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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Software Issues and Discussion => Topic started by: MarkWatson on August 09, 2006, 09:56:05 PM
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Is there a trick to running Civ AGA under OS 3.9? It runs fine from disks, but if I install to HDD and run it from Workbench I get a green screen then a reboot. The same happens if I run it from WHDload, except it brings up the crashed quit dialog rather than rebooting.
This is with a Blizzard 1260. Its not the 060 by itself that causes it since it runs from disks. I tried using nocache on whdload with no effect.
Thanks,
Mark
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Well, actually... or... uhm...
Some parts of Civilization AGA is packed (with some version of PowerPacker, if I am not misstaken, because when wanting to edit the graphic files, for example, one has to unpack them first)...
...on my Blizzard 1230 the game ran perfectly fine for me, from disk and from harddrive, with or without WHDLoad. But on my Blizzard 1260 I've had exactly the same problem as you describe... a green screen as soon as try to run the game from HD (but from disk works just fine).
I'm not sure, but I think I've read somewhere that this is due to the PowerPacked files (or whatever kind of way the files are packed). But I may be way off here...
...besides, the WHDLoad slave should handle this anyways, I am pretty sure (but it doesn't say anything in the WHDLoad installer readme, though)...
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The slave does use xfdmaster.library (iirc) to unpack the powerpacker binary. So I doubt its that. Though perhaps the unpacking doesn't work on 060 with xfdmaster either and if I turn off the cache before installing (i.e. unpacking) I'll have more luck. Hmmm, seems doubtful even as I type it!
I'll have another go tomorrow and if I have any luck I'll post back here with how.
Thanks,
Mark
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Sorry to say that I just tested my WHDLoad installed Civilization AGA and it's working fine. The only tooltype I'm using is PRELOAD.
My guess is either you have an unsupported version, or something went wrong during the install/unpack routine. Did you log the install and look for any errors? Care to list your directory and I'll see if the file sizes match mine?
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Could it be that when running from disks you're launching it with a cold boot and setpatch doesn't get executed ?
I have this problem with settlers, only works if you boot without startup sequence and directly launch the program. :)
Just quessing here though!
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I use a Blizzard 1260 and run 3.9, never had the problems you describe though.
I have just installed Civ AGA normally though.
You could always try getting the latest version of WHD and reinstalling it.
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I remember doing a few things to get the CivAGA installed right. Maybe take a peek at SnoopDOS and see if it's looking for a file or path that isn't quite right.
Seems like there was a patch on Aminet that helped HD installs, too.
Also, wasn't there a mod to speed up those terribly slow screen fade-in / fade-out routines?
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adolescent wrote:
My guess is either you have an unsupported version, or something went wrong during the install/unpack routine. Did you log the install and look for any errors? Care to list your directory and I'll see if the file sizes match mine?
ok here goes, though it looks like the Slave checks the file sizes. I tried replacing CivizationAGA with the packed version from the disk and it complains about invalid file sizes.
387920 CivilizationAGA
32984 adscreen.lbm
9660 alexander
26352 arch.lbm
14792 back0a.lbm
11056 back0m.lbm
12224 back1a.lbm
18484 back1m.lbm
21368 back2a.lbm
14300 back2m.lbm
15448 back3a.lbm
23940 birth0.lbm
49572 birth1.lbm
39388 birth2.lbm
21132 birth3.lbm
22376 birth4.lbm
24452 birth5.lbm
27212 birth6.lbm
26808 birth7.lbm
27528 birth8.lbm
20192 blurb0.txt
14920 blurb1.txt
8508 blurb2.txt
56 blurb3.txt
7236 blurb4.txt
7252 building
4432 castle0.lbm
16148 castle1.lbm
20612 castle2.lbm
24176 castle3.lbm
27540 castle4.lbm
21648 cback.lbm
41784 cbacks.lbm
11172 cbacks1.bbm
17712 cbacks2.bbm
14412 cbacks3.bbm
4076 cbrush0.bbm
3244 cbrush1.bbm
6300 cbrush2.bbm
5172 cbrush3.bbm
8232 cbrush4.bbm
7500 cbrush5.bbm
11212 ceasar
3068 cele2
13800 citypix1.lbm
23844 citypix2.lbm
23928 citypix3.lbm
328 credits.txt
19328 custom.lbm
21848 diffs.lbm
22496 discovr1.lbm
18396 discovr2.lbm
17536 diskfont.library
6972 docker.lbm
3224 elizabeth
848 error.txt
5972 evoltn
2668 explode
276 fame.dta
7764 frederic
8500 ghandi
2448 ghengis
