Prince of Persia port for Roku streaming box

[lvcabral]

Hi all,

I'm working on a port for the Roku streaming box, I'm using the HTML5 created by Ultrabolido, and will open source it on github when it got more complete and less buggy.

Take a look at the video of the current state:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6B0xgb8GSE

I will keep this post updated with the progress, and also will make some material later explaining the port from HTML5 (javascript) code to the Roku Brightscript language.

regards

Marcelo Lv Cabral
http://lvcabral.com

[Norbert]

Hi Marcelo, welcome to the Princed forum.
Looks interesting. I didn't know about the Roku set-top box until I read your post, to be honest.
That's still going to be a bunch of work; getting the events/gates to work, fighting with guards, things like that.
But it has potential. I like your idea of adding that optional multi room mode.

[lvcabral]

Thanks Norbert,

The Roku box is very popular here in USA (+10 million devices sold) and I develop for it as a hobby.

I decided to make this port after I got a Commodore 64 last year and know about the PoP port by Andreas Varga, then I saw the original source code and finally read Jordan books (making of Karateka and PoP). All this reignited the passion I had with this revolutionary game!

I was looking for project to learn more about Roku's Graph2D API and this was a great motivation.

[R3]

whoa!

this looks promising.

can you imagine playing PoP1 with all the rooms shown already on your 50-inch LCD?

[lvcabral]

whoa!

this looks promising.

can you imagine playing PoP1 with all the rooms shown already on your 50-inch LCD?

I will make tests with the limits, I know that only Roku 3 or Roku 4 will handle the multi-screen mode, but I only have a Roku 3, will try to get a roku 4 to test with a 4K screen. With the Roku 3 the maximum on HD mode (1280x720) is 4x3 rooms. It does not allow the full HD (1920x1080) for games

Later this week I will post another video with the v0.6 Alpha state.

[R3]

best of luck then, Sir!

[R3]

mebbe someone out there could do a PC mod with Mr. Cabral's patented multi-room feature.
one that would allow the entire computer screen to be filled.
as it is, when I maximize DOSBox, the resolution isn't all that great.

thought of this since we don't have Roku, yet, in our country.

[lvcabral]

mebbe someone out there could do a PC mod with Mr. Cabral's patented multi-room feature.
one that would allow the entire computer screen to be filled.
as it is, when I maximize DOSBox, the resolution isn't all that great.

thought of this since we don't have Roku, yet, in our country.

`
We can give the suggestion to our fellow MININIM project developer oitofelix

[R3]

oitofelix has his own ideas on what makes a good game.
case in point: he thinks his manual sword-drawing feature is superior to Mechner's default auto-draw feature.
some people disagree with him, but, since it's his mod... well, i rest my case.

i prefer more traditional developers.

[Norbert]

It might be interesting for both MININIM and SDLPoP.

[Andrew]

I'm working on a port for the Roku streaming box, I'm using the HTML5 created by Ultrabolido, and will open source it on github when it got more complete and less buggy.

Wow, looks great already! I never bought a Roku, but your port has got me wondering just how difficult it might be to get SDLPoP compiled for Linux directly working on any of the WD TV models with WDLXTV installed. Hmm...

Does your port work only with a keyboard or is some sort of controller support possible with the Roku?

i prefer more traditional developers.

I do too. Perhaps David or Falcury or someone else will consider multi-room as a future option for SDLPoP. The experience on a big-screen TV could certainly be great depending on the level design. Speaking of which, for those who like a challenge it would be better to turn off the option for levels that try to trap the player, since the ability to see all the rooms would allow the player to chart his path to the exit much more easily.

as it is, when I maximize DOSBox, the resolution isn't all that great.

Have you tried playing around with any of the DOSBox scalers? You can also try SVN builds like ykhwong's that support even more scalers such as xBRZ for example.

[lvcabral]

Wow, looks great already! I never bought a Roku, but your port has got me wondering just how difficult it might be to get SDLPoP compiled for Linux directly working on any of the WD TV models with WDLXTV installed. Hmm...

Does your port work only with a keyboard or is some sort of controller support possible with the Roku?

Unfortunately Roku has only support for keyboard using the mobile App, and that is not a good option to control the game, the API is based on HTTP calls, respond too slow. I'm using the Roku 3/4 controller (WiFi), it respond very well and is comfortable to play, but still there is no support for two keys pressed at the same time, so for the "shift" I had to adapt to a "on/off" toggle mode.

This will probably limit some tricks, and the level design must consider that limitation for Roku.

...Perhaps David or Falcury or someone else will consider multi-room as a future option for SDLPoP. The experience on a big-screen TV could certainly be great depending on the level design. Speaking of which, for those who like a challenge it would be better to turn off the option for levels that try to trap the player, since the ability to see all the rooms would allow the player to chart his path to the exit much more easily.

Currently all level/sprite definitions I use are the same defined by "Ultrabolido" for his HTML5 version (JSON files), so that makes easy to have the Roku game use a cloud server to download customized levels.

[Andrew]

Unfortunately Roku has only support for keyboard using the mobile App, and that is not a good option to control the game, the API is based on HTTP calls, respond too slow. I'm using the Roku 3/4 controller (WiFi), it respond very well and is comfortable to play, but still there is no support for two keys pressed at the same time, so for the "shift" I had to adapt to a "on/off" toggle mode.

I came across this method to break secure boot but seems it was quickly patched. Isn't there any hacked firmware for current models (similar to WDLXTV) that allows full access to the version of Linux they run on? That might allow for running SDLPoP and possibly better third-party controller support.

[lvcabral]

New version is ready (Alpha v0.6), see the changes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYzuH9f3ADU

If you have a Roku and want to try it, send me a PM so I can send you the link for the private channel.

The changeset is below:
* Add: Intro screens and song
* Add: Start Menu with Screen Mode options
* Add: Allow use the remote control straight or sideways
* Add: Event to Open Gate and Exit Door
* Add: Event to move to next level when enter Exit Door
* Add: Change level with remote keys (REW and FF)
* Add: Bitmap font support for Status Bar
* Add: Event to pick Potion and drink
* Add: Event to Pick Sword
* Add: Flash background depending on the CMD_EFFECT
* Add: Status bar shows kid lives according to health and maxHealth properties
* Add: Status bar blinks when is the last kid's life
* Add: Healing Potion (red): increases 1 energy point
* Add: Life Extension Potion (big red): Extended energy in 1 point and restore all
* Add: Poison Potion (blue): decreases 1 energy point
* Add: Injury from medium fall: : decreases 1 energy point
* Add: Die from high fall
* Add: Sound Effects (Run, Bump, Gate, Suspense, Exit Door, Drink, Land, Loose, Spikes, Sword, Button)
* Add: Loose plate that fall over a button should press it (L4R16->R17) - Not on JS
* Add: Restart game with death

Plus several bug fixes.

[Andrew]

Good job on the progress since 0.5. Next step - enemies?