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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: JACK98 on January 17, 2009, 10:26:28 PM

Title: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: JACK98 on January 17, 2009, 10:26:28 PM
Could anyone get this game running on A1200?,if so what specs did they use,i read in the archive magazines and a scan of a box that it could run with a mim of 4mb of fast ram,i have that*well 8mb if i set it to full*,anyways,after i install it,the option to pick the screen resolution comes up,so i pick it,then suddenly it crashes,getting the guru error,i was told maybe i woundnt have enough chip ram so i ran it without the start up and it still would not run,the strangest part is i can run this game on winuae with the same set up  :-?
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: save2600 on January 17, 2009, 11:26:42 PM
I remember having trouble with this too on my A1200. You might be running out of chip ram? What kind of Commodities can you disable upon startup or graphics hogging is going on? That game likes to be run on a next to
barebones system I believe...


Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Damion on January 18, 2009, 02:00:22 AM
You could always try snoopdos, see if it gives any clues before the computer crashes. Anyway, it's probably best to play it on an 040/060 or emulated, otherwise the game is excruciatingly slow, and totally unplayable.



Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Darrin on January 18, 2009, 06:01:06 AM
I had it running on an A1200 with a double clocked 68020 at 28MHz and an extra 4MB of Fast RAM.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: JACK98 on January 18, 2009, 06:12:10 PM
yup i can disable the start up,using the hidden boot menu option,then when i run it it asks me to insert volume "env",if i remember correctly that is usually in the ram disk on start up?,was told about chip mem too,so i dont think how could you increase it,as for others,yes i was thinking same maybe i need upgrade the processor and ram to get the thing running
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: JACK98 on January 18, 2009, 07:00:15 PM
update:i downloaded and used snoopdos to do a check,and everything came back ok oddly enough,when i ran simcity 2000,it crashed of course but snoopdos reported everything was ok in what sim was looking for
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Hattig on January 18, 2009, 07:16:08 PM
I got that to run back in the day when I had a 2MB memory expansion, I presume I got that after I put the hard drive in, but I doubt I was running much else. It would run in Productivity VGA mode (640x480), it looked great, but it slowed down greatly, even on the smaller maps that having 4MB of RAM total would allow you.

Shame that no-one ever hacked the codebase to optimise the graphics drawing routines and add extra graphics modes. It was a very lazy port - I believe it actually converted the bitmap graphics from chunky mode to planar upon drawing them.

Dropping the palette to 128 colours would have sped up the system, and having a half-resolution version of the graphics (at least vertically, if not in both axes) and pre-storing them in planar mode could have sped the game up a lot. Productivity 256 colour mode was slow slow slow.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: JACK98 on August 24, 2010, 12:42:14 AM
Just to solve this old mystery,when i upgraded my ks to 3.1 and installed 3.1 os, the game ran fine :)
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Darrin on August 24, 2010, 12:53:43 AM
I always love a mystery solved.

I'm kind of surprised though.  In my old post I mentioned that I had it running OK.  I'm sure that my A1200 back then was one of the original UK sold Commodore models which was probably KS3.0 and OS3.0.  I still have the original disks and box in the house.  I'll check the system requirements when I get home on the weekend.

I didn't realize that it would work in different screen modes other than PAL or NTSC.  I'll have to give it a whirl on my A4000.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: JACK98 on August 24, 2010, 12:55:01 AM
i could had just being missing a simple file from the 3.0 os :).
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Darrin on August 24, 2010, 12:57:01 AM
Quote from: JACK98;575917
i could had just being missing a simple file from the 3.0 os :).


Was the 7 month wait to play it worth it?  :)
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: JACK98 on August 24, 2010, 12:58:05 AM
lol no was rubbish
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: mongo on August 24, 2010, 02:59:34 AM
I've heard that the Mac version running under Shapeshifter is much faster than the Amiga version.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Matt_H on August 24, 2010, 04:07:07 AM
Quote from: mongo;575923
I've heard that the Mac version running under Shapeshifter is much faster than the Amiga version.


