Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: arkpandora on September 17, 2006, 05:20:01 PM
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Hello everyone,
Can someone tell me where I could find WHDLoad-installed games ?
I would like to test (on a real Amiga) some games of which I don't have any working original, which may have not been released by the SPS yet (for example "Elvira - The Arcade Game"), and without having to make use of floppy disks.
Thank you for any link !
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Surely the whole point of WHDLoad is that you can only put uncracked games on to your hard drive, which kind of means you need to own the original game ?
What are the specs of your Amiga ? How do you propose to get the games to the Amiga without floppy disks ?
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Requesting links to copyrighted software is against a.org site policy.
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moto
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Go visit English Amiga Board and read their FAQ.
http://eab.abime.net/
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Hi,
Thanks for your replies !
Actually I have already installed - and I am using - my originals with WHDLoad. But some of my original disks don't work anymore. Whenever IPF files are available, the WHDLoad installer can (sometimes) use them instead of the original disks, but in some cases no IPF files have been released yet. In that case, the only way to play an original version is to download pre-installed games. That's why I wanted to know if it is possible to find pre-installed games for download. I have found a few websites until now, but the main one is not available anymore, and the others don't offer many games.
When using IPF files or a pre-installed game, a floppy drive is not needed to run the game.
Against Amiga.org policy ? Well, I'm sorry, thank you for the link. I didn't realize that since I'm not against policy copyright, but trying to find replacements for my originals which are not working anymore. As for the games I mentioned, I don't have the originals, since I want to "test" them. But since numerous originals have now become unusable, I won't try to find one only to find out that it does not work, since I only want to test them, in other - copyright - words, determinate if the original is worth buying. If those Amiga games were on CD, all I would have to do is buy them. But copyright is overcome by physics, so overcoming physics is the first way to protect copyright, and that's what I am doing.
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I believe there are many sites that offer amiga games and software that have been freed from their licenses. There are many out there, but the one below, from what I read, only offers software where the licenses have been released.
Questionable Link Removed by Admin
I often prefer the cracked version over the original purchased ones -- less hassels.
F-18 is a perfect example. I love that game and hgave three original copies, but I always use the hacked version so I don't have to look up the code everytime.
Have fun and continue to support our few remaining vendors.
S
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Thanks ! I didn't know this site.
But it seems to offer ADF files only, which are disk images of non-original (basically cracked) disks, not installed originals.
WHDLoad installers usually offer the same convenience as cracked copies, that is no more software protection and sometimes trainers, with more accuracy (since the original disks are used) and more comfort (quit key, built-in degrader, etc.) Actually F/a-18 Interceptor's codewheel protection is removed by the installer, so since you have a 68020+, KS 2.0+ and a hard drive, just see http://www.whdload.de/games/F.html ...
Since my initial question seemed to be somewhat taboo, I will reword it (just replace the games list by "Rody & Mastico", English version) : is there a legal solution for someone who wants to go on using an original game which has become unusable, if no original disk image of this game exists yet, or if the latter can't be used on a real Amiga ?
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Have you checked EBAY? Its full of used, boxed, cheap Amiga games.. and its legal
When your game arrives, just use WHDload to install it, its easy.
BTW, dont forget to register WHDLoad, it removes nag screen.
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Hi,
Thanks for your advices, but yes most of my originals come from eBay or online shops. Buying another copy doesn't solve the problem, since any other original is on floppy disk too, hence perishable. If my original copy does not work anymore, so may do another one. If you find another copy for an affordable price, you can take the risk, but some games can't even be found anymore, or for a price that doesn't justify that risk. Anyway, almost every game on floppy has now gone past its life expectancy, so even games which are still in working order won't soon work anymore. So buying another copy of a game is not a solution.
Yes, I do use WHDLoad : that's why I am looking for WHDLoad-installed games. And I have registered it, of course. But WHDLoad alone doesn't solve the problem either, since it needs working original disks, or the SPS' IPF disk images of them (which too have to be downloaded somewhere if they aren't provided by the SPS themselves).
That's why my initial question is relevant, and not infringing any copyright.
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MOTO - Requesting links to copyrighted software is against a.org site policy.
@arkpandora
and not infringing any copyright.
