Possible Xbox 360 port

[Fred187]

I don't know how many other people here have them, but i recently got hold of an xbox 360. One of the most notable features is the "marketplace", where you can download games, demos, videos etc. It occured to me that we could maybe try to port some popular and quality freeware games to the 360, and maybe do some stuff to take advantage of it's power. I guess this game just came top of my list, so i decided to run this idea by everyone. Obviously you'd need Microsoft's backing, but would doing this be possible. And, more importantly, is jits up for even considering it?

I don't know much about game development, but's it's possible that these tools could be helpful for porting the game: http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/xna/

[Smokey]

no. no. no.

[TinMan]

A Mac OS X port of the game is definately more important than a console port. Its been said before, but I'll say it again for you, a person playing with a keyboard and mouse has way more control ability than someone with a joystick when it comes to FPS's with strafe jumping and such.

[Sprinkle]

No point in a Mac port imo since Mac moved to Intel-based cpus.

[TinMan]

Why not? Then I'd be able to play all my games natively in OS X. Being a hater of commercial OSes, I actually was astonished at how great Mac OS X is over Windows other than the iTunes and Quicktime bundle.

[KnacK]

I'm going to build one of THESE and play DP on it!!

[TinMan]

ROFL, MAME cabinets rock, I've seen a lot of homemade ones. Check this out: http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/
As long as the hardware can run it, it'd be pretty weird/cool to be playing with a joystick, trackball, and weird button alignment.

[Fred187]

A Mac OS X port of the game is definately more important than a console port. Its been said before, but I'll say it again for you, a person playing with a keyboard and mouse has way more control ability than someone with a joystick when it comes to FPS's with strafe jumping and such.

Don't know whether you play many console games, but thats a common misconception of PC-heavy gamers. They believe that RTS & FPS don't play well on consoles. Both of these theories have been disproven and, despite being somewhat difficult in some cases, console games of this kind are sometimes very fun to play (the RTS examples are somewhat limited).
A console port would be very good for expanding this games publicity; the xbox live marketplace is pretty big, and currently not populated by a large number of games, and not a single free game, so releasing this onto consoles would make quite a splash. The real factor is how easy it would be to do, and I'm guessing not very.

[Playah]

I´d like dpball2 to get more popular but tell me how you wanna strafe jump with a game pad and aim at the same time?!

[TinMan]

Fred187, can you strafe jump with your xbox controller? Maybe, maybe not, but the thing is that mostly people wouldn't be able to, thus the large disadvantage.

[hexhunter]

I dont like it when people say that xbox controllers cant play FPS's, they can play FPS's and they add a new dimension because of the analog controls, strafe jumping is easy, you us the left thumbstick and the A button at the same time, fire with the trigger turn with the right thumbstick(you only have to tap the A button and it's right next to the thumbstick)... I play FPS's on both PC and XBox/PS2, the differences are minimal and dont affect me atall, and there's no sniping in this game so thats no problem either...

I also think that the controller is more instinctive and easier for N00bs to use.

[Eiii]

They can play FPSs- just not our FPS. Also, you can't jump, move, and aim at the same time, making strafe jumping impossible.

[Fred187]

To all those who say strafe jumping on a console FPS is impossible; it isn't. It's just that little bit more difficult. A good trick is to hit A (usually jump button) with the edge of your palm, leaving both thumbs free for movement, and your trigger finger free for firing. Anyway, if it's really that much of a problem there could just be a control config in which one of the triggers is used as a jump button.

[Eiii]

Or you could just admit that this game does not work on a console.

[TinMan]

UT + Q3 for DreamCast = awesome games that aren't that difficult to strafe jump in with almost any controller layout, and as most of you may have noticed, the DC controller isn't too far off from the xbox controller that came after it. So if you can configure your controller layout for it, it is probably possible to strafe jump in xbox games (not sure what games have that, maybe Prey since its Doom 3 engine? I don't play much xbox) then you could definately strafe jump w/ the 360 controller. It might be harder to do though than on the DC.

Eiii: Although I've never played a Quake II based game on console, I've played both Quake I and Quake III on my DreamCast and strafe jumping is possible in both, much harder in Quake I though.

[Fred187]

A port to Xbox 360 released for free would sky rocket the games popularity, but would be a huge addition to jits' workload (or whoever else might attempt to port the game). The fact that some of you think that Strafe jumping on a conswole is impossible (which it isn't) isn't really the issue.

[XtremeBain]

Q: How exactly can I share my 360 game to other 360 users? Will my game only be available to people with the XNA “Creators Club” subscription? Will it be available to all 360 users that have an Xbox Live account?
A: There is currently no supported way to share binaries on the Xbox 360. Currently, there are four requirements that must be met in order to share a game targeting Xbox 360 which is developed with XNA Game Studio Express.

• The individual you are planning to share the game with must be logged in to Xbox Live and have an active subscription to the XNA Creators Club
• The receiving user must have downloaded the XNA Framework runtime environment for the Xbox 360
• The receiving user must have XNA Game Studio Express installed on their own development PC
• The game project, including all source and content assets, must be shared with the receiving user. The receiving user then compiles and deploys the game to their Xbox 360.

With these requirements I don't think that the popularity would sky rocket as it would restrict the port to mostly a developer audience rather than a player audience.  Plus we'll all have to pool some cash together to buy jitspoe an Xbox 360 (Whatever happenned to that Calrathan guy that programs Xbox 360 titles, anyway?).

EDIT: Found some more good Q/As in the FAQ

Q: Can I store my XNA Game Studio Express game on my memory card and share it with a friend?
A: No. Games developed using XNA Game Studio Express cannot be shared through a memory card at this time.

Q: Do I need a hard drive to run XNA-based games on my Xbox 360 console?
A: Yes. The XNA Framework runtime environment for Xbox 360 requires that a physical hard drive be present on your Xbox 360 retail console.

Q: Do we support launching of XNA Framework based games off CD/DVD on the Xbox 360
A: No.

Q: Do we have network or Xbox Live access on the Xbox 360 via the XNA Framework?
A: On Windows you can use System.Net or any other network library.  On Xbox 360 there is no network support.  Local multi-player support is supported on the Xbox 360 however.

So basically even if it did get ported from OpenGL to DirectX(this is definately the largest part of the port), the game source was released and you have met the 4 requirements listed at the top... you still wouldn't be able to play online and would be restricted to local multiplayer (I don't even know if this is includes system link or whatever).

[Eiii]

Wow, and I thought all that would be great.

[Fred187]

Yeah, that's why (if this was to happen) I thought it'd be a better idea to take this game straight to microsoft and ask for their support, then all the features could be added, and there could be a small marketplace fee, so jits would finally make some money from this game (and some of it would probably have to go to microsoft). All of this would be a real longshot, but, as I said, great for the game's publicity if it did pay off.