That's probably true. The Amiga port was very hastily/badly done. I think the in-game credits even say it was done in a weekend or so!
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: utri007 on August 24, 2010, 07:01:37 AM
Install and configure FBlit, it will help for lack of chip ram and you can promote it to fast ram and you'll be amaized for speed increase

Does anyuone know that will new graphicks.library do same thing to this game than fblit? speed it up a lot?
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Cammy on August 24, 2010, 07:52:14 AM
I was wondering if FBlit or BlazeWCP would help speed Sim City 2000 up. I must try it out today on my Amigas if I can find a working copy of the game.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: JACK98 on August 24, 2010, 10:07:20 AM
Quote from: Matt_H;575927
That's probably true. The Amiga port was very hastily/badly done. I think the in-game credits even say it was done in a weekend or so!


lol,its true about mac/amiga port,i tried game on an old mac that had an 040 processor and it still ran faster!.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: jj on August 24, 2010, 11:40:42 AM
Quote from: Darrin;438188
I had it running on an A1200 with a double clocked 68020 at 28MHz and an extra 4MB of Fast RAM.

me too :)
 
those were the days
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: utri007 on August 24, 2010, 11:46:28 AM
FBlit speedups games like simcity 2000 and Napalm quite lot
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: bloodline on August 24, 2010, 01:53:49 PM
I had Simcity2000 running on my A1200, with 50mhz 030 and 4meg ram (and harddisk)... It ran way too slow, it was a very bad port :(
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: hardlink on August 24, 2010, 03:05:17 PM
Quote from: mongo;575923
I've heard that the Mac version running under Shapeshifter is much faster than the Amiga version.


I used to run the Mac version with the old Emplant package and it ran fine on my A4000/040.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Cammy on August 24, 2010, 05:38:51 PM
I've just run some tests with this game on some of the Amigas here in the office. I tried it on an A1200 030/50 and an A1200 030/28.

As reported by others, the game is quite slow when run from a default Workbench installation, but when I run FBlit and BlazeWCP in my Startup-Sequence the game is noticably more responsive and playable! I recommend anyone who has played the game before and been disappointed to try it again with these patches running if they haven't already.

Now I just need to get a Mac emulation setup installed and find the Mac version of the game so I can compare them and take a video.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: utri007 on August 25, 2010, 08:16:52 AM
With at least 040 and fblit screen scolling is allmoust smooth

Does new graphics.library speed up like thing like fblit do??? I want to know before I try. Speed increase = how much I try to get it work ;)
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: lauri.lotvonen on August 25, 2010, 10:52:25 AM
I also tried this game with 030 and 32mb ram, waayyy too slow..
Hopefully the 1260 I'm getting will boost things a little :)

@Cammy, please make that video of emulated Mac port, I certainly would be interested.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: tokyoracer on August 25, 2010, 11:21:49 AM
Quote from: mongo;575923
I've heard that the Mac version running under Shapeshifter is much faster than the Amiga version.
The Mac version was always alot faster. Basic 030's could fun fine on the Mac but on the Amiga, SC2k has aways been a choppy sod even on the best of hardware, I shouldn't let it bother you.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Christian Johansson on August 25, 2010, 02:53:10 PM
I remember playing the Macversion under Shapeshifter on B1230/50 with the Savage gfxdriver on AGA. And it was working quite well (at least i thought so back then :))

I discussed the Amigaversion with someone on aw.net (it might actually been the coder for the Amigaversion) and he said that some patches available on Aminet speed up the game a lot.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: benJamin on August 25, 2010, 03:01:11 PM
Just checked: hold down a shift key whilst double-clicking the SimCity 2000 icon to select a screen mode.  There was also a patched exe posted, I think it was on AmiNet.  I'll edit this if I can find it, otherwise, I have both exes...