Whether or not you own the game is'nt the case. The Rules at A.org state as Moto said no links to copyrighted material, just because you own certin games does'nt mean everyone else does. And these sites also WILL contain games you dont own! So if you wanting to find these sites then I guess you better start asking Google!
You have also been giving a link to certin ADF's! I dont really see what your problem is in downloading these files and transfering them back to floppy disk and then using the WHD installiers for the game.
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@sdyates
Disclaimer: All the software on this web site is no longer marketed or distributed by the companies that created it. In fact most of them no longer exist (sadly).
The games are all at least ten years old and not sold by companies anymore. Also remind that the copyrights of them has expired.
That is nonsense. Copyright does not expire in 10 years (it's closer to 130-150 years, assuming the author lives normal lifespan). Those downloads are illegal. If some website has such "Disclaimer", you can be pretty sure it IS warez and illegal downloads.
Please edit out the link.
I believe there are many sites that offer amiga games and software that have been freed from their licenses.
www.back2roots.org was the only one I knew of, but it had special license for distrubution of each file. Those files were NOT freed from their license, however, and redistribution was not allowed.
Example of another legal site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream17#Legal_downloads): http://www.dream17.co.uk/softography.php
Dream17 has been given permission from Team17 to host ADF and IPF (SPS) Disk images of their Team17 titles. Under no circumstances is anyone to re-distribute or leech these titles without the prior consent of Team17 Software Ltd. Dream17 would like to thank the Software Preservation Society for giving us access to the IPF disk images.
Note how they do not claim any license or copyright "expiration" or such nonsense.
There are many out there, but the one below, from what I read, only offers software where the licenses have been released.
Seriously now, you believe such nonsense?
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@arkpandora
Quote:
"Where can I find WHDLoad installed games ?"
On My Harddrive :-P
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Hi,
if you wanting to find these sites then I guess you better start asking Google!
Ah! the kind friendship of Amiga.org members... ;-) I did ask Google, but the latter wasn't more helpful.
OK, to Nasty :
I would agree with you if we were talking about comercially available games, and if we were I wouldn't have started this thread, since I would have bought the games I was asking for. However, not only are numerous (if not most) Amiga games not available anymore, but even available games are perishable, hence unusable, soon if not already.
So let's consider three kinds of players. To date, downloading an original's replacement copy may be the only available solution to the problem of game owners, which nowadays is the problem of every honest person who plays floppy disks games. A person who does not own a game but wants to buy it, is or will soon be in one of the two following situations : he is unable to find the game he wants to buy, or there is no point in him purchasing the game since he knows it is or will soon be unusable. Those remaining people who wouldn't buy the games they play won't be able to make the situation worse since no Amiga game is still on the market, so today no Amiga game can suffer from their behaviour.
So what must we do ? In this situation, we have to choose between relying on people's honesty and preventing them to use what they own ; the first option is the most natural one. Since the third kind of person does not change anything to this situation, the second option isn't even justified. Anyway, honesty is not the result of adult prohibition but of child education.
In order to protect artists's interests and copyrights (which is a daily struggle as far as I'm concerned), to my knowledge only two solutions exist : to authorize a game's owner to download a replacement copy of his perishable game if one is available, or to re-release the game. Since no re-release is scheduled, I am entitled to download a replacement copy if one is available. And whenever I don't already own a game, I have to test it before trying to buy it, in case it would not be worth the hassle of years of eBay research (when it would be normal to order it from a computer shop), and deception of finally getting something unusable (but sometimes pleasant on a bookshelf).
By the way, the reason why I don't want ADF files is that they are not copies of the original game, but hacked-cracked ones, which mostly have altered the originals and are not compatible with WHDLoad installers. And since my floppy drives are getting old and shaking, I prefer not to use floppies at all whenever possible. Amiga floppy drives aren't manufactured anymore either.
Well, do you still believe I am wrong ?
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@arkpandora:
I can sympathise, I had an A1200 with loads of WHD installs and loads of originals on floppy, then my HD died. No problem, reinstall a fresh Workbench, or so I thought.... When 10-20% of your original floppies are corrupted, and your backups randomly show read errors, what can you do?
