For the last few days I’ve been focused on installing my PlayStation2 and Linux Development Kit. I purchased a used PS2 and a USB powered Analog TV input. The University supplied the DevKit, and after about 6 hours I was finally up and running. (Next time I have to do this, it should only take an hour.)
Here is a screenshot of my development environment. On the left is my PS2 window, on the right is my Putty telnet interface to Linux on the PS2.
I use Samba to access a shared drive via Windows, and I edit my C++ files with UltraEdit.
Since this is my first attempt at programming on the PS2, I’m working on a simple Dominoes game. I figure that it is something that is manageable, which means I’ll be able to complete the game in its entirety. I figure that a playable and polished game is better for my portfolio than something that might be more impressive in scale, but is thrown together and incomplete.
I also may port the code over to the PC, add some impressive graphical technique, and use that for my DirectX project. It doesn’t make much sense trying to kill myself creating two complete and independent games in the limited time I have available.
I also plan to focus some effort on the game AI. I saw a book in the library about how to use learning algorithms to teach the AI how to play simple games like Connect4 and TicTacToe. Dominoes may be a great candidate.
As far as actually programming the PS2, Dr. Henry Fortuna is my professor and he is the man when it comes to this stuff. Checkout his website for everything you ever wanted in understanding how to program on the PS2.
He was going to publish a book about programming on the PS2, but Sony Corporate got all wigged out, so he posted his book online instead.
One more thing on accessing your PS2 filesystem through Windows OS.
Some people have had difficulty getting the PS2 version of Samba to connect with the Vista OS. The fix is to ensure you use the full path to the Samba share and change the following registry setting from 3 to 1.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\LMCompatibilityLevel
I don’t really recommend this. I think a better solution is to just enable FTP and access your PS2 file system through FTP by adding a Vista Network Location.
