Amiga.org
Amigakit Hardware => A600GS & A1200NG => Topic started by: SkulleateR on March 12, 2025, 11:32:59 PM
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Ok, I used to use my A600GS a lot, often just for playing some A500/A1200 games from ADF (sometimes WHDLoad) but there are games that are not very demanding BUT will not run smooth on the A600GS and so I´ve put it away some time ago. But let me explain ...
Two examples :
The Lost Pixel : https://amiga-factory.itch.io/projectlp
Casltevania AGA : https://danteretrodev.itch.io/akumajou-dracula-aga
Both have slowdowns, The Lost Pixel got stuttering music (like hell) even in the menu and the game is unplayable slow ...
So I gave both games a try on my Pi400 with Amiberry 5.7.3 (that´s thee closest I get to the Version 5.7.5 on the A600GS) and hey, the same Slow Downs. So I got down the rabbit hole and downloaded older versions and with Amiberry 5.6.7 everything is running smooooooooth with a bog standard A1200 default config.
So there has to be something gone wrong after 5.6.7 that makes some games unplayable, maybe that´s something only midwan can fix or something can be done by AmigaKit, just wanted to point out and I really would love to get this fixed so I can use my A600GS more often ...
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Midwan is going to look into it.
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The latest version of Amiberry-Lite, which you should be using on an RPI4, is 5.8.6: https://github.com/BlitterStudio/amiberry-lite/releases/tag/v5.8.6
Testing with that version, on the latest RPI-OS and an RPI4 here, I cannot recreate any issue with the above titles. They both run full-speed.
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The latest version of Amiberry-Lite, which you should be using on an RPI4, is 5.8.6: https://github.com/BlitterStudio/amiberry-lite/releases/tag/v5.8.6
Testing with that version, on the latest RPI-OS and an RPI4 here, I cannot recreate any issue with the above titles. They both run full-speed.
Yes, I can use higher versions on my Pi, that´s ok ... the point is I cannot myself update the version on my A600GS and there ARE slowdowns ;)
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@SkulleateR
@broadblues is currently merging to the latest version- you should get an update soon. Hopefully this will redress these issues.
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@SkulleateR
@broadblues is currently merging to the latest version- you should get an update soon. Hopefully this will redress these issues.
Looking forward to it, thanks for the info ...
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Yes, I can use higher versions on my Pi, that´s ok ... the point is I cannot myself update the version on my A600GS and there ARE slowdowns ;)
Sure, I only mentioned that because you specifically referred to your PI400 test there, and that caught my attention.
If you test the latest version on your Pi400, does it work full speed?
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Sure, I only mentioned that because you specifically referred to your PI400 test there, and that caught my attention.
If you test the latest version on your Pi400, does it work full speed?
Sorry for the late answer, yes it does run full speed :)
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Latest Update on A600GS (Amiberry 5.8.7) shows the same issues as before, Sound distortion and slow gameplay compared to a real Amiga :(
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Installed latest 46.1.1049 update and got some time to tinker around on my A600GS.
Same as SkulleateR I have to report that latest 5.8.7 Amiberry does not sort out the speed issues on the A600GS, e.g.
Jim Power ... unbearably slow
ReshootR ... unbearably slow
XTReme Racing AGA v2.0 ... unbearably slow
Reshoot Proxima 3 ... 1st level ok, slowdown in other levels but still playable
What has improved with 5.8.7 is stability. E.g. XTReme Racing AGA v2.0 crashed Amiberry 5.7.5 after a few minutes of play (at most). Now with 5.8.7 I was able to complete a full season without crashing. That is with JIT off, with JIT enabled it still crashes rather quickly.
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Hi All,
I've recently picked up an A600GS this past weekend and one of the disappointing things was finding slowdowns in some of my WHD installed games that I've put on the Amibench installation. For example games like Bubble Bobble, Edd the Duck, its almost like there is a slowdown before it catches up, so similar to issue that others have reported.
If its an issue with Amiberry I guess we have to wait until the next update. :( For those who have noticed this issue, does this occur if you install a separate 3.1 installation.
