Chipram...

[nubbins]

Hey everyone...Thanks for those here who have helped me out with my A2000 project.
Everything I add on to this, it never seems to be enough though.
Started out stock w/A2090 and a 20MB HD.
Got a A2091 from Save2600, a bunch of upgrades from Nishtek, and a GVP 030 Combo card w5/Mb ram from Orb85750.

I thought I had it set. I just want to play games from the HD. I purchased a key for WHDload and now I think alot of the games need 1Mb chipram, and some 2Mb. (I think I finally got the different ram types figured out). Does this sound correct, or am I doing something wrong? I get error messages saying "you need chipmem up to $100000 (1024 Kbyte) to run this program."
Alot of games run fine though.


I can't seem to locate anything for sale anywhere.
Is there anywhere better to look than Ebay?
Anyone here have anything?
How much could I expect to pay for 2Mb chipram?

Thanks for your time,
Darrin

[Matt_H]

I think AmigaKit and Red have some chip RAM expansions in stock...

[save2600]

Hey Darrin,

 2mb of Chip Ram is gonna cost you upwards of a C-note through Red or Amigakit. Try
lowering your workbench colours and closing drawers, etc. before playing a game
though and see if you have any better luck. MOST games only require 512kb-1mb
Chip. And remember... AGA games (they're not always titled that way) are going to
require more Chip and the AGA chipset, but the error messages you receive do not
always indicate just what exactly is going on.

What games are you specifically having trouble with?

[terminator4]

@nubbins

I'm pretty sure chip ram is not necessary for all games but it sounds like you need it given:
"you need chipmem up to $100000 (1024 Kbyte) to run this program".  try booting off 1.3 workbench disk to save on memory?
Some games work with kickrom 1.3 and some 3.1 so be sure to check that.  Rom Switcher is handy for that.
Also AGA games won't run on ECS (A2000).

[nubbins]

Cool, thanks for the quick replies.
Do I still need the ROM switcher if I'm using WHDload with the appropriate ROM files?
And Frank, the games I'm having trouble with are:

Street Fighter 2
Test Drive 2
Cannon Fodder 1&2
Shinobi (starts, but the locks up)
Settlers
and Turrican (this error says 520K, but the read me says 1 Mb chipram)

I probably should have mentioned that these were all KG pre-installed games, although I got the same message with Street Fighter 2 installing it myself.

This accounts for about 25 percent of the installed games. The rest are fine.

Thanks again,
Darrin

[save2600]

Nope, you would not need a ROM switcher with WHDLoad and the various KS ROM
files. And looking quickly at your list, NONE of those games require 2mb of Chip
RAM. And Sega games such as Shinobi can be real hardware sticklers. Tough
getting them and the early EA games to run at times. Tomorrow I'll play around
with these games and WHDLoad and see if I experience any of those hiccups
on my A2000.

Have you download the program Degrader yet? I use it all the time to get uncooperative
games to load and run on a 3.1 system. And if you're downloading WHDLoad games off
the net, MOST of them are in the PAL format. Run Degrader, select PAL system and
try them again. You can also play around with different RAM configurations, turn off
cache instructions, etc. Very handy tool for the old games on an expanded Miggy.

There's also a kickstart disk with 1.3 on it for 3.1 users. This also has brought many
games back from the dead on a 3.1 system, but you may have to fiddle around with
your configuration as to be able to see the different partitions of your HD.

I still think freeing up as many resources as you can will really help out your situation,
but I will tell you... on 3 different Amiga systems I have, not every game works
with WHDLoad. 20-25% seems kinda high though. And are you sure your Kickstart
images are appropriately named? And how much Chip RAM is free *before* you try
running these? On a 1mb system w/ fast ram, but no graphics card, you should see
about 8.5-8.7kb free if you're running a spartan Workbench...

[QuikSanz]

Do you have any other RAM other than what's on the GVP?

Chris

[marcfrick2112]

Hi nubbins, First, glad to have another Wisconsin resident on board!

Well, Save2600 has the right idea, reduce the colors for your WB, make sure you don't have anything un-needed running in the background, etc. Maybe type Avail in a shell, and post the output here

Hoping you don't have an earlier 2000 that only had 512K chip ram.....

I know Turrican is a 1MB game, I think it may have needed 1MB chip too, but don't quote me on that    .....

Also, if these games were downloaded, sometimes the DL's can get messed up, files not intact, etc....
It took me weeks to get a working version of Turrican 3....

[gertsy]

My Test Drive II works fine on 3.1 Roms on my A4000 with some GFX flutter.  but I'm pretty sure it needs 1MB free.

[nubbins]

Yeah, I have degrader and TUDE. I looked at both, but am unsure what to do with them. And my kickstart files are named correctly, because I was getting that error before I knew that I needed those. I'll post that other info tonight, time to go to work...
Thanks again,
Darrin

[Roondar]

Hi nubbins, First, glad to have another Wisconsin resident on board!

Well, Save2600 has the right idea, reduce the colors for your WB, make sure you don't have anything un-needed running in the background, etc. Maybe type Avail in a shell, and post the output here

Hoping you don't have an earlier 2000 that only had 512K chip ram.....

I know Turrican is a 1MB game, I think it may have needed 1MB chip too, but don't quote me on that    .....

Also, if these games were downloaded, sometimes the DL's can get messed up, files not intact, etc....
It took me weeks to get a working version of Turrican 3....

Actually, Turrican I runs with 512kb.
From disk that is. The WHDLoad version probably requires 1MB or more.

On a 1MB Chip Ram machine with some Fast Ram it should work using WHDLoad.

[marcfrick2112]

@Roondar, Well, I said no to quote me on that ..... Sorry, I don't think I ran Turrican on less than my 3MB A500 ....

[nubbins]

Ok, apparently I only have 512K chipram and 5.5Mb fastram. I'll have to keep an eye open for an upgrade.

One more thing, I've read alot of people saying the older Rev 4.x A2000 mother boards are not very good. Why is this? And would that present a problem with a chipram expansion? Mine is Rev 4.2.

Thanks again for all your help,
Darrin

[T3000]

A2000 info from http://www.amiga-hardware.com

"The US 4.x (model B) motherboards had 1MB of RAM soldered to the motherboard with 512K configured as CHIP RAM and 512K as Fast. The Fast RAM on these models can be reconfigured into Chip RAM by upgrading the Agnus and cutting some connections)."

[nubbins]

That would work for me, if I could find a new Agnus and some info how. This would probably be the least expensive route to getting some of my games working. I'll look into it. Thanks,

Darrin