Lost vikings

[Drake1009]

I've started playing Lost vikings again after all too long.

I find it annoying that it should take so long to load the levels though so I decided to install it with the installer on the disk (Could be the cracker making it).

Now the problem is that the graphics mess up badly whenever I try to start it. No matter if I change resolution, colors or run it without entering workbench. The only way I've managed to get the graphics to show up right is to boot the game and play from disks. In Workbench running from the disks also cause graphics problems so it's not an installation gone bad.

The strangest thing is I know I've been able to play the game before from HD without problems some time ago. But now it doesn't want to.

I mentioned problems with messed up graphics with other games, but I've tried every trick which usually work with those games without it helping.

Could someone please enlighten me if there is anything I could try? Or at least should have already tried but just forgot about?

[CodyJarrett]

Have you tried disabling the CPU caches?

You can do it via the early boot menu when you hold down both mouse buttons and reset. You can also use the 'CPU nocaches' command. JST can also be used as a degrader by doing:

jst execute nocaches nofast xxxxx

[Drake1009]

Thanks Cody. I'll try disabling CPU caches.

I don't have JST installed. I have a plain A1200 with only 2 MB of RAM and I haven't been able to run one single HD installed game with JST so it would be somewhat a waste to have it running. Usually for Degrading I use TUDE. It has an option for disabling caches. That should do the trick.

Ok I've tried it out. TUDE didn't do any good, but disabling the CPU caches and then starting the game after chosing to boot without startup did work. Thanks Cody.

[CodyJarrett]

I suggest you buy a cheap 030 accelerator and some memory for your A1200. It shouldn't be very expensive. Then you can run most WHDLoad games from the hard disk.

For non WHDLoad games, you can set up some scripts to run the games and insert some degrading commands to avoid problems like that of the corrupted graphics.

[freedom4u]

... but I have the original and I know that the very same problems occured quite often on a plain A1200HD Kick 3.0.
I had the game installed correctly from the original disks and it worked nicely (it really is one of the greatest games), but every once in while I got the same messed up graphics.
I would just hit the ESC button a billion times and then try again and then it worked sometimes.
Unfortunately I this was 7 years ago and I didn't know that much about my Amiga back then, so I didn't check if the problem could be due to not enough ChipMem.
I believe the disabled CPU caches don't have anything to do with it, neither would a degrader affect it.
Maybe you should try booting with no startup-sequence and execute the game from the command line.
As soon as I get back home, I'll try installing it again, so if you can't solve this problem in about a week, message me again.

[Drake1009]

Problem with getting an accelerator Cody is that I have no idea where I should buy it. I don't really like mail ordering things, I have no credit card and it took me long enough to get extra mice and joysticks for the Amiga. Besides. I still have it in the keyboard box, not in a tower, I'm not sure it would work with an accelerator.

And I wouldn't get much from doing it anyway. I have a 120Mb harddisk internally in the Amiga. It's used up on games like Hired guns and so on, and on and ADF files. I don't know if I can even get a new harddisk which would work in the Amiga, and I'm far from a hardware kind of person so I'm not even sure I'd like to open up my Amiga to replace it.

I bought the Amiga mostly for playing the older games.

[CodyJarrett]

You might find an accelerator on eBay. It should fit into the trap door underneath the A1200 okay.

But, an A1200 in a tower case, with accelerator, memory, hard disk and monitor is pretty good. Plus 3 gig of hard disk installed games, ready to run is good too!

[Fred the Fop]

I don't want to annoy anyone with my console slant, I have suggested console versions to several other people before regarding games on the Amiga. :rolleyes. I have promised myself to cut that short, being this an Amiga board and not a rom kiddy jernt.
But I have to speak out here.
The Amiga version pales , in every way, to the S N E S version.
Download an Snes emu and the Lost Vikings rom..try it:cool:p

[Akira]

I Dont know what you find so superior. It looks just like the Amiga version (but with a smaller screen size, remember the SNES' shitty resolution), and teh Amiga has better sound/music :)

[Fred the Fop]

I will show you when I get home..The SNES resolution was not near as sharp, but it was better gameplay wise and as for the music, it was really good!

[Drake1009]

There is a difference in the SNES gameplay and the Amiga/PC gameplay? I doubt that. If there is any difference in gameplay it would be speed. I discovered (By accident) that in the cracker intro screen you had the ability to switch between NTSC/PAL modes which directly allowed you to switch the speed of the game.

[Fred the Fop]

I remember first playing it on the SNES, and then found my freind had it for his Amiga 1200. I just came away that it was not as playable as the SNES version..why? Simple..Snes has 6 buttons, all of which are used ! Amiga has 1. So the Amiga took a while to get used to. Make sense?:p

[Drake1009]

I remember playing this game on the PC first. Guess what. The PC keyboard have many more buttons than the SNES controller. And if I'm not completely mistaken you can play the lost vikings with keyboard on the Amiga as well. Most functions are keyboard based anyway, I would think it would be strange is controlling the character isn't also.

