CAPS #33 - Unreal

Firstly cheers for the great work on this fine project
I have dozens of original boxes so I'll keep my eyes peeled for the wanted section

Anyways Unreal seems to have ceased working on winuae.. It worked fine the first time...but now crashes back to desktop every time just before the main menu is displayed.. I DID write-enable the disks to ensure any saves and thought this may have been the problem...but even replacing the ipf's with a fresh set doesn't fix it

[IFW]

IPFs are write only by design, to avoid the problems associated with non-preservation formats, most notably modified images causing confusion and trouble to identify the original image.
However some (original) games insist on writing back to their own disk. In order to do so practically a diff file of the image is kept by winuae where each track overwritten by the game is stored in the file, while unmodified tracks are read from the original image (ipf).
If you write enable an ipf file in winuae the diff file will be created in the "SaveImages" directory of your winuae folder. If you think this is the problem delete the files corresponding to the name of the original file.
If the image file is called e.g. "Unreal_Disk1.ipf" the name of the save image is "Unreal_Disk1_save.adf"
On Unreal only disk#2 may be write enabled, I think it is even written in the manual. I myself haven't had any problems with saving highscores or save to disk, but I certainly use a newer (beta) version of uae, so your mileage may vary. It is possible that your problem is different, like using a different setup to play the game, than before. ocs, 5125k chip, 512k slow, 1.3, 68000, more compatible, match a500 speed, 100% floppy speed, cycle exact should work for the majority of commercial ocs games, like Unreal.

As for scans and other contributions, normally only a few things are posted there if everyone runs out of versions of a certain game and all are faulty etc. So if you really want to contribute to the project please contact us. What we have scanned is certainly going to be released sooner or later (if we have 100% disk images for the game), unlike games that are not scanned.
Since there are about 40 releases out there obviously a lot of games do not have their packages preserved.
Please contact us with a list of the games you can scan etc. for more information, in order to avoid duplicate efforts.
...and of course if you still have a working Amiga setup you might as well dump some games

[fiath]

Think of the games in the wanted section as stuff that we think we are going to have big trouble getting hold of. It is just the "special" items that may take us some time to digitise good copies of. If you have any games, a list would be very much appriciated - we can then tell you if there are any we don't have.

Also, IPF's will never be modified by running a game, even if it tries to write to the disk. They are perfect, and are meant to stay perfect! Basically, no mechanism exists to write to the files, so the only way they could have been changed is if they have been corrupted somehow.

WinUAE does have functionality to save any disk writes that may be done to a separate file though. I can't remember where this is offhand, but IIRC it is a directory off the main WinUAE folder. When you find it, try deleting any Unreal disk diff files if any are in there.

What version of WinUAE are you using? What is your emulated config? Did you change anything? I have run Unreal quite a few times now, and have not had crashes so far. My config it set to be the the most compatible to the A500 (including cycle-exact checkbox, more compatible CPU, etc.)

Other than that, perhaps it is a best to ask Toni if he knows what the problem might be.

[fiath]

You beat me by 3 minutes IFW
Is it nice to know that we think alike?

[IFW]

Originally posted by fiath
You beat me by 3 minutes IFW
Is it nice to know that we think alike?

As for thinking alike that we know for a few years by now
...and it seems I may not be that old after all

you look very old in your photo..

Cheers guys...very interesting. I never knew the ipf's are written to in that way! (well, not written to rather). Deleting the file will surely fix the problem
Hmmm I wonder if compressed ipf SaveImages are on the agenda :P

As for the games - I sold all my original ami software years ago.. (*ducks under desk)... but I still have all the boxes (50+) and a lot of bits n' pieces that came with them. Hehe a bit lame I know... but maybe 'something' will be usefull. I'll pull them all out of the shed tomorrow and post a list

[IFW]

Yes I know, maybe I should shave my beard sometime, but a wizard without a beard is pretty lame - and looking younger for a few hundred years does not matter that much

I am sure something will be useful, thanks.

[fiath]

BIG EDIT

Sensible conversation only please!

This is supposed to be a nice place where we can discuss our common interest.