968 hamarabi
2648 help.txt
25832 hill.lbm
18364 iconpg1.lbm
19952 iconpg2.lbm
18316 iconpg3.lbm
23484 iconpg4.lbm
19416 iconpg5.lbm
21028 iconpg6.lbm
19476 iconpg7.lbm
11908 iconpg8.lbm
22432 iconpga.lbm
21040 iconpgb.lbm
18504 iconpgc.lbm
21544 iconpgd.lbm
15960 iconpge.lbm
13220 iconpgt1.lbm
16680 iconpgt2.lbm
24260 invader2.lbm
27048 invader3.lbm
22152 invaders.lbm
4372 king.txt
30708 king00.lbm
23808 king01.lbm
22128 king02.lbm
28632 king03.lbm
36072 king04.lbm
27632 king05.lbm
20600 king06.lbm
31872 king07.lbm
24928 king08.lbm
28980 king09.lbm
26920 king10.lbm
25864 king11.lbm
14708 king12.lbm
24368 king13.lbm
1308 lincoln
10888 logo.lbm
36520 love1.lbm
34604 love2.lbm
764 mao
2424 map.lbm
2756 monty
31324 nGOVT0A.LBM
28068 nGOVT0M.LBM
23288 nGOVT1A.LBM
28460 nGOVT1M.LBM
28328 nGOVT2A.LBM
29452 nGOVT2M.LBM
22520 nGOVT3A.LBM
1120 napoleon
12316 nuke
15548 nuke1.lbm
16012 planet1.lbm
36140 planet2.lbm
18164 pop.lbm
1060 produce.txt
760 ramses
26988 riot.lbm
26964 riot2.lbm
872 sadorch
4280 saladin
2592 settlers.lbm
3976 shaka
15536 slam1.lbm
12964 slam2.bbm
7612 slam2.lbm
18492 sp256.lbm
18492 sp257.lbm
12156 sp299.lbm
43612 spacest.lbm
13812 sprites.lbm
1196 stalin
828 story.txt
1676 sword
21728 ter257.lbm
7272 title
5328 war
1860 winspace
35800 wonders.lbm
11676 wonders2.lbm
I tried running with no startup sequence, but whdload says it needs AGA! Which seems odd since it has it.
Mark
Thanks,
Mark
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I tried running with no startup sequence, but whdload says it needs AGA! Which seems odd since it has it.
Until Setpatch has been run your machine is practically ECS.
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Mark,
Are you using your 3.9 ROMs? Maybe there's something in the ROM the WHDLoad slave doesn't like. Try with a 3.1 ROM and see if that makes any difference.
--
moto
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Good idea. I just tried putting back the old 3.1 roms. I've got to burn both to the same chips and add a switch, before all these pins get metal fatigue! Should just be a case of tying the correct address pin to vcc/gnd depending on if I want high or low.
WHDLoad fails with the same crash. Without whdload using 3.0 setpatch (and all the civ assigns) I just got a freeze on a green screen, though I could move the mouse a few minutes.
Think I'll try e-mailing the slave author. Fingers crossed they can spot something in the core dump.
Mark
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@Mark
Odd, all of my files except the CivilizationAGA executable are larger than yours. Can you check your files to see if they're still crunched?
Edit: I checked the installer and part of the operation is to use xfdDecrunch to decrunch all of the files. I don't think this happened during your install. Try running xfdDecrunch #? on the directory and see.
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BTW, I'm running OS3.9BB2 with the ROM update so I don't think it's anything to do with that.
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xfdDecrunch did run, but it only decrunched the CivilizationAGA file. I was wondering why it went through everything if it did not decrunch any. Interesting. Well that definitely sounds plausible...
Can you give me an example file that was larger on yours? LBM files?
Mark
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I've been reading a bit more about this on newsgroups. It sounds like the LBM files are compressed using powerpacker and can theoretically be extracted with XFD. Mine are the same size as on the disks (and can't be viewed with multiview) so I guess they must be packed. However xfdDecrunch says "Not crunched" when I run it against them.
So how can I decrunch these files?! I looked at them in a hex editor and they start with "5150 3032" or "PQ20". What packer uses that?
Thanks,
Mark
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OK, got it working:-) All the powerpacker decompresses claimed blind that those files were not compressed. So I went back to a trick suggested by some people on newsgroups.
The trick was to run Civ from disks. Then exit to DOS. From the cli copy the contents of all the disks to HDD. This decompresses them on the copy since Civ has installed a system patch to decompress files on reading. Though I still had to use xfddecrunch to decrunch the CivilizationAGA binary itself, oddly.
Now the question is - why does the decrunch of the other files work for everyone else? What is it about my box? I tried uae as well with the same results...
Mark
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Sorry, 4th reply to my own post:-) Just after I used the copy from disks after running civ trick I got an e-mail from the whdload patch author. They send me a tool decrunchciv. This does all the decrunching, much simpler:-)
Mark