Most people here, fail to accept that Amiga floppies (and floppy drives) are looong past their shelf lifes and are virtually irreplacable. And people are still hypersensitive to piracy, 10 years after its a moot point with the Amiga. In many countries, if the host hardware is no longer in production/marketed then the software falls into a grey area in terms of the legality of duplication for private use.
Personally, I found life a lot simpler with WinUAE, and soon made that my primary Amiga source. I havent touched a floppydisk since.
Screw WHDload!
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IIRC, the SPS/CAPS team that makes .ipf said that you may send them your broken original floppies and get .ipf, that could solve your problem. Also, have you tried using some copy program to read several times bad tracks and make working backups?
Maybe someone could just send you track that is unreadable, dunno if that would violate the copyright..
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@arkpandora
Whether your right or wrong! it is still the policy of Amiga.Org not to publish links to copyrighted material. So if there was such a site that offered only freeware then there would be no problem in giving you the link. But the games you have asked for to my knowlegde are still under copyright and therefore giving you a link to a site that contains these files, means that the person would be breaking the policy of this site. And Wayne has to look after the interests of the site before the need of members! Our personal views dont come into it. This is something you would need to take up with the copyright holder.
As for replacing your broken games you have afew options
1)ebay
2)amibench
3)Ask afew member if anyone has the required broken floppy disk (they may request so proof that you own the original e.g photo!)and they might send you an ADF from the orignal floppy
4)Place a WTB advert on the site!
But as for someone here giving you a link to the games, thats gonna be a no no!
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Hi,
To Coldfish :
"People are still hypersensitive to piracy" : you're probably right. Even when it's not about piracy, but on the contrary attempts to perpetuate works of art. The music industry knows the problem very well... *sigh*
I tried WinUAE a few years ago, but it seemed awful to me, because it does (did ?) not include any software algorithm that could adapt the emulated screen refresh rate to the emulator's refresh rate. Since no VGA refresh rate is an exact multiple of a PAL or NTSC refresh rate, animations can't be displayed normally : some original video signals are displayed more times than others. Have current versions of WinUAE found a solution to this problem ? It concerns every Amiga or C64 emulator I have tried. Connecting the graphic card to a TV is not a solution, because its video signal is a conversion of the VGA signal, not a direct video signal.
To Orange :
Thanks, you are right, I learned that SPS can send IPF files to the owner even if the game has already been released. I can do that for some games, but not all since my games have not all been released by the SPS (but some of my dumps have not been sent yet). And not anyone can do that, since you have to depart from your original disks or own a 68020+ (etc.) Amiga in order to dump them before sending them to the SPS. Anyway, not every IPF image can be used on a real Amiga with WHDLoad, and it can't be transferred back to a disk. So this is not a solution to our problem.
Most copy-protected disks can't be copied nor read by any software copy-program. I know that X-Copy sometimes succeeds in duplicating some copy-protections, but only in rare cases obviously, and whenever it does, the result is another - perishable - floppy. So I'm afraid this is not a solution either.
Trying to share floppy disks tracks between copy-protected disks and between game players who haven't any technical knowledge, when the whole HD-installed package is available on the Web, is absurd, isn't it ?
To Nasty :
Well, I guess I have now understood that giving a link to copyrighted material is against the policy of Amiga.org. But my thread was not more about my needs than about the needs of any Amiga games owner, hence the interests of the Amiga community, hence the interests of this site. Moreover, the purpose of this policy is to protect copyright ; and the purpose of copyright is to avoid piracy. Yet, if one doesn't have the opportunity to find a replacement copy of a game he owns, or the opportunity to test a game he can't find for sale, piracy is his only solution. And as I said in my previous post through my "third kind of people", in this particular situation (unavailable or unusable games), there is no point in avoiding piracy. So in this situation, I think that this policy is not justified, and is harmful in the eyes of the artists, who are the finality of copyrights.
I agree this would have to be discussed with the copyright holder too, but I won't discuss with every copyright owner, and anyway I doubt he will be more receptive than you or Amiga.org's policy can be...
As I explained, any solution that implies finding another old copy of the same age is not a solution to our problem since numerous games can't be found anymore, and anyway not one will still be in working order in a short while.
