Interphase Save Game Problem

sean_sk · 04 August 2016, 07:49

I have been trying to play Interphase but found that reloading a saved game doesn't seem to work.

A bit of background info:
I have the Amiga Format Coverdisk #18 which has the full game on it. There was initially an issue where the game wouldn't save onto a floppy at all since it wouldn't recognize it as being formatted. Amiga Format released a patch in Coverdisk #20 which I applied successfully to the full version.

The problem now is it "appears" to save the game (floppy drive seems to access the disk albeit very briefly). But when trying to reload the saved game from that same floppy I get the message: "Disc does not contain a valid Interphase game"

I have tried on an Amiga 1200 with an ACA 1221 accelerator and also an Amiga 600 with an ACA 620. In order to play the game I have had to maprom the 1.3 Kickstart and then reboot. Same results with each.

I also tried within WinUAE (using a compatible A500 config). When about to save the game WinUAE came up with the following message: "The software uses a non-standard floppy disk format. You may need to use a custom floppy disk image file instead of a standard one." Again when trying to load a saved game I get the same results as the real Amiga's.

Does this mean I have to format a real floppy in a special way to get this to work? If so, how would I go about doing this? It appears Interphase doesn't provide an in-game provision for formatting a floppy, therefore I'm not sure how to fix this.

I don't want to resort to emulation and save states as I want to play this on my real hardware. Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks.

EDIT: I should also mention that I tried it with WHDLoad but the game crashes after about a minute. I have submitted a bug report on the WHDLoad site.

Arnie · 04 August 2016, 14:34

Here's one that works in WinUAE

EDIT: Just had a thought on this. The Coverdisk is formatted 836kb (OFS). Try formatting a blank floppy disk as 836kb and use that as the save disk. According to the manual you just use a formatted disk as a save disk.

sean_sk · 05 August 2016, 08:37

Hi Arnie, thanks for your reply. Tried the ADF in WinUAE and it worked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arnie

Try formatting a blank floppy disk as 836kb and use that as the save disk.

Any idea how to do this? I've been using both Workbench 2.1 (A600) and 3.1 (A1200) to format floppies using the GUI and they all format at 880k but none of them seem to work with Interphase. Is there a command line I should use instead?

Again, thanks for your help.

Arnie · 05 August 2016, 13:24

Using the drop down menu (GUI), untick trashcan and leave the rest unticked. That should format as 836kb.

Alternately, open a shell/cli window and type> format drive df0: name empty noicons quick

dlfrsilver · 05 August 2016, 23:06

just one question, does this game use a custom disk format for saving ?

sean_sk · 06 August 2016, 09:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arnie

Using the drop down menu (GUI), untick trashcan and leave the rest unticked. That should format as 836kb.

Alternately, open a shell/cli window and type> format drive df0: name empty noicons quick

Thank you for your suggestion. Yeah I had already tried this but they all just format normal 880k disks. Im wondering why your custom ADF image was 2mb in size and why it was so special that it caused the save/loading to work in Interphase using WinUAE?

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

just one question, does this game use a custom disk format for saving ?

That's what I would like to know. WinUAE seems to report that this is the case. I've formatted disk after disk after disk, and every time I try to load a "saved" game I get: "This disc does not contain a valid Interphase game". I'm assuming the game is saving on the disk because Interphase does not report otherwise, yet nothing shows up when browsing the disk and of course it won't reload back into the game.

Toni Wilen · 06 August 2016, 10:36

It probably has CPU dependent delay loops in save disk read or write (or both) routines. Did you try without accelerator board?

Having custom format (which it has if winuae says it but it is also possible write routine has a bug which writes some unused extra garbage) makes no difference when using real floppies.

Arnie · 06 August 2016, 10:39

WinUAE uses 2mb custom images for sizes larger than 880 or more tracks than 79 (just a guess)

Here's a screen shot of the 836kb disk created in an A1200 WinUAE config.

sean_sk · 09 August 2016, 12:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

It probably has CPU dependent delay loops in save disk read or write (or both) routines. Did you try without accelerator board?

