Compiling Catapult for MacOS

Supporter (6)

26-03-2021, 00:03

Hi there, I'm setting up OpenMSX for the first time, and am trying to compile catapult. The docs say that it did not work when it was last tested on Mac OS, but that "It may work just fine with 2.8 or 3.0 [of wxWidgets on Mac], we don't know". I'm not sure if the docs are up to date, but has anyone tried compiling catapult on Mac recently? There are a lot of steps to go through just to get it running, so I'm not keen on embarking on the journey if it won't work in the end anyway! Thanks

By santiontanon

Paragon (1771)

26-03-2021, 00:30

I remember I failed to compile a few years ago, but I haven't tried recently. Do you want Catapult specifically? or just a launcher in general? If you just want a launcher for Mac OS, I use "NekoLauncher", which works pretty well for me

By gdx

Enlighted (6120)

26-03-2021, 02:18

NekoLauncher has more and more limitations with new versions of OpenMSX.

By advert665

Supporter (6)

26-03-2021, 02:37

Thanks, I'm sure that will be fine. I'm totally new so I'm only really following instructions to launch a homebrew game with a couple of extensions. I can't find any good links for that program though, there are just a few to some dodgy looking rom websites. Is there a proper website for it? The link someone else posted on this forum is now broken.

By advert665

Supporter (6)

26-03-2021, 03:32

Actually, I found the link on the 'Third Party' section of the main page. It is now working - so thank you! -though I've discovered another issue. The game I am loading requires me to use the slot expander for an audio and graphics card, but when I do so it doesn't let me add any more extensions to those slots from a drop down, it just asks for roms, but the roms in the system roms expansion folder don't seem to directly correspond to the list of expansions.

Will just adding the audio card extension manually using the OpenMSX menu once the system has been launched have the same effect? I did try using the menu to add extensions and launch the game initially, but it wouldn't work for some reason, I just got a black screen.

By sdsnatcher73

Prophet (3852)

26-03-2021, 06:30

What is the gane and what extensions does it need? I can try to figure out a setup that works.

By Manuel

Ascended (19330)

26-03-2021, 08:49

Good questions.

I'm also interested to know what is not sufficient in the built-in OSD menu for you. Especially in the latest development version, it allows you to easily put anything in any available slot exactly how you want it.

By gdx

Enlighted (6120)

26-03-2021, 08:59

Nekocanmac seems no more active at all since 2019-03 and links are broken.

https://twitter.com/Nekocanmac

https://nekocanmac.wordpress.com/tag/nekolauncher-openmsx/

By advert665

Supporter (6)

26-03-2021, 14:50

Thanks for the replies. I decided it would be easier to write a simple bash script to set everything up in one go, so I can just launch directly into the game (Life on Earth in this case) without having to select anything. I'll post it here in case it can help anyone else:

#!/bin/bash
open -a /Applications/OpenMSX.app --args /PATHTOROM/ROMNAME.rom -machine Panasonic_FS-A1GT -ext moonsound -ext video9000

If you change the permissions to executable, you can just click on the script to launch the game.

Interestingly, I realised that when I selected the extensions via the OpenMSX GUI, it did in fact work, but only if I went to full screen after launching it. If I then exited full screen the picture remained and I could continue as normal. If I didn't go to full screen, it was just black.

By Manuel

Ascended (19330)

26-03-2021, 15:47

The thing with a gfx9000 is that it has its own video output. There is/was a bug with video output settings changing when going full screen. Try it with the latest development build.

By Grauw

Ascended (10720)

26-03-2021, 16:30

Also, use the video9000 extension instead of the gfx9000 extension. If Life on Earth was coded with video9000 support (I think it was), then the video source will switch to the v9990 automatically.