No Second Prize -- Puzzled.

[solarice]

Ok, hoping you's can help narrow this issue down to either software or hardware.

Soooo I decided to get my amiga 600 out of its box after it was put into hibernation in the mid/late 90's. After replacing the capacitors (luckily they had only just started to leak so no major damage) it appears to be all up and running though at the moment still in bits.

Now the problem...No Second prize loads up fine, i can go through all the menus it starts to load up the race (practice or season it doesn't matter) it'll complete the loading then instead of going to the grid it resets to the main menu.

The same disk images load fine in winuae with what is i believe the correct setup to replicate the a600.

Most disk images are the same result only one other was guruing to 8000 000A / 000B

I've tried with the a600 in stock form and with the ac620 accelerator enabled and no difference. Only thing i havent tried yet is a degrader and that's because the keyboard isnt attached yet.

I do remember it working on the stock a600 in the 90's although flaky...but as i've said tried a few versions of the disk image and no joy.

So anyone got any ideas, is this the game or a hardware issue? If its hardware i'd like to sort this out before reassembling everything.

Basic memory tests all pass.
Just as a reference frontier elite II seems to work 100%.

[demolition]

If you have the same problem with the aca620 removed, then I think it is probably a software issue. Many of the older games does not work with KS 2.0+, so you should try something like the ReLoKick disk to get it to KS 1.3. The cache on the 020 CPU on the ACA620 will also break many floppy games, although ReLoKick 1.4 has the possibility of disabling cpu caches (think it is by left-clicking on the KS 1.3 screen).

[fryguy]

Have you tried the WHDLoad version?

[fitzsteve]

Indeed you should be able to play it from WHDLoad but I'm guessing you want to play the Disk version for some reason.

Do you have a modified Disk drive, i.e a PC one converted for Amiga use? Some Games don't like them which is why I ask.

I've played NSP via WHDLoad on my old A600 with ACA620 and ACA630 so should be fiine for your setup (one of my fav games) note I always used 3.1 Rom mapped using MapRom or real chip.

If you like I can try the Disk version on my stock A600 later, it has only 1.5mb Chip but should be able to play it.

[solarice]

Yeah it seems odd because everywhere i've searched online everyone just seems to be playing it without issues.

I'm still using the original floppy drive which can be a little temperamental but i've also tried the modded gotek drive and the same result with both. The stock floppy does still load games though so I don't believe its a drive issue.

As of now i have no hard drive in the machine (yeah i know haha), which i why i'm focusing on floppies. I wasn't even supposed to be buying an accelerator tbh but I stumbled across one for sale and curiosity got the better of me.

If i end up messing about a lot with the machine i will be upgrading to a hard drive and WHDLoad. I can't be doing like i used to e.g. completing beneath a steel sky (15 discs iirc) with one floppy disk drive...man i must of had some patience back then.

I'll give relokick a try, i did know about the caching issue as its causing glitches in other demos i've tried (replicated the glitch in winuae). Though funnily enough so far no second prize always loads in winuae.

Fingers crossed its not hardware gremlins.

fitzsteve don't feel you have to go out of your way, but if you want to test your disk based version and let me know that'd be great.

Thanks so far.

[alexh]

Early versions of No Second Prize didn't work with A600 / Kickstart 2.05

It had (1Mbyte Amiga Not A600) on the cover.

It was later fixed for all Amiga's. No idea when that was or how to tell the difference between versions.

[fitzsteve]

That's interesting info Alexh, I will see what version/s I have here.

@solarice,

I don't mind testing, it will give me an excuse to get the A600 out, poor fella not getting used these days as I sold my Accelerators.

If you want a CF setup I have a couple spare here, I could prep one up and send it to you, much cheaper then eBay of course! You will need your own WHDLoad Key which is totally worth every penny.

The ACA can Map any Rom you like with ACATune, so you don't need to use Relokick, instead make a bootable floppy Disk, install ACTune in C: and any KS Image you like, create a startup sequence with:

C:acatune -maprom <path to rom image> :NIL

Then your Amiga will reboot with that Rom, cool eh?

