James Pond Limited Edition

[Amiga1992]

Originally Posted by Abaddon

I ran both the raw and ipf in WinUAE with quickstart a500 512c/512f most common kick 1.3 and did not have any gfx issues

I guess the problem is that this version still doesn't run on A500+ or newer

[Sandro]

Originally Posted by Akira

I guess the problem is that this version still doesn't run on A500+ or newer

nope
works fine on the A600 config on winuae
and works fine on my A1200, disabling caches + using original chip
no need to use relokick

[dlfrsilver]

Ok guys, i'll generate an extended ADF out of the retail and 1mb version from the IPF versions.

EDIT : no powercopy possible, like the retail release, it has the Protec 4454 protection track (it can't be copied back).

@abaddon : and indeed, James Pond 1mb is unsupported under whdload. That's the message i got with the 'les collectors' version.

[Retroplay]

I can confirm the ipf image isn't 100% as you're game over after exiting level 1 no matter what you do.

Originally Posted by Sandro

the IPF you created is bad, when you finish 1st level it asks for your name and the game is over

Raw image seems to be working though.

[dlfrsilver]

I have check the 4 versions : The retail 512kb version (use Protec 4454), the retail special edition 1mb (use Protec 4454), the gremlin GBH version (no protection track), the collectors/chart attack version (no protection track).

thanks Abaddon, the collectors/chart Attack version is NOT the 1mb version.

[Abaddon]

I will see if I can add the protection track to disk-analysis or it maybe there already

[Sandro]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Ok guys, i'll generate an extended ADF out of the retail and 1mb version from the IPF versions.

EDIT : no powercopy possible, like the retail release, it has the Protec 4454 protection track (it can't be copied back).

@abaddon : and indeed, James Pond 1mb is unsupported under whdload. That's the message i got with the 'les collectors' version.

copying the game with powercopy the game starts ok but then fails to load level 2
idem bug have the IPF image
maybe there is a way to copy back to disk ?

[BarryB]

Originally Posted by Abaddon

I will see if I can add the protection track to disk-analysis or it maybe there already

If you mean Keirs disk-analyse, then Protec longtrack that many Psygnosis games used is already supported!

[dlfrsilver]

There are many versions of the Protec Protection, and James Pond use an Atari ST track format

I'm preparing an archive, containing the 4 versions, as well as powercopy versions for the GBH and collectors version which are unprotected. Other than that, i think i'll provide the 1mb version to Flashtro, if Abaddon is not against

EDIT : Please check the zone, you'll find the big archive about James Pond

[modrobert]

Originally Posted by Vot

Can you use wwarp or mfmwarp?

I tried WWarp 1.28, and that failed, but no surprise after reading what dlfrsilver wrote in recent posts.

BTW: Doesn't this James Pond 1MB version deserve a WHDLoad slave update? That's how I prefer to play my games.

[dlfrsilver]

me too, i'd be pleased to see it supported under whdload

[mc68060]

This is very exciting and the find of the year for me! Seems like the game is buffered now in memory because there are no loading times any more between menu screen and level 1. Are there any other extra animations besides the shark fin? Has anybody already analyzed the data files of this version?

As James Pond is a real Amiga classic, HOL should be updated too with some information on this rare 1MB version.

[Abaddon]

I will take a look at fixing the IPF tonight and if I have time start the WHDLoad slave.

[dlfrsilver]

i have PMed you

[Superman]

This really suprised me to see that this game is a genuine 1mb only version. It seems to take a while to load as I guess it loads the whole thing into memory. The Jaws style intro is new as well and I have not seen that before.

Nice job on preserving it.

[dlfrsilver]

Can you tell me if the extended ADF works like intended, as well as the powercopy version ?

[edd_jedi]

Great to see new stuff coming out of the woodwork after all these years. Would love the WHDLOad version when it's ready.

[DrBong]

@Keith
Good one mate!

Originally Posted by mc68060

Seems like the game is buffered now in memory because there are no loading times any more between menu screen and level 1. Are there any other extra animations besides the shark fin?

I was hoping that the extra animation wasn't the only reason for Millennium to have released a separate 1MB version. Would've been a bit lame otherwise, but I wonder if they could've released 512k and 1MB versions on the same disk and simply detected whether end-users had extra memory or not?

[Arnie]

Of course they could, but where's the money in that?

[MethodGit]

Nice to see you guys helped unearth another previously unknown version of this jolly classic. Just reminded me of the time I discovered a beta version amongst my then-existing disk collection and uploaded it on here a long time ago.

It's a good thing the WHDLoad install was brought up though, as something about it always puzzled me. JOTD acknowledged in his readme the supposed existence of a plain DOS-disk (i.e. non-MFM) budget version of the game that could be imaged with plain DIC. I acquired a disk of the GBH re-release a year or two ago, ran it through Kryoflux and was disappointed to find it was still in MFM format. Did JOTD get confused with another version, or even a crack? It would be nice to prove whether this thing exists at all or was just someone's random pipe dream.