You'll understand that my aim now is not to have my initial question answered, but to find a solution to the problem this Amiga.org policy has raised.
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I dont know exactly what caused the framedrop youre talking about with WinUAE, it could be a lot of things including what you noted.
With a relatively fast PC (1Ghz+) you'll have none of these issues once WinUAE is setup right. I run WinUAE on several machines, it does get a bit choppy on my P3-600 laptop, with demanding games, esp with sound emulation on 100%.
On my 1gig HTPC the same game runs fine using exactly the same settings and ver of WinUAE. Through a TV and with some output (TVtool) tweaking for screen size/refresh ect, its really very good for the occasional bout of Amiga nostalgia. Better than the hit-and-miss-compatability-struggle that was my real A1200.
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email me at John@jmcdonline.com - I pretty much have them all.
J
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Hi,
To Coldfish :
Is WinUAE's quality of the animation really like on a real Amiga ? Scrollings, or the mouse pointer movement (in the Amiga native screen modes) for example, are they absolutely perfect, without jumps ?
The problem I am talking about is not a framedrop : every frame is displayed. It is not a problem of emulation quality or speed, but a limitation of any modern computer, since all of them use different screen refresh rates than the original video screens.
Let me take an example. You are emulating an Amiga default PAL screen, whose original refresh rate is 50.12 Hz, on your WinUAE using a 120 Hz (for example) screen mode on your PC monitor. It means that the emulated screen (the Amiga) displays 50.12 frames a second, whereas the emulator screen (the screen mode you use on your PC) displays 120 frames a second. A condition of the Amiga's quality of animation is that the frame rate of the animation is adapted to the screen refresh rate. A graphic object that makes a one pixel move 50.12 times a second is an example of a perfect animation on a 50.12 Hz screen, since the computer makes the same move on every monitor signal. If the display's refresh rate is an exact multiple of 50.12 Hz (for example 100.24 or 150.36 Hz), this animation remains perfect : the only difference is that every state of the move is displayed more than one time (two times in 100.24 Hz, three times in 150.36 Hz). But every state of the move is still displayed the same number of times. Now, if your screen's refresh rate is not an exact multiple of 50.12, every state of the move will _not_ be displayed the same number of times. In our example, a PC screen of 120 Hz, some states of the move will be displayed two times, some others three times. The result is that your animation is not smooth anymore : it slows down when a state of the animation is displayed three times, and speeds up again while the following states are displayed two times, making animations look like epileptic. To my knowledge, there isn't any VGA refresh rate that is an exact multiple of the PAL or NTSC refresh rate, so that displaying a good Amiga animation on a PC is impossible (a Commodore 64 emulator for example will suffer the same problem). Unless some software comes in between the emulator's output and the video output, which rescales the emulated refresh rate in order to adapt it to the PC refresh rate. This would involve some graphic "anti-aliasing" techniques that would create an illusion of continuity by drawing on each VGA signal what the user would see at the same moment on a real Amiga video screen. At the same moment, that is between two frames of the original signal, so this software would have to know the following step of the animation in order to display one in the appropriate way, so that such a software must be added to the code of the emulated machine. Being not a coder, I can't be sure of that, but it seems to be a difficult task. Not to mention that it needs a good knowledge of the human visual sense and perception.
I have just tried out the latest WinUAE : on my Windows 98 Pentium 3 at 500 MHz, as expected the problem shows itself. If it doesn't manifest itself on your faster PC, then it could mean that WinUAE does include such an aglorithm and needs a certain power in order to run it. However, I did not find any mention of such a function in the docs. The only thing I find is a function called "Vsync", which for PAL involves selecting a 50 or 100 Hz refresh rate. I don't what this produces, and can't test it because it doesn't work on Windows 98. But this function seems to be more simple than what is required, and is about skipping frames, not scaling animations, so I doubt it solves the problem, nor if it is the purpose.
Any opinion about this mystery is very welcome.
To Skilgannon :
Thanks for for the help ! I have just e-mailed you.
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hmm.. would using TV-out solve the problem?
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Unfortunately not (it's even worse !), probably because the TV-Out signal is a conversion of the VGA signal, not a direct video signal.
