Loading times

Tim Janssen · 27 June 2003, 15:46

I know this thread is a contender for the Hall Of Fame of Stupidest Topics but here it goes:
Back in my original Amiga days some games took ages to load that I thought they were corrupt, so I erased the discs. This brings me to a question:
Which game does take the longest loading-time on an original Amiga? With the loading time I refer to the total loading- and decrunch time until you see the titlescreen of a game.

Here are some contenders I still remember:
Last Ninja III: I ran this game often when my Miggy still had 512Kb of memory. It took ages to load and the final game looked like a C64 game but in a higher resolution;
Wizkid: Put your Wizkid discs in the drive, let the dog out, go shopping, take a cup of coffee, and return to your Amiga screen. Wizkid is loaded within a couple of minutes.
Theme Park ECS: This is the game I accidentaly erased. I was waiting over thirty minutes and the game was still loading! Never played the actual game on my Amiga.

Do you remember any game that takes ages to load?

Konrad · 27 June 2003, 15:49

Walker. It takes ages to load title screen and menu and then again ages to load the actual game

. Luckily I got the WHDLoad version

.

Marcuz · 27 June 2003, 16:25

i agree with wizkid, walker and theme park. i can't think anything else in the same class as those.
but then: darkmere was a pain in the ass and civilization (the aga version not patched was even worse) with the intro sequence that was real timed with the facts that showed up!

7-Zark-7 · 27 June 2003, 16:28

Haven't played it personally, but I seem to recall one of the Wonderboy games,that was once reviewed in Zzap! was panned for its loading times,they reckoned the C64 disk version was faster!
On a personal level, sierra's adventuere games were always general swapping & loading nightmares.

Tim Janssen · 27 June 2003, 16:56

Walker: How could I forget this title! What made the loading frustrating was this status text in vector-form which constantly rotated. Yes, it took a very long while to load.

Darkmere's loading between flickscreens has kept many players away finishing the game. I still have this game on disc - only for the beautiful titlemusic.

Wonderboy in Monsterland: I remember the review (April 1990 to be precise) in which Phil King complains about the loading times. I first played this game in WinUAE with its turbo loading-system. No complaints at all.

fiath · 27 June 2003, 17:04

Loading times are back!

We aim to give you as long (accurate) loading times as possible.

C.A.P.S.
CAmPain for game loader rightS !

Sorry, I am in a silly mood right now...

Syko · 27 June 2003, 17:05

Seem to remember that "Panza, Kickboxing" was bloody slow to load, on the mate's A500+, but as we where pished and stoned whenever we played it, it could be just a figment of my senile brain...

Ah, those where the days. Playing for forfits

Winner gets the choice of a bong or a shot glass, loser has to do the one the winner didn't want. Tactical partying, you know it makes sense!

Marcuz · 27 June 2003, 20:56

Quote:

We aim to give you as long (accurate) loading times as possible.

@fiath

haynor666 · 27 June 2003, 22:06

Mortal Kombat on A1200.

ant512 · 27 June 2003, 22:06

(Shameless attempt at getting more website hits...)

I've added the world's first Flash-based Amiga loading simulator (TM) to my IK+ port:

http://ant.digitaldonkey.com/ik/ik.php

haynor666 · 27 June 2003, 22:45

Nice one

Amiga1992 · 28 June 2003, 03:25

Titus the fucking Fox! That was shit.

And I do remember Darkmere taking ages every time you entered a fricking door, but I do not remember Theme Park ECS taking so long to load!

IFW · 28 June 2003, 04:04

Darkmere: if you have some ram, it does not take much time...
My number one annoying loader is Walker so far.

haynor666 · 28 June 2003, 05:27

With 2Mb RAM Darkmere loads one level almost 10 min but during playing doesn't load data anymore.

gary · 28 June 2003, 06:55

I agree with the games above (especially Walker) but i'd also like to add Zool to the list. It seems as though the levels are split into single blocks which are scattered all over the disk.

Can some of these load times be put down to using the cracked versions? I find it hard to believe they could program the loaders that badly and think its down to converting some games to AmigaDOS format for copying.

IFW · 28 June 2003, 07:02

Many of the loading times/strange disk swaps are due to bad cracks, or that cracks had to use a smaller track buffer loading block by block, while the original loaded a whole track, game putting more data on track than what is possible with ados format etc.
However Walker loading time is genuine

Amiga1992 · 28 June 2003, 08:39

Quote:

Originally posted by IFW
Many of the loading times/strange disk swaps are due to bad cracks

Yup. Mortal Kombat cracked was ARSE...

Walker I agree too, what a snail!

Paul · 28 June 2003, 10:20

This game was not one of my favourites but... Oscar was also painful.

I remember the slow grinding sound it made during loading on my A600. Also you were asked for disk 2, the drive sounded sick when ejecting the disk. And you had to type in a word from the manual to continue.

Twistin'Ghost · 29 June 2003, 05:33

I missed the whole Walker thing, fortunately, since the BBS I grabbed it from had a HD version, so I was in 2-player heaven.

The two worst for me were Civilization (never played the game because I refused to sit through that rubbish PC intro) and Titus the Fox, which puts you through the long load times constantly through the game.

CodyJarrett · 29 June 2003, 09:16

The intro for Civilization is played while the game generates the world - that's why it seems to take so long.

On an accelerated Amiga, the world is generated very quickly and then you can skip the intro.

