[Python-Dev] Playstation 2 and GameCube ports

[Jason L. Asbahr]

Paul,

The PS2 Linux FAQ has a great answer to this:

What are the differences between the Linux (for PlayStation 2) development
environment and that used by professional game developers?

Professional game developers get access to a special version of the
PlayStation 2 hardware which contains more memory and extra debug
facilities. This hardware, known as the T10K, is a lot more expensive than a
commercial PlayStation 2 and is only available to licensed game developers.
If you are seriously interested in becoming a licensed game developer,
please see this link for North America and this link for Europe and
Australasia . In addition to the T10K, licensed game developers get
additional support which is part of the reason that the T10K is so much more
expensive than a PlayStation 2 console.

In terms of access to the PlayStation 2 hardware and libraries, Linux (for
PlayStation 2) offers an almost identical set of functionality to that
provided to licensed game developers. In fact the system manuals provided
with the Linux kit have identical content to 6 of the 7 system manuals
provided  to licensed developers. The missing information which is provided
to licensed developers and not to users of Linux (for PlayStation 2)
describes the hardware that controls the CD/DVD-ROM, SPU2 Audio chip and
other IO peripheral control hardware. This hardware functionality is still
available for use with the linux kit through a software interface called the
Runtime Environment.

The final major difference between the two is the operating system. A
licensed developer creates games for the PlayStation 2 which use a light
weight proprietary operating system kernel. This kernel offers much less
functionality than Linux, but has the advantage of offering slightly faster
access to the hardware.

In most cases, it is possible to get almost the same performance with Linux
(for PlayStation 2) and the professional game development tools.



-----Original Message-----
From: python-dev-admin@python.org [mailto:python-dev-admin@python.org]On
Behalf Of Paul Prescod
Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2002 8:15 PM
To: Jason L. Asbahr
Cc: python-dev@python.org
Subject: Re: [Python-Dev] Playstation 2 and GameCube ports


"Jason L. Asbahr" wrote:
>
>...
>
> However, the hobbiest PS2/Linux upgrade kit for the retail PS2 unit
> may be acquired for $200 and Python could be used on that system
> as well.  Info at http://playstation2-linux.com

What do you lose by going this route? Obviously if this was good enough
there would be no need for developer boxes nor (I'd guess) for a special
port of Python.

 Paul Prescod


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