Starcraft on the PS3 Phat running Windows 95 with Qemu & Yellow Dog Linux guide in discription

[][] STARCRAFT ON PS3 HOW-TO BELOW [][]
Want to run windows apps on your ps3? Windows runs on about 90% of home computers, consequently most software and games are designed for that OS. Wine is a good option for running windows apps in linux. However it requires a x86 CPU and thus will not run on the PPC processor found in the ps3. So how do you run windows apps on the ps3? Qemu is how. Qemu runs windows in virtualization. Not the most efficient way to run win apps but it works. In this video I use Qemu to emulate the relatively resource light Windows 95 in yellow dog linux on the ps3. I also use the fscaler tool to utilize the cells spe's and enlarge the image with out taking a performance hit. As you can see the classic starcraft is quite playable all from the comfort of my living room. Want to put linux on your ps3? Check out my guide.
Playstation 3 Yellow Dog Linux 6.x Guide
www.fileden.com...
For more help check out the yellowdog-boards
yellowdog-board...
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STARCRAFT ON THE PS3 HOW-TO
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Thanks to rask and billb
I will presume you already have YDL installed with a working internet connection. If you do not have either or both see my guide above. You will need windows 95 install CD for the method described below. You can use newer versions of windows but it will be detrimental to performance. For installing windows 98SE or better see my guide above.
1st in the terminal type:
su
yourpassword
yum install qemu
exit
Then create an Hard drive image by typing the following.
qemu-img create -f qcow c.hd 1200M
Download this boot disk and copy to your home folder
tinyurl.com/p8dzr
Now type the following:
qemu -hda c.hd -cdrom /home/yourusername/fdbasecd.iso -boot d
Freedos will now open in the options provided press 1 to boot the cd. Then select "Install to harddisk using FreeDOS SETUP". Next chose to prepare the harddisk for FreeDos by running XFDisk. In FDisk press enter then select new Partition and press enter until you return to the main options. Press enter once again select change partition type and make it FAT16 INT13X. Press F3 and select Yes to save partition table. The system will reboot. Once rebooted press 1 to boot the cd and chose option 1 again but this time select option 5 Run Freedos from CDROM (return to command prompt). Now type the following;
FORMAT C: /S
and then type YES
Then give the drive a name hit enter and shutdown qemu. Next download the appropriate boot disk for your version of windows from the page below and put it in your home folder.
tinyurl.com/cc2vtc
Put your windows 95 install cd in the disk drive and type in the terminal;
qemu -soundhw sb16 -fda /home/yourusername/Windows95x.img -hda c.hd -cdrom /dev/scd0 -boot a
*Attention: replace the x with the boot image version you downloaded (a or b).
In the command prompt type:
R:
then
setup
now install windows 95 but when it asks to reboot close qemu.
Now put the starcraft disk in the diskdrive
In the terminal type;
qemu -soundhw sb16 -hda c.hd -cdrom /dev/scd0 -boot c -m 64
Congrats you are using windows 95 on the ps3 now just install starcraft.
NOTE: expect performance akin to a ~100Mhz Pentium.

Additional Info as seen in the video:
TV: Samsung LN-S4041D
Playstation 3 SKU: CECHB01
Harddrive: 60GB 2.5" SATA
Generic USB Keyboard and Mouse
DualShock3
OtherOS: Yellow Dog Linux 6.0
Window Manager: Fluxbox
Software shown:
Qemu 0.8.2-4
Windows 95 4.00.950.B
fscaler 0.4
Starcraft 1.0

[@ZombiePhoenix]

10 years later and this is still amazing

[@jackbollingmoore7554]

Happy 20th Anniversary of StarCraft 1998-2018

[@anirex911]

that start up sound of windows 95 is the best part of the video. brought back sooooo many old memories.. way to go!

[@efaustus9]

Its like a desktop computer but its not a windows computer. most windows software will not work. this method of using win apps on the ps3 has a large performance hit. see my other videos to see what you can do with linux on the ps3.

[@efaustus9]

as I mention in the description. winre requires an x86 processor the ps3 has a PPC processor. so wine will not work.

[@efaustus9]

If you are regarding qemu then compiling is only related to the distro. You need to download the ppc version of qemu. You can not compile the x86 version to work with ppc. Fortunately the ppc version can be found in the yum repos and works on ydl and fedora so no compiling is necessary.

[@Fallengolem]

Thank you for the guide. I am running YDL 6.0 and qemu loaded it right up right after i put the disk in the drive.