Maybe emulating an Amiga on an XBox or another console would give better results than UAE, but I don't know if such an emulator exists as I don't have any modern console.
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jesus christ all this crap talk about copyrigth on software that are 10-20 years old. for godsake give the man some games so he can enjoy his 20 year old amiga.... or isnt people here intrested in people using the "uber machine"... if the copyrigth holder dont want you do play his old games, then its his job to uphold the copyrigth not people here at a.org.. and for what i have seen there are 100000 sites out there that offer these old amiga games and they dont hide it either, guess what the copyrigth dont care, its as simple as that... its about bloody time people grow up and start focusing on the amiga4.0 and its future than 20 years old games...
________
SHIP SALE (http://ship-sale.com/)
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Well, mind you don't mix up copyright defence and policy application. After all, that's what this thread is about ; not mixing human and machine.
Well, I don't like your avatar.
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@arkpandora
The obvious solution is to adjust the emulation timing to match the exact video frequency (50.12 for example). The difference is so insignificant you can't spot it, and timing is perfect then.
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@TjLazer
What has eab to do with a.org?
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What Piru said.
Basically, both the real Amiga and the emulated Amiga are rendering frames in an animation.
There's a lot of ways to get around the difference. One way I can think of is to tweak the emulation clockspeed (which is what I think Piru is talking about?
The emulated machine renders its frames at a speed that is in sync with its hosts output display signal. The real Amiga might draw 50.12 frames per second and the emulation host machine might output 50fps, so the emulated Amiga system will be clocked slightly slower 50/50.12=0.998. Therefore the emulated animation plays 0.998 speed of the original. Does that sound like BS or not?
Its academic though as most modern video cards can output a huge variety refresh rates, Windows doesnt let you tweak them by default, you have to try something like Powerstrip or TVtool.
I really dont know how it works, but I can assure you on a 1gig machine with XP WinUAE runs fine. I just fiddle and tweak until it works without noticable glitches.
Hope this helps?
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Thanks Coldfish and Piru for your help.
But the newbie in me is getting confused.
Is there a real difference between the original Amiga's 50.12 fps rate and the WinUAE-emulated Amiga's 50 fps rate, or is the latter simply rounded down in WinUAE's texts (docs and menu) to make it clear ?
If there is a difference, then how do you change WinUAE's timing in order to display perfect animations on a PAL TV, which displays 50.12 Hz (or 100.24 Hz) and not exactly 50 Hz (or 100 Hz) ?
If there is no difference, then I assume that external tools like TVTool are enough to go round the Windows or graphics rate refresh rate, and display the emulated 50 Hz Amiga directly on a PAL TV. As I have not used external tools yet, this is the problem I have not managed to solve until now. For example, CCS64 (the Commodore 64 emulator I use) emulates a PAL C64's exact 50.12 HZ clock, but animation on a 50 Hz TV is much worse than on a 100 Hz VGA screen mode. Now, how can WinUAE be configured in order to display 60 fps instead of 50 on my 60 Hz LCD monitor ? I am trying to adjust the timing levels I find in the Properties menu, but it doesn't change anything. Here too it's possible that Windows is a bad intermediary that prevents the 60 fps from being displayed directly to the 60 Hz monitor ; I don't know. There is also a "FPS adj." level that matches the Amiga frequency, but obviously it doesn't change the timing, just adds or skips frames.
"Found life a lot simpler with WinUAE", eh ?
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Re: WinUAE timing and stuff - I dont know. Piru?
Try it with:
-sound emulation disabled
-frameskipping to every frame, then every second frame.
-Drive speed 100%
-CPU: match A500 speed
Any change?
-An older version; 0.8.8 - I think was the fastest and most feature filled for older machines?
But Yeah, WinUAE can be a pain to set up. When I built my HTPC there was no rush, so I just picked away at it when I felt the urge.
(As a side note) - I guess thats why a lot of people like their Amigas more than their work PCs, the PC is for important/time critical stuff whereas the Amiga is for hobby work/games so you never associate it with the stress and frustration that comes with a machine that is being buggy when you need it to work?
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@arkpandora
I want to commend you on that EXCELLENT explanation of the crappy Animation epileptic seizure crap that WinUAE displays..............utterly makes WinUAE useless for me as a Total Amiga replacement.
