Amberstar - English Version (adf)...

DamienD · 03 November 2005, 02:06

Hello guys,

Wondering if somebody could help me out?

Until recently I could only find the German version of Amberstar (adf). I Looked in all the usual places for an English version but all I can find was "Amberstar (1992)(Thalion)[h Ministry][installer]".

Anyway, to cut a long story short I came across alexh's Thalion Webshrine and found the English version there...

The disks were in .dms format though... Did some research and found a program called ADFOpus that converts .dms files to .adf files.

Created the .adf files and then ran the game from WinUAE... Loads fine, gets to some messages saying that even if you want to run the game from floppy you need to firstly "Format Game Disks" and then run the "Installer"...

No problem. Went through the process of fomatting, running the installer and finally creating the 3 game disks.

I just tried running the final product from WinUAE and here's what happened:

... game starts to load but after a few seconds stops.
... clicked the mouse and the game continued to load.
... started playing some music but no graphics displayed so I clicked the mouse again.
... the game started to load but nothing ever appeared on the screen.

Is the set I created somehow faulty, does anybody know what I'm doing wrong?

Actually, maybe if it's not too much trouble, could somebody please upload a set that works after doing the initial setup stuff?

Many thanks.

alexh · 03 November 2005, 10:24

Amberstar only works on computers with No CACHE.

Either

emulate an A500
switch off caches in the early startup menu
edit df0:/s/startup-sequence and switch off caches before loading

If you install to the hard drive (instead of floppy drives) you can edit the Amberstar Icon-X to switch caches off before loading, and back on after.

DamienD · 03 November 2005, 12:07

Many thanks alexh, I'll give it a try tonight.

I guess this is what has been done with the German version as it loads fine...

alexh · 03 November 2005, 15:12

Not that it matters, but doesnt WinUAE accept DMS files?

DamienD · 03 November 2005, 16:01

Ah, thank you for the advise.

My config was Full ECS, 2MB chip + 1MB slow. Also tried OCS, 512Kb chip + 512Kb slow. This is where I must be going wrong...

When I get home tonight I'll try using 1MB of Fast RAM instead of 1MB Slow RAM and see how it goes (thanks to Retro-Nerd for pointing this out to me in laymen's terms).

alexh · 03 November 2005, 16:29

It doesnt matter about the chipset, or the RAM, it's the CPU. Either plain vanilla 68000 or switch off the caches.

If it still doesnt work with 68k or caches, I'll reluctantly send you a pre-installed set of disks.

I would recommend that you use an emulated hard drive, install workbench, install Amberstar and play from there. (FFS partitions only)

Retro-Nerd · 03 November 2005, 16:35

in that case it is the Kickstart-Rom. The game need a 2.x Kickstart-Rom and all is visible, with a 1.3 you see only a black screen. And 512K Slowram is also needed, without the game crashes with a guru after the intro. These are of course only the specs for the discimage play. The WHD installed game works fine (but a bit fast on 68020+, 68040) on all emulated machines.

alexh · 03 November 2005, 17:34

Amberstar using floppy's works fine with KS1.3 on real Amiga's.

Not too sure about the slowram.

Never used the WHDload slave as the original game installer works 100% as is on 68040 A4000 with caches switched off.

Retro-Nerd · 03 November 2005, 17:43

mmh interessting, which are your complete specs for this? Only for testing, i'm using only WHD installs for games.

This Kickstart gives a black screen

Kickstart v1.3 (A500,A1000,A2000) rev 34.5 (256k)

Yes, alexh, i've played this on a real Amiga with K 1.3 too, but on WinUAE it give a black screen, no matter which other setting you use, i'm wondering why.

alexh · 03 November 2005, 18:26

I've no idea what's happened to WinUAE over the years since I used it extensively. It looks better in most places.

I couldnt even get it today to create the Amberstar disks, I know that older versions worked fine.

I tried OCS A500 with best accuracy.

DamienD · 03 November 2005, 18:29

Thanks for all your resposes alexh and Retro-Nerd. Much appreciated.

I'll play around a bit tonight when I get the chance.

DamienD · 04 November 2005, 12:38

Hey guys,

Tried Retro-Nerds suggestions last night:

Quote:

Ram = Chip 1MB, Fast 1MB, Slow 512K
Chipset = OCS or ECS both should work
Kickstart v2.04 (A500+) rev 37.175 (512k)

This works perfectly (which is cool as that means the disks I created are also good).

I also tried changing the RAM setting to what I usually use with the majority of OCS/ECS games i.e. 2MB Chip, 1MB Slow. and this also worked fine...

