Blitz Bomber [AGA] - "HD install" --> "ADFs"

[DamienD]

Hello there my fellow Amigos,

...been quite some time since I've created one of these. Blame real life and shite circumstances that have kept me away from anything Amiga

Anyway; tonight I thought I'd give the HD only game "Blitz Bombers" a bash: http://hol.abime.net/145

So, in my usual fashion; I've now created a "HD install" --> "ADFs" package

As per usual, the package supports 1 drive (and will ask you to insert the next disk) or works with 2 drives if you have them...

Use a "Quickstart A1200 - 2MB Chip & 4MB Fast RAM" configuration in your favourite emulator or have those specs in your real Amiga...

This release is really for people that:

... Don't have a hard drive.
... Don't know how to extract / install etc. to a hard drive in order to play.
... Use GameBase Amiga.
... Have HxC Gotek hardware.

You can find the files I created in the usual places i.e. The Zone! and also on the EAB file server under the directory "~Uploads/DamienD/HD INSTALL --> ADFS"

[DamienD]

Ooops, forgot...

My friend PortuguesePilot; can you please test this on your real A1200 (no hard drive) with a Gotek device?

[seuden]

Nice, Gotek getting some more love. DD, do you have an A1200?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by seuden

Nice, Gotek getting some more love. DD, do you have an A1200?

Nah man, unfortunately these days (well, since 1996 actually), I don't have any real Amigas in my life

What I did have back in the day was an A500 with 512KB Chip + 512KB Fast RAM.

Since then, it's been emulation / WinUAE for me all the way; the best Amiga out there IMHO

[seuden]

Good old A500. Well if you want and would use an A1200 let me know, you can have one of my spares.

EDIT: You could grab yourself a Gotek and try these out yourself.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by seuden

Good old A500. Well if you want and would use an A1200 let me know, you can have one of my spares.

That's very kind of you my friend and I do really appreciate the offer

...problem is, I have enough retro gaming shite laying around and no space for anything else. My current girlfriend would have my balls if I accepted

Plus, real hardware = extra money costs and it can spiral out of control. I'm an emulation freak at the end of the day

[seuden]

Haha! No worries, keep up the good work.

[DamienD]

The real question is; did you test and is all ok with you? Be it on a real A1200 (expanded) / Gotek device etc...

I mean, obviously I tested thoroughly via emulation before posting

[seuden]

Unfortunately real life is in the way atm, retro gaming has been put on hold. Hopefully not for too much longer.

[PortuguesePilot]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Ooops, forgot...

My friend PortuguesePilot; can you please test this on your real A1200 (no hard drive) with a Gotek device?

Tested and the game loads and works fine. However, I only get sound effects. There's no music at all, not even in the menus. This is strange since WinUAE plays music all the way through. Intrigued, I tested the HD installed version that I had and - lo and behold - it has no music either. This tells me that the problem is with Blitz Bombers itself and not your HD2ADF conversion. First I thought it could be some memory issue, but my A1200 config on WinUAE has 4 MB RAM (2MB chip + 2MB fast) and on my real A1200 - due to my ACA 1221 board - I have a total of 11MB of RAM (2 chip + 9 fast). I'm baffled to what can be the cause of this behaviour. If anyone has any thoughts (and, ideally, a solution), I'd really like to hear it.

[DamienD]

Thanks for testing PortuguesePilot

What you say is very strange though; I've just tested the following in WinUAE:

... Game installed in my test ClassicWB 3.1 .HDF.
... The "HD install" --> "ADFs" package.

Both play music:

a) On the title screen.
b) Not on the combination screen.
c) Not on the region selection screen.
d) In game when playing (along with sound effects).

Not really sure what could cause this issue on your real hardware

I wonder if it's something to do with the Cloanto 3.X ROM you have?

Anyway, hopefully someone can offer some suggestions?

[PortuguesePilot]

Originally Posted by DamienD

(...) Not really sure what could cause this issue on your real hardware

I wonder if it's something to do with the Cloanto 3.X ROM you have?

Maybe. I thought about that as well, but I don't know why that would be the case, though...

Originally Posted by DamienD

Anyway, hopefully someone can offer some suggestions?

I hope so too.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by PortuguesePilot

Maybe. I thought about that as well, but I don't know why that would be the case, though...

No, neither do I.

Just racking my brain as to what's different in your real Amiga...

[rygar]

Originally Posted by DamienD

No, neither do I.

Just racking my brain as to what's different in your real Amiga...

Real Amiga have soul

[DamienD]

Hello there PortuguesePilot,

I can replicate this exact issue in WinUAE by using "Z3 Fast" RAM instead of "Z2 Fast RAM".

...not sure what a solution would be on your real Amiga though

[DamienD]

There's also something in the "readme.txt" file about music not playing:

[DamienD]

Tried using these utilities to move "VBR" and experimented with all options available:

... vbr: http://aminet.net/package/util/misc/vbr
... vbrcontrol: http://aminet.net/package/util/sys/vbrcontrol
... VBRControler: http://aminet.net/package/util/wb/VBRControler
... vbrmove23: http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/vbrmov23

Unfortunately, didn't manage to solve things...

I'm definitely out of suggestions now PortuguesePilot

[PortuguesePilot]

No worries, mate. If only all my troubles were this trivial. I hadn't read the readme.txt (I know, I'm a rebel, lol) but after seeing the authors acknowledge the issue, I feel it's less of a mystery (though I'm still baffled by the reasons, as apparently even the authors were). Interestingly, the music on the demo version of Blitz Bombers works on my real Amiga. Go figure...