You see I once considered taking a laptop with WinUAE instaed of lugging my real Amiga and all its parts to the night clubs where I did VJaying.............but the animation looked like pure 100% Caca!.........but the funny thing is that other VJ's who were using PC laptops and were using Windows applications to do there visuals had the same Animation cracking epiliptic crap problem........and it was all because we all had to be connected to a Projector via S-Video and I guess their PC's couldnt handle the output realistically..............the Mac users seemed to do fine most of the time...and some PC did well also. I suspect there are Gfx cards out there that will get it right..............Possibly the ATI ALL-IN-WONDER Pro.......they know a little something about Video Output. But thats one of the cards I tried it with and couldnt get the animations to look right.......although I did use the scan line effect which looks lovely and like a real Amiga, but the animations ran with that bad epileptic crap going on.......................
ontop of that the Mouse movement in WinUAE is awful....I still cant get used to it. Some people probably dont notice it.
I know the Refresh or epileptic thingy going on can be fixed or displayed properly somehow if there is a proper S-Video output card.
I thought I was alone on this.................now I know im not...........................PC's suck for Video most of the time.
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To Coldfish :
At present, I can't test WinUAE on a TV or video monitor, as I need to move my PC for that purpose. But I know WinUAE alone won't be able to solve the problem, as no other emulator I tested on my TV, including CCS64 which is an almost perfect emulator and doesn't even need as much as my PC's 500 MHz, can't solve it either. That's the main reason why to date no emulator can replace my Commodore 64 either.
So for the moment I am testing WinUAE on my 60 Hz LCD monitor. To this end I use the least CPU-demanding Amiga configuration possible : 68000, KS 1.3, OCS, no sound, no hard drive, etc., starting from the default settings of my freshly installed WinUAE, the latest version. "Drive speed" therefore is definitely "100%", and CPU is on "match A500 speed". What you call "frameskipping" (I suppose it is the "refresh" option) can't be changed, for whatever reason. As it is not intended to re-scale the frame rate, I doubt it would help anyway. I use two disks : a WB 1.3 disk in order to test the mouse pointer, and the demo "Deadly Jammin II" in order to test some scrollings that are perfect on a real A500, mainly a simple text scrolling.
I have now tried every possible option in order to improve the quality, but not one changes anything. The animations remain awful, like on any other emulator I have seen. As far as a scrolling is concerned, the problem caused by the refresh rate difference is obvious, and WinUAE behaves here like CCS64 on the same screen frequencies : scrollings are rough and make regular jumps. Speeding up WinUAE to 60 fps in order to make it match the monitor frequency doesn't change anything, but it seems that this option has no effect if the frame rate is increased beyond the normal rate (50 fps). When it comes to the mouse pointer, it seems to me that it isn't only a matter of gap between frequencies : the pointer is moved like Windows' mouse pointer, as if it was drawn pixel per pixel instead of being moved as a whole graphic sprite. For example, as in Windows until W98, you can see several mouse pointers at the same time during motion. By the way, 2000 or XP's mouse pointer moves slightly better, but still much worse than a real Amiga pointer on a native Agnus or Alice screen mode.
The only WinUAE setting that might have a chance to change something is the "Vertical sync" function in the Display menu, provided (according to the docs) that the screen mode is changed to a real 50 or 100 Hz. Here it doesn't change anything, but I can't switch my LCD to 100 Mhz, and according to the docs this option needs a fast PC. But in order to be effective, this option would have to change the 50.12 fps into an exact 50 fps, because a 100 Hz screen is exactly 100 and not 2 x 50.12 Hz ; I kind of made sure of that using CCS64 on my previous CRT monitor, whose 100 Hz modes provided the best animation (although still jumping).
I guess an earlier version of WinUAE would not help, since at least it would be necessary to bring the emulation to the same rate as the screen refresh rate. Anyway the last WinUAE version I tested (on another Pentium 3) was earlier than 1.0. I also tested the "Fellow" emulator, which brings the same results.
What's the model of your graphic card ? As Leirbag28 confirms, maybe only some cards are able to output a TV signal without that scrambling of the input's frame rate. Mine is a 1999 Guillemot Xentor 32, with nVidia TNT2 Ultra processor.