[@efaustus9]

I am using windows in the video. windows also requires an x86 cpu thus you need to emulate a whole x86 based computer for windows to run on a ps3. This is done on top of linux and is highly detrimental to performance. so only old mid 90's non 3d windows games will work.

[@polyteredfasha]

Thanks for confirming this for me. I have been wanting to try on my PS3, but I am to lazy.

[@efaustus9]

depends on what you are after. If its modern PC gaming then no. If its having a multitude of functions available from one back box beneath the set then yes.

[@efaustus9]

As you can see above it can. I have played it about 6 levels in and it is quite playable. Not as smooth as a PC but not bad for a game console emulating a computer on top of a linux install.

[@efaustus9]

I am a few levels in, so far so good. I'll keep you posted regarding the frame rates in the later levels.

[@GamerMGO]

@efaustus9 very nice considering i over estimated the processing power of the ps3 by about 800 mhtz, and the fact that hyper advisor cuts the power of those in half when not running the real ps3 software altho the cells each have 254kb of ram for quick access and cacheing

[@efaustus9]

@GamerMGO close, cpu performance is around a 90mhz Intel cpu.

[@efaustus9]

you'll have to take my word for it. I dont have the time to make a video for the emulation each rom/game some one does not want to test on their own. My videos intend to demo the general functionality and accompany the guide I have made.

[@efaustus9]

two things, there is no graphic acceleration in linux and l4d requires and x86 cpu. Both aforementioned factors mean no l4d on the ps3 still.

[@efaustus9]

@MarioAnimalCrossing possibly, however all the programs made for an x86 version of windows wouldn't run in the PPC version.

[@efaustus9]

@herolief umm because you cant install wine on a system that does not use an x86 cpu. Wine Is Not an Emulator. Wind95 is being emulated using qemu on top of a yellow dog linux install in this video.

[@efaustus9]

you can in fact install from the cd rom drive. I installed my copy of the game I purchased back in 98'.

[@efaustus9]

the video above. "Starcraft on the Playstation 3 running Windows 95 with Qemu & Yellow Dog Linux guide in discription". Qemu is the vm.

[@GamerMGO]

hmph since an emulator typically divides your processor power by 10 and your running windows on an emulator that being run on an emulator it must go slowly say u have a 4gighurtz processor and u emulate that and then use that emulator to emulate something else then it will prolly be 40megahurtz of processor power emulated in qemu although it seems to be running sc nicely

[@Madstylezify]

Nice my favorite game of all time

[@efaustus9]

It should. most games below 100Mhz that do not have 3d rendering should work.

[@efaustus9]

@killer939 It doesn't lag because with W.I.N.E (Wine Is Not an Emulator) you are not emulating you are running on the actual hardware. Unlike the original xbox the ps3 does not have an x86 cpu thus I need to emulate an x86 cpu based pc with Qemu to run the game. This is much more demanding then just using wine.

[@jiposphere]

Hey, Thanks for sharing the tutorial on how to get this working! :D I've just installed it and tried a game.. and it works pretty fine =] But.. one problem.. MIDI doesn't seem to work at all =/ Is this the same on yours or could it just be my installation? Cheers =D

[@robertneville777]

efaustus is absolutely right. wine only runs on x86, it doesnt run on PPC and almost certainly not on the cell

[@efaustus9]

It runs abit slow due to the fact that windows can not be installed on the ps3 due to the cpu being a PPC processor. Thus to run windows I need to emulate an entire PC on top of linux on the ps3. Further the ps3 cell cpu is not a typical desktop cpu and if running unoptimized code its performance is like a late G4 PPC. As for online you need to install the latest patch from bnet to play online. The latest patch is only compatible with winxp and vista. so no you cant play online.

[@efaustus9]

not personally. though others have, win98 se should run about as well as the video above.

[@PKMNFan4664]

@efaustus9 Windows NT 4.0 had PowerPC support. Since the PS3 has PowerPC processor, could Windows NT 4.0 run a little better?

[@efaustus9]

you should be fine with that distro. My how-to in the description should also work in ubuntu with one adjustment. That adjustment being instead of su, yourpassword, yum install qemu it should be sudo apt-get install qemu.

[@darthkahn45]

It all went well until I got to putting 'Setup' into the command prompt. I made sure I was in R: but it always comes up with 'Bad command or filename' What could this be?

[@efaustus9]

yes. just about any usb keyboard and mouse will work on the ps3.

[@hsuyu112]

reminds me of the good old times

[@efaustus9]

Qemu is emulating an entire computer on top of linux which eats up a lot of CPU cycles. I would say performance is akin to a ~100Mhz Pentium. Also sony locks out the GPU when in linux therefor there is no graphics acceleration. So no Half life wont work.