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Hello
If you install using WHDownload archives in the Games menu there should be no performance issues. My colleague had these running on his system at the show.
In the Edit menu there are options such as JIT and Faster chipset
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In the Edit menu there are options such as JIT and Faster chipset
Not for WHDBoot, only ADF and ISO have those options. It would be great if we did.
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Ok, so I had a good opportunity today to really play around with the machine A600GS. I even managed to do a 3.9 set up thanks to iowtheme's useful video tutorials on Youtube on how to set up a workbench on a 1200NG.
I tested out a few games too both as ADF files and also as WHDload installs within 3.9 and I found the following games would stutter during gameplay:
Pang (on Title screen and on interval screens)
R-Type 2 (runs at a really slow framerate in general)
St Dragon (starts ok but gets slow in places)
Chaos Engine (similar to Pang, slowdown in the music on title and character selection screen) but once in game you are fine.
Space Harrier was a little sluggish too.
The same thing happens on Amibench too despite putting these in the programs folder as suggested.
The JIT emulation setting can either make the game better or worse depending on the game from the above tests.
It kind of reminded me of an issue I used to have when I owned a Sam 460, but luckily that version of E-UAE had a frameskip that you could then tailor to each game.
I honestly think some form of frame skipping setting and greater customisation of the emulation package within the menus would be welcome. I am saying this constructively because I actually think the A600GS is a good product and want it to succeed.
In general I was more impressed with my purchase after getting OS3.9 set up. I have even ordered the latest OS 3.2 to set up when it arrives.
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Ok, so I had a good opportunity today to really play around with the machine A600GS. I even managed to do a 3.9 set up thanks to iowtheme's useful video tutorials on Youtube on how to set up a workbench on a 1200NG.
I tested out a few games too both as ADF files and also as WHDload installs within 3.9 and I found the following games would stutter during gameplay:
Pang (on Title screen and on interval screens)
R-Type 2 (runs at a really slow framerate in general)
St Dragon (starts ok but gets slow in places)
Chaos Engine (similar to Pang, slowdown in the music on title and character selection screen) but once in game you are fine.
Space Harrier was a little sluggish too.
The same thing happens on Amibench too despite putting these in the programs folder as suggested.
The JIT emulation setting can either make the game better or worse depending on the game from the above tests.
It kind of reminded me of an issue I used to have when I owned a Sam 460, but luckily that version of E-UAE had a frameskip that you could then tailor to each game.
I honestly think some form of frame skipping setting and greater customisation of the emulation package within the menus would be welcome. I am saying this constructively because I actually think the A600GS is a good product and want it to succeed.
In general I was more impressed with my purchase after getting OS3.9 set up. I have even ordered the latest OS 3.2 to set up when it arrives.
Hi outrun1978,
After reading your post, I thought I'd give some of those a try myself. I've started with Pang.
On a Custom Amiga 1200 setup with 2 MB of Chip and 8 MB of Fast, CPU 030 maximum speed, and JIT activated, Pang (WHD-Load) stutters on the titlescreen. However, when I turned off JIT on the same setup, the stutter disappeared. Please give that a try to see if it works on your setup. Would be interesting to know.
Running Pang as an ADF with an Amiga 500 setup 512 KB + 512 KB gives a smooth experience here. There is no JIT activated there either.
Also tried Chaos Engine with no JIT as WHD-Load with the same setup. No stutter here.
R-Type 2 works without slowdowns as well. Just tested.
From these tests, it looks like having JIT activated can slow down some games.
I tried degrading the system to Amiga 1200 / 020 / 2 MB Chip 8 MB Fast / 14 MHz - No JIT. Tried running Pang (WHD-Load) and it worked great. :D
Now I changed the system to a 68040 / 2 MB Chip 8 MB Fast / Maximum speed with JIT, and the stutter re-appeared in Pang.
Running firmware 46.2.1098.
Update:
Activated JIT on 68030 setup, but sat max MHz to 25... stutter disappeared in Pang with JIT... Maybe this is the problem? Having CPU Speed set to maximum? Hope someone can give this a try too.
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@AmigaOldskooler
Thanks for that really useful post and advice.