About your side note : you are right, but I don't use PC's at work, so I am pretty sure your hypothesis won't explain every situation ! There are even more people that binned their Amiga because they wanted that same PC they were used to work (and get bored) with.
To Leirbag28 :
Thank you ! I don't feel alone anymore either.
"The Mac users seemed to do fine most of the time" : how do you explain that ? Did these Mac use special TV outputs, or a standard graphic card's TV-Out ? If their outputs were the same as the PC's, then maybe the operating system is at stake. Or Mac users were able in some way to preview the video result.
To _ThEcRoW :
I guess EAB has nothing to do with Amiga.org. TjLazer was in fact referring to the Games download links, not another copyright policy.
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Ah well, It sounds like WinUAE doesnt want to play with you.
My HTPC is a Gf2-GTS-vivo & AMD Duron 1Ghz running XPpro and TVtool. The Gfx card is modified to output Scart-RGB for connection to a TV or Projector.
I think TVtool tweaks the output signal to true PAL/NTSC? I use NTSC because thats the native resolution of the projector I have and I get a pixel:pixel fit which looks nice and sharp.
I do remember noticing some issues back when I first setup this thing, but after all the tweakings and fooling about with it, I cant remember specifically what fixed it? Maybe it was simply TVtool or maybe it has something to do with my gfx card?
Sorry I cant help.
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Or maybe it is me who doesn't want to play with it. After all, I thought WinUAE was useless to any Amiga owner until you found life easier with it !
Thank you for your informations. Your PC seems to be rather standard, or I don't understand what you mean by "vivo".
Yes, I will try TVTool... when my Amiga is unusable. Maybe I will also have bought a more powerful computer for UAE in the meantime.
What puzzles me is this paradox : you must have a very specific system (TV or video monitor, tweaking tools such as TVTool, etc.) in order to make UAE resemble a real Amiga, and yet most people, including former and present Amiga users, claim that WinUAE can replace a real Amiga.
Well, I must conclude that the mystery remains.
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VIVO, just means Video-In Video-Out, its a capture card and TV-out in one. I got it for $7 (used) for the video-in feature, so I can record TV to the hardrive.
I didnt build this system with WinUAE in mind, I built it as a HTPC with some emulators, MAME and NeoRage ect, in the process of getting those to display nicely I discovered Tvtool which also got WinUAE to display better.
I just like tinkering with computers, I started on the C64 worked up through Amiga and now PC's, I dont get too attached to the hardware or spend a lot money, because eventually I do something wrong and it ends up in the bin.
Ooops! :-D
My next project is a handheld PC based on nanoITX and a 7" touchscreen, it'll be cool and have an in-car mount with GPS. I just have to wait for the mobo price to drop a bit more...
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Is the TV-in of your GF2 card a factory feature, or a do-it-yourself ? Would it be possible that your TV-out is different from the standard TV-out of any other GF2 ?
As for me, I don't have any tinkering skills (so far I'm even unable to unsolder anything - just to burn irons), and I don't like that, which is a handicap when it comes to (old) computers. Actually I have several Amigas, but most of them are out of order because I haven't ever managed to learn how to fix them...
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arkpandora wrote:
Is the TV-in of your GF2 card a factory feature, or a do-it-yourself ? Would it be possible that your TV-out is different from the standard TV-out of any other GF2 ?
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Its a bog standard ASUS-7700/Vivo... something.
The main reason I used this card, is because it has a Chrontel TV-out chip, on which you can do a very simple hack to get Scart/RGB out, (my 5" LCD only has Scart/RGB in). TVtool tells the card to output RGB instead of the usual Composite/S-video.
When I plug it into a VGA monitor or TV, WinUAE performs just the same, so my hack isnt doing anything special. TVtool fixes the refresh rate to true PAL/NTSC with overscan ect. The nVidia drivers dont allow for much signal tweaking and have only recently improved the tv-out functions. Unfortunately, on newer cards the TV logic is integrated into the GPU so you cant hardware hack much.
Tinkering is a learning process, its fun if youre not too worried about breaking things. :-D
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Thank you, I have to bet on TVTool then. I will let you know what the results are.