Also use the -maxmem command to get the full 10mb Ram i.e:

c:acatune -maprom <rom file> -maxmem :NIL>

If you need help with the CF HDD just let me know, the ACA620 is a great bit of kit and your Amiga is crying out for some storage to enjoy it

Edit:

Also worth having a read of the ACAtune readme as there are options that might help with some games/memory settings for example.

[solarice]

@alexh : ah that might be why some aren't working then

@fitzsteve : I've been having a look over the docs and so far apart from testing a few things i've not fiddled that much.

I assumed the maprom feature was only for hard drive installs never thought about putting it on a floppy.

I can definitely see the benefit of hard drive after spending a few mins in workbench swapping away disks. But its risky as i can see spending money quite easy.

Regarding the original problem:

Just to confuse matters i've had a chance to play with the parts / settings since posting the original request and ive actually gotten the floppy version to load a few times and play with no problems on the a600 with accelerator and caching turned on.

For some reason it seems to depend on when i exit the intro sequence. Exit straight away and it seems to crash, if i let the camera lower to the road then click to exit the game lets me race...its probably a coincidence, but seems to be consistent with the few times i've now tried.

This was after trying a few combinations of relokick / totally disabling the aca620 etc. Oddly enough it wasn't having any of it.

So maybe the disk was just a little dirty or something? :S Which is good as it at least means the machine is still working fine and it can get closed up shortly.

Gotek drive so far is still a no go (not surprising tbh as it still early days for the firmware).

I'm unsure which ministry disk version this is, though i'm tempted to .adf this disk and test on the gotek just to see if it works. I know i backed up my disks before so i might even already have it on cd somewhere.

Don't let my results stop you playing on the a600 though fitzsteve, it'll still be handy to know.

[Nobby_UK]

Tried it on my 600 :
Floppy version (Melon/Ministry) = Fine
( uncontrollable but fine )

WHDLoad version = Black Screen
( even disabling Df0: CC0: and SDH1: )

Managed to run it via an Blank disk
which had 'Install' to force a CLI
then lots o typing :

[fitzsteve]

I didn't get a chance to play last night but sounds like you're making good prgress.

I'd highly recommend a CF HDD, you can pick up a CF card really cheap these days and I have spare's too if you want one known working, I also have spare CF-IDE adapters here as I used to offer a setup service.

I don't really do it much anymore due to time restrictions but I do the occasional one for forum members

You wont regret adding some storage though as it will unluck all the powers of your ACA620 which totaly transforms the A600. NSP will certainly benefit from the extra speed of the 020.

Good luck with your project!

[alexh]

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

[B]Tried it on my 600 :
Floppy version (Melon/Ministry) = Fine
( uncontrollable but fine )

Highly likely the crackers either patched the incompatibility. Or cracked the later release.

We'd need a dump of the original disk from a box which says "Not A600" to be sure.

[Retroplay]

SPS has two versions preserved, no box scans though.

[solarice]

NobbyUK i don't suppose you know which version your disk is out of curiosity as there seems to be about 5.

I've tried my disk a few times now and its still working, so i've no idea why it originally decided to be difficult.

Tested with the gotek (again out of curiosity) and all the ones online fail at some point or another (this is running the machine as is no degrade, 620 still on so its possible as said not compatible with a600), except for the Amiga Power final cover disk which loads up fine every time.

So if anyone has issues and or is using the modded gotek maybe head for the cover disk version?.

Fitzsteve cheers yeah i am tempted, its great having it setup again even the disk swapping novelty hasn't worn off yet lol. i'll make sure the machine is working 100% (so far so good) then i might step it up another notch.

[Nobby_UK]

As stated Melon/Ministry (old disk)

CRC-32 of ADF of it = 0CF5802C

ADF of it works on my A500 Plus + Gotek.



Does not work on A1200 though - even with caches disabled
or using S-Kick 3.21