This means that the key to having this game work correctly is the Kickstart v2.04 (A500+) rev 37.175 (512k)

Many thanks for all your responses / assistance guys

alexh · 04 November 2005, 15:54

The key to getting this game to work correctly in WinUAE is not to use KS1.3 eh?

Works fine on a real Amiga

Retro-Nerd · 04 November 2005, 16:41

maybe only the english Version can't use an emulated Kickstart V 1.3. I don't have the nerves to test the german ipf, the install to disc routine is laughable.

DamienD · 04 November 2005, 17:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexh

The key to getting this game to work correctly in WinUAE is not to use KS1.3 eh?

Works fine on a real Amiga

Strange hey, the German version also works fine with WinUAE using KS1.3...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

maybe only the english Version can't use an emulated Kickstart V 1.3. I don't have the nerves to test the german ipf, the install to disc routine is laughable.

Retro-Nerd, if you want to test the German version you can easily download the .adf from planetemu...

Toni Wilen · 04 November 2005, 20:21

What game "version"? (cracked by who, trained etc..) Did it really work in older WinUAE? What was the last working WinUAE version? Does it work in real A500? Are you sure the game was exact same version?

I need more info first...

Retro-Nerd · 04 November 2005, 20:52

hi, Toni

it is the original english version (V1.96 scanned with TIM) from alex's Thalion Shrine. You need to copy the 3 original discs for playing the game from Disc. I will upload the already copied and playable discs for your testing into the Zone. Alex said it works in a real A500 with Kickstart 1.3. I only knows that the german Version years ago worked fine in a real Amiga 500.

alexh · 07 November 2005, 12:50

The only strange thing I remember about the original was it said "Not A600" on the box.

The disks from my site I am almost sure were generated from the English originals.

andreas · 10 November 2005, 09:39

Ahh, thanks for the pointer Alex.

'Not A600' *might* mean that the game has a problem on newer Agnuses?
(remember Hewson's Eliminator or Double Dragon II v3.84?

)

Just a guess, though ...

[edit]

Interesting news...

The fully installed game disk A fails on my A1000 with KS 1.3! Beautiful music but blackness all around ...
Toni, you could do me a great favor if you please look for any OS 2.0+ instructions used in the game loading routine!
I'll eat my hat if there isn't a couple of them.
My final guess is that the game does not like my sidecar ram expansion, and might only work with real A500 bogo mem expansion; however, the base address *ought* to be $C00000 in both cases.

DamienD · 10 November 2005, 13:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by andreas

The fully installed game disk A fails on my A1000 with KS 1.3! Beautiful music but blackness all around ...

Exactly what I was getting with KS1.3

03 November 2005, 02:06	#1
DamienD Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London / Sydney Age: 47 Posts: 20,420	Amberstar - English Version (adf)... Hello guys, Wondering if somebody could help me out? Until recently I could only find the German version of Amberstar (adf). I Looked in all the usual places for an English version but all I can find was "Amberstar (1992)(Thalion)[h Ministry][installer]". Anyway, to cut a long story short I came across alexh's Thalion Webshrine and found the English version there... The disks were in .dms format though... Did some research and found a program called ADFOpus that converts .dms files to .adf files. Created the .adf files and then ran the game from WinUAE... Loads fine, gets to some messages saying that even if you want to run the game from floppy you need to firstly "Format Game Disks" and then run the "Installer"... No problem. Went through the process of fomatting, running the installer and finally creating the 3 game disks. I just tried running the final product from WinUAE and here's what happened: ... game starts to load but after a few seconds stops. ... clicked the mouse and the game continued to load. ... started playing some music but no graphics displayed so I clicked the mouse again. ... the game started to load but nothing ever appeared on the screen. Is the set I created somehow faulty, does anybody know what I'm doing wrong? Actually, maybe if it's not too much trouble, could somebody please upload a set that works after doing the initial setup stuff? Many thanks.

03 November 2005, 10:24	#2
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	Amberstar only works on computers with No CACHE. Either emulate an A500 switch off caches in the early startup menu edit df0:/s/startup-sequence and switch off caches before loading If you install to the hard drive (instead of floppy drives) you can edit the Amberstar Icon-X to switch caches off before loading, and back on after. Last edited by alexh; 03 November 2005 at 10:30.

03 November 2005, 12:07	#3
DamienD Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London / Sydney Age: 47 Posts: 20,420	Many thanks alexh, I'll give it a try tonight. I guess this is what has been done with the German version as it loads fine... Last edited by DamienD; 03 November 2005 at 13:31.