I am pleased to say your suggestion to downgrade the machine to a more stock based set up appears to have worked in resolving some of the slowdown issues.
I retested this using an A1200 68030 set up 14mhz 2mb chip and 8mb fast ram
St Dragon now doesn't stutter.
Neither does Pang
Both were tested with JIT on.
So yes the maximum speed setting and 68040 processor may cause problems with the emulation.
Thanks again
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JIT hast always been an issue with old Games, even in WinUAE ...
I don't think it's possible to work around it, that's why you can turn it off ;)
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@AmigaOldskooler
Thanks for that really useful post and advice.
I am pleased to say your suggestion to downgrade the machine to a more stock based set up appears to have worked in resolving some of the slowdown issues.
I retested this using an A1200 68030 set up 14mhz 2mb chip and 8mb fast ram
St Dragon now doesn't stutter.
Neither does Pang
Both were tested with JIT on.
So yes the maximum speed setting and 68040 processor may cause problems with the emulation.
Thanks again
Sounds great! :) Thanks for confirming, and happy that the post was of help! Have a good weekend!
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Has anyone else tried Dune 2? It seems to crash on the highscore screen. I'd imagine an error to do with writing to disk.
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Hi, got a few more!
Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis (adventure) - says out of memory then crashes (v2.3_0851)
Secret of Monkey Island shows "Game Paused. Press SPACE to Continue." throughout the intro. despite no keys being pressed. Game otherwise works fine. Kinda slow, but maybe that's just the Amiga version (v3.7_1625)
Kings Quest V is also really slow (v1.3).
Worms Directors Cut doesn't seem to load (only tried v1.3_AGA_8MB_0605)
Cheers
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Hi, got a few more!
Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis (adventure) - says out of memory then crashes (v2.3_0851)
Secret of Monkey Island shows "Game Paused. Press SPACE to Continue." throughout the intro. despite no keys being pressed. Game otherwise works fine. Kinda slow, but maybe that's just the Amiga version (v3.7_1625)
Kings Quest V is also really slow (v1.3).
Worms Directors Cut doesn't seem to load (only tried v1.3_AGA_8MB_0605)
Cheers
Same for me with Indiana’ and Worms DC. I think SOMI works for me though, will need to check …
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Hi, got a few more!
Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis (adventure) - says out of memory then crashes (v2.3_0851)
Secret of Monkey Island shows "Game Paused. Press SPACE to Continue." throughout the intro. despite no keys being pressed. Game otherwise works fine. Kinda slow, but maybe that's just the Amiga version (v3.7_1625)
Kings Quest V is also really slow (v1.3).
Worms Directors Cut doesn't seem to load (only tried v1.3_AGA_8MB_0605)
Cheers
Are you loading these via A600GS System Menu WHDBoot import or from AmiBench?
Most of these games dont't work for me except when running it from custom AmigaOS
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Are you loading these via A600GS System Menu WHDBoot import or from AmiBench?
Most of these games dont't work for me except when running it from custom AmigaOS
Sorry, that's from the System menu. Anything that doesn't run directly there as a whdload, will typically work in an A1200 Custom System I created with whdload installed.
Edit: Oops, though that was a reply to me :-)
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From the system menu also. I haven't tried any via Amibench
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@Twiggy
I'm not seeing the "Game Paused" issue in Secret of Monkey Island and the game play seems acceptable to me - though I haven't done a significant play through yet.
I have a wired USB keyboard attached to the A600GS if that's of any relevance.
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Can confirm that the WHD-Load version of Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis crashes (returns to the launcher). The ADF-version runs fine and works without any problems.
The Secret of Monkey island WHD-Load version works without any slowdowns. Did not notice the pause-problem.
Worms Director's Cut, WHD-Load version, does not load, black screen only. ADF-version works fine from launcher.
As for King's Quest, I'm not sure how fast it is supposed to be, but I put the speed slider to max and it looked ok in my opinion.
Tried viewing Hall of Fame in Dune II and it worked.
