Saving in Cannon Fodder on the Minimig: Darrin can do it??

[Darrin]

I'm here!

OK, I'm in the middle of painting at the moment, but give me a chance and I'll power up the Minimig tonight and check it out.

Sometimes it boils down to what ADF files you are using (there were a couple of games that didn't work with one set of ADFs and then worked perfectly with a different set).

Worst case, I'll send you my game ADFs and the "save" ADF.  

One thing I will add is that I created the save game ADF from a standard "blank" ADF made using UAE.

[Darrin]

@Franko: Does that version of yours save & load on the Minimig? I have a VERY nice HD version wich saves and loads on real AMiga and UAE but it doesn't work on Minimig. Have you tested it there?

@Motorollin: those ADFs would be nice, of course...

Check your PM, send me a reply and I'll wing you the ADFs.... be quick... I'm about to head outside and get covered in paint...

[Darrin]

@Darrin: PM sent! Sorry if I was too late and you're already covered with paint!
Be careful not to paint the Minimig!

No problem.  I've been trying to format a disk using the Minimig and I'm getting Gurus.  

It might be a configuration thing.  Currently I'm using a v1.1 with a ARM board, KS3.1, 4MB RAM, 4 "floppies" and turbo mode.

When I did those tests, it was on a basic v1.1 with an old core with no ARM, probably 1 floppy (2 at the most), etc.

I don't have time to try different configurations at the moment, but I'm emailing you the game ADFs and a blank ADF.  I'll try fiddling with it myself tonight.

Let me know if you get it to work with a particular set up.  It worked once so it has to work again.  Unfortunately I can't find the "save" disk I made because I probably reused it when playing other games.  

[Darrin]

Yeah, I use WHDLoad on my Minimig using ClassicWB and KG's WHDLoad game packs, but I have the extra RAM.

[Darrin]

I have several 1200. One is here, has 8MB Ram, and 6 more are in my village.
But I'd like to be able to play Cannon Fodder on the mighty Minimig, too. For me, FPGAs are the hardware of the future when it comes to retro systems.

Just got home after taking the wife and kids out for a meal and to see TRON.

The FPGA Arcade should be the best solution.  Fast, plenty of RAM, AGA, hard file support...

[Darrin]

@Darrin, did you manage to recreate the working savedisk?

Sorry, with Xmas, visitors and my kids running around I haven't yet.  It is on my "to do" list.  

My kids liked Tron.  I saw it in 3D and the effects were great, but the story was rather bland.  Basically, you knew what was going to happen next all the way through, but it was worth seeing.

I liked the way they used digital effects to make Bridges look just like he did in the 80s.

[Darrin]

Did you try to get the savedisk working, Darrin?
Not that important, but well, I could use save in Cannon Fodder

I couldn't with the latest core on the Minimig (although the WHDLoad version saves to the hard file).  Unfortunately the testing was done with a much older core.

I then had the idea of powering up the C-One which uses an older Minimig core, but I got sidetracked with issues with that core (joystick detection not working correctly, only one sound channel plus the SID chip for C64 emulation playing up).

Somewhere in my office is a CF Card with a C-One core that does work correctly and that is my last hope for producing a working save disk.  Unfortunately I'm in Houston until Friday.

[Darrin]

Hi Gaula,

It's OK, keep reminding me.  

No, sorry, I still haven't.  What limited time I had on the weekend (my other "Amiga", the wife, kept insisting that I do things with her) were wrapped up updating my Minimig to the latest core and then trying to get that 1.6GB hard file speed sorted as I was only getting about 50% of what I should have been.

I was also getting issues with my Minimig not recognising a different SD Card.

Eventually the issue was tracked down to the formatting on the SD Card.  It seems that the formatting tool for CF and SD cards given away with your typical OS' doesn't fully conform with the standard laid out (according to Panasonic).  So I downloaded their free formatting tool and it fixed the new card so that it worked, and I reformatted the old card and the speed doubled (although I can't rule out that high speed mode may have been issue).

