Amiga puzzle - disconnected worlds! help?

[paul1981]

What's a RAWDic? ... if that's not a rude question?


I installed that megademo, and it's older than Lemmings...

Any solutions very much welcomed. It would seem that the very first game I try to install is the one with a legacy of issues... only 1 actual install file on the whole internet that I can find...

Curious that the same thing happened with the Turrican install... Could it be that RAWdic thing? I'm out of options...

Just get what you want from here:

http://whdownload.com/

Much quicker...

[paul1981]

I've visited that site already... it doesn't offer any Install files. ... I don't know how to manually rig WHDLoad to search for a specific adf etc...

You don't need the install files. Simply find the games you want, unzip them and they're ready to run.

[paul1981]

"Ready to run" in what sense? I've downloaded these... I couldn't get anything useful to happen.

That would indicate a software issue with your Amiga then. These files once unzipped contain an already installed game or demo. There is the icon for the game or demo to double click to load it.
Perhaps on the ones you tried they needed kickstart files that you may not have in your 'DEVS:Kickstarts' drawer. Or, some games/demos may need a 68020 or above (sorry, can't remember what Amiga you're trying to run these on).

[paul1981]

RAWdic is a command which is supposed to convert an NDOS ADF image into a format that can be used by WHDload. I've tried it recently and got an error message saying something like the files wasn't in AmigaDOS format!

I have got my PCMCIA card reader now, but then I found out that my current laptop doesn't even have a PCMCIA slot. It was an older laptop, now broken, which had one. I would also have to install some files onto an Amiga formatted CF card before my Amiga A1200 can recognise it. This means removing the CF card from the Amiga and putting it into my new USB CF card reader. I hope this won't corrupt the new CF card, which is what seems to have happened to the other one.

If all of the above doesn't work, then I'll just give up and buy a device with WHDload as well as lots of games and demos preinstalled, then I'll never attempt to install any more onto it. This device may be called a "disco duro", but I can't tell you where to find it, because of the Copyright Police.

Corrupted your CF card? If you can't format it anymore it means the partition has been lost that is all. Re-create a partition and re-format (quick).

[paul1981]

When dealing with WHDLoad forget about ADF's or dms files... Each install is different, some retain the whole floppy images whilst others will utilise directories and files for the game data (dependent on the game).

As for the anti-piracy code booklets or code wheels etc, AFAIK all WHDLoad game installs have been programmed by their respective authors to remove such protection (to save us typing crap in and mucking around with code wheels).

http://whdownload.com/

The above site DOES contain the game/demo in its entirety. I have no idea why you keep saying it doesn't!

If you're running an A1200, you'll need 2mb fast ram or more in the trapdoor. I recommend 4mb minimum though. What would be nice is 8mb fast ram and a faster cpu, such as...well, any really...

[paul1981]

I didn't think we were allowed to post links to copied games on here. Anyway, it didn't look to me like the actual games were included, except where I saw some files which were 880K.

Some games are already running and I've seen lists of games which will run in 2Mb. I'm planning to buy a RAM upgrade/accelerator soon.

The games which are running will be the ones that don't use the Kickstart files.

[paul1981]

Now I've just tried editing the "Preload" under Information, but I found that in most cases it was total gibberish. I only found one game "Dalek Attack" where the Information ended with PreloadSize=. The number in this case was 1820479, which seems to mean more than the RAM left after loading Workbench. I changed this number to 10000, then I got the error "(object not found) on reading Disk.1". This was a game which I could run under WinUAE with 4Mb RAM. I also tried booting without startup-sequence again. I used AmigaDOS commands to navigate to the directories for some games and found that WHDload tried to run them. Unfortunately, I got errors such as "object not found" for AlienBreed3DDemoLatestAGA and "object is not of required type" for Defender Of The Crown. After this I checked I could run Defender Of The Crown from cracked ADF files using my Gotek USB drive.

So, it looks like I'm due for a frustrating few days at least until I can get either a 2Mb Melcard, or an ACA 1221 accelerator, unless I put up with using WinUAE in the meantime. Unfortunately, as well as the weekend, there's a public holiday here on Monday, August 31.

The PRELOADSIZE is only a reference number for the load meter (aka progress bar) when you load a game from double clicking its icon. Altering this won't achieve anything.

[paul1981]

Unfortunately, I couldn't install most of those HD installable games, or they didn't work after installation. Gloom Special Edition 97 crashed my A1200, Elvira wouldn't install, while Legend of Kyrandia asked for a Disk 0.  

Eventually, I decided it was time to order one of the new ACA 1221 accelerator cards from Amigakit, but then I found out that the date they were due to be in stock had been changed from September 1 to 3.

This delay, the pre orders, and the fact that they only had a prototype on display at the Amiga 30th event in Peterborough made me decide to go for a 2Mb PCMCIA MELcard instead. I should receive it on Wednesday or Thursday this week, so that will solve the immediate problem with WHDload on my A1200.

My main problem now is to avoid playing with my new RAM upgrade card too much if it arrives on Wednesday, because that could prevent me getting ready in time to go for a night out.

The PCMCIA card will work, but it is slow when compared with trapdoor ram. But being as though you don't have any trapdoor ram card/accelerator then I suppose it's better than nothing.
So after installing the PCMCIA card, you should have 4MB ram in total (2MB Chip, 2MB Fast). 6MB would be far more desirable, but oh well.

Another thing, when you do buy a real accelerator card then don't continue to use the PCMCIA ram card, as doing so will slow your computer down as PCMCIA ram is only 16-bit.