Amiga.org
Amiga.org specific forums => New User Introductions => Topic started by: DrewFX on September 01, 2007, 05:22:52 AM
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Hi,
I'm Andy Hawkins of DrewFX (http://www.drewfx.com/). I used to run a company called GeoSync Media, and with that company I wrote StarFighter:D'Yammen's Reign. Recently I noticed a lot of people still selling it, which is illegal because I own the copyright. So for everyone to enjoy, free of charge - that's right - don't pay money for StarFighter anymore - visit my site and start downloading now...
http://www.drewfx.com/ (http://www.drewfx.com/)
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I bought a copy back when it was first released, but I could never get it to work. Maybe I'll give it another look now. Thanks for this donation to the community!
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I am still supporting it, so please email if you get stuck. Getting setpatch and the RAD working can be tricky.
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When did it first come out?
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In 1999.
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Hello Andy. Good job on the game by the way. Are you possibly going to write any other games for the miggy?
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Downloading now, thanks for your kind donation!
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I only have a 500 and an A1200. I guess maybe I'll write something, but it's so old. I'm writing games on the PC now. I will be doing a PC version of Starfighter.
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thanks this is super :) and a great way to diminish the income of the idiots that sell copys!!
you should give the guys at underdog your game, so it reach a bigger crowd of people. its one of them more serious abadoneware sites out there...
http://www.the-underdogs.info/
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never heard of it.. i'll check it out.. glad to see another "new" game for the Amiga.
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Hey does anyone know who this guy is? He claims to be sourcing Starfighter from a wholesaler. I'm not sure that Starfighter stock even exists anymore and I'm guessing it doesn't. So I would like to investigate this one thoroughly to make sure they are selling Starfighter legally - which means I have already been paid for their stock they are holding.
Starfighter on Ebay (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/STARFIGHTER-AMIGA-CD-rom-NEW_W0QQitemZ280149377573QQihZ018QQcategoryZ98929QQcmdZViewItem)
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If you have a really fast computer and the game becomes unplayable try this...
Press 'C' in the main menu to add an artificial frame pause to slow things down a bit. Press 'L' ingame to cycle through level of detail to get the highest one. Experiment with these values to get the right speed.
If you have a slow computer go to the options panel and reduce the screen size, then in game press 'L' to cycle through level of detail to get to Low LOD / Fast Stars.
For all users press the HELP key (i think) for key commands.
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@ DrewFX
If I recall correctly, my original copy of the game shipped in a standard jewel case with semi-professional labels. Is that correct? This guy claims his item is sealed in a DVD case - uncommon packaging for a game of this age - so it's probably pirated rather than being old stock.
He's had a long history of legally-suspicious auctions. Show no mercy.
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DrewFX wrote:
Hey does anyone know who this guy is? He claims to be sourcing Starfighter from a wholesaler. I'm not sure that Starfighter stock even exists anymore and I'm guessing it doesn't. So I would like to investigate this one thoroughly to make sure they are selling Starfighter legally - which means I have already been paid for their stock they are holding.
Starfighter on Ebay (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/STARFIGHTER-AMIGA-CD-rom-NEW_W0QQitemZ280149377573QQihZ018QQcategoryZ98929QQcmdZViewItem)
Interestingly enough, there are other ebay sellers trying to pawn off this same CD.
While browsing ebay "express" a few weeks back, I came upon someone selling a NIB copy of Giana Sisters for the C64 (showed a picture of the box and everything). Though I knew it was likely too good to be true, I snatched it up anyway.
Still, I wasn't very happy when I received that same lame-ass "uk software amiga software cd" trash in the mail. The seller is refunding my money, but claims that everything on the CD is licensed, and that the UK "has much more stringent piracy laws than the US." Absolute BS. I will definitely notify ebay about my particular incident, after the refund clears.
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Thanks Drew, $5.00 donation sent via your PayPal account icon.
Is there any way to get written documentation for the game? Is it on the CD?
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I note that you state you only have a 1200 and 500, but might write something up. I would love it if you wrote another software title for the miggy. Great job by the way on StarFighter, its a great game.
Cheers
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DrewFX wrote:
I am still supporting it, so please email if you get stuck. Getting setpatch and the RAD working can be tricky.
There's a review of the game on my website the Amiga Games Database (http://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/AGDB/AGDB.html/) (slightly lukewarm) where the author mentions how he overcame some problems he had with running the game. It does sound exactly like the sort of game I like though so I'll definitely be checking it out.
