Which coders used the dirtiest hacks?

Gnorman · 04 March 2006, 20:21

After getting WHDLoad and reading this board it is obvious that many of you have picked apart Amiga games for graphics, sound, etc or hacked them to run on 1200's and it got me thinking. Which programming teams were the worst for using hacks and workarounds to achieve the end result.

i.e. Whose games are the biggest bugger to modify?

Galahad/FLT · 13 March 2006, 15:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gnorman

After getting WHDLoad and reading this board it is obvious that many of you have picked apart Amiga games for graphics, sound, etc or hacked them to run on 1200's and it got me thinking. Which programming teams were the worst for using hacks and workarounds to achieve the end result.

i.e. Whose games are the biggest bugger to modify?

older the game, 'generally' worse programming practices they used.

musashi5150 · 13 March 2006, 16:01

I heard Tiertex (Strider series) were pretty rough

Their trackloader was definately crap!

Galahad/FLT · 16 March 2006, 19:33

Teque were pretty crap as well.

BuZz · 18 March 2006, 03:09

I have some software that I can't get to work on a500 with ks1.2. I guess it's 1.1 only. What a pain. I suppose I will have to get resource out. :/

[edit] or I might ask (very kindly) someone like galahad if he wants to fix it :-)

musashi5150 · 18 March 2006, 18:34

It could be 1.3 only maybe? What software is it?

BuZz · 18 March 2006, 19:31

Oh. doesnt work on 1.3 either. The software is synthpack, a synth music editor by Karsten Obarski. I need to try it on winuae with kick 1.1 and If it works then i know the files not corrupt or missing something.

andreas · 13 April 2006, 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by musashi5150

I heard Tiertex (Strider series) were pretty rough

Their trackloader was definately crap!

Umm. Well, let me think ... would The Plague count? Old versions of WinFellow always complained about entering ILLEGAL memory area and crashed, while I reckon that later versions only "tolerated" this behavior of the loader. Could be worth a try to look into that to check its "weirdness".

Toni Wilen once told me that the weirdest track loader he had ever seen was 'The Deep' by Emerald Software. AFAIR it did not even work in quite advanced 0.8.17 r2/r3 yet. Appears to do extremely weird things with DMA...

And as we are here (WinUAE), another one springs to mind: Voyager demo.
AFAIK still not able to boot up on the emulator.

Another is Academy - Tau Ceti II. Galahad once found out it makes quite heavy use of ABSOLUTE addresses ...

Then last but not least ... Arctic Fox. Awfully weird loader too ...
LOL. Both games are from 1985 - a sign?

Probably ... Galahad said it already:

Quote:

older the game, 'generally' worse programming practices they used.

Quote:

I have some software that I can't get to work on a500 with ks1.2. I guess it's 1.1 only.

>> QUINTETTE <<
KS 1.1 only. Yes.
Boots w/1.2, but you cannot play!!

Frog · 14 April 2006, 23:51

it would be nice to see some of the old tracker such as Future Composer working under modern Amiga

BuZz · 15 April 2006, 00:40

I'm sure Stingray made a fixed version of future composer. Not sure if he released it. I resourced future composer and got it part working on kickstart 3. I'll have a look and see if I can dig something out.

Ray Norrish · 17 April 2006, 01:46

Well, I used fc back around the day.. should be fairly easy to upgrade if someone needed it

04 March 2006, 20:21	#1
Gnorman Registered User Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Leeds, England Posts: 15	Which coders used the dirtiest hacks? After getting WHDLoad and reading this board it is obvious that many of you have picked apart Amiga games for graphics, sound, etc or hacked them to run on 1200's and it got me thinking. Which programming teams were the worst for using hacks and workarounds to achieve the end result. i.e. Whose games are the biggest bugger to modify?

18 March 2006, 03:09	#5
BuZz Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Oxford / UK Age: 47 Posts: 583	I have some software that I can't get to work on a500 with ks1.2. I guess it's 1.1 only. What a pain. I suppose I will have to get resource out. :/ [edit] or I might ask (very kindly) someone like galahad if he wants to fix it :-) Last edited by BuZz; 18 March 2006 at 03:24.

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13 March 2006, 16:01	#3
musashi5150 move.w #$4489,$dff07e Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Norfolk, UK Age: 42 Posts: 2,351	I heard Tiertex (Strider series) were pretty rough Their trackloader was definately crap!

16 March 2006, 19:33	#4
Galahad/FLT Going nowhere Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: United Kingdom Age: 50 Posts: 8,986	Teque were pretty crap as well.

18 March 2006, 18:34	#6
musashi5150 move.w #$4489,$dff07e Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Norfolk, UK Age: 42 Posts: 2,351	It could be 1.3 only maybe? What software is it?

18 March 2006, 19:31	#7
BuZz Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Oxford / UK Age: 47 Posts: 583	Oh. doesnt work on 1.3 either. The software is synthpack, a synth music editor by Karsten Obarski. I need to try it on winuae with kick 1.1 and If it works then i know the files not corrupt or missing something.

14 April 2006, 23:51	#9
Frog Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: France Posts: 1,385	it would be nice to see some of the old tracker such as Future Composer working under modern Amiga

15 April 2006, 00:40	#10
BuZz Registered User Join Date: May 2002 Location: Oxford / UK Age: 47 Posts: 583	I'm sure Stingray made a fixed version of future composer. Not sure if he released it. I resourced future composer and got it part working on kickstart 3. I'll have a look and see if I can dig something out.

17 April 2006, 01:46	#11
Ray Norrish Registered User Join Date: May 2005 Location: Cheshire, UK Age: 56 Posts: 322	Well, I used fc back around the day.. should be fairly easy to upgrade if someone needed it

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