Lost and in need of help

I was using WinUAE to run Mechforce, but when I upgraded to a Vista-equipped machine, WinUAE stopped working correctly. I bought Amiga Forever (the value pack), but I understand it even less than WinUAE.

All I want to do is play Mechforce again. I'm not interested in the seventy other games or whatever, I am not looking for the Amiga programming ability, anything - just Mechforce.

I have the .zip that came with all of the game files, I have Amiga Forever - I just can't get the two to play nice with each other.

With that in mind - if someone could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it. Emails, replies, whatever.

Also, if I need to be posting this in a different forum, I can do that too - I just don't have enough familiarity with Amigas to even know where to post.

Thanks for all of your help!

[TCD]

Hi linguistfromhel and welcome to the EAB
Okay, it's a bit difficult to tell what you can do to make it work again, since 'WinUAE stopped working correctly' isn't much to work from, but I'll try.

Download these two disks : http://www.planetemu.net/?section=re...&rubrique=roms
Then just start WinUAE (hope that works at least) and go to the 'Quickstart' window. Select 'A500' for the model and '1.3 ROM, OCS, 512 KB Chip + 512 KB Slow RAM (most common)' for the configuration. Insert the two disks in the 'Emulated Floppy Drives' at the bottom of the screen and press 'Start'. That should do the trick (just tested it here).

[MickJT]

If you have hardfiles in the WinUAE folder, you might find that WinUAE can't write to them anymore due to the WinUAE folder needing Administrator privileges. Probably not the problem you're having though.

[NewDeli]

Well, learning to set up WinUAE or Amiga Forever doesn't involve programming ability, but a bit of patience & documentation reading.

Are you aware that a free Windows remake exist of this Ralph Reed's game you like so much ?
You may get Titans of Steel from
here

I hope you are not implying that Windows Vista cannot run WinUAE properly, that would make two of you, with the other EAB member who suggests to use XP compatibility mode on its executable !

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Deleauvive

I hope you are not implying that Windows Vista cannot run WinUAE properly, that would make two of you, with the other EAB member who suggests to use XP compatibility mode on its executable !

Who suggested that here? Please stop making ambiguous comments, when there is a simple problem to be solved, thanks

[NewDeli]

Well... If you say so. But plz note that :

Originally Posted by linguistfromhel

when I upgraded to a Vista-equipped machine, WinUAE stopped working correctly.

WinUAE not working as well with Vista is implied here, I think.

Originally Posted by webhead

why dont you you right clicking on the winuae .exe file and make it compatible with xp.

Compatibly mode doesn't solve many compatibly problems, I am afraid. I was just anticipating someone making a similar suggestion .

linguistfromhel problem is not clearly stated yet, and he's also anticipating, in the sense that "all I want to do is play this game again" strongly suggests "I don't intend to go through complicated stages" when a straight answer may not fit.

[TCD]

linguistfromhel said that WinUAE doesn't work like it used to after he changed machines. webheads comment was on a different thread and has nothing to do with this problem. I can understand that linguistfromhel doesn't want to go into the depths of Amiga emulation, but just want to play Mechforce So let's search for a simple solution and not make things more complicated than they are

[NewDeli]

Sure, feel free to provide the simple solution to our friend vaguely defined problem .

Meanwhile, I notice people have difficulties running WinUAE on Vista, so, to me, it's more a matter of dealing with old stuff on an updated computer. This comes from a lack of reasonable research about Vista competitive advantages, and subsequent security lock ups over XP.

Would the recommendation "try to run the game with Fellow" and "feel proud to have licensed Amiga roms !" be a straight enough answer ?

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Deleauvive

Sure, feel free to provide the simple solution to our friend vaguely defined problem .

Meanwhile, I notice people have difficulties running WinUAE on Vista, so, to me, it's more a matter of dealing with old stuff on an updated computer. This comes from a lack of reasonable research about Vista competitive advantages, and subsequent security lock ups over XP.

Would the recommendation "try to run the game with Fellow" and "feel proud to have licensed Amiga roms !" be a straight enough answer ?

If you have a problem with WinUAE and Vista, start a thread about it, and stop hijacking this guys thread.

Back on topic please!

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by linguistfromhel

I was using WinUAE to run Mechforce, but when I upgraded to a Vista-equipped machine, WinUAE stopped working correctly. I bought Amiga Forever (the value pack), but I understand it even less than WinUAE.

All I want to do is play Mechforce again. I'm not interested in the seventy other games or whatever, I am not looking for the Amiga programming ability, anything - just Mechforce.

I have the .zip that came with all of the game files, I have Amiga Forever - I just can't get the two to play nice with each other.

