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psx4droid v2 fiasco

Z

zodttd

Lurker
Hi everyone,

I'm really sorry for all this confusion and chaos over psx4droid versus psx4droidv2. Just to clear things up a bit and hopefully ease some minds...

psx4droid was released for $5.99. Perhaps a bit too early as fixing one bug caused another, making me play a game of developer whack-a-mole. v1.7.0 worked decently but compared to v1.1.0 it's hard to say if the mole-whacking was helping.

So while I was fixing up psx4roid I was working on a separate codebase for a psx emulator. Now dubbed v2, I wrote an entirely new ARM dynamic recompiler for it from the ground up, and a lot of it's internals are different than psx4droid.

Recently the v2 code started working out better, and looked promising. Issue is, since it's different code, the save states between these emulators are not the same and aren't compatible. If I put v2 code in psx4droid's place it would be a support nightmare when nobody can load their games.

Since Android Marketplace offers no way to give promo codes or discounts to existing customers, I figured I would place v2 up for $1.99. I couldn't make it free as a free app can't go paid. But for $1.99 I figured existing psx4droid customers interested could get this new emulator for cheap, and entice new customers as well.

Win - win, right? Nope. v2 had some major bugs, and I've been working non-stop with 48+ hours of no sleep consistently trying to fix them. I just released 1.0.3 of v2 which fixes the critical errors with save states. So I'm scrambling to make psx4droid v2 work well.

Not sure what I can do to give existing psx4droid users v2 though without charging a dollar or two.

It seems psx4droid v2 has more potential so I'm pretty torn. Ideas are welcome. I'm not looking to make a quick buck, as these $2 sales won't make me that much.

I have no intention on charging for updates for my work. Hopefully the above explains why I have a separate product now. If I could of made it a free update, it would of been. :P

Btw, a huge thanks to those who wrote me nice emails of support along the way. I get a lot of nasty emails and tweets, especially lately due to "paid upgrades". So I especially appreciate the kind emails. :)

I also love compatibility charts! Looking through them now. I added a FPS display to v2 to help. But note that since the vblank is on an interrupt if I mess with timings to try to squeeze performance, I could make it pump out 200 FPS but the emulation will be really slow as it would spend most the time rendering the same exact frame over and over and the game would creep along. So when code changes drastically the FPS might not be as accurate as it should be. Just a note. :)

Thanks for taking the time to read this. :D
ZodTTD
 
for all that extra work... i think you did the right thing. any way to make a program to convert saves over maybe? (doesn't really sound possible) i only just bought a droid x, and never got psx4android v1. might make the transition a little easier for those who do make it though... you might also want to advertise the introductory price a little more for those who do have to switch as well.

also, i remember you from the psp days hehe, thanks for your work.
 
Will there be a trial for v2? I was trying the other one out and with MGS the game kept crashing when the cinematic would start, i had to try and skip past it. I havent really played the game yet but I did manage to get it to skip past the cinematic.
 
Thanks frostyllama. Sadly there's no way to convert save states. People can save in-game to memory card and the in-game save will be shared with v2. From there a save state can be made.

CptGemini, a trial for v2 will come out eventually. Just want to get things stable.

I heard there's some serious slowdown in today's release of psx4droidv2 1.0.3 when using sound on a Droid X & 2. Gotta fix that next.
 
i actually bought v2 without a single complaint the other day but this thread is also appreciated. thanks for the explanation!
 
Just wanted to say that I also purchased this v2 yesterday. I am patiently awaiting gingerbread support as of now the games try to load but then kick you back out to the menu. On a related note, Snesoid, Gensoid (separate author but same issue) and some other emu's of this nature behave in the exact same way, so if there's any way I can help you troubleshoot any of those issues if need be I am willing.

The people complaining about the pricing choices should really get a life, the prices of both even if they were at $6 is less than a mcdonald's happy meal with tax. ffs, people are so cheap nowadays it sickens me :D

Keep up the good work! Also n64droid *wink* :D
 
Seems like it should be easy enough to implement inputting a key into a lite version of V2, simply supply existing members with their own key to open the full version. Several other devs have done similar to get around Market restrictions.
 
regarding the existing costumers, frost mobile had a similar issue with their game (amtalee)
what they did is , they asked their existing customers to buy the app and send them an email , they check if you did buy from the previous version or not , if you did then you get a refund
not sure how they did that , but I tried it and I did get a refund for the 2nd purchase
you may want to try something similar to that

on another note, so you mean that for the people who doesn't actually use save status and use the normal memory card save got no issues at all with switching the emulators, I never used save status as a main save , just use it when I really gotta go while in the middle of the game
 
For what is worth I will never understand people with expensive phones and data plans freaking crying over $2 bucks so they can play, mostly pirated ripped games I am sure, on their phones, I mean really...if you cannot support the person that is letting you play psx games on your phone for $2 bucks then you really need to get a new job or better yet, a life!
nuff said
 
For existing owners its not about paying the $2, its about having already paid for the app, and then finding an improved version released on the Market that also costs, rather than having the app they paid for being supported. Remember, we already paid to support the dev for this app.

