I am going to take on the impossible task of porting a Windows 95 game to the Pippin.

going for it.

I am going to take on the impossible task of building a Spaceship and flying to Mars.

I have no experience in engineering or rocket science or even basic physics and I understand I should start small and then increase my knowledge with several years of education and training but F*ck that, I ain't got time for that. My friends and family have encouraged me to pursue my goal so I'm going for it! Pretty sure I can use my ANDROID tablet to figure it all out!

 

Ah another Kerbal Space Program player I see ;-)

 

Actually, according to this eBay listing for a rare Apple software disc, the Pippin isn't much different than a mac-

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Devel...tage_Computers_Mainframes&hash=item58a759b296

 

He could do static recompilation, so no need of sourcecode, but it seems like this would be out of his reach for years.

To grossly reach mars (but not to aim at a specific spot of it). You only need to know F=ma and hire engineers. And also truckloads of cash, maybe truckloads of pure gold that you can convert into cash when needed. Oh, and people willing to reach Mars and die, but it seems a lotta people already are willing to do this.

 

There isn't much information on this topic, just anecdotal responses to WikiHow-like websites.

Somebody did say that it is useful for things like x86 -> PowerPC conversion.

 

A lot of old programs were statically recompiled to ARM by skilled individuals, including Warcraft/Starcraft. That takes a pretty big amount of work though, and even for a expert in programmation, Starcraft took 6 months.

Interesting stuff here (Nes recompiled to x86): http://andrewkelley.me/post/jamulator.html

This is high level stuff though, don't expect to achieve this without phd level education on computer science/software engineering.

 

Which I'll never be able to have since I am unskilled. And this poor platform will never have homebrew support.

 

I got in contact with an ex-Pippin developer and journalist about developing for the Pippin, and he told me a few things that would help out anyone interested in doing homebrew for it in the future.

The first major tidbit of information he told me is that the 'PippinAuthenticationFile' is actually fairly easy to spoof. I asked him if it was based off of some audio files (which is something I recall reading somewhere) and he seems to believe so. He also said that you don't even need to bother with the file and can just 'hotswap' from a legit disc to a homebrew disc.

He is also supplying me a .ISO file of a program called Pease which I have heard of (there is a Pease Turbo auction on eBay right now), as well as a program called Tucson which I have never heard of before.

The gentleman's name is Joe Kudrna and he's a very busy guy, so I don't expect the files anytime soon. But if I do get copies, who here would be interested in them?

 

What is more difficult, porting Win95 to Pippin or porting Mac OS to Pippin? Why not start with a game that has been available on all 3 platforms, figure out how that works and then try to replicate it with another game? I would definately start with Marathon, since it is already on Mac OS, Win95 and Pippin.

 

You bring up a valid point. In fact, a few Pippin games/software actually worked on all 3 platforms as an added function. Not sure which ones, though.

 

If this is the attitude you're going to approach a project with, no even the mere concept, idea, or ideal with, then have someone lock the topic.

Now, tough love aside, I will say I've met people in "similar" boats as you who had no idea what they were really capable of and turned out they had a real natural talent for it. I'm obviously not going to give out names, but it's happened, and the only thing stopping you from moving forward is yourself; with that said, I do not recommend a big project like this off the bat, the impossible doesn't happen without some type of education, and self-education does count (obviously).

If you're interested, do not let yourself be intimidated by something you know you're not ready for, and find another point to start at that you believe would suit you and just jump in and never look back. Do NOT EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVERRRRRR -gasps for air- compare yourself to other developers, it'll only breed something tantamount to depression, self-loathing, lack of motivation, and ultimately you'll burn yourself out and just simply give up.

Start off with something real basic and then move on to whatever you feel the next step may be, no one can guide you or teach you, it's all going to be you. You may get tips from other people, but that's the extent as to which most programmers will help another unless you're on a team or something of the sort; even with a college education for this subject, the biggest part determining how proficient you're going to be is what you do and how well you stick with it.