Thank you Toni for the information and I can confirm that this is actually the case.
I disabled the ACA620 in the A600, ran Interphase and successfully saved and loaded a game. So it seems acceleration negatively affects the ability to save and load a game properly which is a shame since Interphase really benefits from the acceleration.

Looks like I may have to wait to see if the crash bug in the WHDLoad can be fixed, unless there is a workaround with the disk version besides disabling the accelerator.

06 August 2016, 10:39	#8
Arnie R.I.P Smudge 18-08-16 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Leicester/UK Age: 66 Posts: 3,968	WinUAE uses 2mb custom images for sizes larger than 880 or more tracks than 79 (just a guess) Here's a screen shot of the 836kb disk created in an A1200 WinUAE config. Last edited by Arnie; 07 September 2016 at 15:50.

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04 August 2016, 07:49	#1
sean_sk Gimmemore Commodore Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Australia Posts: 339	Interphase Save Game Problem I have been trying to play Interphase but found that reloading a saved game doesn't seem to work. A bit of background info: I have the Amiga Format Coverdisk #18 which has the full game on it. There was initially an issue where the game wouldn't save onto a floppy at all since it wouldn't recognize it as being formatted. Amiga Format released a patch in Coverdisk #20 which I applied successfully to the full version. The problem now is it "appears" to save the game (floppy drive seems to access the disk albeit very briefly). But when trying to reload the saved game from that same floppy I get the message: "Disc does not contain a valid Interphase game" I have tried on an Amiga 1200 with an ACA 1221 accelerator and also an Amiga 600 with an ACA 620. In order to play the game I have had to maprom the 1.3 Kickstart and then reboot. Same results with each. I also tried within WinUAE (using a compatible A500 config). When about to save the game WinUAE came up with the following message: "The software uses a non-standard floppy disk format. You may need to use a custom floppy disk image file instead of a standard one." Again when trying to load a saved game I get the same results as the real Amiga's. Does this mean I have to format a real floppy in a special way to get this to work? If so, how would I go about doing this? It appears Interphase doesn't provide an in-game provision for formatting a floppy, therefore I'm not sure how to fix this. I don't want to resort to emulation and save states as I want to play this on my real hardware. Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks. EDIT: I should also mention that I tried it with WHDLoad but the game crashes after about a minute. I have submitted a bug report on the WHDLoad site. Last edited by sean_sk; 04 August 2016 at 07:58.

04 August 2016, 14:34	#2
Arnie R.I.P Smudge 18-08-16 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Leicester/UK Age: 66 Posts: 3,968	Here's one that works in WinUAE EDIT: Just had a thought on this. The Coverdisk is formatted 836kb (OFS). Try formatting a blank floppy disk as 836kb and use that as the save disk. According to the manual you just use a formatted disk as a save disk. Last edited by Arnie; 07 September 2016 at 15:50.

05 August 2016, 13:24	#4
Arnie R.I.P Smudge 18-08-16 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Leicester/UK Age: 66 Posts: 3,968	Using the drop down menu (GUI), untick trashcan and leave the rest unticked. That should format as 836kb. Alternately, open a shell/cli window and type> format drive df0: name empty noicons quick

05 August 2016, 23:06	#5
dlfrsilver CaptainM68K-SPS France Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Melun nearby Paris/France Age: 46 Posts: 10,413	just one question, does this game use a custom disk format for saving ?

06 August 2016, 10:36	#7
Toni Wilen WinUAE developer Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Hämeenlinna/Finland Age: 49 Posts: 26,506	It probably has CPU dependent delay loops in save disk read or write (or both) routines. Did you try without accelerator board? Having custom format (which it has if winuae says it but it is also possible write routine has a bug which writes some unused extra garbage) makes no difference when using real floppies.

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