[Fred the Fop]

Yes, true about keyboards, but the comfort factor and interface is very important in a game like this, at least to me. A gamepad like a console's allows you to break fre from the keyboard, its rather cumbersome for me to use a joystick and keyboard at same time.

[Drake1009]

I was never really fond of gamepads. Don't know why though, maybe because I can't seem to control right so the game becomes much harder for me to control that way. Still prefer a keyboard or a normal joystick which I have gotten used to.

[RetroMan]

Originally posted by Drake1009
I still have it in the keyboard box, not in a tower, I'm not sure it would work with an accelerator.

And I wouldn't get much from doing it anyway. I have a 120Mb harddisk internally in the Amiga. It's used up on games like Hired guns and so on, and on and ADF files. I don't know if I can even get a new harddisk which would work in the Amiga...

Well, I got an BLIZZARD 1230/50 Mhz. Accelerator Card with 40MB fitted and a 2,1 Gig HD and a CDROM and all fits into the desktop (no tower here). Cody´s right, the accelerator card fits into the trap door. And yes, you can find many of them at Ebay. The HD Part is the easiest one, you can use any PC IDE HD you find (well there are some light problems on using more that 4 Gig, but that´s also possible). I must admit, that surely the CDrom ISN´T INSIDE the desktop ;):D but if you don´t mind wires hanging out of the case, you may be happy with it (and you can play Genetic Species from CD :D:D:D ) !!

P.S : Try EBAY here in germany, most of the sellers don´t mind sending to Denmark, just ask them via Mail ;)

[Fred the Fop]

Back on track....its a shame Interplay never released LV 2 for the Amiga. it made it to the SNES and PC. Both were very well done. If they released a LV3, we can expect yet another superb game series go down the tubes with the less brain and input, more eye candy and mindlessness attitude of game companies now.

[Drake1009]

Originally posted by fredtgreat
Back on track....its a shame Interplay never released LV 2 for the Amiga. it made it to the SNES and PC. Both were very well done. If they released a LV3, we can expect yet another superb game series go down the tubes with the less brain and input, more eye candy and mindlessness attitude of game companies now.

I didn't know LV2 was released for the SNES.

And we can only hope that if there is ever a LV3 that the creators will finally have come to their senses and start thinking about gameplay rather than eyecandy. I still liked LV1 better than LV2. I liked the simple useful style the graphics had in the first. The second was too much, or so I thought.

I wouldn't mind good graphics, but gameplay comes first in my opinion, and I thought LV2 lacked something there.

[birdy-scc]

If it isn't too konsole-kid spam like, I just added the first one (for SNES) to my site after playing it for the first time on Monday!

It's a good wee game, but I wouldn't fancy playing it with a keyboard.

[Drake1009]

Originally posted by fredtgreat
Drake...I completely agree , LV One is tops in my book. But if you never played it on SNES, then you must have played the PC version.

No I've never played it on the SNES, and yes I tried it first on the PC. About 3 months after I tried it on the PC I tried the Amiga version at a friend's house. I liked the Amiga version a little more than the PC version, partially because the keys to switch vikings with were HELP and DELETE which are the only 2 keys there, you can't miss them. And mostly because the game looked better on a TV, larger and a TV does do something to blur the graphics a bit which the PC doesn't (Well unless you've got a 3DFX card).

[Akira]

What is it with people and blurry graphics? :) Personally I hate that red color smudging all over the screen . I preffer my graphics to be RGB. Nice non-smudgy colors with scanlines that smooth everything out :)

[Drake1009]

Yes the red color smearing out is annoying, but I still prefer the TV for output rather than what the Amiga emulation would show on my monitor.

[Akira]

I Agree with you there. Emulation cannot simulate scanlines properly, so it fudges up everything :(

[Shatterhand]

I prefer the Amiga version of LV than the SNES or PC versions.. (And I have all 3 versions), but just because of small details, as all versions play the same

Akira already told the problems with the Snes version (Shitty resolution and stuff), and the PC version just doesn't look as hot as the Amiga version, for some weird reason..... and I don't think it has something to do with monitors and TVs, as playing the 3 versions in a PC (Using emulators), I stiil think the PC versions has something wrong in the graphics department..

or maybe I just hate PCs.. :)

[Drake1009]

I think this game is a commonly converted game like so many other games. Just like Flashback which was also a great game, that was also converted to both Nintendo's console as well as the Sega console, PC and I'm guessing it also existed on the ST.

Great games were usually converted to make as much profit as possible. Of course some sh*t games were also converted, what one audience might find appealing another audience would probably love. At least around here there was a very big gap in the mentality of the Console people and the Computer people.

[Fred the Fop]

Yes and for truth sakes, the gap between vintage computer gaming conneseurs and romzzzz kids is wide, but lets take into consideration my case. When I was consoling, I'd buy many genres. If a game was not available on my Atari St, then i'd console it. Great adult games such as the incredible RTS Warrior of Rome 2 or Master of Monsters, or PowerMonger, i played on my
Sega. LV never made it to the Atari St, so I played it on my SNES and Sega. Still do, actually:) Emulation, tho.
So, yes, there is a gap, but many consolers loved the more mentally challenging games as well.