Help with WinUAE, specifically w/ Pool of Radiance

[Maxor127]

I recently had some nostalgic urges to play old games.  I decided to try out my copy of Pool of Radiance for Amiga.  I've played both the C64 and DOS versions of it, but since the Amiga version has better sound, I thought I'd try that instead.  I've finally got it working.  I'm using the latest WinUAE version and I'm following the recommended settings from back2roots.org.  Anyways, my problem is the actual speed of the game.  It's very slow.  Maybe I'm just used to the other versions, but the game is significantly slower.  I'm sure my computer is more than enough to handle it.  Things like arrows being shot across the battlefield are especially slow and annoying.  I have an Athlon 64 3000 w/ 1 GB RAM and Radeon 9800 Pro graphics and I'm running WinXP.  I tried changing different settings to make it run faster, but all I get is slightly faster speed and distorted sound and freakishly fast animations.  Any help on the different ways to make the game faster or more responsive?

[Maxor127]

Now it seems my save disk (adf image) keeps getting corrupted somehow.  Looks like it happens once I leave New Phlan and try to save in the Slums.  One error said "Key 954 already set."  I ended up using diskdoctor to fix the disk but once I tried saving in the Slums again, it stopped working.  I'll try saving only with "save state" files now.

[Maxor127]

Yeah it's cracked by Skid Row.  It's all I can find.  The game saves fine at first, but once I enter the Slums, it seems saving corrupts my save disk. But it saves fine in New Phlan.  I tried using save states instead but I get errors once I enter the slums and save and load from a save state too. With the testing I've done, it seems to happen once I fight a battle in the Slums and I try to save. Then it hangs, and if I try using the disk again, it gives errors saving the disk is corrupted, and I have to use diskdoctor to restore it. If I use a save state after a battle in the slums, I get this message "Software Error - Task held - Finish all disk activity." I'm using ECS chipset and Kickrom 1.3 and the latest version of WinUAE and ADF disk images.

I had a similar problem years back when I played Pirates on UAE for Mac and it would randomly corrupt my save disk so I had to make sure I had a fresh backup of my file each time I played in case it got corrupted. My problem with Pool of Radiance is unavoidable and recurring, though. The game saves fine up until the area I mentioned.

Are cracked versions really that bad?  I have the code wheels so I could use a clean version if I had it, but it's nice not having to look up those codes.