http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/ en-us Nucleus CMS v3.31 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/ http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=14

Kindest thanks to a generous lad this New Year, Chris from The Artful Gamer parted with a Nintendo DS Lite in an unmatched show of support for our efforts. What could come of this indeed. :)


]]> General http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=14 Wed, 9 Jan 2008 20:34:41 -0700 http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=13 Version v2.1.8 20071008

A small update, with much requested inverted run/walk and some bug fixes. :)

Now that I've scoured every nook and cranny of Britannia on the psp, think it'll soon be time to follow the unwitting human female Gwenno to the Serpent Isle?

Enjoy!]]> General http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=13 Tue, 9 Oct 2007 22:46:45 -0700 http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=12 You spoke, and phantomfighter listened. The few of you inspired enough to rummage through decades of belongings, hoping that cd rot had not yet claimed your beloved Ultima Collection discs, know the rare joy of Ultima VII on the Sony PSP. You also know the unjoy of trying to pick up a 3x3 pixel ring or trying to trigger a hidden lever two pixels wide. ;)

Priorities shifted a bit, and attention was turned to ensuring everyone was able to best enjoy the experience. The most immediate impediment to that complete experience was the analog control. A great deal of effort went into revamping the controls, and testing the new scheme. I played through the entire Forge of Virtue addon under the light of stars tonight, and it's that much better when the controls aren't an obstacle.

I think you'll much appreciate this build.

My kindest thanks to the two virtuous lads thus far who have contributed donations, and an apology, for having to suffer sponsored ads on the site. We are still quite a long way from being able to get phantomfighter a dedicated psp, something much deserved, but with luck, we'll get there.

Better things to come. What's this about a DS port? ;)

Show ya support! Let us know what ya think!

I am, and ever shall be, thy servant Arcadion.

ExultPSP History v2.1.7.0

ExultPSP Readme v2.1.7.0

ExultPSP Release v2.1.7.0

Note: Default .cfg included in package, be careful not to overwrite your own should it exist.

]]> Releases http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=12 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:57:02 -0700 http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=11
ExultPSP is *fully* playable, and your save data will work on updated versions. I played a stretch of 5 hours last night without memory running out. The reason this is a concern to begin with, is twofold.

A) PSP has 32 megs of memory, of which the OS uses 8 megs, but you can temporarily sieze 4 megs, which we do for exultPSP (hence the suspend warning, because if you suspend, the OS takes that 4 megs back and wipes it out clean). So we're looking at 28 useable in total, but this doesnt account for Exult's own footprint, which is about 3 megs, not including the memory it requires for it's variables and such leaving us with maybe ~20 to play with. By the time you start the game, we're probably looking at over 9 megs consumed (not including exults own footprint) after the intial graphics, sounds, maps are loaded, that figure of ~20 is roughly halved.

B) Exult has exorbitant memory usage, something not appreciable until you begin looking under the hood. About cache loading throughout gameplay, memory stick read write time can be dreadfully slow. This is why the initial boot takes quite a deal of time. If you happen to be using a bootleg memory stick or a slow sony brand, expect a deficient experience. Exult was programmed with the comfort of hard drive access speed in mind, so certainly there was little effort in making it efficient. By the time Exult starts, it has already actively opened ~18-20 files. This is something the PSP *cannot* even do from memstick (extremely limited number of file handles) which makes Exult on PSP *impossible*, without the filesystem manager PF put in place.

So really, it's no suprise there hasnt been an Exult port since the inception of PSP homebrew.

Sleep mode. We need all the memory we can get, which is why you don't currently have the luxury of sleep mode. It's a fair trade. This will probably be fixed in a future release, if feasible, but because you can save anywhere and exit, it's not high priority.

Analog control will be improved, it isn't linear, but indeed analog. The next release will likely feature an improvement. :)

I hope this spare insight provides a better means to appreciate the massive effort involved in getting Exult running as well as it does even in the first release, on your PSPs. And I hope, those of you who truly enjoy the experience will consider donating a bit so Phantom Fighter, who is poor as Paws :) , can get his own PSP.

Until next time, listen to thine inner voice,
chemical]]> General http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=11 Mon, 13 Aug 2007 21:01:02 -0700 http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=10
Introducing a port of Exult to the Playstation Portable platform, a framework that allows you to play Ultima VII: The Black Gate / Forge of Virtue as well as Serpent Isle / The Silver Seed.

It took a bit of wrangling and there were bumps along the way, but here it is, playable. We also made some cosmetic updates; I pixeled a few bits of custom graphics for an interface and illustrated a background for the PSP EBOOT and Chemical crafted a swank new logo for us and put together our online home to make the experience that much more enjoyable for you folks out there. ExultPSP isn't perfect, however. It wasn't written with the PSP in mind, so there is one remaining issue, namely memory consumption; I ironed out as many problems as I could, but Exult has quite the appetite for memory which slowly increases and increases as you play. Eventually, the PSP will be able to provide no more, resulting in a crash (it will however let you know that it has run out of memory). So you'll have to save your game occasionally. Despite this, you should be able to get decent stretches of gameplay before this happens. Another issue that snuck up on me is that Serpent Isle isn't playable in this public release. Rest assured this will be remedied in the next release. One final important note, do not suspend your PSP while ExultPSP is playing. I haven't yet accounted for sleep mode, and doing so will wipe out critical memory - I don't want to guess what kind of catastrophe can ensue because of it. Just quit ExultPSP before you shut off or suspend. Make sure you read the included readme text for all the info you need to get this up and running on your Playstation Portable!

And with that, I hope you Ultima fans of old and those new to this game enjoy this offering, as much as we had making it happen. My thanks to Chemical and the testers for their encouragement and support, as well as the Exult Team who deserve the reverence. Ultima VII truly is a remarkable game that has stood the test of time. Enjoy the Adventure that awaits!]]> Releases http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=10 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 06:54:39 -0700 http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=9
Todd Howard, Executive Producer, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion


My kindest thanks to Phantom Fighter for his exhaustive efforts in porting Exult to the PSP, an undertaking I've been following and supporting for months now.

It's quite a thrill to consider that beyond long time fans being able to revisit these classic games on the go, on a modestly priced platform, that a whole new audience, with want of great RPG experiences, will discover Ultima 7 for the first time.

Whether you're revisiting, or discovering, please share your experience on the site.

Cheers,
Chemical]]> General http://www.thefoodsucks.com/chuckles/index.php?itemid=9 Sat, 11 Aug 2007 01:38:10 -0700