If we take the dev at their word here - that this wasn't a way to make paying customers pay for their app again, and I have no reason to disbelieve the dev, then there are ways to provide this version free to people who already paid, as myself and others have pointed out.

EDIT: I see the dev has now made an alterative - now existing owners can choose to update to the latest version over their current version (if they wish, or they may keep the old one if it works well for them on the games they care about). Thanks Zodttd.
 
I havent played around with PSX4droid since it first came out months ago, how far has it come along from then. i remember having issues running FFIX and VII, since FF games are main main interest has any got those working yet?
 
I'm playing the waiting game. Watching comments... making sure I don't buy another dead app like V1 with no hope of it ever working.

As soon as someone says V2 can run Symphony of the night smoothly (with sound), I'll give it a go. But for now... seems like the most unreliable emulator I've ever used. And I've used a lot (including PS2... yikes).
 
Thanks for all your efforts. I saved my current Suikoden 2 to the mem card, updated, and loaded off the mem card without issue! Hopefully I can play fftactics again now too (couldn't get past intro battle scene with Gafgarion talking, after an update awhile back). Honestly, doesn't seem to really run any better with sound on, and I haven't noticed anything new but a "swap disc", but I'm not the most observant person and I understand there's a lot of backend changes. Happy so long as my game works ^_^
 
zodttd said:
Hi everyone,

I'm really sorry for all this confusion and chaos over psx4droid versus psx4droidv2. Just to clear things up a bit and hopefully ease some minds...

psx4droid was released for $5.99. Perhaps a bit too early as fixing one bug caused another, making me play a game of developer whack-a-mole. v1.7.0 worked decently but compared to v1.1.0 it's hard to say if the mole-whacking was helping.

So while I was fixing up psx4roid I was working on a separate codebase for a psx emulator. Now dubbed v2, I wrote an entirely new ARM dynamic recompiler for it from the ground up, and a lot of it's internals are different than psx4droid.

Recently the v2 code started working out better, and looked promising. Issue is, since it's different code, the save states between these emulators are not the same and aren't compatible. If I put v2 code in psx4droid's place it would be a support nightmare when nobody can load their games.

Since Android Marketplace offers no way to give promo codes or discounts to existing customers, I figured I would place v2 up for $1.99. I couldn't make it free as a free app can't go paid. But for $1.99 I figured existing psx4droid customers interested could get this new emulator for cheap, and entice new customers as well.

Win - win, right? Nope. v2 had some major bugs, and I've been working non-stop with 48+ hours of no sleep consistently trying to fix them. I just released 1.0.3 of v2 which fixes the critical errors with save states. So I'm scrambling to make psx4droid v2 work well.

Not sure what I can do to give existing psx4droid users v2 though without charging a dollar or two.

It seems psx4droid v2 has more potential so I'm pretty torn. Ideas are welcome. I'm not looking to make a quick buck, as these $2 sales won't make me that much.

I have no intention on charging for updates for my work. Hopefully the above explains why I have a separate product now. If I could of made it a free update, it would of been. :P

Btw, a huge thanks to those who wrote me nice emails of support along the way. I get a lot of nasty emails and tweets, especially lately due to "paid upgrades". So I especially appreciate the kind emails. :)

I also love compatibility charts! Looking through them now. I added a FPS display to v2 to help. But note that since the vblank is on an interrupt if I mess with timings to try to squeeze performance, I could make it pump out 200 FPS but the emulation will be really slow as it would spend most the time rendering the same exact frame over and over and the game would creep along. So when code changes drastically the FPS might not be as accurate as it should be. Just a note. :)

Thanks for taking the time to read this. :D
ZodTTD
Click to expand...

I just want to know the easiest way to get a game to work with this app. Can you explain to me. Its not like the other emulators
 
Zoddttd, I've noticed that some of the descriptions for v2 on certain Android app sites mention that Open GL support is coming. Is this true? If so, does it mean that we will technically have "hardware acceleration"?
 
I have yet to have a problem with version 1 other than the occasional slowdown. Keep up the good work!
 
To those who say that users should shut up and pay the "low price", it isn't about the price. Its about paying for v1, yet refused updates to a new version. Can you imagine buying Windows 7 now, and couple of months down the road, MS asking for $ for new updates?