I can't stand to see degrees and pointless credentials thrown around in a place such as this, anyone who programs knows where I'm coming from with this, we're our own teachers for the most part, and those of us who got good or even decent have mostly ourselves to thank because we're the ones that push ourselves, put in the effort to learn on our own time, have our various hobbies and projects that supplement what we're learning or already know, and we just keep going no matter what.

You have to have a passion for it, start out with something small, but don't write yourself off as not having a passion if the basics don't jive with you, because frankly, there's a reason a lot of us have our areas of expertise, and it's because some areas just bore the hell out of us and boredom is the best way to stop passion in its tracks. The aforementioned doesn't mean ignore the basics, you still have you learn them, I'm just saying no matter how "meh" it seems, stick with it and then go with something that you want to do on a smaller level than what the topic is about and go from there.

Note to others: Do not judge the OP for anything from this topic before my post was actually posted; instead, take this opportunity to build on the point I'm trying to get at and nurture this person and metaphorically speaking lets get them to a point to where they can crawl and eventually walk on their own in the world of programming, don't shoot them down for wanting to start running before learning to crawl, we all had our crazy ambitions when we started out no matter if we were open about them or not.

 

Should I start learning C first or jump right into C++?

 

C is not required for learning C++. In fact, it can even lead to poor C++ programming practices at times.

Edit: Just to be clear, I mean things that are considered okay in C are/might not be recommended in C++. malloc/free vs new/delete, define vs const, etc. Some things also function differently. enums, character literals, struct acts a bit differently, and so on. Basically, despite the fact that C++ started out as an "enhanced" C or however you wanna put it, they're still a good bit different and should really be treated as different languages kinda like Java/C#. If you wanna learn C++, learn C++. If you wanna learn C, learn C. Simple as that.

 

If you find the source code to a power PC game... yes, its possible. A good start would be to check out the doom PPC source code and start from there. There was actually a pippin fansite that has since shut down that was in the process of porting PPC games to the console. They didn't get very far because the host of the website vanished and the site went unpaid so it shutdown. I have absolutely no clue what the site was even called now. They had a tech demo of a few games ported from Mac PPC to Pippin running on the pippin.

 

I don't know if you need talent, or just a thirst for learning and enough ambition that you'll spend years honing your craft.

If you need encouragement then you're probably not going to make it.

 

You could try contacting Bungie maybe. They made Super Marathon for it, it's an excellent game BTW. I'll have to dig around my old hard drives and find that ISO for you. I think that I actually have a few SDK's for the pippin on my harddrive too.

 

I think everything you said here applies to almost any complex activity; whether it's programming, design, playing an instrument, learning a language, etc. Some people have a natural proficiency for these kinds of things and learn really fast, and for others it takes longer. One thing that I've discovered though, is that with complex activities that require skill and training, there's really no end to learning about it. You may reach a point where you understand all the basics and have a pretty good grasp of the general concepts, but I think you'll find that if you stick with it you'll continue learning stuff indefinitely; if not from others, then from your own work and experiences.

It may seem daunting at first, but once you get past the initial difficulties, it gets easier and easier until it's no longer something you have to try to do; you just do it. That's not to say that you won't still be challenged, but it's different; you're no longer concerned about if you'll be be able to do it. Rather, you'll be concerned about how to do it. It's probably true that there are some people who simply don't have the natural talent to do certain kinds of things; but I think in general it's less of an issue of talent, and more of an issue of the person simply giving up. So I guess to sum up what I'm saying here: don't think of learning as a gain of some discrete, tangible thing. Think of it as a long, gradual process - and don't feel like you need to hurry or stress out about it. Just do it; and eventually it'll make sense.

 

That's too bad

Hopefully that person kept a record of the files.

 

I have an idea. Since Gex is a side-scrolling platformer, would it be a good idea to get two PowerPC Mac OS 7.5.x games that are similar in design and compare the source codes to Gex's? Of course, I'd have to find a way to get the source codes for all 3 games...

 

This video of IDA in action looks promising-