I am a small independent game developer who is trying to make my games available to as many platforms as possible, and think Morph OS is quite interesting. The only problem is I have no way of running Morph OS -- PowerPC hardware is quite hard to come by in any form, except game consoles. Besides, I'm not going to go out and get hardware for all the potential platforms I want to -attempt- to support. Thus, virtual machines spring to mind. As I understand it, someone (BigFoot?) was successful in running Morph OS under Qemu -- is it possible to get instructions on how to replicate this? Is it possible to run it on -any- of either the Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii or Microsoft XBox 360 consoles? If so, how would I do so?

MorphOS yet supports the following hardware *ONLY*:
- Pegasos 1 & 2
- Efika 5200B
- Mac mini G4
- eMac G4 1.25 GHz

Support for QEmu is not official, you may get more information about that issue on #morphos on freenode.net. But AFAIK there is no way other than to have one of th esupported hardwares around.

Next supported harware is PowerMac G4 MDD and FW800. MAybe there will support for some Powerbooks G4 added. But that's probably the hardware for the next 18 months.
After that something else must happen, but that's bridges to cross when coming to them.

Bummer.

eMacs are easy to come by, some in USA for less than $40.

> PowerPC hardware is quite hard to come by in any form, except game consoles.

Huh? I don't know the exact situation in Denmark but eBay Germany alone currently lists 35 Mac mini G4 (the cheapest working one of the last two weeks sold for 123 EUR incl. shipping) and 4 eMac 1.25 GHz (the cheapest working one of the last two weeks sold for 98 EUR incl. shipping). So I don't think your statement holds true.

Generally I don't consider ebay as a viable option since too few send outside their own country (or at least don't advertise that they will and the few that I have asked have all replied negatively). Besides, my german is a bit rusty. The only really viable equivalent to ebay I do have, have no apple hardware prior to dropping PPC, or they cost too much (for my budget at least).

[ Edited by Clearer on 2010/6/16 3:19 ]

Ebay viable! Check Nasdaq :)

Viable for buying ppc hardware if you live in Denmark...

> Generally I don't consider ebay as a viable option since too few send outside
> their own country (or at least don't advertise that they will and the few that
> I have asked have all replied negatively). Besides, my german is a bit rusty

eBay (and especially eBay Germany because I'm German) was just mentioned as an example for a source of 2nd hand Macs suited for MorphOS. I was rather sure it would be possible to get such Macs in Denmark from a Danish source and for similar price somehow.

> The only really viable equivalent to ebay I do have, have no apple hardware prior
> to dropping PPC, or they cost too much (for my budget at least).

That's too bad. What's your budget on this btw?

Depends what the wife allows me About EUR300 for hardware for stuff I'm not sure about supporting. The -only- machine, on the auction site I'm sure I can get stuff home from, is a PowerBook for EUR320, and it still has about a week to go on the auction. I could also just 'buy it now' for ~EUR1000...

[ Edited by Clearer on 2010/6/16 4:31 ]

btw welcome; assuming you're new to morphos forum. I sincerely hope you find a solution. It is important to have continued support for this os.

thank you and yes, I am new. I have been looking from the side a bit, from when I was experimenting with operating systems (GNU/Linux, various BSDs, Plan 9, Solaris...), but this is the first real attempt at getting morphos running.

Maybe I should try getting hold of some old friends in Germany and see if they can get me a mac mini.

@Clearer

Currently, two useable eMacs are listed at eBay Germany - although just shipping to Germany is specified, maybe it's worth asking them as well, since I don't see any problem in DE->DK shipping except the costs which are paid by the buyer anyway:

http://tinyurl.com/267h3nq
http://tinyurl.com/25kkjuk

As the more expensive option, even all three Mac mini G4 ending next include EU- or worldwide shipping:

http://tinyurl.com/2bgpv9m
http://tinyurl.com/33xyen8
http://tinyurl.com/39wahmn

@Clearer

What game are you working on? We might get you an eMac.

:)

> Currently, two useable eMacs are listed at eBay Germany [...]
> http://tinyurl.com/267h3nq
> http://tinyurl.com/25kkjuk

Of the four I mentioned only one is said to be broken. So it seems you missed one working eMac 1.25 GHz:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290445611721

Edit: Now I see that it's only for pickup. So I guess you're right that it's really just two currently.

[ Edited by Andreas_Wolf on 2010/6/16 10:40 ]

My main focus right now is a space colonization game and I have plans for an adventure game inspired by the song Every day is exactly the same by Nine Inch Nails and a post-apocalyptic civilization game (filled with mutants and power armours).

These are going to be commercial games, though with the four freedoms included.

Quote:

Keep in mind that Powerbook support is not there yet. To be precise: not even confirmed yet. But shown several times.
Getting a Pb now to run MorphOS means waiting. And unfortunately chances actually are that this wait *can* turn out into a "Waiting for Godot".

Since my office is quite cramped already (having several monitors, computers and large/old laser printers along with books en masse) and I have no need for yet another laptop, I think a mac mini is the way to go. The PowerBook example was just to point out just how hard it is to get something that will run morphos. The German ebay auctions might be the better option.

@clearer,

Well, if you just need to compile your games to Morphos, you can just ask to someone to do the job for you.
If it's SDL games, properly coded, I can do this for you for free.
There are few other developers that could probably do it for you.

SixK

Quote:

I was hesitant at first but took the plunge and purchased 2.5 for my Mac Mini. Been enjoying it so far. :)

Thanks, but if I'm going to release it for pay, I want to make sure that it works or at least has the same bugs everywhere. I'll probably get a Mac Mini myself -- regarding which toolkit to use, I'm not sure. SDL is nice in a lot of ways, but there are things that bug me, like not supporting having multiple windows open at once (it's rumoured to be in 1.3, but that's not released yet). I have already reinvented all the toolkitting I need for X11, Windows, Haiku and Mac OS X and wouldn't mind doing it for Morph OS.

Anyways, I think this thread has gone a bit OT -- should we call it done?

@Clearer, SDL is the best way to create games portable to almost all plateforms.
Note that pure openGL games are quite portable too.
If you have your own toolkit, have a look at powerSDL sources on aminet.net, you should find exemple on how doing graphical stuff on morphos/amiga.
On aminet you should find loads of various amiga/morphos specific sources.
Another good start is to find RKM exemples (I think it's on aminet.net too)

Debugging on amiga/morphos need a bit of practice, but it's not that difficult with a good programming knowledge.
You must take into account that Morphos don't have protected memory stuff, that means at the first hit/bug, you can crash the system :)
It's much more fun than Windows, linux or Mac OsX isn't it !? ;)

SixK

[ Edited by SixK on 2010/6/16 23:10 ]

Pure OpenGL? Then how would you get a window to draw to? (hint: SDL)
No protected memory sure sounds fun -- bugs should be eliminated a lot faster (that or it dies).

@clearer

An adventure game based on NiN's "Every Day is Exactly the Same" sounds really cool, I'm a fan of NiN and With Teeth was a good album. Another game you should consider remaking : Blood I can say, get teh shareware version and dosbox, I can help with getting teh ful version :)

I loved blood not going to do a remake. Technically not possible since I have not had anything to do with the game besides playing it. A clone is not going to happen either.