.rar? Hmm... I'll need a pc to unarchive this will I?
Anyway, thanks. :-)
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I only have a 500 and an A1200. I guess maybe I'll write something, but it's so old. I'm writing games on the PC now. I will be doing a PC version of Starfighter.
I hope you are using SDL and OpenGL, becouse then the game should be more portable not only for AmigaOS, MorphOS and AROS, but also for Linux, SkyOS, MacOS, consoles, some PDA's and and... Oh, Windows aswell :-)
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Many thanks for the game Andy, I really am struggling with the RAD: device. When asked for my boot device I enter DH0 hit return but then I get the error of c/movesys not found. Any suggestions welcome.
A1200T Blizzard 603+ PPC 180mhz 68060 60mhz 256mb RAM. 4GB IDE HDD, 9GB SCSI HDD, SCSI CDROM, IDE CDRW OS3.9 Mediator LT4 Voodoo 3 P96
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First of all thanks to the guys/gals that donated some money - very cool of you :) I'll keep a note of that and see if I can organise a discount for you on future software :)
Regarding the link to Amiga Game Database - I can't find the link to the instructions - can you find it please and post it here?
Regarding the ebay dude(s) - what can I do? No the original game came out on cd - in a jewel case, with semi-pro printing for the cover, and an average label (not my art by the way). It never came in a DVD case so I'd suspect that guy has copied it.
Manually running the game:
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Regarding the DH0: issue - I will have to look for a way around that - but first - try just copy the entire contents of the cd to the hard drive (not in a folder called Star - call it SpaceGame or something) and then take the cd away - that's basically an install. Then try running the game from there. It should be "StarFighter/executable" I think - I'll have to dig out the miggy to check so that one is going to take me some time to troubleshoot for you - please be patient and email me if you want for progress.
Regarding the instructions - there should be instructions in a guide and text form on the cd. - I will look for the exact location, but I have a copy here so I will probably post it to the website soon.
EDIT - Yes I found them in the root of the cd (meaning the iso you downloaded) Grab WinGuide from this dude...
Amiga to Win -Winguide (http://tatooine.fortunecity.com/falcon/183/winguide.htm)
and read the Instructions for the gameplay, Tech Readme for the RAD stuff - there's a file in the root called GoForLaunch which should install on most people's computer.
Regarding developing new software for the Amiga - I will have to look into that - If I can get open source c++, opengl sdk and a decent IDE, plus whitepapers on the chips and specs, then maybe. So any advice would be cool if you guys know where to get that stuff - making a game that worked on Amiga and PC at the same time would be cool.
Starfighter for the PC will be written after I have completed BRAVE found here ...http://drewfx.blogspot.com/ (http://drewfx.blogspot.com/)
Again thanks for the donations, and thanks for trying my game :)
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DrewFX wrote:
Regarding the link to Amiga Game Database - I can't find the link to the instructions
Click on the link I posted, go half way down the main AGDB page and you'll see 4 or 5 links. One of them is the Alphabetical list of reviewed games. Click on that and look under "S". :-)
Now .rar files. I'll need a pc to de-archive that will I? Then the image can be written with Nero?
Cheers.
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Angus, your link doesnt work properly. But if you go to your homepage http://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/ and browse form there then all is well.
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ddniUK wrote:
Angus, your link doesnt work properly.
Hmmmm.... well it worked okay for me, both on the pc at work and the Amiga at home. :-/
Anyway, I hope all is clear now.
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So here's the relevant fix he mentions...
My first problems came with the installation procedure. It's possible
to play directly from CD, but that didn't work too well for me. The hard
disk installation comes to around 130 MB, though it took me a while to
figure that out because the install script...er, crashed. Not too
professional. Fortunately, it turned out to be just as easy to drag all
the drawers over to my hard drive.
The next problem was launching the game. It uses up lots of Chip
RAM - you need 2 MB as a matter of fact. The procedure to get as much free
Chip RAM as possible involves running from a RAD: drive, but I had
problems with SetPatch and software resets and so on, so that didn't work
at all. Once again my PicassoIV saved the day: Normally I have almost all
my Chip RAM free anyway. So I did away with the included game-launching
programs, and just made a script that switches to the "Starfighter"
directory and runs the "executeable" program. Presto, the game finally
worked.
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DrewFX wrote:
So here's the relevant fix he mentions...
snipped AGDB text.