[@nastyguard007]

When was the last time you downloaded W.I.N.E through the application manager, on a computer that has a PPC processor? The creatores of W.I.N.E have added supporrt to numerous other types of CPU's and other hardware, so why don't YOU try it out on your PS3?

[@efaustus9]

WINE only works if you have an x86 CPU other wise you have to find an alternate method for running windows apps.

[@efaustus9]

system requirements for it seem low so you could give it a try an see how well it works.

[@logitech4873]

Okey, now that's awesome.

[@jiposphere]

Hey there, I have just a quick question - Do you think it would run 'Sonic & Knuckles Collection' at near full speed? xD

[@johnkeen939]

Nice, i guess the emulation is only using 1 thread on the ps3 cpu and thus the lag? I got starcraft running on my xbox in xdsl with wine and it didn't lag! :P

[@lucianocavagnero1409]

you 're a F' king genius!! I love you... Ps3!!

[@NightKi11er]

That`s pretty cool, but I have two questions: -Why does it run pretty slow, wouldn`t it run good with a system like a ps3? -Can you play SC online like that?

[@blumanchu2000]

That is very cool. Is this possible with ubuntu on the ps3?

[@efaustus9]

Unfortunately w.i.n.e. (Wine Is Not an Emulator) only works with x86 processors. The ps3 has a ppc processor so wine will not work on ps3 linux. Also sony lets you install linux on your ps3 but prohibits full access to the gpu so modern pc games will not work.

[@johnkeen939]

@efaustus9 I know, but considering the 360 can emulate a 733MHz celeron you would think the ps3 could emulate like ~133+MHz needed to run starcraft smooth! probably just bad coding somewhere or the fact it's running windows on top of Linux =\. But still awesome job! I love doing those little pointless but oh so much fun stuff to!

[@efaustus9]

The distro does not matter. W.I.N.E (wine is not an emulator) does not emulate hardware it takes software and runs the code like it were on a windows box. Windows requires an x86 cpu thus wine requires a x86 cpu. To prove my point feel free to go ahead and try to run wine on your ps3.

[@efaustus9]

yes, its like a desktop computer once you install linux.

[@herolief]

Why would I install Win95 to my PS3 when I can install Ubuntu and WINE StarCraft just fine? And not to mention faster?

[@jiposphere]

Also, on that note - would it also run General/Synth Midi?

[@efaustus9]

no. the latest bnet update is not compatible with win9x. Newer versions of windows are too slow on the ps3 to be practical.

[@robertneville777]

They have that running on Cell? or for that matter PPC arcitectures?

[@bookshelffury]

do you think it would be possible to run diablo as well? what about diablo 2? do you think diablo 2 would be able to be playable? if so.. im totally doing this lol

[@bvjorge]

My favorite game ever

[@dorkyazn]

I just installed Yellow Dog Linux on my SD TV, I am at the point where it asks for login where you're suppose to type in rơơt then your password. But when I type in rơơt, it shows up like this: login: [R [O[O[T And I can't get any further then that, what's the problem?

[@MadJackChurchill1312]

@raoXI A PS3, CAN RUN LINUX, THAT CAN THEN RUN WINDOWS 95, THAT CAN THEN RUN STARCRAFT. It's a technical achievement.

[@efaustus9]

I haven't tried running this in xubuntu. You may want to see if you can free up resources by shutting down unnecessary services and try running a lighter desktop enviro like fluxbox.

[@efaustus9]

@ssjmysticgohan Sorry but you are mistaken as of right now wine only run on x86 cpu's. Here is a quote taken from the wine development page WINEHQ: " ...Wine only runs on x86 processors." Feel free to Google it your self if you doubt me . As for x86 windows programs on a Power PC mac, that my friend is achieved through emulation. Very similar to what you see in my video, expect Im emulating windows on Power PC Linux. Emulation is not nearly as fast as wine. Class dismissed.

[@j2awr]

hey! i was wondering if you can play starcraft online (BNET) with the ps3 and have it run smoothly. i couldnt tell from the video if the game ran perfectly or if it was a lil choppy or slow loading etc. please reply back ty.

[@StarcraftZergNerd]

but why does the pointer go so... like slow? is there a lag or something?

[@passionateGamersPro]

after i copy that boot disk it the home folder it says can not open disk image ch d..... do i have to have the disk in there??? and do i need fedora what the hell is that help!!!