04 November 2005, 20:52	#17
Retro-Nerd Missile Command Champion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Germany Age: 52 Posts: 12,447	hi, Toni it is the original english version (V1.96 scanned with TIM) from alex's Thalion Shrine. You need to copy the 3 original discs for playing the game from Disc. I will upload the already copied and playable discs for your testing into the Zone. Alex said it works in a real A500 with Kickstart 1.3. I only knows that the german Version years ago worked fine in a real Amiga 500. Last edited by Retro-Nerd; 04 November 2005 at 22:01.

10 November 2005, 09:39	#19
andreas Zone Friend Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Germany Age: 50 Posts: 5,857	Ahh, thanks for the pointer Alex. 'Not A600' might mean that the game has a problem on newer Agnuses? (remember Hewson's Eliminator or Double Dragon II v3.84? ) Just a guess, though ... [edit] Interesting news... The fully installed game disk A fails on my A1000 with KS 1.3! Beautiful music but blackness all around ... Toni, you could do me a great favor if you please look for any OS 2.0+ instructions used in the game loading routine! I'll eat my hat if there isn't a couple of them. My final guess is that the game does not like my sidecar ram expansion, and might only work with real A500 bogo mem expansion; however, the base address ought to be $C00000 in both cases. Last edited by andreas; 10 November 2005 at 11:33.

03 November 2005, 15:12	#4
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	Not that it matters, but doesnt WinUAE accept DMS files?

03 November 2005, 16:01	#5
DamienD Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London / Sydney Age: 47 Posts: 20,420	Ah, thank you for the advise. My config was Full ECS, 2MB chip + 1MB slow. Also tried OCS, 512Kb chip + 512Kb slow. This is where I must be going wrong... When I get home tonight I'll try using 1MB of Fast RAM instead of 1MB Slow RAM and see how it goes (thanks to Retro-Nerd for pointing this out to me in laymen's terms).

03 November 2005, 16:29	#6
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	It doesnt matter about the chipset, or the RAM, it's the CPU. Either plain vanilla 68000 or switch off the caches. If it still doesnt work with 68k or caches, I'll reluctantly send you a pre-installed set of disks. I would recommend that you use an emulated hard drive, install workbench, install Amberstar and play from there. (FFS partitions only)

03 November 2005, 16:35	#7
Retro-Nerd Missile Command Champion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Germany Age: 52 Posts: 12,447	in that case it is the Kickstart-Rom. The game need a 2.x Kickstart-Rom and all is visible, with a 1.3 you see only a black screen. And 512K Slowram is also needed, without the game crashes with a guru after the intro. These are of course only the specs for the discimage play. The WHD installed game works fine (but a bit fast on 68020+, 68040) on all emulated machines.

03 November 2005, 17:34	#8
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	Amberstar using floppy's works fine with KS1.3 on real Amiga's. Not too sure about the slowram. Never used the WHDload slave as the original game installer works 100% as is on 68040 A4000 with caches switched off.

03 November 2005, 17:43	#9
Retro-Nerd Missile Command Champion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Germany Age: 52 Posts: 12,447	mmh interessting, which are your complete specs for this? Only for testing, i'm using only WHD installs for games. This Kickstart gives a black screen Kickstart v1.3 (A500,A1000,A2000) rev 34.5 (256k) Yes, alexh, i've played this on a real Amiga with K 1.3 too, but on WinUAE it give a black screen, no matter which other setting you use, i'm wondering why.

03 November 2005, 18:26	#10
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	I've no idea what's happened to WinUAE over the years since I used it extensively. It looks better in most places. I couldnt even get it today to create the Amberstar disks, I know that older versions worked fine. I tried OCS A500 with best accuracy.

03 November 2005, 18:29	#11
DamienD Banned Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: London / Sydney Age: 47 Posts: 20,420	Thanks for all your resposes alexh and Retro-Nerd. Much appreciated. I'll play around a bit tonight when I get the chance.

04 November 2005, 15:54	#13
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	The key to getting this game to work correctly in WinUAE is not to use KS1.3 eh? Works fine on a real Amiga

04 November 2005, 16:41	#14
Retro-Nerd Missile Command Champion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Germany Age: 52 Posts: 12,447	maybe only the english Version can't use an emulated Kickstart V 1.3. I don't have the nerves to test the german ipf, the install to disc routine is laughable.

04 November 2005, 20:21	#16
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,518	What game "version"? (cracked by who, trained etc..) Did it really work in older WinUAE? What was the last working WinUAE version? Does it work in real A500? Are you sure the game was exact same version? I need more info first...

07 November 2005, 12:50	#18
alexh Thalion Webshrine Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Oxford Posts: 14,354	The only strange thing I remember about the original was it said "Not A600" on the box. The disks from my site I am almost sure were generated from the English originals.

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