And, just to get you even more excited, here's the results of my testing with the beta cores which should behave like the final ones released here:
All tests done with PIC latest update and beta PAL core set for 512KB Chip/1MB Fast and 60Hz mod unless stated otherwise with ADF write support.
Menace: The bug which allowed you to see the mothership being "drawn" has now been fixed with the intro now showing a smooth scrolling ship launching the fighter. However, the bug where the fighter's shield are run down with what is probably bad collision detection with the background graphics remain (I think I remember this problem with early versions of WinUAE which has since been fixed).
Rodland: Now working perfectly. Before, the score area on the right hand side of the screen was missing.
Pacmania: Now working perfectly. Before, the maze graphics were completely corrupted.
Settlers: Now working perfectly. Before, the menu buttons for issuing commands was corrupted and unreadable.
Desert Strike: Now working perfectly. Used to give a disk error while trying to load.
Detroit ECS: Seems to work perfectly (1MB/0.5MB). Before, used to hang when displaying the intro graphics at the modern silver car. I created several blank ADFs using WinUAE and copied them to the SD card. I used one to save the game and then rebooted and successfully reloaded the saved game. Lots of disk swapping though - needs a hard drive install or 2 floppy drives. It also seems to keep the list of saved games on the 1st game disk so it needs to write to that too,
Elite: Game worked before, tested ability to make a non-DOS save game. Inserted a pre prepared "blank ADF", formatted it from the game menu, saved game, checked catalogue - OK, rebooted Minimig, loaded game, loaded save position - works perfectly.
Alien Breed: Before the main player sprite was invisible. Game now seems to work perfectly except with some small random graphics corruption that appears for a split second between "scene changes", such as between the intro text and the start of level 1. I thought that the doors could be "shot" open using a lot of ammo, but they don't now - however this may have been a feature of the later Alien Breed games where there were 2 types of doors (ones that could be shot open and those that couldn't).
Troddlers: Works perfectly. Before the main player sprite was invisible.
Lemmings 2 - The Tribes: Used to lock up and guru after the crack screen. Now works perfectly.
Cannon Fodder 1 - Still works and it is confirmed that the reason for the dark flashing "lockup" is that people with only 1 drive have to insert disk #1 and then reinsert the previous disk each time.
Alien Breed 92 SE: Used to lock up after Super Frog advertisement. Seems to work perfectly. Doors can be shot open so this may have been introduced in the Special Edition and Alien Breed is working fine.
X-Out: Used to lock up after the crack display. Works perfectly.
Walker: Used to lock up after crack intro. Works perfectly.
Hostages: Still has the same problem where the SWAT team are immediately shot and killed as soon as they break cover.
Cannon Fodder 2: Works perfectly. Yes!!!
Wing Commander: Game works fine and it saves to Disk 2. I quit the game and reloaded the save position, flew a mission - got killed - works great.
Lotus3: Completed a race fine. Music and graphics are flawless.
Addams Family: Used to lock up during theme music, but now works OK.
Bards Tale: Game works perfectly. Character disk allows deletion/creation of party members.
Federation of Free Traders: Seems to run, but I'm buggered if I can remember the controls. Attempting to make a save game disk from a blank ADF results in a WriteTrack error #22. This is due to non-standard code for floppy disk control.
Carrier Command: When attempting to write to a safe game disk is reports WriteTrack error #23. It doesn't ask for a formatted disk, just states that it wants to write to 1 of 4 areas on the disk. Same problem as FOFT, non-standard floppy controller code.
Bards Tale 3: Works perfectly. Disk 2 is the save game disk.
Frontier - Elite 2: Works perfectly. Can save and reload from main game disk.
Chaos Engine: works.
Cannon Fodder: Started formatting a blank ADF then screen went blank. Disk activity continued (light flashing) and finally stopped. Screen remained blank and I had to reset the Minimig. I reloaded Cannon Fodder and then tried to save to the ADF I previously tried to format and the game appeared to save. I played a level and then reloaded the saved game position and it found my data and reloaded it perfectly. I tried to format another ADF file to see if that made a difference and got the same crash midway through the format.
Speedball 2: didn't work at first, locked up.... until I tried toggling between PAL and NTSC mode on the crack intro screen by right clicking the right mouse button and then it worked fine. :-)
Populous: Works fine. NOTE: I tried one ADF that wouldn’t work.
Syndicate. Works perfectly, however here’s some of my testing notes: My Syndicate disk 2 already has a DARRIN game saved in slot 7 from playing it using WinUAE. I had been trying to overwrite this saved game and then getting the "Insert Disk 2" error. Anyway, I loaded the backup ADF image from the PC as you requested, attempted to save over the position and got the same error again. I then rebooted the Minimig and saved to empty slot 8 and it worked. I loaded from slot 8 and then resaved over the existing file in slot 8 with no problems. I guess my slot 7 has been corrupted somehow when saving from WinUAE. I've attached the ADF with my slot 8 save. SO BEWARE OF AN ADF THAT HAS BEEN “WRITTEN TO” BY WinUAE.
UFO Enemy Unknown ECS version (or X-Com depending on where you bought it): Works and saves fine (apart from the disk swapping). It wouldn't work before as it needs to save to disk 3 as the game plays.
DUNE 2 (6 disks plus 1 save game disk): Works perfectly. Formats a save game disk from a blank ADF and games save fine. Needs Hard Drive support as it's a real pain to play off floppies.
Colonization: When I went to save the game I discovered that I needed a disk named "COLONIZATIONSAVES". This needs to be created before the program runs and is simply an Amiga formatted disk with that name.
Alien Breed Tower Assault: Works perfectly. I used disk #2 to format and create a Hard Drive Install disk and is appeared to complete the task (unfortunately I can't test it).
Barbarian (Psynosis): Locks up and doesn't work. Needs a modified ADF which is in limited circulation.
Barbarian 2 (Psynosis): Works perfectly.
Railroad Tycoon: Works perfectly.
Sensible World of Soccer: Works perfectly. Formatted a save game disk, saved career, reloaded.
Populous 2: Works perfect. Saves games to Disk #2. Saved and reloaded game.
Pirates: Works perfect. Games save to a standard Amiga formatted disk.
Sim Ant: Works perfectly. Saves and loads to/from game disks. Hi Res version won't run, but I think that is because it needs at least 2MB of RAM.
Microprose Golf: Works perfectly and saves to game data disks.
Nuclear War: Works perfectly.
Millennium 2.2: Works perfect. Formats and saves to a game disk.
R-Type: Works Perfectly.
Shadow Dancer: Minor graphics corruption - 8 lines drawn down each screen in intro, but vanishes during game play.
Twintris: Works perfectly.
It Came From The Desert: Works fine, needs a save game disk called "DSAVE".
Now, go and buy a Minimig! :-D
