Emerald Mines emulation problem

I just bought and downloaded Amiga Forever Plus to run Amiga programs on my PC. I want to run the original Emerald Mines by Kingsoft. The Amiga games section of <snap> lists ten Emerald Mines files:

Emerald Mine (1987)(Kingsoft).adf
Emerald Mine (1987)(Kingsoft)[a2].adf
Emerald Mine (1987)(Kingsoft)[a3].adf
Emerald Mine (1987)(Kingsoft)[a4].adf
Emerald Mine (1987)(Kingsoft)[a].adf
Emerald Mine (1987)(Kingsoft)[cr Movers].adf
Emerald Mine (1987)(Kingsoft)[cr].adf
Emerald Mine (1987)(Kingsoft)[cr][h][KS3.1 patch].adf
Emerald Mine (1987)(Kingsoft)[KS 1.2].adf
Emerald Mine (1987)(Kingsoft)[v Pentagon Circle 2].adf

Does anyone know what to do with all these files? Where to put them? etc. I do know that the emulator needs to boot from the game file.
Any help appreciated!
Thanks,
Spencer G.

*** Edited by DamienD; don't post sites that contain Kickstart ROMS, Workbench disks, SPS files. Please read the Rules & Help section at the top of EAB ***

[DamienD]

You need to download the latest version of WinUAE from here

You say that you have bought / downloaded Amiga Forever... Just point the Kickstart PATH to where you have these stored and then use the Amiga 500 Quickstart option

Welcome to EAB BTW

Damien,
Thanks for the rapid reply and the welcome. Sorry about the verboten site reference. I guess there is a learning curve...
I just downloaded the latest WinUAE (1.4.6). I have two questions:
1) Where is the Kickstart Path? I don't see it anywhere. It is not listed under "Paths." Would I use the "Floppy drives, DF0:", "Cartridge ROM file" or something else?
2) I think some of those ten listed files are different versions of the same file, but I'm not sure. Wouldn't that confuse things?
Thanks,
Spencer G.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by spencerhg

Sorry about the verboten site reference.

No problem.

Originally Posted by spencerhg

1) Where is the Kickstart Path? I don't see it anywhere. It is not listed under "Paths." Would I use the "Floppy drives, DF0:"

After downloading / extracting / installing the files from Amiga Forever you should have the required Kickstart ROMS

Basically, start WinUAE, select Settings --> Paths, point to the directory where your Kickstart ROM files are located and finally click Rescan ROMS.

Afterwards use the Quickstart A500 option and point to the .ADF file

Originally Posted by spencerhg

2) I think some of those ten listed files are different versions of the same file, but I'm not sure. Wouldn't that confuse things?

Yeah, they are similar. [a] = alternate, [cr] = cracked by, [h] = hacked by, [v] = virus. Take a look at the TOSEC site for more details

[Galaxy]

Some of the earliest versions of Emerald Mines require Kickstart 1.2 or you don't get to see the score and time.

[mark_k]

Originally Posted by Galaxy

Some of the earliest versions of Emerald Mines require Kickstart 1.2 or you don't get to see the score and time.

Can you give some details on the different Emerald Mine game engine versions? So far I have seen four different ones, not counting the various non-Kingsoft hacked-up versions. I call them release 1 to release 4. There are other differences which I can write about if anyone is interested, but briefly:

"Release 1" (the earliest): 28152 bytes, 24-Oct-86 02:29:53. Time & score info as a sprite at the top left of the screen. No copy-protection?

"Release 2": 30184 bytes, 24-Oct-86 13:24:13. This one (or a hacked version of it) is on most third-party level disks. Copy-protection halves the initial time if the check fails. Time & score line at bottom of screen. Tries to detect if running in NTSC mode and shifts display up by 5 lines if so.

"Release 3": 30440 bytes, 19-Sep-87 20:33:37. Extra copy-protection-failed tricks: e.g. after a few levels you die when you collect a diamond. "Alles", level and high score files encoded/encrypted. Level number stored in each level file to prevent cheating by renaming higher-numbered level files to lower numbers. Looks in "pla/xxx" for level files. Waits for fire button to be released after calling copy-protection routine. (So it's possible to replace the original disk with a backup copy after the check. That way you don't need to write to the original disk.)

"Release 4": 30628 bytes, 24-Nov-87 12:05:15. Similar to release 3, except looks in "Emerald Mine:pla/xxx" for level files and doesn't wait for button after protection check.

(I'm not sure whether release 3 actually came before release 4 or not. The datestamp on the file I have suggests it did, but a couple of things in the code suggest otherwise. Also the datestamps on my release 1 & 2 files may be wrong.)

If anyone's interested I can figure out a patch to fix the missing score-line under Kickstart 1.3 in the release 1 version. (Any idea what the problem is?)

-- M

[Galaxy]

Um, I'm not really sure about all the intricate differences in the versions. I suggest you drop Holger Schemel (Rocks 'n' Diamonds author) a line as he probably knows quite a lot about the different EM engines

The version you call version 1 is the one that I was referring to (about needing KS1.2). Still works under 1.3, you just don't see the score panel.

There are also the version 5 and 6 engines which were released by the Emerald Mine Club adding additional objects and also AGA compatibility.