27 June 2003, 15:46	#1
Tim Janssen Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Den Bosch / The Netherlands Age: 47 Posts: 1,271	Loading times I know this thread is a contender for the Hall Of Fame of Stupidest Topics but here it goes: Back in my original Amiga days some games took ages to load that I thought they were corrupt, so I erased the discs. This brings me to a question: Which game does take the longest loading-time on an original Amiga? With the loading time I refer to the total loading- and decrunch time until you see the titlescreen of a game. Here are some contenders I still remember: Last Ninja III: I ran this game often when my Miggy still had 512Kb of memory. It took ages to load and the final game looked like a C64 game but in a higher resolution; Wizkid: Put your Wizkid discs in the drive, let the dog out, go shopping, take a cup of coffee, and return to your Amiga screen. Wizkid is loaded within a couple of minutes. Theme Park ECS: This is the game I accidentaly erased. I was waiting over thirty minutes and the game was still loading! Never played the actual game on my Amiga. Do you remember any game that takes ages to load?

27 June 2003, 16:56	#5
Tim Janssen Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Den Bosch / The Netherlands Age: 47 Posts: 1,271	Yes, I remember them... Walker: How could I forget this title! What made the loading frustrating was this status text in vector-form which constantly rotated. Yes, it took a very long while to load. Darkmere's loading between flickscreens has kept many players away finishing the game. I still have this game on disc - only for the beautiful titlemusic. Wonderboy in Monsterland: I remember the review (April 1990 to be precise) in which Phil King complains about the loading times. I first played this game in WinUAE with its turbo loading-system. No complaints at all.

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27 June 2003, 15:49	#2
Konrad Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Germany Age: 43 Posts: 742	Walker. It takes ages to load title screen and menu and then again ages to load the actual game . Luckily I got the WHDLoad version .

27 June 2003, 16:25	#3
Marcuz Registered User Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: . Age: 48 Posts: 5,562	i agree with wizkid, walker and theme park. i can't think anything else in the same class as those. but then: darkmere was a pain in the ass and civilization (the aga version not patched was even worse) with the intro sequence that was real timed with the facts that showed up!

27 June 2003, 16:28	#4
7-Zark-7 Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Brisbane/Australia Posts: 1,270	Haven't played it personally, but I seem to recall one of the Wonderboy games,that was once reviewed in Zzap! was panned for its loading times,they reckoned the C64 disk version was faster! On a personal level, sierra's adventuere games were always general swapping & loading nightmares.

27 June 2003, 17:04	#6
fiath Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: South East / UK Age: 46 Posts: 1,930	Loading times are back! We aim to give you as long (accurate) loading times as possible. C.A.P.S. CAmPain for game loader rightS ! Sorry, I am in a silly mood right now...

27 June 2003, 17:05	#7
Syko Now got GSX750F :)) Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Halifax UK Age: 60 Posts: 584	Seem to remember that "Panza, Kickboxing" was bloody slow to load, on the mate's A500+, but as we where pished and stoned whenever we played it, it could be just a figment of my senile brain... Ah, those where the days. Playing for forfits Winner gets the choice of a bong or a shot glass, loser has to do the one the winner didn't want. Tactical partying, you know it makes sense!

27 June 2003, 22:06	#9
haynor666 retro maniac Join Date: May 2002 Location: Tarnobrzeg/Poland Age: 45 Posts: 1,753	Mortal Kombat on A1200.

27 June 2003, 22:06	#10
ant512 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: California Posts: 965	(Shameless attempt at getting more website hits...) I've added the world's first Flash-based Amiga loading simulator (TM) to my IK+ port: http://ant.digitaldonkey.com/ik/ik.php

27 June 2003, 22:45	#11
haynor666 retro maniac Join Date: May 2002 Location: Tarnobrzeg/Poland Age: 45 Posts: 1,753	Nice one

28 June 2003, 03:25	#12
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,646	Titus the fucking Fox! That was shit. And I do remember Darkmere taking ages every time you entered a fricking door, but I do not remember Theme Park ECS taking so long to load!

28 June 2003, 04:04	#13
IFW Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: ... Age: 52 Posts: 1,838	Darkmere: if you have some ram, it does not take much time... My number one annoying loader is Walker so far.

28 June 2003, 05:27	#14
haynor666 retro maniac Join Date: May 2002 Location: Tarnobrzeg/Poland Age: 45 Posts: 1,753	With 2Mb RAM Darkmere loads one level almost 10 min but during playing doesn't load data anymore.

28 June 2003, 06:55	#15
gary Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Perth, Western Australia Age: 50 Posts: 283	I agree with the games above (especially Walker) but i'd also like to add Zool to the list. It seems as though the levels are split into single blocks which are scattered all over the disk. Can some of these load times be put down to using the cracked versions? I find it hard to believe they could program the loaders that badly and think its down to converting some games to AmigaDOS format for copying.

28 June 2003, 07:02	#16
IFW Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: ... Age: 52 Posts: 1,838	Many of the loading times/strange disk swaps are due to bad cracks, or that cracks had to use a smaller track buffer loading block by block, while the original loaded a whole track, game putting more data on track than what is possible with ados format etc. However Walker loading time is genuine

28 June 2003, 10:20	#18
Paul RIP Friends Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: UK Posts: 2,157	This game was not one of my favourites but... Oscar was also painful. I remember the slow grinding sound it made during loading on my A600. Also you were asked for disk 2, the drive sounded sick when ejecting the disk. And you had to type in a word from the manual to continue.

29 June 2003, 05:33	#19
Twistin'Ghost Give up the ghost Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: U$A Age: 33 Posts: 4,662	I missed the whole Walker thing, fortunately, since the BBS I grabbed it from had a HD version, so I was in 2-player heaven. The two worst for me were Civilization (never played the game because I refused to sit through that rubbish PC intro) and Titus the Fox, which puts you through the long load times constantly through the game.

29 June 2003, 09:16	#20
CodyJarrett Global Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: UK Age: 46 Posts: 6,161	The intro for Civilization is played while the game generates the world - that's why it seems to take so long. On an accelerated Amiga, the world is generated very quickly and then you can skip the intro.

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