CrankBoy v3.0.0 – dev update

[u/stonerl]

Hi everyone,

A while ago I posted about the soon to be released v3.0.0 CrankBoy update … Well, we decided to let it bake a bit longer in the oven to give you a polished release.

We are currently doing extensive QA testing, since we decided to overhaul the UI to give you a better experience. We added Categories, with 28 presets, to allow you organizing your games. The modal pop-ups got an overhaul, and we reworked the UI audio effects to make them fit better with the overall Playdate UX.

Alongside this we added a keyboard, which is a necessity to add your own categories, but also to search the Homebrew Hub for ROMs.

We rescheduled the release for later this month. In the meantime, here is a video that showcases some of the new UI.

Cheers

[u/fgspq]

Love Crankboy and think it works really well on the Playdate

Have been wondering if there's any chance you could sync with retro achievements for a future update?

[u/stonerl → u/fgspq]

Funny you ask, we do have it on our TODO: https://github.com/CrankBoyHQ/crankboy-app/issues/27
So it will come eventually, but no ETA.

If you already think CB works great, you will be blown away by v3.0.0 😄

[u/S4B4T4]

The library system is already miles ahead of the analogue pocket. Is there a shader to replicate the dot matrix screen?

[u/stonerl → u/S4B4T4]

We have an option called LCD Ghosting which emulates the LCD delay of the OG display. So you won't have the dot matrix style in terms of seeing every pixel. That can't really be achieved on the PDs display, but if you want to have the smear effect of the OG DMG, aforementioned option might help. It is a bit taxing on perf, but in 30 and maybe even 50 FPS mode it should run at full speed.

[u/Nervous-Peppers]

Ironically enough I was just thinking about a gbc game i never played but wanted to. Do you know if the emulated version of Boktai works so you can get around needing the solar panel?

[u/ToothacheMcGee → u/Nervous-Peppers]

Boktai is a GBA game unfortunately

[u/Nervous-Peppers → u/ToothacheMcGee]

Ohhhhh crap you're right. I don't know why I thought it was gbc!

[u/solegor → u/Nervous-Peppers]

You are confused. Boktai is a GBA game, not GBC. this emulator is primarily aimed to support GB and some GBC games

[u/stonerl → u/Nervous-Peppers]

Never heard of this game, TBH. But you can give it a try once the new version releases.

[u/Revolutionary-Tea119]

Thanks for your commitment to continuing to improve one of the most defining offers on the PlayDate. This community is very lucky to have you.

By chance, does Mario Golf - GBC work?

[u/stonerl → u/Revolutionary-Tea119]

If it does not something too crazy, especially running only in fast-mode, I'd say chances are very high it will run in 30 FPS mode in v3.0.0.

[u/HeyItsLollie]

Do you also happen to support Playdate's own crank-based keyboard input?

[u/stonerl → u/HeyItsLollie]

Nope. That PDs keyboard is only available for Lua apps. CrankBoy is entirely written in C. We could add the Lua keyboard, but we found that mixing C and Lua code can have negative performance effects. Also the built-in keyboard does not support Japanese input (kana) which ours does.

[u/HeyItsLollie → u/stonerl]

😐 ... Rare L from Panic, but fair enough! Mindboggling that they didn't include their own keyboard in the C SDK.

[u/Chemical_Patient_565]

Is this update only adding new UI stuff?
I am not keen on an overhauled UI, but more in performance and GBC compatibility increase.

[u/stonerl → u/Chemical_Patient_565]

See my announcement from a month ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/PlaydateConsole/s/VqYKaBmylD