Amiga.org

Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: XDelusion on April 19, 2011, 08:36:31 PM

Title: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: XDelusion on April 19, 2011, 08:36:31 PM
I have heard of people playing Duke 3D full speed via Mac emulation through Shape Shifter, but I'm wondering if any one has been able to pull off Star Wars: Dark Forces I at full speed?
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Xanxi on April 19, 2011, 09:37:17 PM
Hey, great game indeed!
So, if you can direct me to the sit file for this game, i will try it on my setup (060 + AGA) but i think it might need RTG instead.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: rvo_nl on April 19, 2011, 09:44:23 PM
still setting up fusion/shapeshifter on my system, but this game is on top of my list, too! its easy to find if you use BT. did have a look around on the 'net and it seems some people have managed to run the game, but havent seen screenshots or videos so far.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: XDelusion on April 19, 2011, 11:02:51 PM
I would think this game would be playable with AGA alone.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Damion on April 20, 2011, 12:15:20 AM
I ran this with a Blizzard 1260/66 and AGA... it's been 10 years or more, but I remember it played great.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Gulliver on April 20, 2011, 01:58:24 AM
Dark Forces (Mac)

http://s3.amazonaws.com/macgarden/DarkForces1.2.sit_.bin



Dark Forces Manual

http://macintoshgarden.org/sites/macintoshgarden.org/files/manuals/DarkForcesManualPC.pdf
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Cammy on April 20, 2011, 03:27:28 AM
I don't want to annoy people by pasting the same thing again, so I'll link to a post I made which might be helpful for anyone wanting to run Shapeshifter on their Amiga.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=609490&postcount=5

EDIT:

I've just been playing Dark Forces on my 030 AGA Amiga, it's slow but playable if you reduce the window size right down. I imagine a 040 or 060 would run it full screen no sweat.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: rvo_nl on May 04, 2011, 08:32:43 PM
I just gave the demo a try on my Fusion & 060+RTG setup. This game really flies.. although for some reason it will only run in 640x400 low resolution. Still looks quite okay and sound effects and music are nice, too.
 
I tried some other games. Wolfenstein 3D runs considerably faster than the Amiga port. Its almost unplayable really.
 
Would love to try other games but for some reason a lot of downloaded archives (mostly hqx) are unrecognised on Mac side. I remember something about removing the extension under AmigaOS, copying them to Mac partition, and then restoring the filename, but that didnt really work.. what was that trick again?
 
Also, does anyone have any sources for games? Demos are fine. Im most specifically looking for an 68K version of Tomb Raider and Photoshop 5. Can someone help? (I dont care if its legal or not. both titles are more than 10 years old!)
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: paul1981 on May 04, 2011, 08:49:08 PM
Quote from: Cammy;632529
I don't want to annoy people by pasting the same thing again, so I'll link to a post I made which might be helpful for anyone wanting to run Shapeshifter on their Amiga.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=609490&postcount=5

EDIT:

I've just been playing Dark Forces on my 030 AGA Amiga, it's slow but playable if you reduce the window size right down. I imagine a 040 or 060 would run it full screen no sweat.


Thanks Cammy :X
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Crumb on May 04, 2011, 09:32:18 PM
Quote from: XDelusion;632506
I have heard of people playing Duke 3D full speed via Mac emulation through Shape Shifter, but I'm wondering if any one has been able to pull off Star Wars: Dark Forces I at full speed?

IIRC*I used to set the real screen to 320x240 and configure the mac to work at 640x480 I scrolled to center the display and you were done. You'll need a 040 to make it work. TurboEVD, Savage or similar driver with enabled MMU refresh will be enough.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Crumb on May 04, 2011, 09:38:51 PM
@rvo_nl

Years ago I played Comanche, Sim*City2000, Alone in the Dark, Warcraft2, Doom, DukeNukem, Prince of Persia 1&2, Wolfenstein3D on my 040+AGA without problems. Warcraft2 required certain Shapeshifter version to work IIRC*(It stopped working after certain version*and never got it running on Fusion).*I used Shapeshifter because it allowed me to configure real AGA screen as 320x256 and scroll it so games ran faster than using 640x480 on Fusion.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Cammy on June 09, 2011, 05:35:42 AM
XDelusion, I read in the thread about Duke 3D that you were having trouble getting Shapeshifter to work on your A1200. I'd like to try and help if you can tell me what's going wrong. I'm not sure if we've tried or not before, sorry. :p
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Darrin on June 09, 2011, 05:42:47 AM
Quote from: Cammy;632529
I don't want to annoy people by pasting the same thing again, so I'll link to a post I made which might be helpful for anyone wanting to run Shapeshifter on their Amiga.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=609490&postcount=5


Personally I think you should re-post that every month so nobody misses it.  I'm just waiting until I have the spare time to try it on my 68040 A4000.

