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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: tonyvdb on June 26, 2015, 04:45:34 PM

Title: Old games on A4000d
Post by: tonyvdb on June 26, 2015, 04:45:34 PM
So been playing around with some of the old games on my A4000d. Why is it some simply won't run no matter how much I try? Even going into the startup and disabling all fast mem and such they just don't go for example Drip freezes as soon as you get to the actual game.
Also when using WHload some games say they need something from an a500 or a1200 to run.
Title: Re: Old games on A4000d
Post by: zipper on June 26, 2015, 05:32:23 PM
Depends on the processor mostly. Which one do you have?
Kickstart also might interfere.
Title: Re: Old games on A4000d
Post by: mechy on June 26, 2015, 06:43:27 PM
Quote from: tonyvdb;791664
So been playing around with some of the old games on my A4000d. Why is it some simply won't run no matter how much I try? Even going into the startup and disabling all fast mem and such they just don't go for example Drip freezes as soon as you get to the actual game.
Also when using WHload some games say they need something from an a500 or a1200 to run.

it sounds like you are missing the kickstarts from a500/1200 in whdload.

With some games you can fall back to OCS and turn off cache in early startup menu-many don't like the 040 copyback cache. Also make sure the game isn't PAL only,some are picky about this.
Reading the whdload slave doc will give some hints sometimes on how to get a game working right. some may need special tool types set.
I set up a pal ntsc 2 position switch on a back slot plate with a 3 wire pigtail to the pal/ntsc jumper in the 4k. this allows me to select pal mode with the switch and i dont have to go into the early startup menu .
Title: Re: Old games on A4000d
Post by: tonyvdb on June 26, 2015, 07:05:13 PM
Sorry, should have included more info.

I'm using a stock 3640 NTSC default machine with 3.1 rom OS 3.1/3.9 on CF cards

I have Amiga forever on my PC can I get those Kickstart images from there?

As usual thanks for everyone's help.
Title: Re: Old games on A4000d
Post by: Oldsmobile_Mike on June 26, 2015, 07:32:46 PM
WHDLoad won't crash if it can't find the right DEVS:kickstarts files.  It's smart enough that it will actually give you an error message "Hey, can't find the Kickstart files, yadda yadda", assuming you're using at least a semi-updated version.

If it's just outright "crashing" (i.e., black screen, won't respond to any button presses including the "quit" key), I'd look into disabling AUTOVEC, NOMMU, and all of the other options in the game tooltypes.  I've found that a lot of games are more likely to run on my A500 (with a 68030), than my A2000 (with '040, graphics card, etc.).  With the proper tweaking they can usually be made to run, but sometimes it's a hassle (i.e., some games are more likely to run if I switch my Workbench from a P96 screenmode to a standard screenmode, disable TCP/IP stack, etc. beforehand).

Good luck!
Title: Re: Old games on A4000d
Post by: mechy on June 27, 2015, 03:54:13 PM
Quote from: Oldsmobile_Mike;791679
WHDLoad won't crash if it can't find the right DEVS:kickstarts files.  It's smart enough that it will actually give you an error message "Hey, can't find the Kickstart files, yadda yadda", assuming you're using at least a semi-updated version.

If it's just outright "crashing" (i.e., black screen, won't respond to any button presses including the "quit" key), I'd look into disabling AUTOVEC, NOMMU, and all of the other options in the game tooltypes.  I've found that a lot of games are more likely to run on my A500 (with a 68030), than my A2000 (with '040, graphics card, etc.).  With the proper tweaking they can usually be made to run, but sometimes it's a hassle (i.e., some games are more likely to run if I switch my Workbench from a P96 screenmode to a standard screenmode, disable TCP/IP stack, etc. beforehand).

Good luck!

Good advice there. its amazing what whdload can do and has done,but it cant fix all the hardware banging pickiness and bad coding of some old games. Its sad that most all the old games were written for the lowest common denominator.