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unexpected error if I start my cartridge on a Colorado


ersthelfer

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Hello,

 

I have build a cartridge "Der verschwundene Geocacher" and it works well on a pda.

 

But if I download this cartridge for Garmin Colorado I get an unexpecteed error.

 

I found the problem.

 

If the cacher enter a zone I play a sound. In this case the pda works well, but the Colorado show an unexpected error.

 

If I remove the sound form the cartridge the Colorado works also without an error.

 

I think, if I download the cartridge for the Colorado all things, wich are not supported by the Colorado, was removed.

 

Is this right? Or must I program my cartridge so, that I must check by my self on wich device the cartridge is running and play a sound only if the device support it?

 

Thanks a lot and please sorry my bad english

 

Andreas

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If I remove the sound form the cartridge the Colorado works also without an error.

 

I think, if I download the cartridge for the Colorado all things, wich are not supported by the Colorado, was removed.

 

Is this right? Or must I program my cartridge so, that I must check by my self on wich device the cartridge is running and play a sound only if the device support it?

I believe that the process of downloading the cartridge removes media files in formats which are unsupported on the target device. For example, the Colorado supports only JPEG images. So if the cartridge contains images in BMP or GIF format (which are supported on the PPC), they will be removed when downloading the cartridge for the Colorado. This aim is to allow the author to build a cartridge that will work on any device while minimizing the size of the download -- and the space consumed on the device -- by removing things that a particular device cannot use.

 

However, the process does not modify your code. If you unconditionally reference a piece of media that does not exist, the results are unpredictable. In your case, it sounds like referencing a non-existent sound file on the Colorado causes a crash.

 

The Env.Device environment variable tells you the platform on which the cartridge is running. The only value I am certain of is "Windows PPC". See the tutorial cartridge sources for an example of how this is used. Unfortunately, this will require you to edit the cartridge source manually, using Notepad or something similar. It will probably also require you to use the "Author Functions" section of the file. Depending on your experience level, you may not be comfortable with this. But it is the only solution that I know of.

 

There are other incompatibilities among platforms. For example, the Colorado has no status line. Also, the process of obtaining input from the player is mechanically different on the Colorado. The latter doesn't affect the result. It's only an issue if you give the player detailed instructions for performing input. This is, in fact, the issue that the tutorial cartridge addresses by using Env.Device.

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You can use a beep on the Colorado -- it doesn't have a sound chip or speaker, only a beeper.

Hadn't really thought about that. If you provide a media resource (.fdl file) for the Colorado, you will not have to code around sound on the Colorado. The demo cartridge provides an example of this. See the zmediaALERT media object. A while back, Jeremy posted a link to a utility for generating sickly beep files of your own.

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A while back, Jeremy posted a link to a utility for generating sickly beep files of your own.

I remember beeps in video games. Then Intellivision came out with "Space Spartans", featuring what appeared to be synthesized voice, but was actually a recording dropped to a very low sampling rate (to accommodate an 8K cartridge). I wonder if you can order the beeps in such a way as it mimics speech?

 

I'm not going to look into something like this, though. Too far-fetched at the moment.

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