No offence, but I'd prefer people to ask before taking text from AGDB reviews. That may seem a bit petty but I get quite a lot of other people assuming they can just cherry-pick the reviews for their own websites, some Amiga related, some not.
I know that isn't the case here, and I appreciate DrewFX's generosity, but its in my interests and those of the AGDB if I maintain a consistent line on this.
Cheers.
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Blooming hell chill
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I agree :)
But anyway thanks so much for sharing DrewFX! Great stuff! And im glad these ebay scammers dont make more money on stolen stuff.
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ddniUK wrote:
Many thanks for the game Andy, I really am struggling with the RAD: device.
Yes, I've not been successful either so far. Has anybody within this thread got it working on Amiga hardware yet.
There isn't an RTG option or a newmode type fix I guess?
I had a mess around using the JST EXECUTE option, and got the credits but no game so far.
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@Angus - Hey sorry for sniping your text - I was only trying to consolidate advice for my game to help others. Do you want me to remove it?
I will get on the Amiga on the weekend and see if I can come up with a solution for you guys how are having troubles. Please let me know your configs and drive mappings (where you installed it to - exact folder names please) so I can debug it.
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DrewFX wrote:
@Angus - Hey sorry for sniping your text
No problem - and understood. :-)
I was able to use the installer, but I suspect because I have a mediator and graphics card I don't think the rad: thing is an option. What I can usually do is run a chipset game in the normal way but output the graphics to a pci TV card on the mediator and display on screen with that. Are the graphics coded in such a way as to prevent RTG from being an option, thus avoiding the chip ram issue?
Would a technique of bypassing the intro screens and going straight to the game be viable?
I should point out that if these are daft questions its because I'm clueless about this stuff. :-)
I will keep my fingers crossed.
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I think the best way to describe the graphics requirements is that if you had 2 meg chip ram and 4 meg fast ram on an A500 (with a math co-pro) it would also run.
It doesn't use AGA, it uses ECS, but it uses dpaint anims to show the animations, and streams iff's as well.
I need more people to write in and tell me their setup and how they installed it because I can only test it on my A1200.
Obviously it runs on my computer, so I will have to guess how you set it up. I can however - while waiting for people to write in - try a few things on my 1200 and give you an accurate description of how it starts up. I think I have a setpatch mod on disk as well, so I will research that and upload anything of use.
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Hi Andy, Andy here.
I just downloaded the game off your website but are running into problems.
I have an A3000, and have Unrar 1.2 I think. As soon as I run unrar, I get starfighter.iso unknown method and then it quits. What am I doing wrong?
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DrewFX wrote:
Obviously it runs on my computer, so I will have to guess how you set it up. I can however - while waiting for people to write in - try a few things on my 1200 and give you an accurate description of how it starts up.
Thanks, that sounds promising. This thread has got me really keen to get the game up and running now. :-)
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Any reason the download fails?
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@ Amiduffer The download failing is probably that the service provider may not always be online. I have noticed some outtages from time to time.
Regarding your download issue, it becomes an ISO which must then be mounted to become a virtual CD. I think I might just unpack it and repack it so you can save it any way you like on an Amiga. You will probably have to us a PC at the moment I am thinking to read the ISO format.
At the time of responding to this, my provider is down. Try again soon.
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So I've been doing a bit of research and found my source code for the RAD: device. I will post that as soon as I can get it off the Amiga and onto PC. I have also found a bunch of Boot Loaders. There are several "GoForLaunch" exe which set up a RAD: device and then reboot the Amiga to load just the game. Some don't use Setpatch, others do, and there is one to use yours.
I have also found the latest patches. I will upload all of these in one package, with instructions on how to use it.
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DrewFX wrote:
Regarding your download issue, it becomes an ISO which must then be mounted to become a virtual CD. I think I might just unpack it and repack it so you can save it any way you like on an Amiga. You will probably have to us a PC at the moment I am thinking to read the ISO format.
Its downloading right now. :-)
I've never dealt with .RAR so I'm not sure what you're saying. I thought it was a packer like .LHA or .ZIP
Is there a step by step direction of how to do it?
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Hmmm... It's been zipped up using RAR on a Windows platform. I assume the format is cross-platform. However I can attempt to repack it using LHA.
I have an archive (RAR) uploading now that has been unpacked and removed from the ISO format (which is a virtual cdrom format) into just Amiga files. I've repacked it and it will be available shortly.
I will then pack using LHA for straight Amiga users.
Which is favourite format for people? LHA, LZH, ZIP or RAR?
