Space Hulk on Minimig

[Philski]

Hi there,

I was just wondering if anybody has had any luck getting Space Hulk running on the Minimig? I was keen to try running it from adf as the audio cuts out on the WHDload version, however each time I try and load it I get a disc error message.  It seems to also affect the demo of the game as well.

Any thoughts?

[Darrin]

Never tried that game.  I can give it a go next week if nobody else has come to your rescue by then.

[gxenakis]

I just give it a try. Works fine and I played the 1st tutorial mission. My settings are:
chipset, cpu: turbo, video: pal, chipset: ocs-a500
memory, chip: 1.0MB, slow: 0.5MB, rom: kick 1.3, ar3: disabled

[Philski]

Thanks for getting back! :-)

Okay, I had different settings, so I switched them to what you suggested; Turbo, PAL, OCS-A500, 1.0, 0.5, kick 1.3 but still no joy :-( I also tried changing disk speed, number of drives, etc. but it still comes up with a disk error after loading for a short time.  Again, I've tried ADFs of both the full game and the demo, but neither seem to load...

[Philski]

I've also tried switching SD cards incase the issue was there.  On a related note does anyone know if there was ever an update to get Space Hulk running on WHDload past mission one of the tutorial and Deathwing campaign?  I can find acknowledgements of the bug existing and of it being repaired, but I can't seem to find the updated version.

[gxenakis]

I stopped trying whload to the minimig. Lot of issues :flak:

Check also that you have the latest firmware and files for the minimig.

[Philski]

It certainly could be firmware related.  According to the bootloader I'm running BYQ100413, FYQ100818 and the PIC firmware is PGL100818.

So I've downloaded YQ90911, copied FIRMWARE.UPG onto the SD card, however I don't seem to have a Firmware->Update option in the OSD.

Does this mean I need to buy a PIC chip or do I need to do another update before installing this one?

[gxenakis]

I think ( not 100% sure about it ) but the firmware option through the minimig menu is only available for the arm controller. You have to use TinyBootloader to reprogram your PIC. Never done it though since I got my minimig with the arm since day 1.

[Philski]

Yeah, I think I've got the ARM controller, as I seem to have the features it advertises (4 disk drives, 2 hard drives etc).

Edit: Okay, my bad. I just cracked open the case (first time I've looked at the board since getting it) and it doesn't have the ARM controller that I can tell. Also, upon further checking on minimig.net rather than forums, it looks as though the firmware should be up to date as The latest update looks to be Oct 10 (and the number corrisponds to my firmware) and I only picked up my Minimig a couple of years ago.

[Darrin]

Yeah, I think I've got the ARM controller, as I seem to have the features it advertises (4 disk drives, 2 hard drives etc).

Edit: Okay, my bad. I just cracked open the case (first time I've looked at the board since getting it) and it doesn't have the ARM controller that I can tell. Also, upon further checking on minimig.net rather than forums, it looks as though the firmware should be up to date as The latest update looks to be Oct 10 (and the number corrisponds to my firmware) and I only picked up my Minimig a couple of years ago.

You'd know if you had the ARM controller because it replaces the small PIC chip.

In order to upgrade the PIC you'll need to use a null modem serial cable between the Minimig and a PC.  I'll have to dig up some instructions.  You run a program called TinyBootloader on the PC while will flash the PC for you. If the PIC is up to date then you just need to update the minimig core file on the SD Card.

Before you do any of that though, try a different ADF file (there are multiple ADF versions of the same game out there and not all of them are the same quality).

Get the ARM board and replace that PIC.  The speed difference when using HDF files is like night and day.  Using large very HDF files without the ARM is next to impossible from a practical point of view.

[Philski]

Yeah, Once I looked it up on AmigaKit I realised that it wasn't something I had ;-)

Unfortunatly I don't have a PC, but having checked the boot screen it looks like everything is up to date.

Bootloader BYQ100413

FPGA core FYQ100818

PIC firmware PGL100818

I've tried two different SD cards 2GB and 1GB
Ive created my own ADF files from my copy of the game
I've tried every ADF version I could find
I've tried ADFs of the demo instead of the full game

Originally I was booting the 3.1 ROM under NTSC (as it plays nicer with my monitor), an ECS chipset with 2MB chip and 1.5MB slow memory and tried between 1 and 3 floppy drives at both single and double speed.

At gxenakis' suggestion I've tried changing these to the 1.3 ROM under PAL, an OCS-A500 chipset with 1MB chip and 0.5MB slow memory. Again, changing the number of floppy drives, their speed and switching turbo on and off.

Is it a possibility that it would only run with the ARM controller? As that seems to be the only other difference I can think of.

[gxenakis]

Arm controller is a great update but I do not think that offers extra compatibility.  If you have the latest version of both bin file and firmware there is nothing else to look for, except try a different sd card. Also what format are you using for the sd cards?

[Philski]

Thanks, I'll see if I can dig out another SD card from somewhere. The one I normally used was probably formatted using the OSX disc utility, however when I tried the 1GB card I formatted it using the app provided at sdcard.org (https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/) just in case that was the issue.

[gxenakis]

All the cards I use for minimig are formatted as MS-DOS FAT.

[Philski]

Yup, that's what these are. Oh well, thanks for your help on this gxenakis, but looks like I'm going to have to give up on this one for the moment.