x86 Mac port?

GreenDot · Post by **GreenDot** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:52 pm

Would there now be a port of zSNES for Mac OS X since they switched to an x86 arch?

Post by **Nach** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 3:36 pm

Are you offering to send me an x86 Mac?

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:00 pm

In short, it may now be possible to run ZSNES code on the new x86 Macs.

It's doubtful that you could simply download and run the current version of ZSNES on an x86 Mac right now.

There's a lot of possibilities now that Macs will be using x86 processors. Wait around for a while, they might come out with some simple Wine-like programs for the new x86 Macs.

EDIT: Developers cannot make ZSNES ports to different platforms unless they have access to that platform for testing.

GreenDot · Post by **GreenDot** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:08 pm

Jipcy wrote:In short, it may now be possible to run ZSNES code on the new x86 Macs.

It's doubtful that you could simply download and run the current version of ZSNES on an x86 Mac right now.

There's a lot of possibilities now that Macs will be using x86 processors. Wait around for a while, they might come out with some simple Wine-like programs for the new x86 Macs.

EDIT: Developers cannot make ZSNES ports to different platforms unless they have access to that platform for testing.

first off to the first reply: just find someone willing to port it that has an intel mac...easier said than done i know

now for the quote there: why worry about wine when it could be compiled? there isn't any difference between win and lin versions being compiled. Also, I understand that if the developers don't have a system they can't test it out. My question wasn't about that, it was more about saying if the option had been looked at, and if so, when.

Also, I get a feeling from this forum that people here are anti-mac. I'm not trying to start anything here, but I'm sure hardly anyone here uses the new Mac stuff (OS X). I just think it's a wonderful platform, and much better for developers than Windows espically. Apple totally supports open source technology, and it's seen with Konqueror and FreeBSD. Am I right in this assumption?

funkyass · Post by **funkyass** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 5:41 pm

The option will be looked at when a dev gets a x86 mac, no sooner.

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:11 pm

GreenDot wrote:why worry about wine when it could be compiled?

I was really just saying that you may sooner be able to run ZSNES on an x86 Mac through a Wine-like program than with a natively compiled program.

GreenDot wrote:there isn't any difference between win and lin versions being compiled.

What do you mean by that? There are differences between the Win, DOS, and SDL ports of ZSNES. For example, they all three use different APIs to render the video. Windows uses DirectX and the SDL port uses SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer). I'm unsure what the DOS port does in this respect.

The point is, it's a greater than trivial task to get ZSNES working natively on a new platform (x86 Mac).

GreenDot wrote:Also, I understand that if the developers don't have a system they can't test it out. My question wasn't about that, it was more about saying if the option had been looked at, and if so, when.

I'm sure the developers are interested in getting ZSNES to run on an x86 Mac. However, that interest is tempered by the amount of time they have to devote to porting it, and the difficulty involved in it.

GreenDot wrote:Also, I get a feeling from this forum that people here are anti-mac.

I'm not sure where you get that feeling. I think that fewer people on this forum use Macs than they do Windows and *nix platforms. I don't think there's any underlying bias against Macs, though.

By the way, Richard Bannister maintains Mac ports for a large number of emulators (http://www.bannister.org/software/emu.htm). bsnes is a highly accurate SNES emulator, with a Mac port (http://www.bannister.org/software/bsnes.htm). Unfortunately, it has next-to-no "features" like ZSNES has.

You might try to contact Richard and see if he's interested in working on porting ZSNES to the Mac.

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:14 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't SDL be used on Windows, Macintosh, Linux, BSD, etc ?

creaothceann · Post by **creaothceann** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:41 pm

Jipcy wrote:For example, they all three use different APIs to render the video. Windows uses DirectX and the SDL port uses SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer). I'm unsure what the DOS port does in this respect.

DOS programs generally prepare the hardware via BIOS calls / drivers or direct port accesses. The video hardware is then accessed directly / via VESA driver. Not very portable.

[/Offtopic]

Lord Alpha · Post by **Lord Alpha** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:45 pm

Does the fact that Mac OS X is now based on BSD matter? When I used FBSD I think it had a (outdated) version of ZSNES in the ports tree....

If not, could someone tell me why? I'm just curious

Thristian · Post by **Thristian** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:22 am

Surprisingly enough, there was recently a discussion with Richard Bannister about ZSNES for Intel Macs over at the Emuscene forums ("The Home of Emulation on the Macintosh").