Here you go: http://aminet.net/package/game/patch/SimCity2000pch
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: spirantho on August 25, 2010, 03:47:14 PM
Quote from: fryguy;576209

I discussed the Amigaversion with someone on aw.net (it might actually been the coder for the Amigaversion) and he said that some patches available on Aminet speed up the game a lot.


Unlikely to have been the coder of the Amiga version - he's not registered on any Amiga forums. I know this because he's about 100 feet away from me at the moment, just down the corridor....

I do remember him saying he had a heck of job with it, though, I think - I'm not sure the source code was very nice or something (he did tell me once). It's not lack of skill though - he also did Speedball II, Ultima VI and other things and he's a very talented coder. One thing's for sure - it wasn't a "lazy attempt" at porting...
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: ddniUK on August 26, 2010, 03:02:55 PM
I have made a video of SimCity 2000 running via shapeshifter on my A1200.
My specs are A1200T Blizzard 603+ PPC 330mhz 68060 60mhz 196mb RAM.OS3.9 BB1+2, Mediator, Voodoo 3 P96. Indivision 1200 AGA SD/FF

Workbench OS3.9 is running at 1280x1024x16.
Sim City 2000 is running in 640x480x16.

I will post the YouTube link when it has uploaded.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Darrin on August 26, 2010, 03:22:49 PM
Quote from: JJ;575970
me too :)
 
those were the days


That was actually a damn good CPU card and really how the A1200 should have been sold in the later years.  The double clocked 68020 was certainly enough to keep me away from a 68030 for many years.  :)

I still have my card.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: ddniUK on August 26, 2010, 04:28:02 PM
Hi all,

here is the link to the video referred to in my previous post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6iHP885PH0
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: jj on August 26, 2010, 04:29:51 PM
Quote from: Darrin;576362
That was actually a damn good CPU card and really how the A1200 should have been sold in the later years. The double clocked 68020 was certainly enough to keep me away from a 68030 for many years. :)
 
I still have my card.

Was the first cpu card I bought and I too had it for many many many years.  In fact until I came back to the Amiga when i was more cash rich and could afford crazy upgrades.
 
Was a brilliant card. Gave a massive boost
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: rvo_nl on August 26, 2010, 08:14:32 PM
Quote from: ddniUK;576368
Hi all,

here is the link to the video referred to in my previous post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6iHP885PH0

Thanks for the vid, runs at great speed!

BTW Im a big fan of your youtube uploads. One of them was the inspiration for me to buy a new Amiga.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: scuzzb494 on August 26, 2010, 09:37:02 PM
I have this game running on my A1200 with a Blizzard and 32MB RAM. When I first bought the game I had no acceleration and it was hopeless. I bought a GVP A1230 Turbo+ card just to play the game and was just brilliant except for the flickering screen. Still have all my cities saved and play the game with no problem with the Blizzard. This game was ported to the Amiga having run on DOS, Windows and Mac and like FIFA in its day was really hopeless without acceleration.

PS Here are the other games in the series.

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/amiga_scuzz149.htm
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Daedalus on August 27, 2010, 12:14:37 AM
I always heard the Amiga port was horrible - possibly a decision to rush the port, or maybe they wanted to run with too few resources. Anyway, I can confirm that it ran very sweetly on my A1200 under Shapeshifter with an 060 and a graphics card ;)
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: mousehouse on August 27, 2010, 08:15:08 AM
Quote from: spirantho;576217
Unlikely to have been the coder of the Amiga version - he's not registered on any Amiga forums. I know this because he's about 100 feet away from me at the moment, just down the corridor....

I do remember him saying he had a heck of job with it, though, I think - I'm not sure the source code was very nice or something (he did tell me once). It's not lack of skill though - he also did Speedball II, Ultima VI and other things and he's a very talented coder. One thing's for sure - it wasn't a "lazy attempt" at porting...


You are down the corridor from a Speedball-2 coder? WTF! That was, is, my favorite all-time game!! Send him my regards, I'll sue him later for wasting months and months of my life on that game...

