English Amiga Board - Putty Squad

Hello everyone :)

Having a good Christmas so far? Thought so.

So, you've seen that Santa Galahad has been a busy chap, well, its time to explain a few things, a few people are asking questions and raising queries, so I will answer them all here. If there is anything missing, ask and I will answer and add to the list:

1). Did anyone else know about this release beforehand?

Yes. ;)

For various reasons, I chose people I could trust for a few tasks. I didn't necessarily need their help, but it sure made the job easier to get Putty Squad realised.

2). OK, so who knew?

Obviously, apart from myself, the others held to utter secrecy with the threat of NO release should Putty Squad leak were:

Codetapper, Cody Jarrett, TCD, Akira, Photon, and just before release, BippyM.

3). So why these jokers?

My A1200 is kaput at the moment and obviously Putty Squad HAD to be tested on a Real Amiga A1200 before I could even remotely consider releasing it to System 3, not only would I look a complete idiot, I would have abused the trust placed in me to get this job done, so:

Codetapper - testing on real A1200 020 and 030. For his efforts I decided to reward him with first access to the game for WHDLoad installation. In fact the WHDLoad install ran alongside the disk mastering to ensure everything in the end went smoothly. We had a few issues with using RawDIC to read from ADF files properly, but we got around it and the WHDLoad install is the best it can be right from the word go. I also rewarded Codetapper as a long time ago, he was the one who had a bit of a hardon for this game, same avatar, and was making efforts to track it down over a long period of time, so that was another reason to let him do it.

Cody Jarrett - I didn't want a half arsed job done on the screenshots and maps, and knew not only could he be trusted to not blab, I knew he'd do the required job on it, and as he covers both HOL and AGTW, it meant there was more control over what got done.

TCD - Was involved to help Cody as required, as it turns out, I think Adrian just blitzed the entire lot himself.

Akira - There was the distinct possibility that I needed to goto System 3 HQ in person as it wasn't actually known to me how Putty Squad was stored. Akira not only has all the needed Amiga hardware relevant to getting it from System 3, he lives but a few miles from there. Had I needed to go to System 3, his assistance would have been invaluable.

Photon - As you guys know, Henrik did me a nice intro for Snow Bros, and I wanted to give him the opportunity to do a nice Easter Egg for Putty Squad. Alas, time was not on our side and it didn't happen, so I went it alone and put it through testing. The easter egg was put there for a bit of fun and most importantly, to reduce the likelihood of anyone else putting their intro on it. We're lucky to have the game at all, at no point should a 'cracked' version dominate the official release, especially in light of the fact I mastered the game with NO copy protection whatsoever.

BippyM - I needed the help of a GM that could rustle up a quick account that couldn't be linked to me. The user by the name of 'system3' was all that was needed to get a few people thinking that maybe something might happen, and sure enough, word got around, and now everyone seems to be aware of whats going on.

4). So thats why the WHDLoad release and the HOL page was done so quickly?

Now you're catching on. This was their reward for keeping it quiet as was requested, otherwise it WOULD have jeopardised the release of the game.

5). Why can't we post up the ADF images on EAB?

In time you will be able to, but for the time being, they are hosted on www.system3.com and nowhere else for very specific reasons. These images are untouched and unmolested, and more importantly, it is VITAL that System 3 be able to gauge whether or not the release of Putty Squad on the Amiga is a success or not.

Put yourself in their shoes: The Amiga community has been bugging them for YEARS to release it, so they do release it, expect massive downloads of it, and it turns out only 20 downloads occur off the system3 site because everyone is downloading it off EAB or some other site.

Clearly that isn't remotely fair or reasonable. So for the time being, Putty Squad AGA will NOT be hosted on EAB under ANY circumstances. That means no spreading of preloaded WHDLoad installs, no uploading to the zone or various FTP's.

It took time and effort to get this released, please respect my wishes that System 3 gets the maximum benefit from it, that is only fair isn't it?

6). And what of System 3? Should we be thanking them?

Put simply, if you took the time to come onto EAB or spread the word about how happy you are that Putty Squad Amiga got released, it is your DUTY to visit System 3 on Facebook and write a comment on their page thanking them.

If you can't be arsed to do that, I really can't be arsed with you thanking me, because without System 3, this release would NOT EVER have happened.

Sound harsh? Not really. Some were quick enough to slag off System 3 (me included, i'm not excluded), but appear reticent to grow a pair of balls and admit "Hey, I was wrong". So go do something about it and thank them in person, its Christmas ;)

7). Ah, but I don't have Facebook and won't set it up just to thank them!

Fair enough, but still not good enough ;)

You have access to the internet, you therefore have access to www.system3.com, and you certainly can navigate your way to the 'contact us' page and send a message that way.

Put it this way, you doing that will take up 2 minutes of your time...... it took me considerably longer than that to get this game where you could play it ;)

8). But i'm buying the game on PS4/PS3/Vita/360 etc, etc

That is great news, but surely, they need to know that the reason you are buying it is in part because of their delivery of Putty Squad Amiga?

If that is the case, tell them, because I can't see that hurting anyone :)

9). Easter egg? What flippin' easter egg?

Er, this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcNRimS32a8

10). RawDIC file requester won't allow me to 'select file' from the options!

Thanks to Retro-Nerd for testing and reporting, there appears to be a problem with newer revisions of RawDIC when trying to 'select file' option so you can install from disk images instead of having to install from floppy drive.

Make sure your version of RawDIC is an older one (V3.2).

Also, have you got reqtools.library in your LIBS directory?

The above version of RawDIC is known to fix the issue and Putty Squad will install without having to physically use the floppy drive for anything.

Any other questions, feel free to ask and i'll answer what I can.

I'm very happy to have been 'that guy' that got the job done. :great