Porting to the Nintendo DS

[VisElEchNon]

I'd like to know what files I'll need for this. I'd assume the source of Exult but are there any dependencies that I'll need (other than the original games)? Thanks.

[Dominus]

Sdl, zlib, ogg vorbis...
Sdl is the minimum...

Edit: now I have a little more time to reply.
Exult depends on SDL and it also uses zlib (for savegames) and oogg vorbis (for digital music).
SDL is ported to Nintendo DS for sure, zlib is probably ported, maybe also ogg vorbis. I'd try without ogg vorbis first and try to playback music via the built in FMOPL.
I'd take a look at how ScumVM does their NDS port.

If you need help with testing, I can do that, ScummVM does run on my DS for example.

[VisElEchNon]

Hm. Well SDL 1.2.9 (current 1.2.14) and zlib 1.2.3 (current 1.2.5) are already ported. I assume that those are current enough that there shouldn't be any issues. I can't find the info on the vorbis codec for the nds (just did a quick search) but I KNOW that several ds apps use ogg sound. When I get around to doing the ogg playback I'll do a more extensive search for the info.
Thanks for letting me know what I'll need. Also for the good suggestion to check out the ScummVM source. I'll try to keep you posted.

[MV]

Nice. I'd love to play u7 on my ds. The touch screen is just screaming for this game.

[VisElEchNon]

Okay, I give up. I've installed Cygwin. I mean to say I've INSTALLED Cygwin (downloaded everything and then installed everything). I then ran autogen.sh and it says I don't have autoconf or automake installed. I've spent the last 2 days trying to figure this out.
To be honest, I've never been able to get ANYTHING to compile when I download someone else's source code. Can someone take me through what I need to do step by step? I've searched the net and found NOTHING that will simply tell me what to do to compile software. What I do find is always program specific to something I have no desire to compile.
I do program a lot, but it's always in something like TextPad or Dev-C++. So I'm not some idiot who doesn't know HOW to program... I just can't get non-windows tools to work for me.
Thanks for any help.

[VisElEchNon]

Clarification:
"...not some idiot who doesn't know HOW to program..." comes out wrong, sorry.
I mean: I'm not just jumping into this as my first programming experience, like an idiot.

[Dominus]

I wouldn't use cygwin, I'd use MinGW/MSys combination, this will have a wiki on how to set up.
These will also need autoconf, automake, libtool installed. But you can get those for Mingw/Msys as far as I remember. Setting up the linux stil compile environment set up on Windows is not easy but also not to hard

[VisElEchNon]

Excellent. Thank you.
You should probably put the recommended tools into the "INSTALL" file as well so that people (using windows) know what setup is best. Unless its already there and I just missed it somehow.

[Dominus]

You should have taken a look at readme.win32 which mentions mingw/msys and I think that takes care of the needed compile stuff.
The instructions regarding what to download of mingw and msys are probably outdated (reason for this is thatmingw/msys is sometimes hard to understand what to download, IMO).

[VisElEchNon]

Ah, yes. That would make sense. I didn't notice that file... I'll do a careful perusal of the directory now...
And yes, figuring out what to dl is a pain for me... still trying to get it configured correctly...
Currently it refuses to create the "configure" file, I had it set up before and it would create it but the make would fail... now it won't even go that far. >:(
I'll just keep trying...

[VisElEchNon]

Keeps giving me this #$^#@^@#$& error that libgmp-10.dll is missing...
What the hell am I missing that that error keeps showing up? (other than the .dll itself)

[VisElEchNon]

Whatever... the .dll doesn't matter anymore because... now its telling me automake isn't install and I know for a fact it is because I REINSTALLED it just to make sure after I got the error... and I'm still getting it.

[Dominus]

he he, that's why we have an answer in the FAQ http://exult.info/faq.php#compile_snapshot

I'm sure that there is something like that for Mingw/Msys as well

Edit: my post is not aimed at your last two posts, sorry...

[VisElEchNon]

Okay, I've made some progress but I'm getting this error:

warning: macro 'AM_PATH_SDL' not found in library

I keep finding sites that tell me to run the install for SDL and it'll create a file that fixes that... but I can't find any install file. What am I looking for? I have NO experience with linux or linux type systems so I'm just confused by everything now.

[Dominus]

you download SDL sources, and then
./configure
make
make install
in Msys, same with the other dependencies of Exult, and do this before even trying to build Exult.

Are you sure you want to try your hands at making an NDS port? I don't mean to offense you but if you are getting confused by this stuff then you will be much more confused later on when you have to actually code the interface for NDS and cross compile for it.

[VisElEchNon]

No offense taken. I'm getting confused because I'm used to windows programs doing all the work for me. I'm looking through all the documentation I can right now.
The coding is something I'm not worried about. It's using a command-line interface that I've never touched before that's the problem. All the programming I do is in TextPad or Dev-C++ and they compile my source code for me, no command-line at all.
I may not actually get this port done, but I'm going to spend some time to try and figure out how this all works.

[Dominus]

btw, just remembered, again pointing to readme.win32, if you set up mingw+msys correctly you should only need to download the packages linked on our page and follow the instructions there...
I'll contact Kirben, our trusty snapshot maker to see if he has additional pointers to add to readme.win32.

[VisElEchNon]

Somewhat off-topic but...
I was reading through an Ultima wiki and I found a link to this: DSx86
It DOS on a DS! The compatibility guide says that U3-6 and UW1 are all playable and a few others are "partially playable". Thought I'd share.