For more information about the SDL libraries, please visit
http://www.libsdl.org/ and http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_ttf/

+--------------+
| Installation |
+--------------+

See COMPILING.

+------+
| Keys |
+------+

Default PC controls :-

    Enter                Confirm
    Cursors                Move
    Cursors + RShift    Shoot
    R                    Restart
    Escape                Exit

All keys are reconfigurable and are listed in Options. Digital and
analogue joysticks are also supported and it's possible to mix input
devices.

+----------------------+
| Command Line Options |
+----------------------+

GNU Robbo version 0.61
Usage: gnurobbo [options]

Options:
    -XRESxYRES    e.g. -800x480
    -ts n        Tile size 16 or 32
    -vpx        Maximise the viewport
    -f            Run the game fullscreen

The tile size of 16 is used in video modes less than 480x480.
On suitably large video modes, maximising the viewport will enable you
to see more of the level but this is considered cheating and is only
meant for level design and testing. Still, if you are interested in
designing levels you may want to try ./gnurobbo -800x600 -ts 16 -vpx

+-------------+
| Level files |
+-------------+

You can create own level files - more details can be found in
original.dat. Don't hesitate to send complete working levels to the
author. If it's sensible, be sure that it will be attached to official
game :-)

In the future I plan to release interface for graphical creating levels.

Homepage of this game is available at: http://gnurobbo.sourceforge.net

-- Alus and Thunor
Regards,
Thunor aka TheGreenKnight

[teh.sean]

wow, it's awesome to see people still doing stuff for the z like this. Way to go and thanks greenknight! I'll have to try this out later.

[TheGreenKnight]

wow, it's awesome to see people still doing stuff for the z like this. Way to go and thanks greenknight! I'll have to try this out later.

You're welcome .

I don't know what sort of demand there is for Zaurus software nowadays but I still use my SL-5500, whatever I develop gets tested on it and so I may as well upload it for everybody else

[mars]

I don't know what sort of demand there is for Zaurus software nowadays but I still use my SL-5500, whatever I develop gets tested on it and so I may as well upload it for everybody else

Thanks much for the application! One minor point on the clamshells, at least my C3100, the OK button doesn't map to confirm. By trial and error (basically pressing all the buttons), I found that the Function key, the two Japanese keys, and the / key can all be used as confirm.

In Cacko, I'm currently using the libsdl_1.2.5-slzaurus20050731 version of libSDL.

[TheGreenKnight]

Thanks much for the application! One minor point on the clamshells, at least my C3100, the OK button doesn't map to confirm. By trial and error (basically pressing all the buttons), I found that the Function key, the two Japanese keys, and the / key can all be used as confirm.

In Cacko, I'm currently using the libsdl_1.2.5-slzaurus20050731 version of libSDL.

Many thanks for telling me this as I can now set the Zaurus Confirm control to something else like SPACE that can be easily reconfigured.