Don't start claiming the v1 is a perfect working product, tons of complaints everywhere about lags and sound issues. Unless your product is working perfectly for years like Win XP, AND you inform customers way ahead of EOL with a new version coming up. These customers willingly pay for a soon to EOL product, and they know they will be left high and dry exactly when down the road.

I understand you've put in a lot of effort for your v2, but don't you think those who supported you during your v1 effort should continue to be appreciated? Is this a case where you've regretted on your product pricing and want to charge for updates now? Don't use the features of Android Market as an excuse, there're lots of alternatives and solutions posted by others above.
 
Dude, he already switched to a free upgrade like 2 days ago. Its no longer an issue. Stop beating a dead horse and check your Market app effort updates.
 
Hey Zodttd,

Nice to see you on the forums. Thanks for all the updates and work you have been putting in despite the criticisms. I know a lot of us appreciate it, especially me :)

Bought the v2 for $2 even before i knew what the changes where, just to support your developing!

I can start to understand why some are upset but then I get stuck on the fact that you made it possible to play PSX games on our Android Phones!! $6-$8 for psx4droid... comparing to some other games that are $5 each even if someone could only get 1-2 games working it (which plenty more are working than 2 games) it would be still worth $8 to play a FF game imo.

On my old winmo phone I "donated" over $15 to the playstation emulator FPSEce developer just on principle, i could game it up on a new level, It was completely free to download, yet 100's of users paid well over psx4droid cost for a PSX emulator without complaining. It took months before a guide was written to help newbies and was far more complicated, and years!!!! to get it to the compatibility and performance that it is at now!!!

Seeing you tied the guide in the emulator I will reformat it soon to be more mobile friendly.

on another note, you should look into making them completely free apps, and have to buy a license to unlock the extra features (kinda like launcher pro) This way you get around goggle robbing your sales too.

Thanks again for your developing on android!

Forgot to mention I have received dozens of emails from people needing help but mostly thanking me for psx4droid!!! lol
I let them know to email you the thanks, I only wrote the guide :) but wanted to let you know
 
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant
Bios:1001
Just wanted to let you know I think this emulator is amazing some of my older friends that loved old school RPGs are like wtf you can play ps1 games on your phone! I have had many hours of fun on this app when stuck in a line or graveyard shift at work so it has been well worth it.


So here comes my run down of v2

Games that don't work
Saga frontier: Game won't load anything but the sound
Persona 2: game freezes when you select game start
Xenogears: you fixed the walking through stairs problem but the game crashes upon combat.

Games that do work(all of them randomly force close)
Legend of Dragoon: works perfectly minus random closing
Breath of Fire 3: works well but sound clips quite playable (works perfect on v1)
Digimon world 3: works perfectly minus some slow down
Civilization 2: works perfect (thanks zod)
Parasite eve 1&2 : they work great (amazing job zod would much appreciate being able to move my buttons were i want to for these games but you definitely deserve praise)
Suikoden 1& 2: they work great a bit of clipping with sound but other than that amazing
Final Fantasy IX: only started it sound is flawless and opening scene works.

so in my opinion Zod you deserve 4 stars fix saga frontier, Xenogears, Persona 2, and random crashes and I will gladly give you 5. Well worth $6 if you think of it this way i have 9 games I can play on my phone if i were able to buy these games on the market chances are they would cost me $6 each or more so: 9X6= $54 Zod you have saved me $45!
 
Im on a samsung captivate and have been loving the psx emulator. I believe in supporting apps that work great and I use all the time. The app still has flaws but with continuous updates I'm sure it will become flawless. Except for 1.0.8 which had made my psx unplayable :( can't wait for an update to fix the tilt crashing issue and load crash.

I can admit I was mad at first thinking I had to rebuy the psx as I bought it a month or so before v2's release. If the issue was it had to be paid then a $1 upgrade for a totally rewrittem psx would of been fine if it has a promisimg future. Best thing I love about v2 is saving in game and swapping discs.

Thanks for a great app zod, can't wait for an update so I can start playing again.
 
Oh and a simple clarification to help people know they update to v2 for free is have the app title as psx4droid (v2 upgrade) instead of (old - use v2 now) which can be missleading right? Or can people stil buy the old psx?
 
glad to see someone supporting the community. Of course there will be problems along the way, but at least you can play your playstation games on your phone.
 
Does anyone know if there are different types of Bios that work better than others for the psx emulator? I'm currently using a Bio that is scph1001.bin and it seems like some games work okay but for the most part, it's very disappointing. I know it's not my phone. I have a Samsung Fascinate so I know it's powerful enough to run majority of the games. Anyone out there know where I can get a better Bios file that is better for his emulator?
 
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