With that in mind - if someone could help me out, I would greatly appreciate it. Emails, replies, whatever.

Also, if I need to be posting this in a different forum, I can do that too - I just don't have enough familiarity with Amigas to even know where to post.

Thanks for all of your help!

What exact problems are you having.

You're obviously adept enough with WinUAE to have had it working before.

Is it just WinUAE that doesn't want to work, or is it games within WinUAE that don't want to work.

A better description would be helpful.

[Anubis]

Have you checked power cords and if you have electricity?

[NewDeli]

If I was asked to improve these sections readability, I would have people posting here & in "WinUAE pb" about emulating the Amiga on a Windows driven computer at least try to provide a few details :

• Version of Vista or XP & Service Pack
• Basic description of the hardware, especially with a laptop
• Version of WinUAE used, if it is being used in Gamebase, in Amiga Forever...
• Config. chosen / ROMS loaded
• May be past experiences (good or bad) with WinUAE

I think this should be in the sticky.
Thanks.

[TCD]

Yeah, let's make bloated, non problem related posts... Please wait for linguistfromhel to answer what his problem is, before suggesting completely useless infos for over 90% of the problems.

Well, first let me just say that I am overwhelmingly impressed by the amount and speed of your replies. The last time I tried to get help from a forum, a couple of replies a week was considered 'fast'. Thanks to everyone that had something to say.

Let me backup enough to explain what was going on. I am using a Windows Vista (32) OS. I was running the WinUAE 0.8.8, Release 5 WinUAE. Whenever I tried to start it up using the configuration that worked in XP, I would get to the Amiga OS and be shown this: LoadWB: Unknown command / LoadWB failed returncode 10.

CyberDruid - Thank you for pointing me to those two drives from planetemu. By putting them in the emulated floppy drives, I was able to get back into my Mechforce game. Now that I can get past that load problem, I can actually run either the version I was using or the one you pointed out. Thanks, you solved my initial problem!

I have a follow-on issue at this point, though (with the actual Mechforce application). I can start another thread if people tell me that I should ... but until someone makes that suggestion, I will carry on.

The version of Mechforce that I was using was downloaded from http://www.sarna.net/files/programs/...chforce_amiga/. It's biggest difference from the planetemu files is that I can use upgraded technology (clan technology, for anyone familiar with the game or the original setting). There are more additional details with other parts of the game, but I can eventually copy those into the the planetemu version with a little time. Eh.

The problem with using the sarna version is that whenever I go to use the actual weapons, they all show up as blank. They're still there in the mech, I can still select and fire them - I just have no idea which weapons I'm selecting.

Any suggestions? (To include starting a new thread ... heh)

Oh, and Deleauvive, I have seen Titans of Steel, but it's not what I'm after. Thanks for the suggestion - but I like how Mechforce works - when it works.

[TCD]

Good to hear that it works with the version I posted. I will check the other version aswell when I'm back home tonight
You're aren't using WinUAE 0.8.8, Release 5, are you? Please grab the latest version here : http://www.winuae.net/ Maybe that is enough to make your version of Mechforce work again

[Nostalgeek]

...and to add half-a-cent to the off-topic debate in here, I'll second that WinUAE works like a charm under Vista without any specific tweaking

I downloaded the 1.5.3 version of WinUAE, but the specific weapon problem continues.

Again,
- The Sarna.net version of mechforce has more equipment, 'technology', etc., but when I am in combat, I am unable to see or use any weapons. I believe it is a problem with the actual mechforce program/zip, but I don't know as I am not that technically gifted.
- The Planetemu version of the game works correctly (without the additional material), it just takes longer to load and run. Possibly because it is running from a "floppy" instead of the hard drive? Whatever the reason, at least it works.

So, any additional advice or help would be appreciated, but I am happy now just because I can play the game again. LOL.

[NewDeli]

For people interested in this game, Angus wrote a review here.

What about the Aminet version of MechForce ?

Can the base version of the game be updated with the Clan technology via a patch ? May be you could comment on the files that are on that sarna.net directory, which seems a bit messy to me .

[TCD]

Just extract all the archives to the same folder. Will take me some time to check it, since I'll be too busy the next two days to test it, but once I'll find the time, I hope I can post a 'ready-to-go' solution

Deleauvive - thanks for the link to the article. I can see why someone unfamiliar with the MechWarrior RPG or Battletech would be lost when looking at MechForce for the first time. Heh.

I looked at the .lha file you pointed at, but I don't know what that means. None of the other files in the zip seemed to be labelled .lha, so I don't even know where to put it.