Firstly, OS X has quite a nice SDL port, so the SDL version of ZSNES shouldn't prevent much of an issue. The biggest problem is likely to be NASM: ZSNES loves NASM, NASM hates OS X.

The last post in that thread (from Lamer0 who's been porting Mupen64 and FCEUltra to OS X) also suggests that Apple's done something bizzare with register allocations that asm written for other OSs will likely break. Personally, I find it hard to believe Apple would do something so bone-headed, but hey, it just might be.

creaothceann · Post by **creaothceann** » Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:36 pm

Lamer0 wrote:Apple has 'protected registers.' For example, you can not allocate any data to the base register(BX) or you will have a memory segfault on OSX

Post by **pagefault** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 1:15 am

The fastest way you can get ZSNES working on a x86 mac:

1) You buy us the hardware so we can develop on it
2) You give us access to a machine via ssh and vnc.
3) You port it yourself!

Yes I am aware I can run it on a non mac but I do not have the CPU required to run it (SSE2 needed). So until one of the developers gets a system that can run MacOS X then you will be waiting until someone can port it.

FYI option 1 was used by someone to port ZSNES to an unnamed console which should be out soon.

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 1:47 am

pagefault wrote:FYI option 1 was used by someone to port ZSNES to an unnamed console which should be out soon.

Did Nintendo come to you to port ZSNES to the Revolution?

Post by **pagefault** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:54 am

Actually I was referring the the port coming out, not the console. I wasn't clear enough in what I wrote.

byuu · Post by **byuu** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:38 am

Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder what other console out there ZSNES can be assembled on... is it the PSP? :P

"It is a mystery to all..."

(feel free to delete this if you feel that makes the answer anymore obvious than it already was)

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 7:43 am

pagefault wrote:Actually I was referring the the port coming out, not the console. I wasn't clear enough in what I wrote.

it was that dude who always bugged us about his xbox and wanted to sell it to PF amirte

eh eh

amirite ?!

zones · Post by **zones** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 3:39 am

I heard Darwine now can run on intel Mac...
http://darwine.opendarwin.org/
http://pcweb.mycom.co.jp/column/osx/165/

Post by **pagefault** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 3:45 am

Yeah that would be a good point. Also we have fixed an input problem with wine so it should be pretty much 100% playable now under WINE.

Post by **Nach** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:01 pm

As long as you don't alt+tab or whatever out of the Window, it'll play fine.

I'm also told this may help for getting gamepads working, but I never tested it yet:

Code: Select all

[AppDefaults\\zsnesw.exe\\x11drv]
"DXGrab" = "Y"

Add that to ~/.wine/config

DAEGU · Post by **DAEGU** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 10:03 pm

I'm honestly willing to donate a lot of money if the people at Zsnes are willing to develop a mac OS X version of Zsnes.

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:09 pm

I think a better course of action would be to "donate" an x86 Mac to one of the developers.

Then they can start to work on a port.

DAEGU · Post by **DAEGU** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:49 pm

Meh, I'm not too educated on the whole x86 thing, I'm just willing to donate if there's a macintosh version virtually identical to the microsoft version.

DAEGU · Post by **DAEGU** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 5:27 pm

weird. tar.gz compression folders are just a bunch of files.. how does one work with that?

doktor_kris · Post by **doktor_kris** » Sat Feb 25, 2006 8:17 pm

DAEGU wrote:Meh, I'm not too educated on the whole x86 thing, I'm just willing to donate if there's a macintosh version virtually identical to the microsoft version.

It´ll prolly be pretty much identical when that time comes, I´m sure.
Do you have an x86-based Mac already or a good "old" PPC one?

I´ve not really checked upon anything about that ZSnes asm->C
project as of yet, but wouldn´t it be easier (and better for the majority
of the Mac-community) to just hold back on an eventual port and wait
for a completion of the C-version first?

Until something like that happens, zones' magnificent port of Snes9X
will suffice :)

DAEGU wrote:weird. tar.gz compression folders are just a bunch of files.. how does one work with that?

Uncompressing an archive?!

tar -xzvf <archive>.tar.gz

..or pass it -xjvf for uncompressing tar.bz2 archives.

DAEGU · Post by **DAEGU** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:48 am

I just have a G5 iMac - version 2.

I hate snes9x, it's just not the same, haha.

And yeah- I uncompressed the archive, and i just get a folder filled with files and other folders, what do i do with them?

ZSNES board

x86 Mac port?

x86 Mac port?

Zsnes' Compatiability w/ Mac OSX