Anyway, that's as far as I got and now I'm back in Houston again.

I'll try again this weekend now that I have a fully functioning and tuned up machine to try it on.

For the record, here's how the new Minimig v1.1 & ARM core is responding on SysInfo:

OLD CORE/FIRMWARE:
Minimig 4MB with ARM using 2GB SD Card
68000 @ 39.00 MHz (as reported by SysInfo)
Drystones 1611
Mips 1.68
Chip v A600 = 3.00
speed v B2000 = 2.30
speed v A600 = 3.04
20MB Hard File: 822,627 Bps (OS3.1)
1.6GB Hard File: 833,968 Bps (ClassicWB, boots in 18 secs)

NEW CORE/FIRMWARE (Before reformatting card):
Minimig 4MB with ARM using 2GB SD Card
68000 @ 52.50 MHz (as reported by SysInfo)
Drystones 4591
Mips 4.79
Chip v A600 = 5.68
speed v B2000 = 6.56
speed v A600 = 8.67
20MB Hard File: 890,636 Bps (OS3.1)
1.6GB Hard File: 885,621 Bps (ClassicWB, boots in 12 secs)

After reformatting card with Panasonic untility:

1.6GB Hard File: 1,966,080 Bps Bps (ClassicWB, untimed boot)

Just for interest, I had my A2000 set up so I compared the speeds to that:

Meanwhile, I ran Sysinfo on my A2000 (because it is the only real miggy I have set up and working right now as the A4000 is in pieces again):

A2000 ECS 16MB Fast RAM & RTG CV643D
68040 @ 32.60 MHz (as reported by SysInfo)
Drystones 23,347
Mips 24.37
speed v B2000 = 33.40
speed v A600 = 39.77
40MB hard drive on GVP CPU SCSI: 1,569,724 bps
4GB CF Card attached via IDE Bhudda: 1,422,119 bps

So, all in all the Minimig stacks up pretty well as a cheap Amiga, especially for those who only really want to play games.

[Darrin]

This is very interesting indeed... Did you ask about the Minimig not being able to read a Transcend 4GB SDHC on the Minimig forum? I'm having problems with 4GB SDHC cards, too, but I can't find the solution.

Try using this download to format the card:
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/sd/download/index.html

The 1GB card I initially used refused to work and (IIRC) the red light on the Minimig stayed on and the green one flashed while the screen stayed black (or perhaps it was the other way around).  Anyway, after reformatting with the Panasonic software (on the same machine) and putting the same files back, it booted first time.

Personally, I've never used an SD card larger than 2GB on my Minimig, but I believe it supports up to 16GB.

[Darrin]

Well I still can't get a save game ADF made on the Minimig v1.1.

I got the C-One going and thought I had made some more progress, but my C-One has issues with it locking up and refusing to boot unless I "wiggle" the RAM.  Well, it locked up during testing, I wiggled the RAM and the little plastic bits that hold the RAM in place snapped.  It now refuses to boot at all.

RIP C-One.  It is probably for the best as the damn thing has been sending my blood pressure through the roof since I bought it.

[Darrin]

Sorry to hear that about your C-ONE. I was once tempted to get one of these (years ago) but of course I finally skipped it... requiring a PC powersupply didn't look like a good sign. I believe it's death is for good: Minimig is just a lot better

In the other hand, I believe another solution would be to run the AmigaCD32 Whdload version of Cannon Fodder, but WITHOUT whdload. The Whdload version includes the game executable and it has AGA registers access removed (from it's readme), but the Amiga OS won't recognize the file as an executable one.
Could you take a look, please? I think it's something stupid, like the main executable file (called cannon_game, in the data/ folder) not having the proper header or something.

http://www.whdownload.com/games/Update-2007-09-11/CannonFodder_v1.1_CD32.zip

Unfortunately I'm now in Odessa, Texas and almost 1000 miles from my Minimig.  I could be here for a month.