22 April 2020, 21:50 | #41 |
Alien Breeder
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Still, an RTG and/or PPC exe would be totally awesome...
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22 April 2020, 21:58 | #42 |
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23 April 2020, 12:47 | #43 |
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Just downloaded this game and I cannot get it to work whatsoever on my A1200. Keeps telling me to insert TFX and DID. Can’t find anything to tell me how to fix it. This is a good reason why a Whdload slave would be good. Just install it and click on an icon to run it.
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23 April 2020, 13:35 | #44 | |
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Quote:
The executable contained in the archive is dated 5/12/2001. I have no memory of where i got it, but it must be this one: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...es/kKZHKZtN8bQ Have no idea if it works - not had TFX running for years. Will post it up later. |
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23 April 2020, 19:36 | #45 | |
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Quote:
These get created after using the provided installer. Installing this game is not rocket science guys |
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23 April 2020, 23:57 | #46 |
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The 040 version from 2001 is in the zone now.
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24 April 2020, 00:36 | #47 |
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25 April 2020, 22:39 | #48 | |
Amiga Games Database
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Quote:
The usual stuff. I know you guys can't do the impossible, but you've pulled off quite a few miracles in the past. As you know I have no technical expertise, but based on what I've seen, I would not be at all surprised if a WHDLoad ninja could find some optimisations. Flight Sims didn't get more ambitious than this on the Amiga, so worth a look? I remember there was a bug with the FPU version that stopped the cannon from working. I think running FASTEXEC helped a little with the speed. I believe it ran abit faster on an 030, and that there was a flicker issue that turning the caches off resolved(!). I got into converstaion with Charlie Wallace, the guy that released it, on comp.sys.amiga.games. He gave some fairly detailed info that would probably make more sense to you, and give you a better idea of what might be done. Bits and pirces like: "it still uses SMC code and flushes the cache more than it should to get round it, which will kill the performance of any heavily cache dependant CPU, which i believe where most of the 060 gets is boost." The full thread is here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!se...Q/SD6r360dIEMJ "TFX does use fixed point for a lot of stuff like the renderer, however the flight models too complex to get away with the reduced accuracy of fixed point.." |
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11 May 2020, 23:10 | #49 |
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okay so my 2 cents:
If I understand correctly, TFX runs on a 68060, but the 68040-optimized version does not. Only the 68020/non-FPU version would work and attempting to run the 68040 crashes the machine. With whdload, an unsupported 68040 FPU instruction would trip an exception. I'd say that non-compatible 68060 FPU instructions could be found in disassembly and maybe patched so the 68060 could run the 68040 version with a few (?) patches, without figuring out the whole picture. That would probably be better than running a non-FPU version. But this may be an ungrateful task, and unsure that it would allow the game to go significantly faster than the 68020 version. Thougths? |
12 May 2020, 09:21 | #50 |
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Aren’t there tools that are supposed to do this kind of patching kind of on the fly. Oxypatcher?
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13 May 2020, 17:32 | #51 |
Amiga Games Database
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Guys,
A suggestion. TFX was released for the Amiga over 20 years ago, and Charlie Wallace worked on it further for some time, releasing some new .exes. If a WHDLoad slave is made, it would make sense to gather all the .exes that were released so the Patcher can make an informed decision on which exe (or exes) to work on. I've done a bit of research and have found 6 different exe files. The first 5 were included in an .hdf put together by Steve Bruce. (Nice one, Steve) :-) they are named: TFX.020 filesize: 571008 - patched 020 crashes with fast ram TFX.030 filesize: 570480 - crashes TFX.040 filesize: 571008 - crashes TFX.OLD filesize: 554340 -runs TFX.FPU filesize: 503340 -runs but I think cannon no longer damages anything. TFX.??? filesize: 599152 - runs This last one, is one that I archived myself, years ago. I can't say much about it other than it works, and it's a different filesize to the others. I'm sure I kept it because it was the latest working exe I knew of at the time. So if any of you have other exes, or info, or recollections? :-) Last edited by Angus; 13 May 2020 at 20:54. |
13 May 2020, 19:27 | #52 |
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Code:
"it still uses SMC code and flushes the cache more than it should to get round it, which will kill the performance of any heavily cache dependant CPU, which i believe where most of the 060 gets is boost." |
21 August 2020, 14:31 | #53 | |
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This was sounding fairly positive.......... |
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21 August 2020, 14:40 | #54 |
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that is if any of the executables worked. Most of the executables provided crash at startup. Code disassembly reveals that it's completely broken.
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25 August 2020, 06:01 | #55 | |
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This is on the executables from the author's old geocities site? I seem to recall most of them at least *ran* on my A4000 back in the day. |
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25 August 2020, 12:00 | #56 | |
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From memory the TFX_68000 and TFX_FPU files worked fine, but I think I had issues with TFX_040. |
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25 August 2020, 23:28 | #57 |
Amiga Games Database
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This was my contribution to the working .exe issue:
TFX.020 filesize: 571008 - patched 020 crashes with fast ram TFX.030 filesize: 570480 - crashes TFX.040 filesize: 571008 - crashes TFX.OLD filesize: 554340 -runs TFX.FPU filesize: 503340 -runs but I think cannon no longer damages anything. TFX.??? filesize: 599152 - runs This last one, is one that I archived myself, years ago. I can't say much about it other than it works, and it's a different filesize to the others. I'm sure I kept it because it was the latest working exe I knew of at the time. |
26 August 2020, 10:20 | #58 | |
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Quote:
I still don't understand why this wouldn't be a great candidate for a WHLOAD patch to get the bloody thing working properly |
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26 August 2020, 21:55 | #59 |
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can someone just zone / zip the working exes and not the ones that crash? A whdload installation could provide the proper executables for this game instead of downloaded ones assembled with who knows what tool (a blender?)
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26 August 2020, 22:56 | #60 |
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As mentined, these worked for me in WinUAE (well, except for TFX_040):
Ok, in The Zone! Last edited by DamienD; 26 August 2020 at 23:01. |
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