Downgrading an Amiga 3000 for WHDload?

[jammarob]

Hey guys, first post here and long time Amiga user and vintage computer collector!

I recently picked up an Amiga 3000 in a trade. I have always loved the Amiga 3000, but they have generally been very difficult to find in the US, and risky to buy because of the battery issue.

The Amiga I picked up has been "souped up" a bit. It had an A3640 CPU card, X-Surf NIC card, ZIP to SIMM adapter, GVP EGS video card, and IDE controller w/ CF hard drive.

Since I want this machine for the sole purpose of playing classic Amiga games, I have been forced to downgrade the CPU and video card in order for some games to work properly.

Is there a way I can keep the 68040 and still maintain compatibility? I hate to downgrade this thing, but I want it for a specific purpose, and it will be used heavily as a gaming machine.

Here is a quick video of my machine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM-0QRuj1Yk

[TheBilgeRat]

If you are running WHDload, I have had little problem with backwards compatibility with 3640 on my A4000D.  How many games are you having issue with, and did you check out the whdload site for ways to get the older games to play?

[strim]

Hi.

Just remove the 68040 card. Keep everything else :-). It'll work like a charm. I also had A3640 in my A3000D. Back then I had a lot of problems with WHDload (which disappeared once A3640 was removed).

Now I have CSPPC in this A3000D and (somewhat surprisingly) it is much more compatible than A3640 with WHDload.

[jammarob]

In all fairness I have only tested ~10 games, but the ones that worked seemed to perform more poorly than with the 68030.

An example: Turrican 3
68040: If I used the bomb, the CPU would slow down. CPU also slows in areas of graphically intense scenes.
68030: Smooth 60fps the entire game.

I am running the latest version of WHDload. Perhaps there is a patch?

[jammarob]

Hi.

Just remove the 68040 card. Keep everything else :-). It'll work like a charm. I also had A3640 in my A3000D. Back then I had a lot of problems with WHDload (which disappeared once A3640 was removed).

Now I have CSPPC in this A3000D and (somewhat surprisingly) it is much more compatible than A3640 with WHDload.

Ahhh, good to know. Thanks .

I also had to remove the video card since I kept getting "Unable to initialise display" errors in WHDload. Once I removed the card and the drivers, it has worked great since.

[Matt_H]

Welcome! There's no reason your hardware setup shouldn't work with WHDLoad. You probably just need to configure the software differently. For example, use P96 or CyberGraphX instead of EGS for the video card. Also, make sure to take your TCP/IP stack offline before starting WHDLoad.

For the 3640, make sure you have the correct 68040.library in libs:. I also find the NOCACHE and NOAUTOVEC tooltypes helpful for troublesome WHDLoad games.