I hope that AmigaKit will make it possible to change configuration when setting up WHD-Load games from the launcher. That would help a lot! 8) As for now, I've found adding ADF-versions instead makes the games work properly. One can also, as has been mentioned, use a custom setup as well, but using the launcher is very convenient.
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Maybe the Monkey Island thing was a me problem. I'll see if I can recreate it.
As for speed. I didn't compare it to a real Amiga, so I wasn't sure what to expect really.
Did you try saving your score the Hall of Fame after a mission on Dune? I think the error is when it's trying to do a write (at a guess anyway).
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Did you try saving your score the Hall of Fame after a mission on Dune? I think the error is when it's trying to do a write (at a guess anyway).
Saving won´t work with the built in JST tool for whdload, see https://forum.amiga.org/index.php?topic=77120.msg863062#msg863062
Your only option would be a new setup Workbench with real WHDLoad in it and play those games there ...
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One can also, as has been mentioned, use a custom setup as well, but using the launcher is very convenient.
Are there any guides on how to setup said "custom setup"? Can that involve the OS3.2 ADF files we get on the CD with that package?
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@outrun1978
Cool! I've now found iowtheme's useful video tutorials on Youtube! They look great!
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Anyone had any luck with Silkworm working via WHDload on the launcher?
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Anyone had any luck with Silkworm working via WHDload on the launcher?
Hi Twiggy,
Installed it now and it worked fine. What kind of issues are you having? I did not play it for long, just a couple of minutes to see that it was working. :) That said, Silkworm is a one-disk game, so if WHD gives you trouble, you can go ADF with A500 Kickstart 1.3 settings.
Edit: Played through the first level and the boss and no issues here.
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Hey, thanks for your reply.
I got corrupt graphics, then it just went black.
Eventually I went through a few different ADFs with different combinations until I found one that worked.
I'll give WHDLoad another try all the same. Is there a way to enable different custom= WHDLoad options?
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Is there a way to enable different custom= WHDLoad options?
Sure, just open the Tooltype and set them ... like CUSTOM1=1, save and restart, that's it :)
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Anyone had any luck with Silkworm working via WHDload on the launcher?
No issue for me with Silkworm whdload either (Silkworm_v1.5_0388.lha).
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I was using Silkworm_v1.5_0388.lha also. Hmmm, maybe I can try adding it again.
From the System launcher we can set the Custom options? I'll have a look when I get a mo
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Some stuttering audio on FantasticDizzy_v2.2_AGA.lha
and CrystalKingdomDizzy_v2.0a_0109.lha goes to a black screen
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Some stuttering audio on FantasticDizzy_v2.2_AGA.lha
and CrystalKingdomDizzy_v2.0a_0109.lha goes to a black screen
Fantastic Dizzy seems ok to me, again I might need a longer play through.
Black screen also for me with Crystal Kingdom Dizzy. Maybe @SkulleateR can have a go, he seems to have more luck with whdload files in the menu.
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Anyone tried Hybris? I can't seem to get beyond the main menu and select my fighter. It doesn't recognise the fire button, then the screen changes it and gets stuck on the main game screen (just the desert terrain with nothing else but the music playing). I tried a reboot, then it crashed (but it did acknowledge the button press, as that's what caused it!)
On the third attempt, I got to the loading screen, I could select my fighter, but then it freezes at the main game screen (i.e. desert backdrop).
and it's NTSC, so the display is a bit off. Is there a custom= setting for that? and if so, how do I apply it from the A600GS System menu?
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Anyone tried Hybris? I can't seem to get beyond the main menu and select my fighter. It doesn't recognise the fire button, then the screen changes it and gets stuck on the main game screen (just the desert terrain with nothing else but the music playing). I tried a reboot, then it crashed (but it did acknowledge the button press, as that's what caused it!)
On the third attempt, I got to the loading screen, I could select my fighter, but then it freezes at the main game screen (i.e. desert backdrop).
and it's NTSC, so the display is a bit off. Is there a custom= setting for that? and if so, how do I apply it from the A600GS System menu?
Hi Twiggy,
The WHD-Load version gets stuck on the main game screen here as well.
The ADF-version works fine from the launcher and is in PAL. :)