:laughing:
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: spirantho on August 27, 2010, 09:57:15 AM
I know he did the CD32 version, anyway (not the original A500 version). Apparently it was hell on earth trying to get it to work in 256 colours at decent speed. :)

Am I correct in thinking, however, that SC2000 actually said on the box that it required a 68030? I have a vague feeling it said something like that... but I could be wrong.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: rvo_nl on August 27, 2010, 10:02:14 AM
Quote from: spirantho;576447
I know he did the CD32 version, anyway (not the original A500 version). Apparently it was hell on earth trying to get it to work in 256 colours at decent speed. :)

off-topic: did AGA games ever really display 256 colours on screen? :| (apart from adventure games)
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: ChaosLord on August 27, 2010, 01:20:31 PM
Quote from: rvo_nl;576450
off-topic: did AGA games ever really display 256 colours on screen? :| (apart from adventure games)
Yes.  Total Chaos AGA does.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: ChaosLord on August 27, 2010, 01:47:18 PM
Quote from: spirantho;576447
I know he did the CD32 version, anyway (not the original A500 version). Apparently it was hell on earth trying to get it to work in 256 colours at decent speed. :)

Am I correct in thinking, however, that SC2000 actually said on the box that it required a 68030? I have a vague feeling it said something like that... but I could be wrong.
I am looking at the box right now and it says nothing about needing a 68030.

Having a 68030 does not cure the slowness problem anyway.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: smf on August 27, 2010, 02:12:05 PM
Not even running it on a graphics card cures the slowness problem in the Amiga version (atleast on A1200 060/66mhz with mediator/Voodo3)
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Leifern on August 27, 2010, 02:55:17 PM
I ran the game on a 1260/50 with a Voodoo3 and the game was basically unplayable. I eventually i sold my 1260 AND my PCIboard.. I'll have to get my hands on one of those 020/28's so that i can give ome of these amigagames another go.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: spirantho on August 27, 2010, 05:09:03 PM
The Voodoo III will make no difference at all, as it's using OS calls throughout, I believe (does it even run on a graphics card? Wasn't aware that it did...). As for it being unplayable on an 060... I spent many many hours on my Blizzard MkII (50MHz) playing SC2000.. I guess people have different standards these days...
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: utri007 on August 30, 2010, 06:28:47 AM
Try FBLit and promote simcity with it to fastram.

Much more playable
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: smf on August 30, 2010, 06:29:47 AM
Quote from: spirantho;576512
The Voodoo III will make no difference at all, as it's using OS calls throughout, I believe (does it even run on a graphics card? Wasn't aware that it did...). As for it being unplayable on an 060... I spent many many hours on my Blizzard MkII (50MHz) playing SC2000.. I guess people have different standards these days...


Yeah SC2000 can be promoted to run on a graphics card with ModePro
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: spirantho on August 30, 2010, 08:43:02 AM
It may be displaying on a graphics card, but that doesn't mean it's really using it - it'll still be using Chip RAM, as it'll be using the original OS3.0 routines... so it'll be just as slow as AGA. Hence why it's so much faster under SS which uses RTG routines.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: utri007 on August 30, 2010, 01:12:55 PM
I can confirm that simcity 2000 can be promoted with modepro to use graphics card, but it is still very slow.

Installed and configured fblit gives huge speed up for all of these kind of games, napalm etc, screen scolling is allmoust smooth with it 640x512
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: rvo_nl on August 30, 2010, 02:27:47 PM
Does Fblit also help RTG users that are using Modepro to promote games to their graphic cards?
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: utri007 on August 30, 2010, 02:37:15 PM
FBlit uses aga, so it helps with pal hires
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: zipper on August 30, 2010, 06:59:05 PM
And probably conflicts with RTG.
Title: Re: Simcity 2000 amiga
Post by: Cammy on September 26, 2010, 12:52:08 AM
I just ran SimCity 2000 through ShapeShifter with the super fast MuEVD video driver on my AGA A1200 and ran the patched Amiga version (with FBlit and BlazeWCP running) and they're both around the same speed.