DOSBOX 4 PSP ... impossible?!

Murdock · Post by **Murdock** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 9:50 pm

Hi!

As most of you might have seen there once was a beta version of DOSBOX for the PSP but this project was dropped as far as I know ... unfortunately.

Now, I can't code a single line ... We've had some basics in school, but just some VERY basic progs like a calculator in a Dos Window :(

So since I think this is a place where some talented coders help eachother out I post this question here:

Can't anyone of you try to code a working DosBox for the PSP?

I mean there had been VERY much nice and great games for the good old DOS, so why not bringing them to the PSP? As I said, I can't code even fuckin line. But I bet u can, cuz the code of DosBox is open source, as far as I know AND the PSP has a 333 MHz Processor ... so why not giving such a project a try?

I bet many PSP Homebrew users would be very thankfull for such a Project.

Just write what u think about that ...

Brunni · Post by **Brunni** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:08 am

Last time I tried it, I wasn't even able to run a single homebrew fighting game at a decent speed on my 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 machine, so I don't think 333 MHz is so much worth a try...

Murdock · Post by **Murdock** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:05 pm

hmm, then I bet u must have done sth terribly wrong ... because I ran pretty well known games (e.g. C&C2: Red Alert) on it with only a 2 GHz machine ... DosBox is a pretty good tool, if it's configurated well. This is in deed not as easy as one might think. I myself just got it runnning by crawling through many tuts and guides.

But I somewhere read that u can calculate that u need 10 times more power of processor to emulate another system in realtime. This was said as a rule of thumb ... so this means that if u wanna emulate a 33 MHz Computer system with DOS u have to have a 300 MHz processor. So I think to emulate a DOS system to run the good old games like Settlers 2 or GODS or Colonization is kind of possible with the PSP.

Tinnus · Post by **Tinnus** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 7:40 am

That 10x rule can't be taken for granted all the time since you must take into account the architeture complexity.

x86 is WAY more complicated than MIPS (PSP).

Murdock · Post by **Murdock** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 8:18 am

okay ... as I said I am not into programming at all.

But since this topic does not awake much excitement in the community here, I thin kthere will be no such or similar project in the near future, unfortunately.

But I honestly do not understand why nobody wants to start such a project. It could have much potential, don't you think so?

Raphael · Post by **Raphael** » Sun Sep 17, 2006 8:22 am

x86 (PC) is CISC, while MIPS (PSP) is RISC... therefore - no, your 10x rule-of-thumb won't apply (if you don't know the difference, read it up on wikipedia).
Also afaik it was already tried to run things on DosBox, and it was found to be unbearably slow and therefore dropped (or was it qemu? dunno any more - still, not much difference).

Please also note that this is not a request forum here.

Barts_706 · Post by **Barts_706** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:14 pm

...because I would really like to play some of my oldies on the go.

Having said that, I am afraid this task might not be feasible. The guys who tried it were good, so I think it is safe to assume that if it were doable, we would already be playing Prince of Persia.

Perhaps if one day Zx-81 kicks in... that man is though when it comes to optimizing.

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DOSBOX 4 PSP ... impossible?!

DOSBOX 4 PSP ... impossible?!

And it's a bit of a shame...