CD32Load

[jotd]

Seems that kickemu games fail miserabily. F/A is one of them. It's nice that it works at all, and it'll probably work better. Got to add it to my tests.

Lemmings CD was a bit of a bummer. After successful tests the other night, I burned a CD with the new CD32load and it still locked up after the first level... Other CD audio games I released work fine now.

note that the links don't rot. I use the same filename so the dropbox data behind the links are updated automatically.

[spudje]

Originally Posted by jotd

BTW I've zoned cd32load v0.34. not much happening there but a few fixes
- improved: if HD mode, detect used filesystem & block size. Exits if blocksize isn't 512 and filesystem is exotic like PFS, SFS
(not perfect as it doesn't detect FFS mounted through uaehf.device yet)
t

It's been a while I worked on my CD32 setup. But on to it now again. In my memory I did prepare my setup in WinUAE and used plain Windows folders as HDD partitions from which I succesfully ran CD32Load. Now with this check in the newer verson I can't do that anymore

On the other hand, it could have been from my Amiga partitions on my CF mounted in WinUAE.

Still if there would be a debug option to ignore this check, that would be great. (If it makes sense at all)

[earok]

Quick note - North & South seems to crash immediately when a combat section is triggered. Up until then, everything seems to work fine (moving armies around the map etc).

Using Filecache option, it does not seem to run at all without it (perhaps because of the large number of files I already have on the disc?)

Edit: WHOOPS. I'm a dummy. I should have thought to try NOVBRMOVE. Everything seems to work, including the slave's built in support for second button switch unit.

[jotd]

when you have to use NOVBRMOVE it means that game is using CIA timer B (used to emulate keyboard). Fire & Ice also uses this, and without NOVBRMOVE the music is trashed.
JOYPAD=0 should also work. NO real difference anyway. In the case of N & S joypad is natively supported in the slave so no big deal

[spudje]

Slightly off topic, sorry, but is there a way to map keyboard keys to the CD32 controller for native AOS games, like CD32Load does for slaves?

I would like to map just one digit to a CD32 controller button so I can get past the (cracked) copy protection of Capital Punishment.

[jotd]

Well, maybe it can be done if the game is system friendly with some VBL hook or something. And even with non-system friendly by using a non-zeroed VBR. Would be a great add-on for the JST DEGRADE feature.

(But the best way would still be that the crack completely removes the need to press a key)

[spudje]

OK, so there is no existing tool that can do this. There are 2 cracked versions. One where you don't need to type anything, but that i don't get to work. The one where you still ave to type random things does work.

[jotd]

whdload slave fixes the protection so nothing has to be typed.

[spudje]

Yes, but the slave doesn't work (Black screen after a couple of title screens) on my CD32 + SX32 8 MB using WHDLoad. Haven't tried it with CD32Load yet.

The one where you have to type the copy protection does work.

[jotd]

it's not going to work with CD32load because it uses 2MB chipmem + kickstart emulation IIRC. Maybe JST (whdload slave emulation, not degrader)

[earok]

Apologies for this being a little off topic.

Cobe and I are having a little bit of trouble with Blitz Basic's CD32 library. Tracks don't always play reliably without needing to have a long wait between switching from OS-Friendly to Non-Friendly mode (and oddly enough it seems, the higher the track number, the longer the wait has to be).

Incidentally I noticed Marble Madness CD slave also handles replaying music when the track is finished, which is also something that'd be hugely useful.

I thought I'd see if I could steal CD32Load's CD playback functionality (Blitz Basic supports inline assembly) but I'm having a bit of trouble working it out, I'm assuming that it's called from Psygore's binary file?

[jotd]

First: not of-topic

Second: no, Psygore binary only supports data loading (which Marble Madness doesn't even use because the diskimage is preloaded by a classic ROM call, and only CD play is enabled during the game)

Toni wrote a routine, that I've adapted for CD32load. It relies on level 2 interrupts, though.

I had provided McGeezer with some standalone version. Let me search. Yup found. No links to the zone but look for "CD32 replay routines (hardware banging)"

[earok]

Thanks mate, I've saved a copy. I -may- be able to adapt that to Blitz, something that's purely hardware-banging may be useful for use within Blitz's non-system-friendly mode.

Another quick question - is Watchtower a game that can run via CD32Load? I saw that you updated the slave recently but I couldn't find any reference to it in the big compatibility spreadsheet.

[jotd]

aw, don't think so: it's AGA + uses kickstart: too much memory for CD32load.

A solution would be VBR+protection patch + running a resident program which scans CD32 buttons and sends keyboard events. completely different project.

[earok]

Originally Posted by jotd

aw, don't think so: it's AGA + uses kickstart: too much memory for CD32load.

A solution would be VBR+protection patch + running a resident program which scans CD32 buttons and sends keyboard events. completely different project.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the confirmation! Wait.. does that mean Watchtower is system friendly?

[jotd]

yes, it uses kickstart emulation so yes. Only issue are the controls. But adapting the fixes in the whdload slave in the real executable with some hook program reading the joypad should work, creating a game which is 100% compliant with CD32, no keyboard needed.

that gives me an idea for a new program

[earok]

Originally Posted by jotd

yes, it uses kickstart emulation so yes. Only issue are the controls. But adapting the fixes in the whdload slave in the real executable with some hook program reading the joypad should work, creating a game which is 100% compliant with CD32, no keyboard needed.

that gives me an idea for a new program

Sounds great

I'd like to get the next update for CD32 and Beer out soon, I could just include Watchtower as a 'keyboard required' game, and update it on the next release.

Do you think I should just include Watchtower as keyboard required for now and release the update in a day or two, or hold off a little longer?

[jotd]

I won't have time to do something until a few weeks anyway. Don't forget to update North & South (pick the lastest release from yesterday, as there was a mouse control bug)

[earok]

Okay, so.. embarrassingly enough, I've just now worked out how to get Shadow Fighter reliably loading (AGA slave) on a real CD32.

All that was needed was the CDFreeze command line parameter. The music cuts out for a split second as it streams data from the disc, but at least it loads. I've updated the spreadsheet accordingly.

Joypad mapping seems to work 'OK' with the game, not perfect but acceptable for pausing etc. The AGA slave does seem to be a better version to include on massive compliations than the CD32 native version (which seems to immediately crash in a fight if there's a lot of files on the disc, and of course it has no music other than CD music).

[jotd]

nice find! CDFREEZE is useful when game interrupts use fixed registers (like A5/A6, often used as "global" in some games: Chuck Rock 2, Pinball Fantaisies ...)

not setting it makes game crash when it's changed from within the CD routine, but accessed (without being set) from music interrupt routine for instance.

That probably explains why it worked ok on emulator but not on real HW. Timing issues.

did you have a chance to check WatchTower & cd32launch BTW?