Populous 2

I clearly remember being able to play this game on emulators some years ago. Now everytime I try to run it, no matter which emulator or configuration, I cant.

After it loads, at some point it asks for a disk, not specifying which one. Well, no matter which disk I put, at whichever drive, I cant break off that point. I even redownloaded the game just in case the adfs were the problem, but still the same. Anyone got a clue?

[lilalurl]

No idea, but I have sometimes witnessed JIT cache in WinUAE16.x breaking the floppy seeking routines.

I had to turn the cache size to 0 each time there is a floppy seeking.

[Fred the Fop]

Which version are you referring to?
Populous 2 the Challenge or Populous 2-Trials of Olympus??
This is what my boot up and load looked like..is this the one?

Fred, I dont know which populous 2 I have, but the first game screen is the one you show(the blue one)

After that, I get a black workbench screen, not the one you show with the window.

Then I wait a while and I get a message to insert disk

At this point, no matter what disk i put in, it wont progress. It seems you have a different version. I'll try to find yours and see what happens

Edit: OK, I found the challenge version and it works. I dont know what happened and the one I had did not work but anyway, thanks for your help.

It's quite probable that it's not the one bspus is looking for since it's "Populous 2 : The Challenges" not the "regular" populous 2. It's an expansion pack of some sort. same engine but different gameplay. at least the goals of the levels are different

I am uploading a two disk version of populous 2 which I tested.

The one Burseg uploaded is the one I had, and it behaves the same way as I said. So you are saying that the 2 disk version works for you? What happens after the black workbench screen for you then? Me it just says insert disk and the drive is at sector 40. The same in all emulators and configs I tried. What is your config then?

I put disk one into df0 and disk two into df1 and never swap them. I encounter no problems even if I use only one drive

my config
512K chip, 1MB slow ram
kickstart 1.3
68000cpu
cpu speed to 4 (adjustable between cpu&chipset)
full ecs
sound %100 accurate 44100 16bit stereo and interpolation enabled.
sound buffering 5

if all else fails try this:
When asked to change disks, eject disk one, return to emulation and wait a few seconds.Then insert disk two

[Twistin'Ghost]

OK, just in case anybody wants to know, the 2-disked version in the ADFZone is:
Populous II (1991)(Bullfrog)[cr Vision Factory](Disk 1 of 2).zip
Populous II (1991)(Bullfrog)[cr Vision Factory](Disk 2 of 2).zip

and the '1-disked' version is, in fact:
Populous II - Challenge Game (19xx)(Bullfrog).zip

There actually is a real 1-disked version of the regular Populous II which I will upload after I finish this post. It is not in the TOSEC database. I also have a copy of the Challenge Game that is also not recognized by TOSEC - nor is it recognized properly in practice. To look at the disk, it looks identical to the working version, but my alternate copy doesn't acknowledge the cracked Populous II disk, so I must assume that this alt version must be an original.

I also have:
Populous II (1991)(Bullfrog)[cr Vision Factory][f Infinite Perfection](Disk 1 of 2).zip
fixed version, if anyone wants it. It's just more compatible with some real Amigas, that's all.
And
Populous II - Challenge Game (19xx)(Bullfrog)[cr TRSI].zip
As well as some other alts. For you completists.

I didnt post the crackers because I didnt know the info then. There was no annoyng screen after boot to tell me.

OK, people thanks for your help. I found the culprit. You need to insert both disks at boot and then it works correctly. I used to only insert the first one at df0 and wait for the message to swap. Thats because as far as I can remember, problems occured if you use more drives rather than less, but it was not the case this time. All the other memory/chipset configurations are irrelevant. I still dont know how burseg got it to work in one drive however.

Oh, and when the game starts, I get a message from Zeus telling me the game was cracked by Marco Polo. If you dont get that, I may have another version.

He would ask you to enter a copy protection code if it wasn't cracked
I get the exactly same message in that case my version seems to be the same as yours

by the way, try this password : ADKITAKDVGZLRGWZ
this should be the 999th level's code as far as I remember and guess what....I actually memorized it a few years ago and I CANNOT PUT IT OUT OF MY MIND FOR YEARS.

I'm doomed

[Twistin'Ghost]

@bspus
Can you upload the Marco Polo crack? Also, I tried the single drive method in WinUAE and that worked, as well. Just eject the disk when it asks for Populous II disk. Wait a few secs, then F12 and insert the second disk in DF0: and you're good. Or use the single disk version (it's all there...)

@Burseg
With my alt copy of Challenge Games, it brings up the insert disk screen as normal, but it just never acknowledges that the disk has been inserted, no matter how many ways you do it.