Problems with some games on my a500

[skforty]

Hi all, new member here, but long time amiga user.
 
So i put this in "HARDWARE" because i think its more to do with my configuration, but if people feels its better in "SOFTWARE" i apologize.
 
I resurrected my a500 recently, it has 512k trapdoor, and 4MB of ram on my gvp500. I use a kickstart switcher to go between 1.3 and 3.1.
I have it hooked up through RGB on my 1084s. Lately ive been making some floppies again and having trouble with a few games.
 
 
 
Flashback - Gets passed the exploder initialized and screen goes black waiting for copy protection screen but it never comes...just stays black screen.
 
Lemmings 2 - Shows the intro animation and when i click my mouse button, it SHOULD go to the psygnosis screen that asks for disk 2, but instead it goes black screen after i click mouse.
 
 
Here are some things ive tried all attempts have ended with the same results:
 
- Tried booting on my other 1.3 a500 with 1MB ram no peripherals attached.
 
-Tried booting on 2 different a1000 with 1.3 and 1.2.
 
-Tried 6 different flashback DISK ones from Gamearchives.
 
-Tried installing flashback to hard drive.
 
-Tried all of the above in 1.3 and 3.1
 
Here is the weird thing, using amiga explorer I dumped my EXACT 3.1 rom, and i pulled out my scsi hard drive from my gvp and hooked it up to my PC. I set the WINUAE config to match my a500 EXACTLY. I boot into winuae from my real gvp HD, and im able to play the game no problem. Also the floppies load from emu with same config.
 
I started thinking, maybe its a pal/ntsc thing. I tried using a pal/ntsc software switcher called "degrader" with no luck.
 
If im hooked up RGB, it shouldnt matter if my system is NTSC but the game is PAL right? Or is it more than just video output? Does it change timings of the clock speed?
 
Anyway, im lost...
 
Does anyone have any ideas?
 
Thanks for the time looking, I appreciate it

[tone007]

There is a difference between PAL/NTSC games, alot of PAL games simply won't run in NTSC mode while others will have the screen cut off.

[skforty]

Thanks for the reply.   So then, im wondering why the software switcher didnt help.  Is there a tool to convert the adfs between pal/ntsc.  I have tools that do that on other game systems, but i dont know if such a tool exists for amiga, or should i just do a hardware switch?  And then lastly,  How can i tell what region the game is pal/ntsc.  In the case of Flashback and lemmings 2, i guess it must be pal, since checking gamefaqs shows that they were only released in EU... Thanks for the help!

[tone007]

It's pretty tough, I just assume any game I've downloaded is PAL, and boot my 1200 into PAL mode (alot easier than it is on a 500, of course.) Occasionally a game doesnt work in either PAL or NTSC for me, at that point I give up on the game.

I've never heard of anything to convert a game from PAL to NTSC, doesn't seem like an easy task.

When you used the software switcher to go into PAL mode, did your screen start rolling vertically and require v-hold adjustment? (Often happens when switching from 60hz to 50hz modes, but not always depending on your monitor.) That's how I always knew I'd switched screenmodes when I was using my 500+ and a CRT.  I think some Agnuses just don't do PAL mode, not sure on that though.

[JC]

I had an A500 that started acting quirky on me once doing weird stuff like that and I bought a new bigfoot power supply for it because of an article I had read in an amiga mag suggesting replacing the weak power supply and all was well again. But you could have some other type of hardware issue, bad capacitors etc...
I also remember playing pal games on my A500 by using a boot disk that you popped in immediatly before the game disk, some of the pal games that I bought came with that disk. I think one of the boot disk programs was called relokick.

[skforty]

@tone007  -  Yeah, when i used the software switcher, it rebooted, the screen started rolling, changing colors from pink to blue, to gray then white then booted floppy.  Although, it did not require a vhold adjustment...
 
@JC -  Thanks for the reply and suggestion, i do have another psu i could try, although i used that one on the other a500.  My main a500 is going from ATX psu to the a500...I am doing that because i have the GVP powered through the expansion slot and wanted a higher wattage cleaner psu.  I'll try looking for that disk on aminet thanks for the info.
 
I think i will try a PAL/NTSC hardware switch as soon as i get home and we will see.  I will post results after.
 
Thanks for all the help

[T3000]

a pal/ntsc software switcher called "degrader"

boot disk programs was called relokick

lol, Was just looking for "that" disk last night...
One came with Settlers called "PAL Boot Disk". Had another one hand labled "degrader".
A previous A3000 had numerous boot options using skick. relokick sounds familiar too.
Finding that some all my favorite games are 1.3 only and break on my 1200/Apollo'40. ...will be looking into WHDLoad.

[alexh]

If you have a hard drive, why are you messing around with floppy disks?

Install WHDload on your hard drive, pop on all the http://www.WHDownload.com back catalogue of pre-installed slaves and just play WHDload games!! 4.5Mbyte will be more than enough for most slaves even with pre-load. If you upgraded to 8Mbyte in your GVP HD8+ you'd be able to pre-load just about anything... smooth ultra fast loading.

[skforty]

@alexh - Well, i do want to give whdload a try, but i havent yet. Mostly im trying to get some games that i havent played yet on floppy so i always have them to play. And also, dont you have to pay for whdload to register it? I assumed there were restrictions until it was registered. Im sure there are people using FULL versions without paying a dime though...and lastly, until tonight my hard drive was a 52 MB quantum lps. But today i picked up about 20 scsi drives for 15 bucks i got (10) 4.5 GB and the rest are 9.1 GB and 18.2.
 
So heres an update;
 
I started off the night, installing, partitioning, and setting up WB 3.1 on my new 4.5 GB hard drive. That went well. Then i installed a hardware switch on my a500...no luck, and it didnt look like it was switching between 60 and 50 hz...so then i found more info about the different agnus chips...even though my a500 was a rev 5, it had the OLD agnus (8372)... Interestingly enough, its easy to tell if you have an old without opening it if you have ks3.0+ roms and hold both mouse buttons at boot...if its the old 512k agnus, "Display Options" will be greyed out. So then i opened up my other a500 and it saw that it did have the newer agnus (8372A). Lucky me. So after doing a swap and rewiring the agnus, i booted up and right away i could tell by the flicker it was in 50hz. I tried it the other way and it was 60hz. Booting into the boot menu confirmed this, selecting "Display options" and seeing it default to "pal" or "ntsc". I tried flashback, no more blackscreen, went right to the copy protection screen. Same results with lemmings2. So...its all good!! Thanks for all the help, i think im set...For now
 
Also, here is a pic of where i installed the switch.
 

 
*i only went into so much detail, because when i search for amiga info its posts like these that help me piece together information*

[zipper]

WHDLoad registering is worth every penny put into it - it's a necessity for a player. I paid years ago.

[trip6]

What is the switch for?

[skilgannon]

WHD Load is, as Zipper said worth every penny.  It stops the annoying Nag screen that comes up at the start of every game and allows you access to new revisions.  Can't remember which one I signed up to but my license is still current and works an absolute treat.  Go for it!

[tone007]

What is the switch for?

Then i installed a hardware switch on my a500...no luck, and it didnt look like it was switching between 60 and 50 hz...

...

"pal" or "ntsc".