A1200 and old floppy games

[GadgetUK]

Hi,

I've just re-assembled my new A1200 after retrobriting the case and not sure if i've got a problem with the A1200 now.

Workbench loads fine from HDD, and memory test app I ran completed all OK.  I've just booted Menace from floppy, trying OCS with cache disabled and it works for a minute but there are graphical corruptions (lines) that appear before it crashes.  I then tried Turrican and it didnt crash but I noticed the lines again.  

Does this sound normal for A500 games or do I have a problem?

[paul1981]

Hi,

I've just re-assembled my new A1200 after retrobriting the case and not sure if i've got a problem with the A1200 now.

Workbench loads fine from HDD, and memory test app I ran completed all OK.  I've just booted Menace from floppy, trying OCS with cache disabled and it works for a minute but there are graphical corruptions (lines) that appear before it crashes.  I then tried Turrican and it didnt crash but I noticed the lines again.  

Does this sound normal for A500 games or do I have a problem?

Sounds pretty normal. For best compatibility you'll need to softkick Kickstart1.3 or 2.04. SKick would work, as will Relokick. You'll need a Kickstart1.3 ROM image, or 2.04 (A500+) though.

http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/skick346

You can have a hunt for the rom with google, or you can grab the rom from a real amiga with a tool like GrabKick or the like.

http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/GrabKick

Relokick was what I used to use years ago for softkicking 1.3.

The most you can do without softkicking is select Original Chipset, and Disable CPU Caches.

[GadgetUK]

Sounds pretty normal. For best compatibility you'll need to softkick Kickstart1.3 or 2.04. SKick would work, as will Relokick. You'll need a Kickstart1.3 ROM image, or 2.04 (A500+) though.

http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/skick346

You can have a hunt for the rom with google, or you can grab the rom from a real amiga with a tool like GrabKick or the like.

http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/GrabKick

Relokick was what I used to use years ago for softkicking 1.3.

The most you can do without softkicking is select Original Chipset, and Disable CPU Caches.

Thanks, you are spot on! I managed to get whdload installed and struggled to get most games to work but Turrican and others are flawless when patched up to run on 1200 hdd.

I've got some general questions about 1200's, I don't know if you can help?

1) I've got a switchable CF HDD, so I can chose which HDD to boot from.  The workbench drive I used last night has like 1.3Mb avail after startup, which leaves little for whdload.  What uses ram on startup, and can I claw some RAM back somehow?

2) I've read that memory cards (expansion not PCMCIA) can interfere with the PCMCIA slot usage, so I might not be able to use my PCMCIA drive whilst ive got 8Mb in the exp slot?  I have KS3.1 btw.

[paul1981]

Thanks, you are spot on! I managed to get whdload installed and struggled to get most games to work but Turrican and others are flawless when patched up to run on 1200 hdd.

I've got some general questions about 1200's, I don't know if you can help?

1) I've got a switchable CF HDD, so I can chose which HDD to boot from.  The workbench drive I used last night has like 1.3Mb avail after startup, which leaves little for whdload.  What uses ram on startup, and can I claw some RAM back somehow?

2) I've read that memory cards (expansion not PCMCIA) can interfere with the PCMCIA slot usage, so I might not be able to use my PCMCIA drive whilst ive got 8Mb in the exp slot?  I have KS3.1 btw.

2...A ram expansion card (with or without fpu) in the trapdoor will not interfere with the PCMCIA slot if you keep under 8MB. For example, I used to have a 8MB ram card with 8MB simm and I had a Squirrel SCSI interface that plugged into the PCMCIA slot. To use the Squirrel, I had to jumper the card to 4MB, otherwise it wouldn't work. When not using the Squirrel, I jumpered the card back to 8MB.
If you have an accellerator card (CPU onboard) then the amount of memory isn't an issue at all, there will be no conflict with the PCMCIA.

1...Do you have any extra ram at all? Or do you just have the standard chip ram of 2MB?
There are ways to save ram. If it's WHDLoad your interested in, then you could always boot with no startup-sequence and load your game from the shell. Or, boot with no startup-sequence and then at the prompt type "loadwb" followed by return, and then "endcli" which will be the minimum startup (besides stuff that you may have put in your WBStartup drawer) and you can then go to your games and click on them to load them as normal.

If WHDLoad is going to be important to you, then you're gonna need some extra memory in the trapdoor (4MB will be fine). Try this though for optimising your s-s a bit (saves memory and boots faster):

http://aminet.net/package/util/sys/envhandler

This will save you a bit of ram (a lot if you have a lot of preferences saved in ENVARC).

The below should speed up your booting a bit (although I haven't tried this):

http://aminet.net/package/util/sys/lDMNDRVS