James Pond 2 Robocod OCS WHDLoad Fix Please

[Nibbler]

Hi Folks.

Another "Please Fix" Project. This Time James Pond 2 - Robocod.

The Whdload Slaves have pretty much the same issue like Zool. Another "Please Fix Project".

The OCS Slaves run like crap on an 16 bit Amigas but pretty well on 32 Bit Amigas.

Same problem with the AGA Version. It dosent run very well and there is a lot of slowdowns going on. Just saying..
I searched high and low but could not find a decent Slave for Robocod.

So, my " please "goes out to all the coders out there and especially to one ,who done ALL the "please fix" Patches in the Past

Thank you

[alexh]

http://www.whdload.de/games/JamesPond2.html

Do you have slave 1.3 (March 2015) as that is reported to patch issues with 16-bit Amiga's without accelerators. It was done by Stingray who is active on this forum.

I can see no bugs raised against OCS version of James Pond 2. That should have been the first place to raise an issue!

http://mantis.whdload.de/search.php?project_id=566

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by Nibbler

The OCS Slaves run like crap on an 16 bit Amiga but pretty well on 32 Bit Amigas.

Are you using the latest version of the patch? As Alex said, I have updated the OCS patch a while ago and it works well on all of my machines!

[Amiga1992]

Nibbler, you need to get into Mantis for these, EAB is not really the place to report broken or misbehaving slaves, not because it's wrong, but because it is then impossible to track progress for the developers of slaves. We owe them at least that much, to make their lives less complicated.

[Nibbler]

I was on version 1.2, BUT 1.3 is just a little bit better. (kixx version)

When i use CACHE on my Amiga 600 Furia then its almost smooth, but not really.
Some spots are quiet slooooow. Any special tooltypes ?

Even the Aga-Slave version on my CD32-Pro is quiet slow (1.3)
(i think it would need a "Ross Fix" jsut like ZOOL)

*hey, let me dream*


@Akira

I was not aware of mantis but i want to have a place where people can find and discuss "fixes" for games. Thats why the "Please Fix" was born.

You see, its not just about WHDLoad but also for "normal" games/installs.

Please fix will have a WHDLOAD and FLOPPY section

1 project : Darkseed Floppy NTSC fix 100% by Ross
2 project : Zool Ecs & Aga WHDLoad fix 100% by Ross
3 project : Second Samurai Ecs & Aga Whdload fix ........ StingRay is still doing it
4 project : James Pond 2 Ecs & Aga WHDLoad ..... there is still work do be done

and a little teaser here.... the Next Project will be another NTSC fix

Hope you see way i want to keep this series and not move over to mantis.
Greetings from Nibbler to the lovley Amiga Community.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Nibbler

1.3 is just a little bit better. (kixx version) When i use CACHE on my Amiga 600 Furia then its almost smooth, but not really.
Some spots are quiet slooooow.

Stingray said it works well on his 16-bit Amiga's so could your A600 Furia be the cause?

The slave says minimum configuration is 0.5Mb Chipmem + 1Mb Fastmem. Do you have any Fastmem? (As this is OCS I guess Slowmem might do?) A600's don't typically have any fast memory.

Originally Posted by Nibbler

Any special tooltypes ?

The default tooltypes in the ICON are :

PRELOAD
CUSTOM1=1 (Enable trainer)

You might want to add "PAL"?

Originally Posted by Nibbler

i want to keep this series and not move over to mantis.

If you want to keep it here, it is only courtesy to add a Mantis entry too. Just in case the thread goes no-where. Whoever starts to do the FIX can assign themselves in mantis.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Nibbler

I was not aware of mantis

Alexh, Stingray and I both told you about it in previous threads. As Alexh says, feel free t post here, but ALSO post on Mantis, with an in-depth description of the issue and your config so someone can take a look and TRACK the progress.

the Next Project will be another NTSC fix

You have a funny way of describing these as your projects :P

[Nibbler]

Quote Akira " You have a funny way of describing these as your projects :P"

lol ,youre right. But there was no version of Darkseed that had propper NTSC,
and on top of it, ROSS did also a AGA fix and copyprotection removal. I mean, holy cow and he did the same for the CD32 version.


Thanks to him we have finally a fixed NTSC version of Darkseed .
I only made the call for help, Ross did all the work, while i just played through the game multiple times. God , i think i finished it about 30-40 times, to report bugs n stuff. (and to be honest here , who the ._. Would want to play THAT game sooo maaanyy times *crazy* )


So, yeah, i guess there is a "little" bit of me involved


Sadly, i am no programmer


So, i only can do so much.


Ps. I will look into this mantis stuff.


Pps. I wrote all of this text with a ps4 controller .... That was kind a fun actually

[Nibbler]

So, i tried that Mantis Bug thing.... but i am confused. Is it a subscibtion ?

Demo mode ?? hmmmm. Sorry, but i have no clue about Mantis.

[alexh]

???

Mantis is an open-source web-based bug tracker database which WHDload are running on their web server. You need an account (just like you need an EAB account) to log in and post bugs.

http://mantis.whdload.de/signup_page.php

I've already got an account so I can't test signup but it was very simple and I was reporting bugs that day.

[Nibbler]

I see. But the thing talks about a "Demo phase" ._. Hmmmm

[Retro-Nerd]

Where do you get a "Demo phase"? At the registration screen? After you've entered your data?

Have you tried to install something? You don't need that. Just click here and register.

http://mantis.whdload.de/signup_page.php

[Nibbler]

Hi Retro.

Got the screen as soon i went to https://www.mantisbt.org/

Thanks for that Link

[Nibbler]

Ok, Robocod is on Mantis now.

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Nibbler

Ok, Robocod is on Mantis now.

Do you really have a 68EC020 & 0MB fastmem as reported in Mantis?

[Nibbler]

ohhh .. snap.. i have to change that ... ( my config isnt there anyway... )

a furia has a 68EC020 and a 68882 FPU with 11,5 MB Fastram.
Thanks alex

[Nibbler]

Hhhmm, how do i change that ???

I added a Note with the Fastram i have for my ECS/AGA Machienes.
Hope thats allright. ( i never used Mantis before... its all so new for me )

[alexh]

I am not familiar with the Furia V2 hardware.

Can you disable the 68EC020?

Can you disable it and keep the fast RAM? Have you tried that?

It is highly likely that ECS + 68EC020 is an untested configuration.

It's not really a 16-bit Amiga but it is not an A1200. Access to Chip RAM will be much slower.

Depending on how the slave works, it may detect it as an normal ECS machine and take out blitwaits (which are probably needed) or it may detect it as an accelerated ECS machine and may take them out?

Over to Stingray...

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Nibbler

a furia has a 68EC020 and a 68882 FPU with 11,5 MB Fastram.

Not that it really matters but Furia is down as having 9.5MB of Fastmem (and presumably the 11.5 comes from the 2MB of Chipmem your A600 has too?)

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by alexh

Depending on how the slave works, it may detect it as an normal ECS machine and take out blitwaits (which are probably needed) or it may detect it as an accelerated ECS machine and may take them out?

The patch code checks the CPU (chipset is not relevant) and disables blitter wait patches on 68000. On 68020+ they are needed and hence installed.