Great work.  :)
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: XDelusion on June 09, 2011, 05:57:31 AM
Ya, Cammy's tutorials are the bomb! She's a real asset to the community! I think her tutorials deserve their own special place on the main page in fact. Of in a Wiki.

And yes Cam, you've helped till your knuckles bleed and I thank you. What I'm starting to wonder is that maybe it is the Apollo. It does handle its memory strange after all, but been a fantastic card thus far, though I'm shipping it to Poland for an upgrade soon, so I won't have it around to play with for a while.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Xanxi on June 09, 2011, 07:21:57 AM
I have tried Dark Forces on :

- the A1200 B1260/50 AGA: and it runs but not smooth enough to be pleasant. It seems the MUVed driver cannot refresh the screen at once so the game is blocky

- the A4000 Warp40/40 RTG with Direct Mode: and it runs perfect and fast.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: XDelusion on June 10, 2011, 04:41:41 AM
Yep see, I've yet to get such a report from any Apollo users, and it's a shame too cause I'm about to upgrade to 80Mhz which would make for one fast Mac! :)
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Cammy on June 10, 2011, 07:02:58 AM
I hope once you get the Apollo back with the 80Mhz CPU we can try a few things to get Shapeshifter working. A few people including myself have had odd problems getting the MuEVD driver to work with our ACA630s. It works for me when I run Shapeshifter from Workbench, but not from its own Startup-Sequence, or even an exact copy of the regular Startup-Sequence with the Shapeshifter line replacing C:LoadWB. It just opens in black & white mode, unless it's run from Workbench. Very odd! So there are many different combinations of things to try before it works.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: amiman99 on August 19, 2011, 10:28:13 PM
Did anyone tried to have MAC hardfile in CF card using PCMCIA on A1200?
I'm reluctant to use my HD, few years ago I put my hardfile on WORK: partition, and of course the Shapeshifter crashed few times and caused the drive to be "not validated".
I was thinking, use CF card, and if something happens, just format and copy the hardfile again.
But, I'm not sure of the performance.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Heiroglyph on August 19, 2011, 10:30:09 PM
I haven't tried that, but you should really think about using SFS instead of FFS.

The validation problem can't happen and it's faster.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: amiman99 on August 19, 2011, 10:52:32 PM
Quote from: Heiroglyph;655393
I haven't tried that, but you should really think about using SFS instead of FFS.

The validation problem can't happen and it's faster.
Can I convert FFS to SFS, or I need clean install?

Edit:By default the CF card is FAT16 or 32, would this make it faster?
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: Cammy on August 20, 2011, 12:42:09 AM
You will need a complete reformat and re-install to use SFS unfortunately. Best to LHA your drive's contents, copy the LHA file to a CF card in the PCMCIA slot, reformat the internal drive to SFS, then extract your old system back on there.

I have several Mac hardfiles that I use, I swap them around on FAT-formatted SD and CF cards, read through a PCMCIA card reader just fine! In faact it's quite fast this way, so there's no need to copy the hardfile to your internal drive.

Just make sure you AddBuffers, by typing in a CLI or Execute Command prompt:

AddBuffers CF0: 1000

Should be enough to make it nice and quick to access.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: amiman99 on August 20, 2011, 04:31:40 AM
Thanks, I will start playing with that.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: thairacer on September 06, 2019, 08:27:01 PM
Hi all, I think it's my first message here  8) , I'm in Amiga spirit since long time, post many in EABOARD and in French Amiga website and follow AmigaBill and other you tubers !  I had the TF330 for my CD32 and I'm stuck for making working Dark Forces with shapeshifter, it is a awesome emulator for our beloved machine but Iit stop when I tried to start with this message :"sorry, but Dark Forces requires at least one 13" or larger monitor that is capable of switching to 256 colors." , with basilisk it working in all resolution... but on my Mac lol ! , so I've tried to change the resolution on shapeshifter and it I can launch in 800X600 256 colors but it's horribly slooooowwww like hell. did you have a tips for launch in other resolution ? I successfully to play Alone in the Dark, Rebel Assault, Tennis Open, but Dark Forces ! cannot, thanks for your kind and sorry to up this thread so late but before my CD32 couldn't handle Mac emulation  :-*
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: thairacer on September 08, 2019, 11:27:04 AM
OK, so I succes to launch with 640x480 setting (thanks "Retro1234" from EA board)  in shapeshifter, little bit more speed lol ! 2/3 fps, but it's one step ahead !  waiting for my TF360 for speed up.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: utri007 on September 08, 2019, 12:42:16 PM
With those reolutions 68060 doesn't help. Problem is AGA's bus speed Wich is 4mb/second.
Title: Re: Shape Shifter and Dark Forces
Post by: vince_6 on September 08, 2019, 04:23:57 PM
I remember reading somewhere for a direct rtg driver and not just simple promotion.
Don't have my rtg amiga to test.