StuntCar Racer multiplayer link

[Titler]

Well so far, my Speedball 2 experience has been;

* Inserting the disc, which Steam sees correctly and installs the game. Then try to start the game, and it insists it needs to install a second time. Ok...?

* Getting into the game, and then having to manually set up both a flight stick and an arcade rumble stick at install, due to to it not auto configuring for USB controllers, and then bugging you at every fresh start if it sees an unconfigured stick attached. Yes, click here then press what you want left and right to be! Then up and down! And...

* Giving up on the MS Sidewinder flight stick, because it has a throttle, which Speedball instantly takes as the input for EVERY axis as soon as I click the command to assign. Ahh well, didn't plan to use it anyway, so what the heck...

* Spend ages trying to work out how to start a practice session, eventually discovering I need to set a "profile", which is just a user name, then select a profile, team, team colour and controller in the practice screen, and then NOT also set a computer team opponent, even though there's a second box there below the first which seems to indicate you can have 2 players for a practice; and get very annoyed that you just get the icon click sound when you click Start, and no error message at all as to why you can't start.

* Crash as soon as the loading screen gets to 100% with a "Exception Catch" error.

* Restart, and find that it does this again for Practice. Look and see that there doesn't appear to be a 1v1 one off match option. Try Knockout cup. Find that you can't add 4 CPU players because "CPU" is already selected. So go with a Titler vs CPU knockout. And crash at 100% loaded with "Exception Catch" error too.

* Crash with "Exception Catch" under every offline game, attempt to go to multiplayer. Discover that you have to register on a website first to contact their servers. A website WHOSE SECURITY CERTIFICATE HAS EXPIRED. But what the hell, let's risk it, give it permission to connect Firefox... Click the button to turn a german webpage into English. Discover that the game hasn't been updated for over a year, and all the forums are dead, and there's not even a sticky for tech support. Never mind that, let's just register and see if we can connect online at least! But the authentication email is eaten by Hotmail's spam filter; turning it off, you can at least see the change password emails. But you can't get online as there's no way to authenticate your account.

* Use the support form on the webpage, say "I can't play the game at all, and I can't authenticate my account"... resist swearing or adding "plus you suxxor" to the form. Sit and wait for a reply...


BEST THREE QUID I'VE EVER SPENT!

[TCD]

Hi Titler,

maybe it doesn't help much, but I found this on the TPB torrent :

I have fixed my "exception catch" crash problem. All I had to do was remove my logitech wingman joystick and printer prior to loading the game. Accroding to the Speedball forums - this is the cause fo the crashes.

Sucks that the game is that badly coded and no proper support around

[Titler]

Hey there Cyber,

I'd already seen that comment having googled up possible solutions, but thanks for looking all the same! Alas, I took out my flightstick and my printer (a cheap epson) isn't turned on normally anyway... but this didn't help. In the end, I unplugged every USB device except the keyboard, to no avail. I submitted a support ticket but, 3 days later, it's not even been looked at as far as I can tell. So far then, my Speedball 2 Tournament experience has been watching the introduction movie, and watching an animation of a bloke walk across the screen in the back of the options menu. Ice cream indeed!

[TCD]

Okay, I see. Sucks that the game is flawed that badly. Still hope you get it to run someway.

[mombasajoe]

Originally Posted by Bloodwych

I used to hook my A500 up via serial link all the time with friends when I was younger. The memories of having to lug around a "portable" TV set, bulky A500, joysticks and disk boxes are still a strong memory.

This is exactly what we do (some members of the german-amiga-community.de board) at our (almost) regularly meetings/parties.

StuntCar-Racer via link ist still a great game!

[Adropac2]

Stunt car is an excellent game that still manages to be quite compelling and most definitely a laugh when two of you.Had a blast with two player a little while back now and it's still one of Amiga's best

I keep saying this but it's worth saying once again, this game is best played at NTSC and on a standard A1200 or better.The physics run at what appears a more realistic speed when in NTSC and you don't really sense this much at A500 speed NTSC.Makes a real nice difference as it does for Geoff's F1GP

[Titler]

Just thought I'd give you all the final chapter in the Speedball 2 Tournament Saga;

Today, nearly 2 weeks later, I finally got a response from "support@speedball2.com", are you ready for this?

Hello,

At the moment we only provide support for products advertised on our website. Therefore, if you are looking for a game which isn't in our Portfolio, we can't help you further on this matter.