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Never mind, I just used the office PC to unpack it. Its now on a CD. There's two folders Starfighter_Amiga_CD and Starfighter_Amiga_CD_1 both which have one file Starfighter.iso in each.
What do I do now?
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Hmm not sure how you got it that way. Have you got Daemon Tools or Nero Image drive? You will need them to connect to the ISO to read the contents. If you can wait about 10mins I'm uploading the LHA archive which is easier to use.
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Okay here's the new LHA file - which should work natively on the Amiga. At any rate, it unpacks to folders, not an ISO
Star.lha (http://www.divshare.com/download/1998690-6c5)
I'll upload all the patches in about 8 hours.
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I have an A3000, and have Unrar 1.2 I think. As soon as I run unrar, I get starfighter.iso unknown method and then it quits. What am I doing wrong?
Ok, your have overcome this problem, but keep in mind that this happened because you are using a very old version of unrar.
Dearchiving RARs using an Amiga is not a big problem. You need a LOT of free memory, though and a recent version of unrar:
http://amiga.sourceforge.net/phps/logger.php?download=UnRAR-3.60.lha
@DrewFX
Thanks man! :-)
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@AmigaMance - thanks for solving that.
Now for everyone here's the Instructions on patching...
Instructions (http://www.divshare.com/download/2005256-bfd)
Here's the first patch...
Patch 1 (http://www.divshare.com/download/2005259-b85)
...which updates some missions.
...and here's the final patch which has all the RAD: launchers.
Final Patch (http://www.divshare.com/download/2005285-11b)Patch 1 (http://www.divshare.com/download/2005259-b85)
Good luck and tell me how you went.
Some of these were packed using this Windows program which I am hoping is Amiga compatible - same compression is used for the Star.lha I recently posted.
Windows LHA (http://www.alphazip.com/download.php)
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So now there are 3 people on ebay selling my game. I think this is real sucky.
Ebayer 1 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/STARFIGHTER-AMIGA-CD-rom-NEW_W0QQitemZ160156279914QQihZ006QQcategoryZ98929QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem)
Ebayer 2 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/STARFIGHTER-AMIGA-CD-rom-NEW_W0QQitemZ200144244913QQihZ010QQcategoryZ98929QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem)
Ebayer 3 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/STARFIGHTER-AMIGA-CD-rom-NEW_W0QQitemZ280149377573QQihZ018QQcategoryZ98929QQcmdZViewItem)
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You always have a choice to declare those nasty guys as pirates to Ebay.
As the intelectual owner, this is your right. Simply explain to Ebay the situation.
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I have contacted Ebay about them. They are being investigated.
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What if they are selling the game which they had bought in the past? It is fully original but they decided to sell it because it gets dusted and wastes space on the shelf. It is not forbidden to sell it unless it is original (not a lame copy) and they haven't created another copy for their use.
Or there is something I don't know about this.
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mailman wrote:
What if they are selling the game which they had bought in the past? It is fully original but they decided to sell it because it gets dusted and wastes space on the shelf. It is not forbidden to sell it unless it is original (not a lame copy) and they haven't created another copy for their use.
Or there is something I don't know about this.
Didn't you read the rest of this thread? It is apparently being sold in a form (packaged differently) that was never produced when first released by the author/programmer, and being sold by a group not known by the programmer.
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I read but frankly saying I don't quite get it. You wrote that it was apparently being sold in a form (on CD) that was never produced. So how the game was sold? On floppies? Or is it the matter of the coverage?
I don't want to offend anybody. I just really don't get it from the very beginning.
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mailman wrote:
I don't want to offend anybody. I just really don't get it from the very beginning.
I don't think the CD thing is what its about. Andy (DrewFX)said that somebody selling it on Ebay was claiming they were sourcing the game from a wholesaler. While that's possible, it sounds like it might be dodgy, and so Andy made the game free to everybody.
I think that's about it - good for Andy, I say.
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I was told it was now repackaged in DVD case - which means they don't have the originals. There is nothing wrong with people selling the original cd's if they bought them - that's what I'm asking sellers to prove. It's pretty easy for them to verify the software.
However no-one has been granted the right to mass produce my game (heh heh yeah like it's going to sell $millions$) so multiple copies for sale are not allowed unless they have the original stock that they are selling, or they ask my permission and contracts are drawn up.
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So now there are 3 people on ebay selling my game. I think this is real sucky.
Strange how those all look like it's the same guy.
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1 thread about the same subject is enough.