HD-Installable games?

[fstltna]

Is there a chart listing the games that can be installed on a hard drive? Most just show a blank window or a ndos icon...

[ransom1122]

http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?N_hd=yes

[fstltna]

Thanks!

[AMIGASYSTEM]

With WHDLoad even games NODOS you can install it on Hardisk

[DrBong]

Originally Posted by fstltna

Is there a chart listing the games that can be installed on a hard drive? Most just show a blank window or a ndos icon...

Originally Posted by ransom1122

http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?N_hd=yes

Even more games can be HD installed with WHDLoad (d/l game packs off the FTP server HERE). The games are actually HD fixed and made to run on pretty much any Amiga configuration. Here's a list of games HD fixed/patched using WHDLoad:

http://hol.abime.net/hol_search.php?B_whd=yes

[fstltna]

Ok, so that lists the whdload files, but where do i get the whdload versions?

[ransom1122]

Like DrBong said they are all here:
ftp://grandis.nu/Commodore_Amiga/Retroplay/

Instructions on loggin on grandis here:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=43633

[fstltna]

I seem to need a package to install WHDLoad, but when I download the /lha version it says that I need a "installer" for it. Can someone point me to a version of WHDLoad that has the installer and does not need the .lzx extractor? I need help getting this running

[Retro-Nerd]

Grab Installer44.10 from here and copy it to the C: folder of your Workbench.

http://kg.whdownload.com/kgwhd/files.php

[brett71]

Does that chart only include games that have "official" hard drive installers on the floppies, or games that could be HD installed with some clever scripting and strategic ASSIGNs?

For a lot of the games that I had on my Amiga back in the day, I'd written little AmigaDOS scripts to install some DOS-based games to hard drive and included on the disks.

If I've got some time to dive into those again, would people here have any interest in seeing those scripts?

[jotd]

whdload installs also support games with official HD installs, for various reasons

- remove password protection (and others, like encryption to prevent from copying/archiving the installed game somewhere else)
- quit to the OS
- kickstart agnostic
- extra features, trainers, bugfixes...

So even when the game has a HD install, always prefer a whdload installed game, unless you don't have enough memory for full HD loading.

Those "assign" scripts are interesting for some CD32 releases where whdload cannot help or with a lot of flashing (and CD32load hardly helps because performance is bad on kickemu games with lots of small files for instance). But I suppose that earok & amigajay got that covered.

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by jotd

So even when the game has a HD install, always prefer a whdload installed game, unless you don't have enough memory for full HD loading.

Or the WHDLoad install actually runs slower than the regular HD install or running it from disk , when that thing with blitter waits or whatever happens.

[StingRay]

Originally Posted by Akira

when that thing with blitter waits or whatever happens.

A lot of these problems have been fixed, i.e. patches were updated to allow disabling blitter wait patches. And those that aren't updated should be reported on the Mantis tracker so they can be updated too.

[jotd]

Adding the blitwaits is hard work. But there's nothing easier than adding a switch to turn off the blitwaits (or detect 68000 CPU and not do it)... that of course, is done if people request it using Mantis, not if they moan in an obscure thread of EAB.

[daxb]

It is always that "easy" to speedup with disabling blitter wait patches? I thought it is more or less hard doing it. Dune2 seems to be a problematic game. C-Fou! tried to speedup the game but original install is still faster what is ok. IMO it doesn`t need to be changed. With Civilization it is similar. Further, games that need mouse input to be played have slow mouse speed under WHDLoad what seems to be can`t be changed. I guess it only effects on games that work in multitasking.

[DrBong]

Originally Posted by fstltna

I seem to need a package to install WHDLoad, but when I download the /lha version it says that I need a "installer" for it. Can someone point me to a version of WHDLoad that has the installer and does not need the .lzx extractor? I need help getting this running

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Grab Installer44.10 from here and copy it to the C: folder of your Workbench.

http://kg.whdownload.com/kgwhd/files.php

Hopefully you've come to grips with the WHDLoad basics already, but if you haven't there's an old WHDLoad FAQ that might still be helpful:

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=5267

Originally Posted by ransom1122

Like DrBong said they are all here:
ftp://grandis.nu/Commodore_Amiga/Retroplay/

Instructions on loggin on grandis here:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=43633

Yep! Alternatively, try the link below if you're getting a browser prompt for log/pass and prefer not to to use a FTP client.

https://is.gd/Lm2PWj

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by StingRay

And those that aren't updated should be reported on the Mantis tracker so they can be updated too.

Yeah I wish people would use Mantis more.
The other problem I see is that sometimes someone gets a hold of the report, but never does anything for it and you kind of lose track of what you reported or not (this happens to me).

Originally Posted by jotd

But there's nothing easier than adding a switch to turn off the blitwaits (or detect 68000 CPU and not do it)

What about games that have slowdowns on higher than 68030 machines? Stuff like Zool 2 AGA which is still slower than the floppy release. Can that be fixed? I never understood if it is possible. Would this work?

[jotd]

The slowdowns on 68030+ machines are another issue I never fully understood. One of those issues is related to running the code from chip memory AFAIK. So the fix is relocating the code in fast memory, but it's not always easy because some games are hardcoded to use chipmem only / have chip-only segments.

I relocated a few CD32 games to fastmem with great results: Body Blows CD32 and Chaos Engine CD32 but that was a lot of work because you must avoid relocating gfx/sound related data to fastmem or the game crashes/you have no video/no sound.

I think SWOS also suffers from this issue, and it depends on the CPU boards.

@daxb it is probably NOT blitterwaits. Yes, some games are reported slower on whdload/kickfs than on original DOS HD, even when running from fastmem...

So different causes, same effect.

[idrougge]

Originally Posted by jotd

So even when the game has a HD install, always prefer a whdload installed game, unless you don't have enough memory for full HD loading.

Not always.

WHDload takes over the machine, which is fine with DOS-killing games, but with system-friendly games, it's sometimes nice to be able to run them and switch to the Workbench for something else.