We thank you for your understanding and wish you a good day,


--
Mit freundlichen Grüßen / With best regards
Speedball 2 - Customer Care Service Center [Team EU]

So... the game never works, Hotmail's spam filter will eat your online account registry at Medium or above, and they wait weeks before letting you know that they don't care about any game they aren't in the process of advertising.

Needless to say, you may now add my name to those who recommend you DON'T GO ANYWHERE NEAR SPEEDBALL 2 TOURNAMENT.

[TCD]

Wow, great and instant response there Sorry to hear that Titler. Maybe you can put it to 'proper use' in the cold winter months

[DDNI]

Hi all gonna build this cable.
Anyone used it? Is it the accepted standard?

[rockersuke]

Originally Posted by DDNI

I take it that WHDLoad installed versions work across Null modem cables?

I tried WHDLoaded Stunt Car Racer in my A1200 linking to an ordinary floppy disk copy on my A600, and it worked fine!

By the way, shame on me, I was talking about linked games at the Amiga Revival Fair thread and totally missed this one! ^_^'

As I mentioned there, I surely know SCR is arguably the coolest option for Amiga link-playing, but I would like to hear experiences about other games.

I'm interested in taking a peek into dual flying combats. Has anybody played with Knights Of The Sky or similars? Is Knights Of The Sky the only linkable dogfighting WWI type sim for the Amiga? I'm taking a look here and it seems so...

--

[Locash]

My and my mates user to also have Amiga gaming sessions. Populous 2, Lotus and Stunt Car Racer were the games of choice. Armageddon 2 was another one if my memory serves me right, lots of vehicles and strategy!, also maybe Falcon for some flight sim action.

Managed to find a very old pic on my mates website .



Man lugging those TV's, External drives, cables and boxes and boxes of floppy's about was a nightmare but well worth it!.

Thats me sat behind the boombox (I had blown the speaker in the TV listening to demos to loud so needed another sound source haha)

[Peter]

Digging up an old thread... I know...

DDNI - I wondered if you built this cable and if it worked ok?

I would like to link up an A600 and an A500 I have to experiment playing a few games linked via null modem cable... mainly Super Skidmarks and Stunt Car Racer.

I was going to make a cable unless anyone knows where I can buy a cheap Amiga null modem cable???

I was going to see if I could get the bits I need from Maplins and solder it myself... err... how exactly do I connect the points at pins 6 - 8?

As always any advice welcome...

Originally Posted by DDNI

Hi all gonna build this cable.
Anyone used it? Is it the accepted standard?

[Hewitson]

Why dont you just buy a null modem cable from maplin.. Some soldered together cable is never going to be half as good as the moulded machine-made ones.

[Peter]

Doesn't the cable have to be Amiga specific?
Can I just use a standard null modem cable then?

So, would this work?

Click here to see cable on ebay...

[kipper2k]

Me and a neighbour played on a link cable. The cable was about 70 feet long and it ran out my patio door, under my next door neighbours patio and into my friends house next door to that. It worked great, i dont think we had any line loss and Stunt Car racer worked great. That was the only multiplayer game over serial i ever played. Would have been a lot nicer on a 50" plasma lol. I am still amazed that Commodore let the Amiga die, piss poor management and foresight,to me it was years ahead of anything else.

[fryguy]

@Peter: well, PCs usually have 9pin serialports, but most companys also sell nullmodems for 25pin serialports. So there isn't anything Amiga specific about it. And if you only can find nullmodems for 9pin serialports you could buy two 9pin - 25pin adapters.

[Eamoe]

Originally Posted by kipper2k

The cable was about 70 feet long and it ran out my patio door

LOL!
When I was 12, I so much would have loved to do that, and we fantasized about it with my buddies... but the one who lived closest was still 2 miles away. Don't think they make serial cables that long!

[cosmicfrog]

you could make the 3 wire cable TX->RX, Rx->TX, Grnd<->Grnd

if you do get a pc cable it should work but it might be a good idea to check the 12v is not conected

[Peter]

Originally Posted by cosmicfrog

you could make the 3 wire cable TX->RX, Rx->TX, Grnd<->Grnd

if you do get a pc cable it should work but it might be a good idea to check the 12v is not conected

The seller states about this cable - "These RS232 cables do not have any facility to run a voltage through them."

So I guess this should be OK to link two Amiga's... I will get one to test and post back with the result. (Fingers crossed)

[cosmicfrog]

seems its pins 9 and 10 carry the volts so as long as they arn`t connected eveything should be fine, famous last ribbits

hehehe if they could`t run a voltage through the cable they how are they going to communicate ?? semi-fore, hand gestures heheheheh

http://www.hardwarebook.info/Serial_%28Amiga%29