[@efaustus9]

not with this method unfortunately. starcraft online now requires xp. xp emulation is far to slow to be practical on the ps3.

[@efaustus9]

will sims run on a 90 Pentium with no video acceleration? doubt it.

[@MGMan37]

@efaustus9 How did you get internet working? After installing Windows 95, I don't know what to do to get internet inside QEMU. Help?

[@g7zero]

you could try to install hamachi on win95 and play through a virtual LAN, dont know if hamachi runs on win95 though

[@LikFlyTuff]

awesome, i love this game

[@LiamR]

have you tried windows 98 SE ?

[@DJKNITEX]

is the internet working for this? like is qemu picking up the internet from linux that goes through windows?

[@efaustus9]

you cant mess up your ps3 by using linux. linux on the ps3 is a sony supported feature. further linux on the ps3 runs under a hypervisor and can not touch the system firmware. google sony otheros to learn more.

[@BassGoesBoom1]

try making an 8 player ffa (7cpus) on a 256*256 map like primeval isles i remember my p120 used to run sc fine until i tried that , and then it was chop central.

[@MadJackChurchill1312]

@raoXI Sony have restricted the GPU, it cannot be accessed by any means.

[@BassGoesBoom1]

its very very slow check out the loading time to open the game that usually take 2-3 seconds on a PC

[@efaustus9]

yes see my other videos.

[@Wingnut353]

how about running BeOS 5 PE which you can launch from within win 95 or just install BeOS Max PE .... Cool OS includes Doom and abuse as well which is a cool game

[@efaustus9]

diablo works and is playable. diablo 2 also works but is too slow to be playable.

[@efaustus9]

seems you are inserting special characters into the command. the log in should be simply, root and not rơơt.

[@nastyguard007]

Wouldn't it be easier to use W.I.N.E.? I think it can run StarCraft nice and smooth...

[@efaustus9]

loading is somewhat slow but the gameplay has been fine.

[@efaustus9]

um.. that's essentially what I am doing in the video.

[@lumpyfishful]

will tihs be able to play like starcraft 2? on the ps3

[@nastyguard007]

It does? Hmm... I think, if it's possible, you should get Ubuntu. It (and 90% of it's software libary including wine) supports x64 and PPC processors.

[@efaustus9]

yes diablo works and is playable. diablo 2 works but is too slow to be playable.

[@Madstylezify]

How did you do this?

[@efaustus9]

to play on BNET you need windows 2000 or better.

[@roryhynes]

I'de be more interested if you ran PCSX2 on it

[@darkhero651]

can you play on lan ?

[@grez14]

wtf this is amazing

[@HibidyHooBlah2010]

Think ps3 can play brood war?

[@muskyjamjam]

do you have access to the gpu now :D

[@JoeBergeronArt]

I'm currently installing Ubuntu on my ps3 i hope it works out well

[@efaustus9]

I suppose you could though I haven't tried.

[@raoXI]

@Tordah26 Run SC2 instead, then it will be a worthwhile achievement _b

[@aldillow]

one question man...very important i think... please try to install and play diablo or diablo 2 on your ps3...maybe it works...i hope so... thanks!

[@spexbeanfarmer]

thats impressive

[@efaustus9]

It has been attempted by others. it does not preform any better then the above.

[@corradoking2010]

@efaustus9 is it possible to get the tool fscaler? i can not find it anywhere

[@efaustus9]

I'll see if I can't find it, Bill Blake (aka billb) had a website "ps3 bodega" hosting a lot of these files but it and the ydl formus are gone so a lot of that stuff is very hard to come by these days. Using the wayback machine I see the last version he hosted was fscaler-0.4-1.ydl6.bdg.ppc.rpm.

[@corradoking2010]

@@efaustus9thanks for your help. With wayback machine I found the bodega repo file lost. But no files are available… so hopefully you can send me the tool

[@corradoking2010]

Did you were able to extract scaler from your ps3?

[@efaustus9]

I have wine on my desktop linux mint install. There is no need for me to try and run wine on a ppc as I am informed enough to know the result. You are the one who claims that W.I.N.E works on a PPC processor so the onus is on you to prove it. You can save time however by going to the authors page at winehq a do a little reading.

[@bookshelffury]

darn, thanks for replying though

[@SONGOKU02]

@cjit26 maybe jeah. Think about it.. counterstrike it is the same. But i think C&C are better then starcraft.. But thats only me. Starcraft and warcraft owns too

[@chris4268]

holy crap, talk about longest description ever... o_O

[@GildedAlien]

can you manage to play online?