I've read quite a folk folk question PSP over DSi for Game Maker, but to me the choice was very simple. Sandy has mentioned before that given some time and money, DSi would be very interesting; and nothing is impossible. However... DSi (and I'm ignoring the DS completely due to its severely limited memory, and very slow CPU speed which effectively makes it a no go) has some very tricky issues.
1) The DSi has only 16Mb or RAM. This isn't terrible, but would limit the types of games you could port/make for it. The runner itself requires some ram for both the program and it's internal variables, so you'd probably be left with around 12Mb. I've no idea what the OS takes up, so that would be another factor. Call it 10Mb. Possible, but not great.
2) CPU speed. While the DSi has 2 CPUs, they are only 133Mhz each, and that's really slow. You could certainly do some multi-cpu code, but lots of it depends on serialised operations, so for the most part, your stuck with 1. This again limits the number/style of games - but not impossible.
3) FPU. The DSi has no floating point - at all. This is a massive problem. As anyone that's used game maker will know, it's totally based on floating point values. Every script "number" you use is not only a floating point number, but a "double" (a very LARGE floating point number). Part of the work we've been doing is to limit the double access, but they're still there - and have to be. This means all the floating point code would have to change into fixed point. This would take some time... but is possible. Obviously, you couldn't use FPU emulation as on a 133Mhz CPU, you'd burn all your time just doing FPU stuff.
Now, longer term we have been thinking about adding more "types" (i.e. a RAW integer type) which would allow developers to speed up their scripts, but there's huge changes internally to allow this to happen, so that won't be around for a long time. Russell has been doing some very cool updates the the script processor for the Game Maker Runner, and that's opening up a whole new bag of tricks, but I'll leave him to talk more about that; some of the updates we're looking to add will make you drool in anticipation.
So... while a DSi port is possible, there's a huge amount of work required before we can realistically consider it. Of course, if Nintendo announce a NEW console at E3 this year... that's a whole new ballgame!
And a quick note about the new Apple T&Cs... The rule says you have to build a game with C++ or ObjectiveC. The runner IS in C++, and interpretes scripts. This is fine as there at LOTS of apps which use scripting in some form or other, not to mention quite a few emulators (which is ALL scripting). So we don't anticipate any problems, although Sandy will be speaking with Apple to verify.
Lastly... this is my personal blog. So if you post a comment, be constructive and don't be rude. I have no problems in deleting what "I" consider offensive comments. I don't mind people saying they disagree, or even giving me valid reasons in their mind as to why I'm stupid, but if you post single line comments of "it's crap", or "you're an idiot", then it'll nuke it from orbit. Thank you, come again!
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